other knowledge than what I obtained from their advertisements of May 28th. You were only to convey my refpects to the Society, and to add my earnest hope that they would proceed with moderation as well as firmness. But if you have not done more than this, I am at a lofs to account for the contemptible paragraphs I have seen in the newspapers; and if you have done more than this, I muft lament your want of pru dence, and even condemn your want of fidelity, in communicating to a public fociety what I wrote for your own private perufal. I must beg the favour of you, Sir, to fend me a clear and immediate anfwer to this letter, and

I remain, Sir, your most obedient Servant,
S. PARR.

Saturday, June 16, 1792.

I found, June 22nd, that Mr. without my permiffion, and contrary to my expectation, had fhewn my letter to the members of the Aldgate Society; and that feveral parts, which certainly were not meant for their inspection, had been thought worthy of their commendation.

Continuation of the second note in page 114, after the quotation from the Gentleman's Magazine.

A candid and judicious writer in the Monthly Review for April 1792 confeffes, "that Dr. Priestley has been perfecuted," and very properly adds, that " the true friends to our Confti"tution in Church and State are difpleafed with his perfecu"tion." But what fays the London Reviewer of Berrington's History of Henry II. ? I will quote his remarkable words: "In "confequence of fuch measures Becket was murdered. This "deed is one of those which we must say, as we say of the riots 66 at Birmingham, that the act was bad, but the fufferer de"ferved it." Is not the writer of this article a person whom I have been long accustomed to respect and admire, as an antiquarian of eminence, as a scholar above mediocrity, as a man of genius, and of all the glowing enthusiasm by which genius is diftinguished, as a Chriftian, orthodox in his faith, fervent in his devotion, and virtuous in his life? Is it not HE, who with fuch irresistible reafoning confuted the fpecious hypothesis of Macpherson, who which fuch brilliant eloquence laid bare the historical defects of Gibbon, and who by proofs, which do equal honour to the clearness of his head, and the goodness of his heart, has, after a lapfe of two centuries, vindicated the inno

cence

1

cence of Mary Queen of Scots, to the conviction of the present age, and for the inftruction of the latest pofterity? From fuch a man I never can diffent without regret-with such a man I will expoftulate without acrimony.

If the diffenters were wrong, as I think they were, in affembling on the 14th of July, furely they deferve not the whole of what they have fuffered. Surely, unlefs the reviewer has adopted the ftoical tenets of equality in offences, he will agree with me who abhor, and with a poet who has ridiculed those tenets.

Adfit

Regula, quæ pænas peccatis irroget æquas.
Hor. Satir. 3, lib. 1.

If the reafoning of a Heathen poet has no weight upon his mind, he will admit upon far higher authority, that "there is "a fin not unto death."

With the rigorous fentence paffed by the English reviewer, let me contraft the milder and jufter opinion of the Rev. Mr. F. Randolph, in the preface to his fcriptural revifion of Socinian arguments addreffed to Dr. Priestley. "I mean not

to give a loose to intemperate zeal: I do not address you "with the fpirit of controverfy, nor wish to engage in the "bitter warfare of words. Though perfonally unknown, I "respect your abilities, and efteem you for your private vir"tues; and am happy to add my teftimony to those, I truft, "of every Chriftian of every fect and denomination whatever, "that no perfon can, with greater fincerity than myself, "deplore, the favage outrages under which you have lately "fuffered."

As to the harangues of coffee-house politicians, or of politi cal lawyers, I have not been in the way of being annoyed by them. A brother clergyman of mine was, indeed, led by curiofity, or by duty, to be a very attentive hearer of fome late proceedings in a certain court of juftice. But my ears were not polluted with the vapid witticifms, the frothy cavils, and the bitter invectives, which flowed from the lips of a prattling fciolift, whofe name I will not condefcend to mention. In iftis tam frigidis, tam jejunis calumniis, per me licet, delitefcat. It has, however, fallen in my way to trace the progrefs of a certain perfon through the leges attice of Petit, and great was the amufement I found upon obferving both the articles which he had marked in the index, and thofe which he seems not to have read in the book.The former I fhall, in politeness, forbear to enumerate.-But among the latter, probably, is the

fixth title of the feventh book de convitiis. Diftinguished as he is by the faults, but not the talents of Caffius Severus, he would there have feen, and with the aid of a Latin tranflation he perhaps might have understood, a law of Solon, which forbad citizens to abufe any living perfon πρὸς δικαςηρίοις. He would have found, τοὺς λεγοντάς τι τῶν Απορρήτων πεντακοσίας δραχμὰς op, unless they proved what they said to be true; and if the avoidance of the fine, had in a late caufe, depended upon the proof of the allegation, I know what would have been the decifion, not, perhaps at but at Athens. Let me, however, commend our orator's prudence for expunging, as am told he did, fome intemperate paffages from a very wellwritten book which has lately appeared; and let me, also, commend the fenfible author of that book for his moderation, in not admitting certain invidious quotations, which, as I have heard, it was the wifh of our orator to infert in it,

On the very day that I fent this Appendix to Mr. Dilly in London, I had the pleasure of receiving fome intelligence, which makes it neceflary for me to ftate the following facts.

