in 1800 was on the side of adequate consideration for the Presbyterians in the Anglo-Irish Union. At this period Bruce founded (23 October 1801) the Belfast Literary Society, and his advice was sought by the orthodox leaders of the General Synod of Ulster. In November 1805 there were negotiations for the readmission of his presbytery to the synod without subscription, but in May 1806 the idea was dropped. On the death of Robert Black in 1817, the agency for the regium donum was offered to him, but he put forward the claims of another. He did become involved with the Widows' Fund, founded in 1751 by his great-uncle, William Bruce (1702–1755), and the establishment of a Lancasterian school, with a Protestant but otherwise non-denominational Sunday school. Bruce penned the address presented to George IV at Dublin (1821) in the name of the whole Presbyterian body. In the preface (dated 17 March) to his Sermons on the Study of the Bible (1824) Bruce claimed that his Unitarian views were "making extensive though silent progress through the general synod of Ulster". This was a challenge to the orthodox, and the general synod at Moneymore, on 2 July, agreed to a public contradiction of the assertion. Bruce joined the seceders of 1829 in the formation of the Unitarian Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge (9 April 1831), though he would have preferred as the colourless name "A Tract Society". Last years By 1834 Bruce had retired, and was suffering from a loss of sight, which ended in blindness in November 1836 he moved to Dublin with his daughter Maria, where he died on 27 February 1841. He is buried in St George's Cemetery, on Whitworth Road, Dublin. Works Bruce published: The Christian Soldier, 1803, a sermon. Literary Essays on the Influence of Political Revolutions on the Progress of Religion and Learning; and on the Advantages of Classical Education, Belfast, 1811, 2nd edition 1818 (originally published in the Transactions of the Belfast Literary Society, 1809 and 1811). A Treatise on the Being and Attributes of God; with an Appendix on the Immateriality of the Soul, Belfast, 1818, (begun in 1808, and finished November 1813). Sermons on the Study of the Bible, and on the Doctrines of Christianity, Belfast, 1824, 2nd edition 1826. In the second edition he rated his doctrines as "anti-trinitarian"; in later life he was anxious to have it known that