sS'?-'v

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MEMOIRS

OF

THE LIFE
OF
THE REV. RICHARD PRICE,
D.D.F.R.S.

MEMOIRS THE LIFE
OF
THE REV. RICHARD PRICE,
D.D. F.R.S.

WILLIAM MORGAN, F.R.S.

Hontioni
PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER, SUCCESSOR TO J. JOHNSON,
NO. 72, ST. pawl's CHURCHYARD;
AND R. RBES, NO. 62, FALL MALL.
1815.

YALE.

"^^

Richard and Arthur Taylor, Printers, Shoe-Lane.

PREFACE.

In writing the following Memoirs my
chief design has been to give such a*^
general account of Dr. Price as should
lead the reader to form a right judge
ment of his principles and character. —
I have, therefore, confined myself to the
more important parts of his life, without
entering into minute details of little con
sequence, which at this distant period
could have no effect in rendering the
work either more useful or interesting:
— and in order to be as concise as pos
sible, I have been very sparing in the
use of his private correspondence; — nor

VI

should 1 indeed, under any circum
stances, have thought myself justified
in gratifying an idle curiofity by the in
discriminate publication of letters which
had been written in the confidence of
private friendship.
It may possibly appear strarige that
so many years should have been suffered
to pass away before any of the nearest
friends or relatives of Dr. Price should
have paid the tribute due to his memory
of giving some account of his life. — ^This
arose in the first instance from the pre
mature death of my brother George
Morgan, who had undertaken to write a
very circumstantial history of his uncle^s
life, and had made a considerable pro
gress in it, when, towards the close of
the yeaT 1798, a fatal disorder put a final
period to this and all his other pursuits.

vu

Tbe confused state in which hid papers
were found, and the indistinct Short hand
in which they were written, rendered it
impossible either to arrange or to under
stand them properly; and therefore, after
many fruitless attempts, I was reluctant
ly obliged to give up the investigation,
and to take upon myself the task of wri
ting a new, but more concise account;
being aware that many facts which
would have been highly gratifying to
Dr. Price's immediate friends would now
find but few survivors to be interested
in them.
My intimate connexion with Dr. Price
has enabled me to give almost the whole
of the facts in these Memoirs during the
last twenty-two years of his life, from my
own personal knowledge — and these are
certainly the most important. Previous

vm
to that period, the few occurrences
which distinguished his earlier years, I
have either accidentally learned in con
versation with him, or derived from those
notes which he had prepared for the pur
pose of writing his own life. Having
engaged in this work from no motive of
self-interest or ambition, I have been
anxious only to render justice to the
rpemory of a friend, by bearing my tes
timony to those virtues and talents^
which he so often displayed in the ser
vice of mankind, and on which I can
nevQr reflect without the deepest grati
tude and veneration.
London,
June 22d, J815.

MEMOIRS

OF

THE LIFE

RICHARD PRICE, D.D.

X HOUGH many years have elapsed since
the death of Dr, Price, and the greater
part of those friends, who would have been
most interested in the account of his life,
have followed him to the grave ; I am not
without hope that a few of them still re
main who will be gratified by recollecting,
and perhaps by being made better ac
quainted with, the habits and pursuits of
one whom they had formerly known, and
whose character they were accustomed to
admire. Nor can the account of a life uni-

2 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
fonnly employed in promoting the best in
terests of mankind be unprofitable to any
person, however little he may have previous
ly known of it, or however distant he may
have lived from the period in which it ter
minated. The exploits of heroes and con
querors are perhaps better fitted to excite
the astonishment and applause of the world
than the tranquil and retired occupations
of the philosopher or the divin6 ; but the
former have in general little in them to
soothe or to gratify the best feelings of
man, or to compensate for the painful emo
tions arising from the recital of the mise
ries and devastations with which they are
signalized ; while the latter, though desti
tute of the splendour which dazzles and de
ceives the multitude, have a tendency to
dignify and exalt the human character, and
to excite us to glory, — not by indulging the
destructive ambition of triumphing over our
fellow-creatures, but by exerting far nobler
efforts to control our passions and to triumph

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 3
over ourselves. The following account
therefore is given to the reader as the life
of a man who sacrificed no principle to po
pular applause or private emolument, but
who always endeavoured in silence and
tranquillity to exemplify in his conduct those
amiable qualities and the truth of those re
ligious principles which he enforced in his
writings; and its end will be fully at
tained, if in the least degree it inspires
those sentiments of liberty and virtue which
he so ardently inculcated, and which render
his memory so dear to the friends that have
survived him.
Richard Price, the son by a second
marriage of Rice Price, was born on the 23d
of February 1723, at Tynton, in the parish
of Langeinor, in the county of Glamorgan.
His father for many years was the minister
of a congregation of protestant dissenters
at Bridgend in the same county, which was
originally formed by Mr. Thomas, one of
B 2

4 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
those clergymen who had been ejected from
their livings at the restoration of Chnrles the
Second. Of his earlier years I have very little
to relate that is either important or interest
ing. Till the age of eight or ten years, he
was educated partly at home, by a person
re tained in his father's house for that purpose,
andpartly by a personiri the neighbourhood,
of the name of Peters, who afterwards ex
changed the. pro fession ofa country school
master for that of a dissenting minister,
and who was much esteemed by his pupil
during the whole course of his life. Mr.
Price, by his first marriage having two other
sons, intended Richard, his youngest son, for
trade; nor is it certain that he would have
been diverted from this intention, had he
lived long enough to carry it into execu
tion. But, whatever his intentions were, he
does not appear to have neglected his son's
education. — Having taken him from the
care of Mr. Peters, he placed him in a small
school at Bridgend, from which he was soon

RICHARD price, D.D. 5
moved, on account of the moroseness and
ill temper of his master, to another of a
different description at Neath, which was
kept by the Rev. Mr. Simmons, the minister
of the dissenting congregation in that town;
After continuing here about two years, he
was sent to the village of Pentwyn in Car
marthenshire, for his further instruction
under the Rev. Samuel Jones, a truly catho
lic and worthy man, whose religious princi
ples he was always used to admire for their
candour and liberality. What his father's
motives were for moving him from this
place — whether it was that Mr. Jones's sen
timents in religion were too liberal, or that
the youth might be more cheaply instruct
ed elsewhere — I know not ; but at the age
of fifteen (when he had been at Pentwyn
about three years) he was moved to the
Rev. Vavasor Griffith's academy at Talgarth
in Breconshire ; where he was a student at
the death of his father, in 1739. This event
by no means improved either his present

6 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
condition or future prospects. — From his
earliest youth his religious principles were
very different from those of his father. The
opinions of the one were candid, liberal,
and benevolent ; those of the other were
narrow, selfish, and gloomy; and the effects
of those opinions on the temper of both
were, as might be expected, in direct oppo
sition to each other. So bigoted Avas his
father to his own creed, that one day find
ing the boy reading Dr. Clarke's Sermons,
he flung the book in a rage into the fire,
with the most bitter invectives against him
for his want of faith and orthodoxy. As
the God in whom Mr. Price believed was
supposed to have formed the greater part
of mankind for damnation, and to have re
served only a few of his favourites without
any particular regard to their temper or
conduct, — in like manner did this good
man single out one of his children for his
favourite, leaving him almost the whole
of his property, and abandoning the rest of

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 7
his family in a great measure to provide for
theniselves. The aristocratic principle of
making one rich man in the family may
possibly have united with his religious prin
ciples in disposing Mr. Price to make this
partial distribution of his property. But
without entering into the further discussion
of his motives, I shall only observe, that
his widow and other six children were in
consequence involved in much difficulty
and trouble. The eldest son, however, who
practised physick at Newport in Mon
mouthshire, survived the disappointment
but a short time. The widow, the mother
of Richard (a most generous and excellent
woman), quitted Tynton on the death of
her husband, and, after languishing a few
months at her temporary abode in Bridgend,
died of a nervous fever in the beginning of
May in the following year. Her son, to
gether with his two sisters, who had moved
with her to Bridgend, attended her in her
last moments ; arid he has often expressed

8 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
his admiration of the tranquillity ^nd joy
with which she viewed the approaches of
death, and the prospect of a better world.
During the short interval which passed
between the decease of his father and that
of his mother, he continued at the academy
at Talgarth ; to which place he walked over
the mountains of Brecon, in the severe frost
of that year (1740); and it was in his way
thither that his mind was first engaged in
studying Butler's Analogy — a work which
never ceased to be the subject of his praise
and admiration.
In the autumn which succeeded his mo
ther's death, having now attained his 18th
year, it was determined, in compliance
with his own wishes, and the advice of his
paternal uncle, the Rev. Samuel Price,
who officiated as co-pastor with Dr. Watts,
that he should be moved to a dissenting
academy in London. — Having no means of
conveyance, as he then lived with his two
agisters who were no better provided for

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 9
than himself, he had recourse to his bro
ther, the heir of his father's fortune, who
supplied, him with a horse to carry himself
and a servant as far as Cardiff, a distance
of twenty miles, from whence he was left
to trudge on foot with his bundle in his
hand to Bristol — a further distance of forty
miles. But luckily for him, a good-natured
lady, seeing 41 youth in this forlorn condi
tion walking over rough and dirty roads,
took him into her carriage a part of the
way, and so far relieved him of his fatigue
and sorrow. From Bristol he set off in a
conveyance, which to the best of my recol
lection he told me was no other than a
broad-wheeled waggon. Immediately on
his arrival in London he was admitted into
the academy founded by Mr. Coward, of
which Mr. Eames was the principal tutor,
and lodged by his uncle (at whose expense
he was chiefly maintained) in the house of
a barber, in Pudding-lane. In this close
and confined abode, which was rendered

10 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
more noxious by the want of those ordinary
conveniences which are necessary to health
and cleanliness, he pursued his studies with
the most unremitting zeal and delight. —
But he soon felt the effects of having ex
changed the pure atmosphere of Wales for
the putrescent vapours of a narrow lane in
London. In a few months he became af
fiicted with the jaundice, and was obliged
to have recourse to the air of his native
country for the recovery of his health.
A summer's residence, however, among
his relatives dispelled all his complaints,
and he was enabled in the following win
ter to return to London, in order to re
sume his studies. Being now better ac
commodated, his health felt no further in
terruption ; so that, during the remaining
two years of his attendance at the academy,
he devoted his whole time Avith ardour and
delight (as he expresses himself in some
of his private memoirs) to the study of
mathematics, philosophy, and theology. —

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 11
When he had completed his education at
the academy, under the instruction of the
venerable Mr. Eames, of whose ability and
virtue he always, and deservedly, spoke
with the greatest respect and esteem, he
was moved by the recommendation of his
uncle to Stoke Newington, where he resided
for near thirteen years, in the family of Mr.
Streatfield, as his chaplain and compa
nion. While he resided here, he occasion
ally officiated in different congregations,
particularly at Dr. Chandler's meeting
house in the Old Jewry. Here he seemed
to acquire considerable popularity; but Dr.
Chandler, for reasons best known to him
self, advised him to be less energetic in his
manner, and to deliver his discourses with
more diffidence and modesty. This rebuke
had its natural effect on the mild and un
assuming temper of Mr. Price. To avoid
an extreme into which he was in no danger
of falling, he ran into the opposite extreme
of a cold and lifeless delivery, which, by ren-

12 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OP
dering him less popular with the congrega
tion, disposed them to feel less regret when
their minister had no further occasion for
his services. During the latter years of bis
residence at Mr. Streatfield's he officiated
principally at Edmonton, till he was chosen
to be the morning preacher at Newington
Green. By the death of Mr, Streatfield, and
also of his uncle which happened in the year
1756, his circumstances were considerably
improved ; the former having bequeathed
him a legacy in money, and the latter a
house in Leadenhall-street, together with
some other property. But though he was
thus remembered by his uncle, he certainly-
had reason to expect that it would have
been done more liberally. — But it is not
improbable that those motives which in
fluenced his father might have had some
effect on the mind of his uncle, in the dis
posal of his fortune ; for the greater part of
it in both cases was left to the same per
son ; and, it must be confessed, with proper

RICHARD. PRICE, D.D. 15
discernment, if they intended that it should
be duly preserved and improved. But it
should be observed that Mr. Price never
expressed the slightest disappointment. —
On the contrary, he always spoke of his
uncle with respect and gratitude, which, I
believe, he very justly deserved. Being,
however, a rigid Calvinist and tainted with
the religious bigotry of that sect, it is not
improbable that his nephew, who dared to
think for himself, and to think differently
from his uncle, might have incurred some
displeasure on account of his opinions, not
withstanding the excellence of his moral
conduct. In their conversation one day on
controversial subjects, being asked whether
he believed in the proper divinity of Jesus
Christ, he very ingenuously answered in
the negative, if by proper divinity was
meant the equality of Jesus Christ with
God. On which his uncle with some vehe
mence exclaimed " that he had rather see
him transformed into a pig, than that he

14 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
should have been brought up to be a dis
senting minister without believing in the
Trinity." The horror expressed in this ex
clamation of the uncle will perhaps serve in
some measure to account for the sparing
manner in which he doled out a part of his
fortune to the nephew who was the object
of it.
The addition however of this and other
property to the little which he inherited
on the death of his mother, and the income
arising from the congregation at Newing
ton Green, determined Mr. Price to ex
change his condition in life; and accord
ingly in June 1757 he was married to
Miss Sarah Blundell, originally of Belgrave
in Leicestershire, the daughter of one of
those unfortunate speculators who were
ruined by the South Sea bubble in the
year 1720. Miss Blundell, after living
with her mother for some years in a pri
vate lodging in London, had on her de
cease lately moved to Hackney, to live on

RICHARD PRI(J£, D.D. 15
the remains of that fortune which had been
dissipated as far as her father had the
power over it. In this place Mr. Price be
came acquainted with her, and formed a
connexion which was to constitute a sreat
part of the happiness of his future life.
Having resided here during the first year
after his marriage, he moved to Newington
Green in the year 1758, in order to be
near his congregation, and in that retired
situation to pursue his studies with more
tranquillity than he , could have done in a
narrow street and noisy thoroughfare at
Hackney. It was, however, during his re
sidence in this latter place that he publish
ed his treatise on the foundation of morals
— a work, which was the fruit of his studies
from his earliest years, and which first in
troduced him to an acquaintance with the
late excelleht Dr. Adams ; and as this ac
quaintance arose,, not only from the simi
larity of their sentiments on this, but on
many other important points in morals and

l6 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF
religion, it produced a friendship between
them which terminated only with their
lives. The modesty, candor, and benevo
lence displayed in this work, conciliated
the minds even of those who differed most
widely in their sentiments from the author.
In this number Mr. Hume should be parti
cularly mentioned, who, admiring the libe
ral manner in which his doctrines had been
controverted, conceived so favourable an
opinion of the writer, that it gave rise to
an acquaintance, which was . continued on
both sides with uninterrupted esteem and
friendship. Mr. Hume had been so little
accustomed to civility from his theological
adversaries, that his admiration w^as natu-
ra,lly excited by the least appearance of it
in any of their publications. Dr. Douglas
(the late bishop of Salisbury), Dr. Adams,
and Mr. Price, were splendid exceptions to
this rudeness and bigotry. Having been
opposed by these divines with the candor
and respect which were due to his abilities,

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 17
and which it is shameful should ever be
wanting in any controversy, he was desirous
of meeting them all together, in order to
spend a few hours in familiar conversa
tion with them.— Accordingly, they ' all
dined by invitation at Mr. Cadell's in the
Strand ; and, as might be expected, passed
their time in the utmost harmony and
good humour. In a subsequent interview
with Mr. Price, when Mr. Hume visited
him at his house at Newington Green, he
candidly acknowledged that on one point
Mr. Price had succeeded in convincing him
that his arguments were inconclusive ; but
it does not appear that Mr. Hume, in con
sequence of this conviction, made any
alteration in the subsequent edition of his
Essays. The treatise on morals, though it
raised the reputation of the author both at
home and abroad *, procured comparative-
* On this occasion he received the following letter from
his friend Dr. Franklin : —
" Reverend and dear sir,
" Supposing that the foreign literary journals do not fall
C

18 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
ly but few readers. — An abstruse metaphy
sical disquisition is not very inviting in ge
neral, and therefore it is perhaps less sur
prising that 28 years should have elapsed
before two editions of the work should be
disposed of. In the year 1785 a third edi
tion was published, containing many cor
rections and additions, together with some
remarks on Mr. Paley 's Lectures on moral

" in your way, I send you the following account of your
" late work, as given in the Bibliolheque des Sciences et
" des Beaux Arts for January, February, and March, 1767.
" After reciting the title, the authors say, ' On devoit deja
" ' a Mr. Price un excellent Traite sur les principales
" ' questions de la Morale. L'Ouvrage dont on vient de
" ' voir le Titre mettra le sceau a la reputation de I'Au-
" ' teur, et ne manquera sans doute pas d'etre traduit en
" ' diverses langues. On y trouve tout ce qu'une m6dita-
" ' tion profonde, une parfaite connoissance de la religion,
" ' un esprit vrmment philosophique,, une pi6t6 tendre et
" » 6clair6e peuvent dieter de meilleur sur les sujets
" ' annoncgs.' " With sincere esteem I am, dear sir, yours, &c.
" B. Franklin.
" Craven Street,. Octoler 22, 1767."

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 19
philosophy. Sec., and a dissertation on the
Being and Attributes of the Deity. — ^This
work, so enlarged and corrected, the au
thor considered as conveying his maturest
thoughts on one of the most important
subjects that can exercise the human mind.
It would be improper, were I even so dis
posed, to enter here into an analysis of this
excellent treatise. I shall only observe, that
the author with his accustomed modesty
was used to express himself greatly indebt
ed in the composition of it to Hutcheson,
Balguy, Clark, Butler, and Hume; but
particularly to the latter, whose doubts and
objections led him to examine the ground
on which he stood, before he ventured to
raise his own structure upon it.
During the first years of his residence at
Newington Green, Mr. Price devoted him
self almost wholly to the composition of
sermons ; and so impressed was he with
the necessity and importance of giving up
his time entirely to works of this kind, that
c 2

20 MfiMdlRS O* THE Lll'i; OP
in some private memoirs which he has left
of himself, he laments as a trifling waste of
time the few hours which he spent in the
study of mathematics and philosophy, and
even in the harmless relaxation of visiting his
friends. Excepting Dr. Franklin, Mr. Can-^
tort, and two or three other philosophical
friends, his acquaintance at this period Was
chiefly confined to the members of his own
congregation. Being naturally of weak
spirits, this dull uniformity of the same
scenes and pursuits was ill calculated either
to cheer his mind or to improve his health.
In the beginning of the year 1762 his wife
was attacked by a disorder, under which
she laboured with little or no intermission
for more than twenty years, and of which
she never perfectly recovered. In addition
to this, he was himself afflicted with a
bodily complaint which, though concealed
from his friends, depressed his spirits, and
often excited in him the most painful ap
prehensions of its consequences. Under

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 21
these circumstances of sorrow and distress
it is no wonder that a mind, disposed from
its earliest years to piety and devotion,
should be more than ordinarily impressed
with the importance of religion, and regard
the pursuit of all subjects unconnected with
it as vain and trifling. His private afflic
tions, however, were confined to the pre
cincts of his own breast, and did not pre
vent him from maintaining in company his
usual cheerfulness, and securing tp himseji
the esteem and affection pf all whp coi^r
versed with him,
The congregation to which he preached,
though highly respectable, was very small;
and therefore, instead of officiating to them
twice a day, he was induced, from the
hope of being more extensively useful, to
accept an invitation in December 1762 tp
succeed Dr. Benson as evening preacher in
Poor Jewry Lane. But the experience of a
fevf months convinced him that his sphere
of usefulness was npt likely tp he much

22 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
extended by this change. His hearers were
equally thin in both places ; which so dis
couraged him, that he had determined to
give up preaching altogether, from an idea
that his talents were totally unfit for the
office of a public speaker. — Nor was it
merely the thinness of his auditory that
had the unhappy 'effect of discouraging
him in the discharge of his duties ; he was
mortified also by their inattention so much
as to be led, by a modesty peculiar to him
self, to attribute that want of success which
arose from the listless apathy of those
whom he addressed, to his own weakness
and incapacity *.

* He particularly mentions, in one of his private notes,
that having preached in the afternoon on ihe future judge
ment with all the force and energy in his power, he had
the mortification to find that neither his delivery nor the
importance of the subject could keep a great part of his
hearers from sleeping ! — Had he recollected the hour of the
day in which he addressed them, he would have been at
no loss to discover the true cause of their lethargy.

