. 9. 
 
 ^
 
 OF 
 
 JOSHUA WATSON, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 EDWAED CHUETOX, 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF CLEVELAND. 
 
 ' God giveth to a man that is good in His sight, wisdom, 
 and knowledge, and joy." Eccl. ii. 26. 
 
 SECOin) EDITION. 
 
 *forb mtb 
 
 JOHN HENRY AND JAMES PARKER. 
 1863.
 
 $3rintcb bj) gtissrs. Jhrlur, Cornraarhti, (Drforl).
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 TN giving these little volumes to the world, a few words 
 -*- seem necessary to explain to the friends who have long 
 expected them some of the difficulties which have delayed 
 their appearance. 
 
 It was naturally the wish of many who knew Joshua 
 Watson, and remembered how for nearly half a century, 
 and in times of more than ordinary interest, he had been 
 one of the most unwearied public benefactors and wisest 
 counsellors of the Church of England, that some record of 
 his life and services should be preserved to another gene- 
 ration. But in his old age, with his powers of mind fresh 
 and vigorous to the last, his characteristic modesty and 
 meekness had always resisted the friendly entreaties that 
 were made to persuade him to dictate any account of what 
 he had done. He would sometimes meet such entreaties 
 with an answer of gentle irony ; at other times he would 
 say, " You are seeking access to a store-chamber of which 
 the key is lost." 
 
 There was, therefore, nothing left for those to whom 
 his papers, or such papers as he had preserved, were con- 
 signed, but, by such light as was thus afforded, and by 
 diligent enquiries made in all quarters among surviving 
 friends, with more labour than can easily be conceived, to 
 put together such a continuous narrative as could be con- 
 structed from unsifted and somewhat unpliable materials. 
 Imperfect as it is, and disappointing as they fear it will 
 be to many who think of him with love and reverence, 
 
 20G52GO
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 still they trust there will be something recorded which 
 will leave a salutary and affecting impression of a man 
 worthy to be named with the benevolent friend of his 
 youth, the excellent William Stevens, and to be re- 
 membered hereafter with a portion of the honour paid 
 to the wise and merciful men of earlier days, whose right- 
 eousness hath not been forgotten. 
 
 There was a further difficulty in the reserve which 
 might be required iri speaking of persons still living, 
 or but lately removed from the present scene, whose 
 words or acts might be the subject of comment in these 
 papers. After much consideration, however, the Editor 
 has thought it his duty not to suppress any important 
 expression of his revered friend's opinions on questions 
 of public interest, whether they regarded men or mea- 
 sures ; nor to withhold in some instances such comments 
 as the occasion might require. Those who have left post- 
 humous Memoirs of themselves or their own times, to be 
 published when they were passed from living remem- 
 brance, may sometimes appear to have been more anxious 
 for their own credit with posterity than for historic 
 truth. In speaking of recent times, we speak to those 
 who can contradict anything that is erroneously asserted, 
 and shew that we are not aiming to establish our own 
 views, rather than to submit them to the tests by which 
 the accuracy of all such statements must be tried. The 
 opinions of Joshua "Watson, whether they regarded the 
 living or the dead, were never delivered in words that 
 would wound any generous private feeling; and they 
 deserve to be recorded as the dictates of calm experience 
 and enlightened piety: they are therefore exhibited in 
 these pages that they may be weighed and considered. 
 The Editor is fully conscious that of many particulars 
 referred to the history is as yet imperfectly known ; and
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 that things which are still in the progress of development 
 may _ hereafter not appear as they did when they first 
 attracted public attention. 
 
 There could be less hesitation as to the duty of in- 
 serting in the Memoir the notices which these papers 
 supplied of good men removed from us, whose memory 
 will long be cherished in the Church which they adorned ; 
 William Yan Mildert, Charles Lloyd, Christopher "Words- 
 worth, Henry Handley Norris, Henry Vincent Bay ley, 
 and many others of Joshua "Watson's familiar friends. 
 There are among them those whose lives and services 
 well deserve a separate Memoir; but any contribution 
 to the due estimate of such men will not be made 
 in vain. 
 
 It is worthy of a passing remark, that, while these 
 pages are going through the press, there has appeared 
 an unexpected confirmation of Joshua "Watson's value 
 for Jeremy Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium, mentioned in 
 vol. ii. pp. 10, 11, as contrasted with Bishop Heber's 
 estimate. The name of Bishop Hurd is sufficient to re- 
 mind the critical reader of one of the most accomplished 
 and discerning of English critics ; and his sentence on 
 this great Treatise is, that it is " the most elaborate and 
 exquisite of all Taylor's writings." See the interesting 
 " Memoirs of Bishop Hurd," by the Eev. Francis Kilvert, 
 1860, p. 277. 
 
 It is also proper to notice that the singular anecdote 
 of Bishop Butler, vol. i. p. 235, which the Editor heard 
 from the lips of Dean Rennell, as he had received it 
 in conversation from Josiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, 
 is related at greater length by Dean Tucker himself in 
 one of his Tracts. The reader may compare the two 
 accounts, if he will refer to the last pages of a valu- 
 able addition to the writings of the late lamented Pro-
 
 VI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 fessor J. J. Blunt, " Essays contributed to the Quarterly 
 Review," pp. 497, 498. 
 
 To the words of wisdom recorded in the latter portion 
 of this Memoir, it seems right to add the following, 
 obtained from another source : 
 
 To one who came to him for help in some of the 
 difficulties involved in the predestination or foreknow- 
 ledge of God, Joshua Watson said, " Half these difficulties 
 would disappear if men would remember the eternal 
 nature of the Almighty. To speak of God's foreknow- 
 ledge is to speak to the comprehension of men, who are 
 creatures of time. But all knowledge is the same to the 
 Omniscient and Eternal One, to whom things that are 
 not are as things that are." 
 
 He would sometimes take pains to combat that mode 
 of speaking of men's duties and interests, which makes 
 it appear as if they were always opposed to each other; 
 whereas the Word of God joins "the things that are 
 lovely and of good report" with those "that are true, 
 and just, and pure." To a Christian the exhortation 
 is to hold his course through honour or dishonour, 
 through evil report or good report; he should there- 
 fore be prepared for both : but to speak as if we were 
 always to expect blame where we might look for praise, 
 is, he would say, "a kind of treason against Provi- 
 dence." 
 
 Though he was entirely persuaded that "the Church 
 of Rome had erred not only in manner of ceremonies 
 but also in matters of faith," it is remarkable that his 
 experience of converts from that Church accorded very 
 much with the well-known opinion of Dr. Johnson. The 
 only instance which he was wont to mention of a satis- 
 factory convert was that of Mascarenhas, a young Portu- 
 guese of high principle and intelligence, with whom
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Vll 
 
 he was acquainted in early life, and who encountered 
 loss of patrimony and exile from his country rather than 
 violate the dictates of his conscience. The Editor much 
 regrets that further particulars of this case have not 
 been preserved.
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 this new edition it is only necessary to inform the 
 reader that it is essentially a reprint of the first, with 
 a few corrections where anything appeared to have been 
 inaccurately or imperfectly stated, a few omissions where 
 the narrative could suffer omission without loss of any im- 
 portant fact, and a few additions of particulars which have 
 since presented themselves, and seemed of sufficient interest 
 to be recorded. 
 
 The Editor must take this opportunity of offering his 
 grateful acknowledgments to many surviving friends of 
 Joshua Watson, from whom it is a sincere pleasure to 
 have received assurances that the work has revived many 
 cherished remembrances of their own. One of these 
 friends, the model of a noble and munificent Christian 
 prelate, Lord John George Beresford, after a primacy 
 of forty years over the Church of Ireland, has finished 
 his honoured course since the first edition appeared. It 
 is a testimony of which the Editor has reason to be 
 proud, that this great and good man, in a few earnest 
 and impressive words, gave his meed of approbation to 
 this Memoir, which he had read not long before his 
 peaceful translation to a better world.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAHEXTAGB of Joshua Watson. His father, John "Watson, of a race of 
 Cumberland 'Statesmen : his life and character. Education and early 
 life of Joshua Watson, and his brother, John Jaines Watson. His mar- 
 riage with Mary Sites 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Joshua Watson's earliest friends. Jonathan Boucher, Vicar of Epsom. 
 His proscription in the American Revolution His character. William 
 Stevens, Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty. His public labours and 
 charities. Bishop Home and Jones of Nayland. Feathers Tavern 
 Petition. Francis Wollaston, Bishop Percy, and Bishop Porteus French 
 Revolution. Society for Reformation of Principles. Jones and William 
 Kirby. Stevens in private life. Club formed by his friends, which still 
 flourishes. His Hutchinsonianism. His death .... 9 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The coeval and fraternal friends of Joshua Watson. Sir John Richardson. 
 Thomas Sikes of Guilsborongh. Henry Handley Norris. William Van 
 Mildert : his early ministerial life. Composition of the Boyle Lectures. 
 Difficulties before his promotion. Christopher Wordsworth . 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Public disquietude at the close of the eighteenth century. Danger of the 
 King. Trial of Home Tooke, Hardy, and Thelwall. The Loyal Asso- 
 ciations. Joshua Watson's alliances with Bowles, Gifford, and Reeves. 
 Troubles of Bowles with the Dutch Commission. William Cobbett. 
 The Church Societies. Archbishop Manners-Sntton. Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge. District committees. Dr. Hales of 
 Killesandra. Removal to Hackney. Letters of H. H. Norris. William 
 Kirby 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The National Society. State of Education for the poor previously. System 
 of Bell and Lancaster. The Society's three founders, John Bowles, 
 H. H. Norris, and Joshua Watson. Services of Dr. Herbert Marsh. 
 Its progress and chief supporters in the first three years. Estimate of 
 its work by Bp. Blomfield 56
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Peter Lathbury, Rector of Livermere Dr. Wordsworth's services to the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Family Bible. 
 Review of Tracts. Use of district Depositories. Correspondence with 
 Van Mildert, Sawbridge, and H. H. Norris. Mr. Norris's cathedral 
 preferments 68 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Joshua Watson's retirement from mercantile life. Retrospect. Benefits 
 of his influence and ready benevolence as a London merchant. His 
 increasing engagements in religious and charitable labours. Fund for 
 the relief of sufferers in the war in the North of Germany. Waterloo 
 fund . . .80 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 State of the Colonial Churches at the return of peace. Bishop Middleton, 
 Bishop John Inglis, and W. G. Broughton. Treasurership of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Efforts of Joshua Watson and his 
 friends for the re-construction of Church Missions. Retrospect of the 
 Indian Missions. Memorial to Archbishop Manners-Sutton. Foundation 
 of Bishop's College, Calcutta. Revival of the Society for Propagating 
 the Gospel. Retrospect of its North American Missions. H. H. Norris 
 and Bishop Hobart . * . 91 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Public Labours. System of Royal Letters, when and why adopted. Dr. 
 Wordsworth's return to Lambeth. His brother the Poet. Archbishop 
 Manners-Sutton. The first days of the Church Building Society. 
 Public Commission for new Churches. Influence of Joshua Watson's 
 personal character 107 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Van Miltlert's elevation to the Bishopric of Llandaff. His services at 
 Oxford. Joshua Watson's honorary degree there, Letters upon it. 
 Purchase of Ely Chapel, Holborn, for the Central National School. 
 Bishop Ryder. Clergy Orphan School. Vaudois Clergy. Dr. Words- 
 worth made Master of Trinity College. Church Building. Public dis- 
 orders on account of the Queen of George IV. Her visit to St. Paul's. 
 Private Charities 116 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Domestic events : illness of his brother, and death of his father. Dr. 
 Wordsworth's designs and labours at Trinity College. The Church 
 Commission, and Bishop Ryder. Death of John Bowdler : his last cares 
 for the Scottish Episcopal Church. Joshua Watson removes to West- 
 minster : his residence in Park-street. Dean Rennell, and his son Thomas 
 Rennell of Kensington. Other distinguished clergymen of Joshua Wat- 
 son's circle at this period. Bishop Lonsdale, Bishop Blomfield, and Dean 
 Lyall. Public farewell to Bishop Heber. Bishop Hobart's visit to 
 England. Van Mildert's Life of Waterland. Dr. Wordsworth's " Who 
 wrote Eikon Basilike ?" Blomfield, as Bishop of Chester . . 127
 
 CONTENTS. X1I1 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The commercial crisis of 1825. Joshua Watson's pecuniary loss provi- 
 dentially lightened by his charitable use of his wealth. Archbishop 
 Manners-Sutton. His generous friendship. His death and character. 
 Hugh James Rose. Efforts to increase the number of Bishops in India. 
 Archdeacon H. V. Bayley. Chief Justice lindal. Illness of Joshua 
 Watson in 1827, and letters to his brother . ,. . . 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Charles Lloyd, Bishop of Oxford : his services at Oxford. Van Mildert's 
 testimony to him. Is elected Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Regius 
 Professor. His diligence in his office. Literary and theological cor- 
 respondence with H. H. Norris. Reviews, and opinions of contemporary 
 theologians. Letter on the power of the Keys. His friendship with 
 Joshua Watson. Reflections on the occasion of his death . . 152 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Clergy Orphan School. Foundation of King's College, London. Church- 
 Building Society. Van Mildert on the concession of the Koman Catholic 
 claims. Public charities. Dr. W. Ward, Bishop of Sodor and Man. 
 Bishop Lowe. Hugh J. Rose. Dr. J. H. Monk, Bishop of Gloucester. 
 Dr. Wordsworth's administration of Trinity College. His notices of 
 books, and men and measures. Society at Park-street in 1830 . 167 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Illness of his wife. Her return home and preparation for death. Her 
 continued interest in his public labours. Efforts to counteract infidel 
 and seditious agitators. Particulars of her last hours. Temporary re- 
 tirement of Joshua Watson from public life 180 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Public affairs in 1830. Wordsworth and Southey. First step towards 
 an Ecclesiastical Commission. Joshua Watson's scheme, accepted by 
 the Duke of Wellington, superseded by Earl Grey. Labours of Hugh 
 J. Rose. Joshua Watson's Selections from Jer. Taylor. His resistance 
 to the sanction of Dissenting Manuals by the S.P.C.K. His conciliation 
 of opponents 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Church in India. The Ecclesiastical Commission. Joshua Watson 
 resigns his Treasurership of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge. The Address to the Primate, and Declaration of Lay Members 
 of the Church in 1833, '34 198 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Charities. Reflections of a man long occupied in labours of charity. 
 Death of Thomas Sikes, related by H. H. Norris. Van Mildert's readi- 
 ness in charitable calls. His care of his charge at Durham. The 
 New University there. Joshua Watson at Auckland, in Scotland, and 
 on a visit to the Poets at the Lakes. Last acts and death of Van 
 Mildert . . .210
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 William Wordsworth. His advocacy of the claims of education. His 
 efforts for Church-building in the Lake-district. H. H. Norris. His 
 view of the decline of the Nonjurors. Deacon and Cartwright. Origin 
 of the Society for Additional Curates. Joshua Watson draws up its 
 rules. Dr. Samuel Wilson Warneford. Dr. W. H. Mill. Death of 
 Hugh J. Rose. A change made in the National Society . . 218 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Death of his brother, John James Watson, Archdeacon of St. Alban's. 
 And of his daughter and only child. His days of mourning. Friendly 
 offices of Archbishop Howley, Dr. Wordsworth, and Bishop Inglis. 
 Changes in his domestic life. Public anxieties, and healing counsels. 
 Remark on the Life of Wilberforce 229 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 John Inglis, third Bishop of Nova Scotia : his life and labours. Extracts 
 from his correspondence. State of the colonies comprised in his diocese. 
 His visit to Boston and New York. Withdrawal of the State allow- 
 ance from the British North American clergy. Efforts of the Bishop to 
 meet the emergency. His progresses in England in 1839, and remark- 
 able success. His Christian counsels to English friends. His private life. 
 His country-house at Clermont. His illness and death . . 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 William Grant 'Broughton, first Bishop of Australasia. His appointment, 
 first as Archdeacon, and afterwards as Bishop of Sydney. State of the 
 colony thirty years since. Character of its Governors. His labours in 
 founding Churches and Schools, and providing Endowments. His visit 
 to New Zealand, and views of the freedom and limit of Episcopal power. 
 His view of qualities requisite for a colonial mission. Judge Burton. 
 Mr. Moore's benefactions. Protest against the Papal Archbishop. 
 His See made Metropolitan in the colony. Principles of Metropolitan 
 power. His last visit to England, and death .... 253 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Oxford Tracts, and the controversies growing out of their publication. 
 Richard H. Froude. Newman's Sermons. Joshua Watson's opinions 
 on Nos. 89 and 90. Prosecution of J. H. Newman. Dr. Godfrey 
 Faussett. The " British Critic." Suppression of that review. Secession 
 of J. H. Newman. "Essay on Development." Bishop Broughton's 
 judgment. Silence imposed on Dr. Pusey. Joshua Watson's remarks 
 on it. His value for the alliance of Church and State. Notice of 
 Dr. Arnold's views. Their correction to be found in the life and labours 
 of such men as Joshua Watson 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Joshua Watson's old age. Retirement at Clapton and Daventry. Recol- 
 lections of his conversation. Letters. Resignation of the Treasurer- 
 ship of the National Society. Committee of Council on Education. 
 Management Clauses. Samuel Wood, T. D. Acland, and Gilbert 
 Mathieson .281
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Correspondence with Archdeacon Harrison. Revived Rubrical observances. 
 Newman's Preface to Fleury. The Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel. Letters and conversation on Church matters. New edition of 
 Hele's Select Offices. Memorial tablet in Hackney Church. Lord Sid- 
 mouth. Homerton Church. Free medical attendance for the clergy 
 widows at Bromley College. Recollections of conversation . . 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Adaptation of books published by the Christian Knowledge Society. Death 
 of Baden Powell of Speldhurst. The poet Wordsworth. " The Birth- 
 day." Dr. Arnold. Memorial Churches. Correspondence with J. H. 
 Markland. Retrospect. Council for framing the Constitutions for 
 St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. Dr. Wordsworth's last visit, and 
 his death. Letters and recollections of conversation. Colonial Church 
 matters. Church of England Bible. Threatening symptoms of illness. 
 Danger averted 318 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The famine in Ireland and Scotland. Measures of relief, and communica- 
 tions with Bishop Low and with an Irish clergyman. Consecration of 
 St. Barnabas' Church, Homertou. Recollections of conversation. Illness 
 and death of Archbishop Howley. Consecration of South Hackney 
 Church. Newly discovered letters and writings of Jeremy Taylor. 
 Joshua Watson's long and severe illness. Opinion on the right of autho- 
 rity to claim submission. The Gorham Judgment . . . 335 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Advancing old age. Thoughts of approaching death. Conversation. 
 Church Unions. Private charity. Recollections of Mr. Hansard. 
 Death of Bishop Inglis, and of H. H. Norris. "Life of Bishop Ken." 
 Dr. S, W. Warneford's gifts. New Clergy Orphan School at Canterbury. 
 North aisle of Homerton Church. Duke of Wellington's death. 
 Anecdotes of him. Visit of Bishop Broughton : his death Bishop 
 Selwyn. Resignation of the Treasurership of the Additional Curates 
 Society. Recollections of the last autumn of Joshua Watson's life. His 
 illness and death 356
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Parentage of Joshua Watson. His father, John Watson, of a race of 
 Cumberland 'Statesmen : his life and character. Education and early 
 life of Joshua Watson, and his brother, John James Watson, His 
 marriage with Mary Sikes, 
 
