Excerpt from A Letter to the Archbishop of York on the Present Corrupt State of the Church of England

I have already said that there are many others in your diocese who have the inclination, if they had the courage, to take up the pen against the abuses of the Church; and in this numerous class I do not reckon the brute herd of farmers, who, according to clerical notions, are meant by nature to pay tithes and rent, but a large and talented array of well-educated gentlemen, whose opinions are, to the last degree, inimical to the Establishment. It is not probable that your Grace should have heard their senti ments orally delivered; but I have frequently listened with pleasure to their increasing discontent, expressed now in terms which it is impossible to mistake. England is thoroughly sick of the Church Establishment, and your Grace's diocese perhaps reckons more persons who feel this nausea, than any other in England. It is, therefore, surprising, that, from so large a mass of discontent, no one should have come forth to express the feelings of what, I am persuaded, is a large majority of the population. The great spell that keeps all men silent on this topic, is the fear of that dreadful weapon, the accusation of atheism - a weapon always liberally used, by the Clergy, when their strong holds are attacked. The popular indignation is so easily excited by this awful accusation, and the feeling of society in general is so decidedly against the crime included in the charge, that no one dares to enter a war where such a weapon is used. Is this prudence, however, or is it cowardice? The man who is sincere y attached to the Christian religion, and who thinks that its nominal guardians are in reality its worst enemies, should en counter even worse slander than this, in doing a service to a cause which might have even less claim to sincerity than the cause of religion.

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