Correspondence of Joseph Priestley, scientist, Unitarian minister, and republican theorist. The collection includes 41 letters written to John Vaughan, 1791-1800, 5 letters to other correspondents, and manuscripts and photostats of 68 items in the Municipal Library, Warrington, England, on theological issues, the internal development of the United States, the French Revolution and its aftermath, Unitarianism, science, his publications, and American Philosophical Society.

This volume contains short sketches of prominent American and European scholars, diplomats, and statesmen. "These short memoirs were composed in the heat of the summer of 1862; and the concluding page written on the 15th of August of that year, when I was about one month advanced in my ninety second year; my birthday being July 17th, 1771." Signed Saml. Breck. Persons discussed include Talleyrand Perigord; M. Volney; Rochefoucauld Liancourt; Louis Philippe, King of the French; Joel Barlow; William Bingham; Robert Morris; Alexander Hamilton; General Henry Knox; Doctor Benjamin Rush; Doctor Rush and William Cobbett.