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    which he should render to your Missipnaries in its accomplishment , and one of whose latest services , perhaps his last , to the Unitarian cause , was the outline of a plan to be pursued by Mr . Wright in Yorkshire , transmitted to your Secretary only a few days before his death . Often has the pleasure of these annual meetings been mingled with regret for able and excellent coadjutors , summoned from their task to await their recompence ; but never has that regret been excited for one more able or

    more excellent ; more formed . to-adorn the cause so dear to him by the many virtues of his character , or to promote it by activity , zeal , and judgment . His praise is in all our churches ; his memory is embalmed by the tears of numbers who rejected his faith , but admired his piety , and the benevolence of his heart *

    During * the winter , Mr . Wright made several short journeys , chiefly into Norfolk , and preached at Lynn , Wisbeach , Boston , Fleet , Lutton , and other places . In the months of May and June last year , Mr . Smelhurst , of

    Moreton-Hampstead , ( late of the Unitarian Academy , ) went on a missionary tour in Cornwall and part of Devonshire . It occupied five weeks ; he preached thirty-four times , and at nineteen different places ; at most of them in the open air , and frequently to assemblies of several hundred persons . Tracts were distributed after preaching , and received with great avidity , especially at Redruth , ( where some of the hearers waited

    afterwards upon Mr . Smethurst to request him to preach to them again , which he did on the following morning , ) and at Penzance , where ( he observes ) " the few tracts which we at first intended to distribute were gone in a moment ; aa immense crowd of people afterwards followed us to the inn , offering us money in order to obtain more tracts . We told them we did not sell them , and it was not until we had given away more than double the number we at first intended , that we were able in

    any measure to satisfy them . " One instance of bigotry occurred during this excursion . At Marazion , the Mayor , after having granted permission to Mr . Smethurst to assemble

    a congregation on a convenient spot near the market-house , came about half an hour before service was to have commenced , attended by a lawyer and a clergyman , to retract his permission , and to announce that he should oppose Mr , Smethurst as much as lay in his power , in every place to which his authority extended . While Mr . Smethurst was endeavouring to reason with him and his legal supporter , the clergyman observed ,

    ** We are fully persuaded that our opinions are true ; we have examined them , and we do not wish that they should be disturbed ; and besides , we cannot think of suffering you to preach here , for you tvish to take away tivo of our Gods / " * ' As Christians , ' * replied Mr . Smethurst , " we have but one . ' * Mr . Smethurst observes that , upon the whole , Unitarianism appears to

    be making no inconsiderable progress in Cornwall : he often met with persons who appeared to be familiar with it as a controversial subject , and many so favourably inclined as to authorize the hope of their soon becoming its open professors ; there was more inquiry , candour , and liberality , than previous information had given reason to expect , and

    congregations of serious and attentive hearers were generally collected without difficulty . A principal object of Mr . Smethurst ' s mission was to strengthen the infant cause at Falmouth . He preached there nine times , and in the course of the winter visited them again , and remained three Sundays . The violence shewn towards the converts to Unitarianisua in that place seems to have been met by them with maoty firmness and a Christian temper ;

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1819, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1711/page/5/