 TT is with the sense of a duty which could not piously he declined, 
 JL that the following Memoir has heen drawn up, and is now 
 submitted to the public eye. One, whose life was devoted from 
 his youth to the pursuit of the best gifts, who made it his 
 deliberate choice in the prime of manhood to leave all other 
 occupations that he might consecrate his entire energies to the 
 undivided service of the Church of Christ, and who with equal 
 zeal and constancy persevered in this holy employment to the 
 end, has left an example to those that come after, which the 
 friends of religion and virtue have desired to see recorded. 
 Many years have now passed away, and events of no common 
 interest have marked the time, since he who is commemorated 
 in these pages became known as one whom the spiritual fathers 
 and guides of the Church of England loved to call to their 
 counsels, and whose hand and heart were ever ready to obey the 
 call. Some effort should be made to give to history the true 
 nature and actual results of these counsels. Something is due 
 to the memory of those whose good designs he shared, or who 
 promoted the good which he had first designed. Something is due 
 to the dead, who fostered works of piety and charity; and to 
 the living, who, having partaken of the benefits, are desirous 
 to learn more of their benefactors. But the difficulty of de- 
 scribing a character must always be in proportion to its excel- 
 lence ; and they who saw most of the rare endowments of heart 
 and mind which shone forth in his daily walk, have most reason, 
 to be conscious that the secret springs of the words and deeds 
 they witnessed can never in this world fully be disclosed. 
 
 The forefathers of JOSHUA WATSON were a race of Cumberland 
 'Statesmen, settled for many generations in that part of the 
 county which lies to the north of the Lake-district, towards 
 Holm Cultram and Wigton, near the little estuary to the south 
 of the Solway, formed by the rivers Wampool and Waver where 
 they flow into the sea. Here, at the little village of Dundraw, 
 in the parish of Bromfield, on a small patrimony, which from 
 time immemorial had passed in the same line from father to son, 
 
 B
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 was born John, son of John "Watson, and father of the subject 
 of this Memoir. For reasons which will appear to the reader, 
 a short account must here be given of his life and character. 
 
 He was born some time in A.D. 1738; and, being the younger 
 of two sons, he appears in early life to have had to encounter 
 his full share of a younger brother's fortunes. At an age when 
 the mind of boyhood first becomes capable of forming plans for 
 the future, he had cherished a strong desire to be educated in 
 such learning as might qualify him afterwards to become a 
 candidate for Holy Orders. A worthy grandfather strenuously 
 favoured this inclination; but he failed to obtain his father's 
 consent. What was less justifiable, though in his after-life he 
 spoke of it only in terms of mild regret, the father, in order to 
 discourage the desire more effectually, appears to have used 
 a degree of harshness in his treatment of his younger son. The 
 two brothers were sent for a time together as day-scholars to the 
 small endowed grammar-school at Bromfield ; but while a little 
 pony was provided for the elder to ride to and from the school, 
 three miles distant from home, the younger and weaker was 
 denied any such indulgence. Still he persevered, and had mas- 
 tered the Latin Accidence, and begun to imbibe the Grammar, 
 when he was recalled and made to confine himself to duties 
 more in the way of a farmer's labourer than of a scholar. 
 
 It may perhaps appear to some readers that the wish which 
 he had formed was hardly suitable to the younger son of 
 a yeoman of small estate, however a slight frame of body and 
 a meditative turn of mind might have given him some natural 
 qualifications for it. But it is rather to be regretted, that in 
 other parts of England there is not more encouragement to the 
 sons of such franklins, as they are called in the old language of 
 English law, whose rank and condition is of so much importance 
 in the commonwealth. It is well known, that in Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland the number of old endowed grammar-schools 
 is much beyond the proportion found in the Midland and 
 Southern counties; and, the facilities of education harmonizing 
 very well with the energetic, earnest-minded character of the 
 inhabitants, the Universities and learned professions have been 
 augmented with a more than ordinary number of natives of the 
 dales and mountain side. It is now no uncommon event for the 
 chairs of science and the honorary lists of degrees at Cambridge 
 to be filled by men who derived their birth from the hardy 
 yeomen of the Border. From this part of England also the 
 Church has received some of her most eminent divines and 
 preachers since the revival of learning : such as were the excel- 
 lent Bernard Gilpin, and Archbishops Grindal and Sandys, at
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 the era of the Reformation ; and in the following century, Dr. 
 Thomas Jackson, born in "Weardale in the adjoining county of 
 Durham, Richard Crakanthorpe, and Clement Ellis. Here was 
 also the seat of the original stock of the admirable Bishop 
 Pearson, his father, Richard Pearson, Archdeacon of Suffolk, 
 having been a native of Natland, near Kendal, and of the first 
 of English essayists, Joseph Addison, whose father, Lancelot 
 Addison, Dean of Lichfield, was from Crosby Bavensworth, in 
 "Westmoreland. Under the House of Hanover the character of 
 the district was well maintained by the learned Border-anti- 
 quary Bishop Nicolson, and Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, 
 equally known as a pious divine and able canonical jurist. 
 Most of these distinguished men rose from humble or obscure 
 parentage. If there had been hitherto a lack of names eminent 
 for the literature which addresses itself to the imagination, this 
 reproach has been once for all removed by one who will ever 
 be recorded among the brightest and best of the children of 
 genius and scribes of nature, the honoured and lamented William 
 "Wordsworth. He too received his boyhood's education principally 
 at the little school of Hawkshead, near the lake of Coniston. 
 
 It is probable, therefore, that John "Watson desired for him- 
 self a privilege, of which many of his countrymen, in his own 
 condition of life and with no higher expectations than his own, 
 were frequently partaking in the last century. In fact, it is 
 capable of proof. Among his schoolfellows at Bromfield, from 
 which he afterwards removed to "Wigton, as a school of some- 
 what higher repute, then kept by the Rev. Joseph Elaine, was 
 Jonathan Boucher, a worthy divine, loyalist, and archa3ologist, 
 afterwards Vicar of Epsom in Surrey, of whom some account 
 will be hereafter introduced : and from the same part of Cumber- 
 land, from Sebergham, on the banks of the Caldew, came a short 
 time afterwards the two brothers, John and Joseph Jefferson, 
 both meritorious clergymen, and the latter, well remembered in 
 Essex for his labours in the cause of charity and public educa- 
 tion, the predecessor of Bishop Blomfield in the archdeaconry of 
 Colchester. These contemporaries of the father of Joshua "Watson 
 were all sons of parents who farmed their own patrimonial 
 soil. 
 
 There was, therefore, a want of due discernment in the 
 parent who opposed the early choice in question ; as there can 
 be little doubt, from the testimony of those who knew John 
 "Watson in after years, that if his choice had been indulged, he 
 was one who might have well and worthily ministered at God's 
 altar. As it was, the refusal called forth in the boy's mind all 
 the resolution and independence of his character. He was
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 determined to go the sooner from home and to try his fortune 
 abroad. In the month of January, 1755, being yet under 
 seventeen years of age, he began his wintry journey to London. 
 Some of his friends accompanied him on horseback, as he wound 
 his way through the Lake-district, as far as Kendal: from 
 thence he walked the' rest of the way. His first place was but 
 a paltry one, probably such as a youth unknown in the wide 
 metropolis was glad to accept as the first that offered : he opened 
 and shut the shop of his employer, and carried out parcels, 
 receiving only 10 a-year. A second place was better paid and 
 every way preferable ; but here a severe illness seized him, and 
 he was obliged to resign it to other hands. On his recovery, 
 while he was regretting this loss, he had reason to recognise 
 it as better ordered for him than he could have ordered for 
 himself : for another appointment was almost immediately offered 
 to him with a large augmentation of income. Hitherto he had 
 not ceased to feel, occasionally to feel keenly, the sense of 
 his early disappointment : but seeing that a good Providence 
 had begun to prosper his efforts in another way of life, he 
 laboured at it with unabating industry, and no longer thought 
 of change. Few particulars are known of the following years, 
 till we find him about ten years later successfully established as 
 a wine-merchant on Tower-hill. 
 
 He married Dorothy Robson, who was, like himself, from the 
 North of England, and sister to the Rev. James Robson, Master 
 of Sherborne Hospital in the county of Durham. The late 
 George Robson, the well-known water-colour painter, as amiable 
 in private life as he was distinguished for his studies in moun- 
 tain scenery, was her kinsman. The issue of this marriage were 
 John James Watson, afterwards in Holy Orders, Rector of 
 Hackney, Middlesex, and of Diggeswell, Herts., and Archdeacon 
 of St. Alban's ; and Joshua, the subject of this Memoir, born on 
 Ascension-day, May 9, 1771. 
 
 "When he had lived to see the wish which he had so earnestly 
 cherished for himself fulfilled in the elder of his two sons, and 
 the younger was able to take the more active part of his share 
 in the City business, he withdrew by degrees from the occupation 
 of the counting-house, and made his residence in the suburban 
 village of Homerton, near the spot on which the newly-founded 
 church of St. Barnabas now stands. Here he lived till the death 
 of his wife in A.D. 1812; when, yielding to the affectionate 
 request of his children, he consented to make his abode alter- 
 nately with them, passing the summer months at Diggeswell, 
 and the winter at Clapton. At Clapton, at the house of his 
 younger son, when he had completed his eighty-second year,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 5 
 
 and increasing infirmity had prevented any further removal, 
 he died on the 12th of August, 1821. 
 
 Those who remember the father of Joshua Watson describe 
 him as a man of the simplest habits; one who, though not 
 slothful in business, and rather distinguished for the prudent 
 foresight which is necessary to conduct a merchant's business 
 to success, retained to old age the trustful heart and affectionate 
 spirit of childhood. He found many playful ways of combating 
 the privations he endured from severe deafness, overcoming 
 "that sad exclusion through decay of sense" by the pleasure he 
 found in others' pleasures, and aiding the social mirth of those 
 with whom he could not converse by the blameless sallies of his 
 pen. A short time before his death he had declined, on the plea 
 of old Barzillai, an invitation to the house of Archdeacon Cam- 
 bridge, who had wished to shew him once more the beauties of 
 spring in the woods and meadows of Twickenham. The request 
 was twice urged, but twice sent back in such terms as made the 
 good man who proposed it afterwards bear testimony, that "he 
 had never met with an aged person who had left so sweet an 
 impression on his memory." Sir John Richardson, late Judge 
 in the Court of Common Pleas, when he was welcomed by the 
 old man as his son's friend, was struck by it as something 
 unexpectedly grateful in the manner, from one who, as he speaks 
 of it, " had long ceased to have any personal pleasure or interest 
 in society, except as it made those around him happy." He 
 left behind him, in the words of Bishop Van Mildert, at his most 
 tranquil and Christian-like departure, "an example of blameless 
 excellence;" from which his son, who had ministered to his 
 declining years " with a sort of devotional delight and satisfac- 
 tion, derived much in the formation of his own character" while 
 his aged parent lived,, "and still more in the recollection and 
 imitation of his virtues." 
 
 To these testimonies it may now be added, that, from papers 
 which he left behind, it appears that several years before his 
 death he divided his property between his two sons, reserving 
 to himself a moderate annual allowance for personal expenses, 
 of which, however, he gave away three-fourths in gifts and 
 benefactions. Jfor had he neglected in his days of increasing 
 prosperity to renew a friendly intercourse with his brother and 
 his brother's family in Cumberland ; of whom the present worthy 
 representative, John "Watson of Bolton-park, near Wigton, has 
 done his part to rescue the county from the reproach formerly 
 attached to its uncultivated moorlands, having been adjudged 
 the prize of the Agricultural Society for bringing the greatest 
 number of waste acres under the dominion of the plough.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Among the letters in the handwriting of the old man, pre- 
 served by the pious care of his sons, the following may perhaps 
 serve to confirm what has heen said of his character : 
 
 ' Homerton, Dec. 15, 1807. 
 " MY DEAR JOSHUA, 
 
 " The hopes I had nattered my mind with yesterday are, I am sorry 
 to say, far from being realized. After a sleepless night, I have been 
 very uncomfortable this morning ; and though I feel much easier now, 
 I do not foresee any likelihood of my speedily having the pleasure of 
 taking you by the hand. When, or whether at all, I may be restored 
 to perfect health, God only knows. To His wisdom and goodness I am 
 perfectly resigned, and wish to be duly grateful for the many and great 
 blessings I have enjoyed, with a sincere desire to be duly prepared to 
 meet the awful change in the temper and hope of a true Christian, 
 relying upon the mercies and all-sufficient atonement of pur dear 
 Redeemer. Indeed, I see nothing in this world worth my wishing for 
 any great extension of this earthly lease, except the hope of being better 
 prepared for another; and, living in great concord with my dear friends, 
 who are not numerous, but very dear to my feeling, I dread much the 
 severe pangs the parting with them will occasion. But let us hope and 
 trust that we may be united again in the region of eternal bliss and 
 happiness. You are not to suppose, my dear Joshua, from the above, 
 that I am careless or indifferent about life ; for I am sensible of its 
 being my duty to take the best care I can to keep my old crazy barque 
 from sinking, and I will endeavour faithfully to fulfil this duty. But, 
 considering the seriousness of what I have written, you will not expect 
 to see what follows, yet I make the addition on purpose to shew you 
 I have other thoughts. To-morrow is to be another contract day, and 
 I presume you have a tender before the Board, with prices perhaps 
 somewhat too low, considering the increased probability of hostilities 
 between our country and America. Such an event would certainly 
 enhance the rate of freight and premium from Teneriffe to the West 
 Indian Islands ; consequently it would seem to entitle the contractors 
 to better prices. A war with America is much talked of. If you choose 
 it, you can make a fresh tender to-morrow at Somerset-house. What 
 I say is not said to throw the least damp, or offer any hindrance to your 
 pursuit ; my only wish is, that you should avoid the trouble, in pre- 
 ference to your fulfilling a contract, which may in the issue subject you 
 to a loss. 
 
 "I now drop the subject to tell you that my M.D. has just left us, 
 and assures me that I am going on very well. Your good mother also 
 continues uncommonly well for this season, and considering what she 
 goes through both in body and mind. God be thanked for this and all 
 other mercies. Best united love, &c., 
 
 " J. W." 
 
 During the many years when his power of hearing had be- 
 come so impaired as to deprive him of all share in the words
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of exhortation, he was nevertheless an unfailing attendant at 
 church, joining, as devout custom guided him, in the psalms 
 and prayers, and filling the space occupied by the sermon with 
 quiet wakeful meditation. The Prayer-book was the daily 
 guide of his devotions at home ; " Hole's Offices " and " Wogan 
 on the Lessons " were always by him on his table. 
 