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 23
Regarding himself as incapable of giving
effect to his moral instructions by deliver
ing them from the pulpit, he consoled him
self with the hope of rendering them use
ful to the world by conveying them in an
other manner. With this view he formed
the sermons which he had preached on
private prayer into a dissertation pn that
subject, and in the year 1767 published it
with three ether dissertatipns, on Provi
dence — on the Junction of Virtuous Men in
the heavenly State — and on Historical Evi
dence and Miracles. — This work had en
gaged his attention and occupied his time
at intervals for more than seven years ; and
it was not without great diffidence and he
sitation, that he was at last induced to pub
lish it. — The Dissertation on Miracles had
been written as early as the year 1760, and
read to Mr. Canton, Mr. Rose, and some
other friends^ who all concurred in recoro'^
mending the publication of it.— In this dis
sertation, which was intended as an answer

24 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
to Mr. Hume's arguments against the cre
dibility of miracles, Mr. Price had, as he
thought, expressed himself improperly, by
speaking of the poor sophistry of those ar
guments, and using other language of the
same kind. — When he sent a copy of his
book to Mr. Hume, who was then one of
the under-secretaries of state, he made an
apology to- him, and promised that nothing
of the kind should appear in another edi
tion. He received in consequence a very
flattering letter from Mr. Hume, which he
regarded more as a matter of civility, than
as a proof of its having wrought any change
in the sentiments of that philosopher. When
the work, however, appeared in a second
edition he fulfilled his promise, and sent him
a correct copy ; for which he immediately
received an acknowledgement, expressive of
Mr. Hume's wonder at such scrupulosity in
one of Mr. Price's profession.
On the death of his friend Mr. Bayes of
Tunbridge Wells in the year 176l , he was re-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 25
quested by the relatives of that tr-uly ingeni
ous man, to examine the papers which he
had written on different subjects, and which
his own modesty would never suffer him
to make public. Among these Mr. Price
found an imperfect solution of one of the
^ost difficult problems in the doctrine of
chances, for " determining from the num
bers of times in which an unknown event
has happened and failed, the chance that
the probability of its happening in a single
trial lies somewhere between, any two de
grees of probability tha^; can be named."
The important purposes to which this pro
blem might be applied, induced him to un^
dertake the task of completing Mr. Bayes's
solution ; but at this period of his hfe, con
ceiving his duty to require that he should be
very sparing of the time which he allotted
to any other studies than those immediate
ly connected with his profession as a dis
senting minister, he proceeded very slowly
with the investigation, and did not finish ii;

26 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
till after two years ; when it was presented
by, Mr. Canton to the Royal Society, and
published in their Transactions in 1763. —
Having sent a copy of his paper to Dr.
Franklin, who was then in America, he had
the satisfaction of witnessing its insertion
the following year in the American Philo
sophical Transactions.— But notwithstand
ing the pains he had taken with the solu
tion of this problem, Mr. Price still found
reason to be dissatisfied with it, and in con
sequence added a supplement to his former
paper; which being in like manner pre
sented by Mr. Canton to the Royal Society,
was published in the Philosophical Trans
actions in the year 1764. In a note to his
Dissertation on Miracles, he has availed him
self of this problem to confute an argument
of Mr. Hume against the evidence of testi
mony when compared with the regard due
to experience ; and it is certain that it
might be applied to other subjects no less
interesting and important. By these two

RICHARD PRICE, D.D, 27
communications to the Royal Society, Mr,
Price had proved himself not unworthy the
honour of being admitted a member of that
learned body, and he was accordingly elect
ed in a few months after the publication of
his second paper. This he regarded as a
desirable event on many accounts, but
particularly as it might be the means of in
troducing him more into company; which
in the present state of his spirits was highly
necessary to his health. Indeed, the con
tinued illness of Mrs. Price, rendered still
more afflicting by his own malady and the
natural feebleness of his cpnstitutipn, seems
tP have made him indifferent to almost every
other event. When Mr. Neale and Mr. Fur-
neaux applied to him to become one of the
tutors in Coward's Academy, in November
1762 ; and also when the congregation in
Lewin's Mead, Bristol, in the following year
wished to choose him as their minister to
succeed Mr. Richards, he declined both these
offers, principally on the ground of its being

28 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
impossible for him to think of changing his
situation while his wife laboured under her
present disorder. The dejection of mind
produced by this circumstance led him to
form a very unfavourable and unjust estif
mate of his own abilities. He thought
himself qualified neither for the office of a
tutor nor for that of a preacher, and often
wished to retire from the world, in order, as
he could not improve others, that he might
at least improve himself. But although
grieved and dispirited,, he never uttered a
murmur of discontent. His steadfast faith
in an over-ruling Providence directing all
events ultimately for our good, disposed
him in all circumstances to be thankful for
the comforts he enjoyed, and never suffered
him a moment to repine at those which
were withheld from him. In time, however,
he became more familiarized to those scenes
which at first had so deeply depressed his
spirits; and though always affected by theip,
he sp far recpvered himself as tp divide hi^

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 29
hours more equally between the study of
philosophical and religious subjects, and to
view the result of his labours in both
through a less gloomy and discouraging
medium. — Still, however, the dread of mis
spending his time continued on some occa
sions to awaken his fears, particularly when
engaged on speculative subjects.— Having
bestowed considerable pains on the solution
ofa problem proposed to him by Mr. Can-
tpn respecting the effect pf the cpmpres-
sipn of water by its own weight in a co
lumn two miles deep, he appears in some
of his private nptes to soothe his apprehen
sion, with a hope that he had at least been
innocently employed when engaged in this
investigation. Nearly about this time a proposal was
made to him by the booksellers to pub
lish a complete edition of all Sir Isaac
Mewton's works. But his diffidence of his
pwn abihties, his want ef spirits tP engage
in sp ardupus an undertaking, and possibly

30 MEMOlfeS OF THE LIFE OF
his former prejiidices against devoting too
much of his time and attention to subjects
not immediately connected with his profes
sion, determined him to decline a work,
which has been since executed by a person
who laboured under none of these difficul
ties. Though Mr. Price had hitherto confined
himself principally to metaphysical and re
ligious subjects, and the reputation he had
acquired by his writings was highly honour
able to him by the great addition they
made to the number of his friends and ad-
mirers,yet his popularity as a preacher was
but little increased by them. In Newing
ton Green and Poor Jewry Lane, his con
gregations were gradually dwindling away
(for the ravages of death were repaired by
no accession of new members) ; and so much
was he discpuraged by this circumstance,
that I have often heard him say, that his
attendants were now so few as to make it
impossible for him to be animated before

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 31
such an assembly ; nay, that he thought
every attempt at exertion or energy would
be completely ridiculous. But it should
be observed to the honour of those who did
attend him, that their esteem and affection
made all possible amends to him for the
smallness of their number, and fpr the dis
appointment arising from the contracted
sphere of his usefulness.
His dissertations on Providence and the ^
Junction of Virtuous Men in a Future State
gave rise to an acquaintance of very parti
cular importance in the life of Mr. Price. —
The late Marquis of Lansdowne (then Earl
of Shelburne) having just been ^deprived of
his wife, and feeling himself deeply afflicted
by the loss of that amiable and excellent
lady, naturally became susceptible of reli
gious impressions in that season of sorrow,
and disposed to receive those consolations
which are derived from the hope of a better
state. By the recommendation of Mrs.
Mor?itague (who had for some years been

32 MtMOlIlS OF th£ l1f£ of
intimately acquainted with Mr. Price) Lord
Shelburne was induced to read the two dis
sertations abPve mentioned, and was so
highly gratified by the perusal of them^
that he immediately expressed a wish to
Mrs. Montague to be introduced to the
author. A day was accordingly appointed
for this purpose at Mr. Price's house at
Newington Green, where his lordship punc
tually attended; and after spending an hour
or two in conversation, he was so well
pleased with the unaffected simplicity of
his new acquaintance, that he soon repeated
his visit, and contracted a friendship for
him which knew no interruption to the day
of hi,s death. — Of this friendly connexion
I shall have other occasions to speak in the
course of this history ; but it will be pro
per here to observe, that it began in the
year 1769, and continued for some time
before Mr. Price had ever written on poli
tical subjects ; though it is not improbable
that it may have been more firmly esta-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 3S
blished afterwards in consequence of those
publications. Not long after Lord Shelburne's visit to
Newington Green, Mr. Price was honoured
with an unexpected one from Lord Lyttel-
ton, and I believe also by the intervention.
of Mrs. Montague. The sentiments and
character of this nobleman will easily ex
plain the nature of his visit. Nay so purely
religious do his motives appear to have
been, that when Mr. Price at a subsequent
interview mentioned his intention to him
of publishing his " Appeal to the Public
on the National Debt," he earnestly dis
suaded him from it — no doubt for reasons
similar to those which led Mr. Price in the
more gloomy period of his life to consider
his profession as excluding him from taking
any part in • the temporal affairs of this
world. — ^The publication, however, of this
pamphlet did not interrupt their acquaint
ance ; nor do I believe on the other hand
that it increased their intimacy.
D

34 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
It should be observed, that although Mr.
Price had hitherto been so scrupulous in
regard to the hours which he thought it
his duty to devote to religious studies, and
had never considered his time to have been
properly employed when engaged in any
other pursuits ; yet in no period of his life
was his mind so far alienated from the tem
poral concerns of the world, as to render
him indifferent to the liberties of mankind,
or to his own rights as a man and a mem
ber of society. — Having been brought up
from his earliest youth in the principles of
dissent from the established church, and
having been confirmed in those principles
by the reflection of maturer years, he na
turally felt the injustice of those laws which
deprived him of those rights on account of
his religious opinions. He lived indeed to
witness the repeal, or at least the modifica
tion, of some of them ; but the Test- Act,
the most exceptionable of all those laws,
was suffered to remain, and, I am sorry to

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 35
add, is .still suffered to remain, a reproach
to every principle of sound policy and re
ligion. — Exclusive of the injustice of thia
, laWj Mr. Price considered it to be a profa
nation of a sacred ordinance ; and he has
often declared that on this ground, if he
had been a member of the established
church, no consideration should eVer have
prevailed upon him to submit to it as a
qualification for a civil office. But his ob
jections as a dissenter were of a diflferent
kind. He regarded it as an encroachment
on his civil liberty, and consequently as a
grievance which ought never to be borne
without exerting every peaceable effort to
be relieved from it. The base cemprpmise
into which the dissenting ministers entered
with Sir Robert Walpole in the preceding
reign, when they bartered the liberties pf
their brethren fpr a pensipn, he always re-
prebated in the severest terms. This pen
sion, represented by that great father pf
corruptipn as the reyal bounty of the sove-
d2

36 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
reign, proceeding from his regard to his
beloved subjects the disseliters, but in rea
lity bestowed upon them from no other mo
tive than to induce them to desist from their
application to parliament for the repeal of
the Test-Act, has been continued ever since
with little variation*, and exists a perpe
tual monument of their disgrace. So deeply
impressed was Mr. Price with this senti
ment, that being once applied to for his
vote by the late Sir Edmund Thomas, when
canvassing for the county of Glamorgan,
and being offered that worthy baronet's in
terest to procure him the disposal of this
money among his brethren, he immediately
replied, that the best service Sir Edmund
could render to him or his brethren would
be, to advise the king's ministers to dis
continue a donation which could only be
* Sometimes the minister has burthened it with a rider,
when from motives equally honourable he has wished pri
vately to requite the services of an adherent, or when his
other lists are too full to admit of an additional pensioner.

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 37
regarded by every independent dissenter
as the price of his liberty.
Having now officiated near fourteen years
at Newington Green with the hopeless pro
spect of ever becoming extensively useful
in that situation, he was the more easily
induced to accept an invitation to succeed
Mr. Law as morning preacher at the
Gravel-Pit meeting-house in Hackney.—
But being still unwilling that his connexion
with his old friends at Newington Green
should be entirely broken off, he consented
to remain with them as afternoon preacher,
and in consequence resigned that service at
Poor Jewry Lane. By this change one
great cause of his despondency was remov
ed ; for his audience at Hackney was much
more numerous than in either of the places
at which he had hitherto officiated. During
.^the first four or five years of his ministry,
however, it increased very slowly ; and it
is probable that neither the excellence of
his discourses, nor the impressive manner

SB MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
in which tliey were delivered, would have
made any great addition to his hearers,
had not other causes of a very different
nature concurred to render him popular.
To the period nearly in which he was
chosen minister to the congregation at
Hackney, Mr. Price appears from the pre
ceding account to have confined his studies
almost exclusively to moral and religious
subjects; but the different communications
which he made to the Royal Society about
this time seem to show that he was be
coming less scrupulous in this respect, and
disposed to consider philosophical inquiries
not altogether inconsistent with the pro
fession of a dissenting minister. In I769
he wrote some observations, addressed in
a letter to Dr. Franklin, on the expecta
tions of lives — the increase of mankind —
and the population of London — which were
published in the Philosophical Transactions
of that year. In May 1770 he commu
nicated to the Royal Society some observa-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 39
tions on the proper method of calculating
the values of contingent reversions, and in
the following December he addressed an
other letter to Dr. Franklin on the effect of
the aberration of light on the time of a
transit of Venus over the sun ; both of
which papers were also published in the
Philosophical Transactions of that year.
In the first of these papers he corrected an
error into which M. De Moivre had fallen;
and it may not be improper to mention a
remarkable circumstance which attended
the composition of it. From the high opi
nion he entertained of the accuracy of De
Moivre, he conceived the error to be his
owai rather than that of so eminent a ma
thematician, and in consequence puzzled
- himself so much in the correction of it,
that the colour of his hair, which was na
turally black, became changed in different
parts of his head into spots of perfect white.
All this must have arisen from his usual
diffidence in his own abilities ; for no other

40 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
cause can be assigned for his doubts and
difficulties in a case which really admitted
of none.
. About two or three years prior to the
publication of this paper Mr. Price had been
referred tp, by some gentleman in the pro
fession of the law, for his opinion ofa plan by
which they proposed to form themselves into
a Society for providing Annuities for their
widows. This he found upon examination to
be so defective, and he represented its in
sufficiency so strongly to them, that they
determined to lay it wholly aside. — At the
same time a great number of other socie
ties were formed with the same view, and
founded upon principles equally defective
and ruinous. Conceiving that the public
were greatly misled by these societies, and
that infinite mischief would ultimately en
sue if they were not speedily checked, he
was led to regard the subject in so serious
a light, that he thought it his duty to de-
,vote a principal part of his time and atten-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 41
tion tp the consideration of it. According
ly, in the year 1769 his Treatise pn Rever
sionary Payments, &c., was published, con
taining, among a variety of other matters,
the solutions of many questions in the
Dpctrine of Annuities — Schemes for es
tablishing Societies for the benefit of age
and widows on just principles — and an ex-
posure of the inadequacy of the Societies
of this kind which had been lately formed,
and which were . continually forming in
London and other parts of the kingdom.
The alarm and opposition excited by this
work may be easily imagined. The more
wise and prudent either reformed their
plans, or dissolved their Societies altogether.
r — The more ignorant and obstinate per
severed in their errors till they had fulfilled
the author's predictions, and involved them
selves in distress and ruin. By publishing
a work of this kind, which immediately af
fects the temporal interests of mankind,
Mr. Price had sopn reason to conclude that

42 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
the way to be generally known lies not in
the direction of morals and metaphysics.
The reputation, however, w'hich he had
nov/ acquired, and the great addition which
it had made to tbe number of his acquaint
ance, had no other effect on the natural hu
mility of his mind than to cheer him with
the hope that it might be the means of
rendering his labours more useful to the
world. — I know not whether I should men
tion as one effect of it, the diploma which
he received towards the latter end of the
year I769 from the University of Glasgow,
granting him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Divinity, and conferred upon
him, certainly without his owa solicitation,
and I believe even without his previous
knowledge *.
* It ought, however, to be observed that this degree
was conferred neither spontaneously nor gratuitously by
the University. The application originated with some of
his clerical friends in London, and the usual fees were
paid by them unknown to Mr. Price, who always remain-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 43
In the Treatise on Reversionary Pay
ments (of which a second edition was pub
lished in 1772) Dr. Price had given an
Essay on Pubhc Credit and the National
Debt, reprehending the imprudent manner
in which that debt had been contracted,
and more particularly the amount to which
it had been suffered to accumulate in con
sequence of the alienation of the Sinking
Fund. Towards the end of the same year
he published a more formal work on this
subject, under the title of an " Appeal to
the public on the National Debt," giving
an account of the Manageinent of the
Sinking Fund from its first establishment
in 1716 by Sir Robert Walpole to its total
extinction in 1733, and representing the
danger to which the kingdom was exposed
by thus borrowing for ever without provi
ding any means for the redemption of the
ed ignorant of the manner in which the degree was ob
tained, and to which side of the Tweed he was originally
indebted for it.

44 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
debt. It would be improper here to enter
into an analysis of that publication. It
will be sufficient to observe that it made
no pretension to any new discoveries, in re
presenting the effects of compound interest,
and therefore that it insisted chiefly on
the necessity of restoring what had been
so wisely established and so imprudently
abandoned :— and in order to excite Par
liament to resume, this salutary m.easure, it
gave the. actual amount of the debt at that
time compared with what it might have
been, had not the operations of the fund
been destroyed by the temporizing policy
of its founder and of those who succeeded
him in the administration of the public
finances. This pamphlet, though written
from the best motives and founded on the
plainest and most incontrovertible princi
ples, roused a host of opponents against
the author, who abused his scheme as vi
sionary, impracticable, and geditious. But
they have long been consigned to oblivion,

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 45
and it is not my wish to disturb their
repose. The scheme which they abused with so
much folly and ignorance has since been
adopted by Parliament, and now forms
one of the chief bulwarks of our public
credit. It is but justice, however, to Lord
North to observe, that though unfriendly to
his administration,, he spoke in the House
of Commons with great respect of some
parts of this pamphlet, and so far proved
himself to be possessed of more candour
than . one of his successors, who could
profit by the private advice and assist
ance of the author, in establishing a new
and better method of redeeming the na
tional debt, (by consigning, among other
provisions, the management of it to com
missioners appointed by Parliament,) and-
afterwards could assume ,to himself the
whole merit of the measure, without the
slightest allusion to the source from which
he derived his instruction.

