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at jhttp : //books . qooqle . com/ 



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PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 






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I CHARLOTTE ELIZAIETH. / \ 



PROM TSZ LOUDON EDITION. 



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CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 

*■€• 

Childhood.— Reason*— Design— Martyr's Prison— Palace 

Garden— Scenery— Music— Study— Polities—A Bro- 
ther— ProtesUntbm— The Bible— Judicious Plan— A 
Proverb. ....... * ....... . 9 



LETTER II. 

Youth.— Private Journals— Romance— The Drama— Poeti- 
cal T a s te B ooks— A Change— Rural Life— Stays— 
Tight-lacing— Ruinous Custom— The Country— Eng- 
land— A Reformer— The Catechism— A Delinquent. . tt 



LETTER III. 

Eably Days. — Revolutionism— Political Perils— Public 
Fasts— National Confession— A Regiment— The Test 
Act— National Pride— Budding of the Church— True 
Conservatism— George the Third— A New Bishop — 
Idling— Convictions— Anticipating Evil— Mischievous 
Errors— Unreal Estimates— Fake Views— A Parting— 
^Fraternal Love Kl 



LETTER IV. 

Youth.— A Grandmother— Unfashionable Taste— Antique 
Prejudices— A Bereavement— Changes— Travels— 



■I 



262540 



Tl CONTENTS. 

Psgs 

Punctuality —Mountain Wave*— Ocean Scenery— 

Falee Confidence—A Storm— Wonders of the Deep- 
Recklessness— An Arab Steed— Equestrianism— A 
Fragment— Escapee— Housewifery— Nova Scotia— In- 
diana— Cosmopolitanism — Home. 74 



LETTER V. 

Ireland.— Oxford— Irishmen— The Journey— The Arri- 
val—An Escape— Dublin— St. John's Eve— The Dance 
— Paganism— Trials— Levying Distress— Convictions 
— Terrors— Awakened Conscience— God's Teaching- 
Joy and Peace. .100 



LETTER VI 

Religious Progress.— The Church— Socinianism— Temp- 
tation— Metaphysics— Athanaaian Creed— An Epoch 
—My first Tract— A new Friend— Hail Mary— Chris- 
tian Communion— Dissent— Church of England— Sue- 



121 



LETTER VII. 

Kilkenny.— Vickarsfield— Roek it es A new Residence— 
Another Snare— Compromise— An Apostate— End of 
Controversy— The Snare Broken— Another Attack— 
An Argument— Discussion— Rebellious Movements- 
Thomas Bfoore. 138 



LETTER VIII. 

The Workings or Popery.— The Irish Church— Satanic 
Dev ices C ol Undsay—Alarms— A Difficulty— A De- 
cision— Sympathy— The Irish— Character— Love for 



, - k .-,f 



I 



OOJfTOTflb 



Iratend— Intelligibility-- A larming bidden*— Systemat- 
ic Outrage— Noonday Murder 156 

LETTER IX. 

Thjs Dumb Bot.— Peaceable Counsel— A Recoil— A Pupil 
— Jack'* Commencement — Inquiry— A Pihrmma 
Dawning Light — Reasonings— A Sunbeam— A Bool 
Bom— A Protester— Idolatry— Faithlessness Outrage 
— Fearful Bigotry— Concession— Summons Supersti- 
tion—National Character— Confession— Infernal Ma- 
chinery 175 

LETTER X 

England.— The Dumb Boy— Jack's Advent ur e D eparture 
from Ireland— Clifton — Hannah Moo re A Carnal 
Pohtician— Treachery— Afflictions Jack's Pro g ress 
Prayer— Mercies— A Soldier— A Home— Fake Judge- 
ment— Tranquillity . . 902 

LETTER XI. 

Sandhurst.— A Proposal— A Snare— An Incident— Papal 
Fulmination— Public Events— The Duke of York— 
Navarino— Prognostications— Jack's Petition— Happy 
Caution — P e rs e v e rance — Zeal — Testimonies — A Con- 
trast — Erroneous Views — Millennarianism — Second 
Advent 221 

LETTER XII. 

Separation. — Prejudices — Home — Forebodings — Dan- 
ger—Trying Scenes— Queries— Awful Contrast— 
Carets— Retrospections— A Visitation— Want of 
Faith— A Hidden Work— Hope— True £omfi>rt— 
Sympathy— True Feeling 243 






▼Ul CONTENTS. 

LETTER XIII. Pif0 

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 Papaliied 
—An Admonition— Ichabod— Retribution 26*6 

LETTER XIV. 

Employment. — Sabbath Meetings — Boys — An Event — 

Forgiveness— Prejudices — The Irish Language — St. 

♦ Giles— A Project — The Irish Church — Mr. Howies— 

' Controversy— Speaking Out-Judgment and Mercy — 
The resurrection— Millennarianism 264 

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. 307 

LETTER XVI. 

A Removal.- An Appeal — Irish schools — Value of a Ro- 
mish Oath— Retribution— Puseyism— Opposition. . . 327 

LETTER XVII. 

Ireland Revisited. — The Onset— Dr. Hamilton — The 
Massacre— Cruel Desertion — The Bishop of London— 
The Archbishop of Tuam— Daniel O'Connell— Pro- 
gress of Popery— Progress of Protestantism— Church 
Membership— Antinomianism 9 . 343 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 



i 



LETTER L 

CHILDHOOD. 

I hate given my bast consideration to the argu- 
ments by which you support the demand for a few 
notices of events connected with my personal recollec- 
tions 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 in 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 after 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 



10 REASONS. J 

i 

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 
dissent from 'your remark, that even godliness itself is 
too often sought to be made a gain of in such cases. 
Writers who are themselves wholly unenlightened by 
spiritual knowledge, 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 la- 
boured. Even among those of better understanding 
in the ways of truth, we do not often meet sound judg- 
ment, 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 hava 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, 
that 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 dishonourable, base, and 
mercenary proceeding on their part, if ever they permit \ 

a sentence addressed by me to them to pass into other i 

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 after my death, they 
will proclaim my having so guarded my correspond* 
ence, in order, if possible, to shame the individuals frpm 






REASONS. U 

a course with regard to me which I have nerer been 
inveigled into with regard to others. Looking on 
epistolary communications as a trust not to be betray- 
ed, I Hare invariably refused to deliver to the biogra- 
phers 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 precau- 
tions I have used will leave my memory more com- 
pletely at the mercy of ill-judging or ill-informed sur- 
vivors, who, in the absence of more authentic informa- 
tion, 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 ap- 
prehension 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 in- 
cidents, 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 historf no person 
possessed of a particle of delicacy can wish to intrude. 
It is melancholy to witness the prying spirit that some 
are but too ready to cater to, for filthy lucre's sake ; 
and grievous to reflect, 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 



\ 



12 ' MWOlf. 

an untruth concerning him without being legally 
compelled to render compensation, should be with- 
drawn from his grave. I cannot tell you how I have 
Masked 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 biographical 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 useful- 
ness, 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. 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 searching out and pro- 
claiming my opinions on any topic whatever, apart 
from personalities. I will not withhold, nor disguise, 
nor softerifrthem 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 



uarttx's nisox. 13 

me from self-seeking and to overrule it to the glory of 
His great name, I must remind you that my birth- 
place waa Norwich ; a fine old town, distinguished lor 
its many antiquities, the beauty of its situation an 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 heheld it, and perhaps 
the march of modern improvement has so changed its 
features that were Inow 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 hen. The sphere in which it is my 
dearest privilege to labour is the cense of Protestant- 
ism; and sometimes, when Ood 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 glorious martyrs of Mary's 
day were imprisoned. I have recollected that the 
house wherein I drew my first breath was visible 
through the grated window of their prison, and a eon* 
tpicuous object when its gates unfolded to deliver them 
to unjust judgment and a cruel death. Are any of 
the prayers of those glorified saints fulfilled in the 
poor child who w&s brought into the world 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 stem-looking gate* 
way, opening on St Martin's Plain, was probably one 
ef the very first objects traced on the retina of my in- 
2 



\\ 



14 PALACE <GAKDJEff. 

fant eye, when it ranged beyond the inner walls of the 
nursery : and often, with tottering step, I passed be- 
neath that arch into the splendid garden of our noble 
episcopal palace; and certainly, if my Protestantism 
may not be traced to that locality, my taste may ; for 
from all the elaborate display of modern 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 English style ; 
but the most conspicuous, the most unforgetable fea- 
ture was the cathedral itself, which formed the bound* 
ary of one half of the garden : a mass of sober magnifi- 
cence, rising in calm repose against the sky, which to 
my awe-struck gaze and childish imagination, seemed 
to xest upon its exquisitely-formed spire. Seated on 
the grass, ousying 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 
seemingly 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 en- 
joyment I acquired that habit of dreamy excursive- 
ness into imaginary scenes, and niijfrt% unreal person- 
ages, which is alike inimical to rational persuits, and 
opposed to spiritual-mindedness. To a period so early 
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 unhesi- 



8COT01T. 16 

tatingly declare, my mind was deeply tinctured with a 
romance not derived from books, nor from conversa- 
tion, but arising, as I verily believe, out of the singu- 
lar adaptation to each other of my natural taste and 
the scenery amidst which it began to develope itseft 
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 qn account of its proximity to the 
church of which he was rector. This too was an old- 
fashioned house, mantled with a vine, and straggling 
out, in irregular buildings, along the slope of the gar- 
den. 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, bow I loved to lurk beneath its shadow on 
a summer evening, and await the twilight gloom, that 
the large owl might coa>e forth and wheel around the 
tree, and call out his companions with a melancholy 
hoot ; while the smaller bat, dipping lower in his flighty 
brushed by me, accustomed to my presence. I had 
entered betimes upon the pernicious study of nursery 
tales, as they then were, and without having the small- 
est actual belief in the existence of fairies, goblins, or 
any such things, I took unutterable delight in sur- 
rqunding myself with hosts of them, decked out in 
colours of my own supplying, gorgeous or terrible be- 
jond the conception of my classic authorities. . The 



16 MUSIC, 

faculty of realising whatever I pictured to myself was 
astonishingly great; and you mptst admit that the 
localities in which I was placed were but too favour- 
able to the formation of a character, which I hare no 
doubt the enemy was secretly constructing 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, taste, 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 son of the celebrated 
composer, Mr. Lanky, who was as highly gifted in in- 
strumental as my father was in vocal music. The rich 
tones of his old harpsichord seem at this moment fo 
fill my ear and swell my heart ; while my father's deep, 
dear, mellow voice, breaks in, with some noble recita- 
tive or elaborate air of Handel, Haydn, and the rest 
of a school that may be superseded, but never, never 
can be equalled by modern composers. Or the harp- 
sichord was relinquished to another hand, and the 
breath of our friend came forth through the reed of 
his hautboy in strains of such overpowering melody, 
that I have hid my face on my mother's lap to weep 
the feelings that absolutely wrung my little heart with 



MUSIC. 17 >- 

excess of enjoyment This was not ft 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 fos- 
tered by the habit I have before adverted to, this testa 
for music, and its high gratification, most certainly 
elevated the mind. I do firmly believe that it is a gift 
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 
standard, to which man should aspire as an intellectual 
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 hates music.' 

Before I had completed my sixth year, I came under 
the rod of discipline which was to fall so long and so 
perseveringly 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 



I* ^ itudt. 

lesson he had appointed Thus between love for my 
uncle, delight in his organ, and a natural inclination 
to acquire learning, I was stimulated to extraordinary 
efforts, and met the demand on my anergics 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 light 
was concerned, and the case seemed hopeless. It was, 
however, among the " all things" that Qod 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, while it threw me 
more upon my own resources, such as they were, and 
gave me a keen relish for the highly intellectual con* 
venation 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 overflow-' 
ing 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 



A BROTHER. 19 

from such occasional collision with antagonists of that 
calibre. I am often charged with the offence of being 
too political in my writings: the fact is, I write as I 
think and feel j and what else can yon expect from a 
child reared in such a nursery 1 

But another consequence of this temporary Titra- 
tion 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, after the afternoon ser- 
vice 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 
rather, 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 confession, 
1 1 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 resem- 
bled me in any respect, for he was beautiful to a pro* 
digy, and I an ordinary child ; he was wholly free from 
any predilection for learning, being jnirthful and vola- 
tile in the highest degree; and though he listened 
when I read to him the mysterious marvels of my 
favourite nursery books, I doubt whether he ever be* 
stowed an after-thought on any thing therein con* 
tained. The brightest, the sweetest, the most spark* 
ling 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 life j and he was to me what the natural 
sun is to the system. We were never separated ; our 



20 PROTESTANTISM. 

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 be- 
tween us, from the cradle to his grave ; and God for- 
bid that I should say or think that the grave has broken 
it ! If I have not from the outset included that pre- 
cious 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 1 
privation, was fully restored, I first imbibed the strength 
of Protestantism as deeply as it can be imbibed apart 
from spiritual understanding. Norwich was infa- 
mously conspicuous in persecuting unto death the 
saints of the Most High, under the sanguinary des- 
potism of Popish Mary ; and the spot where they suf- 
fered, called the Lollard's Pit, lies just outside the 
town, over Bishop's bridge, having a circular excava- 
tion against the side of Moushold-hilL This, at least 
to within a year or two/ago, was kept distinct^ an 
opening 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 



PKOTEgTANTlSX. 21 

don't think you can wad a word of this book, but yon 
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 Monuments, in venerable black letter, and 
left 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 V 

« What do you mean, child V 

' 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 Bapists again, as they talk of 
doing, you may probably Hve to be a martyr.' 

I remember the stern pleasure that his 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. Al- 
ready had its sublimity caught my admiration; and 
when listening to the lofty language of Isaiah, as read 
from his stall in the cathedral by my father in Advent, 



22 THE BIBLE. 

and the early Sundays of the year, while hi* magnifi- 
cent yoke sent die prophetic denunciations pealing 
through those vaulted aisles, I had received into my 
mind, and I tnink 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 protest was laid in my character ; and 
to this hour it is my 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 Loflard'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 bless- 
ings of my life I remember the judicious conduct of 
my parents in regafd to it. We generally find that 
precious volume made a book of tasks; sometimes 
even a book of penalties : the consequence of so doing 
eannot 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 
rrtral 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 
Westminster, was by his wife presented to my mother 
to whom she stood sponsor. 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 evwcy thing, would 
read to- us the history of Abel, of Noah, Moses, Gideon, 
or some other of the exquisite narratives of the Old 



JUDICIOUS FLAK. 23 

Testament. I do not say that they were made the 
medium of conveying spiritual instruction ; they weie 
unaccompanied 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 Scrip- 
tures is infinitely preferable to setting him tasks to 
learn out of it, or even of encumbering with human ex* 
planations 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 re- 
joice in ; it led me to search for myself the inspired 
pages : it taught me to expect beauties, and excellen- 
cies, and high intellectual gratification, where God 
has indeed caused them to abound. As in the na- 
tural world we find the nutritious fruit not lying 
like pebbles on the ground, but hung on graceful 
trees and shrubs, heralded, by fair and fragrant blos- 
soms, embowered in verdant foliage, and itself beauti- 
fully 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 bounte- 
ous care for our mind's enjoyment while he makes 
provision for our soufs sustenance, when we negleot 
to point these things out to the notice of our chil- 
dren % The word was my delight many a year be- 
fore 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, 



24 RELIGION. 

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 doctrinal 
error in its various forms, through that full acquain- 
tance with God's word ; you will trace his marvellous 
workings 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 declara- 
tion, ( 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 powerful manner, 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 con* 
fession. We then went, hand in hand, to our mother, 
and the one who stood clear of die offence acknow- 
ledged 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 



A LIE. 2$ 

guilt ; and nothing bound us mow closely and ex- 
tkamvtty together than the discoveries we wave alwaye 
making of a laxkj among other children in tkie respect 
On such occasions we would shrink into a corner by 
ourselves, and whisper, ' Do they think God does not 
hear that V Self-righteousness, no doubt, existed in a 
high degree : we were baby Pharisees, rejoicing in the 
external cleanliness of cup and platter ; but I look back 
with great thankfulness on the mercy that so far in- 
structed us ; an habitual regard to truth has carried 
ma safely through many a trial, and, as a means, 
guarded me from many a snare. It cannot be too 
early ot too strongly inculcated ; nor should any effort 
be considered too great, any difficulty as too dis- 
couraging, 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 remember having been led into a lie, at the in- 
stigation, and through the contrivance of a servant 
. girl, for whose benefit it was told. Suspicion instantly 
arose, from my dreadful embarrassment of manner ; a 
strict mi'sstigsiion commenced i 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, in- 
credulous expression of my brother's innocent face, 
who could not for a moment fancy me guilty. I eon* 
fessed at once ; and with a heavy sigh m Y father sent 
to borrow from a neighbour an instrument of chastise- 
ment never before needed in hie own house. He took 
me to another room, and said, ' Child, it will pain me 
3 



26 PUNISHMENT. 

more to punish you thus, than any blows I can inflict 
will pain you ; but I must do it ; you hare told a lie; 
a dreadful 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. 1 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 trans* 
grossed in that way again. The servant was called, 
received her wages, and a most awful lecture, and was 
discharged 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 soft 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 offend- 
ing child ; a Father whose chastisements an not with- 
held, but administered 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 neg- 
lecting 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 reprimand only, a wilful offence, and the mis- 



i 



A FE0VER8. 27 

chievous misapplication of doctrine, that induces some 
to let nature do her wont, because nothing but grace 
can effectually suppress her evil workings ; all these are 
faulty in the extreme, and no less presumptuous Asa 
foolish: this has produced that 'spirit of the age 1 which, 
operating in a ' pressure from without 1 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. 



LETTER II. 

YOUTH. 

I hate long been persuaded that there is no such 
thing as an honest private journal, even where the en- 
tries are punctually made under present impressions. 
There is so much of positive, active evil always at 
work in the mind, that to give a fair transcript of idle 
unprofitable thoughts and corrupt imaginings is out of 
the question : evil is dealt with in generals, good in 
particulars, and the balance cannot be fairly struck. 
Those confessions of indweHing sin that remorse will 
wring from us, and which, perhaps, are penned at the 
moment in perfect sincerity, being unaccompanied with 
the specifications that would invest them in their na- 
turally hideous colours, wear the lovely garb of un- 
feigned humility. The reader, coming to such self-con- 
demnatory clauses, is struck with admiration at the 
saintly writer's marvellous self-abasement, only lament- 
ing that he should, in the excess of his lowly-minded- 
ness, have written such bitter things against himself, 
at a time when he was grieving, resisting, almost 
quenching the Holy Spirit within, by obstinate trans- 
gression. 

And if the present, how much more is the past, lia- 
ble to be glossed over ! To be faithful here is next to 



KOXiHCK. 29 

impossible, for Satan helps 110 to decern ourselves} 
and instructs us to carry out the deception to others. 
This consideration might well cause the pen of auto- 
biography to drop from a christian'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 counterpoise to 
the discouragement I do desire to magnify the ex- 
ceeding riches of God's grace to me, if I may do so 
without increasing the charge of arrogant assumption. 
I know that among the diversity of gifts which he be* 
stowed on his creatures, he granted me a portion of 
mental energy, a quickness of perception, a liveliness 
of imagination, an aptitude for expressing the thoughts 
that were perpetually revolving in my mind, suck as 
to fit me for literary occupation. I know that Satan, 
to whom such instruments are exceedingly valuable, 
marked me as one who would, if properly trained to it, 
4o 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 evi- 
dently 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 vineyard % 

The visitation of which I have spoken had a power- 
ful influence on my after-life ; it rendered the, preser- 
vation of my newly-restored sight an object of para- 
mount importance, to which the regular routine of 
education must needs be sacrificed. A boarding 
3* 



30 THE DRAMA, 

school kid never been thought of for me ; my parents 
loved their children too well to meditate their expul- 
sion from the paternal roof; and the children so well 
loved their parents and each other that such a separa- 
tion would have been insupportable to them. Masters 
we had in the necessary branches of education, and we 
studied together so far as I was permitted to study ; 
but before it was deemed safe te 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 remem- 
ber 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 ex- 
istence but in my brain ; related with so much pathos 4 
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 
hi 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. 1 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 



w _ 



POETICAL TASTE. SI 

I gazed upon the glitter, and enjoyed tie bustle ; but 
now, seated in a corner, all quiet about me, and nothing 
to interfere with the mental world, I drank a cup of 
intoxication under which my brain reeled for many a 
year. The character of Shyloek burst upon me, even 
as Shakespeare had conceived iU 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 brain. 

Pernicious indeed they were, for from that hour my 
diligence in study, my docility of conduct, every thing 
that is usually regarded as praiseworthy in a child, 
sprung from a new motive. I wanted to earn a re- 
ward, and that was no longer a sweet story from the 
Bible, but permission to carry into my retreat a vol- 
ume of Shakspeare. A taste so unusual at my age 
was hailed with applause; visiters questioned me on 
the different plays, to ascertain my intimate acquaint- 
ance with the characters; but no one, not even my fa* 
ther 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 ro- 
mance. Reality became insipid, almost hateful to me ; 
conversation, except that of literary men, to whom I 
have alluded, a burden: I imbibed a thorough eon- 
tempt for women, children, and household affairs, en- 
trenching myself behind invisible barriers that few, 
very few, could pass. Oh, how many wasted hours, 
how much of unprofitable labour, what wrong to my 



32 INJURIOUS MEDICAL TREATMENT. 

fellow-creatures, 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 soul wrapped in the 
vain solace of unsubstantial enjoyments during years 
of after sorrow, when but for this I might have early 
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 panacea for almost every ill, 
and that was the perilous drug, mercury. With it they 
rather fed than physiced 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 health- 
iest of human beings, and with an inexhaustible flow 
of even mirthful spirits, for certainly I was long kept 
hovering 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, 



BOOKS. 33 

however, had hi* own purposes to Work out, which 
neither Satan nor man could hinder. Ha overruled 
all for the furtherance of his own gracious designs. 

Shut out by this last dispensation from my two da* 
Hghtful resources, music and conversation, I took re- 
fuge 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 pre- 
scribed for young ladies ; and I underwent the inflic- 
tion of reading aloud to my mother the seven mortal 
volumes of Sir Charles Grandison. It was in the fulfil, 
ment of this awful task that I acquired a habit particu- 
larly mischievous and ensnaring, that of reading me- 
chanically with a total abstraction of mind from what I 
was about This became the easier to me from the ab- 
sence of all external sound; and its consequences are ex- 
ceedingly distressing to this day, as experienced in a 
long indulged, and afterwards most bitterly lamented 
wandering of the mind in prayer and reading the scrip- 
tures. In fact, through the prevalence of this habit, 
my devotions, always very punctually perform ed, be- 
came such an utter lip-service as frequently to startle 
and terrify my conscience when I found myself saying 
prayers and thinking idle songs or scraps of plays ; but . 
I regarded such transient pangs of remorse as a satis- 
faction for the sin, and never dreamed of resisting the 
general habit 

Thus far, I had led a town life, residing in the heart 
of a populous city, enjoying indeed that noble garden, 
and but daily more and more absorbed in books of 
fancy. Happily my health became so affected that a 
removal into the country was judged necessary, and I 



34 A CHANGE. 

- 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 parochial duty 
with a friend, taking his village congregation, and en- 
gaging a house very near the church. 

That tall white houBe, — 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, fring- 
ed with osiers, and alders, and willows, alone separated 
the wall from a very clear, lovely stream, which wind* 
ing half round an extensive common, turned a milL 
This small river abounded with fish, and we soon be- 
came expert anglers, besides which, on creeping to 
some distance by a path of our own discovery, we 
could cross the stream on a moveable plank, and take - 
.a wide range through the country. This removal 
was a double resource ; it invigorated my poor bodily 
frame, until I outgrew and out-bloomed every girl of 
my age in the neighbourhood, while really laying a 
foundation for many years of uninterrupted health, 
and a constitution to defy the change of climate fos 
which I was destined ; while it won me from the sick- 
ening, enervating habit of sedentary enjoyment over 
the pages of a book, which, added to the necessary 



RURAL UFB. 35 

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 novci did bird of the air or beast of the field more 
luxuriate in the pure bright elements of nature than I 
did. All the poetical visions of liberty that had floated 
in my brain seemed now realised ; all pastoral descrip- 
tions faded before the actual enjoyment of rural life. 
Sometimes wreathing garlands of wild flowers, reclined 
on a sunny bank' while a flock of sheep strolled around, 
and the bold little Iambs came to peep in our faces, 
and then gallop away in pretended alarm; some- 
times tearing our clothes to tatters in an ardent hunt 
for the sweet filberts that hung high above our heads 
on trees well fortified behind breastworks of bramble 
and thorn ; sometimes cultivating the friendship while 
we quaffejL the milk of the good-natured cows under 
the dairymaid's operation, whose breath I was instruc- 
ted to inhak; all was freedom, mirth, and peace. 0£ 
ten would my father take his noble pointers prepara- 
tory 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 following 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 without 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* 



36 STAYS. 

draper's bills : not in those of the apothecary and un- 
dertaker. 1 

My dear father was right ; and it would be a happy- 
thing for girls in general if somewhat of appearance, 
and of acquirement too, was sacrificed to what God 
has so liberally provided, and to the enjoyment of 
which a blessing is undoubtedly annexed. Where, 
among females, do we find the stamina of constitution 
and the elasticity of spirit which exist in those of our 
rural population who follow out-door employment? 
It positively pains me to see a party of girls, a bon- 
neted and tippeted double-file of humanity, 

' That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along' 
under the ke«n surveillance of a governess, whose 
nerves would never be able to endure the shock of see- 
ing them bound over a stream or scramble through a 
fence, or even toss their heads and throw* out their 
limbs as all young animals, except that oppressed class 
called young ladies, are privileged to. Having ven- 
tured, in a fit of my country daring, to break the ice 
of this very rigid and frigid subject, I will recount an- 
other instance of the paternal good sense to which £ 
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 Hfound sundry prepa- 
rations 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 V 

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



i 



TIGHT LACING. 87 

For what purpose?' 

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

' I beg your pardon ; young gentlemen grow up 
very well without them, and so may young ladies. 1 

' 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. 9 

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

AD remonstrance was vain ; stays and every species 
of tight dress were strictly prohibited by the authority 
of one whose wiD was, as every man's ought to be, ab- 
solute in his own household. He also carefully 
watched against any evasion of the rule ; a ribband 
drawn tightly round my waist would have been cut 
without hesitation, by his determined hand ; while the 
little girl of the anxious friend whose operations he 
had interrupted, enjoyed all the advantages of that • 
system from which I was preserved. She grew up a 
wand-like figure, graceful and interesting, and died of 
decline at nineteen, while T, though not able to compare 
shapes with a wasp or an hour-glass, yet passed mus- 
ter very fairly among mere human forms, of God's 
moulding; and I have enjoyed to this hour a rare ex- 
emption from headaches, and other lady-like maladies, 
that appear the almost exclusive privilege of women 
in the higher classes. 

This is no trivial matter, believe me ; it has fre- 
quently been the subject of conversation with profes- 
sional men of high attainment, and I never met with 
one among them who did not, on hearing that I never 
4 



98 TIGHT LACHTCK 

but once, and then only for a few hours, submitted to 
the restraint of these unnatural machines, refer to that 
exemption, as a means, the free respiration, circulation, 
and powers both of exertion and endurance with which 
the Lord has most mercifully gifted 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 hand lays the foundation 
of bitter sufferings ; at the price of which, and probably 
of a premature death, the advantage must be pur- 
chased of rendering her figure as unlike as possible to 
all the models of female beauty, universally admitted 
to be such, because they are chiseled after nature itself. 
I have seen pictures, and I have read harrowing descrip- 
tions, of the murderous consequences of thus flying in 
' the face of the Creator's skill, and presuming to mend 
. — to improve — his perfect work ; but my own experi- 
ence is worth a thousand treatises and ten thousand 
illustrations, in bringing conviction to my mind. Once, 
when introduced, as it is called, to the public, through 
the 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 much as, I suppose, a frolick- 
some young colt feels when first subjected to the goad- 
ing 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 tempt- 
ed so to tempt my all-wise Maker by saying to the frame 



&UWU8 CTOXOX. 99 

that lie had fashioned aid supplied with the means of 
healthful growth, " Hitherto shalt thou go and no 
farther." 

Compressive of the feet was with equal strictness 
forbidden by my judicious father. This Tain custom 
is 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 been practised, 
but while rejoicing that ^experimentally, know nothing 
of it, I cannot help recollecting that the bounding pulse 
which plays so joyously through my reins 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} 
Do they weigh, in the balance of God's providing, 
this necessary provision of clothing, to separate not 
only what is unseemly for the woman professing godly 
simplicity, but what is enervating to those physical 
powers which she is bound to promote to the Lord, 
and the weakening of which is actual robbery of him} 
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, in all my arguments with my own sex, I have 
found the men invariably siding with me on this topic. 

Ton 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 direction for die rest of our 



40 THE COTflp&Y. 

pilgrimage, I cannot pass by anything that appears to 
me of real importance to either. We will now return 
to 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 punctuality, 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 un- 
avoidable 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 often recall those 
days of summer sunshine to which I have alluded J 
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 balls 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 grave. How often, 



e- 
seated on the low wide brick-work corner of the im- 
mense fireplace in a neighbouring farm-home, 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 oyer a treasury 
of apples, nuts, and elderberry wine, all streaming to- 
gether in the lusciousness of a promised feast % Pa- 
triotism is with me no inert principle ; it verily lives 
and acts, and pervades my whole spirit ; and I believe 
its energetic character, except as God designs to work 
by his especial influence, is traceable to that early ac- 
quaintance with what is most purely English among 
us — the homes and the habits of our own bold yeo- 
manry. Cities may resemble one another, and the 
aping propensities of their inhabitants produce among 
them a rapid approximation of appearance and man- 
ners ; but where shall we look for the counterpart of 
a rural English home) The thing is as untrans- 
ferraUe as the world is untranslateable. The antique 
Tillage church, with its broad square tower, or low 
spire, its stone porch and oak seats, its narrow case* 
ments, 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 building, efface their reHcs from its walls: — the 
churchyard surrounding its base, with und u lating hil- 
locks 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, 



42 A REFORMER HEEDED. 

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 peace* 
ful peasantry, the humblest of whom knows that his 
cottage is a chartered sanctuary, protected alike from 
the aggressions of civil and of ecclesiastical tyranny, — 
these, too, are English, sacredly English ; and they 
leave upon the heart that has once expanded among 
them an impress never to be effaced. Among national 
reformers, what a noble position would he occupy who 
should prevail upon our monied countrymen to ex* 
change their habits of periodical vagraney into Popish 
lands, for a sojourn in the moral districts of their own 
Protestant England, in the confidence that the climate 
which agreed with their fathers from generation to 
generation — as the dates and ages decypherable 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 talents committed to their charge. 

I have told you how books of imaginationthad sup- 
planted 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 gHttering tinsel of unsanctified genius, 
as it shone forth in the pages of my beloved poets, that 
no room was left for a craving after better studies. 
Yet the turn of my mind jwas devotional in the ex- 



RELIGIOUS FEELINGS. 43 

treme ; so much so, that Lad the Lord permitted me at 
that time to come in contact with the wily fascinations 
of Popery, I am sore 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—* 
mot as a being of purer 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 
divinity; and Pope's atrocious ( Universal Prayer 9 
would have become my manual of devotion, had not 
my father denounced it as a most blasphemous 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 pri- 
vate repetition of a form of prayer, morning or eve- 
ning, on any account, nor absented myself from public 
worship. A slighting expression applied to the Bible 
would kindle me into glowing resentment, expressed 
with no less sincerity Than earnestness, and as a mat- 
ter of duty. I devoted some time every Sabbath-day to 
the perusal of God's word, with which I had become 
more extensively acquainted by reatljpg it during ser- 
mon-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 per- 
manently, in my mind : it was not an abiding impres- 
sion, but a thing of fits and starts, overwhelming me 



44 THE CATECHISM. 

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 always occurred during, or im- 
mediately after, such perusal ; or when some passage 
was suddenly brought to my recollection. I am wri- 
ting 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 punc- 
tually repeated every Sunday, proved a great snare to 
me. I, of course, felt bound to receive it aU as unques- 
tionably 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 believe 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 
same as to say " I am sanctified by him ;" and I knew 
that according to the obvious sense of the passage, I 
was numbering myself with that elect people. Many 
an alarming inquiry, which if followed up by a prayer- 
ful appeal to the Bible might have led me then to Je- 
sus, was effectually stifled by this misconception. I 
know that the clauae can be explained so as to do away 
with this wrong inference ; but I cannot help lament- 
ing that expressions put in the mouths of children as 
a confession of faith, should be left liable to any such 
misconstruction. My attachment to the Established 
Church of England is warm and sincere : it has, as 



A DELINQUENT. 45 

the sequel will show, withstood many assaults, and in- 
creased in proportion as it was assailed ; but its form- 
ularies, 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 mis- 
chievous misleader. 

Not wishing to return to the subject, I wiH close 
this letter by the relation of an incident, which, coupled 
with the recollection of my own youthful cogitations, 
deepened painfully the impression I have here admit- 
ted. When engaged a few years since, in giving Sab- 
bath instruction at my own house to a number of 
young people, 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 after happened 
that on a Saturday night I gave a little feast, a tea- 
party, to the boys, and on their assembling 1 discovered 
to my great horror, 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 following 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, 
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 National School to which this boy 
belonged ; and as usual some of the children were se- 
lected to repeat the catechism in the church. It was 



46 A FACT. 

the Military Chapel at Sandhurst, filled in every part 
with its imposing array ; and the little catechumens were 
placed near the communion table, each speaker having 
to advance a step or two into open view, standing 
singly conspicuous. Judge of my feelings, when, 
wearing an aspect of the utmost confidence, but still 
flushed and debilitated through his last night's debauch, 
my unhappy little drunkard stepped forth, and with 
great distinctness and self-complacency repeated those 
words : "I learn to believe .... thirdly in God 
the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the Elect 
people of God." 

I fairly burst into tears. I will] add no comment, 
but simply 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 excel- 
lent and scriptural, and by a few verbal corrections to 
' do away with whatever may cast a stumbling-block 
before the lambs of our fold. 



LETTER III. 



EARLY DATS. 



Connected with this period of my early life we re- 
collections that I would not lose. They are vivid, 
because, as I have said, I was 8 thinking child, having 
been accustomed to listen with eagerness to the con- 
versation of my seniors, I had insensibly imbibed 
their feelings. The recent horrors of the French re* 
volution, and the kindred spirit that had burst 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 favoured soil, of course formed a very promi- 
nent topic of conversation. Indeed every mind was 
more or less engrossed by it ; and my father, an enthu- 
siastic loyalist, devoted to the constitution in Church 
and State, had offered more than verbal resistance to 
the enemy; for, as I often 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 en- 
ergetic and his appearance commanding, had placed 
himself in the fore-front of a party of gentlemen who 
stormed the quarters taken up by these movers of sedi- 



48 REVOLUTIONISM. 

tion, interrupted their dangerous proceedings, over- 
powered all resistance, and drove the intruders out of 
the town. He was not fond of hearing his own praises 
sounded on this subject, for he felt that nothing short 
of an extreme case could justify a clergyman in thus 
coming forward : 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 belonged to these two sys- 
tems, 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 part 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 an Irish rebellion; and with 'to im- 
mense manufacturing population, 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 people ample 
payment for services which the latter valued at no- 
thing; 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 them- 
selves treated accordingly. Both parties beheld in the 
Church of England the most insurmountable barrier 
to their designs upon the civil and religious institu- 
tions of the country ; and they were perfectly right, 



FQLRIC& 49 

for so it unquestionably ii; and long may it so 
remain* 

Born into this exciting period, and hearing from my 
earliest infancy such matters canvassed, not as theo- 
ries, bnt 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 prepara- 
tory to entering college, remarked, on detecting me 
poring over a newspaper as big as myself, u Missy 
will one day be a great politician." He was so fas 
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 Englishmen ; and the importance of 
training them up, even from the nursery, in the sound 
principles of our matchless constitution. 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 English 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 precious 
ramparts of our Protestant constitution. 

The era to which I would now revert was that of 
5 



50 NATIONAL CONFESSION. 

Napoleon 8 menaced invasion. On, what a spirit did 
it rouse among us 1 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 voluntary soldiers, officered by the 
very men against whom their enmity had lately blazed 
forth, and with most cheerful subordination obeying 
them. It was a lovely sight, even lovelier 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 reite- 
rated appeals to Him who alone giveth victory to 
kings and peace to their people. How deep, how 
solemn was the stillness of that oft-recurring season of 
which we had been forewarned by a square pamphlet 
being laid on my father's breakfast-table some days 
previous, entitled " A Form of Prayer, with fasting, to 
Almighty God," for such a day. On the evening 
preceding, 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 them ; and then 
read to my mother his sermon for the morrow. We 
always woke with a serious impression on our minds, 
and came to a mutual agreement to put away all toys, 
and be content with our salt fish and egg-sauce. 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 ac- 
complish of his measured, almost military step. In 



XXCHEMBNT. 51 

every street was seen a long line of silent church-goer*, 
repairing to their several places of worship; and many 
habited themselves in black on those days, to add effect 
to their humiliation. I do not say that these were 
spiritual worshippers : I cannot say that the doctrine 
preached, at that time, from the pulpits of oar churches 
was the Gospel of Jesus Christ : but this I know, that 
while menacing France gloried in easting off all wot* 
ship of, all belief in the God of heaven — menaced Eng- 
land openly acknowledged her sole dependence to he 
on His Almighty protection. France was baffled— 
England is preserved 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 scenes as I have described are among the remi- 
niscences 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-thuds 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 within less than one mile, and resumed our atten- 
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, as- 
sembled all the little boys of the neighbourhood, ad- 
dressed them in a patriotic speech, and brought them 
to the unanimous resolution of arming in defence of 



(ft BONAPARTE. 

their country. Those whose finances extended so 
fax, brought real wooden guns and swords; others, 
impoverished by the allurements of an old dame who 
▼ended lollypops, was obliged to content themselves 
with such weapons as they could shape out of the 
hedge: a sixpenny drum, and a twopenny fife com- 
pleted 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 Eng- 
land, as wrought to the highest pitch the enthusiasm 
of the regiment, whose colonel was tea 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 immi- 
nent, we knew it, we felt it ; and many a time did we 
withdraw to the shelter of the old hay-stack, where we 
had hollowed out a little alcove, and hold converse, 
with breathless anxiety, on the probable future. Some- 
times 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 man seemed to embody in himself all that 
was terrifying in she 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. None who were not 



THE TEST ACT. fi£ 

then in being, and capable of reflection, can possibly 
conceive bow formidable he was : and although epaken 
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 01 openly cherished the hope of slaying him, 
and not a few English women meditated giving him 
Jaef s welcome, still the name of Bonaparte carried 
with it a spell that convinces me he was specially com- 
missioned to execute God's wrath, and "smite the na- 
tions with a perpetual stroke" as the executioner of 
his vengeance. England, I am persuaded, feared him 
not : she was not included in his mission, for she was 
still Protestant to the heart's core, under a nobly pro* 
testing King: and it is manifest that he had no power 
beyond the range of papal domination. Egypt re- 
pulsed 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 
adoption of French principles was greatly checked 
by the tone of national defiance universally breathed 
against France. Advantage, 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 
5 # 



.54 THE TEST ACT. 

