left but little room to expect his recovery: and he professed with an air of great satisfaction, that at the same time, his sickness seized him, he was seized with the hopes of having, as he expressed it, got his discharge. "Death," said he, is no " more to me, than it is for a weary traveller, after a hard day's journey, to undress and go to bed. Some considerations, I confess, might plead for my stay in the world awhile, but they cannot prevail with me to desire to live: I only desire, if Providence see fit to continue me, that I may submit." At another time he declared, that "he had not one uneasy thought about himself: death," he said, " is no awful thing to me, but will be a happy remove to the Church above, where I have long been desirous to be." He told his own son-in-law, who attended him as physician, and desired permission to call in other advice, that he was willing he should use what means he judged necessary but then added, " Doctor, I shall pray against you.",

He dropt many other such expressions; and designed to have left behind him a solemn testimony to the great truths of the Christian religion: but he was so enfeebled and his spirits were so weakened by the severity of his disease, that he found himself unable to dictate what he wished to say. It may be easy to conceive, for he was attacked on Saturday and died early on the next Thursday morning. He was, however, perfectly sensible to the last; and then departed not only with comfort and peace in his own mind, but without a struggle or a groan. (To be continued.)

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

LIBERATION OF NEGROES IN ENGLAND.

To the Editor of the Monthly Repository. SIR, LOOKING at your account of the African Institution, p. 220 of the present volume, I perceive that you have not fully stated the proceedings respecting the vote of thanks to Mr. Granville Sharp. I first proposed to thank that venerable philanthropist "for his opposition to the System of Negro Slavery," which necessarily included his exertions for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, Some fears were expressed that the Institution might appear to encourage an immediate emancipation of slaves in

the colonics. Though in my opinion such apprehensions were groundless, yet, for the sake of unanimity, I readily acceded to the alteration as you have reported it.

Since that meeting Mr. Sharp has favoured me with copies of two letters, on the subject of the liberation of negroes in England, written by him several years ago. The enclosed extract from one of them addressed to a benevolent physician at Falmouth (who had interested himself to prevent 6 a poor negro boy" in that port from being sent abroad as a slave) will shew the difficulties which Mr. S. encountered in prosecuting that labour of love," to which he has devoted so large a part of his valuable life. The circumstances will probably be new to many of your readers. I remain Sir, yours,

Clapton, June 16, 1807.

J. T. RUTT.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM GRANVILLE SHARP, ESQ. TO DR. R. FOX, DATED JULY 11, 1798.

To satisfy your 3d question-"What success has attended similar attempts to rescue from slavery poor negroes who have accidentally been brought into other British ports?"-It is necessary that I should acquaint you that I was obliged to defend myself at a heavy expense against an action at law for having set a negro at liberty in the year 1767, one Jonathan Strong. That my prosecutor James Kerr, Esq. a Jamaica planter, was at length non-suited and paid triple costs. That I then printed the arguments which I had drawn up for my own defence against an opinion formerly given by the Lords Hardwick and Talbot jointly, when the one was Attorney General, and the other Solicitor General, (a copy of which had been produced to intimidate me,) stating, "that a slave by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, doth not become free, &c. and that the master may legally compel him to return again to the plantations." (Signed) P. York and C. Talbot,and dated 14th January, 1729. All which I disproved, as being contrary to the foundations of the English Law.

After the publication of my book in 1769, I set many more negroes at liberty, recovering them by writs of habeas corpus, from on board the ships in which they were confined; and by prosecuting their masters, until Lord Mansfield, in the case of James Somerset, (whom I protected,) was compelled to give up the point in 1772, and to acknowledge from the bench, (in opposition to the above-mentioned opinion of York and Talbot, which he cited, as well as against his own former assertions and practice,) that a case so odious as the condition of slaves must be taken strictly: that tracing the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported. That the power claimed by this return," (viz. the return made by James

66

Somerset's master, Mr. David Lisle, a lawyer, who afterwards challenged me to fight him, because I had liberated his servant)" was never in use here or acknowledged by the law. That no master was ever allowed here to take a slave by force to be sold abroad because he had deserted from his service, or for any other reason whatever. We cannot say," (here his Lordship spoke in the name of all his brethreu, the Judges on the bench, we cannot say,)" the cause set forth by this return is allowed or approved of by the laws of this kingdom, and therefore the man," (meaning James Somerset,) "must be discharged." This clear decision of the Court of Kings bench has since been recognized and admitted by other courts, as unquestionable, particu larly in the case of Kay and Chrichton, in 1773, in the Prerogative Court (Doctors Commons,) by the then judge, Dr. Kay: and afterwards in the High Court of Admiralty, on the 29th June, 1776, in the case of Rogers, alias Rigges, against Jones. And yet I have still been obliged, even afterwards, to interfere for the relief of several other poor negroes, and I always succeeded, (God be thanked,) in obtaining their liberty, but I never proceeded so far in the prosecu tions against their masters, as to press them for the pecuniary penalties to which they are really liable by the Habeas Corpus Act, because I was always contented to stop proceedings as soon as they submitted and gave up the poor oppressed people.

MINUTES OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Monthly Repository.

