In this way he acted as secretary to a benevolent society
established by the gentry, and such was his enthusiasm that he gave his
services and L200. worth of printing during the first year; and the
Committee in return presented him with a handsome piece of plate with a
complimentary inscription, which he had the modesty to keep locked up, and
never to display even to his visiters. This proved him to be a benevolent
man, and he would have been ten times more useful had not his charitable
disposition been over tinged with oddity and caprice. His contact with
the poor of the parish soon made him overseer, although his religious
observances would not qualify him for churchwarden; for he only went
to church at funerals, to which he was frequently invited, his staid
appearance, and a certain air of gentility of which he was master, being
in such cases no mean recommendation. Overseer and select vestryman, he
printed the parish accounts, for the most part gratuitously, although the
poor and even the better portion of the towns-people never gave him full
credit for this generosity, conceiving that he was repaid by some secret
services or funds. The oddity of his pursuits was only exceeded by their
variety. In politics he was a disciple of Cobbett, and year after year,
foretold a revolution, an alarm which he communicated to every one of his
household. He took extreme interest in all new mechanical projects, but
seldom indulged in the practical part of them.
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