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gift of 
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STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 



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NEW-YOBKi 
JOHN 8. TAYUJB » C* 1» MASSJlU-STBKET, 



MDCCCXLIl. 



I 









PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 



BY 



CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. 



^rom tjlie 3Lontion SSHCtfon. 



NEW-YORK: 

JOHN 8. TAYLOR k Co. No. 145 NASSAU-STR£ET, 

BRICK CHURCH CHAFEL. 

1842. 



MVR 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. Paf«. 

Childhood.*^ Reasons -— Demgn — Martyrs' Prison » Pal- 
ace Garden — Scenery — Music — Study — Politics — 
A Brother — Protestantism — The Bible — • Judicious 
Plan— A Proverb. 13 

LETTER II. 

Youth. — Private Journals — Romance — The Drama — 
Poetical Taste — Books — A Change — Rural Life — 
Stays -— Tight-lacing— Ruinous Custom — The Coun- 
try -— England — • A Reformer — The Catechism — A 
Delinquent . • ••.... 29 

LETTER III. 

Eablt Days. •— Revolutionism — Political Perils — Public 
Fasts -— National Confession — A Regiment — The 
Test Act — National Pride — Budding of the Church — 
True Conservatism — Gteorge the Third — A New 
Bishop — Idling — Convictions —Anticipating Evil — 
IM^hievouB Errors •— Unreal Estimates — False Views 
— A Parting — Fraternal Love 45 

LETTER IV. flfc. 

Youth. — A Grandmother — Unfashionable Taste — An- - 

tique Prejudices — A Bereavement — Changes — - Trav- 



CONTENTS. 

els — Punctuality — Mountain Waves — Ocean Scen- 
ery — False Confidence — A Storm — Wonders of the 
Deep — Recklessness — An Arab Steed — Equestrian- 
ism — A Fragment — Escapes — Housewifery — Nova 
Scotia—- Indians— Cosmopolitanism— Home. ... 67 

LETTER V. 

ELAND. — Oxford — Irishmen — The Journey — The Ar- 
rival — An Escape — Dublin — St John's Eve — The 
Dance — Paganism — Trials — Levying Distress — 
Convictions — Terrors — Awakened Conscience — God's 
Teaching— Joy and Peace. 89 

LETTER VI. 

LIGI0U8 Progkess. — The Church -~ Socimanism — 
Temptation — Metaphysics — Athanasian Creed — An 
Epoch— My first Tract— A new Friend — Hail Mary — 
Christian Communion •— Dissent — Church of Eng- 
land — Succession^, • 106 

LETTER VII. 

.KENNT.— Vickarsfield — Rockites — ^A new Residence— 
Another Snare •— Compromise — An Apostate — End of 
Controversy — The Snare Broken — Another Attack — 
An Argument— Discussion*— Rebellious Movements — 
Thomas More. 120 

LETTER VIII. 

B WoiiB3NGs OF PoPERT. — The Irish Church — Satanie 
Devices — Col. Lindsay — Alarms — A Dilfficulty — A 
Decision — Sympathy — The Irish — Character — ^Love 
for Ireland — Intelligibility — ^Alarming Incident — Sys- 
tematic Outrage — Noonday Murder. 135 

LETTER IX. 

B Dumb Bot* — ^Peaceable Counsel — ^A Recoil — ^A Pupil— 
'-'Xack's Commencement - Inquiry — A Dilemma — 
' Dawning light — Reasonings — A Sunbeam — A Soul 



COVTBNTS. yil 

Page. 

Bom — A Protester^ldolatry — FaithleBSDete — Out- 
rage — Fearful Bigotry — Concession — Summons — 
Superstition — National Character — Confession — In- 
femal Machinery. 151 

LETTER X. 

EMGLAin).^-The Dumb Boy — Jack's Adventure— -Departure 
from Ireland — Clifton — Hannah More — A Canal Pol- 
itician — Treachery — Afflictions — Jack's Progress — 
Prayer — Mercies — A Soldier — ^A Home — ^False Judg- 
ment — Tranquillity. 173 

LETTER XI. 

Sandhuest. — ^A Proposal— A Snare — An Incident — Pftpal 
Fulmination^- Public Events — The Duke of York — 
Navarino — Prognostications — Jack's Petition — ^Happy 
CautioQ •— Perseverance— Zeal— -Testimonies — ^A Con- 
trast — Erroneous Views — Millennarianism — Second 
Advent 189 

LETTER XII. 

Sefakation. — Prejudices — Home — Forebodings — Dan- 
ger — Trying Scenes — Queries — Awful Contrast — 
Cadets — Retrospections — A Visitation — Want of 
Faith — A Hidden Work — Hope — True Comfort — 
Sjrmpathy — True Feeling 207 

LETTER XIII. 

National Apostact. — A Summary — Our Protest — Down- 
hill Course — A Will and a Way — ^Preparatory Steps- 
Successful Efforts — Our Duties — Mr. M'Neile — Epis- 
copal Defection — No Surrender !•— England Papal- 
ized — An Admonition — Ichabod — Retribution. , . 226 

LETTER XIV. 

Employment. — Sabbath Meetings — Boys — An Event — 
Forgiveness — Prejudices — The Irish Language — St 
Giles — A Project — The Irish Church — Mr. Howels — 



Tiii CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Controversy — Speaking Out -— Judgment and Mercy — 
The Resurrection — Millennarianism. 241 

LETTER XV. 

Darkness and Light. — The Snare — The Tongues — The 
Touchstone — Irving's Heresy — Satanic Devices — 
Persuasions ^- Conflicts — A Termination •— A Sun- 
set — Resignation — The Red Hand — Joy and Peace — 
True Wisdom — Sympathy •— Earnestness — - A Dying 
Protest — Sleeping in Jesus 260 

LETTER XVI. 

A Removal. — An Appeal — Irish schools — Value of a Ro- 
mish Oath — Retribution — Puseyism -~ Opposition. 277 

LETTER XVII. 

Ieeland Revisited. — The Onset — Dr. Hamilton — The 
Massacre — Cruel Desertion — ^The Bishop of London— 
The Archbishop of Tuam — Daniel O'Coimell — Pro- 
gress of Popery — Progress of Protestantism — Church 
Membership — Antinomianism. . • 291 



•■. 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 



LETTER I. 



CHILDHOOD. 



I HAVE given my best consideration to the arguments by 
which you support the demand for a few notices of events 
connected with my personal recollections of the past. That 
which has chiefly influenced me is the consideration, urged 
on what I know to be just and reasonable grounds — that 
when it has pleased God to bring any one before the public 
m the capacity of an author, that person becomes in some 
sense public property ; having abandoned the privacy from 
which no one ought to be forced, but which any body may 
relinquish ; and courted the observation of the world at 
large. Such individuals are talked of during life, and afler 
death become the subject, I may say the prey, of that spirit 
which reigned in Athens of old, and from which no child of 
Adam is wholly free — the desire to hear and to tell some 
new thing. No sooner has the person withdrawn from this 
mortal stage, than the pen of biography is prepared to record, 
and a host of curious expectants are marshalled to receive, 
some fragments at least of private history. I wish I could 

2 



14 REASONS. 

dissent from your remark, that even godliness itself is too 
oflen sought to be made a gain of in such cases. Writers 
who are themselves wholly unenlightened by spiritual knowl- 
edge, and uninfluenced by spiritual feeling, will take up as a 
good speculation, what must to them be a mystery, and 
wrong the subject of /their memorial while they injure the 
cause in which he laboured. Even among those of better 
understanding in the ways of truth, we do not oflen meet 
sound judgment, calm discretion, and refined delicacy, 
combined with affection for the departed, and zeal for the 
gospel. Private journals are sought out, confidential letters 
raked together, and a most unseemly exposure made, alike 
of the dead and the living. 

This I have always seen and lamented : and being aware 
that my turn would probably come to be thus exhibited, I 
have abstained from preserving even the slightest memoranda 
of events, thoughts, or feelings, thfit could be laid hold on 
as a private journal : and I have most distinctly intimated 
to all those friends who possess any letters of mine, that I 
shall regard it as a gross breach of confidence, a dishonour- 
able, base, and mercenary proceeding on th^irpart, if ever 
they permit a sentence addressed by me to them to pass 
into other hands. Indeed, to such an extent have I felt 
this, that for many years past I have kept some friend under 
a solemn pledge that, immediately afler my death, they will 
proclaim my having so guarded my corresppndence, in order, 
if possible, to shame the individuals from a course with 
regard to me which I have never been inveigled into with 
regard to others. Looking on epistolary communications 
as a trust not to be betrayed, I have invariably refused to 
deliver to the biographers of my departed friends any letters 
of theirs that I might possess : — the first application for 
them has always been the signal for committing the whole 
budget to the flames. 

This you know ; and you say that the very precautions I 



DESIGN. 15 

have used will leave my memory more completely at the 
mercy of ill-judging or ill-informed survivers, who, in the 
diaence of more authentic information, may draw on their 
own invention, and do me injustice. This is the plea that ' 
has prevailed with me now : the uncertainty of mortal life, 
with the apprehension that if suddenly removed I shall 
become the heroine of some strange romance, founded 
probably on the facts of a life by no means deficient in 
remarkable incidents, but mixed up with a great deal of 
fiction ; and the consciousness that others may be thereby 
wounded, whom I would not wish to wound — have decided 
me to act upon your suggestion, and to draw out a little 
sketch of such matters as can alone concern the public in 
any way. Into private domestic history no person possessed 
of a particle of delicacy can wish to intrude. It is melan- 
choly to witness the prying spirit that some are but too ready 
to cater to, for filthy lucre's sake ; and grievous to reflecty 
that the boasted immunity which makes the cottage of the 
English peasant, no less than the palace of the English 
noble, a castle, — which so fences his domestic hearth that 
no man may set foot within his door without his consent, or 
proclaim an untruth concerning him without being legally 
isompelled to render compensation, should be withdrawn 
fi-om his grave. I cannot tell you how I have blushed for 
the living, and kindled with resentment on behalf of the 
dead, when contemplating the merciless desecration of what 
may truly be called the sacredness of home, in some bio- 
graphical notices. 

You may therefore expect to find in these sheets a record 
of that mental and spiritual discipline by which it has pleased 
the Lord to prepare me for the very humble, yet not very 
narrow, sphere of literary usefulness, in which it was his 
good purpose to bid me move ; with whatever of outward 
things, passing events, and individual personal adventure, 
as it is called, may be needful to illustrate the progress. 



16 MARTTRS' PRISON. 

Of living contemporaries I shall of course not speak : of the 
dead no farther than as I would myself be spoken of by them, 
had I gone first. Public events I shall freely discuss, and 
hold back nothing that bears on spiritual subjects. Nobody 
shall ever need to be at the trouble of posthumously search- 
ing out and proclaiming my opinions on any topic whatever, 
apart from personalities. I will not withhold, nor disguise, 
nor soflen them down ; and if the charge of egotism be 
brought, let the accusers lay their hands upon their hearts, 
and declare that they would not have sanctioned another in 
performing for me, as a defunct writer, the office which 
nobody can fulfil half so well, because nobody can do it 
half so correctly, as myself. 

To commence the task, in which I earnestly implore the 
Father of all mercies, and Teacher of all truth, to guide me, 
to guard me from misstatement, to preserve me from self- 
seeking, and to overrule it to the glory of His great name, 
I must remind you that my birth-place was Norwich ; a fine 
old town, distinguished for its many antiquities, the beauty 
of its situation on a rising ground, interspersed with a 
profusion of rich gardens, and studded with churches to the 
number of thirty- five, including a majestic cathedral. Many 
years have elapsed since I last beheld it, and perhaps the 
march of modern improvement has so changed its features, 
that were I now to dwell upon my recollections of that 
cherished home, they would not be recognised. But I 
cannot forget the early impressions produced on my mind 
by the peculiarities of the place ; nor must they be omitted 
here. The sphere in which it is my dearest privilege to 
labour is the cause of Protestantism ; and sometimes, when 
God has blessed my poor efforts to the deliverance of some 
captive out of the chains of Popish delusion, I have recalled 
the fact of being born just opposite the dark old gateway of 
that strong building where the glorioas martyrs of Mary's 
day were imprisoned. I have recollected that the house 
wherein I drew my first breath was visible through the grated 



PALACE GARDEN. 17 

window of their prison, and a conspicuous object when its 
gates unfolded to deliver them to unjust judgment and a 
cruel death. Are any of the prayers of those glori6ed saints 
fulfilled in the poor child who was brought into the <vorld on 
that particular spot, though at the distance of some ages? 
The query could not be answered, but the thought has 
frequently cheered me on. The stern-looking gateway, 
opening on St. Martin's Plain, was probably one of the very 
first objects traced on the retina of my infant eye, when it 
ranged beyond the inner walls of the nursery : and often, 
with torturing step, I passed beneath that arch into the 
splendid garden of our noble episcopal palace; and certainlyf 
if my Protestantism may not be traced to that locality, my 
taste may; for from all the elaborate display of mgdern 
architecture, all the profuse luxuriance and endless variety 
of modern horticulture, I now turn away, to feast in thought 
on the recollection of that venerable scene. The palace 
itself is a fine specimen of the chaste old £nglish style ; but 
the most conspicuous, the most unforgetable feature was the 
cathedral itself, which formed the boundary of one-half of 
the garden : a mass of sober magnificence, rising in calm 
repose against the sky, which, to my awe-struck gaze and 
childish imagination, seemed to rest upon its exquisitely- 
formed spire. Seated on the grass, busying my fingers with 
the daisies that were permitted to spring around, I have been 
lost in such imaginings as I suppose not many little children 
indulge in, while permitting my eyes to rove over the seem- 
ingly interminable mass of old gray stone, and then to fall 
upon the pleasant flowers around me. I loved silence, for 
nothing that fell on the ear seemed in accordance with what 
so charmed the eye : and thus a positive evil found entrance 
in the midst of much enjoyment. I acquired that habit of 
dreamy excursiveness into imaginary scenes, and among 
unreal personages, «hich is alike inimical to rational pursuits, 
and opposed to spiritual-mindedness. To a period so early 

2* 



18 SCENERY. 

as the middle of my fourth year I can revert with the most 
perfect, most vivid recollection of my habitual thoughts and 
feelings ; and at that age, I can unhesitatingly declare, my 
mind was deeply tinctured with a romance not derived from 
books, nor from ccmversation, but arising, as I verily believe, 
out of the singular adaptation to each other of my natural 
taste and the scenery amidst which it began to develope 
itself. Our abode was changed to another part of the city 
before this period arrived ; but the bishop's garden was still 
our haunt, and my supreme delight. 

An immense orchard, shrubbery, and flower-garden, were 
attached to my father's new residence, to which he had 
removed on account of its proximity to the church of which 
he j|as rector. This, too, was an old-fashioned house, 
mamled with a vine, and straggling out, in irregular buildings, 
along the slope of the garden. The centre of an immense 
grass-plat, studded with apple, pear, and plum-trees, was 
occupied by the most gigantic mulberry I ever beheld, the 
thick trunk of which resembled that of a knotted oak, while 
in its forest of dark branches nestled a number of owls and 
bats. Oh, how I loved to lurk beneath its shadow on a 
summer evening, and await the twilight gloom, that the large 
owl might come forth and wheel around the tree, and call 
out his companions with a nr>elancholy hoot ; while the 
smaller bat, dipping lower in his flight, brushed by me, 
accustomed to my presence. I bad entered betimes upon 
the pernicious study oP nursery ta^s, as they then were, and 
without having the smallest actual t>elief in the existence of 
fairies, goblins, or any such things,! took unutterable delight 
in surrounding myself with hosts of them, decked out iiy 
colours of my own supplying, gorgeous or terrible beyond 
the conception of my classic authorities. The faculty of 
reali^ng whatever I pictured to myself was astonishingly 
great ; and you must admit that the localities in which I was 
placed were but too favourable to the formation of a char- 



MUSIC. 19 

acter, which I have do doubt the enemy was secretly con- 
structing within me, to mislead, by wild, unholy fiction, such 
as should come within the range of its influence. To God 
be all the glory that I am not now pandering with this pen 
to the most grovelling or the most impious of man's perverted 
feelings ! 

But above all other tastes, all other cravings, one passion 
reigned supreme, and that acme of enjoyment to me was 
music. This also was met by indulgence as unlimited as 
its cravings ; for not only did my father possess one of the 
finest voices in the world, and the very highest degree of 
scientific knowledge, ^^ste, and skill in the management of 
it, but our house was seldom without an inmate in the person 
of his most intimate friend and brother clergyman, a sc^ of 
the celebrated comppeer, Mr. Linley, who was as highly 
gifted in instrumental as my father was in vocal music. The 
rich tones of his old harpsichord seem at this moment to fill 
my ear and swell my heart ; while my father's deep, clear, 
mellow voice, breaks in, with some noble recitative or elab- 
orate air of Handel, Haydn^ &nd the rest of a school that 
may be superseded, but never, never can be equalled by 
modern composers. Or the harpsichord was relinquished 
to another hand, and the breath of our friend came forth 
through the reed of his hautboy in strains of such overpow- 
ering melody, that I have hid my face on my mother's lap to 
weep the feelings that absolutely wrung my little heart with 
excess of enjoyment. This was not a snare : or, if it might 
have been made one, the Lord broke it in time, by taking 
away my hearing. I would not that it had been otherwise, 
for while a vain imagination was fostered by the habit £ have 
before adverted to, this taste for music, and its high gratifi- 
cation, most certainly elevated the mind. I do firmly believe 
that it is a gifl from God to man, to be prized, cherished, 
cultivated. I believe that the man whose bosom yields no 
response to the concord of sweet sounds, falls short of the 



20 STUDY. 

standard to which man should aspire as an iotellectual being ; 
and though Satan does fearfully pervert this solace of the 
mind to most vile purposes, still I heartily agree with Martin 
Luther, that, in the abstract, 'the devil bates music' 

Before I had completed my sixth year, I came under the 
rod of discipline which was to fall so long and so persever- 
ingly upon me ere I should ** hear the rod and who had 
appointed it." Enthusiastic in every thing, and already 
passionately fond of reading, I had eagerly accepted the offer 
of a dear uncle, a young physician, to teach me French. 
I loved him ; for he was gentle and kind, and very fond of 
me ; and it was a great happiness to trip through the long 
winding street that separated us, to turn down by the old 
Bridewell, so celebrated as an architectural curiosity, being 
built of dark flint stones, exquisitely chiselled into the form 
of bricks, and which even then I could greatly admire, and 
to take my seat on my young uncle's knee, in the large hall 
of his house, where stood a very large and deep-toned organ* 
some sublime strain from which was to reward my diligence, 
if I repeated accurately the lesson he had appointed. Thus 
between love for my uncle, delight in his organ, and a nat- 
ural inclination to acquire learning, I was stimulated to 
extraordinary efforts, and met the demand on my energies 
in a very unsafe way. I placed my French book under my 
pillow every night, and starting from repose at the earliest 
break of dawn, strained my sleepy eyes over the page, until, 
very suddenly, I became totally blind. 

This was a grievous blow to my tender parents : the 
eclipse was so complete that I could not tell whether it was 
midnight or midnoon, so far as perception of Hght was con- 
cerned, and the case, seemed hopeless. It was, however, 
among the " all things " that God causes to work together 
for good, while Satan eagerly seeks to use them for evil. It 
checked my inordinate desire for mere acquirements, which 
I believe to be a bad tendency, particularly in a female. 



POLITICS. 21 

while it threw me more upon my own resources, such as 
they were, and gave me a keen relish for the highly intellec- 
tual conversation that always prevailed in our home. My 
father delighted in the society of literary men : and he was 
himself of a turn so argumentative, so overflowing with rich 
conversation, so decided in his political views, so alive to 
passing events, so devotedly and so proudly the Englishman, 
that with such associates as he gathered about him at his 
own fireside, I don't see how the little blind girl, whose face 
was ever turned up towards the unseen speaker, and whose 
mind opened to every passing remark, could avoid becoming 
a thinker, a reasoner, a tory, and a patriot. Sometimes a 
tough disputant crossed our threshold ; one of these was Dr. 
Parr, and brilliant were the flashes resulting from such occa- 
sional collision with antagonists of that calibre. I am oflen 
charged with the offence of being too political in my writings: 
the fact is, I write as I think and feel ; and what else can 
you expect from a child reared in such a nursery ? 

But another consequence of this temporary visitation was 
an increased passion for music. The severe remedies used 
for my blindness frequently laid me on the sofa for days 
together, and then my fond father would bring home with 
him, afler the aflernoon service of the cathedral, of which 
he was also a canon, a party of the young choristers. My 
godfather would seat himself at the harpsichord ; the boys, 
led by my father, perform the vocal parts ; and such feasts of 
sacred music were served up to me, that I have breathed to 
my brother in an ecstatic whisper the confesssiooy * I don't 
want to see ; I like music better than seeing.' 

That brother I have not before named : but that only 
brother was a second self. Not that he resembled me in 
any respect, for he was beautiful to a prodigy, and I an 
ordinary child ; he was wholly free from any predilection for 
learning, being mirthful and volatile in the highest degree ; 
and though he listened when I read to him the mysterious 



22 ABROTHER. 

marvels of my favourite nursery books, I doubt whether he 
ever bestowed an afler- thought on any thing therein con- 
tained. The brightest, the sweetest, the most sparkling 
creature that ever lived, he was all joy, all love, I do not 
remember to have seen him for one moment out of temper 
or out of spirits for the first sixteen years of his Hfe ; and he 
was to me what the natural sun is to the system. We were 
never separated ; our studies, our plays, our walks, our plans, 
our hearts were always one. That holy band which the 
Lord has woven, that inestimable blessing of fraternal love 
and confidence, was never broken, never loosened between 
us, from the cradle to his grave ; and God forbid that I 
should say or think that the grave has broken it ! If I have 
not from the outset included that precious brother in my 
sketch, it was because I should almost as soon have deemed 
it necessary to include by name my own head or my own 
heart. He too was musical, and sang sweetly, and I cannot 
look back on my childhood without confessing that its cup ran 
over with the profusion of delights that my God poured into it. 
About this time, when my sight, after a few months' pri- 
vation, was fully restored, I first imbibed the strength of 
Protestantism as deeply as it can be imbibed apart from 
spiritual understanding. Norwich was infamously conspic- 
uous in persecuting unto death the saints of the Most High, 
under the sanguinary despotism of Popish Mary ; and the 
spot where they suffered, called the Lollard's Pit, lies just 
outside the town, over Bishop's bridge, having a circular 
excavation against the side of Moushold-hill. This, at 
least to within a year or two ago, was kept distinct, an open- 
ing by the road-side. My father often took us to walk in 
that direction, and pointed out the pit, and told us that there 
Mary burnt good people alive for refusing to worship wooden 
images. I was horror-stricken, and asked many questions, 
to which he did not always reply so fully as I wished ; and 
one day, having to go out while I was inquiring, he said, ' I 



PROTESTANTISM. 23 

don't think you can read a word of this book, but you may 
look at the pictures : it is. all about the martyrs.' So saying, 
he placed on a chair the old folio of Foxe's Acts and Monu- 
ments, in venerable black letter, and lef^ me to examine it. 
Hours passed, and still found me bending over, or rather 
leaning against that magic book. I could not, it is true* 
decypher the black letter ; but I found some examinations 
in Roman type, and devoured them ; while every wood-cut 
was examined with aching eyes and a palpitating heart. 
Assuredly I took in more of the spirit of John Foxe, even 
by that imperfect mode of acquaintance, than many do by 
reading his book through ; and when my father next found 
me at what became my darling study, I looked up at him with 
burning cheeks and asked, ^ Papa, may I be a martyr 1 ' 

* What do you mean, child ? ' 

* I mean, papa, may I be burned to death for my religion, 
as these were ? I want to be a martyr.' 

He smiled, and made me this answer, which I have never 
forgotten, 'Why, Charlotte, if the government ever gives 
power to the Papists again, as they talk of doing, you may 
probably live to be a martyr.' 

I remember the stern pleasure that this reply afforded me ; 
of spiritual knowledge not the least glimmer had ever reached 
me in any form, yet I knew the Bible most intimately, and 
loved it with all my heart, as the most sacred, the most 
beautiful of earthly things. Already had its sublimity 
caught my admiration ; and when listening to the lofty lan- 
guage of Isaiah, as read from his stall in the cathedral by 
my father in Advent, and the early Sundays of the year, 
while his magnificent voice sent the prophetic denunciations 
pealing through those vaulted aisles, I had received into my 
mind, and I think into my heart, that scorn of idolatry which 
breathes so thrillingly in his inspired page. This I know, 
that at six years old the foundation of a truly scriptural pro- 
test was laid in my character ; and to this hour it' is my 



24 THEBIBLE. 

prayer that whenever the Lord calls me hence, or whenever 
the Lord himself comes to earth, he may find his servant 
not only watching, but working against the diabolical iniquity 
that filled the Lollard's Pit with the ashes of his saints. 

And now upon that all-important topic, the Bible* I would 
remark, that among the most invaluable blessings of my life 
I remember the judicious conduct of my parents in regard 
to it. We generally find that precious volume made a book 
of tasks ; sometimes even a book of penalties : the conse- 
quence of so doing cannot but be evil. With us it was 
emphatically a reward book. That identical book is now 
before me, in its rich red cover, elegantly emblazoned with 
the royal arms ; for it is the very Bible that was placed 
before Queen Charlotte at her coronation in 1761 ; and 
which, becoming the perquisite of a Prebendary of West- 
minster, was by his wife presented to my mother to whom 
she stood sponser. This royal Bible was highly prized ; 
and it was with special favour that it was opened for us when 
we had been good, and were deemed worthy of some mark 
of approval. My father then, whose voice made music of 
every thing, would read to us the history of Abel, of Noah, 
Moses, Gideon, or some other of the exquisite narratives of 
the Old Testament. I do not say that they were made the 
medium of conveying spiritual instruction ; they were unac- 
companied by note or comment, written or oral, and merely 
read as histories, the fact being carefully impressed on our 
minds that God was the author, and that it would be highly 
criminal to doubt the truth of any word in that book ; but 
I do assert that such a mode of bringing a child acquainted 
with the Scriptures is infinitely preferable to setting him tasks 
to learn out of it, or even of encumbering with human expla- 
nations what God has made so very plain, so very attractive. 
The consequences of this early instruction, imparted as an 
indulgence, I have reasons daily to rejoice in : it led me to 
search for myself the inspired pages : it taught me to expect 



JUDICIOUS PLAN. 26 

beauties, and excelleDcies, and high intellectual gratification, 
where Ood has indeed caused them to abound. As in the 
natural world we find the nutritious firuit not lying like peb- 
bles on the ground, but hung on gracefiil trees and shrubs, 
heralded by fair and firagrant blossoms, embowered in ver- 
dant foliage, and itself beautifully shaped and tinted, so has 
the Lord arranged that the garden where grows the fruits of 
the tree of life, should abound in all that is most lovely to 
man's natural perception ; and do we not slight this bountO" 
ous care for our mind's enjoyment while he makes provision 
for our soul's sustenance, when we neglect to point these 
things out to the notice of our children? The Word was 
my delight many a year before it became my counsellor ; 
and when at last the veil was withdrawn from my heart, and 
Jesus stood revealed as the Alpha and Omega of that blessed 
book, it was not like gradually furnishing a vacant place with 
valuable goods, but like letting a flood of day into one already 
most richly stored with all that was precious ; though, for 
lack of light whereby to discern their real nature, the gems 
had been regarded but as common things. My memory 
was plentifully stored with what it had been my free choice 
to study : and when in the progress of this little narrative 
you learn how mercifully I have been preserved from doc- 
trinal error in its various forms, through that full acquain- 
tance with God's word ; you will trace his marvellous work- 
ings in thus furnishing my mind, as it were, with an armoury 
of ready weapons ; and will be ready to echo with increased 
earnestness that emphatic declaration, *• The Bible, the Bible 
alone, is the religion of Protestants ; ' and not only to echo, 
but also to act upon it. 

Religion, however, did at this early period of my life, 
become a very important concern in my eyes : our mother 
had taken infinite pains to assure us of one great truth — the 
omniscience of an Omnipresent God — and this I never 
could for a moment shake off. It influenced us both in a 

3 



26 ▲ LIE. 

powerful mannert so that if either committed a fault, we 
never rested until, through mutual exhortation on the ground 
that God certainly knew it, and would be angry if we added 
deceit to another error, we had encouraged each other to 
confession. We then went, hand in hand, to our mother, 
and the one who stood clear of the offence acknowledged it 
in the name of the transgressor, while both asked pardon. 
Never did children more abhor a lie ; we spurned at its 
meanness, while trembling at its guilt ; and nothing bound 
us more closely and exclusively together than the discover- 
ies we were always making of a laxity among other children 
in this respect. On such occasions we would shrink into a 
corner by ourselves, and whisper, * Do they think God does 
not hear that? ' Self- righteousness, no doubt, existed in a 
high degree: we were baby Pharisees, rejoicing in the 
external cleanliness of cup and pltTttet^^jjiyi, I look back 
with great thankfulness on the mercy that so far instructed 
us ; an habitual regard to truth has carried me safely through 
many a trial, and, as a means, guarded me from many a 
snare. It cannot be too early or too strongly inculcated ; 
nor should any effort be considered too great, any difficulty 
as too discouraging, any reprobation as too strong, or, I will 
add, any punishment too severe, when the object in view is 
to overcome this infamous vice in a child. Once I remem- 
ber having been led into a lie, at the instigation, and through 
the contrivance of a servant girl, for whose benefit it was 
told. Suspicion instantly arose, from my dreadful embar- 
rassment of manner ; a strict investigation commenced ; the 
girl told me to face it out, for that nobody else knew of it, 
and she would not flinch. But my terrors of conscience 
were insupportable ; I could ill bear my father's steady eye 
fixed on mine, still less the anxious, wondering, incredulous 
expression of my brother's innocent face, who could not for 
a moment fancy me guilty. I confessed at once ; and with 
a heavy sigh my father sent to borrow from a neighbour an 



PUNISHMENT. 27 

inatrumeat of chastisement never before needed in his own 
house. He took me to another room, and said, * Child, it 
will pain me more to punish you thus, than any blows I can 
inflict will pain you ; but I must do it ; you have told a lie ; 
a dreculful sin, and a base, mean, cowardly action. If I let 
you grow up a liar you will reproach me for it one day ; If 
I now spared the rod I should hate the child.' I took the 
punishment in a most extraordinary spirit ; I wished every 
stroke had been a stab ; I wept because the pain was not 
great enough ; and I loved my father at that moment better 
than even I, who almost idolized him, had ever loved him 
before. I thanked him, and I thank him still ; for I never 
transgressed in that way again. The servant was called, 
received her wages, and a most awful lecture, and was dis- 
charged the same hour. Yet, of all these things what sank 
deepest into my very soul were the sobs and cries of my fond 
little brother, and the lamentable tones of his soil voice* 
pleading through the closed door, * Oh, Papa, don't whip 
Charlotte ! Oh, forgive poor Charlotte ! ' 

It is sweet to know we have a Brother indeed who always 
pleads, and never pleads in vain for the offending child ; a 
Father whose chastisements are not withheld, but adminis- 
tered in tender love ; judgment being his strange work, and 
mercy that wherein he delights, and the peaceable fruits of 
righteousness the end of his corrections. The event to 
which I have referred may appear too trivial a thing to 
record ; but it is by neglecting trivial things that we ruin 
ourselves and our children. The usual mode of training 
these immortal beings, the plan of leaving them to servants 
and to themselves, the blind indulgence that passes by, with 
a slight repremand only, a wilful offence, and the mischiev- 
ous misapplication of doctrine, that induces some to let 
nature do her worst, because nothing but grace can effectu- 
ally suppress her evil workings ; all these are faulty in the 
extreme, and no less presumptuous than foolish : this has 



S8 A PROVE RB. 

produced that * spirit of the age ' which, operatiog in a 
* pressure from without ' is daily forcing us farther from the 
good old paths in which we ought to walk, and in which our 
forefathers did walk, when they gave better heed than we do 
to the inspired word which tells us, " Foolishness is bound 
up in the heart of a child ; but the rod of correction shall 
drive it far from him." 

Affectionately yours, 

C. E. 



PRIVATE JOURNALS. 2d 



LETTER II. 



YOUTH. 

I HAVK long been persuaded that there is no such thing as an 
honest private journal, even whiere the entries are punctually 
made under present impressions. There is so much of pos- 
itive, active evil always at work in the mind, that to give a 
fair transcript of idle unprofitable thoughts and corrupt imag- 
inings is out of the question : evil is dealt with in generalsi 
good in particulars, and the balance cannot be fairly struck. 
Those confessions of indwelling sin that remorse will wring 
from us, and which, perhaps, are penned at the moment in 
perfect sincerity, being unaccompanied with the specifica- 
tions that would invest them in their naturally hideous col- 
ours, beneath the searching light of God's holy and spiritual 
law, wear the lovely garb of unfeigned humility. The read- 
er, coming to such self-condemnatory clauses, is struck with 
admiration at the saintly writer's marvellous self-abasement, 
only lamenting that he should, in the excess of his lowly- 
mindedness, have written such bitter things against himselfy 
at a time when he was grieving, resisting, almost quenching 
the Holy Spirit within, by obstinate transgression. 

And if the present, how much more is the past, liable to 
be glossed over ! To be faithful here is next to impossible* 
for Satan helps us to deceive ourselves, and instructs us to 

3* 



30 ROMANCE. 

carry out the deceptioo to others. Thk consideration might 
well cause the pen of auto-hiography to drop from a chris- 
tian's hand, did not an earnest desire to glorify God in his 
merciful dealings, together with the consciousness that to 
no other could the task be safely delegated, act as a coun- 
terprise to the discouragement. I do desire to magnify the 
ei^ceeding riches of God's grace to me, if I may do so with- 
out increasing the charge of arrogant assumption. I know 
that among the diversity of gifls which he bestowed on his 
creatures, he granted me a portion of mental^energy, a quick- 
ness of perception, a liveliness of imagination, an aptitude 
for expressing the thoughts that were perpetually revolving 
in my mind, such as to fit me for literary occupation. I 
know that Satan, to whom such instruments are exceeding- 
ly valuable, marked me as one who would, if properly train- 
ed to it, do his work effectually within his own sphere ; and 
I am not more sure of my present existence than I am of the 
fact that he strove to secure me for that purpose from the 
first expanding of those faculties which evidently lie exposed 
to his observation, and open to his attacks, or as far as God 
permits him to work. Can I feel all this, and not bless the 
Lord who so far baffled these designs, and deigned to appoint 
my field of labour within the sacred confines of his own vine- 
yard 1 

The visitation of which I have spoken had a powerful 
influence on my afler-life : it rendered the preservation of 
my newly-restored sight an object of paramount importance, 
to which the regular routine of education must needs be 
sacrificed. A boarding school had never been thought of 
fpr me ; my parents loved their children too well to medi- 
tate their expulsion from the paternal roof; and the children 
so well loved their parents and each other that such a separ- 
ation would have been insupportable to them. Masters we 
bad in the necessary branches of education, and we studied 
together so far as I was permitted to study ; but before it 



£.. 



THBDRAMA. 31 

was deemed safe to exercise my eyes with writing apparatus, 
I had stealthily possessed myself of a patent copy-book, by 
means of which, tracing the characters as they shone through 
the paper, I was able to write with tolerable freedom before any 
one knew that I could join two letters; and I well remember 
my father's surprise, not unmixed with annoyance, when he 
accidentally took up a letter which I had been writing to a 
distant relation, giving a circumstantial account of some 
domestic calamity which had no existence but in my brain ; 
related with so much pathos too, that my tears had fallen 
over the slate whereon this my first literary attempt was 
very neatly traced. He could not forbear laughing ; but 
ended with a grave shake of the head, and a remark to the 
effect that I was making more haste than good speed. 

At this time, seven years of age, I became entangled in 
a net of dangerous fascination. One evening my brother 
was taken to the theatre, while I, on account of a cold, had 
to stay at home. To compensate for this, I was permitted 
to read the play to him ; and that play was * The Merchant 
of Venice.' I will not dwell upon the effect : I had already 
become fond of such theatrical spectacles as were considered 
suitable for children — pantomime and broad farce — and 
like a child I gazed upon the glitter, and enjoyed the bustle ; 
but now, seated in a corner, all quiet about me, and nothing 
to interfere with the mental world, I drank a cup of intoxi- 
cation under which my brain reeled for many a year. The 
character of Shylock burst upon me, even as Shakspeare 
had conceived it. I revelled in the terrible excitement that 
it gave rise to ; page after page was stereotyped upon a most 
retentive memory, without an effort, and during a sleepless 
night I feasted on the pernicious sweets thus hoarded in my 
braiiu 

Pernicious indeed they were, for from that hour my dili* 
gence in study, my docility of conduct, every thing that is 
usually regarded as praiseworthy in a child sprung from a 



32 POETICAL TASTE. 

new motive. I wanted to earn a reward, and that was no 
longer a sweet story from the Bible, but permission to carry 
into my retreat a volume of Shakspeare. A taste so unusual 
at my age was hailed with applause ; visiters questioned me 
on the different plays, to ascertain my intimate acquaintance 
with the characters ; but no one, not even my father, could 
persuade me to recite a line, or to listen when another 
attempted it, or to witness the representation of any play of 
Shakspeare. This I mention to prove what a powerful 
hold the enemy of all godliness must have expected to take 
on a spirit so attuned to romance. Reality became insipid, 
almost hateful to me ; conversation, except that of the liter- 
ary men, to whom I have alluded, a burden : I imbibed a 
thorough contempt for women, children, and household 
affairs, entrenching myself behind invisible barriers that few, 
very few, could pass. Oh, how many wasted hours, how 
much of unprofitable labour, what wrong to my fellow-crea- 
tures, what robbery of God, must I refer to this ensnaring 
book ! My mind became unnerved, my judgment perverted, 
my estimate of people and things wholly falsified, and my 
aoul wrapped in the vain solace of unsubstantial enjoyments 
during years of after sorrow, when but for this I might have 
^arly sought the consolations of the gospel. Parents know 
not what they do, when from vanity, thoughtlessness, or 
over-indulgence, they foster in a young girl what is called a 
poetical taste. Those things highly esteemed among men, 
are held in abomination with God ; they thrust Him from his 
creatures' thoughts, and enshrine a host of polluting idols in 
his place. 

My father, I am sure, wished to check the evil which, as 
a sensible man, he could not but foresee ; my state of health, 
however, won a larger portion of indulgence than was good 
for me. The doctors, into whose hands I had fallen, were 
of the school now happily very much exploded ; they had 
one penacea for almost every ill, and that was the perilous 



BOOKS. 33 

drug, mercury. With it they rather fed than phy siced me ; 
and its deleterious effects on the nervous system were doubly 
injurious to me, as increasing ten fold the excitability that 
required every curb. Among all the marvels of my life the 
greatest is that of my having grown up to be one of the 
healthiest of human beings, and with an inexhaustible flow 
of even mirthful spirits, for certainly I was long kept hover- 
ing on the verge of the grave by the barbarous excess to 
which medical experiments were carried ; and I never 
entertained a doubt that the total loss of my hearing, before 
I was ten years old, was owing to a paralysis induced by 
such severe treatment. God, however, had his own pur- 
poses to work out, which neither Satan nor man could 
hinder. He overruled all for the furtherance of his own 
gracious designs. 

Shut out by this last dispensation from my two delightful 
resources, music and conversation, I took refuge in books 
with tenfold avidity. By this time I had added the British 
poets generally to my original stock, together with such 
reading as is usually prescribed for young ladies ; and I 
underwent the infliction of reading aknid to my mother the 
seven mortal volumes of Sir Charles Grandison. It was 
in the fulfilment of this awful task that I acquired a habit 
particularly mischievous and ensnaring, that of reading 
mechanically with a total abstraction of mind from what I 
was about. This became the easier to me from the absence 
of all external sound ; and its consequences are exceedingly 
distressing to this day, as experienced in a long indulged, 
and afterwards most bitterly lamented wandering of the mind 
in prayer and in reading the scriptures. In fact, through the 
prevalence of this habit, my devotions, always very punctu- 
ally performed, became such an utter lip-service'as frequently 
to startle and terrify my conscience when I found myself 
saying praters and tLinking idle songs or scraps of plays ; 
but I regarded such transient pangs of remorse as a satis- 



84 ACHANOE. 

faction for the sin, and never dreamed of resisting the general 
habil. 

Thus far, I had led a town life, reading in the heart of a 
populous city, enjoying indeed that noble garden, and but 
^dailj more and more absorbed in books of fancy. Happily 
my health became so affected that a removal into the coun- 
try was judged necessary, and I forgave the doctors all their 
past persecution of me in consideration of their parting 
injunctions ; which were, that I was to have unbounded 
liberty ; to live entirely in the open air, save when the 
weather forbade ; to be amused with all rural occupations ; 
and especially to frequent farm yards, for the purpose of 
inhaling the breath of cows. My father exchanged paro- 
chial duty with a friend, taking his village congregation, and 
engaging a house very near the church. 

That tall white house, — what a place it holds in my fond 
recollection ! It was perfectly an old parsonage, and behind 
it lay a garden larger than our city orchard, sloping gently 
down, with a profusion of fruit and flowers, bounded by high 
walls, and the central walk terminating in a door, beyond 
which lay the scene of our greatest enjoyment. A narrow 
slip of grass, fringed with osiers, and alders, and willows, 
alone separated the wall from a very clear, lovely stream, 
which, winding half round an extensive common, turned a 
mill. This small river abounded with fish, and we soon 
became expert anglers, besides which, on creeping to some 
distance by a path of our own discovery, we could ciois the 
stream on a moveable plank, and take a wide range through 
the country. This removal was a double resource; it invig- 
orated my bodily frame, until I outgrew and out-bloomed 
every girl of my age iii the neighbourhood, while really 
laying a foundation for many years of uninterrupted health, 
and a constitution to defy the change of climate for which I 
was destined ; while it won me from the sickening, enerva- 
ting habit of sedentary enjoyment over the pages of a book* 



RURAL LIFE. 85 

ivhich, added to the necessary studies and occupations, was 
relaxing alike the tone of the bodily and mental frame. From 
the polluted works of man I was drawn to the glorious works 
of God ; and never did bird of the air or l^past of the field 
more luxuriate in the pure bright elements of nature (hao I 
did. All the poetical visions of liberty that had floated in 
my^ brain seemed now realized ; all pastorad descriptiiDDB 
faded before the actual enjoyment of rural life. Sometimes 
wreathing garlands of wild flowers, reclined on a sunny bank, 
while 'a fiock of sheep strolled around, and the bold little 
lambs came to peep in our faces, and then gallop away in 
pretended alarm ; sometimes tearing our clothes to tatters 
in an ardent hunt for the sweet filberts that hung high above 
our heads entrees well fortified behind breastworks of bram- 
ble and thorn ; sometimes cultivating the friendship while 
we quaffed the milk of the good-natured cows under the 
dairymaid's operation, whose breath I was instructed to 
inhale ; all was freedom, mirth, and peace. Oflen would 
my father take his noble pointers preparatory to the shooting 
season, at once to try their powers and to ascertain what 
promise of future sport the fields presented. These were 
destructive expeditions in one sense. I remember the fol- 
lowing dialogue, repeated to me by my brother, when we 
made our appearance at home after a day's demolition of 
wearing apparel. 

* Mr. B. this will never do ; that girl cannot wear a frock 
twice witliout soiling it ; nor keep it whole for a week : the 
expense will ruin us.' 

' Well, my dear, if I am to be ruined by expense, let it 
come in the shape of the washerwoman's and linen-draper's 
bill^ : not in those of the apothecary and undertaker.' 

My dear father was right ; and it would be a happy thing 
for girls in general if somewhat of appearance, and of acquire- 
ment too, was sacrificed to what God has so liberally pro- 
vided, and to the enjoyment of which a blessing is undoubt- 



*»ir 



J ' 



36 . STATS. 

edlj annexed. Where, among females, do we find the 
stamina of constitution and the elasticity of spirit which esist 
in those of our rural population who follow out-door employ- 
ment? It positively pninB me to see a party of girls, a bon- 
neted and tippeted double-file of humanity, 

* That like a wounded snake drags its show length along ' 

under the keen surveillance of a governess, whose nerves 
would never be able to endure the shock of seeing them 
bound over a stream or scramble through a fence, or even 
toss their heads and throw out their limbs as all youBg 
animals, except that oppressed class called young ladies, 
are privileged to. Having ventured, in a fit of my country 
daring, to break the ice of this very rigid and frigid subject, 
I will recount auother instance of the paternal good sense to 
which I owe, under God, the physical powers without which 
my little talent might have laid by in a napkin all my days. 
One morning, when his daughter was about eight years 
old* my father came in, and found sundry preparations going 
on, the chief materials for which were buckram, whalebone, 
and other stiff articles : while the young lady was under 
measurement by the hands of a female friend. 

* Pray what are you going to do to the child? ' 

* Going to fit her with a pair of stays.' 

* For what purpose ? ' 

* To improve her figure ; no young lady can grow up 
properly without them.' 

* I beg your pardon ; young gentlemen grow up very well 
without them, and so may young ladies.' * 

* Oh, you are mistaken. See what a stoop she has already; 
depend on it this girl will be both a dwarf and a cripple if 
we don't put her into stays.' 

* My child may be a cripple, ma'am, if such is God's will; 
but she shall be one of His making, not our's.' 

All remonstrance was vain : stays and 6very species of 



v.** 



TI GH :f«I< AC INO. 37 



tight dress were, strictly prohibited by the^i^ithority of one 
whose will- was, as every man's ought to be", absolute in his 
own li^ousehold. He also carefully watched against any 
.' evasion of the rule ; i^ ribband drawn tightly round my waist 
would have been cut witjiout hesiUtf^inv by his determined 
^^. ^ hand ; while the little girl of the anidbus friend whose oper- 
ations he had interrupted, enjoyed alt the advantages of that 
system from which I was preserved. She grew up a wand- 
like figure^ graceful and interestingt and died of decline at 
nineteen, while I, though not able tp jcompare shapes with a 
wasp or an hour-glass, yet passed muster very fairly among 
mere hiiM|ji forms, of God's moulding ; and I have enjoyed 
to thi^ itptft a rare exemption from headaches, and other 
lady-like maladies, that appear the almost exolusive privilege 
of women in the higher classes. • ^. 

This is.no trivial matter, believe me; it has frequently 
been the subject of conversation with professional men of high 
attainment, and I never met with one among them who did 
not, on hearing that I never but once, and then only for a few 
bourse submitted to the restraint of these unnatural machines, 
refer to that exemption, as a means, the free respiration, cir- 
culation, and powers both of exertion and endurance with 
which the Lord haa most mercifully gifled me. ^ There can 
be no doubt that the hand which first encloses the waist of a 
girl in these cruel contrivances, supplying her with a fictitious 
support, where the hand of God has placed bones and muscles 
that ought to be brought into vigorous action, that band lays 
the foundation of bitter sufferings; at the price of which, 
and probably of a premature death, the advantage must be 
purchased of rendering her figure as unlike as possible to all 
the models of female beauty, universally admitted to be such, 
because they ^re chiseled after nature itself. I have seen 
pictures, and I have read harrowing descriptions, of the 
murderous consequences of thus flying in the face of the 
Creator's skill, and presuming to mend — to improve — his 



. • f 



38 RUINOUS CUSTOM. 

perfect work ; but my own experience is worth a thousand 
treatises and ten thou^iand illustrations, in bringing conviction 
to my mind. Once, when introduced, as it is called, to the 
public, through Jhe medium of a ball-room, I did join in 
persuading my father to allow of a^ fashionable lacing-up, 
though by no means a tight one. I felt ryuch as, I suppose* 
a frolicksome young colt feels when first subjected to the 
goading apparatus that fetters his wild freedom. I danced, 
but it was with a heavy heart and labouring breath ; I talked, 
under the influence of a stupifying headache, and on my 
return home flew to my apartment and cut the goodly fabric 
in pieces ; nor was I ever afterwards tempted so to tempt 
my all-wise Maker by saying to the frame that he had fash- 
ioned and supplied with means of healthful growth, *^ Hitherto 
shalt thou go and no farther. " 

Compressure of the feet was with equal strictness forbidden 
by my judicious father. This vain custom ia perhaps not so 
fatal as the other, but it produces many evils. Coldness of 
the extremities may certainly exist' where nothing of the 
kind has be^n practised ; but while rejoicing that I, experi- 
mentally, know nothing of it, I cannot help recollecting that 
the bounding pulse which plays so joyously through my veins 
was never impeded in any part ; and feeling this, I would 
no more expose a girl to one infliction than I would to the 
other. Do Christian mothers take a sufficiently serious and 
prayerful view of this subject, as regards their children 1 Do 
they weigh, in a balance of God's providing, this necessary 
provision of clothing, to separate hot only what is unseemly 
for the woman professing godly simplicity, but what is ener- 
vating to those physical powers which she is bound to prmote 
to the Lord, and the weakening of which is actual robbery of 
him 1 I fear we females are more ready to ask counsel one 
of another in this matter than of the Lord ; or even of our 
husbands, who, in nine cases out of ten no doubt, would 
decide against the foolish and pernicious custom. At least, 



THECOUNTRT. 39 

in all my arguments with my own sex, I have found the men 
invariably siding with me upon this topic. 

Tou will be tired of these digressions, my dear friend, but 
I set out by forewarning you that my opinions would be 
freely stated : and while touching on a period of mortal life, 
where the body no less than the mind usually takes its direc- 
tion for the rest of our pilgrimage, I cannot pass by anything 
that appears to me of real importance to either. We will 
now return io what poets have sung and citizens sighed for, 
time out of mind — the delights of rural life. 

All cramping is decidedly bad: wholesome restraints there 
are, which parents are bound to lay upon their children, and 
the latter to submit to ; and among other things I am sure a 
defined method, and regular habits, in education, work, and 
play, together with a most strict attention to scrupulous 
punctualUyt are not only valuable, but indispensable to a 
right government of the mind and conduct in after life. I 
have daily cause to lament the unavoidable neglect of such 
a system in my own case, during three-important years ; but 
unavoidable it was, unless my life had been sacrificed to the 
maintenance of such order* Accordingly, mine was the 
life of a butterfly ; and whatever of the busy bee has since 
appeared in my proceedings must be ascribed to divine grace 
alone. I oflen recall those days of summer sunshine to 
which I have alluded ; and the scarcely less joyous winter 
season, when, ploughing the light snow, we raced with our 
inseparable companion, the favourite pointer, or built up a 
brittle giant for the glory of demolishing him with baUs of his 
own substance, or directed the soft missiles against each 
other. Accompanied by. our father, but never alone, we 
made excursions upon our frozen stream ; and very sweet 
it was to the fond hearts of my tender parents to watch the 
.mantling glow of health, the elastic vigour of increasing 
stature, and the unbounded play of most exuberant spirits in 
the poor child whom they had expected to enclose in an early 



40 SNOLAND. 

grave. How ofteDy sieated on the low wide brick-work cor- 
ner of the immense fireplace in a neighbouring farm-house, 
have I been smoked among hams and tongues, while watch- 
ing the progress of baking a homely cake upon those glowing 
wood- embers, or keeping guard over a treasury of apples, 
nuts, and elderberry wine,' all streaming together in the lus- 
ciousness of a promised feast? Patriotism is with roe no 
inert principle ; it verily lives and acts, and pervades my 
whole spirit ; and I believe its energetic character, except 
as God deigns to work by his especial influence, is tracea- 
able to that early acquaintance with what is most purely 
English among us — the homes and the habits of our own 
bold yeomanry. Cities may resemble one another, and the 
aping propensities of their inhabitants produce among them 
a rapid approximation of appearance and manners ; but where 
shall we look for the counterpart of a rural English home ? 
The thing is as untransferrable ad the world is untranslate- 
able. ' The antique village church, with its broad square 
tower, or low spire, its stonOwporch and oak seattf* its narrow 
casements, and the many vestiges of those abominations 
which the besom of the blessed Reformation swept from our 
services, though it could not, without demolishing the build- 
ing, efface their relics from its walls : — the churchyard 
surrounding its base, with undulating hillocks, of mortality 
clad in long, rich grass, where lie, half hidden, the old gray 
monumental stones that can no longer tell the tale of by-gone 
generations ; the more modern sculpture, and the homely 
grave- rail standing sentry over the last resting-place of the 
poor, while some venerable tree overshadows the ground, 
where it has probably stood since the first stone of that 
modest temple was laid by our forefathers — all these are 
so endearingly English ! The broad, rich fields, the hedge- 
row boundaries, and stately lines of vigorous trees, guarding 
their native soil ; and above all, the manly bearing of a bold, 
an independent, and a peaceful peasantry, the humblest of 






i 



A RSFORMim. 41' 

whom knows that his cottage is a chartered sanctuaiyy pro- 
tected alike from the aggrestioiui of civil and of ecclesiastical 
tyranny, — fheaef too, are English, sacredly English ; and 
they leave upon the heart that has once expanded amoDg them 
an impresa never to be effaced. Among national reformers, 
what a. noble position would he occupy who should prevail 
upon our monied countrymen to exchange their habits of 
periodical vagrancy into Popish lands, for a sojourn in the 
moral districts of their own Protestant England, in the con- 
fidence that the climate which agreed with their fathers from 
generation to generation — as the dates and ages decypher- 
able on our monuments will testify — would not annihilate 
them ; and that the sphere in which God had seen good to 
place them was that wherein he purposed them to move, to 
exert their influence, and to occupy for his glory, with the 
taients committed to their charge. 

I have told you how books of imagination had supplanted 
the Bible in my esteem ; those books now, in a measure, 
yielded to the irresistible attraction of out-door amusement ; 
but my mind was' so abundantly stored with the glittering 
tinsel of unsanctified genius, as it shone forth m the pages 
of my beloved poets, that no room was left for a craving afler 
better studies. Yet the turn of my mind was devotional in 
the extreme ; so much so, that had the Lord permitted me 
at that time to come in contact with the wily fascinations of 
Popery, [ am sure I should have fallen, for a season at least, 
into the snare. God was really in all my thoughts ; not as 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — not as a 
being of pufer eyes than to behold iniquity — not as He 
whom I was required to glorify in my body and in my spirit, 
being bought with a price, to be no longer my own but his ; 
— no, my religion was a very attractive sort of Deism, which 
recognised the Creator of all those things wherein I delighted, 
and thought to render him great honour by such recognition. 
Thomson's * Hymn on the Seasons ' was my body of divin- 

4* 






4^ THE CATECHISM. 

•.r« ^■ 

^ ^..vcious ♦ Universal Prayer ' would have 
>iial of devotion, had not my father denounced 
It f«L ,. . • . ^ ^emous outrage upon revelation, and 

charged me never to repeat what he deeply regretted that I 
had committed to memory. I hated profanity, and would 
not have omitted the private repetition of a form of prayer, 
morning or evening, on any account, nor absented myself 
from public worship. A slighting expression applied to the 
Bible would kindle me into glowing resentipent, expressed 
with no less sincerity than earnestness, and as a matter of 
duty I devoted some time every Sabbath-day to the perusal 
of God's word, with which I bad become more extensively 
acquainted by reading it during sermon-time at church. I 
well know that even then, and at a much earlier period too, 
conviction of my own sinfulness was working very deeply, 
though not permanently, in my mind : it was not an abiding 
impression, but a thing of fits and starts, overwhelming me 
while it lasted, but soon shaken off by diverting my thoughts 
to something else. These convictions were unquestionably 
the result of my occasional readings in God's book : they 
lilways occurred during, or immediately afler, such perusal ; 
or when some passage was suddenly brought to my recol- 
lection. I am writing plain facts, without any regard to this 
or that system ; and I must frankly confess that, accustomed 
as I always was to analyse the meaning of every thing I 
studied, a passage in the catechism which we punctually 
repeated every Sunday, proved a great snare to me. I, of 
course, felt bound to receive it all as unquestionably correct 
in doctrine ; and at the same time I took it according to the 
plain, literal signification of the words. In this frame of 
mind, I recited weekly the declaration, "I bblieve in God the 
Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the Elect people 
of God." Now I knew what sanctification meant ; I knew 
that the Elect people of God were those who should be 
saved ; I knew that to say '* He sanctifieth me," was the 



#.^ 



ADELIIKIUENT. 43 

same as to say " I am sanctified by him; " and I knew that 
according to^the obvious sense of the passage, I was num- 
bering myself with that elect people. Many an alarming 
inquiry, which if followed up by a prayerful appeal to the 
Bible might have led me then to Jesus, was effectually stifled 
by *this misconception. I know that the clause can be 
explained so as to do away with this wrong inference ; but 
I cannot help lamenting that expressions put into the mouths 
of children as a confession of faith, should be left liable to 
any such misconstruction. My attachment to the Estab- 
lished Church of England is warm and sincere : it has, as the 
sequel will show, withstood many assaults, and increased in 
proportion as it was assailed ; but its formularies, however 
excellent, are the work of fallible man, therefore imperfect 
and open to improvement ; and this little word *me ' in the 
clause alluded to, is a most mischievous misleader. 

Not wishing to return to the subject, I will close this letter 
by the relation of an incident, which, coupled with the recol- 
lection of my own youthful cogitations, deepened painfully the 
impression I have here admitted. When engaged, a few 
years since, in giving Sabbath instruction at my o^n house 
to a number of young pepple, I was particularly distressed 
by a report that one fine boy, about twelve years of age, had 
been led into habits of intoxication. It soon aAer happened 
that on a Saturday night I gave a little feast, a tea-party, to 
the boys, and on their assembling I discovered to my great 
horror that the lad in question was not sober. I took him 
aside, spoke shortly to him, and sent him home under the 
care of an older, and steady boy. The circumstance affected 
me greatly : I resolved to mark in the most emphatic manner, 
my reprobation of the sin, and to address him on the follow- 
ing evening, in presence of his companions, as one who by 
such a line of conduct placed himself without the pale of our 
little society ; hoping that by a temporary public exclusion. 



44 A FACT. 

and much private admonition and persuasion* he might be 
brought to struggle against the vile propensity. 

On that Sunday morning a sermon was preached for the 
benefit of the Natiotial School to which this boy belonged ; 
and as usual some' of the children were selected to repeat 
the catechism in church. It was the Military Chapel at 
Sandhurst, filled in every part with its imposing array ; and 
the little catechumens were placed near the communion ta-- 
ble, each speaker having to advance a step or two into open 
view, standing singly conspicuous. Judge of my feelings^ 
ivheu, wearing an aspect of the utmost confidence, but still 
flushed and debilitated through his last night's debauch, nay 
unhappy little drunkard stepped forth, and with great distinct- 
ness and self-complacency repeated those words : *' I learn 
to believe . . . . thirdly hi 6od the Holy Ghost, who 
sanctifieth me, and all the JSlect people <jf God." 

I fairly burst into tears. I will add no comment, but sim- 
ply leave on record my fervent hope that God may put it into- 
the hearts of those who have the power so to do, to revise 
what in the main is so truly excellent and scriptural, and by a 
few verbal corrections to do away with whatever may cast a 
stumbling-block before the lambs of our fold. 



REVOLUTIONISBI. 4^ 



LETTER III. 



EARLY DATS. 



Connected with this period of my eariy life are recollec- 
tions that I would not lose. They are vivid, because, as I 
have said, I was a thinking childi and having been accustom* 
edto listen with eagerneas to the conversation of my seniorSt 
I had insensibly imbibed their iMings. The recent horrors 
of the French revolution, and the kindred spirit that had biirtt 
out with sanguinary violence in Ireland^ while the social ' 
frame of England herself was deeply shaken by the roll of 
those waves that were not permitted to burst over her favour- 
ed soil, of course formed a very prominent topic of conversa- 
t tion. Indeed, every mind was more or less engrossed by it ; 
and my father, an enthusiastic loyalist, devoted to the consti- 
tution in Church and State, had offered more than verbal re- 
sistance to the enemy ; for, as I oflen heard told, when some 
apostles of revolution visited our city, and sought to stir up 
the lower classes to outrages for which they had long been 
secretly ripening, my father, whose bodily strength was as 
formidable as his mind was energetic and his appearance 
commanding, had placed himself in the fore-front of a party 
of gentlemen who stormed tne quarters taken up by these mo- 
vers of sedition, interrupted their dangerous proceedings, 
overpowered all resistance, and drove the intruders out of 
the town. He was not fond of hearing his own praises 



45 P.OLITICALPERILS. 

sounded on this subject, for he felt that nothing short of an 
extreme case could justify a clergyman in thus coming for- 
ward : but the case really was an extreme one. Antichrist 
bestrode our city, firmly planting there his two cloven hoofs 
of Popery and Socinianism. Many of our leading men be- 
longed to these two systems, the former, the Jerninghams, 
Petres, &c., making up in wealth and private influence for 
what, our then Protestant constitution withheld of political 
power, and the latter mingling its bad leaven in every pari of 
the mass, sending to parliament one of the most active of its 
communion, to represent the ancient city. Of course, we 
had within us the elements both of a French revolution and 
ah Irish rebellion ; and with an immense manufacturing pop^ 
ulation, often distressed, and notoriously disaffected, much 
solicitude prevailed among those who in either case would 
become the first victims of a popular explosion. The clergy 
were peculiarly marked for destruction, looked upon on one 
side as a body of place-holders, who wrung from the peo- 
ple ample payment for services which the latter valued at 
nothing ; and by the other party as heretical leaders, whose 
teaching, as the Douay Bible courteously remarks, is to be 
regarded as the howling of wolves, and themselves treated 
accordingly. Both parties beheld in the Church of Englandi 
the most insurmountable barrier to their designs upon the civ- 
il and religious institutions of the country ; and they were 
perfectly right, for so it unquestionably is ; and long may it 
so remain ! 

Born into this exciting period, and hearing from my earli- 
est infancy such matters canvassed, not as theories, but as 
realities threatening our very existence, I became deeply 
engaged in them at five or six years old, an age when few 
children dream of public affairs : and well do I remember 
the sagacious shake of the head with which the present 
Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Monk, then domiciled under my 
father's roof preparatory to entering college, remarked, on 



PUBLICFA8TS. 47 

detecting me pouring over a newspaper as big as myself, 
** Missy will one day be a great politiqian." He was so far 
right* that Missy has since encountered many rebukes for 
indulging a taste not considered lady-like, and for striving 
to rouse the mothers of.her native land into an appreciation 
of their high privilege of forming the minds of future Eng- 
lishmen ; and the importance of training them up, even from 
the nursery, in the sound principles of our matchless consti- 
tution. And does Missy repent ? Far, far from it ; she has 
lived to send one manly youth of her own nursing, though 
not her own offspring, to swell the phalanx of Protesters ; 
nay, of political Protesters, in a place where the war of 
principles is waged with stern determination : she is yet 
preparing another; and if instead of two, two hundred Eng- 
lish boys had been committed to her guidance, she would, 
the Lord being her helper, have formed them into a body of 
fellow-soldiers with those who now contend on the broken, 
but still preoioUB ramparts of our Protestant constitution. 

