bishop to Virginia;' the Rev. Dr. Alexander Murray was nominated for that purpose; and although ‘a sudden change in the ministry prevented the execution of the scheme,' it was repeatedly commended by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which has ever included the bishops and not a few of the most valued laymen in the Church. Queen Anne, in 1714, was propitious to the design; and but for her lamented death it would soon have been accomplished.' The first George also appeared favourable; but a dangerous rebellion concentrated all his thoughts and feelings on another object, -the preservation of his crown and sceptre; and then it was not a time to attend to the subject of American bishops.' Hope had now long been deferred. Yet, in an anniversary discourse to the Propagation Society, the whole subject was most vividly portrayed by Dr. Secker in 1740, and afterward very earnestly pursued by him, when Archbishop of Canterbury, and by his mitred brethren, Bishops Butler and Sherlock. But men of influence, who were opposed to the very name of the hierarchy,' and jealous of the temporal privileges which appertained to it in England, had frustrated the long-cherished scheme, until the period of the American Revolution.

"It was also a fruitful source of controversy, on this side of the Atlantic. Previous to the year 1766, it was agitated by the Rev. Mr. Apthorp, one of the Church missionaries, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Rev. Dr. Mayhew, a Congregationalist at Boston; and Archbishop Secker, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, and the Rev. Mr. Caner, took a part in the discussion at that time. When the Rev. Dr. Chauncy, of Boston. and William Livingston, Esq. of NewYork, two years after, wrote in opposition to the proposed American Episcopate, its propriety was set forth with great talent, in a publication at New-York, by the Rev. Mr. Inglis, who was after

ward the Bishop of Nova-Scotia. The whole argument was again presented, by the Rev. Dr. Chandler, who in 1767 issued his appeal to the public in behalf of the Church of England in America,in 1769 and 1771 defended and further defended it, in reply to the objections of Dr. Chauncy and of anonymous writers in public journals at Boston, Philadelphia, and New-York. The Rev. Dr. William Smith, of Philadelphia, pleaded the same cause with great ability. But their views met with disapprobation from some of their Episcopal brethren in Virginia, who were opposed to the introduction of American bishops, at a time when political animosities threatened a rebellion against the mother-country. An Address from the Clergy of New York and New Jersey to the Episcopalians of CHRIST, OBSERY. No. 354.

Virginia,' written 1771 by Dr. Chandler, and signed by him, and by the Rev. Drs. Auchmuty, Cooper, and Ogilvie, and the Rev. Messrs. Charlton, Seabury, Inglis, and Beach, was soon answered, in behalf of the Episcopalians of Virginia, by the Rev. Mr. Gwatkin. Here the controversy rested until our national liberty gave it a new form.

"It was several years after our civil independence that the plan of a General American Church, with an independent American Episcopate, was formed. Incipient measures for the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States were first adopted by the Church in Pennsylvania. The earliest general meeting, called expressly on this subject, was at New-York, in October, 1784; when clerical and lay deputies, from the States of Massachusetts, RhodeIsland, Connecticut, New-York, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, first took counsel together on the peculiar exigencies of the Church. A more numerous convention of the deputies from several states, held at Philadelphia in September of the next year, (1785,) prepared an address to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England, requesting them to confer the Episcopal character on such persons as might be recommended by the Church in the United States. The consent of the Archbishops and Bishops was obtained in 1786. Without delay, the Rev. Dr. White, bishop elect of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Dr. Provoost, bishop elect of New-York, set sail for England; and were consecrated in the chapel of the Archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and the Bishop of Peterborough, on Sunday, February 4th, 1787.' pp. xlix-liii. lvi.

The

The venerable Bishop White still survives; at an advanced period of life, but retaining considerable bodily and mental vigour. younger friend whose course he watched with so much gratification, and who has now preceded him to a better world, commenced his functions as a Bishop in 1811. His conduct in his high office is described in the following extracts.

