though fanciful enough in many cases, he gave strong proof of that keen penetration for which he was afterwards so eminent.

The most cordial friendship had subsisted between Mr. Paley and Mr. Law from the period of their first acquaintance, whilst under-graduates in 1762; and they now passed much of their leisure in each other's company, making excursions, during the long vacation, into different parts of the kingdom, and travelling usually in a singlehorse chaise. They are said to have once passed the evening at a country ina, with an ingenious and witty stranger, whom they after wards discovered, to be the cele brated John Wilkes. Mr. Paley, who always told a good story with point and humour, even at his own expense, used often amusingly to detail the various adventures which they met with, or the little disasters which occasionally befel them in their progress; so that these tours not only excited a present interest, but became a permanent source of social entertainment. Whilst he treated others at times with playfulness, he invariably looked up to Mr. Law; and, re. specting the affairs of the university, as well as of their own college, they usually went hand in hand. Their portraits were taken by Vandermyn, a Cambridge artist, about 1769, both very striking and characteristic likenesses; Mr. Paley in a full clerical dress, Mr. Law in a master-of-arts gown.

This intimacy naturally introduced Mr. Paley to his friend's father, Dr. Edmund Law, a divine no less distinguished by great intel. lectual attainments, than by un

wearied exertions in the investiga. tion of moral and religious truth, and who, by a patronage which does honour to the Duke of Grafton's administration, was pre moted to the see of Carlisle, in Ja. nuary 1769. After his elevation, however, he continued to reside chiefly at Cambridge, as master of Peterhouse, but making an anneal visit to his diocese, and episcopal seat at Rose Castle, where Mr. Pa. ley usually accompanied him as his chaplain.

Mr. Edward Law, his lordship's third son, at this time a student of Peterhouse, is said to have been in no small degree indebted to his in. tercourse with Mr. Paley, in the cultivation of those talents, which have since raised him to one of the first judicial situations. Their fu. ture celebrity, indeed, was ouce predicted by a very intelligent gentleman, who met with them, whilst they were together on a visit in Buckinghamshire, at the house of a common friend.

No studious man perhaps ever entered more into the pleasures of society than Mr. Paley, or pre. sented so rare an assemblage of attractive qualities. His naïveté, his good humour, his fund of knowledge, and great powers of conversation, made him at once the life of the combination-room at his own college, and the delight of all who elsewhere associated with him in his unbending hours, He was at all times easy of access, and ready to enjoy the company of the rational and intelligent, as a relief from his professional engagements and his private studies. Amongst his friends no man was more highly esteemed; for, great as were his talents and attainments, even these

were

were far exceeded by his many traits of frankness and good na ture.

Engaged one day to dine with a party at a coffee-house in London, he came in late, and found the conversation turning upon the rumour of an apprehended rupture with the Court of Versailles. He heard the opinions of several gen. tlemen for and against the probability of such a thing, and then said, "I am not inclined to credit the reports of shallow speculative politicians. I have gone to the fountain-head of intelligence." The attention of the whole company was now completely rivetted. "I am just come," continued he, from Soho-square, where I walked into the court-yard of his excellency the French ambassador's house. I saw a most noble sirloin of beef roasting at the kitchen-fire for his excellency's dinner. This is as it should be, said I there will be no war now between France and England."

Mr. Paley kept a horse, which, though it drew the gig in his summer excursions, in winter, having no employment for it, he quartered at a neighbouring vil lage, to which he frequently extended his morning walks; and thence took occasion to observe, that though his horse afforded him good exercise in summer, it gave him still better for the remainder of the year. "Paley," says a friend, who wished to rally him on this subject," for what can you keep a horse, which is always two or three miles off at grass, or in a straw-yard at Ditton ?"" Why," replied he," for what do others keep horses: for exercise to be sure."-"But you never ride,"

rejoined the other. "No," said he, "but I walk almost every day to see it, and that answers just as well."

Mr. Paley having prosecuted one of the college servants for theft, when the day of trial approached, fee'd a counsel to assist the culprit in his defence. On the singularity of this conduct being remarked to him, he replied, that "he thought it his duty to society and to the college to institute the prosecution; but let the fellow have fair play on his trial,” added he;" and if through any of the loop-holes of the law he then escape conviction, I have done my duty, and shall be content." The man, through some defect, either of the indictment or the evidence, was actually acquitted.

