script, in the schedule of losses, was simply put down as so much paper.
To the charge that he was a promoter of sedition, Dr. Priestley replied by appealing to his entire intellectual career, into which politics had hardly entered at all, from his complete engrossment with other subjects. In relation to this he says: "As to the great odium that I have incurred, the charge of sedition, or my being an enemy to the constitution or peace of my country, is a mere pretense for it, though it has been so much urged that it is now generally believed, and all attempts to undeceive the public with respect to it avail nothing at all. The whole course of my studies from early life shows how little politics of any kind have been my object. Indeed, to have written so much as I have in theology, and to have done so much in experimental philosophy, and at the same time to have had my mind occupied, as it is supposed to have been, with factious politics, I must have had faculties more than human. Let any person only cast his eye over the long list of my publications, and he will see that they relate almost wholly to theology, philosophy, or general literature."
In regard to the religious aspect of the case, he observes: "It might have been thought that, having written so much in defense of revelation, and of Christianity in general, more, perhaps, than all the clergy of the Church of England now living, this defense of a common cause would have been received as some atonement for my demerits in writing against civil establishments of Christianity, and particular doctrines. But, had I been an open enemy of all religion, the animosity against me could not have been greater than it is. Neither Mr. Hume nor Mr. Gibbon was a thousandth part so obnoxious to the clergy as I am; so little respect have my enemies for Christianity itself, compared with what they have for their emoluments from it."
It was the obvious tendency, as it was the undoubted design, of the systematic persecution to which Dr. Priestley was subjected, to drive him from the country. His sons, disgusted with their father's treatment, had renounced England and gone over to France; and it was expected that Dr. Priestley would follow them. He was not at first disposed to comply with the general expectation, and stated that he should not be driven away; but upon the breaking out of the war between France and England his sons emigrated to America, and this circumstance, joined to the state of isolation in which he lived, induced Dr. Priestley after much deliberation to decide upon following them. Intolerance and bigotry were thus triumphant; and the greatest scientific discoverer of his century, whose labors will reflect imperishable glory upon England, instead of receiving the honors that were due him, was hunted out of that country and driven into exile like a common felon.
Dr. Priestley sailed from London in April, 1794, and arrived in New York in June. He was received there by various societies with
