Notice By the American Editor.

A VINDICATION OF THE REV. MR. WESLEY’S

“CALM ADDRESS TO OUR AMERICAN

COLONIES:”

IN THREE LETTERS TO MR. CALEB EVANS

BY THE REV. JOHN FLETCHER, VICAR OF MADELEY, SALOP.

NOTICE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

THE following tracts of Mr. Fletcher were written at a time of great political excitement. And though we can by no means accord to the sentiments advanced in them, nor justify the strong denunciations against the Americans, yet we can find an apology for their author in that love of country which is natural to every genuine patriot, and that abhorrence of civil commotion with which the bosom of every Christian is pervaded. Both Wesley and Fletcher thought the American people did wrong in taking up arms against the mother country; and being true loyal subjects, they considered it their duty to vindicate the cause of their king and country, and to denounce the colonists as rebels.

Mr. Wesley lived to see and acknowledge the hand of God in our independence as a nation; and to assist in establishing a Church in this country which recognized our independence and national sovereignty; and we his followers have had the happiness to witness with pious gratitude the blessed effects of that ecclesiastical economy in the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom throughout this free and happy land.

Notwithstanding the objectionable features of the following tracts, considered in a political point of view, in republishing a complete edition of Mr. Fletcher’s Works, they could not consistently be omitted nor abridged; and we presume that every admirer of this pious and excellent author, would wish to read all he has written, reserving to himself the liberty of determining on what is just and true, according to the light of Scripture and reason. Infallibility in all things is what no man claims, for either Wesley or Fletcher, however much he may admire them as ministers of the sanctuary; and we must confess that we very much prefer following them as divines than as leaders in political science. In the former character they moved and shone in their own appropriate sphere; while in the latter they exhibited those eccentricities which indicated that they had wandered n little from their wonted course. We make these remarks to show that in publishing the following patriotic and spirited addresses, we neither subscribe to the sentiments expressed, nor withdraw our charity and veneration for the man who thus dared to utter his thoughts in defence of what he considered the rights of his king and country. Should political convulsions ever threaten to shake our own country, and to prostrate our happy constitution, we should rejoice to find a mind equally pious and ardent, engaged from the same conscientious feeling of duty, in their preservation, though we might wish him a more successful issue of his labours.

NEW YORK, May 23, 1833.