William Wilberforce, Brighton, to John Ryland, Jr., Bristol, 28 August 1807.

Dear Sir

  Your Letter has found me at this place to which Mrs W. was order’d by medical advice.  We mean to return home, (D.V.), in abt a week or possibly a fortnight.  Till then, I cannot talk ye Matter over (as I should like to do previously to advising you,) with 2 or 3 intelligent friends – I therefore merely acknowledge receipt of your lettter now & hope to reply to it more fully hereafter.  Meanwhile – what a shocking Violation of all Religious Liberty does this Law as it is call’d evince – It might almost claim kindred with that of Darius, into which his courtiers beguil’d him.  May ye same Gracious Being who frustrated that ungodly attempt defeat this also – 

  I am with cordial esteem & regard

  Dear Sir

  yours very truly

  W Wilberforce

Revd Dr Ryland

Text:  Wilberforce-Ryland Letters, shelfmark MS. G97a, Bristol Baptist College Library, fol. 1. A version of this letter can also be found in F. A. Cox, History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, 2 vols. (London: T. Ward & Co., and G. and J. Dyer, 1842), vol. 2, p. 19. A follow up letter by Wilferforce to Ryland concerning the matter proposed by Ryland also appears in Cox (vol. 2, pp. 20-21) (see next letter).