To The Rev. Mr. Wanley

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CCXXVI. — To the Reverend Mr. Wanley, Dean of Ripon.

REVEREND SIR, YARM, July 9, 1766.

THE regard which I owe to a fellow Christian, and much more to a Clergyman and a Magistrate, constrains me to trouble you with a few lines, though I have no personal acquaintance with you. Ralph Bell has just been giving me an account of the late affair at Ripon. What he desires is:

1. To have the loss he has sustained repaired: And,

2. Liberty of conscience; that liberty which every man may claim as his right, by the law of God and nature; and to which every Englishman, in particular, has a right by the laws of his country. I well know the advantage these laws give us in the present case: I say us, because I make the case, my own; as I think it my bounden duty to do. I have had many suits in the King’s Bench; and, blessed be God, I never lost one yet. But I would far rather put an amicable end to any dispute, where it can be done. Not that I am afraid of being overborn by the expense: If I am not, I know them that are, able to hear it. But I love peace. I love my neighbor as myself; and would not willingly bring loss or trouble upon any man. Be so good as to impute to this motive my interfering in this matter. I am, Reverend Sir,

Your servant for Christ’s sake.