46 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
The magnitude of the debt, though at
that time it did not much exceed 140 mil
lions, Dr. Price considered as an evil which
threatened the nation with the most serious
consequences. A peace of ten years had
done but little to relieve the people from
the burthens which pressed so heavily upon
them, and depppulatipn, according to his
opinion, was making rapid advances to
render them less able to support those
burthens ; so that, in the event of another
war, he foreboded nothing but bankruptcy
and desolation. Impressed with these ideas,
his views of pubhc affairs at this time were
particularly gloomy and desponding ; and
therefore, in recommending the measures
which he thought most likely to save the
nation from ruin, he acted more from a
sense of duty and the benevolence of his
own mind than from any confident hope
of success. — But if the viev/ of public af
fairs afforded him but little consolation,
there was no period on the ether hand in

RICHARD PRICE, D. D, 47
which he enjoyed greater tranquillity and
happiness in private life. The complaints,
which in former years so much affected his
body and mind, had by moderate exercise
on horseback — by the regular use of the
cold bath— and by the temperate manner
in which he lived, gradually disappeared.
Mrs. Price's illness also, though it still con
tinued, had its intervals of rehef; and long
habit, which naturally takes off the edge of
our afflictions and reconciles us to them,
had in some measure this effect on Dr.
Price, but without lessening his sympathy
or attention to one whom he j.ustly con
sidered as having every claim to his affec
tion and esteem. His hours at this period
were agreeably divided between his studies
and his friends. As he lived in a retired
situation, his morning pursuits were seldom
interrupted ; and his afternoons were no
less profitably spent in the society of those
who loved and admired him, as well for the
amiableness of his disposition as for tbe

48 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
humility with which he always imparted
his knowledge to those who conversed 'with
him. Some of his evenings in each week
he devoted to particular parties ; among
these was one which consisted of Mrs. Mon
tague, Mrs. Chapone, the Rev. Mr. Bur
rows, Mr. Mulso, and several other persons
of distinguished abilities, who met at each
other's houses, and whose conversation was
chiefly confined to modern literature. But
the party in which he always expressed
himself most agreeably entertained, and
which then met at stated times I believe at
a coffee-house in St. Paul's Church-yard,
but whose meetings were afterwards moved
to the London Coffee-house Ludgate-hill,
consisted of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Canton, Dr.
Kippis, and other philosophical gentlemen.
In this society the conversation extended
to subjects more congenial with Dr. Price's
feelings arid pursuits, and therefore it is
the less to be wondered that it should have
excited his preference. To the number of

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 49
those who constituted this assembly should
be added the illustrious name of Dr. Priest
ley, who had lately, by the recommendation
of his friend Dr. Price accepted the office
of librarian to Lord Shelburne, and in
consequence had his winter residence in
London. The astonishing discoveries made
by this admirable philosopher, which form
ed the foundation of all modern chemistry,
and which he was now pursuing with his
usual ardor and ability, added much to the
entertainment and instruction of the com
pany. But unfortunately the rising dis
putes with the American colonies gradually
introduced other subjects into discussion,
and at length deprived the society of one
of its brightest ornaments, by obliging Dr.
Franklin to retire from this country *.
* In his correspondence with Dr. Price, while he was at
PariSj Dr. Franklin generally mentioned the Club at the
London Goffee-house with the greatest regard and esteem,
and at the same time never failed to express his regret at
not having it in his power to attend the meetings of its
virtuous and enlightened members. E

50 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
In the political contentions which agita-^
ted the kingdom from the commencement
of the present reign, Dr. Price had hitherto
taken no active part. As a friend to liberty,
he always felt himself warmly interested in
its support, and freely expressed his abhor
rence of every attempt to encroach upon it.
But in all he had written on the subject of
the public finances, he had confined his cen
sures to the enormous accumulation of the
national debt, and to the improvident
alienation of that fund by Avhich it might
have been redeemed. He had blamed no
party in particular. From the administra
tion of Sir Robert Walpole to that of Lord
North the same course had been pursued,
arid therefore the same censure applied to
all of. them. But when it was determined
to repair our dilapidated finances by a
direct attack on the civil liberties of the
American colonies, and the nation was to
be plunged into a war to enforce uncondi
tional submission to claims which were

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 51
manifestly unjust, it was" imppssible, as a
friend tp the real interests of his' country
and to the undoubted rights of his fellow-
subjects, that he should behold these vio
lent measures without anxiety, or express
his opinion of them without indignation. I
feel no disposition, nor do I know that "it
would be proper, to enter further into an
account of the rise and progress of the
American war, than just to' mention a few
of those circumstances which had a priri-
¦cipal effect in producing this unnatural
contest, and on which Dr. Price founded
his opinion of its injustice.
In the year 1763 the expense incurred
by the American coloriies in the late war
was considered to have so far exceeded its
diie proportipn, that they were cpmpensated
fpr the same by Parliament, in censequence
pf a direct recpmmendatien from the King
in their behalf. The imppsitipn pf the
Stamp Duty therefpre in 1765, during the
administratien pf Mr. Geerge Grenville, had
E 2

52 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
not the plea in its support of reimbursing
the nation for any expenditure in defence
of the colonies, but must have originated
entirely from a determination of making
them contribute, without their own con
sent, to the permanent revenue of the mo
ther-country. The opposition and dis
turbances which might naturally have
been expected to arise from a law passed
with such an intention, produced its repeal
in the following year, under the admini
stration of the Marquis of Rockingham.
This repeal, however, was accompanied
with a Resolution declaring that the King
and Parliament had, have, and of right
ought to have, full power and authority to
make laws and statutes of sufficient force
to hind the colonies and people of America,
subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in
all cases whatever. A declaration in which
tyranny was expressed in its strongest terms,
was npt likely to conciliate the minds of
any people endued with the slightest spark

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 53
of liberty, and consequently had little or no
effect in appeasing those commotions which
had been excited by the former acts of the
British legislature. In the succeeding admi
nistration of the Duke of Grafton new laws
of violence and concession were alternately
enacted ; and among the latter, an Act was
passed in the year 1770 repealing the laws
for raising a revenue on every article except
a duty of one penny a pound on tea, which,
like the Declaratory Act of the Rockingham
administration, seems to be reserved as fiiel
for a future combustion. — Accordingly, in
the year 1774 Lord North, who had suc
ceeded the Duke of Grafton as first Lord
of the Treasury, with the view of serving
the East India Company, and at the same
time of deriving a revenue from the Ame
rican colonies, procured a law to be passed
which gave them leave to export their tea
(of which they had then about seventeen
millions of pounds in their warehouses) to
any country free of all duty whatever. The

54' MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
Company, after some hesitation, were in
duced by this permission to freight some
ships with this article for different ports of
America. The small quantities of English,
compared with the much larger quantities
of foreign teas, had hitherto led the colo
nies, with the exception of some few mur
murs and discontents, to acquiesce in the
trifling duty which they paid on this article.
But when they perceived the immense
quantities of it that were now introduced,
and the evident design of the minister
in so doing, the alarm became general
throughout the provinces — the tea was
thrown into the sea at Boston — other acts
pf violence succeeded^-a civil war broke
out — and on the issue of the contest, in the
opinion of a great majority of the more en
lightened and virtuous, depended the ex
istence of the rights and liberties not only
of America, but of this country.
Irnpressed with these sentiments, and
alarmed at the fatal consequences of a vs(ai:

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 55
in which the resources, the public credit
and prosperity of the kingdom were so
deeply involved. Dr. Price was anxious
that every possible effort should be exerted
to, oppose the prosecution of it *. At the

* The following letter from Dr, Franklin will show the
repugnance with which the Americans entered upon this
war; and the interest which Dr. Price took in preserving
arid promoting peace between the two countries.
" I wish as ardently as you can do for peace, and should
" rejoice exceedingly in co-operating with you to that end.
" — But every ship frpm Brit^iin brings some intelligence
" of new n^easures that tend irfore and more to exasperate,
" and it seems to me that, until you have found by dear
" experience, the reducing us by force impracticable, you
" will think of nothing fair and reasonable. We have as
" yet resolved only on defensive measures. If you would
" recall your forces and stay at home, we should meditate
" nothing to injure you. A little time so given for cooling
" on both sides would have excellent effects. But you will
" goad and provoke us. — You despise us too much — and
" you are insensible of the Italian adage, that there is no
" little enemy. — I am persuaded that the body of the British
" people are our friends — but they are changeable, and by
" your lying gazettes may soon be made our enemies. Our
" respect for them will proportionably diminish, and I see
*' clearly we are on the high road to mutual family hatre(^

56 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
commencement of hostilities the resistance
of the colonies was by no means so popular
" anddetestation.— Aseparationof coursewill be inevitable.
" 'Tis a million of pities so fair a plan as we have hitherto
" been engaged in for increasing strength and empire with
" public felicity should be destroyed by the mangling hands
" of a few blundering ministers. — It will not be destroyed
'« — God will protect and prosper it. — You will "only ex-
" elude yourselves from any share in it. We hear that
*' more ships and troops are coming out. We know that
*< you may do us a great deal of mischief, but we are de-
" termined to bear it patiently as long as we can. — But if
" you flatter yourselves with beating us into submission,
" you know neither the people nor the country. — The
" Congress is still sitting, and will wait the result of their
" last petition."
" "Philadelphia, October 3, 17?5."
From the subjoined extract of a letter written in the Fe
bruary following by Mr. Ewing of Philadelphia, it will be
seen that Dr. Franklin was fully justified in his predictions.
" It is not easy to conceive the spirit that reigns through
" the colonies, nor the determined resolution to suffer the
" last extremities rather than submit to the claims of Par-
" liament to tax them without their consent. This spirit,
" like an electric shock, rose and pervaded all ranks and
" conditions of men upon the affair of Lexington ; and
" every step of Administration since, has heightened the
" indignation they feel against the authors of their suffer-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 57
among the multitude as might have been
expected. This arose partly from the mis
representations of ministers and their ad
herents, and partly perhaps from the igno
rance and inattention of the public to the
principles on which that resistance was
founded. It was impossible therefore that
Dr. Price could have rendered more effec
tual service to those exertions which he was
so anxious to promote, than by leading the
public to more correct opinions on the nature
of civil liberty in general, and to a more
thorough knowledge of the indefeasible rights
which the Americans opposed to the claims
of the mother-country. In the winter of 1775
he devoted the principal part of his time to
this important work, and in the beginning
of the following > year published his " Ob-
" ings. Be assuredthat no oratory or speciousness of address
" are in danger of making the least impression upon then^.
" I have conversed with many members Of the Congress,
" and find them determined not to recede in the least from
" the terms they first proposed — at least till proposals are
" made them by Administration," &c.

58 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
servations on Civil Liberty, arid the Justice
and Pohcy of the War with America." His
natural diffidence and modesty did not suf
fer him to entertain very sanguine hopes of
siiccess, and therefore his feelings were the
more highly gratified by the very favoura
ble manner in which this work was received
by the public. — So eagerly and universally
was it read, that the press could not supply
the demands for it.-^In the course of a few
days several thousands were sold ; and such
was the rapid progress of the impression
which it made and of the admiration which
it excited, that the friends and supporters
of the Americans thought they could not
better serve the cause than by extending
the sale of it to all ranks of society. Ap
plication was in consequence made to Dr.
Price for his permission to print a cheap
edition of it immediately; which with a
noble disinterestedness he granted without
hesitation, and thus ^crificed all private
emolument (which in this case would have

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 59
been very considerable) to the support of a
cause from which he could not possibly
derive any other benefit than what arises
from the consciousness of having en
deavoured to deserve well of mankind.
In proportion to the popularity and ad
miration which Dr. Price acquired by this
invaluable work among the friends of
American freedom, was the rancorous
abuse which he received from the advo-
cates of American subjection. The Rock-
inghamites, though they opposed the war
on the ground of its ijiewpediency, never
argued against the injustice of it ; nor
could they indeed have well done this,
consistently with their Declaratory Act in
1767. Dr. Price's principles therefore
were much too liberal for their creed, and
were regarded by them in a light no less
unfavourable than by the most strenuous
supporters of Administration. Hence that
very equivocal friend of liberty, Mr. Ed-'
mund Burke, took occasion, in his letter to

60 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
the Sheriffs of Bristol, to censure some of
Dr. Price's principles on the origin of go
vernment, and to advance sentiments of
his own as to the omnipotence of the British
Parliament, which proved that he differed
from ministers only as to the time and not
as to the right of taxing America. I know
not whether any others of the same party
were among the numerous host of writers
who attempted to refute and expose Dr.
Price's opinions, for he noticed no other ;
and even in his remarks on Mr. Burke, he
modestly defends himself, and with parti
cular candour expresses his regret rather
than the slightest resentment at having
him for his opponent. — On the side of the
ministry, his adversaries were in dreadful
array. From Dr. Markham the arch
bishop of York, to John Wesley and his
apostles in the Tabernacle, the preachers
of the Gospel of peace denounced their
anathemas against the friend of concilia
tion and harmony, whose only aim was to

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 6l
prevent the ravages of war, by attempting
at least to point out the folly and injustice
of it. Nothing could more strongly show
the importance of this work and the effect
it produced, than the immense number of
pamphlets which were published in answer,
or rather in abuse of it. The writers of
these pamphlets consisted for the most
part either of those who were the imme
diate pensioners of Government, such as
Johnson, Shebbeare, Macpherson, Lind,
&c., or of such as hoped to recommend
themselves to a place among that honoura
ble band. The arguments, however, of the
best of them, in Dr. Price's opinion, requi
red no reply ; and as to their abuse, he was
so conscious of the rectitude of his own in
tentions, and blessed with a temper so mild
and tranquil, that their invectives neither
disturbed his repose nor excited his re
sentment, — He suffered them to expire in
silence ; and certainly this was the best
service which he could render the authors

62 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
of them. It is probable, however, that
Dr. Price's opponents did not wholly con
sist of tbe pensioned adherents of Govern
ment. Some of them might have been
incited by more honourable motives. — But
from whatever source their opposition ori
ginated, it had but little effect in diminish
ing his popularity or checking the progress
of his publication. — In the course of a few
months, by means of the cheap edition,
near 60,000 copies of it had been disposed
of; and amidst the great number of private
congratulations which he received on having
so well supported the cause of liberty, he
was gratified in a more public manner, by
having the freedom of the city of London
presented to him in a gold box by the
aldermen and common council, as a " testi-
" mony of their approbation of his princi-
". pies, and of the high sense which they
" entertained of the excellence of his ob-
" servations on the justice and policy of
" the war with America." — Nor was his

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 63
popularity confined to this country :— On
the western side of the Atlantic it so far
prevailed, that these observations, in con
junction with another celebrated but less
temperate pamphlet, were believed to have
had no inconsiiderable effect in determi
ning the Anqericans to declare their in
dependence. As the colonies were now denounced by
Parliament to be in a state of actual rebel
hon, all direct intercourse between the.
two countries was necessarily destroyed.
Through the medium of France, however,
an indirect communication was continued,
and Dr. Price was constantly in the habit-
of having letters transmitted to him from
America by his friend Dr. Franklin, who
resided in Paris at that time as ambassador
from the United States. These letters never
failed to contain the warmest expressions
of gratitude for the zeal and abilities with
which he had written in defence of Ame
rica, and in support of the cause of general

64 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
liberty and justice. But in other respects
they are altogether uninteresting, and con
tain no information, except the detail of
some military operations, (which had
already appeared in the newspapers,) and
the regret of the writers at the unnatural
contest in which they were engaged. From
the decided manner in which he had de
clared his sentiments. Dr. Price was aware
of the peculiar circumstances of his situa
tion, and therefore was particularly cau
tious in regard to his correspondence with
his American friends. Among the fewcopies
which are preserved of his letters to these
persons, this is invariably the case, and in
one of them he observes that " he is be-
" come so marked , and obnoxious that
^' prudence requires him to be very cau-
" tious — that he avoids all correspondence
" even with Dr. Franklin, though so near
" him as Paris — and for this reason de-
" clines giving Mr. Gordon the assistance
" he desires in writing the History of the

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 65
" present war,"-^adding, however, at the
same time, " that any information respect-
" ing it would be very acceptable to him,
" for there was less danger in receiving than
" in sending accounts." In another letter
he makes an apology for not answering a
very innocent question, merely on the same
ground. I. know not how far this excessive
caution was necessary in Dr. Price: but I
believe that he alarmed himself much
more than he had need to have done; for the
administration of Lord North, though di
rected like that of one of his successors to
a wrong object, was not signalized -by
sounding the tocsin against the friends of
liberty, nor by an attempt- at involving
whole societies of them in one general
proscription as conspirators and traitors
against the laws^nd government of their
country. In the spring of 1777 he published a
second pamphlet, containing additional ob
servations on the nature and value' of civil

66 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
liberty — -pn the war with America — and on
the debts and resources of Great Britain.
This work, in return for the honour which
they had just conferred upon him, was de
dicated to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and
Commons of the City of London ; and was
written, partly with the view of explaining
more fully his former observations on the
nature pf civil liberty, but principally with
the view of warning the nation of the im
policy and danger of the war, by exhibit
ing a faithful account of the debts and
taxes with which it was already encumber
ed. The popularity of the former pamphlet
insured the success of this, though it wanted
po such aid for its support. Beingj how
ever, chiefly appropriated to the discussion
of financial subjects, it was not to be ex
pected that it should be so universally
read, nor even that the more popular ob
servations on civil liberty and the American
war, though written with equal ardour and
ability, should make the same impression,

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 67
as when they first excited the public ad
miration by their novelty as well as their
excellence. But though not quite so rapid
in its sale as the former, this work passed
through several editions, and stirred up a
host of: opponents equally numeroi:i*s and
virulent, -who, like their predecessors, had
as little effect in disturbing the author's
peace as in influencing the opinions of the
public. The alarm with which Dr.. Price
contemplated the scarcity of coin compa
red with the redundancy of paper-money, ,
and the dreadful consequences to be ap
prehended from the failure bf the Bank
and the accumulation df the public debt,
though felt by many in common with him
self, appears to have been premature ; and
the sorrowful experience of the last eigh
teen years, has proved that the gold may
entirely disappear from circulation, — the
kingdorii be inundated with paper and
base coin, — :t!hat the Bank may stop pay
ment; and for many years after these
f2

68 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
events, that an unceasing expenditure may
add above 500 millions to the debt, without
deterring ministers from making still further
additions, or alarming the nation with its
'nearer approach to the ruin which he fore
boded. After the publication of these two
pamphlets. Dr. Price had determined to
take no further part in the political con
tentions of that time, but to retire, as he
observes in some of his letters to his Ame
rican correspondents, " an anxious specta-
" tor of the present contest, with the satis-
" faction of having endeavoured to com-
" municate just ideas of government, and
" of the nature and value of civil liberty."
In forming this determination he certainly
mistook the disposition of his own mind ;
for his anxiety was much too intense to
permit him to remain a silent spectator of
events, on which he believed the welfare
and happiness of this country and Ameriea
so essentially to depend. Whenever Go
vernment therefore thought proper to pro-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 69
claim a fast, he considered it more as a
political than a religious ordinance, and
always took an opportunity on that day,
contrary to his invariable practice on other
days of religious worship, to dehver his
sentiments on the conduct of the war, and
on the evil cpnsequences which were likely
tp result from it. His hearers on these
occasions were very numerous; nor was it
possible that they should not have been
deeply impressed by the honest warmth
and energy with which he delivered his
discourses, and also by that mild simplicity
of manner which distinguished his whole
coriduct, and which was formed to engage
every heart in his favour, however much
it might have been imbued with different
, opinions. — But of all these discourses he
only published those which he delivered on
the fast-days in the years 1779 and 1781.
To the former of these he was induced to
add a postscript, in cpnsequence ofa violent
attack from Dr. Lowth, bishop of London^

70 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
m a sermon preached on the preceding Ash-
wednesday in the Chapel Royal, which he
afterwards published and addressed to the
clergy of his diocese. Unfortunately for the
bishop,be had maintained those very opinions
in former times, which he now reprobated
with so much vehemence ; and Dr. Price,
as the best answer, quoted a few passages
from what the learned prelate had written
in his earlier years, and left him to the
choice either of condemning his old prin
ciples, or attempting the more difficult task
of reconciling them with hi.s new ones*.
T  '  :  ¦
* Dr. Price having asserted in his first tract, that " as
" far as in any instance the operation of any cause comes
" in to restrain the power of self-government in a state, so
" far slavery is introduced," and in his second tract, that
" the representation of a kingdom ought to be complete, ^
" and that no state (a part of which only is represented in
" the legislature that governs it) can be said to be self-
" governed," the bishop says that it follows from these
assertions " that a vast majority of the people of Eng-
" land, all that have no votes for representatives in parlia-
" ment, are slaves :'' and yet in a sermon preached at the
assiseia in Durham, in the year 1764, this very same Dr.

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 71
The abuse, which was so unsparingly
heaped on Dr. Price by the advocates for
the unconditional submission of the' Ame
ricans, was amply compensated to him by
_ — -  -I I I..I I , ,
Lowth observes,, that " the greatest and most important
" privilege that any people can possibly enjoy, is to be
" governed by laws framed by their own advice or con-
" sent." This he represents " as the true liberty of a
" state, and the particular happiness of the collective body
" of people in this country, in virtue of the right of repre-
" sentatioB which they enjoy, the act of representatives
" freely chosen by themselves being their own act." In
-another pairt of his sermon he says that " the true. and per-
" feet liberty of a people consists in their enjoying secu-
" Tity from oppression under the protection of their own
" LAWS." — And again, that " the people of this nation do
" enjoy, as fully as in the nature qf things they are capable
" of enjoying, and as far as they have the will and the
" virtue to enjoy it, the great advantage of being go-
" verned by laws of their own framing, or to which they
" give their free consent." Here then we see the bishop
maintaining the same principles with Dr. Price, against
whom he inveighs with so much acrimony as an encourager
of sedition and rebellion, and directly contradicts his own
assertion, " that a vast majority of the people of England,
" having no votes for representatives in parliament, do not
" give their assent to the laws by which they are governed,
". and therefore are not ^//'-governed."

72 MEMOrRS OF THE LIFE OF
the esteem and respect of the unbiassed
friends of liberty and justice in this and
other countries. Among the ablest of his
correspondents may be numbered M. Tur-
got, the late comptroller of the finances in
France, who, in consequence of the men
tion made of his administration in the se
cond tract on civil liberty, wrote an ad
mirable letter to Dr. Price on the subject,
and continued his correspondence with
him to the end of his hfe. The truly phi
losophic and liberal principles, together
with the sound reasoning contained in M.
Turgot's first letter, induced Dr. Price to
insert a copy of it, after his death, in
a subsequent pubHcation*, and therefore
it will be unnecessary to repeat the inser
tion of it in this work.
Although these excellent men entirely
agreed in their opinions on civil and reli-
* In his advice to the Americans on the formation of
their government.