Massing* that they desired to preserve to their pos- 
terity. By small beginnings the work was taken in 
hand ; and two measures were pressed on the attention 
of the legislature, of which one was the removal of the 
established test on admitting any Protestant to a cor- 
porate or other office of civil trust ; the other was to 
unbar the door so firmly barricaded against the re- 
entrance of popery. To the latter proposition George 
the third had opposed the insurmountable 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 irre- 
parable 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 revolutionizing principles, 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 
mindL You know, the test was a participation^ the 
Lord's supper on the part of the person entering upon 
office ; and it cannot be doubted that a most sacred or* 
dinance was thus profaned and degraded into a mere 



THE TEST ACT. 55 

stepping-stone to secular advantage, by mutttudes 
who therein " eat 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 relaxa- 
tion, or rather the total cessation of church dia«iplw|p 
among us, no restraining hand could be laid on the 
worst 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 e ccles iastical, 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 such as are minded 
to fear the Lord and the king, and not to meddle with 
them that are given to change ; but 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, ignorant of those doctrines by which alone 
their flocks could be built up on our most holy faith. 
These preachers were followed ; sects increased ; and 
from forsaking the public services of the church, 
they gradually separated altogether from her commu- 
nion, and became hostile to her whole frame, visiting 
the sinful 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 seeeders, and the acts 



56 THE USULT. 

in question dint them out from ablations which in all 
respects bat this of hostility to established things they 
were well qualified to hold. It seemed a great griev- 
ance ; public feeling ran strongly in favour of the com- 
plainants, and the point, as you know, was ultimately 
gained. 

My father opposed the proceeding in toto ; he con- 
tended lor the principle of excluding all who would 
conscientiously exert their influence to subvert what 
they avowedly disapproved 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 doubtless 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 suici- 
dal blow, the fatal weapon being declension from God. 
" The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear 
rule by their means, and my people love to have it so, 
and what will ye do in the end thereof?" 

The moral pestilence of the French revolution took 
effect on the great mass of our population in a larger 
degree than we seem generally 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 its details scriptural ; 
but this frame-work consists only in acts and ordinan* 



KATHHUI. HUB* 5T 

ces, drawn up by mam's band, and transmitted from 
size to son. It is evident that nothing spiritually vital 
can reside in tbe skins of parchment, 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 aH things fitting for tbe functions 
alike of civil and religious being, may be, among less 
favoured nations, what the bodies in EzekieFs 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 sym- 
metry 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 what* 
ever devotion 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 must perish, I am persuaded 
that the language of both Up and heart, in our domes- 
tic and social circles, was that of vain-glorious confi- 
dence in the arm of flesh ; of boastful superiority over 
our enemies ; and a -conviction that to our insular po- 
sition, our naval superiority, our military prowess, and 
a certain impression on the minds of the French that 
Englishmen were unconquerable, we owed our past 
prosperity, our present security. In church, we ac* 
knowledged "It is thou that fightest for us, O God!" 



58 BUDDING OF THE CHURCH. 

at home, our watchword 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 for his people ; and God 
wrought for His name's sake that it should not be pol- 
luted in the sight of the nations who publicly mocked 
him, by their victory over a people who publicly hon- 
oured 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 dis- 
solution. * 

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 him- 
self without witness in it, though the voices raised by 
faithful men were few and far between ; while the op- 
position 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 congregation. 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 



TB.UB O0M8ERVAHSSX, 59 



by-word and a laughingstock among his own familiar 
friends. It was by the kindling of these lights hen 
and there that the gross darkness which had prevailed 
to cover the land and the people was made manifest ; 
and just in proportion as men awoke to the approval 
of such things as be excellent, they learned to appreci- 
ate 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, suit- 
able to the times in which they were framed, but re- 
quiring to be changed and adapted to the shifting ha- 
bits of succeeding generations. Instead of viewing the 
standard as framed according to that of the sanctuary, 
and laboring to train the public body up to its perfect 
height, they resolved to lower the inconvenient mea- 
sure, 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 loyalty to 
the throne, and unceasing attachment to the church, 
a jealous care over what may be called the democracy 
of the English constitution. A spirit of change had 
shown itself si 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 innovators 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 



60 GEORGE THE THOU). 

true lovers of their country, in the fore-front of whom 
stood the little band of enlightened Christian men, 
with the King of England at their head. 

Ton mast not quarrel with this long digression ; 
the crisis I speak of was one on which hung the poli- 
tical salvation of our native land ; a crisis of one year's 
continuance, and which terminated not until the Lord 
had greatly multiplied and strengthened his own little 
host of protesting conservators, se that not even an act 
of national apostacy could carry on its face the con- 
demnation of being really a national act ; and it is 
wonderful to contemplate the dealings of the Most high 
towards his crowned servant during this momentous 
interval. George the Third was the insurmountable 
obstacle in the way of such ruinous course, abd until 
the time for permitting the bonds to burst had well nigh 
come, he . was retained among us ; but because his 
righteous soul would have been grievottihr vexed at 
beholding the struggle against God, the bodily and 
mental eye were both closed. He was shut out alike 
from the seeing of evil, and the hearing of it ; he dwelt 
in extreme old $gtf, 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 conten- 
tions, that shook the public mind in which he had ever 
taken a deep and anxious interest. You know he used, 
while feeling his unsteady way through the long suite 
ofapartments that bounded his liberty, to pause at a 
piano or organ, several of which were placed within his 
reach, and call forth strains of sacred melody, accompa- 
nying them with his aged voice, breathing words of de- 



& 



SKAHClFATIOlf. $1 

TOtion : and at other times he was overheard in imagina- 
ry discourse with the angels of God, (I could almost re- 
call the word imaginary,) questioning them concerning 
heavenly things, and breathing forth his own simple at* 
pirations after the home they dwelt in. What an eye- 
sore to movers of sedition was George the Third ! 
How terrible ill the impotency of his helpless seclusion 
was that deranged old man to the emissaries of the 
Great Harlot ! How bitterly do they now revile hie 
memory, which is blessed, most blessed among us — be- 
cause 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, 
decrepit trembler the secure defence of an empire's in- 
tegrity, against all that man's wisdom, man's subtlety, 
and man's proudest might could do to subvert it 

The act of legislative union, consequent upon the 
sanguinary rebellion of 1798, had brought Ireland into 
more immediate connection with us ; and gave addi- 
tional means for influencing the minds of our senators 
to concede the boon, or rather to submit to the demand, 
of what was called Emancipation. My father often 
remarked that if the events of ninety-eight were not 
alone sufficient to deter the English government 
from this measure, nothing could overcome their infa- 
tuation. The subject was frequently and freely can- 
vassed in the social circle of which I formed a part ; 
and well do T remember how clearly the mischievous 
results that must follow upon the very first breach 
made in our constitutional bulwarks were pointed out 
by men who judged of Popery only from past history,/ 
6 



68 a new manor. 

read by the light of the recent outburst in Ireland, and 
apart from all religions 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 en- 
gine of a secular despotism that sought to exalt itself 
above all other dynasties, rising on the ruins of subver- 
ted thrones. This was considered the extreme of uncha- 
ritableness ; a narrow-minded bigotry to be abhorred 
of all enlightened men ; and my father plainly fore* 
saw the ultimate triumph of the shallow but plausible 
arguments brought to bear upon the point. 

Ail appointment about this time took place which 
greatly forwarded the views of the adverse party among 
us. Dr. Bathurst was preferred to the see ef Nor- 
wich : 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, ancTwhich my fa- 
ther 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, disinterestedly, and amiably mistaken than 
our good Bishop. That it was disinterested no one 
could doubt ; for when the ministry of the day were 
stiffly opposed to the concession, and Dr. Bathurst was 
informed that if he advocated it in parliament he would 
assuredly be left in that miserably poor see, whereas 
his silence might facilitate a translation that must needs 
be better, — a thing which his very large family ren- 
dered desirable enough, — the intimation only increased 



Us zeal: lie rose in hit place, and spoke most energet- 
ically in favour of the measure. When he resumed 
his seat, the Peer next him said, somewhat sarcastical- 
ly, * 1 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 in my personal history re- 
quires mention here : I grew up a healthy, active, light* 
hearted girl, wholly devoted to reading and to rural oc- 
cupation*. The latter, particularly gardening, served as 
a counterpoise to the sedentary temptation that would 
have proved physically injurious : but laying in, as I 
daily did, a plentiful store of romantic adventure or 
fascinating poetry for rumination when abroad, my 
mind was unprofitably occupied at all times, to the ex- 
clusion of better things. On Sundays, indeed, I made 
it a point of conscience to abstain from light reading; 
and, as far as I could, 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 fit 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 himself, and 
many a strong conviction did I forcibly stifle. The 
warmth of my natural feelings, the ardour with which 
I entered into every thing that interested them, and a 



fii CONVICTIONS. 

sort of energy that always longed to be 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 
vineyar^. I say a call, because though as yet I knew 
nothing whatever of the gospel, I could not overlook or 
misunderstand the reiterated injunctions of Scripture 
to seek spiritual wisdom, to ask for guidance, and to oc- 
cupy with the talent committed to my charge. I knew 
the promise " They that seek me early shall find me," 
and more than once 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 again with redoubled zest into the seductive 
regions of my imaginary world. Oh, how greatly do 
they err who think that sueh studies may be safely en- 
gaged in by the young and excitable mind I Some in- 
deed there are, so phlegmatic as to be proof against all 
the charms of poesy, insensible to the brightest illu- 
sions of romance ; but their number is small, and the 
individuals hard to identify, because a very cold ex- 
terior is often like the snow-capped heights of Etna, 
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 mer- 
ry jest goes round among their companions ; whereas 
this abstraction from outward things results not from 
deadness of feeling but from the intensity with which 
the mind is brooding over some phantom known only 
to itself. Nor do this class of dreamers always appear 
.devoted to books : a little reading goes far with them ; 



AHTICIPATDIO EVIL. 66 

and the quality rather than the quantity of their se- 
leetiona 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 careful superintendence, 
so as to neutralize what may be unprofitable by judi- 
cious remark, and to avert the dangers attendant on 
such fascinating introductions at a riper age whenthc 
restraints of authority are removed. Against this, two 
reasons have prevailed with me to exelude from my 
book-shelves all the furniture of a worldly library, and 
to watch against its introduction from other quarters. 
One is, the consideration that we are not authorised 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 be* 
fore such period of life as is here anticipated. In 
such a case, how sad to feel that we have needlessly 
forestalled an evil day, and even momentarily divert- 
ed the young spirit from a sacred path I The other 
consideration is this : that as the flesh and the devil * 
will assuredly 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 preoccupy the field with 
what is decidedly good, and humbly hoping that the 
seed so sown may, through the operation of the Holy 
Spirit, take root before the tares are introduced, leav- 
ing little room for them to grow. 

Of all the errors into which the world has fallen, none 
5* 



66 MISCHIEVOUS ERRORS. 

is more fatally mischievous than the habit of overlook- 
ing the personality, the energy, the power, the watchful- 
ness, 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 spir- 
itual 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 : his habits, his 
haunts, his usual plans, his successful and his baffled 
assaults in former cases, would be talked over, and 
thus a salutary fear would be- kept alive, influen- 
cing us to bolt and bar, and watch and ward with un- 
failing vigilance, to avert a surprise. But Satan seems 
to 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, nevertheless, continues identified 
with him of whom we read in the Bible. We then, per* 
haps, take up Milton, engrafting his poetical concep- 
tion 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 
removed from the scripture character of that roaring li- 
on who " goeth about seeking whom he may devour." 
We do not realize his existence, his presence, his de- 
vices ; and so we often do his work from sheer igno- 
rance, or inexcusable thoughtlessness about it 
> With me, as I have told you, the Bible did its work, 
and conscience did hers ; but a passion for the unreal 
proved too strong for both. Undoubtedly God could 



x PRIDE. 67 

have, wrought, as afterwards he did, to the easting down 
imaginations, and every thing that exalte th itself against 
Christ But how many years of sorrow might hare 
been averted, or how greatly might those sorrows have 
been mitigated, had not the inveteracy of a long-cher- 
ished disease required such sharp discipline to bring 
it under ! Pride was the master-sin of my corrupt 
nature, a pride that every child of Adam inherits, but 
which peculiarly beset me. It was not what usually 
goes by that name : no one ever accused me of an ap- 
proach to haughtiness, neither was I boastful or for- 
ward, as far as I know ; but I delighted to model my 
own character according to the standard set forth in 
my foolish books, and by the contemplation of them I 
hoped to succeed. I loved to mark in others a mean, 
ungenerous, selfish or malicious trait, and to contrast 
with it my own high-flown notions of the opposite 
qualities. My memory was well stored with fine sen- 
timents concerning human dignity, honour, virtue, 
and so forth ; and while secretly applying them, — for I 
was 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 conse- 
quence of measuring ourselves by ourselves, as all 
will do who are not led betimes to the standard ap- 
pointed of God. 

And now, the chambers of imagery being well fur- 
nished, I became in thought the heroine of all the 
foolish, improbable adventures I met with. Shak- 
speare and others having furnished me with dresses 



68 BOXAKCE. 

and decorations, every day of my life had its drama. 
Adventures the most improbable, situations the most 
trying, and conversations the most nonsensical among 
a visionary acquaintance of my own creating, became 
the constant amusement of my mind ; or if I took a 
fancy to any new companion, that individual was meta- 
morphosed into something equally unreal, and was soon 
looked upon in the light, not of sober reality, but of fanci- 
~ ful extravagance. Of course my estimate alike of persons 
and of things was egregibusly false ; and with a fair 
portion of common sense naturally belonging to me, I be- 
came most emphatically a fool. Even when employed 
at the pencil, which I dearly loved, I could not trace 
a figure 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 un- 
interrupted 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's usage, and 
rather earlier than usual, that is to say at sixteen, I 
was introduced into public, by making my appearance 
at a grand election ball; and moreover, publicly re- 
ceiving the compliments of the most polished and dis- 
tinguished 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 



FALSE VIEWS. W 

they toe called, surrounding that venerable cathedral 
which had been the object of my babyish" contempla- 
tion, and which is endeared to me beyond any other 
spot in my native place. 

My beloved companion, my brother, had always 
manifested the most decided predilection for a military 
life. Often had he, in earliest childhood, toddled away 
from the gate after a fife and drum of a recruiting 
party ; and often did he march and countermarch me, 
till I could not stand for fatigue, with a grenadier's 
cap, alias a mufi^ on my head, and my father's large 
cane 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 inclination, so dearly did he love 
me ; but here the effects of that pernicious reading 
showed itself and forged the first link in a long chain of 
sorrows. I viewed the matter through the lying me* 
dium of romance : glory, fame, a conqueror's wreath 
or a hero' 8 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 bo* 
som the cry of natural affection, and I encouraged the 
boy in his choice, and helped him to urge on our pa- 
rents thia offering up of their only son, the darling of 
all our hearts, to the Moloch of war. 

Finding that he could not be dissuaded, my fa* 



70 A PARTWO. 

ther gave a reluctant consent ; and let ma here re- . 
cord an instance of generous kindness on the part of 
the Bishop. Ha went to London, and by dint of per- 
sonal, persevering importunity, obtained in a few days, 
a commission in the army, at a time when seven hun- 
dred applicants, many of them backed by strong in- 
terest, were waiting for the same boon. The sudden- 
ness of the thing was quite stunning : we calculated on 
a delay of this sore trial ; but it was done, and he was 
ordered to repair immediately, not to the depot, but 
to his regiment, then hotly engaged in the Peninsula. 
The Bishop's kindness did not end here : he carried 
his generosity farther in other ways, and likewise gave 
him introductions 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 ro* 
mance, 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 paternal roof; in almost exclusive companion- 
ship with me. There was, indeed, but one heart be- 
tween 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 exceedingly ill, and great precautions were used 
to preserve me from the infection ; but, unable to 
brook a separation from him, I baffled their vigilance, 



nUTKUUL UBTE. 71 

hmt into his apartment, and laying my cheek to his, 
resisted for a while all efforts to remove ma, To my 
infinite delight, I sickened immediately and considered 
it an ample compensation for aB attendant suffering, 
that I was allowed to sit constantly in the same room 
with him. 

How strong, how sweet, how sacred is the tie thai 
hinds an only sister to an only brother, whan they 
have been permitted to grow up together, untrammel- 
led by the heartless forms of fashion ; unrivalled by 
alien claimants in their confiding 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 cane it did neither. He was 
the manliest, the hardiest, most decided, most intrepid 
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 o£ being more healthy, more ac- 
tive, and perhaps 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 judgment, and sub- 
mission 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 dimi- 
nution from time or distance. Other ties were formed, 
but they did not supersede or weaken this. Death 



72 COMMON EEEOE. 

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 outgo- 
ings 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 any careful observer may discern, their 
various characters to form a domestic whole. The 
parents interpose, packing the boys to some school 
where no softer influence exists to round off, as it were, 
the rugged points of the masculine disposition, and 
where they soon lose all the delicacy of feeling pecu- 
liar to a brother's regard, and learn to look on the female 
character in a light wholly subversive of the frankness, 
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 fa- 
ther's eye still upon them, or sent away in a different 
direction from their brothers, exposed through unna- 
tural and unpalatable restraints, to evils not perhaps so 
great, but every whit as wantonly incurred as the 
others. The shyness, miscalled retiring modesty, with* 
which one young lady shrinks from the notice of a 
gentleman as though there were danger in his ap- 



BAJ> MANAGEMENT. 73 

proaeh, and the conscious, coquettish air, miscalled 
ease, with which another invites his notice, alike re- 
moved from the reality of either modesty or ease. 
Both result from a fictitious mode of education: both 
are the consequences of nipping in the bud those sis- 
terly 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 
7 



LETTER IV. 

YOUTH. 

Hitherto you have not heard of any spiritually- 
minded person connected with my early life ; yetthere 
was one, I feel sure, though my recollections are con- 
fused and imperfect 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 recol- 
lect 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, 
*s also did her inveterate antipathy to the reigning 
fashion, whatever that might be. I remember 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 remarks on vanity and folly, which I 
soon forgot ; but the other dwelt on my mind because 



UNFASHIONABLE TASTE. 75 

it chimed in with my own love of independence a 
prominent characteristic with me ; too often carried to 
the 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 cotempo* 
rary dames, who submitted their heads to the curling- 
irons and powder-puff of a frizcur, preparatory to an 
evening party. I used to stand prouldy 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 dear, involuntarily 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 cheek any tendency to behaviour unbefit- 
ting those who claimed descent from 

1 The stout Earl of Northumberland,' 

with whom I ought to be well acquainted, for the sing- 
ing of Chevy Chace in proper time and tune with her 
was the only secular accomplishment in which my dear 
grandmother personally laboured to perfect me, ex- 
cept 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 



76 FIRST AFFLICTION. 

time, in the stead of better things, when nerving my* 
self to endure affliction and wrong ; and therefore I 
notice it, to warn you against exposing your own child- 
ren to the same snare. 

Next to the fashion, if not in an equal or superior 
degree, I think my grandmother most abhorred the 
French. Indeed, her strongest denunciations against 
the reigning modes were usually clinched with the 
triumphant assertion that they were " French fash- 
ions." No marvel if her spirit was stirred within her 
by the horrors of revolutionary France, and her Protes- 
tantism 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 
forward in support of every opinion that she uttered. 
Barely 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 letters. 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 ground, while the 
weeds took root and flourished, still here and there a 
grain might sink below the surface, to spring up after 
many days. 

And now I must record my first sorrow, although I 
cannot 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, 
*nd every promise of lengthened years. The pre- 



A BEREAVEMENT. 77 

monitory visitations of repeated strokes were disre- 
garded, for we could not, would not realise the ap- 
proach of such an event ; and persisted in believing 
them nervous : but just when all cause for alarm seem- 
ed 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 be- 
reavement 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 bro- 
ther's departure, instead of seeking to replace him by 
friends of my own age, I had turned wholly to my fa- 
ther, never desiring to pass an hour out of his society, 
and striving to be to him both daughter and son. My 
mother was a perfect 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 engage the intellectual 
powers, gave her no help there. I was truly cumber- 
ing the ground, seeking only my own gratification, 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 re- 
lish 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, accompanied as it was with such exquisite 
skill in that delightful science as rendered him the ad- 
miration of all who came within its influence. It re- 
doubled my devotion to him ; and most bitter was the 
7* 



.78 CHANGES. 

Anguish of my heart, when I beheld him taken away at 
a stroke. 

Was this affliction 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 co- 
lors but those of reality. My father had enjoyed two 
livings with a minor canonry in the cathedral, but the 
emolument was very small, and his income had not al- 
lowed him, as yet, to make any provision for us. A 
small annuity was all that my mother could depend on, 
•and I resolved to become a novel-writer, for which I 
was just qualified, both by nature and habits of think- 
ing, 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 sub- 
sequent changes of abode, paying visits among friends, 
and keeping my thoughts constantly unsettled, hinder- 
ed the execution of the project ; and when my brother 
returned to Portugal, wb repaired to London, to make 
a long stay with some near relations. It was there 
that I met with the gentleman, an officer on leave of 
absence, whose wife, at the end of six months, I be- 
came. 

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 marriage, 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-Scotian reminiscen- 
ces, before proceeding to the scene of my most precious 



AT BEJL 79 

recollections, dear Ireland. My husband had joined 
his regiment in Halifax, and sent me a summons to fol- 
low 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 
possible 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 these, with his wife, who had invited me 
to travel with them. 

Have you ever been at sea ? It is a question the 
answer to which will throw very little light on the mat- 
ter unless you also state how it agreed with you ; no 
two races on the earth can be more distinct than those 
two are upon the water, — the people who are sea-sick 
and the people who are not It was my happy privi- 
lege to belong to the latter class ; I never for a moment 
experienced even an unpleasant sensation from any 
marine cause, but on the contrary enjoyed exemption 
from all physical annoyances during a five weeks' voy- 
age, excepting that of hunger. An abundant supply 
of everything that was nourishing, in the most palata- 
ble form, left no excuse for remaining hungry ; never- 
theless the demand was* incessantly kept up ; and I ap- 
peal to all who have been similarly affected, whether 
the munching 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 



80 TRAVELS. 

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 climate for which 
I was bound. 

Every day, and all day long, be the weather what it 
might, I was stationed on deck: generally seated on the 
highest point of the ship's stern, directly over the rud- 
der, to enjoy a full view of that most graceful and ex- 
quisite spectacle, a large vessel's course through the 
mighty deep. Our's was a splendid one : a West In- 
diaman, almost rivalling the sea palaces of the East In- 
dia 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 was per- 
fectly distinct from those who went out entirely at the 
charge of government, consisting of several officers and 
their wives, yet we too were nearly all military, includ- 
ing the commandant, and were strictly amenable to mar- 
tial law. Of course, that soul of domestic and social 
comfort, punctuality, reigned paramount ; every meal 
was regulated by beat of drum, subordination carefully 
preserved, and decorum, to the most minute particular, 
insisted on. No dishabille 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 whim- 
sical people were stowed away in their respective berths, 
and such drawing-room elegance, combined with the ut- 
most freedom of good humour and the unrestrained frank- 
ness that results from a consciousness of proper restraint, 
pervaded our little select coterie, amounting to seventeen 



FVNCTTALITT. 31 

gentlemen and two ladies, that it did not need the mise- 
rable contrast which I afterwards experienced on the 
homeward passage to assure me we were amongthemoet 
favoured of ocean travellers. 

How very much do thejT err who consider the ab- 
sence of order and method as applying 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 people may 
think themselves authorised to rob God and themselves 
of their own time, they can plead no right to lay a 
violent hand on the time and duties of their neighbour. 
I say it deliberately, that I have been defrauded of 
hundreds of pounds, and cruelly deprived of my neces- 
sary refreshment in exercise, in sleep, and even in sea- 
sonable food, through this disgraceful want of punc- 
tuality in others, more than through any cause what- 
soever besides. It is also very irritating ; for a per- 
son who would cheerfully bestow a piece of gold, does 
not like to be swindled out of a piece of copper ; 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 ex- 
pect you early, and then, after wasting her day in that 
uncomfortable, 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 invi- 
tation to dinner, and either . break the engagement or 
throw the household into confusion by making it wait 



84 MOUNTAIN WAVES. 

— 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 worshippers, and 
involving them in the sin of abstractedness 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 contempt of punctuality than they seem willing 
to believe. 

But I have run away from my ship; yet not so ; 
for as 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 weath- 
er, fresh and dry, and warm : with only one day's rain, 
du* ing which the sea ( ran mountains/ as the sailors 
said I was conducted on deck, l 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 me, and led me up the stairs. But who could be 
satisfied with a momentary sight of any thing so stupen- 
dously 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 de- 
clared that his head, the best landsman's head on 
iboard, would not stand the giddy scene ; in short, that 
he should be obliged to report himself sick, and ex- 
change our agreeable society below for the solitude of 



i 



OCEAN SCENERY. 83 

.his berth. Of course I dismissed him, and wh left 
among the mountains, alone, tare when a sailor passed 
me on his duties among the rigging, and gave ma a 
smile of approval ; while the man 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 1 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 ? — how should you 
get out of it? — how avoid the rush of that giant bil- 
low that even now overhangs your bark? These 
questions would inevitably rush through the mind ; 
butin 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 discovered 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. 
Every now and then 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- 



84 OCEAN 8CENEET. 

ded to the fresh water drenching bestowed by the 
clouds. Can yon fancy the discomfort of such a ^it- 
nation ? Then yon were never at sea, or at least yon 
left your imagination ashore ; for I defy any person 
not well inured to it to look on such a scene with so 
negative a feeling of discomfort ; it will excite either 
terror or delight sufficient to engross the whole mind. 
I well remember that when deeply affected by the 
grandeur of this and other aspects assumed by the ma- 
jestic main, I found the highest flights of man's sub- 
limity 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 
eublime accompaniment of God's magnificent work 
Sunrise I could not witness, because jat that hour no 
lady might appear on deck, and my cabin had not a 
side window; but sunset, moonlight, starlight, with 
the various phenomena of ocean's ever-varying appear- 
ance, these furnished an endless contemplation with 
which nothing could accord but the language of Holy 
Writ. I did not bring forth my Bible, well knowing 
the bantering remarks to which it would have exposed 
me on the seore of affectation, but my memory served 
me equally well in that, as in profane poetry; and 
many a precious word of warning, exhortation, pro- 
mise, 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 
Deuteronomy, the fortieth of Isaiah, and other pas- 
sages full of the gospel, were repeatedly called to mind; 



FALSE CONFIDENCE. 85 

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 yoyage some one had quoted the expression, ' there 
is but a plank between 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 Sanger was always felt by mo; 
but concerning eternity I had no fears whatever. A 
general reliance on the boundless mercy of God, a re- 
cognition of Christ, as having auffered for out sins, 
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,*o that we expected to be engulfed in the waves 
without hope of succour, I looked it boldly in the face, 
confident in my false hope. Although just then rev- 
elling 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 waa 
not senseless enough to prefer an eternity of untried 
wretchedness to the fleeting sorrows of mortal life, yet 
as my conscience was lulled to rest by the self-delusion 
that I suffered mora than I deserved, and had there* 
fore a claim on divine justice; and as I was witting to 
8 



86 A STORM. 

receive the supposed balance of such debtor and credi- 
tor account in the world to come, I was perfectly con- 
tent to be summoned to my reward. v Blessed be God 
that I was not taken away in that hour of blind will- 
ingness! 

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 o/ the most fatal head-lands in those seas. 
Night closed upon us, and the gale increased; sails 
were spread, in a desperate 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 terrified .chil- 
dren, unheeded by the gentlemen, every one of whom 
was on deck. The captain openly declared we were 
bound for the bottom, if a 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 be* 
ing every body's care, because, 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 captain, I had 
climbed three tiers of lockers in the state cabin, opened 
one of the large stern windows, and was leaning out, 
as far as I could reach, enraptured beyond expression 



A STORK. 87 

with the terrific grandeur of the scene. The sky 
above was black as midnight and the storm could 
make it, overhanging us like aiarge pall, and rendered 
awfully visible by the brilliancy of the waters beneath. 
I had heard of that phosphorescent appearance in the 
sea, but never could have imagined its grandeur, nor 
can J essay to describe it Even in perfect stillness 
the illuminated element would have looked magnifi- 
cent ; what, then, must it have been in a state of ex- 
cessive, 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 delicate 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 overpassed all my ex- 
travagant imaginings of the terribly sublime. The 
hurry, the fierceness, the riot of those unfettered waters, 
the wild flash of their wondrous lights, the funereal 
blackness of the overhanging clouds, and the deep, 
desperate plunge of our gallant ship, as she seemed to 
rend her way through an opposing chaos ; it was per- 
fect 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 



88 WONDERS OF THE DEEP. 

up the dead lights ; so I sat down on the floor, buried 
my face in my hands, and strove to realize the mag- 
nificence thus rent from my sight. 

Yes, God's works in the great deep are indeed won- 
ders ! Nothing landward can possibly approach them ; 
in the rudest 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 shifting 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 heaxUsea with a shock that makes 
every timber quiver, now flung on one side as if about 
to reverse itself into the bosom of the deep— rno doubt 
the sense of personal danger, the death-pang already 
anticipated, the dark abyss that yawns before the sin- 
ner, 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 suppose this accounts 
for the astonishment expressed by the whole party at 
my singular conduct, when the youth who was sent to 
warn me of my peril, described my half-angry, half- 
reproachful pettishness at the interruption, u Can't 

you let me enjoy it in peace, Mr. J ? Shall I 

ever see anything like it again? 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. 



r 



&ECKLB8&HESS. 89 

Tliis was downright recklessness. I wonder when 
recalling it to mind, and feel that I could not hare thus 
sported with death after I acquired a good and solid 
hope of everlasting life. The act of dying had always 
great terrors for me, until, through adverse circumstan- 
ces, I 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 realised a per- 
sonal claim to the guiding rod and the supporting staff, 
and the bright inheritance beyond. But before this pe- 
riod of blessedness, of joy and peace in believing arrived, 
I had to pass through many waters of affliction, and to 
experience remarkable interpositions at His hand who 
was leading me by a path which I knew not 

Two of them I will mention : while at Annapolis 
and at Windsor, I had a horse provided for me of rare 
beauty and grace, but a perfect Bucephalus in her 
way. She was only two generations removed from a 
splendid Arabian, given by the good old king to the 
Duke of Kent, when H. R H. went out in command 
to Nova-Scotia. 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 love- 
ly dappled gray, with mane and tail of silver, the lat- 
ter almost sweeping the ground ; andinherfrolicksoma 
gambols she turned it over her back like that of a New- 
foundland dog. Her slow step was a bound ; her swift 
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 
8 # 



90 AN ARAB STEED. 

Arab character made her peculiarly sensitive, that my 
voice had equal power oyer her as over my docile, faith- 
ful dog. No other person could in the slightest degree 
control her ; our corps, the 7th Batt. of the 60th Rules, 
was composed wholly of the elite of Napoleon's soldiers* 
taken in the Peninsula, and preferring the British ser- 
vice 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 se- 
veral Chasseurs and Polish lancers, very fine equestri- 
ans, and as my husband had a field Officer's command 
(on detachments) and allowances, our horses were well 
looked after. 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, and slipped him off 
the other way. Her drollery made the poor men so fond 
of her that she was rarely chastised ; and such a wilful, 
intractable, wild Arab it would be hard to find. Upon 
her I was daily mounted ; and surely the Lord watch- 
ed 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 coun- 
try I But you must explore the roads about Annapo- 
lis, and the romantic spot called ' The General's Bridge/ 



EQUESTRIANISM. , 91 

to imagine either the enjoyment or the perils of that 
my happiest hour. Reckless to the last degree of des- 
peration, I threw myself entirely on the fond attachment 
of the noble creature ; and when I saw her measuring 
with her eye some nigged 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 en- 
danger me. This was little short of a daily miracle 
when we consider the nature of the country, her cha- 
racter, and my unskilfulness. It can only be accounted 
for on the ground of that wondrous power which hav- 
ing willed me to work for a time in the vineyard of the 
Lord, renderd me immortal until the work should be 
done. Oh that my soul and all that is within me 
could sufficiently bless the Lord, and remember all his 
benefits f 

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

' I know by the ardour thou canst 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 give thee the rein — so*away at thy speed \ 



02 A FRAGMENT. 

Thy rider will dare to be wilful as thee, 

Laugh the future to •com, and partake in thy glee. 

Away to the mountain — what need we to fear? 

Pursuit cannot press on my Fairy's career, 

Full light were the heel and well balanced the bead 

That ventured to fellow 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 effulgence is sparkling below. 

One start, and I die ; yet in peace I recline, 

My bosom'can rest on the fealty of thine ; 

Thou lov'et 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 stretching beside, 
As loth to be vanqtrish'd in love or in pride, 
While upward he glances his eye-ball of jet, 
Half dreading thy fleetness may distance him yet 
Ah Marco, poor Marco — our pastime to-day 
Were reft of one pleasure if he were away. 

How precious these moments ! fiur 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-bosom'd 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 ; 
Thy feathery footsteps scarce bending the grass, 
Or denting the dew-spangled moss were we pass. 



ESCAPES. 93 

What startles thee? 'Twas bat the sentinel gun 
Flashed a vesper salute to thy rival, the son ; 
He has closed his swift progress before thee, and sweeps 
With fetlock of gold, the last verge of the steeps. 
The fire-fly anon from his covet shall glide, 
, And dark fall the shadows of eve on the tide. 
Tread softly — my spirit is joyous no more, 
A northen aurora, it shone and is o'er ; 
The tears will fall fast as I gather the rein, 

And a long look reverts to yon shadowy plain. 

****** 

There is more of it, but nothing to the purpose of the 
present history. It cost me something to transcribe 
this, so vividly 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 horse- 
back, I experienced the same interposing providence 
when violently upset in a gig. The road where it oc- 
curred 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 level 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 qn 
till he ran one of the shafts into a bank, and set him- 
self fast 

My sojourn in this interesting country was of two 
years 1 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 



94 H0U8EWIFEEY. 

hot they had ever experienced. 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 Europe.au as that from day 
to night is uncongenial to the taste. Here, too, I re- 
pented 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- 
off against realities, even could I have conjured up a 
library in the wilderness of Nova Scotia's inland set- 
tlement : but the culinary and confectionary branches 
were there invaluable, and in them I was wofully de- 
ficient Had I not coaxed the old French soldier who 
officiated as mess-cook to give me a few lessons, 
we must have lived onjraw 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 pre- 
serves 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 woman who cannot 
dispense with female servants must not travel : I had 
none for six months — keen winter months — in An- 
napolis ; the only persons who could be found disen- 
gaged being of characters wholly inadmissible. The 
straits to which I was put were anything but laugha- 
ble at the time, though the recollection now often ex* 
cites a smile. Indeed no perfection in European house- 



NOVA SCOTIA. 95 

keeping 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 antici- 
pate that a fine piece of beef, fresh killed, 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 plates, perfectly dry, placed at a moderate 
distance from the fire preparatory to dinner, would 
presently separate into half a hundred fragments, 
through the action of heat on their frosted pores ? or 
that milk drawn from a cow within sight of my break- 
fast table would be sheeted with ice on its passage 
thither — 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 fin* 
gers were once in that awful condition that must have 
ended in mortification, but for the presence of mind of 
a poor soldier, who seeing me running to the fire in 
that state, drew his bayonet to bar my approach, and 
wrapping a coarse cloth round my lifeless hands, muff- 
fashion, compelled me to walk up and down the spa- 
cious 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 
veteran, who was a model of respectful humility. Had 
he, poor fellow, known how busy these fingers would 
one day be against his religion— for he was a French 



96 INDIANS. 

Romanist— he might hare 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 attach- 
ment of its people to the mother-country is beautiful ; 
and their partisanship in all questions between us and 
the States most zealous. . The only fault I had to find 
with them was their indifference towards, the poor relics 
of the Indian race still dwelling in the woods, who 
were to me objects of the liveliest interest even before 
I had any feeling of Christian- duty. towards the hea- 
then ; or towards such as those, who are worse than 
heathen, being numbered among the members of the 
Romish church, and utterly, wretchedly ignorant even 
of such little truth as remains buried under the mats 
of anti-christian error, to make its darkness more visi- 
ble. The Indians are wholly despised ; scarcely look- 
ed on as beings of the same race, by the generality of 
the colonies. Where Christian principle prevails, they 
become of course, important in the highest 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 
excellent 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 one side, and suspicion on the other, 
he found himself completely baffled. It was not to be 



f 



wondered at that the Indians had a lacking dread of 
experiencing again the hardship*, not to say the treach- 
ery and cruelty, inflicted on their fathers. I enjoyed 
a high place in the affections and confidence 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 
performance of a bounden duty in sheltering for a few 
weeks one of their number, who had, in a most unpro- 
voked and cruel manner, been wounded by a party of 
our soldiers, and left to perish in the woods. 

