I have felt therefore under the necessity of reviewing
my own position, and of asking whether I have done, or
left undone, anything which has permitted Mr Hope to
entertain the sentiments which he has expressed. A. know-
ledge of each other, now of many years' duration, assures me
that Mr Hope is the last man to invent a statement of such
ji character, to give point to a speech, or to further a move-
ment. " The opposition is got up, not because men dislike

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82

"the forjn of words, but laecause they dislike the doctrine
" those words enshrine."

Has Mr Hope been led to believe this of me ? I am
afraid that he has been so led.
And thus I am driven to do that, from which I hav6
shrunk for the last sixteen months, and enter on a personal
defence.
