English influence will, probably, not predominate amongst you. In the mean time, it is most likely that the French will go on, as at present, treating with as little ceremony as usual every thing that relates to America. John Adams' speech, on the opening of Congress, caused a few smiles; the more so, as it was understood to be a speech full of thunder and menace against France. Nothing is wanting but the interposition of some upright and patriotic citizen to settle the misunderstanding; but I fear it will not be done in John Adams' time.

Mr. Skipwith has promised that a letter shall be conveyed safely to you. I have, therefore, taken the opportunity of writing you a triple letter; and, but for fear of wearying your patience, so much multiplied are events, I could fill half a dozen more. The history of the events in France of the last year, you will find pretty largely detailed in the New Annual Register, to which my present is a kind of supplement; but we hope that you will not long delay to be a fellow-witness of them with ourselves.*

To REV. T. LINDSEY.†

DEAR FRIEND,

Northumberland, March 8, 1798. AFTER many delays, I have, at length, received all the Morning Chronicles and Cambridge Intelligencers that you have sent me; for I find I have them complete from the time of my arrival in this country, and I value them much, especially the Cambridge paper, and as it contains almost every thing that is of much value in the other, I shall be very well content to have that only.

Having had leisure enough this winter, and finding it irksome to make many experiments, which require me to have my hands frequently in water, I have not only brought my Church History to the present time, but have recomposed what was destroyed in the riots of my Exposition of the New Testament. I have also completed my Comparison. To make the evidence in favour of the divine mission of Moses more

Porcupine's Works, IX, 228-240.

+ Essex Street.

unexceptionable, I have methodized all the laws of Moses, and added a few notes. The whole will make a pretty large 8vo. I should not choose to print the Exposition, for several years, and, in the mean time, I shall be reading with a view to the improvement of it, as well as of the History.

What will you say to my leaving this country and going to France? Having some acquaintance with Talleyrand Perigord, late Bishop of Autun,* who succeeds M. Delacroix, I have written to him, almost promising, that if what his predecessor said would be made good, I should go, but that it would be imprudent, at my age, to go on an uncertainty. I wait his answer; but if it should be favourable, I cannot leave this country till the next summer. The satisfaction I should have in being nearer to you and my friends in England would be greater than I can well express. But I wish not to consult my satisfaction (for I am very well content to be here, and am truly thankful for the asylum I have found here) so much as my power of being useful with respect to Christianity. I shall devote my time to that one object, and consider my philosophical pursuits as only subservient to that. Now I really think that I cannot do much more in this country, though I am happy to think that I have done some, and that a seed is sown which will not require my continuance here to ripen. I even think it will ripen better without my presence.

We are much interested in the news from Europe. Things are coming fast to a great crisis; but the friends of England here are under no apprehensions for it. I wish my friends were elsewhere; but a wise and good Providence overrules all events. Party spirit is more violent here than with you, and such is the increasing hatred against France, that I almost fear an open rupture. As a supposed friend of France, I have more coarse abuse than I had in England, so great is the change that has taken place since my arrival. Our last newspaper gave us part of Mr. Fox's speech on the new finance bill, with Mr. Pitt's reply, and an account of great preparations for the invasion of England.

* Who visited England about 1790. See supra, p. 184, note ↑.

With my earnest prayers for the safety of you all, I am yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately.*

DEAR SIR,

To MR. RUSSELL.†

Northumberland, March 22, 1798.

I THANK you for so readily admitting my excuse for not paying you a visit. There is no place to which I should go with so much satisfaction. If I had not children of my own, I should petition to live with you, or near you; and it is not impossible but we may yet spend a good part of the remainder of life together.

I have already not only recomposed, but transcribed all that was destroyed at the riots, of my Exposition of the New Tes tament. But though it is ready for the press, I had rather keep it a year or two longer to make improvements in it, and especially to add what I had not before attempted, an Exposition of the Revelation. I am now at work upon it. To this work, whenever it is printed, I propose, as from the first, to prefix a dedication to you, as the person who made every thing so easy to me at Birmingham, where I first began the custom of expounding from the pulpit, and who contributed so much to the satisfaction I enjoyed in that favourite situation.

