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 W 
 
 THE REVIEWER REVIEWED : 
 
 SCRUTATOR'S (MR. PETER LE SUEUR'S) INCOMPETENCE, TO PERFORM THE SELF-IMPOSED DUTIES 
 
 ' OF A CRITIC, EXPOSED. 
 
 -•5 
 
 My Deab Friesd : — You asked me if I had seen the let'ter addressed to me by Mr. Peter Le Sueur, under the signature of " Scrutator," 
 animadverting upon the style and matter of my recently published pamphlet. I answer, yos, I hare both seen it and rend it. he having 
 sent me a copy of it for that p'-.rpose. And now that I have answered your question, I will proceed to describe the gentleman and bii 
 production according to their merits. 
 
 The letter is quite characteristic of the critic, I assure you, as many will testify. You see him here, as he has been often seen by 
 others, under the influence of a tumult of vindictive feelings, which, overpowering 'all sobriety of judgment, have plunged him into a 
 position, as little to his honor as to his comfort. He would fain shine in the world as a literary celebrity, (he prefers being known as a 
 critic, for -which, were a waspish spirit a leading qualification, he would be eminently fitted,) and lias done considerable with his pen 
 to that end. Bat he frequently mistakes pertnem for profoundncsi ; and while skimming the surface and grasping a bubble, he would have 
 you to believe he had gone down to the bottom and fished up a pearl. He takes up with marked eagerness anything tliat falls from my pen 
 with the evident design, of showing how iiieompetent I am to write, and how eompelent he is to criticise. Thus he gratifies a latent grudge 
 long cherished towards me, and at the same time discharges a quantity of bile, which, at times, his system secretes with singular activity- 
 Deeply concerned (professedly,) that " the Wesleyan Ministers " should not be degraded, he feels bound " to enter his protest against the 
 literary labors of the Rev. Mr. Horland.'' Yet, while making this profession, he has no scruple at (f«^r<M/i/i^ and /lieMi'n^ them himself, which 
 he docs by liolding them up (for the mere jupport of a rotten argument) as systematic violaters of their most solemn pledges to maintain the 
 discipline of our church intact. Hear him I " You know that thousands of nominal members are kept on the books who are seldom,' 
 if ever found in attendance upon class, and more, you know that there is very little disposition on the part of the ministers geDerallyjo 
 expel BnCtT'delinquents, but that any trijdng txcvte ii taken in explanation, if explanation i» demanded." rvtfT' ^r- ..t 'liku • 
 
 Vain man! does he think the ministers of our church will accept Aim as their champion ? Will they fail to diflcern that wltflie he 
 «MOo<A« them with one hand, he «<o6« them with the other ? Truly, " the kiitet of an enemi/ are deeeil/ul." 
 
 His very critical examination of my pamphlet has convinced him that many of my sentences are not constructed to hi» laiie; and 
 that some of my words (whether from carelessness or ignorance he is not altogether certain,) are nnsuited to the place and office I 
 designed them to fill. To speak and write ones own language with clearness and accuracy are attainments at which all ought to aim, and 
 for which no pains should be spared ; yet when I know that the eccentric Gob** .ithas detected as ma»t/ and as ^r«at grammatical ineliean- 
 cies and inaccuracies in the writings of Addison, Blair, Johnson, Watts, Lindley Murray,- &c. &c., as "Scrutator'' has in my pamphlet, I 
 am spared the confusion and shame which otherwise, possibly, he might have brought upon me. Cobbett, diifering fl:om " Scrutator. '' 
 however, did not coin mistakes for the sake of effect ; be was satisfied with what the writings of those celebrities alone supplied. He 
 would not have written " re/erenco," when the original wos "rej'ereiice." Nor for himself would he have written "the tame akwardnett 
 again " when he meant awkioardneis. I have little to say in reference to the re(d grammatical inaccuracies, or ineligancies, which "Scru- 
 tor" has dished up with so much malignant satisfaction. If such men as Addison, Blair, Johnson, Lindlay Murray, and various others' 
 whom Cobbett cites, could not preserve their writings from such defects, although written and re\'sed with the greatest care; a Methodiit 
 minister, and especially the superintendent of a large Circuit, whose numerous and pressing duties sometimes prevent the doing more than 
 the most hurried revision of what had even been written in haste, can well claim the most lenient consideration from those who are really 
 j«a/{/iW to ju(l|?e of literary efforts. 
 
