With this you will receive a Second Letter to the Inhabitants of Birmingham. A first you would have before. They gain a good deal of attention, and the more, I perceive, by a mixture of pleasantry, which I fear you will not like. My Letters to Mr. Burn were thought too serious and angry.

I was very unwilling to have any controversy with the clergy in this town; but as they have been the aggressors, (especially in their mutilated extracts from my preface to Mr. Burn,* an exact copy of which you will see in Woodfall's Diary,) I shall now keep the ball up, and not do it by halves. However, as I do not publish all at once, I can desist whenever I please. I have two more letters composed, and intend a third, which will probably close the whole. After this, if it be thought worth while, I can publish an improved edition of the whole. Please to send Mrs. Rayner copies of them, as they may serve to amuse her.

I am glad to find that the second part of your Vindicia is in such forwardness. I hope that by the time of my coming to London it will be finished. I have no doubt of its doing much good, like the former part.

I thank you for your account of the proceedings in the

Essay, nor any of his works, except his Commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel, and a few philological tracts; but these afforded such proofs of the elegance of his taste, and extent of his learning, that they convinced me of his right to lay claim to a very high rank in the republic of letters. It is unnecessary, however, to defend Mr. Wakefield, who is much more able to plead his own cause. I shall only add, that since he professes to have derived some assistance from my observations, imperfect as they may be, I feel little pain from the venom of our Apologists. I would rather even be traduced than praised by writers of their temper and judgment." Pref. pp. xxii.—xxvi.

The "avowed Socinian" was Lardner, and the "late good Archbishop" Secker, whose letter to Lardner, in 1768, (Life, p. xcii.,) is quoted in a

note.

* See W. XIX. 137, 138, 172, 173. This base attempt to prejudice the cause of the repeal was presently exposed in a short pamphlet, entitled, "An Appeal to the Common Sense and Common Honesty of every Inhabitant of Birmingham, respecting the Passages extracted from the Preface to Dr. Priestley's Letters to the Rev. Edward Burn, and sent to the Bishops and Members of the House of Commons, previous to the Debate on the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts." See Analyt. Rev. VI. 569.

House.* By all account, the arguments were in our favour, and to this every thing must eventually give way. I think remarks on all the speeches would be an useful publication. I may, perhaps, do it in my Familiar Letters, if I should continue them. Mr. Pitt certainly said nothing to any purpose, and Mr. Burke's conduct, I think, best accounted for by his leaning towards the court, and not to Popery. Mr. Fox has either read very little indeed, or his compliments to Mr. Burke were very extravagant. Mr. Hawkes says that Mr. Burke was very little attended to. Next to him sat Mr. Burn, who, on your going out, took your seat.

Mr. B. Vaughan tells me of an appeal to the people of England. This is not, surely, to come from the London committee. It should be reserved for the national meeting of the Dissenters.

P. S. With this you will receive a copy of a letter, which I address to the members of the House of Commons, and the bishops, to all of whom the extracts were sent.§ I hope you will not dislike it. I made it as short as I could.||

DEAR FRIEND,

TO THE SAME.

Birmingham, March 12, 1790. I TROUBLE you again with a parcel, containing some copies of my Letters to Mr. Burn, &c., to be disposed of as you think proper. Please to deliver one, with the Familiar Letter, and

* March 2nd, on Mr. Fox's motion for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, which was negatived by 294 against 105. See W. XIX. 169. + As Dr. Priestley confidently expected, "from the increasing liberality of the age, the progress of which all the clergymen in England can no more put a stop to than they can prevent the sun, after he has risen, from ascending to his meridian altitude." Ibid.

This decision immediately produced from the pen of Mrs. Barbauld, " An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts;" pronounced by Dr. Parr to be "one of the best-written compositions in the English language." The fourth edition (1790) is now before me. See Barbauld's Works, (1825,) II. 353.

566.

From whom, however, it came, "May 14." See Gent. Mag. LX. 472,

§ See W. XIX. 371, 539.

Orig. MS.

Letter to the Members of Parliament, to Dr. Heberden, whose letter about Theodosius, &c.,* I send.

Mr. Cooperf is here. I dine with him to-day at Mr. Russell's. I find by him that a plan is proposed for a kind of representation of the Dissenters in London. I wish it may give satisfaction, and at the same time have real effect. Mr. Walker is expected too, and then we shall talk over every thing about it. I do not know what to say to it at present.

