LORD KENYON. 345 



flag ; for as soon as my arrest was known in 

 Florida, he sent a commissioner to Carolina, 

 Mr. Wyllie, the present chief justice of the 

 Bahama Islands, to demand my release. In the 

 mean time, a publication appeared respecting 

 me, signed by the gaoler in whose custody I 

 had been placed, which began thus ; " William 

 Charles Wells, a political sinner of the first 

 magnitude in this land, and now suffering but 

 a very small proportion of those pains and pe- 

 nalties which his high crimes and misdemeanours 

 have so justly deserved, in the common gaol 

 of this metropolis," &c. Nature had not formed, 

 nor had education trained me, to submit with 

 silence to oppression. By means of money, I 

 got a letter inserted in one of the Charlestown 

 newspapers, the following extracts from which 

 will show to your Lordship, whether my senti- 

 ments then partook of disloyalty. 



Charlestown, in Gaol^ July 17, 1783. 



" I left this place in August, 1775; pur- 

 posely to avoid signing a paper, at that time 

 handed about under the title of AN ASSOCIATION. 

 I returned to it in January, 1781, when in pos- 

 session of the British army, and left it again 

 with those troops in December, 1782. I am. 



