Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

66

word: and the day will soon arrive that will determine who is right." Well," rejoined his lordship, "you must enjoy your opinion and pay for it." "With all my heart!" replied Mr Cadogan, "I have a faithful God to go to, and am not afraid to trust him. I sometimes, my lord, get a glimpse of that world above, which makes all I see in this poor Indeed."

Mr Cadogan's ministry had now become so interesting at Reading that his church could not contain the multitude which attended it. This want of room, however, was much remedied by his erecting a very large gallery, which went nearly round the church; for the whole expense of which he made himself accountable, though, afterwards, it was chiefly defrayed by voluntary subscription. In December, 1782, Mr. Cadogan married the widow of Captain Bradshaw of the 78th regiment, private secretary and aid-de-camp to General Vaughan, who was then commander-in-chief of the Leeward islands.

6

"From his marriage to his death," says his biographer, "little more can be marked-and what could be marked better?—than a steady, determined, and uniform course of laborious attention to the charge committed to him. God, who had given him grace to make so good a profession before many witnesses, honoured his testimony to the awakening and establishing a great number as seals of his ministry, and lively evidences of the power of the word and Spirit of God. In his course, to copy the words of his friend the Rev. T. Pentycross, we may admire the beautiful regularity of his conduct, and strict improvement of his time, rising constantly, both in summer and winter, at six in the morning, and, excepting his attendance at breakfast and family prayer, continuing always in his study till twelve; then riding about two hours and visiting that part of his flock which was at a distance; in the afternoon he visited the sick and distressed in the town; and, on Sundays, the Sunday-schools, notwithstanding his three public services.' To this may be added, his regularly preaching a weekly lecture in his church; and his admitting such of his hearers as had not the opportu nity at home, to join his evening family worship."

[ocr errors]

A musical amateur of eminence, who had often observed Mr Cadogan's inattention to his performances, said to him one day, "Come, I am determined to make you feel the force of music; pay particular attention to this piece." It was played. "Well, what do you say now?” Why, just what I said before." "What! can you hear this and not be charmed? Well, I am quite surprised at your insensibility! where are your ears ?" "Bear with me, my lord," replied Mr Cadogan, "since I too have had my surprise; I have often, from the pulpit, set before you the most striking and affecting truths,-I have sounded notes that have raised the dead,-I have said, surely he will feel now; but you never seemed charmed with my music, though infinitely more interesting than yours. I too have been ready to say with astonishment,

where are his ears?"

A pious lady whom he visited was making many inquiries and remarks relating to his birth, family, and connections: "My dear madam,” said he, "I wonder you can spend so much time upon so poor a subject! I called to converse with you upon the things of eternity." Bishop Lowth, who had long been coufined with the gout, one day said, as he sat in pain: "Ah, Mr Cadogan, see what a poor thing it is to be bishop

of London!" "Truly, my lord," replied Mr Cadogan, "I always thought it was a very poor thing to be a bishop of London, if a man possessed nothing better." It may be remarked that the reply came with a better grace, as it came from one who in all probability might have obtained a bishopric had he made it his object.

Viewing him as a minister, he had set out with all the advantages which one of the first schools and universities could afford; but he seems to have soon discovered how miserably deficient that minister must be who stops at the learning of the schools. While he could have distinguished himself as a scholar, the following remark, which he makes upon Mr Romaine, in his funeral sermon, will as strictly apply to himself: "The errors and vices of the heathen, however ornamented by rhetoric or poetry, were disgusting to a heart purified by faith; he therefore turned from profane to sacred literature." The scriptures, indeed, he had studied day and night in their original languages: he had studied them critically, and in their connection, till he was familiar with them beyond most of his cotemporaries. His mind was a concordance and harmony of scripture. He quoted with amazing facility, not at random as some do, who distinguish not sound from sense, but whatever tended to explain or illustrate the point before him. To this may be added, that his diction, like that of the original he studied, was so plain and perspicuous, that the meanest of his hearers might clearly understand him.

"As a preacher," says Cecil," he certainly stood high; and I may safely affirm this, though his voice was rough, his utterance rather indistinct, and at times unpleasantly monotonous. I am also ready to acknowledge that, like many other useful men, he was more qualified to make the assault than to conduct the siege. His memory indeed was remarkably strong, his mind firm and vigorous, and his discourses studied; but he had little imagination, taste, or ear. Plain and convincing, decisive and commanding, he exhibited truth in the mass, and characters in the general, with great effect; but to discriminate with accuracy, to touch the strings of the heart with skill, and to meet objections in their various forms, were talents he did not possess himself though he knew how to value them in others."