How beautiful do the white cliffs of Albion appear 
in the eyes of the returning wanderer who has learned 
by a foreign sojourn to estimate the comforts, the privi- 
leges, the blessings of this island home! No place 
could be more thoroughly English in feeling, habits, 
and principles than Nova Scotia ; but it was not Eng- 
land. The violent transition of seasons, so different 
from the soft gradations by which, with us, winter 
brightens into summer, and rammer fades into winter, 
marked a contrast far from pleasing ; the intensity of 
cold, the fierceness of heat, alike unknown in our tem- 
perate 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 other* 
wise 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 
military prowess, the unconquered champion of all that 
is nationally great throughout the world, the sight of 
our free and happy isle is indeed an inspiring one to 
9 



98 COfiMOPMJTANISJf. 

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 Protes< 
tantism, the land of the Bible ! 

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 mem- 
bers of a christian family should forego all the sweets 
of conjugal, parental, filial, fraternal love, in the deter- 
mination to feel an equal regard for his neighbour's 
wife, husband, &&, as for his own ; and moreover, to 
take an equal concern in the affairs 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 
ourselves into sundry false positions, and very awk- 
ward predicaments. However, the comparative ex- 
tinction of natural affection would form the most prom- 
inently reprehensible feature, of the case ; and I cannot 
but think that the boasted cosmopolitanism of some 
good people would wear an aspect 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 re- 
sembling the fabled invigoration of the Titans, who 



I 



w 

derived new life, new strength, new enterprise from 
eoming in contact with their mother earth. 

England indeed, contained little thai was person- 
ally endearing 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 sepa- 
rated us for nearly three years ; during a portion of 
which she had been learning to prixe her native land in 
a disgusting region of all that is most directly opposed 
to liberty, civil or religious; to honourable feeling, 
just conduct, honest principle or practical decency. la 
short, she had been in Portugal ! 



LETTER T. 



IRELAND. 



I now arrive at an epoch, from which I may date 
the commencement of all that deserves to be called lire, 
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 cha- 
racter of unapplied energies, my heart a waste of un- 
claimed 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 pre- 
pared to obey a summons from my husband in Ireland, 
whither he had gone to engage in a law-suit. To be 
sure I hated Ireland most cordially j I had never seen 
it, and as a matter of choice would have preferred New 
South Wales, so completely was I influenced by the 
prevailing prejudice against that land of barbarism I 



f 



m 

Many people despise Ireland, who*, if you demand a 
reason, will tell yon it is a horrid place, and the peo- 
ple all savages ; but if yon press for proofs and illus- 
trations, 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 Ame- 
rica, or on the deck of a ship bound to circumnavigate 
the globe. We rattled out of London, and the fust 
thing that aroused my attention was a moonlight view 
of Oxford, where we stopped at midnight 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 provoked warm discussion with the no less 
attached Oantabs of our old social parties, and who 
often held out to me, as the greatest of earthly gratifi- 
cations a visit with him to that seat of learning which 
he would describe in glowing colours. But where was 
my father now 1 His poor girl, the delight of his eyes 
and the 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, calcu- 
lated to darken yet more the prospect before me. This 
was England, my own proud England; and these " the 
cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, that distin* 
9* 



102 

guished her seats of leaning above all others. I was 
bound — for Ireland ! Wbat English young lady bad ever 
studied the history of tbat remote, half-civilized settle- 
ment called Iceland ? Not I, certainly, 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 potatoes, 
made blunders, and went to mass. I felt it a sort of 
degradation to have an Irish name, and to go there as 
a resident ; but comforted myself by resolving never 
in one 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 Shak- 
sperean mania, to the still higher exaltation of my Eng- 
lish stilts, and the deeper debasement of all a rough 
Irish kernes." At Shrewsbury we parted with a kind 
old lady, who had shown me some good-natured atten- 
tions, 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 j 

apartment the instant we had dined. He took pencil 
and paper, and with a glow of benevolent feeling ex- 
pressed 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 ' 



i 



I 



L 



WALES. 103 

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 en- 
chanting beauties of the Welsh country through which 
we passed ; and my regard for Mr. D. greatly increased 
by the compassionate care he took of a poor sickly wo- 
man 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 assent, took them inside, and 
watched them most kindly 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 acquain- 
tance. A younger, but middle-aged man, whose viva- 
city, combined with Welch mutton and ale, quite raised 
my spirits. Hearing from Mr. D. with what enthusi* 
asm I had admired the scenery of Langollen, he volun- 
teered to hand me in at the coach window, a note of 
•very 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 six- 
teen 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 ; 



104 THE JOURNEY. - 

and also most assiduously aiding in the care of my 
luggage ftnd dog when we were all put in the ferry- 
boat 

There was then no bridge over the Menai, and I being 
in total ignorance of the rout was not a little dismayed m 

at the embarkation, forgetting that Holyhead wae in 
Anglesea, and that Anglesea was an island. At last, , 

when the boat pushed off, the opposite shore being hid- 
den 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 ^ m 
take me oyer in this way to Ireland 1" fPI 

" No, no," said Mr. F. you shall hare 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 seven- 
teen hours, not landing until two in the morning of Eas- 
ter Sunday. Nothing could exceed my discomfort, as 
you may suppose, when I teD you that after paying my 
bill at Holyhead, I, in a fit 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 examined the state of my finan- 
ces, and found the sum total to amount to one shilling. j| 
This was an awful discovery ; my passage was paid, 
but how to reach Dublin was a mystery, and such was 
the untamed pride of my character that I would sooner 
have walked there than confessed 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 S 



I 



THE JJUUVAL. 105 

deck of the packet upon the plank that rested against 
the pier of Howth, I had not one single halfpenny in 
my pocket, and I experienced, without the slightest emo- 
tion, 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 between the vessel's side and the stone 
pier, without any human possibility of rescue ; and 
already I had lost my balance, 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 recover- 
ed 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 emo- 
tion, 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-miUe-failthe' with cold politeness, 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 re- 
tiring to a chamber until the coach started ; but my 
empty purse* would not allow of that, so I said I preferred 
sitting where I was. Refreshments were ordered; 
but though in a state of ravenous hunger, I steadly 
refused to touch them ; for I 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 



106 AH KSOAF*. 

tossing of the ship; and most melancholy, most for- 
lorn were the feelings with which I watched through 
the large window the fading moonbeams and the dawn* 
ing 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 iny 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 
after 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 very rapidly, when 
by some means the horses took fright, and broke into 
a full i gallop, crossing and recrossing the road in a 
fearful manner. The driver was thrown on the foot- 
board, poor Tajohung by his chain against the horse's 
legs, and our situation Was most critical. I. had suf- 
fered from one upset in America, and resolved not to 
encounter another; so quietly gathering my long 
riding habit about me with one hand, and putting the 
other out at the window, I opened the door, and with one 
active spring flung myself out You know the ex- 
treme 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. 10T 

instant of time, the hones made a dead stop; and the 
chaise remained stationary only a few paces in advance 
of me. 

Was not the hand of Qod here % Oh, sorely it was, 
in the most marked and wonderful manner. No cause 
could he assigned for the arrest of the animals; the dri- 
ver had lost the reins, and no one was near. I had fallen 
flat on the road-side, just grazing my glovesflRSth the 
gravel, and getting a good mouthful of the soil, with 
which my face was brought into 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 
after all ; for I have kissed it in spite of me. 1 I then 
ran to help my dog out of his disagreeable state of sus- 
pension, and returned to my friends, who were frighten- 
ed 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 Hiber- 
nian hotel, where my husband was, seized some 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 particulars, because it would involve the names 
' of friends who might not wish to figure 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 kindness, glowing 
warmth of their open hospitality, and their solicitude 



108 8T. total's EVE. 



•> 



to make the poor stranger happy among them, broke 
through the ice of a heart that had frozen $self up in 
moat 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 Ireland. 

My first journey into the interior was to the King's 
county, where I passed some weeks in a house most 
curious!/ 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 Irish gentlemen, and 
took great pleasure in bringing me acquainted with the 
customs of a people and 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 one of their most 
singular relics of paganism. It is the custom at sunset 
on that evening to kindle numerous immense fires 
throughout the country, built like our bonfires, to a 
great height, the pile being composed of turf, bog-wood, 
and such other combustibles as they can gather. 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 remark* 
able. Ours was' a magnificent one, being provided by 
the landlord as a compliment to his" people, and was 



THE DANCE. 109 

built on the lawn, ai dose beside the house as safety 
would admit. 

Early in the evening the peasants began to assemble, 
all habited in their best array, glowing with health, 
every countenance full of that sparkling animation and 
excess of enjoyment that characterizes the enthusiastic 
people of the land. I had never seen anything resem- 
bling it, and was exceedingly delighted with their hand- 
some, intelligent, merry faces, the bold bearing of the 
men, and the playful, 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 
blaze shot up, and for a while they stood contemplating 
it, with faces strangely disfigured by the peculiar light 
first emitted when bogwood is thrown on; after a short 
pause, the ground was cleared in front of an old blind 
piper, the very beaurideal of energy, drollery, and 
shrewdness, who, seated on a low chair, with a well 
plenished jug within his reach, screwed his pipes to 
the liveliest tunes, and the endless jig began. 

An Irish jig is interminable, so long as the party 
holds 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 continue 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 accomplishment 
from the travelling dancing-masters of their district ; 
10 



no 

and certainly in the way tbey use it, many would be 
disposed to grant a dispensation to the young peasant 
which they would withhold from the young peer. It is, 
however, sadly abased among them, to Sabbath-break- 
ing, 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 different 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 1 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 com- 
menced. Every one present of the peasantry, passed 
through it, and several children were thrown across the 
sparkling embers ; while a 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 ap- 
pearance. 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 Mo- 
loch too, carried on openly .and universally in the heart 
of a nominally Christian country, and by millions pro- 
fessing the Christian name 1 I was confounded, for I 



\ 

I 

k' XWAIA Hi 

did not then know that Popery is only a crafty adap- 
tation 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 
I the light that the Bible must, even to the natural heart} 

exhibit 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 impres- 
sion made on it by this fair specimen of a population 
I i whom I had long classed with the savage inhabitants 

of barbarous lands, picturing them to myself 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 4hem, however, was soon to be placed 
on another and a firmer basis. I took up my perma- 
nent abode in a neighbouring county ; and within six 
months after that celebration of St John'seve I experien- 
ced the mighty power of God in a way truly marvellous. 
Great and marvellous are all his works : in creating, in 
sustaining, in governing this world of wonderful crea-l 
tures ; but oh, how surprisingly marvellous and great 
H in redeeming lost sinners, in taking away the heart of 

|Q stone, and giving a heart of flesh, and making his peo- 

| pie willing in the day of hi* power 1 I have carefully 

J abstained from any particulars respecting myself that 

r could either cast a reproach on the dead or give pain 



112 

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 un- 
der 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 afflictions silently, 
unresistingly, and uncomplainingly, I was making God 
my debtor to a 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 ap- 
pointed it ; but satisfying myself that I had not mer- 
ited, from man, any severity, my demerits at the hand 
of the Most High were wholly put out of the calcula- 
tion. Thus, of course, every stroke drove me further 
from the only Rock of refuge, and deeper into the fast- 
ness of my own vain conceits. Added to this I was 
wholly shut out from all the ordinary means by which 
the Lord usually calls sinners to himself. There was 
no gospel ministry then within my reach ; nor could I, 
if it were provided, 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 a pharisee, and my 
addresses to God included, like his, cm acknowledge ' 
ment that it was by divine favor I was so much better 
than my neighbours. Reality had so far chased away 
romance, that my own favorite Authors had little power 



I 



LEVYING DISTRE8S. 113 

to charm ma ; and the hollowness of my affected gay- 
ety and ease made society a very sickening- thing. 
Besides, 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 accus- 
tomed to find her level in society even a grade higher 
than that; and this was most mercifully ordered, not 
only to humble my intolerable pride, but to smooth 
the way for that separation from worldly associates 
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 command, my real standing in soci- 
ety became better known to them. 

At the time I am now to speak of, I was living in 
perfect seclusion, and uninterrupted solitude. Cap- 
tain—was always in Dublin, and my chief occupa- 
tion was in hunting out, and transcribing and arrang- 
ing matter for the professional gentlemen conducting 
the law-suit, from a mass of confused family papers and 
documents. Our property consisted 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 potatoes, the sole 
support of the wretched inhabitants, were brought out, 
piled in a long row down the street, and ' canted, 1 that 
10 # 



114 CONVICTIONS. 

is, put up to sale, for the payment of, perhaps, one* Of 
two per cent of the arrears. This horrified me beyond 
measure : I was ashamed to be seen among the people 
who were called our tenants, though this proceeding 
did not emanate from their immediate landlord ; and 
every thing 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 marvel- 
lously 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 abo 
settled it with myself to pray three or four times every 
day, instead of twice ; and with great alacrity entered 
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 so 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 pertinacity; I 
called to mind all the common-place assurances re- 
specting the sufficiency of a good intention, and mag- 
nified alike my doings and my sufferings. I persuaded 
myself it was only a holy awe, the effect of distin- 
guished 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 



I 



TERRORS. 115 

Than I attributed it to a nervous state of feeling that 
Would wear away by a little abstraction from the sub- 
ject ; 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 first-born of Egypt ; and I some how identi- 
fied myself with the condemned number. Often, after 
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 in my nature to be driven back easily 
from any path I had entered on, and here the Lord 
wrought on me to persevere resolutely. I 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 lust," because I had not understood 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 
occurred to me that not only the ten commandments, 
but all the precepts of the New Testament were bind- 
ing on a Christian ; and 1 trembled more than ever. 

What was to be done % 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 



116 DESPAIR 

it, reading my mementoes. That active schoolmaster, 
the law, had got me fairly under his rod, and dreadful 
were the writhings of Xhe convicted culprit 1 I soon, 
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 making a dot over 
against each, whenever I detected myself in the com- 
mission of one. I had become T%rj watchful over my 
thoughts, and was honest in recording all evil ; so my 
book became a mass of black dots ; and the reflection 
that occurred to me of omissions being sins too, com- 
pleted the panic of my mind. I flung away my book 
into the' fire, and myself into an abyss of gloomy 
despair. 

How long this miserable state of mind lasted, I do 
not exactly remember ; I think about two weeks. I 
could not pray. I dared not read the Bible, it bore 
so very hard upon 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 feel- 
ing 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. 
Hitherto I had never known a day's illness for years j 
one of God's richest mercies to me consisted in unin- 
terrupted health* and a wonderful freedom from all 
nervous affections. I knew almost as little of the sen- 
sation of a head-ache as I did of that of tight-lacing ; 
and now a violent cold, with sore throat, aggravated 



▲WAKENED CONSCIENCE. 117 

into fever by the state of my mind, completely pros- 
trated me. I laid myself down on the sofa one morn- 
ing and waited to see how my earthly miseries would 
terminate ; too well knowing what must follow the close 
of a sinner's life. 

I had not lain long, when a neighbour hearing I 
was ill, sent me some books, just received from Dub- 
lin, as a loan, hoping I might find some amusement in 
them. Listlessly, wretchedly, mechanically I opened 
one — it was the memoir of a departed son, written by 
his father. I read a page, describing the approach of 
death, and was arrested by the youth's expressions of 
self-condemnation, his humble acknowledgement of 
haying deserved at the Lord's hand nothing but eter- 
nal death. 'Ah, poor fellow, 1 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 resumed the book ; and found 
him in continuation glorifying God that though he 
was so gailty and so vile, there was one able to save 
to the uttermost, who had borne his sins, satisfied 
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 for him ? Jew Christ, certainly ; and 
it must be written in the Nejr* Testament I tried to 
jump up and reach my Bible* but was overpowered by 
the emotion of my mind. I clasuasV my hands over 
my eyes, and then the blessed effeejl-of having even a 
literal knowledge of scripture was apparent. Memory 
brought before me, as the Holy Spirit directed it, not 



mm 



118 

here and there a detached text, but whole chapters, y 
they had long been committed to its safe but hitherto 
* unprofitable 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 U 
was the same as if I had been reading, because I kaew 
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 understanding, that I might un- 
derstand 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 
pure, 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 character 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 received the gospel 
toman's preaching. may doubt and cavil: I took it 
simply from the Bible, in the words that God's, wis- 
dom teacheth, and I thus argued :— ( Jesus Christ 
came into the world to save sinners : I am a sinner : I 
want to be saved : he will save me. 1 There is no pre* 
sumption in taking God at his word : not to do so is 
very impertinent : I did it, and I was happy. 



JOT AND PEACE. 119 



l» 



After some time I rose from the sofa, end 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 an- 

' gel Oh, how delicious was that particular thought 

^ to me ! It was one of the first that occurred, and I 

laughed with gladness. Indeed my feeHng 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 
happy 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 on^ they begged for more ; and only 
f 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 ? Few, 'very few have been so privi- 
ty leged as I was, to be left alone with the infallible teach- 
ing of God the Holy Ghost, by means of the written 
\ word, for many weeks, and so to get a thorough know- 
ledge of the great doctrines of salvation, unclouded by 
man's vain wisdom. 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 - 



i 



1 



120 TftATER. 

roused and brightened for the work. I prayed with- 
out ceasing, for divine instruction; and took, without 
cavilling, what was rouchsafed. On this subject I 
most enter more largely, for it is one of immense im- 
portance. 






BETTER 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 re- 
fuge from the storm of God's anger. I felt myself 
safe in Him ; but as the revelation 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 bounden 
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 ignorant 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 stand- 
ard 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 inquiry, 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 
11 



122 THE CHURCH. t 

not state. I tried everything, as well as I could, by 
the Bibb; and my satisfaction was great to find the 
purest, clearest strain of evangelical truth breathing 
through the book which I had used all my life long, as 
I did the Bible, without entering into its real meaning. 
How could I 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 sup- 
posed universal 

I found it distinctly stated by our Lord, that " ex- 
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God j" and this served as a key to many passages 
in the Epistles, and other parts of scripture illustra- 
tive of the same solemn truth. I had never under* 
stood, never thought of this. Did my church hold it ? 
Yes ; it was not only laid down as a fundamental doc- 
trine in her Articles, but constantly put into the mouth* 
of her congregation, either expressed ox clearly im- 
plied. Again, I found that not by works but by faith 
I was to be 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 hea- 
ven by a ladder of my own forming. I then tried the 
creeds by scripture, which would have been a very la- 
borious work, unassisted as I was by any exposition 
or references, had not my memory been wall stored 
with the wor£ of God, while, as I humbly hope, the 
Holy Spirit took of the things of Christ, and showed 
them unto me. The only clause jn the creeds that 



* ^ 80CINIAN2SK. l£3 

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 

t since that period. If by hell is meant the place of 

separated souls, ajs I was afterwards told, why not call 
it by a less ambiguous name? However, I would not 
for one uncertain phrase, which I then suspected and 
now know to be a modern interpolation, reject a whole 
system. I .contented myself with refraining from 
making that confession; and on all occasions substi- 
tuting 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 same liberty, instead of falling into 

schism and swelling the ranks of dissent. 

The Athanasian creed brought to my recollection 

x a circumstance that had occurred a few years before ; 

the importance of which had never been known to me 

f until I was brought acquainted with the saving truths 

of the gospeL I now looked back upon it with trem- 

^ Wing 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 heavenly Father, 
still working by means of my blind but sincere rever- 
ence for his Word. I have mentioned that in my na- 
tive town Socinjaniam flourished to a fearful extent ; 



124 TEMFTATKMl 

it has long been a very hot-bed of that fatal heresy ; 
the holders of which are found among many lead- 
ing characters of wealth, influence, and high attain- 
ments. I knew no more of it than that it was one 
of the many forms of dissent, with which I had no- 
thing to do ; I was acquainted with several of its dis- 
ciples; but as religion formed no part of our social 
intercourse, its peculiarities where 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, intelligent, and amiable woman, of whom I was 
rexy fond. 1 knew her to be a Dissenter, and that was 
all One evening she drew me into a conversation, 
the commencement of which I forget, bat it soon ar- 
rived 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, say- 
ing I would soon show . her that it was not disputed ; 
and she in return asserted that I could not prove it out 
of the inspired scriptures. After pondering for awhile 
I recollected the first chapter of Revelation, which for 
its sublimity I ranked among the highest of my poeti- 
cal gems, and that it unequivocally proclaimed the di- 
vinity of our glorious Lord. I opened at it, on which 
she burst into a' laugh, saying, ( You are not so weak 
as to fancy that book of riddles any part of God's 
word V ' Why, it is in the Bible, you see, 1 replied I, 
half indignantly. ( And who put it there % Come, you 
are a person of too much sense to believe that the bind- 
ing up of certain leaves between the two covers of the 
Bible makes them a part of it. You must exercise the 



METAPHYSICS. 123 

reason that God has given yon ; and in so doing you 
will discover so many interpolations and deceptions in 
that version of yours, that yon will he 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 folded arms, my heart beating vio- 
lently against the bright red cover, I gave heed to all 
she said. My love of novelty, passion for investigation, 
and the metaphysical tarn that had sometimes made 
my father quite uneasy about me, when he saw me at 
eight years old poring over abstruse reasonings with 
the zest of an old philosopher, were all in her fa- 
vour. I felt asif the foundation of my faith was giving 
way, and I was being launched on a sea of strange un- 
certainty. When she concluded, I laid my forehead on 
the book, in- most deep and anxious thought I did not 
pray : God was found of one who sought him not j for 
surely he alone dictated my answer. I started up, and 

with the greatest vivacity said, ' Mrs. , if you can 

persuade me that the book of Revelation is not inspired, 
another person may do the same with regard to the 
book of Genesis ; and so of all that lie between them, 
till the whole Bible is taken away from me. That will 
never do ; I cannot part with my dear Bible. I believe 
it all, every word of it ; and I am sure I should be mise- 
rable if I did not' Then, kissing the precious volume 
with the affection one feels for what is in danger of 
being lost to us, I carried it back to its shelf,- and de- 
clined any further discussion on the subject. She told 
some one eke she was sure of having me yet : but the 
11* 



126 ATHANASUH CREED. 

good providence of God interposed to remove me from 
the scene of danger. 

That metaphysical turn I omitted to mention among 
my early snares : my father checked it although it was 
a great hobby of his own. He had seen its fearful abuse 
in the origin 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.' 

c What prevented your sleeping? 1 

( I was thinking, papa, of " Cogito, ergo sum" and I 
lay awake, trying to find out all about it.' 

' " Cogito, ergo sum /" ' repeated my father, laughing 
and frowning at the same time, ' what will you be at 
twenty, if you dabble in metaphysics before you arc 
ten ? Come, I must set you to study Euclid : that 
will sober your wild head a little.' I took the book 
with great glee, delighted to have a new field of inqui- 
ry ; but soon threw it aside. Mathematics and I could 
never agree. Speculative and imaginative in an extra- 
ordinary 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 preserv- 
ed from fatal wrecking a vessel so frail, while y&t 
without pilot, helm or chart 1 

It was the recollection of my short encounter with 
the Sockuan that satisfied me respecting the Athanasian 
creed. I felt that had I taken up its bold assertions, 
and established every one of them, as now I did, by 
Scripture, no sophistry could have staggered my faith, 



127 



i 



though it had been bat a Masoning, not a saving faith, 
in that high doctrine of the co-existent co-equal Trini- 
ty. 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 
without faith it is impossible to please God, and that 
alone is faith which implicity believes the record that 
he hath given of his Son, the deductions in question 
were perfectly fair and orthodox. I frequently wonder- 
ed, when subsequently brought into the arena of various 
controversies, at the ease with which, aided by the Bible 
alone, I settled so many disputed points ; and as it real- 

I ly 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 jn trying 
to receive the doctrine of Election. I read the seven- 
teenth 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 grand- 
mother held it, but she was nearly alone in her opin- 

t ion ; and I was accustomed to hear it very much de- 

nounced, which no doubt left a prejudice on my mind. 
I resolved to search it out most diligently : but wish- 
ing first to be thoroughly grounded in the vital points 
of the co-equality of the three persons in the Godhead, 
I read the book of the Acts with an express view to the 
latter. In so doing, I beeame fully and undesignedly 
convinced on that of Election as held by those called 



% 



128 AN EPOCH. 

Calvinistic divines, not one of whom, to my know- 
ledge, had I ever met with. After 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 jon the subject; pro or con, 
no treatises have I read: man can tell me no more than 
that God has clearly revealed it, therefore man cannot 
strengthen a belief founded on the sure word of Ood : 
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 



Whether it be regarded as presumptuous or not, I 
must thankfully avow that during the weeks when I 
was left alone with my Bible, I obtained a view of this 
whole scheme of redemption, and God's dealings with 
man, which to this hour 1 have never found reason to ~ 
alter any one respect, save as greater light has conti- 
nually broken in on each branch of the subject, strength- 
ening, not changing those views. Tou will see in the . 
progress of my sketch, how complete a bulwark against 
error in numberless shapes I have found in this simple 
adherence to the plain word of truth ; this habit of 
bringing every proposition " to the law and to the tes- 
timony;" fully persuaded that "if they speak not 
according to this word, it is because there is no light 
in them. 

I now proceed to an interesting epoeh 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- 



i 



MV. FIRST TRACT. 129 

raent, together with my introduction, through it, to the 
Christian community of the land. 

My life, as I told you, was solitary and retired; 
my time chiefly passed in writing out documentary 

I matters for the lawyers. The law-suit, concerning a 

property not worth litigating, had already been carri- 
ed into three courts, Chancery, King's Bench, and 
- Prerogative, and the labour devolving on me was most 
irksome. The circumstance of my using the pen so in- 
cessantly became known, and I was looked on as a lite- 
rary recluse. One day a lady, personally unknown to 
me, 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 production ; and the next that I took up 
was an inducement to distribute tracts among the poor. 

) From this 1 learned that some excellent people wero 

engaged in a work quite new to me ; and, with a sigh, 
I wished I had the means of contributing to their funds. 
Presently the thought flashed upon me, c Since 1 can- 
not give them money, may I not write something to 
be useful in the same way V I had just then no work 
before me*, and a long winter evening at eommand. 

. I ordered large candles, told the servants not to inter- 

rupt 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 had 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 
troth, and sunk on my knees in thankfulness to God. 
Next morning I awoke, full of joy, but muck puzzled 

I 

\ 



130 A NEW FRIEND. 

Nfes to what I should do with my tract At lefigth, in 
the simplicity of my heart, I resolved to tend it to the 
Bishop of Norwich, and busied myself, at the break- 
fast-table, in computing how many frsjiks it would fill. 
While thus employed, a note was put into my hands, 
from Miss D., apologizing for the liberty taken, saying 
ahe had seat me, the day before, some tracts, and as she 
heard I was much occupied with the pen, it had occur- 
red to her that I might be led to write something my- 
self, in the possibility of which she now enclosed the 
address of the Secretary to the Dublin Tract Society, 
to whom such aid would be most welcome. 

I was absolutely awe-struck by this very striking 
incident I saw in it a gracious acceptance of my 
free-will offering at His hands to whom it had been 
prayerfully dedicated : and 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 continuance 
of such aid soon reached me, with some remarks, and 
questions that required a fuller communication of 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 usefulness. His rejoinder was the overflow- 
ing of a truly Christian heart, very much touched by 
an artless account of the Lord's dealings with me ; and 
greatly did my spirit rejoice at having found a bro- 
ther in the faith thus to cheer and strengthen me. 

But alas 1 a few days afterwards, Miss D. whom I 
had still never seen, wrote to apprize me that this ex- 



HAIL MART. 131 

cellent man had raptured a blood-Teasel and was dying. " 
Still he did not forget me, but after lingering for some 
"^ weeks, on his death-bed, commended me to the friend- 

I ship of his brotlltr, who from that period proved a true 

\ and valuable helper to me. 

Meanwhile I was beginning to take a Tie w 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 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 them 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 request she repeated the latter, and I 
gave her a gentle lecture on the irreverence of chatter- 
ing to God so volubly, and of employing herself about 
her clothes at the same time ; adding that she should be 
devout, deliberate, and quiet while speaking to God; but 
as for the Virgin Mary it was no matter how she ad- 
dressed her, if address her she would, for being only a 
, dead woman she could know nothing about it This, 

I I am ashamed to say, was the extent of my actual pro- 

test at that time. The girl took it all very readily, 
and ever after, during her addresses to God she knelt 
with her hands joined, repeating the words slowly and 
seriously ; but the moment she commenced the " Hail 
Mary " to make up for lost time she prattled it so 
rapidly, and tore open the fastenings of her dress with 



I* 



132 IDOLATRY. 

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 enquired as deeply &A. 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 superfi- 
cial view that I could as yet obtain of the great mystery 
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. 4 

One of the most interesting and delightful subjects 
opened to me by my study of the Scriptures during 
this happy period was that of the Jews. I had always 
felt deeply interested for them, and looked forward to 
their conversion, individually, to Christ; but nation- 
ally I was still in the dark about them. Now I plainly 
saw the nature and extent of God's covenanted pledge 
to Abraham, and became fully convinced that their 
national xestoration 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 prominent 
part Happily untaught in the spiritualizing process 
by which the divine promises to Israel are wrested 
from their evident, literal sense, I took all that I read 
as primarily applicable to those who were distinctly 
idressed by name, though plainly seeing that there 



CHRISTUM COKMUHION. ,133 

was an allowable adaptation of them to the Gentile 
church. Many a time hare I knelt down, with the 
ninth chapter of Daniel spread before me. fervently 
and with tears pleading in his words for his people. 
It was not until long afterwards that, on urging upon a 
pious clergyman the duty of combining in some great 
effort 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 deepened for twenty years ; and that 
nothing which man could say or write ever for a mo- 
ment shook my conviction on the subject I laitf hold 
on the word 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 Gentile* towards their course, and in 
evidently preparing the way for their speedy restora- 
tion. 

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 never forget ; 
he talked to me out of the overflowings of a heart de- 
voted to Christ, and left me pining for more extended 
enjoyment of Christian society. I was not long un- 
gratified ; 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 re- 
turned from Russia. Remember, these were the frank, 
unrestrained, warm-hearted Irish, of all people the most 
12 



134 

ready at expressing their zealous and generous feel- 
ings ; and imagine, if yon can, my enjoyment, after 
such a long season of comparative loneliness, when 
they came about me with the affectionate welcome that 
none can utter and look so eloquently as they can ! I 
thought it a foretaste of heavenly blessedness ; and 
yet I often longed for those seasons when I had 
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 was indeed 
pitched in the wilderness, and the candle of the Lord 
shone brightly upon it ; now, the blending of many 
infe4tp lights distracted my mind from its one object 
of contemplation, and broke the harmony that was so 
sweet in its singleness. 

A few months after this, the law-suit being ended, 
my husband was ordered abroad. I declined to cross 
the Atlantic a second time, and from this period I be* 
came chiefly dependent on my own exertions. My 
mother had joined me in Ireland, having been made 
a partaker in the like precious 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 waff no gospel 
preached in the pulpits of the establishment near me ; 
I, however, a year after my reception of the truth, be- 
came acquainted 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, 



CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 135 

and we freely offered Kim rack hospitality at 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 long been accustomed; the 
spirituality of his conversation, the excellency of his 
preaching, and the privilege of his domestic ministry 
in our tittle household at his weekly visit, all wrought 
to predispose me when, in the way of equal communi- 
cation, we came to discuss the grounds of his dissent 
Had I not already brought my prayer-book to the test, 
in the way related, before any basis could disturb my 
mind, I reaHy 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 indifferent, I re- 
fused to recognise a sufficient excuse for separation 
from what in its constitution was decidedly scriptural 
and good. My church was taxed with being essentially 
popish, and in rebutting this I became better acquaint- 
ed with her essential Protestantism. She was de- 
nounced 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 establishments. The un- 
holy lives of too many of her clergy, with their shame- 
ful neglect of the souk 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, 



136 SUCCESSION. 

and show that, it was to the wickedness of individual* 
in breaking the most solemn engagements, not to any 
defect in the system, or any lack of strong injunctions 
to zeal, diligenee, and devotion, we must attribute the 
acknowledged evils existing among others. My friend, 
too, always mild, kind, and charitable on other subjects, 
generally laid aside these characteristics 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 in- 
tended. He seemed to pay little attention to the 
spiritual wants of the poor deluded Romanists, rather 
seeking to convert Episcopalians into Dissenters, than 
Papists into Christians. Measuring all things by the 
standard of the written word, I became more fully 
convinced, the more I examined the matter, that there 
was no just cause why a believer should quit the com- 
munion of a church clearly built on the foundation of 
the prophets and apostles ; and even under the disad- 
vantages of such a location as I have described, I 
continued firm in my attachments to her. Some peo- 
ple told me I ought to take higher ground in uphold- 
ing 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 doc- 
trine 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 supreme in the 
see of Rome, the man of sin, and son of perdition, may 



AUGHROOB. 137 

respectively claim succession to the Aaronic priesthood 
and the apostolic ministry. I do not deny that a 
regular succession exists in the British churches, 
derived from an apostolic mission, long before Augus- 
tine or any other Romish emissary set foot on our soil 
to pollute the stream ; but I should never for a mo- 
ment 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 mother 
of harlots and abominations of the earth to a participa- 
tion in the privileges which none but the lamb's purs 
wife has any claim to. For my own part, I had never 
heard of such a thing, when God enabled me to stand 
firm as a member of this maligned church of England ; 
and it is one of the many cases in which I had nothing 
to unlearn, 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 vol- 
ume, for the gift of which all praise and glory be to 
God, through Christ Jesus, now and forever ! 
12 # 



LETTER YII. 

KILKENNY. 

I am bow to bring you into the stirring scenes of 
that time and place where the rebellious spirit of 
Popish 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 of this 
atrocious conspiricy is gone to his rest, after patiently 
enduring years of persecution, of exile, and of bodily 
and mental suffering induced by the scenes he waa 
compelled to pass through. 

Yicarsfield, the beautiful parsonage of Dr. 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 standing, about half a mile 
from the vicarage, which stood secluded, withdrawn 
from the public road, nestled in the rich foliage of 
many fine trees, and adorned with lovely pleasure- 
grounds. It wa& the happy privilege of that truly 
pious minister to originate the clerical meetings which 
were so eminently, so extensively blessed to the clergy 



VECKJJtSFIELD. J 39 

of that diocese, over which his father had presided as 
bishop. For many years they were held at his house, 
and truly rich were these seasons to all who inhabited 
it I Dr. Hamilton was a man of fine mind, deep tradi- 
tion, unbounded benevolence, and Christian sweetness 
that endeared him to every one. His income was 
considerable ; and while exercising the rites of a truly 
Lash 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 ser- 
* vants, 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 pre* 
sided, 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, with- 
out any regard to religious distinction; and as the 
Romanists amounted to about twelve hundred, while 
the Protestants could not muster one, and the former 
were infinitely more necessitous then 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 affectionate partner towards, 
their poor neighbours, because it throws additional 
light on the real origin of those acts which the English 
people were made to believe resulted from oppression 
on the part of the Protestant clergy. 

When first I went to Knocktopher in the summer of 
1821, no open act of violence had been committed, o* 



140 R0CKITE3. 

publicly threatened, in its immediate vicinity ; but al- 
ready the name of Captain Rock was becoming formi 
dable. The place borders on Tipperary, from whence 
came nocturnal parties, scouring the country and alarm- 
ing 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 prophecies of Pas- 
torini A Dr. Walmsley, a popish priest, had written 
a commentary on the book of Revelation, under that 
name, wherein he explained the ascent of the locusts 
out of the bottomless pit to prefigure the rise of Pro- 
testantism with Luther at its head ; — calculating the g 
date of their continuance from 1525, and fixing its ter- 
mination in 1825. Extracts from this impudently 
mischievous Work were disseminated in every possible 
form among the Romanists ; they were translated into 
Irish, sent in large numbers to every district to be 
circulated by careful agents : published in handbills, 
exhibited in placards, and sung in doggrel rhyme 
through the streets. There was no article of their 
faith more devoutly believed by the besotted people 
than that in 1825 the Protestants 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 
unoffending neighbours, those of higher rank and gen- 
tler 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 ex- 
change their courteous, respectful demeanour toward* 



THEEATS. 141 

the Protestant gentry for a bearing that bespoke ekber 
defiance or larking 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 pro- 
cesses for the' tithe. Proctors were waylaid, process 
servers cruelly murdered: and the organisation of 
hostile bodies became daily more apparent As yet; 
however, we dwelt in comparative security ; Dr. Ha* 
milton 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 contents, 
none of us suspected that they were Rockite notices, 
fiercely threatening his life, and signed m blood. He 
applied privately, for a body of police, who were sta- 
tioned at an old mansion, midway between Vicarsfield 
and the Tipperary pass, called Castle Morris-; and 
when committing 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 attributed to the pressure of 
bodily indisposition under which he generally labour- 
ed, what was indeed referable to the solicitude of a 
mind that preferred to bear its burden alone rather 
than hasten the time of our painful participation in 
the terrors that flesh must needs feel. 

At die end of our prolonged visit, we were led to 



142 A NSW RESIDENCE. 

take up oar abode in the town of Kilkenny, bo 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 in- 
extricably involved, and now also placed in the hands 
of trustees. I had sought the maintenance of that 
character for the sake of the poor tenants, whose af- 
fection 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 Kil- 
kenny I found all that could combine to encourage me 
in the pursuit of honest' independence, in the way of 
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 affection. 
It was indeed a delightful task, and God had raised up 
to me also a friend to whose truly paternal kindness 
I owe more than ever can be told, Mr. George Sand- 
ford, now Lord Mountsandford, who, from our first ac- 
quaintance, 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 stedfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 



• 143 

as ye know that your labour shall not be in rain in 
the Lord." 

