I never heard of any circumstance of the kind con nected with this "novel combination of Churchmen and Dissenters."

Objection 7. There are seeds of decay in the constitution of the Bible Society*.

This assertion is often repeated. It seems hard that you will neither let these men live in quietness, nor die in peace. I have examined, and re-examined, all the conjectures upon this subject, which are scattered in such profusion through the latter part of your pamphlet; but I scarcely see an attempt at proof. Of hypotheses, indeed, there is no lack.

Well but they must quarrel at last, it seems; and then, I presume, they will hate one another with as cordial a dislike as your new subscribers entertain against them all.-I see no symptoms of it. The plan of distributing the Bible, and the Biblealone, is simple and plain: it admits no difficult questions: it introduces no clashing of interests: the unity of the design is a security from the danger †.

But if they do not quarrel, they will, I suppose, crumble to pieces.-How does this appear? You hint that the Dissenters will leave them. Never was there a more unaccountable supposition. Do you not insinuate a hundred times, toward the close of your letter, that the clergy of the Bible Society are merely their tools and puppets? Suppose the Dis

* Dr. Wordsworth, pp. 92 to 94, 106, 151, 153, 154.

† See some just remarks on this point in the Letter to DFGaskin, p. 38.

senters should drop off: what then? Why, according to your doctrine, the new institution is happily released from a set of " noxious channels," and it will be more assimilated to a church society. If the worst happens, are not the Churchmen masters of their own conduct? And will they not join us, if we will have them? And will not the Dissenters go on by themselves? And is not this the very thing which you recommend?

If, then, the Society crumbles, it is, according to yourself, an evil happily removed; and you, at least, should not complain. But if it be permanent, under its present constitution, with a body of distinguished Churchmen at its head, every member of the Church must admit, that it is at least not worse than if committed entirely to Dissenters.

Objection 8. The Bible Society makes a great noise · in the world*.

Since I make a serious effort to answer every other of the numerous objections which you have brought forward, I trust that the admission of this single charge will be of no injury to my cause. The fact is, that it can neither be evaded nor denied, and all I can, hope on behalf of the Bible Society is, that they may shortly have the opportunity of retaliating it on ourselves.

Objection 9. The object of the members of the Bible Society is to overturn the Establishment.

I have, in a former letter, distinctly admitted that

* Dr. Wordsworth, p. 2,

you give them credit for purity of intention *, and that your apprehensions relate, not to their motives, but to the effect of their exertions. Yet I am most reluctantly compelled to acknowledge, that there are parts of your second pamphlet which are calculated to convey, to an ordinary reader, a different impression.

In the first eighteen pages of your Address to Lord Teignmouth, you assure us, with much earnestness of manner, and in varied phraseology, that no reasonable man could understand your former letter as impeaching the object of the Society; and I certainly did not so understand it. But it now seems, that some members of the Bible Society itself, one in particular, "whose good opinion would reflect honour on any society+," did consider this accusation to be advanced or implied by you. Let me bespeak your attention, while I quote the whole passage.

"I have had no reason to believe, that the letter was not tolerably well understood by those, to whom it was at first addressed. I might add, that some members also of the Bible Society appear to have seen into these things with clearer eyes than your Lordship, and have better comprehended the principles of reserve and forbearance, in which my letter was composed. One of them, whose good opinion would reflect honour on any Society, writes to me thus: I now see the blow aimed at the Establishment in a stronger light than you have thought it prudent or necessary to point out ‡.'"

*See Dr. Wordsworth, pp. 6, 12, 14, 84. + Ibid. p. 80.

Id. ibid.

Q

Here is a "blow," not coming by consequence, not falling incidentally, not the casual and unforeseen effect of imprudent measures; but a "blow aimed at the Establishment;" "hostile in the aim, fixed purpose, and design*."" This," I answer with Lord Teignmouth," is an imputation to which the members of the Bible Society did not suspect themselves liable." If your charge be directed, not against their hearts, but only against their intellects, why condescend to suffer another man-be his rank and credit what they may; let his powers of vision and his skill in interpreting dark sentences be as acute as you please-to step in, and, with your sanction, to bring forward the accusation? Did he not understand your letter as mysteriously hinting, that you saw the "blow aimed ;" and that you expressed it obscurely merely from prudential considerations? And will not many persons conclude (unjustly, I hope and think), that the circumstance of quoting him with approbation is a proof of it?

Again: what means that marvellous tale of another Seer of the North †, about Mahomet, and Saracens, and Korans, and Mussulmans? Does it not mean, that the resolution of the Bible Society to give away Bibles, and Bibles only, is a " stratagem". to ruin the Church; and that its supporters are in full march against the Establishment, with the Bible in their hands, but with hatred in their hearts; under the cloak of friendship hiding the poniards of destruction? Nay does he not positively intimate his fears, that the " Bible, in the present case, is likely + Ibid. p. 94.

* See Dr. Wordsworth, p. 11.

to be made use of for similar purposes;" for this very "aim, fixed purpose, and design?" Be assured that your situation will procure vouchers for any opinion which you may be pleased to hint at, however obscurely, and with whatever caution.

Now, though I am disposed to lay very little stress upon these two letters, yet I am sorry that you have given them to the public. Many will be disposed to conclude, that these are in fact your own opinions, and that you disguised them merely out of prudence. If private letters are to decide any thing, I can produce some of a very different tendency; and those, too, from gentlemen, "whose good opinion would reflect honour on any Society. The prefix of "Lambeth Palace" seems to be considered, in general, as a dark hint, intended for your clerical brethren, and as one which will be

tolerably well understood" by them: and one correspondent calls my attention to the date: St. Peter's Day, he assures me, is not put there for nothing.

Under this article, I will only make one additional reference. In a recent Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Sarum, Mr. Daubeny gives the following passage, as a quotation:" The very first act, or one of them, of the British and Foreign Bible Society, was to undertake a Welsh Bible, at a time when the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, in conjunction with the University of Oxford, were preparing as large an edition as could be wanted, under the patronage of the Welsh Bishops; and to put it into the hands of a most noted leader of the