There is, certainly, no such thing as an Unitarian Exposition of the New Testament, and therefore Mr. Thatcher is particularly desirous to have mine printed. But neither is there any Unitarian Church History, and, I think, this is even more wanted than the other. The times, however, more immediately call for works that may throw light on the evidences of revelation, and, in this view, I think my Comparison most wanted at present. We must, however, submit to the times, as the voice of Providence. I shall employ the happy leisure I enjoy here in improving all these works, as well as in my philosophical pursuits, and one entire year, without in↑ Middletown.

* Orig. MS.

terruption, will, I hope, enable me to do a good deal. I am very thankful for such an opportunity.

We cannot now see a day before us, and the greatest events are depending; but if there be a peace within the year, I think it not improbable but I may go to France the next summer, and then I may print these works there; and I shall hope to be able to do it even without the assistance you kindly promise me, which, however, I shall not refuse, if it be necessary.

I see in Swift's "Collection of the Laws of Connecticut,". that Unitarianism is a crime punishable, in the first instance, with incapacity for office, and, in the next, with exclusion from the courts of law; so that a Unitarian cannot recover a debt or have redress for any injury. The book was printed, I think, in 1796, or very lately. Now this one circumstance, though the law should not be put in execution, would prevent my settling in that state, whatever else it might have to recommend it. I was absolutely astonished to find this, but there cannot be a doubt of the fact, though you may not have heard of it. There is no such law in this state, or in France. If ever we live together, it must be in a country of religious liberty at least.*

To REV. T. LINDSEY.†

DEAR FRIEND,

Northumberland, May 17, 1798. It is now a long time, indeed, since I have had the satisfaction of hearing either from you or Mr. Belsham, and the times are such, that I fear our communication will grow more uncertain and difficult. Your last was received the 17th of January.

I have sometimes regretted that we were not nearer the seacoast; but, in the present state of things, it is better for us to be farther from it. We are much more quiet; though a violent party spirit rages, in a great measure, through all the

Orig. MS., endorsed by Mr. Russell: "I never heard of the law he mentions before the receipt of this letter. It was, however, very true, respecting the New-England States of America." See I. 17, note ↑.

+ Essex Street, forwarded to the Rev. Mr. Cappe's, Monkgate, York.

country. Our governors, in my opinion, have acted as absurdly as yours, and have brought the country into great difficulties, which might easily have been avoided, and the measures they are now taking have no tendency to make things better. The state of religion and morals is not better here than in England, and public calamities, generally brought on by the violence and folly of the governing powers, seem to be the usual means in the hand of Providence of correcting moral evil, and disciplining nations into virtue.

The present state of things is wonderfully interesting, and, to a Christian, full of consolation, though calamitous. Our young men will see great things, and even we, who are old, may at least sing the song of Simeon. The papal power, for the destruction of which we have so long prayed, is now fallen, and this will be a great blow to her spiritual power which preceded it, and will, no doubt, continue some time longer.

To my Comparison I think to add some strictures on the strange work of M. Dupuis, which I have now before me. is, I think, the ne plus ultra of infidelity, and hardly admits of · a serious answer. M. Volney, I hear, triumphs greatly on its appearance, and the prevalence of infidelity is astonishing. And yet, notwithstanding all I have done to oppose its progress, in which I am single, I was, last Sunday, (and, I believe, frequently am,) preached against in this very place, as a deist; and lie under much greater odium than any professed unbeliever.

There are, however, both here and in various parts of the country, some rational Christians, and their number increases, though slowly. The extreme bigotry of some, affords a better prospect than the total indifference of others. Those whose sentiments are more liberal, do not care to shew it. It is only now and then that any besides our own family attend on Sunday's service, though the place contains many persons of good sense, and the preachers are nothing better than the common run of Methodists in England.

Having abundant leisure, I think now to go on writing notes on all the books of Scripture in the same manner as I have done for the New Testament. I have no greater satisfaction