IN reading this morning a work often called "The Scotch Confessional," but really entitled "The Religious Establishment in Scotland, exainined upon Protestant principles," a tract, occasioned by the prosecution against the late Rev. Mr. Alexander Ferguson, Minister in Kilwinning, published 1771, I met with the following sentence - The Westminster Divines, themselves, were in their own minds, we have reason to think, no friends to such establishments as the Orthodox contend for: though the minutes and records of that assembly are not now, perhaps, accessible."

The author of that liberal and judicious tract is, probably, amongst the dead, and out of the reach of any information about the point on which he speaks; it may, however, be useful and gratifying to others, whose taste and studies lead them into researches after ecclesiastical monuments. I feel a propriety, therefore, in saying through the channel of your Repository, to which I wish an extensive circulation, that the minutes and records of the Westminster

Divines are accessible." They are deposited in Dr. Williams's Library, in Red-Cross Street, in London: and permission to inspect, examine and make extracts from them, there is no doubt, may be very easily obtained from the Curators of that Institution.

April 23, 1807.

I am, yours &c.

J. T.

In addition to the information already received concerning Airs. Harrison, the author, or more properly the Editor of the Miscellanies,' in which appeared many of the Rev. Mr. Grigg's poetical jeu d'esprits," we are enabled by this correspondent to state, that "she was the author of a popular, moral piece, for the instruction of children, entitled, Familar Dialogues,' re. commended by a Preface from the pen of Dr. Doddridge."

EDITOR.

ANSWERS TO THE INQUIRER. NO. III*."

1. "Free and Candid Disquisitions."-2. Dr. Wood of Norwich.-3. Pictet's System of Theology.—4. Grigg's Poems.

I.

The "Free and Candid Disquisitions," it appears from the preface, were the compositions of several authors; who, partly from modesty and especially from prudence, did not think fit to set their names to the work. Their names are not yet known. Some persons of the laity of great learning and worth, and some highly estimable clerical characters were embarked in the object, to which the papers, under this title, were devoted. "I remember," says the excellent and venerable LINDSEY," at the time, that in one of our universities, there was a general disposition in the younger part of its members, to favour these disquisitions, and an expectation that some reformation would have taken place in consequence of themt." The copy, we are told in the preface, was first lodged, in MS. in the winter of 1746, in the hands of a very eminent and worthy prelate, with an humble request that his Lordship, would vouchsafe, if he thought fit, to communicate the contents to the Convocation at one of their meetings. Whether this were ever done, or whether any opportunity to present it to any useful purpose offered, was not known.

*Vol. ii. p. 86.

+ "Address to the Students of Oxford and Cambridge.". Part I. p. 45, 46. Preface, p. 3,4.

The name of the prelate to whom it was presented is not mentioned. The Archbishop of Canterbury at that time was Dr. Potter, the learned author of the "Grecian Antiquities." It has lately been announced to the public that the Editor was the Rev. John Jones, of Alconbury, in Huntingdonshire; after of Shirpal, in Herts. He was also the Editor of the "Appeal to Reason and Candour*." There is an interesting letter of this gentleman, expressive of his liberality and piety, to Dr. Doddridge, dated 1741, from Ripton Abbots, Huntingdonshiret. T.

II.

It may gratify T. C. A. of Chatham to be informed, that Dr. Wood, of Norwich, was settled in the former part of his life, at Swetling, in Suffolk. He went there in 1732, and was ordained pastor 1733. He united popular talents with great seriousness. In 1747, he removed to Norwich, and died there Nov. 7, 1767. Some time after his settlement in that city, he was complimented with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by one of the Scotch Universities. He was a gentleman of great benevolence, and extensive influence, the greatest part of his life, especially after his removal to Norwich, in the conn, ties of Suffolk and Norfolk. He was the esteemed friend of Dr. DODDRIDGE, from whom there are eleven letters addressed to him in Mr. Stedman's publication of his correspondence. He died Nov. 2, 1767, in the 57th year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Thomas Howe, of Yarmouth, from Heb. xi. 4. This discourse affords no biographical account of Dr. Wood, and characterises him only in the general strain of eulogium, as an amiable man, a public and respectable character, and an excellent minister; who never appeared to act with so much spirit as when doing the most generous and disinterested things: the pleasure of his heart," says Mr. Howe, "was his reward." We are also told that he used frequently to call the gospel, A DIVINE DISCIPLINE to FORM US to a HEAVENLY TEMPER and L FE.

Few as are these particulars, they may, perhaps, be an unseasonable anticipation of a fuller memoir from the pen of Mr. Newton, Dr. Wood's Son-in-law.

T.

P. S. Dr. Wood pursued his academical studies with Mr. Thomas Cook, of Framlingham, in Suffolk, under his uncle Mr. Samuel Wood, of Lavenham, in the same county; who kept a considerable boarding school, and trained these two pupils for the pulpit.

III.

B. J. of Bristol will probably have seen in number XV. of the Repository, (vol. 11. p. 168.) Pictel, corrected as a misprint, and the

* A Short menioir of Bp. Law: re-printed with notes, p. 7.

+"Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge," by Mr. Stedman, p. 241. The late ML Thompson's MSS. Collections.