S6 Biographical Account of [FsB. 



open enemy, were particularly active. The press teemed witli 

 their productions against him, and tlie minds of their hearers 

 seem to have been artificially excited. Indeed, some of the 

 anecdotes told of the conduct of the clergy of Birmingham 

 were highly unbecoming their character. Unfortunately Dr., 

 Priestley did not seem to be aware of the state of the nation, and 

 of the plan laid down by Mr. Pitt and his political friends; and 

 he was too fond of controversial discussions to yield tamely to 

 the attacks of his antagonists. 



These circumstances seem in some measure to explain the 

 disgraceful riots which took place in Birmingham in 17^)1, on 

 the day of the anniversary of the French Revolution. Dr. 

 Priestley's meeting-house, and his dwelling-house, were burnt; 

 his library and his apparatus destroyed; and many manuscripts, 

 the fruits of several years of industry, were consumed in the 

 conflagration. The houses of several of his friends shared a 

 similar fate, and his son narrowly escaped death, by the care of 

 a friend who forcibly concealed him for some days. Dr. Priestley 

 was obliged to make his escape to London; and a seat was taken 

 for him in the mail-coach under a borrowed name. Such was 

 the ferment against him, that it was believed he would not have 

 been safe any where else; and his friends would not allow him, 

 for several weeks to walk through the streets. 



He was invited to Hackney to succeed Dr. Price in the 

 meeting-house of that place. He accepted the office; but such 

 was the apprehension of his unpopularity, that nobody would let 

 him a house, apprehensive that it would be burnt by the populace 

 as soon as it was known that he inhabited it. He was obliged to 

 get a friend to take a lease of a house in another name; and it 

 was with the utmost difficulty he could prepail on the landlord to 

 allow the lease to be transferred to him. The members of the 

 Royal Society, of which he was a fellow, declined admitting 

 him into their company; and he v*'as obliged to withdraw his 

 name from the Society. His sons, disgusted with this prosecu- 

 tion of their father, had renounced their native country, and 

 gone over to France ; and on the breaking out of the hst war 

 they emigrated to America. It was this circumstance, together 

 with the state of insulation in which he lived, that induced Dr. 

 Priestley, after much consideration, to form the resolution of 

 following his sons, and emigrating to America. He published 

 his reasons in a preface to a Fast day sermon, printed in 17.94, 

 one of the gravest and most forcible pieces of composition I have 

 ever read. He left England in April and reached New 



York in June. In ilmerica he was received with much respect 

 and attention by all ranks; and was immediately offered the 

 situation of Professor of Chemistry in the College of Philadel- 

 phia: which, however, he declined, as his circumstances, by 

 the liberality of his friends in England, continued independent, 