"The Right Rev. Dr. Hobart was scarce invested with the lawn of office, when he began vigorously to exercise the functions of an Episcopate, which is without any parallel in our day. Although entitled an Assistant Bishop, he was, from the very moment of his consecration, virtually the Diocesan of New-York. Bishop Provoost had long ceased the exercise of 3 A

his Episcopate; Bishop Moore was almost entirely disqualified for any of his duties; and the young assistant Prelate, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, was required to enter on the charge of a vast diocese, almost co-equal, in extent of territory, with all the five-and-twenty bishoprics of England,-an arena, of no less than six-and-forty thousand square miles. He was not discouraged at the thought. Having resolved at his consecration to be faithful, the Lord being' his helper,'' by the help of God' he traversed his extensive field of labour with an untiring assiduity; built up the waste places; and every where, with a glad mind, he ordained some, confirmed others, and blessed all.

"In the House of Bishops, from the time of the first meeting that occurred after his consecration, he was peculiarly prominent. He attended every meeting of the House of Bishops, from this date until his office ceased, excepting only the General Convention of 1823, when he was prevented by sickness from being present; and he ever manifested, among his Episcopal associates, a heartfelt interest in the good cause of the Church, and a sensitive precaution, and uncompromising zeal, to preserve her venerable institutions in their integrity. At every consecration to the Episcopate, (except that of the lamented Ravenscroft in 1823,) he was present, and took part in the imposing service. Two of the nine brethren, on whom it was his satisfaction to unite in laying on of hands,' went before him to the spiritual world; and seven now await the solemn call, to meet him there among the heavenly hierarchy." pp. lxiii-lxv.

"Dr. Hobart, on the death of Bishop Moore, became diocesan of New-York. He had now an ample range for all his talents, over a diocese more than three hundred miles in its extent from east to west, a leading voice, in appropriating the income of the immense church property of the Episcopalians in New-York, and an official station, which commanded a deference for his opinions and his feellings, that was afforded to no other individual in the community. A scene of action more enlarged, and a sway of public sentiment more powerful, have seldom fallen to the lot of any one, who has been clad in the robes and has borne the symbols of the prelacy." p. lxvii.

"His apostleship demanded the unceasing use of his resources,-moral, intellectual, and corporeal. It was his busy occupation to traverse, in an extensive circuit, the vast territory occupied by his spiritual household,--from the boundary of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, to the Western lakes, and from Pennsylvania and New-Jersey to the Canadas. Within this his ecclesiastical realm, he had the care of all the churches.'

For several years, before he was compelled to intermit his labours, he recorded, in his anniversary addresses, seldom less than thirty, and sometimes more than forty visitations of parishes widely separated. In his annual journeyings often,' with his characteristic moral and physical energy, he would pass, by a rapid transition, from the city of his residence to the remotest confines of the state,ordaining, confirming, consecrating,-instructing the people committed to' his 'charge,'-here beholding congregations organized, and there churches reared,— the pastor of this flock, all-devoted to his labour of love; and the incumbent of that living, secularized,-in one spot, a devout admiration of the Church in her beautiful liturgic garment of praise and prayer; and in another, false doctrine, heresy, and schism,' mutilating and rending the clothing of wrought gold.' Upon all this he looked with deep emotion. Ând while he fed the flock of God,' taking the oversight thereof,'not by constraint, but willingly,' 'not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind,' he gave himself wholly to his work of faith. He watched, with a searching eye, the changes that were exhibited throughout his diocese; detected and exposed the causes of factitious piety: declared the Gospel means of pure and undefiled religion before God; built up the waste places of the Church; and with a peculiarly ardent enterprise, ambitious to send forth, into every 'desert place' of his ecclesiastical province, a herald of salvation,-himself a missionary, his heart rejoiced to behold the many missionaries, whom he ordained and sent forth, preaching in the wilderness.'" pp. lxxiii. lxxiv.

Our readers remember Bishop Hobart's visit to Europe in 1823

1825.

