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    After the State Trials and during the almost continual suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act , all political associations were broken up , and amongst

    others the Society for Constitutional Information , with the dissolution of which terminated Mr . Joyce ' s political character * His principles , however , were the same and he never concealed

    them ; and he was always ready to extend the hand of kindness to such as were sufferers for their country ' s sake . This was indeed a very conspicuous trait in his character . His name occurs as a friend toMuirand

    Palmer in their letters printed in this volume : Mr . Rutt has recorded ( p . 357 ) his generous efforts on behalf of Holt , the Newark printer , thrown into prison by Mr . Pitt , for republishing a declaration printed originally under the sanction of Mr . Pitt him *

    self : the same respectable witness can attest another fact highly honourable to Mr . Joyce , namely , that though he zealously promoted the State Trials' subscription , he paid in full to the solicitor employed his own share of the expenses .

    Many of the reformers with whom Mr . Joyce associated were avowed unbelievers , but their society never shook his principles or induced him to conceal his Christian profession . The

    observer of his conduct and partner in his labours , just referred to , says , { ubi sup . ) that he acquired the respect of such as were not personally religious , by his consistent Christian deportment .

    A few years made a great alteration in the state of political parties , and in tjie year 1803 , we find Mr . Joyce standing forward in a printed sermon , first preached at Essex-street , to recommend the volunteer system as the only barrier against the threatened invasion of England by the French under the First Consul . In this , there was

    no dereliction of principle ; and the alarm felt by Mr . Joyce , whether justified or not by the event , was shared by the majority of the people . Mr . Joyce remained in the family of Earl Stanhope until the year 1800 , when he removed into the immediate

    neighbourhood of London . He now devoted himself to literary occupations , in which he laboured with a severity of application that few men can bear . His engagements with the booksellers were \ ery various and some

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    of them profitable . It will be seen by the list of his works at the end of the memoir , that some of the most popular of his productions were published uuder other names than his own : this was not his own wish , but on the

    contrary was felt by him as a great hardship : the booksellers adopted the fiction to conceal a name which had once been obnoxious to government . JLatterly , however , when some of his

    books had established themselves in the public opinion , he prefixed his own name to his compilations ; nor has it been found , we hope , that prejudice pursued him throughout the whole of life .

    Although , as has been intimated , some of his religious friends welcomed him after his acquittal , in the character , which above all others he prized , of a Dissenting minister , he did not experience that cordial reception in Unitarian congregations which he had anticipated and to which he was justly entitled . His habits as well as his

    inclination fitted him for a Nonconformist pastor , and yet he never received an invitation to settle ki the ministry that was at all worthy of his acceptance . He was still ready to assist his

    brethren in the metropolis and the neighbourhood ; and often appeared in the pulpit at Essex Chapel , where he was accustomed to worship . For some time before his death , he condescended to preach on the Sunday

    morning to a small society at Hampstead . Mr . Joyce was an Unitarian in the strictest sense of that term , and was for fourteen years the Secretary to the Unitarian Society , in which capacity he displayed the greatest punctuality ,

    activity and zeal . Every member of the society was under obligations to him for * his ready attention to any application , suggestion or wish ; and when he resigned the office , as if with a presentiment of his death , at the anniversary in 1816 , the Society

    passed some Resolutions * expressive of their warm gratitude and lasting " respect . On that occasion , he preached the sermon to the society , under circumstances , as before intimated , which awakened the sympathy of the audience , who testified their feelings by an urgent request that he would * See Mon . Repos , XI . 240 .

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    702 Memoir of the late Rev . Jeremiah Joyce *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 702, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/6/