I have already told yon of my escape from the 
snare of Soeinianism. I have noticed the grounds on 
which I 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 1 
I had not bestowed any great attention on the details 
of that abominable device, but was most fully persuaded 
of its being a system of idolatrous delusion, the work- 
ing of which was strikingly manifested in the wretch- 
edness, the immorality, the turbulence and degrading 
superstitions of the poor creatures around me. It 
never had been my practice to tamper or to eompro. 
mise 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 sem- 
blance of an agreement which cannot really exist be- 
tween the temple of God and idols. I believed Po- 
pery to be the Babylon of Apocalypse, and I longed 
for resolution to proclaim to the deluded victims, 
u Come 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 Paul to 
the Jews became as a Jew that he might gain the 
Jews : I, by a false process of reason, thought it allow- 
able to become as an idolator to the idolaters that I 
might gain the idolaters. An awful presumptuous 



144 COMPROMISE. 

•in! Tke 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 must be 
induced to fling it away, and to pluck from the tree of 
life a wholly different thing. 

My Protestant principles, such as they were, with- 
held me from visiting the convent which formed a 
principal attraction to the military and other strangers 
in Kilkenny. Many sought to draw me thither, ad* 
ducing the examples of Christian 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 conveying 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 per- 
son ; and to the surprise of my friend I volunteered to 
accompany her to the convent. 

The nun was indeed a most engaging young lady,; in 
personal 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 affectionate 
gratitude for my services, quite won my heart I 
promised to repeat the visit shortly, and on doing so 
accompanied her to walk round the garden, at the other 
extremity of which stood a building which I took for 



AN APOSTATE. 145 

their school, and unhesitatingly mounted the stain 
with my sweet conductor. Judge what was my dis- 
may when, on passing the folding doors, I found my- 
self in a splendid Popish chapel, opposite the attar, 
oyer which shone a richly gilt cross, while my poor 
nun was prostrated in the lowliest adoration, touch- 
ing the ground with her forehead before. the. senseless 
Idol J 

I was confounded, and unable to say anything; but 
after a hasty glance at the fine trappings, left the place, 
secretly praying 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 
from one of those iniquitous mixed marriages, her mo- 
ther belonging to the Established Church, her father 
a Romanist, who, however, honestly adhered to the 
terms of the wicked covenant by which the sons 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 after his 
death, when the house was 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 ecclesiastics, and had 
openly apostatized — all save my new friend, .who with 
a better informed mind and more scriptural knowledge 
withstood their sophistries, until sundry mock miracles 
performed by means of saintly relics, and a well-con- 
13 



146 H»D OY CONTROVERSY. 

trived nocturnal visitation from the ghost of her father 
whom she fondly loved, had so unnerved and fright- 
ened her that she too fell a prey to the delusion. They 
ended by admitting her into the sisterhood of this con- 
vent, excusing the payment- of the large sum usually 
demanded ;* and as her darkness was now great in pro- 
portion to the measure of light against which she had 
sinned, they found her a valuable decoy bird to draw 
others into the snare. I did not learn all these par- 
ticulars at the time, nor until after her decease, when 
I met with a near family connexion of hers who told 
them to me ; I simply gleaned the fact of her apostacy, 
with that of her unbounding zeal in the antichristian 
cause. 

With all my heart I loved the gentle, affectionate, 
elegant nun, and earnestly did I pray for help in bring- 
ing her back, as I was resolved to do, from the path of 
destruction; and while I deliberated on the best means 
of commencing the work, the difficulty was removed 
by her openly attemjfting to convert me. To this end 
she urged on me a strict inquiry into the real doctrines 
and tenets of her church, for myself and by myself, 
promising to lend me books of the most candid charac- 
ter, if I would engage to read them. I agreed, stipu- 
lating that I was freely to write out my remarks on 
them for her consideration ; and with this mutual un- 
derstanding, I brought home from the convent the 
preeious loan of Dr. Milner's " End of Controversy," 
furnished* for my especial benefit by a seminary of 
Jesuit priests, located near the town : and thus was I 
become the object of a combined attack from the forces 
of Great Babylon. 



THE SHAKE BAOKEV. 147 

True to what I considered a tacit engagement to 
study the matter alone, I read the book. Never shall 
I forget the effect it produced on me. I seemed to be 
holding communion with Satan himself, robed as an 
angel of light, the transparent drapery revealing his 
hideous form, but baffling my endeavours to rend it 
away. Sueh sophistry, such impudence of unsup- 
ported assertion, such distortion of truth, 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 my 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, exelaimed, " O Lord I cannot unravel this web 
of iniquity : enable me to cut it in twain !" I was an- 
swered : for after a little mora thought, a broad view 
of the whole scheme of man's salvation as revealed in 
the Holy Scriptures appeared tt me the best antidote 
for this insidious poison. I read through the New 
Testament with increased enjoyment, and casting from 
me the wretched fabric of lies, with all its flimsy pre- 
tences, I resolved, instead of attempting to reply to 
what I saw to be falsehood, to set forth a plain state- 
ment of what I knew to be truth. Indeed it is inde- 
scribable how disgusting the painted face, the gaudy 
trappings, and the arrogant assumptions of the Great 
Harlot appeared in my eyes, when thus contrasted with 
the sublime simplicity, purity, and modesty of the 
chaste Spouse of Christ 

I wrote j and in reply got another and a smaller 



148 <JNK-Sri>ED HONfi8tT. 

book, containing the pretended reasons of a Protestant 
for embracing Popery. They wore, of course, artfully 
put, and made a formidable exhibition of the peril of 
heresy. I thought I eould not do better in return, 
while writing my dissent, 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 
little 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 any- 
thing contrary to the true faith which she held. Hera 
was a pretty exposure of one-sided honesty t I thanked 
God for the further insight given me into the Mystery 
of Iniquity, and from that day devoted all my powers 
to the 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 un- 
hallowed show. My poor friend sent us two, informed 
me that two of the best front seats would be reserved 
for us, and accompanied her kind note with a pro- 
gramme of the ceremony, and a translation, or trans- 
cription, of the service, all in her own hand writing. 
I feh deeply the pain of hurting her, and perhaps for 
a moment the workings of a natural curiosity, but the 
hesitation was short. I sent back both books and 
tickets, with a grateful but decided refusal to be present* 



ATTACK. 149 

In all Kilkenny I did not find a person who could go 
-along with me in my objections ; but it is a matter of 
great 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 my efforts against Popery in consequence 
ofit 

Before I take you on a second and very different 
visit to Vicarsfield, I will anticipate a little, and tell 
you of a subsequent 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 attention 
to soma poor children similarly circumstanced in the 
streets of Kilkenny ; and while prosecuting 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, who could read and write, and 
very soon made a great proficiency in the finger lan- 
guage by helping me to instruct Jack. No one above 
Pat's own rank had ever taken an interest in him ; I 
did, a strong one, and as he was much with me, and 
of a character most intensely 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 impor- 
tant look, his brogues stamping the carpet with un- 
wonted energy, his fine bare throat stiffened into a sort 
of dignified hauteur, and his very keen hasel eyes 
sparkling under the bushy luxuriance of chesnut curb 
13 # 



150 ait aAgvwdct. 

that clustered about Us face and All on his neek. The 
very beau 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 and turn of thought so peculiar to the 
Irish peasant was derived from this source. When- 
ever Pat came * to discourse me ' I got rich lessons in 
the very brogue itself from the fidelity with which his 
spelling followed the pronunciation of his words. ■ 
<I would' nt like,' said he, 'that you would go to 
hell' 

' Nor I either, Pat.' 

' But you are out of the thrue church, and you 
won't be saved, and I must convert ye.' 

' That is very kind of you, my good lad : if I am 
wrong you cannot do better than set me right.' 

'Sure and I win? 

'But how? 

( With this, 1 said he, pulling out a small pamphlet 
nothing the cleaner for wear. ' You must learn my 
catechism, and it's you that will be the good Catholic. 1 

Delighted with the boy's honest zeal, I asked him 
where I should begin ; and he no less pleased at my 
docility, desired me to read it all, and then get it all 
by heart. I promised 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 bejong to the true Church, and I'll shew 



151 

you what it is ' — 00 I pointed out to him two passage*, 
and added, ' Now I do lore our Lord Jesus Christ m 
sincerity, and therefore I am one of those to whom 8t 
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 I 1 

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



4 Very true: Dr. Butler wrote yours, and God wrote 
mine, 1 holding up the Bible ; ' which is best ? ' 

< 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 I ? * said he 
smiling: ' but if he lent me his Bible he must lend 
me a cart to bring it heme in, for its as big as this table. 
Yours is too little, and doesn't hold half the truth. 
That is why you are so ignorant.' 

I soon proved, by shewing him Matthew Henry's 
Commentary, 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 giren for our learning, and the 
danger of resting on man's assertion. Pat stood his 
ground most manfully, astonishing me by the adroit- 
ness with which he parried my attacks, while pursu- 
ing as he hoped, the good work of my conversion. 
For many a day was the controversy carried on ; 
Sutler versus the Bible, without any other effect than 
that of bringing Pat to read the saered book for him* 
self ; but it opened to me the awful wiles of darkness 
by which the poor and ignorant are blinded, while for 



152 VISIT TO yJCABLSFIELD. 

the more educated class such polished sophistry as Mfl- 
ner'e is carefully prepared. I reaped the fruit, how- 
ever, six years afterwards, when in a little English 
church Pat kneeled beside me and his brother, a thank- 
ful communicant, at the Lord's table. 

Our next visit to Vicarsfield displayed a melancholy 
change indeed in that sweet spot There were iron 
bars, and chains, and 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, was built into 
the floor of the room with mortar, resting just behind 
the chair where the lady of the house did the honours 
of the table ; the servants being obliged to stride 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 Carrick'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, 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 the gardener, of 
whose personal fidelity they had no doubt; but his 
wife was a devotee, and they well knew that every tie 
of affection and gratitude must give way before the 
stern despotism of the merciless creed. Some dreadful 



REBELLIOUS MOVEMENTS. 158 

murders had lately been perpetrated very near; a 
barrack was burned, and several poliee-men butchered 
in a surprise. Dr. Hamilton had bean openly and 
fiercely threatened: his Proctor was way-laid, and 
narrowly escaped assassination: and to realise mora 
awfully what had otherwise been but matter of report, 
I was shown from the window of the drawing-room at 
noonday, a body of Roekites to the number of forty, 
wall-mounted, formidably armed, with cross-belts and 
cartouche-boxes, leisurely walking their horses within 
less than a quarter of a mils from the house for the 
purpose of intimidation. It was close by the bohreen, or 
narrow lane where, a few years afterwards, 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 left in the heart's-blood of 
many an Irishman. A vile book from the pen of Mr. 
Moore, under that title, helped forward the work 
among a rank who were well known to take the lead 
in this rebellious movement ; for although the execu- 
tioners of decrees pronounced by the invisible tribunal 
were found to be of a class peculiarly ignorant and 
lawless, it was not by suek hands the main body was 
organized and its ramifications directed, nor by such 
hands that the various missives were penned. The 
work undertaken was to level that great constitutional 
breakwater which breasted the tumultuous waves as 
they raged without, affording a smooth haven of se- 
curity within its boundaries; and the argument used 
was any thing but complimentary to the common sense 



154 THOMAS MOOUL 

of those whom it addressed; being, in fact, that the 
external violence was wholly occasioned by the afore- 
said 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 rampart-stone placed 
there? What induced the men of a preceding gene* 
ration to present such a front to the stormy ocean % 
Winds and waves, it was again replied, were different 
in former days from what they now are : the idle pre- 
judice is exploded, that invested nature's laws with 
unchangeableneas, and billows are not now what they 
were three centuries ago. To urge home this power- 
ful logic alike to the hopes and fears of man, if it 
failed to reach their understandings, was the object 
held in view by the entire confederacy of Rome, who 
had at heart the supremacy in Ireland of that system 
whereof Doyle was the Priest, O'Connel the Politician, 
and Moore the Poet and Historian. To the work of 
the two former, due praise on the one hand, due ex- 
ecration oh the other, was accorded : to the latter not. 
The nobleman who boasted that he sang the list of 
the Stuarts out of three kingdoms with his " Lillibu- 
lero" song was forgotten : the demagogues who said to 
a fallen constitutional opponent, ' Do you direct the 
literature of a nation, and let me write their baHads,.' 
was forgotten too: while the rhymer of the Propa- 
ganda guided the serpent of rebellion to its mark un- 
der the flowery covert of his loose poetry, gaining to 
himself a name as the laureate of voluptuousness, that 
should the better mask his object when launching forth 
in sober prose on the wild sea of politics. I read that 



VXEQVJLL ESTRIBTJTION. 155 

pernicious book amid the terrors, the desolations, 
and afflictions that it was purposely framed to help 
forward ; and when closing die insidious page, I look- 
ed forward to the proceedings of a higher and a juster 
tribunal than that which awards so unequal a retribu- 
tion 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 re- 
fined, deluding Poet with fame and a pension. 



LETTER VIIL 



THE W0MING8 OF POKER Y. 



Although, perhaps, too late to be instructive to this' 
generation, it is painfully interesting to look back upon 
die subtlety and skill that wove a snare for our expe- 
diency-loving rulers. Man may meet man in his own 
strength, moral or physical ; but when Satan buckles 
on his infernal weapons wherewith to assail the indivi- 
dual or national allegiance of those who can 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 now he was gone, and full 
justly did the enemy calculate on the advantages af- 
forded to him by a relaxed and powerless grasp. Like 
the symbolical Britannia of our coinage, we rested upon 
the shield, more as a matter of display than of use ; 
and so left the bosom bare to every shaft 

Our enemies know well, though we do not always 
admit it, that the insuperable barrier to the domina- 
tion of Popery in these realms is t^e Established 
Church, so long as its ministers hold the pure, high doc- 
trines of uncompromising Protestantism, set forth in 
all her creeds and formularies. As yet, it had not 
occurred to the invisible head of the antichristian con- 
federacy to make good a lodgment within these defen- 



THE IRISH CHPBCfL 157 

ees ; or ratter I ought to say lie jbad not permission 
so to do until 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 
act 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 re- 
membered 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 increas- 
ing 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 Protestant Church to oppose them J now the living 
reality started np in the 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 in 
the parish, and the first sanguinary onset menaced 
against the house, wherein I was a guest What a 
contemptuous, yet alas t what a just estimate must 
the earthly leaders of this evil work have formed of die 
blind infatuation possessing the rulers of our political 
destinies i 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 
14 



158 SATAMC DEVICES. 

tix thousand years!* experience in such matters, and 
who knows when the kings of earth, from Adam down- 
wards, cast off the bond of obedience to the King of 
kings, ruin to themselves and to 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. 

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 were to be convinced that the outpost 
so fiercely attacked was a hindrance, 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 plentitude 
of his infernal sagacity ? I think not Yet it did 
succeed, so far as man was concerned. The means of 
defence extended to the clergy were wholly inadequate 
from the beginning of the fray ; and as it advanced, those 
means were by all possible contrivances curtailed and 
withdrawn. Knocktopher was the known point of 
attack, and how was it guarded % A handful of police- 
men occupied a retired post nearly two miles distant ; 
and when the hostile demonstrations became incessant, 
and much blood had been shed, a small detachment of 
military was stationed somewhat nearer. Kilkenny 
contained 24,000 most devoted Romanists with about 
800 Protestants, many of them so only in name ; the 
spirit manifested there was most turbulent, and many 
daring outrages were perpetrated; yet to garrison 



COLOHSL LOnMUY. ' 150 

this important town, and to protect the whole country 
round, from hoats of armed and disciplined rebel*, that 
invaluable officer Colonel Lindsay had only hie gallant 
Highland regiment, the 78th, on its peace establishment. 
Little note is now-a-days taken of such services at 
Colonel Lindsay rendered ; but the poor hunted Pro- 
testants of that country will not soon forget his wis* 
dom, vigilance, and seal on their behalf He disposed 
his small force with admirable judgment, so far as it 
could possibly be made to extend ; and often did he 
take htB departure from head-quarters, carelessly saying 
he was going to pass a day or two at Desart, at Mount- 
Juliet, or other neighbouring seats where he was ever 
a welcome visitant ; when few besides those who met 
him on his rounds suspected that the gallant soldier 
passed his nights in the saddle, scouring the perilous 
country, and keeping watch over those who were mark- 
ed 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 was for good, knew his pro- 
ceedings 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 his full com- 
plement of Highlanders in barrack ; and Colonel Lind- 
say confessed to me he was dreadfully at a loss, being 
unable to turn out above eighty men for an occasion 
demanding the fullest display he could afford. It re- 
quired 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, 



160 DANOEXOUS SITUATION. 

while in reality the disposable force was wholly inade- 
quate to do either. 

But I must not yet leave Vicarsfield ; we lived, as I 
said, within a moving circle of enemies, who delighted 
to parade their formidable force ; and our only earthly 
means of defence lay in the public knowledge of our 
being wholly unarmed, and without valuables in the 
house. The latter, indeed, were rarely sought ; for it 
was a part of the system to prove to us that our lives 
not our possessions, were the things thirsted after. Of 
this I will presently give a striking instance that occur- 
red 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 devoted 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 passing scene ; a young lady, resi- 
dent in the house with my mother and myself. 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 three of the men, besides M Old John," viz ; the 
coachman, butler, and footman, were quartered within 
doors, during the night, as being perfectly trustworthy ; 
and no weapons, so far as we knew, did our little for- 
tress contain, while it eehoed to the shots fired in all 
directions by the marauding Rockites, the loud tramp 



161 

of whose horses was likewise frequently audible 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 performing some of the finest of HandeFs sub- 
lime 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 
fire, and the conversation that always enlivened 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 midst of 
sanguinary foes. A momentary pause of dead silence 
marked the effect of that terrific note ; the silence was 
unbroken, but immediately after, the old Colonel, start- 
ing up seised a large cane as though it had been a 
sword, and' with energetic determination stamped on 
his countenance marched to the door. The curate 
passed after him ; and Dr. Hamilton with one look of 
stifled anguish cast on us, then upturned to hea- 
ven, immediately followed. We sate like statues awe- 
struck and mute, nor do I think we should have at- 
tempted to move under anything that might have en- 
sued j but to our infinite relief, one of the servants 
came up. to express, his regret that in bearing down 
the large tea-tray he had inadvertently jarred one of 
the bells on the staircase* window-shutter. The inci- 
dent, however, taught us to realize whet before we had 
only imagined of our feelings under an actual attack, 
and drew us nearer to Him who alone is a sure refuge 
14 # 



162 A DIFFICULT!'. 

in the day of calamity. We descended to the hall for 
family worship, where at a central point, Dr. Ham* 
ilton was seated, with a little table before him, the 
family being ranged along one division of the inter- 
secting passages, the rest of the household in the other. 
He read, expounded and prayed ; and very touching 
was the silent good night looked between the two divi- 
sions of the establishment. The respectful obeisance 
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 silent- 
ly 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 cir- 
cumstances. Gladly would I undergo a repetition, 
yea an aggravation of all that then oppressed us, to en* 
joy once more 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 eter- 
nity in the pathway trodden by them. 

Martyrdom indeed it was likely to be ; for at this 
time accounts reached us of several in our part of Ire- 
land having escaped death by Iheir expertness in bles- 
sing 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 



163 

recantation. At breakfast, the next morning after our 
alarm, one of the party suggested sending for the gar- 
dener's wife to teach us the exact form of blessing our- 
selves after the Popish fashion, 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 no- 
thing of recantation in making a sign to save our lives, 
which none of us scruple to make as a matter of indif- 
ference. I could not yield the point ; and the discussion 
that followed was on a question of life and death, im- 
pending directly over us. Scripture was mutually ap- 
pealed to: Dr. Hamilton referred me to 1 Cor. viii. 
and I told him that I was ready to let my argument 
stand or fell by that very chapter, as it proved the sin 
did not consist in the aet itself, but in the effect pro- 
duced 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 that 
since I had led him to an investigation which had ter- 
minated 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 



164 ANOTHER ALA*X. 

this : It was an awful thought that I atood responsible, 
in a measure, for the life, blood of my brethren ; but 
the more I reflected the clearer was my view of the 
•abject, and to this day it remains unchanged 

The next night one of the ladies waa 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 convert from Popery, throw- 
ing on his great coat and taking a lantern, darted out 
of the house alone, closing the door after him, which 
he could not have re-entered if attacked The proba- 
bility was that the horses were being abstracted for the 
service of Captain Rock, if nothing worse was going 
on ; but it proved to be no more than the vicious gam* 
bols of a mule that had slipped the halter, and was in- 
vading 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 quarters to intimate their 
numbers and activity j yet if I were to declare at what pe- 
riod 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 proportion as the na- 
tive Irish became more terrible, as sanguinary bigots 



IHSIO^T INTO POFEKT. 165 

thirsting for our Urea, so did my lore lor 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 in- 
sight into the infernal net that inclosed their ends. 
The more I learned 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, 
partook in all the superstitions and prejudices of that 
system; yet sure I am that my own nearest connections 
and oldest friends did not love me better, nor would 
have gone further to prove it, than that humble fam- 
ily. 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 affection, 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 devotedness, 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 my spirit 
fail to be stirred within me most earnestly on their 



166 

behalf, when I saw from day to day, with my own eyes, 
the dreadful havoc of their bodies and souls made by 
the antichristian enemy who hare ensnared them? 
Taught from the cradle to regard as the arbiters of 
their present and eternal destiny, the men who make 
merchandize of them — assured that the priest could 
forgive their sins, ox bind them irrevocably on their 
souls ; could crown their dwelling with a blessing, or 
blast both it and them with a withering curse ; could 
open to them the gates of heaven, or plunge them into 
the flames of hell ; could transform by means of a 
little unintelligible muttering a cake, perhaps of their 
own making, into the God who made them ; or turn 
them, if he ehose, 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 witholding 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 massess, or 
keep them there as long as he listed, (and who does 
not know that to the fond surviver of a beloved ob- 
ject this is the most adamantine chain of all,) and, 
finally, that to conceal from the aforesaid priest any 
thought of the heart, to resist his will in any particu- 
lar, or to deny him tiie full measure 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 
omnipotent 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 



THEIR CHARACTER. 167 

object to the exclusion of all others, and that one the 
aggrandizement of their order, the supremacy of their 
Church, the extermination of true Christians, and 
universal extension of the temporal no less than the 
ecclesiastical empire of Rome over the whole earth. 
To the attainment of this end every means must be 
used : the mind of the disciple being wholly fettered, 
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 mis- 
taken homage : I have seen the deluded soul passing 
into an unchangeable state of existence, under that 
awful malediction " Cursed be he that trusteth in man ; 
that maketh flesh his arm, and departeth from the 
living God." I have communed with those who by 
divine grace were delivered from the snare, and receiv- 
ed their united testimony alike as to its power and its 
iniquity ; and I have watched their dying 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 pro* 
gress and effects of true religion in the minds of those 
emancipated children of God, and have marked how 
mighty for good is * the natural,, national character 
which under this dreadful perversion has become so 
mighty for evil : and to crown all, I have been forced 



108 LOVE FOR IRELAND. 

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 yery 
time when, as 1 was told, I was specially marked for 
destruction among the anticipated 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 added strength to my convic- 
tions; heightening my estimate of those who serve 
with such steadiness of purpose the work which they, 
like Saul of Tarsus, ignorantly and in unbelief con- 
sider most acceptable to God ; and who, if brought 
into the way of righteousness, would be found, like 
Paul, labouring more abundantly 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 per- 
fect luxury, so long as my humble productions were 
made available for the spiritual good of the people so 
dear to me. My little books and tracts became popu- 
lar; because, after 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 



M» 



This is an aitsinsaeut much to be coveted by 
who write, pieach or expound for general edification : 
bo rational objection can be urged againet it : vanity 
alone can enter a protect Though our lettered seoeV 
ers or hearers nay not find matter to gratify their tacte 
or pamper the pride of intellect, still they cannot fafl 
to understand what is emited to the capacities of their 
thMiptk and servants ; whereas he who makes himself 
perhaps both intelligible and a gr eea b le to the former, 
is to the latter a barbarian, speaking in an unknown 
tongue ; and what account will he give mnto his Mas- 
ter of the souls that through his self-conceit or neglect- 
fulness of their peculiar deficiencies remain unfed? 
How often has my heart been pained under the elo- 
quent teaching of most gifted ministers, because t 
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 Vicarsfield with feelings of increased affec- 
tion for its inmates, and anxious solicitude as to their 
continued safety. In times of extreme peril, how much 
easier k appears to trust God with ourselves than with 
those whom we love I Personally, I- was mora than 
resigned,' like a soldier entering a field of battle, I 
seemed nerved for the combat with a strength of pur* 
pose peculiar to the occasion ; but looking on those 
who marched beside me, and scanning their dangers, 
fancying their sufferings, my courage would faker. 
This is Paul's meaning, when in reference to a "June* 
turn" of peculiar trials just at hand, he seems to dis- 
15 



170 

courage the formation of ties which God has, under 
ordinary circumstances, ordained and blessed. It is 
not every woman who, like the wires of some of our 
blessed martyrs, can ait down to make for the beloved 
partner of her heart and life the garment in which he 
is to endure a terrible martyrdom : 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 en- 
able 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 1 

Before dosing this letter, I will relate an incident 
already alluded to, in proof of the assertion, that ex- 
cept on one single point, there was little to dread from 
the agents of that wily system which aimed at higher 
objects than mere plunder, 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 ex- 
posed to that short but terrible alarm. Mr. ■ had 

taken his whole family and household to the church 
of which he 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 men ap- 
peared, the foremost of whom had opened the door, 
and was in the act of entering. He seemed to belong 
to the class of humble farmers, homely, but respectable, 
and his manner bespoke great determination, softened 



171 



with something of the courtesy which an 
finds it difficult to lay and* 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 be- 
ing a clergyman, did not keep any such weapons in 
his possession. To this the visiter again answered, 
that he most take the liberty of searching for them, 
and would trouble her to conduct him oyer the differ- 
ent 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 it, 
silently led the way through the 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, 
•he was requested to unlock the chest of drawers ; 
and the chief seeing that she trembled greatly, said in 
a \ety decided tone, ( I will not have the lady fright- 
ened ; back, all of ye except you, 1 addressing two near 
him, ' and, Ma'am, don't be alarmed— nobody wishes 
to hurt or distress you.' The other men retreated, 

and Miss opened every drawer in that and the 

other rooms, all of which, with the closets, were mi- 
nutely inspected by the three searchers, who turned 
over articles of plate, money, and other valuables, with- 
out manifesting the slightest desire to appropriate one 
of them. Their search was rewarded, I think, with no 
more than an old useless blunderbuss and rusty sword, 
with which they descended ; and when again in the 
parlour the leader took off his hat, told Miss - — he 



-i.j 



1712 STOTBMAtlC OVnU0K, 

wa* sorry to have alarmed her; he hoped be 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 manner 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 land nurse and 
the helpless charge; but there is also something rery 
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 re- 
gard every professor of true Protestantism. They 
greatly en who attribute to personal hostility the out- 
rages committed in Ireland : they are the deliberate 
execution of sentences formally passed by a secret Di- 
rectory, .on individuals far removed from the possi- 
bility 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 recog- 
nition, and to invest the work of murder with the 
air of a legal punishment in the eyes of those who com- 
mit it. 

One more incident occurring within my immediate 
neighbourhood, I will relate. The victim was not 
only himself a Romanist, but brother to the person who 
assumed the title of Roman bishop in that diocese. 
'This Mr. Marum was a large fanner, possessing con- 
siderable property in land, near Kilkenny ; and feeling 
more regard for his worldly possessions than interest 



NOON-DAY MUKDER. 173 

in the cause of his religion, he discouraged the Roolrite 
proceedings. Some great outrages having occurred, 
he represented to government the disturbed 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 son-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.' The young man replied, 
it is not worth while ; the distance was so short, 
and nobody 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 dis- 
guised for the purpose, 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 never would have left the work unfinished. A 
very great sensation was excited by this : his family con- 
nection rendered Marum' s murder a startling event to 
all parties ; nor did it end here : he had another bro- 
ther, a parish priest, who was believed to have aided 
him in preserving the public peace, and who strove 
anxiously to discover the murderers. After the inquest, 
a grand wake was held, at which this priest attended ; 
15* 



• 174 HKSCKirPULOUSMSBS. 

and during Us absence some unknown persons got into 
his small house, demolished all the furniture they could, 
turned every sod of grass in his field upside down, 
and carried off his corn. Here was sacrilege with a 
vengeance! and some simple people argued from it 
that religion had nothing to do with the political move- 
ment True, in one sense, for Popery is not a religion 
— it is only a crafty piece of masked atheism, pur- 
suing secuBax objects with a sanctified face ; but Pope- 
ry no more hesitates in cutting off a priest, or making 
away with a pope who may fail in working out its ar- 
bitrary principles, than it shrinks from dethroning a 
king, or burning a Christian. 



LETTER IX. 



THE DUMB BOY. 



The year 1824 was hailed throughout Ireland as 
one of confident hope and active preparation for the 
great event that was to distinguish 1825 — Protestant 
extermination. Black Lent was ordered to he kept, 
and extra masses celebrated, and especial prayers for 
the destruction of heresy to he daily offered. These 
last were remarkably answered, for Popery never re- 
ceived such a blow in Ireland as followed the appeal. 
Encouraged by the implicit faith placed by the poor 
ignorant people in their blood-thirsty prognostics, the 
priesthood waxed bold, and resolved on making head 
against the encroachments of Christianity. Hitherto, 
a strict injunction had been laid on their flocks to ab- 
stain from entering 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 Garlow 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 of!) a quantity of molten lead was poured, 



176 PEACEABLE COUNSEL. 

making the shillelagh more formidable in such hands 
than a sword would have been — much harder to parry, 
and impossible to break. In other places the priests 
keep aloof, bat sent their flocks to try the effect of 
these weighty arguments upon the heads of their Pro* 
testant 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 fcere on Wednesday. You won't be go* 
ing there to make a disturbance? you'll stay at home 
like peaceable people, and tat them have things their own 
way. I've heard it reported that some of you intend 
to go and have a scrimmage, but, in course, you haye 
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 pub- 
licly 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 
blackthorn under my coat as 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 meet- 
ings. The Reverend Mr. Daly came forward; we 
had been recommended to look after him particularly, 



ALARMING INCIDENT. 177 

and so we weald, but somehow he talked in sack a way 
about Jesus Christ aad die Bible, and God's lore to 
sinners, that we dissemembered every word of oar in* 
•tractions, and stood listening as if we had come there 
on purpose. By-and-by a bit of a spree was got up, 
but the Boys had little heart to it, and it was easily 
pat down. One thing I know for myself ; and that is, 
that if we had come to blows, not a hair of their heads 
should have been hurt, and I standing by.' 

c And what did you do afterwards? 

1 1 went home and read Ike Bible.' 

Such were the effects of Pastorinfs prophecy. It 
inspired one party with a raise 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 lor controversial discus- 
sions, than which 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 of 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 Sa- 
tan to accomplish His own immutable designs. 

In like manner, though on a smaller scale, the attack 
on my personal Protestantism was overrated 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 



ITS A FURL. 



••t of the stmts to instruct thorn, of whom one proved 
irrecleimably wild and vicious j two were removed by 
a priest's order, Jest I should infect them with heresy • 
the fourth was to me a crown of rejoicing, and will be 
so yet more at ' that day.' 

J 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 in* 
exhaustible 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 most cases of difficulty, 
instead of asking * What say the commentators V or 
c What says Mr. so and so?' I 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 per- 
sonal election I know to be in the Bible, and I did not 
need saan's confirmation to assure me that I had found 
it there; but it was delightful to witness such an illus- 
tration 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 I bestowed the most pains ; and 
who, after holding out strong encouragement, by his 
extraordinary quickness, brilliant talents, and devoted 
fondness to his instructor, merely served to introduce 
to me the poor little follow whom he scarcely regarded 
as a companion, then forsook his post, cast off all rule, 
and) I foar, went on rxowardly in the way of his own 



JACK. 179 

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 pony 
little fellow, of heavy aspect, and wholly destitute of 
the life and animation that generally characterise 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 monosyl- 
lables ; 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 pro- 
voking 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 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 bene- 
fit of his sight, and was so struck with the nobly ex- 
pansive 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. 1 I was 
then anything but a phrenologist, for I erroneously 
looked upon it as leading to materialism ; but experi- 
ence had long taught me to regard that lofty 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 



!$0 jack's commencement. 



• 



its prison and* looked around on every object as though 
never before" beheld. All seemed to appear in to new 
a light to him; curiosity, in which he had been strangely 
deficient, became an eagerly active principle, and no- 
thing that was portable did he rail to bring to me, with 
an inquiring shake of the head, and the word ' what V 
spelled by the fingers. It was no easy matter, before 
we had mastered a dozen common 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 More especially was I puzzled when 
his 'what? was accompanied by a motion pointing 
first at the dog, then to himself, to learn wherein con- 
sisted the difference between two creatures, both of 
whom, as he intimated, could eat, drink, sleep, and 
walk about, coi$d 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 thousand years of his de- 
gradation beneath the reign of Satan being fulfilled, he 
shall rise again in renovated majesty above the usur- 
per's power, and resume his high station among the 
brightest works of God. 

I do not remember exactly how long after his first 



INQUIRY. 161 

coming to ma it was that Jack began to inquire so dili- 
gently about God. He seemed full of grave, but rest- 
less thought, and then approaching me, pointed to- 
wards the sun, and by a movement of the hands, as if 
kneading something, asked me whether I made it % I 
shook my head. Did my mother? — No. Did Mr* 
Roe, or Mr. Shaw (the two Protestant clergymen) or the 
priest ? He had a sign to express each of these. — No. 
Then, 'What?— what?' with a frown and a stampof fret- 
ful impatience. I pointed upwards with a look of rever- 
ential solemnity, and spelled the word 'God.' 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, power- 
ful and kind; and that he was always looking at us. 
He smiled, 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 dumpUng, and sent rolling 
over the tops of the trees, as he sent a marble across 
the table. As for the stars, they were eut 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 communi- 
cate more, however, seemed utterly impossible, until we 
should have accomplished considerable things in the 
way of education. We had not above a doxen of the 
commonest words — all names of things — to which he 
16 



182 A DILEMMA. 

could attach a meaning ; and our signs ware all of lis 
own contriving, which I had to catch, and follow as 1 
might. So said Reason, but Reason is a fooL " Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." 
u 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 after it at a 
modest distance. 

Next day, Jack came to me in great wrath, intimat- 
ing that my tongue ought to be pulled out. This was 
his usual mode of accusation where a lie had been 
told. So I looked innocent and said, ( What? 1 He re- 
minded me of yesterday's conversation, telling me that 
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 his hand and stick the stars into the shy. I was 
* bad/ my tongue must be pulled out ; for there was 
'God, no.' And he repeated, ( God — no!' so often 
that it went to my heart 

I considered, prayerfully. My view of the scrip- 
tures told me that without divine help none could really 
seek after God ; and also that when He vouchsafed to 
give the Hesire, he would surely increase knowledge. 
VLexe was a poor afflicted boy getting out of his bed to 
look by night for one whom he had vainly sought all 



AM ILLUSTRATION. 183 

the day : here was Satan at work to strengthen unbe- 
lief : 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, I 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 delinquency. Presently I seized a small pair 
of bellows, and after puffing at the fire for a while, sud- 
denly directed a rough blast at his little red hand, 
which hung very near it. He snatched it back, 
scowled at me, and when again I repeated the opera- 
tion, expressed great displeasure, shivering, and letting 
me know he did not like it 

I renewed the puff, saying, ( What?' and looking 
most unconscious of having done anything ; he blew 
hard, and repeated that it made his hands cold j that I 
was very bad, and he was very angry. I puffed in all 
directions, looked very eagerly at the pipe of the bel- 
lows, 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 triumph- 
antly repeated, ( God like wind! God like wind!' 
He had no word for ' like ;' it was signified by holding 
the two fore fingers out, side by side, as a symbol «& 
perfect resemblance. 

Here was a step, a glorious step, out of absolute 



184 DAWNING LIGHT. 

atheism into a perfect recognition of the invisible 
God. An idea, to call it nothing more, new, grand, 
and absorbing, took possession of his mind. I num- 
bered 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 touchingly simple question or remark concern- 
ing 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 dazzled his 
mind was not visible. He was perpetually engaged 
in some process of abstract reasoning on every subject, 
and amazed me by explaining its results ; 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 to- 
wards every living thing, moving his hand over them 
in a caressing way, and saying, ' God made.' At first 
he excepted the worms from this 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 right J 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 1 



RKAMUOIfaS. 185 

Whan my first pupil from Mug irregular in his 
attendance fell off more and more, until he wholly dis- 
continued coming, and the others were withdrawn for 
fear of heretical infection, I became more anxious kst 
this dear boy might also leave me before he had re- 
ceived the knowledge of Jesus Christ I had, at his 
earnest entreaty, taken him into the house altogether, 
his home being some distance ; but I knew not how 
long he might be permitted to stay. The ravages of 
a dreadful fever among the poor increased my solici- 
tude to see my devout little Deist a Christian. I 
have, in a small memoir of this ' Happy Mute, 1 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 tha way, and in the faith of the Lord's willing- 
ness 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 had often been present at 
the interment 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 con- 
sciousness of immortality is natural to man, and un- 
belief in a future state foreign to his untaught feelings. 
On the present occasion, my heart being lifted up in 
prayer lor divine assistance on this very point, I 
caught at the encouragement, and instantly proceeded 
16* 



186 

to improve the opportunity. I sketched on paper a 
crowd of persons, old and young ; near them a pit with 
Hemes issuing from it, and told him all those people, 
among whom were we, had been * bad' and God would 
throw us into the fire. When his alarm was greatly 
excited, I introduced into the picture another indi- 
vidual, who I told him was God's Son, that he came 
out of heaven, he had not been bad, and was not to go 
in 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 effectual does the Lord make our poorest ef- 
forts when He wills to work ! After a few moments 
deep thought, Jack astonished me by an objection that 
proved he saw the grand doctrine of a substitute for 
sinners, which I was sa hopeless of brinwig before 
him. He told me the rescued people were many ; he 
who died was one, and his earnest ( What V with the 
eloquent look that now peculiarly belonged to his once 
stupid countenance showed his anxiety for a solution 
of this difficulty. 

