"Occasionally Mr. Fawcett used to allow certain portions of a weekly newspaper to be read to the boys on a Saturday evening. This case was read to us, I think from the Leeds Mercury; and though Mr. Fawcett's name was not mentioned, we were all aware who the minister was."
Thus we have no direct evidence of the amount of Mr. Fawcett's communications with George III. How much of the story as it is now told was read to the boys, we do not know; but that it came to them first through a weekly paper, is rather against than for it.
We all know the tendency of good stories to pick up additions as they go. I have read that the first edition of the Life of Loyola was without miracles. This anecdote seems to have reached its full growth in 1823, in Pearson's Life of W. Hey, Esq., and probably in the two lives of George III., published after his death, and mentioned by Whunside. Pearson, as cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 276., says, that by some means the Essay on Anger had been recommended to the notice of George III., who would have made the author a bishop had he not been a dissenter; that he signified his wish to serve Mr. Fawcett, &c. That on the conviction of H——, Mr. Fawcett wrote to the king; and a letter soon arrived, conveying the welcome intelligence, "You may rest assured that his life is safe," &c.
It is not stated that this was "private and confidential:" if it was, Mr. Fawcett had no right to mention it; if it was not, he had no reason for concealing what was so much to his honour, and so extraordinary as the king's personal interference in a matter invariably left to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. If, however, Mr. Fawcett was silent from modesty, his biographers had no inducement to be so; yet, let us see how they state the case. The Account of the Life, Writings, and Ministry of the late Rev. John Fawcett: London, 1818, cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 229., says:
"He was induced, in conjunction with others, to solicit the exercise of royal clemency in mitigating the severity of that punishment which the law denounces: and it gladdened the sympathetic feelings of his heart to know that these petitions were not unavailing; but the modesty of his character made him regret the publicity which had been given to this subject."
The fifth edition of the Essay on Anger, printed for the Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge, London, no date, has a memoir of the author. The "incident" is said not to have been circulated in any publication by the family; but "it was one of the secrets which obtain a wider circulation from the reserve with which one relator invariably retails it to another." That is exactly my view. Secrecy contributes to diffusion, but not to accuracy. At the risk of being thought tedious, I must copy the rest of this statement:
"Soon after the publication of this treatise, the author took an opportunity of presenting a copy to our late much revered sovereign; whose ear was always accessible to merit, however obscure the individual in whom it was found. Contrary to the fate of most publications laid at the feet of royalty, it was diligently perused and admired; and a communication of this approbation was afterwards made known to the author. It happened some time afterwards, a relative of one of his friends was convicted of a capital crime, for which he was left for execution. Application was instantly made for an extension of royal favour in his behalf; and, among others, one was made by Mr. Fawcett: and his majesty, no doubt recollecting the pleasure he had derived from the perusal of his Essay on Anger, and believing that he would not recommend an improper person to royal favour, was most graciously pleased to answer the prayer of the petition; but as to precisely how far the name of Mr. Fawcett might have contributed to this successful application must await the great disclosures of a future judgment."
The reader will sift this jumble of inferences and facts, and perhaps will not go so far as to have "no doubt."
Whunside tells me, that about 1807 he employed a bookbinder from Halifax; who, on hearing that he had been a pupil of Mr. Fawcett, said he had seen two copies of the Essay on Anger, most beautifully bound, to be sent to the king.
The conclusion to which I come is, that Mr. Fawcett sent a copy of the Essay on Anger to the king; that the receipt of it was acknowledged, possibly in some way more complimentary than the ordinary circular; that a young man was convicted of forgery; that Mr. Fawcett and others petitioned for his pardon, and that he was