veftigated with the severity of logical induction and the depth of metaphyfical research.

The refult of all his inquiries was, that virtue was the true interest of man, and he therefore determined to purfue it as his most fubftantial good.

It must certainly feem a very fingular phenomenon, that a youth just entered into the age of paffions, in the vigour of health and fpirits, in the affluence of fortune, and in this age, fhould dedicate his time, thoughts, and ftudies, to form in his mind the principles of action, by which he was ever afterwards to regulate his conduct. And it will appear ftill more extraordinary, when it is known, that during his whole future life, the principles and refolutions, which he had adopted at this early age, were the invariable rule by which all his actions were governed, with an uniformity and confiftency feldom maintained through different periods of life, and from which he was not diverted by the dread of ridicule, fo powerful over young minds, by the impulfe of paffions, by the falle glare of ambition, by the allurements of pleafure, nor by the affimilating manners of the age.

This confiftency of principle with condut, continued through his whole life, is a characteristical feature by which Mr. Day was distinguished.'

After fome farther illuftrations of the opinions, principles, and difpofitions, which formed the character of Mr. Day, his biographer goes on to relate fome inftances in which his generous enthusiasm in favour of virtue led him, while young, into romantic schemes, which his more mature judgment afterward difapproved. Of this kind was his attempt to educate two female orphans on the plan of Rouffeau; not, perhaps, without fome intention, had the fcheme fucceeded, of making one of them his wife: but the project proved abortive, and the subjects of the experiment were delivered up, while they were yet children,' to a boarding-fchool. If this attempt, and fome others mentioned in the narrative, were, as Mr. Day himself afterward called them, the extravagances of a warm heart and a strong imagination," they were, however, the effect of principles and difpofitions, which, at a riper age, produced the genuine fruits of patriotism and philanthropy.

Mr. Day engaged in the ftudy of the law, that he might the more effectually maintain the character, at which he afpired, of a defender of the rights of mankind: but not being ambitious of the emoluments and honours with which that profeffion abounds, he never practifed as a counsellor, nor as a pleader.

Mr. Day's firft literary production was the poem intitled, The Dying Negro. In the compofition of this poem, he was joined by a very ingenious friend and fchool-fellow, the late John Bicknell, Efq. afterwards counsellor at law; fo that it has been fometimes

attributed

attributed to one of thefe gentlemen, and fometimes to the other. In this poem we may difcern not only the fervid fancy of a youthful poet, and the tender ftrains of a fenfible heart, but also the glowing paffion of philanthropy, and the indignation of humanity at the practice of fubjecting one unfortunate part of our fpecies to the dominion, avarice, and cruelty of another. Nothing could be more conformable than the fubject of this poem to the humanity of his difpofition, and to the principles which he had adopted. The protection of the injured Africans feemed to be a corollary of his fyftem. Several years afterwards, when the fubject had begun to engage general attention, he publifhed a fragment of a private letter which he had written some time before to an American gentleman, on the Slavery of Negroes; and he addreffed this Fragment of a Letter, as it was intitled, to the States of America, thinking that they could not better prove that they had merited their own liberty, which they had lately acquired, than by giving the glorious example to other nations of emancipating their negroes, and abolithing flavery for ever in their territories. A jufter description of this pamphlet cannot be given than in the words of that venerable friend of liberty, Dr. Price, who calls it," a remonstrance, full of energy, directed to the American States by a very warm and able friend to the rights of mankind.”

After his marriage with a lady of principles and tafte perfectly in unifon with his own, Mifs Efther Milnes, of Wakefield in Yorkshire,

Mr. Day, in the year 1779, fixed his refidence at his eftate at Stapleford, in Effex; and about three years afterwards, he removed to another eftate which he had in Surry, at Anningfley near Chertsey, where he continued during the remainder of his life. This latter eftate, being much uncultivated, gave him an opportunity of prac tifing agriculture to a confiderable extent. To this occupation he was strongly attached by feveral motives. As it is of all arts the most beneficial to mankind, he thought it deserved the most encouragement. He confidered the people employed in it as the ftamina, if the expreffion may be allowed, of the human fpecies; or as the fource which fupplies the wafte of mankind in the other degeherating claffes of men. The improvement of his land gave him an opportunity of employing a number of labourers, and confequently of doing them molt good, by relieving their wants while he encou raged their induftry. And as there are times of the year, fuch as the fhort days of winter, when the covetous farmers difcharge many of their labourers, so that the industrious poor are often distressed, Mr. Day never failed to employ as many as should apply to him for work at these feafons.'

