narchism of Paine. The government, the clergy, and the people of England, are surely much to blame, in throwing any obstacles in the way of such great reforms!

And what is the grand proof, adduced by Mr. B. of the persecution carried on against pure Christianity, in England, at the present day? Plainly this, that the great champion of Unitarianism has been driven from his native country, and compelled to seek for refuge" from the rage of persecuting bigotry, "in the transatlantic wilderness;"-in which, however, it appears that he is subject to no deprivations; since we are informed, in the very next line, that, in this wilderness, he has the good fortune to be surrounded by" enlightened sages."* But, ludicrous as is this picture of the wilderness of sages, here presented by our author, it were unfeeling, and unpardonable, to trifle on such a subject. What Doctor Priestley's reasons may have been for exchanging England for America, I shall not presume to pronounce. That they are not to be resolved" solely" into his religious opinions, as Mr. B. seems desirous to convey, is I believe, pretty generally understood. That the purity of Dr. P.'s private character, the amiable simplicity of his manners, the variety and strength of his talents, the persevering industry with which he

pp. 197, 198

pursued what he deemed useful truth, and the independent spirit, with which (had it not been phrenzied by the intemperance of party,) he' might have so profitably maintained it,—are circumstances, which must make every good man regret that misapplication of his powers, which rendered it necessary for him to abandon his native country in the decline of life, I will most readily admit: and I freely subscribe to the strongest testimony, which his warmest admirers can bear, to the many and great virtues,* which

* From a friend, of the highest literary distinction and moral worth, who was connected by habits of early and continued intimacy with Dr. Priestley, I received, on the first publication of these remarks on that author's character, a letter containing the following observations.

"The character you give of Dr. Priestley, has reminded me of that drawn by Dr. Samuel Parr, in his letter from Irenopolis, to the inhabitants of Eleutheropolis. As this pamphlet was a temporary publication during the riots of Birmingham, and you have probably never seen it, I will transcribe the passage to which I refer. I confess, with sorrow, that in too many instances, such modes of defence, have been used against this formidable Heresiarch, as would hardly be justifiable in the support of Revelation itself, against the arrogance of a Bolingbroke, the buffoonery of a Mandeville, and the levity of a Voltaire. But the cause of orthodoxy requires not such aids. The Church of England approves them not. The spirit of Christianity warrants them not. Let Dr. Priestley be confuted where he is mistaken. Let him be exposed where he is superficial. Let him be rebuked where he is censorious. Let him be repressed where he is dogmatical. But let not his attainments be depreciated, because they are numerous almost

adorn his private life. But whilst I most chearfully make these concessions to the talents and the virtues of Dr. Priestley; and whilst I join in

without a parallel. Let not his talents be ridiculed, because they are superlatively great. Let not his morals be vilified, because they are correct without austerity, and exemplary without ostentation; because they present even to common observers the innocence of a hermit and the simplicity of a patriarch; and because a philosophic eye will at once discover in them, the deep fixed root of virtuous principle, and the solid trunk of virtuous habit. This beautiful portrait is, I think, accurate in its lineaments. But there are two features in the character of Dr. Priestley, which it does not exhibit, and which to you I will not scruple to communicate. He has a sort of moral apathy, which makes him absolutely insensible of the severity of the wounds he inflicts in his polemic discussions. Feeling no enmities in his constitution, he makes no discrimination between friends and foes. And having adopted the language, and dipped his pen in the gall of controversy, he suspects not that he excites bitterness of heart, because he is unconscious of it in himself. I could exemplify this observa. tion, by his treatment of Dr. Enfield, Dr. Brocklesby, Judge Blackstone, and several others whom he really loved or respected. Another striking trait in his character, is an almost total deficiency in discretion, that intellectual faculty, which is, as Pope well expresses it, although no science, fairly worth the seven.'-A report has prevailed here, that Dr. Priestley proposes to return to England. But I find that his latest letters signify his intention of passing the remainder of his life in America, where he is happy in every respect, except the enjoyment of literary society, and possesses a library and philosophical apparatus far superior to those which he had at Birmingham."

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the most decided reprobation of those savage acts of violence, which in his instance have disgraced the annals of English polity; yet I cannot hesitate to believe, that if, in any country, in which the direction of affairs was held by those enlightened politicians, and professors of pure Christianity, who form the associates of Dr. Priestley and Mr. Belsham, any man had employed himself for a series of years, in labouring to overturn the established order of things; and had even advanced so far, as, in the intoxication of his fancied success, openly to boast, that he had prepared a train, whereby the whole must inevitably be destroyed; a very different lot from that, which

This fragment, containing so much that is interesting, con. cerning Dr. Priestley, will, I conceive, not be unacceptable to the reader; and although I consider the bright parts of the character, to have been too highly emblazoned by Dr. Parr, the darker spots to have been too sparingly touched by my much valued correspondent, and some important points to have been entirely overlooked by both, yet I cannot withhold from the memory of a man certainly possessed of many amia. ble qualities, and some extraordinary endowments, a tribute, to which, two persons, eminent for their worth and their at tainments, have conceived him to be justly entitled.

* “We are, as it were, laying gun-powder, grain by grain, under the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may hereafter inflame, so as to produce an instan. taneous explosion."-Importance of Free Enquiry, p. 40. What Dr. P. means by the old building of error and superstition, the context sufficiently explains. On the impossibility of supporting the ecclesiastical constitution, if once a great

has fallen to Dr. Priestley, would await him. The privilege of transferring his residence to another land, unless indeed it were to that land from which no traveller returns, would hardly be conceded. Our enlightened philosophers, of the present day, adopt on these occasions much simpler modes of proceeding: and a peep across the British Channel, may readily satisfy us as to

majority of the people can be made hostile to it; and on "the power of small changes in the political state of things, to over. turn the best compacted establishments," he likewise enlarges with much earnestness, and force: ibid. pp. 39. 41. 44. The fittest seasons, and best opportunities, for silently working out the great effects, which he here professes to hold in view, this writer had before communicated to his fellow labourer Mr. Lindsey, in the dedication of his History of Corruptions, pp. vi. vii." While the attention of men in power, is engrossed by the difficulties that more immediately press upon them, the endeavour of the friends of reformation, in points of doctrine, pass with less notice, and operate without obstruction." Times of public danger and difficulty are thus pointed out, as best suited to lay that train, which was finally to explode with the ruin of the establishment, And indeed, at an earlier period of life, he had even ventured to promise himself a more rapid accomplishment of the great object of his wishes. Speaking of the establishment, and those abuses which he ascribes to the principles of the hierarchy, he does not scruple to predict, that in "some general convulsion of the state, some bold hand, secretly impelled by a vengeful providence, shall sweep down the whole together."-View of the Principles and Conduct of the Protestant Dissenters, p. 12.-Passages conveying similar sentiments in the writings of Dr. Priestley, might be accumulated: but their notoriety renders it unnecessary.