 What the modest gentleman has written about my " eyotitm " is just as consistent in Aim, as for a thief to lecture on knavery. Tiiei'e 
 are scores who, should they read this portioc. of his letter would cry : — humph ! Phytician, heal thyself! 
 
 Several of Scrutator's criticisms betray not only remarkable obtuseness of mind, but also great ignorance of the subjects on which 
 he presumes to animadvert. These facts placed by the side of his impudent dictations show him to be a character of no ordinary grade 
 ^n proof of what I now say, attend to the following : — "At page 1" he fancies he finds a "mess of contradictions and grammatical 
 blunders from which all ray skill cannot extricate" mc. This he proves thus : "That Mr. Wosloy did not design that bis societies should 
 (-''ever assume a separate church organization is admitted ; but that that separate organization was forced upon his society (societies) by 
 circumstances which he could not control, is well known, as it was clearly apprehended, and to some extent provided for, by Mr. Wesley 
 himself," (pamphlet ;) now Scrutator's critique; " Now if you had purposely tried to make an absurd sentence I doubt whether you could 
 lw»ve succeeded so well," (as when ? where? or how? Here is grammatical accuracy and gentlemanly bearing a la " Scrutator.") Againi 
 he says : — " First we are told Mr. Wesley did not design his societies should ever assume a separate church organization," but that it, "the 
 organization" was forced upon his society (societies) by circumstance he could not control. Was he there to exercise the control ? No, hs 
 was in heaven, &c. &c. Thus the critic ; now for the facts ; after which, or I am mistaken, yon will see more clearly than the sharp* 
 sighted ■' Scrutator" where tbe blunders lie. 
 
01' I 
 
 Yoa well know, my friend, that Mr. Wtilejr never deiigned hU societies s'lonid become *n organized church, but erer remain an 
 integral portion of the Episcopal Church of England. You know also, that he labored amidst many discouragements, to prevent the one 
 and to perpetuate the other. Further, that circumstances which he could not control, arose in the conduct of ungodly and persecuting 
 ministers of that churah towards the members of his societies, and which, he apprelicnded, would lead to tho very separation he was so 
 anxious to prevent. Foraseeing, especially towards the close of his life, that little probability remained of his Societies being recognized 
 and treated as a portion of the Church of England ; or, that were they even so treated, tbey would have the spiritual culture bestowed 
 upon them which they needed; and therefore, that that which he had labored against, viz: a separate church organization, would be 
 necessitated— he *' to some extent provided for it," by enrolling a deed in Chancery ; one important end of which being, to give the con* 
 fercnue of his preachers such a legal Status, that when the thing feared became a nccesnity, they might bo in circamstnuces to meet it. All 
 Methodisticaliy well read persons are sufficiently acquainted with these facts. Why then is not "Scrutator?" Because— you can 
 add the rest. 
 
