"He was induced, _in conjunction with others_, to solicit the exercise of royal clemency in mitigating the severity of that punishment which the law denounces: and it gladdened the sympathetic feelings of his heart to know that these petitions were not unavailing; but the modesty of his character made him regret the publicity which had been given to this subject."
The fifth edition of the _Essay on Anger, printed for the Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge_, London, no date, has a memoir of the author. The "incident" is said not to have been circulated _in any publication by the family_; but "it was one of the secrets which obtain a wider circulation from the reserve with which one relator invariably retails it to another." That is exactly my view. Secrecy contributes to diffusion, but not to accuracy. At the risk of being thought tedious, I must copy the rest of this statement:
"Soon after the publication of this treatise, _the author took an opportunity of presenting a copy_ to our late much revered sovereign; whose ear was always accessible to merit, however obscure the individual in whom it was found. Contrary to the fate of most publications laid at the feet of royalty, it was diligently perused and admired; and a communication of this approbation was afterwards made known to the author. It happened some time afterwards, a relative of one of his friends was convicted of a capital crime, for which he was left for execution. Application was instantly made for an extension of royal favour in his behalf; and, among others, one was made by Mr. Fawcett: and his majesty, _no doubt recollecting the pleasure he had derived from the perusal of his_ Essay on Anger, _and believing that he would not recommend an improper person to royal favour_, was most graciously pleased to answer the prayer of the petition; but _as to precisely how far the name of Mr. Fawcett might have contributed to this successful application must await the great disclosures of a future judgment._"
The reader will sift this jumble of inferences and facts, and perhaps will not go so far as to have "no doubt."
WHUNSIDE tells me, that about 1807 he employed a bookbinder from Halifax; who, on hearing that he had been a pupil of Mr. Fawcett, said he had seen two copies of the _Essay on Anger_, most beautifully bound, to be sent to the king.