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That in all countries penal laws have been relaxed as. particular reafons have emerged.

That a life eminently beneficent, a fingle action eminently good, or even the power of being useful to the public, have been fufficient to protect the life of a delinquent.

That no arbiter of life and death has ever been cenfured for granting the life of a criminal to honeft and powerful folicitation.

That the man for whom a nation petitions must be prefumed to have merit uncommon in kind or in degree; for however the mode of collecting fubfcriptions, or the right of judgment exercifed by the fubfcribers, may be open to difpute, it is at leaft plain that fomething is done for this man, that was never done for any other; and government, which muft proceed upon general views, may rationally conclude that this man is fomething better than other offenders have been, or has done fomething more than others have done.

That though the people cannot judge of the adminiftration of juftice fo well as their governors, yet their voice has always been regarded.

That this is a cafe in which the petitioners determine against their own intereft; those for whofe protection the law was made, entreat its relaxation, and our governors cannot be charged with the confequences which the people bring upon themselves.

That as this is a cafe without example, it will probably be without confequences; and many ages will elapfe before fuch a crime is again committed by fuch

a man.

That

That though life be fpared, juftice may be fatisfied with ruin, imprisonment, exile, infamy, and penury:

That if the people now commit an error, their error is on the part of mercy; and that perhaps hiftory cannot shew a time in which the life of a criminal, guilty of nothing above fraud, was refused to the cry of nations, to the joint fupplication of three and twenty thoufand petitioners.

DECLARATION left by DR. DOD D, with the ORDINARY of NEWGATE, previous to his Execution.

"TO the words of dying men regard has always "been paid. I am brought hither to fuffer death for "an act of fraud, of which I confefs myfelf guilty with "fhame, fuch as my former state of life naturally pro"duces, and I hope with fuch forrow as He, to whom "the heart is known, will not difregard. I repent that "I have violated the laws by which peace and confidence "are established among men; I repent that I have at"tempted to injure my fellow-creatures; and I repent "that I have brought difgrace upon my order, and dif"credit upon religion: but my offences against God "are without name or number, and can admit only of "general confeffion and general repentance.-Grant, "Almighty God, for the fake of Jefus Chrift, that my "repentance, however late, however imperfect, may not be in vain.

"The

**

"The little good that now remains in my power, is "to warn others against those temptations by which I "have been feduced. I have always finned against con"viction; my principles have never been fhaken; I "have always confidered the Chriftian religion as a re"velation from God, and its divine Author as the Sa"viour of the world; but the laws of God, though ne

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ver difowned by me, have often been forgotten. I

was led aftray from religious strictness by the delufion "of fhew and the delights of voluptuoufnefs. I never "knew or attended to the calls of frugality, or the need"ful minuteness of painful ceconomy. Vanity and plea« fure, into which I plunged, required expence difproportionate to my income; expence brought diftrefs upon me, and distress, importunate distress, urged me "to temporary fraud.

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"For this fraud I am to die; and I die declaring in "the most folemn manner, that, however I have devi"ated from my own precepts, I have taught others, to "the best of my knowledge, and with all fincerity, the "true way to eternal happiness. My life, for fome few

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unhappy years paft, has been dreadfully erroneous; but my miniftry has been always fincere. I have conftantly believed, and I now leave the world folemnly avowing my conviction, that there is no other name "under Heaven by which we can be faved, but only "the name of the Lord Jefus; and I entreat all who "are here to join with me in my laft petition, that, for "the fake of that Lord Jefus Chrift, my fins may be

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L I F

F

E

O F THE

EARL

D'

OF ROS COMM O N.

*

ILLON [Wentworth,] earl of Roscommon, an eminent poet, was born in Ireland, in the lieutenancy of the earl of Strafford t, who was his god-father, and named him by his own furname. He paffed fome of his first years in his native country, till the earl of Strafford, imagining when the rebellion firft broke out, that his father, who had been converted by archbishop Uber to the Proteftant religion, would be expofed to great danger, and be unable to protect his family,

Though he was born in Ireland, yet as part of his life was spent in England, as he was diftinguished by honours and employments at the English court, and is known or valued by posterity only as an English poet, our collections of English lives must be confidered as imperfect, none of them having an account of him. Though every country imagines itfelf intitled to the reputation of thofe who happened to be born in it, this claim may be fometimes not unreafonably difputed; for that nation has at least as good a right to the honours paid to literary merit, which has given mafters to him who obtains them, as that which has given parents.

+ Fenton's notes on Waller.

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fent for his god-fon, and placed him at his own feat in Yorkfhire, under the tuition of Dr. Hall, afterwards bishop of Norwich. When the earl of Strafford was profecuted, he went to Caen in Normandy, by the advice of bishop Uber, to continue his ftudies under Bochart |, where

"By him he was inftructed in Latin; and without learning "the common rules of grammar, which he could never retain in “his memory, he attained to write in that language with claffical "elegance and propriety; and with fo much eafe, that he chofe "it to correfpond with thofe friends, who had learning fufficient "to fupport the commerce." Fenton.

"The lord Roscommon being a boy of ten years of age, at Carn "in Normandy, one day was, as it were, madly extravagant in "playing, leaping, getting over the table, boards, &c. He was "wont to be fober enough; they faid, God grant this bodes no "ill luck to him. In the heat of this extravagant fit, he cries "out, My father is dead. A fortnight after, news came from Ire

land, that his father was dead. This account I had from Mr. "Knolles, who was his governor, and then with him, fince fecretary to the earl of Stafford; and I have heard his lordship's relations confirm the fame." Aubrey's Mifcellany.

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The prefent age is very little inclined to favour any accounts of this kind, nor will the name of Aubrey much recommend it to cre dit; it ought not, however, to be omitted, becaufe better evidence of a fact cannot eafily be found, than is here offered, and it muft be by preferving fuch relations that we may at least judge how much they are to be regarded. If we stay to examine this account, we fhall find difficulties on both fides; here is a relation of a fact given by a man who had no intereft to deceive, and who could not be deceived himself; and here is, on the other hand, a miracle which produces no effect; the order of nature is interrupted to difcover not a future, but only a diftant event, the knowledge of which is of no ufe to him to whom it is revealed. Eetween thefe difficulties, what way fhall be found? Is reafon or teftimony to be reject

ed?

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