 The learned critic yet lingers about "page 7," and the supposed " inaecurariti in the i me paragraph." Herein he resembles the obtru- 
 sive insect which, with buzzing impertinence labors to find an unsound spot from whence to suck its delicious and desired aliment. " Yon 
 go on thns " he observes, and then quotes from the pampiilet as follows : — " Yfet we find no evidence, not the slightest, that he wished the 
 condition of membership to be made less stringent, but the contrary rather. The burden of proving the latter rests with you my friend." 
 Then, his comment ; " Now I put it to you whether the latter here spoken of may not honestly be taken to mean the supposed wish of Mr. 
 Wesley, to render the condition of membership more stringent 7" Most assuredly, it is the very meaning I intended to convoy. But what 
 then ? Why, says this learned and modest writer ; " by which you mean that Mr. Wesley was disposed to make the condition of mem- 
 hership more stringent than it already was, an nssdrtion, which, let me tell you in all sincerity, (doubtless) i* theer nonienee." Mighty 
 |)olite, Mr. Scrutator, as a paddy would say. But then he proves it thus : — " the condition was regular attendance at class-meeting, a 
 i-ondition admitting of no {^dation of rigor. Such attendance allows of no degrees of comparison, and there can be nothing added by 
 way of superlative." 
 
 It does not appear to have entered the cranium of this denouncer of " i/irer noniente,'" that if Mr. Wesley had added to attendance at 
 class-meetings as a condition of membership, a demand to abstain from conformity to the world in a stricter sense tlian some of his 
 societies were inclined to do, that such an addition would have made the condition of membership " mure tiringeiU'' : and yet a " Metho- 
 •listically well read" person has not failed to perceive, in Mr. W.'s sermons and letters, that this was much more probable than any attempt 
 to relax the rule. Allow such to have been the case, and would there not have been visible, a " gradation in rigor" ? 
 
 , Another 8|iecJmen of logical acnteness and of superlative impudence we have in the following : "On tlie same page (not the same 
 p«ge, observant sir ; — that was p. 8, this is p. 9,) you go on, ■ The Apostle maff be euppoeed to point to assemblies of the primitive churcli, 
 exaeily timilar to our class-meetings.' Now my dear sir, do you not see that you assume as a fact that such meetings had been previously 
 established, and were held, and that the shadow of doubt which the sentence carries, doe<i not rest upon the existence of such institutions, 
 but on the directnass of the Apostolic allnsion ? Did you mean to affirm that meetings exactly similar to Methodist class-meetings were 
 then held? I think not, (but why do you think so?) and your false composition justiiies the inference that you did. The whole of the 
 paragraph animadverted upon, t« confused Jari/wi." 
 
 But what in this (gentleman's opinion would it be, if the very thing was meant which A« thinks I did not mean? It is apparent from 
 Ills admission that my words have approached to within a " thadotv" of that meaning. So much for the composition. That I was jnstifled 
 in referring to such assemblies of Christians as similar in nature to our class-meetings, you will not doubt when you read the 8criplure->. 
 see Heb. 10; 25 And being satisfied on this point, you will have yet another specimen of the refined sensibiliticB of our would-be critic. 
 The defects in style which " Scrutator" finds, and affect* to find, in my pamphlet, and the pompous manner in whicii he holds them 
 up, would naturally lead to the supposition that he had attained to a faultless perfection in writing ; and that what he bus written might 
 be confidently referred to as specimens of correct, and even elegant composition. But such an expectation would result in disappointment. 
 The letter on which I have been remarking, charged so fully with illogical conclusions and malignant scurrility, although written with 
 evident care as to the arrangement of its words, has as an instance of ungrammaticai diction, this astounding assertion : — "1 believe, and I 
 think most persons at all conversant with the history of early Methodism believe with me, that in instituting the class-meeting, Mr. Wesley 
 did Ijtt very Lett thing that eotUd be done." What I by instituting class-meetings Mr. W. did the best thing that could be done cither hg God 
 nr man f or, the beat thing that any man could do f or, the best thing which Mr. Wesley, in all the range of his capabilities, could do ? — 
 Surely the learned gentleman " befogt" us here. Doubtless he meant that class-meetings, with the injunction to attend them, was one of 
 the iMsst things which Mr. W. could institute at the time. This is doubtless his meaning ; and yet bis words are very far from conveying 
 such a meaning. I have little doubt but that other oflTences against grammar and ccmmon sense might be detected in bis letter, but as I 
 have not time at present to scan it over for that purpose, I will give you a rich specimen from another source, of what even he can do in 
 the way of writing "jargon" and "nontente." 
 