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 73
gious liberty, it appears from some parts
of their correspondence, that they differed
much as to their expectations in regard to
the good effects of the American revolu
tion to mankind. In his answer to M.
Turgot's first letter Dr. Price says — ¦
" Happy is it for the subjects of the
" wretched and corrupt governments of
" Europe, that there is an asylum now
" opened for them in America. This has
'* a tendency to soften the despotisms of
" Europe; and by operating in this way,
" and calling the attention of men to the
" principles of civil authority, our quarrel
" with America is likely to do the greatest
" service to mankind. I look indeed to
*' the new world with satisfaction and tri-
" umph ; and the "time probably will come,
"when a great part of Europe will be
" flocking to a country where, unmolested
*' by spiritual and civil tyranny, they will
^' be able to enjoy in safety the exercise

74 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
" of reason and the rights of men." — ^To
which M. Turgot writes in reply, " Je ne
*' vous parle plus des Americains ; car
" quelque soit le denouement de cette
" guerre, j'ai un peu perdu resp6rance de
" voir sur la terre une nation vraiment libre
" et vivant sans guerre. Ce spectacle
" est reserv6 k des si^cles bien 6loign6s."
It must be acknowledged that subsequent
events have afforded melancholy proof that
M. Turgot's despondency was well founded,
and that the American revolution is not
likely to fulfil the sanguine expectations of
Dr. Price, either in softening the despotisms
of the old world, or preventing the rage
for war from inflaming the inhabitants of
the new one. But Dr. Price was not sin
gular in his expectations. Many of those
wise and venerable persons who at that
time directed the councils of America in
dulged the same hopes; and had equaj
wisdom and moderation prevailed in the

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 75
councils of their successors, it is not proba
ble that those hopes would have been so
spon disappointed, or that the friends of
peace should have had to lameiit, in the
irtfant states of America, those follies and
vices which have so long embroiled the old
governments of Europe.
The honest and ardent zeal with which
Dr. Price had defended the rights of Ame
rica, and the great financial knowledge
which he had displayed in his different
publications, induced the Congress of the
United States, as well in testimony of their
gratitude as in the hope of availing them
selves of his abilities, to send him a formal
invitation to come and reside among a peo
ple who knew how to appreciate his talents,
and who would be truly happy to see thenj
exerted in their behalf. In the winter of
1778 the following letter, containing the
resolution of Cpngress, was transmitted to
him from their ambassadors in France : —

76 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
" Passy, near Paris, December 7, 1778.
" Sir,
" By one of the latest ships from Ame-
" rica we had the pleasure of receiving
" fi'om Congress an attested copy of their
" resolution of the sixth* of October in
" these words : — ¦
" In Congress, 6th of October, 1778.
" Resolved,
" That the Honourable Benjamin Frank-
" hn, Arthur Lee, and John Adams, Esqrs.,
" or any one of them, be .directed forth-
" with to apply to . Dr. Price, and inform
" him, that it is the desire of Congress to
" consider him as a citizen of the United
" States, and to receive his assistance in
" regulating their finances. — ^That if he
" shall think it expedient to remove with
" his family to America and afford such
" assistance, a generous provision shall' be
" made for requiting his services.
" Extract from the Minutes,
" Charles Thompson, Secy-"

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 77
" From a great respect to the character
" of Dr. Price, we have much satisfaction in
" communicating this resolution. We re-
" quest your answer, sir, as soon as may
" be convenient. If it should be in the
" affirmative, you may depend upon us to
" discharge the expense of your journey
" and voyage, and for every assistance in
" our power to make your passage agree-
" able, as well as your reception and ac-
" commodation in our country. We have
" the honour to be, with the highest esteem
" and respect, sir,
" Your most obedient
" and most humble servants,
" B. Franklin.
" Arthur Lee*.
" John Adams.
" Dr. Price."
* The foUovring letter, written by Mr. Lee, accompanied
this invitation : — " Paris, December 8th,'1^78.
" Dear Sik,
'' I cannot express the pleasure I felt at receiving the
" vote which accompanies this. T am in the fullest hope,

78 memoirs of the life of
If we may reason from the manner in
which the American finances have been

" that both your inclination and your circumstances will
" permit you to gratify our wishes.
" You are sensible how much the future happiness of a
" people depends upon the proper management of their
" finances, how difficult it is to remedy original defects in
" all constitutions, and therefore how much ill you vdll
" prevent and how much good promote by giving the as-
" sistance that is requested.
" It seems that where you are, your aid is not required.
" Those who conduct that government esteem themselves
" much abler to manage than you can advise. And in-
" deed, considering how opposite their end is to ours, I
" think they are right. Their abilities are exactly shaped
" to their purpose — the ruin of the empire. Let me
" therefore beseech you to come where you will be wel-
" cpme and useful. — It will be the noblest consolation for
" the calamities that must fall upon the old people to pro-
" mote the happiness of the new. — As long as there was
" any hope of preventing those calamities, your utmost
" endeavours were not wanting. But the total prevalence
" of vice and corruption has not left a probability of
" amendment. — In this situation, the pure and unambi-
" tioned voice of Congress has desired your assistance in
" a manner that bears the most honourable testimony of
" your merit, and of their wishes to promote the per-
" manent good of the people who have reposed in them
" the guardianship of their rights and interests. .

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 79
since cpnducted, no people had greater
need of assistance. But they were not
" It is the voice of wisdom which calls you to the no-
" blest of all works— the assisting to form a government
" which means to make the principles of equal justice and
" the general rights the chief objects of its attention. Ge-
" nerations yet unborn may bless the contributors to this
" inestimable'work, and among them I frust the name of
" Dr. Price will hold a distinguished place.
<' I am, with the sincerest respect and friendship,
" Dear sir, yours See.
" Arthur Lee."
In answer to the qffi.cial invitation of the American -
Commissioners", Dr. Price sent the following note inclosed
in a private letter to Mr. Lee : —
" Newington Green, January igth, 1779-
" Dr. Price returns his best thanks to the Honourably.
" Dr. Franklin, Arthur Lee, and John Adams, Esqrs., for
" conveying to him the resolution of Congress of the 6th
" of October last, by which he is invited to become a
'.' member of the American States, and his assistance is
" desired in regulating their finances. It is not possible
*' for him to express the sense he has of the honour this
*< resolution does him, and the satisfaction with which he
" reflects on the favourable opinion of him which has ocr
" casioned it. — But he knows himself to be ill qualified
" for giving such assistance, and he is also so connected
" in this country, and advancing so fast into the evening

80 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
likely to derive it from the personal exer
tions of Dr. Price.- — However zealous he
might have been in their support, how
ever ready to communicate his advice, he
was too much attached to this country, and
connected by too many ties of friendship
and affection, to exchange his present
abode, and at the advanced age of near
threescore years to think of forming new
connexions beyond the Atlantic. He did
not hesitate, therefore, civilly to decline this
invitation of the Congress; which, if no
such ties had existed, the humble and
modest opinion he always entertained of
his own abilities would certainly have in
duced him to do.
It will be observed, that in the conclu-

" of life, that he cannot think ofa removal. He requests
" the favour of the honourable Commissioners to transmit
" this reply to Congress, with assurances that he feels the
" warmest gratitude for the notice taken of him, and that
« he looks to the United States as now the hope, and likely
" soon to become the refuge, of mankind."

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 81
sipn pf his- first tract on civil liberty Dr.
Price recommends a plan for conciliating
the Americans which had been lately pro
posed in the House of Lords by the Earl
.of Shelburne ; and this he was led to do,
not only from its- containing principles con
genial with his own, but from the hope
that it wpuld derive greater-weight when
supported by such authority. It is very
projjable also that the intimate friendship
-whibh subsisted between Lord Shelburne
a.nd himself might have had some effect on
Dr. Price in recommending this plan; and
his friends expressed their fears at the time
that such a recommendation might give
bis work the appearance of. a party-publi-
jcatipn. — Npthing, hpwever, was further
frpm his intentien. — ^Having np private in
terest tp serve, he cared very little whp
were m, pr whp were out pf ppwer; and if,
instead pf those measures which he con
sidered as so destructive to the welfare and
happiness of the kingdomj a system of
G

82 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OP
peace and oeconomy had b6en adopted, it
would have been totally indifferent to him
whether Lord North or Lord Shelburne
administered the affairs of this country.
No person engaged in political discussions
with more disinterested views ; and if he
ever expressed a wish to see Lord Shel
burne at the head of Administration, it arose
from a belief that he would pursue such
measures as would restore the nation to
peace and prosperity, rather than from any
motive of personal esteem and frieridship.
His intimacy with Lord Shelburne ne
cessarily produced a like intimacy with
Mr. Dunning and Colonel Barr6; and to
the kind assistance of the latter he was in
debted for most of the parliamentary do
cuments which enabled him to write with
so much accuracy on the public finances.
Among other instances pf prpfusion which
distinguished this war from all that pre
ceded it, were the shameful bargains that
were made with the different contractors

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 83
Ibr supplying' the army and navy with
stores and provisions. Against some of
these, and particularly against Alderman
Harley's contract for sending coin to Ca*
nada^ and Atkinson's rum cdntract, Colonel
Barr6 inveighed with his usual energy in
the House of Commons. But in order-more
effectually to expose these and other trans
actions of the same kind, it was determined
that an account of them should be laid
before the public, together with some-ob
servations on the profligate manner in
which the resources of the country were
lavished, and on the ruin which it threat
ened to the " liberties and property of "the
people. — A small pamphlet was in eonse-
quence written under the title of " Facts
addressed to the Subjects of Great Britain
and Ireland ;" the financial part of which
had been composed by Dr. Price, the other
partsf principally by Mr. Home Tooke.—
¦When this pamphlet was ready for publica
tion, Lord Shelburne objecting to some
G 3

84 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
passages of it wished the whole to be sup
pressed. But Mr. Tooke thought diffe
rently on the occasion, and caused it im
mediately to be published in direct oppo
sition to his Lordship's wishes. This ne
cessarily produced a quarrel between them,
which admitted of no reconciliation during
the remainder of their lives. I know not
what induced Lord Shelburne to object to
the publication of this admirable pamphlet,
which particularly recommended those very
measures proposed by the Duke of Rich
mond and himself in the House of Lords,
as the best means of saving the nation; and,
while it exposed the extravagance 'of the
present expenditure compared with that of
former wars, recited only mere matters of
fact deduced from documents which had
already been laid before Parliament: — and
as to the indignation which it expressed at
the frauds of contractors and the criminal
negligence of the Minister in his bargains
with some of them, it only adopted in more

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 85
moderate terms the language of Mr. Dun
ning, Colonel Barr6, and his other friends,
when they reprobated those abuses with so
much severity and justice in the House of
Commons. But it can now be of little use
to enter further into this discussion, and it
will be sufficient to observe that this anony-
riaous pamphlet passed through seven or
eight editions in a few months, without ex
citing the wrath of the Attorney-general,
or, I believe, awakening the Minister to
more vigilance and oeconomy in the ex
penditure of the public money. — But this
destructive system of profusion, which con
sumed the resources of the country and
threatened the utter ruin of public credit,
was not the only evil which alarmed the
apprehensions of Dr. Price. The increas
ing burthens which oppressed the poor, to
gether with the growing luxury and extra
vagance which pervaded the higher ranks
of society, were, in his opinion, making
dreadful inroads into the population of the

86' MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OP
kingdom; and with a view of warning the
nation of its danger, he published in 1779
an " Essay on the Pppulation of England"
from the Revolution to that Time, in which,
if the documents whence he derived his
information had been correct, he clearly
proved a decrease of more than one fourth
in the number of inhabitants; or, in other
words, that the population which in 1690
exceeded six millions and a half, had in
less than a century been reduced to five
millions. In the former period the number
of houses amounted, according to the re
turns of the surveyors of the house and
window duties, to 1,320,000 — in the latter
only to 952,000; and as. Dr. Price was iur
contestably right in regard to the number
of persons in each hbuse, it is manifest,
if these returns had been accurate, that he
would have been perfectly correct in his
conclusions. — But the survejors, in return
ing the houses excused pn account of po
verty, appear to have been exceedingly der

RICHARD PRICfi, D. D. 87
ficient, and. in consequence the conclusions
of Dr. Price are proportionably incorrect.
If the late enumerations are to be depended
upon, the paupers are five times more nu
merous than he had imagined; and within
the last ten years, notwithstanding a con
tinued war with all its evils,' the inhabi
tants of Great Britain have increased above
a million and a half; and this increase is
going on so rapidly according to these ac
counts, that we are in danger of proving
the truth of Mr. Malthus's theory, rather
than of fulfilling the prediction of Dr.
Price. But finance and politics were not the
only subjects which at this period engaged
Dr. Price's time and attention. In conse
quence of Dr. Priestley's disquisitions on
matter and spirit which had just been pub
lished, he was led to make some observa
tions on those parts which did not accord
with his own sentiments, and. to communi
cate them privately to the author, with the

88 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
wish, however, that they might be publish--
ed together with any remarks which he
should think proper to make upon them.
Dr. Priestley readily assented to his friend's
request, and it was consequently agreed
that they should enter into an amicable
discussion of those subjects ; the one pro
posing his objections — ^the other answering!
them — the one again replying to these an
swers, and the other rejoining to these re
plies, till each should at length be satisfied
that he had done all the justice iri his
power to his several arguments. This me
taphysical controversy was distinguished
from all others in one respect : It neither
disturbed the friendship of the parties, nor
abated the high opinion which each en
tertained of his adversary's talents and in
tegrity ; but, like all other controversies of
the same kind, it left both as it found them,
in the full persuasion of the truth of his
own opinions. I feel no desire to engage
iri metaphysical disquisitions, nor to enter

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 80
into a minute account of this controversy.
I shall therefore only observe on the sub
ject of matter, that Dr. Priestley, in oppo-r
sition to Dr. Price, maintained that it was
neither solid, impenetrable, nor inert — that
it was merely an extended surface possessed
pf certain powers of attraction and repul
sion, and therefore capable of acting where
it was not present; or, according to another
definition, that it was composed of a num
ber of indivisible centres of attraction and
repulsion ; and since these centres are mere
imaginary points. Dr. Price observed that
it can have no extension nor indeed any
existence at all. — On the nature of mind
and spirit. Dr. Priestley asserts that we
have no souL«eparate from the body; but
that the faculty of thinking, being the re
sult of a certain arrangement of the parts
of matter, is wholly carried on in and by
the brain itself. On the contrary. Dr. Price
maintains that mind is one, being totally
distinct from the body, and admits of np

^ MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
division; and that on the supposition of the
brain's being the sole organ of thought and
perception, it will follow, from the circum
stance of matter's being divisible, that the
mind must be composed of a multitude of
beings, and therefore that man may be di^
vided into a multitude of selves. On the
doctrine of necessity Dr. Priestley utterly
denies the free agency of man — maintains
that there is but one cause, one sole agent
in nature, that no action or event could
possibly have been different from what it
has been, is, or will be; and that if all
mankind were perfect philosophers and ne
cessarians, they would ascribe to God their
evil dispositions no less than their good
ones; or, in other words, they would con
sider themselves as fellow-workers with
him in their vices as well as their virtues.
From these new philosophical principles, as
he calls them. Dr. Priestley finds that
Christian Necessarians derive that excel
lence of character which renders them the

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 91
most distinguished for active and sublime
virtues!! — I shall not enter upon the argu
ments which Dr, Price opposed to the doc^
trine of necessity, nor upon those which
Dr. Priestley advanced in support of it;
but I cannot help thinking that it is as well
for the world that neither Christ nor his
apostles appear to have professed this new
philosophy when they delivered their in
structions tp mankind, — How fair either
party succeeded in these discussions I am
not anxious to decide. This will, most pro
bably be determiried, as in all cases of the
same kind, according to the preconceived
opinions of those that read them. On one
point, however, all must agree: — Of the
purity of the motives which led each of
these good men to engage in the contro
versy there can be np doubt ; nor is it pos
sible not to admire the zeal and sincerity
which they manifest throughout the whole
pf it in promoting the great cause of truth
and virtue. The subjects of this contro-.

92 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
versy (in their nature abstruse and un
satisfactory) do not in general either en
gage the attention or interest the feelings
of the public ; and had Dr. Price always
confined himself to the doubts and difficult
ties of metaphysics, it is certain that he
might still have had reason to lament his
unpopularity as a preacher: but having
directed his studies to subjects more ge
nerally understood, and more immediately
connected with the interest and happiness
-of mankind, the popularity which he justly
acquired as the zealous defender of civil
and religious liberty, he now also enjoyed
as the animated advocate of morality and
virtue. From his first publication on the
American war, the sermons which he had
formerly preached to a few persons scat
tered among the empty pews of his meet-
ipg-house, were now delivered to crowded
an^ admiring congregations; and such was
the excellence of his discourses — so devout
and animated his manner of conducting th©

fetCHARb PRict;, D. b. 93
service, that those whose curiosity led them
to hear him as the friend of liberty, trans
ferred this admiration to the nobler qua
lities which he displayed as the friend of
true religion and piety.
With the exception of two Fast Sermons
which he published in 1779 and 1781, Dr.
Price, during the remainder of the Ameri
can, war, continued a silent spectator of
events; and his time, exclusive of the hours
which his duties as a minister required, was
chiefly employed in carrying on an exten
sive correspondence ; of which, however,
he was accustomed to complain as having
become extremely irksome to him. — The
different subjects on which he had written
will partly account for the great number of
his correspondents ; and as he was rather
slow in writing letters, it is no wonder that
he should regret the toil of having so many
to engage his attention.
'The protracted continuance of the war
had now involved the kingdom in consi-

94 MtlMOlRS OF THE LIFE OF
derable difficulties^; and the prospect of
forcing the Americans to unconditional
submission was daily becoming more hope
less. Dr. Price therefore^ though a silent,
had never ceased to be an anxious specta*
tor of events : — But the abuse and calumny
with which he was assailed, increased in
proportion to the nearer accomplishment
of his wishes, and the disappointment of
his opponents. He was not only repre
sented as an abandoned profligate in some
of those' periodical publications which set
truth and decency at defiance, but he was
continually annoyed with anonymous let
ters, accusing him as a traitor, and even
threatening him with assassination; but
neither the scurrility of the one nor the
menaces of the other had the least effect
in disturbing the tranquillity of his temper,
or in diminishing that cheerfulness and
benevolence which endeared him to all his
friends. At lengthj however, after expend
ing above 150 millions in the attempt, the

illCHARb PRtCE, C.b. 95
subjugation of America became utterly
desperate, and the ministers, no longer
supported by their Usual n^ajprities in the
House, of Commons, resigned their places
in ^.March 1782. A new administration
was soon formed, composed of ths Marquis
of Rpckinghairi, Lprd Shelhiurne, Mr. Fox,
and other leading members of the oppesi-
tion, who immediately adopted such mea
sures as tended to conciliate the colonies
and to restore a general peace in Europe
and America*. But they had scarcely
* On the occasion of the peace, he received the follow
ing letter from Dr. Franklin, whcse favourable opinion of
his writings, made ample amends for all the abuse which
had been heaped upon him by the pensioned advocates for
American subjugation. " Passy, June 13, 1782.
"Dear sir,
" I congratulate you on the late revolution in your pub-
" lie af]&irs. Much good may arise from it, though pos-
•' sibly not all that good men and even the new ministers
" themselves may have wished or expected. The change,
*' however, in the sentiments of the nation, 272 which I see
" evident effects of your writings with those of our deceased

90 MEMOIRS OF THE LlFE Of
commenced this salutary work, before the
whole phialanx was broken up and destroyed
" friend Mr. Burgh *, and others of our valuable Club,
" should encourage you to proceed. The ancient Romani
" and Greek orators could only speak to the number of
" citizens capable of being assembled within the reach of
" their voice. Their writings had little effect, because the
" bulk of the people could not read. — Now by the press
" we can speak to nations ; and good books and well-writ*
" ten pa,mphlets have great and general influence. The
" facility with which the same truths may be repeatedly
'' enforced by placing them daily in different lights in
" newspapers Which are every where read, gives a great
" chance of establishing them. And we now find that it
" is not only right to strike While the iron is hot, but that
" it may be very practicable to heat it by continually
'^' striking. I suppose all may now correspond with more
" freedom, and I shall be glad to hear from you as often

* The death of this amiable and excellent person had happened a few
weeks before the writing of this letter. — He had long been the intimate
friend of Dr. Price, and one of the principal members of his congrega
tion at Newington Green.-^He was the author of several valuable works
on moral and political subjects, and in all of them proved himself the
steadfast friend of virtue and liberty. His last publicatioii, under ithe
title of " Political Uisquisitions," though written under the excruciating
agonies of tbe stone, abounds with the most important information on
the extreme defectiveness of the national representation, and cannot'
fail to be admired by all who wish to restore the constitution to its,
original purity.

