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when, of course, there was no apparent motive to the publication, but a desire to injure the reputation of a majority of the Ministers of Edinburgh, seemed to convert the matter at issue into a question between them and Mr. Stewart, directly challenging them to their own defence. And, though their confidence in the good sense of the public inclined them, even in these circumstances, to let the pamphlet and its author pass, without further notice than was bestowed upon them in the assembly of the church, something more has at length appeared absolutely necessary, for the satisfaction of men at a distance from the scene of the dispute, who have given credit to Mr. Stewart's GROSS MISREPRESENTATIONS OF FACT, merely because they had not been contradicted; and have even hastily acquiesced in the justice of certain charges, of a philosophical nature, against a body of the Edinburgh clergy, which, if more deliberately considered, could not have required refutation.

One of their number has therefore thought it his duty to review both the facts and the argument of Mr. Stewart's pamphlet.* And, if that learned gentleman, (who complained of a former paper upon the same subject being anonymous) shall desire to know why, in this case also, the name of the author is withheld, the question may be easily answered. The accustomed pledge of the author's name would be most cheerfully given, if the publication were not honored with a responsibility more extensive and satisfying. In the case of the former paper, the publishers were authorized to inform those who should inquire, that all the ministers of Edinburgh who had objected to Mr. Leslie's appointment,

the most opposite political leanings vied with each other in a laudable and a generous zeal to defend the endangered interests of their religion, and to vindicate the insulted honor of their country. The authors of the above insinuation have themselves intimated, that their pamphlet was chiefly intended for readers at a distance from the scene of the dispute; and the historical fidelity it displays in the statement of facts which fell under the immediate cognizance of every inhabitant of this city, bears ample testimony to the truth and candor of their acknowledgment.

The reputed writer of this Examination of my Short Statement is the Reverend Dr. John Inglis. That it is not the composition (as some have supposed) of Dr. Finlayson, may, I think, be presumed from the profound silence which he maintained, not only at the meeting of the Senatus Academicus, when the answer to the Presbytery's letter was read publicly by the Secretary to the University; but when he himself appeared as a party at the bar of the General Assembly, in the reference from the Synod.

held themselves equally responsible for its doctrine and argument. And though the pen of an individual has again been employed in this reply to Mr. Stewart, all the same gentlemen are ready to answer for both the facts and the doctrine contained in it."

The station which one of these reverend gentlemen* happens to hold, as head of that learned body to which I have had the honor to belong for more than thirty years, claims, on my part, an attention to the foregoing passage, to which I should not otherwise have conceived it to be entitled; and will, I hope, furnish some apology for the notice which I am thus compelled to take, of a performance, unsanctioned by one single name known in the Republic of Letters; and, in itself, not a fit object of criticism to any person who possesses the liberality of a scholar, or the feelings of a gentleman.Whether I may not, at some after period, avail myself of the intimation which is here given, that the Principal of the University is himself ready to answer for the facts and doctrines contained in the pamphlet already alluded to, will depend on the urgency of my future engagements. At present, and for several months to come, my time is consecrated to objects, less ungrateful to myself, and, I trust, of somewhat greater importance to the public. Of this circumstance, indeed, that reverend gentleman, and his nine Coadjutors, seem to have been sufficiently aware, from the season which (after a delay of seven months) they have selected for their publication. None of them could well be ignorant, that their attack was to find me occupied completely and indispensably with my academical labors; already engaged in one course of lectures, and on the point of beginning another.-Dr. Baird, at least, has the best access to know, that my office is not among the number of our College sinecures.

