in America would lead me too much into detail; but the following extract from a letter dated 24th July, 1795, may serve as a specimen :

"I think I told you that my son Harry was farming for himself. For activity, industry, and good judgment (as judges say) he has few equals, though he has many difficulties to struggle with, his land being all to clear. He lives in what is called a log-house, which has only one room, and a garret containing hay and straw above him. He is about, however, to build a stone house, with two rooms, but no second story. William is returned from Boston, where he had the ague all the winter. He, though tender and delicate, is to take part of Harry's land, and they will build near together. Notwithstanding their educations, the minds of all my sons, I am happy to perceive, are not above their condition. William is to marry a young woman, daughter of a reputable farmer, and one who has been used to the management of a farm some years, for she is about 23, and is the eldest daughter of a pretty large family. He consequently expects no fortune, and yet he is not at all discouraged. As he has lost much time, and suffered much in France and elsewhere, I think it right, and his brothers think so too, that he should have something more than they, and I propose to give him £300 more than his thousand, though I cannot do it immediately, the house I am building, some purchases with a view to it, and the settlement of Harry (though I have not as yet given him more than £500) having taken all that I can at present spare. But with moderate industry, any man may do well enough here. We hope to get our college established the next year, and if it yield me any income, I shall be better able to help my sons. Your sister is rather too fully employed in fitting up our temporary house and providing everything for the other. In all this I take no concern, but I am now as busy in my own way, writing and experimenting, as in any period of my life. I shall soon add two more volumes to my Church History, and I am about to send to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia an account of some experiments I have lately made in pursuance of those I began at Hackney. Considering the distance I am at from the sea, I am better situated for experiments than you would imagine. We have ingenious workmen of almost every kind in this place, so that I hardly want anything but a glass house. Living so far from a sea port, I have found great difficulty in sending what I have printed here to England. One, however, by accident, has got thither, and Mr. Lindsay has reprinted it. It is my Answer to Mr. Paine, of which he had my directions to give you a copy. I hope you have received it. I am now printing Observations on the Increase of Infidelity, and hope to have better success in sending it."

Another from Philadelphia on the 22nd of April, 1796 :

66

I was engaged to spend about two months in this city, in order to deliver a course of sermons on the Evidences of Revelation, and, if possible, to establish an Unitarian congregation here. I have delivered

one of the discourses to a very numerous and respectable audience, especially of the members of Congress, and everything promises well. I am determined to decline all pecuniary advantage from the scheme, and as I am a guest of Mr. Russell, who has a house here, my expenses are not great; otherwise I could not support it. I have been at the President's, who invited me to call without ceremony. We drank tea with him as in any private family. Everything here is the reverse of what it is with you. I do not think there is an example in all history of any country being in so rapid a state of improvement as this is in at the present time. But in proportion as it is advantageous to the laborer, it is heavy on the man who must live on the labor of others. Living here is I think not less than twice as expensive as in any part of England, and the wants of Europe raise the price of our produce, and consequently, of everything else. All our late accounts from England are very alarming, so that I cannot help wishing that all my friends were here, where at least there is peace, and no apprehension of any disturbance."

From Northumberland he writes on 28th July, 1796:

"What I wish for you is all that I hope for myself, a quiet and comfortable old age, which I find coming upon me, on which account I decline everything which requires more exertion than I know I am capable of. A college is now building in this place, and I am chosen president; but I shall only accept of it till another can be provided, and that on condition that I have no concern with the discipline of the students, and my lectures will be given gratis, as they were at Hackney. If I can barely subsist, I shall be content with it rather than take an employment, with the difficulties of which I am not now able to contend. By this time I hope you have received a copy of some Discourses, which I delivered at Philadelphia in the course of the last winter. I have also printed the Philosophical Tracts, which I hope will soon reach you. By these you will find that I have not been idle. Indeed, I hope to do as much here as I ever did in England in the same time, though destitute of many advantages which I had there, especially when my house is built, and my laboratory fitted up; but in this I find much difficulty and delay that I did not expect, besides that the expense will be twice as much as I calculated for, not so much owing to calculating wrong, as to the astonishing advance of the price of everything, especially of labor. The like was, I believe, never known in any age or country. But it is owing, in a great measure at least, to the unexampled flourishing state of the country, which is indeed in a most rapid state of improvement, both in this place and everywhere else."

In a letter from Northumberland, on the 17th December, 1795, he mentions the illness of his wife, and the death of his son Henry. After relating the particulars of the latter event, he writes:

"He was indefatigable in the attention he gave to his farm, and had just built a little stone house, which was nearly ready to be occupied. * * * Considering how delicate his constitution was, and that his education was for a learned profession, it was something extraordinary that he should so cheerfully submit to all the drudgery of a common farmer. It was the wonder of everybody. Had he been brought up an American farmer, he could not have been more industrious. Indeed, the Americans are not remarkably industrious. They can do very well without hard labor, and, therefore, will not in general submit to it. The English emigrants, it is observed, work much harder than they. This being the first stroke of the kind, it affects me more than I can express, though I hope I do not complain of the dispensations of Providence, which, I doubt not, are always right and wise, but my chief consolation is the expectation of meeting him again in a better state. * * * Your sister has had several very alarming spittings of blood, and has now a very violent cough, occasioned by sitting up three nights with Harry. Her trials have been in several respects very great. For three months, a great part of which time she was confined to her room or her bed, she had no maid-servant, and now we only hire a black slave by the week. The country is in too prosperous a state for servitude, and it is observed that the difficulty of getting servants increases continually. All that can be had are young boys or girls."

