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William Hone
Mr. Hone and the Quarterly.
The Examiner  No. 722  (4 November 1821)  697-98.
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THE EXAMINER.

No. 722. SUNDAY, Nov. 4, 1821.





MR. HONE AND THE QUARTERLY.


The following letter has been addressed by Mr. Hone to the Editor of the Quarterly Review, to which we understand no answer has been received—

Sir,—I never did an act in my life that I am afraid to acknowledge, and as I am the sole and therefore unassisted Editor of the Apocryphal New Testament, I feel no more hesitation in avowing it, than difficulty in justifying it.

Had the Quarterly Review confined its strictures to an examination of the book, I should have had no reason to address you thus; but a week's reflection has confirmed the first impression with which I read the attack upon me personally in your last Number; and I think, upon a re-perusal, you must feel that the article is of such a character as to authorise me in requesting the name of my unknown assailant.

The Reviewer himself professes so warm an indigna-
698THE EXAMINER.
tion at a “dastard behind,” that he will of course be eager to come forward, and thus avoid the imputation of being one himself, or perhaps in your case, as in mine, there may be no “dastard” behind, and if so, you will not refuse the opportunity I now offer you of raising yourself from the degradation of a concealed, to the respectability of an open assailant.

I urge this request that I may meet my adversary on equal terms in the pamphlet I have announced, and I trust that the manner in which I should treat him, if I knew his name, would convince even the Reviewer himself, with what injustice he has applied epithets to me, which if I had employed towards him, he would be entitled to call upon me to substantiate or retract.—I await your answer, and I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

W. Hone.