I have the pleasure of transmitting your diploma as an honorary member of the Literary and Philosophical Society, which I have hitherto been prevented from sending, by a variety of circumstances. Allow me, at the same time, to thank you for the satisfaction your Essay on Alphabetic Writing afforded me. Had I been favoured with a sight of it before I had occasion to treat on the subject in my Course of Lectures, I should certainly have taken the liberty to avail myself of your observations, and not only spared myself the study of some days, but, likewise, the exposure of some nonsense. In treating on a subject so involved in obscurity, it is not to be wondered that I found much difficulty in saying any thing satisfactory; however, by the assistance of a number of authorities, I proceeded tolerably well through the known gradations of Hieroglyphic and Syllabic Writing. And though the origin of the characters of the alphabet do not seem illustrated by any historical relation that can in the least degree be depended on, yet, like most young adventurers, with more rashness than judgment, 1 ventured to hazard a conjecture, rather than utterly relinquish the inquiry. As (I remarked) it appeared probable that the alphabet of every language is derived from one source, I supposed it possible that the idea of substituting a character which has no similitude to the thing it is to assist in representing to the mind, might possibly take place from one of those fortuitous circumstances that oftentimes occur, and instantaneously present the accomplishment of what may in vain have exercised the most laborious study and investigation. It is needless to suggest to you that the perfecting, and even the inventing, of many of the most important things in science and the arts, have been owing to accidental and unlooked-for incidents which ingenious and intelligent people have availed themselves of, so as to determine to important disco May we veries and improvements. not, therefore, be authorised in conjecturing, that the figures from whence the characters of the alphabet have originated, might have been suggested from the awkward attempts towards drawing hieroglyphic characters made by some person who either had not sufficient ingenuity, or wished to spare himself the trouble of forming the necessary design? You will readily conceive the inference I made.When once a figure that did not convey the least relative appearance to the thing it was meant to represent, or assist in representing, was, nevertheless, sufficient to give an idea of resemblance to the mind, the first difficulty would be surmounted, and the imperfect and laborious system of hieroglyphic writing would be superseded as a more perfect and simple one was formed, and which we see accomplished in the most important discovery of representing sounds and speech by the combination of alphabetic characters. The small number of letters employed in early times (Cadmus having only introduced 16 letters, and the Etruscan alphabet, at a still earlier period, being said to consist of no more than 14 letters) is a circumstance that luckily favours my hypothesis; and to this may be added, that hieroglyphic characters were employed at the time, and even long after the use of alphabetic ones. The latter, if of human invention, must have been effected by very slow degrees, and it would, therefore, be necessary to supply their early deficiency with picturesque representations, which we may imagine might have some similitude to the hieroglyphic puzzle-papers that are put into the hands of children. I fear from the length of this Letter that you will be induced to think me a hunter of hypotheses and fond of argument, to both which charges I must plead not guilty in general. I will, however, put an end to this page, with subscribing myself, with the truest esteem and respect, Dear Sir, Your most obedient Servant, GEO. BEW. The Rev. Mr. Wakefield. SIR, Mr. Cooper on the Disposition of Negroes to embrace Christianity. 217 March 27, 1822. FTER this long delay, I feel myself able to comply with the request of your correspondent Q., pp. 665, 666, of your last volume. And, in the first place, it may be proper for me to state, that Jamaica is the only island I visited during my late residence in the West Indies; and that my knowledge of that colony is confined to the three following parishes: Hanover, Westmorland and St. James. I have, however, been repeatedly assured, by gentlemen who have spent many years in the island, and travelled over the greater part of it, that what I saw may safely be deemed a fair specimen of the whole. The estate upon which I lived is one of the finest in the parish of Hanover at one period it contained a population of four hundred and ten slaves; but now the number is reduced to about three hundred and ninety. : Newcastle-under-Lyne, reached our destined harbour in the The sole object of my mission was to ascertain the practicability of improving the condition of the negroes on this property, by means of religious instruction. And, with a view to render my task as easy and as agreeable as possible, I was authorized by the proprietor to adopt my own plans of tuition; provided they should in no respect be found incompatible with the order and management of the plantation. A house was provided for me, pleasantly situated, about a mile from the negro village; and I was made quite independent of the other white people connected with the slaves. These preliminaries being settled, I and my wife embarked at Gravesend, in the ship Ann, late in October, 1817, and, after a tedious passage to the Land's End, and a charming run across the Atlantic, we It being Christmas time, we were introduced to the negroes under circumstances of the inost favourable kind. Numbers of them were decked in their best attire, exhibiting a thousand marks of mirth and gladness. For, at this season of the year, they are allowed, throughout the island, a few days' liberty, which they commonly spend in dressing, dancing, feasting and singing. On these occasions they seem, indeed, almost to fancy themselves on a par with the whites; from whom they now experience great hospitalityand even affability. Shortly after we entered our new habitations, several of them came to pay their respects to us; and, with this intent, most of the slaves belonging to the estate waited upon us before the end of a fortnight. Many of them were exceedingly well dressed, and they all affected great politeness; assuring