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to obtain emancipation / 5 Really , Mr . Editor , if your correspondents ( and especially one who tells us " the view in which I now wish to regard the Monthly Repository , is that of a correct and impartial detail of historical facts , relating to Protestant Dissenters , " and who is anxious " to render the
collectors of anecdotes more cautious / ' and * to prevent their imposing , under the sanction of your valuable Repository , on the credulity of any of your readers " ) have not the abilitv to
understand a couple of plain sentences on a first reading , they might at least bestow a second perusal on those parts of 5 'our work which they undertake to censure . The " Old Dissenter "
having in his haste mistaken an imputation on some of the Dissenting body , of indifference to their oimi rights , for a charge of bigoted opposition to the rights of others , proceeds to comment t > u the report and on its propagators . His * ' much-esteemed friend" Dr .
Toulmin is treated with remarkable condescension . He , we are told , " was credulous , and , with regard to some other circumstances , not always very correct . But he never erred intentionall wilfull / discussed
y or y' Having Dr . Toulmin ' s character , your correspondent next favours us with his opinion of Mr . Howe . " Mr . Howe , indeed , was much less excusable ; for he seems to intimate , that the
distributors of his Majesty ' s bounty to the Protestant Dissenting Ministers , then called the * Regium Domini , ' were in the secret ; and that they moved the springs of government in opposition to the Catholics . " (" Moved
the springs of government ! How ¦ ¦ co rrect a version of the original statement !) * ' In this insinuation there is a degree of illiberality which docs no honour to the memory of a man whom 1 always esteemed , and with whom I was on terms of intimate acquaintance . He knew where to have applied , if hv
had thought proper , for more correct information . Over this censurable part of his conduct I wish to throw a veil , " &c . It is my purpose to defend , rather than to attack ; yet I cannot suppress my conviction , that if the " Old Dissenter" be accustomed , in this way , to exhibit his esteem for his " intimate acquaintance , " and to throw a veil over 4 he censurable parts of their conduct ,
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few persona will be anximis to ety&y the advantage of his friendship . What proof does he offer that Mr . Hone bad no foundation for his suspicions ; or what shadow of pretence has he for saying that Mr . Howe knew where to have applied for more correct
information ? In the esteem of the man y who were witnesses of Mr . Howe ' s public life in this place for thirty years , if the warm affection of those ( and they were not few ) who mingled with him in the intercourse of private life , furnish any ground on which those who had not the happiness of knowing him personally may found their estimate of his worth
we are warranted in maintaining that charges like those recited above , are unfounded aspersions . He was a Dissenter ; one who did not wish to claim for Christianity , even under that form which he himself approved , the pecu-. j f *_ t • i » . aid of the civil but who
niary power , regarded such aid as inconsistent with the principles of the Christian religion , and injurious to its purity and prevalence in the world . With such opinions , and being aware too that intercourse with ministers of state is not highly favourable to the maintenance of
independent principle and manly feeling , be was naturally disposed , and many readers of the Repository have , I beiieve , a similar bias , to look with jealousy on the mysterious transactions between Government and some Dissenting
Ministers , respecting the Regium Domim grant . And when he received from Dr . Toulmin the report atHW ' recorded , not being aware of the little value which ought to be attached to information from one so " credulous , " he surely
made no absurd conjecture in supposing these ministers to have been selected by the members of administration , in order to feel the pulse of the Dissenting body . Nor will any candid person be disposed to censure his conduct , if in a letter to a friend ( a tetter
which he little anticipated would ever come before the public ) he mentioned his suspicions , not in the tone of assertion , but as a mere supposition . I * appears from jYJr :-Rutt ' s brief notice of the « Old Dissenter , " ( p . 215 , ) that a * to Mr . Marten , at least , the "insinuation" of Mr . Howe was highly
probable , and quite accordant with com mon opinion respecting his character . I regret much . 'the necessity which
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^ 338 On the " 'OlfDistenier ' t rt- 'tbHsure-of'toP . ftbme .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 338, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/18/
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