CHAPTER XVI.
Thus after having been piloted, to the best of the Author's endeavours, through a channel safe enough in his belief, as it exhibits proper marks and authentic bearings, the reader is landed in the pleasant conclusion—that for the realizing £8750 of this moiety in nubilus John Harrison was primarily indebted to a friend in need, who, as the proverbial rhyme has it, was "a friend indeed:"—for it is not often that men experience such beneficial services
much alike, and have such a sameness in so many respects.
If we contemplate this Monarch as a private Gentleman, divested of the cares of state, and of the anxieties of a large family but endowed with an ample fortune, would he not son have found his place and class with the Hanways and the Howards of that period? Men whose enlightened purpose it was essentially to benefit their neighbours, or the community, if they could, in various ways, if they had no specific calls for their attention at home:—for it may be observed of those philanthropists, the Man of Ross, Jonas Hanway, Howard, and Alderman Harrison of Leeds,[subnote 1] that they were either unmarried, or had no progeny, excepting Mr. Howard, whose Son was of weak intellects.
- ↑ John Harrison imagined himself connected by blood with this patriotic character, such being the tradition of the family; but this affinity cannot be traced.
