CHARACTERS. 
ledge in terms which delineated a 
heart conscious of the important 
benefits he had experienced; and 
he concluded by entreating his late 
master’s acceptance of a bill, as a 
trifling consideration for the resi- 
due of that time which he had been 
so generously and humanely ex- 
empted from serving. 
The sum remitted, very greatly 
exceeded the original cost of the 
most valuable servant. In this 
epistle, not the least intimation was 
given relative to the circumstance 
which had enabled a man, so lately 
at the lowest ebb of misery, to spare 
from his immediate occasions so 
considerable a sum as thirty pounds; 
but an answer was requested, to be 
addressed toa merchant in London, 
that the party concerned might be 
properly apprized his bill was re- 
ceived and acknowledged. 
Mr. J— was inexpressibly happy 
in the pleasing reflection, that, by 
an indulgence of Jenity, natural to 
his disposition, he had been ren- 
dered by Heaven the instrument of 
such unexpected prosperity. He 
could not, for a moment, admit the 
idea of appropriating any part of 
such money to himself, as the pay- 
ment of a debt which he considered 
as a free donation to the claims of 
humanity; but he was naturally 
anxious to become acquainted with 
the particular events by which his 
late servant was so happily situated 
as to obtain the power of transmit- 
ting such a proof of his honesty and 
gratitude. He, therefore, imme- 
diately addressed a letter to the mer- 
chant, expressive of the satisfac- 
tion he experienced in receiving in- 
telligence of such an agreeable na- 
ture, and desiring him to return the 
note, which he had enclosed for 
Vou. XXXIV. 
369 
that purpose, into the hands of the 
party who had conceived it his duty 
to transmit it, with earnest wishes 
that his future successes might am- 
ply compensate for every former 
calamity. He had only to request 
that, by an early opportanity, he 
would afford him the satisfaction of 
knowing by what unexpected cir- 
cumstance he had been so rapidly, 
and so providentially favoured with 
the smiles of fortune. 
By the return of the first ship, an 
answer from the agent arrived. The 
bill was sent back, with an earnest 
entreaty, that, if Mr. J——— re- 
fused to apply it to his particular oc- 
casions, he would appropriate it to 
some charitable purpose: that with 
respect to tke situation of the man, 
formerly his servant, there were 
powerful reasons which precluded 
him from giving the information 
he requested. All that he was at 
liberty to disclose was, that the per- 
son who had visited America, under 
circumstances so desperate and for- 
lorn; who had been necessitated to 
become a common indented servant, 
subject to all the hardships and mi- 
series incident to so abject a condi- 
tion, was, by an astonishing transi- 
tion of fortune, elevated to a very 
affluent and respectable situation in 
his native country. 
The above particulars were de- 
livered to me by the benevolent 
master himself, who during a course 
of years, has assiduously endeavour- 
ed, by every eligible mode of en- 
quiry, to develope a secret so indus- 
triously concealed from his know- 
ledge ; but every method has _hi- 
therto proved ineffectual; and he 
has now relinquished the idea of 
having so natural a curiosity even 
confidentially gratified. 
Aa Of 
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