By all, like him, must praise and blame be found, At laft, a fleeting gleam, or empty found. Yet then shall calm reflection bless the night, • When liberal pity dignified delight; When pleasure fired her torch at virtue's flame, In the year 1777, he was induced, by a cafe of a very extraordinary nature, to the exercife of that indifcriminate humanity, which, in him, was obedient to every call. A divine of the church of England, Dr. William Dodd, already mentioned in the course of this account, and who had affifted in the education of the prefent earl of Chesterfield, having, by his extravagance, involved himself in difficulties, had recourfe to the following, among many other expedients, to raise money. As a pretended agent for this nobleman, and in confideration of the fum of 600l. he forged the hand of the earl to the grant of an annuity, chargeable on his eftate, which forgery being detected, Dodd was convicted of felony, and fentenced to the ufual punishment for fuch offences. The public were, at first, very little interested in the fate of a man, who, befides the arts he had practised to make himself confpicuous as a man of letters, had rendered himself fcandalous, by an offer, to the firft law-officer in the kingdom, of a large fum of money, for a prefentation to a valuable rectory; but, by various artifices, and particularly, the infertion of his name in the publie papers, with fuch palliatives as he and his friends could invent, never without the epithet of unfortunate, they were betrayed into fuch an enthusiastic commiferation of his cafe, cafe, as would have led a ftranger to believe, that himself had been no acceffary to his diftreffes, but that they were the inflictions of Providence. Great endeavours were used with the earl, to prevail on him to defist from a prosecution, but without effect. His lordship preferred a bill of indictment for felony, and the fame being found before me at Hicks's Hall, upon the evidence of himself, and other witnesses, Dodd was, at the Old Bailey, arraigned thereon, and convicted. The speech he made to the court and jury, while at the bar, was penned by Johnfon; but the evidence on the trial, was fo very full and clear, that the jury hesitated not in the least to pronounce him guilty of the indictment; and, no circumstances of alleviation appearing, they did not, as juries feldom fail to do where that is the cafe, recommend him as an object of that clemency, which his majesty is ever ready to exert, in favour of those who have the least claim to it. We live in an age in which humanity is the fashion. If the reports of the gaol-committee in 1726 are, in all particulars, to be depended on, and do not exaggerate the facts therein ftated, there was a time when, as well prifoners for debt, as for offences, were cruelly treated by those who had the cuftody of them; but, at this day, the temper of the times is under a contrary biafs, for, not only in actual confinement, are prifoners treated with greater lenity than till of late years was ever known, but, in courts of juftice, the regard fhewn to offenders falls little fhort of refpect. In profecutions at the fuit of the crown, the indulgence of prisoners is nearly as great as it ought to be, were that true which the law does but hardly prefume, viz. that every offender who is brought to a legal trial, is innocent, till his guilt be proved. Those whofe duty it is to conduct the evidence, fearing the cenfure that others have incurred by a contrary treatment of prisoners, are restrained from enforcing it; and, as it is an exercise of compaffion that cofts nothing, and is fure to gain the applaufe of vulgar hearers, every one interefts himfelf on the fide of the prifoner, and hopes, by his zeal in his behalf, to be diftinguished as a man of more than ordinary humanity. The tenderness of our courts of justice, in profecutions that affect the life or liberty of the offender, is acknowledged and celebrated by all writers on the fubjects of jurifprudence and internal policy; but, befide this, the chances of eluding conviction, or, if not that, of punishment, are fo many, that they deter many injured perfons from the prosecution of great criminals; and, as it is a fpeculation that has often employed my thoughts, I will endeavour at an enumeration of them. The chances are thefe: 1 That the offender is not difcovered, or, if difcovered, not apprehended. 