The era to which I would now revert was that of Napo- 
leon's menaced invasion. Oh, what a spirit did it rouse 
among ns ! I could not then fully appreciate what now I 
remember with delight, the alacrity of our labouring classes 
in enrolling themselves, and forming local regiments of vol- 
untary soldiers, officered by the very men against whom their 
enmity had lately blazed forth, and with most cheerful sub- 
ordination obeying them. It was a lovely sight, even love- 
lier to me in the retrospection than it was at the time, to 
behold England rushing to arms in defence of her own sacred 
homes, and rushing, not with the madness of man's rage or 
in the pride of man's strength, but with reiterated appeals to 
Him who alone giveth victory to kings and peace to their 
people. How deep, how solemn was the stillness of that 
ofl-recurring season of which we had been Ibrewarned by a 
square pamphlet being laid on my father's breakfast>table 
some days previous, entitled " A Form of Prayeri with fast- 



46 NA^riONAL CONFESBION. 

t 

ing, to Almighty God," for such a day. On the eveniDg 
pi^ceding, my father would look out in the dear red Bible 
the appointed Psalms and lessons, that we might all be the 
better prepared to turn to (hem; and then read to my mother 
his sermon for the morrow. We always woke with a serious 
impression on our oiinds, and came to a mutual agreement' 
to put away all toys, and be/content with our salt fish and 
^g'BRUce. ' Then my father was robed in his silk cassock 
and flowing gown, and a splendid figure he was, with his 
noble, glowing countenance and stately gait> slowly proceed- 
ing towards his parish church, my mother on his arm, and 
we following with the best imitation we could accomplish of 
his measured, almost military step. In every street was 
seen a long line of silent church-goers, repairing to their 
several places of worship ; and many habited themselves ia 
black on those daysj to add effect to their humiliation. I ^o 
not say that these were spiritual worshippers : I cannot say 
that the doctrine preached, at that time, from the pulpits of 
our churches was the Gospel of Jesus Christ : but this I 
know, that while menacing France gloried in casting off all 
worship of, all belief in the God of heaven — menaced Eng- 
land openly acknowledged her sole dependence to be on His 
Almighty protection. France wbjb baffled -^ England is pre- ^ 
served to this day. " Lo, thus shall the people be blessed 
who feareth the Lord." *' They that honour me I will 
honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 
Such flceoes as I have described are among the reminis- 
cences of my very earliest childhood ; but now, at the period 
of our country sojourn, a new feature was added to them. 
Military uniforms distinguished at least two-thirds of the 
male congregation, and martial music accompanied the 
psalmody of the churches. Our abode, though perfectly 
rural and secluded, was only four miles from the town, and 
a very short drive brought us thither : but in a little while we 
removed to witbia 1^ thaa one mile, and resumed our atteh- 



,V : 









AREOIMENT. 49 

dance at my father's own church. Thus we were in the 
midst of the excitement, and by no means idle spectators ; 
for my brother, in whose character the soldier had reigned 
predominant from babyhood, assembled all the little boys of 
theiietgbbourhood, addressed them in a patriotic speech, and 
brought them to the unanimous resolution of arming in 
defence of their country. Those whose finances extended 
so far, brought real wooden guns and swords; others, impov- 
erished by the allurements of an old dame who. vended lolli- 
pops, was obliged to content themselves with such weapons 
as they could shape out of the hedge ; a sixpenny drum, and 
a twopenny fife completed the military equipment, while on 
me devolved the distinguished honour of tacking sundry 
pieces of silk to an old broomstick and presenting these 
colours to the corps, with an oration breathing such loyalty 
and devotion to the good cause of liberty and Old England, 
as wrought to the highest pitch the enthusiasm of ike regi- 
ment, whose colonel was ten years old, and very few of the 
officers or men much younger. 

And this was not burlesque — it was not childish play, but 
downright earnest The danger was imminent, we knew it, 
we felt it ; and many a time did we withdraw to the shelter 
of the old bay-stack, where we had hollowed out a little 
alcove, and hold conversot with breathless anxiety, on the 
probable; future. Sometimes our courage failed, and we 
explored the grounds in search of secure hiding-places ; but 
the result of these deliberations was always a determination 
to stand by our mother to the last, and to try if we could 
not, by some means, ourselves kill Bonaparte. It is singular 
how this inan seemed to embody in himself all that was ter- 
rifying in the idea of invasion : we never doubted the fact 
of his personally attacking our house ; and I believe that 
among the lower classes at least he was unconsciously 
invested with the attribute of ubiquity. God made him a 
scourge, and rendered his name very terrible among men. 

5 



60 BONAPARTE. 

None who were not th^n in being, and capable of reflection, 
can possibly conceive how formidable he was : and although 
spoken of with ineffable scorn, caricatured with most ludi- 
crous effect, and set at defiance in every variety of ballad and 
doggrel rhyme ; though each Englishman secretly or openly 
cherished the hope of slaying him, and not a few English 
women meditated giving him Jael's welcome, still the name 
of Bonaparte carried with it a spell that convinces me he 
was specially commissioned to execute God's wrath, and 
" smite the nations with a perpetual stroke " as the execu- 
tioner of his vengeance. England, I am persuaded, feared 
him not : she was not included in his missiony for she was 
Btill Protestant to the heart's core, under a nobly protesting 
King : and it is manifest that he had no power beyond the 
range of papal domination. Egypt repulsed him ; England 
held him at bay from her shores ; and by making the cause 
her own, drove his armies out of the Peninsula ; Russia 
swallowed up his mighty host ; and, finally, England again 
broke the last arm of his power, captured and entombed him 
on one of her distant possessions. The emotion inspired 
by his name was mingled with scorn and proud defiance ; 
but it was an emotion never to be forgotten by those who 
experienced it. 

Political feeling still ran very high, though the open adop- 
tion of French principles was greatly checked by the tone of 
national defiance universally breathed against France. Ad- 
vantage, however, was taken of the inroads already made, 
and the spread of false liberalism through the land, to urge 
the repeal of those laws by which our wiser forefathers fenced 
round the blessings that they desired to preserve to their 
posterity. By small beginnings the work was taken in hand; 
and two measures were pressed on the attention of the leg- 
islature, of which one was the removal of the established 
test on admitting any Protestant to a corporate or other 
office of civil trust ; the other was to unbar the door so firmly 



THE TEST ACT. 51 

barricaded against the re-entrance of popery. To the latter 
proposition George the Third had opposed the insurmount- 
able barrier of his coronation oath ; and with a constancy 
of purpose, a stedfastness of faith that divine grace alone 
could supply, he had permitted himself to be forsaken at the 
most trying juncture by the only ministers on whom he could 
repose any confidence, rather than yield an iota on this point; 
nor can we doubt, seeing by what influence he was upheld, 
that he would have made good his declaration of willingness 
to relinquish the crown, and even to lay his head on the 
block, rather than commit this act of perjury before God, 
and irreparable ruin to his people. The Lord added to his 
lengthened days yet more and more, because in his time the 
evil was not to come upon us ; but it worked its. way with 
sure progression, through the unhappy effect of revolution- 
izing princples, opposed no less to the honour of God than 
to the well-being of man. The other measure had many 
warm advocates among the truly loyal and constitutional 
party ; but a point of conscience was involved, very trying 
to a pious mind. You know, the test was a participation in 
the Lord's supper on the part of the person entering upon 
office ; and it cannot be doubted that a most sacred ordinance 
was thus profaned and degraded into a mere stepping-stone 
to secular advantage, by multitudes who therein " ate and 
drank their own damnation, not considering the Lord's 
body." It seemed an awful thing to tender such a test, and 
thus tempt a man to sin against God ; and through the 
lamentable relaxation, or rather the total cessation of church 
discipline among us, no restraining hand could be laid on 
the wont and vilest when approaching that ordinance. The 
object of the enactment was palpably to admit into authority 
of any kind none who should not be amenable to the laws, 
civil and ecclesiastical, which were framed on Scripture 
grounds for the governance of this a Christian land. It was 
good and wholesome ; none others ought to bear rule, but 



52 THETE8TACT. 

such as are minded to fear the Lord and the king, and not to 
meddle with them that are given to change ; hut the church 
had become wofully negligent of her duty : the people were 
badly supplied, both as to quantity and quality, in public 
teaching, and not a few godly men had come forward to 
supply the deficiencies of worldly, careless clergymen, igno- 
rant of those doctrines by which alone their flocks could be 
built up on our most hoFy faith. These preachers were 
followed ; sects increased ; and from forsaking the public 
services of the church, they gradually separated altogether 
from her communion, and became hostile to her whole frame, 
Tisitiiig the ainful omissions of men upon a church in which 
if they had been faithful ministers of her doctrine and true 
members of her spiritual body, those men would have shone 
as lights of the world. So the Lord's table, as served in our 
churches, became an abomination to these increasing sece- 
ders, and the acts in question shut them out from situations 
which in all respects but this of hostility to established things 
they were well qualified to hold. It seemed a great grievance ; 
public feeling ran strongly in favour of the complainants, and 
the point, as you know, was ultimately gained. 

My father opposed the proceeding in toto ; he contended 
for the principle of excluding all who would conscientiously 
exert their influence to subvert what they avowedly disap- 
proved' of, and regarded the other evil of profanation as a sin 
that must rest on the head of him who committed it ; and 
who, if he were capable of that, would donbtless in many 
other ways bring down the wrath of God upon himself. He 
predicted that, this excursion once made, we never could 
stay ourselves in the course so entered upon ; but must give 
up whatever was demanded. Into the merits of the question 
I do not enter ; I am sure the prediction has been verified ; 
and I am equally sure that in the whole matter England has 
smitten herself with a suicidal blow, the fatal weapon being 
declension from God. '* The prophets prophesy falsely, and 



NATIONAL PRIDE. 53 

the priests bear rule by their means, aod my people love to 
have it so, and what will ye do in the end thereof? " 

The moral pestilence of the French revolution took efiect 
on the great mass of our population in a larger degree than 
we seem geneftdly aware of. It appears to me that we had 
only a nominal remedy wherewith to oppose a real disease. 

The frame-work of our constitution in church and state 
is essentially Christian, and in its details scriptural ; but this 
frame-work consists only in acts and ordinances, drawn up by 
man's hand, and transmitted from sire to son. It is evident 
that nothing spiritually vital can reside in skins of parch- 
ment, and that these last are merely a dead letter, except as 
men act them out. A people thus privileged to possess so 
perfect a code of laws, and all things fitting for the functions 
alike of civil and religious being, may be, among less fa- 
voured nations, what the bodies in Ezekiel's vision were, 
when compared with their former disordered state, lying 
scattered and broken about the valley. They had come 
together, bone to his bone, in all the symmetry of man's 
original form ; flesh covered them, and sinews were strung, 
and all was complete to the cursory view of an observer; but 
one thing was wanting, without which the whole remained a 
vain show. There was no breath in them. Lacking that, 
they were equally incapable of making a forward movement 
and of offering resistance to injury. Taken individually, no 
nation better deserved the scourge, for with whatever devo- 
tion our congregations joined in the^public services of those 
appointed days, making confession of sin and of helplessness, 
and crying to the Lord for the succour without which we 
miist perish, I am persuaded that the language of both lip 
iftid heart, in our domestic and social circles, was that of 
vain-glorious confidence in the arm of flesh ; of boastful 
superiority over our enemies ; and a conviction that to our 
insular position, our naval superiority, our military prowess, 
and a certain impression on the minds of the French that 

6* 



64 BUDDINGOFT HE C H R C H . 

Englishmen were unconquerable, we owed our past pros- 
perity, our present security. In church, we acknowDSdged 
** It is thou that fightest for us, God ; " at home, our 
watch ward was, " The wooden walls of old England." 
I speak advisedly, from a very clear recollection of the spirit 
that pervaded all ranks, all classes, all ages, and which was 
breathed in every column of the public journals ; and I am 
sure that God was not glorified among us as individuals. A 
praying, believing king — a Hezekiah — stood in the gap, 
making supplication far his people ; and God wrought for 
His name's sake that it should not be polluted in the sight 
of the nations who publicly mocked bim, by their victory 
over a people who publicly honoured him. But though thus 
withheld from openly prevailing to crush us, there was, as I 
have said, no power of effectual resistance against the secret 
poison of their vile principles ; and this found entrance, and 
circulated through the veins of the body politic, until the 
seeds of corruption took strong root, and nothing better 
awaited us than a mere lingering process of dissolution. 

But here the Lord put forth his hand to stay the plague, 
by pouring out, gradually, yet abundantly. His Spirit upon 
the Church. He had never left himself without .witness in 
it, though the voices raised by faithful men were few and far 
between ; while the opposition offered to such was active, 
decided, united. A young man could not with impunity be 
a Christian at either of the universities: no nominal preacher 
of the gospel could become so in reality without arraying 
against him a host of brethren, and the bulk of his own con- 
gregation. A layman might separate himself from -the 
ungodly world, deciding that he and his house would serve 
the Lord, but at the price of becoming a by-word and a 
laughing-stock among his own familiar friends. It was by 
the kindling of these lights here and there that the gross 
darkness which had prevailed to cover the land and the peo- 
ple was made manifest; and just in proportion as men awoke 



TRUE CONSERVATISM. 55 

to the approval of such things as be excellent, they learned 
toappreciate the institutions of their country , discerning how 
correctly they were based on the word of God ; while others, 
who had the language of attachment to the constitution much 
more in their mouths, regarded them all as mere productions 
of man's worldly wisdom, suitable to the times in which they 
were framed, but requiring to be changed and adapted to the 
shifting habits of succeeding generations. Instead of view- 
ing the standard as framed according to that of the sanctuary, 
and labouring to train the public body up to its perfect height, 
they resolved to lower the inconvenient measure, and adapt 
it to the stunted, crooked growth of a degenerated race. 
Here, I think, began the war of principle in the midst of 
which we now live : here that which had formed the pure 
spirit of whiggism passed over to the tory, combining with 
devoted Ig^^alty to the throne, and unceasing attachment to 
the churoD, a jealous care over what may be called the 
democracy of the English constitution. A spirit of change 
had shown itself at work, and the tendency of such change 
was always towards licentiousness : a frightful example of 
the horrors with which it would naturally deluge a country 
was exhibited before our eyes ; and seeing that the innova- 
tors were met at every turn by laws which must be taken 
out of the way to accommodate them, those laws were made 
the rallying-point for the true lovers of their country, in the 
fore-front of whom stood the little band of enlightened Chris- 
tian men, with the King of England at their head. 

You must not quarrel with this long digression ; the crisis 
I speak of was one on which hung the political salvation of 
our native land ; a crisis of some years' continuance, and 
which terminated not until the Lord had greatly multifilied and 
strengthened his own little host of protesting conservators, 
so that not even an act of national apostacy could carry on 
its face the condemnation of being really a national act ; and 
it is wonderful to contemplate the dealings of the Most High 



56 OKOROSTHE THIRD. 

towards his crowned servant during this momentous interval. 
George the Third was the insurmountable obstacle in the 
way of such ruinous course, and until the time for permitting 
the bonds to be burst had well nigh come, he was retained 
among us ; but because his righteous soul would have been 
grievously vexed at beholding the struggle against God, the 
bodily and mental eye were on both closed. He was shut, 
out alike from the seeing of evil, and the hearing of it ; he dwelt 
in extreme old age, a crown of glory covering his hoary head, 
where the British crown still securely reposed, while his 
spirit held communion with an unseen world of peace and 
love, amid the turmoils, the fierce contentions, that shook the 
public mind in which he had ever taken a deep and anxious 
interest. You know he used, while feeling hiaunsteady way 
through the long suite of apartments that booiided his liberty^ 
to pause at a piano or organ, several of which were placed 
within his reach, and .call forth strains of sacred melody, 
accompanying them with his aged voice, breathing words of 
devotion : and at other times he was overheard in imaginary 
discourse with the angels of God, (I could almost recall the 
M'ord imaginary,) questioning them concerning heavenly 
things, and breathing forth his own simple aspirations afler 
the home they dwelt in. What an eye-sore to the mofere 
of sedition was Greorge the Third ! How terrible in the 
impotency of his helpless seclusion was that deranged old 
man to the emissaries of the Great Harlot ! How bitterly 
do they now revile his memory, which is blessed, most blessed 
among us — because his protracted life gave space for the 
growth of our Protest, which they cannot now overthrow. 
He who sitteth in the heavens surely laughed to scorn the 
madness of the people, while making that unconscious, de- 
crepit trembler the secure defence of an empire's integrity, 
against all that man's wisdom, man's subtlety, and man's 
proudest might could do to subvert it. 
The act of legislative umon, consequent upon the i»angui- 



ANEWBIsaOP.- 57 

nary rebellion of 1798, had brought Ireland into more imme- 
diate connection with us; and gave additional means for 
influencing the minds of our senators to concede the booo^ 
or rather to submit to the demand, of what was called Eman- 
cipation. My father oAen remarked that if the events of 
ninety-eight were not alone sufficient |o deter the English 
government from this measure, nothing could overcome 
their infatuation. The subject was frequently and freely 
canvassed in the social circle of which I formed a part ; and 
well do I remember how clearly the mischievous results that 
ibust follow upon the very first breach made in our consti- 
tutional bulwarks were pointed out by men who judged of 
Popery only from past history, read by the light of the recent 
outburst in Ireland, and apart from all religious scruples. 
They looked upon it as men are again learning to do 
while recovering from the torpor induced by the spread of 
liberalism — they regarded it as a political system, the 
mighty engine of a secular despotism that sought to exalt 
itself above all other dynasties, rising on the ruins of sub- 
verted thrones. This was considered the extreme of unchar- 
itableness ; a narrow-minded bigotry to be abhorred of all 
enlightened men ; and my father plainly foresaw the ultimate 
triumph of the shallow but plausible arguments brought to 
bear upon the point. 

An appointment about this time took place which greatly 
forwarded the views of the adverse party among us. Dr. 
Bathurst was preferred to the see of Norwich: he had been 
my father's intimate friend and chum at Oxford, and the 
intercourse was renewed with mutual satisfaction ; but not all 
the personal affection that the truly amiable Bishop inspired 
in those who knew the sweetness of his character, and which 
my father in particular bore to him, could for a moment blind 
him on this subject. I knew they frequently talked it over, 
and his remark was that no man could be more honestly, 
diainter^tedly, and amiably mistaken than our good Bishop. 



6S IDLING. 

That it was disinterested no one coald doubt ; for when the 
ministry of the day were stiffly opposed to the eoncession, 
and Dr. Bathurst was informed Ihat if he advocated it in 
parliament he would assuredly be left in that miserably poor 
see, whereas his silence might facilitate a ti^nslation that must 
needs be to a betteri — a thing which his very large family 
rendered desirable enough, — the intimation only increased 
his zeal : he rose in his place, ind spoke most energetically 
in favour of the measure. Wiji^ he resumed his seat, the 
Peer next him said* somewblit sarcasticajly, * I am happy 
to find the air of Norwich agrees so well with your lordship : 
you don't seem inclined to change it.' To which the Bishop 
meekly replied, ' My Lord, whatever I change, I trust I 
shall not change my principles.' Happy would it be for us, 
had some others been as consistently in the right as he was 
in the wrong ! 

I know not that any thing ia my personal history requires 
mention here : I grew up a healthy, active, light-hearted girl, 
wholly devoted to reading and to rural occupations. The 
latter, particularly gardening, served as a counterpoise to 
the sedentary temptation that would have proved physically 
injurious : bat laying in, as I daily did, a plentiful store of 
romantic adventttre or fascinating poetry for rumination when 
abroad, my mind was unprofitably occupied at all times, to 
the exclusion of better things. On Sundays, indeed, I made 
it a point of ooaseieuce to abstain from light reading ; and, 
as far as I coold, to banish from my thoughts the week's 
acquisition of folly* I went to church, and read the Bible, 
at home, with a sermon of Blair's or some similar writer, 
wholly destitute of gospel light ; and I generally had a short 
lit of compunction, on that day, for having been so wholly 
absorbed in worldly things during the preceding six : for 
even then God was striving with me, to bring me unto him- 
self, and many a strong conviction did I forcibly stifle. The 
warmth rof my natural feelings, the ardour with which I 



CONVICTIONS. 69 

entered into every thing that interested them, and a sort of 
energy that always longed to he doing where any cause that 
I considered good was to be promoted — all these would 
have rendered me a working character, had I obeyed the 
gracious call to go into the Lord's vineyard. I say a call, 
because though as yet I knew nothing whatever of the gos- 
pel, I could not overlook or misunderstand the reiterated 
injunctions of Scripture to seek spiritual wisdom, to ask for 
guidance, and to occupy ifith the talent committed to my 
charge. I knew the promise ^ They that seek me early 
shall find me," and more thao once I trembled under such 
scriptures as the latter part of Proverbs 1, but my Sunday 
resolutions vanished before the Monday's dawning light, and 
I rushed a^ain with a redoubled zest into the seductive re- 
gions of my imaginary world. Oh, how greatly do they err 
who think that such studies^ may be safely engaged in by the 
young and excitable mind I Some indeed there are, so 
phlegmatic as to be proof against all the charms of poesy, 
insensible to the brightest illusions of romance ; but their 
number is small, and the individuals hard to identify, because 
a very cold exterior is often like (he snow-capped heights of 
£tnu, overspreading a hoard of volcanic elements of which 
the burst and blaze will some day be terrific. Such seem 
induced with the spirit of indifference, because they are 
abstracted and silent when the laugh and merry jest goes 
round among their companions ; whereas this abstraction 
from outward -things results not from deadnosst of feeling but 
from the intensity with which the mind is brooding over some 
phantom known only to itself. Nor do this class of dream- 
ers always appear devoted to books : a little reading goes 
far with them ; and the quality rather than the quantity of 
their selections is to be looked to. 

I have known many parents and teachers argue that it is 
better to bring the young acquainted with our standard poets 
and prose authors, of a worldly cast, while they are yet under 



\ 

^ f 



60 ANTICIPATING EVIL. 

careful superintendence, so as to neutralize what may be 
unprofitable by judicious remark, and to avert the dangers 
attendant on such fascinating introductions at a riper age, 
when the restraints of authority are removed. Against this, 
two reasons have prevailed with me to exclude from my book- 
shelves all the furniture of a worldly library, and to watch 
against its introduction frorii other quarters. One is, the 
consideration that we are not authoriseed to calculate on the 
continuance of any creature's mortal existence ; nor can we 
ever know that the being whom we are training for eternity 
will not be called into it before such period of life as is here 
anticipated. In such a case, how sad to feel that we have 
needlessly forestalled an eviPday, and even momentarily 
diverted the young spirit from a sacred path ! The other 
consideration is this : that as the flesh and the devil will as- 
suredly do their parts without help from me ; and the children 
of this world, who are wiser in their generation than the 
children of light, will certainly do the same ; I may'take a 
lesson of policy from them, using my best endeavours to pre- 
occupy the field with what is decidedly good, and humbly 
hoping that the seed so sown may, through the qperation of 
Ihe Holy Spirit, take root before the tares are introduced, 
leaving little room for them to grow. 

Of all the errors into which the world has fallen, none is 
more fatally mischievous than the habit of overlooking the 
personality, the energy, the power, the watchfulness, the 
deep cunning of the devil. By a conventional system, no 
doubt of his own suggesting, he is never to be named but in 
the act of worshipping God, or that of spiritual instruction. 
Any other robber and murderer, who was known to be on 
the watch to attack our houses, would be the subject of free 
discourse : bis habits, his haunts, his usual plans, his suc- 
cessful and his baffled assaults in former cases, would be 
talked over, and thus a salutary fear would be kept alive, 
influencing us to belt and bar, and watch and ward with 



/' /> 



MISCHIEVOUS ERRORS^ 61 

UDfailing vigilaacey to avert a surprise. But Satan seems 
'^o be a privileged person ; we learn, in the nursery, to fancy 
him a hideous caricature of human nature, with horns, hoof, 
and a tail, inspiring disgust, and a childish fear that wears 
off as we advance into youth, leaving an impression rather 
ludicrous than alarming, of the ugly phantom that, neverthe- 
less!, continues identified with him of whom we read in the 
Bible. We then, perhaps, take up Milton, engrafting his poet- 
ical conception upon the original nursery stock, and make a 
devil half monster, half archangel, invested with the ugliness 
of the. first, and the sublimity of the second, but still far re- 
moved from the scripture character of that roaring lion who 
•* goeth about seeking whom he may devour." We do not 
realize his existence, his presence, his devices ; and so we 
often do his work from sheer ignorance, or inexcusable 
thoughtlessness about it. 

With me, as I have told you, the Bible did its work, and 
conscience did hers ; ,but a passion Tor the unreal proved too 
strong for both. Undoubtedly God could have wrought, as 
aAerwards he did, to the casting down imaginations, and 
every thing that exalteth itself against Christ. But how 
many years of sorrow might have been averted, or how 
greatly atlast might those sorrows have been mitigated, had 
not the inveteracy of a long-cherished disease required amoh 
sharp discipline to bring it under ! Pride was the master-sin 
of my corrupt nature, a- pride that every child of Adam in- 
herits, but which peculiarly beset me. It was not what 
usually goes by that name : no one ever accused me of an 
approach to haughtiness, neither was I boastful or forward, 
as far as I know ; but I delighted to model my own charac- 
ter according to the standard set forth in my foolish books, 
and bj the contemplation of them I hoped to succeed. I 
oved to mark in others a mean, ungenerous, selfishy or 
malicious trait, and to contrast with it my own high-flown 
notions of the opposite qualities. My memory was well 

6 



62 UNREAL ESTIMATES. 

Stored with fine sentiments concerning human dignity, hon- 
our,.yirtue, and se forth; and while seieretly applying them, — 
for I was not inclined to make ill-natured remarks, — in 
contrast to the failings of those around me, I naturally learned 
to identify myself with the aforesaid sentiments, and to take 
it for granted it was I who shone so brightly at other people's 
expense. This is the inevitable consequence of measuring 
ourselves by ourselves, as all will do who are not led betimes 
to the standard appointed of God. 

And now, the chambers of imagery being well furnished, 
I became in thought the heroine of all the foolish, improba- 
ble adventures I met wilh. Shakspeare and others having 
furnished me with dresses and decorations, every day of my 
life had its drama. Adventures the itiost improbable, sit- 
uations the most trying, and conversations the most nonsen- 
sical among a visionary acquaintance of my own creating, 
became the constant amusement of my midd ; or if I took a 
fancy to any new companion, that individual was metamor- 
phosed into something equally unreal, and was soon looked 
upon in the light, not of sober. reality, but of fanciful extra v- 
vagance. Of course, my estimate alike of persons and 
of things was egregously false ; 'and with a fair portion of 
common sense naturally belonging to me, I became most 
emphatically a fool. Even when employed at the pencil, 
which I dearly loved, I could not trace a Qgure on the paper, 
or a landscape on the canvass, that'did not presently become 
the subject of a separate romance ; and it never occurred to 
me that there was danger, much less sin, in this. I loved 
dancing to excess, and took much delight in all that was 
brilliant and beautiful'^ but upon the whole I preferred the 
uninterrupted course of my own vain thoughts, and then 
admired myself for being of a less dissipated turn than my 
young friends. Of course, I am now speaking of the time 
when, according to the world'a iisage, and rather earlier than 
usual, that is to say, at sixteen, I was introduced into pubhc, 



FAL8BVISW8. 63 

bj makiog mj appearance at a grand election ball ; and 
moreover, publicly receiving the compliments of the most 
polished and distinguished of our successful candidates, for 
sundry political squibs, said to be full of drollery and point 
which had been traced home to me. Alas for the girl who 
makes such a debut ! We were now again resident in the' 
town, or rather within the precincts, as they are called, sur* 
rounding that venerable cathedral which had been the object 
of my babyish contemplation, and which is endeared to nie 
beyond any other spot in my native place. 

My beloved companion, my brother, had always mani* 
Tested the most decided predilection for a military life. Oflen 
had he, in earliest childhood, toddled away from the gate 
after a fife and drum of a recruiting party ; and oAen did he 
march and countermarch me, till I could not stand for fatigue, 
with a grenadier's cap, alias a muff, on my head, and my 
father's large eane shouldered by way of a firelock. The 
menaced invasion had added fuel to his martial fire, and 
when any other line of life was pointed out to him, his high 
spirits would droop, and the desire of his heart show itself 
with increasing decision. Our parents were very anxious 
to settle him at home, for my sake, who seemed unable to 
live without him ; and I am sure that my influence would 
have prevailed, even over his long-cherished inclinatioi^ so 
dearly did he love me ; but here the effect of that pernicious 
reading showed itself, and forged the first link in a long 
chain of sorrows. I viewed the matter through the lying 
medium of romance : glory, fame, a conquerer's wreath or 
a hero's grave, with all the vain merit of such a sacrifice as 
I must myself make in sending him to the field — these 
wrought on me to stifle in my aching bosom the cry of nat- 
ural affection, and I encouraged the boy in his choice, and 
helped him to urge on our parents this offering up of their 
only son, the darling of all our hearts, to the Moloch of war. 
Finding that he could not be dissuaded, ray father gave a 



64 A FA K TING. 

reluctant consent ; and let me here record an instance of 
generous kindness on the part of the Bishop. He went to 
London, and by dint of personal, persevering importunity, 
obtained in a few days a commission in the army, at a time 
when seven hundred applicantBi many of them backed by 
strong interest, were waiting for the same boon. The sud- 
denness of the thing was quite stunning : we calculated on 
a delay of this sore trial ; but it was done, and he was or- 
dered to repair immediately, not to the dep6t, but to his 
regiment, then hotly engaged in the Peninsula. The 
Bishop's kindness did not end here : he carried his gene- 
rosity farther in other ways, and likewise gave him intro- 
ductions of great value. I love to record it of one whose 
public conduct as a Protestant prelate I am compelled to 
lament, but whose private character was most lovely. 

Upheld by the intoxicating power of senseless romance, 
not by confidence in God, nor even by the reality of the 
patriotism that I persuaded myself was at the root of it all, 
I bore to see that beloved companion of my life depart for 
the scene of most bloody conflict. He was not nearly full 
grown ; a blooming beautiful boy, reared, and up to that 
time, tenderly guarded under the parental roof, in almost 
exclusive companionship with me. There was, indeed, but 
on^ heart between us, and neither could fancy what it would 
be to rejoice or to suffer alone.. Of this I had given a proof 
in the preceding year. He took the measles, and was ex- 
ceedingly ill, and great precautions were used to preserve 
me from the infection ; but, unable to brook a separation 
from him, I bafRed their vigilance, burst into his apartment, 
and laying my cheek to his, resisted for a while all efforts 
to remove me. To my infinite delight, I sickened imme- 
diately, and considered it an ample oompensation for all at- 
tendant suffering, that I was allowed to sit constantly in the 
same room with him* 

How strong, how sweet, how sacred is the tie that binds 



FRATBRNAL LOVR. 65 

an only sister to an only brother, when they have been per- 
mitted to grow up together, untrammelled by the heartless 
forms of fashion ; unrivalled by alien claimants in their coo^ 
fiding affection ; undivided in study, in sport, and in interest. 
Some object, that such union renders the boy too effeminate 
and the girl too masculine. In our case it did neither. 
He was the manliest, the hardiest, most decided, most in- 
trepid character imaginable ; but in manners sweet, gentle, 
and courteous, as they will be who are accustomed to look 
with protecting tenderness on an associate weaker than 
themselves. And as for me, though I must plead guilty 
to the charge of being more healthy, more active, and per- 
haps more energetic than young ladies are usually expected 
to be, still I never was considered unfeminine ; and the 
only peculiarity resulting from this constant companionship 
with one of the superior sex, was to give me a high sense 
of that superiority, with a habit of deference to man's judg- 
ment, and submission to man's authority, which I am quite 
sure God intended the woman to yield. Every way has 
this fraternal tie been a rich blessing to me. The love 
that grew with us from our cradles never knew diminution 
from time or distance. Other ties were formed, but they 
did not supersede or weaken this. Death tore away all 
that was mortal and perishable, but this tie he could not 
sunder. As I loved him while he was on earth, so do I 
love him now that he is in heaven ; and while I cherish in 
his boys the living likeness of what he was, my heart ever- 
more yearns towards him where he is, anticipating the day 
when the Lord shall come, and bring that beloved one with 
him. 

Parents are wrong to check as they do the outgoings of 
fraternal affection, by separating those whom God has 
especially joined as the offspring of one father and one 
mother. God has beautifully mingled them, by sending 
now a babe of one sex, now of the other, and suiting, as 

6* 



66 BAD MANAGEMENT. 

any careful observer may discemt their various characters 
to form a domestic whole. The parents interpose, packing 
off the boys to some school where no softer influence exists 
to round ofi*, as it were, the rugged points of the masculine 
disposition, and where they soon lose all the delicacy of 
feeling peculiar to a brother's regard, an^ learn to look on 
the female character in a light wholly subversive of the frank- 
ness, the purity, the generous care for which earth can yield 
no substitute, and the loss of which only transforms him 
who ought to be the tender preserver of woman into her 
heartless destroyer. The girls are either grouped at home, 
with the blessed privilege of a father's eye still upon them, 
or sent away in a different direction from their brothers, 
exposed, through unnatural and unpalatable restraints, to 
evils not perhaps so great, but every whit as wantonly in- 
curred as the others. The shyness, miscalled retiring 
modesty, with which one young lady shrinks from the no- 
tice of a gentleman as though there were danger in his ap- 
proach, and the conscious, coquettish air, miscalled ease, 
with which another invites his notice, are alike removed 
from the reality of either modesty or ease. Both result 
from a fictitious mode of education : both are the conse- 
quences of nipping in the bud those sisterly feelings that lay 
a fair foundation for the right use of those privileges to 
which she looks forward as a member of society ; and if 
the subject be viewed through the clear medium of christian 
principle, its lights will become more brilliant, its shadows 
more dark, the longer and the closer we contemplate it. 



AGRANDMOTHER. 67 



LETTER IV. 



YOUTH. 



Hitherto you have not heard of any spiritually- minded 
person connected with my early- life ; yet there was one^ 
I feel sure, though my recollections are confused and imper- 
fect on that point ; and one to whose prayers, if not to her 
teaching, I surely owe something. 

My father's mother was a fine, sprightly, robust old lady, 
rather small in stature, and already bending a little under 
the burden of years at the time when I first recollect her as 
mingling in the visions of my childhood, though I know that 
even from infancy I was the delight of her warm honest 
heart. She was simplicity itself in manners, her blunt 
speeches sometimes clashing a little with her son's notions 
of polish and refinement, as also did her inveterate antipathy 
to the reigning fashion, whatever that might be. I remem- 
ber her reading me a lecture upon something novel in the cut 
of a sleeve, ending by this remark : ' I never wore a gown 
but of one shape ; and because I don't follow the fashion, 
the fashion is forced to come to me sometimes by way of a 
change. I can't help that, you know, my dear ; but I never 
was fashionable on purpose.' She added some pious re- 
marks on vanity and folly, which I soon forgot ; but the 
other dwelt on my mind because it chimed in with my own 



68 UKFASHIONABLE TASTE. 

love of independence — a prominent characteristic with me ; 
too often carried to thQ excess of self-willed obstinacy. 
However, I dearly loved, and exceedingly respected my 
grandmother, and used in my heart to glory in her smooth 
clean locks, half brown, half gray, combed down from under 
a snowy cap of homely make, when she had successfully 
resisted alike the entreaties and examples of cotemporary 
dames, who submitted their heads to the curling-irons {uid 
powder-puffof ayWicttr, preparatory to an evening party. I 
used to stand proudly at her knee, admiring the high colour 
of her cheek, and uncommon brilliancy of her fine dark hazle 
eye, while her voice, remarkably rich and clear, involunta- 
rily swelled the chorus parts of our magnificent music. 

She was a Percy ; not by name, for that had been lost in 
the female, line, some generations before ; but the pedigree 
in my possession, drawn up by Sir W. Betham, shows how 
just was her vaunt in that respect. For vaunt it she did, to 
us at least, often bringing it forward to check any tendency 
to behaviour i^nbefitting those who claimed descent from 

' The stoat Earl of Northumberland,' 

with whom I ought to be well acquainted, for the singing of 
Chevy Chace in proper time and tune with her was the only 
secular accomplishment in which my dear grandmother per- 
sonally laboured to perfect me, except knitting and curious 
old-fashioned needlework. The pride of ancestry took 
strong hold of my mind ; and such an ancestry accorded but 
too well with my romance, innate and acquired. It stood 
me, many a time, in the stead of better things, when nerving 
myself to endure affliction and wrong ; and therefore I no- 
tice it, to warn you against exposing your own children to 
the same snare. 

Next to the fashion, if not in an equal or superior degree, 
I think my grandmother most abhorred the French. In- 
deed, her strongest denunciations against the reigning modes 



ANTIQUE PREJUDICES. 69 

were usually clinched with the triurophaut assertion that they 
were *• French fashions." No marvel if her spirit was stir- 
red within her hy the horrors of revolutionary France, and 
her Protestantism strengthened by the butcheries of ninety- 
eight. I knew that she was a Protester and a Tory of no 
common stamp ; and I knew that she brought her Bible for- 
ward in support of every opinion that she uttered. Rarely 
did I visit her without finding her buried in the study of that 
blessed Book; and I know that she strove to teach me 
much of its meaning ; but our change of residence proved 
a great bar to personal intercourse, and she never wrote let- 
ters. I sometimes trace impressions on my mind, made in 
early life, which I am sure must have been through her 
means ; and though the good seed died on the grouiidy 
while the weeds took root and flourished, still here and 
there a grain might sink below the surface, to spring up af- 
ter many days. 

And now I must record my first sorrow, although I can- 
not dwell upon it as on some other things. My brother had 
been nearly two years absent, on service in the Peninsula, 
when an apoplectic attack arrested my father in the midst of 
life, and health, and vigour, and every promise of lengthen- 
ed years. The premonitory visitations of repeated strokes 
were disregarded, for we could not, would not realize the 
approach of such an event ; and persisted in believing them 
nervous: but just when all cause for alarm seemed at an 
end, and I was rejoicing in the assurance of its being so, I 
was called from my pillow at midnight to see that tender 
and beloved parent die. The bereavement was terrible to 
me : I had always been his principal companion, because no 
one else in the family had a taste for those things in which 
he delighted — literature and politics especially — and since 
my brother's departure, instead of seeking to replace him by 
friends of my own age, I had turned wholly to my father, 
never desiring to pass an hour out of his society, and striving 



70 A BEREAVEMENT. 

to be to him both daughter and son. My mother was a per- 
fect devotee to household affairs, every thought occupied in 
seeking to promote the domestic comforts of her family ; 
while I, indulging a natural antipathy to all that did not en- 
gage the intellectual powers, gave her no help thcire. I was 
truly cumbering the ground, seeking only my own gratifica- 
tion, and dignifying my selfishness with many fine names, 
only because it was best indulged in my own dear home. 
From the period of my loss of hearing, music had been 
wholly banished ; my father seemed to lose all relish for 
what could no longer minister enjoyment to me, and deeply 
I felt the force of that affection which could so instantly 
and wholly overcome the ruling passion of his mind, ac- 
companied as it was with such exquisite skill in that de- 
lightful science as rendered him the admiration of all who 
came within its influence. It redoubled my devotion to 
him ; and most bitter was the anguish of my heart, when 
I beheld him taken away at a stroke. 

Was this afllictioii sanctified to me ? Not in the least. 
I found a luxury in grieving alone, brooding on the past, 
and painting the probable future in any colours but those of 
reality. My fatheir had enjoyed two livings with a minor 
canonry in tlie cathedral, but the emolument was very small, 
and his income had not allowed him, as yet, to make any 
provision for us. A small annuity was all that my mother 
couldjdepend on, and I resolved to become a novel-writer, 
for which I was just qualified, both by nature and habits of 
thinking, and in which I should probably have succeeded 
very well, but it pleased God to save me from this snare. 
My brother's unexpected return on leave, with our subse- 
quent changes of abode, paying visits among friends, and 
keeping my thoughts constantly unsettledv hindered the ex- 
ecution of the project ; and when my brother returned to 
Portugal, we repaired to London, to make a long stay with 
some near relations. It was there that I met with the gen- 






CHANGES. 71 

tletnao, an officer on leave of absence, >whose wife, at the 
end of six months, I became. 

I am longing to arrive at that period when the light of 
the glorious gospel of Christ first shone upon me through 
the darkness of many trying dispensations : therefore I pass 
by much that intervened, including my dear brother's mar- 
riage, who returned again to London with his bride and his 
mother, to resume his staff situation there; and shall only 
take you with me across the Atlantic, for a few NoVa-Sco- 
tian reminiscences, before proceeding to the scene of my 
mo^ precious recollections, dear Ireland. My husband 
bad joined his regiment in Halifax, and sent me a sum- 
mons to follow him out without delay; in order to which 
I was obliged to embark in a large vessel taken up partially 
by government for the conveyance of troops, but in which 
there was a select party, occupying the state cabin, and 
making their own terms with the captain for the best pos- 
sible accommodation and provision on the passage. Of 
this number was I ; and certainly a more select, polished, 
and agreeable party of highly-bred gentlemen could not have 
been found. I went under the kind care of one of theses 
with his wife, who had invited me to travel with them. 

Have you ever been at sea I It is a question the answer 
to which will throw very little light on the matter unless yoa' 
also i^tate how it agreed with you ; so two races on the 
earth can be more distinct than those two are upon the wa- 
ter, — the people who are sea-sick and^ the people who are 
not. It was my happy privilege to belong to the latter clasS'; 
I never for a moment experienced even an unpleasant sensa- 
tion from any marine cause, but on the contrary enjoyed ex- 
emption from all physical annoyances during a five weeks' 
voyage, excepliiig that of hunger. An abundant stipply of 
everythHig diaft was nourishing, in the most palatable form, 
left no excuse for remaining hungry ; nevertheless the de- 
mand was incessantly kept up ; and I appeal to all who 






72 TRAVELS. 

h^ve been similarly affected, whether the muching of hard 
sea-bread from morning to night under the pressure of a 
real sea appetite, is not a greater luxury than the choicest 
viands on shore. To me it certainly was ; and surely I had 
reason to be deeply thankful to the Lord, who, by means of 
that delicious voyage, and its bracing, exhilarating effects, 
prepared me for a trying winter in the singular chmate for 
which I ^as bound. 

£very day, and all day long, be the weather viiat it might, 
I was stationed on deck; generally seated on the highest 
point of the ship's stern, directly over the isnddary to enjoy 
a full view of that most graceful and exquisite dpectacle, a 
large vessel's course through the mighty deep» Our's was 
a splendid one : a West Indiaman, almost rivalling the sen- 
palaces of the £ast India Company, and manned in the ^' 
first style. The troops on board under the command of a 
field officer, greatly added to the effect and comfort of the 
thing, for nothing is so conducive to the latter as military 
discipline, well and mildly maintained. Although our party 
vas perfectly distinct from those who went out entirely at 
the qharge of government, consisting of several officers and 
their wives, yet we too were nearly all military, including 
the commandant, and were strictly amenable to martial law. 
'Of course, that soul of domestic and social comfort, punc- 
tuality, reigned paramount ; every meal was regulated by 
beat of drum, subordination carefully preserved, and deco- 
nim, to the most minute particular, insisted on. No dis- 
tiabille could appear, in the cabin or on deck ; no litter, not 
an article of luggage visible. All the sick people, all the 
cross people, and all the whimsical people were stowed away 
in their respective berths, and such drawing-room. elegance, 
combined with the utmost freedom of good humour and the 
unrestrained frankness that results from a consciousness of 
proper restraint, pervaded our little select coterie, amounting 
to seventeen gentlemen and two ladies, that it did not need the 



PUNCTUALITY. 78 

miserable contrast which I aAervards experienced on the 
homeward passage to assure me we were among the most 
favoured of ocean travellers. How very much do they err 
who consider the absence of order and method as supplying 
greater liberty or removing a sense of restraint! Such 
freedom is galling to me ; and in my eyes, the want of 
punctuality is a want of honest principle ; for however peo- 
ple may think themselves authorized to rob God and them- 
selves of their own tiny, they can plead no right to lay a 
violent haDjd on the time and duties of their neighbour. I 
say it deliberately, that I have been defrauded of hundreds 
of poundst uul cruelly deprived of my necessary, refresh- 
ment in e:(ercise, in sleep, and even in seasonable food, 
through this disgraceful want of punctuality in others, more 
than through any cause whatsoever besides. It is also very 
irritating ; for a pbraon who would cheerfully bestow a piece 
of gold, does not like to be swindled out of a piece of cop- 
per ; and many an hour have I been ungenerously wronged 
of, to the excitement of feelings in themselves far from right, 
when I would gladly have so arranged my work as to bestow 
upon the robbers thrice the time they made me wantonly 
sacrifice. To say, 'I will come to you on such a day, 
leaving the person to expect you early, and then, after wast- 
ing her day in that uncoirfortable, unsettled state of looking 
out for a guest, which precludes all application to present 
duties, and to come late in the evening — or to accept an 
invitation to dinner, and either break the engagement or 
throw the household into confusion by making it wait — to 
appoint a meeting, and fail of keeping your time — all these, 
and many other effects of this vile habit are exceedingly 
disgraceful, and wholly opposed to the scriptural rules laid 
down for the governance of our conduct one to another. I 
say nothing of the insult put upon the Most High, the daring 
presumption of breaking in upon the devotions of his wor- 
shippers, and involving them in the sin of abstractedness 

7 



74 MOUNTAIRWAVES. 

from the solemn work before them, by entering late into the 
house of prayer. Such persons may one day find they 
have a more serious account to render on the score of their 
conteippt of punctuality than they seem willing to believe. 

But I have run away from my ship ; yet not so ; for 
aa every thing shines out most by contrast, it was natural 
to think on the ugly reverse when recalling the beautiful 
harmony and order of our regulations on board. We were 
favoured with most delightful weather, fresh and dry, and 
warm : with only one day's^ hard rain, during which the sea 
' ran mountains,' as the sailors said. I was conducted on 
deck, * just for one minute, that you may be able to say you 
have seen such a sea,' remarked the gentleman who put a 
military cloak over nie, and led me up the stairs. But who 
could be satisfied with a momentary sight of anything so 
stupendously grand ! I resisted all efforts to, persuade me 
into retreating again, and it ended in my being lashed to the 
mizen-mast by my friendly conductor, who declared that 
his head, the best landsman's head on board, would not 
stand the giddy scene ; . in short, that he should be obliged 
to report himself sick, and exchange our agreeable society 
below for the solitude of his berth. Of course I dismissed 
him, and was left among the mountains, aloD6« save when 
a sailor passed me on his duties among the rigging, and gave 
me a smile of approval; while the mao'at the wheel seemed 
to regard me as being under his especial patronage. The 
tars love one who does not flinch from their own element* 

Truly, I saw, that day, the works of the Lord and his 
wonders in the great deep ! Imagine yourself in a ship, 
large among vessels, but a mere cork upon the waters of 
that mighty main. On every side, turn where you would* 
a huge mountain of irregular form was rising; dark, smooth, 
of unbroken surface, but seeming about to burst from over- 
extension. How did you come into that strange valley t — 
how should you get out of it? — how avoid the rush of that 



0CEAN8CENERT. 75 

giant billow that even now overhangs your bark 1 These 
questions would inevitably rush through the mind ; but in a 
second of time the huge body beside you sank, — you were 
on its summit, — and another came rolling on. Meanwhile 
the ship would reel, with a slow slanting movement that 
gradually lowered the tall masts till the yards almost dipped 
in the brine, and you were either laid back on the frame 
work behind you, or well nigh suspended, looking down 
upon the water, over the ship's bulwarks. I soon discov- 
ered why my companion had so carefully buckled the 
leather strap that held me to the mast ; certainly I cannot 
recall the scene with such steadiness of nerve as I beheld 
it with. £very now and th^n a small billow would burst 
upon the vessel's side, sending its liquid treasure across 
the deck, and more than one ablution of the kind was ad- 
ded to the fresh water drenching bestowed by the clouds. 
Can you fancy the discomfort of such a situation t Then 
you were never at sea, or at least you lef\ your imagination 
ashore ; for I defy any person not well inured to it to look 
on such a scene with so negative a feeling as discomfort ; 
it will excite either terror or delight sufficient to engross the 
whole mind. 

I well remember that* when deeply affected by the gran- 
deur of this and other aspects assumed by the majestic 
main, I found the highest flights of man's sublimity too 
. They would not express, would not chime in with 
my conceptions ; and I was driven to the inspired pages 
for a commentary on the glorious scene. It was then that 
the language of Job, of Isaiah, of Habakkuk supplied me 
with a strain suited to the sublime accompaniment of God's 
magnificent work. Sunrise I could not witness, because 
at that hour no lady might appear on deck, and my cabin 
had not a side window ; but sunseti moonlight, starlight, with 
the various phenomena of ocean's ever- varying appearance, 
these furnished an endless contemplation with which no- 



76 FALSE CONFIDENCE. 

thing could accord but the language of Holy Writ. I did 
not bring forth my Bible, well knowing the bantering re- 
inarkfl to which it would have exposed me on the score of 
afiectation, but my memory ;served me equally well in that, 
as in profane poetry ; and many a precious word of warning, 
exhortation, promise, did I recite, enchanted by the sublimity 
of what, as to its spiritual meaning, was still an unknown 
tongue to me. Among these, the thirty-second of Deu- 
teronomy, the fortieth of Isaiah, and other passages full of 
the gospel, were repeatedly called to mind ; and above all, 
in blowing weather, the forty-sixth Psalm delighted me. 

You may suppose that I could not wholly forget the fact 
of being where, in the strictest sense, there was but a step 
between me and death. The first day of our voyage some 
one had quoted the expression, * there is but a plank be- 
tween us and eternity ;' not with any serious application, 
but as a fine thought. I do not think that I was ever for a 
moment unmindful of this ; .the presence of actual danger 
was always felt by me ; but concerning eternity I had no 
fears whatever. A general reliance on the boundless mercy 
of God, a recognition ,of Christ, as having suffered for our 
flins, and a degree of self-righteousness that easily threw 
my sins into the shade, while magnifying my supposed merits, 
these formed the staff whereon I leaned ; and when the 
most imminent and appalling peril overhung us, so that we 
expected to be ingulfed in the waves without hope of suc- 
cour, I looked it boldly in the face, confident in my false 
hope. Although just then revelling in enjoyments best 
suited to my natural taste, life had in reality no charms for 
me. From all that had gilded the sunny hours of youth, I 
was completely severed, and the world on which I had 
launched was a wilderness indeed in comparison with the 
Eden I had left. I would not have made the slightest effort 
to escape from death in any form, and though I was not 
senseless enough to prefer an eternity of untried wretched- 



A 8 T O KM. 77 

ness to the fleeting sorrows of mortal life, yet as my con- 
science was lulled to rest by the self-delusion that I suffered 
more than I deserved, and had therefore a claim on divine 
justice ; and as I was willing to receive the supposed balance 
of such debtor and creditor account in the world to come^ 
I was perfectly content to be summoned to my reward. 
Blessed be God that I was not taken away in that hour ot 
blind willingness ! 

The extreme peril to which I have alluded overtook us 
when within a short distance of our destination : we were 
suddenly caught by a tremendous wind from the south* 
which blew us right in the direction of Cape Sable, one of 
the most fatal head-lands in those seas. Night closed upon 
us, and the gale increased ; sails were spread, in a despa- 
rate hope of shifting the vessel's course, but were instantly 
torn into ribbands. At one time, for a moment, the rudder 
broke loose* the tiller-rope giving way under the violent strain 
upon it; and the next minute the spanker-boom, an immense 
piece of timber, snapped like a reed. It was an awful 
scene ; on the lee side, the ship lay so low in the water 
that every thing was afloat in the sleeping cabins ; and the 
poor ladies were screaming over their terrifled children, un- 
heeded by the gentlemen, every one of whom was on deck* 
The captain openly declared we were bound for the bottom, 
if a very sudden and unlikely change of wind did not take 
place. In the midst of all this, I was reported missing, 
and as I had the privilege of being every body's care, be- 
cause, for the time being, I belonged to nobody, a search 
was commenced. A young officer found me, at last, so 
singularly situated that he went and reported me to the cap- 
tain. I had climbed three tiers of lockers in the state cabin* 
opened one of the large stem windows, and was leaning out, 
as far ae I could reachi enraptured beyond expression with 
the terrific grandeur of the scene. The sky above was 
black as midnight and the storm could make it, overhanging 

7* 



78 W0NDER80FTHE DEEP. 

US like a large pall, and rendered awfully visible by the 
brilliancy of the waters beneath. I had heard of that phos- 
phdrescent appearance in the sea, but never could have im- 
agined its grandeur, nor can I essay to describe it. Even in 
perfect stillness the illuminated element would have looked 
magnificent; what, then, must it have been in a state of 
excessive, tumultuous agitation, the waves swelling up to- a 
fearful height and then bursting into sheets of foam ; every 
drop containing some luminous animalculae sparkling with 
vivid, yet delieate lustre. We were going with headlong 
speed before the wind, and I hung right over the track of 
the rudder, a wild, mad eddy of silver foam, intermingled 
with fire. There was something in the scene that far over- 
passed all my extravagant imaginings of the terribly sublime. 
The hurry, the fierceness, the riot of those unfettered waters, 
the wild flash of their wondrous lights, the funereal black- 
ness of the overhanging clouds, and the deep, desperate 
plunge of our gallant ship, as she seemed to rend her way 
through au opposing chaos ; it was perfect delirium ; and 
no doubt I should have appeared in keeping with the rest 
to any external observer ; for I was stretching out at the 
window, the combs had fallen from my hair, which streamed 
as wildly as the rent sails ; and I was frequently deluged 
by some bursting wave, as the dip of the vessel brought me 
down almost to the surface. The peril of an open window 
was startling to those on deck, and the captain, hearing that 
I refused to relinquish my post, sent the mate to put up the 
dead lights ; so I sat down on the floor, buried my face in 
my hands, and strove to realize the magnificence thus rent 
from my sight. 

Tes, God's works in the great deep are indeed wonders ! 
I^othing landward can possibly approach them ; in the ru- 
dest tempest the ground remains firm, and you feel that you 
are a spectator ; but at sea you are a part of the storm. The 
plank whereon you stand refuses to support you ; ever shift- 



EECKLESSNESS. 79 

ing its inclination, while the whole of your frail tenement is 
now borne aloft, now dashed into the liquid furrow beneath, 
now struck back by a head-sea with a shock that makes ev- 
ery timber quiver, now flung on one side as if about to reverse 
itself in the bosom of the deep — no doubt the sense of per- 
sonal danger, the death-pang already anticipated, the dark 
abyss that yawns before the sinner, and the heaven opening 
on a believer's soul, must each and any of them deaden the 
sense to what I have vainly sought to describe ; and I sup- 
pose this accounts for, the astonishment expressed by the 
whole party at my singular conduct, when the youth who 
w.as sent to Warn me of the peril, described my half-angry, 
half-reproachful pettishness at the interruption, " Can't you ;« 
let me enjoy it in peace, Mr, J 1 Shall I ever see any- 
thing like it again t Do go away." " But the captain says 
the window must be shut." " Then take me on deck, and 
you may shut it." *' That is utterly impossible, no lady 
could stand for an instant on deck, your drapery would bear 
you over the ship's side." " Then I won't shut the window, 
so go and tell Captain L not to tease me with messa- 
ges." 

This was downright recklessness. I wonder when recall- 
ing it to mind, and leer that I could not have thus sported 
with death after I acquired a good and solid hope of ever- 
lasting life. The act of dying had always great terrors for 
me, until, through adverse cirqumstances, 1 seemed to have 
nothing worth living for, and then I could laugh at it in my 
own heart. Strange to say, that fearfulness of the passage 
through the dark valley returned with double force when I 
had realized a personal claim to the guiding red and the sup- 
porting staff, and the bright inheritance beyond* But before 
this period of blessedness, of joy and peace in believing ar- 
rived, I had to pass through many waten ofafflictioOi and to 
experience remarkable interpositions at His band who was 
leading me by a path which I knew not 



1 

■'s 



80 ANARABSTEBD. 

Two of them I will mention : while at Annapolis and at 
Windsor, I had a horee provided for me of rare beauty and 
grace, but a perfect Bucephalus in her way. She waa only 
two generations removed from a splendid Arabian, given 
by the good old king to the Duke of Kent, when H. IL H. 
went out in command to NovarScotia. This creature was 
not three years old, and, to all appearance, unbroke. Her 
manners were those of a kid rather than of a horse ; she 
was of a lovely dappled gray, with mane and tail of silver, 
the latter almost sweeping the ground ; and in her frolick- 
some gambols she turned it over her back like that of a 
Newfoundland dog. Her slow step was a bound ; her 
swifl motion, unlike that of any other animal I ever rode, 
so fleet, so smooth, so unruffled — I know nothing to which 
I can compare it. Well, I made this lovely creature so fond 
of me by constant petting, to which I suppose her Arab 
character made her peculiarly sensitive, that my voice had 
equal power over her as over my docile, faithful dog. No 
other person could in the slightest degree control her ; our 
corps, the 7th Batt. of the 60th Rifles, was composed whol- 
ly of the elite of Napoleon's soldiers, taken in the Penin- 
sula, and preferring the British service to a prison. They 
were principally conscripts, and many were evidently of a 
higher class in society than is usually found in the ranks. 
Among them were several Chasseurs and Polish Lancers, 
very fine equestrians, and as my husband had a Field Offi- 
cer's command (on detachments) and allowances, our horses 
were well looked afler. His groom was a Chasseur, mine 
a Pole ; but neither could ride Fairy, unless she happened 
to be in a very gracious mood. Lord Dalhousie's English 
coachman afterwards tried his hand at taming her, but all 
in vain. In an easy quiet way, she either sent her rider 
over her head, or by a laughable manoeuvre sitting down 
like a dog on her haunches, slipped him off the other way. 
Her drollery made the poor men so fond of her that she 



XQUBSTRIANI8M. 81 

was rarely chastised ; and such a wilful, intractable, wild 
Arab it would be hard to find. Upon her I was daily moun* 
ted ; and surely the Lord vvatched over me then indeed ! 
Inexperienced in riding, untaught, unassisted, and wholly 
unable to lay any check upon so powerful an animal, with 
an awkward country saddle, which, by some fatality was 
never well fixed, bit and bridle to match, and the mare's 
natural fire increased by high feed, behold me bound for the 
wildest paths in the wildest regions of that wild country! 
But you must explore the rpads about Annapolis, and the 
romantic spot called * The General's Bridge,' to imagine 
either the enjoyment or the perils of that my happiest hour. 
Reckless to the last degree of desperation, I threw myself 
entirely on the fond attachment of the noble creature ; and 
when I saw her measuring with her eye some rugged fence 
or wild chasm, such as it was her common sport to leap over 
in her play, the soft word of remonstrance that checked her 
was uttered more from regard to her safety than my own. 
The least whisper, a pat on the neck, or a stroke down the 
beautiful face that she used to throw up towards mine, would 
control her ; and never for a moment did she endanger 
me. This was little short of a daily miracle when we con- 
sider the nature of the country, her character, and my un- 
skilfulness. It can only be accounted for on the ground of 
that wondrous power which having willed me to work for a 
time in the vineyard of the Lord, rendered me immortal un- 
til the work should be done. Oh that my soul and all that 
is within me could sufficiently bless the Lord, and remem- 
ber all his benefits ! 

I was then unmindful of, and unthankful for His protec- 
tion ; I revelled in the delights of a freedom that none could 
share but my dog, who never lefl the side of his associate. 
Shall I give you a sketch of the group, in some lines com- 
posed during one of those excursions? They may partly 
describe it. I found them among some old papers : — 



82 AFRAOMENr. 

' I know by the ardour thou can'st not restrain, 
By the curve of thy neck and the toss of thy mane, 
By the foam of thy snorting which spangles my brow, 
The fire of the Arab is hot in thee now. 
'Twere harsh to control thee, my frolicksome steed, 
I giye thee the rein — so away at thy speed ; 
Thy rider will dare to be wilful as thee. 
Laugh the. future to scorn, and partake in thy glee. 
Away to the mountain — what need we to fear? 
Pursuit cannot press oi) my Fairy's career. 
Full light were the heel and well balanced the head 
That ventured to follow the track of thy tread ; 
Where roars the loud torrent and starts the rude plank, 
And thunders the rock-severed mass down the bank, 
While mirror'd in crystal the far-shooting glow. 
With dazzling efiulgence is sparkling below. 
One start, and I die ; yet in peace I recline, 
My bosom can rest on the fealty of thine ; 
Thou lov*8t me, my sweet one, and would*st not be free 
From a yoke that has never borne rudely on thee. 
Ah, pleasant the empire of those to confess. 
Whose wrath is a whisper, their rule a caress. 

Behold how thy playmate is etretching beside, 
As loth to be vanquished in love or in pride, 
While upward he glances his eye-ball of jet. 
Half dreading thy fleelness may distance him yet. 
Ah Marco, poor Marco — our pastiihe (o-day 
Were refl of one pleasure if he were away. 

How precious these moments ! fair Freedom expands 
Her pinions of light o'er the desolate lands : 
The waters are flashing as bright as thine eye, 
Unchain'd as thy motion the breezes sweep by ; 
Delicious they come, o'er the flower-scented earth, 
Like whispers of love from the isle of my birth; 
While the white-bosomM Cistus her perfume exhales, 
And sighs out a spicy farewell to the gales. 
Unfeared and unfearing we'll traverse the wood, 
Where pours the rude torrent its turbulent flood: 
The forest's red children will smile as we scour 
By the log-fashioned hut and the pine-woven bower ; 



B^S C A r £ 8 • 83 

Tb J feathery footsteps scarce bending tbe grass. 
Or denting tbe dew-spangled moss where we pass. 

What startles thee? *Twas but tbe sentinel giin 

Flashed a vesper salute to thy riyal, tbe sun ; 

He has closed bis swifl progress before thee* and sweeps 

With fetlock of gold, tbe last verge of tbe steeps. 

The fire-fly anon from his covert shall glide, 

And dark fall tbe shadows of eve on the tide. 

Tread softly— my spirit is joyous no more, 

A northern aurora, it shone ^nd is o'er ; 

Tbe tears will fall fast as I gather tbe rein, 

And a long look reverts to yon shadowy plain.' 

♦ « • ♦ * ♦ 

* ♦ ♦ ^ « . m • ■ 

There is more of it, but nothing to the purpose of the pre- 
sent history. It cost me something to transcribe this, so vi- 
vidly is the past recalled by it. Would to God I might 
more fully devote to His service every day of the life so 
wonderfully preserved by Him ! 

In addition to this continuous preservation on horseback, 
I experienced the same interposing providence when vio- 
lently upset in a gig. The road where it occurred was strewn 
with broken rocks, on either side, for miles ; and scarcely 
one clear spot appeared, save that on which I was thrown, 
where a carpet of the softest grass overspread a perfect le- 
vel of about twelve feet in length, and nearly the same in 
width. Here I fell, with no other injury than a contusion 
on the hip. The gig was completely reversed, the horse 
dashed on till he ran one of the shafts into a bank, and set 
himself fast. 

My sojourn in this interesting country was of two years' 
duration, marked with many mercies, among the greatest of 
which was the uninterrupted enjoyment of perfect health ; 
although my first winter there was the most severe that had 
been known for thirty years, and the following summer one 
of the most oppressively hot they had ever experienced. 



