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iBlents shall Mvfr W lo $ t to the f > ublic . The Bishpp subjbui ^ to * liis account of this conv £ i ^ 1 ^ on and the rernark is nbt uiiineaiiiM ^ "" I have now lived maiiy > enrs itx retiremeut , and , in my , sev-eutv-fifth vear , I feel no wish . to lire otherwise . ' - < >
Few passages of the memoirs will be more . interest irtg - to our readeris than that whuh follows : " TJie Dukeof . Grafton published ,, h the canvse of ; the s ; pring * , ( 1789 , ) a pamphlet , entitled , Hints to ijie New Association , ' and recommending . : a < revisal of
our Liturgy , &c Notwithstanding- the intimacy with which J then lived with His Grace , I knpw nothing ... f > f this pamphlet , nor who was the authoi . . of it , for his name was not put to it till several months after it had been published . When I did know who was the author , * I greatly rejoiced that a person of his rank had ventured to propose , a reform in ; pn . e of the points
respecting- the church , which I had long * ago recommended . : . " In February , 1790 , two pamphlets were published in opposition to the Duke ' s Hints . I wrote an hasty reply to these attacks upon a nobleman whose zeal for
Christianity , instead of censure and obloquy , deserved the ^ praise <> f all good Mien . I took a Jarge and liberal view of the subject , thinking it better to do that , than to give a piinted answer to every petulant remark of the two pamphleteers , though one of them , I have no doubt , was the production of a bishop , if not both . In this tract I had said , that the French
government , in order to secure its stability , must , perhaps , think it expedient to pay from the public purse , not only Catholic but Protestant teachers of Christianity . This wise and equitable measure was adopted by Buonaparte , when he re-established the Gall ican church in 1802 , and it ought long ago to have been adopted in Ireland .
* ' When I had , nearly finished my reply , the Duke of Grafton , to whom I sent each sheet as 1 composed it , wrote to me in the kindest manner , begging me to consider whether I would venture to publish it : every Christian , he said , ought to think himself obliged to me for it : but he was certain I never should be forgiven it . I thanked His Grace for his kind attention .
but tol < l him , at the same time , that no interested ^ consideration should hold me back- How , said I to him in my letter , l » ow shall I answer this at the tribunal of Christ- — You saw the corruption of my churchy you had some ahility to attempt a reform ^ but secular considerations choked your integrity—if I should' now undo what I have done ? I accordingly pub-
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lished the } patapblet , uiider the title tiff *> 'Corisiderat ^ tfns ^ the Expediency of revising 5 the LLt&tgy and Articles of thk Church of ^ En giand > by A Consistent Fro ^ testant . ' Thowg-h my name was not affixed to this publication , and every pre » caution was tak ^ e ti to eon ^ ceal its author , yet it was - vety soon 'generally attributed to me . ' ' ¦ •¦ = : •¦* ¦ < * '; . »¦• .: ¦• ¦ ¦ ¦ •¦ ¦ ' ' ¦ ¦ ¦ t- - '
"I had at the titrie some coriversa , ti 6 ii with the Duke of Grdftoii dn the pVopriety of cbmmenci'ffgff . a refo trhl by tbe iutrodttctio ^ n of a ; bill intii the H&hse of Lordsy > f 6 r expunging the Alhahasijin Greed from ' bur Liturgy- and we hady in a naaiiner ^ settled to do-it : but tlie strange turn which the
French Revoliition toJ 6 k about that period ^ and the general abhorrence of all innd ¥ ations , which its atrocities excited , ind ~ uee
Grafton , in ^ which , ainvong other things , he informed me , that Dr . Priestley had publicly said , that he knew the pamphlet here mentioned was written by tbe Bishop of Landaf }* , I sent the following note : — M Dr . Priestley oacnot know the
author 5 on the day I dined atr Lord ILansdowne ' S ) there were > p resent Kippis . ^ aad Price , and ma ay Dissenters . * the conversation once turned on the subject * o ( ftlie pamphlet , and it is possible that my mode of expression , which no douht was
particularly marked , might give an hint to those , gentlemen . -But I really am little concerned about the matter ; and ^ . if I thought that owning it , in the present state of the business would not impede , rather than promote the progress of tbe good
cause we have in hand , I would not , from any private consideration , shrink from putting my name to it . The reasoning of the pamphlet you sent me is perfectly just , but prejudice cannot be subdued by reason . I remember a Lambeth chaplain once maintaining , in the divinity schools ,
the necessity of excluding pissenters ; from public offices ; I pressed him with proper arguments ^ at length he was , forced to acknowledge ^ that the greater the integrity , and the greater the ability any man Fiad the more i&rifit . was he for a public office ^ if he did not think in every point with the ^ Established Church , There
I let the dispute end : it ' was impossible to rise higher in the scale of absurdity . " * I concur with your Grace in wishing * tbe motion ( respecting the exjunction of the Athanasian Creed from the Liturgy ) to be made , and notice of making ijt to be given in the way you mention , f ^ o distance " or business shall hinder me from
appearing In-iriy place in the House of Lords , on the day the point shall be debated , arwl standing up with my best afoi-
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MwhUh—Life of the Bishop of Lmdaffi . £ 01
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vol .. Xili . 2 n
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1818, page 201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2474/page/49/
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