on the breaking out of the war with this country, all mercantile profpects being fufpended, he wished to go to America. There his eldest and youngest brother have joined him, and they are now looking out for a fettlement, having as yet no fixed views.

The neceffity I was under of sending my fons out of this country, was my principal inducement to send the little property that I had out of it too; fo that I had nothing in England befides my library, apparatus, and household goods. By this, I felt myself greatly relieved, it being of little confequence where a man already turned fixty ends his days. Whatever good or evil I have been capable of, is now chiefly done; and I truft that the fame confcioufnefs of integrity, which has fupported me hitherto, will carry me through any thing that may yet be referved for me. Seeing, however, no great profpect of doing much good, or having much enjoyment, here, I am now preparing to follow my fons; hoping to be of fome ufe to them in their prefent unfettled state, and that Providence may yet, advancing in years as I am, find me fome sphere of usefulness along with them.

As to the great odium that I have incurred, the charge of fedition, or my being an enemy to the conftitution or peace of my country, is a mere pretence for it; though it has been fo much urged, that it is now generally believed, and all attempts to undeceive the public with refpect to it avail nothing at all. The whole courfe of my ftudies, from early life, fhews how little politics of any kind have been my object. Indeed to have written fo much as I

have

have in theology, and to have done fo much in experimental philofophy, and at the fame time to have had my mind occupied, as it is supposed to have been, with factious politics, I must have had faculties more than human. Let any perfon only caft his eye over the long lift of my publications, and he will fee that they relate almost wholly to theology, philofophy, or general literature.

I did, however, when I was a younger man, and before it was in my power to give much attention to philofophical purfuits, write a fmall anonymous political pamphlet, on the State of Liberty in this Country, about the time of Mr. Wilkes's election for Middlesex, which gained me the acquaintance, and I may fay the friendship, of Sir George Savile, and which I had the happiness to enjoy as long as he lived.

At the request alfo of Dr. Franklin and Dr. FoAhergill, I wrote an addrefs to the Diffenters on the fubject of the approaching rupture with America, a pamphlet which Sir George Savile, and my other friends, circulated in great numbers, and it was thought with fome effect.

After this I entirely ceafed to write any thing on the fubject of politics, except as far as the bufinefs of the Test At, and of Civil Establishments of Religion, had a connexion with politics. And though, at the recommendation of Dr. Price, I was prefently after this taken into the family of the Marquis of Lanfdowne, and I entered into almost all his views, as thinking them juft and liberal, I never wrote a fingle pamphlet,

pamphlet, or even a paragraph in a newspaper, alk the time that I was with him, which was seven years.

I never preached a political fermon in my life, unefs fuch as, I believe, all Diffenters ufually preach on the fifth of November, in favour of civil and religious liberty, may be said to be political. And on thefe occafions, I am confident, that I never advanced any fentiment but fuch as, till of late years, would have tended to recommend, rather than render me obnoxious, to thofe who direct the adminiftration of this country. And the doctrines which I adopted when young, and which were even popular then (except with the clergy, who were at that timegenerally difaffected to the family on the throne) I cannot abandon, merely because the times are fo changed, that they are now become unpopular, and the expreffion and communication of them hazardous.

Farther, though. I by ho means disapprove of focieties for political information, fuch as are now every where discountenanced, and generally fuppreffed, I never was a member of any of them; nor, indeed, did I ever attend any public meeting, if E could decently avoid it, owing to habits acquired in ftudious and retired life.

From a mistake of my talents and difpofition, I was invited by many of the departments in France,, to reprefent them in the prefent National Convention, after I had been made a citizen of France, on account of my being confidered as one who had been perfecuted for my attachment to the cause of liberty here. But though the invitation was repeated with

the

the most flattering importunity, I never hesitated about declining it.

I can farther fay with refpect to politics, concerning which I believe every Englishman has fome opinion or other (and at prefent, owing to the peculiar nature of the present war, it is almost the only topic of general converfation) that, except in company, I hardly ever think of the fubject, my reading, meditation, and writing, being almost wholly engroffed by theology, and philosophy; and of late, as for many years before the riots in Birmingham, I have spent a very great proportion of my time, as my friends well know, in my laboratory.

If, then, my real crime has not been fedition, or treason, what has it been? For every effect must have fome adequate caufe, and therefore the odium that I have incurred must have been owing to fomething in my declared fentiments, or conduct, that has exposed me to it. In my own opinion, it cannot have been any thing but my open hoftility to the doctrines of the established church, and more especially to all civil establishments of religion whatever. This has brought upon me the implacable refentment of the great body of the clergy; and they have found other methods of oppofing me befides argument, and that use of the prefs which is equally open to us all. They have also found an able ally and champion in Mr. Burke, who (without any provocation except that of anfwering his book on the French Revolution) has taken feveral opportunities of inveighing against me, in a place where he knows I cannot

I cannot reply to him, and from which he alfo knows that his accufation will reach every corner of the country, and confequently thousands of perfons, who will never read any writings of mine*. They have had another, and ftill more effectual vehicle of their abuse in what are called the treafury newfpapers, and other popular publications.

By thefe and other means, the fame party fpirit which was the caufe of the riots in Birmingham, has been increasing ever fince, especially in that neighbourhood; a remarkable instance of which may be feen in a Letter addressed, but not fent, to me from Mr. Foley, rector of Stourbridge, who acknowledges the fatisfaction that he and his brethren have received from one of the groffeft and coarfest pieces of abufe of me that has yet appeared, which, as a curious fpecimen of the kind, I inferted in the Appendix of my Appeal, and in which I am reprefented as no better than Guy Fawkes, or the devil himself. This very Christian divine recommends to the members of the established church to decline all commercial dealings with Diffenters, as an effectual method of exterminating them. Defoe's Shortest Way with the

* Mr. Burke having faid in the Houfe of Commons, that "I was made a citizen of France on account of my declared

hoftility to the conftitution of this country," I, in the public papers, denied the charge, and called upon him for the proofs of it. As he made no reply, in the preface to my Faft Sermon of the last year, I said, p. 9, that " it fufficiently appeared that he had neither ability to maintain his charge, nor virtue to retract "it." A year more of filence on his part having now elapfed, this is become more evident than before.

Diffenters.