W. C.
Mrs. Unwin's compliments attend you.
Cowper, on this occasion, addressed the following letter to the editors of the Northampton Mercury, enclosing the verses on Mr. Wilberforce which have just been inserted.
TO THE PRINTERS OF THE NORTHAMPTON MERCURY.
Weston-Underwood, April 16, 1792.
Sirs,—Having lately learned that it is pretty generally reported, both in your county and in this, that my present opinion, concerning the slave trade, differs totally from that which I have heretofore given to the public, and that I am no longer an enemy but a friend to that horrid traffic; I entreat you to take an early opportunity to insert in your paper the following lines,[643] written no longer since than this very morning, expressly for the two purposes of doing just honour to the gentleman with whose name they are inscribed, and of vindicating myself from an aspersion so injurious.
I am, &c.
W. Cowper.
The last two lines in the sonnet, addressed to Mr. Wilberforce, were originally thus expressed:—