• That William Dodd, acknowledging the juftice of the sentence denounced against him, has no hope or ⚫ refuge but in your majesty's clemency.

That though to recollect or mention the usefulnefs of his life, or the efficacy of his ministry, must ‹ overwhelm him, in his prefent condition, with fhame and forrow; he yet humbly hopes, that his past 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 debased as he is by ignominy, and diftreffed as he is by poverty, fcorned by the world, and de• tested by himself, deprived of all external comforts, and afflicted by confcioufnefs 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 shame and fubmiffion, and of expiating his fins by prayer and penitence.

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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 pafs 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 most diftreffed and wretched of your majesty's fubjects,

WILLIAM DODD.'

• To

It is most humbly reprefented by Mary Dodd, wife of Dr. William Dodd, now lying in prifon under fentence of death:

That she has been the wife of this unhappy man < more than twenty-feven years, and has lived with him in the greatest happiness of conjugal union, and the highest state of conjugal confidence.

That she has been a conftant witness of his un• wearied endeavours for public good, and his laborious attendance on charitable inftitutions. Many are the families whom his care has delivered from C want; many are the hearts which he has freed from pain, and the faces which he has cleared from for

row.

That, therefore, fhe most humbly throws herself at the feet of the queen, earnestly intreating, that the petition of a diftreffed wife afking mercy for a husband, may be confidered as naturally foliciting the compaffion of her majefty; and that, when her wisdom has compared the offender's good actions with his crime, fhe will be pleafed to represent his • cafe to our moft gracious fovereign, in fuch terms as may dispose him to mitigate the rigour of the < law.

So prays your majesty's most dutiful fubject and fupplicant,

MARY DODD.'

To

To the first of these petitions, but not without difficulty, Mrs. Dodd first got the hands of the jury that found the bill against her husband, and after that, as it is fuppofed, of the jury that tried him. It was then circulated about, and all the while the cry for mercy was kept up in the news-papers, and the merits and fufferings of the unfortunate divine were fo artfully represented by paragraphs therein inferted, that, in a fhort space of time, no fewer than twenty-three thoufand names were fubfcribed thereto. Moreover, letters and addreffes, written alfo by Johnfon, imploring their interpofition, were fent to the minifter and other great perfons.

While the two petitions were in fufpence, the following obfervations, penned by Dr. Johnfon, appeared in the public papers:

Yefterday was prefented to the fecretary of ftate, by earl Percy, a petition in favour of Dr. Dodd, figned by twenty-three thoufand hands. On this ⚫ occafion it is natural to confider,

That, in all countries, penal laws have been relaxed, as particular reafons have emerged.

That a life eminently beneficent, a fingle action eminently good, or even the power of being ufeful to the public, have been fufficient to protect the life of a delinquent.

That no arbiter of life and death has ever been ⚫ cenfured for granting the life of a criminal to honest and powerful folicitation.

That the man for whom a nation petitions, muft be prefumed to have merit uncommon, in kind or in degree; for, however the mode of collecting fubfcriptions,

• subscriptions, or the right of judgment exercised by the fubfcribers, may be open to dispute, it is, < at least, plain, that something is done for this man that was never done for any other; and government, which muft proceed upon general views, may rationally conclude, that this man is fomething • better than other offenders have been, or has done fomething more than others have done.

That though the people cannot judge of the ad• miniftration of justice fo well as their governors, yet ⚫ their voice has always been regarded.

That this is a cafe in which the petitioners determine against their own intereft; those for whose protection the law was made, intreat its relaxation, and our governors cannot be charged with the 'confequences which the people bring upon them⚫ felves.

That as this is a cafe without example, it will probably be without confequences, and many ages will elapfe before fuch a crime is again committed by fuch a man.

That though life be spared, justice may be fa'tisfied with ruin, imprisonment, exile, infamy, and

penury.

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That if the people now commit an error, their error is on the part of mercy: and that perhaps hiftory cannot fhew a time, in which the life of a criminal, guilty of nothing above fraud, was refufed to the cry of nations, to the joint fupplication of three and twenty thousand petitioners.'

While Dodd was waiting the event of the petitions, his wife and friends were not idle. Dr. Johnson told

me, that they had offered Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, a thousand pounds to let him escape; and that failing, that a number of them, with banknotes in their pockets, to the amount of five hundred pounds, had watched for a whole evening, about the door of the prifon, for an opportunity of corrupting the turnkey, but could not fucceed in the attempt.

When all hopes of a favourable answer to either of the petitions were at an end, Johnfon drew up for publication a finall collection of what are called • Occafional papers by the late William Dodd,

L. L. D.' and five hundred copies thereof were printed for the benefit of his wife; but fhe, confcious that they were not of her husband's writing, would not confent to their being publifhed; and the whole number, except two or three copies, was fuppreffed. The last office he performed for this wretched man, was the compofing a fermon, which he delivered in the chapel of Newgate, on Friday 6th June, 1777, and which was foon after published with the title of The Convict's Addrefs.'

Johnfon had never feen the face of Dodd in his life. His wife had found her way to him during his confinement, and had interested him fo ftrongly in his behalf, that he lamented his fate, as he would have done that of an intimate friend under the like circumstances. He was deeply concerned at the failure of the petitions; and asked me at the time, if the request contained in them was not fuch an one as ought to have been granted to the prayer of twenty-three thousand subjects? to which I answered, that the fubfcription of popular petitions was a thing of