2 That the perfon injured is not both able and willing to profecute him. 3 That the evidence is not fufficient for the finding of the bill, or if it be, 4 That the indictment is fo framed as that the offender cannot be convicted on it; or, 5 That the witneffes to fupport it may die, or be prevailed upon to abfcond, or to foften their teftimony; or, 6 They may be entangled or made to contradict themselves, or each other, in a crofs examination, by the prifoner's council; or, 7 A mild judge; or, 8 An ignorant or perverfe jury: 9 A recommendation to mercy; or, 10 Appeals to the public Ly ftates of his cafe in pamphlets, or news-paper pa 4 ragraphs, ragraphs, which the Newgate folicitors know very well how to get drawn. II Practices with a jury to obtain a declaration, that fome of them were diffatisfied with the verdict. 12 A motion in arrest of judgment. 13 A writ of error grounded on fome defect or miftake on the face of the record. 14 An escape; and laftly, Intereft to procure a pardon *. But To this purpofe, and as a caveat against feeking redress for injuries by going to law, I recollect a faying of a very fagacious and experienced citizen, Mr. Selwin, who formerly was a candidate for the office of chamberlain, and miffed it only by feven votes out of near feven thoufand.- A man,' fays he who deliberates about going to law, fhould have, first, a good cause ; ⚫ fecondly, a good purfe; thirdly, an honeft and skilful attorney; fourthly, good evidence; fifthly, able council; fixthly, an upright judge; feventhly, an intelligent jury; and, with all these on his fide, if he has not, eighthly, good luck, it is odds but he mifcarries in his fuit.' ་ The fame perfon told me the following ftory: He was once requefted by a man under fentence of death in Newgate, to come and fee him in his cell, and, in pure humanity, he made him a vifit. The man briefly informed him, that he had been tried and convicted of felony, and was in daily expectation of the arrival of the warrant for his execution; but,' faid he, I have 200l. and you are a man of character, and had the court-interest when you flood for chamberlain: 1 fhould therefore hope, it is in your power to get me off.'-Mr. Selwin was ftruck with fo ftrange a motion, and, to enable himself to account for it, afked, if there were any alleviating circumftances in his cafe: the man peevishly answered -No,—but that he had enquired into the hiftory of the place where he was, and could not find, that any one who had two hundred pounds, was ever hanged.-Mr. Selwin told him, it was out of his power to help him, and bade him farewell,- which,' added he, he did; for he found means to escape punishment.' The difpofition of the law, and of magiftrates, to be merciful to offenders against it, leads me to remark, that in the people of this country there is a general propenfity to humanity; and that, notwithstanding the cry against merciless creditors, urged But Dodd's cafe was fuch as excluded him from the benefit of all the above chances, excepting the laft; and of that he laboured with all his might to avail himself. A petition to the throne for a pardon, was an expedient that naturally fuggefted itself, but, as it required the utmost powers of eloquence to palliate his offence, he found means to interest Dr. Johnson in his behalf, and easily procured from him two of the most energetic compofitions of the kind ever feen, the one a petition from himself to the king, the other, a like addrefs from his wife to the queen, feverally conceived in the terms following: ( To the King's most excellent Majefty. • SIR, It is moft humbly reprefented to your majesty by William Dodd, the unhappy convict now lying under fentence of death: urged in favour of infolvent acts, fuch a character is hardly now to be found. I have, in my time, discharged great numbers of debtors under fuch acts, and cannot recollect five initances where their difcharge has been oppofed. And, with regard to bankrupts and other infolvents, I am warranted by long experience and much obfervation to fay, that in cafes where their inability to pay their debts has arisen from misfortune, the readiness of creditors to accept a fmall compofition, and give them fresh credit, has been fuch as I could not contemplate without calling to remembrance the parable in the Gospel of the lord that was moved with compaffion, and forgave his debtor. And, with respect to injuries, fuch as personal assaults or indignities, an Englishman never feeks farther than to humble his adverfary: when that is done, forgiveness and shaking hands follow of courfe. If, therefore, it be true, that humanity is the offspring of courage, we have not far to feek for the fource of British bravery. • That |