misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend
to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the
distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original; and is as
full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a
circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt
more or less in every country; I hope he will anticipate his final
reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will
receive, not by detail, but in gross, the reward of those who visit the
prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of
charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts
of benevolence hereafter.


PARLIAMENTARY RETROSPECT.

It is certainly not pleasing to be put out of the public service. But I
wish to be a member of parliament, to have my share of doing good and
resisting evil. It would therefore be absurd to renounce my objects in
order to obtain my seat. I deceive myself indeed most grossly if I had
not much rather pass the remainder of my life hidden in the recesses of
the deepest obscurity, feeding my mind even with the visions and
imaginations of such things, than to be placed on the most splendid
throne of the universe, tantalized with a denial of the practice of all
which can make the greatest situation any other than the greatest curse.
Gentlemen, I have had my day. I can never sufficiently express my
gratitude to you for having set me in a place wherein I could lend the
slightest help to great and laudable designs. If I have had my share in
any measure giving quiet to private property, and private conscience; if
by my vote I have aided in securing to families the best possession,
peace; if I have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects, and