 As it had been this good father's purpose to associate his 
 younger son with him in the business of his house in the City, 
 the .plan of his education was conducted with a view to this 
 destination. In his tenth year he was placed under the care 
 of a Mr. Crawford, at Newington Butts, an old schoolmaster, 
 with whom in earlier days the excellent William Stevens had 
 been a pupil. At the period during which Joshua Watson was 
 at this school, the elder Crawford was assisted by his son, the 
 Rev. William Crawford, then a young graduate from Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, who was afterwards for many years Arch- 
 deacon of Caermarthen, and died in April, 1827, aged 78. Of 
 this junior tutor in particular, and of the kindness with which 
 he had been treated by masters and school-fellows, he often spoke 
 gratefully ; but it was a loss not to be replaced when his brother, 
 who was here for a short time with him, was removed to the 
 Charterhouse to complete his school-course under the classical 
 tuition of Dr. Berdmore. It was, no doubt, a trial to one whose 
 tastes and powers of mind were such as to have afforded the 
 promise of full success in a similar course, to compare that 
 brother's honourable career at a public school with his own more 
 restricted studies a . He remained with the Crawfords till he 
 had attained the age of thirteen only, when, as a more direct 
 preparation for the toils of the counting-house, he was sent for 
 about the next year and a quarter to a school in the City kept 
 by a Mr. Eaton, frequented by sons of merchants, of some repute 
 for preparing them for their business by giving them a knowledge 
 of merchants' accounts, book-keeping, and exchange, and afford- 
 ing facilities for acquiring continental languages. Thus his 
 school-boy days were brought to a close when he was scarcely 
 fifteen; from this period, in A.D. 1786, he was at once taken to 
 assist his father in the counting-house, which had some time 
 before been removed from Tower- hill to 16, Mincing-lane. 
 
 Of these days of his boyhood few recollections have been pre- 
 served, except that he seems to have been a favourite with his 
 
 1 In a list of the scholars at the Charterhouse about A.D. 1787, the name 
 of John James Watson occupies the second place in the sixth form ; the 
 name of Robert Banks Jenkiuson, afterwards second Earl of Liverpool, 
 n'ld for many years Prime Minister, stands eleventh.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 school-fellows, and to have felt some natural regret when he left 
 the school at Newington and bade farewell to his brief literary 
 education. His play-books there were rather singular ones, 
 a translation of Josephus, and an old romance called " Cassandra," 
 of the age of Madame de Scuderi, with which he passed many 
 hours in a corner of the school-room customarily appropriated 
 to him. When he was asked in after years what was the time 
 that he had found for acquiring classical and general know- 
 ledge, his answer was, "he could not at all tell; it all came by 
 chance." His reading in these years was quite unguided ; but 
 he remembered to have read a set of the " British Essayists," 
 and when his father had given him a sum of 50 to lay out 
 in books, he chose for himself a selection of our historians 
 and poets. 
 
 There is an inborn spirit of gladness, which seems to be 
 a merciful gift of Providence supplied to the youthful mind 
 which does not shrink from its appointed task; and while 
 innocence is retained, such a mind is quick to take in all 
 innocent occasions of pleasure. This was eminently seen in 
 the boyhood of Joshua Watson; so that good King George III., 
 who once observed him near to himself at a place of public 
 amusement, was heard to say to some of his attendants, " Look 
 at that happy boy !" 
 
 He now worked assiduously as his father's assistant; and 
 in 1792, as soon as he was of age, he was admitted as his 
 partner. After continuing so employed long enough to establish 
 his character as an intelligent and upright man of business, 
 his father having now retired from aclive life, he was, about 
 the year 1810, sought out and requested to become a partner 
 in a house of the same kind in Mark-lane ; and here it is 
 supposed that, chiefly by executing Government contracts, to 
 which his father's letter just given has some reference, he 
 made the whole of his retiring fortune. Before this period, 
 however, he had long devoted all his spare time to those public 
 labours of charity and benevolence which will live to future 
 years with his memory; and in 1814 he finally withdrew from 
 his City occupations, having given his partners time to supply 
 his place with another merchant of the requisite capital. 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1797, he married Mary, daughter of 
 Thomas Sikes, Esq., banker in Mansion-House-street, and niece 
 of Charles Daubeny, Archdeacon of Sarum. With this excel- 
 lent and highly-gifted woman he lived for thirty-four years in 
 happy union, finding in her an admirable counsellor in the best 
 aims of his life, entire sympathy with his thoughts on matters 
 of duty, and a vigorous intellect, which attracted many minds
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of the first order to the social meetings of the clergy and laity 
 under his roof. In a private diary of the year 1817, noticing 
 the twentieth anniversary of his wedding-day, he adds the 
 words, Ter terque beatus. 
 
 Of the issue of this marriage one daughter only lived heyond 
 childhood ; their first-born son, Joshua Barnston, and an infant, 
 Henry, both dying in the year 1802. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Joshua Watson's earliest friends. Jonathan Boucher, Vicar of Epsom. 
 His proscription in the American Revolution. His character. William 
 Stevens. Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty. His public labours and 
 
 / v 7 * 
 
 charities. Bishop Horne and Jones of Nayland. Feathers Tavern 
 Petition. Francis Wollaston, Bishop Percy, and Bishop Porteus. 
 French Revolution. Society for Reformation of Principles. Jones and 
 William Kirby. Stevens in private life. Club formed by his friends, 
 "which stillflourish.es. His Hutchinsonianism. His death. 
 
 rpHE earliest friends with whom Joshua Watson appears to 
 _L have found advice and guidance beyond the paternal thresh- 
 old were William Stevens and Jonathan Boucher. Both these 
 good men have found a record among the worthies of an elder 
 generation 6 ; but it may be well, as it concerns the subject of 
 this Memoir, to give a short outline of their lives and character, 
 adding a few particulars which have not previously been made 
 public. 
 
 Jonathan Boucher, as has been already mentioned, was a 
 schoolfellow of the father of Joshua Watson in Cumberland. 
 He was born at Blencogo, in the parish of Bromfield, and about 
 a mile and a-half distant from Dundraw, a place which, like 
 several others in Cumberland, still retains its original Celtic 
 name, Blaen-cogau, the cuckow's dell. At the early age of six- 
 teen he went to America, probably with a view to find employ- 
 ment in the service of education, as the famous General Washing- 
 ton was among his pupils. The Vestry of the parish of Hanover, 
 
 b A short notice of Boucher, from the pen of one who seems to have 
 known him well, may be seen in " Nichols's Literary Illustrations of the 
 Eighteenth Century," vol. v. p. 630. The Life of William Stevens, by 
 Judge Park, already referred to, and to which further reference will be 
 made, contains a few additional particulars, p. 173 181. Something is 
 added here from private sources.
 
 io Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 in King George's county in the dominion of Virginia, invited 
 him in 1761, before he was yet in Holy Orders, to accept the 
 rectory of that parish. He did accept it, and after obtain- 
 ing ordination in England resided there, and at the parish of 
 St. Mary's, Caroline county, which he afterwards held, till 
 Sir Robert Eden, Bart., another Cumberland man, becoming 
 Governor of Maryland, appointed him successively Rector of 
 St. Anne's, in Annapolis, and of Queen Anne's in Prince George's 
 county, in that state. 
 
 Here he continued till the American revolution, with which 
 his principles utterly forbidding any compliance, he was ejected, 
 as his own words speak of it, when he had occasion to give 
 a short account of his early history in a preface to a volume of 
 sermons, published in 1797, about twenty years after his return 
 to England. This work he entitled, "A View of the Causes 
 and Consequences of the American Revolution, in Thirteen Dis- 
 courses, preached in North America, between the years 1763 
 and 1775." The preface and notes to the work contain some 
 curious particulars, not perhaps sufficiently attended to by his- 
 torians, of the principal actors in the war, and the extent to 
 which the insurgents were aided by malcontents from the shores 
 of Great Britain. In conversing with his friends on this subject, 
 Jonathan Boucher used to call Franklin the Achitophel, and 
 "Washington the Absalom, of the insurrection. For "Washington 
 he retained a feeling of kindness and respect, dictated, no doubt, 
 in some measure by early private recollections ; and this feeling 
 he shewed by dedicating this volume to him : but the intense 
 spirit of loyalty which animated him, as it happily did also 
 animate the better portion of the English nation, towards the 
 throne and the person of King George III., forbade the slightest 
 sympathy with the cause which resulted in the separation of the 
 colonies from the British Crown. It was known that Boucher's 
 ejection was by no legal process, but of a character too nearly 
 akin to what has been subsequently called in that country by 
 the name of LyncTi-law. He was threatened with personal 
 violence if he continued any longer to use the Prayer for the 
 King in his public ministrations. His resolution was taken at 
 once. He would not abandon his post in a way that might 
 appear like flight from danger; but walking into his church, 
 where his flock were assembled for the last time, he laid a brace 
 of pistols on the pulpit-desk, and delivered his farewell sermon 
 from the text, Neh. vi. 10, 11. The discourse was a calm de- 
 fiance of the worst that could ensue, while it expressed a lively 
 and affectionate sorrow for the interruption of his relations with 
 his people in Maryland, a feeling which he continued ever after
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. n 
 
 to retain ; but "as long as I live," he said, "whilst I have my 
 being, will I, with Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, 
 proclaim, God save the King !" The consequence of this parting 
 address was a sentence of proscription and loss of all things from 
 the insurgent power. 
 
 A few years after his return to England, he was in 1785 pre- 
 sented to the Vicarage of Epsom, in Surrey, which he continued 
 to hold till his death, April 7, 1804. The hereditary patron of 
 this living was one who had previously known him only by 
 character, but who became from this period a most constant and 
 sympathetic friend, the Rev. John Parkhurst, a man worthy of 
 remembrance for his labours to facilitate the study of the sacred 
 languages, and who shewed his regard for Boucher by inscribing 
 to him, together with Bishop Home and Stevens, and another 
 friend, the latest edition of his Hebrew Lexicon. It was to the 
 Curacy of Epsom that John James Watson was ordained in 1 790, 
 as soon as he had completed his course at Oxford ; and it was 
 Joshua "Watson's practice frequently to go down to his brother 
 there on the Saturday, after the close of a week of business, and 
 to return on Monday. It is mentioned by one who knew him 
 well c , that it was a peculiar trait of Boucher's character to be 
 the friend of youth, and where he found in the young a desire 
 to do well, to establish them in the love of truth and holiness. 
 The elder Watson is said to have been sometimes afraid, lest the 
 zeal for reading and learning fostered by this intimacy should 
 draw his younger son too much aside from the pursuits of the 
 counting-house; but it had no such result; the visits con- 
 tributed to form the character of his mind, without hindering 
 his daily occupations ; he used afterwards to say they only drew 
 him from the cricket-field, which he had found the most attrac- 
 tive scene of amusement in his youth. 
 
 Joshua Watson always spoke of Boucher as a remarkable man, 
 who bad profited as much by personal observations made in the 
 varied fortunes of his life, as by study. His general information 
 was such that he could discourse, almost in the way which 
 Osborne describes as the faculty of Lord Bacon, " with every 
 man in the cant of his profession." He was a student of old 
 and provincial English, in which study he employed his latest 
 leisure hours. He was also a skilful linguist in many modern 
 languages, and especially the Spanish, so that it was remembered 
 on one occasion, being unexpectedly thrown into company with 
 a Spaniard, and beginning with some familiar allusion to Cer- 
 vantes, he contrived to turn the conversation into a channel by 
 
 c The kte Judge Park, in his Life of W. Stevens, p. 179.
 
 1 2 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which he effectually engaged the stranger's attention for the 
 evening. 
 
 Towards the two sons of his old schoolfellow he shewed a kind 
 regard, treating the elder with a kind of reverential affection, such 
 as was paid to him by a younger generation in his riper age, but 
 at once appreciating the remarkable judgment and discerning 
 powers of mind in the younger, whom, at an age when few 
 would have thought of seeking his opinion as a critic of com- 
 position or style, he would ask to revise a sermon for him, and 
 when he modestly urged that the author could do that best him- 
 self, his answer was, "Is"o, Joshua; no man is fit to be trusted 
 with the weeding of his own onion-bed." 
 
 It was no ungrateful soil on which this attention was bestowed. 
 At a late period of his life, an opportunity having occurred by 
 which he hoped to shew kindness to a grandson of Boucher's, we 
 find Joshua Watson commending the case to a surviving friend 
 in terms like these : 
 
 " He is the grandson of one who was worthy of any thing that Tories 
 and sound Churchmen could do for himself or his family, Boucher of 
 Epsom, the intimate friend of Horne, Stevens, Park, and other worthies. 
 Parkhurst gave him the living of Epsom. He was driven from America 
 for his loyalty. I have an unfeigned love for the memory of the man . 
 it is associated with the earliest recollections of my boyhood. He was 
 the beloved of all young men, himself one of the most amiable of men ; 
 who laid every one who had much intercourse with him under never-to- 
 be-forgotten obligations to do all the good that might at any time be in 
 then- power, towards any descending from his loins. I had the good 
 fortune to receive much of such obligation as a youth, and most thank- 
 ful should I be to be able to discharge it." 
 
 But a still more effectual influence is to be attributed to 
 Joshua Watson's early intimacy with William Stevens, as the 
 man himself was one whose influence was calculated to be deeper 
 and more permanent. There was much on which his memory 
 dwelt with love in the character of Boucher: there was both 
 love and veneration in his recollection of Stevens. 
 
 William Stevens was indeed one whose life furnishes a re- 
 markable parallel in many points to the life of his younger 
 friend. He was born in the year 1732, in the parish of St. 
 Saviour's, Southwark. His mother was aunt to Bishop Horne, 
 and the two cousins were associates in childhood, and bound 
 through life in the bonds of Christian affection together. After 
 being a short time at the school at Newington Butts, mentioned 
 in the last chapter, he was placed with George Horne at Maid- 
 stone, under the tuition of a learned Clergyman, Deodatus Bye, 
 who had graduated at Oxford in the early part of the last cen-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 13 
 
 tury. To the ability and discernment of this teacher, Jones of 
 Nayland, in his Life of Bishop Home, bears a satisfactory testi- 
 mony. But the two boys both left him at an early age ; Home, 
 vrho was a little the eldest, and a remarkable young scholar, 
 going before he was sixteen to University College, Oxford ; and 
 Stevens at the same time, at the age of fourteen, leaving his 
 classical studies to become apprentice to a hosier in the city of 
 London. Thus his education was as brief as Joshua Watson's, 
 and terminated for a similar purpose. 
 
 At that house in the City, 68, Old Broad-street, he found 
 a home for the remainder of his life. Entering it as an appren- 
 tice in the year 1746, he was, in 1754, taken into partnership, 
 and continued under the same roof till his death at the age of 
 75, in February, 1807. His early education, short as it was, 
 gave a colour to his course of life. In his youth, at all intervals 
 of business, he was so diligent a student that, paying too little 
 regard to his health, he brought himself to the verge of a decline ; 
 but the danger was averted by a periodical sojourn at the Bristol 
 hot wells, under the care of an able physician, who from that 
 time became his constant friend, Dr. Randolph, uncle to Dr. John 
 Randolph, afterwards Bishop of London. This good man had 
 about that time lost an only daughter by the stroke of that 
 gentle disease, and the conversation and correspondence which 
 he held with his patient was full of the tenderness of a Chris- 
 tian and a father. The intimacy thus formed tended to confirm 
 "William Stevens in his study of sacred literature; but he re- 
 turned with renewed assiduity to his City business, in which he 
 had all the success which he desired. This was the more easy, 
 as his manner of life was very simple and self-denying. He 
 appears from early youth to have made a single life his choice, 
 and he sought no pleasures beyond the society of good books and 
 good friends, devoting his spare time and all that he had to those 
 charitable works which found in him so unwearied a supporter. 
 
 It is known that for many years of his life, on the appoint- 
 ment of Archbishop Cornwallis, he filled the important office of 
 Treasurer to Queen Anne's Bounty. The duties of this office 
 naturally brought him into a nearer acquaintance with the needs 
 and difficulties of the poorer portion of the clergy. These, in 
 numberless instances, he relieved from his own purse ; but with 
 a delicate respect in the manner of the gifts, which gave them 
 a grace far beyond the mere tangible value. He was a generous 
 benefactor to the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, a helper 
 of their widows, and an especial supporter of the Clergy Orphan 
 School, to which for many years he contributed an annual dona- 
 tion of fifty pounds over arid above his usual subscription. He
 
 14 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 was a Governor of Christ's Hospital, of the Magdalen, and other 
 public charities ; he never would give his name to a fashionable 
 subscription-list, but his private aids to gentle or simple in dis- 
 tress were such as deserved to be called munificent. 
 
 He was a constant supporter of those old Church-Societies, 
 which the apathy of the Georgian era had but inadequately sus- 
 tained in the last century, the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, and the Society for Propagating the Gospel. But 
 the good work, for which he has earned a more especial remem- 
 brance, was the fund for aiding the disinherited bishops and 
 clergy of the Scottish Church, after the repeal of the scandalous 
 penal laws, under which they so long suffered. Some notion of 
 the strange difficulties interposed, before this scant measure of 
 tardy justice was obtained, may be gathered from Jones's Life of 
 Bishop Horne d . When in 1792 the Act of Relief was passed, it 
 was at once followed by the institution of this fund, promoted in 
 Scotland by Charles William, fourth Duke of Buccleuch, by Sir 
 William Forbes, the friend and biographer of Beattie, and other 
 eminent Scottish laymen, but at once taken up and fostered in 
 England by Stevens and his friends. The original committee 
 contained the names of James Allan Park and John Richardson, 
 both afterwards distinguished members of the judicial bench, 
 and John Bowdler the elder, whose early acquaintance with the 
 nonjuring bishop, Dr. Robert Gordon, had given him an interest 
 in the cause. Several of the London clergy aided it; but the 
 chief praise of what was done was due to Stevens, who laboured 
 with all the zeal of his honest nature to promote it, and himself 
 set the example by contributing the first English subscription 
 of 100. 
 
