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Untitled Article
( 464 )
Untitled Article
WYVILI / S EULOGIUM ON DR . PRIESTLEY * To the Editor of the Monthly Repository ..
Six , As you have presented your readers with the eulogy of 3 learned foreigner on the late Dr . Priestley * , I hope you will with equal pleasure afford room for the following just tribute of esteem from a learned , upright and truly patriotic Englishman ^ the Rev . Mr . WvvilL who in a note at the foot of a letter which
he received from this truly good man , dated Feb . 14 , 1 7 82 , published in the 4 th vol , of his 4 * Political Papers / ' makes the following just and liberal reflections . Yours , SYDNEY .
cc This letter was the only one which the Editor ever had the honour to receive from this virtuous and eminently useful philosopher wno was then enjoying in peace his well-deserved reputation ; but who after this period becanie the object of hatred and animosity to a powerful jparty in this country , by whose savage outrages he was compelled to quit it . The Editor knows not whether he may yet be permitted to speak what he thinks of him and the persecution he
sustained , without exciting in some degree , the same barbarous intole-. ranee against himself . To satisfy his feelings he will hazard it . \ " Dr . Priestley was a friend to rational Liberty , and a devoted follower of truth wherever she might lead him ; qualities which in better times would have secured to him , without his other claims as a philosopher , the general respect of his fellow citizens * But in theology and politics he was too hardy a speculator for the temper of this age . His theology offended and alarmed the clergy : his politics irritated the ministry and their adhereuts . From the fury of bis enemies at Birmingham he narrowly escaped with almost nothing but his
life . The tardiness of an unwilling administration delayed the reparation of his losses , and with a most culpable parsimony his just demands were disallowed , or inadequately compensated . Driven from his home at Birmingham and pursued with equal rage in London , he Could not trust the laws of his country for the protection of his person and the relics of his property . He was forced to look for safety by exile to America . There he found friendship and protection ; and
his magnanimity under his severe misfortunes commanded general esteem in that country . " May the temper of this nation be improved under a milder and more equitable administration that * that of Mr . Pitt , and one more liberal and philosophic than that ef Mr . Adding ton 1 May it be one ? M . Rcpos . VpI . 1 . p . % ij and 318 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1807, page 464, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2384/page/12/
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