With unutterable joy in my heart, but great com- 
posure of manner, I rose, and taking from a vase a 
bunch of dead flowers, inadvertently left there, I cut 
them into small bits, laid them in a heap on the table, 
and beside them my gold ring: then pointing to each, 
with the words ' many—- one/ I asked which he would 
rather have? He struck his hand suddenly to his 
forehead, then clapped both hands, gave a jump as he 
sat, and with the most rapturous expression of counte- 
nance intimated that the one piece of gold was better 



A BOOT. BOB*. 187 

than the 100m full of dead flower* With gmt rapid- 
ity he applied the symbol, pouting 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 I A 
smile perfectly angelic beaming on his face, his eye* 
sparkling and dancing with delight, until with a rush 
of tears, that quite suffused them, he gazed at me, then 
again raised them to the ceiling, his look. softened into 
an expression of deep awe, and unbounded love, while 
he gently spelled on his fingers ( good One, good Oral' 
and ended by asking me his name. 

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

Jack was not to hear that name with his bodily ears 
until the voice of the archangel and the trump of Qod 
should call him from sleeping in the dust of the earth ; 
but he received it into his mind, and the gospel, the 
glorious everlasting gospel, 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 be- 
fore had I laid my head oa the pillow with such an 
overwhelming sense of perfect happiness. The Lord, 
had indeed shown me his glory, by causing his good- 
ness 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 



188 A F&OTBSTEI* 

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 die 
end of the world ; and often was I puzzled by discern- 
ing that Jack, had an impression on his miod of a 
coming to make his people happy here. At a time 
when I had never even heard of a personal reign, and 
he, to my certain knowledge* had no human teaching 
whatever, except from me, at that time I am positively 
certain that 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 dis- 
covered 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 abominations, I yet temporized sadly in this mat- 
ter ; I had no 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 imme- 
diately, I refrained from approaching the subject, and 
allowed the poor little fellow to bow down with the rest 
in a mass-house. If I ever was tempted to believe, 
which I never am, that God leaves any of his own chil- 
dren in the communion of antichrist, Jack's case would 
effectually rebuke me ; he spurned 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 after this. 



IDOLATET. 189 

he came up to me under great excitement : he took up 
a clothes-brash, set it on one end, and with a ludicrous 
grimace bowed down before it, joining his hands in the 
attitude of prayer, and chattering after his fashion ; 
then asking the brush if it could hear him, waiting in 
ah attitude of attention for its reply, and finally knock- 
ing it over, and kicking it round the room, saying, 
'Bad god, bad god!' I guessed pretty well what it 
was all about ; but as he concluded by snapping his 
fingers exultingly, and seating himself without further 
remark, I spoke on other subjects. My feelings were 
far from enviable. 

Next morning, Jack was very animated, and came to 
me with an evident budget of new thoughts. He told 
me something very small came out of the ground, 
pointing in opposite directions ; it grew ; and then 
two more points appeared. Hound he was describing 
the growth of a plant, and expecting 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 shouldering 
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 crucifix, which he laid by, and proceeded to make 
a stool, a box, and other small articles ; after 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? 



FEARFUL BIGOTRY. 193 

demos aggressor made off, laughing, with his com- 
panions. 

The young man was brought into Kilkenny, and 
most assiduously attended by the medieal gentlemen, 
while the clergymen of our parish and his brethren in 
the ministry were constantly engaged in prayer beside 
him, or in soothing the anguish of his mother and sis- 
ters. The ball could not be extracted, neither could 
the bleeding by any means be stanched ; but, drop by 
drop, in lingering agony, the vital current escaped 
from the youth's reins, and he was several days dying. 
Outside the window of the house assembled a number 
of women from the lowest class of the Romish popula- 
tion*- and there they sate, responding with a yell of tri- 
umph, to every groan the poor sufferer uttered, pray- 
ing that he might have smart enough before he went ; 
and shouting, * You'll be in hell presently, you Pro- 
testant locust, and then you'll cry louder ;' with simi- 
lar exclamations, and most awful curses on the whole 
race. Why were they not removed ? you will ask ; 
but who was to remove them? Were 24,000 people 
to be roused into open violence, with a couple of High- 
land-companies in garrison, and a small force of Police, 
and 800 terrified Protestants, fully aware that at the 
first intimation of an outburst, fifty or a hundred thou- 
sand 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 
was 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 
17 



192 ovnuoB. 

to draw the persecuted Huguenot* into communion ^ 

with Rome. It was kit glory that he eueeeeded so far, ^ 

and no doubt he did it conscientiously ; but »o long at t 

I read in my Bible that Satan transforms himself into n 

an angel of light to seduce Christ's servants from their * 

allegiance to Him, I will not tamper with my faith by l 

sitting down to ascertain how much of Christianity 
I can discover in certain individuals actively promoting 
m system against which the God of heaven has pro- 
nounced an irrevocable, a withering, and a final curse. 

A dreadful instance occurring in our immediate 
neighbourhood 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 barracks of Kilkenny lived 
a family of unoffending, respectable Protestants, named 
Marr. One Sunday afternoon, long before sunset, 
while they were sitting round the tea-table with un- 
fastened 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 par* 
lour 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 peculiarly harmless 
character, because he was of weak intellect, with the 
manners of a little child, shot him. The bullet en- 
tered just above his elbow; and as he fell the 



FEAHFUL BIGOTRY. 193 

derous aggressor made off, laughing, with his com- 



The young man was brought into Kilkenny, and 
most assiduously attended by the medical gentlemen, 
while the clergymen of our parish and his brethren in 
the ministry were constantly engaged 4n prayer beside 
him, or in soothing the anguish of his mother and sis- 
ters. The ball could not be extracted, neither could 
the bleeding by any means be stanched ; but, drop by 
drop, in lingering agony, the vital current escaped 
from the youth's veins, and he was several days dying. 
Outside the window of the house assembled a number 
of women from the lowest class of the Romish popula- 
tion* and there they sate, responding with a yell of tri- 
umph to every groan the poor sufferer uttered, pray- 
ing that he might have smart enough before he went ; 
and shouting, ' You'll be in hell presently, you Pro- 
testant locust, and then you'll cry louder ;' with simi- 
lar exclamations, and most awful curses on the whole 
race. Why were they not removed ? you will ask ; 
but who was to remove them? Were 24,000 people 
to be roused into open violence, with a couple of High- 
land- companies in garrison, and a small force of Police, 
and 800 terrified Protestants, fully aware that at the 
first intimation of an outburst, fifty or a hundred thou- 
sand 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 
was 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 
17 



m 

heard while praying in the midst of that agonized 
family, as the spirit of the murdered youth 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; hut 
I looked beyond the hateful fruit to the execrable root 
that bore it, and felt how terrible was our own respon- 
sibility, m that we had not laid the axe to it while 
yet the opportunity was given, by preaching Popery 
out of Ireland by the same means that banished it from 
England and Scotland. There was nothing in this de- 
monstration inconsistent with the usual workings of that 
ferocious persecutor all over the world. The records 
of Piedmont bear a testimony to which all lands in all 
ages send forth a corroborative voice, that where Po- 
pery has gained- the ascendant the demons of cruelty 
rage uncontrolled, so long as a whisper or a look 1 dis- 
sentient from its dogmas may be detected; nay, we 
well know that infancy, and, as in the ease 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 ta execute these 
frightful behests is a lamentable, 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 prin- 
cipal; sufferers from them consoled themselves under 
the persuasion 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 trans-- 
forming Popery into a peaceable neighbour by any 



SUMMONS. 195 

farther concessions. Every one knew that the 'eman- 
cipation' so loudly called for could work no other 
change' im the hostile party than as it must afford 
them an important step in advance to final ascendency. 
What could such concession do in neutralizing the 
effect of Pastorini's prophecies % Would the ' locusts' 
cease to he so by bestowing a tardy boon on the Ro- 
manists, wrung from them at the pike's point? It 
seemed impossible 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 rendered it trying to us. Most 
assuredly the Protestants of Ireland were not consent- 
ing to that deed ; some dwelling in secure cities, and 
wholly careless whether truth or falsehood ruled the 
realm, joined the. cry of liberalism; and others in ex- 
posed situations forebore to utter their sentiments at 
all, well knowing that every word spoken in the hear- 
ing of their Romish domestics would speedily find its 
way to the confessional ; but in general there was a 
firm, undisguised opposition to the surrender of the 
national faith ; and sure I am that the Protestants of 
Ireland never acquiesced in having their dangers made 
the plea for throwing down the bulwarks of the consti- 
tution^ 

Early in the summer of 1824 I received a summons 
to return to England. It Iras most unwelcome, for 
my heart was knit to Ireland, and to share the lot of 
her devoted people was its earnest desire. At home I 
. had many old friends ; but what were they to the be- 
loved brethren and sisters in Christ, who had been 
my fellow-helpers for the last four years in the work 



196 JACK LEAVES HIS PARENTS. 

ef the Lord? All ties were weak to that, care one, 
the tie that bound me to my beloved brother. Him I 
had not seen for nine years ; he had continued on the 
staff of tfre Portuguese army until the establishment 
of the Cortes, who dismissed all British officers ; and 
then 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 Po- 
pish country, far from every means of grace ; not 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 hour 
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 mentioned, made my way 
plain. The state of Jack's mind, too, on the subject 
of Popery, helped to reconcile me, since I had made 
up my mind to take him with me if his parents would 
agree to it There was no difficulty in bringing them 
to do so; they gave a willing, a grateful consent. 
His mother's words, while tears rolled down her cheeks, 
were, ' Take him: he is more your child than ours. 
His father remarked, ( Why shouldn't we let him go 
with you, seeing he would grieve to death if you left 
him behind V 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 more 
than theirs, and could never come to any harm under 



SUPERSTITION. J97 

my care. Coward as I was, I did not use the oppor- 
tunity 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 V ' Troth, and I am 
sure it does/ answered ah*. c What, do you think he 
has any particular advantage over other men in things 
that are common to all?' i That he has, being a holy 
bishop.' l Well, now, if I call him up, and we all put 
our fingers together between these bars, do you think 
tire fire would burn him less than us V She hesitated ; 
her husband burst into a laugh, and archly said, ' Til 
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 had passed so very many delightful hours. Its 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 oh days of Ireland's bygone 
greatness, though not then well read in her peculiar his- 
tory, and gradually I had become as Irish as any of her 
17* 



198' NATIONAL CHARACTER. 

own children. How could it be otherwise ? I was not 
naturally cold-hearted, though circumstances had, in- 
deed, greatly frozen the current of my warm affections, 
and I had learned to look with comparative indifference, 
on whatever crossed my changeful path ; but no one 
with a latent spark of kindly feeling can long repress 
it among the Irish. There is an ardour of character, 
an earnestness in their good will, a habit of assimila- 
ting themselves to the tastes and habits of those whom 
they desire to please, — and that desire is very gene* 
ral, — that wins on the affections of those who possess 
any, a grateful regard, and leaving on the scenes that 
have witnessed such intercourse, a sunshine peculiar 
to themselves. Reserve of manner cannot long exist 
in, Irish society. I have met with some among the 
people of the land, who were cold and forbidding 
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 perjgqs in the humbler classes, where 
the unmixed Irish prevails. Hospitality is indeed the 
pole-star of Ireland ; go where you will, it is always 
visible ; but it shines the bpghtest in the poor man's 
cabin, because the potato that he so frankly, so hearti- 
ly* 80 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 igr the worse has come over the people of late ; 
priestly authority has interposed to check the outgo- 
ings of kindness, from a warm-hearted people to those 
who are indeed their friends, and a painful, reluctant 



CONFESSION. 149 

restraint is laid upon them ; but the evil had not be- 
come evident at the time of my sojourn there, and I 
can only speak of them as the most respectful, most 
eourteous and hospitable peasantry in the world. At 
the same time they were m many respects the most 
degraded. Nothing could equal the depth of their 
abasement before an insolent priesthood, except the 
unblushing effrontery 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 with- 
out any intention of forsaking her own creed ; neither 
had they attempted to draw her out of the net. 
On her return to Kilkenny she went to confession, 
and among other things divulged the fact of having 
heard the Bible read, and prayed in company with 
heretics. This was an enorjnity too great for the 
priest to deal with alone ; so he ordered the girl off', 
fasting, to her original confessor, who then officiated 
in a chapel seven good Irish miles distant. On hear- 
ing the case, he ordered her to go thrice round the 
chapel on her bare knees, and then to set off; still fast- 
ing, and walk back to Kilkenny, thereto 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 



200 INFERNAL MACHINERY. 

Cold it in order to convince me the girl had "committed 
a very great sin. I once asked a young man how he 
got on at confession, — whether, he* told all his sins. 
He replied, ' Sometimes I distemember 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 
when you have got absolution?' 'I feel all right; 
and I go" out and begin again/ { And how do you 
know that God has really pardoned you ?' ' 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 Vir- 
gin Mary every Saturday night, and tells her to speak 
to God about it' ' And you really believe this mon- 
strous story?' 'Why shouH'nt I? But it is no 
affair of mine, for, once I have confessed, all my sins 
are laid upon the priest, and he must do the best he 
can to get rid of them. I am safe.' Of such mate- 
rials is the net composed that holds these people in 
bondage; and who can. marvel that such prostration 
of mind before a fellotar mortal should lead to ah ab- 
ject 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 bath binds him 
to an implicit blind reception of tenets which he is 
not permitted to investigate, and Which make him the 
pliant tool of a higher department of this detestable 
machinery. He receives his cue from the bishops, 
and they are wholly governed by the Propaganda 
at Rome, whither each of them is bound periodically 
to appear for personal examination and fresh instruc- 



THE PROPAGANDA. 201 

tions. Hie Propaganda is> of course, the primum 
mobile of the system, set a-going by Satan himself. 
Henee the mischief that is perpetrated by the unhap- 
py 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 preparing for a 
burst of persecution against the people of the Lord, 
and happy is he who shall be found aimed with 
watching ! 



LETTER X. 

ENGLAND. 

We started for Dublin with sorrowing hearts, for it 
wae likely to be a4ong, if not a last farewell to friends 
who were endeared as well by a participation in dan- 
ger as in feeling. Those who have daily been expect- 
ing to die together in a holy cause, cannot lightly 
part. One of the last things that I learned before 
leaving the place was communicated to me by an inti- 
mate friend and near neighbour, a very sweet Chris- 
tian character. She had lived on terms of intimacy 
with a Romish family in the town, and a few days pre- 
vious to my departure the mother of this family called 

on Miss , with tears entreating her to embrace 

Popery ; for that the next year would witness the ut- I 

ter extermination of Protestants, and it would be out 
of her power, or that of any other person, to save any < 

life, however dear to them. She urged it with most af- 
fectionate importunity, and wae evidently much distres- 
sed at her failure. Whether the better informed class 
of the Romanists believed in Pastorini's predictions 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 
wonderful interposition that the Protestants of Ireland 



ML. DOTLB. £03 

ware saved, though en unmarked one ; for, with a pop- 
ulation of six to one, roused to the highest pitch of re- 
ligious fanaticism, prepared by extra masses, fasts, and 
prayers, and confiding in the assurances of an in&Ua- 
ble church that so it must be ; where, too, they had 
every thing to gain and little or nothing to lose, it k 
marvellous that such a restraint was laid on their san- 
guinary purposes. The priestly fancy of entering 
into discussion with their opponents wrought power- 
fully against their own cause : and the notorious Doyle, 
who led the way in every species of agitation and mis- 
chief, and sanctioned the riotous meeting at Carlow, 
one of the ablest, wiliest, and boldest of Romish bishops, 
whose writings were firebrands, and who in a public 
speech eulogized a farmer in his diocese for taking the 
Bible in the tongs and burying it in a hole in his gar- 
den, — 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 as- 
tonished by the splendid buildings of Dublin. He re- 
garded them, however, with indifference, because as ha 
said, they were not ' God-mades,' while the scenery 
through which we had travelled, particularly the no- 
ble 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 perception of beauty as developed in that 
boy who had never even been in a furnished ro*m> 
until he came to me. His taste was refined, and his? 
mind delicate beyond belief: I never saw such senai- 



204 JACK Of DUBLIN. 

live modesty as he manifested to the last day of his 
life. Rudeness of any kind was hateful to him ; he 
not only yielded respect to all, but required it towards 
himself, and really commanded it by his striking pro- 
priety of manner. He was, as a dear friend once re- 
marked, a ( God-made' gentleman, untainted with the 
slightest approach to any thing Eke affectation or cox- 
combry; indeed he ridiculed the latter with much 
contic effect ; and the words c 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 
left his home; but he w*s rapidly acquiring new 
words. 

It was beautiful to see him at prayer. He had 
never kneeled down with us at Kilkenny] for any 
Romanist who had detected him in 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 countenance was most 
lovely. A smile of childlike confidence and reveren- 
tial 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 occupied his mind. He was rather more than 
twelve years old. In profile he much resembled Kirke 



jack's adventure. 205 

White when older ^ but the strongest likeness I ever 
saw of him is an original portrait of Edward VI, by 
Holbein, in my possession. It was taken after con- 
sumption 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 extensive toy-shop 
to make some purchase, and Jack, enchanted with the 
wonders around him, strolled tathe father end, and into 
a little adjoining 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 away full gallop, and absolutely 
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 mistress of the shop was so 
convulsed with laughter that she could render no as- 
sistance, and it was with some difficulty I checked his 
triumphant career, and dismounted him. He gave me 
afterwards a diverting account of his cautious approach 
to the ' good horse ;' how he ascertained it was ' bite 
no ; kick no ;' and gradually got resolution to mount 
it. He wanted to know how far he rode, and also if 
he was a God-made % I told him it was wood, but I 
doubt whether he believed me. 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, c Qood Dublin, good horse ; small Jack love 
good Dublin horse.' The shipping pleased him greatly, 
18 



. ■•* 

206 DEPARTURE FROM IRELAND. 

and many of his beautiful drawings were representa- 
tions 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 na- 
tural 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 unjust, crook- 
ed 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 tur- 
bulence was the natural fruit of such poverty, and of 
their being wholly under the influence of a party 
necessarily hostile to the interests of a Protestant state, 
and bent on subverting its ascendency. What Ire- 
land was, I too plainly saw: what she might be I 
clearly understood ; and the guilt of my country's re- 
sponsibility 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 
life was one of severe trial, which it is not necessary to 
particularize. Incipient derangement, which after- 
wards became developed, in a quarter where, if I did 
not find comfort and protection, I might expect their 
opposite*, occasioned me much alarm and distress, 



^ CLIFTON. 207 

i 

while my brother's protracted absence increased the 
trial Much secluded, I pursued my literary avoca- 
* tions, and watched the progress of Jack's growth in 
knowledge and in grace. 

Clifton is certainly one of the most beautiful spots 
[ in England; the river winding its graceful way be- 

- . neath St Vincent'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 enchanting ; while the constant 
succession of vessels of every variety of size and 
character, passing to and fro, fills the mind with a 
; picture of commercial greatness, the more striking 

f from 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. Every one of these sea-kettles ought to be 
inscribed with the motto, ( Death to the picturesque. 1 
They now send their dark vapours curling up St. 
Vincent's cliffs, and by continually agitating the 
waters, destroy the transparency of that elegant river. 
But believing, as I do, that these " swift messengers" 
have a special commission, in the divine puraose, to 
bring from all parts of the world that acceptable present 
unto the Lord of Hosts, — his own peeled and scatter- 
ed Israel, — to the holy mountain of Jerusalem, I am 
reconciled 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 



r 



208 HANNAH' MORE. 

step towards the accomplishment of those glorious 
things that are promised to crown the tribulations 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," and to Zion, 
" Thy fountains shall be laid.", 

My sojourn at Clifton brought me into personal 
acquaintance with that venerable servant of God, 
Hannah More. We had for some time corresponded, 
and she had afforded me great encouragement in my 
humble labours, taking an especial interest in my at- 
tempts to instruct the deaf and dumb children. I had 
now tile pleasure of shewing 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 revolutionizing impiety. I often wonder 
that so little stress is laid upon this branch of Mrs. 
M ore's extensive labours. We hear much of her 
schools, her charities, her letters, her devotional and 
educational publications, and all of these deserve the 
full celebrity that they have attained. But England 
should especially bear in mind her effective champion- 
ship of the good cause, by means most admirably adap- 
ted to its furtherance among the most daggerous, and 
generally speaking the most unapproachable class — a 
class who congregated in ale-houses to hear the inflam- 



r 



HANN4JS MORE. 209 

matory harangues of seditious traitors, while as yet 
Bibles Were scarce, religious tracts not in existence, and 
. district visiting unthought of. In a lady of refined 
taste, and rare accomplishments in the higher style of 
writing, to volunteer in a work so new, and to furnish 
the press with a series of plain truths, dressed in a 
most homely phrase, rendered attractive by lively nar- 
rative, and even drollery, and the whole brought down 
to the level of coarse, uninformed minds, while circu- 
lated in a form to come within the narrow means of 
the lowest mechanics— 4his was an enterprise worthy 
especial note, even had not God openly blessed it to 
the turning of that formidable tide. When I" looked 
upon the placid but animated countenance of the aged 
saint, as she sat in her bow-window looking out upon 
the fair fields, the still inviolate shores of her beloved 
country, I thought more of her l cheap repository 
tracts ' than of all her other works combined. There 
lay the Bristol Channel, that noble inlet to our isle, 
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 
lambs of the flock into green pastures among the dis- 
tant hills, that formed a beautiful feature in the land- 
scape ; 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 
distinguished 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 
18* 



lid AmjcnoN. 

of honour and skulked behind a woman. She took 
that lively interest in the public secular affairs of her 
country that Jeremiah and Eiekiel did of old, and on 
the same plain ground ; that where the state professes 
to be modelled, and the executive to act, on principles 
of God's instilling, with a view that peace and happi- 
ness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be es- 
tablished among us, nothing done by the state can be 
indifferent to the church, or unworthy the anxious, 
watchful regard of Christians. To be called a carnal 
politician by those whose mintis, at least on religious 
subjects, could contain but one idea, was certainly a 
light affliction to balance against the joyous concious- 
ness of having materially aided in preserving those 
cavillers' homes from the hand of the spoiler, and their 
^Bibles from that of the Atheist 

When I 8a w Hannah More, she was really at ease,in 
her possessions; and none who loved her less than the 
Lord himself did, would have laid a sorrow upon her 
gray hairs. Man would have decreed, that such a full- 
Tipe shock of corn should be brought into the garner 
without further ruffling or shaking. She had suffered 
excedingly from rheumatism and other ailments, and 
yet more from the tongue of calumny, 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 true.' 

She had, however, triumphed over all, by meekly 
committing her cause to Him who judgeth righteously ; 
and now she seemed to be placed beyond the reach 



, " TREACHERY. 211 

i 

of farther molestation; and about to end her useful 

life in peace. But she had another lesson to give to 

the people of God, another fire in which to glorify him : 

* . and not long after I saw her reclining in that lovely 

I retreat that 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 

L 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 hadNbeen 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 

£• Lord/- looking to him alone for acceptance of them ; 

or if she needed it not, others did ; and often since she 

I* entered into her Saviour's presence, "to go no more 

[ out," has the scene of the last trial to which her gen- 

'I , erous, confiding, affectionate spirit was subjected, been 

blessed to the consolation of others. God's children 

find that it is good for themselves that they should 

be afflicted ; but they do not always remember how 

J 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 his hand, willing and thankful to have the dross 

purged out, and all the tin taken away. Their fellows 

look on, and not seeing the desperate wickedness of 

their hearts, but fondly believing them to be as near 



I 



i 1 



k 



212 god's dealings. 

perfection as kuman frailty will permit, they aigtfo, 
' If such a saint as be thus chastened and cor- 
rected, 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 lov- 
ingly to kiss the rod. Oh, if we could see but a little 
of the Lord's dealings, in all their bearings, how should 
we praise him for his goodness, and the wonders that 
he doeth unto the children of menl What profit, 
what pleasure has He in afflicting 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 de- 
layed. A hurt received in shooting, with its conse- 
quences, detained him in Lisbon nearly a year; but 
his family came over, and I had a new delicious em- 
ployment, a solace under many sorrows, an unfailing 
source of interest and delight, in teaching 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 
fondness for 'Baby boy,' or the zeal of -his Irish de- 
votion to the little gentleman. Knowing that in the 
event of my removal Jack must Barn his bread by 
some laborious or servile occupation, I had kept him 
humble. He ate in the same room with 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 evening, was his 



\ 



J 



L 



i 

i jack's progress. 213 

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 
expressing any angry emotion, to which he was con- 
stitutionally liable, by yells and howls, that almost 
frightened the Hotwells from their propriety. He 

I had, of course, no idea of the strength of his own lungs, 

nor the effect produced by giving them full play in a 
fit of passion ; but the commotion into which it threw 
the whole house seemed io flatter his vanity, and he . : 

became a vocalist on very trifling occasions. This 
neither agreed with our dear invalid landlady, nor was 
a fitting example for ' Baby boy,' who speedily tried 

I 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 J 

then locked him up in a dark kitchen for half an hour, * 

i saying to me rather regretfully, ' I suppose my popu- 

larity is at an end now. Poor fellow 1 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, 
after the business, he very gracefully and cordially ; 

thanked him, kissing his hand, with a bow, and say- 
ing, ' Jack no more cry ;' and as he really was hardly 
touched, and full well knew we had not the heart to be 
severe, it was a proof of that openness to rebuke which 
is a lovely mark of true Christianity. 



214 PRATER. 

Montgomery beautifully says, 

< Prayer is the christian's vital breath, 
The Christian's native air.' 

And bo 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 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 look- 
ing 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 wh«tn he was c talking to God,' as 
he sometimes expressed it. He oftener looked down 
' tjiah 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 war* telT God' about him, 
anithat he was too little to Jcnow. about Jesus Christ 
yet. r Many a prayer of that gu^u) Jhtmb tioy 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 



j 



! 



MERCIES. 215 

to prevent their being hurt Then, as if he saw this 
proceeding, he would look up, and with the fondest ex- 
pression say, ' Good Jesus Christ ! Jack very much 
loves Jesus Christ' I hope you are not tired of Jack ; 
I have much to tell about him. God made me the 
humble means of plucking this precious brand from 
the burning ; 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 provi- 
dence, 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 thai I have 
scarcely courage to go over. Many, and. sharp, and 
bitter were the trials left 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 instruments be whatand who they might. 
It is enough to say, that even now I know there was 
not one superfluous stroke of the rod, nor bne 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 nev*r 
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 engulphed them. 

It is of joy I have to tell: safety, peace, prosperity, 
under 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 de- 



216 A SOLDIER. 

light, the pride, the blessing of a sister. He was of most 
rare beauty from the cradle, increasing in loveliness as 
he grew up, and becoming the very model of a splen- 
did man ; very tall, large, commanding, with a face of 
perfect beauty, glowing, animated, mirthful, — a gait so 
essentially military,'that it was once remarked by an 

officer, ( If B were disguised as a washerwoman, 

any soldier would gire him the salute.' He had also 
served in the Peninsula with the highest possible credit, 
regarded by those in command as one of the best of- 
ficers in the service, 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 oc- ~ 
casion, — Albuera, — his gallant regiment went into ac- 
tion 800 strong, and on the following day only 96 men 
were able to draw rations. He became on the field a 
lieutenant, from being the youngest ensign ; and alike 
in all circumstances lie shone out as an honour to his 
profession. He had also been an especial -favourite 
with John * VI., of Portugal, and the high polish of a 
court was superadded to all the rest, without in the 
smallest degree changing the exceedingly playful, un- 
affected joyousness of the most sunshiny character I 
ever met with. 

Ten years 1 absence had produced the effect on my 
sisterly love that Burns describes : — 

' Time but th' impression stronger makes 
As streams their channels deeper wear. 1 

I had also many personal reasons for looking for- 
ward to his return with peculiar anxiety ; and its un- 
certainty increased the feeling. I had been spending 
a day with a sick friend, and ran home at night, to 



A HQME, 317 

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 ex- 
pected, as is usual, to dance a long and wearisome 
attendance on the Horse Guards, for a regimental ap- 
pointment He had refused that of aid-de-camp to 
King John, with any military rank and title that he 
might desire; preferring a half-pay unattached com- 
pany in the British to any thing that a foreign service 
could offer; but he wa* 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 lately returned from foreign service, and he 
would be gazetted on the following Tuesday. He 
chose the 75th, and was immediately appointed to it 
with leave to study for two years in the senior depart- 
ment 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 
Bagshot heath, sheltered by tall trees and opening on 
a beautiful lawn, with a distant but full view of the col- 
lege, became our abode. A delightful room was se- 
lected for me, with an injunction to sit down and make 
the most of my time while he was 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 
19 



Me flKXLAlBY. 

the world tome. If one thing wm wanting, and want- 
ing it was, to knit us in a tie more enduring than any 
of this world's bonda could possibly be, that very 
aenae of want furnished a stimulus to more importu- 
nate 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 telling 
me I had made an idol of him. It was equally false 
as foolish. An idol is something that either usurps 
God's place, or withdraws our thoughts and devotion* 
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 influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit on behalf of one so dear, but 
also for grace to walk most circumspectly myself, lest 
I should cast any stsjmbling-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 
profitable idol which kept me always prayerful before 
Odd, watchful 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 possible 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 left to smile in 
our daily path through a sin-blighted wilderness, — far 
sooner, — than I would cease to cherish, to foster, to de- 
light in the brighter, sweeter flowers of domestic love, 
carried to the full extent of all its endearing capabilities. 



FALSE JUDOVBRT. §19 

The Lordknoweth our frame; lie deals with us not 
according to what we are not) bat according to what 
we are. He sets before us various duties, and to the 
end that we may the better fulfil them he gives ns aid** 
not contrary to, but accordant with our natural feelings. 
Men set up a standard, often a just and scriptural one, to 
which they sorrowfully confess that because of the 
weakness of their nature they cannot themselves at- 
tain ; 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 himself will be benefitted by his progress, and 
if he fails another will suffer in his loss. So he goes 
on thankful, rejoicing, and endued with double energy 
for the toilsome achievement But he sees a neigh- 
bour 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 like- 
wise openly rejoicing in the possession of such a 
staff; and bringing him to the test of that perfect 
law which requires an entire devotedness to and de- 
pendence on the Lord, he raises a cry of ( mixed mo- 
tives ;" the arm of flesh,' ' idolatry,' and so forth. No 
doubt he is so far right, that perverse humanity will 
ever abuse God's gifts, and often make them occasions 
of sin ; but this outcry of the beam against the mote, 
which is so grievously prevalent in the religious world, 



£90 nuNQunxirr. 

it very unseemly. Oh, how infinitely mote tender is the 
Lord to us titan we to one another ! 

Hitherto many impediments had been thrown in 
the way of my literary labours. Anxiety, apprehen- 
sion, and the restlessness of feeling resulting from a 
continual change of abode, had broken the train "of 
thought, and rendered my work very uncertain. In- 
deed, it would often have been wholly inadequate to my 
support, but for the watchful kindness 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 test- 
ing my willingness to labour diligently. The result 
was so far satisfactory, and in the course of the two 
years and two months of my residence under my bro- 
ther's roof, I wrote the Rockite, The System, Iwam, 
Consistency, Perseverance, Allen IVfLeod, Zadoc, and 
upwards of thirty little books and tracts, besides con- 
tributions 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, ac- 
cording to the strict letter of existing statutes, though 
circumstances would have weighed strongly in my fa- 
vour. But it greatly reduced the value of my copy- 
rights, for the time being, and I round myself checked 
in my career at a juncture when it was especially my 
desire to go on steadily. This brought upon me two 
temptation^ the force of which was greatly increased 
by the circumstances under which they found me. 



LETTER XI. 



SANDHUR8T. 



When I first began to write, it was with a simple 
desire to instruct the poor in the blessed truths of the 
gospel. My 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 promot- 
ing God's glory ; and my attempts having been well 
received, I found a ready market for whatever 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 sub- 
ject in the light that I did, made, through my brother, 
* a proposal that I should become a contributor to the 

most popular magazine of the day, supplying tales, 
&c, 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 inconsist- 

I ency, and coming as it did when my regular source of 

income was suddenly closed, and when the idea 6f be- 
ing burdensome to my generous brother with his in- 
creasing family was hardly supportable, it was thought 
I could not demur. 

19* 



222 A CONFLICT. 

Nevertheless, I did; the Lord in his gracious pro- 
vidence had said to mo, "Go work to-day in mjr 
vineyard," and I had for upwards of four years en- 
joyed that blessed privilege. It was now withdrawn, 
certainly Hot 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 cruci- 
fied to a perishing world, and give the reins to an im- 
agination ever prone to wander after folly and romance, 
but how subdued to a better rule — all this was so con- 
trary to my views of Christian principle that, after 
much tamest prayer to God, I decided rather to work 
gratuitously in the good cause, trusting in Him who 
knew all my necessity, than to entangle myself with 
things on which I could not ask a blessing. The con* 
flict 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 stood, thus seemingly spurning an honourable means 
of independence and leaving myself destitute. But the 
trial was short: my first friends, the Christian * Dub- 
lin Tract Society, 1 exercising that faith which has 
distinguished all their acts, determined 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, eoming 



A shirk. 223 

at a time when the ram proffered would be doubly ac- 
ceptable, and the refusal involving the loss of a very 
old and kind friend, was rather a sharp one ; mote es- 
pecially 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 no- 
vel: 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 delighted the amiable author by expressing 
an admiration that was not general; for the work had 
failed, and was unsold. Now, finding I had been my- 
self 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 encountering op- 
position. He wished me to re-write it, to cast the 
characters anew, enliven the style, add variety to the 
incidents, and in short, make a new work out of his 
materials. Still it was to be a novel ; and as it had 
been published 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 dreadfully 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 regarded myself and 
others. It was in an agony of prayer, and after many 
bitter tears that I brought myself to do what, neverthe- 



284 AN UIU1DMT. 

leas, I had not a wish to leave undone. I wrote a faith- 
ful 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 lor 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 matter ; and I am fully persuaded that the whole 
was a snare of Satan to betray me into an acceptance 
of unhallowed gains, by catering to the worldly tastes 
of those who forget God. No doubt, the business 
would have been a profitable one, and the inducement 
to persevere made strong in 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 goodness nor to 
the honoured instrument of His bounty if I omitted to 
add, that, shortly after, my munificent friend Mr- 
Sandford sent me a gift that left me no loser by having 
done my duty. 

While on the subject of my books, I will record an 
incident that occurred about the same time, and on 
which I always look with feelings of indescribable de- 
light I did not know it until, some years afterwards, 
the story was related to me by the principal actor in it 



THE SIMPLE FLOWER. 225 

-—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. 

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 de- 
cline. I was exceedingly fond of that child, who re- 
turned my affection from the depth of an Irish heart ; 
and who, out of love for its author, selected one of my 
small penny books to translate into Italian during her 
last stage of suffering. 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 useful 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 ex- 
tended her labours, and translated several more. Be- 
ing a lady of rank and affluence, she was enabled to 
carry it on to publication, and to ensure the circula- 
tion of the Httle books among many. One of them, 
'The Simple Flower/ a sixpenny book, thus trans- 
lated, fell into the hands of an Italian physician, a 
man of highly cultivated mind ; nominally a Roman- 
ist; and like all thinking Romanists, in reality an 
infidel. The book contains not a word on contro- 
versy ; not an allusion to Popery — it is plain gospel 
truth conveyed in a very simple narrative. God blessed 
it to this gentleman, and he became a Christian. 



826 papal ruumunoir. 

The circumstance excited much remark : curiosity ltd 
many to read that and others of the aeries, and a great 
number were circulated in the neighbouring districts. 
This was actually within the papal states, under the ju- 
risdiction of the Archbishop of Sienna, to whose know- 
ledge came the astounding fact that pennyworths of 
heresy were circulated 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 col- 
lege chapel at Sandhurst, wholly unconscious that my 
name was then being proclaimed at & hundred Italian 
altars, with a denunciation against all who should 
read, circulate, or possess any book, tract, or treatise 
penned by me. One instance was particularized: a 
poor priest had himself given numbers of these trans* 
lations 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 proclaim 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, say- 
ing he had given and recommended the little books to 
them, because he had read them himself and found no- 
thing but what was good in them : however, the church, 
which they were all bound to obey, judged otherwise ; 
'and now,' he added, 'you must bring them back to 
me, or burn them, or in some other way destroy them 
wholly : nevertheless I declare in the sight of God I 
found no evil in those dear little books, but the con- 
trary — they are full of good? He burst into tears, 



rUKLlC EVXNTS. 227 

tad many wept with him; and not a few of the pro- 
scribed 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 exchange for the value of the ten king- 
doms ten times trebled, the joy that I feel in this high 
honour put upon me — this rich blessing of being under 
the papal curse. 

