is no need to tell in this place the painful and disgraceful story of the sack of Dr. Priestley's house, the destruction of his philosophical apparatus and library, and the burning of the meeting-house in which he preached by a drunken mob. If on the other side of the Channel crimes were being committed, as Madame Roland afterwards exclaimed, in the name of liberty, these outrages were perpetrated in the England of Pitt and George III. in the supposed interests of church and king. Rogers was in full sympathy with those against whom this violence was directed, but poetry and not politics was still the uppermost thought in his mind. During the Welsh journey he corresponded with Mrs. Barbauld, among other friends, and just before the ominous entry in his diary he had received from her a letter expressive of her enthusiastic adherence to the Liberal side. It was written on the day before the second celebration. of the fall of the Bastille, and the occurrence of the Birmingham riots. Mrs. Barbauld to S. Rogers. 'Dear Sir,-For your very entertaining as well as very friendly letter I thank you with all sincerity, and a m truly sensible of the favour you do me by writing when you are surrounded by such charming scenes that while you bend your eyes upon paper you must lose a landscape. But why do you bid me write who have nothing to communicate, where there are neither harps nor Druids? We have a lady, indeed, and she is a pretty lady, who sings a Welsh song most enchantingly, but then she has not the advantage of singing in a cottage; and, moreover て AN APPEAL BY MRS. BARBAULD 203 she is a married woman. I have been trying in my own mind whether Miss Hagen with her fingers upon her harp, will bear any comparison with an antient Druid sweeping his with his flowing beard, but I find her so infinitely inferior in the sublime, that I am obliged to drop the similitude. I know of no news to tell you but that Mr. George Maltby was at meeting yesterday, looking very happy, and that the family of the Websters set off to-morrow for Devonshire, to our great regret, as I suppose they quit Hampstead entirely, But pray, sir, what have you to say in your defence for rambling amongst fairy streams and hanging woods instead of being at the "Crown and Anchor," as you and every good patriot ought to be on the 14th of July? What do you say to that? Do not you deserve at least as severe a philippic as the Welsh farmer gave his cow? 'Muse, thy thrilling numbers dart Through his ear and through his heart, Far from Freedom's band away, 'Hanging woods and fairy streams 'Shall peals of village bells prevail, Floating on the summer gale, While the Tocsin sounds afar, Breathing arms and glorious war? Think when woods of brownest shades Open bright to sunny glades, Such the gloom and such the light Of Freedom's noon and Slavery's night. 'Harps of Mona, sound once more, 'Now stretched at hoary Snowdon's base And blush that Freedom's child should be 'You see how envious I am, not being able to transport myself to those delightful scenes you so well describe. I am maliciously endeavouring to disturb the harmony of your sensations, but I daresay you will disappoint my malice. . . . I hope when you return we shall have the pleasure of seeing you soon, as we shall go into Norfolk, I believe, about the beginning of August. 'M. Rabaud has sent a second address to the people of England. It is an exhortation to peace, and urges sentiments of national justice, which I hope we are not disposed to controvert. 'Perhaps you know that Mrs. Williams and Cecilia are set out for France, and that Helen and the rest of the family are soon to follow. They pay a visit to their old friends at Rouen before they settle at Orleans. 'Mr. Barbauld, who has shared in the entertainment of your letter, desires to join in thanks for it and in affectionate remembrance, 'I am, dear Sir, 'Your obliged friend and faithful servant, 'Hampstead: July 13th. [Postmark 1791.] ' ‘A. L. BARBAULD. 1 M. Rabaud St. Etienne, a deputy of the National Assembly. He was a Protestant clergyman and correspondent of Dr. Price. THOMAS ROGERS AT STOURBRIDGE 205 The excitement which the Birmingham riots produced spread more or less violently all through the country. Thomas Rogers was well known to be in full sympathy with Dr. Priestley and his friends, and there were reasons to fear an attack by the mob on the house at The Hill,' where his sisters, Samuel Rogers's aunts, continued to live. Happily the danger passed over. Thomas Rogers was there, as usual, in the summer, and in a letter to his son, dated the 21st of September, speaks of the state of feeling which then existed at Stourbridge : 'I am sorry to say in answer to your postscript respecting the party spirit at Stourbridge, that there is some truth in the report, though the conduct of the church is not quite so bad as the report makes it. Mr. Parker junr., a grocer in the town, received a parcel by the common carrier of the obnoxious handbill.' He owns that he gave one of them to a clergyman in the neighbourhood, but at [the] same time expressed his disapprobation of it, and his determination to burn the remainder. He declares solemnly that he burnt all the other copies immediately afterwards, but one of them having been left in the public library and another stuck up in the coffee-room at the "Talbot," and about six more having been sent under cover from the post-office in Stourbridge to as many gentlemen in the neighbour 1 This was an address from the assembled deputies and delegates of the Protestant Dissenters of England to the Protestant Dissenters of Birmingham who suffered from the riots. It expressed the astonishment and horror the outrages had excited, and assured the Birmingham Dissenters of their warmest affection and steadiest support. hood, the whole of this, notwithstanding his denial, is laid to his charge. This brought the young man into disgrace, and many of his customers immediately sent for their bills and paid them off and left his shop. Some others of the Dissenters have also suffered in their business. . . . The flame the handbill has occasioned is scarcely to be conceived, and the violent charge the whole body of Dissenters with entertaining the same sentiments, and wishing for a revolution in this country, and conduct themselves accordingly; but it is said that at Birmingham and Stourbridge they are softening apace. Many of my acquaintance seem to be more attentive to me than usual.' 'I am inclined to think Dr. Priestley will not return to Birmingham. All the respectable part of the congregation, except about two or three, signed a very warm request for his return, but he had not returned his answer on Wednesday last. Mr. Taylor and Mr. John Ryland were among the opponents. When I saw Mr. Stone at Brighton he intimated that it was the wish of many of the Hackney gentlemen to invite the doctor to Hackney, and that Mr. William Morgan approved of the idea. He said also if Jones went to Birmingham, where he was likely to be invited, that perhaps Dr. P. would be prevailed on to give chemical and philosophical lectures at the College.' The Jones mentioned in this letter seems to have gone to Birmingham as Mr. Morgan expected. He |