A letter to a country clergyman, occasioned by his address to Lord Teignmouth

Transcribed from the 1805 J. Hatchard edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the British Library.
BY A SUB-URBAN CLERGYMAN .
“Unum gestit interdum, ne ignorata damnetur.”—Tertull. Apol.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO HER MAJESTY, NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY HOUSE, PICCADILLY.
1805.
REV. SIR,
You must know, Sir, that it had been my fortune to fall into the same ugly snare as the worthy Nobleman whose eyes you have so graciously endeavoured to open. I too had been drawn into the horrid Bible-plot, without dreaming that there was any plot in the business; and, to tell you the honest truth, before your pamphlet reached me, I had actually lent all the name I possessed, and all the money I could spare, in order to assist in carrying its designs into execution.
But now, Sir, to business. You open your Address to Lord Teignmouth with a preamble, which sets forth, that you are “not inclined, for several reasons, to describe the emotions of your mind upon the receipt of his Lordship’s Address, as President of the British and Foreign Bible Society.” There is an air of mystery in these words, which recommended them strongly to my notice; and if you do me the favour to turn back to my first page, you will find that I have employed them as you have done, in fronte operis . I am, however, upon reflection, inclined to think that “there is,” to use your own words upon another occasion, “more of sound than sense” in this affectation of reserve on both sides. For, to say the truth, I have already revealed my emotions, and I am sure you have taken no pains to conceal yours : and yet it must be manifest that if each of us had not been inclined to do it, neither of us would have done it. However, the preamble has its use; for it invites the reader to believe, that we are both of us men of peace and charity, and very unwilling to injure the feelings and reputation of our neighbour: an assumption which, in your case, it was the more necessary to make; as otherwise the reader of your pages might, innocently enough, have concluded the reverse.