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still there would be moments of reflection ; and Amds , the hind at Ewelme , might be as a spectre amidst the honours of the convocation , and at the banquet hour . ( Loud applause . ) He expressed his regret that such exposures should be made ; they were made
reluctantly ; he wished to honour all to whom honour was due ; but he must not be blamed for dishonouring those who had been so guilty of their own dishonour . He presumed they were weary . ( Hear , hear , go on , go on , from all parts If not of
e / Mtf room . ) they were weary listening to such narratives , he was weary of their narration , and his weariness and paia were even augmented as he traced these effects to their cause , and thought on the sources whence such streams could flow . They originated from incorrect opinions as to religious liberty ; and it was therefore he would impress the
necessity for accurate acquaintance with the elementary doctrines of religious freedom . Their acquaintance should be blended with attachment ; they should know them , love them , teach them , act ever on them ; for until they were thus known , taught , beloved , displayed , there would be persecutions , pitiful or extensive , affecting a hamlet or an empire , a small domestic circle or a world . And
if their Society should promote the diffusion of the truth on" the universal right of man to think , to believe , and to promulgate opinion ; they would effect yet greater benefits than by extending their aegis over the victims of persecution , or repelling on persecutors their own assaults . Then the source would be punned , and the black streams must disappear . (
Applause . ) That Society had acquired celebrity , la poetry and prose it had been assailed . By prose resembling poetry , and poetry dull as prose . In a poem , called Religio Clerici" by a reverend Churchman , imitating the Religio Laid of Dryden but in name . Among multitudes of the excellent and pious , whom the author would deride , he had been assailed ; an
invitation of ladies to attend such meetings was the serious charge . In the notes , the author quoted some reference he had made to the Spartan mothers ; that reference he would not deny . The man who did not wish For female influence in the diffusion of truth , had ill studied the page of history , had ill-rea . d the human heart .
He did not wish that British mothers should give to future generations iron bodies and iron hearts . But he was no Mussulman nor Brahmin . He thought not on women as on houris or as slaves . He knew that men often became what their mothers made them ; and many roemoirs arid the Sacred Volume had
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illustrated that truth . He therefore wished the ladies to understand these noble principles , and if they understood their obligations to religious liberty , they would teach it , with their earliest lessons , to their boys . Yesterday he had perused a report of the Inquisition in Spain , and learnt that at an auto da fe 9 out of 120
victims on that occasion , 48 only were men , and the remaining 72 were women ! And among the honourable roll of martyrs in every age , men were rarely as numerous , or as distinguished for intensity of feeling or heroic perseverance , as martyrs of the female sex . What heroic self-devotion had they manifested ! What labours , ingenious and intrepid , had they
performed , in every country and in every age 1 Who were such instructors ? Well , then , did he hope , that the ladies would perceive the importance of educating their children in an attachment to the great cause of constitutional liberty . As great examples , he need not refer them to Madame Roland and Madame De Stael ; but he would refer them to their own
country-women , as noble-minded , as wise , and far more devout . He would refer to the lady of Colonel Hutchinson ; { applause ) there was a woman , worthy to be the historian of one of the best and worthiest of the British race ! He would refer them to the recent publications of the life of Lord Russell , and to the letters oi his lady , for a portrait of that loveliest of women ! Loveliest ! for what was so
lovely as the loveliness ot virtue ? He had perused those publications with peculiar emotion ; he had marked a tenderness the most exquisite , the pure perfection of conjugal regard , active , maternal tenderness , and all blended with unfeigning- Christian piety , with a more than manly firmness , with a love of her country triumphant and intense .
Could fiction feign a spectacle like that presented , when in those troublous times Lord Russell was tried for high treason ? His hidy attended him upon the trial , although educated in all the luxury of the age , delicate in mind , as
flexible and graceful in her form ; and when the Judge allowed " that any of liis servants might assist in writing what he pleased , " he could reply , " My wife is here , my Lord , to do it . " Shall men scorn women then ? Not those who
know them ! ( Loud applause . ) No ! not those who know what society now owes to them—not those who know they must be auxiliaries if ever society shall bewhat it is not yet ; but what the wis § and good and lovely would wish it to become . ( Applause . )
Such was their poetical antagonist Their prose and theological opponents need not long occupy th $ jr tiipts . The
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Intelligence . —Protestant Society : Mr . Withes Speech . 491
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 491, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/47/
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