Charles Beckingham

“ But my Intention is not to prove innocent whom the Law has found guilty; but to submit the two distressful Gentlemen, who now lie under Sentence of Death, as Objects of the Royal Mercy. When the Law has found guilty one or more Persons, whom it is consistent with Virtue and Wisdom to save, it is the blessed Privilege of the Sovereign to turn the Course of the Law, and bid the afflicted live. The Reputations of Mr. Savage and Mr. Gregory have been always clear ”

“ Savage's own Expressions in his Address to the Court, when he received his Sentence: I am perswaded that, as mere Men, and out of the Seat of Justice, the Court is susceptible of the tender Passions, and too humane not to commiserate the unhappy Situation of him and his Fellow-sufferer Mr. Gregory; and to distinguish between Offences which arise out of premeditation and a Disposition habituated to Vice or Immorality, and Transgressions which are the unhappy and unforeseen Effects of a casual Absence of Reason, and a sudden Impulse of passion. ”

“ Had the unfortunate Gentleman I am speaking of, been invested with either of his Father's Titles or Estates, I question not but we should have almost lost the Nobleman in the Honours paid to the Poet: But few modern Authors I fear, who launch into the World, unaided by such Advantages, will, like Virgil, when living, have the same Respect paid to them that was due to an Emperor, or like Homer, have Temples rais'd to their Memories when dead.
The first Poem Mr. Savage published, was whilst he was very young, concerning the Bangorian Controversy ”

“ Tho', with humble Submission to the Judgment of those Gentlemen who are such bigotted sticklers for the Ancients, he had something in the Force and Sprightliness of his own Imagination, that more than made amends for the want of it. ”

“ Savage himself, if he had either not been illegitimately begotten, or if that Illegitimacy had been prudently concealed: The being cut off from the certain Inheritance of that great Wealth and Honour, which, nothing, but his Mother's resentful Confession, could have hindered him of, would have given any other Person, when he came to Years of Maturity and Reflection, Sentiments of a quite different Nature from those which he always, with a Generosity of Temper peculiar to himself, expressed when that Affair has been mentioned to him ”

“ Now was he again entirely to seek for every support of Life, when by the Assistance of the Gentleman, just mention'd for his Humanity, he obtain'd the Sum of fifty Pounds as a Present, from a Lady, whose Duty it seem'd to have been to take some Care of him ”

“ Wilks, one of the Patentees of that House; The first was so, for a short Time, but the latter, who is very remarkable, notwithstanding his Profession, for his Humanity and Generosity, has continu'd his Friendship to him to the last, and done him many very kind and charitable Offices: The other Gentleman gave him a constant Allowance, and was for a while so fond of him that, it is said, he proposed his natural Daughter to him, for a Wife, with a Thousand Pounds Portion, and his Interest, which was thought to be very good at that Time, to put him into some small Place in the Government ”

“ Let the Reader now behold a Man of his unspotted Character, and inoffensive Behaviour, till this fatal Action, involv'd all on a sudden in all the wretched Circumstances and Sufferings of the most inhuman Criminals and abandon'd of Profligates, and admire at the decent Fortitude and Serenity of Mind, with which, according to the Report of all who saw him, he supported so shocking and unexpected a Misfortune, as well before as at the Time of his Trial, which was on Thursday the 7th of this Instant December, at the Old Baily ”

“ Richard Savage.
ERHAPS no History in the World, either ancient or modern, can produce an Instance of any one Man's Life fill'd with so many calamitous Circumstances, as That of the unhappy young Gentleman, who is the melancholy Subject of the following Sheets ”