But whatever may be my final determination on this head, I feel it incumbent on me to take the earliest opportunity of calling the attention of our Reverend Principal to the prudence and propriety of that sanction

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which he has been pleased to bestow on these vindictive effusions of disappointed intrigue and detected ignorance; more particularly, to the propriety and consistency of his conduct, in lending his name to an abusive libel on a deliberate and unanimous act of the Senatus Academicus,-voted at a meeting uncommonly numerous, which had been summoned several days before for that express purpose ;-a meeting where he himself presided, without venturing to hint the slightest dissent from the general opinion! *—I feel it also incumbent on me, as a duty still more imperious and sacred, (and it is a duty which no regard to personal consequences shall deter me from discharging,) to call the attention of my fellow-citizens, and, above all, of our honorable patrons, to the danger which so imminently threatens their illustrious Seminary, if the reputation of its members is to be traduced, and their honor insulted, from that very chair, to which they and their predecessors had been so long accustomed to look with attachment and with pride; -the chair of Rollock, of Leighton, of Carstairs, of Hamilton, of Wishart, and of Robertson.-While Dr. Baird continued to move quietly in his official round, he cannot accuse me of having failed in that deference which my disposition prompted me to pay to his station, by whatever individual it might chance to be filled: Nor can he reasonably impute to me, even at present, any feelings of undue hostility, if he recollects the kindness with which my regard for his private character led me to receive him as a colleague, at a period when his appointment was the subject of almost universal regret and astonishment. But when his indiscretion and facility have combined to render him the tool of a cabal, in giving circulation to calumnious statements, the falseness of which, if he did not know, he might have easily ascertained to a demonstration,—it is time to remind him, (and when I do so, I am confident I shall be seconded by the public voice,) that such of his colleagues as devote themselves to the active and momentous duties of the University, or who are ambitious to illustrate, by

* See the extracts from the records of the University in the Appendix subjoined to this Postscript.

their writings, this seat of learning and of science, have a right to expect and to demand, that he will no longer interrupt, with the ignoble and restless politics of an ecclesiastical junto, those liberal and tranquil pursuits in which he does not participate; nor employ the consequence he derives from his casual elevation, to ruin the interests of a society, which so many others are studious to adorn.-As for his associates among the ministers of Edinburgh, if their late publication should ever draw from me any farther animadversion, it will be indebted for this distinction solely to my apprehension of the weight which his high academical situation may give, ("at a distance from the scene of the dispute,") to the details and innuendos, which, in common with his reverend bretheren, he has covered with his responsibility. The pledge which I originally gave, when I stood forth as their accuser, has been long ago redeemed. I promised to remain at the bar of the public, till they should receive their doom. That doom I had the satisfaction to hear pronounced (not many hours after these words were written) in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; and the ratification, which it has since received from that more awful tribunal, whose unbiassed and paramount sanction the justice of my cause emboldened me to invite and to solicit, has now fixed and sealed their destiny for ever.-IN THE PLACE WHERE

THE TREE HATH FALLEN, THERE MUST IT LIE.

D. S.

APPENDIX TO THE POSTSCRIPT.

No. I. (SEE PAGE 378.)

Edinburgh College, March 15, 1805.

AT a meeting of the Senatus Academicus, present, the REV. DR. BAIRD, PRINCIPAL; Dr. Monro senior, Mr. Dalzel, Mr. Stewart, Dr. Hill, Dr. Gregory, Mr. Playfair, Dr. Rutherford, Dr. Finlayson, Dr. Duncan, Dr. Coventry, Dr. Moodie, Dr. Home, Dr. Monro junior, Dr. Hamilton, Mr. Russell, Mr. Jameson, Professors.

The meeting having been called on purpose to receive a letter from the Reverend Presbytery of Edinburgh, the Principal accordingly produced and read the said letter, whereof the tenor follows:

"Reverend Sir," &c. &c.*

The Senatus Academicus having deliberated upon the subject of this letter, UNANIMOUSLY agreed to appoint a committee to prepare the draught of an answer, which they are to lay before an adjourned meeting of the Senatus, to be held on Wednesday next, the 20th inst. at 7 o'clock afternoon; the Committee to consist of the following Professors, viz. Mr. Dalzel, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Hume, Mr. Hamilton, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Rutherford; and Mr. Dalzel to be Convener.

Edinburgh College, March 20, 1805. At an adjourned meeting of the Senatus Academicus, present, the REV. DR. BAIRD, PRINCIPAL; Dr. Hunter,

* See Short Statement, &c. p. 367 of this volume.

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