works. I received the two volumes of your sermons with great satisfaction, convinced before, and now rendered doubly certain, by the kind expressions contained in your letter of the 24th instant, that neither the continual engagements nor the many unfortunate interruptions of your pleasure and comfort, which have attended your visit to this country, would alter your feelings towards those whom before your arrival you had honoured with your notice. I have read some of the sermons in your two volumes with great attention and pleasure, and hope soon to find time to finish them. Surely they afford a sufficient answer to the adversaries who have ventured to include you in the calumnious aspersion thrown out against many of us on this side the water, that no clergy preach the Gospel but themselves. But I believe that the majority of the Church of England, (and in that majority not a few of the wise and good may, I hope, be included,) have long ceased to require any answer to that calumny. As for others who have long been brayed in the mortar of controversy, and have come out as they went in, to give an answer to them is a most unprofitable task. But whatever harm they may have done, or can do, they have at least produced one effect, which is very interesting to all, in that they have made us all better acquainted with the real sentiments and doctrines of the soundest part of our sister Church in America, by forcing her to speak for herself through the medium of her authorities. "I look forward with great pleasure to the chance of seeing you here, and to facilitate this object I now write to say, that we shall certainly be stationary here till after the 23d of this month, and probably to the end of it. Then all the discomforts of a removal will begin to press upon me, for the Bishop of London wishes me to be there in the month of October, and it will take the greater part of the month of September to wind up my affairs here, and to loosen the bonds of duties, both civil and ecclesiastical, which have bound me to this place for eleven years. I am much obliged by the flattering manner in which you speak of my preferment. I trust it will place me in a situation where some good may be done; and it has been bestowed in a manner which has gratified me ten times more than any contemplation of advantages which may result from the change. "Hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing you, and conversing on many subjects which I do not like to trust to my pen, "I remain, my dear Sir, "Yours most faithfully and affectionately, "J. H. SPREY." From Bishop Hobart to Mrs. Hobart. "MY DEAREST WIFE, 66 "Manchester, Aug. 20, 1824. Though daily occupied in the many interesting things which I see in travelling through this wonderful country, my thoughts almost hourly turn to you, to my beloved family, and to my home. And sometimes I feel as if, without regard to consequences, I must immediately return to them, and to my congregations and my diocese, where I have so VOL. I. 38 much to do. But the very consideration of the increased duties which will then force themselves upon me, occasions the serious apprehension, that with the discharge of them will return the debility and sickness which disqualified me for them, and which led to my absence. The causes of my complaints are by no means removed. Whenever I use extraordinary exertions, and engage in much thought or mental labour, they assume more virulence, and I sensibly feel my debility. It would seem, therefore, as if I ought not to return until I make a longer and more decisive effort to remove the causes of my complaints, and to renovate my constitution; and yet again I feel as if I could not procrastinate my return. Travelling has lost much to me of the charm of novelty, and I begin to be tired with seeing so many new objects. Gladly, did my circumstances, and above all, my sacred duties, permit, would I retire from that perpetual intercourse with the world which was never agreeable to me, and at the Short Hills, in the bosom of my family, heightening every enjoyment by the society of my friends, which gives such a zest to them, be forgotten by the world, and the world forget. But these are feelings which I ought to suppress in gratitude to that Almighty Being who, while he has placed me, since my entrance on public life, in the midst of trying duties and cares, has solaced and supported me by so many comforts and privileges, and next to my domestic bliss, with what is so grateful and animating, the confidence and affection, as I have reason to suppose, of those among whom my duties have been discharged. ***. "I expect to be in London in two or three weeks, when I shall write to you again. You and the family must write as usual to me. That God That God may bless Aug. 24, 1824. "I wrote to my dearest wife a few days since from Manchester, but an opportunity unexpectedly offering to Liverpool, I cannot avoid writing a few lines to say, that I passed yesterday in company with Mr. Wordsworth, one of the celebrated poets of the Lakes, the most delightful day which I have enjoyed since I left home. More romantic, beautiful, and picturesque scenery than this part of England affords can scarcely be conceived, and a more rural and delightful spot than Rydal Mount, the seat of Mr. Wordsworth, I scarcely ever saw. He devoted the whole day to rambling with me through the vales and on the sides of the mountains adjoining his residence, and the only drawback was, that I was much more fatigued than I should have been in former times, when my strength was greater. His conversation, as you may suppose, was highly interesting, and his manners, and those of his family, were marked by the utmost simplicity and kindness. The views from his house and the grounds adjacent have almost all the characteristics of beauty and sublimity, softness and ruggedness, in strong con trast. When I said there was only one drawback on my enjoyments, I was wrong. There was another much greater-the absence of my beloved family. This solitary enjoyment is not according to my feelings. * * *. "In a few minutes I set off for Keswick, where I expect to see Mr. Southey, with whom I formed an acquaintance last winter in London. "Your ever affectionate, "J. H. HOBART." From the Rev. Dr. Walker to Bishop Hobart. "MY DEAR SIR, "22 Stafford-street, Edinburgh, "For the last two months I have been very anxiously expecting to hear something of your motions, and I was indulging the hope from day to day, that you might make your appearance amongst us again without warning. I received your short letter of the 2d of April, and about a fortnight after, a copy of your sermons, for which I now beg leave to express my sincerest gratitude. They are eloquent and orthodox. The funeral address and dissertation! strike me, particularly the former, as singularly affecting and appropriate; and the latter as establishing your point in the clearest manner. Were the public guided by sober reason, these volumes would completely answer the purpose which you had in view in publishing them. They are a fair specimen of your ordinary manner of preaching, and each sermon may be termed a Gospel sermon, in the |