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had suffered for his attachment to our civil interests , and especially for his exertions respecting the Test Laws $ and that this has been the case I believe no person can easily deny , who reads with any attention the history of our modern Vandals , the savages of
Birmingham . Sir , I always understood that Dr . Priestley had clearly denned and ably defended the principles of our dissent , but it has been said that his later writings have prejudiced the cause of the Dissenters in Parliament , and the objection to an address upon this
ground was stated with all possible force on a former occasion , by a gentleman ( Mr . Fuller ) to whose years and experience I would pay every respect consistent with my own freedom of sentiments : but I think , upon
re-consideration , justice and candour will incline that gentleman to admit , that the offence taken by the House of Commons to the writings of Dr . Priestley appeared but in two instances : in one it arose from a
misunderstanding , about which it i 3 difficult to be serious ; and in the other , from one of the most flagrant violations of honour and decorum which can disgrace the intercourse between man and man . Every gentleman will
suppose that I refer to the alarms of an hon . Baronet upon rinding a few grains of metaphorical gunpowder in a pamphlet of Dr . Priestley ' s , and to the fraud committed by a person or persons unknown , on one of his prefaces , which was dissected in the most
injurious manner , and so gave occasion to a splendid philippic against those three monstrous evils—Innovation , Dr . Priestley and the Dissenters . But if instead of consulting the comments of prejudiced men , or the partial selections of his enemies , we examine the spirit and tendency of Dr .
Priestley ' s writings , I believe we shall find that he has no idea of supporting his most favourite opinions by any force but the force of argument ; and in proof of this I refer with confidence to his Sermon on the Test JLaws , his Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham and the Tracts published with
them , and , indeed , to any of his works which shall be read in their connexion , and not selected for the purpose of a party .
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Sir , it has long been esteemed t he honour and happiness of our country , that while a man thinks what he pleases , he may say what he thinks , and I cannot allow myself to apologiz e for that manly freedom with which Dr . Priestley declares and discusses
all his opinions ; and , indeed , this is not a country fit for a freeman to live in , if he cannot deliver his opinion upon any question , political or religious , if he cannot say what he thinks about the doctrine , the discipline , or the establishment of any church in the world . And on this subject it ought to be remembered how we have been
accustomed to admire the bold spirit of the Reformers who , in no very geatle language , impeached the opinions and practices which had been established for ages through all the nations of
Europe ; and at this day , that respectable body of men , the Quakers , are esteemed the most peaceable of citizens , though they profess to discover the features of the harlot of Babylon , even within the pale of the Church of England .
And pray , Sir , who are the persons that shall object to our addressing Dr . Priestley ? Will the Dissenters blame us for shewing respect to one of their ablest advocates , or sliall our enemies
accuse us of inconsistency , and say that we go out of our province ; they who called together a society formed expressly for the propagation of the Gospel , to decide upon a question of civil right ?
I beg pardon , Sir , for having taken up any of your time , but without saying a few words on this subject 1 could not satisfy my own feelings , or do justice to my friends the Dissenters of
. — , who have the warmest attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty , and , though they differ from him in almost every thing else , esteem Dr . Priestley as one of its ablest defenders .
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Sir , PERCEIVE by Mr . Frend ' s Letter ( XVI . pp . 646 , 647 ) to Mr Belsham , that the latter gentleman has , iu a discourse delivered at y ~ rington , maintained " that the « " £ of learned men to reconcile the JVIosaical cosmogony to p hilosophical truth , have been preposterous m «*
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230 Mr . Teuton on the Mosaic History of the Creation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/38/
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