us, that they felt particularly happy to see persons of our description amongst them. They inquired after their master and mistress in En gland. On the whole, their appearance and behaviour made a favourable impression on our minds, while, at the same time, we could not help seeing much about them calculated to excite the deepest commiseration. We questioned them respecting their families, their ages, their knowledge of good and evil, of God, of Jesus Christ, and of a life to come; but most of their answers were of a very unsatisfactory and ambiguous nature. Their ignorance on points of this kind, as may easily be imagined, is, certainly, very deplorable; yet by no means so profound as they endeavoured to make us believe. One young woman, on being asked a few questions by Mrs. C. about the Supreme Being, humourously replied that her mother had been christened, and, therefore, she left such matters to her, and did not trouble her head about them. Before they left us, they generally took care to drop a number of complaints, with respect to their temporal affairs, and to insinuate that they had a very hard overseer. But in all this there was great art and much hypocrisy. We soon discovered, that on subjects of this description they endeavoured to mislead us, in order that it might afterwards be in their power to make tools of us. They tried us, in every possible manner, and although we had been forewarned of their arts and intentions, I must own that they did succeed in getting us to believe, for a considerable time, that they were really exposed to a number of unnecessary hardships and much wanton cruelty. We, however, clearly saw, long before we returned to this country, that their testimony against persons employed to superintend them at their work is not to be relied on in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred; and that nothing short of the strictest discipline can ever keep them within any thing like due bounds. At the same time, it is not to be denied that their case is an extremely hard one; perhaps much more so than is generally imagined. Where there is slavery there must be fear and force, in spite of a thousand laws and regulations to the contrary; or even the most ardent wishes of the best masters and overseers. This will be more apparent in the sequel. Almost immediately on our arrival on the estate, care was taken to inform the slaves, that they were all at full liberty to ask me any questions they pleased, on subjects of a religious nature, and to form themselves into a society under my directions, as soon as they felt disposed to do so. Accordingly, about eighty of them came to our house one Sunday morning for the purpose, as they said, of hearing me preach. They were all invited to come in; and I concluded that I could not do better, on such an occasion, than explain to them, in the fullest manner, the object I had in view in taking up my abode amongst them; and, at the same time, state a few particulars respecting the being and perfections of the Deity. They listened to me with more attention than I expected; yet they could not forego the temptation of, every now and then, stopping me to ask some question, or to make some observation on what was said. Those of them who had been baptized, or, as they always term it, christened, appeared to take a deeper interest in the service than the rest: they were observed to kneel during the time of prayer, and they evidently felt their imagined superiority to the uninitiated. The whole company, indeed, expressed a willingness to attend on my instructions in a regular manner; and much anxiety to obtain information on a subject of such vital importance as that of religion: but they declared, in the most positive and clamorous manner, that their master (meaning the agent for the estate) must allow them time for these things. They begged me to intercede for them, alleging that it was not, and never would be, in their power to attend in what is termed their own time. I did what I could to pacify them, and gave them to understand that I wished them to depart, and reflect on what they had heard ; but before they went out, they could not forbear uttering a variety of complaints against individuals, and seemed strongly inclined to insist on the indispensable necessity of a redress of grievances. At length the house was cleared, but immediately filled again, with a second congregation of precisely the same description with the first. I repeated the service I had Original Letter from Mr. Fox to Secker, Bishop of Bristol. just performed, and the requests and complaints, stated above, were again urged upon my attention, with great emphasis and apparent sincerity; and here ended my labours for this day. The scene was novel and tumultuous; yet I could not help thinking that it portended well. Out of so many who professed a regard for religion, I thought I might reasonably hope to find a few sincere; but I was disappointed. For even those who laid claim to the Christian name were afterwards found to be persons totally void of religious feelings, and absolutely given up to the practice of the grossest vices. Discoveries of this sort were inexpressibly painful; yet they could only be regarded as so many reasons for persevering in our experiment. As to the unbaptized, they turned out, as your readers will see hereafter, to be equally depraved, and, to a slave, wholly destitute of what might be termed a steady desire to attend to things of a spiritual nature. They were all perfectly aware that I held myself in readiness to serve them at all times, and that nothing was expected, or would be received of them, but their attendance; their master having undertaken to bear all the expenses of the mission: yet they never came to me in their own time, for many months together, with that degree of regularity which was absolutely requisite to ensure their perinanent improvement. At one period a few of them did, indeed, appear to take real pleasure in hearing me read and illustrate, in a familiar manner, some of the most striking parts of the historical Scriptures. But what took their attention above all things, was the sight of some of those large plates which are bound up in Goadby's Bible. Upon these I have seen them gaze with delight and astonishment, and I doubt not that in some instances they afforded them a degree of information. By these methods alone we endeavoured to turn their thoughts to subjects of a spiritual kind for the first six or seven months we