DEAR SIR,

To MR. RUSSELL.*

Wycombe, Sept. 29, 1791.

I Go to London to-morrow, and shall immediately apply to Mr. Bell, and get from him what assistance I can in drawing out the account of my losses.

I have desired Mr. Thompson to get me copies of the two Addresses to the King, and the first letter of the congregation to me. I shall be obliged to you if you will assist him in it.

I shall soon write to the congregation, but I was unwilling to send a final answer till I was fully determined in my own mind, which I can hardly say I am yet. If you had a place where I could preach, I would yet see you settled before I finally quitted Birmingham; but, in your present circumstances, my coming would answer no end. I wish it was possible to keep up something like a connexion with Birmingham, though I should be at Hackney, by visiting you occasionally; but that cannot well be. I do not like the idea of being driven off, or abandoning a charge in which I was so happy. But, all things considered, I think more good will arise from my succeeding Dr. Price, if that should take place, than from any other scheme.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR, London, Oct. 3, 1791. I SEND you two Addresses, transmitted to me by Mr. Toulmin. Another from the same persons came to myself. Though my spirits do not sink in consequence of any thing I have suffered, and I do not repent of any thing that I have done that may have been the occasion of it, I cannot help feeling, and sometimes very painfully, both for the congregation in general, and some individuals in it, especially yourself and family; for, go where I will, I shall never find such a friend as you have constantly been to me, nor indeed do I ever expect to find a man so worthy of my esteem. Whatever I did at Birmingham

was much more yours than mine; for without you I should have not been able to do much. It is, however, a great source of satisfaction to me that by your help I was able to do what I did, and I hope the good effects of it will not be confined to

*The friend to whom I was indebted (supra, p. 111, note ||) and who was an indignant witness of the destruction of Dr. Priestley's library, manuscripts, and apparatus," has taken occasion thus to recollect him as a Christian instructor:

"Though differing in religious opinions, I was in the habit of associating with those who regularly attended the instructions of Dr. Priestley; and had I formed my notions of him, or estimated his character, from the representations which I often heard from the pulpit in the church, I must indeed have deemed him the demon of heresy ;' but happily I had been accustomed to exercise my own faculties in the pursuit of truth Much as I had heard and read about Dr. Priestley, I did not know his person till the year 1788, when curiosity induced me to accompany a friend to hear a lecture which he delivered on a Sunday afternoon. [See I. 353.] Amongst various other designations, we had been told that he was a deluded visionary,' and ‘a proud and haughty scorner;' but we discovered such a delineation to be unjust, having no resemblance to reality.

"When we entered the place, we found a man of about the middle stature, slenderly made, remarkably placid, modest, and courteous, pouring out, with the simplicity of a child, the great stores of his most capacious mind to a considerable number of young persons of both sexes, whom, with the familiarity and kindness of a friend, he encouraged to ask him questions, either during the lecture or after it, if he advanced any thing which wanted explanation, or struck them in a light different from his own. The impression made upon us was so strong, that we never failed afterwards to attend on such occasions in order to profit by his lessons, and we frequently went to hear him preach, until he was driven from the town in 1791.

"His lectures were peculiarly instructive, and the general tenour of his sermons was practical, urging to the cultivation of universal benevolence, the earnest pursuit of knowledge, and the most unrestrained free inquiry upon all important subjects. He was the most unassuming, candid man I ever knew; and never did I hear from his lips, either in lecture or sermon, one illiberal sentiment, or one harsh expression concerning any persons who differed from him, not even of the individuals who were so much in the practice of abusing him and traducing his character."

See A Sketch of the Principal Means which have been employed to. ameliorate the Intellectual and Moral Condition of the Working Classes at Birmingham. By William Matthews," (1830,) p. 11, note. In a letter from Mr. Matthews, " Dec 26, 1831," he says,

46

I perceive that you allude to the Birmingham Political Union in a note, [I. p. 356,] and probably to Dr. Priestley is remotely to be ascribed the great change in the mental and moral character of the town. He certainly

Birmingham. I mean some time or other to publish an account of my classes, and for this purpose shall be obliged to Miss Russells to furnish me, if they can, with a second copy of the subjects of their exercises.

How I shall be disposed of here I cannot tell. There are, I hear, many orthodox females at Hackney, who will not approve of my being invited to succeed Dr. Price, and in that case I believe a Unitarian chapel will be built for me, and this I shall like as well.