RICHARD PRICE, D.D.- 97
by the death' of the Marquis of Rpcking-
ham. On this unfprtunate event' acen-
tentipn for power arose between the friends
of Lord Shelburne and those of the Dii'ke
of Portland, which terminated in favour of
the fprmer, and consequently in the resig
nation and inveterate hatred^ of the lat
ter. . The cabals and ' intrigues which pro
duced and fomented these dissensions form
no part of my design in writing this history.
I shall therefore only pbserve, that hpwever
much Dr. Price's friendship disposed him
to consider Lord Shelburne in the right on
this occasion, he by no means approved of
some of the associates whom he had chosen
for himself from among the members of
" as maybe convenient to you. Please to present my best
" respects to our good old friends of the London Coffee-
" house. I often figure to myself the pleasure! I should
" have in being once more seated among .them. With the
" greatest and most sincere esteem and affection, I am,
" my dear friend, yours ever,
" B. Franklin."
II

98 MJ^MOIRS OF TBI* LJFip 0^
Lord North's administration. Neverthe
less, the abilities displayed in conducting
the negotiation, for peace, and in bringing
the war to a speedy and upon the whole
^ favourable termination^-the plans also
ifrhich were in contemplation for restoring
tjie finances, and the different measures
which were proposed for improving the
condition of the kingdom, led him and the
friends of peace and liberty in general to
entertain the highest hopes from this ad
ministration. In the King's speeph, which
was delivered at the ppening ef the sessien
in December 1782, that part of it which
expresses a wish " that sueh regulatious
" niay be established, such savings made,
" and future loans so eonstrueted as to pro*
" mote the means of their gradual redemp-
" tipn by a fixed course of payment," was
suggested, and I believe inserted jn the very
words of Dr. Price. So intimate was his
connexion with Lord Shelburne at this time.

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 99
that he was gravely offered by him the place
of private Secretary *. It is hardly necessary
to observe that he declined an offer sp. littljs
suited tp his habits and disposition, or that
the honour and emoluments of office wer0
as unnecessary to engage bim in favpur pf
a gppd adniinistratipn, as they wpuld havej
been ineffectual in securing his support pf
a bad pne. His cpnnexion with Lord Shel
burne was continued from no mptive of pri
vate interest ; for though he had long been
honoured with his confidence, he neither
sought a place nor asked a favour for himself
or his friends. His attachment therefore
tP him as prime-minister was disinterested
in the highest degree, and, exclusive of the
partiality of friendship, was founded on the
hope and belief that he would pursue such

* His I^ordship surely could not be in earnest in making
Such an offer. It was no doubt meant as a cojoapliment,
and the simplicity of Dr. Price considered it in that light,
though, as a friend observed, the Minister might as well
have proposed to make him Master of the horse.
H 2

100 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF
measures as would restore public credit,
and check that corruption which exhausted
the resources and endangered the liberties
of the country : nor do I know that there
)yas any sufficient reason to apprehend that
this hope would have been disappointed,
had Lord Shelburne been continued long
enough in power to carry his measures into
execution. The former principles and prac
tice of some of his associates were perhaps
unfavourable to the expectation of any sub
stantial reform, and the gradual declension
of Dr. Price^s visits at Shelburne House did
not render the prospect more encouraging.
— But what might have been effected by
this administration it is now of little con
sequence to inquire. After an existence of
a few months it was overthrown by the
coalition of two hostile parties, who, for
saking every principle on which they had
so long and so vehemently opposed each
pther, united together for its destruction,
with the .view; pf succeeding tp the jeint par-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 101
ticipation of a power which neither of them
could have separately obtained. Having
been thus forced to resign his office by »
combination which sickened every honest
man. Lord Shelburne, upon retiring into
private life, renewed that intimacy with Dr.
Price which had been partially and per
haps unavoidably interrupted by his public
duties in a situation ill-fitted for the social
intercourse of disinterested friendship.
Immediately on the terminatiou of the
Mar in 1783, Dr. Price published a small
pamphlet, in which he gave an account of
the funded and unfunded debt at the time
of signing the preUminary articles of peace,
which appears to have been increased by
the war above 120 millions ; and, in allu
sion to the King's speech at the opening of
the session of Parliament, proposed a plan
for conducting future loans and for re
deeming the public debts. But the mini
sters who recommended that measure had
been succeeded by others who paid little

102 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFS, OP
regard to the recommendations of their
predecessors. The next loan, therefpre, was
made Pnwthe same improvident terms with
all fprmer loans, and the very idea of ren
dering it conducive to the redemption of
the debt was treated with ridicule and
contempt. Disappointed in the hope of a
better system of finance. Dr. Price content
ed himself with giving a very concise ao*
count of the principles on which this plan
was founded,^ and pf the good effects which
Were likely to result from it. In the course
of a few months, however, these ministers
shared the fate of those whom they had
displaced, and revived the hope that a
more enlightened policy might influence
t^ose who succeeded them. Encouraged
by this prospect. Dr. Price in the folldwing
year pubhshed a Postscript to his former
pamphlet, in which he repeated his argu
ments in favour of the plan which he had
lately proposed, and drew a comparison
between the amount of the debt as stated

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 103
by himself with its amount as stated in the
Report presented tp the Hpuse pf Cpm-
mons by the Commissioners who had been
appointed by the new administration for
examining the public accounts. In this
Report he had the satisfaction of seeing
those measures, which had lately been
treated with so little attention and respect,
recommended in the strongest terms, and
the necessity of abandoning the present
ruinpus .system enforced by the same argu*
ments with which he had long endeavoured
in vain to impress the public.
The warm and active benevolence of
Dr. Price was not confined to this country;
but eager to promote the welfare and
happiness of all mankind, it was equally
gratified by the diffusion of knowledge,
liberty, and virtue, whether those blessings
were to be enjoyed on this, or on the other
side of the globe. His exertions in favour
of the American Colonies arose entirely
fiiPHi this principle; and having n6w sue-

104 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
ceeded in establishing their independence,
it was his ardent wish that they might form
such governments as would render it a be
nefit to the world. With this view he
wrote a pamphlet* addressed to the Uni-
* It appears-from a great number of the letters which
he'received from his friends in America, that he had long
been requested to favour them with his advice in regard to
the formation of their new governments ; and the following
exffactifrom one of Dr. Rush's letters will be sufficient to
^how the high sense, which some of the more enlightened
men in that country entertained of his abilities. " Philadelphia.
"  Most of the distresses of our country and of the
" mistakes which Eur':^peans have formed of us have arisen
" from a belief that the 'American revolution is over. This
" is so far fi;om, being the case, that we have only finished
" the first act of the drama. — We have changed our forma
" of government; but it remains yet to effect a revolution
" in our principles, opinions, and manners, so as to accora-
" mpdate them to the government we have adopted. —
" This is the most diflScult part of the business of the pa-
" triOts of our country. — It requires more wisdom and for-
" titude than to expel or to reduce armies into captivity.
" — I wish to see this idea inculcated by your pen. — Call,
" upon the rulers of our country to lay the foundation of
" their ettipire in knowledge as well as virtue, &c. This
" will-render tlie ' Ansierican revolution a blessing to man.

RICHARD PRICE, D. P. 105
ted States, which he distributed among
them at his own expense, containing ob
servations on the importance of the Ame
rican revolution, and much valuable advice
on the best means of securing those liberties
for which they had successfully contended.
The first object which he recommended to
their attention was the establishment of a
Sinking Fund for the redemption of their
debts. The next was the cultivation of
peace and the formation of a strict politi
cal union among themselves; on the pre
servation of which their credit, liberties,
and even their existence depended: — and
though the forms of their government were
in general much more liberal than those;
of any other country, yet the observations
" kind. As you have staked your reputation upon this
" great event with the world and with posterity, you must
" not desert us till you see the curtain drop and the last
" act of the drama closed. A small pamphlet addressed
" by yoii to the Congress and the Legislatures of each of
" the States would, I am sure, have more weight with our
" rulers than an hundred pubhcations thrown out by the
" citizens of this country,"

106 MEMOIRS Ot THE LIFE OF
which he introduced on civil and religious
liberty were not the less important, in lead
ing them to more enlarged views in regard
to the freedom of discussion, the liberty of
conscience, and the civil establishment of
religion. In warning them of the several
dangers to which they were exposed, ex
clusive of those arising from internal wars,
the unequal distribution of property, and
the endless accumulation of debts, he cau
tioned them particularly against too eager
a pursuit of foreign trade and its attendant
evils-^the estabhshment of banks — and the
multiplication of paper-money. I know not
what attention was paid to these admoni-^
tions when they were first delivered, except
in a few instances among the more sober
and virtuous members of the United States*;
* The following extracts afford some reason to hope
that his advice, when first communicated to the people of
America, was not wholly thrown away upon them.
,Extract6f a'leUerfromMrtClarh at Boston, dated -April 1735.
" Your late publication is a noble testimony df that af-
" fection which you always possessed for these States. We'

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. l07
but late events have too clearly ¦shown that
their effects must have been very transient ;
and that wars, debts, taxes, paper-money,
and the whole train of evils produced by
" are all sensible of the honour you have done us, and we
" gratefully acknowledge our obligation. Dr, Chauncy is
" delighted with the work. He thanks yon most sincerely
" for the generous concern you have discovered for his
". country, and he hopes his country will have wisdom to
" adopt the measures you have recommended. Your
" chapter on liberal inquiry cannot be sufficiently ad-
" mired.— I think it has already liberated some minds.
" May it be candidly read by all, and may you have the
" exalted happiness of seeing rational Christianity flourish
" by your labours!"
Extract of a letter from Dr, tVheeler of Dartmouth College,
dated Augtist 1785.
" Your observations on the importance of the American
" Revolution I have had the pleasure to read with particu-
" lar attention.— I cannot tell you how great the applause
" is -which its f^uthor receives' throughout these States.
" The President, confined by a lingering disease, wrote a
"letter to the Assembly at their session last . February,
" inclosing the Observations, &c. He informed the Legis-
" lature that the remarks in this pamphlet were the best
" legacy which he could leave them. — He prayed earnestly
" that the spirit of diem might animate the manners and
*' dispositions of legislators and people to the latest age,"

108 MEMOIRS OP THE LIFE OF
the governments of the old world, are not
likely to be soon abandoned ^ by those of
the new one.
The termination of the war and the suc
cessful issue pf the centest in favPur of
liberty, once more restored Dr. Price to
the more peaceful and agreeable pursuits
of religious and philosophical subjects.
From his earliest youth, his opinions on
certain points in religion underwent little
or no change. In his private letters to his
friends a very short time after leaving the
academy, he appears, as in his latest dis
courses, to have considered the pre-exist-
ence of Christ, the exalted, dignity of his
iiature, and the effect of his interposition
in redeeming the distressed and degraded
rape, of man from death and misery, to he
fundamental doctrines of Christianity. But
it should be observed that, although these
sentiments were first imbibed by him at a
period when zeal is apt to mislead the
judgement, they were even then maintairie'<)

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 109
with that diffidence and liberality which
distinguished the writings of his maturer
years. In general he laid very little stress
on creeds and articles of faith. He pre
ferred the honest though mistaken opinions
of a virtuous and, humble mind to the
soundest orthodoxy of a conceited bigot,
and was more gratified in encouraging a
candid inquiry after truth than in making
converts to his own system. Among those
who embraced the opposite extremes of
Trinitarianism and Socinianism, though
he 'differed essentially from both, he had
many friends whom he respected and
esteemed ; but he never wished to enter
into any controversy with them on these
subjects, though he had long intended to
give a fair account of their opinions, with
the view of explaining the reasons on which
he founded his own. In the year I786
therefore he published a volume of Ser
mons, of which half the number were
appropriated, to doctrinal, the other half

110 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
to moral subjects. — In the former were
stated, first, the points on which all Chris
tians were agreed — next, the tenets pecu
liar to Trinitarians and Socinians — and last
ly, those of the author himself, which pre
served a middle course between those, of
the two, preceding ones.-^It forJns no part
of my design, nor do I feel any inclination,
to engage in theological disputes; it will
be sufficient therefore to observe that,
although Dr. Price's middle scheme seemed
to have been better received by the Trini-^
tarians than the Socinians*, it had but
* Extract of a letter from Dr. Adams.
" Gloucester, 2\st December, 1786.
" Dear Sib,
" I owe you a thousand thanks for your valuable present.
" — I have read your book with great pleasure  It has in-
" deed answered my highest expectations, and I yet expect
" more good from it than from any or all the things that I
" have read on the same subjects. There is a modesty and
" candour throughout, and something so conciliating, espe-
" cially in the introduction, as will, I hope, gain it a serious
" attention from all parties. — And this with a little, reason
' ' and reflection is all that is wanting to gain proselytes to

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. Ill
little effect in satisfying either of them.
Dr. Priestley, the strenuous advocate of
Socinianism, was among the first to notice
these sermons, in a series of letters address
ed to Dr. Price, who, from his high regard
and resppct for the. author, was induced to
insert a short reply to some of his principal
objections, in an appendix to the second
edition, which was published in the follow
ing year. Another zealous opponent he
found in his friend Mr. Lindsey*, whose
" your cause. At least I find daily, that the more I think
" on these subjects, the more I incline to almost all your
** opinions. The seasonable check which you have given to
" Socinianism will win you some favour from the fiercest
" Athanasians: and there is an argument in your book which
<« I think will operate with great force against the peculiar*
" doctrine of that creed, &c."
* t'rom the following letter it will be seen that the con-
.fident manner in Which his opinions Were pronounced to be
wrong, had but little effect in leading Dr. Price to forsake
tliem. " De4,b ]VI». I<in.psey, May Wh, 17po.
" I cannot avoifi Ti^riting to yQUto F^turn niy best thanks
" for your second addressj^ and for the very kind notice yoa

112 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
arguments appear to have succeeded no
better in convincing him than those of Dr.
Priestley. Of the good intentions of both
he deservedly entertained the highest opi
nion ; but he always felt hurt at their as-
« havetakenofmeinit. Your favourable opinion cannot but
" give me particular pleasure, and I hope I shall never lose
" it:  I am afraid, however, that I shall be in danger of this,
"- when I tell you, that' after reading your book carefully,
" and being instructed by it, I remain unconvinced of the
" doctrine of the simple humanity of Christ. This must,
" I doubt, appear to you a striking kind of obstinacy ; for
" I find you think that you have infallibly settled this point ;
«' and you sometimes use expressions which imply,, that no
" serious searcher aftertruth, who takes his opinion from
'.' the Bible, and is of a sound understanding, can embrace
" a different doctrine. But I know your candour; and you
" will, I doubt not, consider in 'my favour, that this is a
" time of life in which we are under the necessity of making
" up our minds; and it is my comfort, that whether I have
" done this on the side of truth or error, I shall be equally
<« accepted, provided I have been serious, honest, and dili-
" gent in my inquiries. I wish you, Dear Sir, all happi-
" ness, and that the remainder of your useful and valuable,
" life may be crowned with a constant increase of the en-
" joyments inseparable from exemplary integrity.
" I am most affectionately yours,
" R. Price."

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 113
suming to themselves and-their sect exclu
sively, the appellation of Unitarians, (which
belongs equally to Jews and Mahometans,)
and treating with so much contumely the
opinions of those who differed from them.
In regard to the Moral Sermons, which
constituted the latter part of this volume,
no difference of opinion existed. These
were equally admired by all the friends of
religion and virtue. The goodness of the
Deity — the security and happiness of a
virtuous course — and the assurance of a
resurrection from the dead, are subjects on
which all Christians are agreed ; and the
zeal and energy with which these great
and important truths were enforced by the
author of these sermons, make us almost
regret that he had not devoted the whole
of the volume to subjects of the same kind *.
* I hope it will not be improper to insert the following
extracts of letters fi-om two of his most distinguished fpends
oii this occasion.
Extract of a letter from Mrs. Chapone, dated Carlisle,
December 10th, 1786,
" I am exceedingly charmed with the sermon on tne
I

114 MEMOIRS OF The life of
A few months previous to the publica
tion of these sermons Dr. Price had been
visited by a severe domestic affliction in
the I0.SS of a wife, whose affectionate atten
tion had long endeared her to him as oiie of
the greatest blessings of his life. Although
Mrs. Price's health, from 'the first year of

" happiness of virtue — Here you are indeed a most power-
" ful orator! You speak of what you thoroughly know, and
" with all the energy and moving eloquence that benevo-
" lence can inspire. Those on the goodness of God were
" also very delightful to me; but I almost wished you had
'* not built so much on an assertion which perhaps would
" not be granted by all people — that happiness so greatly
" prevails and preponderates in this world. If you were to
" ask^all your acquaintance (who nevertheless are among
" the best, and therefore the happiest part of mankind)'
" whether they would choose to live their lives over again
" exactly as they have passed, rather than remain insensi-
" ble tUl the general resurrection, perhaps they would not
** embrace the proposal as readily as you would expect.
" For my part, 1 think the belief of God's goodness doe?
" not rest upon this. As I know not how much of our
" suffering arises from our own faults — how much is chas-
« tjsein^nl;— ^how much is tri^ — nor how i\ may conduce
" to our future and eternal good ; the miseries of life, even
" if ?lipwn to be greater than its enjoyipents, wpuld iiot

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 11^
her marriage, had never been perfectly re
stored, she had, however, so far recovered
her strength and spirits as to be capable of
enjoying the society of her friends, and
contributing essentially to their comfort
and happiness. The purity of her mind
", stagger my faith in the goodness of God. Though he kill
" me yet will I trust in him, for were he not good, I must
"have been wholly evil. I cannot be better than my
•^ Maker ; therefore whilst I feel one spark of benevolence
" in myself, I must attribute that quality to him in bound-
'?' less, perfection. Upon the #hole, I sincerely admire your
'' work and venerate the author ; most particularly for that
" unlimited charity and candour, which is the genuine spirit
" of Christianity."
Extract of a letter from Sir William Jones, cldt6d Cfishna
Nagar, 26th September, 1788.
'' I have lately read with delight a book in which all
<' Christians are interested; ayolume of Sermons preachfed
« by you, aftd showing the goodness both of your heart and
" of your judgement. I anxiously hope that I shall see
" you in perfect health some years hence on my return Jo
" Europe, where /despairing of public liberty) I shall, by
" ©od's blessing, pass the rest of my life in studying those
" parts of knowledge which are connected with the duty
«' of good citizens, g^nd in conversing with you and a few;
" others wh^lpve thfir country better than tlieir interest."
I 2

Il6 MEMOIRS OF' THE LIFE OF
and the benevolence of her disposition had
well fitted her to be the friend and com
panion of Dr. Price; and though their union
was never blessed with an addition to their
family, they were no less the objects of filial
love and veneration to many of their younger
relatives, whom they treated with all the
care and kindness of the most affectionate
parents. I do not know that in any part of
Dr. Price's life the amiable benevolence
of his temper shone with more lustre than
during the last illness of Mrs. Price. The
paralytic disorder with which she was af
fected, though slight in its first attack, had
in the course of two years considerably im
paired her faculties, and rendered her in
capable of deriving much enjoyment either
from reading or conversation. In order
therefore, as far as lay in his power to con
tribute to her amusement. Dr. Price devo
ted a more than ordinary portion of his
time to her company, and almost every
afternoon sat down for an hour or two with

RICHARD PRICE, DiD. 117
the Utmost patience and even cheerfulness
to play cards with ¦ her — a sacrifice which
can be fully appreciated only by a mind
like his own. Her death in September
1786, though long expected and by no
means undesirable, was, however, as deeply
felt, and as sincerely lamented by him, as
if it had been preceded by no malady to
reconcile him to her dissolution. — But he
felt and lamented like a good man, and
never suffered his sorrow to render him less
cheerful to his friends, or less interested in
the welfare and happiness of his fellow-
creatures. About this period the Trustees of Mr.
Coward's Academy, where in the earlier
part of his life he had received his educa
tion, determined to move that seminary
from London to a distant part of the coun
try.. To this they were induced, partly
perhaps by their own orthodoxy, but pro-
fess,eidly by a scrupulous adherence to the
construction of Coward's will, which direct-

118 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
ed that all the students in his institution
should be instructed in the principles of
Calvinism, or, in other words, in principles
diametrically opposite to those which had
been taught there for many preceding years.
This determination of Coward's trustees
deprived the more liberal and enlightened
dissenters in London of the only place in
Svhich young men of their persuasion could
be brought up for the ministry. Accord
ingly a meeting was held among some of
the principal friends of rational religion,
and a subscription was set on fpot with the
view of establishing a college in the neigh-?
bourhood of London, for the education not
only pf Clerical but of Lay-students, 4-
very considerable sum was raised jn a short
time for this purpose. A stately edifice
was purchased in Hackney, and tutors were
apppinted for the different branches of
literature and philosophy. In support of
an institution formed with such laudable
views. Dr. Price npt pply cpntrihut^d hi?

