I own also that I am not unaffected by such unexampled punishments as those of Mr. Muir and my friend Mr. Palmer, for offences, which, if, in the eye of reason, they be any at all, are slight, and very insufficiently proved; a measure so subversive of that freedom of speaking and acting, which has hitherto been the great pride of Britons. But the sentence of Mr. Winterbotham, for delivering from the pulpit what I am persuaded he never did deliver, and which, similar evidence might have drawn upon myself, or any other dissenting minister, who was an object of general dislike, has something in it still more alarming[31]. But I trust that conscious innocence would support me as it does him, under whatever prejudiced and violent men might _do_ to me, as well as _say_ of me. But I see no occasion to expose myself to danger without any prospect of doing good, or to continue any longer in a country in which I am so unjustly become the object of general dislike, and not retire to another, where I have reason to think I shall be better received. And I trust that the same good Providence which has attended me hitherto, and made me happy in my present situation, and all my former ones, will attend and bless me in what may still be before me. In all events, _The will of God be done_. [31] I trust that the friends of liberty, especially among the Dissenters, will not fail to do every thing in their power to make Mr. Winterbotham’s confinement, and also the sufferings of Mr. Palmer and his companions, as easy to them as possible. Having been assisted in a season of persecution myself, I should be very ill deserving of the favours I have received, if I was not particularly desirous of recommending such cases as theirs to general consideration. Here difference in religious sentiment is least of all to be attended to. On the contrary, let those who in this respect differ the most from Mr. Winterbotham, which is my own case, exert themselves the most in his favour. When men of unquestionable integrity and piety suffer in consequence of acting (as such persons always will do) from a principle of _conscience_, they must command the respect even of their enemies, if they also act from principle, though they be thereby led to proceed in an opposite direction.