Perhaps you may have heard that I preached last Sunday, for the first time, to a congregation of Calvinistic Baptists at Amersham, near Missenden, who unanimously requested it,* and the Sunday following I was invited to preach at two other similar places, one an Independent congregation at Beaconsfield, near Mr. Burke's; but I was obliged to be in London. This could not have taken place before the riots, so that some good has been done by them.

I am glad that you do not disapprove of my not returning to Birmingham. Indeed, the more I think of it, the more I am satisfied that I shall be better placed here, though you know it is a thing that I was far from wishing. As you do not think it necessary, I shall defer my answer to the congregation some time longer.

My wife is here, and very well. She desires to be particularly remembered to you and your daughters, as well as to Mr. and Mrs. G. Russell.

TO REV. JOSHUA TOUMINL.t

DEAR SIR, London, Oct. 7, 1791. I HAVE received the Addresses, from the Dissenters in your

gave a great impulse to the current of improvement; and the persons who have made the greatest efforts since he left, were amongst those constituting his highest Sunday class. I am the youngest by many years, but hope and believe that none surpassed me in exertions to benefit the place of my birth"

• Noticed by Dr. Priestley in his American edition of the "Appeal to the Professors of Christianity." W. XXV. 337.

↑ Taunton.

district, to myself, and the two congregations at Birmingham, which I immediately transmitted to Mr. Russell. As your meetings are annual, you will excuse the formality of an answer, and assure those of the Society that you may meet with, that I am more than consoled for my sufferings by their generous sympathy, and that of my other friends in all parts of England, and especially those which I receive from persons of a persuasion different from my own.

The present is the triumph of bigotry; but it cannot be lasting, though favoured, as it evidently is, by the court. At Birmingham the spirit of party is, I fear, as high as ever, which would make my return not only hazardous, but probably hurtful on the whole. The people will sooner come to their right mind in my absence from them. I have therefore taken a house at Hackney,* though without any certain prospect of employment as a preacher. I have many friends in Dr. Price's late congregation; but many of the elderly people, and especially the women, who are numerous in it, are apprehensive that my coming may excite another tumult, and be the means of bringing them into trouble.†

TO THE NEW MEETING CONGREGATION.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

London, Oct. 8, 1791. painful situation than the down to answer your two

I NEVER felt myself in a more present, in consequence of sitting most affectionate Addresses, inviting me to return to the exercise of my ministry among you, after having been driven away by lawless violence.

Not only on my leaving Birmingham, but some time after my arrival in London, I had no idea but that of a temporary retreat, thinking that the violence of party spirit, having had its triumph, would be satisfied, and that perhaps, repentance succeeding, I might resume my functions with more advantage than before; but every account that I have received having represented the spirit of party as more inveterate than I had imagined it to be, so that in all probability my return would only ↑ Orig. MS.

* Clapton.

inflame it, and, in consequence of this, my situation, if safe, would be uncomfortable, and perhaps hurtful, it is my deliberate opinion that it will be better for some other person less obnoxious to popular prejudice to take my place, and that I may be more usefully fixed in London, or its neighbourhood.

I hope I need not assure you that it is with the greatest regret that I at length, after much hesitation, have come to this resolution, in forming which, considerations of a more private nature, but to which no man is or ought to be wholly insensible, have likewise had their influence.

Never, I believe, was any Christian minister more happy in his situation than I have been with you. My sentiments concerning you are not only those of respect and affection, but of pride. It has been my boast that no congregation that I have been acquainted with was so candid, so well-informed, and so ready to adopt whatever their ministers recommended to them for their edification, and that, in consequence of it, your regulations were the best adapted to form intelligent and serious Christians. Our example was looked up to by other and distant congregations, who were excited to form themselves upon our model. I had also perfect liberty, which few Dissenting ministers have, to follow all my favourite pursuits of every kind, and to preach and write, without the least hazard of giving offence, whatever I thought proper. I had, therefore, no other wish than to live and die among you.

But as I hope the good that has been done will never be undone, owing especially to the almost unprecedented zeal and excellent spirit of the young people among you, whose Addresses will for ever endear them to me, and whose example, wherever it is known, must contribute to instruct and warm others, I have the less regret in now signifying my intention of resigning my pastoral charge, but not till I have seen your affairs in some measure re-established, and some prospect of your being able to do as well without me; and as some time must be fixed, I mention Christmas next.

As soon, then, as you shall have provided a place in which I can officiate, I shall with peculiar pleasure resume my functions among you, and continue them till the time above-men