His recollections of England were ever interesting and delightful to his mind; and though he did not spare us in the address, which caused so much animadversion at the time, yet with all our faults he loved us still. We must in justice to his memory on this subject extract the following passage.

"From the very hour that he first placed his foot on British soil, at the beginning of November 1823, his deepest interest was awakened by the natural, moral, civil, and religious aspect of the mothercountry. Until the month of April, 1824, when he went to France, and from the time of his return in July, until he began his second tour on the continent, he was in Great Britain. And his chief enjoyments after he bid adieu' for a time to his native land,' were in this favoured

kingdom, called by her own poet of nature, in the enthusiasm of his loyalty, 'This sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demy paradise, This fortress, built by nature for herself, Against infection, and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a mote defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happy lands.' And our prelate, who had seen " warmer France, with all her vines,' and had lingered there in the very centre of 'Ausonia,' was well satisfied that the land of his forefathers, with all her faults, was a more fair possession.'

6

"To detail his travels in that mothercountry, to which,' it is said in the Preface to our Book of Common Prayer,

the Protestant Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under God, for her first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection'-to tell of his bowing at her venerable altars, -his interviews with her conspicuous and able men in church and state, his numerous excursions through her attractive scenery, and his meditations among her rare monuments of all that is great and good,'-would not comport with a short and cursory memoir of his life; but will form a part, it is hoped and expected, of his promised ample biography. His prevailing emotions, it may be observed, were awakened by the religion of the country, and, in each sacred ceremony that he witnessed, his thoughts and feel ings were alive. 'I attended,' said he in one of his letters, I attended the consecration of the two Bishops for the WestIndies, with one of whom, Dr. Coleridge, I was well acquainted. This was somewhat of a privilege: for the consecration is performed, according to long custom, but I think injudiciously, in the private chapel of the Archbishop at Lambeth, where but few persons can be accommodated. Not more than a dozen, except the Archbishop's family, and the necessary Bishops and Clergy were present. I attended service in the afternoon; and dined with the Archbishop, in company with the attending Bishops and those newly consecrated. The office of consecration is the same as ours. And the whole solemnity was rendered the more interesting to me, from the recollection that the predecessor of the present Archbishop had, in the same place, conveyed the apostolical authority to our first bishops.' In walking through the grounds at Lambeth before dinner, the Archbishop, who was as kind and attentive as any man could possibly be, reminded me, that the walk in which we then were, was that in which Lord Chancellor Clarendon and Archbishop Laud

"Among his delightful rambles in the north of England, in the month of August, 1824, he visited the far-famed Lakes of Westmoreland. And in a letter, dated August 29th, he said, 'I passed the whole of yesterday with Mr. Wordsworth, one of the celebrated Lake Poets, at his seat at Rydal Water, and have not enjoyed a more delightful day since I left home. He was highly interesting in his conversation; simple and affable in his manners; and both he and his family were kind and attentive to me in the highest degree. His house commands a charming view of the Lake and Vale of Windermere; and a short walk through a grove of trees conducts to a spot where there is a view of another small lake, immediately, at the foot of the mount on which his house is situated. To-day I go to Keswick, where I expect to see Mr. Southey, with whom I formed an acquaintance last winter in London, and who invited me to visit him.'" pp. lxxxiv.-lxxxvii.

On his return home, he was instantly at his post, and in the full vigour of his beloved employments. In the course of a year, we find him, besides all his other numerous engagements, travelling between three and four thousand miles throughout his diocese, visiting, confirming, ordaining, and discharging all the other duties of his higher office, with an indefatigable zeal, which began speedily to undermine even his wellA clergytempered constitution. man who travelled with him a few days on one of these occasions, once told us that he was quite worn out, with only accompanying the Bishop

for so short a period, and without any of the mental fatigues to which his Right Reverend friend was every moment exposed. He would be up before the dawn; study and write letters for an hour or two; take a long journey on horseback, through rough tracts; confirm, ordain, deliver a charge; perhaps walk several miles out of his way to baptize or administer the holy communion, where there was no missionary ; set off in a steam-boat; write official letters and memoranda on the voyage; proceed direct to church on his reaching shore; go through all the former solemnities; see every body, answer every body; and then away again at night without sleep, and with scarcely any momentary interval of rest; walking or riding, in steam-boat or stage-coach, through uncleared woods, or over barren tracts, wherever a few poor sheep in the wilderness could be found to require his pastoral care. Some of his interviews on these occasions were peculiarly interesting. We must copy the following specimen :