 In the year 1801, finding the interruptions of business to the 
 objects of higher interest in which he was so entirely engaged, 
 he is said to have relinquished a great portion of the profits of 
 the house in Old Broad-street, in order that he might dedicate 
 his time with less distraction to his labours in the cause of 
 religion and charity. It is indeed rather to be wondered at, 
 that he had not at an earlier period of his life found the one 
 impracticable with the duties of the other : for he had already 
 been led more than, once, and in no trifling way, to employ his 
 pen in the service of sacred criticism, and policy and morals, by 
 the important controversies and serious aspect of the times. He 
 had taken some share in the Feathers Tavern Controversy, in 
 a lively essay, entitled " Cursory Observations on a Pamphlet by 
 the Rev. Francis Wollaston." He had been in controversy \\ ith 
 
 < Jones of Xa^laud. "Work?, vol. vi. p. 137 141.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 15 
 
 the distinguished Hebraist, Dr. Benjamin Kennicott, on the in- 
 tegrity of the received text of the Old Testament, a controversy 
 shared by Bishop Home. He had published a " Discourse on 
 the English Constitution," and some " Strictures" on two re- 
 markable Sermons by Dr. Richard "Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 
 in 1776, not liking the tone in which that popular prelate had 
 defended the change of dynasty in 1688. And he had written 
 an "Essay on the Nature and Constitution of the Christian 
 Church," which may still be found on the List of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge a treatise valuable in itself, 
 and of less temporary interest than some of the previously men- 
 tioned writings. His last publication was a Memoir of his ex- 
 cellent friend and fellow-counsellor, Jones of Nayland, whom he 
 survived only a few years. 
 
 Bishop Home, dying early in 1792, had been removed from 
 the conflicts of the Church militant in the midst of the first 
 paroxysms of the French Revolution. Jones and Stevens were 
 left on the scene with a few of their contemporaries. One of the 
 beneficial designs which they mutually cherished at this period, 
 was the formation of a " Society for the Reformation of Prin- 
 ciples," not unlike to the German Tugend-Bund, which towards 
 the close of the revolutionary war diffused so much vital in- 
 fluence through the Teutonic States on the Continent. This 
 association was not long sustained ; but the knot of friends 
 busied themselves successfully in other ways to oppose the 
 torrent of anarchy and infidelity which was then bursting on 
 the nation. Among these friends were Thomas Calverley, Esq., 
 of Ewell in Surrey, a man worthy of all honour ; Dr. Nathan 
 "Wetherell, Dean of Hereford, and Master of University College, 
 Oxford, father of the well-remembered Sir Charles Wetherell ; 
 Dr. Samuel Glasse, Rector of Wanstead, Essex; and the pious 
 and learned John Parkhurst. Joined with these veterans were 
 several younger associates ; among whom perhaps the latest sur- 
 vivor was the late excellent Christian and philosopher, of kindred 
 spirit with his friend Jones, William Kirby, Rector of Barham, 
 Suffolk, where he died, July 4, 1850, at the age of ninety years*. 
 The centre of the association, however, was at Nayland parsonage. 
 Jones, who retained to his latest years the lively spirit of a boy 
 with more than a common share of manly wisdom, wrote a few 
 short tracts, which were immediately in great demand, and had 
 
 e See an interesting account of Kirby's early acquaintance with Jones, 
 Jones's influence on his character, and his friendly attentions to Jones 
 in his old age and solitude, in the " Life of Kirby by the Rev. John 
 Freeman," chap. iii.
 
 1 6 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 a most extensive circulation. His "Letters to John Bull from 
 his brother Thomas" were read, as he said of them in one of his 
 letters to Kirby, " from the king to the cobbler." Another, 
 which appears to have been nearly as successful, was " A small 
 "Whole-length of Dr. Priestley." Kirby himself contributed 
 " Tom Paine's Picture," having himself the knowledge of certain 
 facts relating to the life of this miscreant from his own observa- 
 tions. But there was something more wanted beyond the ex- 
 posure of the character of the heresiarchs and political assassins 
 of the day. There had been a great neglect of sound theological 
 teaching in the schools in which the clergy and pupils of other 
 learned professions were usually trained. Hence had proceeded 
 those shallow and self-sufficient assailants of the Catholic creeds 
 and confessions, who a short time before had mustered their 
 forces together under Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon of Cleve- 
 land, at the Feathers Tavern, and had provoked Jones's "Fable 
 of the Rats." Others, with better meaning but with little prac- 
 tical wisdom, had played into the hands of those assailants by 
 addressing the bishops for a review and alteration of the Liturgy 
 and Articles, such as might satisfy, according to their notion, all 
 reasonable persons. Among these last was Francis "VVollaston, 
 whom Stevens had answered : with him were Dr. Thomas Percy, 
 afterwards Bishop of Dromore, who left his ancient ballads to 
 reform the Prayer-book ; Dr. James Yorke, not long afterwards 
 made Bishop of St. David's, thence translated to Gloucester and 
 Ely ; and even Beilby Porteus, then Rector of Lambeth, after- 
 wards the amiable Bishop of London, was drawn in with the 
 current; as among the two hundred who followed Absalom in. 
 their simplicity, there were no doubt many loyal subjects. 
 
 To meet the emergency, the remarkable collection of tracts 
 entitled " The Scholar Armed" was now published, a collection 
 which long maintained its place in the library of the theological 
 student, notwithstanding the too rigid Hutchinsonian doctrine 
 of one or two portions of the volumes. And the literary review 
 called the " British Critic" took its rise from the same counsels, 
 though it was subsequently consigned to other hands less di- 
 rectly influenced by them. The design was to establish a sound 
 critical register, which should be conducted on Christian princi- 
 ples, those which were then in existence being either neutral or 
 adverse. For near fifty years this periodical continued to main- 
 tain its character with more or less success, till it was abandoned, 
 after it had ceased to represent the principles which gave it 
 birth, on the shoals of a later and more unhappy controversy. 
 
 There was in Stevens, as may easily be conceived of the near 
 kinsman and friend of Bishop Home, a spirit of primitive piety,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 17 
 
 such as was cherished in the hearts and homes of many sin- 
 cere and zealous members of the Church of England in the last 
 century, and may still be studied in the well-worn Manuals of 
 Private Devotion, compiled chiefly by the nonjuring divines of 
 that period. The due order of daily prayer in some of the Lon- 
 don churches was not yet discontinued, and at this service, chiefly 
 at St. Vedast, Foster-lane, he was a constant attendant. Meet- 
 ing there one day with Mr. Sikes, mentioned in the preceding 
 chapter, to their mutual surprise, the Church being otherwise 
 nearly empty, he said with much good humour to him, as they 
 went out : " Never mind ; if you will not tell of me, I will 
 not tell of you." The only day in the year on which he would 
 not attend was the 5th of November, having little sympathy 
 with the now-abolished State Service, and perhaps not a very 
 strong sense of the benefits resulting from the arrival of the 
 Dutch deliverer. 
 
 Few men have been more beloved by their more immediate 
 friends and acquaintance than William Stevens. There was an 
 irresistible charm in his character, which expressed itself in 
 ways of its own, often so quaint as scarcely to be described by 
 those who witnessed them, yet impressing the memory with a 
 power that could not be forgotten. To a child who had lost her 
 mother at an early age, the daughter of a near friend, he became 
 in childhood a kind of parental monitor. A little later in life, 
 hearing her boasting to some of her female acquaintance of a 
 cheap bargain which she fancied she had made, " yes," said 
 Stevens, " you are fit to live in the world." From any one 
 else, says the narrator, the speech would have gone for one of 
 little meaning ; but from him, who, as she was then well aware, 
 was one who detested all craft and covetousness, it came with 
 heart-searching power. It is a remarkable instance of his ready 
 benevolence, adapting itself to every circumstance in which it 
 might be exercised, that he undertook to direct this young 
 person's early course of reading in theology, in history, and 
 familiar science, writing for her a well-defined plan of study 
 in his own hand, and directing her to the best available au- 
 thorities. 
 
 He shared with his friend Jones a discerning taste and lively 
 enjoyment for sacred music, of which the deservedly popular 
 ps.ilui-tune, called usually by the name of Jones's parish, .Nay- 
 land, is a memorial. "When Jones had composed it, he submitted 
 it to Stevens's critical ear for his approbation; and finding it 
 warmly approved he said, " Then we will call it Stevens." Thus 
 it is supposed the melody first came before the public; but some 
 collectors or editors of Church music, not knowing the origin of 
 
 c
 
 1 8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 the name, altered it to " St. Stephen's;" an error which Stevens 
 himself was pleased to countenance. 
 
 The most remarkable proof, however, of the personal influence 
 of his character, is to be found in the surviving association, 
 which regards him as its founder. His friends, whom he was 
 wont to assemble at periodical visits round his table, were so 
 alive to a sense of the profit and pleasure they had derived from 
 such social meetings, that, when in his old age he could no 
 longer with equal comfort entertain them at his house, they re- 
 solved to form themselves into a society, to which they might 
 invite him as their chief, and which might meet a few times in 
 the year at a place of public hospitality. Hence arose in the 
 year 1800 the club, which has ever since that time flourished 
 under the distinctive title of " Nobody's Friends." Among its 
 earliest members, as may be seen in Judge Park's Memoir, were 
 persons distinguished by rank, by worth, and literary talent, and 
 several members of the three learned professions, attracted by 
 sympathy of principles and admiration of Stevens's personal cha- 
 racter. And that the same spirit survives among them will be 
 evident to the reader, when he is reminded of the names of three 
 of the latest associates whom the club has lost, the late excel- 
 lent Thomas Bowdler, Baron Alderson, and Sir John Patteson. 
 Joshua Watson survived to be the last of the original number, 
 fifty-five years after its foundation. 
 
 To the uninitiated it may be necessary to explain the name of 
 this re-union. As it was Stevens's custom to speak of several 
 of his friends under some familiar appellation, which had a sig- 
 nificant meaning of its own, so he made sport with himself, not 
 without an earnest meaning combined, by calling himself by the 
 name of " Nobody." What he wrote, though he did not conceal 
 himself as the author, was usually without his name ; and when, 
 he made a present of his writings to a friend who had requested 
 it, he would have the volume lettered, somewhat after the vein 
 of Ulysses in the cave of the Cyclops, OYAENO2 EPFA. The 
 remembrance of the genuine humility of heart, which veiled 
 itself under this playfulness, greatly recommended the perpetua- 
 tion of the name. 
 
 Judge Park has related the story, how a respectable and ex- 
 emplary clergyman, residing in a remote part of the country, but 
 having the guod fortune to be intimately acquainted with Mr. 
 Stevens, had written to him requesting help to procure his son 
 an exhibition from a society, called the Elland Society, to main- 
 tain him at Oxford, the expense of a University education being 
 otherwise beyond the father's power. In his answer, Stevens 
 informs him that he was sorry to announce the failure of his ap-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. ig 
 
 plication to the Elland Society; but he had providentially fallen 
 in with another, which might possibly answer his purpose as 
 well. "It is a society," he says, "at present in its infancy, 
 and calls itself the Berean Society, in allusion, I suppose, to the 
 Bereans of old, who searched the Scriptures daily whether 
 these things were so." The fact was, that a few friends had 
 united with Stevens in raising a little fund, from which they, 
 contributed a yearly allowance of 100, to enable the son to 
 prosecute his studies at Oxford ; the society itself was an ideal' 
 creation of his own, to make the father accept it with less 
 scruple. When the youth had completed his University course, 
 and was now on the point of receiving deacon's orders, a dan- 
 gerous illness seized him ; and the anxious father hastened up 
 from his distant residence to Oxford, there attended his sick son, 
 and, by God's blessing, had the satisfaction both of seeing him. 
 restored to health, and afterwards, when Stevens also was pre- 
 sent, of witnessing his first ordination by the hands of Bishop 
 Horsley at Rochester, At parting, Stevens placed in the father's 
 hand the following note, charging him not to open it till he 
 reached the latitude of his Stage-Coach-inn, on Ludgate-hill. 
 
 " Broad-street, March 9, 1802. 
 
 " The Bereans consider themselves greatly obliged to the Rev. 
 
 for his late anxious attention to the young student under their protec- 
 tion, and take the liberty of enclosing a fifty-pound bank note to defray 
 the expense of his long, tedious journey, wishing to add more to it if 
 this is not sufficient for the purpose ; as they cannot think of suffering 
 him to be at any charge for their ward, tifl they have completed the 
 work they undertook, and can congratulate the good father on present- 
 ing to him his son in priest's orders." 
 
 It was, no doubt, known to Judge Park, but the secret was so 
 well kept, that it was unknown to the world till the death of the 
 late distinguished Primate of the Scottish Episcopal Church, 
 that the father in this story was Bishop John Skinner, and the 
 eon Bishop William Skinner, each successively chief pastors of 
 the diocese of Aberdeen, and each in turn raised to the presi- 
 dency of the primitive Episcopate of Scotland f . 
 
 Those who knew the subject of our Memoir in his riper age 
 will be able to imagine with what sympathy of feeling he must 
 have conversed with the good elder, who could with such refine- 
 ment of Christian kindness direct the hand of charity. But 
 while there can be no doubt that the example contributed much 
 
 1 See a notice of Bishop W. Skinner in the Scottish Ecclesiastical 
 Journal, May 22, 1857.
 
 Jo Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 to fix the aims of the younger of this pair of friends, there was 
 also something in the early-matured judgment and well-directed 
 energy of Joshua Watson, which Stevens viewed with indulgent 
 admiration; so that when he entered the room where older 
 heads were assembled, the old man would say in his peculiar 
 tone of mirthful earnest, "Here comes Joshua, the first man of 
 the age." 
 
 In one point it is believed that the same early judgment with- 
 held him from an entire assent to the views of these aged friends. 
 Bishop Home, Jones, and Stevens, and most of their theological 
 allies, were Hutchinsonians. Jones, in particular, defended the 
 Hutchinsonian principles with some rigour ; and he was not 
 without the zealous support of some younger disciples. 
 
 A philosophy, which is no longer popular, is apt to be for- 
 gotten more speedily than it arose to public notice. John 
 Hutchinson was a man of some note among the philosophers of 
 the eighteenth century : it would have been well for the world 
 if all the philosophers of the same period had been guilty of no. 
 more harmful errors. The son of a yeoman of Wensley Dale in 
 the North Riding, where he was born at the village of Spenni- 
 thorne about the year 1675, he passed many of his early years as 
 the steward of some northern collieries, and seems to have been 
 led to his first attempts in natural science by observations of 
 things found in the bowels of the earth. Adding to this study 
 much curious research in the Hebrew language, and seeming to 
 discover meanings in some of the primary words which neither 
 the Jewish Rabbins nor learned Christian Doctors had discovered, 
 he became the founder of a school in theology and philosophy 
 which held that the Divine Author of the universe revealed to 
 mankind at the beginning a system of physical truth, which 
 Moses republished in writing. His writings were voluminous, 
 and dealt much in types and emblems, to which, however, it is 
 impossible to deny the praise of great ingenuity. Some time 
 after hisxleath in the year 1737, his works were published col- 
 lectively by a clergyman, who was one of his pupils, the Rev. 
 Julius Bate, in twelve octavo volumes. 
 
 Among his most distinguished followers and friends was the 
 Hon. Duncan Forbes, Lord President of the Scottish Court of 
 Session ; who actively supporting the House of Hanover in 1745, 
 but loving the cause of humanity and Scotland more, met with 
 so base a return from the government and court of George II. 
 His " Letter to a Bishop," first published in 1732, contains per- 
 haps the best abstract and modest defence of the Hutchinsonian 
 doctrines; for Hutchinson himself, as Forbes justly observes, 
 was "not very solicitous about what is called method and
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 21 
 
 order." The system continued for a long time to find zealous 
 supporters in Scotland, who were not always remarkable for 
 equal moderation. Bishop Gleig complains of them in 1802, in 
 a letter addressed to Boucher : 
 
 "With Hutchinsonianism like Daubeny's*, which can see merit in 
 those who are not Hutchinsonians, I never felt the least inclination to 
 quarrel. It is not indeed so easy for a man to keep his temper when 
 he hears a blockhead call Bishop Bull a deist, and Newton an atheist, 
 merely because the former conceived of the Trinity in Unity in a way 
 somewhat diiferent from Hutchiiison, and because the latter made use 
 of terms in science which Hutchinson did not approve. But our friend 
 at Bath speaks of Newton, and, I dare say, of Bull, in terms of the 
 highest respect ; and though he is much more convinced than probably 
 I shall ever be, of the Hutchinsonian notion of the cherubin, why should 
 a difference of opinion on that subject excite any animosity between us ? 
 The intolerance of the Scottish Hutchinsonians is the greatest objection 
 that I have to them. They might, undisturbed by me, amuse them- 
 selves with their imaginary etherial agents and their fanciful etymolo- 
 gies, if they would only permit me to say and think that the will of God 
 is sufficient to account for all the phenomena without the interposition 
 of their fluids." 
 
