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THE
STORY
OF
ELIZABETH CANNING
CONSIDERED.
With Remarks on what has been called, A Clear Stateof her Case, by Mr. Fielding; and Answers to theseveral Arguments and Suppositions of that Writer.
LONDON:
Printed for M. Cooper, at the Globe in
Pater-Noster-Row. 1753.
[Price One Shilling.]
Before I speak any thing in support of that Truth, on the Evidence ofwhich the Life of a most injur'd Person depends; I think it necessary,that I may not seem, under the Colour of public Information, to beacting an interested Part, and defending my own Conduct, to say, thatI am convinced it needs [4]no Defence. Whatsoever the Malice of littleAdversaries may wish to propagate on this Head, I shall be at Ease inmy own Mind, while conscious of the Honesty of my Intention; and I haveReason to be satisfied, with Regard to the Opinion of the World, whileI have the Honour to be told, that he who is certainly the best Judge,and perhaps the best Person in it, says, that I have done as became aprudent Man.
No one will call it a Bad Action, that I have endeavoured to obtain theTruth, in a Case, where Humanity must have engaged any, who had theleast Suspicion of Falshood, to wish the Secret known; it would havebeen a very imprudent one for him, who had no Authority to have takenthat Confession which discovered it; and it has appeared to those whoare better Judges, that it was most right, when the Preparation wasmade for that Confession, to apply to the supreme Magistrate of theCourt, in which the Cause had been tried, to receive it. This is all Ihave done in the Matter.
I claim no Praise from it; that belongs to another; but neither can Iregard those who shall think, that which I have