fent that I fhould ruin myself for her. My tears, my entreaties, were fruitlefs. She remained inflexible. Her refufal, while it heightened my admiration, threw me into defpair. I faw no remedy for her misfortune, but what I could have given her had I been fingle. This idea caufed my ruin. The frenzy of my paffion having reduced me to the dreadful alternative of facrificing the honour of the woman whom I adored, or the life of her who had been given me for a companion, I grew defperate, my reafon abandoned me, and my hand became guilty. My strength fails me at the dreadful recollection, which oppreffes and harrows up my foul. It is neceffary (for I must give to truth the authenticity it requires) that I fhould still add to my flame, by confefling that I was the fole author of the atrocious crime; I was not feduced to the commiffion of it by the perfon for the love of whom it was perpetrated. Had the thought me capable of fuch a defign, her virtue would have prevented my guilt.

This is the crime I confefs to your majetty. I demand vengeance a gainst myfelf: you will fatisfy your juftice by punishing me; and I thall blefs your clemency, which will free me from the tortures of my remorfe. The moment that I committed the crime, I was ftruck with its enormity, without thinking on any measures proper to be taken. My family, dreading the difgrace affixed to the punishment which I have but too well deferved, obliged me to abfcond. I took flight, without knowing whither I fhould go, to drag out the remainder of fo guilty a life. Scarcely had my mind recovered its powers, when it became its own tormentor. Every day prefented to me ftronger pictures of horror. The calm which fome.

times fucceeded these violent emotions, gave me pains of a different kind. My paffion was not extinguifhed by the crime it had caused: on the contrary, it feemed to have acquired new ftrength, and filled up the intervals of my despair.

In this excruciating fituation, I was feveral times tempted to put an end to my life; but (can your majefty believe it? Judge from this of the violence of my phrenzy) the love which had made me guilty, which doubled my mifery, was the only obftacle which prevented me from fuicide. The hope of once more feeing the object of my paffion, did not extinguifh my remorse, which I ftill felt in all its horror.

Such was the state of my mind on my arrival in your majesty's dominions, where being taken into cuftody by your orders, I could not be ignorant of the caufe of my detention. I am now deprived of the only hope which fupported me; I have nothing left but remorfe and defpair. The juftice of France claims me. My family has had intereft to obtain the commutation of my punishment into perpetual imprifonment: my mind cannot bear either of thofe profpects. Certainly I dread not death, for I requeft it of your majefty as a favour. But ig nominy is to me intolerable, and that would attend me from the mo ment of my arrival in my own country; that would inceffantly haunt me, and poifon the laft mo ments of my life. Alas! if I must die, let it not be in my own country. The fecond profpect fuggefts ideas ftill more dreadful. What can be worfe than to live in perpetual imprifonment, a prey to my remorfe, the ftings of which become ftill more fevere by the want of an object to diffipate my thoughts? And thofe torments, though long

and horrible, would never efface my crime either in the fight of justice or of men: death, therefore, in whatever fhape it may come, is a thousand times preferable. In this fentiment I caft myself at your majefty's feet, humbly fupplicating that you will be pleafed to make me undergo, in your dominions, the punishment I have but too well de ferved.

My heart was not naturally vicious; a moment of phrenzy plunged it into the abyfs where it is now funk; yet, though not lefs guilty, nor lefs worthy of chaftifement, if it cannot obtain pardon, it may deferve fome pity. May your majefty, then, deign to listen to the voice of that pity, and spare me the fhame of an execution in France, by putting me to death in Portugal. I know well that the prejudices of the French, even if I pay to juftice the punishment to which I fhall be condemned, will affix perpetual infamy to my memory. But furely when juftice is once fatisfied, no trace of the crime remains, and prejudice ought to reft contented. I dare to hope, therefore, that by petitioning for, and voluntarily offering myfelf to, the death I have deferved, I may deliver my foul from an ignominy for which it was not formed, but which it has notwithstanding incurred.

In my last moments I fhall have the confolation of thinking that my name will no longer be held in horror; and when I bid a final adieu to the authors of my life, I fhall be enabled to fay to them, "Your fon is ftill worthy of you; he has wiped off the flame with which he covered you; he has expiated the crime which he committed, and has regained a title to your compaffion.

Should I have the good fortune to excite your majesty's pity, and

your clemency induce you to grant fuch a petition, your majetty cannot apprehend that your juftice, which interefts itself for every object, will be liable to the leat impeachment of violating the rights of nations, by punishing, in your own dominions, the fubject of another monarchy, for a crime committed in his native country. On the contrary, I flatter my felf I fhall be able to demonftrate to your majefty, that justice even requires my punishment at your hands. I am not guilty as a Frenchman; it is not that nation I have offended; I am guilty as a man, and owe to all mankind an expiation of my crime. Wherever there are men, and laws to govern them, I bear about the mark of dif approbation with which I am ftig matifed: wherever my crime is known, my blood may be lawfully fhed; and in this country it is known by my confeffion to your majefty. I am at once the accufer, the wit. nefs, and the criminal: what more is wanting but the fentence of condemnation, which I fupplicate your majefty to pronounce?

I venture to entertain the greatest hopes of obtaining a requelt which enables your majesty to unite justice with mercy. If the torments of a foul distracted by the most violent emotions on the recollection of a crime repugnant to its very effence, can deferve any pity, it is a favour I entreat from your majefty's clemency, when I afk for death to put an end to my miferies, and expiate a crime at which human nature fhudders. If, on the contrary, my guilt be too atrocious for any favour to be fhewn, I call upon your justice, I inform againit a criminal, and petition for his execution.