 Hutchinson himself, as Jones with his candid sincerity allows* 1 , 
 was very reprehensible for the contempt and asperity with which 
 he treated his opponents ; and he accuses some of his followers 
 of the same vice in controversy. There was at least an equal 
 degree of acrimony in some of their assailants, which forms a 
 topic of complaint in Bishop Home's " Apology for Certain Gen- 
 tlemen of the University of Oxford," a defence of Hutchinsoni- 
 anism full of mild reason. The bias of so many wise and estim- 
 able men was not resisted by Joshua "Watson without a struggle. 
 His friend, William Van Mildert, imbibed, and probably retained 
 at a later period, the Hutchinsonian jealousy of what is called 
 Natural Religion 1 . Others of his coevals were caught by it; 
 but his calmer judgment could not approve of the way in which 
 they made certain texts to bend to their purpose. In deep 
 reverence for the inspired Word of God he was not outdone by 
 the most devout Hutchinsonians; but he could not carry out 
 this reverence to the same consequences. 
 
 Considering the eventful nature of the times in which his 
 later years were passed, some might perhaps expect to find in 
 Stevens's letters to his friends some anxiety about the public 
 
 * Afterwards Archdeacon Daubeny. 
 
 b In his Life of Bishop Home, Works, vol. vi. p. 63. 
 
 1 See the account of the Boyle Lectures iii the next chapter.
 
 22 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 safety, or calculation of approaching fulfilment of prophecies, 
 with which so many pens were then, and are still, occupied. 
 His piety was too practical for this. His prayer no doubt was 
 continually made in the sense of a petition quoted from one of 
 the Fathers by his friend Randolph, " Tit nulla rei carnalis 
 affectio puritatem mentis inficiat, neque ullus malorum tempora- 
 lium timor fortitudinem emolliat." He could say, with good 
 St. Gregory in the midst of public afflictions, " Quid restat, nisi 
 ut inter flagella, quae ex nostris iniquitatibus patimur, gratias 
 agaraus?" 
 
 He writes in 1802: 
 
 " "Whether the country is to continue to exist or not, I cannot tell ; 
 but all the foundations of the earth seem to be out of course ; and I 
 can do nothing to set them right ; you know I am nobody. . . . G. H. 
 Glasse has been dissipating his sorrow by travelling, and has been intro- 
 duced to the First Consul, on the day of his inauguration for life, and 
 of the restoration of Religion ; which it seems is resumed with all its 
 superstitious rites. What say you to this ? For my part, I am such 
 a queer fellow, that I should as soon think of being introduced to the 
 devil as to his prime minister. 
 
 " I spend my time here, at Otham, much to my mind, in having 
 nothing to do, and doing it ; which indeed has been the uniform wish 
 of my whole life, and never more seasonable than at present. I now 
 feel the truth of what old Jones said to me one day with some earnest- 
 ness, 'Well, I do not get on so well between seventy and eighty as 
 between sixty and seventy !' " 
 
 The last hours of "William Stevens were a remarkable con- 
 summation of such a life. 
 
 In one of his earliest letters, written at the age of twenty-one, 
 in one of his retreats to Bristol, he says to Mr. Hookham, "If 
 we were full of the hopes of immortality, the thought of death 
 would be swallowed up in victory ; and we should as cheer- 
 fully lie down to rest in our graves, as we do in our beds, and 
 sleep as securely in one as in the other." This was in July, 1753. 
 Fifty-four years later, on the 6th of February, 1807, he had 
 been passing part of the morning with John Bowdler, and was 
 going out with him to dine with another of his familiar friends. 
 He had put on his great coat, and was just stepping into the 
 carriage, when he was seized with a pain in the chest. Seeing 
 some alteration in him, Mr. Bowdler asked the cause. He an- 
 'swered calmly, " Nothing but death." He was carried to bed, 
 and was immediately attended by two physicians : but he was 
 at once aware that the stroke was too severe for human aid. 
 His friend continued with him during the night, and repeated 
 by his bed some of the Church's prayers for the sick and dying,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 23 
 
 to which he made a calm and distinct answer. At the hou ^f 
 three in the morning he said, " My time is come. dear, good 
 God !" and fell asleep without a struggle or groan., 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The coeval and fraternal friends of Joshua Watson. Sir John Richardson* 
 Thomas Sikes of Guilsborough. Henry Hundley Norris William 
 Van Mildert : his early ministerial life. Composition, of the Boyle 
 Lectures. Difficulties before his promotion. Christopher Wordsworth. 
 
 rpHE subject of this chapter may perhaps he best introduced to 
 _L the reader by the following letter from the late Sir John 
 Richardson, addressed to one of the children of John James 
 Watson ; written in his old age and retirement, and containing 
 a retrospect of his long friendship with Joshua Watson and his 
 brother. The worthy writer was the son of a very dear friend 
 of Mr. Stevens, who, upon Ms father's death, became his kind 
 and careful guardian. 
 
 " Bedford-square, Jan. 10, 1840. 
 
 "I have often reflected, with gratitude to the Giver of all 
 
 good, on the commencement and uninterrupted continuance of my long 
 friendship with John James Watson. It began very soon after my first 
 arrival at Oxford ha the month of January, 1789. On that occasion my 
 paternal friend, Mr. Stevens, conveyed me thither ; when, on entering 
 the town, we stopped at the gate of Magdalen College, of which his 
 cousin, Dr. Home, then Dean of Canterbury, and afterwards Bishop of 
 Norwich, was the President. Here I dined, and passed some happy 
 hours, and at night was conducted by his servant to University College. 
 
 " Early next morning, after attending chapel as a stranger, (for I was 
 not yet a member of the College,) I was invited to breakfast by the 
 Master, Dr. Wetherell, then Dean of Hereford ; after which he entered 
 into a long conversation with me, inquiring about my previous studies, 
 my present means and my future prospects, and giving me much friendly 
 advice. 
 
 "Finding that my means were narrow, he strongly advised me to 
 limit my acquaintance to a chosen few; and having mentioned the 
 names of some individuals, who he thought would not be desirable 
 acquaintance for a young man hi my circumstances, and who happened 
 to nave come from the Charterhouse, he immediately added, ' but do not 
 misunderstand me as intending, in what I have been saying about the 
 Charterhouse-men, to include my friend Mr. Watson. Tnere is not one 
 in the whole College, I believe I might say in the whole University, 
 who I think would prove to you a more valuable acquaintance than he.'
 
 24 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "Your father had not then returned to College from the Christmas 
 vacation; but arriving soon after, I was introduced to him, and was 
 happy to learn that we had some few connexions in common, par- 
 ticularly Mr. Boucher of Epsom, who was an old friend of my father 
 as well as of his. 
 
 " Thus commenced our acquaintance, which by God's blessing speedily 
 ripened into a close friendship, never afterwards in the slightest degree 
 interrupted. He soon afterwards, during one of our vacations, intro- 
 duced me to his father and mother, and to his brother Joshua, then in 
 his father's counting-house, with whom also I had the satisfaction of 
 forming a close and lasting friendship. I had also the pleasure of be- 
 coming intimately acquainted with many members of the Powell family, 
 particularly with "Baden Powell, T. Sikes, H. H. Norris, and their wives, 
 besides your dear mother. 
 
 " It has often struck me that there was a remarkable, I might say 
 a providential, similarity between the lives, the fortunes, and the cha- 
 racters of the Bishop and his cousin on the one hand, and of the Arch- 
 deacon and his brother on the other. In each case the first-named was 
 destined to the clerical profession, and the last-named to mercantile 
 life ; they respectively left school at the same age, and became mem- 
 bers, two of the University of Oxford, and two ot mercantile counting- 
 houses in London. The most unbroken friendship and the most con- 
 fidential intercourse ever continued; and when the clerical students 
 devoted themselves to the study of divinity, the mercantile assiduously 
 imitated their example, and became not at all their inferiors in the 
 soundness of their principles, or in their devoted attachment to our 
 holy Church. The two mercantile men having succeeded in their re- 
 spective walks to the extent of their wishes and realized competent 
 fortunes, retired from their counting-houses ; but instead of giving 
 themselves up to idle lives, or endeavouring to crown ' a life of labour 
 with an age of ease,' continued ever after to devote all the energies of 
 their minds, all their knowledge of business, and very large portions of 
 their fortunes, towards the prosperity of every institution connected 
 with the Church, and other portions equally large to acts of charity 
 and kindness. 
 
 " There was also a great similarity in the minds of the Bishop and 
 the Archdeacon ; each orthodox to the heart's core, and ever refusing 
 to compromise one iota of their heavenly creeds ; yet in their frequent 
 intercourse, both on public and on private occasions, with those who 
 thought and acted differently, ever evincing such urbanity of manners 
 and genuine kindness of heart, as never failed to secure to them the 
 unfeigned respect, and often the sincere attachment, of all around them. 
 
 " Three of these worthies are gone, I trust, to their reward ; and in 
 the course of nature the pilgrimage of the fourth must ere long draw to 
 its close. I humbly, but diffidently hope, that I may graciously be per- 
 mitted to be recognised by them all in another and a better world." 
 
 The writer of this letter speaks of Joshua Watson, like William 
 Stevens, as taking to the study of divinity from the example of 
 his near relative. Probably, however, it was not so much from
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 25 
 
 example, as from the entire union of heart and mind which ruled 
 in both, and the early piety which made his first wish to be like 
 his father's, that he might have devoted his own life to the 
 labours of the Christian priesthood. When from motives of duty 
 he resigned this wish, he did not resign that first love which had 
 prompted it; he felt that the dedication of his brother to that 
 sacred office was a call of God to himself and his father's house ; 
 he thought of it as something that brought a sanctity on all the 
 family, and a new motive to himself to flee from youthful follies, 
 and devote his hours of retirement from the world to the pursuit 
 of that knowledge which raises the soul to a nearer intercourse 
 with God. 
 
 The friends and associates of his youth were the same whom 
 he retained through life. Of Sir John Richardson, who penned 
 this tribute to the two brothers, it is a public testimony not to 
 be omitted by those who are responsible for this Memoir, that, 
 winning his way to the distinguished post which he for a short 
 time occupied in his own profession, he was indebted for it, not 
 more to the ability and skill of his pleadings and practice, than 
 to the pure integrity of his life. As a judge, his brethren on 
 the bench had the highest value for his decisions; and it was 
 lamented as a public loss when his declining health compelled 
 him to an early retirement from the office. Suffering severely 
 from a spasmodic asthma, he was directed by his medical advisers 
 to reside for two years in Malta ; from whence he returned, but 
 so as to live like an invalid, in rooms of which the temperature 
 was carefully adjusted by a thermometer in the uncertain months 
 of the year. Thus his close of life was such as to make him in 
 more senses than one a chamber- counsel; but those who had 
 recourse to him in those years will not easily forget the gentle 
 wisdom and refined delicacy of Christian friendship with which 
 his advice was always ready. His classical taste and love of 
 poetry were undiminished by the severer pursuits of law and 
 judicature ; and, like the subject of this Memoir, his piety found 
 its constant food and refreshment in the pages of Jeremy Taylor. 
 He lived to consign his only daughter to a husband every way 
 worthy of her and of such a father, the present excellent Bishop 
 of New Zealand, who, with his own two sons, attended him in 
 his last moments, and closed his dying eyes a few months before 
 his appointment to his field of missionary labour. 
 
 Two other names must be specially mentioned, as of men who on 
 their own account are worthy of record, Thomas Sikes and Henry 
 Handley Norris. Thomas Sikes, who was his friend from child- 
 hood, had preceded John James Watson to Oxford by about two 
 years ; his first experiment of University life was there made at
 
 2 6 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 St. Edmund Hall, but he shortly removed to Pembroke College, 
 where he took his B.A. degree in November, 1788. It is well 
 known that the Hall was at that period, and for many years 
 later, a school for the noviciate of a class of divines, who have 
 in more recent times enjoyed a large proportion of public favour 
 and patronage, and were then beginning to be remarkable, if 
 not for their learning, for the active zeal and perseverance with 
 which they preached and promoted the truths which they held 
 to be most important and necessary for the time. The long 
 prevalence of the Latitudinarian theology of the last century, 
 and the dry and cold tone of moral preaching, which had sur- 
 vived in too large a measure from the days of Tillotson, and 
 which about this time had called forth the strong animadversions 
 of Bishop Horsley k , were indeed such as to demand an anxious 
 enquiry for some more true and efficacious system of teaching, 
 "testifying repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." But it was seen by many equally earnest and 
 more clear-sighted divines of that time, that the preachers of 
 this rising school were in danger of falling into the old error of 
 men above ordinances, and that their leaders were setting forth 
 views founded in some instances on mistaken and misquoted 
 passages in the writings of Hooker 1 , and in others on rigid 
 statements of doctrine, which even Wesley in his maturer judg- 
 ment had discarded. The effect was a continual secession of 
 young clergymen from the Church to the chapels of Noncon- 
 formity ; a result which might have been expected, when their 
 guides were teaching the enquirer to let the doctrine which he 
 heard from the pulpit, whether in church or conventicle, de- 
 termine his place of worship. 
 
 The strong native sense of Thomas Sikes was at once startled 
 by an apprehension of these dangers ; and probably his early ex- 
 perience of the chairs of doctrine then established at St. Edmund 
 Hall left its impression on his whole life afterwards. His mode 
 of speaking on this subject in later years has been stated in an 
 able controversial essay by Dr. Pusey m ; but from the memory of 
 a narrator, who probably intended to relate the substance rather 
 than the words, as the wisdom of his age seldom indulged in 
 long speeches. He used to say that, wherever he went, he saw 
 many signs of earnest minds among the clergy of his time, and 
 those who were then rising into public notice: but, whether 
 
 k In his Charge to the Clergy of St. David's, 1790. 
 1 As in Scott's " Force of Truth," and other popular manuals of that 
 period. 
 
 m Letter to the late Archbishop of Canterbury, 1842, pp. 33, 34.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 27 
 
 owing to the security of our civil establishment, or a false charity 
 to dissent, one great truth appeared hy common agreement to 
 have been suppressed. Now to teach the rest of the articles of 
 the Creed, to the exclusion of that one Article, was to destroy 
 " the analogy," or proportion " of the faith"." The Article itself 
 involved ritual, discipline, orders and sacred ordinances gene- 
 rally; and its exclusion tended to the subversion of all. But 
 this could not be : some day or other this truth would be again 
 revived, and with such force, as to seem in its turn to swallow 
 up the rest. He used sometimes to speak in almost prophetic 
 terms of the dangerous reaction which he anticipated, and which 
 has since been too fully realized, from the kind of zeal and 
 revenge with which men are impelled to contend for long- 
 neglected truths. "Our confusion now-a-days," he said, "is 
 chiefly owing to the want of asserting this one article of the 
 Creed: and there will be yet more confusion attending its re- 
 vival, when it is thrust on minds unprepared, and on an un- 
 catechized Church ." 
 
 These impressions were more remarkable, as they were im- 
 parted to his friends, and in particular to the younger clergy 
 who visited him, some time before the movement commonly 
 ascribed to the Oxford Tracts. He died before that movement 
 can be said to have been matured, in December, 1834. A private 
 education, and a life of much retirement at his country residence, 
 the vicarage-house of Guilsborough in Northants, had contributed 
 to nourish some peculiarities in his natural character, of which 
 the reader will be enabled to judge from a few portions of his 
 correspondence interspersed with the matter of the following 
 pages. His favourite divine was Herbert Thorndike, a writer 
 of wonderful learning and discernment in theological contro- 
 versies, then known to,few students, but now likely to be much 
 more generally appreciated from the late collection of his works, 
 edited by the Rev. Arthur West Haddan. He delighted to en- 
 gage his friends in the discussion of doctrinal questions ; but he 
 had the faculty of doing this without any of the pride or passion 
 of argument : it was the pure exercise of reason on the highest 
 
 11 Rom. xii. 6. " Adversarius spiritus primo regulam adulterat fidei, et 
 ita ordinem adulterat discipline." Tertullian de Monogam., 2. See Jer. 
 Taylor's Sermon, "The Minister's Duty in Life and Doctrine," Pt. ii. 
 vol. vi. p. 521, ed. Heber. See also some remarks in Prof. J. J. Blunt's 
 Lectures on the " Duties of the Parish Priest," p. 286. 
 
 He seems to have had in mind what St. Chrysostom says in his Preface 
 to his Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesiaus, that the Apostle " in- 
 trusted his deeper thoughts to those disciples who had before been well* 
 instructed by word of mouth :" 1jSr)
 
 z8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 subjects on which reason can be engaged, and the enjoyment of 
 a calm enquiry into the determinations of that science which 
 comprises all that is good and true. On such occasions he would 
 sometimes illustrate his views in the most quaint and familiar 
 manner ; but if his hearers were at any time startled by an ex- 
 pression which seemed to border on levity, a glance of his eye 
 would shew that at the same moment the speaker was moved by 
 nothing but the gladness of a devout spirit, and was incapable 
 of any thought which was not consistent with an habitual rever- 
 ence for sacred things. 
 