"In carrying the Gospel to the heathen, he rejoiced to perform what he believed his share of service. Next to his brethren according to the flesh,' the untutored Indians of our country awakened his solicitude. Their spiritual friend, he secured their utmost confidence. 'At the earnest request of the Oneida chiefs, he licensed as a lay-reader, a person of Indian extraction, acquainted with their language, dispositions, and customs, and devoting himself unremittingly to their spiritual and temporal welfare.' Soon after he commenced his labours among the Oneidas, the Pagan party solemnly professed the Christian faith." Soon after their conversion, they appropriated, in conjunction with the whole Christian party, the proceeds of the sale of some of their lands to the erection of a handsome edifice for Divine worship.'On my recent visit to the Oneidas,' said the Bishop, in the year 1818,' I saw an aged Mohawk, who, firm in the faith of the Gospel, and adorning his profession by an exemplary life, is indebted, under the Divine blessing, for his Christian principles and hopes, to the missionaries' of the venerable Society in England for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The son of that head warrior of the Onondagas,' he added, 'who was killed at the battle of Chippewa,

amiable and pious in his dispositions, and sprightly and vigorous in his intellectual powers, is earnestly desirous of receiving an education to prepare him for the ministry among his countrymen.' The Oneidas, observed the deeply affected father, listened to my address to them, prelate, whom they called their spiritual interpreted by Mr. Williams, with so much solicitous attention; they received the laying on of hands, with such grateful

6

humility; and participated of the symbols of their Saviour's love with such tears of penitential devotion, that the impression which the scene made on my mind will never be effaced.'

of our aborigines, in the year 1826, he "When he visited this interesting tribe confirmed twenty-five of their number, and admitted their first lay-reader, Mr. Williams, to deacons' orders. In a discourse to them, fraught with spiritual tenderness, the bishop, at every pause for the interpreter, called the assembled group My children.' After the ordination service, several of the chiefs advanced, shoulder of the chief before him, the right each placed his right hand on the right hand of the foremost resting on the right shoulder of their minister. It was their characteristic and expressive sign of concord. A petition was then made to their Right Reverend father,' by a party of the nation about to remove to the far distant region of Green-Bay; and they desired, with a grateful sense of the blessings of his watchful providence,' that he would extend to their remote region his paternal care. The touching answer promptly given to this solicitation, and the bishop's glowing language to the duly ordained Indian herald of the Cross, will occupy some of the most attractive pages in the mission-history of the new world.” pp. xcix. c.

We shall conclude our notice with the following miscellaneous extracts, which convey some particulars respecting Dr. Hobart, which have not been anticipated in our pages.

"The characteristics of Bishop Hobart's person were expressive. He was all life and energy. Although short in stature, he was muscular and well proportioned. By his activity, for which he was distinguished from his boyhood, he gave a due development to every muscle of his frame. He was formed for action; and in all his movements he was prompt. From this trait his whole deportment took its character. He had a rapid step, an animated gesture, and a fleet glance. When excited to express disapprobation or rebuke, his sudden turns and hurried utterance were startling. But on the other hand, alive to every social courtesy, his cheerful air could in an eminent degree conciliate. In private, he had no

thing of that stateliness which fancy is so apt to throw around the apostolic dignity. His quick and abrupt movements were incompatible with graceful ease; and his frequent verbal iterations and rapidity of speech, differed widely from that measured articulation, which is in general associated with the manner of the Right Reverend father in God. It was in the sanctuary that he exhibited his best aspect. There his gait was grave, his mien was dignified, and his enunciation was deliberate, deep-toned, and impressive." P. civ.