I have been long silent on the subject of public 
events : George the Third had passed 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, and in the ar- 
dently-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 recognition 
was used by the wily deceivers of the day to press as 
a national boon the wicked, cruel measure that would 
only 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; 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 sub- 
version of our ancient institutions. The party in 
power had shown a decided inclination 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 



THE DUKE OF YORK. 

a commercial panic that menaced general bankruptcy. 
Alexander of Russia was taken away in the prime of 
life : and with fuU purpose of heart to christianise his 
vast empire, and to gather in the outcasts of Israel I 
always thought he was removed because his enlight- 
ened mind was too far in ad ranee of the time, and he 
passed too rapidly forward in works not yet to be ac- 
complished. His death affected me deeply, for 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 conscious of it; and^the prophetic Scriptures 
became unceasingly my study. The Duke of York's 
death seemed to me the signal for overthrowing our na- 
tional Protestantism, and while I mourned in him a royal 
patron who had taken a generous interest in my con- 
cerns, and in heartfelt sympathy wept with the old sol- 
diers of the military establishment over one so justly en- 
deared to them and to the whole army, my heart quaked 
at the silencing of that voice so nobly, so energetically, 
so solemnly raised- 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 saw his knightly effigies,— the helm and sword 
and banner, — taken down from over his stall and car- 
ried out of the chapel, a strange foreboding came over 
me. such as I had never known: but which, alas I has 
long been in course of fulfilment I stood at the mouth 
of the vault where the relics of his royal father rested, 
and into which his own were to descend : it seemed to 



naVabino. 229 

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 the lower windows for A sight or 
the solemn pageant that wound its torch-light way 
through the street I saw it far .beneath me, more like 
a procession of fairies than of full-sized men, and noble 
steeds : and I wept unrestrained, with feelings hard to 
define, 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 abomi- , 
nable 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 wit- 
nessed 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 
through every nerve and pulse of the body politic, 
not merely in Europe but gradually throughout the 
world. The battle of Navarino 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 in any way the power of Turkey, that 
great and efficient barrier against the formidable Mus- 
covite. In fact, our fleet was rather intended to pro- 
tect than to embarrass the Porte. Greece was strug- 
*0 



230 nLoenpomcATKxm. 

gung for freedom, and the Mahommedan despot was 
erushing her deeper into the dost beneath his merci- 
less hand, bo that it behooved the civilized powers of. 
Christian Europe to interpose something in the form 
of protection over the oppressed victim; bat 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 world'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 very act of emptying its contents on the 
great river Euphrates, and so to inquire, with tremb- 
ling anxiety, what would be the result of outpouring 
the seventh. I settled it in my mind to watch the 
East as one who looks for the sun's rising on a scene 
of bodily peril in darkness and in doubt I plainly 
saw that Turkey must now lie helpless before the Rus- 
sian ; and I resolved if this blow was not followed up 
by sudden ruin, but by the continuance of a wasting, 
a ' drying up 1 process, I would proceed on my new 
assumption of prophetic meanings as established. De- 
voted to the Jewish cause, I always looked upon Tur- 
key with abhorrence, and jealously anticipated her 
predicted subversion, that Israel might again possess 
the good land : and while shuddering over the scene 
of bloodshed that had occurred, and lamenting the 
passage of so many ruined souls into eternity, I could 



JULUENllAEUNISIt 231 

not stifle a sensation of joy that a signal-gun had thus 
been fixed for the ingathering of the scattered tribes. 
My brother observed this : he said, ( I do believe you 
ate glad of this unfortunate battle : I promise you it 
in a very different victory from what you ate used to 
exult in.' I did not deny this,, but still, in spite of 
myself, I looked glad. ( Oh, you christian lad(es are- 
tender-hearted creatures, to delight in a scene of butch- 
ering and drowning, just because the poor wretches 
happen to be Turks V 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 perception 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 
delightful days of sojourn under the sheltering roof 
of my brother, so soon to be for ever parted in this 
world i Another boy had been added to our happy 
little circle, 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 



jack's fbriiov. 

learning beyond what was needful for communicating 
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 ensnaring 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 entreaty that he might be the groom, 
saying he could do it so well. The reason he gave 
to me, confidentially, was, that men were very wicked ; 
that the man-servant would often shake hands with 
the devil, (bis 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 to become evil too. He also said, Captain B. 
was very kind to Mam, and that a servant would cost 
him money, and eat a great deal; but Jack would take 
no money, and only eat 'small potato, small meat,' be- 
cause 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 -noncom- 
missioned officer of cavalry, who had the care of 
some horses, and got him to give him instruction, suc- 
ceeding so well in his attempt that the Serjeant told my < 



HAPPY CAUTION. 233 

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, while we all assembled to see him. I was 
apprehensive of a total failure, but he did it admira- 
bly, 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. When 
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 Jack. Devil cry — go 
devil !' and snapped his fingers at the invisible enemy. 
His greatest security next to his love of God was 
his constant 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 his extreme caution, as to what 
associates he had, and a reserve 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 smPes from those who considered it 



834 FE£8EVEJUN0E, 

must all be in rain when he grew a little older j but 
no obstacle was placed in my way ; and I bless God t 
never relaxed that care, nor did the boy ever depart 
from his holy caution ; and he died at the age of nine- 
teen, a very tall and fine looking 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 1 

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 phrase- 
ology, so that they conversed together as well as with 
me ; and he told me he could not stand Jack's entreat- 
ies. ' He is a fine little fellow,' said he, 'and if you 
will watch and see that he is not over-exerting himself, 
he may try for a while : he will soon be tired.' But 
far from it ; Jack was proud of his two horses: and none 
in the place were better kept When a cow w^as added, 
a young person came to milk her ; but Jack was out- 
rageous, talked of his mother's ' Kilkenny cows,' and 
4 Cow's baby,' and- expressed such sovereign contempt 
for the stranger's performance, and such downright 
hostility against the intruder, 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. 



ZEAL. 235 

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 same request, who inquired 
his reason. Jack told him the stage coaches that 
passed our^ate went vary fast, because the four horses 
had four large hoops, meaning the 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 could be got ; and many a laugh we had at seeing 
Jack racing beside the London coaches, with his wheel, 
nodding defiance at the horses, and shouting aloud with 
glee. He often went 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 for* 
tnation 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 gentleman to send much Bible* 
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 
enrolled the very first in the accounts of that noble 



236 FAITH. 

society's receipts. Jack often prayed for the Reforma- 
tion Society, and I believe his blessings 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 stim- 
ulate and to shame me. His whole experience 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 Juda- 
ism would have been impossible. He could not read. 
His knowledge of language did not go far enough to 
enable him to understand the construction of a sen- 
tence ; and 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 every word, and acquainted with very few 
besides nouns and a few verbs, which he only used iu 
the present tense, independent of the pronouns, and 
without reference to number, he was quite lost among 
the other parts of speech. For instance, if I had 
wanted to say, ' You must go to the village and buy 
me a small loaf of bread/ I should have expressed it 
thus: 'Jack, go village, money, bread small, one.' 
Grammatically expressed, the order would have been 
unintelligible to him : but few would have misunder- 



TESTIMONIES. 2S7 

stood it in the uncouth phrase kst instanced He 
would have gone to the ihop, end writing, down, 
' Breed small ' one, would hare held out the money, and 
made a sign to express what size he wanted. It was 
this very fact of the impossibility of conveying to his 
mind any clear notion of things invisible and spiritual, 
that so gloriously manifested the power and goodness of 
God in causing the light to shine into his heart. To a 
reader who never witnessed the attempts of an intelli- 
gent, half-taught, deaf mute, to express his meanings 
and to catch that of others, much of what I state re- 
specting 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 in 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 Christian. Gen- 
eral Orde, who saw him very frequently, regarded him 
as a wonder of divine grace; and the Rev. W. Han* 
cock, his beloved pastor, who for /our years observed 
him closely, often said he derived greater encourage- 
ment from the experience and the prayers of that poor 
boy, than from almost any other earthly source. Un- 
believers 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. He took great delight in copying it out, dwell- 



338 come imtation. 

ing on such words as be knew ; but I hare seen him 
tarn over two leaves and go on wholly unconscious of 
any mistake: and I have found among his papers 
pages, composed of half sentences and single epithets 
from scripture, put together in unbroken paragraphs, 
without any meaning. With all this, he was ardently 
attached to the Jewish «ause, and always told me i Jesus 
Christ love poor Jew ; Jew soon see love Jesus Christ. 1 
When speaking of them, he would look very ten- 
der, and sorrowful, moving his" head slowly from aide 
to side, and his hand as if stroking some object in a 
caressing way. At such times it was curious to mark 
the effect of naming a 'priest Roman 1 to him. In a 
moment his aspect changed to something ludicrously 
repulsive : he stuck his hands in his sides, puffed but 
his cheeks to their full extent, scowled till his brows 
overhung his eyelids, and generally finished by ap- 
pearing to seize a goblet and drain off the contents to 
the last drop, inflating his body, stroking it, smacking 
his lips, and strutting about This he did, not as im- 
puting drunkenness to Jhe priesthood, but their deny- 
ing 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 ut- 
terly 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 walkabout upon the earth, in whatever way 
he had represented it to himself, or howsoever God 
had revealed it to him, he constantly associated with 
two things — the consolation of the Jews and the de- 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS. 239 

gtruction 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 at- 
tempt 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 gar- 
ments there mentioned ? I replied the blood of the 
Saviour, which drenched his raiment in the garden, 
and his body on the cross. ' And what, 7 pursued she, 
'is this treading of the wine-press! 1 I answered, 
( It was the laborious work of achieving our redemp- 
tion, 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 all are wrong here. 1 I did read it, was sur- 
prised, and contrary to my usual custom, ran to a 
commentary, and Matthew Henry's very lame and 
laboured elucidation, or rather extinction of the mat- 
ter, checked the inquiry thus began. On all other 
points I speedily came to a right understanding, be- 
cause I took God's word as my guide ; and only on 
this did I prefer a candle to the sun,, just because Mat- 
thew Henry lay beside me, having been sent in by a 
friend. On this subject, therefore, I remained in the 
dark until the amazing turn of events in the East put 
me upon considering the prophecies of the last days 
in the same way as I had considered all the other vital 



240 MHAENNA&UNISX. 

questions ; and the result was, a reception of almost 
•very millennial view before I suspected it, and before 
I ceased to abjure the name as wholly inconsistent 
with spiritual Christianity. I remember Lady Geor- 
gian* Wolff asking me if I was a mfllennarian, and I 
answered, almost resentfully, ' 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 preaching 
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 predica- 
ment 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 myself to be a millen- 
narian, soon after the battle of Navarino : — 

When from scattered lands afar 
S]ieedfl the voice of rumored war, 
Nations in conflicting pride 
Heaved like Ocean's stormy tide, 
When the solar splendours fail, 
And the crescent waxeth pale, 
And the powers thai star-like reign, 
Sink dishonoured to the plain, 
World, do thou the signal dread, 
We ezhalt the drooping head, . 

We uplift the expectant eye — 
Our redemption draweth nigh. 

When the fig-tree shoots appear, 
Men proclaim their summer near ; 



SECOND ADVEHT. 241 

When the heart* of rebels sail, 
We the cooing Saviour hail \ 
Bridegroom of the weeping spouse, 
Listen to her longing vowe— 
listen to her widow'd moan, 
Listen to Creation's groan 1 
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, 
From the grass-grown village grave, 
From the deep dissolving wave, 
From the whirlwind and the flame, 
Mighty Head I thy members claim. 1 

Where are those whose fierce disdain, 
Scorn 'd Messiah's gentle reign 1 
Lo, in seas of sulphurous fire, 
Now they taste his tardy ire, 
Prison'd till th' appointed day, 
When the world shall pass away. 

duelled are all thy foes, O Lord, 
Sheath again the victor sword. 
Where thy cross of anguish stood, 
Where thy life distilled in blood, 
Where they mocked thy dying groan, 
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. 
21 



14S BfcOOND ADVXMT. 



Be ear eouk in peace 
While we seek the promised net, 
And from every heart and heme 
Breath* the prayer! Lord Jei 
Haete to aet thy people free; 
Come; creation groane for theel 



LETTER XII. 

> SHftUUTION. 

The two shortest years of my 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 spritual blessing he 
also might receive it ! I could not understand the 
state of his mind on the most vital 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 re- 
cieve under his roof two of that proscribed body — to 
say nothing of Jack. He confessed to me, laughing, 
not long after we became his inmates, that, he sup- 
posed we should be falling on our knees half a dozen 
times a day, singing psalms aU over the house, and 
setting our faces against every thing merry or cheer- 
ful. 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 believe 
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 



244 PREJUDICES. 

violently denouncing their sober neighbours, and mak- 
ing 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 dissi- 
pated 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 
expect no better at the same hands. I am very far 
from charging 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 calumniators, before he could pos- 
sibly judge for himself. A visit to Barley Wood, and 
a very prolonged interview with the l queen ' greatly 
staggered his prejudices ; he was perfectly charmed 
with her, and remarked to me that if all her subjects 
where like her, they must be a very agreeable set of 
people. Still he apprehended an outbreak of extrava- 
gance when we should be fairly installed in his abode.; 
and though he soon became undeceived, and learned to 
take the greatest delight 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 his regu- 
lar appearance at the usual military service, and 
would not 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 officers a bold, uncompromising Christian as 
his most intimate associate, and gave many unconcious 



UNBELIEF. 245 

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 had always 
before considered most safe and happy in total igno- 
rance—still, with all this, I could not see even in his 
beautiful devout bearing in public worship where the 
reverse so sadly prevailed, and where every thing ap- 
proaching to seriousness became a matter of suspicion, 
that he was really seeking Qod. In fact, I had been 
too much in the trammels of a system, which lays down 
arbitrary rules, and will not admit that God is work- 
ing unless his hand be immediately and openly appa- 
rent to all I would not believe that what looked 
green and beautiful was a blade of corn, just because it 
had not yet grown to an ear: and I refrained from speak- 
ing 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 
unpalatable, and produce the contrary effect to what I 
desired. He was only going for a little while ; an ap- 
pointment on the home-staff was promised, and then I 
was to live with him again, and I would zealously pur- 
sue the work. Alas ! what a rod was prepared for my 
unbelief and presumption ! The present was slighted, 
in the confident expectation of^the 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 tftriP 
net, and ran off in sufficient time to meet him very 
21 # 



246 home. 

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 all the 
little minutiae 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 loved ' beautiful Captain B ' as he con- 
stantly called him. At ten o'clock we parted for the night 
X to resume the pen till long after midnight ; he to rest 
whence he always rose at four o'clock, devoting four or 
five hours to study before we met in the morning. 
We visited very little, domestic retirement being the 
free choice of every one of us ; and nothing could have 
induced my brother to banish his children from the 
parlour or drawing-room. Few things excited his in- 
dignation more than the nursery system : his little 
ones were the pride of his heart, his delight of his eyes, 
the objects of his fondest care. He often said he in- 
tended his boys to be gentlemen, and therefore would 
not allow them to imbibe the tastes and habits of the 
kitchen. The consequence is that his boys are gen- 
tlemen. 

Thus dwelling in love, united in every plan and 
pursuit, our time fairly divided between diligent work 
and healthful recreation amid the delights of rural life, 
do you marvel that I call this period my two shortest 
years ? Had no previous circumstances given tenfold 
brilliancy to these lights by casting a deep black shadow 
behind them, or no menacing future hung over the 
present enjoyment, still there was enough to make it 
indeed an oasis ; but it was more. I cannot doubt 



FOREBODINGS. 247 

thai the Lord mercifully gave me a foreboding of what 
was tocome, 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 for 
three weeks before, and as long after, I never had a 
night's rest Visions of terror were constantly before 
me, among which a scene of drowning was so perpet- 
ually recurring that I hare often started from my bed 
under the vivid impression. This was the more 
strange because we had always been so fearlessly fond of 
the water : in our early days 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 famil- 
iarized with ocean, until of all perils those of the water 
were least likely to daunt me, either for myself or him : 
yet in most imminent peril we had once been placed ; 
and at this time it would recur to my memory with 
tormenting frequency. 

I was about seven years old, and he though younger 
was much the larger of the two, a stout hearty boy, 
and I a very frail delicate little creature, thanks to the 
doctors and their pet drug. Our parents went out for 
a day's excursion, with a friend, and of course we ac- 
companied them. The place was one celebrated for 
good fishing, and the gentlemen having enjoyed a long 
morning' s sport, remained in the house with my mo* 
ther, 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. 



248 Dinger. 

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; for it was a public ferry, and 
the depth very great A small boat just by attracted 
my brother's attention, who wished to get into it, until 
I reminded him of the prohibition, when he said, ( 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 
disappeared. 

I perfectly remember the scene ; I have also heard it 
described many a time by others, but I cannot understand 
how it was that I, stooping from the shore, with nothing 
to hold on by way of support, seized the little fellow by 
the collar as he r6se, and firmly held him in my grasp. 
He did not struggle, but looked up in my face, and I 
down in his, and as I felt my puny strength rapidly 
failing, the resolution was firm on my mind to be 
drawn in and perish with him. There was not a ques- 
tion about it; I can recall the very thought, as though 
it was of yesterday* and I am positively certain that I 
should have tightened my hold in proportion as the 
ease became more desperate. It pleased God, that, 
just then, some men returning from work descried the 
the figure of a little child stooping in a most dangerous 
position over the deep water : they ran up, and while 
one held me the other rescued the boy. My grasp 
was not unloosened until they had him safe on shore ; 
he was then insensible, and I lost every recollection 
until I found myself still in the arms of the man who had 
carried me in, while my mother and the rest were strip- 
ping the rescued boy and chafing his limbs before a 



TETDCG SCBNX& 249 

fire. It wns much talked of, and many a caress I got 
lor what they considered heroism above my jean ; but 
what heroism is like love? "Many waters cannot 
quench love, neither can the floods drown it ; if a man 
would give all the substance of his house for love, it 
would utterly be contemned.' 1 

When my brother departed for Ireland we left that 
sweet cottage and went to reside in the village, in one 
better suited to the size of our diminished family party. 
I had several young friends among the cadets, in whom 
I took a warm interest, 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 care- 
fully brought up by tender, and even Christian parents, 
watched, and kept as far as possible from all evil com- 
munication, then thrown at once into a large public in- 
stitution, and exposed to every danger that can assail 
the youthful mind. A little insight into human na- 
ture must show any candid person the extent of mis- 
chief to be expected. Rarely do we find a case of con- 
version, with establishment in grace, very early in life ; 
and where it exists as remarkably as in Jack, we may 
learn from his excessive dread of exposure to tempta- 
tion how vigilantly the young plant should be guarded. 
Let us just suppose, what is indeed no sketch of imagina- 
tion, but a slight sketch of acknowledged 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 
remained under the eye of Christian parents, or a 



850 tuyvq sosmm 

schoolmaster who regards those committed to his care 
at immortal beings, for whose well-doing, while under 
his charge, he is responsible to God ; and who there* 
fore counsels them well, and banishes to the utmost of 
his power, rice and profaneness from among them; af- 
fording them the usual domestic means of grace, and 
seeing that they are not neglected. Thus prepared, 
the lad enters upon a new scene, where he finds him- 
self surrounded by a large number of youthful com- 
panions, aU 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 ; but if he appear timid or reluc- 
tant to retaliate, he may be assured of becoming the 
object of a most harassing persecution for the amuse- 
ment of the thoughtless, and the gratification of the 
cruel. In either case, he passes an ordeal of great 
severity, particularly during the night, when nothing 
is deemed too rough for the poor stranger to encounter. 
I appeal to those who have passed it whether this is 
not enough to turn die brain of a weak-minded youth, 
or to injure severely the body of a delicate one; I 
have myself known an instance, in a great public sem- 
inary wherein derangement and death followed. 

Supposing this well got over, 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 com- 
mit a murder, and find it more difficult to accomplish 
than any crime that could be named. There always 



TEMPTATIONS. 25! 

will be a large proportion of ruffianly characters 
among many boys ; some naturally so, others made so 
by example. These have the ascendancy of coarse ; 
and they will use it to check and to stifle whatever 
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 one* who daie not, they meet with 
little if any opposition, but rule the whole mass for 
eviL The youth, we will believe, sincerely 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 temptation, even 
when unfettered, and in full possession of all gospel 
privileges ; and what are we to expect from a boy who 
has never yet been left to himself, or deprived of coun- 
tenance and support % He sees none watching over 
him, he hears 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 fiijda that by following the bent of this 
perverse nature, by gratifying its lowest propensities, 
and revelling in unhallowed things, he shall best pur- 
chase 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 % . Alone he cannot be ; he has no 
separate apartment, and let those who have tried it 
say what would be the consequence of his kneeling 
down publicly to worship God. He may do it si- 
lently and undiscovered in his bed J yes, if he can lift 



AWFUL CONTRAST. 

up his heart, and realise the presence of the God of 
heaven, while the language of hell resounds on every 
side! Even so, he has an enemy within, striving 
against the right principle, and responding to all that 
hit better feeling 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 
ha to study that word? Does die 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 apply very widely 
throughout the land. 

We all know the case of him whose heart has been 
swept and garnished ; and how much the last state is 
worse than the first, when Satan re-enters with his 
seven new companions. The very checks of con- 
science render the fretted mind 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 retiring is fore- 
most 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 
shrank 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 



MORAL BLINDNESS. 25& 

prayer, and listened with fixed attention to the teach- 
er's voice, now delights in shaming, others out of the 
semblance of devotion, and feigns if he does not faQ 
into it, the profound sleep of a wholly uninterested 
actor in the tedious show of public worship. Per- 
chance 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's course, who are 
themselves 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 instance wherein a 
lady who strove to do good to the souls of some young 
lads whose parents she knew to be praying people, had 
a sort of ban put upon her, by the publication of an 
express order that they should not be again permitted 
to visit her ; and when a nobleman who well knew that 
she had not done any thing to merit such public con* 
demnation, asked the principal of the institution the 
reason for so harsh a proceeding, he received this 
answer, ' My lord, I was sorry 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 
22 



254 CADETS. 

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 in protecting their 
dearest treasures from the contamination of most deadly 

But to return to my cadets at Sandhurst. I had 
two young friends there, both Irish, who were known 
to me from childhood; both greatly attached to my 
brother ; both loving me dearly ; and many m happy 
hour we passed, strolling over the wild heath, or en* 
joying the cheerfulness of my cottage home. On those 
two, among many, I looked with especial solicitude as 
to their future course ; and I have had tto rejoice, 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 New- 
port, who on the 4th of November, 1839, quelled the 
Chartist insurrection, and broke the formidable power 
that menaced a general outbreak. I cannot pass over 
this event, it was so delightfully gratifying to me. 

A third of those in whom I took a lively interest 
was Alexander Count Chalharez, the eldest son of the 
Due de Palmella. He was a most elegant youth, of 
fine mind, delicate feelings, and the sweetest manners 
possible. Devotedly attached to Romanism, he con- 
stantly attended mass at the house of the old Abb6, 



RBTR08FECTION& 

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 Chalharez 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 never did it 
in direct terms, though very often dwelling, in his 
presence*, on the peculiar truths of Christianity, 
opposed as they are to the lie in which he trusted. I 
hoped to have enjoyed many future opportunities of 
conversing with him, for he always sought our society 
in preference to many things that appeared more at- 
tractive, and took a lively interest in Jack. But the 
College did not suit his taste ; he left it soon, and ac- 
companied 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 the tree of life shall be laid npon it ; 
and if by any means I do attain to that resurrection 
from among the dead, in which none but the Lord's 
children shall partake, surely the dear object of all this 
sorrow will be there beside me ! 

tSix months had passed from the time of his depar- 
ture to Ireland, and all his letters were full of cheerful- 
ness 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 



256 A VISITATION. 

of my medical friends erroneously pronounced to be a 
disease of the heart ; and in communicating this to 
him I had noticed, that I must live in momentary ex- 
pectation of sudden death. His reply was vry affec- 
tionate. He said it had given him a great shock, but 
on a little reflection he was convinced of its being alto- 
gether a nervous sensation ; adding, ( If not, why 
should you shrink from sudden death, ? For my own 
part, I should desire it, aa a short and easy passage 
out of this life. 1 A tremor came over me as I read 
these words ; but again I thought, ' Surely there is 
something on his mind to brighten that passage, or he 
would not so express himself;' and the thought of 
many perils surrounding him quickened me to re- 
doubled 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' enve- 
lope, in which his letters usually 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 paraly- 
zing sequel : A letter had been received from MuUin- 
gar — he was on the lake Ashing — the boat overset. I 
could not understand the meaning of the words; but 
I understood the thing itself. 

I sprang tb my knees to cry for mercy on him — 



UNBELIEF. 257 

but, oh that dreadful, dreadful thought that pierced 
through my inmost 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 
fierce wrath of the Lord ; for to aggravate the blow, I 
had 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, aa if to show, that 
while he remained, all I could desire of earthly happi- 
ness was within my reach ; he who had been to me in- 
stead of every other mortal blessing, and to whom I look- 
ed 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 overwhelming horrors of that unbelieving thought, 
that he had lost his soul. 

It was, indeed, the language of unbelief, for I had 
abundant cause to trust God, even from what I had 
witnessed, without taking into consideration his faith- 
fulness as the Hearer of prayer, which had been inces- 
santly, 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 salva- 
tion ; and I did, in my heart exceedingly glory in this 
supposed faith of mine. The dreadful dispensation 
22* 



258 WAHT OF FAltH. 

under which I was laid showed me at once that of 
faith I had not the value of a grain of mustard-seed ; 
and now I felt the desolation of spirit which none can 
know who have not been so compelled to make such a dis- 
covery. 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, " Righteous 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 remain in the flesh we cannot divest our- 
selves 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 solici- 
tude as great, aye much greater, than what we, in our 
unconverted state, once knew in regard to their tem- 
poral concerns. I speak of those instances where, 
after being ourselves brought to know the Lord, we 
have laboured and prayed perseveringly for others, 
and then have suddenly lost them. I was not content 
to think that my prayers had been cast out : I want- 
ed some token that they had been answered. Bles- 
sed be the God of all mercies I I was not disap- 
pointed. 

There is a wide distinction between the case of a 
man who comes out from a world where he has been 
walking according to its most vain, ungodly courses, 
and who joins himself to the Lord's people as a deser- 
ter from that world, and the case of a man whose 



A HIDDEN WORK. 259 

path lias been that of domestic privacy when not en* 
gaged in public duty ; who has conspicuously fulfilled, 
with the utmost integrity and zeal, the duties of the 
latter, while shining brightly as a. pattern of the hus- 
band, the father, the master, the friend ; keeping aloof 
from dissipated society, and pursuing his way with 
unblemished 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 hare shed an ad- 
ditional lustre on his daily walk in the sight of man, 
except as the proclamation of such principle 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 sur- 
face, 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 mys- 
terious dispensation, removes it, to complete its growth 
in heaven. We mourn because we see not the process ; 
and little claim, alas, have we to the blessedness pro- 
nounced 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 as lost, 
instead of continuing to urge the Lord for a testimo- 
ny of his faithful dealings: "show me thy glory, I 
beseech thee." Would that my happy experience in 
this instance might become' the means of consolation 
to others in like manner tempted to sorrow as those 
that have no hope for beloved friends really sleeping 
in Jesus. 



HOPE. 

In Jesus : iktrt Hei a mystery that the world can- 
not penetrate. Many a one came about me, offering 
the affectionate consolation that they rightly judged 
would be most soothing to my wounded spirit — the 
assurance that he for whom I mourned was in heaven. 
They dwelt on the blamelessness of his life ; the beau- 
ty of his character ; his exemplary 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 circumstance of his marked 
swn-conformity with the disgraceful but almost uni- 
versal custom of sitting during prayer in the church, 
was not forgotten ; nor the devoted kindness, with, 
which he invariably conveyed to me every word of 
the sermon. And when my sickened heart perhapa 
too plainly spoke in my countenance the reply, "Mise- 
rable comforters are ye all 1" or when I distinctly told 
them that these things did not content me, great was 
their astonishment. Full well I knew that to be ad- 
mitted 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 graft- 
ing 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 con- 
soled during the weeks that intervened before I had 
ground given for confident thanksgiving, on the score 



TRUE COMFORT. 261 

of evidence that the blessing I had so earnestly sought 
was indeed vouchsafed. 

Meanwhile, what a tenfold recompense for all the 
care bestowed on him did I reap in the beautiful sym- 
pathy of the dumb boy. When I came down stairs 
that dreadful morning 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 he felt of realizing 
the tidings: 'Jack what? Jack asleep? Jack see no 
—think no. Jack afraid very. Beautiful Captain 8. 
gone? — dead? What P and he stamped with the 
impatience of that fearfully inquisitive what. I an- 
swered, 'Captain B. gone; water kill, dead.' Tears 
stole down his loving face as he responded, ' Poor 
mam ! Mam one' (meaning I was now alone in the 
world). ' God see poor mam one ; Jesus Christ love 
poor mam one/ With a feeling of bitter agony I 
asked him, ' What? Jesus Christ love Captain B. ?' 
1 Yes/ he replied, after 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 Eng- 
land could not have gone to my heart like that assur- 
ance, that Jesusr Christ had seen his many dumb pray- 
ers on behalf of that lost— —oh, I could not even, in 
the depth of my unbelieving heart say, ' lost one.' I 
again asked the boy, 'Jack much prays?' He an- 
swered 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 



SYMPATHY. 

should be made to grow from my brother's shoulders, 
for him to fly to heaven, adding, 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 to show the bro- 
ken 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 to say^ I dashed it down, 
exclaiming, 'that murderer! 1 Jack caught my eye, 
and echoing my feelings, said, in a bitter way, ? Bad 
water !' then with a look of exulting contempt at the 
remaining fluid, he added, ' Soul gone water % No !' 
This idea, that the soul was drowned, electrified me ; 
so good is 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 Iieft 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 softly, and Jack entered only partially dressed, 
his face deadly pale, and altogether looking most 
piteousTy 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 soon buried my, face in my hands again. How- 
ever, I still saw him through my fingers; and after 
lifting up his clasped hands and eyes, in prayer for me, 



DELICATE lENDERHBS. 263 

> 

he proceeded to execute the purpose of his Tint 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 stop- 
ping 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 ia 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 ! Even Job's tormenting friends gave him 
seven days true consolation while they sat silent on 
the earth weeping with him. 

But God put into the dumb boy's heart another 
mode of consolation, which I must recount, as a speci- 
men of his exceedingly 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 after this, which rivetted my atten- 
tion. 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 over, and caught my 
brother, drawing him down to the bottom, which, 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 



264 TRUE TESUm. 

Jack said, with rage, while the jaen took it to land. 
The soul, he continued, went up, up, up ; it was bright, 
and brighter, 'like nun, — all light, beautiful light.' 
At last he aaw a gate, and inside many angels looking 
out at him ; but two very small angels came running 
to meet the sou}; 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 V He look- 
ed at me with a laugh of wonder ; pointed to my head 
and the wooden table, and replied (his usual way of 
calling me stupid), ( Doll mam 1 Two small boys, 
dead, Portugal.' My brother had lost two babes in 
Portugal ; and thus exquisitely, thus in all the beauty 
of true sublimity, had the untaught deaf and dumb 
boy pictured the welcome they had given their father 
on approaching the gate of heaven. 

A day or two after, some kind, sympathizing rela- 
tions and friends being assembled at the dinner-table, 
something cheerful was, said, which excited a general 
smile, Jack 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 !' and walked out 
of the room, stopping at the door to add to me, ' Mam 
come : no laughing ! Gone; dead. 1 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 that wound which had pierced 
my very heart's core. These were a small part of the 



AS EBENEZER. 265 

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 son, — the * Baby boy 1 — now five years old, 
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 with- 
in. Jack fell into a decline, through the depression of 
his spirits in seeing me suffer ; for to conceal it from 
one who read every turn of my countenance was im- 
possible; and I should have been well 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 useful, honourable member of society, 
with right principles, grounded on a scriptural educa- 
tion, was what enabled me to persevere against every 
difficulty and every discouragement that could cross 
my path. I set up a joyful Ebenezer here ; and I ask 
your prayers that the blessing may be prolonged, in- 
creased, perfected, even tathe day when we shall all 
meet before the throne of God. 



23 






LETTER XIII. 



NATIONAL APOSTACY. 



Eighteen hundred and twentt-nine arrived. Most 
hateful year in the annals of England's perfidy to her 
bounteous Lord f 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 me ; and a fervent desire to be found 
among those who were actively dissentient from it, 
overcame all the languor consequent upon such a 
season of bitter affliction. For, what was it that Eng- 
land was about to do? 

The gospel had been preached here in the very 
early days of Christianity, probably by an apostle ; 
and an independent church, small indeed, but scrip- 
tural, existed ; sufficient to offer serious opposition to 
the Romish delegate, Augustine, when he was deputed 
to incorporate this country in the growing mass of 
papal dependencies. The struggle was not of long 
duration. Rome, 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 generation, with now ajnd then a move- 



A 8UMXA1Y. 267 

ment towards freedom, which was soon stilled again 
by the iron sceptre; or, perhaps I should rather say, 
by a rap on the head with the iron key. In the time 
of Richard II. blood shed openly for the truth'* sake 
began to give testimony that martyrdom would yet be- 
come the order of the day here. The spirit of perse- 
cution waxed bolder and fiercer, as the voice of scrip- 
tural protestation was heard ; and the temporary check 
given to Romish usurpation by the decided proceeding 
of Henry VIII. in casting off the Pope's supremacy 
for his own private benefit, was followed by the blessed 
interval of young Edward's reign, during which God 
was, for the first time since foreign delegates got foot- 
ing 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 inno- 
cent blood. Popery ruled supreme; and the conse- 
quence 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, jet 
as she established Protestant ascendency on a strong 
basis, exalted her kingdom to a height never before 
known ; and James L treading in the same steps found 
his reign equally prosperous. Charles I. attempted to 
give preponderance to the evil again ; and in that at- 
tempt brought upon his people a fearful civil war, and 
upon his own head an ignominious death. Charles II. 
worked covertly, under the surface of a profligacy al- 
most equalling that of Rome itself, to bring back upon 
our fathers the yoke of that odious bondage; and 



268 OUR PROTEST. 

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 
religion of the Bible against all future attempts of the 
Western Antichrist to recover his lost footing among us. 

From time to time, as fresh treasons rendered them 
necessary, restrictions were also laid on the legislative 
and corporative elections; until in all its parts the 
body politic of England presented a pure image of 
Protestantism, undefiled by the Babylonish^ garment 
or wedge of polluted gold : and while we thus acknow- 
ledged God openly, he openly acknowledged us. No 
weapon formed against England prospered ; she proved, 
as a nation, that she could not bear them which were evil : 
she had tried them that said they were apostles and 
were not, and had found them liars, and cast them out 
For this cause, the Lord made her mountain to stand 
strong: Protestant England was every where invin- 
cible. Abroad, victorious over every foe; at home, 
enabled to crush every attempt at insurrection. A 
little, insulated spot on the world's map, she was as 
the city of David, alike the repository and the fortress 
of God's pure faith. How could I, with the Bible be- 
fore 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 asit was 
paramount there, still allegiance to my God demanded 
that I should not see Him robbed, and the spoil given 



QUERIES. 269 

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 do with the proceed- 
ings of senators and governors? 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 ? Why 
were no convent walls ready to immure me; no dun- 
geons sealed from public scrutiny by a power that 
might trample on the neck of secular law ? Why had 
I not been taught 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 ? Be- 
cause I was the subject -of a Protestant country, bask- 
ing 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 ex- 
pect 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 succeed- 
ing generation ? Was I to contemplate the probability 
that the little fellow resting on my knee would be ex* 
posed to all from which I naturally shrunk ? 

Nor did I at all question the probability of a more 
rapid desolation than human wisdom would calculate 
on. Apostacy is so peculiarly a sin against God, such 
as a dire provocation, of His vengeance, that it might 
be. expected that if we ao walked contrary to him he 
23* 



270 DOWNHILL COURSE. 

would not wait till we, in the regular process of a re- 
bellious march, brought ourselves within the range of 
his consuming fire, but that He also would walk con* 
trary 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 mo- 
tion, if once we began to descend the hill. View 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 authority 
to legislate for the ordering of God's temple, and in- 
vite anew the dangers, both spiritual and temporal, 
from which our fathers had been almost miraculously 
delivered, was too palpable for a moment's hesitation. 
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 : he receives 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 effectually than if they took their 
places on the benches there : and each separate priest 
is simply and solely the active delegate of a foreign 
power, which uses the whole machinery lor 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 intrud- 



A WILL AND A WAT. 271 

ing into the province of the superior sex V I am 
going to teH you what a woman may do ; for of ms it 
may surely be said, ' Where there's a will, there's a 
way.' When we set our hearts upon 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 guidance; but the cause of God and his church 
must not be placed in jeopardy through the pusil- 
lanimity of a thousand Baraks. 

The first thing I did was to introduce a separate 
supplication into our family devotions morning and 
night, that God would advert the sin from this coun- 
try ; and twjce a week I called on my neighbours, as 
many as would come, to join in express prayer to the 
same effect. I then inquired how the public mind at 
Sandhurst stood affected, and found the ruling powers, 
civil military, and ecclesiastical, all going most compla- 
cently with the stream ; while their views, of course influ- 
enced many around them. Among the tradespeople 
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. Indeed, in this lay 
the secret of the enemy's success : a vast body of 
Englishmen, who would have sprang forward in un. 
compromising hostility against any known invasion 
of their nearest birthright, were kept profoundly igno- 
rant that such outrage was in contemplation. The 
other party were glad to leave them so ; and on our 
side there was a grievous lack of effort in acquainting 



272 PREPARATORY 8TEP& 

our poor neighbours with the danger impending oyer 
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 inveterate foe to our bosoms. These 
I had left at the cottages and shops for some way 
round, that the people might examine, and judge for 
themselves. 

