Charles Southwell (1814-1860) was a British author and politician. He was involved in radical and anti-clerical movements. In 1835 he served in the British Legion to fight in Spain for Queen Isabella. In 1837 he returned back to London and worked as a lecturer. He established the atheist magazine, the Oracle of Reason. Then he was imprisoned for twelve months for attacking the Bible. After that, he began another two newspapers called the Investigator and the Lancashire Beacon. In 1856 he founded the Auckland Examiner, a weekly paper that attacked corruption and hypocrisy. His works include: An Apology for Atheism (written as One of its Apostles) (1846) and Superstition Unveiled (1854).