The high-church party have behaved with unexpected moderation here, but not so, I hear, at Manchester, where they are uncommonly abusive and insolent. The same spirit exists here; but I think some wiser heads restrain it. On the day the news arrived of the event of Tuesday's debate, they began to ring at all the churches; but soon ceased, and there was no illumination. At Warwick they rung all day, but no mischief was done. The church people in general think that we shall now be quiet, and give them no trouble a long time. When they find the contrary, they will be much chagrined.‡

TO THE SAME.

DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, March 14, 1790. I TOOK it for granted that Mr. Russell had sent you a considerable number of my Familiar Letters, No. 1; and as you took no notice of them, I concluded that you did not approve of the manner in which they were written. I am, therefore, exceedingly rejoiced that you like them so well; and, as I propose to continue them some time, I hope to give you more pleasure of the same kind. Both my antagonists are about to reply; but you will not suppose that I am under much apprehension about it. It is said that the Bishop of London§ thanked Mr. Burn for his services to the good cause.

I send, as I know it will please you, the letter of thanks from my late class, written, and I dare say composed, by Mr. Chambers. It inclosed a draft for 50 guineas; and though I

The calumny, by Dr. Withers. See W. XIX. 290.

↑ Then of Manchester, whose name has so often occurred in the notes. t Orig. MS.

§ Porteus.

was far indeed from wishing, or expecting any thing, I cannot well return it. In my new class, which never attended a course before, I have already forty-six, and shall, no doubt, have more.

I have three more Familiar Letters transcribed for the third number, on Toleration and Church Establishments, but I purposely delay them.*

To DR. PRIESTLEY'S LATE CLASS.

MY YOUNG FRIENDS, Fairhill, March 16, 1790. THE pleasure I have received from your very sensible and affectionate address is only equalled by that which I have always had in the course of my attendance upon you in the vestry, which exceeds that which arises from the discharge of every other part of my duty as a Christian minister, and in all of them I experience greater satisfaction than I derive from any other studies and pursuits whatever.

To see such happy fruits of my labours† as your letter promises, will add to the enjoyment of the whole of my future life, and even brighten my prospect beyond the grave. For what society can I wish for there in preference to that of those whom, I may flatter myself, I have been in some measure the instruments of training up for that better state?

Having laid so good a foundation, I hope you will proceed to build upon it, by continually adding to your stock of useful knowledge; and doubt not but that the more attention you give to Christianity, in the principles and evidences of which I have been more particularly careful to instruct you, the more you will value it. You will never forget, that the use of all knowledge, especially such as I have endeavoured to communicate to you, is virtuous conduct; and that to be useful to others in this world, is the only way to be happy in another.

You do not want to be informed, though you cannot take it amiss to be reminded, that youth is the only season for laying the foundation of virtue and true happiness, in sound knowledge and good habits; and though you are now most exposed

to temptation, you are possessed of a vigour of mind peculiar to your age, and not yet enfeebled and depraved by commerce with a vicious world. Persevere, then, as you have begun, and the recollection of our past intercourse will afford us mutual satisfaction to the end of life, and beyond it.

You will do me the justice to believe me, when I assure you that your generous and very unexpected present is what I should have returned, if I had not believed that in doing this I should have given you pain, and that I esteem it chiefly as an expression of your gratitude and good-will.

With my best wishes and prayers for your present and future happiness, I am, my young friends, yours affectionately.*

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.†

DEAR FRIEND,

Birmingham, March 22, 1790. WE have seen nothing of Mr. Walker on his return to Nottingham, and how the Address to the Nation is to be managed I know not. I do not wish to be responsible for any thing of the kind. I certainly shall do no such thing as Mr. Stonet‡ advises. It would in every view be wrong. I had much rather write a second letter to Mr. Pitt; but I do not mean to do even that, but confine myself to the Familiar Letters I am now in the course of writing and publishing here.

Mr. Madan has advertised a Letter to me in reply to them, against Thursday next, and on that day my third set of Letters are also to be out. I shall certainly send you or Mr. Johnson a parcel by that night's coach, and a copy of Mr. Madan's Letter. The controversy is a good deal attended to, and so far operates to my advantage; but Mr. Madan was most highly respected, and has many friends.

I sent Mr. Johnson a short letter for the St. James's Chronicle, requesting the insertion of my Letter to the Members of Parliament, and desired him to apply to you for a copy of it. I fancy, by a letter that I received yesterday, that it has found its way into some other evening papers.

* Orig. MS., communicated by Mr. Skey, from Mr. Russell's papers. + Essex Street.

John Hurford Stone, who died a few years since, at Paris.