The following were the preliminary steps connected with the Discussion
reported in the succeeding pages:--
Mr. BRECKINRIDGE'S Letter, expressing his willingness to meet Mr.
THOMPSON at Glasgow, was occasioned by the following passage in Mr.
THOMPSON'S Letter, which appeared in the _London Patriot_, in reply to
the extracts inserted in that Journal, from the work published by the
Rev. Drs. COX and HOBY, entitled, "The Baptists in America":--
"In the mean time, I am ready to meet Dr. COX in Exeter Hall, in his
own chapel, or in any other building, to justify my charges against
America and American Ministers; my general policy in the Anti-Slavery
cause, and any particular act of which Dr. COX complains. I am ready,
also, and anxious to meet any American Clergyman, or other gentleman,
in any part of Great Britain, to discuss the general question, or the
propriety of that interference, of which so much has been said by
persons who are otherwise engaged, and most praiseworthily so, in
interfering with the institutions, social, political, and religious,
of every _other_ quarter of the Globe."
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