RICHARD FRICE, D.D. 119
share in the subscription, but consented
to instruct the students in the higher
branches of the mathematics— a work, for
which his mildness, patience, and ability,
would have rendered him highly qualified,
had his time been less occupied, and his
habits more accustomed to the meehanical
drudgery of education*. In addition to
these services, he undertook, but with some
reluctance, to preach a sermon at the open
ing of the academy in April 1787, and
ehose for his subject the evidence of a fu
ture improvement in the state of mankind.
-¦ — Happy had his predictions been verified]
or even had the prospect of this improve
ment been rendered more encouraging by
the events of the last twenty years! — Of
the Hackney institution it will be sufficient

* Dr. Price soon found hiftiself incapable of attending
to the duties of this office, and therefore resigned it in the
second year after having undertaken it. — The wonder ^,
that he could ever be prevailed upon to undertake it af:
all.

120 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
to observe that it began its course with
splendour, and flattered the hopes of its
more sanguine friends and benefactors with
the mighty effects it was to produce on the
rising generation; but that it soon gradual
ly languished and decayed ; and after an in
glorious existence of a few years, and the
expenditure of more than i£ 20,000, sunk
into irretrievable ruin. Dr. Price, howr
ever, had not the mortification of witnessr
ing this catastrophe. To the last, period of
his life he continued his unavailing assist.?
ance to the institution; and it is probable,
from the circumstance of his having be-»
queathed a small legacy towards its sup
port, that he died unconscious of the igr
norance and folly which werp accelerating
its destruction,
I have already observed that the mea
sures recommended by Lord Shelburne for
redeeming the national debt and abandon
ed by his immediate successprs, had been
again adopted by the following Administr^?

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 121
tion. For two or three years after the con
clusion of the American war the funds con
tinued much depressed, and the revenue
inadequate to the ordinary expenses of
government, arising principally from the
immense amount of the unfunded debt,
and from the injudicious .system of taxation
which had been 'pursued during the war.
As the best' means of restoring public
credit, Mr. Pitt, the present minister, de
termined upon a new and more regular ar
rangement of the taxes, and upon forming
a plan which should redtice the debt, and
thus inspire the nation with a hope that its
burthens were neither to increase, nor even
to continue for ever. Amidst a great variety
of plans which were proposed to the mini
ster for this purpose, he at length decided
in favour of one which, previous to its being
carried into effect, he very properly sub^-
mitted to the judgement of Dr. Price, ac*
pompanied with the foUp wing letter :^- "

122 memoirs of the life of
" Dear Sir,
" The subject of the papers which I in-
" close . will, I am sure, be an apology
" for the liberty I take in troubhng you,
" and in requesting your opinion upon
" them, When you have had sufficient
"^ leisure to consider them, I should be
** greatly obliged to you if you will allow
*' me to hope for the pleasure of seeing you at
^' any time that is convenient to you.-'— The
" situation of the revenue certainly makes
" this the time to establish an effectual
•' sinkingfund. The general idea of convert-
?' ing the three-per-cents into a fund bear-
*' ing a higher rate of interest, with a view to
*' facilitate redemption, you have on many
" occasions suggested, and particularly in
*' the papers you were so good to send me
" last year. The rise of the Stocks has
*' made a material change since that period,
" and I am inclined to think something
" like the plan I now send you may be

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 123

fc

more adapted to the present eircum*-
*' stances. There may be, I believe, some
" inaccuracies in the calculations, but not
*' such as to be very material. Before I
*' form any decisive opinion, I wish to learn
^* ypur sentiments uppn it; and shall think
^' myself obliged to yon for any improve-^
** ment you can suggest, if you think the
*' principle a right one ; or for any other
*' proposal, which from your knowledge of
*' the subject you may think preferable."
. Instead of bestowing much time in ex
posing this, ineffective and miserable plan,
which would have disgraced any minister
that had adopted it, Dr. Price, in return,
sent three other plans for Mr. Pitt's peru*-
sal; but recommended one of them in pre
ference to the other two, as the most power*
ful in its operations, and consequently th&
best adapted to the present circumstances
of the country. But this plan required the,
addition of 4g800,QOO a year to the taxes,

124 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
and Mr. Pitt, good man (who afterwards
added 500 millions to the public debt),
scrupled to burthen the nation with this
new load, and therefore adopted one of the
less efficient plans, which however he con
trived tp render still more inefficient by
providing that its operations should be
checked at the period when they were be
coming most powerful. — Nevertheless, the
pjan, though crippled and mutilated in the
first instance by Mr. Pitt, and still further
crippled by his successors, has produced
the most beneficial effects, and entitled the
author of it to the gratitude of the nation.
I am far from denying his share of merit
to the minister who had the discretion to
adopt any measure of this kind, and whose
influence was exerted in carrying this par
ticular measure into execution. But the
friends of Dr. Price have reason to com
plain that, after enduring so much obloquy
and abuse from his stupid opponents when
he first proposed such a measure, and after

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 125^
a patient perseverance for fourteen years,
having succeeded at last in convincing
Government of the necessity of it, he should
be deprived of the meagre boon of being
noticed amidst the high-sounding compli
ments which the minister bestowed upon
himself in proposing the measure to Parlia
ment. When he boasted of having raised
a pillar to public credit, it would have
been as well if he had proposed to have
Dr. Price's name inscribed with his own on
the pedestal : but subsequent events have
proved that these names would have been
ill associated on the same column. — Dr.
Price's plans were formed for the purpose
of relieving the nation from its burthens.
They were never designed for the purpose
of forcing public credit to its utmost limits,
or for being converted into instruments for
increasing the mass of the debt to four
times its former amount. Had he foreseen
this to have been the consequence, it is
probable that he would have been less

125 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
strenuous in the recommendation of theln.
The pure and disinterested motives which
directed all his actions rendered him anxi
ous only for the public good ; and on this
principle he was solicitous that Mr. Pitt, in
the establishmentof a measure so essential to
it, should receive all the instruction and as
sistance in his power. He assumed no other
merit to himself than that of honest inten
tion; and therefore, when he imagined that
the great end he had in view was about to
be accomplished, he was very little moved
by the vanity and ingratitude of the mi
nister in depriving him of all share in the
praise and honour of it. The successors
of Mr. Pitt have in this respect uniformly
followed his example in their panegyrics
on their great prototype. They have never
ceased to extol his virtue in establishing the
Sinking Fund, and to ascribe solely to his
wisdom and ability the formation of the
plan which has given so much energy to
the operations of it. Whether this has

RICHAR,D PRICE, D.D, 1517
proceeded from ignorance, or a disregard to
truth and decency, lam little disposed to
inquire;; but it is with sincere regret that I
observe in the number of these successors
one Minister who should have been more
discriminate in his praises of Mr. Pitt on
this subject. Lord Henry Petty, whea
Chancellor of the Exchequer, should have
known that his late father in the House of
Peers had on more than one occasion as
serted Dr. Price's claim to the gratitude of
the public; and instead of passing over his
name in silence when expatiating on the
benefits of the Sinking Fund, and ascribing
the merits of it exclusively to Mr. Pitt, he
should at least have admitted Dr. Price to
a share in his panegyrics, and thus paid a
tribute to the memory of a man whom his
father had long been accustomed to address
and treat as his friend. But I do not be
lieve that Lord Henry Petty intended any
disrespect to Dr. Price by his silence; nor
in itself was it a matter of much consequence

12.8 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
that on this occasion he should have imi
tated the example of Mr. Pitt and his fol
lowers. It would, however, have been as
well, if, while extolling the virtue which
introduced and the wisdom which formed
the plan for redeeming the national debt,
he had chosen to .give fresh energy to its
operations, rather than divert them to other
purposes, and instead of making the first in
road upon a fund which ought to have been
held sacred and inviolate, he had guarded
it by more powerful securities against the
encroachments of future Ministers. — But,
unfortunately, his successors have profited
by the example to make further inroads
Upon it in aid of that enormous expenditure
which, after having exhausted the ordinary
resources of the country, is now gradually
destroying the last support of its credit and
security. It is melancholy to observe the
indifference, or rather the complacency, with
which this fatal measure is regarded by the
nation.. They suffer themselves to be de-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 129
iuded by the temporary relief which they
derived from the appropriation of the Sink
ing Fund to the immediate exigencies of
Government, and are thus led to acqui
esce in a continued course of extravagance
which must ultimately oppress and over
whelm them.
In his ardent 5;eal for the establishment
of this fund Dr. Price does not appear to'
have duly reflected on the fate of a similar
measure in the former reign.' The existence
of a fund which chiefly depends on the fru
gality and forbearance of ministers must
always be very precarious; and unless suc
ceeding ministers should become more sa
ving and virtupus than their predecessers,
it is in vain tP hppe that any establishment
pf this kind will Ipng be suffered te proceed
without interruptipn in those seasons of dif
ficulty which have so often been produced
by an improvident expenditure of the pub
lic money. — The accumulatiens pf a Sink
ing Fund affprd a ready supply fpr an ex-
K

130 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
haiisted Treasury ; and since the danger
of their being misapplied will always in
crease with their magnitude, it is not proi-
bable, if we reason from past experience,
that they will ever be permitted to proceed
so far as to produce their fuU effect in ex
onerating the country from its burthens.
In short, it is of little consequence what
plan is adopted for redeeming the public
debts if an unsparing profusion perpetually
augments them; and whether the merit pf
such plan be assigned tp Dr. Price or to
Mr, Pitt, the nation in this case will havsg
to regard the author only as having fur
nished ministers with the means of extend-
mg the bounds of public credit, and thus
rendering its ruin ultimately more general
iaad dreadful.
Dr. Price's acquaintance with Mr. Pitt,
as well as his publications on the subject
of the national debt, were closed with the
esiablishment of the Sinking Fund in 1786.
Had he Hved, however, it was his in tea-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 131
tion to have given an account of the pubhc
'finances for the four succeedirig years *, in
order to prove that the ordinary reVeriue,
so far from providing a million surplus foB
that fund, as Mr. Pitt pretended, had Ijeen
deficient to a greater amount; amd that such
ipillion had in fact been derived {rom loans,
extraordinary receipts, and other means
which would probably fail in future-^, and
le^ve the country m a worse state than, if
the Sinking Fund had! never been estafblisb-
edvi— How far this might hav« been th*
catse, had the nation contisnued m a state of
peace, it is diScult to determine : buit tha
Ipng arid exp^jisive wars in which it has
been engaged have rendered these specu*
latiohs of little consequence ; nor have they
ajRy connexion either with the Ufe os the
* In the fifth edition of his 6bservatrons on Keversio.'
n^Fayimen^ which he bad justbegun,to prepare for the
presis at the tiiiie of his last illness in 1791.
f T^is work t end!eavQure^ to supply in a pamphlet
which i'pubrished sood lifter iDr. Price's death, containing
ft J^i^ <iif Ub dr£ferel!^t 'jtmiii^gs on the public finanees,
K 2

1S2 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
writings of Dr. Price, who never could 'have
contemplated a debt of 800 millions; or, if
he had lived to witness it, would lohg ago
have ceased in despair'^o propose any plan
for its redemption.
The death of Mrs. Price, the declining
state of; his ovvn health, and the growing
infirmities of age, had tended greatly to
depress Dr. Price's spirits, and to alienate
his mind from all political subjects. With
a disposition naturally grave and serious,
it is -no wonder that in this season of sor
row and affliction he should choPse tP fix
his thoughts on objects from which he was
more likely to derive comfort than from the
fruitless attempt to reform the abuses of a
cprrupt Administration. To the duties of
his profession, which however he was used
.to lament as having become too burthen
some for him, he wished to devote the prin
cipal part of his time at this period. The
sermops which he had preached and ap
proved in his youth fio longer satisfied the

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 133
more severe judgement of his maturer
years, and he thought that he could not
be better employed than in correcting or
new composing them, as they appeared to
him to be more or less capable of amend
ment. It was his intention therefore, if his
life should be spared, to select a sufficient
number to form a single volume, and to
close his labours with the publication of
them.— -But this intention was never ful
filled. The numerous acquaintance and ex
tensive correspondence which occupied so
much of his time, and which he was in the
constant habit of bewailing as the greatest
impediment to his literary pursuits, had
now increased so considerably as to become
a very serious evil to him, and made it less
a matter of surprise than regret, that in the
depressed state of his mind he should not
have been able to accomplish this purpose.
After a residence of near thirty years in
Newington Greep, Dr. Price; in the spring
of the year 1787, exchanged his quiet

134 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
abode in that place for another more pub
lic and much less agreeable to himself in
the neighbouring village of Hackney. The
dilapidated state of his house — the resigna-
tionrof his office as minister to the congre
gations—the death of the greater number of
those members who had long been his most
Ultimate friends — and more especially the
hope that a change of scene might divert
his thoughts from the sorrowful recollec
tion of the loss which he had lately sustain
ed in his own family, — all concurred in
overcoming his partiality for his old dwell
ing, and determined him with much re
luctance to move from it. At this time in
deed every exertion was painful to him, and
he seemed to be almost as much oppressed
by a dread of the trouble attending his re
moval, as by his sorrow at quitting a place
where he had enjoyed so many hours of
cpmfprt and happiness. In a few weeks,
hpwever, after he had been settled in his
new habitatien, his widow-sister, Mrs.

RiCHARl> Price, d. d. 136
Morgan, who from her birth had resided
in Wales, but wbos« affection for her bro
ther was not lessened by the distance which
had always separated them, came to hve
with him at Hackney, and to fake upon
herself the management of his household
concerns. It was her most ardent wish,
by the exercise of every kind attention, to
soothe the cares and sorrows of his life; nor'
was it possible that he could have had a
friend more dear to him, nor better fitted, by*
the benevolence of her disposition, to render*
him happy. Dr. Price had never enjoyed
a strong constitution, nor had the return of
more than threescore years tended to im
prove it.— Hitherto, hpwever, by a simple
and regular cpurse of life — by an unvaried
attention to the use of moderate exercise —
and by cultivating that meek and tranquil
temper of mind, which suffers itself neither
to be inflamed by resentment nor disquiet
ed by the cares of the world, he had so faf
preserved his health as to be seldom inter-

136 memoirs of THE life of
rupted by sickness, either in the pursuit of
his studies or in the discharge of his public
duties.— But no effort of human wisdom
or virtue will always avail in keeping our
bodies from decay. The strongest consti
tution must yield at last to the ravages of
time; and therefore it is not surprising that
the feeble frame of Dr. Price, though foster
ed, with ever so much care and prudence,
should feel the effects of them. For more
than forty years of his life he had been ac
customed to ride an hour or two every day
before dinner, and three or four times in
the week to use the cold bath, which had
always been of particular service to him.
But a complaint in his head attended with
the loss of the sense of smelling prevented
him. from enjoying the benefit of thisje-r
creation, and a constant pain in his back
extending down his right leg, with other
symptoms which too plainly marked the
nature of his disease to be mistaken, render
ed him inpapable of taking his favourite

RICHARD price, D.D. 137
exercise on horseback, or even of walking
to any great distance without much difltt-
culty. — ^l^hese privations soon began to
have a verv serious effect on his health and
spirits. He now. regarded himself as de
clining fast into the vale of years, and con-
sideretl those maladies as monitors to warn
him of the necessity of closing his labours
and retiring from the world.— But oh this
head his apprehensions were altogether un
founded, and could have arisen only from
the humble opinion which he entertained
of his own iabilities. The disorders of his
body, however much they might have de
pressed his spirits, never had the least effect
in impairing the faculties of his mind. These
remained to the latest period of his life in
their full vigour, and it will be seen that on
proper occasions they were still capable of
being exerted with all their wonted force
and energy.
The death of our friends is one of those
severe trials which awaits us all, but mere

138 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
especially when our lives are prolonged to
the period which Dr. Price had now attaint
ed. The associates of his earlier years were
successively dropping into the grave, and
the natural depression of his Spirits render
ed him more susceptible of the effects of
these afflictions. To the long list which he
eniamerates in his private memoirs on this
ocS&sioil, he mentions with particular sor
row and affection the death of Dr. Shipley,
the bishop of St. Asaph, and of Dr. Adams,
the m&ster of Pembroke-college Oxford ^
whom he had long esteemed for their vir
tues, and numbered among the most valued
of his friends. Entertaining the same libe
ral opinions in religion and politics, it is no
wonder that these excellent men should be
endeared to each other, and that a friend
ship founded on the union of such princi-^
pies should have endured to the end of
their lives. In the month of. December,
1788, Dr. Adams, whose age and infirmities
led him to anticipate the events which were

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 13^
soon to follow, closed a friendly correspond
ence whieh had been continued fiii- tnany
years with a most affecting letter-^itj which
he informs him that his own life is drawing
fest towards a close; and after encouraging
him to persevere in those labours which he
had invariably exerted in promoting the
best interests of mankind, he concludes
with expressing a hope that their friend-*
ship, which had so long been cultivated to
their mutual happiness in this worlds might
be renewed and continued for ever in a
better. Dr. Adams did not live many days after
writing this letter; nor did he leave a friend
to survive him, more sincerely grieved at
his death than the person to whom it was
addressed. His acquaintance with Dr. Price
commenced in the year 1757, and arose
from the publication of Dr. Price's Review
of the principal questions in morals, in
which the same account is given of tbe na
ture of virtue and moral obligations, with

140 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
the account given by himself in a sermon
which he had formerly published: But it
was not merely on the subject of morals
that they were agreed in opinion. From
the whole of their long correspondence it
appears that they were equally well agreed
on subjects of more interest, which unhap
pily have too often divided and embittered
the minds of Christians against each other.
Not many months after the death of
these two friends. Dr. Price had to lament
the loss of another, in the amiable and be
nevolent Mr. Howard, who died a martyr
to the great cause of humanity, to which
he had so long and . so nobly devoted his
time and fortune. With him he had hved
from his earlier years on terms of the most
intimate friendship and affection ; and on
all occasions was consulted by him with an
ingenuous confidence which belongs only
to virtuous minds. In all his visits to the
different prisons in Great Britain, in Ireland,
and on the continent of Europe, this good

RICHARD PRICE, D. V. 141
man never failed to communicate an ac
count of his labours to Dr. Price, and tp
submit to his inspection and judgement the
invaluable works which contained the re
sults of those labours, before they were given
to the public. The numerous letters which
were written by each of them during an in
timacy of so many years would be very im
properly introduced into this work. Perhaps,
however, the following letter, the last which
Mr. Howard ever wrote to Dr. Price, may
not be uninteresting, as it serves to give
some idea of the kind and benevolent spirit
which pervades throughout the whole- of
their correspondence.
"Moscow, September 22nd, 176g.
" My DEAR Friend,
" Your kind desire of hearing from me
" engages me to write. When I left Eng-
" land I first stopped at Amsterdam. — I
" proceeded toOsnaburgh, Hanover, Bruns-
" wick, and Berlin, then to Koningsburgh,
" Riga,^ndPetersburgh; at all which places,

142 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
^* I visited the prisons and hospitals, which
*' were all flung open to me, and in iaome
*' the burgo-masters accompanied me into
*' the dungeons as well as into the other
** rooms of confinement. I arrived a few
*' days ago in this city, and have begun my
"^ rounds. — The hospitals are in a sad state.
« —Upwards of seventy thousand sailors
" and recruits died last year in the hospi-
" tals. I labour to convey the torch of
** philanthropy into these distant regions,
*' as in God's hand no instrument is weak,
"- and in whose presence no flesh must
"glory. " I go through Poland into Hungary. — ¦,
" I hope to have a few nights of this moon
" in my journey to Warsaw, which is about
'j^ one thousand miles. — I am pure well^ —
V the weather cjear-r— tbe mornings fresh
" — thermometer 48°, but have not yet
" begun fires. I wish for a mild winter,
" arid shall then make some progress in my
** European expedition.