In a debate one evening on the justice and expediency of making some alteration in the ecclesiasti cal constitution of this country, for the relief of tender consciences, Dr. Gordon, Fellow of Emmanuel College, afterwards archdeacon and precentor of Lincoln, an avowed tory in religion and politics, when vehemently opposing the arguments of Mr. Jebb, astrenuous supporter of all such improvements, exclaimed, with his usual heat, "You mean, Sir, to impose upon us a new church government."-" You are mistaken, Sir," said Mr. Paley; "Jebb only wants to ride his own horse, not to force you to get up behind him.”

Mr. Paley having frequently declared that he would quit college, whenever he could do so with the prospect of a clear annual income of two hundred pounds, announced his early intention of retiring, 3 B4

when

when the Bishop of Carlisle prc. sented him to the rectory of Mus. grave, in Westmorland, a living scarcely worth above eighty pounds a-year. He was inducted to this little benefice, May 28th 1775, and afterwards passed much of his leisure, during the long vacation, between Rose Castle and Mr. Law's prebendal house at Carlisle. In the autumn of this year he attached himself to Miss Jane Hewitt, a handsome and pleasing young lady of that city, to whom his suit was successfully preferred. He returned, however, to Cambridge at the usual time.

Public attention was now more especially directed to the rising celebrity of Mr. Pitt, who had been for some time distinguishing himself in parliament, as the determined enemy of corruption, and the intrepid advocate of economy and constitutional reform. By his early career, however, auspicious as it was, Mr. Paley was so far from being dazzled, that in a large party, in the north of Yorkshire, in 1783, he exposed the young patriot's pretensions to public confidence with such force of ridicule, as to displease some of his most zealous admirers, and particularly one gentleman, who afterwards discovered, with regret, that on his promises and pledges, as a man and a minister, he had placed far too firm a reliance.

A report has been long in cir. culation that Mr. Paley, being appointed to preach before the University of Cambridge, on the day when Mr. Pitt, after his elevation to the premiership, in 1784, made his first appearance at St. Mary's, chose this singular but ap

propriate text-" There is a lad here, who hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?" John vi. 9. A lady who had seen this story in a newspaper, once asked the facetious divine if it was true. "Why no, Madam," replied he, "I certainly never preached such a sermon, I was not at Cambridge at the time, but I remember that, one day, when I was riding out with a friend in the neighbour. hood of Carlisle, and we were talking about the bustle and confusion which Mr. Pitt's appear. ance would then cause in the uni. versity, I said, that if I had been there, and asked to preach on the occasion, I would have taken that passage for my text."

On the hint of such a text, Mr. Paley was the very man to have preached a sermon, which, without personal virulence, would have sufficiently shewn his opinion of the unmanly adulation paid at that time, by several members of the university, to the aspiring premier, whom but a few months before they had rejected as unworthy of their votes. The son of Chatham, it is true, when he first solicited their suffrages, had no other recommendations than the high cha. recter of his father, his own pro. mising talents, and the constitu. tional principles of his early years: when he returned to them, after a short interval, he was the first ostensible minister of the crown. On his former appearance, he was not, indeed, without supporters, but they were men of a very dif. ferent stamp from those who be came his most devoted adherents afterwards: they were men of the first talents and integrity, of strict

and

and steady patriotism, but who withdrew their confidence from the minister, when he openly aban. doned what they deemed the great cause of their country. The conduct of the majority, however, on these occasions, is not without a parallel of a much more recent date, in the treatment experienced from several members of the same university by an ingenious youth, when newly invested with office, and when he had no longer any share of the loaves and fishes to dispense.

But whilst others were thus rooting for preferment, Mr. Paley was engaged in the composition of an important work, the general outlines of which had been delivered to his pupils at Christ's Col. lege. The Bishop of Clonfert, to whom the merit of his friend's lectures was well known, and who justly though that those on morals, in particular, might be expanded into a most useful treatise for public instruction, had strenuously urged their publication in an improved form. Mr. Paley at first suggested, as an objection, the little attention usually paid to such subjects, and the risk of publishing a book which might not sell

but when he found himself in possession of a competent in come from his patron's kindness, he no longer hesitated to employ his leisure in the execution of this great design."