 The note with which he accompanied his letter to me is that source, written at a time, be it remembered, when, if ever, he would 
 be studiously correct. It opens with the following : — " / enclose you the proof of a letter to your address ready to issue." But what does];he 
 mean here ? we naturally inquire. Is it that he encloses to me the proof that he has addressed a letter to me ? or, is it the proof that 
 somebody, whom he does not know, has addressed a letter to me? Or, is the proof to tho effect that a letter to my address is being issued ? 
 Or, is it that a proof cojty of what he is about to issue is enclosed to me? This latter is probably is his meaning, and had he written 
 correctly he would have so expressed himself. And who ever read of a letter ready to issue ! To issue wiiat, pray ? To be issued we have 
 fretiuently. Again, this model writer " blunders" in the following style : "As I have no disposition to misrepresent you or your writings, 
 I haM DKENED it proper [the italicising is mine] to give you the opportunity [how condescending and gracious I] of correcting any mis- 
 stnteroents I may unwittingly have made." If this is not a specimen of affectation and nonsense, then such things never have been, or ever 
 will be. .Suppose I had forwarded to him some of the errors I have given you in this letter, miglit he not, in strict accordance with 
 
 ■ 1. 
 
 ■:-m. 
 
4 
 
 I*'. 
 
 the wording of bii license, reject them, laying, Tffave youptrmiimn to eorreet any tHiutatemtnl$ I had vmwittinolt made, bui not ihote made 
 from uttiioN, and a* Ihoie youpruent are of (hi* latter elau, I vill not allow you to ham any thing to do with them. The wordi immediately 
 following those quoted would lead 70a to imagine that such, absurd ai it exhibits his conduct to be, must hare been his meaning. 
 He says : " If you discover any thing of that kind in the document," i. e. if you discover any thing like unvittmgly made mititattmtntt .' ! .' 
 He complains that I did not reply to his communication, and do what he requested : but supposing I could condescend to correspond with 
 so scurriliuus a writer, was I endowed with a spirit of divination by which to point out the very class of errors he would call my atten- 
 tion to ? And yet this is the man who spouts about " ridiculous contradictions," and of " grammatical rules set at defiance." We may 
 well Mk. What next ? 
 
 A word or two on what Iip has written about class-meetings ere I close. He says, " This institution (class-meeting) was a neceuity 
 of the times." But if you would learu fk-om him whether or not attendance thereon, as a condition of membership, the >ery thing debated, 
 was siicb necessity, you would be doomed to disappointment. The reasons he assigns for their use,in the first instance, are good enough, 
 but the inference, so far as the point in discussion is concerned, amounts to this :— that all persons below a certain standard of Icnowledge 
 and Chrl^itian morals, should be compelled to attend class-meetings on pain of espuision ft'om the church ; while those above the line 
 might be lett to the e^ierctse of their own discretion. How would this plpn suit you ? 
 
 His argument, drawn from our appreciation and treatment of other churches is equally logical and conclnsive. We recognise their 
 standing as Christian churches and greet them as such. True: therefore, so " Scrutator" argues, we should not hare a condidition of 
 membership which tliey have not. That is. there should be uniformity ; and this is to be effected, not by requiring others to come to our 
 standard, but by us going to theirs. Very liberal, truly. If this plan of uniformity is to be carried out, we shall have the Quaker, with 
 perfect consistency, raising his voice, and that in protesting against baptism and the Lord's supper, an constituting a condition of mem. 
 liersbip in any church, seeing they are not so regarded in his. And if, in his defence, a member of any of these churches having this 
 quakorly obnoxious condition, should challenge a comparison of effects, as by common consent the value of all means are in this manner 
 best tested, then we may expect to have a foppish critic crying out at the top of his voice; — " All such comparisons are ' inviJioue', and are 
 • viewed' by «», the intelligent members of the community, ' or mere abaurd arroganey ! ' " 
 
