reading, thinking man, capable of talking upon most ordinary subjects; and he had attained a degree of local popularity as a preacher.

Soon after his marriage, several of his acquaintances emigrated to America. The reports which they sent home were, in general, very flattering, and many individuals and families in and about St. Austell were induced, in consequence, to seek their fortunes in the New World. The political and religious freedom of the Americans had long been an object of Mr. Drew's admiration. His old attachments and prepossessions were now revived, by the letters and invitations of his friends; and he appears to have felt a strong desire to follow the tide of emigration. He was, however, too prudent hastily to exchange a certainty for an uncer-tainty. To act to-day and think to-morrow was not his practice; and, having a business which afforded him a maintenance at home, he resolved, before he abandoned it, to assure himself, by minute inquiries, of the propriety of such a step. To a friend in Alexandria, Virginia, he wrote for information, in the year 1793; but fearing to rely entirely on the opinion of one who had not been long a resident, and who might be induced to exhibit the favourable side of the picture that he might draw his old acquaintances about him, by the same conveyance he addressed a formal letter of inquiry to the official members of the Methodists' society in that place. Their reply was quite as favourable to emigration as the statements of his friend.

Mr. Richard Mabyn, of Camelford, the early and constant friend of Dr. Clarke, felt at this time, like

Mr. Drew, an inclination to exchange Cornwall for the United States. Through his business as a leatherdresser, he had become very intimate with Mr. D., with whom he purposed entering into a partnership in the New World. Mr. Mabyn's apprehension of capture and a French prison, and his consequent reluctance then to embark, led Mr. Drew to defer, but not to abandon, his design. Within two years it was revived, and he came to the resolution of taking not only his family, but his father; and this intention was not entirely abandoned until several years afterwards. Its final relinquishment is intimated by one of his transatlantic correspondents, who says, in a letter, dated in 1802, "I find by your last, that you have given over all thoughts of coming to America, and I do not greatly wonder at it; for a thing of this kind must be done without very much thinking, or not at all."

In conversation with his children, at a later period, when Mr. Drew spoke of being at one time on the verge of taking up his residence in America, and even engaged in making distant preparations for the voyage; he was asked, what induced him, after this, contrary to his usual decision of character, to vacillate. "You may," he replied, call it weakness or superstition; but I have ever regarded it as among those junctures of my life, in which the finger of Providence turned the scale by an almost imperceptible touch. Goldsmith was one of my favourite poets; I had read his beautiful ballad of Edwin and Angelina before, and admired it; but happening,

Q

just at this crisis, to find it in some magazine, I read it again; and these two lines,

"Man wants but little here below,

Nor wants that little long,"

seconded by my wife's disinclination for the adventure, produced such an effect upon my mind as led me to abandon all intention of crossing the Atlantic. To these two lines of Goldsmith, under a providential direction, it is owing, that I and my family are now inhabitants of Great Britain. The thought of going to America did, indeed, occur to me some years afterward, in consequence of local distress and stagnation of business. By this time, however, I had lived longer in the world, and had read and seen enough to convince me that America was no Utopia. There were certainly, according to my views, political imperfections at home; yet imperfection, I was convinced, would attach to every form of government, and I could not but appropriate Cowper's exclamation,

England, with all thy faults, I love thee still!" To this were added other considerations of a personal nature. Though I could not expect to accumulate wealth where I was, I could maintain my family in credit; and a removal to America could not be effected, without exposing my wife and children to the perils of the ocean. I therefore concluded, with Collins, that

The lily peace outshines the silver store,
And life is dearer than the golden ore." "

SECTION XI.

Mr. Drew's first literary compositions— His mode of study — Occasion of his becoming an author

Remarks on Paine's

Age of Reason' published— First acquaintance with the Rev. John Whitaker ·Favourable reception of his Remarks

Elegy on the death of Mr. Patterson.

THE order of time having been anticipated, for the purpose of throwing together those points in Mr. Drew's history which stand in immediate relationship, we shall be enabled to trace, with fewer interruptions, his literary progress.

His first attempts at composition, like those of most young essayists in the paths of literature, were metrical. According to his sister's recollections, the earliest effort of his muse was a poetical epistle to her, and the next, an elegy on the death of his brother. Then followed several short poetical pieces, to one of which he appears to have attached some value, having expressed much regret at losing it. His next attempt was to embody poetical conceptions in language not metrically arranged. This piece was of considerable length, and was entitled by him 'A Morning Excursion.' It recorded in glowing words, as his sister states, the feelings of a mind alive to the beauties of nature, grateful for the bounties of Providence, and imbued with the spirit of piety. None of

the foregoing pieces have been preserved, nor is their date determinable beyond this, that they were written during the time of his residence in St. Austell, and before his marriage.

The earliest production of Mr. Drew's pen that has been preserved is a metrical piece, containing about twelve hundred lines, entitled, Reflections on St. Austell Church Yard,' from which a short quotation was inserted in the third section of our narrative. The MS is dated August 17, 1792, and, from its erasures and emendations, appears to be the original composition. It is written in the heroic stanza, and has many excellent couplets, but, as a whole, is too defective in grammar and versification to endure the test of criticism. From a short preface, which we insert as a curiosity, it is evident that the author once contemplated the publication of this piece, though on further consideration, he judged it inex-pedient.

some pity

and some,

When I consider myself-my subject-my circumstances my situation—and my neighbours, I cannot think this apology unnecessary. When this appears in a public manner, I expect some will despise some ridicule perhaps, applaud me for my undertaking. To please every one is impossible. One objection will be (I expect) continually raised—which is — you had better mind your work. It may not be unnecessary in reply to observe it had but little interference with my labour: nothing to its detriment: but has been chiefly the produce of those evening and leisure