 To the poor of his parish he was an unwearied benefactor; 
 and his intercourse with them was that of a paternal friend who 
 could sympathize in all their joys and sorrows. Of the influence 
 which by such means he obtained with them, many touching 
 proofs were given : and particularly at a time when it was sup- 
 posed that he had met with some loss of private fortune, an 
 honest labourer came to see him, and with many expressions of 
 simple-hearted condolence, pressed upon him the acceptance of 
 a weekly portion of his wages, which, he said, it had been agreed 
 between his wife and himself that they could willingly spare. 
 Dying without children, he had by his will bequeathed a small 
 landed estate at Guilsborough to the augmentation of the poor 
 vicarage for his successors ; and though his intentions, owing to 
 the law of mortmain, could not be literally fulfilled, the purpose 
 of his charity has not been forgotten or frustrated by those who 
 have come after him. 
 
 Henry Handley Norris was born in the same year with Joshua 
 "Watson, Jan. 14, 1771. After receiving most of his early educa- 
 tion at a school kept by a master of some ability, the Rev. Dr. 
 Newcome, at Hackney, he studied for another year with a York- 
 shire tutor, the Rev. Jos. "Whiteley, at Beeston, near Leeds ; 
 and proceeding to Peterhouse, Cambridge, took his degrees of 
 B.A. in 1793, and of M.A. in 1796. The son and grandson of 
 two wealthy London merchants, and the only son of his father, 
 the fortune which he inherited was such as would have made 
 his choice of the sacred service of the Church under any circum- 
 stances a choice of disinterested love ; but in his case it was more 
 especially so, as he had to undergo a strong resistance to his wish 
 on the part of one to whose authority it was most painful to be 
 opposed. It is right to speak with reverential caution of those 
 who have been long dead; but it seems that there was, for 
 a time at least, a degree of " the high imperatory hand" in this 
 resistance. The grandfather, on the contrary, appears while he 
 lived to have encouraged a desire, which he perhaps more reason- 
 ably discerned to be inspired by higher guidance. For there was
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 29 
 
 evidently from very early years a strong conviction on the mind 
 of this benevolent and zealous man, that the dangers of the time, 
 and the conflicts to which the Christian cause was subjected in 
 the paroxysms which pervaded all Europe at the close of the 
 eighteenth century, were only to be effectually met by a spirit 
 of earnest self-devotion, and large sacrifices of private wealth, 
 and liberty, and ease. Those who remember the eminent services 
 of his after-life, and the influence which he nobly won for him- 
 self by his untiring public labours, sustained as these labours 
 were to the latest period of his good old age, will accept with 
 interest a few particulars of his character as it was manifested 
 in the years of his youth, and his impressions of men and things 
 at the time when a providential accident, as he gratefully records 
 it, first led him to be acquainted with Joshua Watson. After 
 his death there were found in the most secret depository of his 
 papers some journals of his daily life in these early years, 
 records which appear never to have been submitted to any eye 
 but his own, and which, perhaps, he himself had laid aside and 
 forgotten as more busy times succeeded. Some responsibility 
 must be felt on the part of any survivor in turning such papers 
 to any public use ; but while no reason exists for making public 
 what could only serve to amuse an idle curiosity, and while 
 there would be no good purpose served by producing more trivial 
 details, though even in these there is nothing to offend, there is 
 a lesson to be learnt from the proofs which these papers afford 
 of the diligent seed-time and vigorous self-discipline of a life 
 which held on in single-hearted consistency to the end. 
 
 From a few sentences at the beginning of one of these private 
 journals, it is evident that he determined for a time to set down 
 a record of daily occurrences, from considering that all the actions 
 of a man's life are subject to a higher book of remembrance, and 
 that a severe exercise of judgment over ourselves is the way to 
 prepare for a time of unerring judgment. This was when his 
 thoughts were directed to studying for Holy Orders, shortly after 
 the completion of his twenty-third year. From this time he was 
 frequently a visitor for the purposes of study at the house of 
 Thomas Sikes, the peaceful vicarage of Guilsborough ; and here 
 he became acquainted with an excellent clergyman, to whose 
 curacy he was ordained two years later, the Rev. John Sikes 
 Sawbridge, Vicar of Stretton-on-Dunsmore, whose friendship he 
 retained through life. His acquaintance with Joshua "Watson 
 had been formed a short time previously. In June, 1794, a com- 
 pany of the Shropshire militia having been quartered at Hackney, 
 and the good conduct of the men having recommended them to 
 the loyal inhabitants, the services of Joshua Watson and Henry
 
 30 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 H. Norris were employed in raising a subscription to give them 
 a public dinner on the King's birthday. From this first acci- 
 dental introduction a friendship grew up, which continued un- 
 broken for near sixty years. How they took early counsel 
 together, we may in some degree judge from a few notices in, 
 the journal of the following year : 
 
 " Oct. 20, 1795. Left home with Joshua Watson on a visit to T. Slices 
 at Guilsborough. It is an observation of Jones, in his Life of Bishop 
 Home, ' Where uncertainty is the prize, what encouragement is there 
 to strive for it p ?' Apply this to religion: how idly do they spend then- 
 time who, rather than conform their lives to the precepts of the Gospel, 
 endeavour to persuade themselves that the Gospel may be untrue ! 
 
 "The notion of the King being one of the three estates was first 
 broached before the Civil \V ars in Charles I.'s time. The three estates 
 are properly made up of the Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and 
 Commons, as may be seen by referring to State Papers in the time of 
 Henry III. The Jesuits first taught the opinion of all power being de- 
 rived from the people \ that by depressing the kingly authority they 
 might raise the power of the pope. 
 
 " Oct. 21. Our conversation after dinner turned upon the question, 
 whether philosophy fits or unfits the mind for receiving the truths of 
 Christianity. Whatever has a tendency to extol human reason gratifies 
 the pride inherent in our nature, and induces us to make it the test of 
 whatever truths are proposed for our acceptance. 
 
 "The difference between a deist and natural religionist. By the 
 former we mean one who, having received the truths of Christianity, 
 rejects them; the hitter has never had these truths proposed to him ; 
 he has stretched his enquiries after truth as far as human reason can 
 carry him, but has never had the advantage of a revelation. Of the 
 former sort are Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury, &c. ; of the latter, Cicero 
 and Plato. 
 
 " Oct. 26. Our conversation this day turned upon the tenets of the 
 Hutchinsonians. The founder of this sect endeavoured to overturn the 
 philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, imagining it to have a tendency to- 
 wards deism, and set up another system in its stead. The effects which 
 Newton ascribed to gravitation, Hutchinson supposed to be caused by 
 continual impulse, wishing rather to regard the Deity as constantly 
 superintending and causing what we see to be produced, than as having 
 first given to created things their motion, and contrived that they should 
 not require His further attention. The theory of one may be compared 
 to an organ which requires continual winding to produce its sounds ; 
 that of the other to a clock, which, when once wound up,goes on for 
 its appointed time without further superintendence. Hutchinson's 
 notions in philosophy are very fanciful and mysterious, his notions in 
 
 P See Jones's Works, vol. vi. p. 83. 
 
 * " Regia potestas, si legitima est, a civibus ortum habet : Via concedenti- 
 bns primi Reges in quaque republica in reruin fastigio collocati suut." 
 (Mariana de Rege, lib. i. c. 8.)
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 31 
 
 religion pious in the extreme : he makes everything in the material 
 world furnish him with some type of heaven, and finds mysteries in all 
 parts of the history of the sacred Scriptures. His piety is worth every 
 man's imitation ; but his style is overshadowed by the abuse in which 
 he indulges against his opponents, and an appearance of self-sufficiency 
 runs through nis writings. Every good man must admire his religious 
 feelings, and his indefatigable labour in searcliing after truth ; while at 
 the same time he cannot help smiling at some of his strange fancies. 
 The same character seems to belong, in some measure, to his followers. 
 
 "Aar. 14. Rode with Watson to N , to examine a collection of 
 
 books for sale. It was lamentable to see works of the venerable 
 Fathers of the Church, and numbers of our own ancient worthies, 
 lying mouldy and neglected, stained entirely through by the damp, 
 and half consumed by worms. We rescued about sixty of the most 
 valuable from the ruin which seemed to threaten them. The terms 
 demanded and acquiesced in were two shillings a-piece. 
 
 " A ov. 17. Watson employed himself all the morning in polishing 
 up the covers of the rescued books; I assisted T. Sikes in planting. 
 But this evening, about five o'clock, we experienced a severe loss by 
 the departure of Joshua Watson, who set off on his return to London. 
 In him is centred every requisite to complete the character of a pleasant 
 companion and sincere friend. For the former capacity he possesses 
 a strong mind, well stored with thoughts on every subject, which 
 a most retentive memory enables him to draw forth at pleasure. 
 Though diffident in delivering his opinion, he is by no means reserved, 
 and is equally happy when giving information or receiving it himself. 
 His judgment is correct, his attention always at command; and whilst 
 in arguing he sticks close to his subject, and defends the point he con- 
 tends for with acuteness, he is always open to conviction, and ever 
 ready to acknowledge it. For the latter, unaffected good-nature, gene- 
 rosity, and every Christian virtue, stimulated and enlivened by a fervent 
 piety and zeal for religion. 
 
 " On this occasion I cannot help reflecting how wonderfully events 
 are brought about bv causes to which they appear to bear not the 
 slightest analogy, ifad not the turbulent spirit of our hot-headed re- 
 formers made it necessary to quarter some troops at Hackney, we in all 
 probability had never been acquainted. The ways of Providence are 
 inscrutable: and he, who refers to that inexhaustible source all the 
 good he meets with, has a secret worth more than all the boasted 
 sagacity of the philosopher of the present world." 
 
 It may seem that the following extract bears less directly oa 
 the subject of this Memoir, but as it occurs in the same journal 
 at the same period, and was evidently dictated under the same 
 influence, it is too interesting and important to be omitted : 
 
 "Nov. 11, 1795. When I compare the present state of my mind, the 
 kind of life I lead, and the company I keep, with what they were two 
 years ai:o, I am startled and amazed. The retrospect fills me with con- 
 fusion, whilst all before me is peace and tranquillity. How can this be ?
 
 32 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 what can have produced a change so wonderful ? My understanding 
 was weak and unimproved, under the control of a wayward will ; my 
 passions were impetuous and unrestrained ; the voice of reason and con- 
 science disregarded. How vain then must have been my own unassisted 
 endeavours to extricate myself from this degraded state ! But with God 
 nothing is impossible. What His infinite mercy wills for the recovery 
 of His fallen creatures, His infinite power can accomplish ; and though 
 it seem best to His wisdom to act by second causes rather than by an 
 open manifestation of Himself, still it is Himself who influences and 
 directs those whom He is pleased to make the executors of His will : 
 'Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but it is God which giveth the in- 
 crease.' To Thee therefore be the glory, O most merciful Father ; Thy 
 hand hath rescued the most worthless of Thy creatures from eternal 
 misery ; Thy preventing grace was aiforded me when I was sunk deep 
 in wickedness ; that grace has ever since assisted me ; and, though I 
 have frequently resisted its aid, it still continues to be my guide. And 
 further intimations of Thy beneficent will towards me are now afforded, 
 in Thy appointment of so remarkable a pattern of true piety to be the 
 person by whose recommendation and upon whose cure I shall be 
 admitted into Thy ministry. For these Thy mercies accept the thanks- 
 givings of a heart desirous of devoting itself to Thy service, and humbly 
 imploring Thy further grace and protection, that the work Thou hast in 
 Thy infinite goodness begun in me may be happily completed ; so that, 
 when it shall please Thee to call me from this vale of misery, I may be 
 considered, through the merits of my Redeemer, as meet to be partaker 
 with the saints in light. Receive, God, these my petitions, through 
 the mediation of Thy blessed Son, my Saviour and Redeemer. Amen." 
 
 One more passage must here be added, expressive of his 
 strong dislike of a character, now, it is to be hoped, more rarely 
 found in the ranks of the sacred profession which he was about 
 to enter : 
 
 "Nov. 12. Dined at H . Met there, among others, a sporting 
 
 parson. A drawing-master at Oxford used to set before his scholars 
 copies remarkable for false perspective and other faults, that the un- 
 sightliness of their appearance might induce the pupils to guard against 
 the like errors themselves. May I make the same use of the above ex- 
 ample ; and, whilst I observe with concern our holy religion disgraced 
 by abandoned characters, may I endeavour by my life and conversation 
 to adorn the doctrine of my God and Saviour ! Yet, whilst by the 
 mercy of God I am enabled both to will and to do what is right, may I 
 preserve a Christian charity towards those whose state rather challenges 
 my pity than my contempt. If in the pride of my heart I say to a fallen 
 brother, Stand apart, I am holier than thou ; God, who resistcth the 
 proud, may quickly change our situations, and I may experience to my 
 loss the dreadful effect of His decree, that 'he that exalteth himself 
 shall be abased.' " 
 
 Such were this good man's secret aspirations at this most 
 critical period of his life ; and such the commencement of
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 33 
 
 a union of counsels with the subject of this Memoir, the fruit of 
 which was manifested in a long course of admirable public 
 labours, of which it will be the object of the following pages to 
 bear record. We must now speak of one or two other early 
 friends of Joshua Watson, whose names will at once shew their 
 claim to a special remembrance. 
 
 William Van Mildert had been preferred to the living of 
 St. Mary-le-Bow in October, 1 796, and it seems that it was not 
 long afterwards that he became acquainted with Joshua Watson ; 
 an acquaintance which their harmony of opinions, and frequent 
 mutual conference on points of faith and practice, soon ripened 
 into friendship. The forefathers of this excellent man, subse- 
 quently one of the best divines and most exemplary prelates of 
 the English Church, were, as the name would lead one to infer, 
 of Dutch extraction. His great-grandfather, Daniel Yan Mildert, 
 appears to have been naturalized in England in the reign of 
 William III. His father, Cornelius, was a distiller in Blackman- 
 street, with a suburban residence at Newington in Surrey ; 
 where the future bishop, who was born Nov. 6, 1765, was 
 baptized by the hands of Dr. Samuel Horsley, then rector of the 
 parish, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, and well known as the 
 learned champion of the Christian faith against Priestley and 
 his followers. After receiving his early education at Merchant 
 Tailors' School, he was removed to Queen's College, Oxford, 
 where he took his B.A. degree in November, 1787, and became 
 M.A. in 1790. His own resolved choice in the years of boyhood 
 had led him to desire to be admitted to Holy Orders. He was 
 accordingly ordained Deacon in 1788, and Priest in the follow- 
 ing year, by Dr. Edward Smallwell, then Bishop of Oxford ; and 
 appears to have attracted the favourable notice of a good and 
 learned man, Houstone Radcliffe of Brasenose College, then the 
 Bishop's Examining Chaplain, afterwards Archdeacon of Canter- 
 bury, in which office he died at a very advanced age in the early 
 part of the year 1822. His tutor at Queen's College, was also 
 a man whose discernment was equalled by his benevolence, the 
 worthy Septimus Coliinson, afterwards Head of the House, and 
 for many years Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford. His 
 affectionate regard for his pupil was manifested in many ways 
 while they were in that mutual relation to each other, and did 
 not cease to be retained in later years. 
 
 After serving for a short time a curacy near Oxford, and 
 another in Kent, he was recommended by Dr. llobert Finch, 
 Prebendary of Westminster, and by Iladcliffe, in 1790, to be 
 Curate to Andrew Downes, Vicar of Witham in Essex. Here he 
 remained for about five years, till he obtained his first prefer-
 
 34 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 tnent, the Eectory of Bradden, near Towcester, in Northampton- 
 shire. Of Mr. Downes he always spoke with grateful remem- 
 brance, and in the later years of his life thought himself happy 
 if he could shew any kindness to the members of his family. 
 And there can be no doubt that his own ministerial character 
 was much indebted to the training which he received from this 
 excellent clergyman, who, though an invalid, was a pattern to 
 all younger disciples in the work of the ministry. To the living 
 of Bradden he was presented by his brother-in-law, Mr. Ives ; 
 but had scarcely time to do more than begin building a parson- 
 age, when his maternal uncle, Mr. Hill, of the Grocers' Company, 
 procured him an appointment more calculated to give exercise 
 to his public energies, in the care of a London parish, that of 
 St. Mary-le-bow. 
 
