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tlaguisted hfdjvid ^ l * with which we have thus been gratified ; but I wish a jpwh wore e 6 n < spicupu 3 f if not more durable monument , should be raised to hte glory , than is the above re corded testimony of your intelligent Correspondent , in the pages of your
useful Miscellany . If ever there was aw . individual to whom public honours were due , if ever there was an individual * to perpetuate whose worth and talents the scqlptor could be jtistjy employed , that person is Sir Samuel Romilly . 1 am not for
detracting from the respective merits of a JJenkford , a Chatham , a Pitt , a Nelson , a Pox 9 a Howard , or a Mansfield ; but when rambling from the Guildhall of London , through the spacious squares of the metropolis , to reach , at last , the solemn repository of the illustrious dead in Westminster
Abbey , the thought naturally occurs , do these graves contain the ashes , or these ^ monuments perpetuate the remembrance of one single individual , more erudite ia legal knowledge , more patriotic in priticiple , more vigilant as a senator , more active in the cause of civil and religious freedom ,
more alive to the sufferings of humanity , more beyond the power of seduction from the path of integrity and ^ rectitude , than was Sir Samuel Romilly ? How is it then , that for this individual , whose integrity his political opponents admired ; whose learning , those who held higher official situations , bowed to ; whose
humanity , united with his talents , deprived persecution of her power : for this individual why is there no public memorial meditated ? Why no subscription for this purpose made ? Fdr the illustrious female , who a
twelvemonth before was taken from us , some sad memento of the nation ' s grief is intended , and with great propriety ; but still , she was but a blossom of hope ; power might have intoxicated her , or the follies and mists of
a court might have depraved her heart or beclouded her judgment , and rendered her latter years a miserable contrast to her early promise . Jn Sir Samuel , we had wisdom , patriotism ,
YWtyua , with every good sentiment and every benevolent feeling , not «* ei ; ely exhibited , bt * t tried an £ epn-Jirme& And it it not enough that port ^ ty ahoujd know that suc h a
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man has lived , by consulting the his toric page , or shotfld Jearn , by some traditional information , that , in the event of our penal laws being atnelio * rated , the amelioration was chiefly owing to him : his figure should fee preserved and publicly displayed , with a tablet of his exalted virtues
attached , to let our children ' s children know our sense of his worth , and the poignancy of our grief at his deat h * You perhaps , Sir , will think this is more of a political subject than exactly befits the Repository ; but if there is no other objection to the
insertion of these hints , permit me to say , I conceive there are few ways in which we ca « strengthen the virtuous principle more than in holding in eternal remembrance those who * oil
all occasions , adored it ; and thatto let such a mart as Romilly descend to the grave without such a memorial as the one proposed , would be to become traitors to the cause of virtue , of patriotism , and of philanthrophy .
But besides this , I suspect one reason why nothing has as yet been done on this subject , has arisen from the feeling of horror or of detestation at the event which immediately caused his death . Now this is a reH *
gioiis question . Suicide is generally considered as an irreligious acfv The enemies of Romilly not being able to asperse , with any propriety , his life , are ready enough to paint the termination of that life as exhibiting a hollowness in his religious sentiments , and thus to insinuate that he was an
individual far less exalted than his admirers with fondness contend fotf ; and I am sorry to see that almost all your Correspondents , by their illusion to this circumstance , appear to think , or to fear , that it does detract somewhat from his merits .
In the Review of Mr , Waraley ' s Sermon [ p , 265 ] , a wish is expressed that " religious feelings had prevented the catastrophe * , " ' but surely it may wall be asked , what has religion or religious feeling to do . with # n individual whose brain is affected ? That this
w ^ s case with Samuel , there is , in my apprehension , the clearest evidence , and while I should say with Dr . Smith , ( Mon , Repos . p » 150 " Why that fever of the brain should h&ve been permitted to auaatf him * and suddenly mid completely to obli-
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Mr . Fullagar on Sir Samuel Rotnill y . 411
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/11/
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