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Untitled Article
ing these unjust laws , the legislatare would bjs glad of an opportunity of doing them away alt ( xgethei \ The Dissenters applied to parliament in a manly and
respectful manner ; but , owing to the opposition of the bench of fo ishops , the application at that time failed of success . It was at
this juncture that Mr . R . wrote his celebrated L trers to the Pre - lates , a production which , if he had never written another line * would have stamped him as one of the most powerful writers of the age . His name did not apw pear to them , nor did he ever publicly acknowledge them to be Iiis : but his cotemporaries never doubted of the fact , and Jie himself says , "This year , 1773 , the Letters to the Prelates appeared , which occasioned much inquiry about tlie author / ' It is but
saying little of this masterly production to observe that it is convincing and decisive on the subject . There never was an argument more triumphantly pursued .
It is a torrent of manly eloquence from beginning to end * Some persons , tuut those not meanly skiHed in the critical art , have conjectured that tho writer of these letters must have been
Jirimis himself . The language is all nerve ; sometimes grave and solemn , in other parts bftingly sa . cusiic ; but throughout clear , mat 11 . y and dignified in the highest di- ^ ive : the a uthor carries you
irresistibly along with him ; and it is npt too much to assert , that let any one , however opposite his prepossessions , sit down to read these letters ' , he would rise frpm the muling of them with an impression of inward respect for the defeated party . Viet fixcausa diis
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placuit , sed viota Catoni . Ther force of truth , thus powerfully maintained , at length prevailed * at least to a certain degree % and to the honour of the prelates
themselves , Jet it be mentioned , that one of their body was the person to suggest to the Dissenters * that if they applied again their petition would not be opposed ^
After thus for a considerable number of years filling up the office of a minister of religion , and exerting his great powers in the pulpit and out of it , in the sacred
cause of religious liberty , Mr . R * in the year 1777 , and in the 46 th year of his age , thought proper to withdraw from the fatigues of active labour , and to lead the
life of a private gentleman , which he did to the time of his death * The reasons which weighed in his mind in taking this step shall be
given in his own words : '' This year , 1777 9 after g iving six month * * notice , I resigned preaching , which . I thought it better to do too soon rather than loo late . I
had survived those sanguine ideas * of usefulness I once entertained . Every Sunday ' s exertion eost m $ an indisposition of several days-The duties I performed were as well supplied by others , and not
person was left destitute of th . e means of instruction or the helps of devotipn by my resignation * ' * But though , after this time , Mr * R . was not officially engaged , his active mind was never idle ; he
had always some plan of benevo * lence , or some little anonymous literary labour to occupy him * To the periodical publications of
the day he was a frequent contributor , especially to the Gen * tlcman ' s fttagazjne ,. as he bad formerl y beea to a work " more o£
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7 ^ 0 Memoir Ebenezer RadcIJtfe , Esf ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1809, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1707/page/4/
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