To MISS RUSSELL.*

DEAR MISS RUSSELL,

Leeds, Oct. 1790.

YOUR affecting letter, which I could not read without many tears, abundantly repays me for any pains I may have taken to instil Christian principles into the minds of the young persons of the congregation, as it shews that in some, at least, it has had its full effect. It also proves to myself that Christianity is not a mere speculation, but of the greatest practical use on the most serious and trying occasions. I find it so to myself now, as well as at other times.

As to death, I have habitually considered it as no great evil, except in particular circumstances, and in your case there is much to alleviate your sorrow; and in the midst of judgment we should not forget our mercies. Such an excellent woman as your mother truly was, would, no doubt, be much missed at the latest period of life; but what we may suppose to have remained of life was of far less value to herself or others than the preceding. In several respects you and your sister can well supply her place; and it is a call to exertion, which you will no doubt improve, both with respect to your father and brother. As to her sufferings, I have little doubt they were much less than persons commonly have in lingering sickness. It is only the manner and the suddenness that shock us so much.

Above all, you should think of how much more consequence it is to you and the world that your father is spared, the most valuable part of whose life is probably yet to come, whose zeal as a Christian, and activity as a public character, may be of the greatest use. I see, by the state of the congregation here, the importance of such a person. Mr. Wood has as much zeal as myself, but he has no Mr. Russell to second, or rather to lead him, as I have; and for want of this, though his lectures succeed pretty well, be has not been able to establish a congregational library. He even printed a recommendation of it, and gave a copy to every person of much consequence, with

* Showell Green, near Birmingham.

very little effect; whereas I have only had to hint any thing that I thought useful, and it was instantly done, in the completest manner.

My wife, who desires to be most kindly remembered to you, is but poorly, but better than she has been. However, we hope to arrive at Fairhill on Friday. Mr. Dawson, who is going to Bristol, accompanies us. With my earnest prayers for the best interest of all the family, and my most affectionate respects to your father and sister, (to whom indeed I consider myself as writing no less than to yourself,) I am, &c.*

DEAR SIR,

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.†

Birmingham, Oct. 13, 1790.

I MEANT to have written to you in the course of the last week, but I was desirous of sending at the same time more of the printed sheets of my work‡ than I found I could get ready for the purpose.

I now send a few, including the defence of Dr. Price,§

* From Orig. MSS., obligingly communicated by Mr. Skey.

+ Essex Street.

"Letters to Burke." W. XXII. 145. § And his Discourse, Nov. 4, 1789 (supra, p. 41). See W. XXII. 179— 183; 522-524. In answer to 66 a letter from the district of Quimper, conveyed by the Duke de la Rochefoucauld," Dr. Price thus writes, 1790," on the subject of this Discourse :

"Oct. 14,

"Gentlemen, the letter which has been conveyed to me by your excellent fellow-citizen and co-patriot M. de la Rochefoucauld, brought me a testimony of your approbation, on which I set a high value. Such notice confers a greater honour than any that titles can give, or kings bestow. Accept my thanks for thus encouraging the attempts of a feeble individual to serve the best of all causes.

"The discourse delivered on the 14th of July, at the feast in London for celebrating the Anniversary of the glorious Revolution in France, and which you have thus honoured, was indeed an emanation from a heart warm with zeal to promote peace and philanthropy among nations, and with an admiration of that disdain of slavery which now pervades your country, and which has produced there a revolution unparalleled in history, to which philosophers and virtuous men are now looking as a noble burst of the human mind from the fetters of slavery and superstition, and the commencement of a general reformation in the governments of Europe. May Heaven prosper the great work, and grant that no adverse event may interrupt its progress, or prevent its happy completion!

which I wish you to shew him. I have informed him that it is in your hands. I hope to send you all the remainder the latter end of this week.

I send a few copies of my edition of Collins. As few were printed, I must not make many presents.

I like the plan of " the Christian Miscellany,"* but much doubt its success; every thing of a similar kind, at all liberal, having failed.

P. S. Several of us have looked through Mr. Burke's work, and we cannot find the passage in which he charges the Dissenters with the riots in 1780.†

"Hitherto the world has groaned under despots; and the best interests of society have fallen a sacrifice to their passions and follies. We are now seeing the dawn of better times; and the example of France is likely to increase it into a glorious effulgence. From the instruction there given, the world will learn, that, as subjects of government and law, all men are equal; that in every state the majesty of the people is the only sacred majesty ; that all civil authority is a trust from them; that its end is not to take away, but to establish liberty, by protecting equally all honest citizens; and that the governing power in every nation ought to be, not the will of any man or classes of men pretending to hereditary rights, but the collected wisdom of the nation drawn from the general mass, and concentered in a National Assembly, by such modes of election, and such an extension of its rights, as form a part of the new constitution of France.”

