suffering and injustice, he left his native land "without resentment or ill-will," knowing too well that the time would come when Englishmen would do him justice. He died on 6th February 1804, and lies buried near his new home.
If Priestley could have seen that his friend Lavoisier and Bailly (the astronomer) would be sent to the guillotine, he would have modified his views of the liberty, fraternity, and humanity of the French Revolutionists. Priestley received £2000 to atone for mob violence—the Birmingham revolution of three days; for poor Lavoisier and Bailly the only compensation is the sorrow of all intellectual men and women.
In the end, Priestley's political and theological heterodoxy helped to make England what it is. He was scorned in England, honoured in France, and found peace in America. Posthumous honours have been instituted to his memory. A statue at Birmingham, representing him in the act of decomposing red precipitate, was erected in front of the Town Hall; another at Leeds; a chemical scholarship bearing his name is awarded by the Birmingham University; and a beautiful fresco on the walls of the Birmingham Town Hall represents him entering a coach in order to place himself and family out of reach of the infuriated mob, egged on to do their nefarious work of destruction by political and religious foes.
Some idea may be formed of the vastness of Priestley's
