dual of the human race, indebted to those men who are the generous affertors of liberty. But I can honeftly fay, that I have received no greater benefits from you than every other fubject of Britain has received; and that I have no other than the common hopes of receiving new ones. With whatever faults thefe Lectures and Reflections are chargeable, you have not to answer for them. If there be many things in them which may meet your approbation, I shall not be furprised if there alfo be fome, which will need your forgiveness.

You cannot be ignorant, Gentlemen, that noble as the objects of your affociation are, the most unwearied efforts have been employed to leffen, or to misrepresent them. I have never infulted you by defending, what every man muft render himself ridiculous by offering to attack. But though I have left your conduct with refpect to our own Revolution and Constitution; and with respect to thofe of France; and with respect to the Slave-Trade, to be defended by a fair ftate of it; by the common honefty and the common fenfe of its hiftorians and readers, I have endeavoured to illuftrate the principles by which it was regulated. Tho' your principles be not cafily controverted,

they

they are often but ill understood; and principles of every kind are more easily distorted

than facts.

To whom, Gentlemen of the Revolution and onftitutional Societies, fhould I dedicate a work chiefly written in defence of the great doctrines of our Conftitution, as they were determined by the Revolution, but to you, who have the preservation of the doctrines, and the commemoration of the epoch, for the objects of your inftitution. According to the furmifes indeed which have been induftrioufly spread, I have committed a prodigious blunder, by dedicating to you a defence of monarchy and ariftocracy, in the place of a defence of a government purely popular. But, Gentlemen, I believe thofe furmises to be calumnies, and I fhall give you no other evidence that I do fo but this, inconfiderable as I am, I thould have difdained to dedicate my trifles to the enemies of my country. Your zeal for the correction of our representation, and for religious liberty, has drawn upon you the anger of Parafites, whose weapons are not dangerous because they are pointed, but because they are poisoned. It is neither by their wit nor by their arguments, that they can hope to defeat your

exertions in the cause of freedom. If their quiver contained fuch arrows, they have wifely reserved them for their last attack. The only arms they have hitherto ufed are, flander and abufe; like unpractifed fencers, who flourish the wooden fwords of children, before they have learned to handle the weapons of men. Their only method of offence has been,

-Spargere voces

In vulgum ambiguas

I HAVE dedicated these discourses to you, from no party attachments. Your political principles are neither confined to the Administration nor to the Opposition. As for your religious fentiments, I must fuppofe them to be very different, and I have never once enquired what they are. It is fufficient for my present purpose, that you are the friends of Religious Liberty. It is in that character I address you. Whether our opinions of Chriftianity be right or wrong, we are perfectly agreed, not only in our revolution to abominate every method of propagating them unknown to the primitive Chriftians, and abhorrent to justice and to the gentlenefs of Chrift, but also in our revolution to reprobate every fuch union of them with politics, as is inconfiftent with the equal privileges of men.

GENTLE

GENTLEMEN of the SOCIETY for the ABOLITION of the

SLAVE-TRADE.

HE who travels in the fame road with his betters, is fometimes favoured with a little of their company; because they see he is a man, they reflect that he is a brother. On the ftrength of this hope, I have dedicated to you two performances, in both of which I have endeavoured to vindicate thofe rights you have fo nobly defended. I cannot help feeling fomething of reverence, when I appear in the prefence of men,

whofe fentiments and conduct reflect difgrace upon all the philofophers, legiflators, and heroes of antiquity. You, Gentlemen, have taught infidels to behold the happy influence which Chriftianity has, in promoting the prefent interefts of mankind. You have thewn them, that it is the only religion which can reftore men to the original feelings of their nature: that as it is the only one which fupplies a rational devotion to our Maker, fo it is the only one that prefcribes a fettled morality to our fellow-creatures. In you, they behold characters, which the legiflation of Egypt, which the wisdom of Greece, and which the virtue of Rome never could emulate. In you, they behold human nature with all

the

the mellowness of its humours, with all the warmth of its feelings, with all the glow of its paffions, with all the fineness of its ligaments, and with all the edge of its fenfibilities. In your virtue, they behold the link by which man is connected with man, and the most diftant nations foftened-into love. They behold man awakened to recognise his rights, and to cherish his own fleth and blood.

YOUR labours on a former occafion, were not attended with the fuccefs to which they were entitled. Your eloquence was powerful, but that of avarice and of luxury was prevalent. The time however approaches, when they will no longer be able to overpower the voice of reafon, and the call of nature. Mean-while, you have the confolation to think, that your exertions will be remembered with gratitude, when those of oppreffors will be forgotten, or will be remembered only with indignation. You have the ftill higher confolation, that you have laboured for the happiness of the human race. To you belongs all the honour of the intention, and to others the whole difgrace of its difappointment.-Gentlemen, your efforts have at laft roufed the Genius of Britain, and nothing is heard but the language