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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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any money is transmitted , cause a considerable part of it to be laid out at the Cape or at Rio Janeiro in rum , tobacco , sugar , &c . &c . which are invaluable , and the only medium of exchange . We bought some rum at Rio for I 8 d * the gallon , and can sell it for 80 s . Our friends can easil y find
some person at the Cape , at Batavia , to take the charge of this , with every ship for the port , and will write to R : Binnafort , at Rio Janeiro . Be extremely attentive to this circumstance , as it is of the highest moment . Our mercantile friends can easily settle
this . Let them likewise , upon consideration , settle it at Rio , as our friend tfae Abbot may be recalled to Portugal , of which he had some idea . In a country like this , where money is really of no value , and rum every thing , you must perceive the necessity
Of my having a constant supply by © very vessel . For a goat I would pay , in money , ^ 10 sterling : now , for less than eight gallons of spirits , at IBd . the gallon , 1 can make the same purchase . If it is possible , when you
settle your correspondence , cause £ 50 or £ 60 sterling worth of rum to be purchased at Rio Janeiro , or at the Cape . Tobacco at Rio sells for 3 d . per lb . here at 3 s . 6 d . That , too , is an article to be considered . Now , my dearest friend , I must conclude , but even in
closing a letter to you , it is like taking farewell for ever . I pray for every blessing of heaven upon you and your family . No day passes without you living in my thoughts . I open to you my whole soul . Others might smile , but I close this letter in tears . Yours sincerely and unalterably , T . MUIR . Mr . Moffatt .
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Letter V . Sydney , Dec . 18 , 1795 . Messrs . and .
My Dear Friends , Prevented by many reasons from writing to particular persons , whose idea must be familiar to your minds , I beg leave , through your medium ,
to transmit to them my recollections . They live , they will for ever live in my memory . Their existence is entrusted with every thought , and space and distance render the knot more indissoluble . But why should 1 con-
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sume time , ia expressing sentiments df which , if ever I had been devoid , I never would have had any pretensions to their notice . Their reflexions may , perhaps , turn upon ine . Tell them I live , live faithful to the cause of freedom , and live in a manner not
unworthy of its adherents . Surrounded by successive scenes of manifold affliction , the prospect of life , as it lengthens , darkening , 1 say , and say in the sincerity of my soul , that the sufferings of individual man ought never to be reckoned in account , if conducive to
the sum of general happiness . Let then this end require greater sacrifices , life or years of exile , protracted unto the term of life , these sacrifices 1 am prepared to offer . Nor is this the effect of enthusiasm . Enthusiasm may dazzle its victim and his spectators in
the glare of public exhibition , but in dungeons , in the long years of obscure exile , surrounded by beings who degrade the name of man , it must subside , it must dissipate and leave to the mind a solitary and a fearful void .
Let me then repeat , without ostentation , what , upon entering the career of life , I have proclaimed . 1 have been , I am , and until 1 sink into the grave , I shall continue to be , the advocate of the oppressed .
Every letter X write , my friends , I consider as a renewal of my oath to the cause of man , and , I hope I do it with a correspondent solemnity . I wish my letters to roach you , I wish them to afford no handles of
persecution or misconstruction against you , and I purposely avoid all political reflexions and all political conjectures . I pray Almighty God , my good friends , that you enjoy in your persons , your circumstances and your families , his choicest blessings . I again congratulate Mr . and Mrs . , and let
them believe my heart is sincerely attached to them . It is painful for me to begin a letter . It is more painful to conclude . But in these days ,- My dear friends , I am ev « r yours , THOMAS MUIR . Mr . .
P . S . I cannot help making one observation—you will smite as I do—/ have seen m y death anneuneed . [ Received Mar . 14 , 17970
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578 < Letters from Messrs . Palmer and Muir .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/6/
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