The Rector of the parish I knew very well: h# 
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 die censures of his more 
liberalized neighbours. He had been to Oxford, to 
vote against Peel, solely on the ground ofthis defection 
from the Protestant cause, 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^poomplish his own wishes : he re* 
plied, he did not think there were nineteen men in the 
parish who cared enough about it to siga the petition, 
and he was unable to explain it to- them all : but if I 
thought I could get that number of names, (the mini- 
num for a parochial petition, I believe,) and would 
write such an address to the King, and the two Houses, 
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 tempe- 
rate, as concise, and as uncompromising as I could 
command. The Rector was greatly pleased ; signed 



SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS. 273 

with, much alacrity ; and requested the churchwardens 
to do the same, officially, as they were quite of our 
mind : this being done, I had before 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 coming evil, 
without a hope of being permitted in any way to op- 
pose it j 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 clus- 
ters of cottages scattered throughout the parish. He 
strictly adhered to my injunction to admit no signa- 
ture of any youth under seventeen years ; aor of any 
who did not seem to understand what they were doing, 
and why. I scattered the tracts and handbills as wide- 
ly as I could: asked several intelligent men of an 
humble class to speak of it among their acquain- 
tance ; 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 sign- 
ed it, was Jack : he was not seventeen ; but he wept 
and implored 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 deep- 
est crimson suffused his face, and his eyes flashed with 
the energy of his heartfelt protest against the abomi- 
nation that he so well knew. He does not now regret 



274 OVK DUTIES. 

it, while waiting for the summon* to rejoice with the 
heavens, and the holy apostles and prophets, over the 
fall of Babylon die Great 

Our petition was presented to the Commons by the 
country member ; to the Lords by the Bishop of Lon- 
don ; and to the King by the noble, honest, protesting 
Duke of Newcastle. My zealous neighbour took 
them to London, 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 respectable, 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 \ ok might at this 

VERY TIME ARREST THE PROGRESS OF OUR DECAY. We 

possess a machinery of almost boundless power ; but 
we are too laay 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 announce- 
ment of wrong inflicted on the Protestants of Ireland, 
and dangers accumulating 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 omis- 
sion 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 



MR. MtaSELB. 275 

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 supplications unto the Lord that he 
would pardon the sin of our princes and rulers, and have 
mercy on my people. Yet more ; the two days that 
preceded it, I caused to be kept as 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, 
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'Neik. I felt it powerfully : and 
when, not long after, he visited us, to pour yet farther 
the balm of Christian sympathy on the wound, I saw 
what a treasure the Lord was giving me in such a 
friend, and I cannot tazmyself now with having ever un- 
dervalued the blessing. At the fearful crisis in ques- 
tion, on the eve of passing that wicked bill, Mr. 
fttfNeile published his memorable pamphlet, entitled 
" England's Protest is England's shield." I did not 



276 FALSE ARGUMENT. 

■ee it until the very time arrived, and I remember 
sitting up the whole night after reading it, pondering 
on the picture that he had drawn of consequences fol- 
lowing upon a sin the very model of which was set 
forth, and its punishment also awfully declared, in the 
book of Jeremiah. Alas ! how often hare the feet of 
our rulers been found " stumbling on the dark moun- 
tains" — while they looked for light, how often- has it 
been turned into the shadow of death, since the warn- 
ing was despised, and the Lord's favoured people took 
unto close alliance the idolatrous abomination that in- 
censes him I We were then called alarmists, bigots, 
prejudiced fanatics ; and well do I remember the stress 
laid on an argument that influenced <many an upright 
character. ' Supposing,' it was urged, ' that an oath 
of fidelity to the interests a Protestant government 
would not be considered binding by members of the 
Romish church, do you imagine that a company of 
gentlemen would violate their pledged word of hon- 
our?' This told well with men of the world; and 
not a few Christians were led away by it, so that the 
clamour excited against the impugners of Romish in- 
* tegrity was very trying to meet, and numbers shrank 
from their protest, because it implied a charge against 
the private character of individuals who had done 
nothing to merit such suspicion. There were those, 
however, and among men of most delicate mind, inca- 
pable of inflicting a needless wound, who could not 
thus be deterred from uttering their convictions, since 
too fully verified, that no bond could hold a true Ro- 
manist neutral or inactive when once a question arose 
touching the opposite interests of the hostile systems. 



EPISCOPAL DEFECTION. 277 

Mr. AFNeile 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 cor- 
rect were his deductions ; and he, who to this moment 
stands foremost within the fortress in resisting at every 
step the foe whom he could not repel from its walls, has 
earned a preeminence 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 instrument of saving his country would not now 
deliberately sell her into the hands of foreign foes ; — 
sell her for a fuller measure of popularity, or for a lit- 
tle 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 chureh, there were a very 
large majority 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 con* 
fess I built much upon the bench : and a poor founda- 
tion it proved to be ! A solemn note of prophetic 
warning was sounded by the Archbishop of Tuam on 
the behalf of Ireland ; echoed by our own metropoli- 
tan and others in reference to England, but in vain* 
The sun of our national greatness had passed its me* 
24 



278 MO SURURDBR. 

ridian, and in the memorable words of honest Lord 
Eldon, began to set The sin of the British parliment 
was consummated. 

Nothing remained but to give the royal assent; 
and still would hope whisper that the prayers, if not 
the example of his father might prevail to deter the 
king of England from casting 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 surrender, 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 I 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 1" My amen to this aspiration 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 doing. Permitted by the Lord it was : for he 
often permits nations like individuals, to destroy them- 
selves by committing presumptuous sins ; but is he 
therefore the author, the abettor, or the approver of their 



ENGLANB PAPALIZED. 279 

crimes % Assuredly not So far must we submit to 
the ordinances of man as not to raise a rebellious band 
against their execution ; but to look placidly on while 
the abomination of desolation is set up to stand where 
the Lord expressly says " it ought not," and to con- 
clude he wills it to stand there because he did not 
wither the hands employed in fixing it, k a stretch of 
indifferentism to which I hope I shall never be able to 
attain. No: the 'atrocious bill/ 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 continuance on our statute 
book be fully as powerful, as persevering as was our pro- 
test 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 
operation of the Popish biU 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 celebrat- 
ing the festival of St. George, in April, as his birth- 
day, which really occurred in August ; calling it his 
name day, after the continental mode. To these 
strangely concurrent circumstances was added one yet 
more striking ; namely, the fact that the noted Pas- 
torini had predicted, 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 



280 AN ADMONITION. 

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 dejec- 
tion 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 in- 
quiries respecting a coach. The sight of his silver 
locks, shining in the sunbeam, and the conviction that 
he was probably going beyond the reach o£ Christian 
privileges, melted me : I seized a pen, and wrote him 
a most earnest letter, faithfully setting before him the 
fearfulness of that delusion in which he was not only 
himself wrapped, but daily wrapping up the souls of 
others — for he officiated as priest in the place. I im- 
plored him to read God's word ; I assured him how 
eotdially 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 direc- 
tory 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 
given 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 After this, which 
indeed proved a great relief to my oppressed feelings, 



THE KOYAL STANDARD. 281 

I took my little nephew and sallied forth for a walk. 
It was a glorious daj : the inn shone with surprising 
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 the naval great- 
ness of my country, on the vaunted ( Hearts of oak' 
that both formed her fleets and manned them, and be- 
wailing 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 the 
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 have rebelled against 
me," was the purport of the voice that seemed to 
breathe rebuke. Wandering on, I came to the wind- 
ing rampart of the college, a beautifully retired walk, 
where mounds of earth, covered with grass, aid the 
military effect 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 silk, splendidly emblazoned with the well-known 
arms. England's three lions in the proud attitude of 
menacing advance; Scotland's rampant one, rejoic- 
ing in his independence ; 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 
24* 



282 ICHABOD. 

wen unrolled Won me, just then drooping in a lull 
of the breeze ; and the Irish quarter partially resting 
on a mound of green sod, when it lay languid and 
fad. I leaned against the opposite bank, weeping 
most abundantly as I gazed; for all the chivalrous 
feelings of former days wen awakened to embitter the 
nst 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 third, 
whose prayerful fidelity to his sacred trust kept that 
flag secure, uncontaminated, victorious, through his 
sixty yean' reign! And that head which he was 
ready to lay on a block rather than surrender the 
sacred protest, was mouldering with the dead — his son 
had surrendered it— our protest was gone ! I could 
not quite realise 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 
freshened again, the heavy folds of the gorgeous ban* 
ner slowly rose upon it, all its bright blazonry stood 
out in wonted pride, unconscious of the c Ichabod ' 
that sacrilegious hands had written on every trophy, 
and with a fresh burst of tears I turned away. 

For all this, and for the deep despondency that op- 
pressed me then, I was rebuked, of course, by man ; 
but God never rebuked me for it Twelve years have 
elapsed, and each year has heaped upon us a fresh 
load of that " fruit of our own ways, 1 ' 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 



RETRIBUTION. 283 

again lire, to our confusion. Ireland is all but given 
up as an. uncontested prey to him ; her Protes- 
tant church dismantled, her Protestant Bible mutilat- 
ed, her Protestant corporations sold, her Protestant 
landlords massacred as a matter of course ; and the 
very Union, any attempt at infracting which is high 
treason, made the object of unmasked attacks on the 
part of a man who has armed and marshalled her mil- 
lions in open rebellion against the British government, 
which, judicially given. over to infatuation, fawns on 
his person and courts his patronage. In England, 
disaffection to the crown, combined with and strength- 
ened 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 im- 
mense falling away to popery in the mass of the peo- 
ple; while, within the church, even in its -pulpits and 
among its most distinguished ministers, prevails a re- 
vival of more than semipapal error, such as must 
wholly destroy the spiritual life of that body if it be 
not speedily and summarily checked. Instead of this, 
we too well know that it is daily extending, bearing in 
itself the seeds of a future and cruel persecution 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 compromise of his Majesty and truth as 
he will never make, look for deliverance 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. 



LETTER XIY. 



EMPLOYMENT. 



How it it that Christians so often complain they 
can find nothing to do for their Master? To hear 
some of them bemoaning their unprofitableness, ire 
might conclude that the harvest indeed is small, and 
the labourers many. So many servants out of employ 
it 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 themselves for 
the good of others. What a blessing were a working 
church! 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 
national-school, well attended : also a Sunday-School ; 
and the poorer inhabitants generally were of a respect- 
able class, with many of a higher grade, such 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 pro- 
duces love, there was no lack of affectionate 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 



SABBATH MEETING. 285 

would afford an opportunity for scriptural instruction ; 
and without anything resembling a school, or any re- 
gular proposal, I found a little party of six dr seven chil- 
dren assembled in the afternoon, to hear a chapter read, 
answer a few questions upon it, and join in a short prayer. 
Making it as cheerful 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 f 
and on the reply being given ' You may bring any 
body and every body you like, 1 a general beating up 
for recruits 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 complaining 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 
allowing an interval of half hour between, we got 
through it very well A long table was set across the 
room, from corner to corner; round this they were 
seated, each with a Bible, I being at the bead of the 
table. I found this easy and sociable way of proceed- 
ing highly gratified the children : they never called, 
never thought it a school — they came bustling in with 
looks of great glee, particularly the boys, and greeted 
me with the affectionate freedbm 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 



286 « boy*. 

of scripture very closely, mutually questioning eaoh 
other. Many of the girls were as old as sixteen or 
seventeen, beautiful creatures, and very well-dressed : 
and what a privilege it was so to gather and so to arm 
them in a place where alias 1 innumerable snares beset 
their path. We concluded with a hymn; and long 
before the half-hour had expired that preceded the 
boy's entrance, they were clustering like bees at the 
gate, impatient for the joyous rush ; and to set them- 
selves round their dear table, with all that free confi- 
dence 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, Jonathan, Nehemiah, Boaz, Mordecai, Daniel, 
all the most manly characters of Old Testament his- 
tory, 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 
effects. 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 fifteen 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 him on his 



AN EVENT. 287 

manhood ; and really my little lack became gentlemen 
in mind and manners, while, blessed be God) not a 
few became, I trust, wise onto salvation. Their great- 
est temptation to disorderly doings was in the laugh- 
able, authoritative style of Jack's superintendence. 
He was now rapidly fading, but in mind brighter than 
ever. Seated in a large chair, a little to the rear of 
me, he kept strict watch over the party, and any de- 
viation from what he considered correct conduct waa 
noticed with a threat of punishment, conveyed by 
pinching his own ear, slapping his own face, kicking 
out his foot, and similar indications of chastisement, 
with a knowing nod at the offender. But if he saw 
an approach to levity over the word of God, his man- 
ner wholly changed. Tears filled his eyes, he looked 
all grief and entreaty, and the words, ( God see/ were 
earnestly 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, boisterous 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. 

J 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 quar- 
rel one week-day. One of diem was very teasing, the 
other very passionate. The latter ran to a butcher's 
window close by, seized the large knife, and plunged 
it into the left side of his companion. Most mercifully 
the wound was not dangerous : the keenness of the 



288 BOY WOUNDED. 

knife was in hit favour; it penetrated to within a 
short distance of the heart, but separated no large vein, 
and within a few days the boy was out again. The 
Sunday after it occurred my party were exceedingly 
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 re- 
solved to make an effort to avert bad consequences, 
and also to arrest the poor 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 con- 
sequences. I sent word to him to come to my party : 
he replied he would not I repeated the summons, 
saying I should be exceedingly hurt if he did not. 
No answer was returned The place next but one to 
me belonged to the wounded boy, that below it to his 
assailant; and the former was present, pale, indeed, 
but weH I lost no time in announcing to them that 
I expected P., which occasioned a burst of indigna- 
tion, 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 feeling that makes you shrink from as- 
sociating with him proves 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 Unflinching, and 
his dark brows knitted. The looks of my young lads 
were very eloquent ; his bold bearing exasperated them 
much. My heart seemed bursting its boundary with 
the violent palpitation of alarm, and other emotions 



^ 



FORGIVENESS. 289 

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 
compassion, forgiveness, and love. I ceased, all re- 
mained standing, and certainly it was a period of most 
fearful interest. I looked imploringly «t the wounded 
boy; he hesitated a moment, then suddenly turned, 
and with an air of noble frankness, held out his hand 
to P., who took it directly. 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 countenance shone with 
almost heavenly beauty on a spectacle so congenial to 
his loving-heart. We had a most happy evening, and 
I could not but tell my dear boys how much I rejoiced 
over them. Whatever may have been the effect on 
the characters of those concerned, 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 
womaniam in the mode of conducting their scriptural 
education. They are pugnacious animals too, and re* 
quire prudent management News was brought me 
one evening, while they waited for admission, that two 
of them had stripped off their jackets to fight, the die* 
pute being which loved their teacher most ( Exclude 
them both to-night,' said a friend, ' and threaten to ex- 
pel them.' Instead of which I sent word that the one 
who first put on his jacket loved me most, and that I 
was ready to begin. In they both came, smiling, and 
25 



290 

they got their lecture in due time, when a passage in 
point came before us. 

Now, who complains of non employment while Eng- 
land has so many neglected lambs of her fold together, 
and so many who, in the dull routine of a school, get 
only a mechanical knowledge of what would deeply 
interest them if brought before them with the help of 
a little personal condescension and care? It is a 
branch of Christian duty for which all are competent 
who know the gospel ; and two, three, or four young 
people invited to come in for an hour or so at stated 
times, to sit down at a table and talk over the pas- 
sages of scripture which may appear best calculated 
to engage their pleased attention, may often prove the 
foundation for a noble work. It is particularly needed 
now, when information is universally sought after; 
and be it remembered, 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 officered, 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 claim a compa- 
rative approximation to our own rank ; and the devil 
desires no better auxiliary to bis designs 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 man 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 met with a boy — 



PREJUDICES. 291 

and thanks be to God I have taught many — who would 
be rude to a female earnestly and kindly seeking his 
welfare, without attempting to crush that independence 
of spirit which is man's prerogative, and which no wo- 
man has. a right to crush. 

I need not say that in the foregoing, and in all simi- 
lar works where the Lord permitted me to engage, I 
laboured diligently to make my young friends some* 
thing more than nominal Protestants. To omit this, 
in giving instruction, is the vary madness of inconsis- 
tent folly and cruelty. 

A few weeks after the commencement of my weekly 
assemblages, I was called to the metropolis in search 
of medical 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 I resolved to stay for a few 
weeks; and while secretly lamenting 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 en- 
couragements 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. Un- 
belief in his willingness, — for we dare not doubt his 
powtfr to prosper our poor attempts, — is the real bar 
to our success. Such mistrust is infinitely dishon- 
ouring to him. 

Six years had elapsed since I left Ireland, but my 
affection for the country and the people was unchanged, 
unchangeable. The very centre of the isle had be- 



292 THE BUSH LANGUAGE. 

come the grave of my beloved brother, and this only 
added tenfold to the touching interest excited by the 
very mention of that land. Strange to say, I had 
never heard of the Irish Society, nor considered of 
what vast importance it would be to make the lan- 
guage 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 the Rev. Charles Sey- 
mour, the venerable, and every way estimable pastor 
under whose ministry my brother had been placed at 
Castlebar, and from 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 a conversa- 
tion 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 heard the story of Bishop Bedell, of 
the Irish Bible, and of the good work in rapid pro- 
gress 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 before me. 
In fact, I hardly knew that the Irish was a written 
language ; and strange it seemed to have passed three 
years in a part of the country where it is extensively 
spoken, and in the house of one who always con- 



«T. GILES. 293 

versed 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 partisan of the 
Irish Society in Ireland; but a different torn 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 reverting to the state of the many thousands 
of his poor countrymen congregated in London, he 
drew a most affecting picture of their destitute, degra- 
ded condition. 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, 1 he 
said, ' a bread-shop in St Giles's; deal forth a little of 
the bread of life to their starving souls. Ye English 
Christians, I appeal to you for them: oh, pity my 
poor lost countrymen, open but a bread-shop in St 
Giles's!' Tears ran down his venerable face, as he 
lifted his clasped hands, and bent towards us. The 
effect of his words on me was electric : I looked at 
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 permit V Again and again did I repeat the pledge ; 
and when Lord Reden spoke, — the first time of my 
seeing that noble Irishman, — and heartily seconded 
the appeal, I renewed the secret promise, with such 
purpose of heart as rarely fails to accomplish its 
object 

For some days I tried in vain to do anything towards 
it; but on the Sunday, passing from Great Russell- 
25* 



294 AM APPEAL. 

street to Long-acre, through the wont part of St. 
Giles's, I saw the awful state of that district, and do- 
dared to my companion, himself a devoted Irishman, 
my fixed resolre to have a church there. He warmly 
encouraged it, extravagant as the idea appeared; and 
I began to pray earnestly for direction from above. 
Two nights after, a thought struck me; I wrote an 
appeal on behalf of the miserable Irish Papists in that 
place, likening their case among us to that of Lazarus 
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 im- 
portant 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 seven 
pounds towards building a church 1 This was slow 
work. One day, dining at the table of my dear friend 
Dr. P., he heard many bantering me for being so san- 
guine, and said, ' You remind me of Columbus, going 
to the cathedral of Seville to ask a blessing on his ro- 
mantic project of discovering a new world. Every* 
body laughed at me. Nevertheless, Columbus suc- 
ceeded, and so mil you. 1 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, c I will succeed.' 

With the sum of seven pounds in hand, I wrote to 
the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, begging him to 



A PROJECT. 295 

ask the Bishop of London if he would tfeense my Irish 
church and an Irish clergyman, if I provided both. 
Lord Mountsandford took this letter to him ; and the 
next day h* brought 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 assisting you in this 
undertaking) — half a dozen or so, — to meet him in 
Sackville-street on Saturday next, and be there your- 
self. He will see what can be done to forward it.' 
Half a dozen gentlemen ! where was I to find them 1 
My only helpers were Mr. Maxwell, Dr. Pidduck, and 
Lord Mountsandford himself However, I went to 
work, praying incessantly, and solacing myself with 
that beautiful text, " Go up to the mountain and bring 
wood and build 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 appli- 
cations might have succeeded ; but if I had as many 
gentlemen there as pounds in my treasury, namely, 
seven, it would be sufficient. I went trembling with 
hope and fear, accompanied by two warm-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 
in the chair; beside him the Bishop of Bath and 
Wells; Lords Lorton, Lifford, Bsxley, Mountsand- 



296 THE IKI8H CHURCH. 

ford, and Carberry ; and of other clergymen and gen- 
tlemen upwards of forty. ' Let ns ask a blessing/ 
•aid the Bishop of Lichfield ; and when we all kneeled 
down to commit unto the Lord a work so new, so 
strange, and to poor human reason so hopelessly 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 seal, love, unanimity; they placed 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, Trat formed themselves 
into a body for aiding in carrying it on : the rector 
of St. Giles's came forward voluntarily 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 So- 
ciety. 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 
had so often repeated during the preceding two months : 

Victorious Faith the promise fees 

And looks to God alone ; 
Laughs at impossibilities 

And says, ' It shall bk done.' 

In the following November the Irish Episcopal church 
in St Giles's was opened for divine service on Advent 
Sunday, the Bev. H. H. Beamish officiating.. A more 



KJL HOWELS. 297 

eloquent- and fluent preacher, a more gifted and de- 
voted 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 attacked their 
pestilent heresies with the bald faithfulness 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 wretch* 
edly ignorant and bigotted of the Irish Romanists, be- 
fore 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 establish- 
ment, 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 so- 
journ 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 Irviogism, which 



398 SPEAKING OUT. 

were continually seeking to enwrap me, but which, by- 
God's grace, I had been enabled to resist, at the com- 
mencement, 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 speaking to the Romanists ; but now I began 
to feel that to " contend 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 lifted 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 astonished, when, on the very first day of my 
attendance at Long Acre, he abruptly said from the 
pulpit, ' I am accused of dealing too severely with in- 
dividuals: they say I struck Irving too hard, /strike 
Irving 1 No, he struck himself, I did not strike him ; 
who would strike a suicide?' He proceeded to ex- 
hibit the suicidal effects of those doctrines which Mr. 
Irving was then beginning to proclaim ; and so com- 
pletely 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, 



EFFECTUAL MOPE OF INSTRUCTING. 299 

instead of being lost in the generalising 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 particular errors he 
was assailing. I found this manner of instructing 
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 remember, on my part, to be rectified by his in- 
structions. I went along with him fully, cordially, in 
all things save one, — the Second Advent, — but incal- 
culably 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 the 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 diluting our native Saxon : 
and I resolved 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 peo- 
ple who will pay honour to those which are no gods : 
doing superstitious things/ and so forth, describing 
the observances of the Romish system Now, I at 
once addressed them without circumlocution ' Papists, 
who are by some foolishly and falsely called Catholics, 
are taught by their priests the must idolatrous, and- 



300 CONTROVERSY. 

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 Ro- 
manist himself I learned to be equally explicit, not 
merely combating idolatry as before, by dwelling on 
the command to worship God alone, but at once brand- 
ing as idolatrous specific acts habitually committed 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 Iteth in wicked- 
ness the church must be a controversial body : this is 
proselytising; and so long as men are to be turned 
from darkness to light, we must proselytize. At the 
outsat of my efforts fox an Irish church in St Giles's 
it was objected by one or two friends, ' You want to 
make proselytes. 1 I answered, ' No ; we only want to 
preach the Gospel. 1 A vwy 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, i£ 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 speak controversially V ' Certainly not: show 
the people their errors, as set forth by the Holy Spirit 
for that very purpose of convincing them of the sin.' 
* I am thankful to hear you say that, Ma'am. Some 
of the gentlemen charge me never to engage in contro- 
versy, 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 



SPEAKING OUT. 301 

without being at all unsettled in my false religion, 

until I was teaching Miss , and she stopped me 

whenever we came to a strong passage against idolatry 
and the like, saying, ' Now, Mr. how do you re- 
concile that with your religion V I was very mad at 
her, and strove to forget ; but I could not get the -words 
out of the Bible, and they troubled my conscience, 
till at last I took to comparing Popery with what she 
had told me was written 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 
cleanseth from all sin," and not objected to it, and still 
remained a Papist ; but a Protestant pointed it out, 
and said, " If the blood 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 be- 
comes of the infallibility of your church? 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 from that 
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. 1 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 parti- 
culars on which I did not believe myself to be convinced 
were, the vengeful dispensation against the Lord's 
enemies preparatory to the thousand years of blessed- 
the literal nature of the first, premillennial re- 
26 



302 JUDGMENT AND MERCY. 

surrection : and the personal reign. With regard 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 ac- 
knowledge 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-fetched 
comments of good Matthew Henry : and I confessed I 
had taken up the missionary cause on the gratuitous 
assumption that we were to convert every body, and 
could not agree to a less extensive triumph. Well ; I 
did not choose to bring this to the test of Scripture, 
because I did not wish to be undeceived ; but just 
after the Irish meeting, one was held in reference to 
the Jews, at which I was present ; and forth stepped 
my valued friend M'Neile, whom I had not seen for a 
year, and with his little bible in his hand preached the 
obnoxious doctrine, to my infinite annoyance and con- 
viction ! He took up my precise objection without 
knowing it ; he spoke of those who could not see that 
a part of God's mercy was his judgment ; and with 
that glowing ardour tempered with deep solemnity 
that always gives him so much of the prophetic charac- 
teristic, if I may so speak, he read from the cxxxvi 
Psalm, " To Him that smote Egypt in their first-bom; 
for his mbrct enduretk for ever" " To him which 
smote great kings, for his mercy endureth for ever : 
And slew famous kings, for his mercy endureth for 
ever" This was the key-note of a strain that I deeply 
felt resounded through the whole scripture, though I 
had refused to heed it ; and then he turned to the lxi 
of Isaiah, and read the first and part of the second 



8CRIPTUEE. 803 

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 ? No : the first advent fulfilled so 
much of it ; and He who then proclaimed " the ac- 
ceptable year of the Lord," should at his second com* 
ing proceed with that unfinished scripture " The day 
of vengeance of our God." And go on thence " To 
comfort all that mourn: to appoint unto them that 
mourn in Zion ," — and so the whole beautiful picture 
. of millennial gladness and glory on which Isaiah ex- 
patiates rose before me, as consequent upon that " day 
of vengeance/ 1 which Christ has not yet in person pro- 
claimed. How angry I felt with that dauntless cham- 
pion of God' 8 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 resurrec- 
tion 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 be 
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 means 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 person- 
ally on earth, was by no means an additional privilege. 



304 THE USUK&ECTIOXr. 

I found the dung untenable, and resolved to consider 
it as wholly figurative ; but if so, then the final judg- 
ment, described also in that chapter, might be figure- 
tire too. I could not look my own inferences in the 
face ; so I wished to let the subject alone ; but then a 
blessing 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 re- 
solved to strengthen myself against the modern view 
(as I wisely supposed it) by prayerfully reading 
again what I already so well knew — the xv. chapter of 
1 Corinthians. I did so : and was suddenly struck by 
a recollection of the passage where the " saying " is 
written " Death is swallowed up in victory." I turn- 
ed to Isaiah xxv., read it, and found it unequivocally 
a description of the church's blessedness on earth— 
the millennium — at the outset of which the saying is 
written which " shall come to pass" when Christ's 
people rise from the dead. But will not all rise then ? 
I went over the apostle's description once more, and 
found no word of the resurrection unto condemnation. 
The corruptible then raised would all put on incorrup- 
tion ; the weakness, power ; the mortal, immortality ; 
having borne the image of the earthly, they were to 
bear the image of the heavenly. I was quite over, 
powered : 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 



mLLBB«AHuifiawr. 805 

years might sorely precede that " Then/' since more 
than eighteen hundred have already intervened since 
the acceptable year of the Lord/' and we hare not yet 
seen "the day of vengeance of our God," though only 
a comma separates them in the Bible. From this 
starting point I explored the scriptures in reference to 
a literal resurrection of Ghrist's people, at a literal 
coining previous to the thousand years of Satan's 
binding and the peace of the church. I saw it clear- 
ly : I received 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 unde- 
cided ; but I received it gradually sb necessary to the 
harmonious completion of the whole. I shall have 
occasion to mention it again. Whenever Mr. Howels 
took up this subject of the Second Advent, 1 was 
more than willing to be convinced, or rather uncon- 
vinced by him ; but I could not He always lost his 
temper, talked of sending the millennarians to a lunatic 
asylum; but never showed cause for their commit- 
ment to such safe custody. Donald was by no means 
favourable to the views, and once asked me ( Why do 
you hold this mistaken opinion V I answered, play- 
fully, ' Because it is the only subject on which Howels 
talks nonsense.' 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 often struck me what efforts the enemy has 
made to stifle this doctrine. The check given by 
26* 



306 * TALSE CHEISTS. 

Irvingism wm very great, and though it did not lead 
me to question what I found in my Bible, it made me 
very cautious in receiving, very backward in declaring, 
any farther light on the subject Two years later, a 
valuable Christian clergyman who had received, and 
alas I still holds those deluding errors, when lamenting 
my awful pertinacity in resisting 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, pie-millennial coming, but it is his 
cross, not his crown, that saves my soul. 1 This was 
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 devilish pupose. No ; he knows that the 
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 Christ*, to deceive if it were pos- 
sible, the very elect We have need to be found 
watching ! 



LETTER XT. 

DARKNESS AND LIGHT. 

> I wish to bring into one view the subject with which 
I eloeed 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 his people will be kept ; 
and as we have no right or warrant to look 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 
Fancourt Had it been a person unknown to me, I 
might have thought less about it; but I knew her, and 
her family ; and I was and am perfectly certain that 
the least attempt at deception was never practiced, 
never thought of by them. A sweet, patient, suffer- 
ing child of God, guileless as a babe, and whose bodi- 
ly affliction had moved my tenderest sympathy as I 
sat beside her couch of pain ; the intelligence of her 



808 THE TOBGUE8. 

instantaneous recovery, of her haying walked from her 
father's house at Hoxton to that of my hospitable 
friend Mr. Hawtrey, in Hackney, and back, with my 
intimate knowledge alike of the localities and the indi- 
riduals concerned, came upon me 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, zeal- 
ous Christian, wrote me a glowing letter, enclosing two 
little pamphlets or rather tracts, on the subject of 
miraculous gifts in the church, as set forth in 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. She 
added that her parents were violently opposed, but she 
hoped to obtain the ' gifts' herself, and by that means 
to silence all. I was confounded : I read the tracts, 
and all the scriptures pointed out in them as confirma- 
tory of the view taken, and whieh certainly made out 
a strong case ; but I felt too that a reference to single 
texts would not suffice ; I had 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 
look at a sentence here and another there, in order to 
arrive at his full meaning, but should read the whole ; 
much less would detached verses, called tests, selected 



THE TOUCHSTONE. 309 

from letters of the Apostles, indited by the Holy Ghost, 
rightly inform me as to the mind of the Spirit Ac- 
cordingly 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 God by humbly receiving whatever he 
was pleased to reveal. I then seated myself on the 
side of my bed, and read the whole of the New Testa- 
ment 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 such 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 according 
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 began 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 soon came to the conclusion from 
which I have not swerved, that it was one of nervous, 
not organic disease ; and while ascribing all glory to 
God as the hearer of her prayer and healer of her sick* 



aio 

ness, I believed that it had been accomplished by the 
natural effects, mercifully ordered by him, of a natural 
causa. In this state of mind I remained, when a letter 
from a friend in Scotland brought me some account of 
a meeting where he 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 surface, and this rendered 
me the more thankful that I had not lightly admitted 
the claim to supernatural powers, which, once acknow- 
ledged; would have given weight to any doctrine asso- 
ciated with them. 

A little time brought me better acquainted with the 
nature of this heresy. Shrouded as it was in much 
obscurity, and perplexed with many contradictions, so 
as to enable its unhappy propounded to deny in words 
what in substance he strongly advanced, nothing could 
strip 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 flesh, but flesh inherently sinful ; that He 
was assailed by every evil passion and corrupt inclina- 
tion ; 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 conquest of his 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 re- 
mained for each of us to become equally holy, equally 
free from sin, and entitled to enter heaven. I do not 



SUPERNATURAL AGENCY. 311 

err in this description, for I took it from the Tile book 
in which Mr. Irving asserted the doctrine, and which 
with unspeakable horror I was compelled to read, in 
order, when brought into daily contact with his de- 
voted followers, to maintain the cause of truth against 
their assaults. A more atrocious outrage on the great 
mystery of our redemption never was fabricated. 
Socinianism could desire no more than to see the 
Deity of Christ thus degraded. Indeed it is very re- 
markable 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 me a 
zealous adherent, and my pen devoted to its advocacy 
might have done good service. They wished to test 
the miracle-working powers of their leader by causing 
me to hear ; and to prove the supernatural character 
of the utterances by making them audible to me pre- 
vious to such cure. However, I had not in vain read 
the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, and their success 
in both instances 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 other standard of truth than ' the law 
and the testimony. 1 I was far from denying the pro- 
bability of supernatural agency, for the doctrine was 
so truly diabolical that Satan might be likely enough 
to strengthen it with such signs and wonders as he 
was permitted to show, in 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 



312 SATANIC DEVICES. 

than teeing it backed by seeming miracles. That 
Satan can work miracles there is no doubt, and that 
be will yet do so we are plainly warned. He seems 
to withhold bis band now, in order to conceal the fact 
of bis existence ; for the spirit of the age is infidelity, 
not superstition ; but there will be a snare provided 
for eacb individual, according to bis natural disposi- 
tion ; and the most devoutly disposed are they wbo 
bave need to watch tbe most carefully against spiritual 
wickedness in bigh places. If man in bis first state 
of obedience and happiness was the object of envy so 
deep and a plot so subtle and malignant as that whicb 
accomplished tbe fall of Adam, wbat must be the feel- 
ing of tbe great enemy against man delivered from bis 
grasp, and restored to God's favour, — what bis eager- 
ness to bar to every soul the entrance upon a brighter 
Eden than tbat from wbicb our first parents were 
driven 1 Believing as I do that the curse will be taken 
off, and earth become again tbe fair and fertile garden 
tbat it once was, and knowing tbat Satan surely reads 
prophecy with a more accurate eye than we can do, I 
cannot doubt bis rage being fearfully increased as the 
appointed time draws on; nor can I question that be 
will make a separate effort against every class, every 
individual in Christ's church, as a last attempt to mar 
tbe triumphs of bis Conqueror. We may well cling 
to the assurance that none of His sheep shall perish} 
neither be plucked from bis band ; but it behooves- U9 
to be extremely wary, and to watch against the de- 
vices of Satan with redoubled vigilance. 

Such considerations prevented my giving heed to 
any persuasion that sought to bring me into contact 



PERSUASIONS. ' 313 

with the professors of Irvingism. • I had no difficulty 
in so doing for some time ; but at length I took up 
my abode in the house of a lady whom I did not know 
to be a devoted follower of Mr. Irving. She was sq 
warm-hearted, energetic, «nd sincere, that firmly be- 
lieving the work to be of God, and that to oppose it 
was to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, she could not but 
be most anxious to bring all whom she loved within 
the supposed ark of safety. She loved me ; and of 
course laboured diligently to accomplish my conver- 
sion, 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 Lord's human nature ; and that if 
I would only attend his ministry I should find he 
preached quite a different thing. His book was re- 
moved out of my reach, as soon as I was found read- 
ing it ; but I provided myself with another copy, ex- 
amined, analyzed, and noted down the points of argu- 
ment, "and proved to demonstration, that whether or 
not he understood the full force of his own assertions, 
those assertions were precisely what we conceived 
them to he, most unscriptura^ most blasphemous. I 
averred it to be so,^nd was of course met by most in- 
dignant denials that a man so holy in mind, so un- 
blemished in life, could possibly be a blasphemer, or 
that persons living in daily prayer to God, earnestly 
desirous of being guided into all truth, should be suf? 
27 



814 CONFLICTS 

fered to go so far astray. To this I could only reply 
again, that what he was, or what' they were, did not 
affect the question when the doctrine promulgated was 
totally contrary to Scripture. * Is it not written, By 
their fruits ye shall know them V * Yes ; and it is 
also written, Satan himself is transformed into an angel 
of light' Indeed, the argument most constantly brought 
against me was the holy lives of the party ; bat I could 
match them, not only among the blind pharisees and 
the scribes, of whom our Lord said that they could 
not escape the damnation of hell ; not only among the 
dark devotees of Popery, and the blaspheming fol- 
lowers of Socinus, but among the heathen -moralists 
who never so much as heard of a divine revelation, 
and who persecuted unto death the early Christians. 
Indeed it is not to be expected that such a master of 
delusion as he is who beguiled Eve by his subtlety, 
should seek to allure believers from the right way by 
means of any but persons of irreproachable character. 
Neither does it follow that the persons thus put for- 
ward to deceive are themselves hypocrites ; some such 
there will be in every class professing godliness, but I 
never suspected Mr. Irving himself, nor any one per- 
sonally known to me among that body, of professing 
anything they did not honestly believe. 

Many a time did I suffer grief far greater than I 
occasioned, when refusing to join my dear erring 
brethren in social worship. I knew some^of them 
were in the habit of returning thanks to God the 
Father for imparting to the Lord Jesus such abun- 
dance of the Holy Spirit's influence as kept him from 
ginning ; and I Would sooner have died than have been 



A T^EMINATIOH. 818 

found assenting, even by my presence, to any such 
fearful impiety. Accordingly I invariably refused to 
meet them otherwise, than in the interchange of cour- 
tesy and kindness ; and whenever prayer was proposed 
I withdrew 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 their Bibles to read and pray, I found 
it almost too much for me to rise to declare my reason 
for retiring, and after a most affectionate good night, 
£0 leave them; for I loved them well, and it seemed a 
most presuming thing on my part I wept nearly all 
night after it ; but how great wee my thankfulness on 
hearing, at the distance of several years, that a very 
sweet and pious young lady, a stranger to me, who 
was about to resign herself wholly to their guidance at 
the sacrifice of filial duty, was so startled by my pro- 
ceeding, that on returning home she prayed for direc- 
tion in a spirit of real willingness to be led of God; 
and after reading attentively such parts of the Scrip- 
tures as had been most perverted to maintain the cause 
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 in- 
troduce and spread the delusions in Ireland, the ardent 
temperament of whose children appeared 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 pub- 
lished and re-published, by himself in elucidation of 
his real tenets. This was an unpardonable instance 



316 

of baldened 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 discussion 
between me and my zealous opponent, not one word 
had ever been uttered on either side, or one look, ex- 
changed that was not even affectionately amicable. 
She was soon afterwards completely recovered out of 
the snare ; and we both recall our united sojourn wi$h 
feelings of gratitude to Him who kept us still of one 
heart, even while we were riot of one mind in the 
house. 

I should not pause so long on .this part of my recol- 
lections, did I not apprehend a revival of the mischief 
in the church, or something similar to it. The he- 
retical doctrine will never be received except among 
semKnfidels, but it is probable the 'manifestations 1 
may be joined to some more specious form of anti- 
christianity ; still while we hold an unmutilated Bibje, 
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 precious privileges. May the Lord enable us 
so to do ! 

