sn 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 189. 



rear-admirals. It was proved at the trial, that, 

 in 1809, he commanded " The Plantagenet ;" but, 

 yrom the unsettled state of his mind, the command 

 had been given up to the first lieutenant, and that 

 he was shortly after superseded. This, and the 

 good character he received, were probably held to 

 excuse the pardon. 



I now come to the great case of George III. and 

 Mr. Fawcett. I much regret that Whunside has 

 not replied in your pages to my question (Vol. vii., 

 p. 163.), as I could then have commented upon 

 the facts, and his means of knowing them, with 

 more freedom. I have a private communication 

 from him, which is ample and candid. He objects 

 to bring his name before the public, and I have no 

 right to press that point. He is not quite certain 

 as to the convict's name, but can procure it for 

 me. He would rather that it should not be pub- 

 lished, as it might give pain to a respectable family. 

 Appreciating the objection, and having no use for 

 it except to publish, I have declined to ask it of 

 him. 



The case occurred in 1802 or 1803, when 

 Whunside was a pupil of Mr. Fawcett. He says : 



" Occasionally Mr. Fawcett used to allow certain 

 portions of a weekly newspaper to be read to the boys 

 on a Saturday eveninjj. This case was read to us, I 

 think from the Leeds Mercury ; and though Mr. Faw- 

 cett's name was not mentioned, we were all aware who 

 the minister was." 



Thus we have no direct evidence of the amount 

 of Mr. Fawcett's communications with George III. 

 How much of the story as it is now told was read 

 to the boys, we do not know ; but that it came 

 to them first through a weekly paper, is rather 

 against than for it. 



We all know the tendency of good stories to 

 pick up additions as they go. I have read that 

 the first edition of the Life of Loyola was without 

 miracles. This anecdote seems to have reached 

 its full growth in 1823, in Pearson's Life of 

 W. Hey, Esq., and probably in the two lives of 

 George III., published after his death, and men- 

 tioned by Whunside. Pearson, as cited in 

 " N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 276., says, that by some 

 means the Essay on Anger had been recommended 

 to the notice of George IH., who would have 

 made the author a bishop had he not been a dis- 

 senter ; that he signified his wish to serve Mr. 



Fawcett, &c. That on the conviction of H , 



Mr. Fawcett wrote to the king ; and a letter soon 

 ■ arrived, conveying the welcome intelligence, "You 

 may rest assured that his life is safe," &c. 



It is not stated that this was " private and con- 

 fidential:" if it was, Mr. Fawcett had no right to 

 mention it ; if it was not, he had no reason for 

 concealing what was so much to his honour, and 

 so extraordinary as the king's personal inter- 

 ference in a matter invariably left to the Secretary 

 of State for the Home Department. If, however, 



Mr. Fawcett was silent from modesty, his biogra- 

 pher^ had no inducement to be so ; yet, let us see 

 how they state the case. The Account of the Life, 

 Writings, and Ministry of the late Rev John Faw- 

 cett: London, 1818, cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., 

 p. 229., says : 



" He was induced, in conjunction with others, to solicit 

 the exercise of royal clemency in miti<rating the severity 

 of that punishment which the law denounces: and it 

 gladdened the sympathetic feelings of his heart to know 

 that these petitions were not unavailing ; but the 

 modesty of his character made him regret the pub- 

 licity which had been given to this subject." 



The fifth edition of the Essay on Anger, printed' 

 for the Book Society for Promoting Religious 

 Knowledge, London, no date, has a memoir of the 

 author. The " incident" is said not to have been 

 circulated in any publication hy the family ; but "it 

 was one of the secrets which obtain a wider circu- 

 lation from the reserve with which one relator 

 invariably retails it to another." That is exactly 

 my view. Secrecy contributes to diffusion, but 

 not to accuracy. At the risk of being thought 

 tedious, I must copy the rest of this statement : 



" Soon after the publication of this treatise, the 

 author took an opportunity of presenting a copy to our 

 late much revered sovereign ; whose ear was always 

 accessible to merit, however obscure the individual in 

 whom it was found. Contrary to the fate of most 

 publications laid at the feet of royalty, it was diligently 

 perused and admired ; and a communication of this 

 approbation was afterwards made known to the author. 

 It happened some time afterwards, a relative of one of 

 his friends was convicted of a capital crime, for which 

 he was left for execution. Application was instantly 

 made for an extension of royal favour in his behalf; 

 and, among others, one was made by Mr. Fawcett : 

 and his majesty, no doubt recollecting the pleasure he had 

 derived from the perusal of his Essay on Anger, and 

 believing that he would not recommend an improper person 

 to royal favour, was most graciously pleased to answer 

 the prayer of the petition ; but as to precisely hoic far 

 the name of Mr. Fawcett might have contributed to this 

 successful application must await the great disclosures of 

 a future judgment," 



The reader will sift this jumble of inferences 

 and facts, and perhaps will not go so far as to have 

 " no doubt." 



Whunside tells me, that about 1807 he em- 

 ployed a bookbinder from Halifax ; who, on hear- 

 ing that he had been a pupil of Mr. Fawcett, said 

 he had seen two copies of the Essay on Anger^ 

 most beautifully bound, to be sent to the king. 



The conclusion to which I come is, that Mr- 

 Favvcett sent a copy of the Essay on Anger to the 

 king ; that the receipt of it was acknowledged, 

 possibly in some way more complimentary than 

 the ordinary circular ; that a young man was con- 

 victed of forgery ; that, Mr. Fawcett and others 

 petitioned for his pardon, and that he was par- 



