The Sun.
London, England, 1823-10-01 00:00:00

part of our population—an insinuation that I cannot believe
was countenanced or approved of by any other member than
himself, of the body to which he belortgs, and far which I
should be sorry ever to lose my present respect.
Mr. Lamb concluded this paragraph, which I trust he has,
before now, repented of having written, with a ttite observa-
tion : " Verbum sat sapie.nti. ' A word is indeed enough,
Mr. Lamb, either with the wise or with the foolish, to insinuate
what volumes cannot prove. May I ask what would have been
your own feelings, had I insinuated as much on hearsay against
your parishioners, you yourself being at the same time morally
certain that it was a charge utterly unfounded, particularly it I
acknowledged that a Sunday evening walk. or a passing report,
was the authority on which I had made it. •
And here I must remark how much trouble ail the Gen-
tlemen who haye attacked us would have saved themselves, had
they been disposed to put a natural and candid construction on
the conduct of the villagers, and on that of those who have sup-
ported my father's plans, and advocated Isis principles. A
little penetration would then have enabled them to discover
many things, which seem entirely to have escaped their obser-
ration.
As for instance they. would have considered.: That the
schools have always been open to all strangers, that no attempt
was ever made to conceal what was going on from any one who
would take the trouble to make the necessary enquiries ; that
my father never dieguisad even his private opinions, although
he was well aware that their promulgation might 'each* the
opposition he now meets with. and create"n-codueisland 41$'
trust in die minds of many of our neighbours, which mot b
equally unpleasant to them and to us. Thee would have asked
themselves, whether a person, who halt uniformly acted thus,
was likely to conceal or hush up any thing which has beeh
done here. • They could not have failed to discover that,
even had my father's principles allowed him to deceive
the public with regard to his real opinions, he certainly
would never have made the statement that, to admitting
the Bible into the schools, he did RO, " not indeed because
he regarded it as a proper school-book, but in compliance with'
what he conceived to be the wishes of the parents." No, had
there been any desire to deceive the world, my father would
have carefully withheld that opinion, and taken to himself the
credit of having wished that the youngest children should regu-
larly read the scriptures, and of having rhos produce in our
population that extreme regard for religion which they daily
evince. In short, these gentleman would never have accused
,him of affecting popular views or popular conduct, because the
imputation is most completely at variance with every other see-
don of his life. Such is the " presumptive evidence" against
the supposition, that my father ever issued any prohibitory
order, an evidence which appeared to the teachers so strong,
that only one of theta obeyed the supposed prohibition; and
so decisive to Mr. Clegg that he at once, without deeming it
necessary to consult with my father at all, countermanded an
alleged order, Which he knew could never have been really
given.
As to the positive evidence, it now becomes necessary that it
should be directly brought forward. The only two teachers
with whom the committee of the Preatti:ey had any conversa-
tion during their last visit to. our schoolss, inform me that they
intend forwarding you a statement, containing the principal
facts which have come under their observation. Front Mr..
Metttlell, who was heatl.master at the period when the mistake
originated, you will receive a letter which, he tells me, was pre-
sented to you for insertion about the time my father's letter ap.
peered, but which you then declined publishing, as being ren.
dered unnecessary by that letter. These documents would have
appeared at once, had we been aware of the degree of scepti-
cism evinced by the Rev. Gentlemen who have taken up this
matter, a scepticism that I fear Molt be ottributed to the want
of that charitable construction, which I have already remarked
that they withhold, when judging of the actions of their oppo.
news. Otherwise they would have inferred that those who
AVOW principles, unsupported either by the general voice of the
people, or by the authority of the church, when such an avowal
cannot answer one interested purpose, but exposes to the most,
heavy and grievous charges,—ate the last persons who can, with
any shadow of justice, be accused of insincerity. Nothing but
the most strict regard to truth and to sincerity could have in.
diced them to act as they have done. And; being themselyes
sincere, they are unwilling to impute want of sincerity to
others. We have never, for instance, insinuated that the let-
tere in which our characters and conduct are aspersed, are hot
the productions of those whose signatures are *teethed to them,
because whatever our opponents may imagine to the contrary,
we are conscious how groundless the charge is against oit vitiate.