84 HOUSEWIFERY, 

The gradations of spring, autumn, and twilight, are there 
scarcely known, and the sudden transition from summer to 
winter is as trying to the health of an European as that 
from day to night is uncongenial to the taste. Here, too, 
I repented at leisure, and amended with no small difficulty 
and labour, my neglect of those accomplishments to which 
my dear mother had so often vainly solicited my attention. 
The pencil was profitless ; I had long thrown it by : books 
were no longer an adequate set-oiT against realities, even 
could I have conjured up a library in the wilderness of Mo- 
va Scotia^s inland settlement : but the culinary and confec- 
tionary branches were there invaluable, and in them I was 
wofully deficient. Had I not coaxed the old French sol- 
dier who officiated as mess-cook to give me a few lessons, 
we must have lived on raw meal and salt rations during 
weeks when the roads were completely snowed up, and no 
provisions could be brought in. However, I proved an apt 
scholar to poor Sebastian, and to the kind neighbours who 
initiated me into the mysteries of preserves and pastry. 
Young ladies cannot tell into what situations events may 
throw them; and I would strongly recommend the revival 
of that obsolete study called good housewifery. The wo« 
man who caimot dispense with female servants must not 
travel : I had none for six months — keen winter mooths*- 
in Annapolis ; the only persons who could be found disen- 
gaged being of characters wholly inadmissible. The straits 
to which I was put were anything but laughable at the time, 
thoush the recollection dow often excites a smile. Indeed 
no perfection in European housekeeping would avail to 
guard against the devastations that a Nova Scotian frost 
will make, if not met by tactics peculiar to that climate. 
How could I anticipate that a fine piece of beef, fresh kil- 
led, brought in at noon still warm, would by two o'clock 
require smart blows with a hatchet to slice off a steak ? or 
that half a dozen platest pcdiactly dry, placed at a moderate 



i , 



N O V A S C O T I A . • 85 

distance from the fire preparatory to dinner, would present- 
ly separate into half a hundred fragments, through the ac- 
tion of heat on their frosted pores 1 or that milk drawn from 
a cow within sight of my breakfast table would be sheeted 
with ice on its passage diither->-or that a momentary 
pause, for the choice of a fitting phrase in writing a letter, 
would load the nib of my pen with a black icicle? If I did 
not cry over my numerous breakages, and other disasters, 
it was under the apprehension of tears freezing on my eye- 
lids : and truly they might have done so ; for my fingers 
were once in that awful condition that ni\ist have ended in 
iDortification, but for the presence of mind of a poor soldier, 
whp, seeing m6 running to the fire in that state, drew his 
bayonet to bar my approach, and wrapping a coarse cloth 
round my lifeless hands, mufi- fashion, compelled me to walk 
up and down the spacious hall until the circulation returned, 
which it did with a sensation of agony that well nigh took 
' away my senses. This was a most signal escape, for I 
was wholly ignorant of my danger, and not a little perplex- 
ed and annoyed at the insubordinate conduct of the vete^ 
ran, who was a model of respectful humility. Had he, poor 
fellow, known how busy those fingers would one day be 
against bis religion — for hQ was a French Romanist — he 
might have been tempted to sheath his bayonet and give 
me free access to the tempting fire, the immense faggots 
of which would have sufficed to roast a heretic. 

Nova Scotia is, I firmly believe, the most generally and 
devotedly loyal of all our colonies : the attachment of its 
people to the mother-country is beautiful ; and their partizan- 
ship in all questions between us and the States most zealous. 
The only fault I had to find with them was their indiffer- 
ence towards the poor relics of the Indian race still dwelling 
in the woods, who were to me objects of the liveliest inter- 
est even before I had any feeling of Christian duty towards 
the heathen ; or towards such as those, who are worse than 

8 



86 INDIANS. 

heathen, being qumbered amoi^ the members of the Romish 
Church, and utterly, wretchedly ignorant even of such little 
truth as remains baried under the mass of anti-christian error, 
to make its darkness more visible. The Indians are wholly 
despised ; scarcely looked on as beings of the same race, 
by the generality of the colonies. Where Christian prin- 
ciple prevails, they become of course, important in the high- 
est degree : but I speak of what I saw, when vital godliness 
was little known among them, and I can aver that even 
Lord Dalhousie scarcely could succeed in stirring up a mo- 
mentary interest for the dispersed Aborigines. That ex- 
cellent nobleman devoted himself very warmly to the work 
of attempting their civilization ; and told me that if a 
few would join him, heartily and 'zealously in the effort, he 
should succeed : but that what between lukewarmness on 
the one side, and aospicion on the other, he found himself 
completely baffled. It was not to be wondered at that the 
Indians had a lurking dread of experiencing again the hard- 
ships, not to say the treachery and cruelty, inflicted on their 
fathers. I enjoyed a high place in the affection and confi- 
dence of those interesting people, the origin of which may 
help to prove at how light an estimate the poor creatures 
were generally rated by their white brethren. My claim on 
their attachment consisted in nothing more than the per- 
formance of a bounden duty in sheltering for a few weeks 
one of their number, who had, in a most unprovoked and 
cruel manner, been wounded by a party of our soldiers, and 
Jefl to perish in the woods. 

How beautiful do the white cKfis of Albion appear in the 
eyes of the returning wanderer who has learned by a foreign 
sojourn to estimate the comforts, the privileges, the blessings 
of this island home ! No place could be more thoroughly 
English in feeling, habits, and principles than Nova Scotia ; 
hilt it was not England. The violent transition of seasons, 
so different from the soft gradations by which, with us, win- 



COSMOPOLITANISM.' 87 

ter brightens iuto summerf and summer fades into winter, 
marked a contrast far from pleasing ; and the intensity of 
cold, the fierceness of heat, alike unknown. in our temperate 
climate, forced comparisons far from agreeable. Thus, on 
the lowest ground of a wholly selfish feeling, the approach 
to my native shore could not be otherwise than delightful ; 
but viewed as the mother land of all her interesting colonies, 
as the great emporium of commerce, the chief temple of 
liberty, the nurse of nailitary prowess, the unconquered cham- 
pion of all that is nationally great throughout the world, the 
sight of our free and happy isle is indeed an inspiring one 
to those who can appreciate moral grandeur. How much 
more, in the eyes of the christian, is she to be esteemed as 
the glory of all lands, (until Judea again shine forth in 
that her own unalienable character,) as possessing the true 
knowledge of God, and labouring to spend that knowledge 
throughout the world ; the land of ProtestantisiOt the land 
of the Bible I 

I really cannot understand the meaning, nor fancy what 
may be the feeling, of those who profess to have merged 
their patriotism in something of universal good-will to the 
household of faith all over the world. It seems to me every 
whit as unnatural as that the members of a christian family 
should forego all the sweets of conjugal, parental, filial, fra- 
ternal love, in the determination to feel an equal regard fot 
his neighbour's wife, husband, &c., as for his own; and, 
moreover, to take an equal concern in the afiairs of his 
neighbour's kitchen as in his own household matters. This 
sort of generalizing regard would throw our respective es- 
tablishments into singular confusion, and might betray our- 
selves into sundry false positions, and very awkward pre- 
dicaments. However, the comparative extinction of natural 
affection would form the most prominently reprehensible 
feature in the case ; and I cannot but think that the boasted 
cosmopolitanism of some good people would wear an as- 






88 HOM £. 

pect not very dissimilar if rightly and. soberly viewed. 
Certainly I could no more tear the love of country from my 
heart, than I could the love of kindred ; and when my step 
again pressed the English strand, it was with a sensation 
almost resembling the fabled invigoration of the Titans, who 
derived new life, new sti^ength, new enterprise from coming 
in contact with their mother earth. 

England, indeed, contained little that was peraonally en- 
dearing to me, except my beloved surviving parent ; but it 
was a joyous thing to embrace her once more, after the deep 
roll of the ocean had separated us for nearly three years ; 
during a portion of which she had been learning to prize 
her native land in a disgusting region of all that is most 
directly opposed to liberty, civil or religious ; to honourable 
feeling, just conduct, honegt principle or practical decency. 
In short, she had been in Portugal ! 



p^\ 



mSLAND. 89 



LETTER V. 



IRELAND. 



I NOW arrive at an epoch from which I may date the corn- 
mencemeot of all that deserves to be called life, inasmuch 
as I had hitherto been living without God in the world. My 
existence was a feverish dream of vain pleasure first, and 
then of agitations and horrors. My mind was a chaos of 
useless information, my character of unapplied energies, my 
heart a waste of unclaimed affections, and my hope an 
enigma of confused speculations. I had plenty to-do, yet 
felt that I was doing nothing ; and there was a growing 
want within my bosom, a craving after I knew not what ; a 
restless, unsatisfied, unhappy feeling, that seemed in quest 
of some unknown good. How this was awakened, I know 
not ; it was unaccompanied with any conviction of my own 
sinfulness, or any doubt of my perfect safety as a child of 
God. I did not anticipate any satisfaction from change 
of place : but readily prepared to obey a summojjf from 
my husban^ to follow him to Ireland, whither he had gone 
to engage in a law-suit. To be sure I hated Ireland mo8l 
cordially; I had never seen it, and as a matter of choice 
would have preferred New South Wales, so completely wa« 
I influenced by the prevailing prejudice against that land of 
barbarism ! Many people despise Ireland, who, if you de- 

8* 



90 OXFORD. 

maad a reason, will tell yoa it is a horrid place, and the peo- 
ple all savages ; but if you press for proofs and illustrations, 
furthermore such deponents say not. 

On a dull day in April I took my place, a solitary traveller, 
in the Shrewsbury coach, quite ignorant as to the road I 
was to travel, and far less at home than I should have been 
in the wildest part of North America, or on the deck of a 
ship bound to circumnavigate the globe. We rattled out 
of London, and the first thing that at all roused my attention 
was a moonlight view of Oxford, where we stopped at mid- 
night to change horses. Those old gray towers, and mighty 
masses of ancient building, on which the silvery ray fell 
with fine effect, awoke in my bosom two melancholy trains 
of thought ; one was the recollection of my father, whose 
enthusiastic attachment to his own university had often pro- 
voked warm discussion with the no less attached Cantabs of 
our old social parties, and who of\en held out to me, as the 
greatest of earthly gratifications a visit with him to that seat 
of learning which he would describe in glowing colours. 
But where was my father now ? His poor girl, the delight 
of his eyes and treasure of his heart, was in Oxford, with 
none to guide, none to guard, none to speak a cheering 
word to her. * I shrunk back in the coach ; and grieved over 
this till a sudden turning once more threw before me the 
outline of some magnificent old fabric bathed in moonlight, 
and that called up a fit of patriotism, calculated to darken 
yet more the prospect before me. ' This was £ngland« my 
own proud England ; and these ^* the cloud-capped towers, 
the gorgeous palaces,*' that distinguished her seats of learn- 
ing above all others. I was bound — for Ireland ! What 
English young lady had ever studied the history of that re- 
mote, half- civilized settlement callied Ireland ? Not I, cer- 
tainly, nor any of ray acquaintance ; but I took it for granted 
that Ireland had no antiquities, nothing to distinguish her 
from other barbarous lands, except that her people ate po- 



I RI8B M KH. 91 

tatoes, made blunders, and went to mass. I felt it a sort of 
degradiEition to have an Irish name, and to go there as a 
resident ; hut comforted myself by resolving never in ane 
particular to give into any Irish mode of living, speaking, or 
thinking, and to associate only with such as had been at 
least educated in England. 

The next day's rising sun shone upon Stratford-on-Avon ; 
and here revived in some degree my Shaksperean mania, 
to the still higher exaltation of my English stilts, and the 
deeper debasement of all " rough Irish kernes." At Shrews- 
bury we ' parted with a kind old lady, who had shown my 
some good-natured attentions, and I was left with only an 
elderly gentleman, bound also for Dublin, who told me we 
must start at 3 o'clock the following morning for Holyhead. 
I was dreadfully dejected, and told him I hoped he would 
not think the worse of me for being so utterly alone, and 
that he would excuse my retiring to my own apartment the 
instant we had dined. He took pencil and paper, and with, 
a glow of benevolent feeling expressed his anxious desire to 
take the same care of me that he would of his own daughter, 
and to look on me as his especial charge, until he should 
give me into the hands of my lawful protector. I thanked 
him, with true English reserve, and a coldness that seemed 
rather to grate on his warm feelings, and having owned that 
his seeing my Newfoujidland dog well fed and lodged would 
be a great obligation, I withdrew to fret alone over my exile 
to this foreign land. You may call this an exaggeration, but 
it is no such thing. I delight in dwelling upon my reluctant 
approach to the land that I was to love so fondly. 

Next day my miseries were alleviated by the enchanting 
beauties of the Welsh country through which we passed ; 
and my regard for Mr. D. greatly increased by the com- 
passionate care he took of a poor sickly woman and her 
ragged infant, whom he descried on the top of the coach, and 
first threw his large cloak to them, then, with my cordial as- 



90 OXFORD. 

maad a reason, will tell you it is a horrid placet anci the peo- 
ple all savages ; but if you press for proofs aod illustrations, 
furthermore such deponents say not. 

On a dull day in April I took my place, a solitary traveller, 
in the Shrewsbury coach, quite ignorant as to the road I 
was to travel, and far less at home than I should have been 
in the wildest part of North America, or on the deck of a 
ship bound to circumnavigate the globe. We rattled out 
of London, aud the first thing that at all roused my attention 
was a moonlight view of Oxford, where we stopped at mid- 
night to change horses. Those old gray towers^ and mighty 
masses of ancient building, on which the silvery ray fell 
with fine effect, awoke in my bosom two ipelancholy trains 
of thought ; one was the recollection of my father, whose 
enthusiastic attachment to his own university had often pro- 
voked warm discussion with the no less attached Cantabs of 
our old social parlies, and who of\en held out to me, as the 
greatest of earthly gratifications a visit with him to that seat 
of learning which he would describe in glowing colours. 
But where was my father now ? His poor girl, the delight 
of his eyes and treasure of his heart, was in Oxford, with 
none to guide, none to guard, none to speak a cheering 
word to her. * I shrunk back in the coach ; and grieved over 
this till a sudden turning once more threw before me the 
outline of some magnificent old fabric bathed in moonlight, 
and that called up a fit of patriotism, calculated to darken 
yet more the prospect before me. ' This was England, my 
own proud England ; and these ** the clouid-capped towers, 
the gorgeous palaces,'' that distinguished her seats of learn- 
ing above all others. I was bound — ^ for Ireland ! What 
English young lady had ever studied the history of that re- 
mote, half- civilized settlement called Ireland ? Not I, cer- 
tainly, nor any of my acquaintance ; but I took it for granted 
that Ireland had no antiquities, nothing to distinguish her 
from other barbarous lands, except that her people ate po- 



I RI8B M KH. 91 

tatoes, made blunders, and went tt> mass. I felt it a sort of 
degradiEition to have an Irish name, and to go there as a 
resident ; but comforted myself by resolving never in ane 
particular to give into any Irish mode of living, speaking, or 
thinking, and to associate only with such as had been at 
least educated in England. 

The next day's rising sun shone upon Stratford-on-Avon ; 
and here revived in some degree my Shaksperean mania, 
to the still iiigher exaltation of my English stilts, and the 
deeper debasement of all " rough Irish kernes." At Shrews- 
bury we ' parted with a kind old lady, who had shown my 
some good-natured attentions, and I was left with only an 
elderly gentleman, bound also for Dublin, who told me we 
must start at 3 o'clock the following morning for Holyhead. 
I was dreadfully dejected, and told him I hoped he would 
not think the worse of me for being so utterly alone, and 
that he would excuse my retiring to my own apartment the 
instant we had dined. He took pencil and paper, and with 
a glow of benevolent feeling expressed his anxious desire to 
take the same care of me that he would of his own daughter, 
and to look on me as his especial charge, until he should 
give me into the hands of my lawful protector. I thanked 
him, with true English reserve, and a coldness that seemed 
rather to grate on his warm feelings, and having owned that 
his seeing my Newfoundland dog well fed and lodged would 
be a great obligation, I withdrew to fret alone over my exile 
to this foreign land. You may call this an exaggeration, but 
it is no such thing. I delight in dwelling upon my reluctant 
approach to the land that I was to love so fondly. 

Next day my miseries were alleviated by the enchanting 
beauties of the Welsh country through which we passed ; 
and my regard for Mr. D. greatly increased by the com- 
passionate care he took of a poor sickly woman and her 
ragged infant, whom he descried on the top of the coach, and 
first threw his large cloak to them, then, with my cordial as- 



92 THEJOURNET. 

aentv took them ioside, aod watched them most kiodly until 
he fell asleep. I peeped into his kind, benevolent face, and 
inwardly confessed there might be some nice people in 
Ireland. 

At the inn where we dined, I made another acquaintance. 
A younger, but middle-aged man, whose vivacity, combined 
with Welch mutton and ale, quite raised my spirits. Hearing 
from Mr. D. with what enthusiasm I had admired the sce- 
nery of Llangollen, he volunteered to hand me in at the 
coach window, a note of every remarkable place we should 
approach during the rest of the journey ; adding, ** I know 
the road pretty well, having traversed it at least twice a 
year for sixteen years, passing to and from my Irish home." 
He was a legal man, a finished gentleman, and another sad 
drawback on my perverse prejudices. Mr. F. proved an 
excellent descriptive guide, punctually reaching to me from 
the roof of the coach his little memoranda, in time for me 
to take a survey of the object concerned ; and also most 
assiduously aiding in the care of my luggage and dog when 
we were all put into the ferry-boat. 

There was then no bridge over the Menai, and I being in 
total ignorance of the route was not a little dismayed at 
the embarkation, forgetting that Holyhead was in Anglesea, 
and that Anglesea was an island. At last, when the boat 
pushed off, the opposite shore being hidden under the mist 
of deepening twilight, I addressed the ferryman in a tone of 
remonstrance that infinitely diverted the whole party, ** Surely 
you are not going to take me over in this way to Ireland !" 

" No, no," said Mr. F., " you shall have a good night's 
rest, and a better sea-boat, before we start for the dear 
green isle." 

Steamers were not then upon the packet station, and the 
wind being unfavourable, we had a passage of seventeen 
hours, not landing until two in the morning of Easter Sun- 
day. Nothing could exceed my discomfort, as you may 



THEARRIVAL. 93 

suppose, when I tell you that after paying my bill' at Holy- 
head, I, in a 5t of abstraction, deposited it very safely in 
my purse, and in its stead threw away my last bank-note. 
The mistake was not suspected until, in mid voyage, I ex* 
amioed the state of my finances, and found the sum total to 
amount to one shilling. This was an awful discovery ; my 
passage was paid, but how to reach Dublin was a mystery, 
and such wai the untamed pride of my character that I 
would sooner have walked there than confessed to the fact, 
which might have been doubted* and laid myself under the 
obligation of a loan, which I was sure of repaying in a few 
hours, even to good old Mr. D. When I stepped from the 
deck of the packet upon the plank that rested against the 
pier of Howth, I had not one single halfpenny m my pocketff 
and I experienced, without the slightest emotion, one of the 
most hair-breadth escapes of my life. 

The water was very low ; the plank, of course, sloped 
greatly, and, as soon as I set my foot on it, began to slide 
down. In another second I should have been plunged be- 
tween the vessel's side and the stone pier, without any hu- 
man possibility of rescue ; and already I had lost my bal- 
ance, when a sailor, springing on the bulwarks, caught me 
round the knees, and at the same instant Mr. F. throwing 
himself on the ground, seized and steadied the plank, until 
I recovered my footing and ran up. I shudder to recall the 
hardened indifference of my own spirit, while the kind, 
warm-hearted Irishmen were agitated with strong emotion, 
and all around me thanking God for my escape. Each of 
my friends thought I had landed under the care of the other ; 
while one had my dog, and the other my portmanteau. I. 
received their fervent ' cead-mille-failthe ' with cold polite- 
ness, and trod with feelings of disgust on the dear little 
green shamrocks that I now prize so fondly. 

We went to the hotel, and Mr. D. proposed my retiring 
to a chamber until the coach started ; but my empty purse 



94 ANESCAPE. 

would Dot allow of that, so I said I preferred sitting where 
I was. Refreshments were ordered ; but though in a state 
of ravenous hunger, I steadily refused to touch them ; f<^r 
1 would not have allowed another person to pay for me, and 
was resolved to conceal my loss as long as I could. I was 
excused, on the presumption of a qualmishness resulting 
from the tossing of the ship; and.most melancholy, most 
forlorn were the feelings with which I watchM through the 
large window the fading moonbeams and the dawning day. 
To my unspeakable joy, the two gentlemen proposed taking 
a post-chaise with me to Dublin, the expense being no more 
and the comfort much greater than going by coach-; and 
having requested Mr. F. to keep an exact account of my 
share in the charges, I took my seat beside them with a far 
lighter heart ; my dog being on the foot-board in front of 
the carriage. 

Away we drove, our horses being young, fresh, and in 
high condition. It was a glorious morning, and vainly did 
I strive not to admire the scenery, as one afler another of 
the beautiful villas that adorn the Howth road gleamed out 
in the snowy whiteness that characterizes the houses there ; 
generally embosomed in trees, and surrounded by gardens, 
on the rising grounds. We were descending the hilly road 
rery rapidly, when by some means the horses took fright, 
and broke into a full gallop, crossing and recrossing the road 
in a fearful manner. The driver was thrown on the foot- 
board, poor Tajo hung by his chain against the horses' legs, 
and our situation was most critical. I had suffered from 
one upset in America, and resolved not to encounter anoth- 
er ; so quietly gathering my long riding habit about me vnth 
one hand, and putting the other out at the window, I open- 
ed the door, and with one active spring flung myself out 
You know the extreme peril, the almost certain destruction 
of such a leap from a carriage at full speed ; I did not, or 
certainly I would not have taken it. However, at that very 



DUBLIN. 95 

instant of timet the hor8e9 made a dead stop ; and the chaise 
remained stationary only a few paces in advance of me. 

Was not the hand of God here 1 Ohi Burely it was, in 
the most marked and wonderful manner. No cause could 
he assigned for the arrest of the animals ; the driver had 
lost the reins, and no one was near. I had fallen flat on 
the road-aide, just grazihg my gloves with the gravel, and 
getting a good mout{ifiil of the soil, with which my face was 
brought into involuntary contact. In a moment I sprang to 
my feet, and blowing it out exclaimed with a laugh, * Oh, 
well ! I suppose I am to love this country afler all ; for I 
have kissed it in spite of me.' I then ran to help my dog 
out of hk disagreeable state of suspension, and returned to 
my friends, who were frightened and angry too, and who 
refused to let me into the chaise unless I positively promised 
not to jump out any more. To shorten the tale, I reached 
the Hibernian hotel, where my husband was, seized soma 
money, and paid my expenses without any one having dis* 
covered that I was a complete bankrupt up to that minute. 

I have been very prolix here ; for I cannot overlook a 
single incident connected with this eventful journey. Never 
did any one less anticipate a blessing, or look for happiness 
than I in visiting Ireland.^ I cannot enter into more par- 
ticulars, because it would involve the names of friends who 
might not wish to tigore in print ; but if these pages ever 
meet the eyes of any who gave me the first day's welcome 
in Dublin, let them be assured that the remembrance of 
their tender kindnesfl» the glowing warmth of their open 
hospitality, and their solicitude to make the poor stranger 
happy among them, broke through the ice of a heart that 
had frozen itself up in most unnatural reserve, and gave life 
to the first pulse that played within it, of the love that soon 
pervaded its every vein — the love of dear generous Ire- 
land. 

My first journey into the interior was to the King's coun- 



96 st.john'sbvb. 

ty, where I passed some weeks io a house most curiously 
situated, with an open prospect. of ten miles pure bog in 
front of it. Being^newly built, nothing had yet had time to 
grow ; but its owner, one of the most delightful old gentlemen 
I ever met with, had spared no cost to render it commodious 
and handsome. He was a fine specimen of the hospitable 
IHsh gentlemen, and took great pleasure in bringing me ac- 
quainted with the customs of a people aiid the features of a 
place so new to me. Indeed, it was my first introduction 
to what was really Irish, for Dublin is too much of a capital 
city ^to afford many specimens of distinct nationality. On 
that great festival of the peasantry, St, John's eve, Mr. C. 
. resolved on giving his tenants and neighbours a treat that 
should also enlighten me on ono of their most singular relics 
of paganism. It is the custom at sunset on that evening to 
kindle numerous imcpense fires throughout the country, 
built like our bonfires, to a great height, the pile being com- 
posed of turf, bog^'wood, and such other combustibles as 
they can gathcF. The turf yields a steady, substantial body 
of fire, the bog-wood a most brilliant flame ; and the effect 
of these great beacons blazing on every hill, sending up 
volumes of smoke from every point of the horizon, is very 
remarkable. Ours was a magnificent one, being provided 
by the landlord as a compliment to hi^ people, and was 
built on the lawn, as close beside the house as safety would 
admit. Early in the evening the peasants began to as- 
semble, all habited in their best array, glowing with health, 
every countenance full of that sparkling animation and ex- 
ceds of enjoyment that characterizes the enthusiastic people 
of the land. I had never seen anything resembling it, and 
was exceedingly delighted with their handsome, intelligent, 
merry faces, the bold bearing of the men, and the playfuJ, 
but really modest deportment of the maidens ; the vivacity 
of the aged people, and the wild glee of the children. The 
fire being kindled, a splendid blaze shot up, and for a while 



THEDANCE. 97 

thejr stood contemplating it, with faces strangely disfigured 
by the peculiar light first emitted when bogwood is thrown 
on ; afler a short pause, the ground was cleared in front of 
an old blind piper, the very beau-ideal of energy, droller^t, 
and shrewdness, who, seated on a low chair, with a well 
plenished jug within his reach, screwed his pipes to the live- 
liest tunes, and the endless jig began. 

An Irish jig is interminable, so long as the party hoid^ "* 
together ; for when one of the dancers becomes fatigued, a 
fresh individual is ready to step into the vacated place quick 
as thought ; so that the other does not pause, until in like 
manner obliged to give place to a successor. They con- 
tinue footing it, and setting to one another, occasionally 
moving in a figure, and changing places, with extraordinary 
rapidity, spirit, and grace. Few indeed among even the 
very lowest of the most impoverished class have grown into 
youth without obtaining some lessons in this accomplish- 
ment from the travelling dancing-masters of their district ; 
and certainly in the way they use it, many would be dis- 
p0(3ed to grant a dispensation to the young peasant which 
they would withhold from the young peer. It is, however, 
sadly abused among them, to Sabbath-breaking, revellings, 
and the most immoral scenes, where they are congregated 
and kept together under its influence ; and the same scene, 
enacted a year afterwards, would have awoke in my mind 
very difierent feelings from those with which I regarded 
this first spectacle of Irish hilarity, when I could hardly be 
restrained by the laughing remonstrances of ^ the quality ' 
from throwing myself into the midst of the joyous group, 
and dancing with them. 

But something was to follow that puzzled me not a little ; 
when the fire had burned for some hours, and got low, an 
indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every 
one present of the peasantry, passed through it, and several 
children were thrown across the sparkling embers ; while a 

9 



V 



98 PAGANISM. 

wooden frame of some eight feet long, with a horse's head 
fixed to one end, and a large white sheet thrown over it, 
concealing the wood and the man on whose head it was 
carried, made its appearance. This was greeted with loud 
shouts as the " white horse; " and having been safely carried 
by the skill of its bearer several times through the fire with 
a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran screaming and 
laughing in every direction. I asked what the horse was 
meant for, and was told it represented all cattle. Here was 
the old pagan worship of Baal, if not of Moloch too, carried 
on openly and imiversally in the heart of a nominally Chris- 
tian country, and by millions professing the Christian name ! 
I was confounded, for I did not then know that Popery is 
only a craflyadaptation of pagan idolatries to its own scheme ; 
and while I looked upon the now wildly excited people, with 
their children and, in a figure, all their cattle passing again 
and again through the fire, I almost questioned in my own 
mind the lawfulness of the spectacle, considered in the light 
that the Bible must, even to the natural heart, exhibt it in to 
those who confess the true God. There was no one to 
whom I could breathe such thoughts, and they soon faded 
from my mind : not so the impression made on it by this 
fair specimen of a population whom I had long classed with 
^e savage inhabitants of barbarous lands, picturing them to 
pyself as dark, ferocious, discontented, and malignant. That 
such was the reverse of their natural character I now began 
to feel convinced; and from that evening my heart gradually 
warmed towards a race whom I found to be frank, warm, and 
affectionate beyond any I had ever met with. 

My interest in them, however, was soon to be placed on 
another and a firmer basis. I took up my permanent abode 
in a neighbouring county ; and within six months after that 
celebration of St. John's eve I experienced the mighty power 
of God in a way truly marvellous. Great and marvellous 
are aU his works : in creating, in sustaining, in governing 



TRIALS. 99 

this world of wonderful creatures ; but ohf how surpassingly 
marvellous and great in redeeming lost sinners, in taking 
away the heart of stone« and giving a heart of flesh, and 
making his people willing in the day of his power! I have 
carefully abstained from any particulars respecting myself 
that could either cast a reproach on the dead or' give pain to 
the living : I shall do so still, and merely remark that as far 
as this world was concerned my lot had no happiness mingled 
in it, and that my only solace under many grievous trials 
consisted in two things : one was a careful concealment of 
whatever might subject my proud spirit to the mortification 
of being pitied when I desired rather to be envied ; and the 
other a confident assurance that in suffering affliction^ 
silently, unresistingly, and uncomplainingly, I was making 
God my debtor to ii large amount. What desperate wick- 
edness of a deceived and deceitful heart was this ! ' The 
very thing in which I so arrogantly vaunted myself before 
God was the direct result of personal pride, in itself a great 
sin ; and thus I truly gloried in my shame. I never looked 
beyond the rod to Him who had appointed it ; but satisfying 
myself that I had not meritedi from man, any severity, my 
demerits at the hand of the Most High were wholly put 
out of the calculation. Thus, of course, every stroke drove 
me furher from the only Rock of refuge, and deeper into 
the fastness of my own vain conceits. Added to this I was 
wholly shut out from all the ordinary means by which th6 
Lord usually calls sinners to himself. There was no gospel 
ministry then within my reach ; nor could I, if it were pro- 
vided, have profited by it, owing to my infirmity. Into 
Christian society I had never entered ; nor had the least 
glimmer of spiritual light shone into my mind. My religion 
was that of the pharisee, and my addresses to God included, 
like his, an acknowledgment that it was by divine favour I 
was so much better than my neighbours. Reality had so 
far chased away romance, that my old favourite authors had 



100 LEVYING DISTRESS. 

little power to charm me ; and the hollowness of my affected 
gayety and ease made society a very sickening thing. Be- 
sides, at my first coming to the very aristocratical little town 
where I then resided, I was neglected in a manner very 
mortifying to one who had been accustomed to find her level 
in society even a grade higher than that ; and this was most 
mercifully ordered, not onty to humble my intolerable pride, 
but to smooth the way for that separation from worldly asso- 
ciates which was soon to become the desire of my heart, and 
to aid me in afterwards withstanding the temptation of most 
earnest and affectionate attentions from all around me, when, 
by means of an old friend very high indeed in military com- 
mand, my real standing in society became better known to 
them. 

At the time I am now to speak of, I was living in perfect 

seclusion, and uninterrupted solitude. Captain was 

always in Dublin, and my chief occupation was in hunting 
out, and transcribing and arranging matter for the profes- 
sional gentlemen conducting the law-suit, from a mass of 
confused family papers and documents. Our property con- 
sisted of a large number of poor cabins, with their adjoining 
land, forming a complete street on the outskirts of the town, 
which was greatly in arrear to the head landlords, and a 
periodical '^ distress " took place. On these occasions, a 
keeper was set over the property ; some legal papers were 
served, and the household goods, consisting of iron kettles, 
wooden stools, broken tables, a ragged blanket or two, and 
the little store of potatoea^ the sole support of the wretched 
inhabitants, were brought out, piled in a long row down the 
street, and ' cantedi' that is, put up to sale, for the payment 
of, perhaps, one or two per cent of the arrears. This horri- 
fied me beyond measure : I was ashamed to be seen among 
the people who were called our tenants, though this proceed- 
ing did not emanate from their immediate landlord ; aud 



CONVICTIONS. 101 

everything combined to render the seclusion of my own 
garden more congenial to me than any wider range* 

It was then that I came to the resolution of being a perfect 
devotee in religion : I thought myself marvellously good ; 
but something of monastic mania seized me. I determined 
to emulate the recluses of whom. I had often read ; to become 
a sort of Protestant nun ; and to fancy my garden, with its 
high stone walls, and little thicket of apple-trees, a convent 
enclosure. I also settled it with myself to pray three or four 
times every day, instead of twice ; and with great alacrity en- 
tered upon this new routine of devotion. 

Here God met, and arrested me. When I kneeled down 
to pray, the strangest alarms took hold of my mind. He to 
whom I had been accustomed to prate with flippant volubility 
in a set form of heartless words, seemed to my startled mind 
80 exceedingly terrible in unapproachable majesty, and so 
very angry with me in particular, that I became paralyzed 
with fear. I strove against this with characteristic perti- 
nacity ; I called to mind all the common-place assurances 
respecting the sufficiency of a good intention, and magnified 
alike my doings and my sufferings. * I persuaded myself it 
was only a holy awe, the effect of distinguished piety and 
rare humility, and that I was really an object of the divine 
complacency in no ordinary degree. Again I essayed to 
pray, but in vain ; I dared not. Then I attributed it to a 
nervous state of feeling that would wear away by a little 
abstraction from the subject; but this would not do. To 
leave off praying was impossible, yet to pray seemed equally 
so. I well remember that the character in which I chiefly 
viewed the Lord God was that of an Avenger, going forth to 
smite the flrst-bomof Egypt ; and I some how identified my- 
self wilh the condemned number. Often, af^er kneeling a 
long time, I have laid my face upon my arms, and wept most 
bitterly because I could not, dared not pray. 

It was not ii> my nature to be driven back easily from any 



102 TERRORS. 

path I had entered on ; and here the Lord wrought on me 
to persevere resolutely. 1 began to examine myself* in 
order to discover why I was afraid, and taking as my rule 
the ten commandments, I found myself sadly deficient on 
some points. The tenth affected me as it never had done 
before. *' I had not known last," because I bad not under- 
stood the law when it said *' Thou shalt not covet." A 
casual glance at the declaration of St. James, ** Whosoever 
shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he is guilty 
of all," alarmed me exceedingly ; and on a sudden it occur- 
red to me that not only the ten commandments, but all the 
precepts of the New Testament were binding on a Christian ; 
and I trembled more than ever. 

What was to be done 1 To reform myself, certainly, and 
become obedient to the whole law. Accordingly I went to 
work, transcribed all the commands that I felt myself most 
in the habit of neglecting, and pinned up a dozen or two 
texts around my room. It required no small effort to enter 
this apartment and walk round it, reading my mementos. 
That active schoolmaster, the law, had got me fairly under 
his rod, and dreadful Were the writhings of, the convicted 
culprit ! I soon, however, took down my texts, fearing lest 
any one else might see them, and not knowing they were 
for myself, be exasperated. I then made a little book, wrote 
down a list of offences, and commenced fliaking a dot over 
against each, whenever I detected myself in the commission 
of one. I had become very watchful over my thoughts, and 
was honest in recording all evil ; so my boQk became a 
mass of black dots ; and the reflection that occurred to me 
of omissions being sins too, completed the panic of my mind. 
I jSubg away my book into the fire, and myself injto an abyss 
of gloomy despair. 

How long this miserable state of mind lasted, I do not ex- 
actly remember; I think about two weeks. I could not 
pray. I dared not read the Bible, it bore so very hard upon 



AWAKENED CONSCIENCE. 103 

me. Outwardly I was calm and even cheerful, but within 
reigned the very blackness of darkness. Death, with which 
I had so often sported, appeared in my eyes so terrible that 
the slightest feeling of illness filled my soul with dismay. I 
saw no way of escape : I had God's perfect law before my 
eyes, and a full conviction of my own past sinfulness and 
present helplessness, leaving me wholly without hope. Hit]>- 
erto I had pever known a day's illness for years ; one of 
God's rich mercies to me consisted in uninterrupted health, 
and a wonderful freedom from all nervous affections. I 
knew almost as little of the sensation of a head-ache as I did 
of that of tight-lacing ; and now a violent cold, with sore 
throat, aggravated into fever by the state of my mind, com- 
pletely prostrated me. I laid myself down on the sofa one 
morning and waited to see how my earthly miseries would ter- 
minate ; too well knowing, what must follow the close of a* 
sinner's life. 

I had not lain long, when a nekhbour hearii^ I was ill, 
sent me some booksr just receiv^^Hfom DubliD, as a loan, 
hoping I might find some amusem^t in them. Listlessly, 
wretchedly, mechanically I opened me — it was the memoir 
of a departed son, written by his.&th^. I read a page, de- 
scribing the approach of death, anc^ Was arrested by the youth's 
expressions of self-condemnation, his humble acknowledge- 
ment ofhaving deserved at the Lord's hand nothing but eter- 
nal death. * Ah, poor fellow, ' said I, ' he was like me. 
How dreadful his end must have been ! I will see what he said 
at last, when on the very brink of the bottomless pit. ' I re* 
sumed the book ; and found him in continuation glorifying 
God that though he was so guilty and so vile, there was One 
able to save to the uttermost, who had borne his sins, satis- 
fied divine justice for him, opened the gates of heaven, and 
now waited to receive his ransomed soul. 

The book dropped from my hands. * Oh, what is this ? 
This is what I want : this would save me. Who did this 



104 god's teaching^ 

for him ? Jesus Christ, certaialy ; and it must be written 
in the New Testament. I tried to jump up and reach ray 
Bible, but was overpowered by the emotion of my mind. I 
clasped my hands over my eyes, and then the blessed ef- 
fects of having even a literal knowledge of scripture were 
apparent. Memory brought before me, as the Holy Spirit 
directed it, not here and there a detached text, but whole 
chapters, as they had long been committed to its safe but 
hitherto unfrofitable keeping. The veil was removed from 
my heart, and Jesus Christ, as the Alpha and Omega, the 
sum and substance of everything, shone out upon me just 
as He is set forth in the everlasting gospel. It was the 
same as if I had been reading, because I knew it so well 
by rote, only much more rapid, as thought always is. In 
this there was nothing uncommon ; but in the opening of 
the understandings that I might uderstand the scriptures^ 
was the mighty miracle of grace and truth. There I lay, 
still as death, my hands still folded over my eyes,- my very 
soul basking in the pui^^^calm, holy light that streamed into 
it through the appointed channel of God's word. Rapture 
was not what I felt ;« excitement, enthusiasm, agitation, 
there was none. I was like a person long enclosed in a 
dark dungeon, the walls of which had now fallen down, and 
I looked round on a sunny landscape of calm and glorious 
beauty. I well remember that the Lord Jesus, in the cha- 
racter of a shepherd, of a star, and, above all, as the pearl 
of great price, seemed revealed to me most beautifully ; 
that he could save everybody I at once saw ; that he would 
save me, never even took the form of a question. Those 
who have received the gospel by man's preaching may 
doubt and cavil : I took it simply from the Bible, in the 
words that God's wisdom teacheth, and thus I argued : •*- 
* Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners : I am 
a sinner : I want to be saved : he will save me.' There 
is no presumption in taking Ood at his word : not to do so 
is very impertinent : I did it« and I was happy. 



JOT AND PEACE. 106 

Afler some time I rose from the sofa, and walked about ; 
my feelings were delicious. I had found Him of whom 
Moses, in the law, and 'the prophets, did write ; I had 
found the very Paschal Lamb, whose blood would be my 
safeguard from the destroying angel. Oh, how delicious 
was that particinlar thought to me ! It was one of the first 
that occurred, and I laughed with gladness. Indeed my 
feeling was very joyous, and I only wanted somebody to 
tell it to. I had two servants, one a young woman, the 
other a little girl, both papists, both loving me with Irish 
warmth. They were delighted to see me so well and hap- 
py on a sudden ; and in the evening I bade them come to 
my room, for I was going to read a beautiful book, and 
would read it aloud. I began the gospel of St. Matthew, 
and read nine chapters to them, their wonder and delight 
increasing my joy. Whenever I proposed leaving off, thjey 
begged for more ; and only for my poor throat I think we 
should have gone on till day. I prayed with them, and 
what a night's rest I had ! Sleep so sweet, a waking so 
happy, and a joy so unclouded through the day, what but 
the gospel could bestow 1 Few, very few have been so 
privileged as I was, to be leflt alone with the infallible teach- 
ing of God the Holy Ghost, by means of the written word, 
for many weeks, and bo to get a thorough knowledge of the 
great doctrines 6f salvation, unclouded by man's vain wis- 
dom* I knew not that in the world there were any who 
had made the same discovery with myself. Of all schemes 
of doctrine I was wholly ignorant, and the only system of 
theology open to me was God's own. All the faculties of 
my mind were roused and brightened for the work. I pray- 
ed, without ceasing, for divine instruction ; and took, with- 
out cavilling, what was vouchsafed. On this subject I must 
enter more largely, for it is one of immense importance. 



7 



106 EXA SI I NATION 



LETTER VI. 



RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. 

I AM Standing before you now in the character of one who* 
having been brought under conviction of sin into utter-self- 
despair, had found in Christ Jesus a refuge from the storm 
of God's anger. I felt myself safe in Him ; but as the revela- 
tion which God had made to man was not confined to the alone 
point of a satisfaction for the sins of men, I felt it my boun- 
den duty to search for all that the Most High had seen 
good to acquaint his people with. At the same time I found 
myself a member of a church, calling itself Christian ; but I, 
too, had called myself a Christian, while as yet wholly igno- 
rant of Christ, therefore I could not depend upon a name. 
I knew that there were other churches, each putting in a 
claim to a higher and purer standard than its neighbours, 
and it behooved me to know which of them all was in the 
right. I had no books of a religious character; not one : 
no clergyman among my acquaintance, no means of inqui- 
ry, save as regarded my own church, whose Liturgy and 
Articles lay before me. I resolved to bring them first to 
the test of scripture ; and if they failed, to look out for a 
better. 

How I commenced the work, and perused it, I need not 
state. I tried everything, as well as I could, by the Bible ; 



THE CHURCH. 107 

and my satisfaction was great to find the purest, clearest 
strain of evangelical truth breathing through the book which 
I bad used all my life long, as I did the Bible, without en- 
tering into its real meaning. How I could possibly escape 
seeing the doctrines of faith, regeneration, and the rest of 
God's revelation in them both, was strange to me ; but I 
understood that the natural man receiveth not the things of ' 
the Spirit of God, and mourned over the darkness that I 
supposed universal. 

I found it distinctly stated by our Lord, that ** except a 
man be born agaiot he cannot see the kingdom of God ;" 
and this served as a key to meuiy passages in the Epistles, 
and other parts of scripture illustrative of the same sol- 
emn truth. I had never understood, never thought of this. 
Did my church hold it 1 Tes ; it was not only laid down 
as a fundamental doctrine in her Articles, but constantly 
put into the mouths of her congregation, either expressed or 
clearly implied. Again, I found that not by works but by 
faith I was to by justified before God ; and this also ran 
through the prayer-book, with unvarying distinctness — 
though with that book in my hand, and its contents on my 
lips, I had been hitherto attempting to scale heaven by a 
ladder of my own forming. I then tried the creeds by scrip- 
ture, which would have been a very laborious work, unas- 
sisted as I was by any exposition or references^ had not my 
memory been well stored with the word of God, while, as 
I humbly hq>e, the Holy Spirit took of the things of Christ, 
and showed them unto me. The only clause in the creeds 
that startled me was that of our Lord's descent into hell ; 
that he ever visited the place of the condemned spirits I 
could not believe, nor do I now believe it, nor ever for a 
moment gave credit to the monstrous assertion since that 
period. If by hell is meant the place of separated souls, as 
I was afterwards told, why not call it by a less ambiguous 
name 1 However* I would not for one uncertain phrase, 



l08 



80GINI AI SM. 



which I then suspected and now know to be a modern inter- 
polation, reject a whole system. I contented myself with 
refraining from making that confession ; and on all occa- 
sions substituting when I could the beautiful Nicene creed 
for the other. Of course, this declaration will bring on me 
a storm of censure from some quarters : so be it. I am 
relating facts ; and happy would it be for the church and 
country if all who in some minor matters hesitate at using 
expressions made choice of by the fallible compilers of mere 
human compositions, would allow themselves the saine lib- 
erty, instead of falling into schism and swelling the ranks of 
dissent. 

The Athanasian creed, brought to my recollection a cir- 
cumstance that had occurred a few years before ; the im- 
portance of which had never been known to me until I was 
brought acquainted with the saving truths of the gospel. I 
DOW looked back upon it with trembling joy and gratitude to 
Him who had preserved me from a snare into which the 
pride of intellect, joined to spiritual ignorance, would have 
been sure to lead me, but for the watchful care of my Heav- 
enly Father, still working by means of my blind but sincere 
reverence for his word. I have mentioned that in my na- 
tive town Socinianism flourished to a fearful extent ; it has 
long been a very hot- bed of that fatal heresy; the holders 
of which are found among many leading characters of 
wealth, influence, and high attainments. I knew no more 
of it than that it was one of the many forms of dissent, with 
which I had nothing to do ; I was acquainted with several 
of its disciples ; but; as religion formed no part of our social 
intercourse, its peculiarities were wholly unknown to me. 

Not long before my trip to America, I had been staying 
in Norwich, in the same house with a most clever, intelli- 
gent, and amiable woman, of whom I was very fond. I 
knew her to be a Dissenter, and that was all. One evening 
she drew me into a conversation, the commencement of 



TEMFTATIOK. 109 

which I forget, but it sooa arrived at a denial, on her part, 
of the Godhead of Christ ; which exceedingly astonished 
me, for I never supposed that could be called in question. 
I ran for the Bible, saying I would soon show hec that 
it was not to be disputed ; and she in return asserted that I 
could not prove it oi^t of the inspired scriptures, AAer 
poddering for awhile, I recollected the first c|;iapter of Reve- 
lation, which for its sublimity I ranked among tibe highest of 
my poetical gems, and that it unequivocally proclaimed the 
divinity of our glorious Lord. I opened at it, on which she 
burst into a laugh, saying, * Tou are not so weak as to fan- 
cy that book of riddles any part of God's word ]' ' Why, 
it is in the Bible, you see,' replied I, half indignantly. 'Apd 
who put it there? Con^, you are a person of too much 
aense to believe that the binding up of certain leaves be- 
tvl^een the two covers of the Bible makes them a part of it. 
Tou must .exercise the reason that God has given you ; and 
in 60 doing you will discover so many interpolations and de- 
ceptions in that version of yours, that you will be glad to 
find a more accurate one.' 

She continued in the same strain for some time. I was 
greatly agitated : I closed the great Bible, and leaning on 
it, with folding arms, my heart beating violently against 
the* bright red cover, I gave heed to all she said. My love 
of novelty, passion for investigation, and the metaphysical 
turn that had sometimes made my father quite uneasy about 
me, when he saw me at eight years old pouring over ab- 
struse reasonings with the zest of an old philosopher, were 
all in her favour. I felt as if the foundation of my faitb 
was giving way, and I was being launched on a sea of 
strange uncertainty. When she concluded, I laid my for&p 
head on the book, in most deep and anxious thought. I 
did not pray : God was found of one who sought him not ; 
for mvcely he alone dictated my answer. I started up, and 

with the greatest vivacity said, ' Mrs. ^i if you cad per- 

10 



108 80GINIAISM. 

which I then suspected and now know to be a modern inter- 
polation, reject a whole system. I contented myself with 
refraining from making that confession ; and on all occa- 
sions substituting when I could the beautiful Nicene creed 
for the other. Of course, this declaration will bring on me 
a storm of censure from some quarters : so be it. I am 
relating facts ; and happy would it be for the church and 
country if all who in some minor matters hesitate at using 
expressions made choice of by the fallible compilers of mere 
human compositions, would allow themselves the saine lib- 
erty, instead of falling into schism and swelling the ranks of 
dissent. 

The Athanasian creed. brought to my recollection a cir- 
cumstance that had occurred a few years before ; the im- 
portance of which had never been known to me until I was 
brought acquainted with the saving truths of the gospel. I 
now looked back upon it with trembling joy and gratitude to 
Him who had preserved me from a snare into which the 
pride of intellect, joined to spiritual ignorance, would have 
been sure to lead me, but for the watchful care of my Heav- 
enly Father, still working by means of my blind but sincere 
reverence for his word. I have mentioned that in my na- 
tive town Socinianism flourished to a fearful extent ; it has 
long been a very hot-bed of that fatal heresy; the holders 
of which are found among many leading characters of 
wealth, influence, and high attainments. I knew no more 
of it than that it was one of the many forms of dissent, with 
which I had nothing to do ; I was acquainted with several 
of its disciples ; but as religion formed no part of our social 
intercourse, its peculiarities were wholly unknown to me. 

Not long before my trip to America, I had been staying 
in Norwich, in the same house with a most clever* intelli- 
gent, and amiable woman, of whom I was very fond. I 
knew her to be a Dissenter, and that was all. One evening 
she drew me into a conversation, the commencement of 



TEMFTATIOK. 109 

which I forget, but it soon arrived at a denial, on her part, 
of the Godhead of Christ ; which exceedingly astonished 
me, for I never supposed that could be called in question. 
I ran for the Bible, saying I would soon show hec that 
it was not to be disputed ; and she in return asserted that I 
couW not prove it out of the inspired scriptures. AAer 
poddering for awhile, I recollected the first c|;iapter of Reve- 
lation, which for its sublimity I ranked among the highest of 
my poetical gems, and that it unequivocally proclaimed the 
divinity of our glorious Lord. I opened at it, on which she 
burst into a laugh, saying, *• Tou are not so weak as to fan- 
cy that book of riddles any part of God's word ]' ' Why, 
it is in the Bible, you see,' replied I, half indignantly. 'Apd 
who put it there? Com@, you are a person of too much 
aense to believe that the binding up of certain leaves be- 
tvreen the two covers of the Bible makes them a part of it. 
Tou must .exercise the reason that God has given you ; and 
io 60 doing you will discover so many interpolations and de- 
ceptions in that version of yours, that you will be glad to 
find a more accurate one.' 

She continued in the same strain for some time. I was 
greatly agitated : I closed the great Bible, and leaning on 
it, with folding arms, my hecu-t beating violently against 
the* bright red cover, I gave heed to all she said. My love 
of novelty, passion for investigation, and the metaphysical 
turn that had sometimes made my father quite uneasy about 
me, when he saw me at eight years old pouring over ab- 
struse reasonings with the zest of an old philosopher, were 
all in her favour. I felt as if the foundation of my faith 
was giving way, and I was being launched on a sea of 
strange uncertainty. When she concluded, I laid my for&p 
head on the book, in most deep and anxious thought. I 
did not pray : God was found of one who sought him not ; 
fer Borely he alone dictated my answer. I started up, and 

with the greatest vivacity said, ' Mrs. ^ if you cad per- 

10 



110 METAPHrSlbSr 

suade me that the book of RevelatioQ is not iBspired, an- 
. other person may do the same with regard to the book of Ge- 
nesis ; and so of all that lie between theUt till the whole 
Bible is taken away from n^e. That will ne^er do ; I can- 
not part with my dear Bible* I believe it alU every word 
of it; and I am sure I should be miserable if I did- not.' 
Then, kissing the precious volume with the aiTcction one 
feels for what is in danger of being lost to us, I carried it 
back to its shelf, and declined any further discussion on the 
subject. She told some one else she was sure of having 
me yet : but the good providence of God interposed to re- 
move me from the scene of danger* 

That metaphysical turn I omitted to mention among my 
early spares : my father checked it although it was a great 
hobby of his own. He had seen its fearful abuse in the 
•rigin of the French revolution, and regarded it as one of 
the evil spirits of the age. I recollect the mixture- of mirth 
and vexation depicted in his face one morning, when, on 
remarking that I did not look well, and inquiring if any thing 
ailed me, I replied, ' No, but I could not get any sleep.' 

* What prevented your sleeping^ ' 

* I was thinking, papa, of '' CogitOf ergo ram," and I lay 
awake, trying to find out all about it.' 

* M Cogiio^ ergo mim ! " ^ repeated my father^ laughing 
and frowning at the same time, ' what will you be at twenty, 
if you dabble in metaphysics before you are ten T Come, 
I must set you to study £uclid : that will sober your wild 
head a little.' I took the book with great glee, delighted to 
have a new field of inquiry ; but soon threw it aside. Math- 
ematics and I could never agree. Speculative and imagi- 
native in an extraordinary degree, carrying much sail with 
scarcely any ballast, what but the ever-watchful care of Him 
who sitteth upon the circle of the earth could have prBservtd 
from fatal wrecking a vessel so frail, while yet without pilot, 
helm or chart ! 



J 
I 



ATIIANASIAN GREED. Ill 

Ijt was the recollection of my short encounter with the 
Socinian that patuified me respecting the Athaeasiao creecU 
I felt that had I taken up its bold assertions, and established 
. every one of them, as tK>w I did, by Scripture, no sqphistry 
could have staggered my faith, though it had been but a 
reasoning, not a saving faith, in that high doctrine of the 
co-existent co-equal Trinity. I did not then know, — for 
of all Church history I was ignorant, — that its original 
object was not so much to establish a truth, as to detect and 
defeat a falsehood. The damnatory clauses, as they are 
called, did not startle me. I saw clearly the fact that God 
had made a revelation of Himself to man, which revelation 
man was not at liberty to receive or to reject ; and as with- 
out faith it is impossible to please God, and that alone is 
faith which implicitly believes the record that he hath given 
of his Son, the deductions in question were perfectly fair 
and orthodox. I frequently wondered, when subsequently 
brought into the arena of various controversies, at the ,eas8 
with which, aided by the Bible alone, I settled so many dis*- 
puted points ; and as it really was by the Bible I settled 
them, man's teaching has never yet on any subject altered 
my views. 

The only serious difficulty that I met, was in trying to 
receive the doctrine of Election. I read the seventeenth 
article, where I, at least, found it most palpably insisted on ; 
and I remembered having, in childhood, heard many hot 
disputes on that subject. My grandmother held it, but she 
was nearly alone in her opinion ; and I was accustomed to 
hear it very much denounced, which no doubt left a preju- 
dice on my mind. I resolved to search it out most diligently : 
but wiling first to be thoroughly, grounded in the vital points 
of the Go-equality of the three persons in the Godhead, I read 
the Book of the Acts with an express view to the latter. In 
80 doingi I became fully and undesignedly convinced on that 
of Election as held bf those called Calvinistic divines, not 



112 AN EPOCH. 

one of whom, to my knowledge, had I ever met with. Afler 
this I traced it in every part of the Scriptures, running like a 
golden thread through, the whole Bible. I have been closely 
pressed by its opponents on more than one occasion, and 
urged to read treatises on the subject ; pro or con, no treatises 
have I read : man can tell me no more tlian that God has 
clearly revealed it, therefore man cannot strengthen a belief 
founded on the sure word of God : or if he tells me it is not 
revealed, I know that it is ; because I have found it so, and 
relinquish it I never can. 

Whether it be regarded as presumptuous or not, I must 
thankfully avow that during the weeks when I was lefl alone 
With my Bible, I obtained a view of the whole scheme of 
redemption, and God's dealings with man, which to this hour 
I have never found reason to alter in any one respect, save 
as greater light has continually broken in on each branch of 
the subject, strengthening, not changing those views. You 
will see in the progress of my sketch, how complete a bul- 
wark against error in numberless shapes t have found in this 
simple adherence to the plain word of truth ; this habit of 
bringing every proposition '* to the law and to the testi- 
mony ; '^ fully persuaded that '* if they speak not according 
to Ibis word, it is because there is no light in them. 

I now proceed to an interesting epoch in my life : the 
commencement of my literary labours In the Lord's cause. 
It marks very strongly the over-ruling hand of Him who was 
working all things after the counsel of his own will ; and I 
will give it you without curtail nient, together with my intro- 
duction, through it, to the Christian community of theiand. 
My life, as I told you, was solitary and retired ^ my time 
chiefly passed in writing out documentary matters for the 
lawyers. The law-suit, concerning a property not worth 
litigating, had already been carried into three courts. Chan- 
cery, King's Bencbi and Prerogative, and the labour devolv- 
ing on me was most irksome. Tbto circumstance of my 



MY FIRST TRACT. 113 

using the pen so incessantly became known, and I was looked 
on as a literary recluse. One day a lady, personally unknown 
to me V but whose indefatigable zeal was always seeking the 
good of others, sent me a parcel of tracts. With equal 
wonder and delight I opened one of them, a simple, spiritual 
little productioD ; and the next that I took up was an induce- 
ment to distribute tracks among the poor. From this I 
learned that some excellent people were engaged in a 
work quite new to me ; and, with a sigh, I wished I had the 
medns of contributing to their funds. Presently the thought 
flashed upon me, ^ Since I cannot give them money, may 
I not write something to be useful in the same 'way V I 
bad just then no work before me ; and a long winter eve- 
ning at command. I ordered large candles, told the ser- 
vants not to interrupt me, and sat down to my novel task. 
I began about seven o'clock, and wrote till three in the 
morning ; when I found I hiid produced a complete little 
story, in the progress of which I had been enabled so to set 
forth the truth as it is in Jesus, that on reading it over I was 
amazed at the statement I had made of scriptural truth, and 
sunk on my knees in thankfulness to God. Next morning I 
awoke, full ofjoy^ but much puzzled as to what I should do with '' 
my tract. At length, in the simplicity of my heart, I resolyiod 
to send it to the Bishop of Norwich, and busied myself, at 
the breakfast-table, in computing how many franks it would 
fill. While thus employed, a note was put into my hands, 
from Miss D., apologizing for the liberty taken, saying she 
had sent me, the day before, some tracts, and as she heard 
I was much occupied with the pen, it had occurred to her 
that I might be led to write something myself, in the possi- 
bility of which she now enclosed the address of the Secretary 
to die Dublin Tract Society, to whom such aid would be 
most welcome. 

I was absolutely awe-strdck by this very striking incident. 
I saw in it a gracioUiik'lcceptance of my (ree-will oflerinfir at 

10* 



114 ANEWFKIERO. 

His hands to whom it had been prayerfully dedicaited ! tnd 
in two hours the manuscript was on its way to Dublin, with 
a very simple letter to the Secretary. A cordial answer, 
commendatory of my tract, and earnestly entreating a con- 
tinuance of such aid soon reached me, with some remarks 
and questions that required a fuller communication cf my 
circumstances and feelings. He had recommended frequent 
intercourse with the peasantry, of whose habits and modes 
of expression I was evidently ignorant, and I then mentioned 
my loss of hearing as a bar to this branch of usefulnesSi. 
His rejoinder was the overflowing of a truly Christian heart, 
very much touched by an artless account of the Lord's deal- ' 
ings with me ; and greatly did my spirit rejoice at having 
found a brother in the faith thus to cheer and strengthen me. 

But alas ! a few days afterwards, Miss D. whom I had 
still never seen« wrote to apprize me that this excellent man 
had ruptured a blood-vessel and was dying. Still he did not 
forget me, but after lingering for some weeks, on his death- 
bed commended me to the friendship of his brother, who 
ftom that period proved a true and valuable helper to me. 

Meanwhile I was beg'inning to take a view of Popery, 
under the light of the gospel. As yet, I knew nothing of it 
spiritually ; and my retired life kept me from observing how 
it worked among the poor people around. My attention was 
first directed to it by a conversation with the younger of my 
two servants ; she slept in my apartment, and I remarked 
that while kneeling at her devotions she not only uttered 
thern with amazing rapidity, but carried on all the while the 
operation of undressing, with perfect inattention to what she 
was saying. I asked her the purport of her prayers ; she 
told me she said the " Our Father," and then the " Hail 
Mary : " at my reqifbst she repeated the lieitter, and I gave 
her a gentle lecture on the irreverence of chattering to God 
so volubly, and of employing herself about her clothes at the 
same time ; adding that she should oe devout, deliberate, 



BAIL mart! 115 

and quiet whilo speaking to God ; but as for the Virgin 
Mary it was do matter how she addressed her, if address 
her she would, for being only a dead woman she could know 
nothing about it. This, I am ashamed to say, was the ex- 
tent of my actual protest at that time. The girl took it all 
very readily, and ever after, during her address to God she 
knelt with her hands joined, repeating the words slowly and 
seriously ; but the moment she commenced the " Hail 
Mary," to make op for lost time she prattled it so rapidly^ 
and tore open die fastenings of her dress with such bustling 
speed, that I could scarcely refrain from laughing. A, little 
reflection, however, convinced me it was an act of idolatry, 
and no laughing matter ; and from that time I inquired as 
deeply as 1 could into their faith and practice ; constantly 
showing them from the Scriptures how contrary their religion 
was to that of the gospel. Still it was but a very partial and 
superficial view that I could as jei obtain of the great mys- 
tery of iniquity through these ignorant and thoughtless girls ; 
and to this must be attributed my sad failure in not warning 
them more distinctly to come out of Babylon. I rather tried 
to patch up the old, decayed, tattered garment with the new 
piece of the gospel, as many more have done ; and so to 
make the rent worse instead of replacing the vile article 
with one of God's providing. 

One of the most interesting and delightful subjecta opened 
to me by my study of the Scriptures during this happy pe- 
riod was that of the Jews. I had always felt deeply in- 
terested for them, and looked forward to their conversion, 
individually, to Christ ; but nationally I was still in the dark 
about them. JNow, I plainly saw the nature and extent of 
God's covenanted pledge to Abraham, and became fully 
convinced that their national restoration was a revealed truth, 
and that the church would never attain to any triumph on 
earth in which the Jews, as Jews, did not bear a very prom- 
inent part. Happily untaught in the spiritualizing process 



116 CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 

bj wl^ich the divine promises to Israel are wrested from 
their evideot, literal sense, I took all that I read as primarily 
applicable to those who were distinctly addressed by name, 
though plainly seeing that there was an allowable adaptation 
of them to the Gentile church. Many a time have I knelt 
idown, with the ninth chapter of Daniel spread before me, 
jfervently and with tears pleading in his words for his peo- 
ple. It was not until long afterwards that, on urging upon 
a piouB clergyman the duty of combining in some great ef- 
fort for the conversion of the Jews, I learnt to my surprise 
and delight of the existence of such a (Society. I need not 
tell you that the impression made on my mind by the Bible 
when I had no other teacher, has been continually deep- 
ening for twenty years ; and that nothing which man could 
say or write ever for a moment shook my conviction on the 
subject. I laid hold on the w6rd of promise, and urged it 
on all within my reach, from my very first intercourse with 
Christians : and I have watched with joy the rapid unfolding 
of God's purposes towards the Jews, both in disposing the 
hearts of Gentiles towards their cause, and in evidently 
preparing the way for their speedy restoration. 

When that excellent man, Mr. D. was committed to the 
grave, his younger brother visited me on his way back to 
Dublin. That interview I shall^ever forget ; he talked to 
ne out of the overflowiogs of a heart devoted to Christ, and 
left me pining for more extended enjoyment of Christian so- 
ciety. I was not long ungratified ; within three days an 
unexpected summons took me to Dublin, and on the very 
evening of my arrival Mr. D. introduced me to a party of 
about thirty pious friends, assembled to meet a missionary 
just returned from Russia. Remember, these were the 
frank, unrestrained, warm-hearted Irish, of all people the 
most ready at expressing their zealous and generous feel- 
ings ; and imagine, if you can, my enjoyment, after such a 
long season of comparative loneliness, when they came 



'<, 



DIS«fiN T. 



117 



about me with the affectionate welcome that none ca^^ utter 
and look so eloquently aa thej can ! I thought it a foretaste 
of heavenly blessedness ; and jet I oHen longed for those 
seasons when I bad none but my God to commune with, 
and poured out to Him all that now I found it delightful to 
utter to my fellow-creatures. Then, my tabernacle ?ra8 in- 
deed pitched in the wilderness, and the candle of the Lord 
shone brightly upon it ; now, die blending of many inferior 
lights distracted my mind from its one object of contem- 
plation, and broke the harmony that was so sweet in ita 
singleness. 

A few months afleiHhis, the law-^suit being ended, my hus- 
band was ordered abroad. I declined to crosa the Atlantic 
a second time, and from this period I became chiefly de- 
pendent on my own exertions. My mother had joined me 
in Ireland, having been made a partaker in the like pre- 
cious faith and hope with myself. The next event to which 
I shall advert is a strong temptation to separate from the 
established church, under circumstances that have led very 
many to forsake the pale of her communion. I have ob- 
served that at the time in question there was rio gospel 
preached in the pulpits of the establishment near me ; I, 
however, a year afler my reception of the truth, became ac- 
quainted with a most godly, zealous, and truly able minister 
who officiated in the Independent chapel. We found that 
he had to travel late at night or to put up at an inn, as his 
regular charge was at some distance, and we freely oflered 
him such hospitality as our house would afford. He took 
no unfair advantage to urge us into his own communion ; 
the contrast of his character and deportment to those of the 
pleasure-loving divines to whom we had been long accus- 
tomed ; the spirituality of his conversation, the excellency 
of his preaching, and the privilege of his domestic ministry 
in our little household at his weekly visit, all wrought to 
predispose me when, in the way of equal communication. 



