On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    varied . He continued successively to produce poetical p ieces , and in the vear 1797 wrote a letter , since published , to Washington ., on the subject of negro slavery . If I mistake not , in 1799 he wrote Mary Le More ; the

    outrages daily committed roused his slumbering genius , and induced him to write , not only this , but several other pieces on the same subject ; all of them breathing that spirit which it was at once his pride and boast to cherish .

    But the principal event in the latter years of his life was the recovery of his sight ; an event which tended to make those years much more comfortable than any he had experienced since his youth . In the autumn of 1805 , hearing of the repeated successes of Dr . Gibson , of Manchester ,

    as an oculist , he was induced to obtain his opinion : that opinion was favourable , and after enduring with his accustomed fortitude five dreadful operations ^ in the summer of 1807 he

    was again ushered into that world , from which for more than thirty years lie had been excluded . His feelings on this occasion , which I well remember , are truly recorded in the lines addressed to Gibson on this

    happy event . * For the last few years he has not written much , but those poems he has produced are excellent . The Fire of English Liberty , Jemmy

    Armstrong , and Stanzas addressed to Robert Southey , are all strongly in favour of those principles , which with " fire unabated , ' he preserved to the last moment of his mental existence .

    In January 1811 , after a tedious illness , my mother died * On the 25 th of May , in the same year , my sister Anne died also . For three or four years my father had been in the habit of taking Eau Medicinale for the gout . He again

    took this medicine about three weeks before his death . It is generally believed this was the remote cause of his deat h ; its operation formerly was as a cathartic , but the last time it operated very forcibly as au emetic . So severe was the shock his constitution received , that the morning after

    tak-* Mr . Rushton ' s cure is recorded , Moi \ . Rep . i . 388 , where there are some complimentary Hnes on Mr r from Mr . M'Creer '» Poena , intitled The Pr ««« . M » .

    Untitled Article

    ing the medicine , as I stood by his bedside , I expressed some fears respecting its operation j he rose to convince me of its wonderful effects ; he knew not how weak he really was , for as he attempted to walk , he reeled ,

    and had I not caught him , would most likely have fallen . He however walked down stairs and appeared very cheerful ; he gradually amended , and once or twice walked out alone . A slight complaint in the ear , with which he had been troubled previously to

    taking the Eau Medicinale , now returned , accompanied by a slight discharge . On Saturday evening , the 19 th of November , about nine o ' clock , I left my father in high spirits , to attend my sister hoaie . I returned about eleven ; he was gone to bed . At nine in the

    morning , I passed through his room , and inquired how he was . He had had but a poor night , but he ordered his boots to be cleaned , intending to dine at my sister ' s . Not thinking any thing unusual in his slight complaints ,

    I 'left him , and returned at twelve with a gig , in order to take him to my sister ' s . In the mean time he grew worse , and had twice asked for me . 1 immediately procured medical assistance . When the doctor arrived

    the pulse was lost ; the feet were cold ; and my father was then troubled with a violent vomiting . Prompt measures were resorted to for the purpose of re-animation , and not without success . A profuse perspiration broke out , but in vain , his faculties became more and more clouded , he was insensible to all around him , his

    children he knew not after a very short period , and gradually grew worse until Monday noon , when he opened his . eyes and looked at those around him . He took some little nourishment , and perhaps possessed some

    little consciousness . Towards evening he seemed much better ; at half past two in the morning a suffusion on the brain took place , the right side was paralized , the breathing became heavy and laborious . Medical assistance

    immediately arrived , and arrived but to see him expire , for no assistance could be given . At live o ' clock on Tuesday the 22 d of November , # 8 lW > Edward Rushton died without a struggle , and without pain—leaving behind him a character , pure and immortal as th « principles he professed .

    Untitled Article

    Biographical Sketch of Edward Rushton , written by his Son . 69

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 69, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/5/