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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
of £ 1000 was offered by Government for his apprehension . Pendrill wa , s in slender circumstances as a shoe-maker , and voluntarily suspended his trade to escort Watson in disguise from London to Liverpool , where he embarked with him , and at length gained the shores of America . It was an ancestor of PendrilPs who protected King Charles from his pursuers at Boscobel , and afterwards till he finally escaped . This magnanimous disinterestedness is thus become a noble characteristic of the family—does the
difference in the two cases affect the principle of honour in the abstract ? The king a traitor to his people—the subject a traitor to his king . Both of them assimilating farther in this , that they were using every endeavour to expatriate themselves to avoid an ignominious punishment . But who can undertake to pronounce the exact shades of moral turpitude attached to each character ? Washington was at one time within a hair ' s breadth of losing his cause , when probably he would have been hanged as a rebel , and his name stigmatized with endless infamy—but having eventually succeeded , it now stands on the highest pinnacle that human admiration can raise .
, « Treason can never prosper—what ' s the reason . ? Why , when it does , there ' s none dare call it treason . " When the laws and institutions of society oppose the generous and sympathetic feelings implanted by our Maker in the human breast , are they not inevitably weakening their own authority ? Where is the British heart which does not exult in the protection and escape of Lavalette by the intrepid and benevolent efforts of Sir Robert Wilson ? And , on the other hand , did not the shameful abandonment , or rather the treacherous
surrender of Labedoyere and Marshal Ney , by an Englishman whose will was then " omnipotent to save , " and this in spite of a solemn treaty so lately concluded—did not this act cast a stain upon his character and memory which all the glory of his laurels can never obliterate ?
No . 2 . A and B enter into partnership . A to advance 3000 / . and B 1000 / . ^ which sums they respectively borrow from their friends on legal interest ^ each of them to receive interest from the trade , and the remaining profits to be equally divided . After some years , having reason to believe the property is sinking , they agree to part , A to remain in the business , to receive
and pay all , and B to withdraw . On winding up the accounts they find a deficiency of 2000 / ., but A's friends , desirous of avoiding the disgrace of insolvency and the loss to the creditors , agree to advance the necessary funds to continue him in the business , with the confidence that he will in time retrieve all its difficulties . What claim in reason or equity has B upon them or the estate ? No . 3 .
Suppose a man to attack me on the highway and in the dark to rob me of my property ; I know him personally and he seems aware of it , by his putting the question to me direct , evidently with the alarm that if I do he must not let me escape with my life . He is well armed and I have no means of defence—what shall I do ? My veracity would probably cost my destruction , and plunge him into a degree of guilt which he would otherwise avoid . In the moment of danger it might be thought justifiable to escape by a falsehood , but can this be vindicated on cool reflection in opposition to
the principle " that we should never do wrong that good may come" ? In other words , may I in any case falsify my own mind ? Or is a lie under any circumstances justifiable ?
Untitled Article
424 Moral Queries
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 424, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/32/
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