their duty. Where I prove erroneous in my censure; where I engage in questions without a conscientious respect for the public and for myself, without preparation, without talents, and without humility; I ardently wish a restoration to my duty and my senses by an unrelenting infliction of similar severity.

Notwithstanding the warmth of censure with which Mr. Wakefield animadverted on these publications, he much regretted that a society, professedly Christian, should oppose them by the coarse and irrational, though, no doubt, conclusive arguments of pains and penalties.

Our friend's opinion upon this most important subject had been long before well-expressed by Lardner, ("the most candid of all advocates, and the most cautious of all enquirers") who, among his other valuable writings, defended the Miracles of the Gospel against the rude attacks and gross buffoonery of Woolston. Referring to the prosecution of that author, which churchmen of those days were too much disposed to excuse, if not to

Reply," Pref. p. 7.

P Paley, Evid. ii. 98.

9 See Letters between Dr. Waddington, bishop of Chichester, and Dr. Lardner; Works, i. cxv.

encourage, this excellent person, whose "ardour for truth, yet tenderness for error," have been so justly admired, observes, that "a victory, secured by mere authority, is no less to be dreaded than a defeat, " and that

a true Christian may suffer on account of his religion, but he can never make others suffer on account of theirs."t

In the same spirit, observes a late venerable author, "Let them therefore write, let them argue, and, when arguments fail, even let them cavil, against religion, as much as they please: I should be heartily sorry that ever in this island, the asylum of liberty, where the spirit of Christianity is better understood (however defective the inhabitants are in the observance of its precepts) than in any other part of the Christian world; I should, I say, be sorry, that in this island, so great a disservice were done to religion, as to check it's adversaries, in any other way than by returning a candid answer to their objections. I must at the same time acknowledge that I am both ashamed and grieved, when I observe any

r Radcliffe's Elogium, Lardner's Works, i. cxiii.

• Lardner, xi. 6.

Letter to Lord Barrington; Lardner's Works, i. cxxiv.

friends of religion betray so great a diffidence in the goodness of their cause (for to this diffidence alone it can be imputed) as to show an inclination for recurring to more forcible methods.""

Unhappily for the credit of Christianity, this "mcekness of wisdom" is not the possession of all who call themselves by her name.

The following circumstances occasioned the prosecution to which we have alluded. Dr. Watson, bishop of Llandaff, published "The Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters addressed to Thomas Paine." This book became deservedly popular, and was soon largely circulated by being reprinted in an unexpensive form. A still further attention was thus excited to the "Age of Reason." Of the increased demand for that work a bookseller, named Williams, took the advantage common to his trade, and published a cheap edition.

"The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge," composed entirely of members of the established Church, now resolved to subject this bookseller to a criminal process, and committed the conduct of their cause to the talents of Mr. Erskine. The ardour with which that gentleman exerted his abilities.

upon this occasion very naturally surprized and mortified those who had fondly regarded him as much more than a mere advocate, in his various and noble defences of the freedom

of the press.

As to the society in question, it we consider the avowed principles, and political connexions of the leading members, can it be unfair to imagine that some resentment against the author of the " Rights of Man," might perhaps insinuate itself into their zeal for "promoting Christian knowledge?" Nor possibly were they unwilling to lower in the opinion of his former associates the professional defender of that publication, and the more successful advocate of Mr. Hardy, and the other defendants, in the State Trials of 1794.

With respect to the bishop of Llandaff, it cannot be enough regretted that his acute and vigorous pen, so capable of directing the force of argument, should have been so officiously seconded, upon more than one occasion, by the power of the law. Yet from his entire silence respecting the prosecution of Williams, we are left to conjecture that Dr. Watson was not greatly offended, if he did not cheerfully

* See "N. A. Reg." v. 18. 1797 (102).

accept this, surely needless, support of his admired "Apology."

However that might be, Mr. Wakefield abhorred the principle of such a prosecution, and was disgusted by the conduct of all its promoters. In a letter on the subject, written before he could have any prospect of suffering for his own freedom of discussion, he has these remarks:-"That the jurisdiction of human ordinances extends not to opinion; that the prosecution and punishment of any individual on that ground is a violation of an universal rule, which admits no capricious and undefinable exceptions in any case, without destroying its efficacy in all, and transferring an unalienable authority to a foreign judicature; are, I think, axioms in political morality."

a

The celebrated barrister just mentioned, by connecting his name with such a prosecu tion, was degraded from our friend's former high estimation of him, to a degree (which might appear illiberal fully to express. For his frequent severe strictures on this gentleman's conduct, we find the following apology among his papers:

"Some have objected to my free communications relative to Mr. Erskine, as injuring what is called the cause, and furnishing mate