242

Creed from our Liturgy ; and we had, in a manner, settled to doit: but the strange turn which the French Revolution took aboutthat period, and the general abhorrence of all innovations, whichits atrocities excited, induced us to postpone our design, and nofit opportunity has yet offered for resuming it, nor probably willoffer itself, in my time. In answer to a letter from the Duke ofGrafton, in which, among other things, he informed me thatDr. Priestley had publicly said that he knew the pamphlet herementioned was written by the Bishop of Landaff, I sent the fol-lowing note:—

“ Dr. Priestley cannot know the author ; on the day I dinedat Lord Lamdowne s, there were present Kippis and Price , andmany Dissenters: the conversation once turned on the subjectof the pamphlet, and it is possible that my mode of expression,which no doubt was particularly marked, might give an hint tothose gentlemen. But I really am little concerned about the matter;and, if I*thought that owning it, in the present state of thebusiness, would not impede, rather than promote, the progress ofthe good cause we have in hand, I would not, from any privateconsideration, shrink from putting my name to it. The reasoningof the pamphlet you sent me is perfectly just, but prejudicecannot be subdued by reason. I remember a Lambeth chaplain,once maintaining, in the Divinity-Schools, the necessity of ex-cluding Dissenters from public offices ; I pressed him with properarguments; at length he was forced to acknowledge, that thegreater the integrity, and the greater the ability, any, man had,the more unfit was he for a public office, if he did not think inevery point with the Established Church. > There I let the dispute