Placing himself always where danger was to be braved, his position was from the first prominent, and attracted to him many leading political characters, who saw in him a vicarious sacrifice for that freedom they were willing to enjoy, if it could be done without paying so troublesome a price as the ministers of that day charged for it. But, as the danger grew imminent, they began to pull him back and condemn his open conduct.(2) Cobbett at first said, ‘You have done your duty bravely, Mr. Carlile; if every one had done like you, it would have been all very well.’(3) But afterwards he censured him without measure. Wooler, whom Carlile offered to save, said that the publication of Paine’s works would put a stop to all the political writings of the day. But whatever ground there appeared for these fears, a wise publicist should have given Carlile all possible support, since he _ought to have_ triumphed in his course. Major Cartwright deprecated the republication of Paine’s works as mischievous, to flying in the face of Juries; that when a jury had once declared these works to be libels, the very _errors_ of that jury ought to be respected. Yet against this dictum of the influential veteran, Reformer, Carlile contended. He encountered greater obstacles among such friends than among his enemies. It requires more courage to fight against friends than against foes. Carlile illustrated the remark of Mr. Miall, that ‘martyrdom in the past tense is madness in the present.’ Then the Reformers Degan to call themselves ‘Christian Reformers,’ ‘Religious Reformers,’ and by other safe conventional names to distinguish themselves from ‘Carlile and his party.’(4) No man should lightly compromise his party by a dangerous step. Carlile is not amenable to blame on this account. He took a necessary step for general progress, and his triumph justified his penetration. A weaker man than Carlile would not have been justified in the course which he took, as a weaker man would have failed. But Carlile was a Buonarotti. 1. Christian Warrior, pp. 27-28. 2. Repub. vol. ii. p. 257. 3. Repub. v. pp 283-4 4. Christian Warrior, p. 10