them write little letters to each other alternately in French. and English, and as I soon learned to read the Hamburgh Correspondenten, so I began to teach my son to read the German. But in this the scholar soon became master; and he repaid me in a short time for my poor lessons in the German language, by teaching me to speak it and to write it. He had then advanced so far in the Latin as to have a sort of understanding of the Eneid, and in a few months more would have had no difficulty with any Latin author, had I not judged it preferable, for fear of oppressing his mind with too many studies, to drop that course in order that he might take more full advantage of the opportunity that offered of acquiring the German. And though we were now in Germany, yet you would be much surprised at the difficulties we had to attain this end. During the summer which we spent at Slavshoff, I in vain endeavored to get him put to school, for it was necessary to conform to the rules of these seminaries, and to send him to board there for a certain length of time, with other circumstances, which did not square with my plans. In the house where we lived there was no person but the gardner who spoke German. He was a Hanoverian; all the rest, masters and servants, were French. In the shops and all other places where any little affairs might lead us, they preferred speaking bad French or bad English, to hearing our bad German: and indeed the language of Hamburg and Altona is a most barbarous jargon, called plat Deuch, insomuch that I have been told by those who spoke the true language, that they could not understand this. Thus my son was indebted for all he knew of the polite German, to the Hanoverian (George) until he re turned in the winter to Hamburg, and here the matter was not easily mended. I naturally wished to put him to one of the first schools; but there I found it was forbidden ander fines and penalties, to speak in the German language; and in French or English he needed no instructions. I therefore sent him to a school of less pretensions where he made a very rapid progress. But leaving this subject, let us return to our story. You will recollect, that Mr. Thornton had promised, shortly after my coming to Hamburg, to write to lord Hawkesbury. The summer however passed over without any answer; and I then determined to write myself. The following is a copy of my letter: To the Right Hon. Lord Hawkesbury, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, for the Home Department, London. My Lord, Hamburg, September 3, 1801. My case having been already represented to government, I shall not trouble your lordship with a useless repetition. During eight years I have been separated from my friends and my country, under very extraordinary circumstances. My conduct has defied all reproach. And your lordship is too well informed to be ignorant of that fact. I do not attempt to reconcile your lordship to my avowed conduct and sentiments, prior to my arrestation. My peculiar position in my country, and the point of view in which I saw what passed within my sphere, is so different from any that could ever have presented itself to your lordship, that it is impossible you could make much allowance for my feelings. But I do not } despair that in time your lordship may acknowledge, that I have been too harshly judged. It was much to be wished, that the important act which succeeded to the troubles in Ireland, had closed all her wounds. And yet, though I presume not to dictate, it is for government to judge, whether it might not be good policy to suffer such as love their country and are not disrespected in it, to return in freedom to it. For my part, the frankness I have always used, even where disguise might have been justifiable, is the best guarantee, that had I intentions injurious to government, I should not proceed by asking any favor, it is my duty to suppose all motives of personal vengeance beneath the dignity of his majesty's ministers, in whose hands are affairs of so very different moment. And in that view I have no doubt that the request I am about to make will be complied with, as I have every conviction that it ought. Having formed the design of quitting Europe, where during its present agitations I can call no country mine, it becomes of urgent necessity that I should conduct my family home; the more so, as my son's health has rendered his native air indispensible. I must also ascertain the means of my future subsistence. For under whatever embarrassment my voluntary exile to Portugal might have laid mc, the forceable deportation from thence to France, and the extraordinary penalties enacted against me in my absence must, your lordship can conceive, have considerably augmented them. It is now seven weeks since Mr. Thornton, his majesty's minister resident at Hamburg, had the goodness to charge himself with an application on my behalf to this effect: but he has received no answer, and as the bad season advances, I shall request to know C C "your lordship's determination as early as possible; and that you will have the goodness to transmit to that gentleman your lordship's answer, and the passport or permission which may be necessary for my safety; by which your lordship will confer a very great obligation. My Lord, Your Lordship's Most obedient humble servant, WILLIAM SAMPSON. To this there was no other answer than a letter from Mr. King, the under secretary of state, to Mr. Thornton. All that I could gather was, that my expressions had not been pleasing, and were not marked with sufficient contrition. It does not however require more than this, in any transaction, to shew when there is good intention or good. heart. I had gone as low in humility as I could bring myself to go. Was I an injured man, or was I not? One would suppose that that was the principal question; or if not that, whether it was more wise to drop such unworthy persecutions, or to keep them alive to rankle in the hearts of an aggrieved people. Such would be the counsel of generosity or of wisdom. For if a man be injured, and knows and feels it, you only add to his injuries, by extorting false protestations from him, which must aggravate his feelings or wound his honor. If there be any danger in admitting him to be a citizen of his own country, it is doubled by forcing him to be insincere, and consequently treacherous. It is said by some that governments should never acknowledge any wrong. Is it necessary also that they should never do any right? Finding now that both my friends and I had been mis taken in supposing that any more humane or wiser policy had been adopted, I let the matter rest until the spring of the next year. During this time I had received several advices from my friends, in which it was stated, that all such matters were left to the entire disposal of lord Castlereagh, and that without his concurrence it was impossible to succeed. And I was strongly urged to address myself at once to him; and as all my wrongs had originated in his warrant of arrestation, that he might perhaps have been willing to wipe away the sense of that injury by a well-timed act of justice. It was laying a trap for his generosity, but it was not to be caught. However, he had at least the good manners to answer me. His letter bears date, as you will see, the day on which Mr. Pitt died, (Jan. 24, 1806.) My Lord, To The Right Honorable Lord Viscount Castlereagh. Hamburgh, December 31, 1805. In the beginning of last summer I left Paris to conduct my wife and children to their native country; and in the month of September I made, through the medium of Mr. Thornton, his majesty's minister resi-dent here, a request to my lord Hawkesbury to be permitted to accompany them, in order to arrange my affairs previous to my intended departure for America. It was hoped, as well by my friends as myself, that the government would not have refused an indulgence consistent at |