RICHARD PRICf., D.D. 143
• " My medical acquaintance give me but
*' little, hopes of escaping the plague in
" Turkey ; but my spirits do not at Jj^ll fail
1' me, and indeed I do not look back, but
" would readily endure any hardships and
!< encounter any dangers to be an honpur
"to my Christian profession.—-! long tQ
^ he^r. from my friend, yet I know n<at
" ze^^^re he can direct to me, unless a^ Sir
" Robert Ainslie's, Constantinople. — I will
" hope all things. — Remember me to sister,
*' nieces, and Mr. Morgan. — ^lam, my much
" esteemed friend^ most affectionately and
" sincerely yours, " John Howard.^'
To this letter Dr. Price .'•eturned an an<-
swer directed toConstantinople,T«-But, alasl
Mr, Howard never arrived there to receive
it. After having braved contagion ip all
the, loa,thspme dungeons in his pwn and
pih§t qpBU tries, and m^Qs^d himself even
to the ravages of the ptsgug in Turkt^y and

144 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
Asia Minor; he was at last seized at Cher-
son in the, Crimea with a putrid fever,
which after twelve days sickness terminated
his usefulness in this world, and raised him
to a nobler state of existence in a better.
This period appears to have been particu
larly fatal to those who had longest shared
in the friendship and esteem of Dr. Price.
In a few months after having received an
account of Mr., Howard's death, a letter
from Dr. Rush of Philadelphia conveyed
to him the same mournful account of the
venerable Dr. Franklin. His advanced age,
and the painful disorder under which he had
laboured, had long prepared his friends for
the decease of that illustrious philosopher.
But Dr. Price was not the leSs affected by
an event, however much anticipated, which
added one more to the number of those
deaths which had lately so often embittered
his sorrows. His views, however, of the pro
gressive State of knowledge and virtue in
the world, served to increase his affection

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 145
for his surviving friends, and afforded him
a cpnsolation under his afflictions which^Dr.
Franklin, towards the close of. his Jife, does
not appear to have possessed. The. follow
ing letter, being the last he ever wrote to
Dr. Price, seems to have been written. under
a jdepression of mind which led him to en
tertain a very unfavourable opinion of those
he was to leave behind him.
" Philadelphia, May Zlst, 1789.
," My very dear Friend,
" I lately received your kind letter in-
," closing pne from Miss Kitty Shipley in-
^' forming me of the good Bishop's decease,
which afflicted me greatly. My friends
" drpp off; one after aupther, ^wben; my age
^' and infirmities preyent rny inaking. new
^' ones; and if I still retained the necessary
;" activity and ability, I hardly qee among
," the rising. giQneration where I could make
" them of equal goodness; so that the longer

(C

146 memoirs OF THE LIFE OP
" I live I must expect to he more wretched.
" As we draw nearer the conclusion of life,
*' Nature furnishes us with more helps to
" wean us from it, — among which one of
*' the most powerful is the loss of such dear
" friends. " My best wishes attend you, being ever,
*' with a sincere and great esteem, my dear
" friend, yours most affectionately,
"B. Franklin."
This gloomy view of the future rkce of
mankind has in all times been the common
failing of old age : and who shall say, if the
snoWs of more than fourscore winters should
whiten his head, that he will be e:^empted
from it? But it should be recollected that
this letter was written by Dr. Franklin when
Il 'Severe disorder was hastening the disso
lution of his frame, and' rendering him less
susceptible bf pleasure from any external
objieet. In his last moments, however, his

RICHARD PRICE, D.D, 147
mind exhibited no symptoms of decay, and
he left the world with the same cheerful
ness and composure as he had always lived
in it *.
* In Dr. Rush's letter, to which I have already allndedj^
the following account is given of Dr. Franklin's death :
" Philadelphia, April 24th, 17gO.
" Dear Sir,
" — — The papers will inform, you of the death of our
*' late illustrious friend Dr.- Franklin. — The evening of his
'< lifewas marked by the same activity of his moral and in^
" tellectual powers which distinguished its meridian. Three
" days, before he died he dictated a letter upon very im^
" portant business relative to the boundaries of the United
" States to Mr. Jefferson, and three weeks before his death
" he wrote and published a very agreeable and ingenious
" parody upon a speech ofa Member of Congress in favour
" of the slavery of the Africans. His conversation with his
?' family upon the subject of his dissolution was free ancl
« cheerful.^— A few days before he died; he rose from his
*f bed, and begged that it might be made up for him, so
" that he might die in o decent manner. His daughter told
" him that she hoped he would recover, and live many
S« years longer; He cabnly re^plied ' He hoped not.' Upon
" being.advisedto change his position in bed that he might
" breathe ea»s/, he said, ' A dying man can do nothing easy.'
" His Will h^^ extended his benev<^nce beyond the grave.
V He hasJeft l,OO0AjioHiieX;ity of Bostonj and thesame
L 2

148 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OP
Of all the events which distinguished
Dr. Price's life, none interested or agitated
him . so much as the French revolution.
This at the first moment of its explosion
— . — ^  1 1 — — - — ' — '  I
" sum to the City of Philadelphia. Tliat to our city is to
" be put out on compound interest for fifteen years, and
" afterwards to be applied to supply the inhabitants with
" water by means of aqueducts ; for before that time he
'.' pr'edicted'that the water at present obtained from pumps,
," will be so much contaminated by the increase pf offa*
f matters in our city as to be unwholesome. The re-
« mainder of his estate he has bequeathed to his daughter
." .and grandson, excepting from it only a legacy to his
" sister in Boston,' and all his lands in Nova Scotia to liis
." son. Governor Franklin, now in London.
" All orders and bodies of people among us have vied
" with each other in paying tributes of respect to his me-
*' mofy. The PhilosopMcal Society, of which he was Pre-
," sident, have ordered a funeral oration to be delivered in
,'^ honour of, his illustrious character. Even the Govern-
." ment of the United States have shared in the genera)
"sympathy/ agreeing to wear niouming "for one month' for
" him, and thus proclaiming to the world that republicans
" are not deficient in gratitude to those who have deserved
" well of their country by their wisdom and virtue.
. "I had like to have forgotten to mention that he desired
" in his will that the elegant epitaph (suggestedby his
ff priglnal occupation) whicIi)ie'tom{iaeedf9ir himself some

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 149
raised his hopes to the highest point, and
brightened all his prospects of the future
improvement and happiness of mankind;
and the gratification which he had often
v years ago, should be inscribed upon his tomb-stone. By
" this request he has declared his belief in the Christian
" doctrine ofa rfsurrectipn.
" ProH), my dear Sir, yours sincerely,
"Benjamin Rush."
It does not appear from this account that Dr. Franklin's
equanimity arose from his belief in a future state ; and some
have even suspected that the epitaph which he wrote for
himself was intended rather to display his wit than to prove
his faith in the doctrine which it inculcated. But his pri
vate letters, and especially those which he wrote in his later
years, which could never be intended for such a display,
remove every suspicion of this kind. It may perhaps be
true that his creed did not include the whole of the Old
Testament — a scepticism by no means peculiar to Unbe-
• lieyers, As to his faith in the New Testament, ^he acknow
ledges in his correspondence with Dr. Price some years
before his death, that he had never hitherto examined' the
evidences of Christianity, but that he fuUy intended to con
sider the subject with all the cave and attention which its
importance required. I can find no traces of the effect of
this examination in his subsequent letters, and it is not im-"
probable that,' like Festus the Roman governor, he always
continued to put it off to a more convenient season,

150 MEMOIRS. OF THE LIFE OF
enjoyed in reflecting on the active part he
had taken in the American war, was now
still further increased, frpm cpnsidering the
present revolution to have been produced
by the successful issue of that contest. On
the subject of this stupendous event, so au
spicious in its beginning— so dreadful in its
progress — the opinions of a great majority
pf the nation were in unison with those of
Dr. Price; and even the Ministry fpr a mo
ment seemed to join in the general exulta
tion. But the fervour of their joy was soon
succeeded by feelings of a very different
kind, and afforded little to encourage the
hopes of those who participated with Dr.
Price in the triumph of French liberty— a
triumph, short indeed and transitory, but,
happily for him, obscured during the re
mainder of his life by no clouds to darken
his prospect, or to chill the ardour with
which he fondly hoped to extend and per
petuate its blessings to all the nations of the
earth. Having never had the mortification

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. J5l
to witness those sanguinary and atrocious
deeds which disgraced, and ultimately over
turned the revolution, the circumstances of
his life can have no connexion with them,
and consequently the recital of those deeds
(at all times painful and disgusting) would
be particularly improper on the present oc-
easion. During the first and second years of its
progress Dr. Price exerted himself in a
very conspicuous manner; and even before
it burst forth to astonish the world, he was
by no means an indifferent spectator of the
events which were preparing the way for it.
From his correspondence with Mr. Jeffer*
son, at-thattime the American ambassador
at Paris, it appears that he was well inform
ed of the difficulties of the French govern
ment, ^tid of the very imprudent measures
with which it was attempted to surmount
them *, The last letter, however, which he
* * In these letters a particular account is given of the
proceedings of government, and of the successive assem-

152 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
received from Mr. Jefferson, though written
only four days previous to the destruction
of the Bastile, did not lessen his astonish
ment at the first intelligence of that con
vulsion, or dispose him to think it possible
that, a despotism of eight centuries, sup
ported by an immense army, could be over
thrown by the tumultuous populace of the
city of Paris. But when the stability of the
revolution appeared to be connrmed by
subsequent events, his former apprehensions
gave way to the most sincere joy, and he
became so anxious to receive the earliest
accounts of the proceedings in France, that
he could hardly be prevailed upon to con-
blies of the Notables and States-general, and also a judi»
cious conjecture of the probable issue of the disputes be^
tween the Court, the Clergy, the Noblesse, and the Tiers-
Etats. But subsequent events having long ago either ful
filled or falsified these conjectures, and the subject itself
affording but little consolation to the friends of peace and
liberty, I shall not prolong the discussion of it by inserting
those letters, however interesting they may have been when,
written by Mr. Jefferson.

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 153
tinue his wonted time in Wales (whither he
had gone in the month of August as usual
for the benefit of sea-bathing) rather than
hasten back to London in order that he
might be nearer to the source of intelli
gence. On his return, from the country he
was solicited by several of the friends of
freedom to preach on the approaching an
niversary of the Enghsh ?revolution, which
it was intended to celebrate with more than
usual festivity, in order to testify their joy
on account of the late glorious events in
the neighbouring kingdom. Though he
declined a similar application in the pre
ceding year, which being the hundredth
anniversary of^the revolution had also been
celebrated in a very distinguished manner;
yet on this occasion he. appears for a mo
ment to have forgotten that depression of
spirits which he had then urged as an ex
cuse for his npn-cprnpliancBj arid was per
suaded tP engage in a wprk on which he
afterwards reflected with great pnxiety.

154 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OP
under the apprehension that neither his
strength nor his abilities were equal to the
accomplishment of it. — In this, however,
he was happily mistaken. The importance
of the subject seemed to have animated him
with new spirits, nor. did he ever exert his
talents in the great cause of liberty with
more energy and effect than on that occa
sion. While delivering his discourse to an
overflowing congregation, and expatiating
vrith irresistible eloquence on the brilliant
prospects which now illumined the benight
ed nations of Europe, such was the ardour
and enthusiasm with which he inspired his
auditors, that they could hardly be re
strained by the sacredness of the place from
bursting into open shouts of applause. But
in the midst of all this rapture to which his
congregation were transported, he was him
self in considerable bodily pain, and often
apprehended that he should not be able to
proceed with the service. Happily, how
ever, he continued his exertions with an

RICHARD PRICEj D.D. 155
energy apparently unabated te the ccnclusion
of it; nor were any but his nearest friends
acquainted with the severe trial to which
his zeal and fortitude had just been exposed.
Immediately on his return home, the pain
and fatigue entirely overpowered his spirits,
and it was some hours before the utmost
attention of his friends could afford him
any relief.— But so ardent were his wishes
to avail himself of every opportunity of sup
porting the cause,- and extending the happy
effects of the French revolution, that he
exerted himself, though still weak and lan
guid, to attend the dinner that day at the
London Tavern to move a Congratulatpry
A.ddress tp the Natienal Assembly*, which
* At the Anniversary Meeting of the Society for com-
ttiemorating the Revolution in Great Britain, held at
the, London Tavern, November 4th, 1789, Dr. Price moved,
and it was unanimously resolved, that the following Con
gratulatory Address ta the National Assembly of France
be transmitted to them, signed- by the chairman: —
- " The Society for commemorating the Revolution in
" Great Britain, disdaining national partialities, and te-

156 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
was received and adopted with the warmest
approbation and unanimity; and it was re
solved that it should be transmitted by the
chairman. Earl Stanhope, to the Duke de
la Rochfoucauld to be presented by him to
the Assembly. In compliance also with
the unanimous request of the company,
he consented to the publication of his
Sermon, which on its appearance in print
was immediately read and admired with a
fervour little inferior to that with which it

" joicing in every triumph of liberty and justice over ar-
" bitrary power, offer to the National Assembly of France
" their congratulations on the Revolution in that country,
" and on the prospect it gives to the two first kingdoms in
"the world, 'of a common participation in the blessings of
" civil-and religious liberty.
. •* They cannot nelp adding their ardent vrishes of a hap-
" py spttlgmept of so important a Revolution, and at the
" same time' expressing the particular satisfaction witl^
'.' which they reflect on the tendency of the glorious ex-
" ^mple given in France to encourage other nations tp
" assert the unalienable rights of mankind, and thereby tQ
" introduce a general reformation in the governments of
" Eyi^oPi:,' and tp mal^e the wpyld frge and h^ppy."

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 157
had been heard in the Old Jewry.-r-In an
appendix to this sermon were inserted the
answer of t|ie National Assembly to the Con
gratulatory Address of the Society, together
with letters of thanks from the different
patriotic bodies in France — all of them
breathing the purest sentiments bf liberty,
but now rendered of too little, interest to
forni a part of this history, even if they
had not already been given to the public.
The hopes and expectations of the friends
of freedom at this time appear to have been
raised to an extraordinary height, and par
ticularly those of Dr. Price. Nay, so well
assured was he of the establishment of a
free constitution in France, and of the s\i}>
sequent overthrow of despotism throughr
owi, Europe as the consequence of it, that
he never failed to express his gratitude to
Heaven for having extended his life to the
¦present happy period, in which " after
" sharing the benefits of one. revolution, he
" had been spared to be a^ witness to two

158 m:emoirs of the life of
" other revolutions, both glorious." But
some of his correspondents were not quite
so sanguine in their expectations from the
last of these revolutions ; and among these
the late American ambassador, Mr. John
Adams. In a long letter which he wrote
to Dr. Price at this time, so far from con
gratulating him on the occasion, he ex^
presses himself in terms of contempt in re-;
gard to the French revolution; and after
asking rather too severely what good was
to be expected from a nation of atheists,
he concludes with foretelhng the destruc
tion of a million of human beings as the
probable consequence of it. These harsh
censures and gloomy predictions were par
ticularly ungrateful to Dr. Price; nor can
it be denied, that they must have then ap
peared as the effusions of a splenetic mind,
rather than as the sober reflections of an
unbiassed understanding. From the nu
merous -letters which he was continually
receiving from some of the most enhghten-

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 159
ed and respectable persons in France*, as
well as from the general tenor of their pro-i
ceedings in the National Assembly, Dr.
Price had every reason to entertain a very
different opinion from that of Mr. Adams.
Their resolutions in favour of civil and re
ligious liberty — their declared wish to co
operate with England in cultivating the
arts of peace, and preserving the tranquil-
* Extract of a letter from M. Rabaut de St. Etienne. ¦
" — — There is an object still more important on which'
" I wish to engage your attention.— 'For some years past it
"^ has been warmly insisted on by thinking minds, that an
" alliance between England and France was the true policy
" of both countries. The appeai:ance of war between Eng-
" land and Spain has turned the attention of the French to
?' this object, and I behold with pleasure the increase of
" this opinion. — When, indeed, there were in France only
*^ a master and his slaves, neither one nor the other could
" have hoped for such an alliance, nor depended oa its so-
" lidity. — But the maxims of the National Assembly are
*' well' known to you — These maxims are now become con-
** stitutional, and our nation has thought that it owes to the
« rights of the people, the same respect that individuals
*¦« ought to have for the rights of eadi other.— ^ An alliance
" with such a nation, it appears to me, would be a contract

l60 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
lity of Europe, led him to cherish the hope
that religion, being freed from the supersti
tion and tyranny by which it had long been
disgraced, would henceforward destroy in
fidelity, and perpetuate the peace and har
mony of the world. While indulging in
this hope, he was naturally interested
in the scenes which were now passing in
France; and therefore it is no wonder that

"with virtue. — Such an alliance would constitute the hap-
V piness of two nations, whp in the midst of hostilities
"esteemed each other. — You would find great resources
" in the diminution of your armaments. "We sl^ould reap
« great advantages from such a union, and Europe would
" be compelled to enter into this immense vortex, &c. &c.
" Your Lord Chatham has said. Peace with France and war
" with all Europe; we might then say, that peace between
" England and France would give peace to Europe."
J The letters from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, Messrs.
Le Roy, Keralio, &c., all breathe the same spirit : but it is
now of little use to insert them, as they wonld serve only
to increase our sorrow, in reflecting that most of those good
^en were the first victims of the atrocious cruelties of a
revolution which had begun with such favourable au
spices, and which they had vainly hoped to have rendered
a blessing to themselves and the world.

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. l6l
he should avail himself of every opportu
nity of acquiring an intimate knowledge of
the characters which were the principal
movers of them. In consequence of the
active part which he had taken in the pre
sent revolution, he necessarily became
acquainted with most of the French pa
triots who visited this country, and was
constantly in the habit either of meeting
them abroad, or entertaining them at his
own house. From the liberal principles of
government which they displayed in their
conversation, he derived every encourage
ment to hope for the ultimate success of
their cause, and thus to excite him to fur
ther exertions in support of it.
On the 14th of July, 1790, it was deter
mined to celebrate the first Anniversary of
the Revolution by inviting the friends of
liberty to dine together at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern in the Strand; and Dr.
Price consented tP officiate as one of the
stewards on the occasion. — Having himself
M

l62 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
given a short account of this dinner in a
private letter to the Duke de la~ Rochefou
cauld, I do nbt know that a better idea can
be conveyed of the meeting, and the spirit
with which it was conducted, than by the
insertion of that part of his letter which re
fers to it.
" Our feast on the 14th of July was very
*' animating, and I think with satisfaction
" on the concern I had in calling together
" the friends of the Revolution in France
" to testify on that day their joy. This
" meeting has, I find, in France been mis-
" taken for a meeting of our Revolutionary
" Society. But the members of this So-
" ciety made but an inconsiderable part of
" that cpmpany, and it is probable that
" they will make but an inconsiderable part
" of the company that will attend our aU-
" nual feast on the 4th of November next,
" for commemorating the British Revolu-
*' tion. Earl Stanhope has been the chair-
" man, and I hope he will continue td be

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. l63
" SO ; but the Society has at present no
" fixed' president. It is, however, now in-
" creasing, and it will, I hope, in time be-
" come sufficiently respectable to deserve
" the notice with which your Society of
" 1789 has honoured it."
The notice taken in France of the speech.
made by Dr. Price in prefacing his toast at
this dinner, and the principles laid down in
the discourse which he had delivered at the
Old Jewry in November, drew torrents of
abuse upon him from Mr. Edmund Burke,;
who, as if possessed by some daemon of
the nether regions, had never ceased frorai
the first moment of the revolution to de
claim in a manner the most outrageous
against itj atid against all the friends and
supporters of it. The phantoms which his
own disordered imagination had raised to
alarm and inflame the members of the
House of Commons, unhappiily siicceeded
too well' in- misleading the more timid and
lukewarm friends of liberty, and thus, by
m2

16'4 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
detaching them frohi their more steady as
sociates, served to encourage Ministers to
a more open avowal of their hostility, and-
to the prosecution of measures which other
wise they would never have dared to pro
pose. But Dr. Price was spared the mor
tification of beholding Great Britain leagued
with the despotic sovereigns of Europe in
their attempts to crush the rising liberties
of France, or of witnessing the devastation
and carnage which have desolated the world
for the last twenty years.
As to the rancorous invectives of Mr,
Burke, which he had poured fourth in a
A olume of 400 pages, it neither disturbed
the tranquillity of his mind, nor had any
other effect than convincing him that the
violent passions bf the author had deranged
his understanding; arid what other opinion
could be formed of a man, who in bewail
ing the French revolution seriously lament
ed that " the age of chivalry is gone — that
the glory of Europe is extinguished for

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. l65
tver — that the unbought grace of life, the
cheap defence of nations, the nurse of man
ly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone!"
Such indeed was the inveterate antipathv of
Mr. Burke to the French revolution, that in
the paroxysm of his rage he denies even the
principles on which the English revolution
was established. — These, Dr. Price observes,
consist of the three following: —
" First, the right to liberty of conscience
" in religious matters. — Secondly, the right
" to resist power when abused. — AndThird-
" ly, the right to choose our own governors,
" to cashier them for misconduct, and to
*' frame a government for ourselves.
" On these three principles, and more
" especially the last, was the Revolution
" founded. Were it not true that liberty
" of conscience is a sapred right; that
" power abused justifies resistance; and
" that civil authority is a delegation from
" the people: — were not all this true; the
". Revolution would have been, not an As-

l66 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
" sertion, but an Invasion of rights ; npt a
" Revolution but a Rebellion*." To these
self-evident truths Mr. Burke opposes the
most unqualified abuse — denies that any
such right as that of choosing its governors,
or cashiering them for misconduct, exists
in the nation — and has the hardihood to de
clare " that the people of England utterly
" disclaim it, arid will resist the practical
" assertion of it with their lives and for-
" tunes;" that is, they will sacrifice their
lives and fortunes, not -to maintain their
rights, but to maintain that they havje tio
righ.ts. This is truly a paradox worthy of
the author, and exceeded only by the
greater paradox of the Government's having
pensioned him fpr traducing the principles
on which it is founded.
After all the horrors of the late revolu
tion, ?ind the numerous vices and cruelties
with which it has been disgraced, it is some
* See Dis,oourse on the Love of our Country, page 34,

RICHARD PRICP., P. D. 16?
consolatipri to the friends of freedom, to
find those principles recognised by the very
potentates who, at .the beginning of this
revolution, bad armed for their extermina
tion. When the allied Monarchs had en
tered within the walls of Paris, they had
been taught by dire experience to acknow
ledge that the people ha,dtke powder as well
as the right to choose and cashier their rulers.
.Instead therefore of dictating to the French
people the form of their new government,
or insisting on the restoration of their old
one, they found it necessary to make the
following declaration, disclaiming in the
most unequivocal manner any interference
of that kind : —
"The armies of the allied powors have
" occupied the capital of France. — ^The
" allied sovereigns receive favourably the
" wish of the French nation. — ^They de-
" clare, that if the conditions of peace
"ought to contain stronger guarantees

l68 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
" when the question was to bind down the
" ambition of Buonapart6, they may be
" more favourable when, by a return to a
" wise government, France herself offers
" the assurance of this repose.
" The Sovereigns proclaim in conse-
" quence that they will no more treat with
" Napoleon Buonapart6, nor with any of
" his family.
" That they respect the integrity of an-
" cient France as it existed under its legi-
" timate * kings. They may even do more,
" because they profess it as a principle, that,
* This reference to the legitimate kings of France seems
to imply, that the allied powers never recognised that
country otherwise than as a kingdom, and therefore that they-
regarded its government, during the last twenty-four years,
as illegitimate, — But how does this accord with their De
claration from Frankfort on the 1st of December, in which
they announce that " 'Victory having conducted their ar-
" mies to the banks of the Rhine, the first use which their
" Imperial and Royal Majesties have made of that Victory,
" has been to offer peace to His Majesty the Emperor
" OF theFrench, and that the conditions of that peace are
'*' founded ori the independence of theFre«c4EMPiRE." &c.

