SHELLEY AND RESISTANCE TO PAYMENT OF RATES.
[To THZ EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR...9
Sia,—Whatever opinion Dr. Clifford and other Noncon- formist Education-rate resisters may have of the theo- logical views of Percy Bysshe Shelley, yet I think his thoughts on mundane matters—thoroughgoing, ardent Radical as he was—may possibly have some weight with them. I therefore would draw their attention, through your columns, to a pronouncement of his which I came upon the other day,— namely, his "Declaration of Rights," which Rossetti likens to that of the French Constituent Assembly of 1789, as well as to that promulgated by Robespierre in 1793. Amongst other "affirmations," it contains this:—" No man has a right to disturb the public peace by personally resisting the execution of a law, however bad. He ought to acquiesce; using at the same time the utmost powers of his reason to promote its repeal."-1
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