his Master
at the end of the late War, & has not been out of England since that
time except to Calais with Capt. Cranston as aforesaid.

FRANCIS GROPPTTY

this 3rd Feb., 1752.

Taken upon Oath; before L. Stanhope.

APPENDIX III.

A LETTER FROM A CLERGYMAN TO MISS MARY BLANDY, NOW A PRISONER IN
OXFORD CASTLE; WITH HER ANSWER THERETO. AS ALSO MISS BLANDY'S OWN
NARRATIVE OF THE CRIME FOR WHICH SHE IS CONDEMNED TO DIE.

(No. 3 of Bibliography, Appendix XII.)

(The original copy of this letter, in Miss Blandy's own handwriting,
for the satisfaction of the public, is left with the publisher.)

March 14, 1752.

Reader,--Condemn no person rashly. Thou has already, perhaps, passed
sentence upon this unfortunate. But remember, that God alone knows the
secrets of the heart; and that circumstances spring many times from
motives which it is impossible for man to discover.

The following letter was written to this unhappy lady by a clergyman,[21]
after her receiving sentence of death.

A LETTER TO MISS BLANDY.

March 7, 1752.

Dear Miss,--Had it been at my own option, I never would have chose
to be the least concerned in your unhappy affair; but since divine
providence, without my own seeking, has thought fit to order it
otherwise, I shall, from obligations of compassion and humanity,
offer some things to your serious consideration. Your power of
receiving benefit from my advice, is but of short duration; may God
grant that you may rightly use this. That you believe in God, in the
immortal nature of the soul, in Jesus Christ, and in a future state
of rewards and punishments, I am willing to persuade myself. As to
the unworthy man who has tempted you to your ruin, I have good
grounds to believe him to be an infidel. If he has communicated such
principles to you, to render you more capable of executing his
wicked purposes, your persisting therein will ruin your poor soul
for ever. The moment you enter into that awful state of separation,
you will be eternally convinced of your error. The very devils
believe a God, and tremble.

You will, perhaps, express surprise at my entertaining a doubt of
this nature. What? You that have been so constant at public worship,
that have so frequently participated of the most sacred rite of the
Christian religion, to be thought an infidel? Alas! Miss, externals
are but the husks of piety; they are easy to the hypocrite. The body