At the beginning of the note which is here continued, I, in the first edition of the Sequel, informed my readers, that, in purfuance of the measures taken by a learned friend at Birmingham and myself, fome political dialogues of which I dif approved, and which had begun to be published in that town, were difcontinued. Now I have the fatisfaction of laying before my readers an additional, and a moft honourable inftance of the readiness which the diffenters of Birmingham fhew to be convinced by fuch arguments, and to follow fuch counfels, as are founded in justice, and expreffed with moderation. Having been told, at different times, and in different places, that they intended to meet on the approaching 14th of July, I wrote a pamphlet for the purpose of diffuading them from perfevering in that intention. The title of the pamphlet is "A Letter "from Irenopolis to the Inhabitants of Eleutheropolis; or a "Serious Address to the Diffenters of Birmingham by a Mem"ber of the Established Church*." For reafons of delicacy, I did not at firft affix my name to the book. But I am now happy to avow myfelf the author of it, in confequence

I have lately been informed, and I think myself bound to ftate, that on the very day when the letter from Irenopolis was advertifed in the Birmingham papers, and on the fourth day before it was published, two or three diffenters waited upon a noble and worthy peer in Staffordshire, and affured him that they did not intend to meet upon the 14th of July. As my arguments were well-meant and well-founded, I feel no anxiety to enquire minutely, how far my opinions were anticipated by the good fenfe of thofe erfons to whom they were addressed.

of

of an advertisement, which, on the very day week after my publication, appeared in Aris's Birmingham Gazette of June 4th, and which I fhall take the liberty of republifhing here, be caufe it reflects the highest honour upon the difcretion, upon the manlinefs, upon the candour, and upon the loyalty of the gentlemen by whom it was written,

Birmingham, June 2, 1792.

"A report having been propagated, that it is intended to ce"lebrate the commemoration of the French Revolution in this "town on the 14th of July next enfuing-it is hereby declared "by those who promoted the laft anniversary, that the said "report is groundlefs. And although they have feen no rea"fon to change their fentiments, that they ought to rejoice as "men at the emancipation of fo many of their fellow-men from "the miseries of a government univerfally allowed to be tyrannical: or as Britons and good citizens that the beneficial con"fequences of the French revolution to the commerce, and to "the finances of this country, by preventing foreign wars, have "been already felt, and have contributed to the national peace "and profperity-yet they are too much the friends of peace "and order, to endanger the public tranquility in the prefent" "crifis, They conclude this advertisement with the fame "fentiment as they began their laft meeting, by declaring their "loyalty to "the King and Conftitution +," their attachment "to which remains unalterable, notwithstanding the injuries ❝ which fome of them have received from the temporary delufion of their townfmen.

This advertisement ought to filence the clamours of those deluded or most uncandid perfons, who indifcriminately charge the diffenters with obftinacy of temper, and difloyalty of principle. As a fact, it establishes the rectitude of their intentions, and as an example, it will repress, I hope, the blind and furious zeal of their enemies.

Note on [Dean of Christ Church] page 105, line 18. Having lately heard that this obfervation was made by fome other perfon in the prefence of the Dean of Christ church, fhall flate the paffage which induced me to impute it to him. "In a converfation I had laft fummer, at which Dr. Jackfon, Dean of Chrift Church Oxford was prefent, I maintained the This was the first toast at the Hotel, 14th of July 1791.

importance

importance of three different powers in every well balanced state, with fo much earnestnefs, that with great good humour, he and the reft of the company rallied me, as being a trinitarian in politics, though an unitarian in religion.'

Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham by Dr. Priefley, page 89.

Continuation of note in page 116.

The reader, perhaps, will be amufed upon being told, that the most furious enemies to the Arian herefy in the fourth century were the fect of Luciferians. They were called fo from Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia," who broke," fays Motheim, "the bonds of fraternal communion with Eu

febius Bishop of Verceil in the year 363, because the latter "had confecrated Paulinus Bishop of Antioch; and he af"terwards feparated himfelf from the whole church, on ac<l count of the act of abfolution it had paffed in favour of "thofe, who, under Conftantius had deferted to the Arians." Vid. Mofheim's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 313. But their fucceffors in our own times have another, and a ftronger title to this appellation. Such was the intolerance of the antient Luciferians, that "they gave," fays Bingham, "the "church the rudeft language, ftiling her the brothel house and "the fynagogue of Anti-Chrift and Satan" And all this, it fhould feem, for a measure of confummate prudence and moderation-Vid. book I. cap. 3. of Bingham's Antiquities. But our modern Luciferians, not content with uttering bitter reproaches against Heretics, and perhaps against ecclefiaftics who best understand the doctrines, and who are most attached to the real honour of the orthodox church, have practically wreaked their fury in fuch a manner, as would fully juftify wife and good men in applying to them this very characteristic name.

Note on [Anonymous Letter] page 138.

As Mr. Curtis has publicly accufed me of writing to him. a letter, "which he would fooner have his right-hand cut off than "be the author of" I fhall print it, not through choice but neceffity; not from motives of enmity, but of fidelity; not