 Logic is a sharp sword ; and as this gentleman wields it with more valour than skill, he oft cuts his own hands while those whom he 
 designs to slay remain uninjured. I have said in my pamphlet that class-meetings " are prized by the great bulk of the best and most 
 spiritual of our membership," " from which it follows," writes " Scrutator", " of course these will attend at all avents, whether or not 
 there is a rule to compel them." " What then is the object of the rigorous law ? " he asks. " Surely it seems to be nothing more nor less 
 than to retain the u/ispiritual." He thinks "the inference perfectly logical." After giving the extracts from my pamphet I have jnst no- 
 ticed, he then passes to page 14 for another. It is as follows : — •' but let us remove the necessity for attendintr them (class-meetings) as 
 you think we ought, and soon they would become neglected." Then he observes : " So then, after nil, the people who gladly attend them, 
 and who prir.e them so highly, are only waiting tlie chance of turning their backs upon them I ! I Try it again. Reverend Sir, and see 
 if you can write one page without committing half a dozen blunders and involving yourself in several ridiculous contradictions." In this, 
 with his extracts, you have a specimen of his logic, his theology, and his, shall I say? modesty. 
 
 Class-meetings arc prized by the best and moat spiritual of our people. True, and had we a guarantee that even these would be 
 <ilieays truly pious and spiritual, we might safely leave attendance on class-meeting to iheir unfettered choice. But as we know that piety 
 depends for its existence on means, and that there are seasons with tlie best of our membership, when the deepest sense of obligation is neces- 
 sary to comjtel their use, tis at other times the slightest impulse of privilege will draw to them, so we cannot, even for their sakes do away with 
 the obligation as it exists. My idea will, perhaps be better apprehended by the following illustration. Prayer is a means of grace ; it is 
 also a condition of salvation. The pious highly prize it and are glad to engage in it. There aru seasons when, as a means of grace, only, 
 need they to view it in order to attend to it, properly and profitably; but there are others, when the strong sense of its conditional char- 
 acter must bear in order to their use of it. Remove, sujiposing we could do so, its conditional character, and you so far weaken the 
 obligation to engage in it that 1 hesitate not to say, it would become neglected by many, very many, who now use it, and by it mainUin a 
 piety beyond suspicion. All this may be said of them without imagining they "arc only waiting for a chance of turning 
 t heir backs upon" it. This, you know, is the theologically truthful view of the case : therefore, he who wields logic so as to overturn truth, 
 as our hero has done in the instance now noticed, proves himself to be illogical : and he who spouts bile at another in the fancied success 
 of such operations, shows that he is a long way below that standard of character which a gentleman deems it important to maintain. 
 
 Three reasons are given, and they follow here, which he thinks " operate to prevent attendance upon class-meeting." Three reasons . 
 Why you or I could serve up thirty-and-three, yes, and double that number were they called for, which operate to prevent attendance upon 
 class-meeting. But then thcie are choice ones, irrefutable ones, doubtless ; selected with great care and therefore put with so much con- 
 fidence. You may be somewhat impatient to see them, as I know I should be, coming fl-om such a source, and given with so much parade. 
 Well, here is the first:—" I have known, and now know persons, who without objecting to the institution, would almost as soon meet a 
 bear deprived of her cubs, as meet in dags. Their nervous organization cannot bear the ordeal, and with the most sincere desire to avail 
 of every helpful means of grace, they cannot profit by this." When you have got over the stunning effect of so thundering a .-eason, and 
 Tan again breathe freely, follow me. Think, if yet your understanding has regained its power of action, have you not known, and do 
 fc-oa not " now know persons " of this very class, and in reference to whom, you have more than once concluded, that in them the '• ncr- 
 jydjas Organization " was a singular phenomenon? Have you not seen them at times, and heard of them more frequently, when there 
 Ifejt'mfd to be not the slightest impediment from their "nervous organization" to talking and that with powerful effect f And, with what 
 |>0«l ^?w know of the freaks of nervous organizations, would you not say, what a pity it is that its operations are so eccentric? I promise 
 |y6«(^«s, I would put myself under bonds to any amount, that I will cure ninety-nine out of every hundred such, if they will faithfully 
 * lilow my prescription. And, as I am unwilling that so efficacious a remedy for so reraarkalile a disease should be a secret, 1 will give it 
 