118 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

we came to discuss the grouqds of his dissent Had I not 
already brought my prayer-book to the test, in the way re- 
lated, before any bias could disturb my mind, I really think 
I should have been overcome in an argument where the 
odds were so strong against me ; but thus prepared I could 
repel all charges on fundamental points ; and in matters in- 
different, I refused to recognise a sufficient excuse for sepa- 
rating from what in its constitution was decidedly sqriptural 
and good. My church was taxed with being essentially 
popish, and in rebutting this I became better acquainted 
with her essential Protestantism. She was denounced as a 
worldly, secular system, opposed to the declaration of our 
Lord that his kingdom is not of this world ; but I had sense 
enough to see, and to point out the total irrelevancy of that 
hackneyed quotation to the subject of ecclesiastical eatab* 
lishments. The unholy lives of too many of her clei^t 
with their shameful neglect of the souls committed to them, 
I could not deny ; but already a great revival had taken 
place among the Irish parochial clergy ; it was proceeding 
rapidly ; and while this evidenced that God was still with 
her, I could also point to the ordination vows, and show that 
it was to the wickedness of individuals in breaking the most 
solemn engagements, not to any defect in the system, or 
any lack of strong injunctions to zeal, diligence, and devo- 
tion, we must attribute the acknowledged evils existing 
among others. My friend, ^, always mild, kind, and 
charitable on other subjects, generally laid aside these chcu*- 
acteristics when on this, and assailed the established church 
with weapons of ridicule, sarcasm, scorn, and bitterness, 
which certainly produced on me the contrary effect to what 
was intended. He seemed to me to pay little attention to 
the spiritual wants of the poor deluded Romanists, rather 
seeking to convert Episcopalians into Dissenters, than Pa- 
pists into Christians. Measuring all things by the standard 
of the written word, I became more fully convincedt the 



8CCCE88I01C. 119 

more I examined the matter, that there was no just cause 
why a believer should quit the communion of a church clearlj 
built 00 the foundation of the prophets and apostles ; and 
even under the disadvantages of such a location as I have 
described, I continued firm in my attachment to her. Some 
people told me I ought to take higher ground in upholding^ 
the episcopal establishment of this country. If they will 
point out to me any ground higher than the top of the rock 
whereon I believe her to stand, that rock being Christ, I 
.will take it ; but none, none so high, none so sure can be 
found. Apostolical succession in office is a good thing 
when the succession in doctrine is equally clear ; otherwise 
they who now officiate in the mosque of Omar, standing on 
the site of the temple in Jerusalem, and he who sits su- 
preme in the see of Rome, the man of sin, and son of per- 
dition, may respectively claim succession to the Aaronic 
priesthood and the apostoKc ministry. I do not deny that 
a regular succession exists in the British churches^ derived 
from an apostolic mission, long before Augustine or any 
other Romish emissary set foot on our soil to pollute the 
stream ; but I should never for a moment dream of adducing 
that as an argument against one who calls in question the 
scripturality of our church, since in so doing I might admit 
the motlier of harlots and abominations of the earth to a 
participation in the privileges which none but the lamb's 
pure wife has any claim to. For my own part, I had never 
heard of such a things when God enabled me to stand firm 
as a member of this midigned church of England ; and it 
is one of the many cases in which I had nothing to un)^am« 
just because man had taught me nothing, but all I knew 
was drawn from the clear fountain of eternal truth, opened 
in the pages of that precious volume, for the giA of which 
all praise and glory be to God, through Christ Jesus, now 
and forever ! 



120 ^t^ . EILEE.NNT, 



LETTER VII, 



KILKENNY. 



I AM now to bring you into the stirring scenes of that time 
and place where the rebellious spirit of B^pish agitation had 
just broken out afresh in Ireland. An invitation to pass 
some weeks in the county of Kilkenny led us to it as guests ; 
and inducements that it was not easy to resist fixed us there 
as residents for three years. In this part of my narrative 
no disguise is needful ; the facts are before the world, and 
the estimable man who was made the first victim pf this 
atrocious conepiracy is gone to his rest, aflter patiently €ii* 
during years of persecution^ of exile, and of bodily and 
mental suffering induced by the scenes he was compelled to 
pass through* 

Yicarsfield, the beautiful parsonage of Dn Hamilton, is 
in the county, ten Irish miles from the town of. Kilkenny. 

, Knoctopher is the parish ; and at that time the old church 
was itaoding, about half a mile from the vicarage, which 
atood secluded, withdrawn from the public road, nestjed in 
the rich foliage of many fine trees, and adorned with lovely 
pleasure-grounds. It was the happy privilege of that truly 
pious minister to originate the clerical meetings which were 
80 eminently, so extensively blessed to the clergy of that 

diocese, over which his father had presided as bishop. For 



VIGEARSriELD. 121 

many years they were held at his house, and truly rich were 
these seasons to all who inhabited it \ Dr. Hamilton was 
a man of fine mind, deep erudition, unbounded benevolence, 
and Christian sjn^eetness that endeared him to every one. 
His income was considerable ; and while exercising the 
rites of a truly Irish hospitality on a noble scale, he expended 
a large proportion of that income in works of charity equally 
judicious, liberal, and impartial. He had under his roof 
thirteen poor girls, who were educated, maintained, taught, 
in all the requisites of good household servants, and finally 
placed out in the families of his friends. Mrs. Hamilton 
seemed to have her heart in this school, over which a very 
competent mistress presided, and a more beautifully ordered 
little nursery of valuable domestics I never saw. Besides 
this, large benefactions were distributed, in clothing, fuel, 
and other necessaries, among the poor of the parish, without 
any regard to religious distinction ; and as the Romanists 
amounted to above twelve hundred, while the Protestants 
could not muster one, and the former were infinitely more 
necessitous than the latter, of course nearly all went to 
them. I dwell upon these things and upon the exceeding 
kind-heartedness of the good clergyman and his alSectionate 
poitoer towards their poor neighbours, because it throws ad- 
ditional light on the real origin of those acts which the Eng- 
lish people were made to believe resulted from oppression 
on the part of the Protestant clergy. 

When tirst I went to Knocktopher in the summer of 1821, 
no open act of violence had been committedi or publicly 
threatened, in its immediate vicinity ; but already the name 
of Captain Rock was becoming formidable. The place 
borders on Tipperary, from whence came nocturnal partiesi 
scouring the country and alarming the inhabitants on a small 
scale, while the prelude to much darker scenes was to be 
traced in the wide circulation of what were called the pro- 
phecies of Pastorini. A Dr. Walmsley, a poposh priest, 

11 



122 ROCRITEH. 

had written a commentary on the book of Revelation, under 
that name, wherein he explained the assent of the locusts out 
of the bottomless pit to prefigure the rise of Protestantism 
with Luther at it shead ; — calculating the date of their 
continuance from 1625, and fixing its termination in 1925. 
Extracts from this impudently mischievous work were dis- 
seminated in every possible form among the Romanists ; they 
were translated into Irish, sent in large numbers to every dis- 
trict to be circulated by careful agents : published in hand- 
bills, exhibited in placards, and sung in doggrel rhyme through 
the streets. There wa^ no article of their faith more devoulty 
believed by the besotted people than that in 1825 the Protes- 
tants of Ireland and of every other country were, by divine 
. appointment to be put to death, except such as should recant ; 
And while the lower orders prepared with terrible alacrity to ex- 
ecute the will of God by a general massacre of their unoffend- 
ing neighbours, those of higher rank and gentler spirits applied 
themselves to the work of converting their Protestant friends. 
Tokens of the rising storm were visible to those who 
watched for them ; the peasantry began to exchange their 
courteous, respectful demeanour towards the Protestant gen- 
try for a bearing that bespoke either defiance or lurking 
malignity. Threatening notices poured in upon the landlords 
who presumed to dispose of their property as they chose, and 
upon the clergy who, in default of payment were obliged to 
serve processes for the tithe. Proctors were waylaid, pro- 
cess servers cruelly murdered : &nd the organization of 
hostile bodies became daily more apparent. As yet, how- 
ever^we dwelt in comparative security ; Dr. Hamilton often 
rode out with me to the very verge of the dreadful Tipperary ; 
and his lady drove my mother in her little phaeton to the 
boundaries of Waterford. No unusual precautions were 
taken in the way of bolts and bars ; and when the good 
Doctor calmly put into his pocket some of the many letters 
delivered at the breakfast table, after a slight glance at their 



A WfiW RESIDCKOC. 128, 

contents, none ' of us suspected that they were RockUe 
notices, fiercely threatening: his life, and signed in blood* 
He applied, privately, for a body of police, who were sta- 
tioned at an old mansion, midway between Yicarsfield and 
the Tipperary pass, called Castle Morris ; and when com- 
mitting his household to the Lord's keeping, at our evening 
worship, the deep earnestness, of his manner, and resigned 
look, a slight tremor of his frame awoke no suspicions in us* 
We saw him ** sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; " and attrib- 
uted to the pressure of bodily indisposition under which he 
generally laboured, what was indeed referable to the solicitude 
of a mind thatt preferred to bear its burden alone rather than 
hasten the time of our painful participation in the terrors that 
flesh must needs feel. 

At the end of our prolonged visit, We were led to take up 
our abode in the town of Kilkenny, so richly blessed with 
gospel privileges, and so far removed from the annoyances 
to which I was exposed while trying to fulfil the landlord's 
part over a property inextricably involved, and now also 
placed in the hands of trustees. I had sought the mainte- 
nance of that character for the sake of the poor tenants, 
whose affection for me was very great, and among whom I 
had of late been frequently allowed to read the Scriptures. 
The necessity, however, of providing for myself, and the 
hopeless perplexities of my nominal office, between head- 
landlords, under-tenants, trustees, a receiver, and all the 
endless machinery of an embarrassed little Irish estate, 
compelled me to seek a more quiet sphere, and in Kilkebny 
I found all that could combine to encouvige me in the pur- 
suit of honest independence, in the way 6f usefulness. I 
finished .*^ Osric," which formed a good -sized volume, and 
commenced the pleasant task of writing penny and twopenny 
books for the Dublin Tract Society, who paid me liberally, 
and cheered me on my path with all the warmth of Christian 
aflfeclion. It was indeed a delightful task, and God had 



1 



124 ANOTHER SNARE. 

raised up to me also a friend to whose truly paternal kindness 
I owe more than ever can be told, Mr. George Sandford, . 
now Lord M ountsandford, who, from our first acquaintance, 
entered with a father's interest into all that concerned me. 
Thus encouraged, I held on my way, and tasted the sweets 
that I hope to enjoy to the end of my days — those of the 
original curse brightened by the irreversible blessing. ^* In 
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread " — ^^ Be ye sted- 
fast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain 
in the Lord." 

I have already told you my escape from the snare of Sp- 
cinianism. I have noticed the grounds on which! declined ' 
to separate from the Established Church ; and now I am to 
narrate a trial of faith and doctrine, Which by the mercy of 
God produced effects just the reverse of what was intended. 
This was no less than a vigorous attempt to convert me to 
Popery ! I had not yet bestowed any great attention on the 
details of that abominable device, but was most fully per- 
suaded of its being a system of idolatrous delusion, the 
working of which was strikingly manifested in the wretch- 
edness, the immortality, the turbulence and degrading super- 
stitions of the poor creatures around me. It never had been 
my practice to tamper or 'to compromise with what I knew 
to be wrong ; therefore I had not suffered curiosity to lead 
me within the walls of a mass-house, nor in any way to put 
on the semblance of an agreement which cannot really exist 
between the temple of God and idols. I believed Popery to 
be the Babylon of Apocalypse, and I longed for resolution 
to proclaim to the deluded victims, *^Gome out of her my 
people." This I had never done, but on the contrary fell 
cheerfully in with the then cautious policy of my friends, 
and so framed my little books and tracts as to leave it 
doubtful whether they were written by a Protestant or not. 
raul to the Jews became as a Jew that he might gain the 



COMPROMISE. , 125 

JewB I I, by a false process of reason, thought it allowable 
to become as an idolator to the idolaters that I might gain 
the idolators. An awful presumptuous sin ! The Jew 
possesses the fair blossom of gospel truth, which by kindly 
fostering is to be expanded and ripened into the rich fruit ; 
the Papist holds in his hand an apple of Sodom, beneath the 
painted rind of which is a mass of ashes and corruption. He 
inust be induced to fling it away, and to pluck from the tree 
of life a wholly diflerent thing. 

My Protestant principles, such as they were, withheld me 
from visiting the convent which formed a principal attraction 
to the military and other strangers in Kilkenny. Many 
sought tp draw me thither, adducing the examples of Chris- 
tian ministers and other spiritual people, who did not scruple 
to go ; but in vain. At length a lady came to me with an 
earnest request from ' the most interesting nun in the estab- 
lishment ' to give her some information on the best mode of 
convej^ng instruction to a poor little girl in their school, deaf 
and dumb. Here was a call of duty : I knew it could not 
be effectually done unless in person ; and to the surprise of 
my friend I volunteered to accompany her to the convent. 

Tfa^e nun was indeed a most engaging young lady : in per- 
sonal appearance, in manner, in feeling, realizing the visions 
of my girlish romance when reading idle stories in novels on 
such topics. She had, moreover, all the animated warmth 
of a genuine Irishwoman, and her fine countenance beaming 
with benevolent joy at our successful beginning, and with 
aBectionate gratitude for my services, quite won my heart. 
I promised to repeat the visit shortly, and on doing so ac- 
eompanied her to walk round tbe garden, at the other ex- 
tremity of which stood a building which I took for their school, 
and unhesitatingly mounted the stairs with my sweet conduc- 
tor. Judge what was my dismay when, on passing the 
folding doors, I found myself in a splendid Popish chap- 
el, opposite the altar, over which shone a richly gilt Cfoss, 

11* 



126 AN A post ATE. " 

while my poor nufl watf Jirbftrated in the lowliest adoratioiit 
•touchiag the gn>luid wmii® forehead before the senseless 
Idol! 

I was confounded, and unable to say anything ; but after 
a hasty glance at the fine trappings, lefl the place, «ecretly 
graying for grace and strength to protest openly against the 
abomination from which my soul revolted with unspeakable 
horror from the moment of my witnessing the act of idolatrous 
homage rendered to a thing of wood and stone. On leaving 
the convent, I met a person who informed me that my poor 
nun was a Protestant lady of high respectability, sprung frbm 
one of those iniquitous mixed marriages, her mother belong- 
ing to the Established Church, her father a Romanist, who, 
however, honestly adhered to the terms of the wicked cove- 
nant by which the sops were to be educated in his, the latter 
in her persuasion. A family of daughters were born to them, 
who with their mother continued 'nominally Protestant ; but 
afler his death, when the house wa» filled with Romish 
priests, performing for a week together their mummeries 
over the corpse, these poor females had become a prey to 
the subtle perversions of the ecclesiastips, and had openly 
apostatized — all save my new friend, who with a better in- 
formed mind and more scriptural knowledge withstood their 
sophistries, until sundry mock miracles performed by means 
of saintly relics, and a well-contrived nocturnal visitation from 
the ghost of her father whom she fondly loved, had so unner- 
ved and frightened her that she too fell a prey to the delu- 
sion. They ended by admitting her into the sisterhood of 
this convent, excusing the payment of the large sum usually 
demanded; and as her darkness. was now great in propor- 
tion to the measure of light agaiqst> whibh she had sinned, 
they found her a valuable decoy bird to draw others into the 
snare. I did not learn all these particulars at the time, nor 
until after her decease, when I niet with a near family con- 
nexion of hers who told them to me ; I simply gleaned the 



END Of CONTROVfifl8T« 127 

fact of her apostacy, with that of ^r abounding zeal in this 
antichristian cause* 

With all ray heart I loved the gentle^ affectionate, elegant 
nun, and earnestly did I pray for help in bringing her back, 
a8 I was resolved to do, from the path of destruction ; and 
while I deliberated on the b^st means of commencing the 
work, the difficulty was removed by her openly attempting 
to convert me. To this end sh^ urged on me a strict in- 
quiry into the real doctrines and tenets of her church, for 
myself and by myself^rpmising to lend me books of the 
most candid character, if I would engage to read them. I 
agreed, stipulating that I was freely to write out my re- 
marks on them for her consideration ; and with this inutual 
understanding, I brought home from the convent the precious 
loan of Dr. Milner's " End of Controversy," furiushed for 
my especial benefit by a seminary of Jesuit priests, located 
near the town : and thus was I become the object of a com- 
bined attack from the forces, of Great Babylon. 

True to what I considered a tacit engagement to study 
the matter alone, I read the book. Never shall I forget the 
eflfect it produced on ngie. I seemed to be holding com- 
munion with Satan himself, robed as an angel of light, the 
transparent drapery revealing his hideous form, but baffling 
my endeavours to rend it away. Such sophistry, such im- 
pudence of unsupported assertion, such distortion of trutht 
and gilding of gross falsehood, I never met with. I tried 
in vain to 'find an answer to things that I saw and felt to be 
anti-scriptural and destructive : but this ^^ End " was the 
beginning of ray controversy, for I was wholly new to it, 
and ignorant of the historical and other facts necessary to 
disprove the reverend author's bold assumptions. At last I 
burst into tears, and kneeling down, exclaimed,- ** Lord, 
I cannot unravel this web of iniquity : enable me to cut it 
in twain ! '' I was answered ; for after a little more thought, 
a broad view of the whole scheme of man's salvation as re- 



» • 



128 THE SNARE BROKEN. 

vealed in the Holy Sci;^ptures appeared to me the best anti- 
dote for this insidious poison. I read through the New 
Testament' with inoreased enjoyment, and casting from me 
the wretched fabric of Iteay with all its flimsy pretences, I 
resolved, instead of attempting a reply to what I saw to be 
falsehood, to set forth a plain statement of what I knew to 
be truth. Indeed it is indescribable how disgusting the 
■ painted face* the gaudy trappmgs, and the arrogant assump- 
tions of the Great Harlot appeared in my eyes, when thus 
contrasted with the sublime 8imjpli|kyt piirity, and modesty 
of the chaste Spouse of Christ 

I wrote; and in reply got anodier and a smaller book, 
containing the pretended reasons of a Protestant for em- 
bracing Popery. They were, of course, artfully put, and 
made a formidable exhibition of the peril of heresy. I 
thought I could not do better in return, while writing my dis- 
sent, to enclose some small books of my own to the nun, 
inviting her comments thereon. This brought a letter which 
was probably written by stealth, though so cautiously worded 
as -to be safe if intercepted. She said she did not wish to 
leave me under a wrong impression, and therefore told me 
that she was not permitted to read any of my letters, or the 
littlQ books I had sent ; as those who watched over her 
spiritual interests, and whom she was bound to obey, thought 
it wrong to unsettle her mind by reading anything contrary 
to the true faith which she held. Here was a pretty exposure 
of one-sided honesty ! I thanked God for the further in- 
sight given me into the Mystery of Iniquity, and from that 
day devoted all my powers to ihe investigation of that against 
which I had become a staunch Protester. 

In the midst of our proceedings, a nun had taken the veil 

at the convent. Every body, almost, to their shame be it 

.spoken, was trying for tickets to the unhallowed show. My 

poor friend sent us two, informed me that two of the best 

front seats would be reserved for us, and accompanied her 



, AKOTHKR /TTACK. 12d 

kind note with a^rograrome of the cefemony, and a traiuh 
lation, or transcriptiop, of the service, all in her own band* 
writing. I felt deeply the pain of ^hurting her, and perhaps 
for a moment the workings of natural curiosity, but the hesi- 
tation was short. I sent back both books ^nd tickets, with 
a grateful but decided refusal to be present. In all Kilkenny 
I did not fiud a person who couM go along- with me in my 
objections ; but it is a matter of gf eat joy to me to this hour, 
that I kept myself wholly unpolluted by any participation in 
these idolatrous doings^ and I do believe that a double 
blessing has attended spy efforts against Popery in conse- 
quence of it. 

Before I take you on a second and very different visit to 
Yicarsfield, I will anticipate a little, and tell you of a ^b- 
sequent attack made on my faith from a quarter far unlike 
the former. The affair of the little deaf mute' at the convent 
led me to turn my attentipn to some poor children similarly 
circumstanced in the streets of Kilkenny ; and while prose-- 
cuting that work the Lord brought to me that dear dumb boy 
whom you well remember as the brightest, most lovely of 
Christian characters. He was then very little, and had a 
brother of sixteen, one^of the most genuine Paddies I ever 
beheld. This lad was living very idly ; a fine, sensible, 
shrewd fellow, ,wh6 could read and write, and very soon 
mdae a great proficiency in the finger langliage by help- 
ing m^ to instruct Jack. No one above Pat's own rank 
had ever taken any interest in him ; I did, a strong one, 
and as he was much with me, and of a character most in- 
tensely Irish, he became attached to me with a warmth of 
devotion rarely met with among any other people. 

One day Pat made his appearance with an important look, 
his brogues stamping the carpet, with unwonted energy, his 
fine bare throat stiffened into a sort of dignified hauteur*, 
and his very keen hazel eyes sparklitig under the bushy 
luxuriance of chesnut curls that clustered about his face and 



i 

■ "i 



130 AN AROUMIMT. 

fell on his neck. The very heau ideal of a wild Irish youth 

was my friend Pat. Seating himself as usual^ he began 

and here I must observe that my chief knowledge of the 
phraseology «iid turn of thought so peculiar to the Irish 
peasant was dviired from this source. .Whenever Pat came 
*to discourse me' I got rich lessons in the very brogue itself 
from the fidelity with which his spelling followed the pro- 

mmciation of his words. * I would'nt l^ike,' said he, * that 

you would go to hell.' 

* Nor I either, Pat.' 

* But you are out of the thrue churchy and you won't be 
saved, and I must convart ye.' 

* That is very kind of yMl» my good lad : if I am wrong 
you cannot do better tbiUciet me right.' 

* Sure and I will.' 
*ButbowT' 

* With this,' said he, pulling out a small pamphlet nothing 
the cleaner for wear. * You must leam'my catechism, and 
it'^ you that will be the good Catholic' 

Delighted with the boy's honest zeal, I asked him where 
I should begin ; and he no less pleased at my docility, de- 
sired me to read it aH, and then get it all by heart. I prom- 
ised, to do the first at any rate ; and oh what a tissue of 
falsehood and blasphemy that '^^ Butler's Catechism" was ! 
Next morning my teacher came early ; * Well Pat, I have 
found out what makes you anxious about me : here it is said 
that none can be saved out of the true Church.' 

' That's it, sure enough.' 
. * But I do belong to the. true Church, and I'll shew you 
what it is ' — so I pointed out to him two passages, and added, 
^ Now I do love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and 
therefore I am one of those to whom St. Paul wishes grace 
and peace ; and do you think an apostle would send his 
blessing to any body who was not of the true Church 1 ' 

Pat shook his head : * That's your catechism, not mine.' 



DISCUSSION. , 131 

' Yery true : Dn Butler wrote yours, and God wrote mjine,' 
holding up the Bible ; * whiph is best V. 

* That is not the real Bible,' persisted Pat, * my priest has 
the true Bible.' 
. ' Then ask him to lend you his.' 
' I wouldn't get my ears pulled, would It ' said he smiling : 
* but if be lent me his Bible he must lend me a car to bring 
it home in, for its as big as this table. Yours is too little, 
and 4oesn't hold half the truth. That is why you are so 
ignorant.' 

I soon proved, by shewing him Matthew Henry's Com- 
mentftiy, that the word of God would lie in a very small 
compass, the great bulk of the book being man's work. I 
also urged on him the absolute necessity of reading what 
God had given for our learning, and the danger of resting on 
man's assertion. Pat stood his ground must manfully, as- 
tonishing me by the adroitness with which he parried my 
attacks, while pursuing, as he hoped, the good work of my 
conversion. For many a day was the controversy car- 
ried on; Butler versus the Bible, without any other effect 
than that of bringing Pat to read the sacred book for himself; 
but it opened to me the awful wiles of darkness by which the 
poor and ignorant are blinded, while for the more educated 
class such polished sophistry as Milner's is carefully pre- 
pared. I reaped the fruit, however, six years afterwards, 
when in a little English church Pat kneeled beside me and 
his brother, a thankful communicant, at the Lord's table. 

Our next visit to Yicarsfield displayed a melancholy 
change indeed in that sweet spot. There were iron bars, 
and chains, nnd double bolts superadded to the hospital hall- 
door ; the large window in the dining-room, from which we 
were wont to step out upon a rising lawn, was blocked up 
by an immense piece of wood, half a foot in thickness, fixed 
on the inside, to support which a solid beam pressing against 
it, wa^ built into the floor of the room with mortar, resting 



132 REBELLIOUS MOVEMENtS. 

just behind the chair where the lady of the house did the 
honours of the table ; the servants being obliged to stride 
over over it when waiting on her. Every panel of every 
shutter, above and below, had an alarm-bell attached, besides 
the strongest fastenings that could be contrived. All the 
plate, save that required for daily use, was taken to Lord 
(/arrick's, who had made his noble mansion. Mount Juliet, 
a strong-hold, where were deposited the arms and valuables 
of his worst fortified neighbours. At sunset j every door was 
barricaded, every window closed, and no Romanist allowed, 
on any pretext, to enter the house. The only person of that 
persuasion attached to the establishment was die gardner, 
of whose personal fidelity they had no doubt ; but his wife 
was a devotee, and they well knew that every tie of aifec- 
tion and gratitude must give way before the stem despotism 
of the merciless creed. Some dreadful murders had lately 
been perpetrated very near ; a barrack was burned, and sev- 
eral police-men butchered in a surprise. Dr. Hamilton had 
been openly and fiercely threatened ; his Proctor was way- 
laid, and narrowly escaped assassination : and to realize 
more awfully what had otherwise been but matter of report, 
I was shown from the window of the drawing-room, at noon- 
day, a body of Rockites to the number of forty, well-mounted, 
formidably armed, with cross-belts and cartouche-boxes, 
leisurely walking their horses Within less then a quarter of a 
mile from the house for the purpose intimidatioDii It was 
close by the bohreen^ or narrow lane where, a few years af- 
terwards, the dreadful massacre of Garrickshock took place, 
which finally drove my persecuted friends from their home 
and country. 

These were the days of Captain Rock's terrible rule, of 
which a record is lef\ in the heart's-blood of many an Irish- 
man. A vile book from the pen of Mr. Moore, under that titif >, 
helped forward the work among a rank who were well known 
to take the lead in this rebellious movement; for although the 



THOMAS MOORE. 133 

executioners of decrees pronounced by the invisible tribunal 
were found to be of a class peculiarly ignorant and lawless, 
it was not by such hands the main body ^as organized and 
its ramifications directed, nor by such hands that the various 
missives were penned. The work Undertaken wa& to level 
that great constitutional breakwater which breasted the 
tumultuous waves as they raged without, affording a smooth 
haven of security within its boundaries ; and the argument 
used was any thing but complimentary to the common sense 
of those whom it addressed ; being, in fact, that the external 
violeace was wholly occasioned by the aforesaid breakwater, 
not by the natural constitution of the conflicting elements 
engaged in it ; — level the barrier, the waves will subside, 
and flow evenly to the quiet shore. Wherefore, then, was 
the Fampart-stone placed there ? What induced the men of 
a preceding generation to present such a front to the stormy 
ocean ? Winds and waves, it was again replied, were dif- 
ferent in former days from what they now are : the idle 
prejudice is exploded, that invested nature's laws with un- 
chang^bleness, and billows are not now what they were three 
centuries ago. To urge home this powerful logic alike to 
the hopes and fears of man, if it failed to reach their under- 
standings, was the object held in view by the entire confed- 
eracy of Rome, who had at heart the supremacy in Ireland 
of that system whereof Doyle was the Priest, O'Connell the 
Politician, and Moore the Poet and Historian. To the work 
of the two former, due praise on the one hand, due execra- 
tion on the other, Mras accorded : to the latter not. The 
nobleman who boasted that he sang the last of the Stuarts 
out of three kingdoms with his *' Lillibulero " song was 
forgotten : the demagogues who said to a fallen constitu- 
tionsil opponent, * Do you direct the literature of a nation, and 
let me write their ballads,' was forgotten too : while the 
rhymer of the Propaganda guided the serpent of rebellion to 
its mark under the flowery covert of his loose poetry, gaining 

12 



■ "».*■ ■■*.■• 
134 UNEQUAL RETRIBUTION. •:' .'^ ' 

to himself a name as the laureate of vofuptuousnesSf thil 
should the better mask his object when lauDching forth in 
sober prose on the wild sea of politics. I read that perni- 
cious book amid the terrors, the desolations, dnd afflictions 
that it was purposely framed to help forward ; and whea 
closing the insidious page, I looked forward to the proceed- 
ings of a higher and a juster tribunal than that which awards 
so unequal a retribution to him who singly murders with a 
pike, and him who by wholesale murders with a pen : that 
dooms the poor, ignorant, untaught, deluded peasant to 
infamy and a halter, while it recompenses the intellectual, 
refined, deluding Poet with fame and a pension. 



s.. • _ - . . 

* * ■ t 

REt&OSPfiCTiON.' 1^5 



LETTER VIIL 



THE WORKINGS OF POPERY. 

i 

Although, perl^ips, too late to be instructive to this gener- 
ation, it is painfully interesting to look back upon the subtlety 
and skill that wore^a^Miare for our expediency-loving rulers. 
Man may meet maa in his own strength, moral or physical ; 
but whea Satan buckles on his infernal weapons wherewith 
to assail the individual or national allegiance of those who 
profess to. serve God, nothing but the shield of faith can 
resist him. That shield had been upheld during the life of 
our believing king : but iiow he wad gone, and full justly did 
the enemy calculate oa the advantages afforded, to him by a 
relaxed and powerless grasp. Like the symbolical Britan- 
nia of our coinage, we rested upon the shield, more as a 
matter of display than of use ^ and so lefl the bosom bare to 
every shafl. 

Our enemiea la^ow well, though we do not always admit 
it, that the insuperable barrier to the domination of Popery 
in these realms is the Established Church, so long as its 
ministers hold the pure, high doctripes pf uncompromising 
Protestantism^ set forth in all her creeds and formularies. 
As yet, it had not occurred to the invisible head of the apti- 
christian confederacy to make good a lodgment within these 
defences ; or rather I ought to say he had not permission so 



136 THE IRISH CHURCH. 

to do UDtil the Church, represented in the legislature by her 
chief pastors, and out of it by a number of her officiating 
ministers, had acquiesced in the abominable ^ct of national 
apostacy. The Church of Ireland was far less guilty in this 
matter than that of England : among her really spiritual 
clergy I do not think she numbered three Emancipators : 
and let it ever be remembered how the beloved archbishop — 
the last of Tuam's archbishops — even to the fatal day of 
that surrender, lifted a solemn protesting voice among the 
Peers. At the time of which I now write, the increasing 
spirituality of the Irish clergy, bearing its natural fruit in 
increased love for the souls of men and zeal for Christ's 
cause, presented an alarming obstacle in the way of those 
who might fearlessly have advanced through a host of '* dumb 
dogs," sleeping at their posts, as the predecessors of this 
generation too commonly did. Hitherto they had found only 
the name and form of a Prot^estant Church to oppose them ; 
now the living reality started up in their path, and they must 
remove it ere success could be hoped for. Hence the anti- 
tithe war, the first alarm of which was openly sounded ill the 
parish, and the first sanguinary onset menaced against the 
house, wherein I was^ a guest. What a contemptuous, yet 
alas ! what a just estimate must the earthly leaders of this 
evil work have formed of the blind infatuation possessing the 
rulers of our political destinies ! - Regarding them as ready- 
made fools, they proceeded accordingly to take advantage of 
their folly; and for this we can only account by remembering 
that the whole movement was directed by one who has had 
six thousand years' experience in such matters, and who 
knows that when the kings of earth, from Adam downwards, 
cast off the bond of obedience to the King of kings, ruin to 
themselves aiid tp all that appertains to them will surely follow. 
He saw that hallowed bond loosening, until a touch might 
sever it : then he, who believes and trembles, took a devilish 
advantage of those who believed not and were fearless. 



SATANIC IXXVIOES. 137 

Against the established church a violent outcry was raised, 
a furious onslaught conducted, by those who avowedly aimed 
at revolutionizing every thing : therefore and thereby they 
whose object it was to avert such revolution )vere to be con- 
vinced that the outpost so fiercely attacked was a hinder- 
ance, not in the way of the assailants, but of the defenders 
of the citadel ! Would any human intellect have grasped at 
such an enterprise unaided by Satan himself in the plenitude 
of his infernal sagacity? I think not. Yet it did succeed, 
so far as man was concerned. The means of defence ex- 
tended to the clergy were wholly inadequate from the begin- 
ning of the fray ;, and as it advanced, those means were by 
all possible contrivances curtailed and withdrawn. Enbck- 
topher was the known point of attack, ^nd bow was it guarded? 
A handful of policemen occupied a retired post nearly two 
miles distant ; and when the hostile demonstrations became 
incessant, and much blood had been shed* a small detach- 
ment of tnilitary was stationed somewhat nearer. Kilkenny 
contained 24,000 most devoted Romanists, with about 800 
Protestants, many of them so only in name ; the spirit man- 
ifested there was most turbulent, and many daring outrages 
were perpetrated ; yet to garrison this important town, and 
to protect the whole country round, from hosts of armed and 
disciplined rebels, that invaluable officer Colonel Lindsay 
had only his gallant Highland regiment, the 78th, on its 
peace establishment. Little note is now-a-days taken of 
such services as Colonel Lindsay rendered ; but the poor 
hunted Protestants of that country will not soon forget his 
wisdom, vigilance, and zeal on their behalf. He disposed 
his small force with admirable judgment, so far as it could 
possibly be made to extend ; and o(\en did he take his 
departure from head-quarters, carelessly saying he was 
going to pass a day or two at Deaart, at Mount- Juliet, or 
other neighbouring seats where he was ever a welcome vis- 
itant ; when few besides those who met him on his rounds 



138 COLONEL LINDSAT* 

suspectecl that th^ gallant soldier passed his nights in the 
saddle, scouring the perilous couotiy, and keeping watch 
. over those who were marked for destruction. I have no 
doubt on, my mind that Colonel Lindsay was personally, in 
a very high degree^ instrumental in checking the operation 
of those who, watchful for harm as he wai^ for good^ knew 
his proceedings and shrank from his detecting eye. I 
well remember that when Sir Dennis Packe was brought, 
for interment to the cathedral of his native Kilkenny, we all 
supposed the regiment had nearly bis full complement of 
Highlanders in barrack ; and Colonel Lindsay confessed to 
me he was dreadfully at a loss,' being unable to turn out 
above eighty men for an occasion demanding the fullest dis- 
play he could afford. It required no small measure of military 
finesse to make us feel that we were protected, and the 
enemy, that he was held in check, over so extensive a 
ground, while in reality the disposable force was wholly in- 
adequate to do either. 

But I must not yet leave Yicarsfield ; we lived, as I said, 
within a moving circle of enemies, who delighted to parade 
their formidable force ; and our otily earthly means of de- 
fence lay in the public knowledge of our being wholly unarm- 
ed, and without valuables in the house. The latter, indeed, 
were rarely sought ; for it was a bart of the system to prove 
to us that our lives not our possessions, were the things 
thirsted after. Of this I wil} presently give a striking in- 
stance that occurred in the house of another clerical friend. 

The family party consisted of Dr. Hamilton, whose health 
was greatly affected by what he nevertheless endured with 
most uncomplaining meekness ; Mrs. Hamilton, struggling 
against her own strong feelings, and devpted'to her husband 
and his guests ; the curate, a most estimable young man ; 
an aged field officer of cavalry, whose military fire seemed 
to rekindle under the. influence of the pacing soene ; a 
young lady, resident in the house, with iny moti|er and my- 






ALARMS. 189 

self. A large establishment of domestics, male and femAle, 
and the thirteen girls of the school, with a superannuated 
serving man who had seen two generations pass away, and 
whose eccentricities chiefly hinged on the most ardent 
orangeism imaginable, completed the garrison. Only thr^e 
of the men, besides " Old John," viz r the coachman, but- 
ler, and footman, were quartered within doors, during the 
night, as being perfectly trustworthy ; and no weapons, so 
far as we knew, did our little fortress contain, while it echoed 
to the shots fired in ^11 directions byJhe marauding Rockites, 
the loud tramp of whose horses was likewise frjequently au- 
dible through the stillness of night. One instance I will give 
of the alarms to which we were subject. 

We were all seated in the spacious drawing-room, on the 
splendid organ of which Mrs. Hamilton had been perform- 
ing some of the finest of Handel's sublime compositions, until 
summoned to preside at the tea-table. It was the middle .of 
February, and what with the elevating music, the cheerful 
blaze of a good 6re, and the conversation that always enliv- 
ened that pleasant hour, we were losing all recollection of 
our peculiar circumstances, when, suddenly, the loud jingle 
of an alarm-bell sent a thrill to each heart not easily to be 
conceived by such as never dwelt in the mid^t of sanguinary 
foes. A momentary pause of dead silence marked the effect 
of that terrific note; the silence was unbroken, but imme- 
diately af\er, the old Colonel, starting up, seized a large cane 
as though it had been a sword, and with energetic determi- 
nation stamped on his countenance marched to the door. 
The curate passed after him ; and Or. Hamilton with one 
look of stifled anguish cast on us, then upturned to heaven, 
immediately followed. We sate like statues awe-struck and 
mute, nor do I think we should have attempted to move un- 
der anything that might have ensued ; bat to our infinite re- 
lief, one of the servants came up to express his regret that in 
bearing down the large tea-tray he had inadvertently jarred 



140 A DIFFICULTY. 

one of the bells on the staircase window-shutter. The in* 
cident, however, taught us to realize what before we had 
only imagined of our feelings under an actual attack, and 
drew us nearer to Him who alone is a sure refuge in the day 
of calamity. We descended to the hall for family worship, 
where, at a central point, Dr. Hamilton was seated, with a 
little table before him, the family being ranged along one 
division of the intersecting passages, the rest of the house- 
hold in the other. He read, expounded, and prayed ; and 
very touching was the silent good night looked between the 
two divisions of the establishment. The respectful obeis- 
ance of the faithful domestics, the kind recognition of those 
to whom a fellowship in peril and in patience endeared them, 
spoke much to all our hearts. Slowly and silently the young 
girls filed off, conscious that .the cabins of their friends were 
even then lying at the mercy of those who were sworn to 
show no mercy ; and the sight of that little flock, all devoted 
to destruction, moved my heart as it never was moved under 
any other circumstances. Gladly would I undergo a repe- 
tition, yea an agravation of all that then oppressed us, to 
enjoy once n^ore the hallowed feelings of that time, when, 
with no help but what was unseen, no hope but in the God 
of the martyrs, we trod on the very verge of eternity in the 
pathway trodden by them. 

• Mietrtyrdom indeed it was likely to be ; for at this time 
accounts reached us of several in our part of Ireland having 
escaped death by their expertness in blessing themselves, as 
it is called. This consists in making the sign of the cross 
with such rapidity and precision in the established method, 
as practice alone can enable a person to use. This test was 
sometimes applied to distinguish any Romanist who might 
be in danger of suffering among Protestants, and now they 
had accepted it from some of the latter as a token of recan- 
tation. At breakfast, the next morning after our alarm, one 
of the party suggested sending for the gardener's wife to teach 



A DECISION. 141 

U8 the exact form of blessing ourselves after the popish fash- 
ion, but I protested against it, as preparing a temptation that 
might overcome our constancy if called on to suffer for the 
truth. At first I was quite unsupported in the view ; the 
rest saw nothing of a recantation in making a sign to save 
our lives, which none of us scruple to make as a matter of 
indifference. I could not yield the point ;. and the discus- 
sion that followed was on a question of life and death, im- 
pending directly over us. Scripture was mutually appealed 
to : Dr. Hamilton referred me to 1 Cor. viii. and I told him 
I was ready to let my argument stand or fall by that very 
chapter, as it proved the sin did not consist in the act itself, 
but in the effect produced on weak brethren or unbelievers ; 
that my making this sign at the demand of ignorant men, 
who would regard it as a real surrender of my faith, was as 
virtual an apostacy as if I signed a deed of recantation in the 
presence of the conclave. He seemed much startled, said 
he would take that subject into his study with him ; and at 
the end of two hours I received a little' note, written in a 
trembling hand, telling me ihkt since I had led him to an in- 
vestigation which had terminated in a full persuasion of mine 
being the right view of scripture on this point, he hoped I 
would pray to the Lord to strengthen him and all' of us that 
we might be found faithful unto death, resisting even the 
semblance of compromise. He added that he had studied 
the matter on his knees, and was then writing on his knees 
too. I was deeply affected' on reading this : It was an awful 
thought that I stood responsible, in a measure, for the life- 
blood of my brethren ; but the more I reflected the clearer 
was my view of the subject, and to this day it remains un- 
changed. 

The next night one of the ladies was awakened by a loud 
and startling noise in the stables, which adjoined the house. 
An alarm was given to the servants, and one gallant young 
fellow, a footman, the Christian son of a truly Christianized 



142 STMPi^THY. 

convert from Popery, throwing on his great coat and taking 
ft lantern, darted out of the house alone, closing the door 
ftfter him, which be could not have re-entered if attacked. 
The probability was that the horses were being abstracted 
for the service of Captain JR^ock, if nothing worse was going 
on ; but it proved to be no more than the vicious gambols of 
a mule that had slipped the halter, and was invading the 
stalls of its quieter companions. You may suppose all this 
was trying enough, when accompanied by the echo of those 
shots that the midnight legislators systematically fired from all 
quartei-s to intimate their numbers and activity f yet if. I were 
to declare at.what^iperiod of my life I felt most calmly and 
happily resting on the arm of the Lord, I must say it was 
when laying my head on the nightly pillow that I expected 
would be steeped ere morning in my heart's blood. I could 
at any hour have returned to the comparative security of the 
populous town where I had a comfortable home, but the wish 
to avoid sharing the perils of those who had freely shared 
with me the sweets of their more prosperous hours, did not 
arise in my mind. One thing perplexed me greatly : in pro- 
portion as the native Irish became more terrible, as sangui- 
nary bigots thirsting for our lives, so did my love for them 
increase. • My Irish predilections had hitherto been merely 
confined to the higher classes ; now they embraced every 
grade in society, and above all the miserable victims of Popish 
delusion excited my tenderest concern. 

This was partly owing, no doubt, to a deeper insight into 
the infernal net that enclosed their ends. The more I learn- 
ed of Popery, the greater was my abhorrence of that gigantic 
Lie, and the yearnings of compassion over its unhappy slaves. 
Another cause may be found in my nearer acquaintance with 
the character of the people over whom I grieved. I lodged 
in the house of a rigid Romanist, who, with her family, par- 
took in all the superstitions and prejudices of that system ; 
yet sure I am that my own nearest connections and oldest 



T H S I II 1 8 H • 143 

friends did not love me better, nor would have gone further 
to prove it, than that humble family. I very well knew that 
they must do the bidding of their spiritual despots, be it what 
it might, so far as God permitted ; but their warmth of affec- 
tion, their solicitude for our comfort, and feeling participation 
of all that touched us, whether of joy or sorrow, won my heart ; 
and what they were I plainly saw to be the general character 
of their country people. 

Thus viewing.the Irish as they really are, the most loving 
and loveable race under the sun, the most strongly inclined 
to devotednessj sincerity, and zeal in whatever they believe 
to be truth, and shining most brightly as lights of the world, 
where what they have embraced is indeed the truth ; how could 
ray spirit fail to be stirred within me most earnestly on their 
behalf, when I saw from day to day, with my own eyes, the 
dreadful havoc of their bodies and i^ouls made by the anti- 
christian enemy who had ensnared them 1 Taught from 
the cradle to regard as the arbiters of their present and eter-- 
nal destiny, the men who made hierchahdise of them — 
assured that the priest could forgive their sins, or bind them 
irrevocably on their souls ; could crown their dwelling with 
a blessing, or blast both it and them with a withering curse ; 
cpuldopen to them the gates ofheaven, or plunge them into the 
flames of hell ; could transform by means of a little unintel- 
ligible muttering a cake, perhaps of their o)vn making, into 
the God who made them ; or turn them, if he chose, into 
jackasses and goats, and wooden stools ; could send them 
clean and holy out of the world by daubing them with a 
spoonful of oil, or by withholding it dismiss them to their 
account under a load of mortal sin ; could release the soul 
of parent, wife, child, from a fiery purgatory by his masses, 
or keep them there as long as he listed, (and who does not 
know that to the fond surviver of a beloved object this is 
the most adamantine chain of all,) and, finally, that to con- 
ceal from the aforesaid priest any thought of the heart, to 



144 CHARACTfiR. 

resist his will in any particular, or to deny him the full meas- 
ure of obedience due from man to God, is mortal sin ; — 
taught to believe all this, from the earliest dawn of reason, 
the unhappy victim cannot deliver himself, nor say ** Is there 
not a lie in my right hand ? " Then, on the part of this om- 
nipotent priesthood what have we ? not men zealous for the 
spread of the gospel and the good of their poor flocks, but 
an associated band sworn to promote one object to the ex- 
dusiou of all others, and that one the aggrandizement of 
their order, the supremacy of their Church, the externiination 
of true Christians, and universal extension of the temporal 
no less than the ecclesiastical empire of Rome aver, ttie 
whole earth. To the attainment q{ this end every means 
must be used : the mind of the disciple being wholly fet- 
tered, his hand must be directed to deeds of blood against 
others, or his heart be pierced to pour forth its own, just as 
the interests of the great Satanic synagogue may at that 
moment require. This reads harshly ; but it is a poor, weak, 
imperfect outline of what I have seen and grieved over from 
day to day, from year to year. I have conversed with these/ 
people while they were living in the. most abject prostration 
of body, mind, and spirit, before the merciless idol of their 
mistaken homage : I have seen the deluded soul passing 
into an unchangeable stdte of existence, under that awful 
malediction ** Cursed beiie that trusteth in man ; that mak- 
eth flesh his arm, and departeth from the living God." I 
have communed with those who by <]ivine grace were deliv- 
ered from the snare, and received their united testimony alike 
as to its power and its iniquity ; and I have watched their dy- 
ing beds, and almost always found them spending their last 
breath in thanksgivings for that mighty deliverance out of the 
chains of double darkness. I have traced the progress and 
effects of true religion in the minds of those emancipated 
children of God, and have marked how mighty for good isjthe 
natural, national character which under this dreadful perver- 



LOTEFOR lEfiLAMD. 145 

sion has become so mighty for evil: and to crown all^ I have 
been forced to recognise the sin of most cruel neglect and 
wrong on the part of my own country, in thus giving over the 
Irish race to the domination of present and eternal ruin. 
Principle and feeling alike plead the cause of poor Ireland : 
the plea reached my heart at the very time when, as I was 
toldi I was specially marked for destruction among the an* 
ticipated victims of 1825, as being more than nominally a 
Protestant ; and the atrocities that have marked the rapid 
development of plans first brought into operation at the 
time I have been speaking of only add strength to my con- 
victions ; heightening my estimate of those who serve with 
such steadiness of purpose th^ work which they, like Saul 
of Tarsus, ignorantly and in unbelief, consider most accep- 
table to God ; and who, if brought into the way of righte- 
ousness, would be found, like Paul, labouriofg more abund- 
antly in it than any of their brethren. 

I cannot describe to you how this growing love for Ireland 
and the Irish ministered to my happiness. It became one of 
its chief elements, and the literary labour that I pursued for 
my own sustenance was perfect luxury, so long as my hum- 
ble productions were made available for the spiritual good of 
the people so dear to me. My little books and tracts became 
popular ; because, afler some struggle against a plan ' so 
humbling to literary pride, I was able to adopt the suggestion 
of a wise Christian brother, and form a style of such homely 
simplicity that if, on reading a manuscript to a child of five 
years old, I found there was a single sentence or word above 
his comprehension, it was instantly corrected to suit that 
lowly standard. This is an attainment much to be coveted 
by those who write, preach or expound for general edification: 
no rational objection can be urged against it : vanity alone 
can enter a protest. Though our lettered readers or hearers 
may not find matter to gratify their taste or pamper the pride 
of intellect, still they cannot fail to understand what is suited 

13 



146 INTELLIGIBILITY. 

to the capacities of their children aud servants; whereas he 
who makes himself perhaps both intelligible aud agreeable 
to the former, is to the latter a barbarian, speaking in an 
unknown tongue ; and what account will he give unto his 
Master of the souls that through his self-concejt or neglectfnl- 
ness of their peculiar deficiencies remain unfed ? - How often 
has my heart been pained under the eloquent teaching pf 
most gifted ministers, because I knew that many around me 
were wholly unable to attach a definite meaning to what he 
said, through the intervention of (to them) hard words and 
obscure phraseology. Thanks be to God, the translators 
of our blessed Bible were not of this school. 

I had left Yicarsfield with feelings of increased affection 
for its inmates, and anxious solicitude as to their continued 
safety. In times of extreme peril, how much easier it ap* 
pears to trust God with ourselves than with those whom we 
love ! Personally, I was more than resigned ; like a sol- 
dier entering a field of battle, I seemed nerved for the com- 
bat with a strength of purpose peculiar to the occasion ; 
but looking on those who marched beside me, and scanning 
iheir dangers, fancying their sufferings, my courage would 
falter. This is Paul's meaning, when in reference to a 
*' juncture " of peculiar trials just at hand, he seems, to dis- 
courage the formation of ties which God has, under ordinary 
circumstances, ordained and blessed. It is not every 
woman who, like the wives of some of our blessed martyrs, 
can sit down to make for the beloved partner of her heart 
and life the garment in which he is to endure a terrible mar- 
tyrdom : and then with a train of helpless little ones at her 
heels, meekly present it at the gate of his prison. There 
must indeed be a full measure of grace conferred on both 
parties to enable each in the calmness of resigned faith, to 
look on the sufferings of the other. Such grace may the 
Lord abundantly dispense to His people, now that a season 
of terrible trial is surely at hand ! 



ALARMING INCIDENT. 147 

Before closing this letter, I will r^ate an incident already 
alluded to, in proof of the assertion, that except on one sin- 
gle point, there was little to dread from the agents of that 
wily system which aimed at higher objects than mere plun- 
der, or isolated acts of violence. It occurred in a house of 
* a most intimate friend of ours, and I had it from the lady 
herself who was exposed to that short but terrible alarm. 
Mr. — - had taken his whole family and household to the 
church of which be was Rector, on the Sunday morning, 
with the sole exception of his wife's sister and his youngest 
babe which she remained at home to take care of. Miss — 
was sitting in the parlour beside the cradle, reading her Bible* 
when a stir at the door induced her to look round, and to her 
dismay six or seven meii appeared, the foremost of whom 
had opened the door, and was in the act of entering. He 
seemed to belong to the class of humble farme r, homely, 
but respectable, and his manner bespoke great determina- 
tion, softened with something of the courtesy which an 
Inshman finds it difficult to lay aside in the presence of those 
who have not offended him. He advanced to the trembling 
lady, and asked if there were any fire-arms in the house ? 
She replied. No : that her brother being a clergyman, did 
not keep any such .weapons in his possession. To this the 
visiter again answered, that he must take the liberty of search- 
ing for them, and would trouble her to conduct him over the 
different parts of the house. Terrified, yet upheld by a firm 
faith, the lady rose, took the unconscious babe from its pillow, 
and wrapping her shawl round ^t, silently led the way through 
adjoining apartments, the Rockites eagerly ransacking every 
corner for arms, but without success. ' Now, Ma'am, be 
pleased to take us up stairs,' said the leader, and up stairs she 
went, all following. On entering one of the rooms, she was 
requested to unlock a chest of drawers ; and'the chief seeing 
that she trembled greatly, said in a very decided tone, * 1 will 
not have the lady frightened ; back, all of ye except you,' 



148 fTITtMATIC OUT RAO B. 

addressing two near him, * and, Ma'am, don't be alarmeck-* 
nobody wishes to hurt or distress jou.' The other man re- 

trj^tted, and Miss opened every drawer in that and the 

other rooms, all of which, with the closets, were minutely 
inapected by the three searchers, who turned oyer articlefl 
of plate, money, and other valuables, without manifeating^' 
the slightest desire to appropriate one of them. ^ Their 
search was rewarded, I thinkr with no more than an old useleaa 
blunderbuss and rusty sword, with whicli they descended ; 
and when again in the parlour the leader took off his hat, told 

Miss he was sorry to have alarmed her ; he hoped he 

had made good his words that no harm was intended to her, 
and wishing her good morning, with a very polite bow, re- 
treated. She told me that after the first panic she scarcely 
felt discomposed, so much confidence did this man's man- 
ner inspire her with. Assuredly the Lord himself kept that 
house, while his dear servant was faithfully ministering to a 
little attached congregation on the mountain's side, and 
'' stayed the rough wind in the day of his east wind " to the 
kind nurse and the helpless charge ; but there is also some- 
thing very striking in this conquest of poor and lawless men 
alike over the cravings of avarice and those of vindictive 
hatred, with which they are sedulously taught to regard every 
professor of true Protestantism. They greatly err who bU 
tribute to personal hostility the outrages committed in Ire- 
land: they are the deliberate execution of sentences formally 
passed by a secret Directory, on individuals far removed 
fi^om the possibility of having excited such animosity in the 
bosoms of their unknown assassins, who are usually selected 
from districts the most remote, in order to avoid recognition, 
and to invest the work of murder with the air of a legal pun- 
ishment in the eyes of those who commit it. 

One more incident occurring within my immediate neigh- 
bourhood, I will relate. The victim was not only himself a 
Romanist, but brother to the person who assumed the title 



■] NOONDAY MURDBEt' 149 

of Roman bishop in that diocese. > This Mr. Maram 
ivifl a large farmer, possessing considerable property in land , 
OMT Kilkenny ; and feeling more regard for his worldly 
possessions than interest in the cause of his religioUf he 
difcouraged the Rockite proceedings* Some great outra* 
^ges having occurred, he represented to government the dis* 
turbed state of the Barony, and induced them to send down a 
body of Peelers, as the Police were termed. This he knew 
to be an unpardonable offence, and therefore never went 
abroad unarmed, taking care to have it known that he did not. 
One day he was riding with his sou-in-law, at noon, and 
seeing some persons on the road before them he turned 
round, saying ' I have forgotten my pistols ; let us go back 
for them.' l^e young man replied, it is not worth while ; 
the distance was so short, and nobodv near but a few women. 
This, with the appearance of the parties, attired in blue cloaks, 
and caps over which the hood was carelessly thrown, satis- 
fied Marum ; they proceeded at an easy pace, and had nearly 
passed the stragglers at the road-side when a sudden rush 
was made upon them by the men, thus disguised for the pur- 
pose, and in a minute or two poor Marum lay on the ground, 
a murdered corpse. The son-in-law was knocked over 
senseless by a blow on the head from a stone, into a ditch, 
where he remained till succour came up. Of course, he 
was not sentenced, or they neyer would have left the work 
unfinished. A very great sensation was excited by this: 
his family connection rendered Marum's murder a startling 
event to all parties ; nor did it end here : he had another 
brother, a parish priest, who was believed to have aided him 
in preserving the public peace, and who strove anxiously to 
discover the murderers. Afler the inquest, a grand wake 
was held, at which this priest attended ; and during his ab- 
sence some unknown persons got into his small house, demol- 
ished all the furniture they could, turned every sod of grass 
in his field upside down, and carried off his corn. Here 

13* 



150 UlfSCBUPVtOUSN.BSS. 

was sacrilege with a vengeance ! and seme simple people ar- 
jgued from it that religion had nothing to do with the political 
movement. True, in one sense, for Popery is not a relig- 
ion -— it is only a crafty piece of masked atheism, partuing 
secular objects with a sanctified face ; but Popery no more 
hesitates in cutting off a priest, or making away with a pope* 
who may fail in working out its arbitrary principles, than it 
akrioks from dethroning a king, or burning a Christian. 



PBIKSTLT TACTICS. . 151 



LETTER IX. 



THE DUMB BOT. 



The year 1^4 was hailed throughout Ireland as one of 
confident hope and active preparation for the great event 
that was to distiqguish 1825 — Protestant extermination* 
Black Lent was ordered to be keptt and extra masses cele- 
brated, and especial prayers for the destruction of heresy to 
be daily offered. These last were remarkably answered, for 
Popery never received such a blow in Ireland as followed 
the appeal. Encouraged by the implicit faith placed by the 
poor ignorant people in their blood-Airsty prognostics, the 
priesthood waxed bold> and resolved on making head against 
the encroachments of Christianity. Hitherto, a strict in-* 
junction had been laid on their flocks to abstain from enter- 
ing any place of public meeting, held by the agents of the 
Bible and other religious societies : but now that the victim 
seemed within their grasp they resolved to make sport with 
their captive Samson, and came forward themselves, at 
Carlow and elsewhere, to oppose the Protestant clergymen, 
stationing a vast crowd of their followers in the rooms, well 
provided with the national weapon -^ the stem of a stout 
young oak or ash tree, into the end of which, where the roots 
had been rounded off, a quantity of molten lead was poured, 
making the shillelagh niore formidable in such hands than a 






152 PBAOSABLE C U N 8 1 1. . 

sword would have been — much harder to parry, and impos- 
sible to break. In other places the priests keep aloof, but 
sent their flocks to try the effect of these weighty arguments 
upon the heads of their Protestant neighbours. I will repeat 
the account given me, long afterwards, by a young man who 
attributed in great measure his subsequent conversion to one 
of these crusades. 

' On the Sunday before. Father spoke to us all from 

the altar, and said, '^Boys, them Bible-men will hold a 
meeting here on Wednesday. Tou won't be going there to 
make a disturbance 1 you'll stay at home like peaceable peo- 
ple, and let them have things all their own way. I've heard 
it reported that some of you intend to go and have a scrim- 
mage, but, in course, you have no such thing in your heads/' 
He spoke in such a sly way, that we all understood it, and 
laughed : however, if any spies were there, or if any mischief 

came of it, the entire of us could testify that Father had 

publicly warned his flock against taking part in it. Af- 
terwards he spoke privately to about a dozen resolute Boys, 
I being one, and told us to take our sticks and be there in 
good time. ** Break their heads if you can," says he, " but 
any way drive them out of the town." 

* Sure enough we went ; and I had as good a slip of black- 
thorn under my coat ms you'd desire to see. The gentlemen 

mustered strong : Lord in the chair looked as if he 

didn't feel quite at home ; for though he had often seen our 
faces before,, it was not at Bible meetings. The B^verend 
Mr. Daly came forward ; we hfej^.een recommended to look 
afler him particularly, and so pe would, but somehow he 
talked in such a wav about Jes\is Christ and the Bible, and 
God's love to sinners, that we disremembered every word of 
our instructions, and stood listening as if we had come there on 
purpose. By-and-by a bit of a spree teas got up, but the 
Boys had little heart to it, and it was easily put down. One 
thing I know for myself; and that is, that if we had come to 



A JLE COIL. 153 

blows, not a hair of their heads should ha\e been hurt, and I 
standing by.' 

* And what did you do afterwards ? ' 

^ I went home and read the Bible.' 

Such were the effects of Pastorini's prophecy. It inspired 
one party with a false confidence that brought them to face 
the other, to whom God gave a mouth and wisdom such as 
their adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist. It issued in 
many conversions, and it gave the people a taste for controver- 
sial discussions, than \!i^ich nothing can be better suited to 
their keen intellects, ready wit, and pugnacious propensities. 
At this gap, so inconsiderately made in the curtain, a flood (^ 
light streamed in ; and the attempt to close it again was 
abortive. Never does God's providential sovereignty appear 
so glorious as when he thus makes the wrath of man to praise 
Him, and the devices of Satan to accomplish His own im- 
mutable designs. 

In like manner, though on a smaller scale, the attack on 
my personal Protestantism was overruled to the gathering in 
of one precious soul to the true fold of Christ, and through 
him, I trust, very many more have been led to seek the same 
inestimable blessing. I turned my attention to the deaf 
and dumb children whose situation was deplorable indeed ; 
I took four out of the streets to instruct them, of whom one 
proved irreclaimably wild and vicious ; two were removed 
by a priest's order, lest I should infect them with heresy ; 
the fourth was to me a crown of rejoicings and will be so 
yet more at * that day.' 

I confess myself very little under the influence of human 
teachers : my being thrown exclusively on the Bible for a 
scheme of doctrine not only furnished me with a satisfactory 
one, but showed me so much of the inexhaustible treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge hid in Christ, and of the Holy 
Spirit's all-sufficiency to take of those things and show them 
unto the humble, diligent, prayerful inquirer, that in moat 



154 A PUPIL. 

cases of difficulty, instead of asking, ' What say the com- 
mentators ? ' or ' What says Mr. so and soV 1 put the 
question, " What says the Lord ? '' For an answer, I 
search his written word ; and for a commentary upon it I 
study his visible works. Now, the doctrine of personal 
election I know to be in the Bible, and I did not need man's 
confirmation to assure me that I had found it there ; but it 
was delightful to witness such an illustration of that sublime 
truth as the case of the dumb boy in question afforded. He 
was the least promising of my little school, apparently the 
dullest, and certainly not the one on whom £ bestowed the 
most pains ; and who, afler holding out strong encourage- 
ment, by his extraordinary quickness, brilliant talents, and 
devoted fondness to his instructer, merely served to intro- 
duce to me the poor little fellow whom he scarcely regarded 
as a companion, then forsook his post, cast off all rule, and, 
I fear, went on frowardly in the way of his own heart. It 
was not of him that willed, nor of him that ran, but of God 
who showed mercy. 

John, or Jack as we always called him, was a puny 
little fellow, of heavy aspect, and wholly destitute of the life 
and animation that generally characterize that class, who 
are obliged to use looks and gestures as a substitute for 
words. He seemed for a long while unable to comprehend 
my object in placing before him a dissected alphabet, and 
forming the letters into words, significant of dog, man, hat, 
and other short monosyllables ; and when I guided his little 
hard hand to trace corresponding characters on the slate it 
was indeed a work of time and patience to make him draw 
a single stroke correctly. His unmeaning grin of good- 
natured acquiescence in whatever I bade him do was more 
provoking than downright rebellion could have been ; and I 
secretly agreed with my friends that the attempt would prove 
a complete failure, while impelled, I hardly could tell how, 
to persevere with redoubled efforts. Jack's uncouth bristly 



JACK^S COMMENCEMKNT. 155 

hair fell in a straight mass over one of the finest foreheads 
ever seen, and concealed it. I happened one day to put 
aside this mass, for the benefit of his sight, and was so struck 
with the nobly expansive brow, that I exclaimed to a friend 
then in the act of dissuading me from the work, * No, with 
such a forehead as this, I can never despair of success.' I 
was then anything but a phrenologist, for I erroneously 
looked upon it as leading to materialism ; but experience 
had long taught me to regard that lofly feature of man's 
countenance as the just index of his intellectual capabilities. 
It was by a sudden burst that the boy's mind broke its 
prison and looked around on every object as though never 
before beheld. All seemed to appear in so new a light to him ; 
curiosity, in which he had been strangely deficient, became 
an eagerly active principle, and nothing that was portable 
did he fail to bring to me, with an inquiring shake of the 
head, and the word ^ what 1 ' spelled by the fingers. It 
was no easy matter, before we had mastered a dozen com- 
mon substantives and no other parts of speech, to satisfy his 
Inquisitiveness, which I always endeavoured to do, because 
it is wrong to repress that indication of dawning reason in a 
child, and Jack at eleven years old was in the predicament 
of a mere infant, j^ore especially was I puzzled when 
bis ' what 1 ' was accompanied by a motion pointing first at 
the dog, then to himself, to learn wherein consisted the dif- 
ference between two creatures, both of whom, as he inti- 
mated, could eat, drink, sleep, and walk about, could be 
merry or angry, sick or well ; neither of whom could talk ; and 
yet that there was a very great difference he felt. The noble 
nature of man was struggling to assert its preeminence over 
the irrational brute which he, nevertheless, loved and feared 
too ; for Barrow was a splendid dog, and used to assist me 
very cleverly in keeping my little wild Irish crew in order. 
Oh what a magnificent wreck is man ! I do love to watch 
the rapid approach of that glorious time when, the six thous- 



166 iKQUtiyr. 

