Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/398

 the liturgy were sent to Frederick the Great and to Voltaire, who returned appreciative letters in bad French and good English respectively (ib. p. 24; for Voltaire's letter in full see Cardiff Weekly Mail, ut sup.). Sir Joseph Banks [q. v.] and Daniel Charles Solander [q. v.] ‘now and then peeped into the chapel, and got away as fast as they decently could’ (Memoirs of Holcroft, 1816, iii. 67). Williams's ‘Letter to the Body of Protestant Dissenters,’ 1777, 8vo, is a plea for such breadth of toleration as would legally cover such services as his. All the expenses fell on Williams, who was saved from ruin only by the subscription to his ‘Lectures on the Universal Principles and Duties of Religion and Morality,’ 1779, 2 vols. 4to. These lectures (critical rather than constructive, and not eloquent, though well written) were read at Margaret Street in 1776–7. The experiment is said to have lasted four years, but it is probable that after the second year the services were not held in Margaret Street; they were transferred, on the advice of Robert Melville (1723–1809) [q. v.], to a room in the British coffee-house, Charing Cross, Melville giving a dinner in Brewer Street after service, ‘with excellent Madeira’ (Annual Biography, ut sup. p. 28; Orpheus, ut sup. p. 15, intimates that after leaving Margaret Street there was a lecture, but no worship). The statement by Thomas Somerville [q. v.] that Melville took him, in the period 1779–85, to the service in ‘Portland’ Square (Own Life, 1861, p. 217) is no doubt due to a slip of memory. Somerville's further statement that the ‘dispersion of his flock’ was due to Williams's ‘immorality’ becoming ‘notorious’ seems a groundless slander. No hint of it is conveyed in the satiric lampoon ‘Orpheus, Priest of Nature,’ 1781, 4to, which affirms, on the contrary, that Williams's principles were too strict for his hearers. The appellation ‘Priest of Nature’ is said to have been first given him by Franklin (, p. 12); ‘Orpheus’ ascribes it to ‘a Socratic woollen-draper of Covent Garden.’ Grégoire affirms (Hist. des Sectes Religieuses, 1828, i. 362) that he had it from Williams that a number of his followers passed from deism to atheism.

Williams now supported himself by taking private pupils. After the speech of Sir George Savile [q. v.] on 17 March 1779 in favour of an amendment of the Toleration Act, Williams published a letter on ‘The Nature and Extent of Intellectual Liberty,’ 1779, 8vo, claiming that religious toleration should be without restriction. It was answered by Manasseh Dawes [q. v.] In the same year, and with the same object, he translated and published Voltaire's ‘Treatise on Toleration,’ ‘Ignorant Philosopher,’ and ‘Commentary’ on Beccaria. In 1780 he issued ‘A Plan of Association on Constitutional Principles;’ and on the formation of county associations for parliamentary reform he published his ‘Letters on Political Liberty’ (anon.), 1782, 8vo (translated into French by Brissot, 1873, 8vo). Brissot was then in London conducting the Lyceum. Roland visited London in 1784, when Williams made his acquaintance.

Williams's publications at this period include ‘Letters concerning Education,’ 1785, 8vo; ‘Royal Recollections on a Tour to Cheltenham’ (anon.), 1788, 8vo (twelve editions in the same year; a rather disagreeable satire, reproduced in French, 1823, 8vo); ‘Lectures on Political Principles,’ 1789, 8vo; ‘Lectures on Education,’ 1789, 3 vols. 8vo; ‘Lessons to a Young Prince’ (anon.), 1790, 8vo.

The idea of a ‘literary fund’ to aid ‘distressed talents’ was again suggested by Williams in a club of six persons, formed on the discontinuance of his Sunday lectures (1780), and meeting at the Prince of Wales's coffee-house, Conduit Street. Among its original members, besides Williams, were Captain Thomas Morris [see under ], John Gardnor [q. v.] (vicar of Battersea), and perhaps John Nichols [q. v.] (Annual Biography, ut sup. p. 28; the writer of the article was another). Fruitless applications were made after 1783 to Pitt (who thought the matter very important), Fox, Burke, and Sir Joseph Banks. An advertisement was published (October 1786), ‘with no material effect.’ The death in a debtors' prison (1 April 1787) of Floyer Sydenham [q. v.] led Williams to press the matter. The club, not being unanimous, was dissolved, and another (of eight members) formed. At its first meeting (spring of 1788) the constitution of the Literary Fund, drawn up by Williams, was adopted, each member subscribing a guinea. An advertisement (10 May 1788) invited further subscriptions. The first general meeting to elect officers was held on Tuesday 18 May 1790 at the Prince of Wales's coffee-house. In the course of twelve years 1,738l. was distributed among 105 persons (Account of the Institution, 1795; Claims of Literature, 1802, p. 101). The society was incorporated 19 May 1818; in 1842 it became the Royal Literary Fund. It now possesses an income exceeding 4,000l., half from investments, and half from annual contributions. The institution holds a very high place among the