back to the court to receive fentence; on which oc cafion Mr. Savage made, as far as it could be retained in memory, the following speech.

It is now, my Lord, too late to offer any thing by way of defence or vindication; nor can we expect aught from your Lordfhips, in this court, but the fentence which the law requires you, as judges, to pronounce against men of our calamitous condition.-But we are also perfuaded, that as mere men, and out of this feat of rigorous juf• tice, you are fufceptive of the tender paffions, and too humane, not to commiferate the unhappy fi• tuation of thofe, whom the law fometimes perhaps-exacts-from you to pronounce upon.

No

doubt you diftinguish between offences, which arife out of premeditation, and a difpofition habituated to vice or immorality, and tranfgreffions, which are the unhappy and unforeseen effects of cafual abfence of reason, and sudden impulse of paffion: We therefore hope you will contribute all you can to an extenfion of that mercy, which the gentlemen of the jury have been pleafed to fhew Mr. Merchant, who (allowing facts as fworn against us by the evidence) has led us into this our calamity. I hope this will not be construed, as if we meant to reflect upon that gentleman, or remove any thing from us upon him, or that we repine the more at our fate, because he has no par ticipation of it: No, my Lord! for my part, I ⚫ declare nothing could more foften my grief, than to be without any companion in fo great a misfortune.**

Mr. Savage had now no hopes of life, but from' the mercy of the crown, which was very earnestly folicited by his friends, and which, with whatever difficulty the story may obtain belief, was obftructed only by his mother.

C 3

*Mr. Savage's Life.

To

To prejudice the Queen against him she made use of an incident, which was omitted in the order of time, that it might be mentioned together with the purpose which it was made to ferve. Mr. Savage, when he had discovered his birth, had an inceffant defire to speak to his mother, who always avoided him in public, and refused him admiffion into her house. One evening walking, as it was his cuftom, in the street which the inhabited, he saw the door of her houfe by accident open; he entered it, and finding no perfon in the paffage to hinder him, went up ftairs to falute her. She difcovered him before he could enter her chamber, alarmed the family with the most distressful outcries, and when fhe had by her fcreams gathered them about her, ordered them to drive out of the house that villain, who had forced himself in upon her, and endeavoured to murder her. Savage, who had attempted with the most fubmiffive tenderness to soften her rage, hearing her utter fo deteftable an accufation thought it prudent to retire, and, I believe, never attempted afterwards to speak to her.

But fhocked as he was with her falfehood and her cruelty, he imagined that the intended no other use of her lie, than to fet herself free from his embraces and folicitations, and was very far from fuspecting that the would treasure it in her memory, as an inftrument of future wickedness, or that she would - endeavour for this fictitious afsault to deprive him of his life.

But when the Queen was folicited for his pardon, and informed of the fevere treatments which he had fuffered from his judge, fhe answered, that however unjustifiable might be the manner of his trial, or whatever extenuation the action for which he was condemned might admit, fhe could not think that man a proper object of the King's mercy, who had been capable of entering his mother's house in the night, with an intent to murder her.

By whom this atrocious calumny had been tranfmitted to the Queen; whether the that invented had

the

the front to relate it; whether fhe found any one weak enough to credit it, or corrupt enough to concur with her in her hateful defign, I know not, but methods had been taken to perfuade the Queen so ftrongly of the truth of it, that the for a long time refused to hear any of those who petitioned for his life.

Thus had Savage perished by the evidence of a bawd, a ftrumpet, and his mother, had not justice and compaffion produced him an advocate of rank too great to be rejected unheard, and of virtue too eminent to be heard without being believed. His merit and his calamities happened to reach the ear of the Countefs of Hertford, who engaged in his fupport with all the tendernefs that is excited by pity, and all the zeal which is kindled by generofity, and demanded an audience of the Queen, laid before her the whole feries of his mother's cruelty, expofed the improbability of an accufation by which he was charged with an intent to commit a murder, that could produce no advantage, and foon convinced her how little his former conduct could deferve to be mentioned as a reafon for extraordinary feverity.