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. l69
*' for the happiness of Europe, France must
" be great and strong.
" That they will recognise and guaranty
" the Constitution which France shall adopt.
" — They therefore invite the Senate to
" name immediately a Provisional Govern-
" ment, zahich may provide for the wants
" of the Administration, and prepare the
" Constitution which shall suit the French
" people. " The intentions which I have just ex-
" pressed are common to all the Allied
" Powers. " (Signed) Alexander.
" Paris, March 31si, 1814.
" Three o'clock in the afternoon."
What has Dr. Price said, or what has he
contended for, more than is conceded in
this declaration? No longer then let the
servile and pensioned advocates of power
traduce the memory of this virtuous man.
— No longer let them profanely dare to as-
isert the right of kings tobe divine, or de-

170 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
rived from any other source than the free
consent and suffrages of the people.^— Here
we behold the greatest sovereigns of Eu
rope compelled to acknowledge those rights
which Burke had so peremptorily denied,
and a Monarch whose ancestors had reign
ed over France for more than 800 years,
, raised to the throne, not on the ground of
inheritance and indefeasible right, but
under a new and solemn compact, founded
pn the unalienable rights of the people to
choose their own form of government and
to appoint those whom they should think fit
to preside over it. Had Dr. Price lived to
witness these scenes, it would probably
have given him some pleasure to see his
own principles established on the ruins of
those of his great revfiler ; but it would have
been a pleasure embittered by so much pain
^nd mortification, that perhaps it has been
happier for him to have quitted the world
in the early period of the revolution, than
to have survived those atrocious crimes

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 171
which have stained the annals of Europe
for the last twenty years.
With his stewardship at the Commemo
ration-dinner, on the 14th of July, termi
nated the public exertions of Dr. Price in
suppprt of civil and religious liberty. In
the beginning pf August he tpok his usual
excursion to the sea-coast near Newton in
Glamorganshire, where he had been ac
customed to spend a few weeks in the sum
mer among his relatives with much benefit
to his health and spirits. In this retired
situation he had now determined to employ
his leisure hours in writing some memoirs
of his .own life, with the view of prefixing
them to the additional volume of sermons
which he had so long intended to publish.
But though he cpntinued his stay beypnd
his usual time in the CPuntry, he appears to
have made no further progress in this work
than just to write an imperfect sketch of the
more important events of his latter years;
and to form the plan which he meant to

172 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
adopt in giving a more ample detail of
them. On his return tP London in the
month of October, he expressed himself to
have passed his time very happily in the
country, but lamerited his growing infirmi
ties and total unfitness for any work that
required either time or attention. The
complaint in his leg, which he attributed
to rheumatism, but afterwards proved to
be the symptom of a more fatal disorder,
Still continued to deprive him of his usual
exercise, and in consequence to increase
the natural depression of his spirits. During
the following winter, therefore, he became
more and more indisposed to engage in his
former literary pursuits, so that he neither
resumed the history of his own life, nor the
correction of those sermons with which he
had intended to close the labours of it. —
Some of his friends had urged him to reply
to Mr. Burke's late publication; but at this
period his spirits were not equal to the task,
even if he had thought it necessary to en-

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 173
gage in it. He added, however, a few notes
to the last edition of his discourse On the
Love of our Country, in answer to some of
those despotic principles of Burke which had
long been exploded^by the more enlightened
part of- mankind, but never deigned to de
fend his own principles, or to notice the
abusive language with which they had been
assailed. In one respect Dr. Price differed essen
tially from his friend Dr. Priestley. When
engaged in one pursuit, he never could ap
ply his mind properly to any other; and
this will in some measure account for his
not having proceeded either with his me
moirs or sermons after his return from the
country. The Fourth Edition of his Trea
tise on Reversionary Payments, which he
always considered as one of the most im
portant of his works, had for some time
been out of print; and being much impor
tuned to publish a new edition without de
lay, and wishing to enlarge, and impro\^

174 MEMOIRS OF, THE LIFE OF
some parts of it, he directed his principal
attentiori to it during the course of the fol
lowing winter. But even here his progress
was tety slow, extending only to a few re
marks in an imperfect state, and of use only
a3 they serve to show what he intended to
have done if he had lived to accomplish
his purpose. Before the first volume was
printed off, in which he had made no altera-
tiotts of any consequence, his labours ceased
and the completion of this work devolved
upon myself-'^a task, which having been
twice repeated since that period, proves the
value of the work, arid the hig'h estiriiation
in which it is held by the public. Though
less fitted foi* his former literary pursuits.
Dr. Price continued to diischarge his duties
as a minister with little or no interruptipn.
In the beginning pf February, 1791> he at
tended the funeral of a friend to Bunhill-
fields without feeling much inconvenience
from' being exposed to the air in that cold
sesisbn of the year, thpugh he observed on

RICHARD PRICE, I>. P. 175
his return that "this method of conducting
" funerals was the sure way of sending the
" living after the dead." In the course of
a month- he attended the remains of another
friend to the same place, arid- on this occa
sion the event unfortunately proved the
truth of his late observation. Having stai^J
some time to speak over the grave with no
effectual covering to secure him frorii the
inclemency of the weather, he was seized in
the afternoon with shivering and other
symptoms of fever, which on the following
day increased so much as to render it ne
cessary to have recourse to medical' assist-"
ance. His- disorder, however, did not ap
pear to be very alarming, and had so far
abated in the course of about ten days as
to enable' him to ride out in a carriage for
the benefit of the air, by which he expressed
himself to ibe so much refreshed, that his
friends Were encouraged to entertain the
fond hope of his speedy and complete re
covery .-^But, alas! this hope was soon dis-

176 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
pelled — other symptoms succeeded to those
of his first disorder, which, if not immedi
ately removed, threatened the most fatal
consequences. On the next morning after
his ride he was seized with a complaint
in the neck of the bladder, which having
resisted all internal remedies, was relieved
only by surgical assistance. But this relief
was merely temporary — the cause of the
disorder still remained — and the repetition
of the operation became necessary. At first
recourse was had to it only two or three
times a day; but the pain and irritation
continually increasing, the repetition be
came more frequent, till at last the surgeon
was hardly gone from the bed-side before
he was sent for again to give another mo
ment's relief to his afflicted patient. These
dreadful agonies were borne for a month
rieaily, with a resignation which never ut
tered a sigh nor a murmur; and to the last
hour of his life this good man retained the
same placid and benevolent temper of mind

RICHARD PRICE, JD.D. 177
which prevailed throughout the whole
course of it ; and when the last attempt was
made to relieve him without effect, he gently
reclined himself upon his bed — observing
that all was now over; and though the ir
ritation continued for some hours after, he
never expressed a wish to have the attempt
repeated. In this state he lay from six
o'clock in the afternoon till midnight, the
faculties of his mind still remaining entire,
but his strength gradually sinking. Soon
after midnight an evident alteration took
place, which denoted the speedy termina
tion of all his sufferings ; and a few minutes
before three o'clock in the morning, having
looked upon his nephew who attended hiifi
with apparent complacency, he drew some
short inspirations and quietly breathed his
last. Such was the concluding scene of Dr.
Price's life. Distinguished from^his earliest
years for the meekness and equanimity of
his temper, no injuries excited him to im-
N

178 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
proper resentment — no pain or affliction
to impatience and discontent. Convinced
of the great truths which he had so con
stantly taught, and so well exemplified in
eyery period of his life, he calmly sunk
under the last conflict of nature with a well-
founded hope of rising again to a more
glorious existence in a better state.
Having never had any childreri of his
own, his great partiality for his relatives,'
united to the benevolent disposition of his
mind, had long induced him to take under
his particular care and protection his two
nephews, who having had the happiness of
being thus nearly related to him, received
from him all the kindness and affection of
the fondest parent.— To them he intrusted
th^ distribution of his property after his
decease, which he divided among his rela
tives with that strict regard to equity and
justice which regulated all the actions 6f
his life. The management of his funeral,
in consequence, devolved upon them, who

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 179
had determined, in conformity with his
wishes, that it should be as private as pos
sible. But in this instance, I am sorry to
say, they suffered their better judgement
to be overpowered by the solicitations of
his friends and admirers, who, insisting
that it would be highly unbecoming that
so good and great a man should sink into
the grave without some pubhc testimony
of respect to his memory, so far prevailed
upon them as to have the time of the fune
ral fixed for the day instead of the night,
as they had at first intended. — By this
means an opportunity of attending it was
afforded to all who chose that method of
testifying their respect for the deceased.
So far as regarded the funeral itself, having
been conducted by the direction and at the
expense of the executors, it was as plain as
if it had been performed in private: but
the long procession of coaches certainly
gave it a different appearance; and had not
the designs of some of tbe visitors been
N 2

180 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
peremptorily resisted by the executors, of
proceeding through sdme of the most pub
lic streets of London, in their way to Bun-
hill-fields, the whole would have degene
rated "into a pageant very unsuitable to the
remains of the modest and humble person
who was to be the subject of it. The fune
ral service having been performed by his
amiable and intimate friend Dr. Kippis, in
a manner truly solemn and impressive, all
that was mortal of Dr. Price was deposited
in the same grave with his wife, and uncle,
till the morning of the great day, which
shall burst the chains of death and restore
them to a new life of endless happiness
arid joy.
On the next Sunday after the funeral
Dr. Priestley preached a sermon on the oc
casion to a numerous audience at the meet
ing-house in Hackney; nor was it possible
that any one could have been found better
qualified to pay this last tribute to his me
mory than the person who for more than

RICHARD PRICE, D. D. 181
thirty years had enjoyed and deserved his
highest esteem and affection. This sermon
of Dr. Priestley was soon after published at
the request of the congregation, and po.s-
sibly lead by some of them with the same
feelings. as it had been delivered; but since
all connexion between them and Dr. Price's'
relatives was necessarily broken off at his
decease, and a great part of them have long
ago followed him to the grave, I know very
little of that body, nor am I aware that any
of their proceedings subsequent to his death
have displayed such peculiar regard to his
memory as to have the least claim to be re-r
corded in the history of his life,
In reviewing the life of Dr. Price it is
impossible not to admire the modesty,
candour, and piety by which it was so
eminently distinguished. Though he never
formed an opinion which was not the result
of long and patient investigation, he always
maintained it with a diffidence of his own
iibilities, and a readiness to admit its propey

182 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
weight to every argument which could be
urged against it. His great object was to
ascertain the truth; and as he felt his own
liability to error in the pursuit of it, he
wished to make every allowance for the
mistakes of others, and to respect thebonest
inquirer, however widely his opinion might
differ from his own. Having no temporal
interest to promote, nor worldly ambition
to gratify, he quietly proceeded in the
straight path of his duty, solicitous to pro.?
cure the approbation of his own conscience
rather than the applause of the world. Con
vinced that whatever debases must. neces-^
sarily corrupt the human mind, he regarded
all usurpation and tyranny as the worst
enemies of truth and virtue ; and considered
every effort in support of civil and religious
liberty as directed to the dearest and most
important interests of mankind. To im
prove himself and others in the practice of
virtue was the great and prevailing princi
ple which governed all the actions of his

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 183
life. To this end his moral and political
publications were equally directed; and al
though his success might not always cor
respond with his wishes, he never suffered
himself to be discouraged in his endeavours,
nor to relinquish the hope which he has
often expressed, that he had not lived in
vain in the world. — But of all the qualities
which adorned the life of Dr. Price, none
rendered him more the object of love and
veneration than his unaffected piety and
devotion. In all seasons and under all cir
cumstances the great truths of religion were
ever present to his mind ; and the npble
mptives which they held forth as an en
couragement to virtue had their full effect
on his temper and conduct, in rendering a
disposition naturally mild and benevolent
still more amiable, and in raising a soul
naturally serious and devout to a sublimer
and more fervent adoration of the Deity,
Jn private conversation his meekness and

184 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
simplicity * won and ameliorated the hearts
of all who had the happiness of his friend
ship or acquaintance. In the services of
religion, the humble and devout manner in
* Of the simplicity and meekness of Dr, Price, the fol
lowing beautiful description is given by his friend Mrs.
Chapone, in the character of Simplidus :
" While the vain man is painfully striving to outshine
" all the company, and to attract their admiration by false
" wit, forced compliments, and studied graces, he must
" surely be mortified to observe, how constantly Simplicius
" engages their attention, respect, and complacency, with-
" out having once thought of himself as a person of any
" consequence among theip. Simplicius imparts his su-
" perior knowledge, when called upon, as easily and natu-
" rally as he would tell you what it is o'clock ; and wj^h
" the same readiness and good will informs the most ig-
" norant, or confers with the most learned. He is as will-
" ing to receive information as to give it, and to join, the
" company, as far as he is able, in the most trifling conver-
" sation into which tliey happen to fall, as in the most se-
" rious and sublime. If he disputes, it is with as much
" candour on the most important and interesting as on the
" most insignificant subjects, and he is not less patient in
" heariiig than in answering his antagonist. If you talk
" to him of himself or his works, he accepts praise or ^c...

RICHARD PRICE, D.D, 185
which he addressed the Deity, and the ani
mated fervour with which he enforced the
divine truths and precepts of the Gospel,
never failed to impress his hearers with a
" knowledges defects with equal meekness, and it is, im^
" possible to suspect him of affectation in either. We are
" more obliged and gratified by the plain unexaggerated
" expressions of his regard, than by the compliments and
" attentions of the most accomplished pattern of, high
" breeding; because his benevolence and sincerity are, so
" strongly marked in every look, word, and action, that
" we are convinced his civilities are offered for our sakes,
'' not for his own, and are the natural effects of real kind-
" ness,notthestudiedornaments of behaviour. Everyone is
" desirous to show him kindness in return, which we know
" wiE be accepted just as it, is meant. AU are ready to
" pay him that deference which he does not desire, and to
" give him credit for more than he assumes, or even for
" more than he possesses. With a person ungraceful, and
" with manners unpolished by the world, his behaviour is
*' always proper, easy, and respectable; as free from cou-
" straint and servility in the highest company, as from
" haughtiness and insolence in the lowest. His dignity
." arises from his humility; and the sweetness, gentleness,
M and frankness of his manners, from the real goodness
'* and rectitude of his heart, which lies opeit to inspection
*' in aU the fearlessness of truth, without any need of dis-
>' guise oi: ornament." Mrs. CAapowe'j Miscellanies, Essay I.

186 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
just sense of his own sincerity, and of the
awful importance of those duties which he
so earnestly enjoined upon them. In his
discourses he seldom or ever deviated into
the bewildering paths of theological con
troversy. The great end he always had
in view was, to convey to his hearers right
notions of the Deity as the foundation
of all rational religion, and to instill into
their minds the necessity of a virtuous
course as the only means of securing his
favour. Though steadfastly attached from
his earliest years to the Christian religion,
and to his own opinion of its nature and
design, he indulged no evil passions or prer
judice against those who entertained difr
ferent opinions — or even who rejected it
altogether, — His candour and liberality in
this respect were indeed truly exemplary,
Inspired by the mild spirit of Christianity,
he condemned no man for his excess or for
his want of faith ; and happy had it been
for mankind if all who prpfessed the same

RICHARD PRICJ5, D.D. 187
religion had been guided by the same spirit.
Blest with a mind so mild and gentle, it
was impossible that Dr. Price should not
be alive to all the offices of humanity and
compassion. Out of a moderate fortune
which, with his sober and frugal habits,
rendered him independent, he allotted a
considerable portion to the duties of private
charity. On all occasions his hand and
heart were ever ready to relieve the dis
tressed and indigent, and he only regretted
that it was not in his power to be more ex
tensively useful to his fellow-creatures. To
his other virtues might be added the equa
nimity of his temper, which never suffered
itself to be ruffled by passion or soured
by resentment. But I shall dwell no longer
on this subject, however agreeable it may
be to my own feelings to expatiate upon
it, or to commemorate those virtues which
1 have had the happiness for so many years
to witness and admire.^ — Nor were the ta
lents of Dr. Price less the pbjects cf admi-

188 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF
ration than the virtuous dispositions of his
mind. — ^Whether he wrote on the more
abstruse subjects of mathematics, political
arithmetic, and metaphysics, or on the more
popular and important ones of religion and
morality, he equally manifested his abilities
by the plain and perspicuous manner in
which he delivered his arguments; and if
he did not always succeed in converting
the reader to his own opinions, he seldom
or ever failed to secure his approbation of
the candour and sincerity with which they
were maintained.
Having already given an account of Dr.
Price's writings in the order in which they
were published, it will be unnecessary here
to enter into the further discussion of them.
On pne or two subjects I might possibly
venture, sthough not without considerable
dififtdence, to express some doubts: buton
all the great points in politics and religion,
in which I have ever agreed with him, it
wpuld iiid^ed be ^ vain labour to. attempt

RICHARD PRICE, D.D. 189
the explanation or defence of opinions
which he has enforced with so much truth
and energy.
Here then I shall close these memoirs ;
and I am happy in the opportunity they
give me of expressing the gratitude I owe
to the memory of Dr. Price, and in decla
ring that no part of my past life affords me
greater pleasure in the recollection of it,
than those years in which I enjoyed his so
ciety and friendship— and that I look for
no higher gratification in the remaining
part of it than to be numbered among those
who have not only enjoyed but have de
served his friendship.

THE END.

Primed hy Richard and Arthur Taylor, Shos-Lane.

PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

The Doctrine of Annuities and Assurances on Lives and
Survivorships stated and explained. Cadell. 8vo. 1779'.
A Review of Dr. Price's Writings on the subject of the
Finances of this Kingdom, to which ar^ added the three
Plans communicated by him, to Mr. Pitt in 1786 for re
deeming the National Debt. 1792.
Also a Supplement to the above Review, stating the
Amount of the Public Debt in 1795.
Facts addressed to the serious attention of the People
©f Great Britain, respecting the Expense of the War and
the State of the National Debt in 1796. 4th edit.
Additional Facts on the same subject. 4th edit. 1796.
An Appeal to the People of Great Britain on fhe pre
sent alarming state of the Public Finances and of Public
Credit. 3d edit. 1797.
A Comparative View of the Public Finances from the
beginning to the close of the late Administration. 3d edit.
1801. A Supplement to the Comparative View, containing an
Account of the Management 6f the Finances to the pres£nt
time, 1803,

00966 3437