Notwithstanding this over-weening sensitiveness in private matters, he wielded one of the boldest pens, and encouraged others to greater and more free expression of their opinions than they otherwise would have dared to declare. This very quality in Carlile was what first attracted Julian Hibbert to him, and a friendship was formed between them founded on the mutual appreciation of each other's talents and virtues, which continued uninterruptedly till Julian Hibbert's death in 1834.
Their acquaintance began during the imprisonment in Dorchester. As soon as the public subscription was started, or very soon after, there were some very handsome sums subscribed by one signing himself "An Enemy to Persecution". The frequency and amounts of these contributions aroused the curiosity as well as the gratitude of Carlile, and he begged for the honor of an introduction. This started a correspondence. Julian Hibbert contributed many articles to the _Republican_, and later publications of Carlile's, and rendered him great aid in all of his undertakings. All the advantages of his superior education, rare library and great wealth were at Carlile's service. Not less advantageous and benificial was his brotherly love and companionship; for, indeed, they were akin in their virtues. Both were gentle, loving and patient in their private lives. Both were bold to recklessness in the defiance, publicly, of wrong. Julian Hibbert delivered many lectures at the Rotunda while Richard Carlile and Robert Taylor were in prison, and wrote much during his short life.
He compiled a chronological table of the principal freethinkers of the last three centuries, a galaxy of names that adds lustre to the pages of literature, science, poetry and reformed religion. These tables show considerable research. He was also a poet of no mean order, and Carlile published many pieces of his.
The following short specimen does equal credit to his heart as to his talent.
"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. When honest virtue sinks beneath the arm Of tyrant power, when terror and alarm Stalk o'er the country with gigantic stride, And hungry, dismal want spreads far and wide; When Liberty, long harassed and oppressed, Prepares to leave the land she once caressed; When patient labor, too, may yield its toil That fools may live, or quit its native soil; Shall I be silent and my voice refuse, And smother in my breast the sacred muse? Oh! no, I own I feel her power inspire And fill my soul with Freedom's sacred fire. Oh! that my pen could pierce the coward's heart, Who dar'd confine thy limbs, Carlile. I smart-- My soul does smart--whene'er I think of thee, Thou dear devoted Son of Liberty! But droop not thou; in Britain still are men Will wake to Liberty, thy mighty pen Has rent the mask away and thousands see Corruption in its own deformity. Then droop not thou! we yet shall sweep away The juggling fiends who bar the light of day.