The interpofition of this Lady was fo fuccefsful, that he was foon after admitted to bail, and on the 9th of March 1728, pleaded the King's pardon.

It is natural to enquire upon what motive his mother could perfecute him in a manner fo outrageous and implacable; for what reafon fhe could employ all the acts of malice, and all the fnares of calumny, to take away the life of her own fon, of a fon who never injured her, who was never fupported by her expence, nor obftructed any profpect of pleasure or advantage; why the fhould endeavour to destroy him by a lie; a lie which could not gain credit, but muft vanifh of itself at the first moment of examination, and of which only this can be faid to make it probable, that it may be observed from her conduct, that the most execrable crimes are fometimes committed without apparent temptation.

C 4.

This

This mother is ftill alive, and may perhaps even yet, though her malice was fo often defeated, enjoy the pleasure of reflecting, that the life which the often endeavoured to destroy, was at least shortened by her maternal offices; that though fhe could not transport her fon to the plantations, bury him in the fhop of a mechanic, or haften the hand of the public executioner, fhe has yet had the fatisfaction of imbittering all his hours, and forcing him into exigencies, that hurried on his death.

It is by no means neceffary to aggravate the enormity of this woman's conduct, by placing it in oppofition to that of the Countefs of Hertford; no one can fail to obferve how much more amiable it is to relieve, than to opprefs, and to rescue innocence from deftruction, than to deftroy without an injury.

Mr. Savage, during his imprisonment, his trial, and the time in which he lay under fentence of death, behaved with great firmnefs and equality of mind, and confirmed by his fortitude the efteem of thofe, who before admired him for his abilities. The peculiar circumftances of his life were made more generally known by a fhort account*, which was then published, and of which several thousands were in a few weeks difperfed over the nation; and the compaffion of mankind operated fo powerfully in his favour, that he was enabled, by frequent prefents, not only to fupport himself, but to affift Mr. Gregory in prifon; and when he was pardoned and releafed, he found the number of his friends not leffened.

The nature of the act for which he had been tried was in itself doubtful; of the evidence which appeared against him, the character of the man was not unexceptionable, that of the women notoriously infamous: fhe whofe teftimony chiefly inflenced the jury to condemn him, afterwards retracted her affertions. He always himself denied that he was drunk, as had been generally reported. Mr. Gre

gory,

* Written by Mr Beckingham and another Gentleman.

gory, who is now Collector of Antigua, is faid to declare him far lefs criminal than he was imagined, even by fome who favoured him: And Page himself afterwards confeffed, that he had treated him with uncommon rigour. When all these particulars are rated together, perhaps the memory of Savage may not be much fullied by his trial.

Some time after he had obtained his liberty, he met in the street the woman that had fworn with fo much malignity against him. She informed him, that she was in distress, and, with a degree of confi dence not eafy attainable, defired him to relieve her. He, inftead of infulting her mifery, and taking pleafure in the calamities of one who had brought his life into danger, reproved her gently for her perjury, and changing the only guinea that he had, divided it equally between her and himself.

This is an action which in some ages would have made a faint, and perhaps in others a hero, and which, without any hyperbolical encomiums, must be allowed to be an inftance of uncommon generofity, an act of complicated virtue; by which he at once relieved the poor, corrected the vicious, and forgave an enemy; by which he at once remitted the ftrongest provocations, and exercifed the most ardent charity.

Compaffion was indeed the diftinguished quality of Savage; he never appeared inclined to take advantage of weakness, to attack the defencelefs, or to prefs upon the falling: whoever was diftreffed was certain at least of his good wifhes; and when he could give no affiftance, to extricate them from miffortunes, he endeavoured to footh them by fympathy and tenderness.

But when his heart was not softened by the fight of mifery, he was fometimes obftinate in his refentment, and did not quickly lose the remembrance of an injury. He always continued to speak with anger of the infolence and partiality of Page, and a fhort time before his death revenged it by a fatire

It