It was chiefly, however, as an upright citizen, and as a fteady friend to the rights of mankind, that Mr. Day was, from this time, diftinguifhed. During the American war, he boldly ftood forth as the advocate of the Americans, and could not forbear to give vent to his indignation at the conduct of government,

government, in two animated poems, the first entitled The devoted Legions, founded on the Roman ftory of Atticus the tribune devoting to deftruction Craflus and his army, in an unprovoked war against the Parthians: the fecond, The Defolation of America, defcribing the horrors of the attempt to subjugate that country, by burning her towns and villages, and defolating her coafts.

Upon the first opening of a prospect of peace with America, Mr. Day, influenced by the fame motives which had induced him to write these poems, and by the accumulated diftreffes which a moft expenfive war then poured on our own nation, addreffed the public in a pamphlet, entitled, Reflections on the prefent State of England, and on the Independence of America, in order to warn his countrymen against being till mifled by vain and delufive hopes of conquest from embracing the opportunity, which then prefented itself, of putting an end to a war founded on injustice and tyranny, and accompanied with fuch fucceffive and extraordinary calamities, as feemed to carry with them marks of the Divine indignation. This pamphlet, which is undoubtedly one of the best political productions in our language, contains a chain of convincing arguments expreffed in that fervid ftyle of eloquence, which at once breathes the fincerity of the author, and communicates by a kind of fympathy, conviction to the reader. In a fubfequent publication addreffed to the Earl of Shelburne, he vindicates and praises that minifter for having made peace with America and France; without indeed entering into any detail, or difcuffion of the feveral aricles of the peace, but on the general and important ground of the neceffity of terminating a ruinous war, of which the original object, the subjugation of America, had been long abandoned even by its first abettors, as impracticable.

Although in the commencement of the American war it must be acknowledged, with humiliation to the British nation, that the greater part of the people had fupported the crown in its attempt to fubdue America, which they confidered as a fubject ftate deftined for their benefit and dominion; and although they had then yielded to the delufive hopes of conqueft repeatedly held out to them by a minifter, whose talents for gaining their confidence were no less confpicuous than his conduct in the abuse of it; yet when fucceeding calamities had diffipated thefe dreams of ambition, and when difgrace and distress had humbled the pride of the people, the voice of the foberer and wifer part of the nation began to be heard, calling out for peace, and for a reformation of the abuses, which had crept into the conftitution, though contrary to its fpirit. Accordingly affociations were formed in different counties of the moft independent and public-fpirited men, in order to obtain a redrefs of grievances, and efpecially a reform in the representation of the people in parliament, the inequality and imperfection of which had principally enabled the minifter, by a lavish corruption, to gain the fupport and countenance of the legislature in carrying on the most ruinous and unjust war, as well as the most disgraceful,'

that

that ever fullied the British annals. Mr. Day could not but join this honeft band of patriots; and he foon diftinguished himself among them by his zeal and abilities. He attended several of the meetings of the freeholders in different counties where he held eftates, Effex, Surry, and Berkshire; and he then displayed the talent, which he poffeffed in a fingular degree, of fpeaking in public with facility, copioufnefs, and precision, and with the fame mascu line and impreffive eloquence that marks his political writings. Mr. Day did not indeed conceive any very fanguine expectations of fuccefs, or that the efforts of the affociations would obtain a perfectly reformed reprefentation; but he thought it his duty to keep alive and fan every fpark of public fpirit, and love of liberty, which fhewed itself among the people; and he was not altogether without hopes that fome acceffion of weight to the popular feale in the government might be gained, by which at least," a portion of new health," as the illuftrious Earl of Chatham had on a former occafion happily expreffed it," might be infufed into the conftitution, to enable it to bear its infirmities." He deplored the supineness with which both the gentry and people in general viewed the efforts of the affociations, their want of knowledge of their political rights and interefts, and of zeal to affert them.

