ROSCOE, William (1753-1831) Historian and patron of the arts.
Fine Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent, 2 pages 4to, (lacking address-leaf, mounting strip to second page not affecting the text, contemporary endorsement), Liverpool, 18 October 1817. Written in the year following his bankruptcy and at the time of the founding of the Liverpool Royal Institution. An important statement of his anti-slavery views, mentioning both [William] Wilberforce and [Thomas] Clarkson.

'... For my own part I can truly assure you that nothing cou'd give me more pleasure than to be able to contribute in any degree towards that final & effectual abolition of the Slave-Trade by all nations, which I yet trust may be one day accomplished; & altho' the Essay you have done me the honour to mention applies to a particular juncture of time, when the situation of this Country seemed to me to enable her, by her own efforts, to put an end to that hateful traffick - yet I will take an early opportunity of perusing & reconsidering it, & if I sho'd think it likely to be of any use on the present occasion will transmit it for your judgment in its atlter'd & corrected form, & applying to the more enlighten'd governments of Europe the same arguments for their interposition on behalf of the Africans, as are, in the Treatise applied to the Government of this country only.'

Provenance: from a collection formed by A.M. Broadley in 1903.
[No: 24751]