Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/149

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THE BLAGDON PERSECUTION.
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defenceless state of her sex," and to her declared resolution to return no answer.

"I am assured by those who have carefully read the different pamphlets against me, that whilst I am accused in one of seditious practices, I am reviled in another as an enemy to liberty; in one of being disaffected to Church and State, in another of being a Ministerial hireling and a tool of Government. Nay, the very tracts are specified for which 'the venal hireling' was paid by Administration (by Mr. Pitt, I think). In one I am charged with praying for the success of the French, in another with fomenting by my writing the war with France, and savagely triumphing at every victory of what the author calls 'these friends to the general amelioration of human society.' I am accused of delighting in a war 'which we madly carried on, which began in iniquity and ended in disgrace.' In one place of 'not believing one word of Christianity,' in another of idolising the Athanasian Creed, which the author advises me, 'to order myself to be wrapped in as a winding sheet.'"

She goes on to describe her plan of instruction for the children. "They learn on week days such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety. I know no way of teaching morals but by teaching principles, and of inculcating Christian