$46 
man—one fingle fa&t, fupported by any 
probability of evidence, that the cheek of 
- morality ought to bluth at, or that can 
fully the white robe of honour, I will 
admit him to be exonerated from the 
charge (which elfe I muft profecute to his 
fhame) of finifer malevolence or wanton 
milreprefentation. But if, in the whole 
record of a life fo eafily afvertaired, the 
finger of his inquifition cannot point out 
any: fingle fact of this defcription, let not 
Ir. Belfham be over dilatory in his 
apology. Let him come forward and expiain 
the grounds upon which he afferts, that 
my ‘‘ general charadter is to the laft degree 
contemptible’—Let him explain by what 
right he prefumes to fet his mere affertion 
againft the teftimony, upon oath, of fuch 
men as Mr. Cline, the Lecturer on Ana- 
tomy, the late Mr. Wilfon, of Bedford- 
fireet, Covent-garden, and other gentle- 
men, alike refpectabie in character and in 
fituation—and fome of whom had known 
me, in all my courfis and connections, 
from my cradle upwards. Let him ftate 
in what particulars he has dete@ted, as 
contemplible, that character which the 
Chief Juftice Eyre acknowledged, upon 
the Bench, to be “*fuch a charaéter as 
had rarely been heard in a court of juftice 
—that it was perfeét in all iis parts ;”— 
or words to that amount: for at this dif- 
tance from the metropclis, and jurrounded 
only by books of a very different nature, 
I have not the documents by me to afcer- 
tain the precife expreflion; but the fitua- 
tion was too interefting for the fentiment 
ever to be forgotten; and that proud fa- 
tisfaétion I felt in the complete vindica- 
tion of my moral character was a triumph 
one would have imagined that no one 
would have grudged, confidering the or- 
deal by which it was attained. But 
no ordeal is fufficient for the inveterate 
malignity of party. I was not (while a 
public man) one of Mr. Belfham’s paiti- 
cular confederacy. I was not patronized 
by his Duke, nor was Ia member of his 
particular fect. I was, in fact, a member 
of no fect. J attached myfclf to no par- 
ticular patron. I was the obedient mouth- 
piece of no party. I had not the pliancy 
of foul to be fuch. It coft all parties, 
therefore, but little to make me their 
feape-goat, and to turn me into the wil- 
dernefs with all their imputed offences on 
my back. Well, be it fo! Ifthe peace- 
offering has becn accepted—if the depre- 
cated animofities have been now appealed, 
my murmurs at the temporary profcrip- 
tion fhail not again revive them. But 
furély in that wilderneis I have run my 
Mr. Thelwal?s Fuftification. 
j 
[May I, 
deftined time :—and, among the brambles 
that abound there, {ome lacerations I have 
met with for which there is no balm— 
fome fears I bear about me that can never 
be healed. Surely I raay now, at length, 
be permitted to come forth again into the 
paitures of civilized hfe, and ro endeavour 
to clothe myfelf anew: Mr: Beltham, at 
Jeaft, is not precifely one of thele perfons 
who, in moral juitice, ought to be the 
foremoft to prevent this return. He oaght 
to remember (for he cannot be ignorant) 
where thofe quettions firlt originated, for 
perfevering in which 
But to enter upon this topic would be 
to aflume a character I difdain. To him 
who has never fubmitted to any difation 
but that of confcience, it is matter. of 
fmall importance where /fugge/fion firtt | 
originated. | 
Away then with this ftrain of gueru- 
lou{ne{s.—Moral chara€ter being the con- 
fideration at iffue, the loftier notes of in- 
genuous confidence are more in harmony . 
with the feelings of an afperfed injured 
man. In thefe notes, therefore, I repeat 
my fummons to Mr. Belfham, either to 
ftate the grounds of conduét upon which he 
has ventured to afperfe my general cha- 
raéier as ‘to the laft degree contempti- 
_ble,”’ or to make public acknowledgment 
of the calumny he has fabricated. 
York, Joun THELWALL, 
March 31, 1802. 
ee Pe 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
O Decus Phebi, et dapibus fupremi 
Grata teftudo Jovis, O laborum 
Dulce lenimen! Hor. Od. 42; lib. te 
Y the genius and indultry of the 
Rev. H. J. Todd, a new and muclz 
Improved edition of the poetical works of 
Milton has lately iffued from the prefs, 
illuftrated with judicious notes by himfelf, 
added to thofe of former commentators. 
It is not nee<flary here to inquire whether 
the preient age really"is, as it bas been 
charged with being, deficient in originat . 
compofitions; #f the queftion were to be 
desided by the number of new pubiica~ 
tions, the converle of this propofition 
would. be undoubtedly eftablifhed. Cer- 
tain it is, that at-no period in the hiftory 
of Jiterauneihasinuns attention been paid 
to vernacular poets who have gone before, 
than the prefent age has witnefled: and 
next to the praife of poffeffing nacrit our- 
felves, is the acknowledging and appro- 
bation of it in others. By: the-tafle and 
labour of Tyrwhitt, Warton, Steevens, 
and others, the works of Chaucer, Spear 
fers 
