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THOMAS COOPER. 789

close all the avenues of information, and throw a veil over
the grossest misconduct of our periodical rulers?

After having offered these preliminary remarks, I shall give
an account of the paper on which I am accused, and then
proceed to examine the charges of the indictment in the order
in which they are laid. Much that I intended to have ad-
vanced I must relinquish, that I may not trespass too long on
your time, or weaken the effect of my own defense by fatiguing
your attention,

The seored paper now handed to me by the Attorney Gen-
eral, suggests an observation which, though trite, is material.
Upon the plan usually adopted in these ex-officio accusations,
a good Christian might easily be proved an arrant atheist.
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” Take
the four last words, and they are atheistical. Take the sen-
tence, and it is Seripture. So, take the marked passages in
this paper, and they may, perhaps, be forced into something
like improper imputation against the President. Take the
paper itself, and the very first paragraph is a plain and posi-
tive approbation of his intention. Though I must acknowl-
edge that, however upright I might formerly have believed
his motives of action, I cannot, upon reflection, pay thet
tribute to his conduct or his motives on the present occasion.

The general circumstances that gave rise to the paper I
now hold, are these: Dr. Priestley, a man whose name im-
plies a greater combination of learning, science, and ability,
of important discovery, of exertion for the benefit of man-
kind, and of private integrity, than any other man now living
ean boast—whose conduet towards me, in the instance de-
tailed in this paper, is praise sufficient to hear up my mind
against any consequences which the present trial can produce
-—had long been an acquaintance and an intimate acquaintance
of Mr. Adams, in England and in this country. The letters of
the latter to Dr. Priestley are full of strong expressions of
friendship and esteem. Relying upon this long intercquree
of cordialty between them, Dr. Priestley urged me to permit
him to write to Mr. Adams on the subject of 8 vacancy men-

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