* 

mad years of his degradation beneath the reign of Satan 
being fulfilled, he shall rise again in renovated majesty above 
the usurper's power, and resume hislugh station among the 
brightest works of God. 

I do not remember exactly how long after his first ct>ming to 
me it was that Jack began to inquire so diligently about God. 
He seemed full of grave, but restless thou^t, and then ap- 
proaching me, pointed towards the sun, and by a movement 
of the hands> as if kneading something, asked me whether I 
made itt I shook my head. Did my raodier? — No. Did 
Mr. Roe, or Mr. Shaw (the two Protestant clergymen) or 
* the priest ? He had a sign to express^ such of these. — No. 
Then, ' What? ^-^ what ? ' with a frown and a stamp of fret- 
ful impatience. I pointed upwards, with a look of reverential 
solemnity, and spelled the word ^txod.' He seemed struck, 
and asked no more at that time, but next day he overwhelmed 
me with whats, and seemed determined to know more about 
it. I told him as well as I could, that He of whom I spoke 
was great, powerful, and kind ; and that he was always 
looking at us. He smiled, and informed me he did not 
know how the sun was made, for he could not keep his eyes 
on it, but the moon he thought was like a dumpling, and sent 
rolling over the tops of the trees, as he sent a marble across 
the table. As for the stars, they were cut out with a large 
pair of scissors, and stuck into the sky with the end of the 
thumb. Having thus settled his system of astronomy, he 
looked very happy, and patted his chest with evident self- 
applause. 

I was amused, but of course not satisfied : my charge was 
necessarily an Atheist, and what I had told him was a very 
bare sort of Deism indeed. To communicate more, bow- 
ever, seemed utterly impossible, until we should have accom- 
plished considerable things in the way of education. We 
had not above a dozen of the commonest words — all names 
of things — to which he could attach a meaning ; and our 



A DILEMMA. 157 

• 

signs were all of his own contrivingy which I had to cateh* 
and follow as I might. So said Reason, but Reason is a 
fool. ** Man shall not live by bread alone, but by everjr 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man 
live." " For my ways are not your ways, neither are your 
thoughts my thoughts, saith the Lord." It pleased him to 
enlighten the mind of the boy ; and instead of that work 
being dependent on human wisdom, all that human wisdom 
could dO|Was to creep afler it, at a modest distance. 

Next day, Jack came to me in groat wrath, intimating 
that my tongue ought to be pulled out. This was his usual 
mode of accusation where a lie had been told. So I looked 
kmocent and said, ^ What]' He reminded me of yesterday's 
conversation, telling me he had looked every where for God : 
he had been down the street, over the bridge, into the church- 
yard, through the fields, had peeped into the grounds of the 
castle, walked past the barrack-yard ; and got up in the night 
to look out at the window. All in vain ; he could not find 
God. He saw nobody big enough to put up hia hand and 
stick the stars into the sky, I was ^ bad,' my tongue must 
be pulled out ; for there was ' God, no.' And he repeated, 
* God — no ! ' so oflen that it went to my heart. 

I considered, prayerfully. My view of the scriptures told 
me that without divine help none could really seek afler 
God ; and also that when He vouchsafed to give the desire, 
he would surely increase knowledge. Here was a poor 
afflicted boy getting out of his bed to look by night for one 
whom he had vainly sought all the day : here was Satan at 
work to strengthen unbelief: I was commanded to resist the 
Devil, and surely there must be some way of resisting him. 
I sat silent, on the opposite side of the fire, and a plan having 
struck me, £ looked at Jack, shrugged my shoulders, and 
seemed convicted of a deception. He shook his head at me^ 
frowned, and appeared very much offended at my delin- 
quency* Presently I seized a small pair of bellows, and 

14 



158 DAWNISO LIGHT. 

after puffing at the fire for a while, suddenly directed a rough 
hlast at his little red hand, which hung very near it. He 
snatched it back, scowled at me, and when again I repeated 
the operation, expressed great displeasure, shivering, and 
letting iTie know he did not like it. 

I renewed the puff, saying, * What ? ' and looking mo^t 
unconscious of having done anything ; he blew hard, and 
repeated that it made his hands cold ; that I was very bad, 
and he was very angry. I puffed in all directions, looked 
very eagerly at the pipe of the bellows, peering on every side, 
and then, explaining that I could see nothing, imitated his 
manner, saying, ^ Wind— no!' shaking my head at him, 
and telling him his tongue must come out, mimicking his 
looks of rebuke and offended virtue. He opened his eyes 
very wide, stared at me, and panted ; a deep crimson suf- 
fused his whole face, and a soul, a real soul shone in his 
strangely altered countenance, while he triumphantly re- 
peated, ' God like wind ! God like wind ! ' He had no 
word for ' like ;' it was signified by holding the two fore- 
fingers ouU side by side, as a symbol or perfect resemblance. 

Here .was a step, a glorious step, out of absolute atheism 
into a perfect recognition of the invisible God. An idea, to 
call it nothing more, new, grand, and absorbing, took posses- 
sion of his mind. I numbered seven years of incessant care 
over him from that day ; and I will fearlessly assert that in 
his head and in his heart God reigned unrivalled. Even 
before he knew Him as God in Christ, the Creator and Pre- 
server were enthroned in his bosom ; and every event of.the 
day, every object that met his view, gave rise to some touch- 
ingly simple question or remark concerning God. He made 
me observe that when trying to look at the sun he was forced 
to shut his eyes, adding, * God like sun.' An analogy not 
very traceable, though strictly just ; for the glory that daz- 
zled his mind was not visible. He was perpetually engaged 
in some process of abstract reasoning on every subjectf and 



REASOMlHGfl. 159 

amazed me by explaining its riBsults ; but how he carried it 
on without the intervention of words, was and is a puzzle 
to me. 

Previously he had been rather teasing to the dog, and 
other inferior creatures, and had a great desire to fish ; but 
now he became most exquisitely tender towards every living 
thing, moving his hand over them in a caressing way, and 
sajring, * God made.' At first he excepted the worms from 
tiiis privilege, remarking that they came up through holes 
from beneath the earth, while God was above over the sky ; 
therefore they were not made by him : but I set him rightt 
and he agreed that they might be rolled up in the world, like 
meat in a pudding, and bite their way out. Thenceforth, 
wo to the angler whom Jack detected looking for live bait! 

When my first pupil from being irregular in his attendance 
fell ofT more and more, until he wholly discontinued coming, 
and the others were withdrawn for fear of heretical infection, 
I became more anxious lest this dear boy might also leave 
me before he had received the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
I had, at his earnest entreaty, taken him into the house alto- 
gether, his home being some distance ; but I knew not how 
long he might be permitted to stay. The ravages of a dread- 
ful fever among the poor increased my solicitude to see my 
devout little Deist a Christian. I have, in a small memoir 
of this * Happy Mute,' related the manner of his receiving 
the gospel, but I must not pass it over here. To the glory 
of God's rich grace it shall be recorded, as one of the most 
signal mercies ever vouchsafed to me. As before, the boy 
was led to open the way, and in the faith of the Lord's 
willingness to reveal himself to an inquiring soul I followed 
it up. 

Jack had noticed the number of funerals passing ; he had 
occasionally seen dead bodies placed in their coffins, and one 
evening he alluded to it, asking me by significant gestures if 
they would ever open their eyes again. Considering that he 



160 A SUNBEAM. 

had often been present at theinterment of the dead, and had 
also witnessed the decay of animals cast out to perish, it 
struck me as a singular question, plainly indicating that the 
consciousness of immortality is natural to man, and unbelief 
in a future state foreign to his untaught feelings. On the 
present occasion, my heart being then lifted up in prayer for 
divine assistance on this very point, I caught at the encour- 
agement, and instantly proceeded to improve the opportunity. 
I sketched on paper a crpwd of persons, old and young; near 
them a pit with flames issuing from it, and told him all those 
people, among whom were we, had beep ^ bad ' and God 
would throw us into the fire. When his alarm was grsttly 
excited, I introduced into the picture another individual* who 
I told him was God's Son, that he came out of heaven, ha 
had not been bad, and was not to go iii the pit ; but that he 
allowed himself to be killed ; and when he died, God shut 
up the pit ; so the people were spared. This seemed to 
myself too strange, vague, meagre, to convey any definite 
idea to the boy's mind ; but how efiectual does the Lord 
make our poorest efforts when He wills to work ! After a 
few moments deep thoi^t. Jack astonished me by an ob- 
jection that proved he saw the grand doctrine of a substitute 
for sinners, which I was so hopeless of bringing before him. 
He told me the rescued people were many ; he who died 
was one, and his earnest ' What?' with the eloquent look 
ttiat now peculiarly belonged to his once stupid countenance, 
showed his anxiety for a solution of this difiiculty. 

With unutterable joy in my heart, but great composure 
of manner, I rose, and taking from a vase a bunch of dead 
flowers, inadvertently left there, I cut them into small bits, 
laid theip ip a heap on the table, and beside them my gold 
ring : then poipting to each, with the words ' many — one, 
I asked which ^e would rather have 1 He struck his band 
suddenly to hid forehead, then clapped both hands, gave a 
j[umpa;8h.esat,.andwijlh the most rapturous, expression of 



4 . 



A 8 0UL BORN. 161 

countenance intimated that tfaeone piece of gold was better 
than the room full of dead flowers. With great rapidity he 
applied the symbol, pointing to the picture,' to the ring, to 
himself, to me, and finally to heaven. In the last position 
he stood up, and paused for some time, and what a picture 
he would have made j A smile perfectly angelic beaming 
on his facei his eyes sparkling and dancing with delight, 
untili with a rush of tears, that quite suffused them, he gazed 
at me, then again raised them to the ceiling, his look- sofl- 
ened into an expression of deep awe, and unbounded love, 
while he gently spelled on his fingers ' good One, good 
OnbI ' and ended by asking me his name. 

' How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
To a Believer's ear ! ' 

Jack was not to hear that name with his bodily ears until 
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God should call 
him from sleeping in the dust of the earth ; but he received 
it into his mind, and the gospel, the glorious everlasting gos- 
pel, into his soul, and the Holy Spirit into his heart, without 
the intervention of that sense. In that hour it was given 
unto him to believe, and from that hour all things were his — 
the world, life, death, and a bright immortality. Never but 
once before had I laid my head on the pillow with such an 
overwhelming sense of perfect happiness. The Lord had 
indeed shown me his glory, by causing his goodness to pass 
before me. 

Henceforth I had a Christian brother in my little dumb 
charge : his love to Jesus Christ was fervent and full ; his 
thoughts about him most beautiful. By degrees, I gave him 
some knowledge of our Lord's mortal birth, his infancy, 
work^ death, resurrection, and ascension : together with the 
future advent ; which I then believed to be a coming to final 
judgment at the end of the world ; aqd often was I puzzled 
by discerning that Jack had an impression on his mind of a 

14* 



102 A PROTK»TE»« 

coming to make his people happy here. At a titne when I 
had never even heard of a personal reign, tnd he, to my 
certain knowledge, had no human teaching whatever, except 
from me, at that time I am positively certain his views were 
those which now I hold ; and I cannot account for it without 
looking higher than man. 

Very great indeed was Jack's emotion when he discov- 
ered that the Saviour in whom he was rejoicing was the 
object represented by the image he had been* taught to bow 
down before. He resented it deeply : I was quite alarmed 
at the sudden and violent turn his feelings took against 
Popery. Awake as I was to its abo^ninations, I yet tem- 
porized sadly in this matter ; I had not faith to trust the 
Lord with his own, and dreading lest any interference with 
the forms of their idolatrous worship should cause his friends 
to take him from me, as Pat must have known it immedi- 
ately, I refrained from approaching the subject, and allowed 
Ihe poor little fellow to bow down with the rest in a mass- . 
bouse. If I ever was tempted to believe, which I never am, 
that God leaves any of his own children in the communion 
of antichrist. Jack's case would effectually rebuke me ; he 
spomed the whole system from him, in spite of me, as soon 
as the light of the gospel fell upon its deformities. 

Returning from the -chapel, one day, soon afler this, he 
came up tame under great excitement : be took up a clothes- 
brush, set it on one end, and with a ludicrous grimace bowed 
4own before it, joining his hands in the attitude of prayer, 
and chattering afler his fashion ; then asking the brush if it 
could hear him, waiting in an attitude of attention for its reply, 
and finally knocking it over, and kicking it round the room, 
saying, ' Bad god, had god I.' I guessed pretty well what 
it was all about ; but as he concluded by snapping his fin- 
gers exultingly, and seating himself without further remark, 
I spoke on other subjects. My feelings were far from 
enviable. 



IDOLATRY* 109 

Next morning. Jack was very animated, and came to roe 
with an evident budget of new thoughts. He told me some* 
thing veiy small came out of the ground, pointing in oppo- 
site directions ; it grew ; and then two more points appeared* 
I found he was describing the growth of a plant, and expect* 
ing some question, was all attention ; but Jack was come 
to teach, not to learn. He soon showed that his tree had 
reached a great height and size ; then he made as if shouU 
dering a hatchet, advanced to the tree, and cut it down. 
Next came a great deal of sawing, chopping, planing, and 
shaping, until he made me understand he had cut out a cru- 
cifix, which, he laid by, and proceeded to make a stool, a 
box, and other, small articles ; ai\er. which he gathered up 
the chips, flung them on the fire, and seemed to be cheering 
himself in the blaze. I actually trembled at the proceeding ; 
for, where had he, who could not form or understand half a 
sentence, where had he learned the Holy Spirit's testimony 
as recorded by Isaiah 1 

The sequel was what I anticipated : he feigned to set up 
the imaginary crucifix, and preparing to pray before itf 
checked himself, saying ' No ; ' then with animated serioua- 
ness reverted to the springing up of the little seedling, sayiog, 
* God made ; ' and as it grew, he described the fashioning of 
the trunk, and branches, and leaves, most gracefully, still 
saying, * God made ; ' he seemed to dip a pencil in colour* 
to paint the leaves, repeating, * God made beautiful ! ' Then 
that God made his hands too, and he came to the conclusion 
that the tree which God made, cut out by his hands which 
God made, could not be God who made them. Then he 
got very angry, and not satisfied with an insubstantial object 
for his holy indignation to vent itself upon, he ran for the 
clothes-brush, and gave it a worse cuffing and kicking than 
before ; ending with a solemn inquiry, whether I worshipped 
crosses, &c., when I went to church t 

How guilty I felt ! and still I trembled to give the encour- 



164 FAITHLESBNEBS. 

agement I longed to bestow. However, I dbtinctly intima- 
ted my detestation of idolatry, and confirmed his strong re- 
pudiation of it. He told me he would not go any more to 
chapel, but I told him, as well as I could, the almost certain 
consequences, and he then remembered that other boys had 
told him those who ate meat on Fridays would go to Hell ; 
and that the same people were to be killed, for this was in 
1824, and Pastorini was universally quoted. He became 
greatly distressed as the next Sabbath approached, but con- 
trary to all my expectations returned from mass in excellent 
spirits. Pat told me, laughing, that Jack was become so 
musical he insisted on going to sit by the organ, that he 
might feel the vibration, and when alone with me Jack joy- 
fully told me that he had run up the stairs from the outer door 
to the organ loft, and so escaped even the necessity of bow- 
ing down to the cross. This plan he persisted in from that 
day. Some years afterwards I asked his brother if he had 
any suspicion at the time of the boy's object in so doing : he 
answered. None at all ; and that if he had he would have 
forced him into the body of the mass-house, and compelled 
him to prostrate himself. 

May the Lord grant that what I have thus narrated may 
be made the means of conveying a lesson to every reader ! 
It was one of the great commendations of the church at Eph- 
esus that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which 
Christ also hates : and let us daub over our sinful indifte- 
rence as we may, with the false varnish of liberality, charity, 
and so forth, it will be an awful item against our souls if we 
do not hate, actively hate, the deeds of antichristian Rome ; 
and prove it by exposing the vile snare that we may deliver 
those whom it holds captive. We have frittered away God's 
truth, and well nigh trampled out his line of demarcation, 
between a holy worship and the polluted sacrifice of an idol 
temple, while speculating on the fair front of Jansenism as 
opposed to Jesuitism : we have turned from the fires of 




OUTRAGE. 165 

Sroithfield to contemplate the well-told tales of Port-Roy- 
al, and thrust oar Bradfords, our Latiroers, yea and our Lu* 
thera, from the shelf to set up Fenelon and a Kempis. To 
their own Master they stood or fell ; Fenelon's appointed- 
work was the conversion of Protestants to Popery ; he used 
all the influence of his very superior mind and amiable char- 
acter to draw the persecuted Huguenots into communion 
with Rome. It was his glory that he succeeded so far, and 
no doubt he did it conscientiously ; but so long as I read in 
my Bible that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light 
to seduce Christ's servants from their allegiance to Him, I 
will not tamper with my faith by sitting down to ascertain 
how much of Christianity I candiscover in certain individuals 
actively promoting a system against which the Orod of heav- 
en has pronounced an irrevocable, a withering, and a final 
curse. 

A dreadful instance occurring in our immediate neigh* 
bourhood about this period, manifested more alarmingly 
than ever the perilous excitement of the poor people's minds 
on whom the wicked predictions already noticed had taken 
effect. Not more than a quarter of a mile from the bar- 
racks of Kilkenny lived a family of unoffending, respectable 
Protestants, named Man*. One Sunday afternoon, long 
before sunset, while they were sitting round the tea-table 
with unfastened doors, a party of Rockites rushed into the 
. house, loudly demanding arms. The father and his eldest 
son ran up stairs, probably intending to make some defence ; 
but it was too late* so they brought down what weapons they 
had, and delivered them up. The intruders turned to go ; 
but first opened the parlour door, where the rest of the 
family remained, panic-struck, and perfectly quiet ; and one 
of them taking a deliberate aim at the second son, a pecu- 
liariy harmless character, because he was- of weak intellect, 
with the manners of a little child, shot him. The bullet 



166 ITEARFUL BI O OTRT. 

entered just above his elbow; and as he fell the murderous 
^ggressbr made off, laughing, with his companions. 

The young man was brought into Kilkenny, and moBt 
assiduously attended by the medical gentlemen, while the 
clergymen of our parish and his brethren in the ministry 
were constantly engaged in prayer beside him,,' or in sooth'^ 
ing the anguish of his mother and sisters. The ball could 
oot be extracted^ neither could the bleeding by any means 
be stanched ; but, drop by drop, in lingering agony, the 
▼ital current escaped from the youth's veins, and he was 
several days dying. Outside the window of the house as- 
sembled a number of women from the lowest class of the 
Romanish population, and there they sate, responding with 
a yell of triumph to every groan the poor sufferer uttered, 
praying that he might have smart ebough before he went ^ 
and shouting, * You'll be in hell presently, you Protestant 
locust, and then you'll cry louder ; ' with similar exclama- 
tions, and most awful curses on the whole race. Why were 
they not removed 1 you will ask ; but who was to remove 
them ? Were 24,000 people to be roused into open vi- 
olence, with a couple of Highland companies in garrison, 
and a small force of Police, and 800. terrified Protestants, 
fully aware that at the first intimation of an outburst, fifly 
or a hundred thousand armed foes would pour in from the 
surrounding country ? No : the outcries of a few wretched 
women were not to produce that effect, though probably it 
w as calculated upon ; and the innocent victim died amid 
their shouts. I remember one of the clergymen came to 
me requesting a glass of wine, and bursting into a passion 
of tears as he recounted what he had heard while praying 
in the midst of that agonized family, as the spirit of the mur- 
dered yonth departed with a long deep groan, that extorted 
a scream of joy from the eager listeners without. I can 
fancy you here pausing to ask if I could love such a savage 
crew: not those individuals, certainly, as then engaged ; 



COl<OfiS0ION. 167 

but I looked beyond the hatefutfruit to the execrable root 
that bore it, and felt how terrible waa our own responsibility, 
in that we had not laid the axe to it while yet the opportii- ' 
nity was given, by preaching Popery out of Ireland by the 
same means that banished it from. England and Scotland. 
^ There was nothing in this demonstration inconsistent with, 
the usual workings of that ferocious persecutor all over thp 
wdrld. The records o^Fiedmont bear a testimony to which 
alljands in. all ages send forth a corroborative voide, that •' 
where Popery has gained the ascendant the demons of cni* 
elty rage uncontrolled, so long as a whisper or a look dis- 
sentient from its dogmas may be detected ; nay, we well 
know that infancy, and, as in the case just cited, imbecility 
of mind, where neither assent nor dissent can be traced, 
comes under the murderous ban. That human beings can 
always be found to execute these frightful behest^ is a la- 
mentable, a humiliating fact ; but when once given over to 
a reprobate mind, of what is not man Capable? 

While these things were going on, many of the principal 
sufferers from them consoled themselves under the persua- 
sion that what they were enduring would turn to the good 
of the Protestant cause, by convincing the government how 
utterly vain was any hope of transforming Popery into a 
peaceable neighbour by any further concessions. Every 
one knew that the 'emancipation' so loudly called for 
could work no other change in the hostile party than as it 
must afford them an important step in advance to final as- 
cendency. . What could suoh concession do in neutralizing 
the effect of Pastorini's prophecies ? Would the ' locusts ' 
cease to be so by bestowing a tardy boon on the Romanists, 
wrung from them at the pike's point? It seemed impossi- 
ble that any statesman should fall under such infatuation, 
and we are glad to see the mask so entirely thrown off, 
though our own proximity to the unveiled abomination ren- 
dered it trying to us. Most assuredly the Protestants of 



168 SUMMONS. 

Ireland were not consenting to that deed ; some, dwelling 
in secure cities, and wholly careless whether truth or false- 
hood ruled the realm, joined the cry of liberalism ; apd 
others in exposed situations forebore to utter their sentiments 
at all, well knowing that every word spoken in the hearing 
of their Romish domestics would, speedily find its way to 
the confessional ; but in general there was a firm, undk^ 
guised oppostttOQ to the surrender of the national faith ; funi 
sure I am that the Protestants of Ireland never acquiesced 
in having then* dangers made the plea for throwing down the 
bulwarks of the constitution. 

£arly in the summer of 1824 I received a summons to 
return to England. It was most unwelcome, for my heiirt 
was knit to Ireland, and to share the lot of her devoted peo* 
pie was its earnest desire. At home I had many old fiiends ; 
but what were they to the beloved brethren and sisters in 
Ohrist, who had been my fellow-helpers for the last four 
years in the work of the Lord 1 All ties were weak to that, 
save one, the tie that bound me to my beloved brother. Him 
I had not seen for nine years ; he had continued on the sta^ 
of the Portuguese army until the establishment of the Cortes, 
who dismissed all British officers ; and then he settled in 
the interior of that country, cultivating some of the land 
which he had gallantly fought to rescue. It was a subject 
of continual sorrow to me that he was residing in the heart 
of an exclusively Popish country, far from every means of 
grace ; net even a place of worship within many leagues, 
and wholly shut out from Christian intercourse. I knew 
that he had been equally dark with myself on the subject of 
religion ; and truly can I say, that from the very hoar of my 
being enabled to see the truth as it is in Jesus, my life had 
been a constant prayer for him, that God would make him 
a partaker in the like precious faith. There was now a 
prospect of his returning, and this, added to the summons I 
have mentionedi made my way plain. The state of Jack's 



SUPERSTITION* 



169 



mind, too, on the subject of Popery, helped to reconcile mOi 
since I had made up my mind to take him with me if his 
parents would agree to it. There was no difficulty in bring- 
ing them to do so ; they gave a willing, a grateful consent. 
His mother's words, while tears rolled dovm her cheeks, 
were, ^ Take him ; he is more your child than ours.' His 
father remarked, * Why shouldn't we let him go with yoUf 
seeing he would grieve to death if you left him behind 1 ' 
When I began to state that I could not promise he would not 
openly embrace my religion, they interrupted me, repeating 
that he was my child m\>re than theirs, and could never 
come to any harm under my care. Coward as I was, I did 
not use the opportunity then given to set before them their 
own danger, and commend the pure faith that I knew their 
child held. I had occasionally talked in a general way, and 
once very strongly, when the mother told me of the dreadful 
penances she had done, walking on her bare knees over a 
road strewed with pebbles, glass, and quick lime, to make 
her sufferings greater, in order to obtain from God and the 
saints the restoration of the boy's hearing and speech. She 
was then pleading the power and holiness of her clergy, and 
their superiority to all the rest of the world. I looked from 
the window, and said, ^ See, there goes your bishop ; now 
do you think this bright sun warms him more than it does 
any Protestant walking beside him 1 ' * Troth, and I am 
sure it does,' answered she. * What, do you think he has 
any particular advantage over other men in things that are 
common to all? ' * That he has, being a holy bishop.' 
* Well, now, if I call him up, and we all put our fingers to- 
gether between these bars, do you think the fire would bum 
him less than us 1 ' She hesitated ; her husband burst into 
a laugh, and archly said, * I'll engage his reverence would'nt 
try that same.' 

I was now to bid adieu to my pleasant haunts, chief 
among which was the lordly castle of Kilkenny, where I 

15 



170 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 

had passed so very many delightful hours. Ito noble owners 
were abroad^ but by their favour I had a key to the private 
door beside the river, and full access to every part of the 
castle and its beautiful grounds. It was there I used to 
muse on days of Ireland's bygone greatness* though not 
then well read in her peculiar history, and gradually I had 
become as Irish as any of her own children. How could 
it be otherwise 1 I was not naturally cold-hearted, though 
bircumstances had, indeed, greatly frozen the current of my 
warm afiections, and I had learned to look with compara- 
tive indifference on whatever crossed my changeful path ; 
but no one with a latent spark of kindly feeling can long re- 
press it among the Irish. There is an ardour of character, 
an earnestness in their good will, a habit of assimilating 
themselves to the tastes and habits of those whom they de- 
irire to please, — and that desire is very general, — that wins • 
on the affections of those who posses^ any, a grateful regard, 
and leaving on the scenes that have witnessed such inter- 
course, a sunshine peculiar to themselves. Reserve of man- 
ner cannot long exist in Irish society. I have met with 
some among the people of the land, who were cold and for- 
bidding, insensible and unkind, but these were exceptions, 
establishing the rule by the very disagreeable contrast in 
"which they stood out from all around them ; and I never 
found these persons in the humbler classes, where the un- 
mixed Irish prevails. Hospitality is indeed the pole-star of 
Ireland ; go where you will, it is always visible ; but it 
shines the brightest in the poor man's cabin, because the 
potato that he so frankly, so heartily, so gracefully presses 
upon your acceptance is selected from a scanty heap, barely 
sufficient to allay the cravings of hunger in himself and his 
half-clad little ones. In this, as in all other particulars, a 
change for the worse has come over the people of late ; 
priestly authority has interposed to check the outgoings of 
kindness, from a warm-hearted people to those who are in- 



i 

CONFESSION. 171 

deed their friends, and a painful, reluctant restraint is laid 
upon them ; but the evil had not become evident at the time 
of my sojourn there, and I can only speak of them as the most 
respectful, most courteous and hospitable peasantry in the 
world. At the same time they were in many respects the most 
degraded. Nothingcould equal the depth^of their abasement 
before an insolent priesthood, except the unblushing ef- 
frontery with which the latter lorded it over them. For 
any infraction of their arbitrary rules, the most cruel and 
humiliating penances were imposed. I knew an instance 
of a young woman, a Romanist, who engaged in the service 
of a Protestant family, and went out with them to America. 
While there, she was led to join in family worship, but 
without any intention of forsaking her own creed ; neither 
had they attempted to draw her out of the net. On her re- 
turn to Kilkenny she weqt to confession, and among other 
things divulged the fact of having heard the Bible read, and 
prayed in company with heretics. This was an enormity 
too grjBat for the priest to deal with alone ; so he ordered 
the girl off, fasting, to her original confessor, who then of- 
ficiated in a chapel seven good Irish miles distant. On 
hearing the case, he ordered her to go thrice round the 
chapel on her bare knees, and then to set off, still fasting, 
and walk back to Kilkenny, there to undergo such additional 
penance as his reverend brother should see good to impose. 
The poor creature scarcely reached the town alive, through 
fatigue, exhaustion, and terror ; she was ill for some time, 
and on her recovery subjected to farther discipline. These 
particulars I had from one of her own friends and a bigoted 
papist to boot, who told it in order to convince me that the 
girl had committed a very gi-eat sin. I once asked a young 
man how he got on at confession, — whether he told all his 
sins. He replied, * Sometimes I disremember a few, and 
if the priest suspects it, he pulls my hair, and boxes my 
ears, to help my memory.' * And how do you feel wh^n you 



172 . INFERNAL MACHINERY. 

have got absolution V * I feel all right ; and I go out and 
begin again.' ' And how do you know that God has really 
pardoned you V ' He doesn't pardon me directly ; only 
the priest does. He (the priest) confesses my sins to the 
bishop, and the bishop confesses them to the pope, and the 
pope sees the Virgin Mary every Saturday night, and tells 
her to speak to God about it.' * And you really believe 
this monstrous story 1 ' * Why should'nt I ? But it is no 
affair of mine, for, once I have confessed, all my sins are 
laid on the priest, and he must do the best he can to get rid 
of them. I am safe.' Of such materials is the net com- 
posed that holds these people in bondage ; and who can 
marvel that such prostration of mind before a fellow mortal 
should lead to an abject slavery of the whole man, body, 
conscience, and understanding ? We see the effects, and 
abhor them ; but we do not go to the root of the matter. 
The priest himself is equally enslaved ; his oath binds him 
to an implicit blind reception of tenets which he is not per- 
mitted to investigate, and which make him the pliant tool of 
a higher department of this detestable machinery. He re- 
ceives his cue from the bishops, and they are wholly gov- 
erned by the Propaganda at Rome, whither each of them 
is bound periodically to appear for personal examination and 
fresh instructions. The Propaganda is, of course, the pri- * 
mum mobile of the system, set a-going by Satan himself. 
Hence the mischief that is perpetrated by the unhappy beings 
who form the operative section of this cunning concern ; the 
handicraft men of blood. It is an awful spectacle, and one 
that we cannot long avert our eyes from contemplating with 
the deep interest that personal peril excites. All is pre- 
paring for a burst of persecution against the people of the 
Lord, and happy is he who shall be found armed with 
watching ! 



DARK PROSPECTS. 173 



LETTER X. 



E N « L A H D . 



We slarted for Dublin with sorrowing hearts, for it wa^ 
likely to be a long, if not a last farewell to friends who 
were endeared as well by a participation in danger as in 
feeling. Those who have daily been expecting to die to- 
gether in a holy cause« cfuinot lightly part. One of the last 
things that I learned before leaving the place was commu- 
nicated to me by an intimate friend and near neighbour, a 
very sweet Christian character. She had lived on terms of 
intimacy with a Romish family in the town, and a few days 
previous to toy departure the mother of this family called on 
Miffs , with tears entreating her to embrace Popery ; 

for that the next year would witness the utt^r extermination 
of ProtestaDts, and it would be out of her power, or that 
of any other person, to save^any life, however dear to them. 
She urgeil it with most affectionate importunity, and evi- 
dently much distressed at her failure. Whether the better 
informed class of the .RomanistSihaliaved in Pastorini's pre- 
dictions or not, they saw them universally received among 
the bulk of the people, and of course knew that they would 
take care to verify what they believed. It was by a won- 
derful interposition that the Protestants of Ireland were 

15* 



174 THE DUMB BOT. 

saved, though an unmarked one ; for, with a population of 
six to one, roused to the highest pitch of religious fanaticism, 
prepared by extra masses, fasts, and prayers, and confiding 
ill the assurances of an infallible church that so it must be ; 
where, too, they had every thing to gain and little or nothing 
to lose, it is marvellous that such a restraint was laid on 
their sanguinary purposes. The priestly fancy of entering 
into discussion with their opponents wrought powerfully 
against their own cause : and the notorious Doyle, who led 
the way in every species of agitation and mischief, and 
sanctioned the riotous meeting at Carlo w, one of the ablest, 
wiliest, and boldest of Romish bishops, whose writings were 
firebrands, and who in a public speech eulogised a farmer 
in his diocese for taking the Bible in the tongs and burying 
it in a hole in his garden, — that Dr. Doyle afterwards died 
a Protestant ; nor could all the devices of his brethren long 
conceal the fact. 

Jack had never before been beyond the environs of his 
native town, and I expected to see him much astonished by 
the splendid buildings of Dublin. He regarded them, how- 
ever, with indifference, because, as he said, they were not 
*6od-mades,' while the scenery through which we had 
travelled, particularly the noble oaks on Colonel Bruen's 
fine demesne, and the groups of deer reclining beneath 
their broad shadow, roused him to enthusiasm. It was 
wonderful to trace the exquisite percepiton of beauty as de- 
veloped in that boy who had never even been in a furnished 
room until he came to me. His taste was refined, and his 
mind delicate beyond belief: I never saw such sensitive 
modesty as he manifested to the last day of his life. Rude- 
ness of any kind was hateful to him ; he not only yielded 
rospect to all, but required it towards himself, and really 
commanded it by his striking propriety of manner. He was, 
as a dear friend once remarked, a * God-made ' gentleman, 
untainted With the slightest approach to anything like af- 



jack's adventure. 175 

fectation or coxcombry ; indeed he ridiculed the latter with 
much comic effect ; and the words * Dandy Jack ' would 
put him out of conceit with any article of apparel that drew 
forth the remark. He would answer the taunt with a face 
of grave rebuke, saying, ^ Bad Mam, bold Mam ; Jack 
dandy, no : Jack poor boy.' He had not, indeed, arrived 
at so copious a vocabulary when we lefl his home ; but he 
was rapidly acquiring new words. 

It was beautiful to see him at prayer. He had never 
kneeled down with us at Bdlkenny ; for any Romanist who 
had detected him doing so must have informed, and the 
priest would have commanded his removal. In Dublin he 
volunteered to join us, and as he kneeled with clasped hands, 
looking up towards heaven, the expression of his counte- 
nance was most lovely. A smile of childlike confidence and 
reverential love played over his features, now becoming most 
eloquent ; his bristly hair had began to assume a silky ap- 
pearance, and was combed aside from a magnificent brow, 
while a fine colour perpetually mantled his cheeks, and 
changed with every emotion ; his dark hazel eyes, large, 
and very bright, always speaking some thought that occu- 
pied his mind. He was rather more than twelve years old. 
In prjofile he much resembled Eirke White when older ; but 
the strongest likeness I ever saw of him is an original por- 
trait of Edward YI., by Holbein, in my possession. It was 
taken afler consumption had set its seal on the countenance 
of that blessed young king, as it did on that of my dear 
dumb boy. 

One adventure he had in Dublin that afforded him much 
enjoyment I went into an e^jctensive toy-shop to make 
some purchase, and Jack, enchanted with the wonders 
around him, strolled to the farther end, and into a little ad- 
joining recess, well filled with toys. A great uproar in that 
direction made us all run to inquire the cause, and there 
was Jack, mounted on a first rate rocking-horse, tearing 



176 DEPARTURE FROM IRELAND. 

away full gallop, and absolutdy roaring out in the maddest 
paroxysm of delight, his hat fallen off, his arm raised, his 
eyes and mouth wide open, and the surrounding valuables 
in imminent peril of a general crash. The mistref?s of the 
shop was so convulsed with laughter that she could render 
no assistance, and it was with some difficulty I checked his 
triumphant career, and dismounted him. He gave me af- 
terwards a diverting account of his cautious approach to the 
* good horse ; ' how he ascertained it was * bite, no ; kick, 
00 ; ' and gradually got resolution to mount it. He wanted 
to know how far he had rode, and also if he was a God- 
mado 1 I told him it was wood, but I doubt whether he be- 
lieved roe. Thenceforth Dublin was associated in his mind 
with nothing else ; even at nineteen years of age he would 
say, if he met with the name, * Good Dublin, good horse ; 
smallJack love good Dublin horse.' The shipping pleased 
him greatly, and many of his beautiful drawings were repre- 
sentations of sailing vessels. 

I had now been in Ireland five years and three months ; 
and with what different feelings did I prepare to leave its 
green shores from those with which I first pressed them ! 
Unfounded prejudice was succeeded by an attachment 
founded on close acquaintance with those among whom I had 
dwelt, contempt by respect, and dislike by the warmest, most 
grateful affection. I had scorned her poverty, and hated her 
turbulence. The first I now knew to be no poverty of soil, 
of natural resources, of mind, talent, or energy, but the effect 
of a blight, permitted to rest alike, on the land and people, 
through the selfishness of an unjubt, crooked policy, that 
made their welfare of no account in its calculations, nor 
would stretch forth a hand to deliver them from the dark 
dominion of Popery. Their turbulence was the natural fruit 
of such poverty, and of their being wholly under the influ- 
ence of a party necessarily hostile to the interests of a Prot- 
estant state, and bent on su'bverting its ascendency. What 



CLIFTON. 177 

Ireland was, I too plainly saw : what she might be, I clearly 
understood ; and the guilt of my country's responsibility lay 
heavy on my heart as I watched the outline of her receding 
coast. 

Bristol was our destination ; and for the ensuing year, 
Clifton became our abode. This period of my hfe was one 
of severe trial, which it is not necessary to particularise. 
Incipient derangement, which afterwards became developed, 
in a quarter where, if I did not find comfort and protection, I 
might expect their opposites, occasioned me much alarm and 
distress, while my brother's protracted absence increased the 
trial. Much secluded, I pursued my literary avocations, and 
watched the progress of Jack's growth in knowledge and in 
grace. 

Clifton is certainly one of the most beautiful spots in Eng- 
land ; the river winding its graceful way beneath St. Yin- 
cent's picturesque rocks on the one side, and on the other 
the noble plantations of Leigh rising, as it were, out of the 
water, and overhanging it with grove and garden, is enchant- 
ing ; while the constant succession of vessels of every va- 
riety of size and character, passing to and fro, fills the mind 
with a picture of commercial greatness, the more striking 
iBrom its locality. The number of steamers was then small ; 
the ungraceful chimney, with a long pennon of black smoke, 
had not superseded the tapering mast and swelling sails, nor 
given a hurrying rapidity to the slow, gliding movement so 
peculiar to a ship in smooth water. £very one of these 
sea-kettles ought to be inscribed with the motto, ' Death to 
the picturesque.' They now send their dark vapours curl- 
ing up St. Vincent's clifis, and by continually agitating the 
waters, destroy the tranparency of that elegant river. But 
believing, as I do, that these *' swift messengers " have a 
special commission, in the divine purpose, to bring from all 
parts of the world that acceptable present unto the Lord of 
Hosts, — his own peeled and scattered Israel, — to the holy 



178 HANNAH MORE. 

mountain of Jerusalem, I am reGoociled to the temporary 
sacrifice of effect, as I should indeed be to the sacrifice of 
all earthly good, in the prospect of that blessed event. Every 
steamer launched, every rail laid down in the highways, is a 
step towards the accomplishment of those glorious things 
that are promised to crown the tribulation of these latter 
days ; and while Satan will doubtless avail himself for evil, 
cruelty, and devastation, they shall ultimately fulfil all the 
Lord's pleasure, when he says to Jerusalem, *^ Thou shalt 
be built," andto Zion, *' Thy fountains shall be laid/' 

My sojourn at Clifton brought me into personal acquain- 
tance with that venerable servant of God, Hannah More. 
We had for some time corresponded, and she had afforded 
me great encouretgement in' my humble labours, taking an ' 
especial interest in my attempts to mstruct the deaf and 
dumb children. I had now the pleasure of showing her the 
progress made with Jack, who delighted her greatly, and 
who, to the last day of his mortal existence, most fondly* 
cherished the memory of that sweet old lady. She was, 
indeed, one of the excellent of the earth, permitted long to 
beautify the church which she had so mainly helped to 
strengthen and advance, and to be an honour to the land 
where she had nobly stood forth to repel the assaults of rev- 
olutionizing impiety. I oflen wonder that so little stress is 
laid upon this branch of Mrs. More's extensive labours. We 
hear much of her schools, her charities, her letters, her 
devotional and educational publications, and al| of these 
deserve the full celebrity that they have attained. But £ng-^ 
land should especially bear in mind her effective champion- 
ship of the good cause, by means most admirably adapted 
to its furtherance among the most dangerous, and generally 
speaking the roost unapproachable class — a class who 
congregated in ale-houses to hear the inflammatory har- 
angues of seditious traitors, while as yet Bibles were scarce, 
religious tracts not in existence, and district visiting un- 



A. CARNAL POLITICIAN. 179 

thought of. In a lady of refined taste, and rare accomplish- 
' ments in the higher style of writing, to volunteer in a work 
80 new, and to furnish the press with a series of plain truthSf 
dressed in a most homely phrase, rendered attractive by lively 
narrative, and even drollery, and the whole brought down to 
the level of coarse, uninformed minds, while circulated in a 
form to come within the narrow means of the lowest me- 
chanics — this was an enterprise worthy especial note, even 
had not God openly blessed it to the turning of that formid- 
able tide. When I looked upon the placid but animated 
countenance of the aged saint, as she satin her bow-window 
'looking out upon the fair fields, the still inviolate shores of 
her beloved country, I thought more of her •'cheap repository 
* tracts ' than of all her other works combined. There lay 
the Bristol Channel, that noble inlet to our ii^Ie, by which the 
commerce of the world was even then finding its peaceful 
way to the great mart of Bristol ; and there sat the aged 
lady, so long the presiding spirit of the place, with one hand, 
as it were, gathering the Iambs of the flock into green pas- 
tures among the distant hills, that formed a beautiful feature 
in the landscape ; with the other vigorously repulsing the 
wolf from the field. If I could have discovered, which I 
could not, a single trait of consciousness that she was a dis- 
tinguished being, exalted into eminence by public acclaim, 
I must have conceived her to be dwelling upon this branch 
of her many privileges, that she had been a Deborah where 
many a Barak shrunk from the post of honour and skulked 
behind a woman. She took that lively interest in the public, 
secular affairs of her country that Jeremiah and Ezekiel did 
of old, and on the same plain ground ; that where the state 
professes to be modelled, and the executive to act, on prin- 
ciples of God's instilling, with a view that peace and happi- 
ness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established 
among us, nothing done by the state can be indifferent to the 
church, or unworthy the anxious, watchful regard of Chris- 



180 TRIACHERT. 

tians. To be called a carnal politician by tbose whose mindSf 
at least on religiouB subjects, could contain but one idea, was 
certainly a light affliction to balance against the joyous con- 
sciousness of having materially aided in preserving thoie 
cavillers' homes from the hand of the spoiler, and their 
Bibles from that of the Atheist 

When I saw Hannah More, she was really at ease in her 
possessions ; and none who loved her less than the Lord hiili» 
self did, would have laid a sorrow upon her gray hairs. Man 
would have decreed, that such a full- ripe shock of com 
should be brought into the gamer without further ruffling or 
shaking. She had sufiered exceedingly from rheumatism 
and other ailments, and yet more from the tongue of calumnyt 
and the hand of ingratitude. She was an illustration of that 
striking couplet, 

* Envy will merit as its shade pursue, 
And, like the shadow, proves the substance tnie.' 

She had, however, triumphed over atlt b^ meekly com- 
mitting her cause to Him who judgeth ri^taoasly ; and now 
she seemed to be placed beyopd the reach of further moles- 
tation ; and about to end her useful life in peace. But aha 
had another lesson to give to the people of God, another fire in 
which to glorify him : and not long afler I saw her reclining 
in that lovely retreat which had grown up about her, a perfect 
bower from slips and seeds of her own planting, as she de- 
lighted to tell us, she was actually driven out of her little 
paradise, compelled to leave the shadow of her nursling trees, 
and to cast a tearful farewell look on the smiling flowers, 
and to turn away from the bright sea and the waving line of 
her Cheddar hills, to find a lodging in the neighbouring town; 
and all through treachery, domestic treachery, against her 
whose whole life had been a course of unsparing beneficence 
towards others ! Hannah More, perhaps, needed to be 
again reminded, that she must do all her works ** as to the 



AFFLICTIONS. 181 

Lord," looking to him alone for acceptance of them ; or if 
she needed it not, others <lid ; and often since she entered 
into her Saviour's presence, ^ to go no more out," has the 
scene of the last trial to which her generous, confiding, af- 
fectionate spirit was subjected, been blessed to the consola- 
tion of others. God's children find that it is good for them- 
selves that they should be afflicted ; but they do not always 
lemember how good it is for the church, that they should be 
so. They look within, and seeing so much there daily, 
^* justly deserving God's wrath and condemnation," they lie 
still in hiahand, willing and thankful to have the dross purged 
out, and all the tin taken away. Their fellows look on, and 
not seeoig the desperate wickedness of their hearts, but fondly 
b^eving ^em to be as near perfection as human frailty will 
pormit, ^ey argue, ^ If such a saint as be thus chas- 
tened and corrected, what must a sinner like me expect V 
So they learn watchfulness and fear in the day of prosperity ; 
and when adversity comes they are enabled more lovingly 
to kiss the rod. Oh, if we could see but a little of the Lord's 
dealings, in all thetr bearings, how should we praise him for 
his goodness, and the wonders that he doeth unto the chil- 
dren of men ! What profit, what pleasure has He in afflict- 
ing us ? Surely it is, so to speak, more trouble to correct 
than to leave us alone ; and he would not twine the small 
cords into a scourge, unless to cleanse, and sanctify his 
temple. 

I have said that my brother's return home was delayed. 
A hurt received in shooting, with its consequences, detained 
him in Lisbon nearly a year ; but his family came over, and 
I had a new delicious employment, a solace under many 
sorrows, an unfailing source of interest and delight, in teach- 
ing his eldest surviving boy the accomplishments of walking 
and talking. I almost expected Jack to be jealous of such 
a rival, but I wronged him : nothing could exceed his fond- 
ness for ^ Baby boy,' or the zeal of his Irish devotion to th/t 

16 



182 jack's progress. 

little geutleman. EnowiDg that in the event of my removal 
Jack must earn his bread by some laborious or servile occu- 
pation, I had kept him humble. He ate in the same room 
Mrith us, because I never suffered him to associate with 
servants, but at a side-table ; and he was expected to do 
every little household work that befitted his age and 
strength. A kind shake of the hand, morning and eveiiiiig» 
was his peculiar privilege ; and the omission a punishment 
too severe to be inflicted, except on occasions of most fla- 
grant delinquency, such as rebelling against orders, or ex- 
pressing any angry emotion, to which he was constitutionally 
liable, by yells and howls, that almost frightened the Hot- 
wells from their propriety. He had, of course, no idea of 
the strength of his own lungs, nor of the efifect prodjiced by 
giving them full play in a fit of passion ; but the commotion 
into which it threw the whole house seemed to flatter his van- 
ity, and he became a vocalist on very triflng occasions. This 
neither agreed with our dear invalid landlady, nor was a fitting 
example for ^ Baby boy,' who speedily tried his own little 
treble in admiring imitation of Jack's deafening bass ; and 
recourse was at last had to the aid of a young friend, who 
bestowed a few gentle raps on his head with the bent end 
of a hooked cane, and then locked him up in a dark kitchen 
for half an hour, saying to me, rather regretfully, ' I suppose 
my popularity is at an end now. Poor fellow ! I shall be 
sorry to lose his affection.' But this was so far from being 
the case, that to his closing scene Jack retained a grateful 
remembrance of the proceeding. He used to say, ^ Good 
Mr. W.; good little stick beat Jack's head ; made bad Jack 
good. Jack love good Mr. W.' At the very time, as soon 
as he saw his kind corrector, afler the business, he very 
gracefully and cordially thanked him, kissing his hand, widi 
a bow, and saying, * Jack no more cry; ' and as he really 
was hardly touched, and full well knew we had not the 



p Hater. 183 

heart to be severe, it was a proof of that openness to rebuke 
which is a lovely mark of true Christianity. 
Montgomery beautifully says, 

-. * Prayer ii the Christianas vital breath, 
The Chrifltimn's native air.' 

And so it eminently was with the dumb boy. Under every 
form of condition and circumstance, in health and sickness, 
in joy, in grief, in danger, in perplexity — over his food, his 
studies, his work, his amusements, he was ever turning a 
look of peculiar sweetness on me, with the two words, * Jack 
pray.' He always smiled when so engaged, and a look of 
inexpressible eagerness, mingled with satisfaction, and the 
triumph of one who feels he has taken a secure stand, told 
me when he was praying, without any change of position, 
or looking up. There was always a mixture of anxiety in 
his aspect when he tried to make himself understood by his 
fellow-creatures ; this gave place to something the reverse 
of anxiety when he was * talking to God,' as he sometimes 
expressed it. He oftener looked down than up ; and very 
often did I see his eye fixed upon the ' Baby boy,' when, as 
his looks bespoke, and as he afterwards told me, he was 
* tell God ' about him, and that he was too little to know about 
Jesus Christ yet. Many a prayer of that grateful dumb boy 
even now descends in blessings on the head of my brother's 
^ Baby,' and long may the hallowed stream continue to flow 
down, until they rejoice together before the throne of the 
Lamb. 

One of Jack's lovely thoughts was this : he told me that 
when little children began to walk, Jesus Christ held them 
by the hand to teach them ; and that if they fell he put his 
hand between their heads and the ground to prevent their 
being hurt Then, as if he saw this proceeding, he would 
look op, and with the fondest expression say, ' Good Jesus 
Christ ! Jack very much loves Jesus Christ.' I hope you 



184 Mercies. 

are not tired of Jack ; I have much to tell about him. Qod 
made me the humble means of plucking this |irecious brand 
from the bumlog ; and I owe it to the Lord to show what a 
tenfold blessing I reaped in it. Jack was not the only one 
of whom He has, in the dispensations of his providence, said 
to me, '' Nurse this child for me, and I will give thee thy 
wages," I have found Him a noble Paymaster ! 

And now I come to a period of my life that I have scarcely 
courage t6 go over. Many, and sharp, and bitter were the 
trials lefl unrecorded here ; and shame be to the hand that 
shall ever dare to lift up the veil that tender charity would 
Cast over what was God's doing, let the instrumsnts be what 
and who they might. It is enough to say, that even now 
I know there was not one superfluous stroke of the ipd, nor 
one drop of bitter that could have been spared from the 
wholesome cup. Besides, he dealt most mercifully with 
me ; those two rich blessings, health and cheerfulness, were 
never withdrawn. I had not a day's illness through years 
of tribulation ; and though my spirits would now and then 
fail, it was but a momentary depression ; light and buoyant, 
they soon danced on the crest of the wave that had for an 
instant engulfed them. 

It is of joy I have to tell: safety, peace, prosperity, un- 
der the restored sunshine that had made my early career so 
bright. Never did a sister more fondly love a brother; 
never was a brother more formed to be the delight, the pride, 
the blessing of a sister. He was of most rare beauty from 
the cradle, increasing in loveliness as he grew up, and be- 
coming the very model of a splendid man ; very tall, lai^ge« 
commanding, with a face of perfect beauty, glowii^, ani* 
mated, mirthful, — a gait so essentially military, that it was 

once remarked by an officer, ' If B were disguised m 

a washerwoman, any soldier would give him the salute.' He 
had also served in the Peninsula with the highest possiMa 
credit, regarded by those in command as one of the best 



▲ 8 0LDI&R. 185 

ofl^cers fn the servke, and most ardently loved by the 
men under him. Many a bloody battle-field had he seen ; 
but never did a wound reach him. On, one occasion, — 
Albuera, — his gallant regiment went into action 800. strong, 
and on the following day only 96 men were able to draw 
rations. >He became on the field a heutenant, from^ being 
the youngest ensign ; and alike in all circumstance^ he 
shone out as an honour to his profession. He had also been 
an especial favourite with John YL, of Portugal, and the 
high polish of a court was superadded to all the rest, with- 
out in the smallest degree changing the exceedingly play- 
ful, unaffected joyousnes^ of the most sunshiny character I 
ever met with. 

'Ten years' absence had produced the effect on my sis- 
terly love that Burns describes : — 

* Time but th' impression stronger makes 
As streams their channels deeper wear.' 

I had' also many personal reasons for looking forward to his 
return with peculiar anxiety ; and its uncertainty increased 
the feeling. I had been spending a day with a sick friend, 
and ran home at night, to the lodging occupied by my mother 
and myself, and there I found my brother. What a dream 
those ten years' trials appeared ! 

We remained but a short time in Clifton, and soon bent 
our way towards the metropolis, where he expected, ai is 
usual, to dance a long and wearisome attendance on the 
Borse Guards, for a regimental appointment. He had re.- 
Ibied that of aid-de-camp to King John, with any military 
rank and title that he might desire; preferring a half-pay^ 
IMiitlached company in the British to any thing that a foreign 
serrice could offer ; but he v^as mistaken : his merits were 
well known to the Duke of York, and before he could well 
state to Sir Herbert Taylor his wishes, that estimable man 
told him he had only to select out of two or three regiments 

16* 






186 ▲ HOME. 

lately returned from foreign service, and he would be ga* 
zetted on the following Tuesday. He chose the TSth* and 
was immediately appointed to it, with leave to study for two 
years in the senior department of the Military College at 
Sandhurst, the better to qualify himself for a future staff 
situation. 

A sweet cottage, standing isolated on the verge of Bag- 
shot heath, sheltered by tall trees and opening on a beautifhl 
lawn, with a distant but full view of the college, became our 
abode. A delightful room was selected for me, with an in- 
junction to sit down and make the most of my time while 
he wds in the halls of study, that I might be at leisure to 
walk, to ride, to garden, to farm, with him, — my brother, 
my restored brother, whose eye beamed protection, and 
whose smile diffused gladness, and whose society was what 
in our happy childhood it had ever been, just instead of all 
the world to me. If one thing was wanting, and wanting 
it was, to knit us in a tie more enduring than any of this 
world's bonds could possibly be, that very sense of want fur- 
nished a stimulus to more importunate prayer on his behalf. 
Some of the good people who for lack of a relay of ideas 
borrow one of their neighbours and ride it to death, treated 
me to a leaf from the book of Job's comforters, when the 
calamity fell on me of that precious brother's death, by tell- 
ing me I had made an idol of him. It was equally fali^e as 
foolish. An idol is something that either usurps God's 
place, or withdraws our thoughts and devotions from him. 
The very reverse of this was my case. I had an additional 
motive for continually seeking the Lord, not only in prayer, 
for the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit on behalf 
of one so dear, but also for grace to walk most circumspectly 
myself, lest I should cast any stumbling-block in his way, 
or give him occasion to suspect that my religious profession 
was a name, and not a reality. > That was surely a profita- 
ble idol which kept me always prayerful before God, watch- 



«.i» 



FALSE JUDOMfiNT. 187 

ful over myself) diligent in the discharge of duties, and in 
continual thanksgiving for the mercies I had received ! Do 
I repent loving my brother so well ? I wish it had been pos- 
sible to love him better. These warm affections of the 
heart are among the sweetest relics of a lost Eden, and 
I would sooner tear up the flowers that God has lef\ to 
smile in our daily path through a sin-blighted wilderness, — 
far sooner, — than I would cease to cherish, to foster, to 
delight in the brighter, sweeter flowers of domestic love, car- 
ried to the full extent of all its endearing capabilities. 

The Lord knoweth our frame ; he deals with us not ac- , 
cording to what we are not, but according to what we are. 
He sets before us various duties, and to the end that we 
may the better fulfil them he gives us aids, not contrary to, 
but accordant with our natural feelings. Men set up a 
standard, oflen a just and scriptural one, to which they sor- 
rowfully confess that because of the weakness of their na- 
ture they cannot themselves attain ; but according to which 
they sternly judge their neighbours. A person has a path 
assigned to him, a steep ascent strewed with thorns and 
crowded with obstacles, before which he often pauses and 
waxes faint. God gives him a companion for his way, even 
as he sent forth the disciples two and two, and the pilgrim 
is cheered. He quickens his pace ; another besides him- 
self will be benefitted by his progress, and if he fails an- 
other will suffer in his loss. So he goes on thankful, re- 
joicing, and endued with double energy for the toilsome 
achievement. But he sees a neighbour to whom the Lord 
has also granted help through human means, perhaps not 
exactly similar to that which he has received ; he sees his 
neighbour likewise openly rejoicing in the possession of 
such a stafl*; and bringing him to the tests of that perfect 
law which requires an entire deyotedness to and dependence 
on the Lord, he raises a cry of ' mixed motives,' ' the arm 
of flesh,' ' idolatry,' and so forth. No doubt he is so far 



188 TRANQUILLITY. 

right, that perverse humanity will ever abuse God'd gifts, 
and often make them occasions of sin ; but this outcry of 
the beam against the mote, which is so grievously preva- 
lent in the religious world, is very unseemly. Oh, how 
infinitely more tender is the Lord to us than we to one 
another ! 

Hitherto, many impediments had been thrown in the way 
of my literary labours. Anxiety, apprehension, and the 
restlessness of feeling resulting from a continual change of 
abode, had broken the train of thought, and rendered my 
work very uncertain. Indeed, it would often have been 
wholly inadequate to my support, but for the watchful kind- 
ness of friends whom the Lord raised up to me, foremost 
among whom always stood the estimable Mr. Sandford, who 
never ceased to regard me with paternal affection and care. 
To be wholly independent was the first earthly wish of my 
heart ; and now a fair opportunity was given of testing my 
willingness to labour diligently. The result was so far satis- 
factory, that in the course of the two years and two months 
<yf my residence under my brother's roof, I wrote the Rock- 
ite, The System, Izram, Consistency, Perseverance, Allen 
M'Leod, Zadoc, and upwards of thirty little books and 
tracks, besides contributions to various periodicals. I was 
going on most prosperously when an attempt was suddenly 
made from another quarter to establish a claim to the profits 
of my pen. The demand was, probably, legal, according 
to the strict letter of existing statutes, though circumstances 
would have weighed strongly in my favour. But it greatly 
reduced the value of my copyrights, for the time being, and 
I found myself checked in my career at a juncture when it 
was especially my desire to go on steadily. This brought 
upon me two temptations, the force of which was greatly 
increased by the circumstances under which they found me. 



▲ PROPOIAL. 189 



LETTER XI. 



SANDHURST. 



Whien I first began to write, it was with a simple desire to 
instruct the poor in the blessed truths of the gospel. Mj 
own situation soon rendered it needful to turn the little talent 
I possessed to account. This I did, still keeping in view the 
grand object of promoting God's glory ; and mj attempts 
having been well received,! found a ready market for what- 
ever I wrote, so that the name was considered a sufficient 
guarantee for the book. Now, I could no longer safely use 
that name, and anonymous writing became the only feasible 
plan. A friend, who did not look upon the main subject in 
the light that I did, made, through my brother, a proposal 
that I should become a contributor to the most popular mag- 
azine of the day, supplying tales, &c.y the purport of which 
was to be as moral as I pleased, but with no direct mention 
of religion. The terms offered were very high : the strict 
incognito to be preserved would secure me from any charge 
of inconsistency, and coming as it did when my reguhir 
source of income was suddenly closed, and when the idea 
of being burdensome to my generous brother with his in- 
creasing family was hardly supportabley it was thought I 
could not demur. 



190 . A CONFLICT. 

Nevertheless, I did ; the Lord in his gracious providence 
had said to me, '* Go work to-day in my vineyard," and I 
had for upwards of four years enjoyed that hlessed privi- 
ledge. It was now withdrawn, certainly not without his 
permission, and how did I know that it was not to try my 
faith ! The idea of hiring- myself out to another master — 
to engage in the service of that world the friendship of which 
is enmity with God — to cause the Holy One of Israel to 
cease from before those whom by the pen I addressed — 
to refrain from setting forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified 
to a perishing world, and give the reins to an imagination 
ever prone to wander after folly and romance, but now sub- 
dued to a better rule — all this was so contrary to my views 
of Christian principle that, afler much earnest prayer to God, 
I decided rather to work gfatuitously in. the good cause, 
trusting to Him who knew all my necessity, than to entan- 
gle myself with things on which I could not ask a blessing. 
The conflict was indeed severe ; no one attempted to oppose 
my resolve ; but as yet no one could at all understand its real 
ground ; and it was a very trying position in which I stoodf 
thus seemingly spuming an honourable means of indepen- 
dence and leaving myself destitute. But the trial was short : 
my first friends, the Christian * Dublin Tract Society,' exer- 
cising that faith which has distinguished all tlieir acts, deter- 
mined to brave the consequences, and still publish my little 
books. This, though the profit was not then very good, I 
hailed as a gracious intimation of the Lord's purpose still to 
continue me in His service ; and I was the more strengthened 
to meet the second trial, which, coming at a time when the 
gum proffered would be doubly acceptable, and the refusal in- 
volving the loss of a very old and kind friend, was rather a 
sharp one ; more especially as the offence given would and 
did alienate him from others who had no share in the proceed- 
ing, and whose interests were far dearer to me than my own. 
Many years before, that friend had published a novel: 



« 



A SNARE. 191 

not a flimsy love-story, but of a class above the common 
run. I had, as a girl, been very fond of it, and often de«* 
lighted the amiable author by expressing an admiration that 
was not general ; for the work had failed, and was unsold. 
Now, finding I had been myself successful with the pen, and 
full, even in old age, of natural love for his literary offspring, 
he had formed a plan, in which he never dreamed of encoun- 
tering opposition. He wished me to re- write it, to cast the 
characters anew, enliven the style, add variety to the inci- 
dents, and, in short, make a new work out of his materials* 
Still it was to be a novel ; and as it had been originally pub- 
lished in his name, it was to be so now. My share in the 
work would never be known : and as he was abundantly 
wealthy, and equally generous, a carte blanche as to terms 
was before me. 

On the former occasion I had paused, and thought much : 
on this I did not. The path was plain before me, but dread- 
fully painful to pursue. A hundred pounds just then would 
have been more to me than a thousand at another time ; and 
private feeling was most distressingly involved, both as re- 
garded myself and others. It was in an agony of prayer, 
and after many bitter tears that I brought myself to do what, 
nevertheless, I had not a wish to leave undone. I wrote a 
faithful letter to the friend in question, most unequivocally 
stating the ground of my refusal — the responsibility under 
which I conceived we all lay before God for the application 
of talents committed by Him : the evils of novel-reading ; 
and, as far as I could, I declared the whole gospel of Christ 
to one whom I had no reason to consider as taking any 
thought whatever for his soul. I heard no more from him 
to the day of his death, which took place ten years after. I 
had reason to believe that his intentions towards me were 
very liberal in the final distribution of his property ; for he 
had known and loved me from my cradle, and he had no 
family : but my conscience bore a happy testimony in the 



192 A N INCIDEJf T. 

matter ; and I am fully persuaded that the whole was % 
snare of Satan to betray me into an acceptance of unhallomi 
ed gains, by catering to the worldly tastes of those who ibi!- 
get God. No doobt, the business would have been a pro- 
fitable one, and the inducement to persevere made strong iB 
proportion as I sacrificed principle to lucre. '' All these 
things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship 
me." I should neither do justice to the Lord's rich good- 
ness nor to the honoured instrument of His bounty if I 
omitted to add, that, shortly after, my munificent fi'lend Mr. 
Sandford sent me a gifl that lefl me no loser by haviqg 
done my duty. 

