"Sir,--I thank you for the subscription, and would by no means wish you to press it further. The same amount spent in my publications would have done me nearly as much good, and I rather think the idea of subscription is calculated to keep many aloof who would otherwise purchase the publications. I am in hopes I shall get on well now, without any further subscription, and I shall write to check it in all the principal towns where it has been kept up. Any new converts who may like to publish their names this way, well and good. I will send a man to Sheffield as soon as I hear of a volunteer who will keep out of the public house. No laboring man is worthy of being trusted who has not this resolution."
From this there is a jump to 1833, when Carlile was in Giltspur Street Compter, for a paragraph in the _Prompter_ relating to the agricultural riots which were then in progress.
"Dear Sir,--I trouble you with a couple of dozen of the _Gauntlet_. I do not invoice them as I wish them to go to the cost of the carriage for the parcel; what I want is to introduce them to Sheffield and to have an agent for them there, if you can find me an honest one there. Every one there, excepting yourself, has failed me in something. The _Gauntlet_ is well received. It will be a political paper, now and then making a hit at superstition. I have sent of them this week 1,250 to Lancashire and a hundred to each of the other principal towns. The fourth number will be interesting to Sheffield for the extract from Buckingham's _Parliamentary Review_; indeed, I am sure the whole will give 'high political satisfaction'. You see I am not out of prison yet. You would have waited a long time in town to see me out. But I am in good health and the _Gauntlet_ will tell you I am in high spirits. I know you well enough to know that you will do what you can for me."
"I like your suggestion of reviewing Allen's discourses on Atheism. I will do so. Allen was at Liverpool when we were there meeting Thom in 1829, and I heard he offered to meet us if some one in the Methodist connection would join him. You will see that I have fixed on being at Sheffield on Monday, the 30th inst. Mr. Taylor (the Rev. Robert) does not like the country. I wished him to go to Manchester and challenge the Methodist Conference, immediately on his liberation, but he declined it. My taste is to excite Sheffield in the best possible way. I shall do it better alone than with Mr. Taylor, for his peculiar astronomical interpretation of the Bible leaves no room for discussion, and he does not like discussion. He is brilliant as a scientific lecturer on this ground. I could master Allen in good style now, it is just the thing. I thank you for the suggestion. I can do it so as not to offend any one."