 This living being then, as it is now, unprovided with a par- 
 sonage, William Van Milclert took a house in Ely-place, Holborn, 
 distant about a quarter of an hour's walk from the church in the 
 well-known centre of Cheapside. A kinsman of the Bishop, who 
 seems to have been entrusted with the use of his papers, has 
 thought it worth while to defend his character from an imputa- 
 tion of non-residence arising from a paltry prosecution, to which, 
 before the law took away such facilities of annoyance, he was on 
 this ground subjected by a common informer'. It would have 
 been of more interest, if we could have obtained from this 
 Memoir a little more insight into the mode of life and studies 
 pursued by the worthy divine before he attained the eminence, 
 for which his " Boyle Lectures,'' preached at Bow Church be- 
 tween the years 1802 and 1805, seemed to prepare him. We 
 only find, from his correspondence with Joshua Watson, that he 
 was soon engaged in the service of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge ; and a short time before the publication of 
 the "Boyle Lectures," he seems to have given some literary 
 assistance to the Editor of the " Anti-Jacobin," and to have had 
 a share in the selection of the Tracts republished in the " Church- 
 man's Remembrancer," a publication instituted, in concert with 
 H. H. Norris and Joshua Watson, with much the same object as 
 led Jones of Nayland to the publication of the " Scholar Armed." 
 Of five valuable tracts, which the first volume contains, the first 
 and third, published in 1802 and 1803, are by Waterland, and 
 were edited with short literary notices, which though anonym- 
 ous, we may believe to have been prepared by the future bio- 
 grapher and editor of Waterland. The second was a reprint 
 of Dr. Thomas Winchester's able "Historical Essay on the 
 
 r Mtmoir, by the Rev. Cornelius Ives, pp. 16 19.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 35 
 
 Seventeenth Article," with an account of the writer by Ralph 
 Churton, afterwards Archdeacon of St. David's. The fourth and 
 fifth were Bp. Barlow's account of the Hampton Court Confer- 
 ence, and some extracts from a celebrated old Cambridge treatise, 
 " Plaifere's Appello Evangelium." The selection of these ex- 
 tracts may have been a matter of joint counsel, but the preface 
 to Plaifere, as probably also that to Bp. Barlow's tract, is now 
 known to be Van Mildert's". 
 
 It is not unlikely that William Stevens had a share in the 
 advice under which the associated friends were now acting. 
 Van Mildert was acquainted with him towards the close of his 
 valuable life, and, though not one of the original members of 
 " Nobody's," he was soon afterwards numbered among them, on 
 the nomination of the worthy founder himself, Nov. 29, 1802. 
 
 In the meantime, the Boyle Lectures were proceeding, and 
 after they had received their last revision, were published about 
 the month of July, 1806. The following extracts from some 
 short letters, which were frequently interchanged at this period 
 between the two friends, who were in continual conference, will 
 shew how much Van Mildert relied upon his lay-counsellor's 
 advice on the argument he had undertaken, and how anxiously 
 he sought the final approval of the same friendly and discerning 
 eye which had watched over his work during its progress. They 
 will be read with some interest, as proving, to the greater honour 
 of this good Christian advocate, with what conscientious care he 
 weighed what he was about to submit to the public eye in de- 
 fence of such a sacred cause. 
 
 "Aug. 10, 1805. I shall as soon as possible look through the MS., 
 and your comments, for which I esteem myself much obliged to you. 
 Any suggestions from such a quarter I shall receive with attention and 
 thankfulness. In the meantime, I am much flattered by your general 
 approbation, but shall wish to confer with you whether it will be neces- 
 sary to re-compose the whole, a task which I fear I shall hardly have 
 resolution to perform. 
 
 "Nov. 8. If by keeping the proof-sheet another day, you can give me 
 the benefit of any additional criticisms, I will thank you to retain it, as 
 I am anxious that the introductory part of the work should be as unex- 
 ceptionable as possible. Therefore the more free your remarks are, 
 the more I shall be obliged to you. 
 
 ' Dec. 23, 1805. I am very unwilling to trespass upon time so valuable 
 as yours ; but as I never feel my reputation so safe as in your hands, I 
 (smnot help wishing that you would run over the MS., which I herewith 
 M'ud to you. 1 was so exceedingly uissutiaiied with the original draft, 
 that I have re-cast almost the whole, and am eveu now very diffident of 
 
 Letter to Joshua Watson, Nov. 13, 1805.
 
 36 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 its sufficiency. It is meant, however, as a mere sketch of a subject of 
 vast magnitude and extent. 
 
 " Jan. 25, 1806. I send you to-day a double portion of Sunday 
 reading, but I fear you will find it more than a Saboath-day's journey 
 to travel through both the MSS. In that case I must trust to your 
 being able to perform the remainder at another opportunity ; but I wish 
 to apprize you, that I intend to trouble you in the course of next week 
 with two more, which are to form part of the second volume, which I 
 purpose to put into the compositors' hands as speedily as possible, that 
 I may have Doth irons in the fire at the same time. Unless I do this, I 
 see no chance of the work coming out before the dog-days ; and even 
 with two presses at work, I foresee it will require an extraordinary de- 
 gree of activity to be ready before the metropolis is deserted. This, I 
 hope, will be a sufficient apology if I venture to give you more trouble 
 than I could otherwise think ot doing. But, believe me, it is neither 
 compliment nor affectation when I say, that after the benefit I have 
 already derived from your judicious and friendly criticisms, I cannot 
 comfortably and satisfactorily go into press without having passed the 
 ordeal of your inspection." 
 
 The next is in another hand : 
 
 "Jan. 31, 1806. Mr. Van Mildert is gone to attend a committee on 
 the aifairs of his church. He has been much wishing to see you, that 
 he might have your further judgment on Lecture XIV. He cannot 
 satisfy his mind on the most esseiftial points ; and difficulties increase in 
 proportion with his endeavours to elucidate. In short, his poor brains 
 are quite confused, and unless you are at liberty to assist him with your 
 sound reasonings, friendly criticisms, and excellent judgment on this 
 most important subject, he says the press must stand still at least for 
 ten days. The approaching Confirmation, and a variety of other pro- 
 fessional concerns, all concur to harass him just now, and disqualify 
 him for the task of revising his work, which he will never have the 
 courage to present to the public, unless it be stamped with your appro- 
 bation. Pardon me for entreating you to exercise your talents once 
 more, as kindly and as judiciously as you have done for the same object 
 at least thirteen times before." 
 
 This fourteenth Lecture, to which is prefixed the title, " The 
 Inability of Man to frame a Religion for himself," appears to 
 have been most carefully cast and re-cast, and to have gone 
 many journeys to and fro between the house in the City and 
 Ely-place, before it was considered fit for the public eye. 
 
 "Feb. 25, 1806. Another Lecture humbly solicits your attention, 
 whenever a day of leisure occurs ; whether it be a fast-day or any other 
 
 day fitter for such an occupation Be so good as to let me have 
 
 this number returned before Saturday, when I shall probably venture to 
 trouble you with another. After that you need never fear being mo- 
 lested with more than one in a week, iut do not forget that you have 
 No. XIV. in hand."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 37 
 
 " Ely-place, March 15, 1806. 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " The last No. of Vol. I. waits upon you for your friendly revision. 
 As soon as you have done with it, it must go to press, the printers 
 having suspended work since Wednesday last for want of copy. As to 
 No. XIV., I have not dared to send it, feeling so many alarms about it, 
 that I intend almost to re-compose it entirely, yet I am inclined to think 
 that what is said concerning Rom: i. 20 and Acts xiv. 17 will hold good, 
 if qualified, as you have judiciously suggested, with proper restrictions. 
 Have you Ellis's great work, ' On the Knowledge of Divine Things ?' 
 If you have, I wish you would at your leisure look into it from p. 266 
 to p. 300. I think I may safely shelter myself under his wings '. 
 
 " If I were not ' careful and troubled about many things,' I should 
 have something to say respecting certain additional obligations of a very 
 weighty kind, which I find you have lately laid upon me.' The Vicar of 
 
 G can explain to you what I allude to. I have no time at present 
 
 to say more, than that I am 
 
 " Your sincerely obliged and affectionate Friend, 
 
 "W. V. M." 
 
 "March 29. I have just met, in my way hither, a friend who has 
 represented to me .your multiplicity of troubles and difficulties. I have 
 therefore resolved to give you to-morrow a complete day of rest, so far 
 as the removal of my intended burden can affect it ; I have therefore 
 pocketed No. XIV., to carry home again; and, if upon a re-perusal 
 1 can satisfy myself with it, it shall go to the printer without giving you 
 any further trouble. If not, I will endeavour to look in upon you some 
 evening in next week, just to take your advice on a few particular 
 passages. I am indeed very much grieved to have already made such 
 unreasonable encroachments on your time, but I know not where to 
 find a friend who can really be a substitute for you. 
 
 "April%, 1806. I thank you for your kind communication. No 
 apology can possibly be needful from you to me, when the debt of 
 obligation is all on my side, and the good offices of friendly assistance 
 exclusively your own. If- 1 did not deeply feel the real valtte of those 
 services, you would be less molested with my applications for them. 
 Nothing but this sense of their value should induce me to trespass so 
 much on time which I know so many others are desirous of profiting by 
 as well as myself. 
 
 See the Notes to the Boyle Lectures, particularly the last Note on 
 Serm XIV. Bp. Van Mildert, as well as his excellent successor and friend, 
 Bp. Charles Lloyd, commended Ellis's work to the notice of theological 
 students. It must, however, be confessed that, in their aversion to what 
 used to be called by the Freethinkers the Religion of Nature, Ellis and his 
 disciples went too far, seeming to deny that man could, by rightly exercising 
 the gift of reason, arrive at a First Cause. Justin Martyr saw no necess iry 
 antagonism between a traditional and a rational religion. Apol. i. 44, 46 ; 
 ii. 10. This was probably the doubt which delayed the printing of this 
 Lecture. See Socrat., EccL Hist. iii. 17.
 
 38 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " I now send you No. XIV. for your last revision. I have endeavoured 
 to clear it as much as possible of exceptionable matter, and have revised 
 it throughout. On looking over it again I am somewhat more at ease 
 about it than I was, when in a sort of panic I sent it to you ; but still 
 I shall be better satisfied if you will give me your opinion of it in its 
 present state. For this purpose, unless you have time and inclination 
 to go through it, you need not trouble yourself to do more than examine 
 those pages and paragraphs which I have marked. I will leave it with 
 you till Saturday morning, when T hope to call for it. 
 
 " I send you at the same time No. XVI., not meaning that you should 
 trouble yourself about it till Sunday next, or later ; but because it has 
 been folded up in readiness for you for some days past. 
 
 "May 3, 1806. I now send you No. XIX., hoping to send No. XX. 
 on Saturdav. Remember, for your comfort, that No. XXIV. will be 
 thejinale of the opera. 
 
 "May 10. I send you No. XX., put together in most awkward 
 fashion, but I think it will not greatly puzzle a man of your sagacity. 
 I intend to re-compose the whole, but have only found time to go 
 through the smaller half of it, I therefore wish you to examine it as it 
 is ; i. e. the corrected half, and the uncorrected remaining part. But 
 perhaps you may not have finished No. XIX. If so, do not trouble 
 yourself with this till next week, and I will endeavour to call on Monday 
 Star one of them. 
 
 " I have just met with a copy of Bullet's work ", which we were 
 speaking of the other day, and of which I beg your kind acceptance ; I 
 shall be happy to add even so humble an offering to your already well- 
 furnished library." 
 
 At length, on the 24th of July, he was able to send his friend 
 the following letter, with a presentation copy of the Lectures : 
 
 " MY DEAB. FKIEND, 
 
 " The work is done, and the little man in St. Paul's Churchyard has 
 been so alert, that on my arrival in town an hour or two ago I found 
 myself in possession of a considerable number of copies. The very first 
 that goes out of my hands I consider due to you, who have most kindly 
 assisted in the completion of it, and will be justly entitled to a good 
 portion of any commendation it may be so fortunate as to obtain. If 
 I now feel any trepidation at its appearance before the public, and in 
 truth not a little palpitation is excited, what should I not have suffered 
 if I had not had the benefit of your friendly correction and revision ? 
 To-morrow I shall be busily employed in distributing the copies which 
 my friends have kindly bespoken : and among the rest I shall not fail 
 to send the ten whicn you have desired. But of this copy I must 
 request your acceptance as a present ' from the Author,' and a token, 
 
 n The History of the Establishment of Christianity, compiled from 
 Jewish and Heathen Authors only. Translated from the French of Pro- 
 fessor Bullet, by Salisbury. 8vo., 1776. See Boyle Lectures, Xotes on 
 Serin. IV.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 39 
 
 however inadequate, of the deep sense which he entertains of the 
 services you have rendered him. I prefer sending it, though in so 
 humble a guise, that I may at least have the credit of losing no time in 
 discharging a very small part of the obligations which I owe. Believe 
 me to be, with the truest regard and gratitude, 
 
 " Your ever obliged and affectionate Friend, 
 
 " WILLIAM VAN MILDEST." 
 
 "Within two years after the publication of the Boyle Lectures 
 a second edition Avas called for, to which the author added some 
 copious notes, proving what a number of writers he had read 
 and digested for the illustration of his work. It went through 
 four editions in the course of a few years, and effectually established 
 his reputation as a divine, a writer of comprehensive mind and 
 memory, a calm, unwearied reasoner, who never trifled with the 
 weighty argument which he felt constrained by the love of truth 
 and duty to sustain. In making himself master of the things 
 which had been well said by others, and retaining a complete 
 recollection of their labours, his power was something extraor- 
 dinary. It was so remarkable, that it is said some of his fa- 
 miliar friends would sometimes amuse themselves by bringing 
 any rare volume of theology which they had casually met with, 
 open it in his presence without shewing him the title, read 
 a page or paragraph, and ask him whether he recognised the 
 author ; a question which he seldom failed to answer. And in 
 later years, when he was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, 
 he was so ready to pour out from his stores on so many subjects 
 to satisfy all enquirers, that his friend Charles Lloyd said of it, 
 " Van Mildert, 1 believe if I were to talk to you in your sleep, 
 you would mutter divinity in your dreams." 
 
 A second volume of the " Churchman's Remembrancer" was 
 now made up of three treatises, published between 1807 and 
 1810. The first was a reprint of Dean Stanley's "Faith and 
 Practice of a Church of England-Man." The editor was probably 
 H. H. Korris, who had a great esteem for this plain old treatise, 
 which he published again in the form of a Manual for young 
 people a little pruned from its original quaintness, and adapted 
 to more recent times a few years later. The second was 
 " A Dissertation on Episcopacy : by Laurence Jackson," an 
 author commended among the opponents of Dr. Middleton in 
 the Notes to the Boyle Lectures; and the third, "A Discourse 
 concerning Conventicles," by John Norris of Aldbourne, father 
 of the Platonic Norris of Bemerton. To this a biographical 
 notice was prefixed by Van Mildert. 
 
 In the meantime, in the year 1807, he had ceased to reside in 
 London on being presented by Archbishop Moore to the benefice
 
 4O . Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of Farningham, in Kent; a change which we may suppose to 
 have been grateful to so diligent a student, but which led to 
 some temporary embarrassment, owing to a miscalculation or 
 abuse of trust on the part of the contractors for rebuilding the 
 house of residence. It is due to the subject of our Memoir to 
 mention that in this difficulty he shewed himself a friend born 
 for a season of adversity. A few of those who shared his regard 
 for Van Mildert, among whom Thomas Sikes deserves to be 
 especially mentioned, privately agreed to take the debt upon 
 themselves, and pay the requisite sum in such a way as to spare 
 his feelings, and leave him in ignorance of the mode in which 
 it was effected. This, however, was not long possible ; and the 
 following letters from Farningham will be read with interest by 
 those who remember how the gratefully conscientious writer 
 lived to be a few years afterwards the munificently charitable 
 Bishop of Durham : 
 
 "Farningham, March 7, 1811. 
 " MY DEAK FRIEND, 
 
 "I have applied to our friend J. C. P. for information as to the 
 parties to whom I stand obliged for lately extricating me from my 
 embarrassment with Messrs. W. and W., and was somewhat surprised 
 to find the list so numerous. To two of the number I have already 
 expressed my sense of the obligation ; and to the rest I mean to do so, 
 either by letter or viva voce, at the first opportunity. None but myself 
 I believe can adequately conceive what I feel on this occasion. Yet 
 shall I confess to you ? this feeling is in some respects a very painful 
 one, and occasions a frequent depression of spirits, which I am unable 
 to overcome. There is a pleasure, an exquisite one, in having such 
 friends ; but the wound given to the spirit of independence, by being 
 obliged to make such a use of them, is not easily healed. It has been 
 my misfortune to be more or less embarrassed ever since I have been 
 a beneficed man ; and every additional benefice has brought its additional 
 burdens, and made me poorer than before. So that, in spite of all the 
 friendly helps I have met with, I still am, and to all human appearance 
 ever shall be, a necessitous man. But it may be the will of Providence 
 that these trials should be sent to correct that pride which perhaps you 
 will think these sentiments discover. Be it so ; and may I be enabled 
 so to apply them ! May you, my good friend, never know anything 
 more of these troubles than by your ability and disposition to remove 
 then ! Such is the hearty prayer of 
 
 " Your affectionate Friend, 
 "W. V. M." 
 
 The nature of the answer sent to this letter can only be 
 guessed by the reply, which is dated a week later, March 14 : 
 
 "Mr DEAR FRIEND, 
 "Many thanks for your kind letter. I expected reproof, and am
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 41 
 
 sensible that I deserved it : but you have administered it in the most 
 lenient and soothing way, and 1 trust it will produce the desired effect. 
 If not, I am unworthy of your kindness. It comes, however, too late 
 to prevent my pouring forth certain effusions of acknowledgment to those 
 other friends who were associated with you. Yet I trust I have said 
 notliing which may lessen their satisfaction in doing me this friendly 
 service. If I have, they, like yourself, will attribute it to momentary 
 feelings, difficult to suppress, but which do not make me less sensible of 
 their Kindness. I am determined henceforth to think of the matter in 
 no other way than you and they wish me to do." 
 
