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Premade of by Mr J. 2. Sibley - 10223, 177,

REMARKS

ON A

LETTER

FROM THE

HOLLIS STREET SOCIETY

TO THEIR

UNITARIAN BRETHREN,

WITH THE

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO A RECENT CALL OF A MINISTER,

BY THAT SOCIETY.

BOSTON:

EASTBURN'S PRESS.

REMARKS.

A pamphlet in relation to the affairs of the religious society of the Hollis Street Meeting House, has just issued from the press, and is published, we are told on the title page, according to a vote of the society. However extraordinary and unwarrantable the whole matter of this pamphlet may appear to the uninitiated, it forms we think, a very appropriate finale to the acts and doings which for the last nine years have characterised the course of the present majority of the Hollis Street Society. The Letter which serves as a preface to the document, and which is addressed "to Christian brethren of the Unitarian denomination," may justly be considered as quite a curiosity, in its way. It abounds to absolute redundance, with the catch phraseology, and pharasaical show of an assumed religious fervor and piety, that presents a strange contrast with its flippant tone of remark, its assumed authority, its utter unfairness, and the bold and unblushing assertions, with which the whole thing is literally crowded. Its very title utters a falsehood, and the whole letter is, in this respect, in perfect harmony and keeping with the title.

It purports, on its title page, to be "a Letter from the Hollis Street Society to their Christian brethren of the Unitarian denomination," whereas it has never been before the proprietors, its publication has never been authorized by any act of the society whatever; and that the intention of publishing it, and even its existence, was wholly unknown, we have no doubt, except perhaps to four or five members of the society. It claims, to be sure, very fully and frequently, to be the mouthpiece of the society, and is, we admit, a fit exponent of the spirit, principles and views that have been exhibited, from time to time, by the present majority; though, in the peculiarities displayed by them in the Hollis Street controversy, it out Herods them all. Its very signature, "the Proprietors of the Meeting House, in Hollis Street," is unique and significant. It was written, we have abundant reason to believe, by a member of the legal profession, recently uniting with, or more properly speaking attached to, the society, by a simple and common practice in the society. Persons are wanted to represent pews at the ballot-box of the society, and forthwith, the association who bought up the pews to control the society, deed a pew to the individual for that purpose only, and thus these straw members of the society serve the purpose of actual members, and make as good a show on paper, as so many true men. The individual, however, who wrote the letter, was doubtless needed for a two-fold purpose. He could, it was probably thought, conduct the case of the majority, as well as cast the vote they might direct him, and manage the diplomatic department, in which there was an urgent necessity for assistance.

The letter of this acute diplomatist opens in a truly lachrymose vein, and begins by setting forth in moving

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