In a note, probably on the publication of the letter, Dr. Price adds,

"The government of Britain would be nearly such a government as is here meant, and its constitution all that the writer of this letter can wish to see it, were the three states that compose it perfectly independent of one another, and the House of Commons in particular an equal and fair representation of the kingdom, guarded against corruption by being frequently renewed, and the exclusion of placemen and pensioners."

See "The Correspondence of the Revolution Society in London with the National Assembly, and with various Societies of the Friends of Liberty in France and England," (1792,) pp. 99, 100.

* A monthly periodical, of which there was only one volume. It is probably to this publication Mr. Lindsey thus refers, in his letter to Mr. Bretland, quoted supra, pp. 75, 76:

"I hope that you, who are so qualified, and who are in the prime of life, and have leisure, will lend your assistance to Mr. Toulmin, jun., and his colleagues, in their new undertaking, which might be highly useful in counteracting a farrago of things in your Christian magazines, and by degrees eradicate the seeds of superstition out of the minds of the common people.” ↑ Orig. MS.

DEAR FRIEND,

TO THE SAME.

NOTWITHSTANDING your approbation of what you have already seen of my Letters to Mr. Burke, I am not without apprehension on shewing you the remainder.

The passage alluding to Mr. Pitt* is printed as corrected by yourself or Mr. Heywood; but if you expect I should ever get favour with him or his friends, you are certainly mistaken. Bishop Watson told me he would never forgive; nor am I solicitous about it. The preface will shew me no great party man, by my allusion to the coalition.†

I must give a considerable number of this work, and do you, as usual, supply my defects, for which purpose I shall send you a separate parcel.

P. S. This day Mr. Jardine is to be proposed to the congregation, to be invited to succeed Mr. Blythe. I am sorry to hear of Mr. Wakefield's leaving the college.

I wish the present heavy snow do not impede our intercourse by letters.+

TO REV. T. BELSHAM.§

DEAR SIR, Birmingham, Oct. 17, 1790. YOUR excellent Charge is now in the printer's hands. I think myself particularly happy in the circumstance of my sermon accompanying this piece of yours; and if it was my turn to pay compliments, I should say something more on the

occasion.

I most sincerely wish, on many accounts, that a greater field of exertion could be procured for you; and in time, I have no doubt, your own wishes and mine on this subject will be gratified. I cannot, however, agree with you in saying that theology is only nominally superior to other sciences. I am more and more sensible of its greater dignity, and this dignity will of course be reflected on the person who teaches it.

* Probably cancelled. See infra, + W. XXII. 148.

"Dec. 23." Orig. MS.

§ Hackney.

I am glad to find you do not forget Job. Having nearly dispatched my proper part, I am about to undertake Jeremiah and Ezekiel; but though I do not expect to meet with any peculiar difficulty in them, I had rather put one of them into another hand; and since I have been acquainted with Mr. Wakefield, it gives me concern to leave him out in a business of this nature. Suppose you were to sound him on the subject, and let him know how I feel about it.

I shall send Mr. Lindsey the discourse I delivered at Buxton. You will find nothing extraordinary in it: only it seemed proper for the occasion; and foreseeing it, I composed it then. Considerations that are quite familiar to us who make the Scriptures our study, are quite new and striking to many others.

P. S. Next Thursday, Dr. Parr and Mr. Porson dine with me. I wished to engage Mr. Berington to meet them, but he I will not be at home.*

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.†

DEAR FRIEND,

Birmingham, Oct. 17, 1790. Ar length we are, through a good Providence, safely arrived at our comfortable habitation, and I am returned to my usual pleasing pursuits. We are both better for the journey, though my rheumatism is not quite gone.

I find Mr. Russell's family in deep affliction, as you will suppose. He desires me to thank you for the letter you wrote him, which appears to have given him very great satisfaction.

I could not find time to peruse Mr. Dodson's Isaiah on my journey, but shall set about it immediately, as also the transcription of what I have done to the Psalms, &c.

While I was at Buxton, there came one Mr. Nordensckiold, from Sweden, accompanied by Mr. Wadstorn, whom we saw at Mr. Martin's, to Birmingham, on purpose, as they said, to see me. They followed me to Buxton, and I had several conversations with them; but what they had to propose (which + Essex Street.

• Orig. MS.