His sons, disgusted with this persecution of their father, had renounced their native country and gone over to France; and, on the breaking out of the war between this country and the French republic, they emigrated to America. It was this circumstance, joined to the state of insulation in which he lived, that induced Dr. Priestley, after much consideration, to form the resolution of following his sons and emigrating to America. He published his reasons in the preface to a Fast-day Sermon, printed in 1794, one of the gravest and most forcible pieces of composition I have ever read. He left England in April, 1795, and reached New York in June. In America he was received with much respect by persons of all ranks; and was immediately offered the situation of professor of chemistry in the College of Philadelphia; which, however, he declined, as his circumstances, by the liberality of his friends in England, continued independent. He settled, finally, in Northumberland, about 130 miles from Philadelphia, where he built a house, and re-established his library and laboratory, as well as circumstances permitted. Here he published a considerable number of chemical papers, some of them under the form of pamphlets, and the rest in the American Transactions, the New York Medical Repository, and Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. Here, also, he continued keenly engaged in theological pursuits; and published, or republished, a great variety of books on theological subjects. Here he lost his wife and his youngest and favourite son, who, he had flattered himself, was to succeed him in his literary career:--and here he died, in 1804, after having been confined only two days to bed, and but a few hours after having arranged his literary concerns, inspected some proof-sheets of his last theological work, and given instructions to his son how it should be printed. During the latter end of the presidency of Mr. Adams, the same kind of odium which had banished Dr. Priestley from England began to prevail in America. He was threatened with being sent out of the country as an alien. Notwithstanding this, he declined being naturalized; resolving, as he said, to die as he had lived, an Englishman. When his friend Mr. Jefferson, whose political opinions coincided with his own, became president, the odium against him wore off, and he became as much respected as ever.