the letter was from his mother , but it had been franked : a small but valuable sign of his father 's approval , of its having been sent , with replies to his last letter : we are very shocked by the news you send us from africa , which in many respects exceeds that appearing in the papers , and pray for the solace of those christian souls caught in the wrack , but we do not repudiate some sentiment , which the abhorrence of such dreadful violence can not wholly silence , that the wages of sin are not always held in arrears to be paid off on the day of reckoning , but malefactors by god 's will may be held to account even in this earthly life ; lord allendale considers it a judgment upon the failure of the vote .