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Untitled Article
the words Theology and General Literature , because I thought they conveyed either too much , or too little . Fully to express my purpose , I must have added to ' them Philanthropy , Politics , &c . &c . Omission seemed better ; especially as Monthly Repository had always been the whole title used in common parlance , or ( mostly ) in printed reference . It has been said that this indicated the future exclusion of theology ; it might as well have been construed to portend the
exclusion of general literature . It has also been confidently represented as a violation of the written contract of sale between the original proprietor and the Unitarian Association , ( under which contract the work was sold to me , ) by which he is bound not to raise the price of the Christian Reformer , and thus bring it into competition with the Monthly Repository ; and by which the proprietor of the Monthly Repository was bound not to render useless the property of the back numbers of the old series . But besides that this change was less than that made by the Unitarian Association , ( they having commenced a new series ; I merely omitted two superfluous words , ) I previously ascertained of the former proprietor , that the back numbers were no longer of the slightest account , and that I was , therefore , at perfect liberty . Much was also said , and many copies discontinued on account of
the relegation of the Congregational Intelligence , Obituary , &c . to the Unitarian Chronicle . To give that Intelligence , as it should be given , must occupy much space ; abridgement displeases the parties ; many Unitarian readers had expressed their non-interest in it , and wish to see the space otherways occupied ; even without it , the Month Iy Repository was small for my purpose ; and it was an obvious impediment to the
efficiency of the work . I at first thought that the best place for it would be the Christian Reformer or the Pioneer . But 1 had bovght it , and it was in a pecuniary view , in the then condition of the work , the best part of my purchase . I therefore offered , in succession , to treat with the proprietors of those works ; they both declined ( not my terms , ) but to treat at all ; not being disposed to sell their
property , any more than I could afford to give mine . The Unitarian Chronicle was therefore instituted ; a measure simply equivalent to raising the price of the Monthly Repository , ( which I had a right to
do , and which the Unitarian Association Committee had once discussed the expediency of doing , ) but raising it with this advantage , that the rise was optional with the buyer , and to those who only cared about the Intelligence it was a large reduction .
A correspondent remarks , that , * as the year 1832 advanced / the Monthly Repository ' was losing those peculiar characteristics by which
it was the bond of union , and the medium of communication among Unitarians . ' I must take these two things separately ; and first of the last : as a medium of communication' the Monthly Repository had long ago ceased to be used to much purpose or extent . When I took the editorship , in 182 S , I did all I possibly could to vivify and enlarge the Miscellaneous Correspondence , but to little or no purpose . The habit had passed away . The want had ceased to be felt to * ny extent ; but so far as it might still exist , there was ample provision for it in the Unitarian Chronicle . And now as to the * bond of union . '
Is there no fitness for this in the purpose which J have described ?
Untitled Article
A Letter . 349
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/61/
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