Nine months afterwards Mrs. Priestley died, and the event is thus related in a letter, of the 19th September, 1796:

"I sit down to inform you of the melancholy event of the death of my wife, who is to be buried this day. She was ill about a fortnight, and died about 11 at night on Saturday. Her illness was a fever, which very much affected her head, so that she had very little sense of anything for the greater part of the time, and though she seemed to suffer much at some times, she went off without any symptom of being in pain. I need not tell you what we all feel on the occasion. The death of Harry affected her much, and it has hardly ever been out of my mind, though it is now near nine months since he died, but this is a much heavier stroke. It has been a happy union to me for more than 34 years, in which I have had no care about anything, so that, without any anxiety, I have been able to give all my time to my own pursuits. I always said I was only a lodger in her house. She had taken much pleasure in planning our new house, and now that it is advancing apace, and promises to be everything that she wished it to be, she goes to occupy another. I shall, however, finish the house, as it is fitted for my use, as well as that of a family, and Joseph will live with me in it, for I am not able to manage a house myself."

On the same subject he writes on the 25th of January, 1797 :—

"More than 4 months are now elapsed since that afflicting event,

and I do not think I shall ever completely recover the state of mind that I had before. I feel quite unhinged and incapable of the exertions I used to make. Having been always very domestic, reading and writing with my wife sitting near me, and often reading to her, I miss her everywhere; and if it was not for the great assiduity of my son Joseph, who is everything that I could wish him to be, and that of his wife, to make my desolate situation as comfortable as they can, I feel that I could not stay here. I should certainly return at all events to England: however, as things are, I intend to spend what remains of life in this country, only wishing, if there should be a peace, to make you one visit before I die.”

In a letter from Northumberland, dated 30th November, 1797, after writing on his pecuniary affairs, he says:—

"With all my difficulties I have much to be thankful for. Hitherto few persons have had more enjoyment of life and their pursuits than I have had, and, without solicitude, my wants have been supplied by the friends of science and rational religion, to which I shall always devote myself. Though my philosophical friends have in general dropped their subscriptions to my experiments, which are much more expensive here than they were in England, my religious friends have not forgotten me. From Mr. Rayner I have received every year £50, and from the Duke of Grafton £40. These benefactions, however, I cannot depend upon, and should have declined accepting, if I could have had remittances from France. * * * Winter is set in with great severity, but my health is better than it was. I shall not go to Philadelphia this season, nor ever again to make any stay. Having done what I could there the two last winters, I shall avoid that great expence, and make the most of my leisure here, and I have work enough before me, both in Philosophy and Theology. Party spirit runs very high in this country. Though I take no part whatever in Politics, I am more grossly calumniated, as a supposed Friend of France, in the newspaper that has the greatest currency of any in this country, than I was in England. I do not think, however, that it will be in the power of our rulers to drag this country into a war with France; and if we have peace, things cannot go much amiss with us.' From this time, and indeed for some time previously, the principal topic of the letters is the state of the Funds invested in France. In the letter of 15th March, 1798, already quoted from, he writes:

"Mr. Delacroix, the late minister of Foreign affairs, tells the consul here that if I would go and reside in France I should recover more than I have lost. If I could depend upon this I should think it right to go, though (at a great expence) I am now very comfortably settled here. * * * As I am acquainted with M. Taleyrand Perigord (late Bishop of Autun) the successor of Mr. Delacroix, I have written

to him, saying that if I had a proper assurance of the promise above mentioned, I should go, but whether my letter will reach him is very uncertain, and, at the most, I shall not be able to go till the next year. Mr. Russell, who has much property in France, is disposed to go too, and we shall (I think) go together, but not before a peace is made, and that most desirable event we hope cannot now be very distant. The affairs of England seem to be drawing to a crisis, and I cannot help being concerned for the event. I wish all my friends had such a quiet asylum as we have here. This country however is not without its difficulties. We are almost in a state of war with France, and what will be done is yet uncertain. I believe they will arm their ships for defence, and this I fear will lead to an open rupture. Either this measure or an embargo must be adopted, and the merchants seem to prefer the former. The hatred to France has risen to an astonishing pitch since I have been here, and as a supposed Friend of France, Ĭ am exposed to as much abuse as I was in England, though I have nothing to do with their politics.'

On the 14th June, 1800, he writes :—

"The expence of printing a work, calculated I hope to promote the cause of rational Christianity, which I have most at heart, has been considerable, and the bookseller who had promised to take it upon himself, has declined it. A copy of this work will be sent to you, as also of a Philosophical Tract, by which you will see that I am not idle; and while I am successful in my pursuits, (and I was never more so than I have been of late) I am persuaded that the liberal friends of science would not wish me to desist, though the expence attending them is necessarily considerable; but thinking that I have now no occasion for any assistance, those who contributed to the expense of my laboratory in England have withdrawn their subscriptions. I hope, therefore, you will consider what you do for me as given to promote useful science and useful knowledge in general, to which, without any view to emolument, I have always devoted my time, and I wish to do so as long as I shall be capable of doing anything, which cannot now be long and this I doubt not will be as powerful a motive with you as any relationship whatever. My gratitude will appear in the only manner in which I shall be capable of shewing it."

:

On the 17th July, 1800:

My expenses have never been personal, but chiefly in the promotion of science and truth in general, to which I have devoted my time and whatever powers God has given me, and, therefore, I hope that the friends of science and of truth will afford me the assistance they have hitherto done. I am now as busy, and I hope as successful, as ever. My situation is in many respects favourable, especially with respect to leisure and quiet. As to the abuse to which I am exposed here, as formerly in England, I rather rejoice in it than am concerned