Diffenters*, would have taught him a more effectual method ftill. And yet this Mr. Foley, whom I never faw, and who could not have had any particular caufe of enmity to me, had, like Mr. Madan of Birmingham, a character for liberality. What, then, have we to expect from others, when we find so much bigotry and rancour in fuch men as these? Many times, by the encouragement of perfons from whom better things might have been expected, I have been burned in effigy along with Mr. Paine; and numberless infulting and threatening letters have been fent to me from all parts of the kingdom. It is not poffible for any man to have conducted himself more peaceably than I have done all the time that I have lived at Clapton, yet it has not exempted me not only from the worst fufpicions, but very grofs infults. A very friendly and innocent club, which I found in the place, has been confidered as Jacobine chiefly on my account; and at one time there was caufe of apprehenfion that I should have been brought into danger for lending. one of Mr. Paine's books. But with fome difficulty the neighbourhood was fatisfied that I was innocent. As nothing had been paid to me on account of damages in the riot, when I published the fecond part of my Appeal to the public on the fubject, it may be proper to fay, that it was paid fome time in the beginning of the year 1793, with intereft only from the first of January of the fame year, though the injury was received in July, 1791; when equity A tract written in a grave ironical ftile, advising to hang them all. evidently evidently required, that it ought to have been allowed from the time of the riot, efpecially as, in all the cafes, the allowance was far short of the lofs. In my cafe it fell fhort, as I have fhewn, not less than two thousand pounds. And the loffes fuftained by the other fufferers far exceeded mine. Public juftice alfo required that, if the forms of law, local enmity, or any other cause, had prevented our receiving full indemnification, it should have been made up to us from the public treasury; the great end of all civil government being protection from violence, or an indemnification for it. Whatever we might in equity claim, the country owes us, and, if it be just, will some time or other pay, and with interest. I would farther observe, that fince, in a variety of cases, money is allowed where the injury is not of a pecuniary nature, merely because no other compensation can be given, the fame should have been done with refpect to me, on account of the deftruction of my manuscripts, the interruption of my purfuits, the lofs of a pleafing and advantageous fituation, &c. &c. and had the injury been fuftained by a clergyman, he would, I doubt not, have claimed, and been allowed, very large damages on this account. far, however, was there any idea of the kind in my favour, that my counsel advised me to make no mention of my manufcript Lectures on the Conftitution and Laws of England, a work about as large as that of Blackftone (as may be seen by the fyllabus of the particular lectures, fixty-three in all, published in the first edition of my Effay on a Course of liberal Educa So tion tion for civil and active Life) because it would be taken for granted that they were of feditious nature, and would therefore have been of differvice to me with the jury. Accordingly they were, in the account of my loffes, included in the article of fo much paper. After thefe loffes, had I had nothing but the justice of my country to look to, I must have funk under the burden, incapable of any farther exertions. It was the feasonable generofity of my friends that prevented this, and put it in my power, though with the unavoidable lofs of near two years, to refume my former pursuits. A farther proof of the exceffive bigotry of this country is, that, though the clergy of Birmingham, resenting what I advanced in the first part of my Appeal, replied to it, and pledged themfelves to go through with the enquiry along with me, till the whole truth fhould be investigated, they have made no reply to the Second Part of my Appeal, in which I brought specific charges against themfelves, and other perfons by name, proving them to have been the promoters and abettors of the riot; and yet they have as much respect fhewn to them as ever, and the country at large pays no attention to it. Had the clergy been the injured perfons, and Diffenters the rioters, unable to anfwer the charges brought against them, fo great would have been the general indignation at their conduct, that I am perfuaded it would not have been poffible for them to continue in the country. I could, if I were fo difpofed, give my readers many many more inftances of the bigotry of the clergy of the church of England with respect to me, which could not fail to excite, in generous minds, equal indignation and contempt; but I forbear. Had I, however, foreseen what I am now witness to, I certainly should not have made any attempt to replace my library or apparatus, and I foon repented of having done it. But this being done, I was willing to make fome use of both before another interruption of my pursuits. I began to philofophize, and make experiments, rather late in life, being near forty, for want of the neceffary means of doing any thing in this way; and my pursuits have been much interrupted by removals (never indeed chofen by myself, but rendered neceffary by circumstances) and my time being now fhort, I hoped to have had no occafion for more than one, and that a final, remove. But the circumstances above mentioned have induced me, though with great and fincere regret, to undertake another, and to a greater distance than any that I have hitherto made. I profefs not to be unmoved by the aspect of things exhibited in this Difcourfe. But notwithstanding this, I should willingly have awaited my fate in my native country, whatever it had been, if I had not had fons in America, and if I did not think that a field of public usefulness, which is evidently closing upon me here, might open to more advantage there. I also own that I am not unaffected by fuch unexampled punishments as thofe of Mr. Muir and my friend b friend Mr. Palmer, for offences, which, if, in the eye of reason, they be any at all, are flight, and very infufficiently proved; a measure so fubverfive of that freedom of speaking and acting, which has hitherto been the great pride of Britons. But the fentence of Mr. Winterbotham, for delivering from the pulpit what I am perfuaded he never did deliver, and which, fimilar evidence might have drawn upon myfelf, or any other diffenting minifter, who was an object of general diflike, has fomething in it ftill more alarming*. But I truft that confcious inno cence * I trust that the friends of liberty, especially among the Diffenters, will not fail to do every thing in their power to make Mr. Winterbottom's confinement, and alfo the fufferings of Mr. Palmer and his companions, as easy to them as poffible. Having 'been affifted in a feafon of perfecution myself, I fhould be very ill deferving of the favours I have received, if I was not particularly defirous of recommending such cases as theirs to general confideration. Here difference in religious fentiment is least of all to be attended to. On the contrary, let thofe who in this respect differ the most from Mr. Winterbottom, which is my own cafe, exert themselves the most in his favour. When men of unqueftionable integrity and piety fuffer in confequence of acting (as such persons always will do) from a principle of confcience, they muft command the refpect even of their enemies, if they also act from principle, though they be thereby led to proceed in an oppofite direction. The cafe of men of education and reflection (and who act from the best intentions with refpect to the community) committing what only fate policy requires to be confidered as crimes, bút which are allowed on all hands to imply no moral turpitude, fo as to render them unfit for heaven and happinefs hereafter, is not to be confounded with that of common felons. There was nothing in the conduct of Louis XIV. and his minifters, that appeared fo fhocking, fo contrary to all ideas of juftice, humanity and decency, and that has contributed more to render their me mory |