Welsh Journals

religious life a great service by providing us with this fascinating picture of the Welsh situation as seen from the parsonage house. JOHN SPURR Swansea THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RICHARD PRICE. VOLUME II: MARCH 1778-FEBRUARY 1786. Edited by D. O. Thomas. Duke University Press, University of Wales Press, 1991. Pp. xxvi, 348. £ 29.95. The first volume of the correspondence of Richard Price showed very clearly the shape of his career as a minister, moral and political philosopher, actuary and demographer, and the character of a man who maintained the utmost courtesy and candour in his correspondence but very rarely even close friends glimpse his inner- most feelings and thoughts. In this Price was certainly all of a piece; an introspective man who confined his private thoughts to shorthand diary, he also believed that it was of the very essence of our duties to learn to control our passions and temperaments in order that we can truly govern ourselves. There is remarkable consistency about his thought, so that this volume does not reveal any dramatic new turn in his ideas, but it does confirm his standing in the late eighteenth-century world. He had an international range of correspondents, an immense number of friends at home, and a masterful knowledge of the world of Protestant Dissent. Our perception of his milieu is further enhanced by the fact that these letters are edited with a knowledge and precision which has over the years been indicative of the scholarship of D. 0. Thomas and of his unrivalled understanding of the life and times of Richard Price. At the beginning of this volume. Price had made his reputation, but he was still very much an opposition figure, vilified for his espousal of the cause of the rebellious American colonies and under suspicion for his correspondence with colonial friends. However, as the conflict finally turned sour for the government, Price experienced a remarkable change of fortune. No longer treated as a Jeremiah, he became an adviser of governments. Naturally, the most important period was during the time when his friend and patron, the earl of Shelburne, was in power, but his standing was still considerable after he fell from office. The volume closes with correspondence with the Prime Minister, William Pitt, over the proposal for setting up a Sinking Fund. Pitt sent Price governmental papers for comment and on receiving his observations asked him to call on him at No. 10. It is particularly instructive to see how Price coped with being close to the centre of power and patronage. Naturally, he was importuned by friends to intervene on their behalf, and he was very much aware of the conflicting priorities which this involved. For example, when he solicited Shelburne's assistance for the appointment of the Dissenter, John Hurry, to the post of Distributor of the Stamps at Yarmouth, he argued that this was in the interests of those who were 'honest and independent', but realised that the very use of patronage to procure such an end appeared to contradict that. The answer, he argued, was for the