Biographical Memoir of Br Priestley. 225 



through the pity of his neighbours. He might himself have 

 seen a part of these apparent signs vanish. 



I should have concealed such extraordinary details, were it not 

 that our eulogiums are historical, and that, as such, I am impe- 

 riously called upon to present both sides of the character in them, 

 as the first and most illustrious of our predecessors prescribed. 

 Besides, is there not sor^e utility in seeing from fact how far 

 the best minds may be led astray^ when they overleap the bounds 

 that Providence has traced for our understanding ? The wan- 

 derings of so fine a genius are a better preservative than its real 

 misfortunes ; for what generous man would not suffer even great- 

 er evils, were he sure of announcing truth and introducing hap- 

 piness ? 



It was not precisely Priestley^s theology that brought his mis- 

 fortunes upon him (for in England every dogmatist enjoys to- 

 leration), but a system of politics which was too intimately con- 

 nected with this theology, — I maan the politics of dissenters, 

 which are almost always opposition politics." In France, the 

 Protestants, from their religion, have been considered republi- 

 cans ; they were only so from oppression. In Ireland, it is the Ca- 

 tholics that pass for such, and the Protestants who rule them are 

 royalists, because the king is of their party. This natural oppo- 

 sition is more violent in England than any where else, because 

 there the dissenters are partially tolerated, and only partially. 

 They are kept at a distance from honours and public offices ; 

 they are compelled rigorously to pay tithes for a religion which 

 they do not profess ; their children are not even admitted into 

 the national universities ; and yet they are allowed to become 

 numerous and rich, — they meet together, speak, print, and en- 

 joy all the means of inflaming their resentment. 



Priestley was for thirty years the most eloquent, courageous, 

 and, it might be said, the most obstinate organ of their com- 

 plaints. He wrote a score of volumes with this view. It was 

 with this object alone that he attacked those famous Letters in 

 which Edmund Burke predicted, in a manner so terrific, and at 

 the same time so true, the evils that would necessarily result 

 from the French Revolution. Apparently the object of Priest- 

 ley's reply was not rightly understood in this country ; for it pro- 



JULY — SEPTEMBER 1827. P 



