And  if,  as  he  says,  we  may  relapse  into  the  intolerance  of  our  fathers^
Rome  can  never  {by  her  own  confession),  be  reformed  from  her  -per-
secuting spirit.  When  we  come  to  the  Presbyterian  question,  it
will  be  the  time  to  show  that  there  are  almost  as  many  errors  as
paragraphs  in  the  gentleman's  attacks.  But  he  cannot  divert  me,
with  all  his  arts,  from  probing  popery.  I  know  it  is  a  sore,  and
therefore  sensitive,  spot.  But  he  must  endure  it; — for  it  is  not  I
*'  who  have  come,  and  rudely  thrust  myself  between  him  and  his  rela-
tion with  (to)  this  society."  It  is  he  who  came,  with  unmanly  officious-
ness,  and  thrust  himself  between  the  youthful  disputants;— it  is  he
who  quailed  before  the  Rev.  Mr.  M'Calla,  when  he  unexpectedly  met
him,  on  that  occasion  ; — it  is  he  who  retreated  from  a  half  finished
debate  of  a  former  day — who,  with  the  constancy  of  a  martyr  de-
clined my  reiterated  call,  for  years — and  wlrom  I  now  meet  by  in-
vitation of  those  very  youths.  He  who  has  vitiated  the  stenogra-
pher's report,  after  being  beaten  in  oral  debate; — he  who  yet  refused
to  discuss  it  or«//?/  again — who  was  on  the  eve  of  a  retreat  to
Mexico,  had  not  the  publication  of  the  debate  been  pressed  at  the
point  of  his  honour,  as  well  as  the  hazard  of  his  cause  ;*  and  who,
(after  six  months  of  evasion  and  delay,)  will  now  defeat  the  publica-
tion of  tliis  debate,  without  an  almost  superhuman  patience,  sagacity
and  firmness,  on  the  part  of  your  publishing  committee.
Sir,  you  have  heard  the  audacity  and  coarseness  of  his  personal
attacks.  No  christian,  no  gentleman,  can  retaliate  such  language.
