and goodness of God, who correcting me in judgment for deviations from the purity of his Gofpel, as a diftinguished minister of it, has been pleafed to call me thus by death to proclaim my repentance, and to atteft my faith in Him; and to declare to all my fellowcreatures, and to my beloved countrymen in particular, for whofe love to me I am under the higheft obligations, my firm belief of the principles which I have long preached, and in my writings delivered with the utmost truth and fincerity, and which I thus feal with my blood, in perfect refignation to the will of my adorable Master, and in a firm dependence on those principles for the falvation of my own soul. W. DOD D. LETTERS to two noble Lords of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. LETTER I. My lord, I HAVE committed a capital crime, for which the sentence of the law has paffed upon me; and whether that fentence fhall be executed in its full rigour, may, perhaps, depend upon the fuffrage of your lordship. The fhame and felf-reproach with which I now folicit your commiferation, I hope no man will ever feel, who • Lord North, then Prime Minifter. D d 2 has has not deserved to feel them like myself. But I will not despair of being heard with pity, when, under the terrors of a speedy and disgraceful death, I most humbly implore your lordship's interceffion. My life has not been wholly uselesfs; I have laboured in my calling diligently and fuccessfully; but fuccefs inflamed my vanity, and my heart betrayed me. Violent paffions have expofed me to violent temptations; but I am not the first whom temptation has overthrown. I have, in all my deviations, kept Right always in view, and have invariably refolved to return to it. Whether, in a profperous state, I should have kept my resolution, public juftice has not fuffered me to know. My crime has been indeed atrocious, but my punishment has not been light. From a heighth of reputation, which perhaps raised envy in others, and certainly produced pride in myself, I have fallen to the lowest and groffeft infamy; from an income which prudence might have made plentiful, I am reduced to live on those remains of charity which infamy has left me. When fo much has been given to justice, I humbly intreat that life, fuch as it muft now be, may be given to mercy; and that your lordship's influence may be employed in difpofing our Sovereign to look with compaffion on, My lord, Your lordship's Moft humble fupplicant, June 11, 1777. WILLIAM DODD. LET LETTER II. My lord, NOT many days are now to pass before the fate of one of the most miferable of human beings will be finally determined. The efficacy of your lordship's voice. is well known; and whether I fhall immediately fuffer an ignominious death, or wander the rest of my days in ignominious exile, your opinion will probably determine. Do not refuse, my lord, to hear the plea, whatever it may be, which I humbly oppofe to the extremity of justice. I acknowledge, my lord, the atrocioufnefs of my crime; I admit the truth of the verdict that condemned me; yet I hope, that when my evil is cenfured, my good may likewise be remembered; and that it may be confidered how much that fociety, which is injured by my fraud, has been benefited by my charitable labours. -I have offended; I am penitent; I entreat but for life, for a life which must pass certainly in dishonour, and probably in want. Do not refufe, my lord, to compaffionate a man who, blafted in fame, and ruined in fortune, yet shrinks with terror from the precipice of eternity. Let me live, however miferable; and let my miferies warn all thofe to whom they fhall be known, against felf-indulgence, vanity, and profufion. Once more, my lord, let me beg for life; and when you fee me going from the gloom of a prifon to the penury of banishment, do not confider public justice as wholly unfatisfied by the fufferings of, My lord, Your lordship's Most humble fupplicant, June 11, 1777. WILLIAM DODD. [Dr. DODD's Petition, prefented by his Brother.] To the KING's Moft Excellent Majefty. SIR, IT is most humbly reprefented to your Majefty by William Dodd, the unhappy convict now lying under fentence of death: That William Dodd, acknowledging the juftice of the fentence denounced against him, has no hope or refuge but in your Majefty's clemency. : That though to recollect or mention the ufefulness of his life, or the efficacy of his miniftry, muft overwhelm him, in his prefent condition, with fhame and forrow, he yet humbly hopes that his paft labours will not wholly be forgotten; and that the zeal, with which he has exhorted others to a good life, though it does not extenuate his crime, may mitigate his punishment. That That debafed as he is by ignominy, and distreffed as he is by poverty, fcorned by the world, and detefted by himself, deprived of all external comforts, and afflicted. by consciousness of guilt, he can derive no hopes of longer life, but that of repairing the injury he has done to mankind, by exhibiting an example of fhame and fubmiffion, and of expiating his fins by prayer and penitence. That for this end he humbly implores/from the clemency of your Majefty, the continuance of a life legally forfeited; and of the days which by your gracious compaffion he may yet live, no one shall pass without a prayer, that your Majefty, after a long life of happiness and honour, may stand, at the day of final judgment, among the merciful that obtain mercy. So fervently prays the moft diftreffed and wretched of your Majefty's fubjects. WILLIAM DODD. [Mrs. DODD's Petition, presented by herself.] To the QUEEN's Moft Excellent Majefty. IT is moft humbly reprefented by Mary Dodd, the wife of Dr. William Dodd, now lying in prifon under fentence of death: |