In the course of Sunday, a most decided change took place in Davidson’s manner and conduct, and having been induced to abandon his wish of receiving spiritual comfort from the Wesleyan minister, it was suggested, that if he desired it, he should have a regular clergyman of any persuasion he might think fit. On hearing this proposition again repeated to him, the rays of Christianity, burst, as it were, through his dungeon’s gloom, and he immediately requested the spiritual consolation of the Reverend Mr. Cotton. That gentleman visited him immediately, and continued to attend him, and to administer all the consolation in his power to the wretched man, up to the last moment of his life. The unhappy Davidson also begged to be favoured with pen, ink, and paper, as he was anxious to write to Lord Harrowby, towards whom he continued to express the warmest respect. This request was granted, and he wrote a letter of some length, (see p. 410) which he sealed, and which was afterwards given to Mr. Under-Sheriff Turner, to be delivered. On Sunday afternoon, the heart-rending scene of introducing the families of the wretched men to take a last farewell, was gone through. Thistlewood’s interview with his wife and son was truly affecting; and the scenes exhibited in the other cells were of the most agonizing description. The unfortunate children, capable of understanding the situation of their unhappy parents, were convulsed with sorrow. The strongest feelings of commiseration were excited in the minds of those whose painful duty it was to be present. Brunt formed a solitary exception to this remark. His composure on taking leave of his wife was of the most extraordinary description: he expressed himself in the most unmoved manner, and declared that the day of his execution would be to him the happiest of his life. The solemn service of the condemned sermon, usually preached in the chapel at Newgate, to repentant criminals, who are about to expiate their crimes with their blood, was on this occasion, reluctantly dispensed with. The miserable malefactors had so decidedly pronounced themselves Deists, and (with the exception of Davidson, and even he, until Sunday, had fully concurred with them) had evinced in all parts of their conduct so awful a disregard of the precepts of Christianity and disbelief in its divine origin, as to excite an apprehension that their blasphemous principles would manifest themselves in some dreadful act of infidelity during divine service; it was therefore thought more prudent to omit the ceremony altogether, than to subject the administration of our holy religion to public insult by avowed and hardened infidels; and this determination was perfectly agreeable to the miserable beings themselves, who had boasted of being impenetrable to repentance, and determined to end the brief remnant of their days in the same horrid anti-christian principles which they had throughout professed.