Afterward, when he found that the efforts of the honeft part of the nation, with whom he had affociated, and whofe measures he had zealously fupported, had been totally fruftrated by the prevalence of particular interefts over the public good, he could not fupprefs his indignation. The following lines written upon the occafion, which have been found among his papers, exprefs, with a force of language and of imagery not eafily attained by poets whom only fictitious paffions infpire, the indignant patriotifm which then agitated his bofom, andh is free undaunted fpirit, which no fortune

could bend.

• When faithlefs fenates venally betray;

When each degenerate noble is a flave;
When Britain falls an unrefifting prey;
What part befits the generous and the brave?
If vain the task to roufe my country's ire,

And imp once more the ftork's dejected wings,
To folitude indignant I retire,

And leave the world to parafites and kings;
Not like the deer, whom wearied in the race
Each leaf aftonishes, each breeze appals;
But like the lion, when he turns the chace
Back on his hunters, and the valiant falls.
Then let untam'd oppreffion rage aloof,

And rule o'er men who afk not to be freed;
To Liberty I vow this humble roof;

And he that violates its shade, fhall bleed.'

Farther to illuftrate that noble spirit of independence, which placed Mr. Day beyond the reach of corruption, we fhall copy a letter from a confidential friend of the minifter; who, finding

that

that Mr. Day, on the whole, favoured the new adminiftration formed in oppofition to the coalition, had requested a perfonal interview:

The honour you have done me in addreffing a letter to me which I duly received requires an answer, and at the fame time I fhall rely on your good fenfe in using a degree of freedom which otherwife might appear un palatable to gentlemen in your fituation.

Mr. S fome days paft, when I accidentally called upon him, put into my hands a letter which I had totally forgotten I had ever fent him, and asked me whether I had any objection to his fhewing it to fome of the gentlemen that were at prefent concerned in the administration of affairs, and acquainting them with the good wishes which I had frequently in converfation expreffed towards them. I looked over the letter and told him, that I was not in the leaft afhamed of any of the fentiments contained in it, nor had altered them unless in one particular: when I wrote that letter I fhould not have refused a feat in parliament had I been difinterestedly invited by my countrymen ; at prefent no human temptation would make me leave the privacy and leifure I enjoy in the country. I also warned him of the peculiar delicacy which was required in reprefenting to any gentleman in power, the fentiments of a perfon who having little to value himself upon but honefty and independence felt an habitual jealousy upon every fubject that was connected with them-1 imagine that it was in confequence of those confiderations that I have been favoured with the letter I am now answering, and that there may be no mistake on either fide, I fhall take the liberty of ftating my prefent political ideas, that you may judge how far they are capable of being converted to any practical ufe.

I have always detefted the American war, which I forefaw muft exhaust this country exactly in proportion to the time it was carried on. I therefore gave it every oppofition which was in the power of fo infignificant an individual as my felf. Convinced also that the prefent mutilated ftate of parliamentary reprefentation was one caufe of the public evils which threaten to overwhelm the country, and may in the end occafion the total lofs of its liberty, I have fincerely joined with thofe very refpectable gentlemen who in different parts of England have embraced the cause of reformation, but without the moft diftant hopes of fuccefs. I always confidered the people as being too fupine, and the party who were interested to oppose it as being too powerful to leave many hopes for any one, who did not confider public affairs rather through the medium of enthusiasm than that of fober reafon.

When Lord Shelburne made the peace, I was convinced that, without any nice examination into its merits, it was the most falutary step which could be taken for the prefervation of this country. I was therefore shocked at the cavils which were made against it by thofe very people, who, I am convinced, would have abused him REV. SEPT. 1791.

F