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 yon to uiftkv wb«t uie 0/ it yon pleaie. It ii : — a dUigmt use ofiht meaHt o/i/raee, until tht lovt of Ood it ihed abroad in tht heart . I hart 
 never known it to fail. 
 
 The ucond reaaoa ii duwn from the Ineonaigtenclei, real or luppoied, of tlie " Jfr. Tieiiti " and the " Mrt. fitormaieay't, whose conduct 
 in dau and out ot it, ii in painftal contrast. This reason is precisely similar to that which many offer for not securinf; religion and joining 
 the church of Ohrists But as inch a reason, if strictly true, and allowed the weight desired, would have operated with equal elTect in the 
 days of Christ and his Apostles,— for a Peter denied Christ, a Judas sold him, and all forsook him and fled— yes, and in the days of pen- 
 tecostal power, dissentions arose about the distributions to the poor, while Ananias and his wife lied to the HolyOhost; — so we must 
 dismiss it as proving too much, and therefore proving nothing. 
 
 But from the way this libeller of Methodism puts the objection, we cannot but infer that class-meetings should be given up at once 
 and for ever. Hear him ; — " A person of notoriously violent temper, or of doubtful veracity, or of questionable integrity in bis dealings 
 with his fellow creatures, or of habitual insobriety" — "stands up and speaks of his spiritual condition as altogether encouraging f he 
 throws in probably a few common>place remarks about temptations and trials, and concludes by thanking God for good desires, or with 
 the stereotyped statement that he ei^oys peace, — Mm i> tht nomenclature of the elaei'room, and without intending to detract from the genuine 
 emotioftal piety of the truly sincere persons who use it, I affirm tb.it in a lamentably large number ofeatei it it mere vague formalitm." Conld 
 any person read the above, and in connection with what he says in another place, viz ; — " I have no wish to abolish class-meetings, on the 
 contrary, it would grieve me much if they were discontinued," without concluding that the gentleman's underilamling is as eccentric in its 
 workings as the "nervous organizations" already referred to? The fact is, diRguise it as he may, that with a 8|jccial intention of insult- 
 ing and vilifying your humble servant, he has no hesitation when he deems it necessary for an object, to malign and insult both the 
 ministers and people of our whole church. But his spiteful efforts will pass for their real value. 
 
 The third reason, would you have imagined it, is but a rehash of his first one I " Persons so eontlituled are averse to speak before 
 others of their spiritual exercises." " Nervous organizations'', doubtless. Then they look at class-meetings " as a sort of confessional, and 
 you cannot disabuse them." "Bosh J" — send them to the Sabbath School — that's the place for them. "Objections like these," he tells 
 us, "and many others that might be enumerated:" Hold I here is "jargon" and " nonsense" quantum suff. He has given his best, 
 and yet what are they? Yes, — what are they coming as they do i^om so great an authority ? 
 
 By a kind of after thought, he says he "does net at all pretend to be a scholar." But I apprehend you will readily agree with 
 me in believing, that no contrast in the conduct and profession of his class-meeting worthies is more glaring than this hie profession and 
 tii« pretentious language of bis letter. His whole conduct goes far to confirm the poet's dictum :— 
 
 " A little learning is a dangerous thing, 
 Drink deep or taste not the pierian spring; 
 There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
 And drinking largely sobers us again." 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 TOBOMTO, 20th February, 1856. 
 
 JOHN BORLAND. 
 
 m