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    Swansea y Sir , Sept . 10 , 1822 . IN all probability many of your readers will have seen the notice of a late reply to my Remonstrance , with " answers to the questions by a Trinitarian , " and a reference in your pages to this work may be deemed an attention due from me to the

    Unitarian public . Beyond this reference , however , it is not my intention to give any consideration to this publication ; and to this determination I have been led by the two following reasons : first , because I have but too much cause to think that the precaution of the author in not having

    openly advanced into the field , is little better than a tacit acknowledgment of his insufficiency to meet the subject . He has warily and prudently , as concerns the nature of his reply , placed himself in ambush , since in truth the work is stamped generally with a spirit which all true Christians must reject ; * and it does not come within the

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    scope of my intention to subject my ^ self to the pride and contumely of any disingenuous anonymous writer . This opponent , whoever he is , has indulged in misrepresentation , imputation and misquotation ; the character of the work at once displays itself . Let but the subjects of its second and third pages be compared with their respective heads in the Remonstrance , and the reason why this " Trinitarian " has shot his arrow in the dark , will immediately stand manifest . Secondly , as to sound argument , I deem the work altogether too frivolous to be deserving of a lengthened attention . The evasions are generally so palpable and puerile , that any man of sense might truly be ashamed to subscribe his name to them . Against such a

    reply , I leave the Remonstrance charged with its own vindication , sufficiently satisfied that under any thing like a fair comparison , its merit , be it what it may , will be found to have lost little or nothing by the test of this " Examination . " I have no

    desire , however , that my opponent ' s work should be given over to die a natural and sudden death ; on the contrary , should it not be found to hang inconveniently heavy upon its leadingstrings , 1 could wish it to be held up for a time , that Trinitarians of sound understanding , on viewing the ricketty offspring , may turn aside their faces for shame . As to Unitarians , were

    they in want of any materials for argument , this volume would furnish them with an ample supply , besides , perhaps , no small amusement ; for the varied , studied and endless contrivance and subterfuge is diverting enough , and must have cost the author no

    small pains , for , as may l ^ e seen , instead of plain , concise answers , he has occupied upon some single questions more pages than the whole of the questions themselves would require . The attempt , however , may not be without its use , and it will serve me

    in stopping up a few insignificant crevices through which an approach has been sought . An answer to Unitarian questions was what I particularly desired to see , having' an assurance ( and in which I am fortified by the " Examination" ) that such an adventurous course could * not failgreatly to expose the weakness of the Trinitarian cause , and in like degree to display

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    550 Capt . Gifford on the late " Examination of his Remonstrance . "

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    Mr . Ramsay has , I think , been quoted on this subject in one of your early volumes [ VI . 452 ]; also the opinion of that ambitious statesman and polite scholar , or rather that lettered barbarian , Carteret Lord Granmile , who died in 1763 , according to Biofr . Brit ., ( III . 278 , ) with a verse of Homer on his lips , leaving papers on various subjects , among which is expressed his hope " never to see our Negroes in America become Christians , because he believed that this would render them less laborious slaves . " Lord Granvilie , however , was neither so inconsistent nor self-convicted , as those JVest-India proprietors who support Bible , Tract , or School Societies ; for " at home he was not for having the vulgar taught to read , that they might think of nothing but the plough and their other low avocations . " ( Ibid .

    IV . Addend , to III . ) Happily , the barbarous monopoly of knowledge has now scarcely a noble , clerical , or untitled advocate ; for Church and State have at length judged it expedient ,

    no longer to discourage the education of the people , even though the Duke of Richmond ' s dreaded universal suffrage should , one day , be the unavoidable consequence . J . T . RUTT .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1822, page 550, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2516/page/30/