When the manuscript was ready for the press, it was offered to Mr. Faulder, of Bond-street, when dining at Rose Castle, for one hundred guineas; but he declined the risk of publishing it on his own account. After the success of the work was in some measure ascer

tained, Mr. Paley would again have sold it to him for three hun. dred pounds, but he refused to give more than two hundred and fifty. Whilst this treaty was pending, a bookseller from Carlisle, happening to call on an eminent publisher in Paternoster-row, was commissioned by him to offer Mr. Paley one thousand pounds for the copy-right of his work. The bookseller, on his return to Carlisle, duly executed the commission, which was communicated without delay to the Bishop of Clonfert; who, being at that time in London, had undertaken the management of the affair. "Never did I suffer so much anxious fear," said Mr. Paley, in relating the circumstance, "as on this occasion, lest my friend should have concluded the bargain with Mr. Faulder, before my letter could reach him." Luckily he had not, but ou receiving the letter, went immediately into Bond-street and made this new demand. Mr. Faulder, though in no small degree surprised and astonished atthe advance, agreed for the sum required before the bishop left the house. "Little did I think," said Mr. Paley, in allusion to this affair,

that i should ever make a thousand pounds by any book of mine: a strong proof of unassuming me. rit; but, after the offer abovementioned, he was authorized to have asked a still larger sum.

Soon after Dr. Paley's arrival at Bishop-Wearmouth, some of the principal land-holders in that parish, wishing to remove all cause of future dispute, offered to treat with him, on the basis of an annual compensation, for the tithes. Af.

ter

ter inspecting the accounts of his predecessor, he demanded seven hundred pounds a-year, as a fair equivalent, with which the other party complying, he granted them a lease for his life; and thus, by sacrificing any eventual interest of his own in the agricultural improvement of the parish, avoided one great source of disquietude and vexation. As a writer, he had already reprobated tithes, as "noxious to cultivation and im. provement," and recommended "their conversion into corn-rents, as a practical and beneficial alte ration, in which the interest of all parties might be equitably adjusted; and he now acted in strict conformity to these principles, leaving to the industry of his parishioners its full operation and entire reward." By this agreement, the lessees were gene. rally enabled to return from sixpence to eighteen pence in the pound, on the annual amount of the great tithes, to those who were punctual in their payments, whilst they seldom attended much to the small. Dr. Paley, on the other hand, found himself perfectly at ease by this arrangement, and, when he heard of a bad crop, used to say "Aye, aye, now I am well off; my tithes are safe, and I have nothing to do with them, or to think about them."

He also granted long leases of his glebe lands, and particularly of a limestone quarry to the old tenant, upon very moderate terms. From the great rise in landed property, which took place immediately after, his tenants had very advantageous bargains a circum. stance to which he sometimes, indeed, alluded in conversation, but

without the least marks of diss tisfaction or regret.

On the sudden elevation of Bo. naparte to the supreme direction of affairs in the French republic, Dr. Paley observed to a party of gen. tlemen, who dined with him at Bi. shop. Wearmouth, after the first intelligence of that extraordinary event-"The French are rapidly approaching to absolute monarchy again :-the conventional govern. meut was established on a very broad basis, which has been nar. rowed on every subsequent altera. tion, and is progressively tending to a point." In allusion to the various actors, who had successively filled the busy scene in that dis tracted country, from the com mencement of the revolution, he still more forcibly remarked"In similar convulsions, none can ultimately succeed in bearing sway, but men of great intrepidity, great ability, and great roguery. Without great intrepidity, no man will intentionally venture upon so hazardous a career; without great ability, no man can get forward; and without great roguery, no man can bring his designs to a successful close.”

Literature was, an invariable source of recreation to him; and he was in the habit of giving his opinion freely on the most eminent productions of the day. He had long indulged himself in desultory reading, which, however dan. gerous in the early stages of edu. cation, is well adapted to improve a mature and vigorous understanding, where each new acquisition finds a ready arrangement. "A reader," he observes, in his ad.