I have gone forward in my sketch to avoid recurring 
to this subject; and now I return to the period of my 
delivering up a jsacred 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 



▲ SUH8ST. 817 

had 'the rites of the church; Had the Abbe re- 
mained, it is probable we should have soon found our- 
selves deep in controversy; for, as priest,, he never 
should have crossed my threshold, to bring upon my 
house the curse- attached to idolatrous worship; and 
there was happily na other within reach. Jack re- 
quested me to promise him in his sister's presence that 
Do 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 ad- 
mitted under my roof. The abomination that maketfc 
desolate stands in many places where it ought not, but 
where I have authority it never did ; nor by God's 
grace ever shall I have toleration fall and free for 
every form of Christianity, but none for Antichrist, 
eome in what form he may. 

It may be possible 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 swiftly; and 
gathered new beauties as he approached the horizon. 
His sufferings were great, but far greater his patience; 
and nothing resembling a complaint ever escaped him. 
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 ; heaven 
all light ; soon see heaven. Cough much now> pain 
bad ; soon no cough, no pain.' This was his usual 
Way of admitting how much-he suffered, always plac- 
ing in contrast the glory to be revealed in him, and 
27* . 



SIS KttKnfATttMf. 

which seemed already revealed to him Knowing that 
his recovery was impossible, I refrained, with his fall 
concurrence, from having him tormented with mis- 
called alleviations, such as opiates, bloodletting, and 
so forth. All that kindness and skill could effect was 
gratuitously done for him, and every thing freely sup- 
plied by our medical friends ; but they admitted that 
no permanent relief could be given, and I always hold 
it eruel to embitter the dying reason with applications 
that in the end increase the sufferings they temporarily 
subdue. This plan kept the boy's mind clear and 
«alm : the ever-present Saviour being to him instead 
of all soothing drugs. Sometimes when greatly op- 
pressed, he has had leeches; and I remember once 
half-a-dozen were pat on his side, at his own request. 
The inflammation 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 writh- 
ing convulsively. 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 tear*; 
and instantly assumed his sweetest expression of eoun- 
.Jteaance, saying in a calm, leisurely way, that his pain 
was much, but the pain the Lord suffered much mora : 
his was only in his aide ; 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 1 Then 
again he observed the leeches made very little holes in 
his skin, and drew out a little blood; but the thorns, 
the nails, the spear, tore the Lord's flesh, and all his 
blood gushed out,— 4t was shed to save him; and he 



THE EED HANI*. 319 

raised his eyes, lifted hie clasped hands, turned his 
whole face up towards heaven, saying 'Jack loves, 
loves, very loves good Jesus Christ !' When another 
violent pang made him start and writhe a little, he re- 
covered 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 V and he would start, and say, ' Yes, me Jack.' 
Then he would rise, and see multitudes standing toge- 
ther, and God sitting on a cloud with a very large 
book in his hand — he called it i 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 dope; 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 ' No, 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 filling up the hole made by the nail, 
had allowed the wound to bleed a little, passing his 
hand down the page so that, as he beautifully said, 
God could see none of Jack's bads, only Jesus Christ's 
blood. Nothing being thus found against him, Gdd 
would shut the book, and there he would remain stand- 
ing before him, tiH the Lord Jesus came, and saying 
to God 'my Jack/ would put his arm around him, 



820 JOT AND FEACM. 

draw him aside, and hid hinvstand 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 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 
dumb peasant boy, whose broken language was eked 
out by signs. He often told it to others, always mak- 
ing himself understood, and often have I seen the tears 
starting from a rough man's eye as he followed 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 catchine/my 
eye, to say- with a look of infinite satisfaction, L Good 
red hand. 1 I am persuaded that it was his sole jtnd 
solid support ; he never doubted, never feared, because 
his view of Christ's all-sufficiency was so exceedingly 
clear and realising. It certainly never entered his 
head to question God's love to hint. One night a ser- 
vant went to his roem, long- after he had gone to bed. 
he was on his knees at the window, his bauds 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 window 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: aU turned on the one 
theme so dear to him : and their originality was inex- 
haustible.. What could be finer than his notion of 



tauE wisdom. 321 

the lightning, thai it was produced by a sadden open- 
ing and shutting of God's eye — or of the rainbow, 
that it was the reflection of God's smile ? What more 
graphic^ than his representation of Satan's malice and 
impotence, when, one evening, holding his finger to a 
candle, he snatched it hack, as if burnt, pretending to 
be in great pain, and said ' Devil like candle. 1 Then 
with a sudden look of triumph he added * God like 
wind, 1 and with a most vehement puff at once extin- 
guished the light. When it was rekindled he laughed 
and said < God kill Devil.' 

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 persuaded them to spit up towards him, which 
Was his sign for rebellion 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. He gave 
very grotesque descriptions of the evil spirit's mortifi- 
cation, and always ended by bestowing on him a hear- 
ty kick. From seeing the effect, in point of watchful- 
ness, prayer, and zeal, produced on this young Christian 
by such continual realisation 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 circumlocution, as 
though we were afraid of treating him irreverently } 



ftt THE FORMALIST. 

•ad he who is seldom named wifl not often be thought of 
Aasuredly it is a great help to him in his countless de- 
Tiees to be kept out of sight. We are prone to speak, 
to think, to act, as though we had only our own vile 
natures to contend with, including perhaps a sort of 
general admission that something is at work to aid the 
cause of rebellion; but it was far otherwise with Jack. 
If only conscious of the inward rising of a sullen or 
*Hgry 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 assur- 
ance 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. In like manner with ail other vices, and soma 
seeming virtues. As an instance of the latter, he knew 
a person who was very hostile to the gospel, and to the 
best of his power hindered it, but who nevertheless 
paid the most punctual regard to all the formalities of 
external public worship. He almost frightened me by 
the picture he drew of that person's case, saying tho 
devil 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 ; and while 
he carefully followed all the service kept clapping him 
on the shoulder, saying ' A rwry 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. When 



SYMPATHY. S&3 

partaking of the Lord's supper, Jaok told me that his 
feeling was ' very, very love Jesus Christ ; very, vary, 
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 great- 
est earthly delight was in occasionally seeing Mr. Don- 
ald, for whom he felt the fondest love, and who seemed 
to have a presentment of the happy union in which 
they would together soon rejoice before the Lord. 
Jack was courteous in maimer, even to elegance ; most 
graceful; and being now nineteen, tall and large, with 
the expression of infantine innocence and sweetness on 
a very fine countenance, no one could look on him 
without admiration ; nor treat him with roughness or 
disrespeet : but Donald's tenderness of manner Was nx> 
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, — for 
he could not lie down, — and the grateful humility with 
which every little kindness was received, until I al- 
most forgot what the rude, unfeeling world was like 
in that beautiful contemplation. How much the fruit* 
in God's garden is beautified by the process that ri- 
pens it t 

Jack laboured anxiously to convert his lister ; and 
as she could not read at all, the whole controversy was 
carried on by signs. Mary was excessively mirthful, 
Jack unboundedly earnest ; and when her playful re* 
proaches. roused his Irish blood, the scene was often 



324 EA*SE8TNE8& 

very comic. I mnemUi he was once bringing a long 
list of accusations against her priest, for taking bis 
mother's money, making the poor fast, while the rich 
paid for dispensations to eat, inflicting cruel penan- 
ces, drinking too much whiskey ; and finally telling 
the people to worship wooden and broaden 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 like a doll's, and 
knew nothing : but if he had been wise he 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 directed against 
their false religion j when I told him of one being con- 
verted, he leaped about for joy. 

At the commencement of the year 1831 he was evi- 
dently dying ; -and we got a furlough for his brother 
to visit him. Poor Pat never went to bed but twice 
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 the 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 across the 
room with little help, and talked incessantly to me, 



A DYING PROTECT. 325 

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 tbat he would soon do it 
again, not with water bat with fire. He described the 
Lord as taking up the wicked by handf ulls, 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 he 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 east into the pit, and of the delight he should 
have in seeing me again. He prayed for bis family, 
begged me to teach Mary to read the Bible, to 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 injunction to love Ireland, 
to pray for Ireland, to write books for 'Jack's poor 
Ireland,' and in every way to oppose Popery. He 
called it ' Roman,' always ; and it was a striking sight, 
that youth all but dead, kindling into the most ani- 
mated, stem, energetic warmth of manner raising bis 
cold, damp hands, and spelling with them the words, 
1 Roman is a He.' ' 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 charae* 
ters 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 destroy- 
er of his people. The last signs of removal came on 
in the evening ; his sight failed, he rubbed his eyes, 
28 



326 

•hook hit head, and then smiled with conscious plea- 
sure. At last he asked me to let him lie down on the 
sofa where he had been sitting, and saying very calm- 
ly ' A sleep, 1 pot his hand into mine, closed his eyes, 
and breathed his spirit forth so gently, that it was 
difficult to mark the precise moment of that joyful 
change. 

I still hope to throw into a Tolume the numerous 
particulars 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 without most keenly feeling the 
loss of such a companion, but with a glow of adoring 
thankfulness that overcame all selfish regrets. Thence- 
forth my lot was to be test among strangers, and sore- 
ly did I miss the comforting, sympathizing monitor 
who for seven years had been teaching me more than 
I could teach him, but all my prayers had been an- 
swered, all my labours crowned ; and with other duties 
before me I was enabled to look at the past, to thank 
God, and to take courage. 



LETTER XVI. 

A REMOVAL. 

Circumstances led me to decide on 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 de- 
scending about, the voice of the archangel, and the 
trump of God. I am very certain he will rise to glory 
and immortality. 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, and cast myself into 
the great wilderness of London. The feeling that op- 
pressed me was a conviction that I should there find 
nothing to do ; but I prayed to be made useful, and 
none aver 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 for 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 Bloomsbury, daily witnessing 
the wretchedness of St. Giles's; and on learning this 



i 



328 AN APPEAL, 

I wrote to Mr. Howels, begging him to say a word to 
hit congregation on behalf of those Irish who were 
starring at their doors, whose miserable 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 col- 
lected upwards of fifty pounds, which he gave to me. 

Knowing the character of the people so well, and 
longing to make the relief of their bodily wants sub- 
servient to a higher purpose, I resolved to visit in per- 
son every case recommended to my notice. Many of 
my friends stood aghast at the proposal ; I should be in- 
sulted, murdered, by the Irish savages ; no lady could 
venture there, their language was so dreadful : no deli- 
cate 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 unwhole- 
someness, it could not be worse than Sierra Leone, or 
other missionary stations, where many ladies went. 
Insult 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 fifty 
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, devoting 
from four to six hours every day to it ; and though I 
never in the smallest degree concealed or compromised 
die truth, or failed to place in the strongest light its 
contrast with the falsehood taught them, I never ex- 
perienced a disrespectful or unkind look from one 



IRISH SCHOOLS. 329 

among the Hundreds, the thousands who knew me as 
the enemy of their religion, but the loving friend of 
their country and of their souls. Often, 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 I really feel for it, and then shown 
them, from the Scriptures, in English, or by means of 
an Irish reader sometimes accompanying me, the only 
way of salvation, pointing out how very different was 
that by which they vainly sought it. My plan was 
to discover such as were too ill to go to the Dispensary 
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 ably and zealously helped by that benevo- 
lent Physician who had always been foremost in every 
good and compassionate work for the Irish poor ; and 
to whose indefatigable 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' 8 supreme delight to superintend. I can- 
not pass over in silence the devotion of Dr. Pidduck, 
through many years, to an office the most laborious, 
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 popula- 
tion of the district. But many a soul that he has 
taught in the knowledge of Him whom to know is lift 
eternal, will be found to rejoice him in the day when 
their poor bodies shall arise to meet the Lord. 
28* 



i 



430 THE REFORM BILL. 

The fchooli in George-street to which I have alluded 
are the main blessing of the place : they were estab- 
lished 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 re- 
specting the Reform Bill, a measure rendered ruinous 
by the fatal act that preceded it, in 1829. It was not 
passed this year, owing to the steadiness of the peers ; 
but it became too evident that it could not long be re- 
sisted 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 per- 
sist in keeping out his body. They had taken the 
first step down a rapid descent, and to pause was im- 
possible, unless God gave them such a measure of 
grace as is rarely accorded to those who have betrayed 
a trust. He that is unfaithful in little will be so again 
in much ; and it was not a small thing to dash down 
the most sacred bulwarks of our national Protestantism. 
Tory treachery did the deed ; and Tory influence was 
the first to receive a death-wound by means of sched- 
ule A. 

Eighteen hundred and thirty-two saw the Reform 
Bill pass. The first act, almost of this reformed and 
papalized Parliament was, in the following year, to lop 
off ten bishopricks from the Irish Church, by means 
of the majority thus obtained. It was a base and 
cruel proceeding, and it exhibited. in glaring colours 



VALUE OF A ROMISH OATH. 3$1 

the value of an oath taken by Romanists against the 
interests- of their system ; for of those who had ob- 
tained admission to the British Parliament by solemnly 
swearing to do nothing prejudicial to the Protestant 
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 any- 
body wondered at this : I never dia\ I should have 
greatly marvelled had it been otherwise ; for who could 
expect the ' mother and mistress of all churches' to sit 
in contented equality, not to say in acknowledged in- 
feriority, 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 
wicked will do wickedly," Scripture declares; and 
what can we expect from him who is characterized by 
the same Scriptures as " that wicked ?" 

It is solemnly declared, that they who hated know- 
ledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord ; 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 accord- 
ing to God's will, was a rejection of his counsel, and a 
departing from his fear, many are now constrained to 
confess, by seeing how strictly retributive is the dis- 
pensation under which we are laid. Look around, 
and what do we behold of the fruit of our own way in 
forming papal alliance ? it is evidently judicial. The 
rapid increase of Popish chapels, and the open efforts 



j 



382 RETRIBUTION. 

of proselytizing made on every aide ; the establish- 
ment of a powerful and wealthy ' Institute/ for the 
avowed purpose of extending Popery, and the an- 
nouncement 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 who merge their nominal Protes- 
tantism in real, heartfelt hostility to the established 
form of church-government, and other national institu- 
tions; all this we might have expected; we did ex- 
pect and predict it too, openly enough, when striving 
against the overthrow of our defences. But who 
among us could have foreseen the dispensation 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 transfusing Popery into 
the very veins of the ecclesiastical body ! Unques- 
tionably this is the most deadly symptom of all ; and 
while we own that the Lord must; in the way of per- 
mission, have done this " evil" against his offending 
people, we cannot rationally doubt as to the means em- 
ployed. 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 seize in every possible way the advantage 
gained ; and as the Church of England has been found 
the surest fortress, of Protestant truth, the introduction 
of false principles among those to whom is committed 
the preparation of her young men for the ministry, 
was of all things most desirable. Mow this was first 
effected, by what means some of the most eminently 



FU8ETI8K. 333 

learned men, of unexceptionable moral character and 
extensive influence in a Protestant university, and 
ministering in our church, became active instruments 
of the papal foe, cannot be ascertained. All the ini- 
quities of Popery are mysterious : the name mystery 
will remain emblazoned on the Harlot's brow, until 
the fire of God's wrath shall consume its brazen cha- 
racters. It is Tain to speculate about the origin of 
what only concerns us in its effects; and in those 
effects it does most awfully concern us. I have read 
with attention what is put forth by the promulgators 
of these doctrines,— erroneously called new, for they 
helped to form the stumbling-block which Balaam 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 God's grace, I had 
weighed Socinianism, Popery, Antinomianism, and 
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 
conferring 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 after sinning away 
the supposed grace then received ; for neither of which 
do I find one warrant in the word of God, but abun- 
dant confirmation of both in the catechisms of Rome. 

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



the elements by the setting of them apart for a service 
in itself commemorative, end the awful reverence with 
which they are thenceforth to be regarded : in every 
particular of which I trace approximation to the 
Romish mass, and a commensurate, retrogression from 
the pore simplicity of the gospeL . 

IIL 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 fulfill- 
ing his office towards the people. This may seem a 
trivial and foolish whim; and truly so it is in itself 
very 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 throughout the New 
' Testament, in direct contradistinction to will-worship, 
voluntary humility, and all the parade of "-carnal 
ordinances/' it becomes* important in no common .de- 
gree. In Edward's days, the martyr Ridley, then 
Bishop of JLrfmdon, 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,. de- 
cent, 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 Gardiner, called it an oyster-table. 
The * altars' were of course est 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 



FtrsEYiSM. 335 

we are not ignorant, though we cannot fathom their 
depth : and who no doubt always hoped to use this 
oversight of ours as a stepping-stone to the recovery of 
his lost footing. At all events, 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 : — " The 
Table, at the communion time, having a fair white 
linen cloth npon it, shall stand in the body of the church, 
or in the chancel, where morning and evening prayer 
are appointed to be read" From this it would seem 
to have been pat oat of the way at other times, pro- 
bably to afford more room for the congregation during 
general prayers, and to have been brought out again 
1 at the communion time ;' and our parish churches 
have been principally built in Popish 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 ap- 
pearance far less formidable than the doctrinal errors 
preached, this vain practice wifl cost the church very 
dear. 

IV. The assumption so strenuously resisted by our 
martyrs, and so manifestly contrary to Scripture, of an 
authority over men's minds and consciences, based not 
upon a faithful adherence to the apostolic doctrines, 
but upon a fortuitous succession to their external 
office and functions. Fortuitous as regards the indi- 
vidual, for any one may obtain it ; but absolute and 
unchangeable as regards the office itself, not by virtue 
of the scriptural form in which the privileges are, after 
apostolic injunction and example, conferred, but be* 



i 



836 FU8EYISK. 



i an unbroken series of individuals have been so 
appointed, of whom some 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 been the habitation 
and the mouth-piece of devils ; and now, on the ground 
chosen by these secessionists, the Pope of Rome is a 
true bishop, sitting in a true church ; and Babylon the 
Great, whom God himself calk the Mother of Hariota 
and abominations of the earth, is our eldest sister, out 
venerated sister, in separating from whom we have 
made ourselves schismatics, and through whose filthy, 
polluted channel we must draw the waters of life, if we 
would receive them at alL Who can look at this dog- 
ma, and not be inclined to breathe the prayer of good 
King Edward's liturgy, so foolishly expunged by 
Elizabeth's temporizing, half-convicted prelates : — 
" From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all 
his detestable enormities, good Lord deliver us ! u 

V. The dreadfully unscriptural tenet which they call 
'reserve. 1 They say that the doctrine of the Atone- 
ment 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 baa 
wrought out salvation for them, nor to hear the bles- 
sed truth that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
from all sin." They are not to be invited to " Bekold 
the Lamb of God, which tdketh away the sin of the 
world." The Lord has indeed loudly and universally 
proclaimed, " Look unto ice and be ye saved, all the 



FUSEnsx. 337 

ends of the earth ;" but these faithful and wise stew* 
ards 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 ; nothing but reading declarations to that ef- 
fect in their own books would have convinced me that 
any ministers of the English church would have so 
•trampled upon he? institutions, no less than violated 
Scripture, as deliberately to withhold from the laity 
the knowledge whereby alone they alone can be saved. 
Many false pastors there have been, and too many 
there still are in our church, who do not teach, because 
they do not themselves know, the gospel of Christ ; 
but here is a case where it is supposed to be fully un- 
derstood by the clergy, and by them suppressed as 
regards their flocks, except under particular circum- 
stances to be judged of themselves ! This is a direct 
instigation of Jesuit teachers who pull the wires alike 
unseen by the audience and unfelt by the puppets : it 
is a practice in the Romish system, little known ; but I 
have met with two instances where the priest — whe- 
ther impelled by conscience, or restrained by the im- 
mediate power of God, or else habitually, I know not 
< — being left alone with the person over whom he had 
been performing the mummeries called extreme unction, 
or ' the rites of the church, 1 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 confidence, 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 
29 



338 FOTEYISM. 

repeat this ; in the other he recovered and immediately 
became a Protestant I believe if the followers of tbe 
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 think how near 
this 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 blood," ia" an- 
other gospel." 

VI. They do not admit the Scriptures in their plain 
signification as commended to every man's plain judg- 
ment, as the sole and sufficient rule of faith. Certain 
doctors who wrote in the early ages of the Christian 
church, and who often darkened counsel by words 
without knowledge, are called ( fathers/ and invested 
with a sort of paternal authority which few Christian 
fathers would desire to assume over their children ; 
thrusting their own notions in the place of God's com- 
mands. Truly, in some respects we may say to our Ox- 
ford 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 au- 
thority and our own undestanding ; to shut out the 
glorious noon-day sun, and read our lesson by the glim- 
mer of their rushlight. 

' VII. And I feel that this ought to have occupied 
the first place, for it is the main point — it constitutes 
the foundation of shifting sand supplied in the place 
of the eternal rock — these tractarians subvert the grand 
doctrine of Justification by Faith : they build upon 



puseyism. . 339 

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 which none 
can fall without being broken. This, the main, essential 
distinction between real Christianity and every coun- 

', terfeit that usurps the name, is the grand touchstone 

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, 

1 though entering on it far more at large than on any of 

• the preceding temptations to which my faith has been 

, exposed* Perhaps I ought not to call this a tempta- 

. tion; for I saw the character of Popery too legibly 

stamped upon this delusion even from the first, to be 

^ in any danger from it ; but knowing what deceptions 

r must abound in these days, and deeply feeling the im- 

portance of the caution, " Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall," I always strive to feel 
myself endangered by every form of error that is 
broached ; and fly " 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 cleri- 
cal authority, which with me is no authority at all, 

* unless their succession be that of doctrine as well as 
of office ; or charging me with directing at individuals 

i the remarks that duty compels me to make on opin- 

1 ions. Of this I am wholly innocent : I do not, thank 

1 God, personally know a single clergyman whom I be- 

lieve to be a propounder of these errors : and what 







$40 FVSEYI8M. 

enmity can I entertain against others, who in their 
private characters are wholly unknown to me) I 
never conversed with one of them : I always prefer to 
take men's opinions from their published writings, be- 
cause in conversation, even where no bar exists to its 
greatest freedom, much may be explained away, and 
those explanations either forgotten or denied ; the same, 
in a measure, holds good with preaching : but delibe- 
rate publications afford a tangible hold. Popery never 
could be openly dissected until the Council of Trent 
was so kind as to tie her down for our operations, 
by embodying in their decrees all the vague Proteus- 
like doctrines that she proclaimed and denied at plea* 
sure. 

I view this falling away on the part of a great num- 
ber of our clergymen as a direct judgment on us for 
our unfaithful confederacy with Antichristian Rome. 
I dread its progress, by the elevation to the episcopal 
authority of men holding the tenets in question, or 
the perversion of those already possessed of it ; and if 
this be permitted, a schism must ensue : all true Chris- 
tians, both clergy and people, separating from a church 
that will cast them out, and those edifices that now 
rise before us — the courts of a pure worship, which 
we love to tread — will become again temples of idola- 
try, polluted, hateful, and accursed. From such an is- 
sue may the Lord in his great mercy spare us I We, 
who consented not to the purpose and deed of those 
who brought Popery back to power, and others who 
have repented before God of what they did in igno- 
rance and unbelief, may hope much for ourselves in 
this peculiar visitation ; but alas ! who among us is 



opposition. 341 

clear from having exceedingly provoked God to chas- 
tise us for our many public and private sins ! Had 
Howels lived to this day, hot? would the walls of his 
chapel have rung with the warnings that his lips would 
never have been weary of uttering, while pointing out 
the finger of God in this domestic visitation of Popery. 
But he, and Donald, who felt it even as he, were mer- 
cifully taken away from the evil to come. 

During a sojourn of some years a little to the north 
of London, I devoted myself more to the pen, and 
found less opportunity for other usefulness than in 
Sandhurst and London; yet much encouragement 
was given to labour among the poor neglected Irish, 
who may be found in every neighbourhood, and to 
whom few think of taking the gospel in their native 
tongue — still fewer of bearing with the desperate op- 
position 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 begin it. In both oases it ought to plead 
for tenfold readiness and perseverance. I always found 
it a perilous task to attack the enemy in this strong 
hold: not from any opposition encountered from the 
people themselves ; far otherwise : 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 perfect- 
ing of humility and patience, where they may be sad- 
ly lacking. There are spheres of undeniable duty, 
where the Christian may often almost, if not alto- 
29* 



S42 A MAGAZINE. 

gather, take up the apostle's declaration, and say, 
u No man stood by me." This, to the full extent, has 
never yet been my experience ; but I have often found 
many against me, both without and within, when 
earnestly bent on dealing a blow at the great Anti- 
christ It is no good sign when all goes on too 
smoothly. 

In 1834 I was' induced to undertake what seemed 
an arduous 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 blessing just then given 
to my appeals on behalf of the cruelly oppressed and 
inpoverishei Irish clergy through its means: and re- 
commencing, at the beginning of the 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 1 
continue it to this day. On the subject of the Irish 
church I must make a few remarks, connected with 
iny visit to that country, whence I addressed to you 
the " Letters from Ireland" already published. 



LETTER XVII. 

IRELAND. 

It was my lot to witness, as I have before told 
you, the first outbreak of what proved to be an or- 
ganized 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 manoeuvres of Cap- 
tain Rock, his enlistments, drillings, nightly sallies, 
and the whole system as developed during 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 Knocktopher, within sight indeed of the 
sweet parsonage of Vicarsfield, that the dreadful 
slaughter occurred in which thirteen policemen fell, 
murdered. Dr. Hamilton's extensive union of Knock- 
topher and Kilmagany was first attacked ; the latter 
division of the parish lies on the very border of Tip- 
perary, 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 a sport in which the Kilkenny men excel, and 
under this name they declared open war against the 



844 DR. HAMILTOlt 

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 
fire peasants. The carriageway 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 thousand, armed with the formidable 
hooked sticks that they use in hurling, and with 
shillelaghs loaded with lead, besides concealed firearms, 
and other dangerous weapons. On seeing this, Dr. 
Hamilton had the presence of mind to retreat back- 
wards towards the door, and I will say the heroism 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 startle 
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 san- 
guinary warning had he received, signed in blood, as- 
suring him that his own should speedily be shed ; and 
now the hour seemed to have arrived when those me- 
naces should be made good. 

No 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 



' THE MASSACRE. 345 

heretic church. They insisted upon his dismissing 
his proctor, and refraining in future from demanding 
tithe from the Romanists of his parish ; adding many 
assurances of their determination to put down the 
system altogether. After thus warning and threaten- 
ing him, they departed ; and he of course lost no time 
in making known to the government what had oc- 
curred, and requesting a strong body of police for the 
protection of his house and family. 

A party was sent down, who lodged in and about 
Vicarsfield, 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 de- 
manded ; when the leaders of the insurgents said, they 
would come to terms, but must have a conversation 
with the police in the open country some little way 
off, to which the latter most rashly consented, and pro- 
ceeded to the spot by the bohreen. This little lane 
has a fence of loose stones on 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 barely space for two men 
to walk abreast, and of course no room for any move- 
ment or manoeuvre. The policemen were allowed to 
proceed for some distance, and then the ruffians on 
either side suddenly turned on them, pouring down 
with dreadful impetuosity into the narrow pass, and 
murdering them almost without resistance. 

The terrible work was soon done, and the butchers 
dispersed. A Wounded policeman who had almost 
miraculously escaped with his life, ran to the Vicarage, 



346 cruel desertkw. 

and banting into the hall, staggered and. fell, covered 
with blood. The panic was of course dreadful; and 
m aoon 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, for ever exiled from 
their beloved and lovely home, and in fact stripped of 
everything; for to recover tithe in that parish was 
now impossible. The meek pastor, a wreck in body, 
but evermore cleaving to his Lord, lingered out some 
years among us, and then departed to where the wicked 
cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. 
Several of the murderers were taken, sworn to, re- 
peatedly arrainged, tried, proved guilty, and set at 
large ; because there was not found a jury who could 
command nerve enough to lay down their own lives 
and those of their families by finding a verdict against 
them, though their guilt admitted not of even a doubt 
It seemed pretty well understood by both parties that 
the Irish church was given over for a prey to the 
teeth of her enemies, and one heavy blow after another 
from the hands of those who were sworn 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 ut- 
most pressure of poverty and actual starvation. Yes, 
had it not been for the ever ready aid of England, 
those faithful, zealous, devoted ministers of the ever* 
lasting gospel might have been— would have been— 



THE BISHOP OF LONDON. £47 

literally starved to death with their wives and children. 
Many 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 potatoes. It could scarcely have been 
hoped by the friends, or anticipated by the foes of the 
Protestant church, that through such extremity the 
persecuted clergy would be conducted, and again re- 
stored to their flocks, purified and made brighter by 
this searching fire. Yet so it was : God gave quiet- 
ness, and who could make trouble ? God had given 
commandment to bless, and who could reverse it 7 I 
was present at a meeting in Freemason's Hall, in De- 
cember, 1835, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
the Bishop of London, with a large number of clergy- 
men, noblemen and gentlemen, assembled to take into 
consideration the afflicted state of their brethren in 
Ireland. There was at the outset a decided depreca- 
tion of all political topics and allusions; 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 sub- 
ject before them without adverting to the plain root 
of the matter. The Bishop of London distinctly at- 
tributed it all to a neglect of vindicating the majesty 
of the laws in Ireland ; and that neglect he plainly 
charged on the real culprits, assigning the true motive 
— a willingness to extinguish the Protestant church in 
Ireland. The effect of this meeting was very im- 
portant : it cheered the spirit of God's dear suffering 
servants, not so much by the liberal supply of imme* 
diate temporal aid, as by the open expression of warm 



T * 



948 m -utcHBisHOP of tuaic 

sympathy on the part of their English brethren. I 
can bear witness, for I knew the fact, that the Bishop 
of Louden laboured in their cause np to the very letter 
of that sweet eonunand to do even as in similar cir- 
cumstances he would that others should do unto him. 
He sought out information ; he arranged, and made ft 
available in the best possible manner; and he put so 
much heart along with his superior head into the busi- 
ness, 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 encourage- 
ment, such as could only be derived from the fellow- 
ship of those who had too long seemed to look upon 
their calamities with a cold, distant eye; and their 
malicious enemies wanted the encouragement on the 
same ground. Their language was, " Persecute 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 of strik- 
ing off the ten bishopricfes, including those archiepis- 
copal 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 with. Sweet- 
ness and tenderness, combined with decision the roost 
marked and uncompromising, distinguished him. He 
had a pastor's heart indeed : the mind 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 



THE ARCHBISHOP OF TXJAM. 349 

bit brethren. He loved his country with the most 
ardentdevotion of Christian patriotism. He protested 
to the last against the wicked Bill of 1829, and pre* 
dieted what has followed. He bent all his energies to 
oppose the anti-scriptural plan of national education 
in Ireland, which was one of the series of heavy blows 
aimed at Protestantism, and one of the hardest He 
laboured 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 
exhibitions at the very gate of his palace, while the 
gaudy mass-house lifted its head above his modest, 
venerable cathedral That beloved Archbishop is now 
with Christ ; and most blessed is his memory in the 
church — most dear,' and most precious tome. May 
the Lord grant us many like-minded with him, to stand 
fast in this evil day of rebuke and blasphemy I 

How melancholy is the contrast, presented when we 
turn to another Irishman, who has the name of his coun- 
try ever glowing on his lip, and her best life-blood reek- 
ing on his hands I It is not possible to compute the 
amount of life lost by assassination alone, through the 
turbulent doctrines and doings that have " agitated" 
poor Ireland for the past twenty years, through the per- 
severance of one individual in seeking the accomplish* 
mentofhis darling object What that is, he best knows** 
30 



850 DANIEL o'cONNBIA. 

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 ven- 
ture 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 accomplished it^ 
and it only remains to render up to God an account 
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 puppet, that an unseen hand must surely 
be at the wires, whether an intermediate one between 
him and the Almighty cannot be known. Probably 
the master-spring lies in the Propaganda at Rome ; 
but we well know, that even so the spring is wholly 
under ms guidance who worketh all things after the 
counsel of his own will We may shudder when we 
look on this great apostle of ail evil, rending the 
wounds of his poor lacerated country, and dashing 
from her the soothing draught of peace; but we can- 
not 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 feeUag, not to be re- 
strained 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 never did I look upon a human being 
with feelings of such mingled horror, compassion, and 



DANIEL O'CONNELL, 351 

\ 

disgust Interested as I was in the abortion of negro 
slavery, and working with heart and hand for its ac- 
complishment, until it pleased God to crown our efforts 
with success, still from the moment I heard that 
Daniel 0' Connell had been permitted to stand forth 
at the anti-slavery meeting, and enrolled with accla- 
mation as a 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 Have 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 pos- 
sess 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 applied. 
It was in the year 1837 that I had the opportunity 
of judging how far the events subsequent to the pass- 
ing 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 graceful recipients of the long-sought boon, and 
doubly secure under the protection of their sworn 
amity. I should have found the Roman population 
peaceable, contented, every way improved; dwelling 
in the sweetest harmony with their Protestant neigh- 
bours, and encouraged in all loyalty by a priesthood 
too w become the faithful liegemen of the British crown. 



9S8 PROGEESS OF POPKRY. 



Happily I waa-not-disAppointed, for I never expected 
aught but the strongest contrast, to this picture, and 
such I (bund: Popery rampant, insolent, overbearing, 
and evidently calculating on soon possessing the land 
in undisturbed security : Protestantism depressed, dis- 
couraged, menaced, and barely enjoying an uncertain 
toleration, on the one hand from government, on the 
other from the mass of the Romish populace : the chil- 
dren 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 fall government patronage. I fell in with tun 
army, marched at a great expense to the north, which 
alone was loyal and peaceable, to restrain the exhibi- 
tion 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 intimidate 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. Not- 
withstanding, I also found the persecuted church oc- 
cupying a higher hill, and shining with clearer lustre 
than ever before ; indicating, not the approaching suc- 
cess of Antichrist, but the preparedness of God's peo- 
ple 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 advantage may be gained by his enemies, 
I believe it will be followed by the triumphing of 
trtith in a very marked manner. The circulation of 
God's word has been silently going on, and its effects 



PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM. 303 

will show themselves in the hour of nee& While the 
oppressed clergy maintained their posts in the face of 
even a dreadful death to themselves and their little 
ones, the work .proceeded among the people ; and there, 
are tens of thousands among those now most confident- 
ly 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 privately 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 gave them grace 
to endure ; and they will yet see the glorious 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 been progressive and without a 
pause. A sudden movement among the mountaineers 
of Syria has brought all Europe into the Land of 
Promise as a battle-field ; and though only the prelimi- 
nary 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 
30* 



364 CHHKCH MEMBERSHIP. 



delusion wfllatow be furbished, and presented to us in 
the most attractive forma, with the addition of what- 
•rax new ones can be contrived. Where shall wa find 
security against them ? I, for one, know where it is 
to be found. Yon have heard in what way the Lord 
preserved ma from several snares of Socinianism, Po- 
pery, Irvingiam, Pnsayism ; and to these I may add 
what would certainly have been a great evil, needless 
schism, in separating from the church of England be- 
cause it is not altogether perfect, and joining soma 
other communion where it is r*ry questionable whe- 
ther I should have found so much of the good, or little 
of the evil, as in my own. I do not take up thelofty 
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 bate succession, 
however apostolical ; and of infallibility I believe we 
are all alike destitute, all alike Uabla to err. But I 
consider episcopacy to be the scriptural form of church 
government, and that our own comes aa near the original 
constitution as any : I hold it the bounden, the impera- 
tive duty of the state to provide due religious teaching 
and public ministration of ordinances for its subjects ; ' 
and when such an institution is orthodox and well 
ordered liketrars, I consider it really displeasing to God 
that we should lightly separate from it Yet should this 
church become imbued with the doctrines set forth by 
the Oxford Tractaxians, and require from her members 
a recognition of them as true, I would shake* the (hist 
from my feet as a testimony against her, and go forth 
to worship God according to my conscience; and ac- 



ANTINOMIAiaSM. S#5 

cording to the real spirit of that same « church which 
would have falsely denied herself. 

It was my blessed privilege, four yean since, to 
abridge into two moderate sized volumes the English 
Martyrology, as recorded by Fose. In the progress 
of this work I became better acquainted with the true 
doctrines of the Reformation than ever before : I com- 
pared 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 particularised the trial of my scriptural 
principles when exposed for a short time to the perni- 
cious doctrines 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 dis- 
courses of Peter and of Paul, as recorded in the Acts, 
especially conclusive against his perverted notions. It 
is a most deadly thing, this antinomianism ; and I 
believe all extremes in doctrines 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 dis- 
cussion, was found in the inviting aspect imparted by 



366 MERCIES. 

the irrepro a o h a M ejJrvcg- and amiable dispositions of 
the Friends, to their peculiar mode of thinking. 
Without any direct attempt at proselytizing, some of 
them made their religion very attractive to me, before 
I was at all well grounded and settled. On examina- 
tion however, of their positions, by the aid of scrip- 
ture alone, I found them, according to my belief, 
untenable, as regards the rejection of the sacraments, 
and other minor points. I would deprecate the read- 
ing of books, in such cases, beyond the plainest state- 
ment 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; hum- 
ble, earnest, diligent, persevering, must accompany tfce 
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 graciously permit I have coveted 
no man's silver, or gold, or apparel, but counted it a 
privilege to labour with my hands and head, for myself 
and far those most dear to me. Many trials, 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 do- 
ings, but from a desire to avoid speaking harshly of 
those who are departed. The Lord has accepted at 
my hand one offering, in the case of the precious 
dumb boy, received into glory through his rich bless- 
ing on my efforts ; and he mercifully gives me to see 
the welfare of two others, committed to me as an off- 



CONCLUSION. 357 

spring of my brother, over whose^jaily years I hare 
beea permitted to watch, and in whose growing pros- 
perity my heart can rejoice. He has been a very 
gracious master to me ; he has dealt very bountifully, 
and given me now the abundance of domestic peace, 
with the light of his countenance to gladden my happy 
home. Yet the brightest beam that falls upon it is 
the anticipation of that burst of 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 daajjes to 
utter is the response to his promise of aje Speedy ad- 
vent. " Even so, Lord Jesus : come quickly 1 Amen." 



THE END. 



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