terly Theological, has been poured forth against you."

Dr. Walker concludes his letter in that kind and affectionate strain which it was almost the uniform and enviable lot of the Bishop to draw forth even from casual acquaintances, as well as from his oldest friends.

"Most happy shall I be to learn that your health is renovated, and that you are as happy as you could wish in the bosom of your family and in the midst of your affectionate flock. Mrs. Walker recollects your visit to Edinburgh with singular satisfaction, while I myself feel all the warmth, not of a recent acquaintance, but of a long-tried friendship, which I am most anxious to cultivate by occasional correspondence, since I cannot now hope for that which I would so highly value from further personal intercourse.'

There are also some observations on the Bishop's sermon in a letter from Sergeant Sellon, a distinguished lawyer, who is no less advantageously known in our country than in his own.

Chapter-House, St. Paul's, May 1, 1826.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"I was much gratified by the sight of your handwriting, for the next blessing to personal intercourse with a friend, is a letter from him. I had been for some time in expectation of hearing from you, finding from the public papers that you had safely arrived at New-York, and been most cordially received by your countrymen.

66

Many thanks for your sermon-but one had

reached my hands before yours arrived. It is written with great nerve and spirit, as if the heart felt what the mind dictated. I almost fancied you in your Episcopal arm-chair at the Chapter-House fire-side, expressing, in your usual animated style, eulogiums on your country. But I rather expect that your animadversions will not pass sub silentio. Some, I believe, have taken umbrage at the sermon, but chiefly on account of the notes.

"With regard to the work itself, I concur with you in many main points, but not in all. Whatever faults may be inherent in our constitution by reason of the aristocracy, I look upon an hereditary nobility as a defence and ornament to a state.

"And although evil does in some respects result from the disposition of our Church preferment of pluralities and the like, I cannot but disapprove of ministers and pastors being placed in a dependent state on their congregations, and even exposed to the temptation of seeking the favour of men rather than of God. As to your mode of training young men to the Church, and electing your ministers and bishops, it may be far preferable, I think, to ours; but, I should like them, when elected, to be perfectly independent by a fixed stipend or endow

ment."

In another letter he writes, "I have often lamented the uncomfortable sensations which I fear were excited in your mind by the irascible and ill founded criticism which appeared in the Theological Quarterly Review; but I think they sank into insignificance by the side of the sound, manly, and sensible answer which afterwards appeared in an

other periodical publication. At the same time, if every one knew your heart, temper, and disposition as well as myself, every ill-natured observation would have been spared."*

In the review of the sermon in the Theological Quarterly, the writer of it speaks in the most contemptuous terms of that spiritual society which derived its existence and authority from his own. He seems neither to have been aware of its origin

There are a few touches in these letters which depict so happily some of the personal peculiarities of the Bishop, that though they have no connexion with the present subject, and cannot be supposed to have any interest for the general reader, yet will be striking and agrecable to his particular friends.

"My wife and children often talk of you, and particularly requested me to give their kind remembrances when I wrote to you. We mean to spend the autumn at our homestead-cottage, and should be happy to see you stretched along the sofa, pulling off your spectacles and rubbing your head, as if you felt yourself at home. I enjoy these recollections. But yet somehow the time passed over without my receiving that profit from your visit which I ought to have done-there was too much hurry—always on the wing and although I felt myself benefited by occasional serious conversation, yet it was but occasional. Want of time, broken calls, interruption of others present, and accidental circumstances, disturbed the calm and composure of private intercourse, and checked as it were in its progress, the stream of instruction which would have otherwise flowed from your lips.

"Your sermons still afford me much pleasure and satisfaction; and your appendix hath fully confirmed my ideas of the state of the departed. It is, I think, clear and convincing. So that, though. absent, you are with me; and if I find any thing in which I do not coincide, though I cannot argue the point with you, I note it down against the passage: But, in truth, that very rarely occurs; for I find our theology so congenial, that there is not above one or two points in which there is any difference."

nor progress. He speaks of it as "an obscure Church, the labours of whose pastors have much escaped notice in England, and been entirely confined to the cultivation of the native mind;" and he represents that particular portion of it which was committed to Bishop Hobart's care, as "a little flock on the edge of the wilderness." But though, numerically, it is indeed small, and the labours of its pastors in the undivided and daily duties of their calling, allow but little opportunity for acquiring literary fame, yet both have attracted a degree of observation in quarters which may console us for his profound ignorance and unworthy contempt. It is hoped that the introduction of a note from one who is raised as far above the reviewer in liberality as in station, may not be deemed a breach of the respect which is due to him, since it is calculated to do him that honour in our country which is, on all accounts, so universally yielded to him in his own. It was written by the late Bishop of London, Dr. Howley, who is now the Primate of England.

"The Bishop of London presents his respectful compliments to the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, and requests his acceptance of a few copies of a charge delivered last summer to the clergy of the diocese of London. The Bishop takes the further liberty of requesting that, should an opportunity offer, Bishop Hobart will have the goodness to present a copy to each of his brother prelates, and to the Rev. Dr. Dalcho, as a testimony of the Bishop of London's high respect for the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and for the distinguished individuals through whose exertions it is rapidly ac

quiring that pre-eminence in the public estimation which is due to the superior purity of its doctrine, and to its apostolic form of government. "London, Jan. 20, 1823."

When the health of Bishop Hobart had been impaired by excessive labours both of body and mind, and a temporary relaxation from his duties having been found unavailing, it was thought indispensable to his restoration that he should travel abroad, there was such a general manifestation of sympathy and concern as was never perhaps exhibited among us on any similar occasion. An address from the clergy was put into his hands on the eve of his embarkation, expressing, with no less sincerity than warmth, their affection for his person, their respect for his character, their prayers for his safety during his journey, for the restoration of his health, and for his return to the useful, zealous, and faithful labours by which his diocese had been so signally blessed; offering up likewise prayers for themselves, that they might have grace to preserve Church in his absence from declining from that degree of unity, prosperity, and purity, to which it had been raised under his administration. A throng of parishioners and friends pressed around him at the moment of his departure, with anxious and sor rowing hearts, to bid him farewell; and some fel: but little less than the Ephesian converts in parting with St. Paul, from the painful apprehension that they might see his face no more. The most of his clergy who were resident in the city accompanied him many miles, and then watched with fond and

the