While on the subject of my books, I will record an inci- 
dent that occurred about the same time, and on which I 
always look with feelings of indescribable delight. . I did 
not know it until, some years afterwards, the story was re- 
lated to me by the principal actor in it — the abettor of my 
heretical pravity. Little did I dream, when writing my 
humble penny books, that they would be advanced to the 
high honour of a place in the Papal Index Expurgatorius I 

The lady in question took to the continent a sweet, only 
daughter : a lovely little girl often years old, the joy of her 
widowed bosom, who was fast sinking in decline. I was 
exceedingly fond of that child, who returned my affection 
from the depths .of an Irish heart ; and who, out of love for 
its author, selected one of my small penny books to trans- 
late into Italian during her last stage of sufiering. She did 
not live to complete it ; but with her dying breath requested 
her mother to do so, in the earnest hope of its being made 
usefiil to the ignorant people around them. Bessie was a 
lamb of the Lord's fold ; and to lead other children into the 
same blessed shelter was her heart's desire. As soon as 
the bereaved mother could make any exertion, she betook 
herself to the task assigned by her departed darling, and 
found such satisfaction in it that she extended her labours. 



TJL9JLL FULMINATION. 193 

and translated several more. Being a lady of rank and 
.affluence, she was enabled to carry it on to publication, and 
to ensure the circulation of the little books among many. 
One of them, * The Simple Flower,' a sixpenny book, thus 
translated, fell into the hands of an Italian physician, a man 
of highly cultivated mind ; nominally a Romanist ; and like 
all thinking Romanists, in reality an infidel. The book con- 
tains not a word on controversy ; not an allusion to Popery 
— it is plain gospel truth, conveyed in a very simple narra- 
tive. Grod blesse^t to this gentleman, and he became a 
Christian. The circumstance excited much remark : curi* 
osity led many to read that and others of the series, and a 
great number were circulated in the'neighbouring districts. 
This was actually within the papal states, under the jurisdic- 
tion of the Archbishop of Sienna, to whose knowledge came 
the astounding fact that pennyworths of heresy were circu 
lated within the range of his pastoral charge : the matter was 
reported at head-quarters, taken up with due seriousness, 
and a Sunday appointed, on which, no doubt, I was quietly 
worshipping in the college chapel at Sandhurst, wholly un- 
conscious that my name was then being proclaimed at a hun- 
dred Italian altars, with a denunciation against all who 
should read, circulate, or possess any hooky tract, or treatise 
penned by me. One instance was particularized : a poor 
priest had himself given numbers of these translations to his 
flock ; and after mass he stood before them, deeply moved, 
telling them he had a painful duty to perform. That he 
had received from the highest authority a command to pro- 
claim what he held in his hand, and which he proceeded to 
read to them — a copy of the fulmination above-mentioned. 
Having done so he folded the paper, and resumed, saying 
he had given and recommended the little books to them, 
because he had read them himself and found nothing but 
what was good in them : however, the church, which they 
were all bound to jpbey, judged otherwise ; * and now,' he 

17 



194 PUBLIC' EYBNTS. 

addedf ' you must bring them back to me, or buin them^ or in 
some other way destroy them wholly: uevertheleiM I. de- 
clare in the sight of God I found no evil in those dear littl^ 
books, but the contrary — they are full of good.' He burst 
into tears, and many wept with him ; and not a few of the 
proscribed productions were wrapped up and buried in the 
earth, or otherwise put away till the search should be over* 
Who knows but that very priest was led to the Bible and to 
Christ through such humble means ? I would not ezehange 
for the value of the ten kingdoms ten times trebled j the joy 
that I feel in this highi honour putu^Ao me — this rich bless- 
ing of being under the papal curse. 

I have been long silent on the subject of public events : 
George the Third had pissed into a blessed immortality just 
at the time when I first learned to understand and appreciate 
his Christian character; George the Fourth had visited 
Ireland^i^ and in the ardently-expressed affection of a people 
who will always love where they are permitted so to do, had 
recognised their claim in his paternal regard, which recog- 
nition was used by the wily deceivers of the day to preaa aa 
a national boon the wicked, cruel measure that would oj)fy. 
confirm more strongly their subjection to a foreign power,^ 
and alienate the whole race from England. Napoleon had 
disappeared from the world of which he was the terrific 
scourge, and found an obscure tomb on the distant rock i 
while peace rested upon the nations, so long tossed in 
tumultuous rage. No sign appeared of hostile movement 
abroad, and all men were occupied in domestic politics, 
striving for and against the subversion of our ancient insti- 
tutions. The party in power had shown a decided inclina- 
tion to help forward the cause of Popery ; and God, who has 
never failed to intimate his displeasure at such a leaning on 
the part of our government, shook the whole country with a 
commercial panic that menaced general bankruptcy. Alex- 
ander of Russia was taken away in the prime of life : and 



THE DUKE OF YORK. 195 

with full purpose of heart to christianize his vast empire, and 
to gather in the outcasts of Israel. I always thought he was 
removed because his enlightened mind was too far in advance 
of the time, and he passed too rapidly forward in works not 
yet to be accomplished. His death affected me deeply. Tor 
I had become exceedingly watchful of the signs of the times, 
and impressed with the belief that the consummation of all 
things was not far distant. In fact, I was rapidly embracing 
those views called Millennarian, without being conscioiis of 
it; and the prophetic Scriptures became unceasingly my 
study. The Duke of iTork's death seemed to me the signal 
for overthrowing ouir national Protestantism, and while I 
iliounied in him a royal patron who had taken a generous 
interest in my concerns, and in heartfelt sympathy wept with 
the old soldiers of the military establishment over one so justly 
endeared to them and to thb whole army, my heart quaked 
at the silencing of that voice so nobly, so energetically, so 
solemnly raided in the Senate against a deed to which he then 
distinctly swore, before God and his country, that he would 
never be consenting. I visited St. George's chapel on the 
day of his interment: and when I Ba,w his knightly effigies, — 
the helm and sword and banner, —-r taken down from over his 
stall and carried out of the chapel, a strange foreboding came 
over nae, such as t had never known : but which, alas ! has 
long been, and still is, in course of fulfilment I stood at the 
inouth of the vault where the relics of his royal father rested 
and into, which his own were to descend : it seemed to me 
the open grave of all that my proudly English heart had 
cherished from infancy ; and such was my emotion that I 
declined witnessing the interment, and stationed myself in 
the .highest attic of a house where all were thronging to th^ 
lower windows for a sight of the solemn pageant that wound 
its torch-light way through the street. I saw it far beneath 
me, more hke a procession of fairies than of full-sized men, 
and boble steeds ; and I wept unrestrained, with feelings 



196 NAVARINO. 

hard to defiae, until wholly exhausted, and actually ill from 
the effects of such excitement. Was there not a cause ? 
The event has proved it. I cannot believe that the deed 
committed two years afterwards, in that very Windsor, the 
granting of the royal assent to the abominable Bill, would 
ever have been perpetrated while the Duke of York existed 
as next in succession to the throne. 

This was January 1827 : the following October witness^ 
ed the most eventful scene that has been enacted upon this 
globe for many centuries. Even at that time I felt it to be 
so ; and now at the distance of thirteen years its effects are 
making themselves felt thfough every nerve and pulse of 
the body politic, not merely in Europe but gradually through- 
out the world. The battle of ^avarino was the turning 
point of this dispensation. Most wonderful it was in all its 
particulars : nothing could be further from the wishes, the 
interests, the avowed policy of England than to cripple iu 
any way the power of Turkey, that great and efficient bar- 
rier against the formidable Muscovite. In fact, our fleet 
was rather intended to protect than to embarrass the Porte. 
Greece was struggling for freedom, and the Mahommedan 
despot was crushing her deeper into the dust beneath his 
merciless hand, so that it behooved the civilized powers of 
Christian Europe to interpose something in the form ofptp' 
tection over the oppressed victim ; but Russia alone had an 
interest in harming Turkey, and Russia's allies were of all 
things most jealous of her growing greatness : yet, unsent, 
unauthorized, and acting under an impulse that could not be 
accounted for, England and France went into action side by 
side with Russia, and at one blow broke forever the power 
of the Porte. It was most wonderful : it opened to my 
view a mighty page in the wbrld's history, and led me, with- 
out communication with any mortal holding those views, — 
for I knew not one, — to look upon the sixth vial as in the 
Tory act of emptying its contents on the great river Euphra- 

• 



PROON0 8TICATI0278. 1S|7 

tea, aod so to iaquire, with trembling anxiety, what would 
be the result of outpouring the seventh. I settled it in my 
mind to watch the £ast as one who looks for the sun's ris- 
ing on a scene of bodily peril in darkness and in do.ubt. I 
plainly saw that Turkey must now lie helpless before the 
Russian ; and I resolved if this blow was not followed up 
by sudden ruin, but by the continuance of a lyasting, a * dry- 
ing up' process, I would proceed on my new. assumption 
of prophetic meanings as established. Devoted to the Jew- 
ish cause, I always looked upon Turkey with abhorrence, 
and jealously anticipated her predicted subversion, that Israel 
miight again possess the good land : and while shuddermg 
over the scene of bloodshed that had occurred, and lament- 
ing the passage of so many ruined souls into eternity, I 
could not stiBe a sensation of joy that a signal-gun had thus 
been fired fdr the ingathering of the scattered tribes. . My 
brother observed this : he said, ' I do beUeve you are glad of 
this unfortunate battle : I promise you it is a very different 
victory from what you are used to exult in.' I did not deny 
this, but still, in spite of myself, I looked glad. ' Oh, you 
Christian ladies are tender-hearted creatures, to delight in a 
scene of butchering and drowning, just because the poor 
wretches happen to be Turks !' I could not defend myself 
from the charge : that dear brother had not yet learned to 
view passing events in the light that Scripture throws upon 
them : and I remained under a sort of stigma that did not 
affect me much ; especially as his utmost displeasure neVer 
went further than good-humoured raillery, levelled at the 
supposed inconsistency which his own awakening percep- 
tion of divine truth rendered him doubly quick at detecting. 
I was driven to my Bible more closely than ever by this 
event ; and the Bible which had taught me every thing else 
was now teaching me Millennarianism, while as yet the 
word was in my estimation one of reproach. 
With what fondness does memory linger over those de- 

17* 



198 jack's petition. 

lightful days of sojourn under the sheltering roof of my 
brother, so soon to be for ever parted in this world ! An- 
other boy had been added to our happy little circlef and 
Jack's warm heart seemed to receive an accession of love 
that he might have it to bestow on the ' beautiful Baby 
-small,' which claimed so much of his thoughts and prayers. 
Indeed, his thoughts were always prayers, for God was in 
all. He made but little progress in language, having a 
great dislike to learning beyond what was needful for com- 
municating his thoughts to me, and as he was then obliged 
to be more with servants than I liked, I was not anxious to 
extend his facilities of communicating with them : nor did 
he at all desire their society. He had a little room of his 
own, to his great delight, over the coach-house; and when 
not employed in his work, or talking with me, he was most 
happy with the pencil. He gave a strong and beautiful 
-proof of the dread with which God inspired him as to en- 
snaring company : and I cannot pass it over. 

My brother declared his intention of keeping a horse, and 
of course a groom. Jack came to me with an earnest en- 
treaty that he might be the groom, saying he could do it so 
well. The reason he gave to me, confidential'y, was, that 
men were very wicked ; that the man-servant would often 
shake hands with the devil, (his usual mode of expressing 
wilful sin,) and that if Jack shook hands with him he would 
some day draw his hand till he got it into the devil's ; mean- 
ing, that an evil companion would by degrees induce him ta. 
become evil too. He also said. Captain B. was very kind 
to Mam, and that a servant would cos him money, and eat 
a great deal ; but Jack would take no money, and only eat 
* small potato, small meat,' because he loved Captain B. 
When I communicated the request to my brother he laughed, 
saying such a boy could never groom a horse ; but Jack 
had been privately to a kind friend of his, a retired non- 
commissioned officer of cavalry, who had the care of some 



>L- 



HAPPY CAUTION. 199 

horses, and got him to give him instruction, succeeding so 
well in his attempt that the serjeant told my brother he really 
thought him competent to the office. He consented to try ; 
and having purchased his horse, tied him up at the stable- 
door for Jack to commence operations, whil^ we all assem- 
bled to see him. I was apprehensive of a total failure, 
but he did it admjrably, and my brother declared he only 
wanted a few inches in height to be one of the best grooms 
in the kingdom. Jack's exultation was very great. YThen 
we were alone, he went up to the horse, kissed it, and after 
telling me how pleased he saw his master look, he added, 
* No man ; all one Jack. Devil cry — go devil !' and snap- 
ped his fingers at the invisible enemy. 

His greatest security next to his love of God was his con- 
stant fear of Satan ; yet it was rather a fear of himself, lest 
he should yield to his temptations, for he was perfectly 
aware Satan would not force him to do anything. Hence 
hit extreme caution as to what associates he had, and a re- 
serve with those whom he did not know to be Christians, 
which was sometimes mistaken for pride. He invariably 
asked me, of every person who came to the house, whether 
that person loved Jesus Christ ; and if I could not give a 
positive answer in the affirmative, he stood aloof, always 
most courteous, but perfectly cold, and even dignified in re- 
pelling any advance to sociability beyond common politeness. 
He did not know the meaning of a single bad word, and 
God kept him so that the wicked one touched him not. I 
used every means, of course, to this end. I watched him 
most narrowly, and always interposed if he was required to 
do anything, or to go to any place, in which I apprehended 
danger. My vigilance extorted smiles from those who con- 
sidered it must all be in vain when he grew a little older; 
but no obstacle was placed in my way; and I bless God I 
never relaxed that care, nor did the boy ever depart from 
his holy caution ; and he died at the age of nineteen, a very 



200 PERSEVlRAirCE. 

tall and fine 1 ooking young man, with the mind of a little 
babe as regards the evil that is in the world. Oh that 
parents knew the importance of thus watching over their 
boys! 

Soon after the first horse was established in his stall, my 
brother purchased a second for my riding, saying he should 
now, of course, get an assistant in the stable ; but Jack burst 
into tears, and himself pleaded with him for leave to do all. 
My brother greatly delighted in his broken language, and 
caught exactly his phraseology, so that they converised to- 
gether as w^ll as with me ; and he told me he could not 
stand Jack's entreaties. ' He is a fine little fellow,' said be, 
* and if you well watch and see that he is not over-exerting 
himself, he may try for a while : he will soon be tired.' But 
far fi'om it ; Jack was proud of his two horses ; and none in 
the place were better kept. When a cow was added, a 
young person came to milk her ; but Jack was outrageous, 
talked of his mother's ' Kilkenny cows,' and ^ Cow's baby,' 
and expressed such sovereign contempt for the stranger's 
performance, and such downright hostility against the in- 
trudeiy that we had no peace till he got the cow also under 
his especial care. Often afterwards did he talk of that time, 
saying he was * Well Jack,' when he had two horses and a 
cow, and almost crying over his loss. He grew rapidly, and 
the doctors told me that such a life would have kept him 
strong to any age. 

One day he came and asked me to let him have a large 
hoop, to make him go faster on messages. I thought it 
childish, and did not regard it, so he went to my brother with 
the SflUne request, who inquired his reason. Jack told him 
the stage coaches that passed our gate went very fast, be- 
cause the four horses had four large hoops, meaning t^e 
wheels, and if he had a large hoop he could go as fast as the 
horses. Diverted beyond measure at such an original idea, 
my brother sent to Reading for the largest and best hoop that 






ZEAL. 201 

could be got ; and many a laugh we had at seeing Jack 
racing beside the Xiondon coaches, with his wheel, nodding 
defiance at the horses, and shouting aloud with glee. He 
often wen't.six miles with his wheel, to bear messages and 
notes to our valued and much-loved friend. General Orde« 
whom he idolized almost, and who looked on him as one of 
the most lovely instances of divine grace he had ever met 
with. On the first formation of the British Reformation 
Society, General Orde wrote to me, with a prospectus of the 
intended work. I told it to Jack, who in rapturous delight 
gave me his whole worldly fortune of two shillings, bidding 
me give it to put in their pockets, and to bid good General 
Orde tell gentlemen to send much Bibles to Kilkenny, that 
his father and mother and all the poor people might learn to 
break the crucifixes, and love Jesus Christ I wrote this to 
the General, who sent to me for the identical two shillings, 
which Mr. Noel produced on the platform, with the dumb 
boy's message, and I believe it drew many a piece of gold 
from the purses of those who saw the gift, which stands en- 
rolled the very first in the accounts of that noble society's 
receipts. Jack oflen prayed for the Reformation Society, 
and I believe his blessing helped them not a little. There 
was so much faith in all that he did, such as God alone 
could give ; and he never seemed to entertain a doubt of 
obtaining what he asked. Many a sweet instance of his 
child-like confidence in the Lord is engraven on my memory, 
at once to stimulate and to shame me. His whole experi- 
ence seemed to be an illustration of the word of promise, 
** Ask, and ye shall receive." One of the things that struck 
me as being referable to nothing but the teaching of the 
Holy Spirit, was the interest manifested by this boy for the 
Jews. His active Protestantism was easily accounted for; 
but to give him an idea of Judaism would have been impos- 
sible. He could not read. His knowledge of language did 
not go far enough to enable him to understand the construe- 



202 TESTIMONIES. 

lion of a sentence ; bnd though he spelled correctly, and 
wrote readily whatever he wished to say, and his mode of 
expression was generally quite intelligible to others, he did 
not comprehend what was spoken or written in the ordinary 
way. Accustomed to attach a distinct meaning to eVei^ 
word, and acquainted with very few besides nouns and a fete 
Verbs, which he only used in the present tense, independent 
of die pronouns, and without reference to number, he wjptft 
quite lost among, the other parts of speech. Tor instaiiO0« 
if I had wanted to say, * You must go to the vill^e and buy 
me a small loaf of bfead,' I should have expressed it thu^ : 
*Jack, go village, money, bread small, one.' Graiimiati- 
cally expressed, the order Would have been uninteltigiblfe to 
faim : but few Would have misunderstood i( in the miclouth 
phrase Utst instanced. He would have gone to thq dhbp, 
and writing down, ^ Bread small, one,' would have held dot 
the money, and made a sign to express what size he ^eitited. 
It was this very fact of the impossibility of c6nveying to his 
mind any clear notion of things invisible and spiritual, that 
80 gloriously mafiifested the power and goodness of t^od in 
causing the light to shine into his heart To a reader who 
never witnessed the attempts of an intelligent, half-taught, 
deaf mute, to express his meaning, and to catch that of 
others, much of what 1 state respecting Jack may and must 
appear, if not incredible, at least unintelligible; yet none who 
ever saw and conversed with him would fail to substantiate 
it, and they were very many. That zealous missionary. Dr. 
Wolff, visited my brother's cottage when he and I were both 
absent, and no one could assist Jack ia conversing with him ; 
yet so great was his delight, that he wanted to take him to 
Palestine, to instruct the deaf and dumb in the doctrine of 
Christ. The Rev. H. H. Beamish is another who cannot, 
without emotion, recall his intercourse with that dying Chris- 
tian. General Orde, who saw him very frequently, regarded 
him as a wonder of divine grace ; and the Rev. W. tiah- 



▲ C01ITRA8T* 203 

cock, hia beloved pastor, who for fbur years observed hiio 
closely, ofteQ said he derived greater encouragement from 
t^ experience and the prayers of that poor boy, ihlm from 
ahnost any other earthly source. Unbelievers will doubt ; 
but those who know the grace of our Lord Jesus .Christ will 
adore. 

Still it will be evident that Jack could not read the Bible. 
Ho took great delight in copying it out, dwelling on such 
wpnds as he knew ; but I have seen him turn over two leaves 
and- go on wholly unconscious of auy mistake : and I have 
found among his papers whole pages, composed of half sen- 
tences and single epithets from Scripture, put together in 
unbroken paragraphs, without any meanmg. With all this, 
he was ardently attached to the Jewish cause, and always, 
told me ' Jesus Christ love poor Jew ; Jew soon see love 
Jesus Christ.' When speaking of them, he would look very 
tender, and sorrowful, moving his head slowly from side to 
side, and his hand as if stroking some object in a caressing 
way. At suph times it was .curious to mark the effect of 
naming a ' priest Roman' to him. In a moment his aspect 
changed to something ludicrously repulsive : he stuck hup 
hands in his sides, puffed out his cheeks to their full extent, 
scowled till his brows overhung his eyelids,, and generally 
finished by appearing to seize a goblet and drain off the con- 
tents to the last drop, inflating his body, stroking it, smack- 
ing his lips, and strutting about. This he did, not as 
imputing drunkenness to the priesthood, but their denying 
the cup to the laity, and swallowing the contents themselves* 
Though his acting was laughably comic, his feeling was that 
of serious and severe indignation ; and he would reprove us 
for the laughter it was utterly impossible to restrain, saying, 
with triumphant confidence, ' God see : Jesus Christ come 
soon.' This coming of the. Lord Jesus, an actual, personal, 
visible coming, to walk about ^pon the earth, in whatever 
way he hud represented it to himself, or howsoever God had 



204 ERRONB'OUS VIEWS. 

rerealedit to hira, he constantly associated with two things — 
the consolation of the Jews and the destruction of Popery. 
I did not see it so ; I looked for both those events at the 
commencement of the thousand years, expecting a spiritual 
coming of the Lord then, and a personal one at the very end 
of the world. I did not, however, contradict Jack, nor 
attempt to alter his view of the subject. I wanted the 
world to be quietly converted, by the preaching of the gospel ; 
but I had been once nearly startled out of my system, when 
in Kilkenny. A beloved friend, since gone to her rest, 
pointed out to me the sixty-third of Isaiah, asking what I 
thought was the dye of the garments there mentioned ? I 
replied, the blood of the Saviour, which drenched his raiment 
in the garden, and his body on the cross. * And what,' pur- 
sued she, ' is this treading. of the wine-press !' I answered, 
^ It was the laborious work of achieving our redemption, and 
bearing alone the wrath of the Lord.' ' I wish you would 
read it without a break,' said she, * and take it according to 
the literal, plain sense, for I think we are all wrong here.' I 
did read it, was surprised, and, contrary to my usual custom, 
ran to a commentary, and Matthew Henry's very lame and 
laboiijred elucidation, or rather extinction of the matter, 
checked the inquiry thus began. On all other points I 
speedily came to a right understanding, because I took 
God's word as my guide ; and only on this did I prefer a 
candle to the sun, just because Matthew Henry lay beside 
me, having been sent in by a friend. On this subject, there- 
fore, I remained in the dark, until the amazing tun\ of events 
in the £ast put me upon considering the prophecies of the 
last days in the same- way as I had considered all the other 
vital questions ; and the result was, a reception of almost 
every millennial view before I suspected it, and before I 
ceased to abjure the name as wholly inconsistent with spirit- 
ual Christianity. I remember Ladjr Georgiana WolfTasking 
4f I was a millennarian, and I answered, almost resent- 




iflLLBllNARIAMISBI. 2^05* 

fully, * No, indeed.' * But I am,' she returned. * Mr. 
Wolff is not one, I am sure,' said I. ' No,' answered her 
ladyship, *but in six months he will be one ; he cannot help 
it. ' She was right, for in less than six months he was preach- 
ing the doctrine openly ; and I was holding it firmly, while 
stoutly protesting against it, just because I did not know 
what it was I believe many are in this predicament now, 
stumbling at a word '- — rejecting the shadow, while they hold 
the substance. What think you of the following lines, being 
written and printed too, some years before I would allow my- 
self to be a millennarian, soon after the battle of Navarino : — 

. When from scattered lands afar 
Speeds the voice of rumored war, 
Nations^in conflicting pride 
Heaved like Ocean's stormy tide, 
' When the solar splendours fteiil, 
And the crescent waxeth pale, 
And the powers that star-like reign, 
Sink dishonoured to the plain, 
World, do thou the signal dread, . . 
We e^ihalt the drooping head. 
We uplift the expectant* ejre-^ 
Our redemption drawetb nigh. 

When the fig-tree shoots appear. 
Men proclaim their summer near; 
When the hearts of rebels fail, 
We the coming Saviour hail ; 
Bridegroom of the weeping spouse. 
Listen to her longing vows — 
L(isten to her widow'd moan, 
Listen to creation's groan ! 
Bid, oh bid, the trumpet sound. 
Gather thine elect around ; 
Gird with saints thy flaming car, 
Gather them from climes afar, 
Call them from life*s cheerless gloom. 
Call them from the marble tomb, 

18 



206 SECOND ADYBHT. 

From the gras8>grown viflage grave. 
From the deep dissoWing wave, 
From the whirlwind and the flame, 
Mighty Head ! thy memben claim ! 

Where are thoie wliOM fierce diadain, 
Scorn'd Messiah's gentle reign ? 
Lo, in seas of salf^roiis fire, 
Now they taete Us taidy ire, 
PrisonM till th* appointad day, 
When the world aball pase away. 

duelled are all thy fi>es, O Lord, 
Sheath again the viqtor sword. 
Where thy cross of anguish stood, 
Where thy life distilled in blood, 
Where they mocked thy dying groaOf 
King of nations, plant thy throne. 
Send the law from Zion forth, 
Over all the willing earth : 
Earth, whose Sabbath beauties rise 
Crowned with more than paradise. 

Sacred be the opposing veil ! 
Mortal sense and sight must fail. 
Yet the day, the hour is nigh. 
We shall see thee eye to eye. 
Be our souls in peace possest 
While we seek the promised rest, 
And from every heart and home 
Breathe the prayer, Lord Jeraa come ! 
Haste to set thy people firea ; 
Come ; creation groans for thee ! 



ODDIMPRfiSSIONS. 207 



LETTER XII. 



SE PA RATION. 



The two shortest years of tny life were now drawing to a 
close. My brother had completed his studies, passed his 
examination, and was under orders to join his regiment in 
Ireland. Oh how my heart rose in prayer, that where I had 
found a spiritual blessing he also might receive ii ! I could 
not understand the state of his mind on the most^ital of all 
points : he had imbibed a prejudice so strong against the 
class of people called evangelical, that nothing but his gen- 
erous affection for us would have induced him to receive 
under his roof two of that proscribed body — to sa^nothing 
of Jack. He confessed to me, laughing, not long after we 
became his inmates, that he supposed we should be falling 
on our knees half a dozen times a day, singing psalms all 
over the house, and setting our faces against every thing 
merry or cheerful. He had never been acquainted with 
any serious person before going to Portugal, nor during 
his short leaves of absence at home : none of that class ever 
crossed his path abroad, and he came home prepared to 
t>elieve any thing that was told him of the supposed fanatics; 
whom he understood to be a sort of ranting dissenters. At 
Clifton, extremes then ran far ; the gay people most violently 



% 
208 PREJUDICC8. 

denouncing their sober neighbours, and making up all sorts 
of scandal concerning them. Hannah More was pointed 
out as * queen of the methodists,' and a most infamous lie, 
wholly destructive of her moral character, circulated among 
a narrow but dissipated clique as a known fact ; while the 
small fry of fanatics were disposed of by dozens in a similar 
way. The faithful clergyman, whose ministry we attended 
was absolutely persecuted ; and his congregation could ex- 
pect no better at the same hands. I am very far from charg- 
ing this upon the generality of even worldly people there ; 
but it did exist, visibly and sensibly ; and my dear brother 
evidently had fallen in with some of these wholesale calum- 
niators, before he could possibly judge for himself. A visit 
to Barley Wood, and a very prolonged interview with the 
* queen' greatly staggered his prejudices; -he was perfect^ 
charmed with her, iind remarked to me that if all her sub- 
jects were like her, they must be a very agreeable set of 
people. Still he apprehended an outbreak of extravagance 
when we should be fairly installed in his abode ; and though 
he soon became undeceived, and learned to take the great- 
est deHght in the society of General Orde, Mr. Sandford, 
and others equally decided — though he punctually attended 
the faithful ministry of Mr. Hancock at the college chapel, 
besides nis regular appearance at the usual military service, 
and would dot allow one disparaging word to be uttered in 
his presence of that zealous preacher or his deeply spiritual 
discourses ; though he chose from among his brother offi- 
cers a bold, uncompromising Christian as his most intimote 
associate, and gave many unconscious indications that he 
had received the doctrine of man's total corruption, and the 
nothingness of his best works; though he became the 
warm advocate of a scriptural education for. the youthful 
poor, whom he bad always before considered most safe and 
happy in total ignorance •» still, with all this, I eould not see 
even in his bei^utiful devout hearing in public worship where 



HOMK. 209 

the reverse so sadly prevailed, and where every thing ap- 
proaching to seriousness became a matter of suspicion, that 
he was really seeking God. In fact, I had been too much 
in ^le trammels of a system, which lays down arbitrary rules, 
and will not admit that God is working unless his hand be 
immediately and openly apparent to all. I would not believe 
that what looked green and beautiful was a ^lade of corn, 
just because it had not yet grown to an ear : and I refrained 
from speaking when perhaps speech on such subjects would 
have been more welcome than he wished to acknowledge, 
lest the remarks that I longed to utter might prove unpalat- 
able, and produce the cpntrary effect to what I desired. He 
was only going for a little while : an appointnaent on the 
home-staff was promised, and then I was to live with him 
again, and I wppld zealously pursue the work. Alas ! what 
a rod was prepared for my unbelief and presumption ! The 
present was slighted, in the confident expectation of a future 
that was never to arrive. 

We were almost always together out of his college hours. 
My window commanded a view of the distant building, and 
when I saw the preparatory movement to breaking up, I rose 
from my desk, tied on my bonnet, and ran off in sufficient 
time to meet him very near the college. Both let loose 
from six hours' hard work, we were like children out of 
school, often racing and laughing, with all the buoyancy of 
our natural high spirits. The garden, the poultry-yard, and 
dll the little midutieB of our nice farming establishment, fully 
occupied the afternoon, while the children gambolled round, 
and Jack looked on with smiles, often telling me how much 

he love^ * beautiful Captain B ' as he constantly called 

him. At ten o'clock we parted for the night, I to resume 
the pen till Itog after midnight ; he to rests lyhence he al- 
ways rose at four o'clock, devoting four or Are hours to study 
before we met in the morning. We .visited very little, do- 
mestic retirement being the free choice of every one of us ; 

18* 



210 FOREBODINGS. 

and nothing cou]d have induced my brother to baiiirii his 
children from the parlour or drawing-room. Few things 
excited his indignation more than the nursery system : his 
little ones were the pride of his heart, the delight of his eyes,, 
the objects of his fondest care. He oflen said he infended 
his boys to be gentlemen, and therefore would tiot allow 
them to imbibe the tastes and habits of the kitchen. The 
consequence is that his boys are gentlemen. 

Thus" dwelling in love, united in every plan and pursuit^ 
bur time fairly divided between diligent work and healdifbl 
recreation amid the delights of Tural life, do you manrel 
that I call this period my two shortest years ? Had no pre* 
vious circumstances given tenfold brilliancy to these lights 
by casting a' depth of black shadow behind them, or no men- 
acing future hung over the present enjoyinent, still there was 
enough to make it indeed an oasis ; but it was more. I 
cannot doubt that the Lord mercifully gave me a foreboding 
of what was to come, in the intolerable anguish of what 
seemed to be but a very short parting, with a delightful 
prospect of renewed domestic comfort just beyond. Yet so 
it was : I almost died under the trial of that farewell ; and foe 
three weeks before, and as long afler, I never had a nighf s 
rest. Visions of tgrror were constantly before me, among 
which a scene df^frp wning was f ]> perpetually recurring 
that I ha>fe oflen ^ajft^ from my bed under the vivid im- 
pression. This w^s the more strange because we had a]« 
ways been so fearlessly fond of the water : in our early daytf 
we had a little boat, just big enough for him to row and me 
to steer, in which we used to take excursions on the river 
Wensum, and never thought of danger. At Sandhurst too 
we were frequently upon the lake, and had both become fa- 
miliarized with ocean, until of all perils those' 6f the water 
were least likely to dannt me, either for myself or him : yet 
in most imminent peril we had once been placed ; and at thia 
time it would recur to my memory with tormenting (re* 
quency. 



BANOIR. 211 

I was about sevea jeara oldf and he though younger wai 
nuch the larger of the twof a stout hearty boy, end I a.verj 
frail delicate little creature, thanks to the doctors aad th^ir 
pet drug. Our parents went out for a day's ezcursioBt with 
a fiiend, and of course we accoo^panied th#n* The place 
was one celebrated for good fishing, and thegeotlemen bat^ 
ing enjoyed a long morping's sport, remained in the hou80 
with my mother, sending us out to play* We had strict 
charge not to go too near the water, nor on any account to 
get into a boat, of which there were several on the river. We 
strolled about, and at last came to the brink of this river, to 
admire a barge or wherry which lay close to the little, pier i 
for it^as a public ferry, and the depth very great. A small 
boat just by attracted my brother's attention, who wished t^ 
g^t into it^ until I reminded him of the prohibition when lie 
daid, * I won't get into it, Cha. ; but I will sit down here and 
put my two feet in the little boat.' He did so : the boat 
moved, and in his alarm, trying to rise« he fell and disap- 
peared. 

I perfectly remember the scene; I have also heard itd^s* 
cribed many a time by others, but I cannot understand how 
it was that I, stooping from the shore, with notiiing to hold 
on by way of support, seized the little fellow by the collar as 
he rose, and firmly held him in my grasp. He did notstrugw 
gle, but looked up in my face, and I down in his, and as I 
felt my puny strength rapidly failing, the resolution was firm 
OB my mind to be drawn in and perish with him. There 
was not a question about it ; I can recall the very thoughtt 
as though it was of yesterday, and I am positively certain that 
I should have tightened my hold in proportion as the case 
became more desperate. It pleased God, that, just then^ 
some men returning from Work descried the figure of a little 
child stooping in a most dangerous position over the deep 
water : they ran iip, and while one hekl me the other rescued 
the boy. My grasp was not unloosed until they had him 



2^2 TRflNOSOENES. 

iafe oiLBhore; he wai then inseoBiblei and I lost evefy re- 
• collectioQ notil I found mjself still in the arms of the man 
who had carried me in« while my mother and the rest were 
Btrippnig the rescoed boy and chafing his limbs before a fire. 
It was much talked of, and many a caress I got for what 
they considered heroism beyond my years ; but what hero- 
ism is like love ? ** Many waters cannot quench love, nei- 
ther can the floods drown it ; if a man would give all the 
substance of his house for love, it would utterly he con- 
temned." • ... 
When my brother departed for Irelfmd we left that qweet 
cottage and went to reside in the village, in one better suited 
to the size of our diminished family party. I had several 
jTOung firiends among the cadets, in whom I took a warm in- 
terest, and whose occasional visits I endeavoured to make 
as profitable to them as might be. It is a sad thing to see 
a boy, perhaps most carefully brought up by tender, and 
even Christian parents, watched, and kept as far as possible 
from all evil communication, then thrown at once into a large 
public institution, and exposed to every danger that can as- 
sail the youthful mind. A little insight into human nature 
must show any candid person the extent of mischief to be 
expected. Rarely do we find a case of conversion, with es- 
tablishment in grace, very early in ]ife ; and where it exists 
as remarkably as in Jack, we may learn from his excessive 
dread of exposure to temptation how vigilantly the young 
plant should be guarded. Let us just suppose, what is in- 
deed no sketch of imagination, but a slight sketch of ac- 
knowledged reality — let us suppose a boy at the age when 
they are eligible for these places, acquainted with the truth, 
accustomed to Christian instruction, taught to look into the 
word of God for daily direction, and to seek in prayer the 
daily supply of needful grace ; consider him as having re- 
mained under the eye of Christian parents, or a schoolmaster ' 
who regards those committed to his care as immortal beings, 



TRTI5G SCE*NSS. 213 

for whose well-doing, while under his chai|;e, he is respon- 
sible to God ; and who therefore eoussels ihem weU, and 
banishes to the utmost of his power, vice and pro&neness 
from among them ; aflTordmg them the usual domestic means 
of grace, and seeing that they are not neglected. Thus pre- 
pared, the lad enters upon a new scene, where he finds him- 
self surrounded by a large number of youthful companions, 
«ll busy in qualifying themselves for a future career, we will 
say in the service of their country. The first thing done is 
to try the mettle of the new comer, by putting upon him some 
insult, which if he resents, and offers to:fight his Way, he may 
be looked on with some respect; bnt if he appear timid, or 
reluctant to retaliate, he. may be assured of becoming the 
object of a most harassing persecution for the amusement of 
the thoughtless, and the gratification of the <^ruel. In either 
case, he passes an ordeal of great severity, particularly dur- 
ing the night, when nothing is deemed too rough or alarming 
for the poor stranger to encounter. I af^al to those who 
have passed it whether this is not enough to turn the brain of 
« weak-minded youth, or to injure severely the body of a de- 
licate one ; I have myself knovmian instance, in a great pub- 
lic seminary, wherein derangement and death followed. 

Supposing this well got Qver, the lad then finds that if 
there be any among his new comrades disposed to keep up 
the practice of reading the scriptures and praying, they must 
do it as secretly as they would commit a murder, and find 
it more difficult to accomplish than any crime that could be 
named. There always will be a large proportion of ruf- 
fianly characters among many boys; some naturieilly so, 
others made so by example. These have the ascendancy 
of course ; and they will use it to check and to stifle what- 
ever might shine in contrast to themselves ; while, what 
with these unstable characters who always row with the 
stream, and prudent ones who will not provoke hostility, and 
timid ones who dare not, they meet with little if any epposi- 



214 



dUKRIKS. 



tioQ, bat rule the whole mass for evil. The youthf we will 
believe, siQcerely desires to preserve his integrity, but what 
can he do ? Man in his best estate is a frail, inconsistent 
being, liable to be blown about by every breath of tempta- 
tion, even when unfettered, and in full possession of all gos- 
pel privileges ; and what are we to expect from a boy who 
has never yet been left to himself, or deprived of counte- 
nance and support ? He sees none watching over him, he 
hearjs no kind admonitory voice, inviting him to seek the 
way of peace and purity. His nature is corrupt, his heart 
is deceitful, his soul cleaves to the dust, and he finds that 
by following the bent of this perverse nature, by gratifying 
its lowest propensities, and revelling in unhallowed things, 
he shall best purchase the good fellowship of those who have 
it in their power to make his life miserable if he thwarts their 
will. His conscience loudly protests, and calls on him to 
pray ; but if he would do so, where is he to retire for that 
purpose 1 Alone he cannot be ; he has no separate apart- 
ment, and let those who have tried it say what would be the 
consequence of his kneeling down pul;>1icly to worship God. 
He may do it silently and undiscovered in his bed ; yes, if 
he can lift up his heart, and realize the presence of the God 
ef heaven, while the language of hell resounds on every 
side ! £ven so, he has an enemy within, striving against 
.the right principle, afid responding to all that his better feeV 
ing repudiates. Then, too, wherewithal shall the young 
man cleanse his way, if not by ruling himself according to 
the word of God ? And how is he to study that w6rd ? 
Does the parent who puts a Bible in his boy's portmanteau 
know that the most blasphemous tissue of ribaldry and all 
abomination would be a more suitable gift, if it is. intended 
that he should exhibit it ? These are awful questions^ to 
be well considered by those who are wavering as to the 
destination of a youth ; and they a{^ly very widely through- 
out the land. 



AWFUL gonthast* 215 

We all know the case of him whose heart has been swept 
and gietrnisfaed ; and how much the last state is worse than 
the firstf when Satan re-enters with his seven new compan- 
ions. The very ehecks of conscience render the fretted 
raind more restive ; and the longer restrained the more 
headlong is the wild gallop into which the chafed spirit at 
last breaks. He who trembled at a profane word becomes 
an accomplished swearer ; he whose modesty was most re« 
tiring is foremost to glory in early depravity ; he whose hand 
was ever ready to relieve the poor, while his heart sympa- ' 
thized in their sorrows^ becomes the wanton spoiler and 
marauder for the sake of a bold vaunt ; he who ishrank from 
the approach of profligate misleaders, now volunteers to 
harden new comers in the ways of sin. The youth who 
with noiseless step trod the courts of the Lord's house, and 
bent with lowly reverence in prayer, and listened with fixed 
attention to the teacher's voice, now delights in shaming 
others out of the semblance of devotion, and feigns if he does 
not fall into it^ the profound sleep of a wholly uninterested 
actor in the tedious show of public worship. Perchance 
some friend whose proximity to the place admits of it may 
stretch out a helping hand, or lift an admonitory voice, or 
proffer a little encouragement to strengthen the things that 
remain, and which are ready to die ; if so, both the helper 
and the helped will be marked out for ridicule and reviling, 
if for nothing worse. 

Honourable men, after this world'is course, who are them- 
seves wholly in the dark, verily believing that religion would ' 
turn a youth's brain and unfit him for the active business of 
life, will feel it a part of their duty to oppose every possible 
obstacle to such attempts at reclaiming the young wanderers 
under their charge. I knew, and knew right well, an in- 
stance wherein a lady who strove to do good to the souls of 
some young lads whose parents she knew to be prajdng 
people, had a sort of 'ban put upon her, by the publication of 



216 CAD£T8. 

ah express order that they should not be again permitted to 
visit her ; and when a nobleman who well knew that A» 
had not done any thing to merit such public condemnatioQ, 
asked the principal of the institution the reason for so harsh 
a proceeding, he received this answer, * My lord, I waa sony 
to do it ; I felt it a painful duty, but an imperative one. The 
fact is, she got hold of some of the most promising lads under 
my care, and so infected them with her own gloomy notions 
that, I give you my word, they were seen walking alone» 
with Bibles in their hands !' So much wiser are the children 
of this world in guarding those committed to them from the 
entrance of spiritual good, than are the children of light ki 
protecting their dearest treasures from the contamination of 
most deadly evil ! 

But to return to my cadets at Sandhurst. I had two young 
friends there, both Irish, who were known to me from chikU 
hood ; both greatly attached to my brother ; both loving aie 
dearly ; and many a happy hour we passed, strolling over 
the wild heath, or enjoying the cheerfulness of my cottag9 
home* Qb those two, among many, I looked with especial 
solicitude as to their future course ; and I have had to re- . 
joice, in different ways, over them both. One was early, 
taken to his rest ; he died in the faith, looking simply to the 
Lord Jesus, and finding perfect peace in him. The other 
was long away on foreign service, and when next I saw him, 
it was as the deliverer, under God, of a whole town* and 
probably through that of the whole kingdom, from a scene 
of revolutionary carnage. He commanded the gallant little 
body of troops at Newport, who on the 4th of November, 
1839, quelled the Chartist insurrection, and broke thefoN 
midable power that menaced a general outbreak. I can* 
not pass over this event, it was so ddightfuUy gratifying t» . 
me. 

A third ^ of those in whom I took a lively interest was 
Alexander Count Calharezr the eldest son of the Due de 



RETROSPECTIONS. 217 

PalmeUa. He luras a most elegant youth, of fine mind^ deli- 
cate feelings, and the sweetest. manners possible. Devoted- 
ly attached to Romanism, lie constantly attended mass at the 
house of the old Abb6, who added to his professorship in the 
Royal. Military College the duties of a Popish priest. It 
was a sore grief to me to see Galharez pursuing his solitary 
way to that house, while we took the road to the College 
chapel, and met him half-way. I longed to enter a solemn 
protest against his delusion, but I neyer did it in direct termf^ 
though very often dwelling, in his presence, on the peculiar' 
truths of Chri.itianity^ opposed as they are to the lie in which 
he trusted. I hoped to have enjoyed many future opportu- 
nities of conversing Vith him, for he alwiays sought our sop- 
ciety in preference to many things that appeai-ed more at- 
tractive, and took a lively interest in Jack. But the Col- 
lege did not suit his taste ; he lefl it soon, and ac'c/ompanied 
his father to Portugal. He died at the Azores ; and I have 
been told that his hope at the last was one which maketh 
not ashamed. He was the subject of many prayers : the 
last day will tell whether they were answered. 

But I cannot hasten through the heaviest part of my task; 
it is the rending open of a wound never, to heal until the 
leaves of Uie tree of life shall be laid upon it ; and if by any 
means I do attain to that resurrection /rotn among thedead^ 
in which none but the Lord's children shall partake* surely 
the dear object of all this sorrow will be there beside me ! 

Six months had passed from the time of his departure to 
Ireland, and all his letters were full of cheerfulness and 
pleasant anticipation. On the subject where I most wished 
to know his feelings, he was silent ; but a passage in one 
of his. letters struck me greatly. I had been suffering from 
a slight local pain, which one of. my^ medical' friends erro- 
neously pronounced to be a disease of the heart ; and in 
communicating this to him I had noticed, that I must live in 

momentary expectation of sudden death. Hia reply waa 

19 



218 A VISITATION. 

very afiectionate. He said it had given him a great ahocky 
but on a little reflection he was convinced of its being alto- 
gether a nervous sensation ; addiug« ' If ooty why should you 
shrink from sudden death ? For my own part« I should desire 
it, as a short and easy passage out of this life.' A tremor 
came over me as I read these words ; but again I thought, 
* Surely there is something on his mind to brighten that pas- 
sage, or he would not so express himself;' and the thought 
of many perils surrounding him quickened me to redoubled 
prayer, that God would set his feet upon the Rock of ages. 
It was on a bright Sabbath morning, at the end of June, 
that, having rather overslept myself, I found on awaking the 
letters brought by early post lying on my pillow. I took one : 
it was the Horse Guards envelope, in which his letten uamJ- 
ly came ; and in my eagerness to open one from him I did 
not even put up a prayer. Full of smiling anticipation, I 
unfolded the enclosure, which was from a most dear and 
valued friend at the Horse Guards ; and after some tender 
preparation, which the sudden reeling of my terrified brain 
prevented my comprehending, came the paralyzing sequel : 
A letter had been received from MuUingar — he was on the 
lake fishing — the boat overset* I could not understand 
the meaning of the words ; but I understood the thing itself^ 
I sprang to my knees to cry for mercy on him — but, oh 
that dreadful, dreadful thought that pierced through my in- 
most soul — *He is beyond the reach of prayer!' I fell 
back as if really shot ; but what avails it to dwell on this ? 
I bore it as God enabled me ; I felt crushed, annihilated as 
it were, under the tierce wrath of the Lord ; for to aggra- 
vate the blow, I bad no power to believe or to hope. It was 
a light thing to have lost him, my all in this cold, dreary 
world, who from early infancy had been as the light to my 
eyes, and the life-blood to my heart ; he who had so very 
lately been restored, as if to show, that while he remained, 
all I could desire of earthly happiness was within my reach ; 



WANT OF FAITH. 219 

he who had been to me instead of every other mortal bless- 
ings and to whom I looked for all that I dared hope of future 
comfort. It was a light thing to have lost him, and to look 
upon the anguish of his widowed mother, to whom he had 
ever been more of a ministering angel than a son, and upon 
the tears of his little daughter, who had lost a father indeed ! 
All this was a small matter compared with the overwhelm- 
ing horrors of that unbelieving thought, that ht had lost his 
soul. 

It was, indeed, the language of unbelief, for I had abun- 
dant cause to trust God, even from what I had witnessed, 
without taking into consideration his faithfulness as the 
Hearer of prayer, which bad been incessantly, importunately 
persisted in for eight years and a half, on that one subject. 
The fact is, I had fallen much into the common, dangerous 
error of looking to my own faith rather than to the object of 
it for salvation; and I did, in my heart, exceedingly glory 
in this supposed faith of mine. The dreadful dispensation 
under which I was laid showed me at once that of faith I had 
not to the value of a grain of mustard-seed ; and now I felt 
the desolation of spirit which none can know who have not 
been to compelled to make such a discovery. I did not 
rebel ; I owned the justice of God : nay, the very first words 
I could find breath to utter broke forth in the confession, 
** Ri^eous art thou, O Lord ; just and true are thy ways, 
O King of Saints!'' but it was a fearful trembling beneath 
the hand that had smote me ; and as for being contented to 
have it so, I was not; I do not wish that I had been contented 
to believe my brother was lost ; I do not understand that 
feeling, nor wish to understand it ; for surely while we re- 
main in the flesh we cannot divest ourselves of what God 
has interwoven with our very nature, nor cease to feel for the 
spiritual, the eternal interests of those most fondly endeared 
to us, a solicitude as great, aye much greater, than what we, 
in our unconverted state, once knew in regard to their tern- 



220 AHJDDINWORK. 

poral concerns. I speak of those instances where* after 
being ourselves brought to know the Lords we have laboured 
and prayed perseveringly for others, and then have sudden- 
ly lost them. I was not content to think that my prayers 
had been cast out : I wanted some token that they had been 
answered. Blessed be the God of all mercies ! I was not 



There is a wide distinction between the case of a man 
who comes out from a world where he has been walkiog 
according to its most vain, ungodly courses, and who joins 
himself to the Lord's people as a deserter from that world, 
and the case of a man whose path has been that of domiestic 
privacy when not engaged in public duty; who has coqspi- 
cuously fulfilled, with the utmost integrity and zeal, the du- 
ties of the latter, while shining brightly as a pattern of the 
husband, the father, the master, the friend ; keeping aloof 
from dissipated society, and pursuing his way with unblem- 
ished credit among the most respectable and honourable of 
the world's, people. This case had been his. There was 
scarcely an instance where his open embracing of the gospel 
could have shed an additional lustre on his daily walk in 
the sight of man, except as the proclamation of such prin- 
ciple could do it.' The work must, in that stage, have been 
between his soul and his God; and often, very often, I 
doubt not, is that work so far advanced as to be like the 
young plant that has found its way to the very surface, by 
secret but vigorous vegetation, and wants but the influence 
of another day's sunshine to bring it into the open view of 
men, when God, by some mysterious dispensation, removes 
it, to complete its growth in heaven. We mourn be(;ause 
we see not the process ; and little claim, alas-, have we to 
the blessedness pronounced on those who can believe where 
they see not ; and often do we go down sorrowing to the 
grave under such afflictive strokes, because we give up all 
%» lost, instead of continuing to urge the Lord for a testi- 



1 

U 



HOPE. 221 

moiiy of hi§ ,&ithful dealit^: ^^show me thy gtory, I be- 
seech thee*" Would that my happy experience in this in- 
stance might become a means of consolation to others in 
like -manner tempted to sorrow as those that have no hope 
for beloved friends really sleeping in Jesus. 

In Jesus,: there lies a mystery that the world cannot pen- 
etrate. Many a one came about me, offering the affection- 
ate consolation that they rightly judged would be most 
soothing to n)y wounded spirit^— the assurance that he for 
whom I mourned was in heaven. ' They dwelt on the blame- 
lessness of his life ; the beauty of his character ; his exem- 
plary discharge of every relative duty ; the bright example 
that he placed before his brother officers in discouraging all 
profaneness and profligacy, and strictly attending upon every 
religious ordinance. Even the circumstafice of his marked 
non-conformity with the disgraceful but almost universal 
custom of sitting during prayer in the church, was not for- 
gotten; nor the devoted kindness with which he invariably 
conveyed to me every word of the sermon. And when my 
sickened heart perhaps too plainly spoke in my countenance 
the reply, " Miserable comforters are ye all ! " or when I 
distinctly told them that these things did not content me, 
great was their astonishment. Full well I knew that to be 
admitted into heaven, my lamented one must have been in 
Jesus before the summons came, and ** that not by works of 
righteousness which he had done" could he be saved. I 
secretly caught at the hope, that these fruits, once profitless 
and vile from being borne on a wild tree, had become rich 
and precious through grafting into the good olive. In God's 
sight old things may pass away, and all things become new, 
where man detects little change. By such thoughts was I 
consoled during the weeks that intervened before I had 
ground given for confident thanksgiving, on the score of evi- 
dence that the blessing I had so earnestly sought was indeed 
▼ouchsafed. 

1^ 



222 TRUK COMFORT. 

Meanwhile, what a tenfold recompense for all the care 
bestowed on him did I reap in the beautiful sympathy of the 
dumb boy. When I came down stairs that dreadful morn-, 
ing he met me with a face of such wild dismay as even then 
arrested my attention* He uttered an audible / Oh !' of 
most touching tone, and thus expressed the impossibility h^ 
felt of realizing the tidings : * Jack what ? Jack asleep 1 
Jack see no — think no. Jack afraid very. Beautiful Cap- 
tain B. gone ? — dead ? What /' and he stamped with the 
impatience of that fearfully inquisitive what, I answered^ 
' Captain B. gone ; water kill, dead.' Tears stole down 
his loYing face as he responded, * Poor mam ! Mam one' 
(meaning! was now alone in the world). ' God see poor 
mam one ; Jesus Christ love poor roam one.' With a feel- 
ing of bitter agony I asked him, ' What! Jesus Christ love 
Captain B. V ' Yes,' he replied, aller a moment's solemn 
thought on the question, * Yes, Jack much pray ; mam much 
pray ; Jesus Christ see much prays.' This was true comfort ; 
all the eloquence, of all the pulpits in England could not 
have gone to my heaf:t like that assurance, that Jesus Christ 

had seen his m^nydumb prayers on behalf of that lost 

oh, I could not' eveny in the depth of my unbelieving heart 
say, * lost one.' I again asked the boy, * Jack m%u:h prays V 
He answered with solemn • fervency, ' Very, very much 
prays. Jack pray morning, pray night ; Jack pray church, 

pray bed. Yes, Jack many days very pray God make' 

and he finished by signs, that wings should be made to grow 
from my brother's shoulders, for him to fly to heaven, ad- 
ding Jesus Christ must make the wings ; and then, with a 
burst of delighted animation, he told me that he was a ' very 
tall angel, very beautiful.' • . 

I have repeated this conversation tb.ahow the broken 
language carried on between us;.. and also how powerfully 
he expressed his thoughts. Soon after, when I was nearly 
fainting, a glass of water was held to my lips. I am ashamed 



• TMP ATHT. 223 

to say, I dashed it down, exclaiming, * that murderer !' 
Jack caught my eye, and echoing my feelings, said, in a 
bitter way, * Bad water!' then with a look of exulting con« 
tempt at the remaining fluid, he added, * Soul gone water ! 
No !' This idea, that the soul was not drowned, electrified 
me ; so good i» a word spoken in due season, however trite 
a truism that word may be. 

That night I pretended to go to bed, that others might do 
so too ; and then I lefl my room, went to my little study, 
which was hung round with Jack's sweet drawings, and sat 
down, resting my elbows on the table, my face on my hands, 
and so remained for a couple of hours. Day had scarcely 
broken brightly upon me, about two in the morning, when 
the door opened sofUy, and Jack entered, only partially 
dressed, his face deadly pale, and altogether looking most 
piteously wretched. He paused at the door, saying, * Jack 
asleep, no ; Jack sick, head bad, — no more see beautiful 
Captain B.' I could only shake my head, and'isoon buried 
my face in my hands again. However, I still saw him 
through my fingers ; and af\er liAing up his clasped hands 
and eyes, in prayer for me, he proceeded to execute the 
purpose of his visit to that room. Softly, stealthily, he went 
round, mounting a chair, and unpinned from the wall every 
drawing that contained a ship, a boat, or water under any 
form of representation. Still peeping at me, hoping he was 
not observed, he completed this work, which nothing but a 
mind refined to the highest degree of delicate tenderness 
could ever have prompted, and then stopping at the door, 
cast over his shoulder such a look of desolate sorrow at me, 
that its very wretchedness poured balm into my heart. Oh 
what a heavenly lesson is that, ' Weep with them that do 
weep,' and how we fly in its face when going to the mourner 
with our inhuman, cold-blooded exhortations to leave off 
grieving ! £ven Job's tormenting friends gave him seven 
days true consolation while they sat silent on the earth 
weeping with him. 



224 TnUK FEELING. 

But God put into tho dumb boy's heart another mode of 
consolation, which I must recount, as a specimen of his ex- 
ceedingly original and beautiful train of thought. He used 
to tell his ideas to me as if they were things that he had 
seen ; and now he had a tale to relate, the day afler this, 
which rivetted my attention. He told me my brother went 
on the lake in a little boat, and while he was going along 
the devil got under it, seized one side, pulled it ovefi and 
caught my brother, drawing him down to the bottom, whichy 
as he told me* was deep, deep, and flames under it. Then 
Jesus Christ put his arm out of a cloud, reached into the 
water, took the soul out of the body, and drew it into the 
sky* When the devil saw the soul had escaped, he let the 
body go, and dived away, crying. Jack said, with rage, while 
the men took it to land. The soul, he continued, went up, . 
up, up ; it was bright, and brigh er, ^ like sun, — all light, 
beautiful light.' At last he saw a gate, and inside many 
angels looking out at Mm ; but two very small angels came 
running to meet the soul ; and when he saw them, he took 
them up into his arms, kissed them, and carried them on 
towards the gate, still kissing and caressing them. I was 
amazed and utterly at a loss, and said, ^ Two angels ? 
What? Mam not know, what?' He looked at me with a 
laugh of wonder ; pointed to my head and the wooden ta- 
ble, and replied (his usual way of calling me stupid), * Doll 
mam ! Two small boys, dead, Portugal.' My brother had 
lost two babes in Portugal ; and thus exquisitely, thus in all 
the beauty of true subHmity, had the untaught deaf and dumb 
boy pictured the welcome they had given their father on ap- 
proaching the gate of heaven. 

A day or two after, some kind, sympathizing relations and 
friends being assembled at the dinner-table, something cheer- 
ful was said, which excited a general smile, Jjack was in the 
act of handing a plate ; he looked round him with a face of 
stern indignation, set down the plate, said ' Bad laughing !' 



AN EBENEZER. 225 

and walked out of the room, stopping at the door to add to 
me, ^ Mam come : no laughing ! Gone ; dead.' I had not 
smiled ; and this jealous tenaciousness of such a grief, on 
the part of an exceedingly cheerful boy, was the means of 
soothing more than any other means could have done it« 
the anguish of (hat wound which had pierced my very heart's 
core. These were a small part, of the munificent wages that 
my Master gave me for nursing a child of His. 

My first act had, of course, been to adopt my brother's 
0on« — • the * Baby boy' — now five years oldt who had been 
since he first showed his little round face in England, my 
own peculiar treasure. I begged him as a precious boon* 
and for his sake bore up against the storm of sorrow that 
was rending me within. Jack fell into a decline, through 
the depression of his spirits in seeing me suffer ; for to con- 
ceal it from one who read every turn of my countenance was 
impossible ; and I should have been weU content to sink 
also, but for the powerful motive set before me. Under 
God, who gave him to me, you may thank your young friend 
for what little service I may have rendered in the cause you 
love, since 1828 : for the prospect .which by the Lord's 
rich mercy is so far realized, of seeing him grow up a. use- 
ful, honourable member of society, with right principles, 
grounded on a scriptural educatiot, was what enabled me 
to persevere against every difficulty and every discourage- 
ment that could cross my path. I set up a joyful Ebenezer 
here ; and I ask your prayers that the blessing may be pro- 
longed, increased, perfected, even to the day when we shall 
all meet before the throne of God. 



226 A K U i 1 N o • 



LETTEA XIII. 



NATIONAL APOSTACT. 
ElOHTfilN HtTNDRlD AND TWENTY-NINE amTed. MO0t 

hateful year in the annals of England's perfidy to her hodn- 
teous Lord ! I was never really roused from the lassitude 
of spirits that my loss had occasioned, until the conviction 
that the sin was about to be perpetrated forced itself on ale ; 
and a ferv^t desire to be found among those who were nc" 
Hvely dissentient from it, overcame all the languor oonse- 
quent upon such a season of bitter affliction. For, what 
was it that England was about to do ! 

The gospel had been preached here in the very early days 
of Christianityt probably by an apostle ; and an indepen- 
dent church, small indeed, but scriptural, existed ; sufficient 
to offer serious opposition to the Romish delegate, Augus- 
tine, when he was deputed to incorporate this country in 
the growing mass of papal dependencies. The struggle 
was not of long duration. Rom^, not then arrived at the 
full stature of the Apocalyptic Beast, prevailed ; more by the 
lances of despotic monarchs, than through the willing assent 
of Britons, either lay or ecclesiastical. Once subjugated, 
England lay at the foot of the Popes, from generation to 



A SUMltART. 227 

generation, with now and then a movement towards freedoiUy 
which was soon stilled again by the iron sceptre ; or^ per- 
haps I should rather say, by a rap on the head with the iron 
key. .In the time of Richard 11. blood shed openly for th^ 
■truth's sake began to give testimony that martyrdom would 
yet become the order of the day: here. The spirit of perse- 
cutioii waxed bolder and fiercer, as the voice of scriptural 
protestation was heard ; and the temporary check given to, 
Romish usurpation by the decided proceeding of Henry 
YIII. in casting off the Pope's -supremacy for his own pri- 
vate benel^ty was fallowed by theblessed interval of young 
Sdward's reign, during which God was, for the first time 
since foreign delegates got footing here, acknowledged and 
worshipped according to the Scriptures. Then had the 
church peace, and the land prosperity. 

Mary followed : she ravened like a she wolf in innocent 
biood. Popery ruled supreme ; and the consequence was 
that the three years and a half of its domination may be 
characterized as one continuous act of murder. Then came 
Elizabeth, who, though she did not sufficiently purge out 
the old leaven, yet as she established Protestant ascendency 
on a strong basis, exalted her kingdom to a height never 
before known ; and James I. treading in the same steps 
found his reign equally prosperous. Charles I. attempted 
to give preponderance to the evil again ; and in -that attempt 
brought upon his people a fearful civil war, and upon his 
own bead an ignominious death. Charles II. worked co- 
vertly, under the surface of a profligacy almost equalling 
that of Rome itself, to bring back upon our fathers the yoke 
of that odious bondage ; and James II. set about the same 
enterprise openly. Then it was that, to avert another era 
of blood and flame, our ancestors removed from the throne 
the perverse line of Stuart, and placed upon it a devoted 
Protestant prince ; restricting the succession to those heirs 
alone who should hold and solemnly swear to maintain the 



tX 0URPH0TE8T. 

religion of the Bible against all future attempta of the West* 
erni Antichrist to recover his lost footing among us* 

From time to time, as fresh treasons rendered them ne^ 
Cessary, restrictions were also laid on the legislative aad 
corporative elections ; until in all its parts the body politic 
of England presented a pure image of Protestantism, unde- 
filed bj the Babylonish garment or wedge of polluted gold : 
and while we thus acknowledged G-od openly, he openly 
acknowledged us. No weapon formed against England 
prospered ; she preved, as a nation, that she could not bear 
them ^hich were evil c she had tried them that said they 
were apostles and were not, and had found them liars, and 
cast them out. For this cabse, the Lord made her moun- 
tain to stand strong : Protestant England was every where 
invincible. Abroad, victorious over every foe ; at home, 
enabled to crush every attempt at insurrection. A little, in- 
sulated spot on the woKld's map, she was as the city of Da- 
vid, alike the repository and the fortress of God's pure faith. 
How could I, with the Bible before me, cast a glance,over 
the history of England, and question for one moment that 
my country's strength lay in her Protest ? . 

