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OBSERVATIONS

ON

PRIESTLEY'S EMIGRATION.

WHEN the arrival of Doctor Prieftley in the

United States was firft announced *, I looked upon his emigration (like the propofed retreat of Cowley to his imaginary Paradife, the Summer Inlands) as no more than the effect of that weakness, that delufive caprice, which too often accompanies the decline of life, and which is apt, by a change of place, to flatter age with a renovation of faculties, and a return of departed genius. Viewing him as a man that fought repofe, my heart welcomed him to the fhores of peace, and wished him what he certainly ought to have wifhed himself, a quiet obscurity. But his anfwers to the addreffes of the Democratic and other Societies at New-York, place him in quite a different light, and subject him to the animadverfions of a public, among whom they have been induftriously propagated.

No man has a right to pry into his neighbour's private concerns; and the opinions of every man are his private concerns, while he keeps them fo; that is to fay, while they are confined to himself, his family, and particular friends; but when he makes thofe opinions public, when he once attempts to make converts, whether it be in religion, politics, or any thing else; when he once comes forward as a candidate for public admiration, esteem, or compaffion,

* He arrived at New-York on the 12th of June, 1794.

his opinions, his principles, his motives, every action of his life, public or private, become the fair fubject of public difcuffion. On this principle, which the Doctor ought to be the laft among mankind to controvert, it is easy to perceive that these obfervations need no apology.

His anfwers to the addreffes of the New-York focieties are evidently calculated to mislead and deceive the people of the United States. He there endeavours to impofe himself on them for a sufferer in the cause of liberty; and makes a canting profeffion of mederation, in direct contradiction to the conduct of his whole life.

He fays he hopes to find here "that protection from violence which laws and government promise "in all countries, but which he has not found in his "own." He certainly muft fuppofe that no European intelligence ever reaches this fide of the Atlantic, or that the inhabitants of thefe countries are too dull to comprehend the fublime events that mark his life and character. Perhaps I fhall fhow him that it is not the people of England alone who know how to eftimate the merit of Doctor Priestley.

Let us examine his claims to our compaffion; let us fee whether his charge against the laws and go, vernment of his country be juft or not.

On the 14th of July, 1791, an unruly mob affembled in the town of Birmingham, fet fire to his house and burnt it, together with all it contained. This is the fubject of his complaint, and the pretended cause of his emigration. The fact is not denied ; but in the relation of facts, circumftances must not be forgotten. To judge of the Doctor's charge against his country, we must take a retrofpective view of his conduct, and of the circumftances that led to the deftruction of his property.

It is about twelve years fince he began to be diftinguifhhed among the diffenters from the established

church

church of England. He preached up a kind of deifm*, which nobody understood, and which it was thought the Doctor underftood full as well as his neighbours. This doctrine afterwards affumed the name of Unitarianifm, and the religieux of the order were called, or rather they called themselves, Unitarians. The fect never rofe into confequence; and the founder had the mortification of feeing his darling Unitarianifm growing quite out of date with himself, when the French revolution came, and gave them both a fhort refpite from eternal oblivion.

Thofe who know any thing of the English Diffenters, know that they always introduce their political claims and projects under the mask of religion. The Doctor was one of thofe who entertained hopes of bringing about a revolution in England upon the French plan; and for this purpose he found it would be very convenient for him to be at the head of a religious fect. Unitarianifm was now revived, and the fociety held regular meetings at Birmingham. In the inflammatory difcourfes, called fermons, delivered at these meetings, the English constitution was firft openly attacked. Here it was that the Doctor beat his drum ecclefiaftic, to raise recruits in the cause of rebellion. The prefs foon fwarmed with publications expreffive of his principles. The revolutionists began to form focieties all over the kingdom, between which a mode of communication was established, in perfect conformity to that of the Jacobin clubs in France.

46

*This is one of those "hazarded affertions" alluded to in the introductory address. But how is it hazarded? The Doctor fays, in his antwer to Paine's Age of Reaton, that "the doctrines of atonement, incarnation, and the trinity, have no more foundation "in the Scriptures, than the doctrine of tranfmigration." Is not this a kind of deifm? Is it not deifm altogether? Can a man who denies the divinity of Chrift, and that he died to fave finners, have any pretenfions to the name of Christian?

Nothing

Nothing was neglected by this branch of the Parifian Propagande to excite the people to a general infurrection. Inflammatory hand-bills, advertisements, federation dinners, toafts, fermons, prayers; in fhort, every trick that religious or political duplicity could fuggeft, was played off to deftroy a conftitution which has borne the teft, and attracted the admiration of ages; and to establish in its place a new system, fabricated by themselves.

The 14th of July, 1791, was of too much note in the annals of modern regeneration to be neglected by thefe regenerated politicians. A club of them, of which Doctor Priestley was a member, gave public notice of a feaft, to be held at Birmingham, in which they intended to celebrate the French revolution. Their endeavours had hitherto excited no other fentiments in what may be called the people of England, than those of contempt. The people of Birmingham, however, felt, on this occafion, a convulfive movement. They were fcandalized at this public notice for holding in their town a feftival, to celebrate events which were in reality a subject of the deepest horror; and seeing in it at the fame time an open and audacious attempt to deftroy the constitution of their country, and with it their happiness, they thought their underftandings and loyalty infulted, and prepared to avenge themselves by the chaftifement of the English revolutionists, in the midst of their scandalous orgies. The feast nevertheless took place; but the Doctor, knowing himself to be the grand projector, and confequently the particular object of his townfmen's vengeance, prudently kept away. The cry of Church and king was the fignal for the people to affemble, which they did to a confiderable number, oppofite the hotel where the convives were met. The club difperfed, and the mob proceeded to breaking the windows, and other acts of violence, incident to fuch fcenes; but let it be

membe

membered, that no perfonal violence was offered. Perhaps it would have been well, if they had vented their anger on the perfons of the revolutionifts, provided they had contented themselves with the ceremony of the horse-pond or blanket. Certain it is, that it would have been very fortunate if the riot had ended this way; but when that many-headed monfter, a mob, is once roufed and put in motion, who can stop its deftructive steps?

From the hotel of the federation the mob proceeded to Doctor Priestley's meeting-houfe, which they very nearly deftroyed in a little time. Had they ftopped here, all would yet have been well. The deftruction of this temple of fedition and infidelity would have been of no great confequence; but, unhappily for them and the town of Birmingham, they could not be feparated before they had destroyed the houfes and property of many members of the club. Some of these houses, among which was Doctor Priestley's, were fituated at the distance of some miles from town: the mob were in force to defy all the efforts of the civil power, and, unluckily, none of the military could be brought to the place till fome days after the 14th of July. In the mean time many spacious and elegant houses were burnt, and much valuable property destroyed; but it is certainly worthy remark, that during the whole of these unlawful proceedings, not a fingle perfon was killed or wounded, either wilfully or by accident, except fome of the rioters themselves. At the end of four or five days, this riot, which feemed to threaten more serious confequences, was happily terminated by the arrival of a detachment of dragoons; and tranquillity was reftored to the diftreffed town of Birmingham.

The magiftrates used every exertion in their power to quell this riot in its very earliest stage, and continued to do fo to the laft. The Earl of Plymouth condefcended to attend, and act as a justice of the

peace;

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