Joseph Hughes, Battersea, to Samuel Pearce, Birmingham, 8 October 1796 [below is not the complete letter].

               . . . The last letter I troubled you with was dated from Bristol, a place which hath witnessed the keen struggles of a perplexed mind, & which from the first seems to have been the furnace to try – rather than the paradise to allure & regale – or natures strength of solicitation determined my removal to Battersea has been more than justified from the moment I saw it to the evening on which I write to give you the pleasing intelligence – 

               Since from the embarrassment indured in my former situation by suspicion & disgust, I breathe the sweet air of liberty, and now that the shackles are annihilated, now that my words are not invidiously watched, I am persuaded that not only am I plain in the opinion of the ignorant, but sound also in the opinion of the most Calvinistic – I offer ye  following outline . . . In the spring [of 1795] I visited Battersea – about a month in the excursion – upon my return offered as before to attend the students – but was prevented by a note from Mr Hughes [deacon at Broadmead] who informed me that Isaac James [a member at Broadmead and local bookseller and son of the Baptist minister, Samuel James] had been appointed to the office in my absence – at the annual meeting [of the Bristol Education Society in late August 1795] no notice was taken of the circumstance, & no mention has been made of a complimentary sum to soften the business – I was paid up to March [1796] & no more . . .”

Text: Samuel Pearce Carey Box, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.