And if patriotism had been as alien to my heart as it was 
paramount there, still allegiance to my God demanded that 
I shoald not see Him robbed, and the spoil given to his most 
presumptuous foe, without an effort to free my own soul 
from any possible implication in the deed. ' What had a 
woman to du with the proceedings of senators and gover- 
nors 1 ' Much. Everything. Was it a small matter that 
I enjoyed personal safety, personal liberty, and the Bible ? 
Why was the hand of violence restrained from taking my 
life under such sanction as that which publicly blessed the 
butchers of Wexford-bridge to their work of slaughter 1 Why 
were no convent walls ready to immure me ; no dungeons 
sealed from public scrutiny by a power that might trample 
on the neck of secular law? Why had I not been taught 



DOWNHILL OOUASE. 229 

in- early life that a fellow mortal held in his hands the power 
of saving or destroying my soul, and then' commanded by 
that irresistible authority to abstain from looking into the 
word of God 1 Because I was the subject of a Protestant 
country, basking in the sunshine of its spiritual light, and 
sheltered by the enactments of a state that owned no earthly 
power superior to its own. It is true I might not expect that 
in the course of my natural life the small beginnings of 
apostacy should grow to such a fulness as to interfere with 
my own privileges : but was such base selfishness to harden 
my heart against a succeeding generation 1 Was I to con- 
template the probability that the little feUow resting on my 
knee would be exposed to all from which I naturally shrunkl 
Nor did I at all question the probability of a more rapid 
desolation than human wisdom would calculate on. Apos- 
taey is so peculiarly a sin against God, such as a dire pro- 
vocation of His vengeance, that it might be expected that if 
we so walked contrary to him he would not wait till we, in 
the regular process of a rebellious march, brought ourselves 
within the range of his consuming fire, but that He also 
would walk contrary to us, with rage and with fury, and 
chastise us yet seven times more for our sins. Looking at 
the present fearfully advanced stage of our revolt, and the 
perils that hem us in, all traceable to that fatal net, I can 
truly say that I was prepared for such a rapid motion, if 
oncQ we began to descend the hill. Yiew it as I could, the 
sinfulness of the proceeding by which we were voluntarily 
to renew the ancient alliance with Antichrist, and to give the 
priests of Baal authprity to legislate for the ordering of 
God's temple, and iiwite anew the dangers, both spiritual 
and temporal, from which our fathers had been almost mira- 
culously delivered, was too palpable for a. moment's hesita- 
tion. I have said the priesthood would have power to legis- 
late for us; and so they have at this moment Every 
layman of that communion is the mere puppet of his priest : 

20 



230 A WILL AND A WAT. 

he recei^res directions how to act ; and he must declare, in 
confession, whether he has obeyed those directions to the 
letter. The Romish priests sit in parliament more effec- 
tually than if they took their places on the benches there : 
and each separate priest is simply and solely the active de- 
legate of a foreign power, which uses the whole machinery 
for one work, to one end, and counts nothing advantageous 
that does not afford a distinct step towards the regaining of 
a despotic rule over this kingdom. 

' But suppose a woman feels herself called on to take a 
personal interest in public affairs, what can she do, without 
stepping out of her proper sphere, and intruding into the 
province of the superior sex V I am going to tell you what 
a woman may do ; for of us it may surely be said, * Where 
there's a will, there's a way.' When we set our hearts up- 
on any thing, we are tolerably enterprising and persevering 
too, in its attainment ; and this natural love of pleasing 
ourselves may be turned to a very good account. No one 
grieves more than I do when a cowardly Barak shrinks from 
marching forward without female countenance and guid- 
ance ; but the cause of God and his church must not be 
placed in jeopardy through the pusillanimity of a thousand 
Baraks. 

The first thing I did was to introduce a separate suppli- 
cation into our family devotions morning and Digfat« that 
God would avert the sin from this country ; and twice a 
week I called on my neighbours, as many as would come* 
to join in express prayer to the same eftecU I then inquired 
how the public mind at Sandhurst stood affectedf and fimiid 
the ruling powers, civil, military, and ecclesiasticalt all going 
most complacently with the stream ; while their yiews, of 
course, influenced many around them. Among the trades- 
people and labouring classes, I saw that the subject had 
never occupied their thoughts, nor did they regard it as a 
matter at all concerning them. Indeedf in this lay the se- 



PRBPAKATORTSTCPS.^ 231 

cret of the enemy's success : a vast body of EDglishraen, 
who would have sprang forward in uncompromising hostili- 
ty against any known invasion of their nearest birthrightf 
were kept profoundly ignorant that such outrage waa in con- 
templation. The other party were glad to leave them so ; 
and on our side, there was a grievous lack of effi>rt in ac- 
quainting our poor neighbours with the dangerimpending over 
their temporal and spiritual blessings no less than our own. 
I procured a large number of simple tracts, explaining, on 
scriptural grounds, the dreadful nature of Popery, and the 
sinfulness, no less than the peril of taking such an inveter- 
ate foe to our bosoms. These I had left at the cottages 
and shops for some way round, that the people might exa- 
mine, and judge for themselves. 

The Rector of the parish I knew very well : he was a very 
clever man, much devoted to literature, and in his politics* 
wholly opposed to the measure : but alike averse from any 
personal exertion and from drawing down on himself the 
censures of his more liberalized neighbours. He had been 
to Oxford, to vote against Peel, solely on the ground of his 
defection from the Protestant causOy and most heartily, 
though quite inactively, desired the defeat of the Emancipa- 
tors. I represented to him the importance of doing what 
he could to accomplish his own wishes : he repUed, he did 
not think there were nineteen men in the parish who cared 
enough about it to sign a petition, and he was unable to ex- 
plain it to them all : but if I thought I could get that number 
of names, (the minimum for a parochial petition, I believe,) 
and would write such an address to the King, and the two 
HouseSv as he could approve, he would adopt it, sign his 
name, and in fact be very glad of my success. I went home, 
sent off to Staines for some pretty large skins of parchment, 
and wrote the petitions in terms as temperate, as concise, 
and as uncompromising as I could command. The B^tor 
was greatly pleased ; signed, with much alacrity ; and re- 



232 SUCCESSFUL SyFOKTS. 

quested the churchwardens to do the same, officially, as 
they were quite of our mind : this heing done, I had be- 
fore me the task of procuring nineteen signatures within 
two days. 

I did not even go to a single individual myself: next door 
to me resided a townsman of my own, a schoolmaster, who 
held the old principles dear as his very life : he was secretly 
lamenting the poming evil, without a hope of being permit- 
ted in any way to oppose it ; and you may believe with what 
delight he responded to my call, when asked to assist me. 
He went round to those who had previously received . the 
little tracts, and to some of the small hamlets, or clusters of 
cottages scattered throughout the parish. He strictly Ad- 
hered to my injunction to admit no signature of any youth 
under seventeen years ; nor of any who did not seem to un- 
stand what they were doing, and why. I scattered the tracts 
mod handbills as widely as I could : asked several intelli- 
gent men of an humble class to speak of it among their ac- 
quaintance ; and at the end of the second day I had, not 
nineteen, but two hundred and forty-six signatures of honest 
sensible Englishmen to my petitions. 

The only person ^under the stipulated age, who signed it, 
was Jack : he was not seventeen ; but be wept and im[^ored 
so passionately for leave to tell the king not to Let Romans 
make bad gods in England, that it would have been a sin to 
reject his protest. He rather cut than wrote his name on 
the parchment : the deepest crimson suffused his face, and 
his eyes flashed with the energy of his heartfelt protest against 
the abomination that he so well knew. He does not now 
regret it, while writing for the summons to rejoice with the 
heavens, and the holy apostles and prophets, over the fall of 
Babylon the Great. 

Our petition was presented to the Commons by the county 
member ; to the Lords by the Bishop of London ; and to 
the King by the noble, honest, protesting Duke of ff ew<- 



0ft DUTIES. 233 

castle. My zealous neighbour took them to Londont and 
saw the first laid on the table, as he told me* with tears of 
thankfulness that he had been permitted to aid in the work. 
There are many, very many such men, of a class most re- 
spectable, but who lack the opportunity of engaging in causes 
that their inmost hearts approve ; and there are many ladies 
who, if they knew how to find such active and trusty agents^ 
would not sit idle as they do and see their country perish 
for lack of a little enterprise like the foregoing. Two people 
in each parish throughout England, as much in earnest as we 
were, might have frightened the treacherous betrayers of our 
national fortress from their unhallowed, deed ; qr might at 

THIS VERY TIME ARREST THE PROGRESS OF OUR DECAT. 

We possess a machinery of almost boundless power ; but 
we are too lazy to set the wheels in motion. I bless God 
for his infinite mercy in directing me to a line of action that 
has enabled me, in every fresh announcement of wrong in* 
flic tod on the Protestants of Ireland, and dangers accumu* 
lating round the very heart of England, to. say '* I am free 
from the blood of all men." It was no more than a most 
imperative duty ; its omission would have been no less than 
a very grievous sin ; but that duty I was enabled to perform ; 
that sin I was enabled to escape; and with the sense of it 
warm on my heart, I say to you and to others, '* Go and do 
likewise." 

But the national offence was not to be averted by a few 
instances of practical Protestation, and as the time drew 
near my anguish of spirit was very great. I have staid up 
nearly all the night, making, like Daniel, with tears, my 
suplications unto the Lord that he would pardon the sin of 
our princes and rulers, and have mercy on my people. Y^ 
more ; the two days that preceded it, I caused to be kept aa 
so strict a fast, that nothing but bread and potatoes entered 
the house. It was the only time that I ever in my life made 
it compulsory on others to fast ; but they did it willingly, 

20* 



234 MR. m'nbilb. 

for nobody under that roof could be ignorant how awful was 
the stake impending. 

And here I have to name one whom it is to me a privilege 
even to name. When a few distracted lines from my hand 
apprized a valued military friend in Jersey of the dreadful 
loss I had sustained in my dear brother, a guest, connected 
with his family, was present, who took the pen, and wrote 
me instantly a letter full of the richest, the tenderest, and 
sweetest consolation that ever overflowed from even the warm 
heart of Hugh M'Neile. I felt it powerfully : and when, 
not long after, he visited us, to pour yet farther 4he balm of 
Christian sympathy on the wound, I saw what a treasure the 
Lord was giving me in such a friend, and I cannot tax my- 
self now with having ever undervalued the blessing. At the 
fearful crisis in question, on the eve of passing that wicked 
bill, Mr. lii'Neile published his memorable pamphlet, enti- 
tled *' England's Protest is England's shield." I did not 
see it until the very time arrived, and I remember sitting up 
the whole night afler reading it, pondering on the picture that 
he had drawn of consequences following upon a sin the very 
model of which was set forth, and its punishment ali^o aw- 
fully declared, in the book of Jeremiah. Alas ! how often 
have the feet of our rulers been found '* stumbling on the dark 
mountains " — while they looked for light, how oflen has it' 
been turned into the shadow of death, since the warning was 
despised, and the Lord's favoured people took unto close 
alliance the idolatrous abomination that incenses him ! We 
were then caljed alarmists, bigots, prejudiced fanatics ; and 
well do I remember the( stress laid on an argument that in- 
fluenced many an upright character. ' Supposing,' it was 
urged, ' that an oath of fidelity to the interests of a Protest- 
ant government would not be considered binding by mem- 
bers of the Romish church, do you imagine that. a company 
of GENTLEMEN would violate their pledged word of honoiirT 
This told well with men of the world ; and not a few Christ- 



■ * 



BPISOOPAL DBrXCTION. S86 

ians were led away by it, so that the clamour excited agaiiuil 
the impugners of Romish integrity was very trying to meei, 
and numbers shrank from their protest, because it implied a 
charge against the private character of individuals who bad 
done nothing to merit such suspicion. There were those« 
however, and among men of most dehcate mind, incapable 
of inflicting a needless wound, who could not thus be deter- 
red from uttering their convictions, since too fully verified, 
that NO bond could hold a true Romanist neutral or inactive 
when once a question arose touching the opposite interests 
of the hostile systems. Mr. M'Neile always proceeded on 
the simple fact that Popery is Antichrist : that in all things 
it must be the object of Antichrist to oppose and subvert the 
kingdom of Christ : and that every subject of Antichrist must 
necessarily desire his master's advancement and do his 
master's bidding. The event has shown how correct were 
his deductions; and he, who to this moment stands fore- 
most within the fortress in resisting at every step the foe 
whom he. could not repel from its walls, has earned a pre- 
eminence in their hatred that bespeaks better than any thing 
else could do the value of his services in the cause of truth. 
The bill passed in the Commons, and still we clang to a 
hope that the noble warrior who had once been the instru- 
ment of saving his country would < not now deliberately sell 
her into the bands of foreign foes ; — sell her for a fuller 
measure of popularity, or for a little treacherous repose. Still 
more did we hope that God would preserve the bishops of 
the church from conniving at the sacriligeously suicidal blow. 
Nay, it was more than a connivance : for had they been 
unanimously true to their church, there were a very large ma- 
jority of the peers who would never have ventured to vote 
against them in a matter so nearly touching the cause which 
the lords spiritual were in that house expressly to judge and 
to defend. I confess I built much upon the bench : and a 
poor foundation it proved to be ! A solemn note of project- 



286 NO laaRBXDiEl 

ic warning was Bounded by the Aichbiahop of Titam on be- 
Imlf of Ireland ; echoed by our own metropolitao and othera 
in reference to fingland* but ui vain. The sun of our na* 
tional greatness bad passed its meridian, andt in the memor- 
able words of honest Lord fildon, began to set The ain 
of the British parliament was consummated. 

Nothing remained but to give the royal assent ; and stiU 
would hope whisper that the prayers, if not the example of 
his father might prevail to deter the king of England from 
easting its independent diadem once more before the papal 
footstool. Here again the defection of the bishops operated 
most fatally : George the Fourth would not have ratified the 
urrender, if their influence, public and private, had been 
duly exerted to withhold him from it. The pen was put into 
a reluctant hand ; a hasty scratch with that pen undid the 
work of the revolution ; and so far as man could accomplish 
it, of the Reformation also. 

I cannot describe to you the feeling with which I learned 
that all was thus lost. It did not partake of resignation, it 
did not include the smallest portion of acquiescence. God 
forbid ! Some of my pious friends, who had felt with me all 
along, received the tidings with devout submission, saying, 
*' The will of the Lord be done !" My amen to this aspira- 
tion had a clause added to it : I could only repeat, '* The 
will of the Lord be done, by the undoing of what is so 
outrageously opposed to his known will !" I no more 
assented to the act than I would have assented to a 
murder : I no more regarded it as the Lord's doing than I 
regarded the setting up of golden calves at Dan as his do- 
ing. Permitted by the Lord it was : for he ofleu permits 
nations like individuals, to destroy themselves by committing 
presumptuous sins; but is he therefore the author, the abet- 
ter, or the approver of their crimcis 1 Assuredly not. So 
far must we submit to the ordinances of man as not to raise 
a rebellious hand against their execution; but to look placid- 
ly on while the abomination of desolation is set up to stand 



ENGLAND PAPALIZED. 237 

where the Lord expresslj^ says '* it ought not," and to 
conclude he wills it to stand there because he did not wither 
the hands employed in fixing it, is a stretch of indifferentism 
to which I hope I shall never be able to attain. No : the 
'atrocious bilV as it was rightly termed, became the law of 
England ; but inasmuch as it is wholly opposed to the law 
of God, let us see to it that our protest against its continu- 
ance on our statute book be fully as powerful, as persever- 
ing as was our protest against its entrance there. 

The usual lapse of some days between the signing of a 
new act and its coming into force, threw the first operatic n 
of the Popish bill upon a day remarkable as being that of the 
nominal saint of England. A most Popish coincidence ! 
to enhance which the reigning monarch had adopted the 
Popish custom of celebrating the festival of St. George, in 
April, as his birthday, which really occurred in August ; call- 
ing it his name day, afler the continental mode. To these 
strangely concurrent circumstances was added one yet more 
striking ; namely, the fact that the noted Pastorini had pre- 
dicted, many years before, that the great effectual blow 
against Protestantism would be struck on the 14th of April, 
1829 ; the 13th of April, 1829, was the day on which the 
royal assent crowned the notorious bill. 

I have alluded before to an Abbe, an aged French priest 
who held a Professorship at the Royal Military College, an 
amiable, kind-hearted old man, who retired at this time from 
his situation and went to end his years in his native land. 
It happened that the 23rd was fixed for his departure, and 
as I sat in deep dejection in my study, grieving over the 
changed aspect of my country now that the antichristian law 
was come into full force, I saw the old man, full of national 
vivacity, walk briskly past, on his way to make inquiries res- 
pecting a coach. The sight of his silver locks, shining in 
the sunbeam, and the conviction that he was probably going 
beyond the reach of Christian privileges, melted me : I siez- 



238 AN ADMONITlOir. 

ed a pen, and wrote bim a most earnest letter, faithfulij 
setting before him the fearfulDess of that dehiaion in which 
he was not only himself wrappedt but daily wrapping up the 
souls of others — for he officiated as priest in the place. I 
implored him to read God's word ; I assured him how cor- 
dially I concurred in the declaration of his church, that either 
he or I was certainly on the road to hell ; for that two paths 
directly opposed to each other could not possibly end in the 
same place : I told him my own confidence of safety and 
salvation was grounded solely on the revealed, infallible 
word of God : and I charged him as he must face me at the 
judgment-seat of Christ, to search diligently into that. only 
sure and safe directory as to the bearing of his own path. 
I wrote affectionately, with many tears, and fervent prayers ; 
and enclosing with the letter a present of books, had it giv- 
en to him as he mounted the coach. Whether the Lord 
blessed, or may yet bless it to him, I know not : I hope I 
delivered my own soul. Afler this, which indeed proved a 
great relief to my oppressed feelings, I took my little nephew 
and sallied forth for a walk. It was a glorious day : the 
sun shone with surpassing brilliancy from a cloudless sky ; 
and the fresh breeze had all the softness of advanced Spring. 
I strolled through a grove of oaks, pondering on tho naval 
greatness of my country, on the vaunted * Hearts of oak ' 
that both formed her fleets and manned them, and bewailing 
the infatuation that had now planted a deadly Upas in the 
midst of her fair national garden. Every object around me 
seemed to speak reproach, from die peaceful beauty of that 
fearless repose in which for so many centuries our happy 
isle had lain beneath the shadow of the Lord's hand. '' I 
have nourished and brought up children, and they \^ve re- 
belled against me," was the purport of the voice that s^med 
to breathe rebuke. Wandering on, I came to the winding 
rampart of the college,- a beautifully retired walk, where 
mounds of eiarth, covered with rich grass, aid the militsiy 



I C H A B O D • 239 

efiect of that fine establishment ; and here a turn brought 
me at once upon an object calculated to wound me beyond 
all the rest. 

It was the royal standard of England^ hoisted in honour 
of the king's name-day : an immense banner of rich 8ilk« 
splendidly emblazoned with the well-known arms. £ng« 
land's three lions in the proud attitude of menacing ad- 
vance ; Scotland's rampant one, rejoicing in his indepen- 
dence ; and poor Ireland's neglected harp, once tuned to the 
highest strains of inspired psalmody; now for many a long age 
perverted to the service of idols, and polluted by the licentious 
fingers of those who work on the passions of her children 
to rivet more deeply the fetter on their souls — all these 
were unrolled before me, just then drooping in a lull of the 
breeze; and the Irish quarter partially resting on a mound of 
green sod, where it lay languid and sad. I leaned against the 
opposite bank, weeping most abundantly as I gazed; for all 
the chivalrous feelings of former days were awakened to 
embitter the rest. How often had my heart beat joyously 
while I looked upon that noble standard, floating on the 
fourth of June, the birthday of good old George the thirdi 
whose prayerful fidelity to his sacred trust kept that flag se- 
cure, uncontaminated, victorious, through his sixty years' 
reign ! And that bead which he was ready to lay on a bloek 
rather than surrender the sacred protest, was mouldering 
with the dead — his son had surrendered it — our protest 
was gone ! I could not quite realize the fact, it appeared 
so incredible to me, after all I had read of the past, and all 
I had seen in Ireland, of the workings of Popery wherever 
it could snatch even momentary power. But the wind fresh- 
ened again, the heavy folds of the gorgeous banner slowly 
roee upon it, all its bright blazonry stood out in wonted 
pride, unconscious of the * Ichabod ' that sacrilegious hands 
had written on every trophy, and with a fresh burst of tears 
I turned away. 



240 RETRIBUTION. 

For all this, and for the deep despondency that oppressed 
me then, I was rebuked* of course, by man ; but God never 
rebuked me for it. TweWe years have elapsed, and each 
year has heaped upon us a fresh load of that ** fruit of our 
own ways," which will crush us at last. That * healing 
measure,' as its expediency-mongering patrons loved to call 
it, did indeed heal the deadly wound of the Beast among us, 
and bade him again live, to our confusion. Ireland is all 
but given up 83 an uncontested prey to him ; her Protes- 
tant church dismantled, her Protestant Bible mutilated, her 
Protestant corporations sold, her Protestant landlords mas- 
sacred as a matter of course ; and the very Union, any at- 
tempt at infracting which is high treason^ made the object . 
of unmasked attacks on the part of a man who has armed 
and marshalled her millions in open rebellion against the 
British government, which, judicially given over to infatua- 
tion, fawns on his person and courts his patronage. In 
£ngland, disaffection to the crown, combined with and 
strengthened by principles of gross infidelity, an increasing/ 
contempt of old institutions because they are based on 
Christianity, an open scorn of the Sabbath, and an immense 
(ailing away to popery in the mass of the people ; . while, 
within the church, even in its pulpits and among its most 
distinguished ministers, prevails a revival of more than semi- 
papal error, such as must wholly destroy the spiritual life of 
that body if it be not speedily and summarily checked. In- 
stead of this, we too well know that it is daijijf;,. extending, 
bearing in itself the seeds of a future and cruel^rsecution 
of God's people. We cannot look on these things and deny 
that they have come upon us in just retribution for 1829 : 
we cannot, without expecting at the Lord's hand such a com-^ 
promise of his Majesty and Truth as he will never make, 
look for deliverence from these fears and dangers until we 
have, by a national act, put away the evil of those doings 
which have provoked him to forsake us. 






A WORKING CHURCH. 241 



LETTER XIV. 



EMPLOYMENT. 

How is it that Christians so oflen complain they can find 
nothing to do for their Master ? To hear some of them he- 
moaning their unprofitableness, we might conclude that the 
harvest indeed is small, and the labourers many. So many 
servants out of employ is a bad sign ; and to obviate the 
difficulty complained of I purpose showing you two or three 
ways in which those who are so inclined may bestir them- 
selves for the good of others. What a blessing were a work- 
ing church I and by a church I .mean '* the company of all 
faithful people," whomsoever and wheresoever they be. 

In the village where I lived, there was a very good na- 
tional-school, well attended : also a Sunday-school ; and 
the poorer inhabitants generally were of a respectable class, 
with many of a higher grade, stich as small tradesmen, and 
the families of those in subordinate offices about the Military 
College. I always took a great interest in the young ; and 
as love usually produces love, there was no lack of affec- 
tionate feeling on their part. It occurred to me, as the 
Sunday was much devoted by most of them to idling about, 
that assembling such of them as wished it at my cottage 
would afford an opportunity for scriptural instruction \ and 

21 



242 SABBATH MEETING. 

without anything resembling a school, or any regular pro- 
posal, I found a little party of six or seven children assembled 
in the afternoon, to hear a chapter read, answer a few ques- 
tions upon it, and join in a short prayer. Making it as cheer- 
ful and unrestrained as possible, I found my little guests 
greatly pleased ; and on the next Sabbath my party was 
doubled, solely through the favourable report spread by them* 
One had asked me, * Please, Ma'am, may I bring my little 
sister V and on the reply being given * You may bring any 
body and every body you like,' a general beatmg up for re- 
cruits followed. In three or four weeks my assemblage 
amounted to sixty, only one half of whom could be crowded 
into the parlour of my small cottage. What was to be done ? 
The work was rather arduous, but as I too had been com- 
plaining not long before of having little to do for the' Lord* 
except with the pen, I resolved to brave a little extra labour. 
i desired the girls to come at four, the boys at six, and al- 
lowing an interval of half an hour between, we got through 
it very well. A k>ng table was set across the room, from 
corner to corner ; round this they were seated, each with a 
Bible, I being at the head of the table. I found this easy 
and sociable way of proceeding highly gratified the children: 
they never called, never thought it a school — they came 
bustling m with looks of great glee, particulary the boys, 
and greeted me with the affectionate freedom of young 
friends. > .A few words of introductory prayer were followed 
by the reading of one or more chapters, so that each had a 
verse or two ; and then we talked over the portion of scrip- 
ure very closdyt mutaally questioning each other. Many 
of the girls were as old as sixteen or seventeen, beaOitiful 
creatures, and very well-dressed : and what a privilege it was 
80 to gather and so to arm them in a place where alas ! in- 
u.merable snares beset their path We concluded with a 
hymn; and long before the half-hour had expired that pre- 
ceded the boy's entrance, they were clustering like bees at 



BOTs. 243 

the gate, impatient for the joyous rush ; and to seat them- 
selves round their dear table, with all that free confideDce 
without which I never could succeed in really commanding 
the attention of boys. 

Our choice of chapters was peculiar. I found they wanted 
stirring subjects, and I gave them Gideon, Samson, Jona<» 
than, Nehemiah, Boaz, Mordecai, Daniel^ all the most man- 
ly characters of Old Testament history, with the rich gospel 
that lies wrapped in every page of that precious volume. 
Even in the New Testament I found that individualizing as 
much as possible the speaker or the narrative produced great 
efieets. Our blessed Lord himself, John Baptist, Paul— - 
all were brought before them as vividly as possible ; and I 
can assure those who try to teach boys as they would teach 
girls, that they are pursuing a wrong method. Mine have 
often coaxed an extra hour from. me ; and I never once saw 
them willing to go, during the fifleen months of our happy 
meetings. If the least symptom of unruliness appeared, I 
had only to tell them they were my guests, and I appealed 
to their feelings of manliness, whether a lady had not some 
claim to forbearance and respect. Nothing rights a boy of 
ten or twelve years like putting hira on hie manhood ; and 
really my little ladii became gentlemen in mind and manners, 
while, blessed be God ! not a few became, I trust, wise unto 
salvation. Their greatest temptation to disorderly doings 
was in the laughable, authoritative style of Jack's superin- 
tendence. He was now rapidly fading, but in mind bright- 
er than ever. Seated in a large chiir, a little to the rear of 
me, he kept strict watch over the party, and any deviation 
from what he considered correct conduct was noticed with 
a threat of punishment, conveyed by pinching his own ear, 
slapping his own face, kicking out his foot, and similar id- 
dications of chastisement, with a knowing nod. at the offend-' 
er. But if he saw an approach to levity over the word of 
6od« his manner wholly changed. Tears filled his eyes, he 



244 A N E V £ N T . 

looked all grief ^nd entreaty, and the words, ' God see,' 
were earjiestly spelled on. his uplifted hands. No one. 
could stand the appeal ; and very rarely had he occasion to 
make it. I am sure his prayers helped forward the work 
mightily. It was wonderful to see thirty-two robust^ bois- 
terous fellows, from nine to seventeen years old, sitting in 
perfect delight and perfect order, for two and even three 
hours, on a fine Sunday evening, never looking dissatisfied 
till they were told to go. 

I cannot help recording an event on Which I look back 
with great thankfulness : though it was a terrible trial to 
me at the time. Two of my. boys had a quarrel one week« 
day« One of them was very teasing, the other very pas- 
sionate. The latter rail to a butcher's^ window close by, 
seized the large knifOf^ and plunged it into the left side of 
his companion. Most mercifully the wound was not dan- 
gerous : the keennesf of the knife was in his ftvour ; it 
penetrated to within a short distance of the heatti but sepa- 
rated no large vein, and within a few days the hqj was out 
again. The Sunday after it occurred my party were ex- 
ceedingly moved.; they expressed great anger, and not a 
few threats were uttered against the culprit, whose parents 
had locked him up. On the following Sabbath I resolved 
to make an effort to avert bad consequences, and also to at- 
test the pOQr boy in his dangerous course. He had rather 
justified himself, than otherwise, and had shown a spirit 
sadly unsubdued, and unthankful for his escape from a 
deadly crime and its awful consequences. I sent word to 
him to come to my party : he replied be would not. I 
repeated the summons, saying I should* be exceedingly 
hurt if he did not. ^o answer was returned. The place 
next but one to me belonged to the wounded boy, that be- 
low it to his assailant; and the former was present, pale, 
indeed, but well. I lost no time in announcing to them 
that I expected F^^ which occasioned a burst of indigna- 



FORGIVENESS. 245 

tioiiY some saying they would not stay in the room with 
him, and the rest seeming to. assent. 'Then,' said I, ^you 
must go, for he wants instruction most : and the very feel- 
ing that makes you shrink froni associating with him proyes 
that you are better taught. So if you will leave me, do ; 
I must admit him.'. Just then P. was seen coming down 
the little garden : he entered, his walk very erect, his eyes un- 
flinching, and his dark brows knitted. The looks of my 
young lads were very eloquent ; his bold bearing exaspe- 
rated them much. My heart seemed bursting its boundary 
with the violent palpitation of alarm, and other emotions 
which I could scarcely suppress ; but I motioned to P. to 
take his usual place, and instantly rising offered up the 
usual prayer, with a petition for the spirit of mutual com- 
passion, forgiveness, and love« I -ceased^, all remained 
standings and certainly it was a period of most fearful inter- 
est. I looked imploringly at the wounded boy ; he hesita- 
ted a" moDieDt, then suddenly turned, aiid with an air of 
noble frtnliDess, held out his hand to P., who took it di- 
rectly« I then offered him mine ; he grasped it, and burst 
into tears. A delightful scene followed, each pressing to 
seal his forgiveness in the same manner* while Jack's coun- 
tenance shone, with almost heavenly beauty on a spectacle 
so codgenial to his loving heart. We had a most happy 
evening, and I could not but tell my dear boys how ahich 
I rejoiced over them; Whatever may have been the efieet 
on the charactera of those concernedt I know not. I am 
persuaded the proceeding was a means of averting much 
mischief. Boys are noble creatures when placed on their 
right footing ; but I always think there is a great deal too 
much of what is technically termed old womanism in the 
mode of conducting their scriptural education. They are 
pugnacious animals too, and require prudent management. 
News was brought me one evening, while they waited for 
admission, that two of them had stripped off their jackets to 

21* 



246 EMPLOY MENT. 

fight, the dispute being which loved their teacher most. 
* £xclude them both to-night,' said a friend, * and threaten 
to expel them.' Instead of which I sent word that the one 
who first put oa his jacket loved me most, and that I was 
madj to begin. In they both came, smiling, and they got 
their lecture in due time, when a passage in point came 
before us. . 

Now, who complains of non-employment while England 
has so many neglected lambs of her fold together, and so 
many who, in the dull routine of a school, get only a me- 
chanical knowledge of what would deeply interest them- if 
brought before them with the help of a little personal con- 
descension and care ? It is a branch of Christian, duty for 
which all aro competent whp know the gospel ; and tw6, 
three, or four young people invited to come in for ao hour 
or so at stated times, to sit down at a table and talk over 
the passages of scripture which may appear best calculated 
to engage their pleased attention, may often prove the foun- 
dation for a noble work. It is particularly needed now, 
when information is universally sought after ; and be it re- 
membered, I am also speaking of a class above the very 
poor. They are a most important class, as we shall soon 
find ; for from them are the Chartist bodies ofiicered, and^ 
active agents supplied in works of infinite mischief. - False 
pride will interpose, no doubt. We like better to deal with 
those a good way removed, than with such as may claird' a 
comparative approximation to our own rank ; and the devil 
desires no better auxiliary to his deisigns than the - pride of 
which he is the loving father. Again, ladies do not like 
to instruct boys : they are very wrong. Female influence 
is a. powerful thing, and freely exerted for evil — why not 
for good? We brought all the sin into the world, involving 
roan in the ruin he was not the first to seek ; and it is the 
least we can do to offer him a little good now. I never 
yet ipet with a boy — and thanks be to God I have taught 



PRBJ0DICB8. 247 

many — who would be rude to a female earnestly and kind- 
ly seeking his welfare, without attempting to crush that in- 
dependence of spirit which is man's prerogative, and which 
no woman has a right to crush. 

I need not say that in the foregoing, and in all.simHar. 
works where the Lord permitted me to engage, I liaboured 
diligently to inake my young friends something more than 
nominal Protestants. To omit this, in giving instruction, is 
the very madness of inconsistent folly and cruelty. 

A few weeks afler the commencement of my weeklj^ as- 
semblages, I was called to the metropolis in search of med- 
ical aid for a dear little child of my brother*s. . I found it, 
and all that Christian kindness could add to render it doubly 
valuable, at the hands of an estimable physician near whom 
1 resolved to stay for a few weeks ; and while secretly la- 
menting that here, at least, I should find nothing to do, an 
answer was given to my unbelief that might well shame it 
To the same end, I will record this also, the circumstances 
being already well known, but not the delightful encourage- 
ments that are afforded when a project is entered upon in 
single, simple reliance on the help of Him for whose glory 
his people desire to work. Unbelief in his willingness,-— 
for we dare not doubt his power to prosper our poor at- 
tempts, — is the real bar to our success. Such mistrust is 
infinitely dishonouring to him. 

Six years had elapsed since I left Ireland, but my affec- 
tion for the country and people was unchanged, unchange- 
able. The very centre of the isle had become the grave of 
my beloved brother, and this only added tenfold to the touch- 
ing interest excited by the very mention of that land. Strange 
to say, I had never heard of the Irish Society, nor considered 
of what v€U3t importance it would be to make the language 
of the natives a medium of conveying spiritual instruction to 
them. The annual meeting was about to be held, and among 
the Irish clergymen forming the deputation to London, was 



248 THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 

the Rev. Charles Seymour, the venerable, and every way 
estimable pastor under whose ministry my brother had. been 
placed at Castlebar, and iroc^ whom I had received letters* 
fully confirmatory of my sanguine hope, that he had indeed 
and wholly embraced the gospel of Christ Longing to see 
Mr. Seymour, I went to him on the morning of the meeting ; 
and most sweet was the testimony he had to give ; most tender, 
the sympathy he evinced in all my sorrow and all my gladness* 
After aconversation that left me overflowing with gratitude for 
the blessings vouchsafed to my precious brother^he asked me 
to attend the meeting, and I went prepared to take a lively 
interest in whatever might be said respecting Ireland. How' 
great was my astonishment when, for the first time, I beard 
the story of Bishop Bedell, of the Irish Bible, and of the gppd 
work in rapid progress among the aborigines of the land^ 
The extent and inveteracy of the disease, I well knew ; but 
the suitability of the remedy had never been set befoi;e 

■'. mer. In fact, I hardly knew that the Irish was a writ- 
ten language ; and strange it seemed to iiave passed three « 

' years in a part of the country where it is extensively spoken* 
apd in the house of one who always conversed in that tongue 
with the rustic frequenters of her shop, yet to be so grossly 
ignorant of all relating to it. I resolved to become an active 
partizan of the Irish Society in Ireland ; but a different tum 
was soon given to my sympathies. Mr. Seymour spoke 
after the others : he said much calculated to prove the power 
of the language in preaching the gospel ; but suddenly re» 
verting to the state of the many thousands of his poor coun- 
trymen congregated in London, he drew a most affecting 
picture of their destitute, degraded conditioa. He appealed 
to us as Christians ; and reminding us of our many privileges^ 
bade us take care that the souls of his poor countrymen did 
not rise up in judgment to condemn us for allowing them to 
perish in the heart of our metropolis. ' Open*' he said, ^ a 
bread-shop in St. (Silea's i deal forth a little of the bread of 



ST. GILES. 249 

life to their starving souls. Te English Christians, I appeal 
to you for them : oh, pity my poor lost countrymen, open 
but a bread-shop in St. Giles's !' T<ears ran down his ven- 
erable face, as he lifted his clasped hands, and bent towards 
us. The effect of his words On me was electric : I looked 
«t him, and silently but fervently said, ^ So God help me as I 
will open you a bread-shop in St. Giles's, if He does but 
peunit ! ' Again and again did I repeat the pledge ; and 
when Lord Roden spoke, — the first time of my seeing that 
noble Irishman, — and heartily seconded the appeal, I re- 
newed the secret promise, with such purpose of heart as 
rarely fails to accomplish its object. 

][>'or some days I tried in vain to do anything towards it ; 
but on the Sunday, passing from Great Russell-street to 
Jiong-acre, through the worst part of St. Giles's, I saw the 
•awful state of that district, and declared to my companion' 
himself a devoted Irishman, my fixed resolve to hav6 a 
church there. He warmly encouraged it, extravagant as 
the idea appeared ; and I began to pray earnestly for direc- 
tion from above. Two nights after, a thought struck m<e ; 
I wrote an appeal on behalf of the miserable Irish Papists in 
that place, likening their case among us to that of Lazama 
lying at the rich man*s gate, and imploring means to give 
them the gospel in their own tongue. This I had printed, 
and sent copies as I could to various friends. Some smiled 
at my enthusiasm ; others pointed out the work among distant 
heathens, as far more important. Many wished me success ; 
a few rebuked me for desiring to proselytize the members of 
another church ; and still fewer gave me money. At the 
end of a fortnight's hard begging I had got just seveii pounds 
towards building a church! This was slow work. One 
day, dining at the table of my dear friend Dr. P., he heard 
many bantering me ibr being so sanguine, and said, * You 
■A'emind me of Columbus, going to the cathedral of Seville to 
ask a blessing on his romantic project of discovering a n6w 



250 A PROJECT. 

world. Fverybody laughed at me. Nevertheless, Colum- 
bus succeeded, and so will you,^ At that moment a gentle- 
man sitting next me laid a sovereign on my piece of bread ; 
and the coincidence the gold and the ' bread-shop,' combined 
with the doctor's confident prediction, put new life into me, 
I boldly said, ' I will succeed.' 

With the sum of seven pounds in hand, I wrote ta the 
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, begging him to ask the 
Bishop of London if he would license my Irish church anil 
an Irish clergyman, if I provided, both. Lord MountBaod- 
ford took this letter to him ; and the next day he breqgbt 
me this rather startling message : — ^ The Bishop of London 
will license your church : Lichfield sends his love to you, 
and desires you will summon the gentlemen who are assistr 
ing you in this undertaking, — half a dozen or so, — r to loeet 
him in Sackville-street on Saturday next, and be there your* 
self. He will ^ee what can be done to forward it.' Haifa 
dozen gentlemen ! where was I to find them ? My only help- 
ers were Mr. Maxwell, Dr. Pidduckt and Lord Moui^tsand- 
ford himself. However, I went to work, praying incessantly, 
and solacing myself with that beatttifid text, *' Go up to the 
mountain and bring wood and bmld the house, and I will 
take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.'* 
I suppose I repeated that verse a hundred times a day,, in my 
solitude, attending the sick child, and writing letters till I 
nearly fell from my seat with exhaustion. . 

Saturday arrived : I had no idea how far my applications 
might have succeeded ; but if I had as many gentlemen 
there as pounds in my ti:easury, namely, seven,, it would be 
sufiicient. I went trembling with hope and fear, accom« 
panied by two wi^'Oi-hearted young Irish barristers whom my 
good friend Mr* Maxwell had pressed into the service. Oh 
what could I render unto the Lord for all his goodness to 
me, when I saw the glorious spectacle presented to my view 
at the hour appointed ! There sat the good Bishop Ryder 



THE IRISH CHURCH. 251 

in the chair ; beside bim the Bishop of Bath and Wells ; 
Lords Lofton, Lifbrd, Bexley, Mountsandford, and Car- 
berry ; and of other clergymen and gentlemen upwards of 
forty* * Let us ask a blessing,' said the Bishop of Lichfield ; 
and when we all kneeled down to commit unto the Lord a 
work so new, so stradgct and to poor human reason so hope- 
lessly wild as this had appeared two days before, I thought 
I might as well die then as not ; I could never die happier. 
All was zeal, love, unaniinity ; they p||ced it on a good 
basis, and my seven pounds were multiplied by more than 
seven before we broke up. They did not take the work out 
of my hands, but formed themselves into a body for aiding in 
carrying it on : the rector of St. Giles's came forward volun- 
tarily .to give his hearty consent, and ten pounds; and if 
there was a pillow of roses in London that night, I surely 
slept on it In six weeks my memorable seven pounds 
swelled to thirteen hundred ; a church was bought, a pastor 
engaged ; and a noble meeting held in Freemason's Hall, 
to incorporate the new project with the Irish Society. I went 
back to Sandhurst elated with joy, and lost no time in putting 
up, most conspicuously written out on card, over my study 
fire-place, the lines that I bad so oflen repeated during the 
preceding two months ; 

Victorious Faith the promise sees 

And looks to God aione ; 
Laughs at impossibilities 

And says, ' It shall be domk.' 

I 

In the following November the Irish Episcopal church in 
St. Giles's was opened for divine service on Advent Sunday, 
the Rev. H. H. Beamish officiating. A more eloquent and 
fluent preacher, a more gifted and devoted man, the whole 
church of God could not have supplied. He preached the 
whole gospel in Irish to the listening, wondering people, who 
hung with delight upon accents so dear to them ; and he 



252 MR. U0WEL8. 

attacked their pestilent heresies with the hold faithiulness of 
one who meant what he said, when vowing to drive away all 
erroneous and strange doctrines from those under his charge. 
God blessed most richly his ministry : many were awakened, 
several truly converted to Christ, and not a small number 
fully convinced of the falsehood of their own superstition, 
which they forsook. We had forty communicants from 
among the most wretchedly ignorant and bigotted of the Irish 
Romanists, before Mr. Beamish left his post : and one of 
them had even endured a cruel martyrdom for the truth's 
sake. A bread-shop indeed it was : and the old Christian, 
whose fervent appeal had given rise to its establishment, 
himself preached there in Irish to a delighted congregation, 
before the Lord took him to Himself. 

I must, however, go back to the period of my sojourn in 
London, to mention some other matters. Two especial 
blessings I obtained there: the ministry of Mr. Howels, and 
the friendship of one whom you well know by character as 
portrayed under the type of the hearts-ease in the Chapters 
on Flowers — Mr. Donald. The two blessings were indeed 
one ; for never were hearts more closely knit in brotherly 
love, than those of Howels and Donald, now together before 
the throne of the Lamb. I cannot set forth what I owe to 
my pastor at Long Acre, in the way of strengthening my 
faith against the perilous delusions of Irvingism, which were 
continually seeking to enwrap me, but which, by God's 
grace, I had been enabled to resist, at the commencement, 
by an appeal to my Bible alone : I must enter more fully 
upon that presently. The most valuable lesson, however* 
which I learned from Mr. Howels was, speaking out. Up 
to that time I had been very cautious, and refrained from 
touching on controversy, persuaded that to oppose error 
openly and directly, was an unsafe proceeding. I had at- 
tacked it covertly, rather by setting forth the light than by 
noticing the darkness, at least in my writings, and in speak- 



SPEAKING OUT. 253 

ing to the Romanists ; but now I began to feel that to ''con- 
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints " 
must necessarily include an open denunciation of the errors 
which subverted that faith. Mr. Howels was peculiarly 
bold and direct in his manner of preaching down heresy, in 
whatsoever form it lifled up its head ; nor did he at all flinch 
from warning individuals. Contrary to the usual plan of 
gently insinuating what he intended to convey, he left no 
possibility of mistaking his meaning. I was greatly aston* 
ished, when, on the very first day of my attendance at Long 
Acre, he abruptly said from the pulpit, ' I am accused of 
dealing two severely with individuals: they say I struck 
Irving too hard. I strike Irving ! No, he struck himself, 
I did not strike him ; who would strike a suicide V He 
proceeded to exhibit the suicidal effects of those doctrines 
which Mr. Irving was then beginning to proclaim ; and 
so completely was my attention rivetted by the undisguised 
personality with which he had commenced, that it was to me 
as the regular discussion of a particular case, inst«id of being 
lost in the generalizing effect of what might apply to almost 
any thing. In like manner he dealt with Popery and with 
Socinianism, calling them by these their proper names, and 
specifying distinctly any man, living or dead, whose partic- 
ular errors he was assailing. I found this manner of in 
structing most effectual: all that he said became, as it were, 
so classed in the memory, that each sentence was made 
available in the precise department to which it belonged. 
Through the goodness of God in teaching me out of his 
own blessed word, I had learned those truths which my 
pastor set forth ; and there was no mistaken view, as I re- 
member, on my part, to be rectified by his instructions. I 
went along with him fully, cordially, in all things save one, — 
the Second Advent, — but incalculably did he strengthen me 
on points where before I indeed stood, but where now I felt 
that I stood fast ; and I soon learned that to possess 4he 

22 



264 C OK TRO V ERST* 

weapons of a warfare into which the church was entering 
was not enough : they must be openly used. His very plain 
speaking, which shocked some fastidious tastes, showed me 
how much we lose by<iilutiog our native Saxon : and I re* 
solved by God's grace to make a better use in future* of my 
mother-tongue. 

In warning my young Sabbath party against Popery* I had 
been used to say * There are some mistaken people who wUl 
pay honour to those which are no gods : doing superstitious 
things,' and so forth, describing the observances of the Rom- 
ish system. Now, I at once addressed them without circumlo- 
cution * Papists, who are by some foolishly and falsely called 
CathoIics,are taught by their priests the most idolatrous, anti- 
christian things possible ;' and then proceeded to show those 
things. This had the effect I had expected ; it embodied 
an idea otherwise vague and indistinct ; and ensured their 
remembering the particular errors when they should meet 
with the party named. To the Romanist himself I learned 
to be equally explicit, not merely combating idolatry as .be- 
fore, by dwelling on the command to worship God alone, biit 
at once branding as idolatrous specific acts habitually com- 
mitted by those of his communion ; and showing at one 
view the actual sin with the divine prohibition of it. This 
is controversy ; and so long as the world lieth in wicked- 
ness the church mutt be a controversial body : this is pro- 
selytizing ; and so long as men are to be turned from dark- 
ness to light, we'must proselytize. At the outset of my ef- 
forts for an Irish church in St Giles's it was objected by one 
or two friendSf * You want to make proselytes.' I answered, 
' No ; we only want to preach the Gospel.' A very few 
Sundays at Long Acre however changed my tone ; and 
thenceforth the reply was, * To be sure we do ; of what avail 
will the preaching of Christ be, if it does not overthrow the 
dominion of Antichrist V At a subsequent period, an Irish 
reader of mine asked me, 'Ma'am, do you forbid me to 



aPEAKl^M-G OUT. 255 

speak controversially V. ^ Certainly not : show the people 
their errors, as set forth by the Holy Spirit for that very pur- 
pose of convincing them of the sin.' * I ^p thankful to hear 
you say that, Ma'am. Some of the gentlemen charge me 
never to engage in controversy, but how can I help it ? 
When I was a Papist, I read the Bible because it was the 
only book in Irish that I could well teach my pupils out of; 
and i did it without being at all unsettled in my false religion* 
until I was teaching Miss ,and she stopped me when« 
ever we came to a strong passage against idolatry and the 
like, sayuig, * Now, Mr. ■ ■ how do you reconcile that 
with your religion V I was very mad at her, and strove to 
forget it; but I could not get the words out of the Bible, and' 
they troubled my conscience, till at last I took to compar- 
ing Popery with what she had told me was l¥ritteD to warn 
me out of it : and by God's blessing out I came.' Another 
said, * I might have read fifty times over, ** The blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanse th from all sin," and not objected to it, 
and still remained a Papist ; but a Protestant pointed it out, 
and said, '* If the bhod of Christ cleanseth from all sin, 
what are your works, your penances, your expiatory masses 
good for ? And if the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
sin, what more has purgatory to do for the soul ? And if 
there be no purgatory, what becomes of the iniallibiUty of 
your church 1 And if your church be not infallible, what 
leg have' you got to stand upon]" I felt, continued the 
narrator, ' as if the ground was cleaving under my feet ; and 
firom^iat time I never rested till I had come to Christ for 
the blood of sprinkling, and cast my idols to the moles and 
the bats.' So much for controversy. 

I have noticed that I did not go with Mr. Howels on the 
subject of the Second Advent : I could not. In fact, I was a 
millennarian against my will. The three particulars on which 
I did not 'believe myself to be convinced were, the vengeful 
dispensation against the Lord's enemies preparatory to the 




i 



JUDGMENT AND M£RCT« 

thousaDd years of blessedness ; the literal nature of the first, 
plpemillennial resurrecjtion : and the personal reign. With 
tegtrd to the first, I wished to believe that the gospel would 
be universally victorious, subduing every heart, and bringing 
the whole world in peaceful submission to acknowledge the 
Lord as King. I had once, as before stated, been startled 
by a reference to the sixty-third of Isaiah, and lulled to sleep 
again by the far*fetcbed comments of good Matthew Heniy: 
and I confess I had taken up the missionary cause on the 
gratuitous assumption that we were to convert e^ery body, 
and could not agree to a less extensive triumph. Well ; I 
^did not choose to bring this to. the test of Scripture, because 
M did not wish to be undeceived ; but just aAer the Irish 
meeting, one -w^ held in reference to the Jews, at which I 
ms present ; ibd forth stepped my valued friend M'Neile, 
whom I had ooV seen for a year, and with his little bible in 
his hand preached the obnoxious doctrine, to my infinite 
annoyance and conviction 1 He took up my precise objec- 
tion without knowing it ; he spoke of those who could not 
see that a part of God's mercy yfdishia judgment ; and with 
that glowing ardour tempered with deep solemnity, that al- 
ways gives him so much of the prophetic characteristic, if I 
may so speak, he read from the cxxxvi. Psalm, '^ To Him 
(hat smote Egypt in their first-born ; for his merct endureth 
for ever.^^ " To him which smote great kings, for his 
MERCT endureth for ever : And slew famous kipgs, /or his 
MERCY endureth for ever," This was the key-note of a strain 
that I deeply felt resounded through the whole seizure, 
though I had refused to heed it ; and then he turned to the 
Ixi. of Isaiah, and read the first and part of the second verse, 
as quoted by our blessed Lord in the iv. of St. John, to 
where he shut the book, saying, ^' this day is this scripture 
fulfilled in your ears.^ But did the scripture end here I 
Np: the first advent fulfilled so much of it ; and Ho who 
then proclaimed '* the acceptable year of the Lord,V should * 
it has second coming proceed with that unfinished scripture 



BCRIPTI^RX. 267 

** The day of vengeance of our God." And go on tbence 
" To comfort all that mourn : to appoint unto them that 
mourn in ZiojD," — and so the whole beautiful picture of mil- 
leonial gladness and glory on which Isaiah expatiates rose 
before me, as consequent upon that '*day of vengeancet" 
which Christ has not yet in person pro<:laimed. How angry 
I felt with that dauntless champion of God's whole truth, 
for trampling upon my darling prejudices ! nevertheless he 
had done it ; and thenceforth I opened my mind to drink in 
the pure simple meaning of the literal promise. 

The first resurrection I considered to be a reaurrectioii 
of the souls of the martyrs, whose spirits were to animate 
the happy race of believers during a thousand years. I 
confess some things puzzled me sorely in this interpretation : 
for instance, how could a soul he buried ; and if not buried 
how did it rise ? Again* those souls were under an altar in 
heaven, waiting for the completion of their company by 
n^eans of a new persecution on earth, and it seemed rather a 
heathenish doctrine to transmigrate them into other bodies; 
more, especially as their own bodies would need them again. 
Besides, they were with Christ personally in heaven ; and 
to be without Christ, personally on earth, was by no means 
an additional privilege. I found the thing untenable, and 
resolved to consider it as wholly figurative ; but if so, then 
the final judgment, described also in that chapter, might be 
figurative too. I could not look my own inferences in the 
face ; so I wished to let the subject alone ; but then a bless- 
ing was distinctly, pronounced on such as should read or 
hear the words of that prophecy ; and I did not like to lose 
a blessing. 

Thus the matter stood : I had rigidly forborne to read 
any book, pro or con, or to be talked to about it« One day, 
when the subject forced itself on me, I resolved to strength- 
en myself against the modem view (as I wisely supposed 
it) by prayerfully reading again what I ahready so well 

22* 



258 THERESURRECnOlf* 

kaew — the xv. chapter of 1 Corinthiaiui. I did sos aoiil; 
was suddenly struck by a recollection of the passage ivi||||j||^j;- ' 
the ** raying'' is written ^ Death is swallowed up in iMi||i^'' 
ry." I turned to Isaiah xxr., read it, and found it. unequi- 
vocally a description of the church's blessedness on earth 

the millennium — at the outset of which the saying is written 
which " i^hall come to pass " when Christ's people rise from* 
the dead. But will not all rise then 1 I went over the 
apostle's description once more, and found no woKhtj^f We 
resurrection unto condemnation. The corruptibfe-'-'dJen 
raised would all put on incorruption ; the weakness^ pow- 
er ; the mortal, immortality ; having borne the image of 
the earthy, they were to bear the image of the heavebly. 
I was quite overpowered ^-u could I' reply against God? 
The passage that I thought so formidable on my side failed 
me — " Afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. 
Then cometh the end." But an interval of a thousand 
years might surely precede. that *' Then," since more than 
eighteen hundred have steady intervened since >^ the ac- 
ceptible year of the Lord," and we 'have not yet ^seen '* the 
day of vengeance of our God," though only a comma sepa- 
rates them in the Bible. From this starting point I ex- 
plored the scriptures in reference to a literal . resurrection 
of Christ's people, at a literal coming previous to the thou- 
sand years of Satan's binding and- the peace of the church. 
I saw it clearly : I recived it fully : and I hold it firmly at 
this day. 

On the continued personal presence of the Lord Jesus 
during that period I was much longer undecided ; but I re- 
ceived it gradually as necessary to the harmonious comple- 
tion of the whole. I shall have occasion to mention it again. 
Whenever Mr. Howels took up this subject of the Second 
Advent, I was more than willing to be convinced, or rather 
unconvinced by him ; but I could not. He dways lost his 
temper, talked of sending the millennarians to a lunatic asy- 



HILL B51I ARI AJf 18M. 209 

' Jhnn ; but never showed cause for their, commitment to such 
^fftfe. custody. Donald was byiio means favourable to the 
iTiewa, and once asked me ' Why do you hold thi9 mistaken 
opinion V I answered, playfully, ' Becaeuse it is the only 
subject on which Howels talks nonsisnce.' He shook his 
head; and said, * I candidly tell you, I wish he would let it 
alone.' He did not, however, let it alone ; and had he been 
spared to us to this day, he would, I doubt not, have been 
found among its most powerful proclaimers. 

It has oflen struck me what efforts the enemy has made 
to stifle this doctrine. The check given by Irvingism was 
Very great, aud though it did not lead me to question what 
I found in my Bible, it made me very cautions in receiving, 
very backward in declaring, any farther light on the subject. 
Two years later, a valuable Christian clergyman who had re- 
ceived, and alas ! still holds those d^ludi^g errors, when la- 
menting my awful pertinacity in resijsting them, and warning 
me of my supposed sin, added, * Nevertheless I have hope 
of you my sister. You believe in the second advent : you 
will be saved by your faith in a glorified Saviour.' To which 
I answered, ' I will not. I will be saved by my faith in a 
crucified Saviour. I believe in his glorious, pre-millennial 
coming, but it is his cross, not his crown, that saves my. 
soul.' This w'as considered the climax of heresy, and I was 
given over as lost. 

But shall the abuse of a sublime truth by the great enemy 
lead us to reject it? As well may we blot out the ninety- 
first Psalm, because the devil quoted it, and for a truly dev- 
ilish purpose. No ; he Nknows that (he shedding forth of, 
greater light on this important branch <of Christian knowledge ' 
is one of the signs of Christ's actual coming ; a token that 
his own time is short ; therefore he endeavours to stifle it ; 
and ere long he will bring us false Christs, to deceive if it 
were possible, the very elect. We have need to be found 
watching! 



960 THE SNARt. 



LETTER XV. 



DABKNSSfl AND LIGHT. 

I WI9H to bring into one view the subject with which I do* 
sed my last ; partly because the way of my escape from that 
snare was so similar to my preservation from Popery ; and 
partly because I doubt not that the great truth of the; second 
advent will again be mixed up with the same, or with other 
deluding doctrines. , We are remarkably warned by our 
Lord of the '^ snare " that shall be spread, the temptation 
that Cometh upon the whole earth, from which liis people 
will be kept ; and as we have no right or warrant to loek for 
any farther revelation than we already have, it becomes 
deeply important to appreciate the sufficiency of that for the 
coming hour of trial. 

The first thing that aroused my attention to the new 
doctrines of Mr. Irving, was the singular case of Miss Fan- 
court. Had it been a person unknown to me, I might have 
thought lessabout it ; but I knew her, and her family ; , and 
I was and am perfectly certain that the least attempt at de- 
ception was never practiced, never thought of by them. A 
sweet, patient,, suffering child of God, guileless as a babe, 
and whose bodily afflction had moved my tenderest sympa- 
thy as I sat beside her couch, of pain ; the intdligence of 
her instantaneous recovery, of her having walked from 



••'■ 



TIfE TONGUES. ' 261 

father's house at Hoxtoa to that of my hospitable friead Mr. 
Hawtrey, in Hackney, aad back, with my intimate knowledge 
alike of the lodalities and the individuals concerned, came 
upon tne with a reality the most overwhelming. I certainly 
held it to have been a miraculous answer to faithful prayer ; 
and I was strongly predisposed by it to receive whatever 
might be placed before me on the same basis. 

Just then, within two or three days afterwards, a lady to 
whom I looked up as a most enlightened, zealous Chris- 
tian, wrote me a glowing letter, enclosing two little pamph- 
lets or rather tracts, on the subject of miraculous gifts in 
the church, as set forth ib the xiv. chapter, 1 Corinthians, 
which was quoted in full. She also gave me an account of 
the ^ tongues,' and exhorted me to pray for miraculous gifts, 
and to devote my pen immediately and wholly to this great 
cause, dhe added that her parents were violently opposed, 
but she hoped to obtain the * gifts' herself, a<id by that 
means to silence all. I was confounded : I read the tracts, 
and all the scriptures pointed out in them ais confirmatory of 
the view taken, and which certainly made out a strong case ; 
but J felt too that a reference to single texts would not suf- 
fice ; I bad always read the Bible as^ a continuous, book, 
not as a collection of scraps ; and even the division into 
chapter and verse annoyed me. I considered that if a man 
sent me a letter on business of importance I should never 
be content to lx>ok at a sentence here and another there, in 
order to arrive at his full meaning) t)ut should read the whole ; 
much less would detached verses, called texts, selected from 
letters of the Apostles, indited by the Holy Ghost, rightly 
inform me as to the mind of the Spirit. Accordingly I that 
night took the New^ Testament up, kneeled^ and fervently, 
most fervently prayed to be guided to all truth, kept from, 
presumptuous sin, and led to glorify Grod by humbly re- 
ceiving whatever Jie was pleased to reveal. I then seated 
myself on the side of my bed, and read the whole of the New 



262 TBS T0.UCH8TONft. 

Testament from the first chapter of Matthew to the Epistle 
of Jude, and .the first seven chapters of the Revelation ; 
finishing that book on the morrow. 

The result was finch as to make me decidedly reject the 
new pretensions, i cannot go over the subject here, it would 
be a treatise in itself; and my object is to recommend to 
you and others the same process, that each may have his 
own convictions based on the word of God, and not on the 
convictions of a fellow mortal. I was quite sure that if such 
an important change was to take place in the character of 
the dispensation, and women to become public teachers of 
men, I should find some express warrant for it; since God 
would never require us to believe a miracle not wrought ac* 
cording to his word. I found that signs and wonders in the 
last days were the predicted marks of what was not to be 
received or followed ; and I begap to regard- with jealous 
.suspicion this assumption ; resolved to watch most narrowly 
the doctrines they might preach. Miss Fancourt's case: 
Was argued at large in the Record newspaper ; and I soop 
came to the conclusion from which I have not swerved, that 
it was one of uervoust not organic disease ; and while as- 
cribing all glory to God as the hearer of her prayer and 
healer of her sickness, I believed that it had been accom- 
plished by the natural efiects, mercifully ordered by him, of 
a natural cause. In this etate of mind I remained, yfhea s 
letter from a friend in Scotland brought me someaccount 
of a meeting where be had heard Mr. Irving expound on the 
subject of our adorable Lord's human nature, and which, he 
said, perplexed him. He stated the outline, slightly ; but 
sufficiently to convince me that some great error lay beneath 
the sur&ce, and this rendered me the more thankful that I 
had not lightly admitted the claim to supernatural powers, 
Which, once acknowledged, would have given weight to any 
doctrine associated with them. 

A little time brought me better aequainted with the nature 



\-» 









IRVIHO'S HERESY. 263 

of this heresy, Shrouded as it was in much obscurity, and 
perplexed with many contradictions, so as to enable its un- 
happy propounder to deny in words what in substamie he 
strongly advanced, nothing could £^trip it of its blasphemous 
character. He maintained that the human nature in which 
our Divine Lord was pleased to become incarnate was not 
only the likeness of sinful fleshy but f)esh inherently sinful"; 
Ithat He was assailed by every evil passion and corrupt in- 
clination ; that his principal suffering consisted in the war- 
ring of this unholy, depraved nature against the pure spirit 
lodged within it; that His conquest over sin was the con- 
quest of bis own sinful propensities ; that the final triumph 
was the putting to death of this same wicked nature on the 
cross ; and that having thus overcome in his own person 
all vile dispositions, it remained for each of us to become 
equally holy, equally free from sin, and entitled to enter 
h^avoQ. I do not err in this description, for I took it from' 
the vile book in which Mr. Irving asserted the doctrine, and^ 
which with unspeakable horror T was cotnpelled to read, jh. 
order, when brought into daily Contact with his devoted fol- 
lowers, to maintain the cause of truth against their assaufts. 
A more atrocious outrage on the great mystery of our re- 
demption never was fabricated. Socinianism could desire 
no more than to see the Deity of Christ thus degraded. In- 
deed it is very remarkable what an anti-christian .character 
attaches to the whole device : for the heresy is worse than 
Arian, and the presumed miracles quite Popish. 

Great anxiety was shown to enlist me in this cause ; for 
my natural enthusiasm would have rendered rae a zealous 
adherent, and my pen devoted to its advocacy might have 
done good service. They wished to test the miracle-work- 
ing powers of their leader by causitig me to hear; and to 
prove the supernatural character of the utterances by mak- 
ing them audible to me previous to such cure. However, 
I had not in vain read the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, and 



264 SATANIC DEVICES. 

■ 

tlieir success in both iostances would have produced no 
other effect upon me than as God might have given me 
over to delusion in punishment for my presumptuous sin in 
seeking to any pther standard of truth than * the Ifiwand the 
tofitimony .' I was far from denying the prolml^iSQr ^ super- 
natural agency, for the doctrine was so truljr ^^mMEm^ that 
Satan might be likely enough to stfengdnen'll'vi^ such 
signs and wonders as he was permitted to i^Wt Jn order 
to try the faith of God's people : and I know of nothing that 
would sooner put me on_my guard against any new theory 
than seeing it backed^ by seeming miracles. That Satan 
can wprk miracles there is no doubt, and that he will yet do 
so we are plainly warned. He seems to withhold his hand 
now, in order to conceal the fact of his existence ; for the 
spirit of the age is infidelity, not superstition ; but there will 
be a snare provided for , each individual, according to. his 
natural disposition ; and the most devoutly disposed are they 
who have need to watch th^ most carefully against spiritual 
wickedness in high places. If man in his first state of 
obedience and happiness was the object of envy so deep 
and a plot so subtle and malignant as that which accom- 
plished the fall of Adam, what must be the feeling of the 
great enemy against man deUvered from his grasp,''and re- 
stored to God's favour, — what his eagerness to bar to every 
soul the entrance upon a brighter Eden than that from which 
our first parents were driven ! Believing as I do that the 
curse will be taken off, and earth become again the fair and 
fertile garden that it once was, and knowing that Satan 
surely reads prophecy with a more accurate eye than we can 
do, I cannot doubt his rage being fearfully increased as the 
appointed time draws on ; nor can I question that he will 
make a separate effort against every class, every individual 
in Christ's church, as ft last attempt to mar the triumphs of 
his Conqueror. We may well cling to the assurance that 
none of His sheep shall perish, neither be plucked from his 



P£R8UA,SIONS. 2G5 

jb^nd ; but it behooves us to be extremely wary« and to watoh 
against the idevices of Satan with redoubled vigilance. 

