The Virginia Gazette

TO THE PUBLICK.

WHAT I advanced concerning the Vestrymen who voted for Mr. Bracken was grounded on a Report that, soon after the Election, prevailed, of Mr. Hornby and Mr. Eaton's having repented at their Choice. That there was such a Report, at the Time referred to, will, I believe, be recollected by many, is particularly remembered by Mr. Gwatkin and Mr. Madison (whose Names I am authorised to use on the present Occasion) and by others I might, moreover, have named, could I descend to the new-fangled Fashion of betraying to the Publick private Conversations. Whatever "Foundation in Truth" this Report might have had, it was mentioned by me as only a Report; and that I laid no Stress upon it, will appear from a bare Recital of the Terms I made Use of. It was affirmed, that more than one of them, since, hath repented at his Choice. The Expression which immediately follows, be this as it may, can never be tortured into an Implication of Certainty.

The Circumstance adduced, in the subsequent Part of the Sentence, as contributing to confirm, in this Instance, the Probability of the Report, was Mr. Hornby's having subscribed, at the Time it was circulating, a larger Sum to me, as Lecturer, than any other Person, the Governor excepted. Hence then, had not the illiberal Writer of the Declaration in the last Paper been an entire Stranger to good Manners, he must have expressed himself in a different Mode, while every impartial Person will think that I have been treated unwarrantably ill by the Sirs who subscribed it, some of whom, when the Parish was vacant, repeatedly promised me their Votes, if a Majority of the Parishioners should be in my Favour; and that there was a Majority in my Favour, I appeal to their own Knowledge.

S. HENLEY.