But lest the Welsh rumour should subside before the Society is overthrown, you have another little story to keep up the public prejudice against it. “The author (you say) has likewise been _told_, that the distribution of tracts as well as Bibles, was in the original plan of some of the first projectors of this scheme, one of whom is known to be a zealous adversary of the establishment.” {58a} Now, Sir, it is very possible that the original projector of this Society, and his project too, may have been very exceptionable, and yet the present institution be entitled to a very honorable character. I have never thought the worse of the Reformation, because I could not for the life of me think well of Henry the Eighth and his “original plan.” The “Philanthropic Society” is founded upon a supposition, which I think a very just one, that something may be made of the _offspring_, when nothing can be made of the _parent_; {58b} and I suppose the Country Clergyman would rather have his pamphlet judged from the _fair copy_ which he sent to the press, than from any one of those “original plans” of it, which were projected by his busy and inquisitive _reporters_. The question is, whether the _actual_ plan of the Society comprehends or excludes the distribution of _tracts_. The answer to this is, that the _first article_ of the constitution peremptorily _excludes_ them. After such a declaration, it is as unreasonable to dispute the _present_ object of the Bible Society, by a reference to any _antecedent_ designs; as it would be to question whether the Paradise Lost be an _epic poem_, merely because it stood as a _drama_ in Milton’s “original plan.” But I have done.—My business was not to proclaim the _excellence_ of the Bible Society; but only to rescue it from _reproach_. I have therefore confined my remarks to those specific objections with which you have opposed it.