Sie have never hastily meddled with the partimilsr private opi.
nions of any of these gentlemen, because we were willing to
believe that whatever they might be, they bath adopted them
after maturely weighing the evidence of their truth and •
falsehood, as we had done before adopting any of ours. We
considered such allusions as irrelevant to the point in ques-
tion. Not so sonic of our adversaries. lam accused of having
" unhesitatingly avowed my disbelief both in the Old anti New
Testament," and of " considering the Scriptures as a coin.
pilation of falsehood, a history of injustice, violence, and
treachery, calculated to mislead and pervert the human under-
standing." - Nor is this the first time that such a charge has
been publicly made against me. TIII now I deemed it unne-
cessary to reply to it, both on account of its irrelevancy, and
because I thought the public would be neither interested nor
edified by lesrning what were my private opinions ; but a
longer silence would be construed either into a tacit admission
of the truth of this statement, or imputed to a fear of frankly
anti honeitly avowing my real statements. To avoid the false
deductions which nught be made both to my own and to my
father's disadvantage to either case, I shall venture upon what,
under other circumstances, might have !seen considered an un-
necessary and obtnisiva expression of my sentiments. I have
heard many arguments advanced for and against the authen-
ticity of the Scriptures, and I do acknowledge myself as yet
unable to decide between them. Indeed, I consider it pre-
sumptuous in a reon of my age to decide dogmatically on a
subject upon whh the greatest minds the world has produced
are at issue--a eubject, the importance of which, in what-
ever other respects I may be ih error, I have never either un-
dervalued or overlooked ; and upon which, I hope, at some
future period, I shall be enabled to form a more decided
opinion.
Whether I may be allowed to doubt, on such a subject, I
consider to be a question .similar to that of whether I may be
alloued to Mink at 011. I admit it to be a possible case that I
might be prevented from expressing these sentiments, but
I am equally conscious, that nothing but arguments, which
shall convince me of 'their error, can ever prevent my holding
them.
I may be accused, for I know the spirit that is abroad, of
beggingahe question, but I myself feel—and those who can
distinguish sincerity front hypocrisy, will believe the asser-
tion—that were this the last tnoment of my existence, 1 could
give no other opinion. I may add that were there many sincere
Christiana, and 1 trust there are not, who would seem to evince
so little charity or candour in their proceeding*, as I cannot
help observing in the letters which are now before us, I should
be obliged either toutttribute their conduct to a most unfortu.
nate combination of circumstances like the present, which had
hidden the truth completely from their eyes, or I might be
tempted thence to deduce, however reluctantly, an argument
against a system in which such conduct and such language
could originate.
The sentiments imputed to me, or any similar opinions, I
can distinctly and positively deny ever having uttered ; and
that simply because I have been taught to regard the most rigid
adherence to truth as the greatest of virtues, and because I have
never been in the habit of expressing any other than my reap
sentiments and opinions. •
I now come to the point which regards 'alr. Menzies's " ex-
postulation." This is obviously a question of memory be-
tween Mr. Menzies and my father, because no third person was
present at the time. Now that I can say on the subject,
from personal knowledge, is, that my father never mentioned
any such expostulation `to me, which I think he would have
done, had it produced on his mind the impression which I
should have anticipated. 1 observe, too, that although Mr.
Menzies, in his first letter, states that he " expostulated with
Mr. Owen on the interdiction of the Scriptures, on which oc-
casion, so far from denying or endeavouring to explain it away,
by alleging misapprehension on the part of. the teachers, he
justified his conduct ;'• yet he subsequently, through the me-
dium of Mr. Lamb, explains to tet that this expottialation and
justification consisted in his (Mr. Menzies'e) inquiring; whether
Mr. Owen " had prohibited the Scriptures from being read in
the school," anti in my father's replying, " I will direct the
Superintendent to inform you what is done."
Now, with regard to Mr. Lamb's strictures on the facts
which my father considered it necessity to state concerning
Menzies 's clerical visits to the village. These facts were ad-
duced, not from any wish to atinek Mr. 341'e characterin a cle-
rical capacity, in which case Mr. L's defence, and the reasons
he gives why Mr. Mallets has for some time been obliged to