Josiah Tucker.

BORN A. D. 1712-DIED A. D. 1799.

THIS learned divine, and celebrated political writer, was born at Laugharn, in Carmarthenshire, in 1712. His father was a farmer, and having a small estate left him near Aberystwith in Cardiganshire, he removed thither; and perceiving that his son had a turn for learning, be sent him to Ruthin school in Denbighshire, where he made so great progress in the classics that he obtained an exhibition at St John's college, Oxford. At the age of twenty-three he entered into holy orders, and served a curacy for some time in Gloucestershire. About 1737 he became curate of St Stephen's church, Bristol, and was appointed minor canon in the cathedral of that city. Here he attracted the notice of Dr Joseph Butler, then bishop of Bristo and afterwards of Durham,

who appointed Tucker his domestic chaplain. By the interest of this prelate he also obtained a prebendal stall in the cathedral of Bristol; and on the death of Mr Catcott-well-known by his treatise on the deluge he became rector of St Stephen. The inhabitants of that parish consist chiefly of merchants and tradesmen,—a circumstance which greatly aided his natural inclination for commercial and political studies. When the famous bill was brought into the house of commons for the naturalization of the Jews, Tucker took a decided part in favour of the measure, and was indeed its most able advocate; but for this he was severely attacked in pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines; and the people of Bristol burned his effigy, together with his letters on behalf of naturalization.' In 1753 he published an able pamphlet on the Turkey trade, in which he demonstrates the evils that result to trade in general from chartered companies. At this period Lord Clare-afterwards Earl Nugent—was returned to parliament for Bristol, an honour he obtained chiefly through the strenuous exertions of Mr Tucker, whose influence in his large and wealthy parish was almost decisive on such an occasion. In return for this favour, the earl procured for him the deanery of Gloucester, in 1758, at which time he took his degree of D.D. So great was the reputation he had now acquired for commercial knowledge, that Dr Thomas Hayter, afterwards bishop of Lon don, who was then tutor to George III., applied to Tucker to draw up a dissertation on this subject for the perusal of his royal pupil. It was accordingly done, and gave great satisfaction. This work, under the title of The Elements of Commerce,' was printed in quarto, but never published. Dr Warburton, however, who, after having been member of the same chapter with the dean at Bristol, became bishop of Gloucester, thought very differently from the rest of mankind, in respect to his talents and favourite pursuits, and said once, in his coarse manner, that "his dean's trade was religion, and religion his trade." The dean once remarked in allusion to the coolness which subsisted between him and Warburton: "The bishop affects to consider me with contempt; to which I say nothing. He has sometimes spoken coarsely of me; to which I replied nothing. He has said that religion is my trade, and trade is my religion. Commerce and its connections have, it is true, been favourite objects of my attention, and where is the crime? And as for religion, I have attended carefully to the duties of my parish: nor have I neglected my cathedral. The world knows something of me as a writer on religious subjects; and I will add, which the world does not know, that I have written near three hundred sermons, and preached them all, again and again. My heart is at ease on that score, and my conscience, thank God, does not accuse me.”

In 1771, when a strong attempt was made to procure an abolition of subscription to the thirty-nine articles, Dr Tucker came forward as an advocate for them; he admitted, however, that some reformation of the liturgy was wanted, and instanced particularly the Athanasian creed, which he considered as too scholastic and refined for a popular confession of faith. About this time he published Directions for Travellers,' in which he lays down excellent rules, by which gentlemen who visit

[ocr errors]

Mr Seward says, his being burned in effigy was occasioned by an essay he wrote in support of the Hessians who came to settle in England.

foreign countries may not only improve their own minds, but turn their observations to the benefit of their native country. This has become extremely scarce, but there is a part of it reprinted in Berchtold's 'Essay to direct the inquiries of Travellers.'