Such considerations prevented my giving heed tp any per- 
0uasioQ that sought to bring me into contact with the pro- 
fessors of Ir^ogiam. I had no difficulty in so domg for 
some tioie^vJ^M length I took up my abode in the house 
~ of a li^j .y^tjoin.l did not know to be a devoted follower of 
Mr. Irvi^. .H^e, was so warm-hearted, energetic, and sin- 
cere, that firmly believing the work to be of God, and that 
to oppose it i?as to blaspiieme the Holy Sp'u-it, she could not 
but be mos^ anxious to bring all whom she loved within the 
supposed ark of safety. She loved me ; and of course la- 
boured diligently to accomplish my conversion, gathering 
about me the most estimable and most acute of those "who 
•followed with her^ many of whom were also my personal 
friends. Finding > that my main argument was always the 
heretical character of the doctrine preached, rather than the 
nothingness of its supposed attestations, they assured me 
that Irving WAS belied ; that he never intended to convey 
any such imputation on our Lorcl's human nature ; and that 
if I would only attend his ministry I should find he preached 
quite a different thing. His book was removed out of my 
reachf as soon as I was found reading it ; but I provided 
myself with another copy, examined, analyzed, and noted 
down, the points of argument, and proved to demonstratioh, 
that whether or not he understood the full force of his own 
assertions, those assertions were precisely what we conceived 
them to 1)0, most unscriptural, most blasphemous. I averred 
it to be so, and was of course met by most indignant de- 
nials that a man so holy in mind, so unblemished in life, 
. could possibly be a blasphemer, or that persons living in 
daily prayer to Grod> earnestly desirous of being guided into 
all truth, should be suffered to go so far astray. To this I 
could only reply again, that what he was, or what (hey were, 
did not afiect the* question when the doctrine promulgated 

23 






266 CONFLICTS. 

was totally contrary to Scripture. *ls it not written, By . 
their fruits ye shall know them V * Yes ; and it is also writ- 
ten, Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.' 
Indeed, the argument most constantly hroiight against me - 
was the holy lives of the party ; but I coold match theqif 
not only among the blind pharisces and the scribes, of whoQiji^''^ 
our Lord said that they could not escape the damnatioaif^? ^ 
hel' ; not only among the dark devotees of Popery, and'AlLf^;^ 
blaspheming followers of Socinus, but among the heathoii^ ^ 
moralists who never so much as heard of a divine rev«Iatioii| * 
and who persecuted unto death, the early Christians. . In- 
deed it is not to be expected that such a master of delusion 
as he is who beguiled Eve by his subtlety, shodld seek to 
allure believers from the right way by means of any but per- 
sons of irreproachable character. Neither does it follow 
that the persons thus put forward to deceiye are themselves 
hypocrites ; some such there will be in every class profess- 
ing godliness, but I never suspected IVIr. Irving himself, nor 
any one personally known to me among that body, of pro- 
fessing anything they did not honestly b^elieve. 

Many a time did I sujSer grief far greater than I occa- 
sioned, when refusing to join my dear erring brethren in 
social worship. I knew some of them were in the habitof 
returning thanks to God the Father for imparting to the 
•Lord Jesus such abundance of the Holy Spirit's influence 
a9 kept him from sinning ; and I would sooner have died 
than have been found assenting, even by my presence, to 
any such fearful impiety. Accordingly I invariably refused 
to meet them otherwise than in the interchange of courtesy 
and kindness ; and whenever prayer was proposed I with- 
drew and prayed alone. To do this, cost me an- effort that 
would spoil a whole night's rest ; and once in particular, 
when a large party unexpectedly came In from hearing a 
sermon and sat down to supper, and afterwards took thieir 
Bibles to read and pray, I found it almost, too much for me 



A TERMINATION. ,- 267 

to rise to declare my reason for retiring, and af\er a most 
affectionate good night, to leave tbem ; for I loved them well, 
and it seemed a most presuming thing on my part ' I wept 
nearly all night afler it ; but how great was myjbankfulness 
OD bearing, at the distance of several years, that a very sweet 
r'lind pious young lady, a stranger to me, who was about to 
! resign herself wholly to their guidance at the sacrifice of 
.^/IBliiitduty, was so startled by my proceeding, that on return- 
.;;.. i^ghome she prayed for direction in a spirit of real willing- 
ness 4o b^ led of God ; and after reading attentively such 
pfirts of the Scriptures as had been most perverted to main* 
tain the c^use of error, she saW the snare, and withdrew. 
Who shall estimate the value of an open protest ! 

Finding that an effort was about to be made to introduce ' 
and spread the delusions in Irdand,the ardent temperament 
of whose children jsppeared so favourable to their reception, 
I published a pamphlet, 'A Letter to a Friend on some 
subjects that trouble the Church,^ in which I quoted Mr. 
Irving's own words, as published and re-published by him- 
self in elucidation of his real tenets^ This was an unpar- 
donable instance of hardened unbelief on my part; and it 
affected my friend so much that we agreed to part sooner 
than we had purposed. I look back with thankfulness to 
that time ; for it was greatly blessed to establishing me in 
the faith ; and during three months of daily discussiofi be* 
tween me and my zealous opponent, not one word had ever 
been uttered on either side, or. one look exchanged that was 
not even affectionately amicable. She was soon afterwards 
completely recovered out of the snare ; and we both recall 
our united sojourn with feelings of gratitude to Him who 
kept us still of one heart, evefi while we were not of one 
mind in the l;iouse. 

I should npt pause $o long on this part of my recollections, 
Sd I not apprehenda revival of the mischief in thp church, 
or something similar to it. The heretical doctrine will never 



268 A 8 U N 8 E T . 

be received except among semi-infidels^ but it 13 probable 
the * manifestations ' may be joined to some more elpecious 
form of anti-christianity ; still white we hold an unmutilated 
Bible, with the privilege of searching it throughout) and have 
access to the throne of grace, for mercy and for grace to 
help in time of need« we are safe in the using of those pre- 
cious privileges. May the Lord enable us so to do ! 

I have gone forward in ray sketch to avoid recurring to 
this subject ; and now I return to the period of my delivering 
up a sacred trust into the hands of Him who committed it 
to me. Jack had lingered long, and sunk very gradually ; 
but now he faded apace. His eldest sister, a very decided 
Romanist, came over for the purpose of seeing him, and 
to take care that he had * the rites of the church.' Had the 
Abb6 remained, it is probable we should have soon found 
ourselves deep in controversy ; for, as priest, he never 
should have crossed my threshold, to bring upon my bouse 
the curse attached to idolatrous worship ; and there was 
happily no other within reach. Jack requested me to pro- 
mise him in his sister's presence that no Romish priest should 
come near him ; I willingly did so ; and moreover informed 
her that if she was herself dying and asked for one, he would 
not be admitted und^r my roof. The abomination that 
maketh desolate stands in many places where it ought nol, 
but where I have authority it never did ; nor by God's grace 
ever shall. I have toleration full and free for every form of 
Christianity, but none for Antichrist, come in what form he 
may. 

It may be posi^ible to describe a glorious Summer sunset, 
with all the softening splendour that it sheds around ; but to 
describe the setting of my dumb boy's sun of mortal life is 
impossible. He declined like the orb of day, gently, silently, 
gradually, yet swiflly, and gathered new beauties as he ap* 
preached the horizon. His sufferings were great, but far 
greater his patience; and nothing Resembling a complaint 



RESIGNATION?. 269 

ever escaped bim. When appearing in the morning, with 
pallid, exhausted looks, if asked whether he had slept, he 
would reply, with a sweet smile, * No, Jack no sleep; Jack 
think good Jesus Christ see poor Jack. Night dark ; 
heave^ all light ; soon see heaven. Cough much now, pain 
bad ; soon no cough, no pain.' This was his Mi^ual way 
of admitting how much he suffered, always placing in con- 
trast the glory to be revealed^ in him, and which seemed al- 
ready revealed to him. Knowing that his recovery was im- 
possible, I refrained, with his full concurrence^ from having 
him tormented with miscalled alleviations, such as opiates, 
bloodletting, and so forth. All that kindness and skill could 
effect was gratuitously done for him, and every thing freely 
supplied by our medical friends ; but they admitted Ihat no 
permanent relief could be given, and I always hold it cruel 
to embitter the dying season with applications that in the end 
increase the sufferings they temporarily subdue. This plan 
kept the boy's mind clear and calm : the ever-present Saviour 
being to him instead of all soothing drugs. Sometimes 
when grektjy oppiressed, he has had leeches ; and I remem- 
ber once half-adozen were put on his!side, at his own re- 
quest. The inflatnmation was very great; the torture dread- 
ful as they drew it to the surface ; and I was called to him, 
as he sat grasping the arm of a chair, and writhing convul- 
sively. He said to me * Very, very pain ; pain bad, soon 
kill ;' and he seemed half wild with agony. Looking up in 
my face, he saw me in tears; and instantly assumed his 
sweetest expressfion of countenance, saying in ^ calm, lei- 
surely way^ that his pain was much, but the pain the Lord 
suffered much more: his was only in his side; the Lord 
suffered in his side, his hands^ his feet, and head. His pain' 
would be over in half an hour, the Lord's lasted many hours; 
he was *bad Jack,' the Lord was ^good Jesus Christ.'- 
Then again he observed the leeches made very little holes 
in his skin, and drew out a little blood; but the thorns, the 

23* 



270 THE RED HAND. 

nails, the spear, tore the Lord's flesh, and all his blood 
gushed out, — it was shed to save him ; and he raised his 
eyes, lided his clasped hands, turned his whole face up to- 
wards heaven, saying * Jack loves, loves, very loves good 
Jesus Christ!' When another violent pang made him start 
and writhe a little, he recovered in a moment, nodded his 
head, and said, ' Good pain, make Jack soon go heaven.' 

His sublime idea of the * red hand ' was ever present. 
He had told me some years before that when he had lain a 
good while in the grave, God would call aloud« ' Jack !' 
and he would start, and say, * Yes, me Jack.' Then he 
would rise, and see multitudes standing together, and God 
sitting on a cloud with a very large book in his hand — he 
called it * Bible book' — and would beckon him to stand 
before him while he opened the book, and looked at the top 

of the pages, till he came to the name of John B • In 

that page he told me, God had written all his ' bads,' every 
sin he had ever done ; and the page was full. So God 
would look, and strive to read it, and hold it to the sun for 
light, but it was all ^ Nd, no nothing, none.' I asked him 
in some alarm if he had done no bad ? He said yes« much 
bads ; but when he first prayed to Jesus Christ he had taken 
the book out of God's hand, found that page, and pulling 
from his palm something which he described as flUing up 
the hole made by the nail, had allowed the wound to bleed 
a little, passing his hand down the page so that, as be beau- 
tifully said, God could see none of Jack's bads, only Jesua 
Christ's blood. Nothing being thus found against him« God 
would shut the book, and there he would remain stand- 
ing before him, till the Lord Jesus came, and saying 
to God * MT Jack,' would put his arm around him« draw 
him aside, and bid him stand with the angels till the rest 
were judged. 

All this he told me with the placid but animated look of 
one who is relating a' delightful fact : I stood amazed, for 



JOY AND FBAGE. 271 

rarely had the plan of a sinner's ransom, appropriation, and 
justification been so perspicuously set forth in a pulpit as 
here it was by a poor deaf and dutpb peasant boy, whose 
broken language was eked out. by signs. He often told it 
to others, alw^ays making himself understood, and often have 
I seen the tears starting from a rough man's eye as he fol- 
lowed the glowing representation. Jack used to sit silent 
and thoughtful for a long time together in his easy chair 
when too weak to move about ; and then catching my eye, 
to say with a look of infinite satisfaction, * Good red hand.' 
I am persuaded that it was his sole and solid support ; he 
never doubted, never feared, because his view of Christ's 
all-sufficiency was so exceedingly clear and realizing. It 
certainly never entered his head to question God's love to 
him. One night a servant went to his room, long after he 
had gone to bed : he was on his knees at the window, his 
hands and face held up towards a beautiful starlight sky. 
He did not perceive the servant's entrance : and next morn- 
ing when I asked him about it, he told me that God was 
walking above, upon the stars ; and that he went to the win- 
dow and held up his head that God might look down into it 
and see how very much he loved Jesus Christ. 

All his ideas were similar : all turned on the one theme so 
dear to him : and their originality was inexhaustible. What 
could be finer than his notion of the lightning, that it was 
produced by a sudden opening and shutting of God's eye 
— • or of the rainbow, that it was the reflection of God's 
amile? What more graphic than bis representation of Sa- 
tan's malice and impotence, when, one evening, holding his 
fioger to a candle, he snatched it back, as if burnt, pretend- 
ing to be in great pain, and said * Devil like candle.' Then 
with a sudden look of triumph he added * God like wind,' 
and with a most vehement puff at once extinguished the 
light. When it was rekindled he laughed and said * God 
kill Devil.' 



272 TRUEWISDOM. 

He told me that God was always sitting still with the 
great book in his hand, and the Lord Jesus looking down 
for men, and crying to them, * Come, man ; come, pray.' 
That the devil drew them, back from listening, and persuad- 
ed tham to spit up tawards him, which was his sign for re- 
bellion and contempt ; but if at last a man snatched his hand 
from Satan, and prayed to the Lord Jesus, he went directly, 
took the book, found the name, and passed, the * red hand ' 
over the page, on seeing which Satan would stamp and cry. 
^e gave very grotesque descriptions of the evil spirit's mor- 
tification, and always ended by bestowing on him a hearty 
kick. From seeing the effect, in point of watchfiilness, 
prayer, and zeal, produced on this young Christian by such 
continual realization of the presence of the great tempter, I 
have been led to question very much the policy, not to say 
the lawfulness, of excluding that terrible foe as we do from 
our general discourse. It seems to be regarded a manifest 
impropriety to name him, except with the most studied cir- 
cumlocution, as though we were afraid of treating him irre«> 
verently ; and he who is seldom named will not of\en be 
thought of. Assuredly it is a greQt help to him in his count- 
less devices to be so kept out of sight. We are prone to 
speak, to think, to act, as though we had Only our own evil 
natures to contend with, including perhaps a sort of general 
admission that something is at work to aid the cause of re- 
bellion ; but it was far otherwise with Jack* If only con- 
scious of the inward rising of a sullen or angry temper, he 
would immediately conclude that the devil was trying to 
make him grieve the Lord ; and he knelt down to pray that 
God would drive him away. The sight of a drunken man 
affected him deeply : he would remark that the devil had 
drawn that man to the ale-house, put the cup into his hand 
with an assurance that God did not see, or did not care ; 
and was now pushing him about to show the angels he had 
made that wretched being spit at the authority of the Lord. 



STMPATHT. ^^F^ 273 

In Fike manner with all other vices, and Voiri%ifllfteining vir- 
tues. As an instance of the latter, he knew a pistson who 
was very hostile to the gospel, and to the best of his power 
hindered it, but who nevertheless paid the most punctual re- 
gard to all the formalities of external public worship^ He 
almost frightened hie by the picture he drew of that person's 
case,' saying the dev^ walked to church with him, led him 
into a pew, set a hassock prominently forward for him to 
kneel on, put a handsome prayer-book into his hand ; aiid , 
while he carefully followed all the service kept clapping him 
on the shoulder, saying * A very good pray.' I told this to 
a pious minister, who declared it was the most awfully just 
description of self-deluding formality, helped on by Satan» 
that ever he heard of. Whea partaking of the Lord's sup- 
per. Jack told me that his feeling was ' very, very love Jesus 
XUhrist ; very, very, very hate devil : go, devil !' and with 
holy indignation he motioned, as it were, the enemy from 
him. He felt that he had overcome the accuser by the blood 
of the lamb. . Oh that we all may take a lesson of wisdom 
from this simple child of God ! 

During the winter months he sank daily : his greatest 
earthly delight was in occasionally seeing Mr. Donald, for 
whom he felt the fondest love, and who seemed to have a 
presentiment of the happy union in which they would to- 
gether sooD rejoice before the Lord. Jack was courteous 
in manner, even to elegance ; most graceful ; and being now 
nineteen, tall and large, with the expression of infantine inno- 
cence and sweetness on a very fine countenance, no one 
could look on him without admiratioa ; nor treat him with 
roughness or disrespect : but Donald's tenderness of man<* 
ner was no less conspicuous than his ; and I have watched 
that noble-minded Christian man waiting on the dying youth, 
as he sat patiently reclining in his chair, — foi* he could not 
lie down, — and the grateful humility with which every little 
kindness was received, until I almost forgot what the rude. 



I ' 



274 EARNEST19BS8. 

uofeeliDg world was like in that beautiful conteroplatioD* 
How much the fruit in God's garden is beautified by the 
process that ripens it ! , 

Jack laboured anxiously to convert his sister ; 'and as she 
could not read at all, the whole controversy was carried on 
by signs. Mary was excessively mirthful, Jack unbound- 
edly earnest; and ^hen her playful reproaches roused his 
Irish blood, the scene was oAen very comic. I remember 
he was once bringing a long list of accusations against her 
priest, for taking his mother's rngfi^y, making the poor fast, 
while. tl\e rich paid for dispensations to eat, inflicting cruel 
penances, drinking too much whiskey ; and finally telling 
the people to worship wooden and breaden gods. To all 
this Mary attended with perfect good humour, and then told 
him the same priest had christened him and made crosses 
upon him. Jack wrathfully intimated that he was then a 
baby, with a head Uke a doll's, and knew nothing : but if 
he had been wise lie Would have kicked his little foot into 
the priest's mouth. The controversy grew so warm that I 
had to part them. His horror of the priests was solely di- 
rected against their false religion ; when I tdd him of one^ 
being converted, he leaped about for joy. 

At the commencement of the year 1S31 he was evidently 
dying ; and we got a furlough for his brother to visit hire. 
Poor Pat never went to bed but twicQ during the fortnight 
he was there, so bitterly did he grieve over the companion of 
his early days ; and many a sWeet discourse passed between 
them, on the subject of the blessed hope that sustained the 
dying Christian. He only survived Pat's departure four 
days. On thB third of February the last symptoms came on ; 
the death-damps began to ooze out, his legs were^ swelled 
to the size of his body, and he sat in that state, incapable of 
receiving warmth, scarcely able to swallow, yet clear, bright, 
and tranquil, for thirty hours. The morning of the last day 
was marked by such a revival of strength that he walked 






/ 

A DYIiro PROTEST* 276 

across the room with little help, aud talked incessantly to 
me, and to all who came near him. He told me, among 
other things, that once God destroyed all men by rain, except 
those in the ark ; and that he would soon do it again, not 
with wa(er but with fire. He described the Lord as taking 
up the wicked by handfulls, breaking them, and throwing 
them into a fire ; repeating, 'all bads, all bads go fire.' I 
asked if he was not bad ; * Yes, Jack bad very,' Would h^ 
be thrown into the fire ? * No : Jesus Christ loves poor 
Jack.' He then spoke rapturously of the * red hand,' of 
the angels he should soon be singing with, of the day when 
Satan should be cast intothe pit, and of the ddlight he should 
have in seeing me again. He prayed for his family, begged 
me to teach Mary to read the Bible, lo warn Pat against bad 
example, to bring up my brother's boys to love Jesus Christ, 
and lastly he repeated over and over again the fervent .in- 
junction to loVe Ireland, to pray (or Ireland, to write books 
for ' Jack's poor Ireland,' and in every way to oppose Po- 
pery. He called it ' Roman,' always ; and it was a striking 
sight, that youth all but dead, kindling into the most ani- 
mated, stern, energetic warmth of manner, raising his cold, 
damp hands, and spelling with them the words, ' Roman is a 
lie.' * One Jesus Christ, one (meaning he was the only 
Saviour) Jack's one Jesus Christ ;' and then, with a force as 
if he would have the characters impressed on his hands, he 
reiterated, as slowly as possible, his dying Protest, ' Roman 
is A LIE !' Very 'sweetly he thanked me for all my care ; 
and now he seemed to bequeath to me his zeal against the 
destroyer of his people. The last signs of removal came on 
in the evening ; his sight failed, he rubbed his eyes, shook 
his head, and then smifed with conscious pleasure. At last 
he asked me to let him lie down on the sofa where he had 
been sitting, and saying very calmly ' A sleep,' put his hand 
into mine, closed his eyes, and breathed his spirit forth so 



276 SLEEPING IN JE8U8. 

gently, that it was difficult to mark the precise moment of 
that joyful change. 

T still hope to throw into a volume the numerous particu- 
lars that remain untold concerning this boy ; and I will not 
now dwell upon the subject longer^ God had graciously 
kept me faithful to my trust ; and I surrendered it, not with- 
out most keenly feeling the loss of such a companion, but 
with a glow of adoring thankfulness that overcame all self- 
ish regrets. Thenceforth my lot was to be cast among 
strangers, and sorely did I miss the comforting,, sympathizing 
monitor who for seven years had been teaching me more 
than I could ;teach him, but alF my prayers had been an- 
swered, all my labours crbwned ; and with other duties be- 
fore me I was enabled to look at the past, to thank God, and 
iq take courage. . 



V. 



▲ RfiMOVAL. 277 






LETTER XVI. 



A REMOVAL. 



Circumstances led me to decide od removing nearer the 
metropolis : and with reluctance I bade adieu to Sandhurst, 
where I had resided five years. ^ Jack was buried under the 
east window of the chapel of ease at Bagshot, there to rest 
till roused by the Lord's descending shout, the voice of the 
archangel, and the trump of God. I ana very certain he will 
rise to glory and ink mortality. It was a severe trial to part 
with my school, tO' dispose of the endeared relics that had 
furnished a home blessed by my brother's presence, to bid 
farewell to many kind friends, aiid cast myself into the great 
wilderness of London. . The feeling that oppressed me was 
a conviction that I should there find nothing to do; but I 
prayed to be made useful, and none ever asked work of a 
heavenly Master in vain. The dreadful famine in the west 
of Ireland had called forth a stream of English liberality, and 
collections were made every where fot relief of the suffering 
Irish : one was announced at Long- Acre chapel ; but before 
the day arrived, the committee put forth a statement that 
they had abundant funds and required no more. I was then 
residing in Blobmsbury, daily witnessing the wretchedne^ 
of St. Giles's ; and on learning this I wrote to Mr. Howels, 

'24 



278 A N A P F E A L • . ■ 1- . ?- 

bogging him to say a word to his congregation oo behalf of 
. those Irish who were starving at their doors, whose miser- 
able destitution I laid before him as well as I could. He 
returned me no answer ; but on the Sunday morning read 
my letter from the pulpit, asked his flock to contribute, and 
collected upwards of fifly pounds, which he gave to me. 

Knowing the character of the people so well, and longing 
to make the relief of their bodily wants subservient to a 
higher purpose, I resolved to visit in person every case re- 
commended to my notice. Many of my friends stood aghast 
at the proposal ; I should be insulted, murdered, by the Irish 
savages ; no lady could venture there, their language was 
so dreadful : no delicate person could survive the effects of 
such a noxious atmosphere. To this I replied that, happily, 
I could not hear their conversation: and as for the un- 
wholesomeness, it could not be wors^ than Sierra Leone, or 
other missionary stations, where many ladies went. Insplt 
had never yet been my lot among the Irish ; and as to murder, 
it would be martyrdom in such a cause, of which I had little 
hope. So I turned my fifly pounds into bread, rice, milk, 
meal, coals, and soup, resolved to give no money, and on the 
very next day ^commenced the campaign against starvation 
and Popery in St. Giles's. 

For four months I persevered in the work, c^evoting from 
four to six hours every day. to it ; and though I never ia the 
smallest degree concealed or compromised the truth, or 
failed to place in the strongest light its contrast with the 
falsehoods taught them, I never experienced a disrespectful 
or unkind look from one among the hundreds, the thousands 
who ki^ew me as the enemy of their religion, but the loying 
friend of their country and of their souls. Oflen, when I 
went to visit and relieve some poor dying creature in a cel- 
lar or garret, where a dozen wholly unconnected with the 
sufferer were lodged in the same apartment, have I gathered 
them all about me by speaking of Ireland with the affection 






IRISHSCHOOLS. 279 

I really feel fotit, and then shown them, from the Scriptures, 
in English, br b^ means of an Irish reader sometimes ac- 
companying riie, the only way of salvation, pointing ont how 
very difie'rent was that by which they vainly sought it. My 
plan was to discover ^ch a& were too ill to go to the Dis- 
pensary for relief, or to select the most distressed objects 
whom I met there, and to take the bread of life along with 
the bread that perisheth into their wretched abodes. I was 
most ?ibly and "zealously helped by that benevolent Physi- 
cian who had always been foremost in every good and cottt" 
passionate work for the Irish poor ; and to whose inde^ti- 
gable zeal it is chiefly owing that at this day the poor lambs 
of that distressed flock are still gathered and taught in the 
schools which it was. Donald's supreme delight to superin- 
tend. I cannot pass over in silence the devotion of Dr. 
Fidduck,. through many years, to an ofRce the most labo^ 
rious^ the. most repulsive, and in many respects the most 
thankless that a professional man can be engaged in ^— that 
of ministering to the diseased and -filthy population of the dis- 
trict. But many a sobl that he has taught in the knowledge 
of Him whom to know is life eternal, will be found to re- 
joice him in the day- when their poor bodies shall arise to 
meet the Lord. ' 

The schools in George-street to which I have alluded are 
the main blessing of the place : they were established long 
before the Irish gospel was ever introduced there ; and they 
survive the Irish ministry which, alas ! has been withdrawn 
from the spot where God enabled me to plant it. Those 
schools are a bud of promise in the desolate wilderness, 
which may the Lord in his own good time cause to blossom 
again ! 

This year was memorable for the great struggle respect- 
ing the Reform Bill, a measure rendered ruinous by the fa- 
tal act that preceded it, in 1829. It was fiot passed, this 
year, owing to the isteadiness of the peers ; but it became 



280 VALUE OF A ROMISH OATH. 

too evident tbat it could not long be resisted by one estate 
against the other two ; and it could not be expected that 
they who had assisted to open the door to admit the serpent's 
head would persist in keeping out his body. They had tak-* 
en the first steps down a rapid descent, and to pause was 
impossible, unless God gave them such a measure of grace 
as is rarely accorded to those who have betrayed a thist. 
He that is unfaithful in little will be so again in much ; and it 
was not a smaU thing to dash down the most sacred bolwariss 
of our national Protestantism. Tory treachery did the deed ; 
and Tory influence was the first to receive a ^eath-wound 
by means of schedule A. 

Eighteen hundred and thirty-two saw the Reform Bill 
pass. The first act, almost of this reformed and papalizcid 
Parliament was, in the following year, to lop off ten bishop- 
ricks from the Irish Church, by means of the majority thus 
obtained. It was a base and cruel proceeding, and it exr 
hibited in glaring colours the value of an oath taken by Bo- 
manists against the interests of their system ; for of those 
who had obtained admission to the British Parliament by 
solemnly swearing, to do nothing prejudicial to the Protest- 
ant Church, all save three voted for this deadly blow, which 
was to be followed up by a series of attacks upon its very 
existence. The wonder was, that anybody wondered at 
this : I never did. I should have greatly marvelled had it 
' been otherwise ; for who could expect the * mother and mis- 
tress of all churches' to sit in contented equality, not to say 
in acknowledged inferiority, beside one on which she is 
sworn through all her orders to set her foot, and to trample 
it into the dust? I am not one of those who would let a 
hungry wolf into the fold, calculating on his polite or con- 
scientious forbearance not to worry the sheep. " The wick- 
ed will do wickedly," Scripture declares ; and what can we 
expect from him who is characterized by the same Scrip- 
tiveS as *• tbaf wicked ?' 



RETRIBUTION. 181 

It is solemnly declared, that they who hated knowledge, 
and did not choose the fear of th^ JiOrd ; who would none 
of his counsel and despised his reproof, shall eat of the fruit 
of their own ways, and be . filled with their own devices. 
That our abandonment of the Protestant principle, which 
we know to be according to God's will, was a rejection pf. 
his counseli and a departing from his fear, many are now 
constrained to confess, by seeing how strictly retributive is 
the .dispensation under which we are laid. Look around, 
and what do we behold' of the fruit of our own way in form- 
ing papal alliance ? it is evidently judicial. The rapid in- 
crease of Popish chapels, and the open efforts of proselytiz- 
ing made on every side ^ the establishment of a powerful 
and jwealthy ' Institute,' for the avowed purpose of extend- 
ing Popery, and the announcement of general prayer for the 
restoration of England to the Pope's fold; the powerful 
wielding of the public press to the same end, and the ready 
aid afforded by parties whp merge; their nominal Protestant- 
ism in real, heartfelt hostility to th^ established form of 
church-government, and other national institutions ; all. this 
we might haye expected ; we did expect and predict it too, 
openly enough, when striving against the overthi;ow of our 
defences. But who among us could have foreseen the dis- 
pensation by which judgment was to begin at the house of 
God ; or the marked retribution that makes the sin of the 
church the punishment of the church, literally filling us with 
our own devices, by transfusitilg Popery into the very veins 
of the ecclesiastical body ! Unquestionably this is the most 
deadly symptom of all ; and while we own that the Lord 
mi^st, in the way of permission^ have done this '* evil '" 
aigainst his ofifending people, we cannot rationally doubt as 
to the means employed. The great object once attained, 
of a restored footing in the legislature and other branches of 
public power, all was surely prepared, as under the Stuarts 
it ever was, to sei^e in every possible way the advantage 

24* 



282 PUSETISM* 

gained ; and as the Churck of England has been fbuod the 
surest fortress of Protestant truths the introduction of false 
principles among those to whom is committed the prepara- 
tion of her joong men for the ministry, was of all things 
most desirable. How this was first efiectedi by what means 
some of the most eminently learned nien« of unexception* 
able moral character and extensive influence in a Protestant 
university,^ find ministering in our church, became active in- 
struments of the papal foe, canoot be ascertained. AU the 
iniquities of Popery are mysterious : the name mvsTBRT will 
remain emblazoned on the Harlot's brow, until the fire of 
God's wrath shall consume its brazen characters. It it Tain 
to speculate ^bout the origin of what only conceros ua in its 
effects ; and in those effects it does most awfully concern 
us. . I have read with attention what m- put forth by 
the promulgators 6f these doctrines, — erroneously called 
new, for they helped to form the stumbling-block which Ba- 
laam put before the children of Israel, and were received 
among the Galatians in Paul's days. I have brought them 
to the balances in which, by Good's grace,! had weighed So- 
cinianism, Popery, Atitinomianisnifand Irvingism, and found 
them all wanting; and Puseyism kicked the beam no less 
speedily or decidedly than any of the former. The points 
on which I most clearly see it to be at once opposed to 
Scripture, and tainted with the papal leaven, are these: — 

I. The actual washing away of original sin, and confer- 
ring of the new birth by the rite of baptism* with the painful 
process by which a baptized person is to work his own way 
back to God af\eT sinning away the supposed grace then 
received ; for neither of which do I find one warrant in the 
word of God, but abundant confirmation of both in the cate- 
chisms of Rome. 

II. The sacrificial clmracter of the other sacrament, its 
efficiency m conveying grace by the mere outward act, the . 
mysterious change supposed to be wrought in the elements 



TVBttlBU. 283 

b^ the setting of them apart for a senriee id itself commemo- 
rative, and the awful reverence with which they are thence^ 
forth to be regarded : in every particular of which I trace 
approximation to the Romish mass, and a commensurate 
retrogression Qrom the pure simplicity of the gospel* 

III. The investing of one particular point in a building 
with superior sanctity, approaching it with bodily reverence, 
and making it a material thing that the minister should turn 
in that direction while fulfilling his office towards the peo- 
ple. This may seem a trivial and foolish whim ; and tru- 
ly so it \b in itself veiy foolish and pitiably trivial ; but 
when we see to what fearful idolatry the poor Romanists 
are brought by such puerile beginnings as these, and when 
we find a spiritual worship insisted upon ftroughout the 
New Testament, in direct contradistinction to will-worship, 
voluntary humility, and all the parade of '' carnal ordi- 
nances," it becomes important in no common degree. In 
Edward's days, the martyr Ridley, then Bishop of London, 
actually broke down a part of the wall of St. Paul's, rather 
than not wholly remove the Popish altar from its eastern 
niche ; and the plain, decent, scriptural table which he set 
in the chancel for the due 'celebration of the Lord's supper, 
was an object of continual rebuke and ribaldry on the part 
of the murdering persecutors who, particularly the infamous 
Bishops Bonner and Grardiner, called it an oyster-table. 
The * altars ' were of course set. up again in Mary's reign ; 
and how they now come to appear in so many of our 
churches, and to retain in common parlance the name of 
altar, is best known to him of whose devices we are not ig- 
norant, though we cannot fathom their depth : and who no 
doubt always hoped to use this oversight t>f purs as a step- 
ping-stone to the recovery of his lost footing. At all eventSt 
our Reformers are clear from the offence, for we find in the 
rubric of our service-book no mention of altar, but these 
plain words in relation to that which was to supersede it : —- 



284 P U S E T I S M . 

" The Table^ at the communion time, having a fair white 
linen cloth upon it, shall stand in the body of the churchy or 
in the chancel, where morning and evening prayer are ap- 
pointed to be read" From this it would seem to have 
been put out of the way at other times, probably to afford 
more room for the congregation during general prayers, 
and to have been brought out again 'at the commubion 
time ;' and our parish churches have been principally built 
in ipopish days, afforded a more convenient space for the 
table where the old altar formerly stood. Be this as it may» 
idolatry is again creeping in at that very niche ; and though 
in appearance far less formidable than the doctrinal errors 

• preached, this vain practice will cost the church very dear« 
. IV. The assumption so strenuously resisted by our mar- 
iyrsy and so manifestly contrary to Scripture, of an author- 
ity over men's minds and consciences, based not upon a 
faithful adherence to the apostolic doctrines, but upon a for- 
tuitous succession to their external office and functions. 
Fortuitous as regards the indi,vidual, for atiy one may ob- 
tain it ; but absolute and unchangeable as regards the of- 
fice itself, ilot by virtue of the scriptural form in which the 
privileges are, after apostolic injunction and example, con- 
ferred, but because an unbroken series of individuals have 
been so appointed, K)f whom sonje have led the worship of 
the true God ; others have set up idols, and compelled the 

. people to bow down to them ; some have preached Christ; 
others have themselves constituted the body of Antichrist ; 
some have been commissioned and taught by the Holy 
Ghost ; "Others have be^n the habitation and the mouth- 
piece of devils ; and now, on the ground chosen by these 
successionists, the Pope of Rome is a true bishop, sitting 
in a true church ; and Babylon the Great, whom God him- 
iBelf calls the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the 
earth, is our elder sister, our venerated sister, in separating 

from whom we have made ourselves schismatics, and 



PUSETISM. 285 

through whose filthy, polluted channel we mu»t draw the 
waters of life, if we would receive them at i^L Who ca^ 
look at this dogma, and not be inclined to breathe thd 
prayer of good King Edward's liturgy, so foolishly expung- 
ed by Elizabeth's temporizing, half-convicted prelates : — 
*' From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his de- 
testable enormities, good Lord deliver us !" 

Y. The dreadfully unscriptural tenet which they call * re- 
serve.' They say that the doctrine of the Atonement is not 
to be openly nor at once preached to the people : That they 
are to be taught repentance, good works, and so forth, but 
not to be told that Christ has wrought out salvation for 
them, nor to hear the blessed truth that ** the blood of Jesus ■ 
Christ cleanseth from all sin." They are nottcbe invited 
to '* Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the si* 
of the world." The Lord has indeed loudly and universal- 
ly proclaimed, " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the 
ends of the earth ; " -but these faithful and wise stewards 
arrest the message on its way, and silencing the voice of 
Jehovah, say to the people ' Look unto us, and we will show 
you a more excellent way,' I would not have taken 
this fact upon the credit of any report whatever; noth- 
ing but reading declarations to that effect in their own 
books would have convinced me that any ministers of the 
English church would have so trampled upon her institu- 
tions, no less than violated Scripture, as deliberately to with- 
hold from the laity the knowledge whereby alone they can 
be saved. Many false pastors there have been, and too 
many there still are in our church, who do not teach, be- 
cause they do not themselves know, the gospel of Christ ; 
but here is a case where it i ; supposed to be fully under^ 
stood by the clergy, and by «hem suppressed as regards 
their flocks, except under particular circumstances to be 
judged of by themselves ! This is a direct instigation of 
Jesuit teachers who pull the wires alike unseen by the au* 



286 . PU8£TI8B(. 

dience and unfelt by the puppets : it is a practice in the 
RomishrSystem, little known ; but I have met with two insitan- 
ces where the priest — whether impelled by conscience, or 
restrained by the immediate power of God, or else habitual- 
ly, I know not — being left alone with the person over whom 
he had been performiog^the mummeries called extreme unc- 
tion, or Mhe rites of the church,' told him that all he had 
done was of no real avail : that the virgin and the saints, to 
whom he had publicly exhorted him to cleave with full con- 
fidence, could not help him : and that unless it pleased 
Christ to save him he must go to hell. In one of these cases 
the individual survived long enough to repeat this ; in the 
other he recovered and immediately became a Protestant. 
I believe if the followers of the sect knew a little more than 
they do of the tricks and devices of Popery, they would.be 
startled to find what hands they are in. It is fearful to 
tiiink how near thia wicked doctrine of reserve brings its 
holders to the apostle's anathema ; for that which preaches 
aught but Christ, aught less than Christ " whom God has . 
set forth to be a propitiation -through his bloo(jl," is '* an- 
other gospel." 

YI. They do not admit the Scriptures in their plain sig- 
nification as commended to every man's plain judgment, as 
the sole and sufficient rule of faith. Certain doctors who 
wrote in the early ages . of the Christian church, and who 
often darkened cpXinsel by words without knowledge, are 
called *' fathers,' and invested with a sort of paternal autho- 
rity which few Christian fathers would desire to assume over 
their children; thrusting their own notions in the place of 
God's commands. Truly, in soma respects we may say to 
our Oxford brethren, '' The Lord hath been sore displeased 
with your fathers ; " for they often abound in most grievous 
errors, springing from their being men of many words. Yet 
to them we are required to yield both God's authority and 
our own understanding ; to shut out the glorious noon-day 
sun, and read our lesson by the glimmer of their rushlight- 



P U S E Y 1 S M • 287 

Vil. And I feel that this oughf to have occupied the first 
place, for it is the main point -^--'it constitutes the foundation 
of shifting sand supplied in place of the eternal rock: — 
these tractarians subvert the. grand doctrine of Justification 
by Faith : tliey build upon human merit ; they represent 
man as a being capable of propitiating the offended Deity 
by his own works : they stumble and fall upon that stone on 
whiqh none can fall without being broken. This, the main^ 
essential distinction between real Christianity and every 
counterfeit that usurps the name, is the grand touchstode 
whereto we must bring them : coming into contact with it^ 
they shrink, and shrivel, and perish. 

I feel that I have scarcely touched upon this subject* 
though entering on it {^T mo.re at large than on any of the 
preceding temptations to which my faith has been exposed. 
Perhaps I ought not to call this a temptation ; for I saw the 
character of Popery too legibly stamped upon this delusion 
even from the first, to he in any danger from it ; but know- 
ing what deceptions must abound in these days, and deeply 
feeling the importance of the caution, '' Let him that think* 
eth he standeth take heed lest he fall," I always strive to 
feel myself endangered by every form of error that is broach- 
ed; and fiy ^'to the law* and to the testimony" for light, 
whenever a shadow crosses my path. Many a severe and 
most angry rebuke have I received from those who were 
openly or secretly connected with the > party in question, and 
who usually take one of two grounds in their censure : either 
assuming with clerical authority, which with me is no au- 
thority at all unless their succession be that of doctrine as 
well as of office ; or charging me with directing at individ- 
uals the remarks that duty compels me to make on opinions. 
Of this I am wholly innocent: I do not, thank God, person- 
ally know a single clergyman whom I believe to be a pro- 
pounder of these errors i «nd what enmity can I entertain 
against others, who in their private characters are wholly 



288 PU8BTI8M. 

unknown to met I never conversed with one of them: I 
always prefer to take men's opinions from their published 
writings^ because in conversation, even where no bar exists 
to its greatest freedom, much may be explained awayt anil 
those explanations either forgotten or detoied ; the same, ta 
a measure, holds good with preaching : but deliberate pub- 
lications afford a tangible hold. Popery never could be 
openly dissected until the Council of Trent was so kind ai 
to tie her down for our operations, by embodying in their 
decrees all the vague Proteus-like doctrines that she pro- 
claimed and denied at pleasure. 

I view this falling away on the part of a great number of 
our clergymen as a direct judgment on us for our unfaithful 
confederacy with Antichristian Rome* • I dread its pro- 
gress, by the elevation to episcopal authority of men hpld- 
ing the tenets in question, or the perversion of those already 
possessed of it ; and if this be.permittedi a schism must en- 
sue : all true Christians, both clergy and people, separat- 
ing from a church that will cast them out, and those edifi- 
ces that now rise before us -^ the courts of a pure worship, 
which we love to tread — will become again temples of 
idolatry, polluted, hateful, and accursed. From such an 
issue may the Lord in his great mercy spare us ! We, who 
consented not to the purpose and deed of those who brought 
Popery back to power, and others who have repented be- 
fore God of what they did in ignorance and unbelief, may 
hope much for ourselves in this peculiar visitation ; but 
alas ! who among tis is clear from having exceedingly pro- 
voked (jrod to chastise us for our many public and private 
sins ! Had Howels lived to this day, how would the walls 
of his chapel have rung with the warnings that his lips 
would never have been weary of uttering, while pointing 
out^he finger of God in this domestic visitation of Popery. 
But he, and Donald who felt it even as he, w^re mercifully, 
taken away from the evil to come. 






OPPOSITION. 289 

During a sojourn of some years a little to the kiorth of 
London, I devoted myself more to the pen, and found less op- 
portunity for other usefulf^ss than in Sandhurst and London ; 
yet much encouragement was given to labour among the 
poor ueglected Irish, who may be found in every neighbour- 
hood, and to whom few think of taking the gospel in their 
native tongue — still fewer of bearing with the desperate 

' opposition that Satan will ever show to the work. We 
make the deplorable state, morally and physically,, of the 
Irish poor, an excuse first for not going among them at all, 
and then for relinquishing the work if we do venture to be- 
gin it. In both cases it ought to plead for tenfold readi- 
ness and perseverance. I always found it a perilous task 
to attack the enemy in this strong-hold : not from any op- 
position encountered from the people themselves ; far oth- 
erwise : they ever received me gladly, and treated me with 
respect and grateful affection ; but Satan has many ways of 
assailing those whom he desires to hinder, and sometimes 
his chain is greatly lengthened for the trial of faith, and per- 
fecting of humility and patience, where they may be sadly 
lacking. There are, spheres of undeniable duty where the 
Christian may often almost, if not altogether, take up the 
apostle's declaration, and say, **No man stood by me." 
This, to the full extent, has never yet been my experience ; 
but I have oflen found many against me, both without and 
within, when earnestly bent on dealing a blow at the great 
Antichrist. It is no good sign when all goes on too 
smoothly. 

In 1834 I was induced to undertake what seemed an ar- 
duous and alarming office : that of editing a periodical. I 
commenced it in much prayer, with no little trembling, and 
actuated by motives not selfish. That it was not laid down 
at the end of the second year, was owing to the great bles<- 

.aing just then given to my appeals on behalf of the cruelly 
' oppressed and impoverished Irish clergy through its means : 

25 



290 



MA GA.Z IN E 



and recommencing, at the beginning ofthe third year, with 
an ardent desire to promote more than ever the sacred 
cause of Protestantism, I found the Lord prospering the 
work beyond my best hopes ; and by his help I continue it 
to this day. On the subject of the Irish church I must 
make a few remarks, connected with my visit to that coun- 
try, whence I addressed ti^you the " Letters from Ireland," 
already published. 



THE ONSET. 29t . 



LETTER XVII. 



IRELAND. 



It was my lot t6 witness, as I have before told you, the 
first outbreak of w^hat proved to be an organized war against 
the property of the Irish church. It did not assume this 
form avowedly while the question of conceding the demands 
of the Romanists was yet in abeyance ; but all the manoeu- 
vres of Captain Rock, his enlistments, drillings, nightly ' 
sallies, and the whole system as developed daring my abode 
in Kilkenny, were but preparatory to what had been long 
decided on as the first forward step after gaining what they 
had long clamoured for — a vantage ground from which to 
assail the hated fortress of Protestantism* It was at Knock* 
topher, within sight indeed of the sweet parsonage ofTi- 
carsfield, that the dreadful slaughter occurred in which thir* 
teen policemen fell, murdered. Di*. Hamilton's extensive 
union of Knocktopher and Kiimagany .was first attacked ; 
the latter division of the parish lies on the very border of 
Tipperary, just where the nightly marauders entered the 
county Kilkenny. The men who had been first trained to 
the work as Rockites, now called themselves Hurlers, from jS 
a sport in which the Kilkenny men excel, and under this 



*^ 



292 DR. HAMILTON. 

name they declared open war against the Established 
Church. One morning Dr. Hamilton was told that some 
men desired to speak with him ; he immediately went to the 
hall-door, and saw four or five peasants* The carriage- 
way to that door sweeps through a cluster of evergreens 
which shade the house in front ; but beyond them lies a wide 
expanse of waste ground. The men requested Dr. Hamilton 
to step a little to one side, so that the laurels might no longer 
intercept his view, and on complying he saw the whole 
plain covered with men, to the number of two or three thou- 
sand, armed with the formidable hooked sticks that they 
use in hurling, and with shillelaghs loaded with lead, be- 
sides concealed firearms, and other dangerous weapons. 
On seeing this, Dr. Hamilton had the presence of mind to 
retreat backwards towards the door, and I will say the he- 
roism to shut it by means of the stout spring lock, thus at 
once guarding his house from the -enemy, and leaving him- 
self wholly unarmed and defenceless in their power : he had 
not even a hat on his head. He had taken care to slam 
the door with such violence as to Btartle the inhabitants of 
the house, and thus to apprize them of danger ; and now he 
stood, calm and dignified, awaiting the will of his assailants. 
Many a sanguinary warning had he received, signed in 
blood, assuring him that his own should speedily be shed ; 
and now the hour seemed to have arrived when tliose me- 
nace^ should be made good. 

N^o violence however was attempted : the foremost men 
told him that he might see how vain resistance must be 
against such a multitude, perfectly united, and resolved to 
yield no longer to the demands of a heretic church. They 
insisted upon his dismissing his proctor, and refrcunipg in fu- 
ture from demanding tithe from the Romanists of his parish ; 
adding many assurances of their determination to put down 
^he system altogether. Afler thus warning and threatening 
him, they departed ; ' and he of course lost no time in mak- 



. '\,* 



THE MASSACRE. 293 

ing known to the government what had occurred, and re^ 
questing a strong body of police for th,e protection of his 
house and family. 

A party was sent down, who lodged in and about Yicarsfield, 
and for a time all seemed quiet ; but at length the Hurlers 
again appeared, surrounding the house .in immense numbers. 
The officer in -command of the police formed his men, and 
a parley was demanded ; when the leaders of the insurg'ents 
said they would come to terms, but must have a conversa- 
tion with the police in the open country some little way off, 
to which the latter most rashly consented^ and proceeded to 
the spot by the bohreen. This little lane has a fence of 
loose stones op either side, the ground rising nearly to the 
height of the rude wall, so that the men within it were much 
lower than those in the field around them. There was barc^ 
ly space for two men to walk abreast, and of course no room 
for any movement or manoeuvre. The policemen were al« 
)owed to proceed for some distance, and theA the ruffians on 
either side suddenly turned on them, pouring down with 
dreadful impetuosity rate the narrow pass, and murdering 
them almost without resistance. 

The terrible work waS soon done, and the butchers dis- 
persed. A wounded policeman who had almost miracu- 
lously escaped with his life, ran to the Yicarage, and burst- 
ing into the hall, staggered and fell, covered with blood. 
The panic was of course dreadful ; and as soon as possible 
Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton, disguised and in a common cart, 
made their escape to Kilkenny, taking shelter in the castle 
with Lord Ormonde, whence they came to England, forever 
exiled from their beloved, and lovely home, and in fact strip- 
ped of every thing ; for to recover tithe in that pat-ish was now 
impossible. The meek pastor, a wreck in body, but ever- 
more cleaving to his Lord, lingered out some years among 
us, and then departed to where the wicked cease from troub- 
ling, and where the weary are at rest. 

25* 



294 CR^EL PE8BRTIOK. 

m 

i 

Several of the murderers were taken, sworn to, repeated- 
ly arraigned, tried, proved guilty, and set at laige ; because 
there was not found a jury who could command nerve 
enough to lay down their own lives and those of their fami- 
lies by finding a verdict against them, though their guilt ad- 
mitted not of even a doubt. It seemed pretty well under- 
stood by both parties that the Irish church was giveii over 
for a prey to the teeth of her enemies, and ope heavy blow 
afler another from the hands of those who were bwom to 
uphold her, confirmed the supposition. Attempts were daily 
made to ascertain how far the enemy^ might venture ; and 
when it was found that they might use their own discretion, 
a general resistance to the payment of tithe ensued,, and the 
clergy, particularly in the south, were soon reduced to abide 
in their unroofed houses the utmost pressure of poverty and 
actual starvation. Yes, had it not been for the ever ready 
i4Lid of £nglaqd, those faithful, zealous, devoted ministers of 
tiie .everlasting gospel might have been -r- would have been 
— literally starved to death with their wiyes and children. 
Bf any were nearly so, when they had sold even the last of 
their books, and every little article that they possessed for 
personal or domestic use, to purchase a scanty meal of po- 
tatoes. It could scarcely have been hoped by the friends, 
or anticipated by the foes of the Protestimt church, that 
through such extremity the persecuted clergy would be con- 
ducted, and again restored to their flocks, purified and made 
brighter by this searching fire. Yet so it was : God gave 
quietness, and who could make trouble 1 God had given 
commandment to bless, and who could reverse it ? I was 
present at a meeting in Freemason's Hall, in December, 
1835, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of 
London, with a large number of clergymen, noblemen and 
gentlemen, assembled to take into consideration the afflict- 
ed state of their brethren in Ireland. There was at the out- 
set a decided deprecation of all political topics and allusions ; 



THE BISHOP OF LONDOH. 295 

If 

but the speakers found, not excepting the venerable Primate 
who had enjoined such abstinence from secular topics, that 
it was utterly impossible to enter upon the subject hefor^ 
them without adverting to the plain root of the matter. The 
Bishop of London distinctly attributed it all to a neglect of 
vindicating the majesty of the laws in Ireland ; and that neg- 
lect he plainly charged on the real culprits, assigning the 
true motive — a willingness to extinguish the Protestant 
church IB Ireland. The effect of this meeting was very im- 
portant : it cheered the spirits of God's dear suffering serv- 
ants, aot so much by the liberal supply of immediate tempor- 
al aid; as by the open expression of warm sympathy on the 
part of their English brethren. I ^ can bear witness, for I 
knew the fact, that the Bishop of London laboured in their 
cause up to the very letter of that sweet comn^and to de 
even as in similar circumstances he would that others should 
do unto him. He sought out information ; he arranged, 
and made it avsfitable in the best possible manner ; and he 
put so much heart along with his superior head into the bu* 
siness, that I am very sure he did far more to rescue that 
precious church than even he himself has any suspicion of. 
Our dear brethren needed encouragement, such as could 
only be derived from the fellowship of those who had too 
long seemed to look upon their calamities with a cold, dis* 
tant eye ; and their malicious enemies wanted the encour- 
agement on the same ground. Their language was, ** Per- 
secute them and take them, for there is none to deliver 
them.'' So Satan suggested ; but as usual he told a lie. 

And now I must name one whose memory is indeed most 
precious to me — the late, the last Archbishop of Tuam. 
The last, through the infamous act pf striking off the ten 
bishopricks, including those archiepiscopal sees that had 
existed from a date long prior to the introduction of Popery 
into these isles. Dr. Trench was indeed a prelate on the 
apostolic model : so lovely a character I have rarely met 



2961 THE ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM. 

with. Sweetness and tenderness, combined with decision 
the most marked and uncompromising, distinguished him. 
He had a pastor's heart indeed : the tnind which was in 
Christ Jesus being in him, to the praise of the glory of that 
grace whereby he was so enabled to shine in his high station. 
His heart was in his work, and with his brethren^ He k)ved 
his country with the most ardent devotion of Christian pa- 
triotism. He protested to the last against the wicked Bill 
of 1829, and predicted what has ibllowed. He bent all his 
energies to oppose the anti-scriptural plan of national edu- 
cation in Ireland, which was one of the series of heavy blows 
aimed at Protestantism, and one of the hardest. . He la- 
boured indefatigably to spread the gospel in Irish among the 
native race ; and from its first opening to its lamented close, 
my Irish church in St. Giles's was the object of his tenderest 
concern. His life was shortened by grief for the desolation 
of the Lord's vineyard in his native land ; and by the 
shameless abandonment even of the poor guards still left 
against Popish assumption, which permitted the turbulent 
John M^Hale to parade his anti-christian and illegal exhi- 
bitions at the very gate of his palace, while the gaudy 
mass-house lifled its head above his modest, venerable ca- 
thedral. That beloved Archbishop is no^y with Christ ; and 
most blessed is his memory in the church — most dear, 
and most precious to me. May the Lord grant us many 
like-minded with him, to stand fast in this evil day of re- 
buke and blasphemy ! . 

How melancholy is the contrast presented when we turn 
to ^mother Irishman, who has the name of his country 
ever glowing on his lip, and her best life-blood reeking on 
his hands ! It is not possible to compute the amount of 
life lost by assassination alone, through the turbulent doc- 
trines and doings that have ** agitated" poor Ireland for 
the past twenty years, through the perseverance of one in- 
dividual in seeking the accomplishment of his darling object. 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 297 

^ What that is, he best knows : what he has sacrificed to 
attain it, he will know in the day of judgment. What 
measures of success has crowned his efforts we cannot tell, 
unless we might venture to determine the precise nature of 
what he aims at. If it be to benefit his country, he has 
injured her more than ever any one individual had power to 
do in the course of a long life. If to replenish his own 
hoards, and to earn a conspicuous notoriety, he has acconh* 
plished it, and it only remains to render up to God an ac*« 
count of the blood shed to secure what cannot avail him in 
the day of wrath. Unquestionably the Lord has used that 
man to work out His own high, purposes in a wonderful 
manner. We find him always moving so much like a pup- 
pet, that an unseen hand must surely be at the wires, whe- 
ther an intermediate one between him and the Almighty 
cannot be known. Probably the master-spring lies in the 
Propaganda at Rome ; Jbut we well know, that even so the 
spring is wholly under his guidance who worketh all thing? 
after the counsel of his own will. We may shudder whea 
we look on this great apostle of all evil, rending the wounds 
of his poor lacerated country, and dashing from her the 
soothing draught of peace ; but we cannot fear either him or 
his machinations, seeing how surely God hath set him his 
bounds, which he cannot pass. I never saw this man until 
the day when an indignant burst of right English feeling, not 
to be restrained by the presence of the beloved Prince Con- 
sort, prevented his voice from being heard among the honest 
advocates for African improvement. I saw him then, and ne- 
ver did I look upon a human being with feelings of such ming- 
led horror, compassion, and disgust. Interested as I was in the 
abolition of negro slavery, and working with heart and hand 
for its accomplishment, until it pleased God to crowa our 
efforts with success, still from the moment I heard that 
Daniel O'Connell had been permitted to stand forth at the 
anti-slavery meeting, and enrolled with acclamation as a 



298 PROGRESS OF FOPERT. 

helper in the work, I wholly withdrew from all connection 
with the society, and laboured alone, uncontaminated by so 
degrading an alliance. To estimate him aright, we must 
explore his bleeding country ; we must number up the slain, 
including those who r.ave paid on a gibbet the forfeiture of 
lives stained with murder, and we must follow the souls of 
those victims into an eternity of unutterable wo and endless 
despair. It is an awful thing for man to possess influence 
over his fellows : no talent is so rich, none so liable to abuse, 
and surely none of which the Lord will more rigidly inquire 
how it has been appliedit 

It was in the year 1837 that I had the opportimity of 
judging how far the events subsequent to the passing of that 
^ healing measure" in 1829 had justified the prognostications 
of its advocates in reference to Ireland. According to their 
predictions, I should have found the Established Church 
flourishing in the warmth of that brotherly love so freely 
promised by the grateful recipients of the long-sought boon« 
and doubly secure under the protection of their sworn amity. 
I should have found the Roman population peaceable, con- 
tented, every way improved ; dwelling in the sweetest har- 
mony with their Protestant neighbours, and encouraged in 
all loyalty by a priesthood now become the faithful liegemen 
of the British crown. Happily I was not disappointed, for 
I never expected aught but the strongest contrast to this 
picture, and such I found : Popery rampant, insolent, over- 
bearing, and evidently calculating on soon possessing the 
land in undisturbed security : Protestantism depressed, dis- 
couraged, menaced, and barely enjoying an uncertain toler- 
ation, on the one hand from government, on the other from 
the mass of the Romish, populace: the children of the poor 
removed from those scriptural schools which were rising up 
on all sides during my former sojourn, and placed under the 
power of the enemy, backed by full government patronage. 
I fell in with an army, marched at a great expense to the 



PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM. 299 

north, which alone was loyal and peaceable, to restrain the 
exhibition of Protestant principles and devoted attachment 
to the house of Brunswick ; while no movement that I could 
discover was ever made, of military or constabulary, to in* 
timidate the hosts of Ribbonmen who were known to assemble 
for preparations, the object of which was a general massacre 
of all but their own class. Notwithstanding, I also found 
the persecuted church occupying a higher hill, and shining 
with clearer lustre than ever before; indicating, not the ap- 
proaching success of Antichrist, but the preparedness of God's 
people to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to 
stand. Of course I do not mean in mortal combat ; but I 
do believe that the cause of Christ will never be wholly lost* 
even for a day, in Ireland ; and whatever temporary advan- 
tage may be gained by his enemies, I believe it will be fol- 
lowed by thei triumphing of truth in a very marked manner. 
The circulation of God*s word has been silently going on, 
and its effects will show themselves in the hour of need. 
While the oppressed clergy inaintained their their posts in 
the face of even a dreadful death to themselves add their 
little ones, the work proceeded among the people ; and there 
are tens of thousands among those now most confidently 
calculated on as the passive slaves of Rome, who, in the 
moment when their services are called for against the people 
of God, will openly fling off the fetter which has been pri- 
vately unlocked, and show themselves on the Lord's side. 
None can estimate the value of the stand made by those 
ministers, in its bearing on the christianizing of the country. 
Had they flinched and failed, the work was at an end. God 
gavethem grace to endure ; and they will yet see the glo- 
rious event of their patience and faith. 

At the time of my writing this letter, we are looking in 
breathless anxiety for the next movement among the powers 
of Europe, in reference to the east. Since the great blow 
was struck at Navarino, the drying up of the Euphrates has 



300 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 

been progressive and without a pause. A sudden movement 
among the mountaineers of Syria has brought all £urop6 
into the Land of Promise as a battle-field ; and though only 
the preliminary alarm has yet sounded, in comparison with 
what is to follow, still there is a general impression even 
among those who would scoff at the mention of Armageddon, 
that in the very spot pointed out by Scripture will the great 
conflict of warring kingdoms take place. Blessed are they 
that watch ! 

My mind is fully impressed with the conviction that we 
are about to be tried by every device which Satan can put in 
practice against us. Every old error and delusion will now 
be new furbished, and presented to us in the most attractive 
forms, with the addition of whatever new ones can be con- 
trived. Where shall we find security against them 1 - I, for 
one, know where it is to be found. Tou have heard in what 
way the Lord has preserved me from several snares of So- 
cinianism. Popery, Irvingism, Puseyism ; and to these I may 
add what would certainly have been a great evil, needless 
schism, in separating from the church of England because 
it is not altogether perfect, and joining some other commu- 
nion where it is very questionable whether I should have 
found so much of the good, or little of the evil, as in my 
own. I do not take up the lofty grounds that some do : I 
claim no exclusive privilege for my own church over those 
of other countries, being Protestant. I set little by the bare 
succession, however apostolical; andof infallibility I believe 
we are all alike destitute, all alike liable to err. But I con- 
sider episcopacy to be the scriptural form of church govern- 
ment, and that our own comes as near the original constitu- 
tion as any : I hold it the bounden, the imperative duty of 
the state to provide due religious teaching and public minis- 
tration of ordinances for its subjects ; and when such an 
institution is orthodox and well ordered like ours, I consider 
it really displeasing to God that we should lightly separate 




antinomiaKism. 301 

I 

from it. Yet should this church become imbued with the 
doctrines set forth by the Oxford Tractarians, and require 
from her members a recognition of them as true, I wo uld 
shake the dust from my feet as a testimony against her, and 
go forth to worship God according to my conscience ; and 
according to the real spirit of that same church which would 
have falsely denied herself. 

It was my blessed privilege, four years since, to abridge 
into two moderate sized volumes the £nglish Martyrology, 
as recorded by Foxe. In the progress of this work I became 
better acquainted with the true doctrines of the Reformation 
than ever before : I compared them as I am wont to do 
everything, with what God has revealed ; and I am satisfied 
that they are perfectly accordant with scripture: if they were 
not so, I would reject them. By the same standard let us 
prove all things, that we may hold fast that which is good. 

I have not particularized the trial of my scriptural princi- 
ples when exposed for a short time to the pernicious doc- 
trines of a subtile and persuasive antinomian teacher. At 
first he only appeared to me to insist very strenuously on the 

doctrine of free, sovereign grace ; and greatly to magnify 
God in the saving of souls, wholly independent of aught that 

man can do : but a little farther investigation convinced me 
that the vilest system of moral licentiousness might be built 
on such a foundation as he laid ; and I found the discourses 
of Peter and of Paul, as recorded in the Acts, especially co n- 
clusive against his perverted notions. It is a most deadly 
thing, this antinomianism ; and I believe all extremes in docp 
trines where good men have much differed to be dangerous ; 
while at the same time they are very deluding, for we all 
love to go far in an argument, or under the influence of party 
spirit. 

Another ordeal, but one of much less pain in discussion, 
was found in the inviting aspect imparted by the irreproach- 
able lives and amiable dispositions of the Friends, to their 

20 



302 MERCIES. 

peculiar mode of thinking. Without any direct attempt at 
proselytizing, some of them made their religion very attrac- 
tive to me, before I was at all well grounded and settled. 
On exanimation however, of their positions, by the aid of 
scripture alone, I found them, according to my belief, unten- 
able, as regards the rejection of the sacraments, and other 
minor points. I would deprecate the reading of books, in 
such cases, beyond the plainest statement of what the party 
inviting us to join them really hold ; and this I would bring 
to the safe test of God's word, examined as a whole, at least 
the New Testament, in reference to that particular point. 
Prayer ; humble, earnest, diligent, persevering^ must accom- 
pany the labour, or it will be worse than lost 

Of myself, I have now no more to say than that " by the 
help of my God I continue to this day," anxiously desirous 
to devote my little talent to his service, as he may gracious- 
ly permit. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or ap- 
parel, but counted it a privilege to labour with my hands and 
head, for myself and for those most dear to me. Many tri- 
als, various and sharp, have been my portion : but they are 
passed away, and if I have not enlarged upon them it is from 
no reluctance to declare all the Lord's wonderful doings, but 
from a desire to avoid speaking harshly of those who are de- 
parted. The Lord has accepted at my hand one offering, 
in the case of the precious dumb boy, received into glory 
through his rich blessing on my efforts : and he mercifully 
gives me to see the welfare of two others, committed to me 
, as the offspring of my brother, over whose early years I have 
been permitted to watch, and in whose growing prosperity 
my heart can rejoice. He has been a very gracious Mas- 
ter to me ; he has dealt very bountifully, and given me now 
the abundance of domestic peace, with the light of his coun- 
tenance to gladden my happy home. Yet the brightest 
beam that falls upon it is the anticipation of that burst of 



CONCLUSION. 303 

glory when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven, 
to reign in righteousness over the world that shall soon, very 
soon, acknowledge him the universal, eternal King : and 
the most fervent aspiration my heart desires to utter is the 
response to his promise of a speedy advent. ^* Even so, 
Lord Jesus : come quickly ! Amen." 



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