were in Jamaica, when it was resolved to allow them half a day in a fortnight, out of Crop, for the purpose of attending on me. The manner in which this time was employed, together with the relation of some other particulars, will 219 constitute the subject of my letter for your next Number. I SIR, T. COOPER. Norwich, March 22, 1822. AM indebted for the inclosed to Mr. Clifford, of the Theatre-Royal in this city. It is a copy of an additional letter from Mr. Fox to Secker, (then Bishop of Bristol,) which completes the correspondence with them at that period. From Mr. Fox to the Bishop of Bristol. MY LORD, Plymouth, May 4, 1736. I am very sensible that an address of this kind to one in your Lordship's situation, ought to be attended with some reasonable apology; especially as it comes from a person of low rank in life, probably not thought of for many years past, and perhaps not suspected to be in the land of the living. All I can say for this liberty with your Lordship is, that I believe the same goodness and generosity which I knew to have guided your thoughts and actions eighteen or twenty years ago, do still prevail; and that I ed with me, who had once the honour to cannot think your Lordship will be offendbe called your friend, for doing that now, which I had the pleasure of doing then very often. Providence hath continued me in the same solitude and obscurity in which I was when your Lordship left England: suffer me to assure you, my Lord, and in the sincerity of my heart I say it, that the different dispositions of it in your favour hath given me unspeakable satisfaction. The same sentiments of friendship which you have often kindled in me are alive and warm; and I rejoice to see once in my life a lover of virtue and of mankind called forth to a station in which he can so well promote the interests of both. I have long intended to indulge myself in making your Lordship some humble but sincere congratulations of this sort; but the belief that your Lordship's time and thoughts being employed in things of consequence hath made me afraid of being troublesome. I hope, my Lord, you will accept this as it is meant, and not impute it to the low vanity of making myself known; with which (if any thing can be remembered of me) you never knew me tainted. I heartily wish your Lordship a long and happy continuance in your station; and beg leave, with all becoming deference and respect, to conclude this in your own words to me in 1717, that I am, and hope ever shall be, Yours and virtue's Friend, Then follows his Lordship's answer, May 8th, 1736. * Mr. Clifford has in his possession some other memoirs by Mr. Fox, of the times in which he lived. + SIR, G. SOTHERN. Leicester, April 3, 1822. HE angry feeling which your cor towards Mr. Hall in your last Repository, (p. 168,) appears to me to be entirely groundless, for I cannot find a single word in the original edition of the "Apology" concerning Dr. Priestley, that is omitted in the last edition. I think he must have had in his memory two passages contained in Mr. Hall's publication entitled "Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom," and have forgotten the work in which they appeared. The first of the passages I refer to runs thus: "The religious tenets of Dr. Priestley appear to me erroneous in the extreme, but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to virtue, or my admiration of genius. From him the poisoned arrow will fall pointless. His enlightened and active mind, his unwcaried assiduity, the extent of his researches, the light he has poured into almost every department of science, will be the admiration of that period when the greater part of those who have favoured, or those who have opposed him, will be alike forgotten. Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. The vapours which gather round the rising sun, and follow it in its course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated tints and with a softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide." ED. For which see Vol. XVI. p. 634. We should be still further obliged to our correspondent could he procure for us a sight of these Memoirs, with the liberty of using any part of them which may suit our purpose. ED. On occasion of a Sermon published by the Rev. John Clayton, 1791. ED. In the other passage he keenly rebukes Mr. Clayton for having intimated to his congregation that the Birmingham Riots were a judgment, and advises him not to suffer this itch for interpreting the counsels of Heaven to grow upon him, and concludes thus: "The best use he could make of his mantle would be to bequeath it to the use of posterity, as for the want of it I am afraid they will be in danger of falling into some very unhappy mistakes. To their unenlightened eyes it will appear a reproach, that in the eighteenth century, an age that boasts its science and improvement, the first philosopher in Europe, of a character unblemished, and of manners the most mild and gentle, should be torn from his family, and obliged to flee, an outcast and a fugitive, from the murderous hands of a frantic rabble; but when they learn that there were not wanting teachers of religion who secretly triumphed in these barbarities, they will pause for a moment, and imagine they Vandals. Erroneous as such a judgment are reading the history of Goths or of must appear in the eyes of Mr. Clayton, nothing but a ray of his supernatural light could enable us to form a juster decision. Dr. Priestley and his friends are not the first that have suffered in a public cause; and when we recollect, that no those who have sustained similar disasters have been generally conspicuous for a superior sanctity of character, what but an acquaintance with the counsels of Heaven can enable us to distinguish between these two classes of sufferers, and whilst one are the favourites of God, to discern in the other the objects of his vengeance. When we contemplate this extraordinary endowment, we are longer surprised at the superiority he assumes through the whole of his discourse, nor at that air of confusion and disorder which appears in it, both of which we impute to his dwelling so much in the insufferable light, and amidst the corruscations and flashes of the divine glory; a sublime but perilous situation, described with great force and beauty by Mr. Gray: "He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Closed his eyes in endless night."" To these glowing eulogies on the illustrious Priestley, may be added |