Transcribed from the 1805 J. Hatchard edition ,, using scans from the British Library.
A
LETTER
TO A
COUNTRY CLERGYMAN,
OCCASIONED BY
HIS ADDRESS
TO
LORD TEIGNMOUTH,
PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ANDFOREIGN
BIBLE SOCIETY.
BY
A SUB-URBAN CLERGYMAN.
“Unum gestitinterdum, ne ignorata damnetur.”—Tertull. Apol.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO HERMAJESTY,
NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY HOUSE,PICCADILLY.
1805.
p. 1ALETTER, &c.
REV. SIR,
One of those good-natured friendswith which the world abounds, took an early opportunity ofconveying to my hands a copy of your Address to Lord Teignmouthas President of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and I canreally assume you, that its effect upon my nerves was almost asgreat as that which his Lordship’s circular letter producedupon yours. “The emotions of my mind,” too,“upon the receipt of it, were such as I am not inclined,for several reasons, to describe.” [1]
You must know, Sir, that it had been my fortune to fall intothe same ugly snare as the worthy Nobleman whose eyes you have sograciously endeavoured to open. I too had been drawn intothe horrid Bible-plot, without dreaming that there was any plotin the business; and, to tell you the honest truth, before yourpamphlet reached me, p.2I had actually lent all the name I possessed, and all themoney I could spare, in order to assist in carrying its designsinto execution.
Judge then, Sir, what must have been my feelings upon learningfrom you, that our Noble President, instead of being, as Ithought, most loyally, usefully, and religiously employed, had“bestowed his patronage and protection upon everydescription of the church’s enemies;” that he haddeserted “the cause of sound religion;” and that hewas actually “confederating with persons openly labouringthe destruction of all that is sober and established.” [2]
The inference was too much against me to leave me atrest. I called to my recollection, how prone the world isto say, “like master, like man;” and in the firstparoxysms of my fear, had half a mind to send a line to theSecretary, and request that my name might be withdrawn. This seemed, however, too strong a measure to be adopted in soearly a stage of the business; besides, though I could not whollysuppress my alarms, yet I had some little scruple aboutproclaiming them publicly to the world. In these moments ofirresolution, it occurred to my mind, that you might perhaps,without any malicious desig