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    common . way ; as . I shall do this at lar ^ e in the work on the Laws affecting all Sects , which I am now preparing . 1 take this opportunity of earnestly requesting any of your readers , xvho may be in possession of any cases

    at all bearing on the laws of toleration , or may be able to suggest any hints for my assistance in the prosecution of my plan , to oblige me by their communications , addressed to me at No . $ , Inner Temple Lane . T . N . TALFOURD .

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    perusal . I read it again with my pen in my hand , and at one time I had a thought of making public my observations upon it . But on looking over my extracts , I found that they would occupy too large a space , and the occurrence of the babe-sprinkling at

    Paris , afforded me an opportunity of saying as much as the subject appeared to me to deserve in the Repository . This , I trust , will exculpate me entirely from the charge , which I should think a highly criminal one , of

    censuring a work without giving it a perusal . As to the next point , that I have controverted " an argument which it is plain that I do not understand , " that must remain with your readers to determine . I cannot allow our friend to be a proper judge in this case .

    I come next to a very severe charge against myself and a numerous class , it seems , whom he distinguishes * by the epithet of ot 7 ToAAo j , in plain Eng - Iish , the multitude . I am said to be one , " with whom confidence of assertion and a contemptuous sneer supply

    the place of proof . " Now , this sort of language is so common with polemic divines , that it escapes their pen almost as a thing of course , like the signature of your very humble servant at the end of a letter . But here I cannot allow our friend Belsham to be

    a judge . I differ from him certainly , and should be very sorry if his charge was true : but he evidently writes under a degree of irritation too natural to him , when his opinions are controverted . As to the multitude of whom he speaks in such contemptuous terms , 1 trust that he is mistaken in his

    estimation of them : and I hope that Qi TroAAot Iv eCfAev ev X p * r 9 ^ Our friend Belsham , in his usual way , beats about the bush to look for something independent of the matter in hand , to attach to his opponent . This he finds in the title of the Monthly Retrospect , and he amuses himself with the terms Political Christian and Christian

    Politician . Now this is just as much to the purpose , as if I had published a pamphlet on his Plea , and interlarded it with the terms Metaphysical Divine and Divine Metaphysician , intending

    by that to convey the same contempt of our friend ' s divinity and metaphysics , as he does of my politics and Christianity . But this mode of writing is , to say the least of it , in very bad taste .

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    Reply to Mr . Belsham by Ignotus . 0 © 5

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    Reply to Mr . Belsham by Ignotns . Sir , ' Nov . 1 O , 1817 . OUR friend Belsham is one of the best creatures in the world , except when he takes pen in hand : but when he has seated himself at his desk , and a polemical fit is upon him , adieu

    to his usual urbanity , his general suavity of manners . Xoo many instances have occurred in your Repository of this unhappy temper , and he has received repeated admonitions on his mode of writing , which never assists his argument , and is improper whether the writer is considereci in the

    character of a gentleman or a Christian . In the course of my observations on public affairs , I have made an allusion [ p . 448 ] , to .. ~; % written by our

    friend , in vindication of babe-sprinkling ; for I will not profane the term of baptism , by applying it to the ceremony , for which he is an advocate . This has excited his wrathful

    indignation ; and he has vented it [ pp . 606 —609 ] , in the usual manner of polemical divines . He has shot his bolt , telum imbelle sine ictu ; and , if . my character alone were concerned in it , should willingly have passed it over in silence . But in his attack he has

    used such language , respecting the Unitarians , that I cannot allow his sarcasms to pass unnoticed . Mr , Belsham thinks the title to my monthly remarks " quaint . " On this subject I do not think it worth while to make any observation ; but when ne says , that 1 have passed a censure

    upon " a work which I probably never * ead , " this is an imputation not to J > e overlooked , and I shall reply to it |> y a simple statement of the fact . I heard accidentally of Mr . Belsham s publication , and procured a copy of it soon after . I read it with no small Jtegree of astonishment at its contents ; « ut I waji ttot satisfied with the firat

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 655, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/15/