Had your majefly been engaged in war, before expiating my crime by the proper punishment, I would (O 2)

have

have petitioned for liberty to fhed my guilty blood in your fervice, that my death might not be entirely ufelefs; but your majefty having the happiness to enjoy profound peace, every drop of my blood is due to justice. If I obtain that favour, I fhall be indebted to your majesty for the recovery of my virtue, the prefervation of my honour, and the end of my miferies. If, on the contrary, you judge that, confidering the enormity of my crime, my blood ought not to pollute your dominions, nothing remains for me but defpair. In either cafe I fhall with my last breath offer up my prayers for the profperity of your majesty's reign.

Waiting the decifion which is to fix my fate, I am, with hope and fear, and with the most profound refpect, your majefty's most humble and moft obedient fervant,

BRUNZI D'ENTRECASTEAUX.

Letter from Mr. Raikes, of Gloucefter, to a Gentleman of Bradford, in Yorkshire, giving an Account of the first Inftitution of Sunday Schools. See the laft Article of Public Occurrences.

Gloucefter, June 5, 1784.

Dear Sir,

I have not had leifure to give you an earlier account of my little plan for attempting a reform of the riting generation of the lower clafs of people, by establishing schools, where poor children may be received upon the Sunday, and there engaged in learning to read, and to repeat their catechifm, or any thing elfe that may be deemed proper to open their minds to a knowledge of their duty to God, their neighbour, and themselves.

The utility of an establishment of

this fort was first fuggefted to my mind by a group of little miserable wretches, whom I obferved one day at play in the fireet, where many people employed in the pin manufactory refide. I was expreffing my concern to an inhabitant, at their forlorn neglected state, and was told, that if I were to país through that ftreet upon Sundays, it would shock me indeed, to fee crowds of children who were spending that facred day in noife and riot, and in curfing and fwearing; to the extreme annoyance of all fober decent people who refide there, or had occafion to pafs that way. I immediately determined to make fome little effort by way of trial, to prove whether it were pofiible to remedy the evil. Having found four perfons of refpectable character who had been accustomed to inftruct children in reading, I engaged to pay the fum they required for receiving and inftructing fuch children as I fhould fend to them every Sunday. children were to come foon after ten in the morning, and stay till twelve; they were then to go home to dinner, and return at one; and after reading a leffon they were to be employed in repeating the catechism till half after five, and then to be difmified, with an injunction to retire home without making a noise; and by no means to play in the street. This was the general outline of the regulation. With regard to the parents, I went round to remonftrate with them on the melancholy confequences that must enfue from fo fatal a neglect of their children's morals. They alledged, that their poverty rendered them incapable of cleaning and clothing their children fit to appear either at fchool or at church; but this objection was obviated by a remark, that if they were clad in a garb fit

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to appear in the streets, I fhould not think it improper for a fchool calculated to adinit the poorest and mott neglected; all that I required, were clean faces, clean hands, and their hair combed. In other refpects they were to come as their circumstances would admit. In a little time the people perceived the advantage that was likely to arife. Many children began to fhew talents for learning, and a defire to be taught. Little rewards were diftributed among the most diligent. This excited an emulation. One or two worthy clergymen kindly lent their countenance and affiftance, by going round to the fchools on the Sunday afternoon, to hear the children fay their catechifm. This was of great confequence. Another clergyman hears them fay their catechiim once a quarter publicly in the church, and rewards their good behaviour with fome little gratuity. They are frequently admonished to refrain from fwearing; and certain boys, who are diftinguifhed by their decent behaviour, are appointed to fuperintend the conduct of the reft, and make report of thofe that fwear, call names, or interrupt the comfort of the other boys in their neighbourhood. When quarrels have arifen, the aggreffor is compelled to aik pardon, and the offended is enjoined to forgive. The happiness that must arife to all from a kind, goodnatured behaviour, is often inculcated. This mode of treatment has produced a wonderful change in the manners of thefe little favages. I cannot give a more striking inftance than I received the other day from Mr. Church, a confiderable manufacturer of hemp and flax, who employs great numbers of these children. I asked him whether he perceived any alteration in the poor

children he employed, fince they had been restrained from their former profanation of the Lord's day; and, instead of fpending it in idlenefs and mifchief, had been taught to devote it to the improvement of their minds, and the learning that which hereafter might aflift in opening their understandings to a fenfe of their duty.Sir, fays he, the change could not have been more extraordinary in my opinion, had they been transformed from the fhape of wolves and tygers to that of men. In temper, difpofition, and manners, they could hardly be faid to differ from the brute creation. But fince the establishment of the Sunday fchools, they have feemed defirous to fhew that they are not the ignorant illiterate creatures they were before. When they fee a perfon whom they have looked up to as their fuperior, come and kindly inftruct and admonish them, and fometimes reward them for good behaviour, it has infpired many with emulation to amend, who were deemed incapable of any such senfation. They are anxious to gain his friendship and good opinion; they have now one whom they with to pleafe, and as they know this to be effected only by decent and orderly conduct, they are ftriving to excel. In fhort, I never conceived that a reformation fo fingular could have been effected among the fet of untutored beings I employed. They are alfo become more tractable and obedient, and lefs quarrelfome and revengeful."

From this little sketch of the reformation which has taken place among the poor children of this city, there is great reafon to hope that a general establishment of Sunday fchools, fupported by the attention of a few active individuals, would in time make fome change in the

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morals