In 1772, the dean printed a small volume of sermons, in which he explains his views of the doctrines of election and justification, in reference to a very violent dispute then carried on between the Calvinistic and the Arminian Methodists, the former headed by Messrs Toplady and Hill, and the latter by the Messrs Wesleys and Fletcher. The year following he published Letters to the Rev. Dr Kippis, wherein the claim of the Church of England to an authority in matters of faith, and to a power of decreeing rites and ceremonies, is discussed and ascertained,' &c.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

When the dispute arose between Great Britain and the American colonies, the dean was an attentive observer of the contest, examining the affair with a very different eye from that of a party-man or an interested merchant, and discovered as he conceived that both sides would be benefited by an absolute separation. The more he thought on this subject, the more he was persuaded that extensive colonies were an evil rather than an advantage to any commercial nation. On this principle, therefore, he published his Thoughts upon the Dispute between the Mother Country and America.' He demonstrated that the latter could not be conquered, and that, if it could, the purchase would be dearly bought. He warned this country against commencing a war with the colonies, and advised that they should be left to themselves. This advice startled all parties, and the dean was generally considered as a sort of madman who had rambled out of the proper line of his profession to commence political quack. Our author, however, went on vindicating and enforcing his favourite system, in spite of all the obloquy with which it was treated both in the senate and from the press. As the war proceeded, some intelligent persons began to see more truth and reason in his sentiments, and time demonstrated that he was right. He printed several essays in the newspapers under the title of Cassandra.

When the terrors of an invasion were very prevalent in 1779, the dean circulated, in a variety of periodical publications, some sensible observations in order to quiet the fears of the people. He states at length, and with great accuracy, the numerous difficulties that must attend the attempt to invade this country, and the still greater ones that must be encountered by the invaders after their landing. Those observations were reprinted, with good effect, in the course of the late war. In 1781, he published what he had printed long before, A treatise on Civil Government,' in which his principal design is to counteract the doctrines of the celebrated Locke and his followers. This book made a considerable noise, and was attacked by several of the best writers on the democratic side of the question. The year following he closed his political career with a pamphlet entitled Cui Bono?' in which he balances the profits and loss of each of the belligerant powers, and recapitulates all his former positions on the subject of war and colonial possessions. His publications after this period consist of some tracts on the commercial regulations of Ireland, on the exportation of woollens, and on the iron trade.

[ocr errors]

In 1777 he published seventeen practical sermons, in one vol. 8vo

After he resigned his rectory in Bristol he resided mostly in Gloucester. He died of the gradual decays of age, November 4th, 1799, and was interred in the south transept of Gloucester cathedral, where a monument has been erected to his memory. It should be recorded to his praise, that though enjoying but very moderate preferment-for to a man of no paternal estate, or other ecclesiastical dignity, the deanery of Gloucester is no very advantageous situation—he was notwithstanding a liberal benefactor to several public institutions, and a distinguished patron of merit. About 1790 he thought of resigning his rectory in Bristol, and, without communicating his design to any other person, he applied to the chancellor in whose gift it is, for leave to quit it in favour of his curate, a most deserving man with a large family. His lordship was willing enough that he should give up the living, but refused him the liberty of nominating his successor. On this the dean resolved to hold the living himself till he could find a fit opportunity to succeed in his object. After weighing the matter more deliberately, he communicated his wish to his parishioners, and advised them to draw up a petition to the chancellor in favour of the curate. This was accordingly done, and signed by all of them, without any exception, either on the part of the dissenters or others. The chancellor, touched with this testimony of love between a clergyman and his people, yielded at last to the application; in consequence of which the dean cheerfully resigned the living to a successor well-qualified to tread in his steps.

III-LITERARY SERIES.

Thomas Chatterton.

BORN A. D. 1752.-died a. d. 1770.

THIS highly gifted but ill-fated youth was the posthumous son of a sexton and petty schoolmaster in Bristol, in which city he was born on the 20th of November, 1752. The first assiduous attempts of his mother to teach him the alphabet were unavailing, and a schoolmaster to whom he was sent at the age of five years, gave up the task in despair. At last some ornamental letters in the title-page of a music-book caught the child's eye, and so effectually arrested his attention that by means of them and similar characters he was led without interruption from A to Z, and at the age of eight years, the first difficulties of reading being overcome, was admitted into Colston's charity-school. Here he continued until he had passed his 14th year, without betraying, to the eye at least of his master, any of those remarkable powers of mind by which he afterwards raised himself to distinction. It is known, however, that at the age of ten, he began to display an avidity for books of all sorts,

Abridged from Mr Chalmers's notice in Biographical Dictionary, who refers to Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xix -Warburton's Letters, 4to. edition, pp. 331, 337.— Seward's Anecdotes.

« ZurückWeiter »