will be a fortnight before one will sail from London, and I cannot think of waiting so long. Our friends intend to return into the country the day af fer to-morrow. I am, my dear Father, Your dutiful and affectionate son, CHARLES CLIFFORD. 2 LETTER LXXXVII. From Mr. James Neville to Miss Eusebia Neville. MY DEAR CHILD, How manifest are the favours which a good and gra cious God bestows on his rebellious creatures! Help me to adore his name, from whom I have received mercies great beyond my conception, and more numerous than my faults. My sins have abounded; but his grace has much more abounded. I have a hundred things to tell you; and were the task completed, a hundred more would present themselves to my view. I had every reason, my dear child, to suppose that you were in the depths of the sea; and I accused myself of having been your murderer. You can have no conception of the grief with which I have been overwhelmed. But these afflictions were mercies in disguise. I learn by your letters which we have received from New-York, that it was the swindler and his daughter who perished. Well! had it not been for that deception, you might have perished also. The stealing of your clothes and money, distressing as it was to you, has been a mercy to me. They were recovered from the ship, together with the book which contained the correspondence between you and your friends, transcribed with your own hand, every word of which brought to my mind that form with which I had been so long and so justly delighted. O my Eusebia! you cannot know the feelings of a parent's heart, till you yourself are a parent. My severity proceeded from a zeal for your welfare. But your letters and those of your friends, through the divine blessing, have made me think very differently both of you and of myself. I have seen that my zeal was a blind zeal, not regulated by the word of God : that my confidence was chiefly placed in external forms of devotion, and in almsgiving; and that the love of God, and faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, constituted no part of my religion. But I bless God that he has enabled me to say with Paul, What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Will you not rejoice with me when I tell you, that at my return, I found your poor persecuting sister sitting at the feet of Jesus, and learning her religion entirely from his word? In attempting to answer the correspondence between you and your friends, she found (to use her own expression) that you were an angel, and that she had been a devil. But she, as well as myself, has repented in dust and ashes. She had sent for Miss Barnwell, who was at the Abbey when we arrived, but who, fearing me as a monster, as indeed all persecutors are, immediately fled to Thomas Livingstone's. I sent for her, when I knew she was there, merely because she was your friend; and she has been a great blessing to me and to Signior Albino, in establishing us in the truth. Yes, my daughter, would you have thought it? Signior Albino has renounced the pageantry of popery, and has cast himself, as a guilty sinner, upon the mercy of God manifested in Jesus Christ. The good Thomas Livingstone is my steward, and Mary Livingstone is my housekeeper. The chapel is purified from every appearance of popery ; and your brother, at our unanimous desire, presides in the worship of God, which consists in singing Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns, in prayer, and in a practical exposition of the Scriptures. Your dear friend Miss Barnwell is now your sister; the happy wife of a happy husband. Mr. Charles Clifford, the, bearer of this letter, is become as great a friend to Christianity as he was an enemy. I bless God that such cases His gray-haired father, toos has are not uncommon, fallen as a penitent at the feet of Jesus, crying out, like the lepers in ancient times, Unclean! Unclean! and has received mercy. O Eusebia, things are strangely altered here, to my great satisfaction and delight. Having given you this summary of what has taken place at the Abbey, and at my friend Clifford's, it would be improper to omit, that both you and I are greatly indebted to the care and assiduity of Mr. Charles Clifford, in endeavouring to find you out in France. He merits the esteem of us all. It would not displease me to hear that he has a chief place in your esteem. I find myself to be insolvent when I think of the good Mr. Levi, and his kind wife and daughter. I can never pay the debt I owe them. Pray present to them my kindest, my best respects, and tell them that if they should ever come to England, I shall be happy in rendering them every service in my power. I am also very much obliged to the good Mr. Bethune, to whom, and to his family, please to present the same respects, accompa nied with the same invitation. It is unnecessary for me to tell you how much your brother and your new sister have been distressed on your account, and how strongly they feel themselves interested in every thing that relates to you. Your sister Maria, and your old tutor, possess now an affection for you equally tender, but mixed with great remorse on account of their former conduct. They all unite with me in every thing to you that is kind and affectionate. I am, my dear Eusebia, Your most affectionate father, JAMES NEVILLE. LETTER LXXXVIII. From Mr. William Neville to Mr. and Mrs. Bethune. MY HONOURED PARENTS, FOR such I shall ever esteem you, I received your obli ging, your most kind letter, in which you and your family feel for my supposed distresses, and wish to relieve them. Please to assure my brothers and sisters, that I shall always retain a fraternal regard for them. Mr. Charles Clifford, the bearer of this letter, can acquaint you with every thing that you can desire to know concerning me. This gentleman had a pious mother, who died while he was a child: his education, therefore, wholly devolved upon his father. Mr. Henry Clifford had many good properties as a man, but no religion. As a father, he has always been most tender of his son, who is his only child; as a master, he has ruled with gentleness; and as a landlord, nothing has given him greater pleasure than to see his tenants get forward in the world. In a word, he is a compassionate, generous man. す Mr. Henry Clifford early imbibed a contempt of the clergy, as well as of religion, which he seemed to think inseparably connected. But I have the satisfaction to tell you, that I have every reason to believe that his sins are pardoned, and that he possesses that love of the supreme Being which distinguishes true Christianity from Christianity so corrupted as to be the promoter of ambition, avarice, and sensual gratification. The son walked in the steps of his father. He received a polite education, and having made the tour of Europe, returned to England with impressions unfavourable to the Christian religion. In this state of mind he made his addresses to Miss Barnwell, a religious lady, by whom they were rejected. That lady, whom my dear Eusebia must have mentioned to you, I have now the happiness to call my wife. We had been married a month when the letters from you and my sister arrived at Mrs. Worthington's, at whose house we then were on a visit, together with my father and sister and Mr. Charles Clifford. This gentleman being in the company of Miss Barnwell and of my sister Eusebia, the latter not only confuted his deistical opinions, but also in some measure convinced him of the truth of our holy religion. He then received an arrow from the divine quiver, and the wound could not be my fa When he healed but by an application of the blood of Jesus Christ. This conversation happened but a little time before ther and she came to St. Omer's to see me. heard of her supposed shipwreck, he was inconsolable, He visited all the seaports on the coasts of England and France, that he might gain some intelligence concerning her; and I perceive by her letters that they were both at Dunkirk at the same time. It is my desire, my dear parents, that you will intercede with my Eusebia in behalf of Mr. Clifford. My friends, who are fully acquainted with, and who highly value this gentleman, unite with me in the same request, as well as in earnestly advising my sister not to reject him. ..I beg you to assure Mr. Levi and his family, that we entertain a high sense of their worth, and consider ourselves inexpressibly indebted to them for their disinterested kindness to my dear Eusebia. Please to tell that dear girl, that I had no time to write to her. Mr. Clifford came to take leave of us sooner than I expected, and indeed before I had begun to write. He is impatient to depart, fearing he should lose his passage to Boston. I intended to say something concerning the divine mercy to my dear father and sister; but time will not permit. Mr. Clifford will give you all the information concerning us that you can desire. With sincere respects to my brothers and sisters, and all my good friends in America, I am, my dear parents, Your dutiful and affectionate son, LETTER LXXXIX. From Mrs. Neville to Miss Eusebia Neville. MY VERY DEAR SISTER, You know I always greatly loved you, both as a friend; and after that as a Christian; but I myself did not know how |