DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0183
LIFE OF LORD CAMELFORD. 159
prompted him also to the most lively efforts of active
benevolence. From the many prisons in the metropolis,
from the various receptacles of human misery, he received
unnumbered petitions ; and no petition ever came in vain.
He was often the dupe of the designing and crafty sup-
pliant, but he was more often the reliever of real sorrow,
and the soother of unmerited woe. Constantly would he
make use of that influence, which rank and fortune gave
him with the government, to interfere in behalf of those
malefactors whose crimes had subjected them to punish-
ment, but in whose cases appeared circumstances of alle-
viation. He was passionately fond of science, and though
his mind, while a young sailor, had been little cultivated,
yet of late years he had acquired a prodigious fund of
information, upon almost every subject connected with
literature. In early life he gloried much in puzzling the
chaplains of the ships in which he served, and to enable
him to gain such triumphs, he had read all the sceptical
books he could procure ; and thus his mind became
involuntarily tainted with infidelity. As his judgment grew
more matured, he discovered of himself the fallacy of his
own reasonings, he became convinced of the importance
of religion, and Christianity was the constant subject of
his reflections, his reading, and conversation.
On the morning after his decease, an inquest was taken
at the White Horse, Kensington, before George Hodgson,
Esq. the coroner for Middlesex, when the jury after view-
ing the body, unanimously returned a verdict of wilful
murder, against some person or persons unknown. A
bill of indictment was consequently preferred against Mr.
Best and the seconds, but it was thrown out by the grand
Jury.
On Sunday, March the 11th, the body of Lord Camel-
ford was opened, when it appeared that the ball had
penetrated
prompted him also to the most lively efforts of active
benevolence. From the many prisons in the metropolis,
from the various receptacles of human misery, he received
unnumbered petitions ; and no petition ever came in vain.
He was often the dupe of the designing and crafty sup-
pliant, but he was more often the reliever of real sorrow,
and the soother of unmerited woe. Constantly would he
make use of that influence, which rank and fortune gave
him with the government, to interfere in behalf of those
malefactors whose crimes had subjected them to punish-
ment, but in whose cases appeared circumstances of alle-
viation. He was passionately fond of science, and though
his mind, while a young sailor, had been little cultivated,
yet of late years he had acquired a prodigious fund of
information, upon almost every subject connected with
literature. In early life he gloried much in puzzling the
chaplains of the ships in which he served, and to enable
him to gain such triumphs, he had read all the sceptical
books he could procure ; and thus his mind became
involuntarily tainted with infidelity. As his judgment grew
more matured, he discovered of himself the fallacy of his
own reasonings, he became convinced of the importance
of religion, and Christianity was the constant subject of
his reflections, his reading, and conversation.
On the morning after his decease, an inquest was taken
at the White Horse, Kensington, before George Hodgson,
Esq. the coroner for Middlesex, when the jury after view-
ing the body, unanimously returned a verdict of wilful
murder, against some person or persons unknown. A
bill of indictment was consequently preferred against Mr.
Best and the seconds, but it was thrown out by the grand
Jury.
On Sunday, March the 11th, the body of Lord Camel-
ford was opened, when it appeared that the ball had
penetrated