extracts of the minutes in his keeping to any member of either, who demanded them, on paying for the trouble of making them out." The solution of these questions I leave, as I have left many others, to those who may have patience to read this long, and, to me, truly painful narrative. Contrary to my expectation, the synodical transactions of last year have obliged me to extend it beyond my original intention. But, the importance of these, and their connexion with the mass of grievances, of which I have presumed to complain, appear to me so evident, that I hope to be forgiven. Perhaps, it may be thought a trivial fault, among the many and great offences, with which I may be charged. Be that as it may, I trust I have fully justified my original profession, of " authenticating every circumstance of importance, respecting the rev. the synod of Ulster, by extracts from its own records." The opinion of the public I shall not attempt to bias. And I hope, I shall be believed, when I most solemnly declare that the real honor and interest of the presbyterian body are objects near and dear to my heart as life itself; that of their religious rights and liberties no man is more zealous; and that it shall be the study and endeavour of my remaining life to promote the extension of these invaluable blessings to all our brethren, without difference, and without exception, I shall I shall now take the liberty, briefly to recite, the inconveniences, losses, privations, and pains, to which I and my family, were severally exposed, during my long confinement and exile, and what, on the part of a dominant faction in the synod of Ulster, I and many others, have presumed to call a protracted political persecution, by inquisitors, accusers, judges, and executioners, purely ecclesiastical, ever since. What must have been our feelings,-what our various mental distresses-in the variety and long succession of these, may be conceived, but cannot, be described. However, a man of common sensibility, in the relation of a husband, and father of a family dependent on his exertions for every thing valuable, by making the case his own, may form a tolerably correct judgment of them. By my arrest, I was not only removed from the care of my own family's education, but deprived of, at least 100 per annum arising from the education of young gentlemen, some boarders, and some day-scholars with which I was entrusted. From June 1799 the royal bounty, varying from £30 to £32, per annum was withholden from me and my family, in consequence of a question proposed to the synod, by the rev. dr. Black. And, by the dissolution of my connexion with the congregation of Portaferry, I was finally deprived of that bounty, and a stipend " pend of 100 per annum. To these, I may safely add 700, for my own and family's expences, during my confinement of three years and seven months. Of these different incomes, there can be little doubt of my continuance in the receipt, and also of an additional 70 per annum from Spring 1803, had I been left at liberty, or even restored to liberty, previous to November 1799. Counting nothing on these expences, as greater might have been incurred, had I been at liberty, I mention them only, from the situation to which they reduced my family, while I was cut off from the possibility of providing for them. My account therefore, with prison and persecution, may stand thus: Dr. I would not, however, have it thought, that I have been totally without resources for myself and family during the whole of these thirteen years and nine months, at an advanced period of a life of which I am not ashamed. No! thank thank god, his providence supplied means, not only of support, but of humble competence, and, in addition to these, notwithstanding the zealous efforts of the rev. dr. Black, and of his lady's brother-in-law, the rev. Thomas Cuming to prevent the settlement of a rebel adjutant general as a member of synod, I have earned £450, in the abandoned and reprobated congregation of Keady, during the last nine years. Of these things I do not boast, but for them I am truly thankful. Hitherto they have been sufficient to support me and my family in decency and comfort, andy I trust, they will continue to be so. I feel myself bound to declare, before I conclude, that I do not blame government for my arrest. The confusion of the times may palliate, but not justify it. But I blame them for the prolongation of my confinement, without trial, or even official charge of crime. I do not blame government directly for the privations and pains, which I endured, during my confinement in Ireland, both by land and sea, as no official document was ever produced to shew that they knew any thing about them; but I blame them for committing the liberties and lives of fellow subjects, as respectable in character, and, at least, as useful to the state, as most of them could pretend to be, to the disposal of wretches, equally strangers to the principles of government, the rights of men, and the feelings of humanity. humanity, And in the prolongation of my confinement, I do not blame them for my expor tation. Nay, I most cordially thank them, as, thereby, they not only rescued me from the ignorance and insolence, which I severely felt, buy placed me under the protection of a man, whose conduct stripped imprisonment and exile, of half their horrors. But should it be asked, "why my imprisonment and exile were prolonged, after Hughes had been given up; M-Ginn, by compact exempted from appearance to prosecute; and no other information even hinted at?" This question I can answer, only as an Irishmans by asking another: " is it not possible that, the assertions and actions of synod, in respect to me might have had some influence in this case? Could the synod believe that the solemn declaration of their political purity, as a body and the reality of their shame, sorrow, and indignation, excited by the delinquency of a few deluded and unworthy brethren, could be credited, either by the king or his government; and, at the same time, that their unqualified charge against me, of being" implicated in treasonable and seditious practices," supported, as it was, by a suspension of his majesty's bounties &c. &c should obtain NO credit. The charge was awfull If the charge was proved, the "wages of the sin was death." The synod's declaration of S s their |