"Throughout life he was a morning student.' He rose to his duties with the first dawn of day. While others were yet merged in sleep,

in dead oblivion, losing half The fleeting moments of too short a life,' he was already up and doing.' And to his morning studies he attributed, with Baxter, Paley, Wesley, and Doddridge, the most valuable treasures and the best productions of his mind. And with the Jewels and the Kens, the Taylors and the Burnets, by whose active prelacy the church grew in grace and knowledge, he is a conspicuous example of the good results which are the fruit of early rising. From boyhood, it was his characteristic 'to wake the morn.' And this is the key by which the mystery of many of his astonishing intellectual efforts may be disclosed.

"In that subject which was the designation of his vigorous mind, he made attainments that were rare and valuable. Before the period of his entrance into the ministry, and from that time until his cares of office wholly occupied his thoughts, he was industrious in exploring the wide field of theological literature. Church polity, polemic theology, and pulpit eloquence, were his favourite themes; and in these he was 'thoroughly furnished unto all good works.' Among the chief of the fathers of the mighty men' with whom he loved to hold communion, were Hooker, Barrow, Pearson, Bull, and Horsley. Instead of profound or curious learning, he sought those attainments that might best serve him in the exigencies of his busy life. It has been well observed, 'As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which he cannot apply will make no man wise.' Bishop Hobart's fund could all be readily converted into current coin.

"And his style of composition was of the same popular character. To refine with elegant precision was not his study. He was no slave of words; they were his ready messengers to do his will. But without regard to a prevailing nicety of verbal adaptation, or a rhetorical accuracy in the adjustment of his periods, the productions of his pen were distinguished by a natural, and sometimes glowing elo

quence. His great rapidity of thought was associated with a great rapidity of composition." pp. cv. cvi.

"As a speaker, he was celebrated from his very boyhood. At the grammar school, at college, and in the Lord's holy place, there was in his characteristic ardour an animation to arrest, an earnestness to fix, and a sincerity to controul, the feelings of his audience. It was not the lively. fancy of a Taylor, nor the nervous vigour of a South, nor the pointed antitheses of the English Seneca, the sententious Hall, that gave him power in the pulpit; but an eloquence, commended rather by its natural flow and its persuasive energy of words, the warmth of its ejaculations, the surprise of its parentheses, and the directness of its appeals. When he first entered on the duties of his ministerial work, his discourses were committed to memory with great care, and thus acquired that peculiar charm, which is inevitably forfeited by reading. He was compelled afterward to adopt a different manner, by his increased engagements; but he was always ranked among the first of preachers in the American church." p. cvii.

"Among his moral qualities in private life, the predominating was his peculiar relish for retirement. He often declared,' says one who was ever near to him, that retirement from the walks of public life would have been most agreeable to his feelings, and in consonance with his disposition and inclination.' Withdrawing from the city and its disquietudes, he would frequently repair to his secluded summer residence at the Short-Hills, in New-Jersey, a farm in Essex county, near Springfield, where, in the cultivation of his garden and his grounds, he delighted to give himself up to the unrestrained indulgence of some of the most kindly sympathies of our nature. An eminent statesman has denominated rural enjoyments The inclination of kings, the choice of philosophers;' and this sentiment is sanctioned by the judgment of one of the most exalted minds that beamed in the seventeenth century, the immortal author of the Novum Örganum. A garden,' are Lord Bacon's words, is the purest of all human pleasures.' And Bishop Hobart cherished from his early youth, not only an interest in the charms of horticulture, but, as has already been observed, a love of natural scenery. Some remarkable illustrations of this strong habitual feeling were afforded at the Short-Hills; and it accompanied him in his remotest foreign travels. When in extremely feeble health during his first visit to Italy, he was overcome by sickness on his way from Florence to Rome. It was at the village of Radicofani, near the bleak summit of a lofty mount. Confined there to his bed for several days by a severe illness,— without medical attendance,-without the