we kept up an occasional correspondence. The subjects of our epistolary intercourse were generally of a critical or literary cast; and it has been very agreeable to me to receive, through this medium, some of the maturest fruits of the Bishop's reading and meditation, which were always directed to philanthropic ends and often very often to the best interests of the soul. After his eyes began to

fail, his letters were necessarily short, but generally comprised some matter of useful information."

AT the commencement of the year 1785, Mr. Burgess took an active part in the establishment of an Agricultural Society at Odiham. Lord Rivers was President. The society was supported by annual subscriptions. It invited communications from its members upon subjects of rural economy, offered premiums for useful discoveries and improvements, and rewards to servants for good and faithful service. There was one branch of its

operations, — the establishment of Sunday and daily schools, in which Mr. Burgess took a lively interest. Several of his own family, his father in particular, were among the active members, and the fundamental rules and resolutions were drawn up by his own pen.

In the course of this year he was appointed chaplain to Dr. Shute Barrington, then Bishop of Salisbury, under circumstances truly honourable to his character. That Prelate had no actual acquaintance with him; but, being desirous of

selecting, as his chaplain, a clergyman of superior worth and learning, he was induced, after due inquiry, to apply to Mr. Burgess. As this event tended much to his subsequent preferment, and as we shall frequently have to allude to the Bishop in the course of the following pages, we shall here pause a little in the direct course of our narrative, in order to make the reader acquainted with the distinguishing traits of his personal history.

The character of Dr. Shute Barrington, as a Bishop, a Christian, and a Gentleman, stood so high, that it is just matter of regret that the literature of our country has not yet been enriched with any authorised memoir of his useful life; the more so, because the fruits of his personal observation of men and things, had they been culled and collected by any of his friends competent to the undertaking, would have been full of interest, comprising a period extending from the last struggle of the Stuarts, through the Spanish, American, and French wars, down to the year 1826. His memory was richly stored with anecdotes, gathered in conversation with statesmen who had successively taken an active part in public affairs during the whole of the eighteenth century; he was one of the favourite church dignitaries of George III.; the associate, and in many instances the patron, of some of the most distinguished literary characters of the age.

He was born in the year 1734. His father, the

first Viscount Barrington, was the intimate friend of Locke and Somers, and was privy to many of the secret springs which set the revolution of 1688 in motion, and brought it to a happy termination. The Bishop himself perfectly remembered many of the stirring incidents of 1745. And well he might; for, having been taken as a schoolboy to witness the trial of one of the rebel lords, who was afterwards beheaded, his confinement in a close court for many hours increased the symptoms of a dangerous malady, the stone, to which he was thus early subject. He was obliged, in consequence, to undergo the painful operation of lithotomy in his twelfth year. Perhaps he was the only instance of a patient living eighty years after this operation, and retaining a perfect recollection of all the circumstances and sufferings belonging to it.

He was often known to attribute his health and longevity to the simple regimen and strict temperance imposed upon him after this alarming complaint had discovered itself in his boyhood. It was also made instrumental, under Divine Grace, to the production of that mental discipline, and those religious principles, which distinguished him in early youth, growing with his growth, and strengthening with his strength. He was taught, with his first reflections, to feel that his existence hung by a thread, and that nothing could avert renewed sufferings and an early and painful dissolution, but the blessing of God upon the means

which he was cautioned to employ to ward off the threatened evil. Thus early trained to the practice of self-denial, he obtained an habitual mastery over his passions, and studiously guarded against excess of every kind. Looking up to Heaven for protection against a malady, which might return upon him at any moment, he learnt to exercise the same principle of dependance on the Divine Goodness in relation to the general events and contingencies of life. These pious dispositions, nourished by the dew of the Divine blessing, not only rendered him superior to the temptations most incident to youth, but elevated his tastes and pursuits above the ordinary level of those around him, and shed their benignant influence on his manners and deAt the time of his taking orders, he was

meanour.

a sincere and humble learner in the school of Christ. The assiduous study of the sacred Oracles is known to have occupied, at this time, as in after life, his particular attention. He justly regarded it as the duty of a Christian, and especially of a clergyman, to read the Bible regularly and systematically, and it was his daily habit to peruse a portion of the Old Testament in Hebrew, and of the New Testament in Greek.

He was educated at Eton and at Oxford, and was an elegant, without being a profound scholar. After obtaining a fellowship at Merton, he took orders, and advanced rapidly to the highest honours of the church. As one of the Royal Chaplains, he