which has been a stain upon our national charaċter, I would recommend them to read a sermon on witchcraft, lately published, by the Rev. Isaac Nicholson, of Paxton, in Huntingdonshire, in consequence of a person in that village having been criminated and treated as a witch by many of the infatuated inhabitants, for which several of them were tried at the assizes for that county last year. A belief in witchcraft, in past times, has undoubtedly been a national error; and it is well known, that not more than two centuries ago, credulity on this subject was very general, and that the laws against supposed witches were not unfrequently put in execution. As to the particular instance you mention, it was probably a lesson which eventually rectified the judgment of a few persons, who, for a short time, might be misled by appearances. There is, however, one circumstance which you ought not to have concluded your witchcraft affair without mentioning. It is a well-known fact, that the first effectual check put upon this limited and temporary delusion, was by two ministers of that description which you declare to be as ignorant as any of the lower classes of inhabitants in the borough.*-The whiterabbit ghost is too childish a story to merit any reprehension. "As to works of science, history, or general * See Stranger, page 120. information, few trouble themselves about them; and as to religious books, they consult none but what are written by their own sects, or in support of their own religious opinions."-Here again, Sir, you are most egregiously mistaken. Beside the Literary Institution and the Permanent Library, which you have mentioned, there are several very respectable Book Societies. One consists of fourteen or sixteen members, selected from some of the principal inhabitants of the borough, clergy and laity, who expend in books about fifty pounds a year. A second consists of eighteen members, of which there are five clergymen, several dissenting ministers, and others from the professions, &c. This Society expends between thirty and forty pounds annually for books, a great part of which are of that description of which you say there are none read. There are likewise two other Societies, of nearly the same number of members, on a similar plan. You have undoubtedly underrated the present state of literature of the borough. If we are sunk into that state of literary opprobrium which you have represented, the three authors, the gentleman and the two ladies, whom you have so honourably mentioned, certainly will not have it in their power "to remove this opprobrium, and to give a lustre to their native place equal to that of any other town in these kingdoms!" I speak on this subject, free from all prejudice, and am willing to give the most ample credit to the encomiums which others have paid to these respectable individuals, though I cannot go quite so far as to assert, with you, that one of them EXCELS Our BEST POETS in the chastity of her style and the harmony of her verse. But if any three persons are destined to recover the literary honour of a town involved in such deplorable ignorance as you have attributed to Reading, they ought to be giants in intellect and in literary attainments. I have not, however, the honour of being acquainted with the writers you have mentioned, or their works, having seen no more of them than those well-written verses on the muchlamented Sir John Moore, which appear in your Letters.* The Rev. Mr. W. is the only literary gentleman you mention; and as he has now laid aside the study of chymistry for that of theology, may he employ "his great learning, indefatigable: industry, and superior abilities," in defending and propagating that religion of which he is now a minister:-especially may he use his able pen in the defence of revealed religion from the attacks of infidels and deists, and in silencing and chastising such men as the Stranger in Reading, for presuming to write on subjects with which they are totally unacquainted. But, Sir, is it not very strange that you should propose to mention a few characters * Since writing the above, I have read some of Miss M-d's poems, which are undoubtedly distinguished for harmony of verse, as well as for elegance of thought and expression. destined to deliver the town from its literary dishonour, and then instantly introduce two authoresses, a clergyman celebrated for botanical knowledge, a painter, an architect, and a warrior, as a list of natives of the town who "excel in the different departments of the ARTS?"What admirable precision !-What excellent logic! I cannot conclude this subject, without observing, that you have certainly omitted to mention some of the principal literary characters of the town, there being a few, at this period, whose names would not disgrace a list of men of learning and talent in any age, or in any place. Had you forgotten two reverend authors, Dr. V. ... and his brother, who have published works which will remain as standard books in our schools and universities, for ages after such a composition as "The Stranger in Reading" will be consigned to Lethe? Had you forgotten a third clergyman and dignitary of the church, well known in the literary world as the author of several respectable publications, and as an editor of one of our periodical reviews? Your readers will undoubtedly attribute the omission of some names in your professed catalogue of literati to ignorance, to prejudice, or to some still more unworthy motive. - *Nothing is here intended, in the least respect, derogatory to the estimation in which these individuals are held by the inhabitants of Reading, and the Public in general. In relation to your remarks on the Corporation of Reading, I shall offer no animadversions. As you have expressed so much dissatisfaction with almost every other class of persons and things in the borough, the members of that respectable body will not have much reason to complain of your conduct towards them. Since therefore you have, on the whole, treated them with that respectful regard which should always be maintained towards them, perhaps it might be considered captious on my part to notice those occasions on which you have presumed to lay even on these gentlemen a few gentle lashes with your censorial flagellum. It will undoubtedly afford many of your readers pleasure, to observe that a man of your sentiments should bear testimony to their general utility. Corporations, when their functions are faithfully and impartially discharged, have been fitly compared to a river. They continue communicating good. From the perpetuity of a body corporate, it may be said of it, "Labitur, et labetur, in omne volubilis ævum." As the adjacent fields are fertilized by the river from age to age, so these privileged institutions continue to impart to all within their precincts the various privileges and benefits with which they were at first endowed. Your observations on the Representatives in Parliament for the borough, and the manner of |