“I am very happy to see a copy of your letter to the printer of the _Birmingham Chronicle_, and in return enclose copies of my ‘Address to the Inhabitants of Birmingham,’ and of Mr Russell’s ‘Account of the Proceedings on July 14th.’ Both these have been in the London papers and I have just sent yours to the printer of the _Morning Chronicle_. “I am happy to hear that all is quiet with you now, but when it will be proper for me to come to you I cannot tell. I fear not before the next Lunar Society. Whether I shall ever have it in my power to collect another apparatus for experiments is quite uncertain, as indeed is, in a great measure, my settling again at Birmingham, though there is no place in the world that I should prefer to it. “The extra copies of my last paper for the _Philosophical Transactions_ are printed, and I shall soon send some to Mr Galton to be presented to each of the members of the Lunar Society. “I beg my compliments to them, and as long as I live I shall with much satisfaction think of our many happy meetings.” In a letter to Wedgwood, dated four days later, he sends two copies of his paper, and says:— “I fear I shall not soon be able to furnish materials for another. Indeed, what I shall do, or where I shall settle, is uncertain. I shall, however, continue at Birmingham _if possible_, and resume all my pursuits, in which case I must thank you for a fresh stock of _retorts_, tubes, etc., etc., etc. This invasion of the Goths and Vandals I little foresaw, and hope it will never be repeated, as I fancy the _experiment_ will not be found to answer.” The next letter to Keir, dated July 29, 1791, is interesting as throwing further light upon the causes of the riots:— “I never thought of returning to Birmingham till my friends there should think it safe and, on their accounts, advisable; and this, I now begin to fear, will not be so soon as you intimate. However, I am ready to attend the first summons, and earnestly wish it may be before the next Lunar Society. But your meeting must not depend upon this event. “With this I send each of you a copy of my late, and I fear _last_, paper for the _Philosophical Transactions_. I shall always recollect, with peculiar satisfaction and regret, our many cheerful and improving meetings; and if not a constant, shall indulge the hope of being an occasional, attendant. “You were certainly a better judge than I was of the _spirit of the times_. But even you could not have expected such brutal excesses as have taken place; and yet I am willing to hope much from _time_, from your seasonable letter, and the representations of the more calm and reasonable members of the Church of England, if not from the interposition of Government and the execution of the laws, in which I _wish_ for moderation.