 At this period of his life, when his occasions brought him to 
 London, his lodgings were usually with Joshua Watson at his 
 house in Mincing-lane : and this arrangement was so grateful to 
 both, that a few years later, when he was become Bishop of 
 Llandaff, the two friends became joint tenants of a house in 
 Great George-street, Westminster. It is needless to add that, 
 when at last Fortune had seemed to "mend her error" in 
 keeping such a generous spirit amidst the shallows, the obliga- 
 tion, which he strove not to feel painfully, was most honourably 
 discharged 31 , and his liberal soul was then indulged with full 
 power to execute the liberal things which his large heart was 
 not slow to devise. 
 
 In the following year he was elected Preacher of Lincoln's 
 Inn, after a contest with two other candidates, Peter Elmsley, 
 the distinguished Greek scholar and critic, and Robert Nares, 
 Archdeacon of Stafford, who, like his brother, Edward Nares, 
 was a writer of some literary reputation. From this time his 
 rise was rapid. In 1814, after being selected by the Oxford 
 authorities to preach the Bampton Lectures, on which he again 
 consulted Joshua Watson, he became Regius Professor of Divinity 
 and Canon of Christ Church. In 1819 he was promoted to the 
 bishopric of Llandaff, to which in 1820 was added the Deanery 
 of St. Paul's. In 1826 he was translated to Durham, which he 
 nobly filled till his death, ten years later. 
 
 There will be other occasions to refer to his acts and corre- 
 spondence in the later portions of this Memoir : but these par- 
 ticulars of his early life will not be without a lesson of the 
 patient continuance in well-doing, and dutiful service in com- 
 parative obscurity and narrow circumstances, by which, under 
 the Divine blessing, this good and great man was trained for 
 higher functions in the Church. 
 
 x When the sum was replaced in Joshua Watson's hands, it was, with 
 the consent of the surviving contributors, and with some little accessions, 
 transmitted to Bishop Broughton, to buy up the lease of the house which 
 had been bequeathed to the see of Sydney.
 
 42 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 It was at the house of Tan Mildert, while he lived in Ely- 
 place, that Joshua Watson was first introduced to another good 
 and single-hearted man, Christopher Wordsworth, then Chaplain 
 to Archbishop Manners-Sutton, subsequently Dean of Booking, 
 then Rector of Lambeth, and afterwards for many years Master 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge. " We met," he used to say of 
 it in later years, "and became friends at once." He who said 
 this was indeed one to whom to be once a friend was to be 
 always a friend ; but if pure integrity and disinterestedness, 
 a spirit abhorrent of all disguise or guile, and a kind of joyous 
 zeal in all works of charity and brotherly kindness, could attract 
 a discerning good man's love, these qualities were seldom more 
 eminently seen than in him whom his Cambridge friends de- 
 lighted to call, par excellence, "the old Master." Such ex- 
 uberant benevolence united with such Christian simplicity could 
 only have been taught by the perfect Law converting the soul, 
 and making it find its chief treasure in the service of holiness and 
 truth. It may be that these qualities were not always sufficiently 
 discerned by those who should have profited by experience of 
 their influence ; and he may sometimes have felt mournfully 
 the reflection which his brother the poet once addressed to him, 
 dictated, perhaps, from a knowledge of his private thoughts, 
 
 " brother, I revere the choice 
 That took thee from thy native hills ; 
 
 And it is given thee to rejoice : 
 Though public care full often tills, 
 
 (Heaven only witness of the toil,) 
 
 A barren and ungrateful soil." 
 
 But if the inner graces of his character were known only to 
 an inner circle of his acquaintance, they will not have yet passed 
 away from the remembrance of many survivors, who cherish his 
 name with honour in many a retired corner of the land. And 
 the one friend, who understood him best, from the day of their 
 first intercourse to his death in his home of retirement at 
 Buxted, was all along bound to him by a bond of almost perfect 
 sympathy. 
 
 To this list of his earliest friends we might add the names of 
 two excellent ones, George Owen Cambridge, afterwards Arch- 
 deacon of Middlesex, and John Inglis, for many years Bishop 
 of Nova Scotia, of whom some account will be given in a later 
 chapter. The circle was enlarged as he became more known, 
 and included Chief Baron KicharJs, Judge Park, the late Lord 
 Kenyon, Serjeant William Frere, Master of Downing College, 
 and his brother, George Frere, and other good men, whose
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 43 
 
 memory remains in their charitable deeds and public services. 
 But these will be best introduced to the reader in the progress 
 of this narrative. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 Public disquietude at the close of the eighteenth century. Danger of the 
 King. Trial of Horne Tooke, Hardy, and Thelwatt. The Loyal 
 Associations. Joshua fFatson's alliances with Bowles, Gifford, and 
 Reeves. Troubles of Bowles with the Dutch Commission. William 
 Cobbett. The Church Societies. Archbishop Nanners-Sutton. Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. District committees. Dr. Hales 
 of Killesandra. Removal to Hackney. Letters of H. H. Norris. 
 William Kirby. 
 
 FTUIE aspect of public affairs in the closing years of the 
 JL eighteenth century was such as no loyal-hearted subject of 
 the British Crown could contemplate without concern. It is 
 only natural that we shoxild find the subject of this Memoir, 
 in the earliest years of his public life, associating himself with 
 other active minds in labours for the public safety. The danger 
 to which the life of the King was exposed on the 29th of October, 
 1795, as he was proceeding to open the Houses of Parliament, 
 finds a place in H. H. Norris's youthful journal: 
 
 "Nov. 14. At Guilsborough. Watson received a letter from his 
 brother, which contained an anecdote so strongly marking the character 
 of our good King both as a religious and a brave man, that it deserves 
 to be remembered. It was told him by a lady who had it from Lady 
 Onslow, whose husband was in the coach with his Majesty when that 
 daring attack was made upon his person as he was going to open the 
 Parliament. When the window was struck by something that broke 
 it, the King was leaning back, but immediately came forward, and 
 addressing himself to Lord Onslow said, ' My lord, that is a shot.' 
 'Good God!' exclaimed Lord Onslow, 'what shall we do?' 'What 
 shah 1 we do !' said the King ; ' go forward, to be sure ; there is the 
 same Providence to protect us here as there is anywhere else.' A 
 noble example this to all his subjects." 
 
 The published accounts of this scene of tumult and violence 
 do not always record this remarkable particular. 
 
 A little before this had occurred the trial of John Horne 
 Tooke and his associates, Hardy and Thelwall. Mr. Serjeant Tal- 
 fourd, in his interesting " Final Memorials of Charles Lamb V 
 
 J VoL ii. p. 150.
 
 44 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 has some remarks on the character of Thelwall, whom he finds 
 to have been one of Charles Lamb's early acquaintance. He 
 says he was an honest man, whose life before this event had 
 been one of self-denial and purity, remarkable in a youth who 
 had imbibed the impulses of revolutionary France ; that he was 
 possessed of an acute and vigorous but narrow mind ; and that, 
 though his flaming orations had infected the poor with dangerous 
 anger, he " never meditated any treason except such as was ac- 
 cumulated in the architectural sophistry of Lord Eldon." The 
 subsequent life of Thelwall, whom some who are yet living will 
 remember as a harmless teacher of the science of elocution, may 
 in some degree justify this lenient judgment : but in times of 
 public discord the orators of revolution are by many sound pre- 
 cedents dealt with as the trumpeter in the fable, and if no re- 
 straint is imposed on seditious tongues, violent deeds will follow. 
 It would be well if the readers of Judge Talfourd's apology 
 would refer to some existing records of the popular madness of 
 that time. We have in H. H. Norris's journal this character- 
 istic sketch of a scene enacted by the chief of that singular tri- 
 umvirate : 
 
 "Jan. 24, 1795. Mr. Pickbourne called. He told us that, dining 
 M r ith Home Tooke at the Revolution Society, shortly after the French 
 had abolished all nobility, he saw him get up and say he had a toast to 
 
 fve and a motion to propose. His toast was, May the trial of Mr. 
 urke last as long as the trial of Warren Hastings ! This was drunk 
 immediately. He then prefaced his motion with observing that he did 
 not see any of those noble lords present who used to attend their 
 meetings ; and moved that, When any peer came to the Society, they 
 should waive their titles for the day. This was rejected by the whole 
 company, but he persisted in it ; and mounting upon the table, ha- 
 rangued for it a great length of time." 
 
 In short, it was not the fear of visionary or remote danger 
 which led to the formation of the 'Loyal Associations.' The 
 spirit of the friends of order was roused, and exhibited itself 
 with a combined force, which had no slight influence in de- 
 termining the fate of the country. Among those with whom we 
 find Joshua Watson now acting in concert, were John Bowles, 
 a magistrate for the county of Surrey, residing at Dulwich, an 
 unwearied and successful political writer, John Giffbrd, editor 
 of the " Anti-Jacobin Review," and John Reeves, a barrister, 
 a learned and virtuous man, whose abandonment by Mr. Pitt 
 to a prosecution instigated by Fox and Sheridan -was not alto- 
 gether creditable to the great minister. In a pamphlet entitled 
 "Thoughts on the English Government," he had made use of
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 45 
 
 some figures of speech which were construed to be libellous, 
 though he was acquitted of any malicious intention*. Four 
 years later, in 1799, he obtained the appointment to be one of 
 the patentees of the office of King's printer, and dedicated to 
 Pitt a " Collation of the Hebrew and Greek Text of the Psalms" 
 in 1800, the work of a well-read Hebrew scholar. He also 
 brought out an edition of the Bible arranged in paragraphs, 
 a plan which has sometimes been followed since, and of which 
 Joshua Watson commended the design, in spite of some defects 
 in the execution. At this earlier date he was one of the chief 
 agents in promoting the Loyal Associations. 
 
 Gifford appears to have been occasionally in difficulties, under 
 which pressure his friend Bowles did much to support him ; 
 and a letter of Bowles to Joshua Watson in 1804 thanks him 
 also for " his noble, and the more noble because spontaneous, 
 exertion in his behalf." There seems an infirmity of judgment 
 in matters of practice, which besets persons who make literature 
 their profession without engaging in the duties of more active 
 life ; and something of this kind may be supposed to have oc- 
 casioned the following good remarks, which we find in an early 
 letter of Van Mildert's. It would not be worth while to enquire 
 further into the immediate occasion of the remarks ; but they 
 deserve to be preserved for their own value : 
 
 "1804. Mr. G. evidently misapprehends his friend's meaning when 
 he supposes him to interpret Phil. iv. 8 so as to make the opinion of 
 the world the proper principle of conduct. The opinion of the world, 
 however, is not to be contemned ; nay, it is to be attended to, con- 
 sulted, and even conformed to, where it is not incompatible with the 
 laws of God or man. Else why are we directed to ' abstain from all 
 appearance of evil,' 'not to let our good be evil spoken of,' and the 
 like ? Mr. G.'s arguments, therefore, drawn from his own interpretation 
 of the passage in question, would only be valid, supposing that what he 
 had done was actually a point of duty or moral ouligation ; in which 
 case, unquestionably, he would have acted right in disregarding the 
 opinion of the world if it were against him, and even encountering its 
 utmost censure and reproach ; for we know that a Christian's road to 
 perfection lies ' through evil report' as well as ' good report.' But has 
 he attempted any proof that his conduct under all the circumstances of 
 the case was really an act of duty ? I see no such thing. The precept, 
 
 1 Earl Stanhope, in his recent Life of Pitt, speaks of Reeves as having 
 written foolishly in his pamphlet, (vol. ii. 364). Still one does not see the 
 magnanimity of the minister in abandoning a man to his enemies, whose 
 crime in their eyes was his loyalty, and whose error was no worse than 
 foolish honesty. A truer estimate may be found in the Pursuits of Liter- 
 ature, pref. to Dial. iv.
 
 46 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 therefore, of following what is of good report seems to be still in full 
 force as to his particular case, unless he can shew that his compliance 
 with it would have clashed with some other precept, which it was 
 equally his duty to obey. As to the conjecture that St. Paul, by adding 
 ' if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,' meant that we must 
 only think of things of good report, if they are really virtuous and 
 praiseworthy, it seems to me to destroy the effect of the passage ; for if 
 a thing is already to be followed because it is virtuous and praise- 
 worthy, (which is an absolute truism such as nobody can dispute,) what 
 occasion for previously enjoining that it should be followed because it is 
 of good report ? The meaning of these words I rather conceive to be, 
 that if there be any other virtuous and commendable things, they are to 
 be followed in like manner as those duties which had been already 
 mentioned." 
 
 The conduct which gave occasion to these remarks had already 
 drawn from Joshua Watson a remonstrance characterized by all 
 the patience and sincerity of Christian friendship, and exhorting 
 the person addressed to remember how his position as an ad- 
 vocate of high principles required him " to provide things honest 
 in the sight of all men." 
 
 With John Bowles there was a closer intimacy; and the 
 chequered circumstances of his later years were such as to try 
 the stability of any friendship that was not governed by a law 
 too firm to be shaken by the fear of men or changed by the 
 favour of the world. Joshua Watson and he had first met at the 
 house of Boucher ; and Bowles speaks in his letters many years 
 afterwards of the debt he owed to " that over-ruling Providence 
 which, from a casual three weeks' residence at Epsom and con- 
 sequent acquaintance with Boucher, had supplied him with the 
 friend who proved his principal earthly support under his most 
 severe trial." There must have been qualities, however, in the 
 man himself which attracted the regard of the good and wise ; 
 for we find among bis associates incidentally mentioned, the 
 names of Van Mildert, Lord Kenyon, Baden Powell of Lan- 
 kington, near Tunbiidge Wells, Thomas Sikes, John James 
 Watson, and Christopher Wordsworth. His correspondence, as 
 far as it has been preserved, in earlier days relates chiefly to his 
 frequent publications, on which he seeks counsel from Joshua 
 Watson, especially when he touched on theological questions, as 
 from one " who stood at the head of his list of judicious friends." 
 On one of these occasions he speaks of the warning clauses in 
 the Athanasian Creed, which he calls " not anathemas on un- 
 believers, but parental admonitions to those within the fold." 
 He was zealous also for the reformation of public morals, and 
 wrote earnestly in defence of the Christian strictness of the law 
 of marriage when, in 1801, the House of Lords had proposed,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 47 
 
 and afterwards withdrawn, a clause introduced into a divorce 
 bill prohibiting the intermarrying of the adulterer with the adul- 
 teress. Without such a general prohibition, he was strongly 
 persuaded the public safety would be hazarded, while what was 
 becoming a common practice was an outrage upon the religion 
 which was the source of all just law. 
 
 Here, indeed, was the strength of the cause in which these 
 ac' ire-minded men were labouring. The advocates of the new 
 Gallican liberties, whether such clerks as Home Tooke and 
 Edmund Cartwright, or such laymen as Charles James Fox and 
 Francis Duke of Bedford, were wanting in regard to some 
 essential properties of life and conduct for which the English 
 people had not lost their esteem. "When a preacher in a funeral 
 sermon had exhibited the great man lately departed as one who 
 lived only to do good, and whose soul's predominant passion was 
 to benefit mankind, it became necessary to ask whether such 
 exalted aims were consistently pursued by the practice of playing 
 at tennis with his friends on Sunday during the hours of divine 
 service. And it might reasonably be suspected that the hostility 
 to Christianity lay deeper than the surface, when one who had 
 received the rite of ordination in the Church could speak of it in 
 terms of ironical buffoonery, in an address to the electors of 
 Westminster, as " something mysterious, miraculous, and super- 
 natural, operated upon him half a century before in this Pro- 
 testant country, which had deprived him at the close of his life 
 of the common rights of a man and a citizen." In fact, when 
 a public thanksgiving-day had been appointed on the ratification 
 of the peace of Amiens, on the preceding night a licentious mas- 
 querade was held in one of the largest places of public con- 
 course ; and at the hour when the solemn services were about 
 to commence in the churches, the streets of Westminster were 
 thronged with the strange dresses and varnished faces of the 
 children of folly returning from their nocturnal revel. There 
 was a moral strength in the protest which Bowles, with the 
 fik-nds of virtue and order, made against these profanations. 
 
 It was in 1809 that the cloud which darkened all the re- 
 mainder of his life first cast its shadow on his path. He had 
 the misfortune to be one of the commissioners for the distribution 
 of Dutch prize-money ; aud in the discharge of this function he 
 and his colleagues were accused of appropriating to themselves 
 something more than the sum to which they were legally en- 
 titled. The question was long in dispute, and eventually was 
 decided in the Court of Exchequer. It is certain that Joshua 
 Watson examined the matter most closely, and never doubled 
 either his friend's per.-oual integrity, or that the commissioners
 
 48 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 were justified in their claims. This was equally the persuasion 
 of Lord Kenyon and Van Mildcrt ; and there are aged persons 
 yet living^ who look back on the obloquy and persecution which 
 he had to encounter as provoked by political animosity, the man 
 being one of whose uprightness none who knew him could enter- 
 tain a doubt. But for a time, at least, he found that evil report 
 had alienated the minds of some of his old associates ; and the 
 effect was a loss of influence, and exclusion, on account of the 
 prevailing distrust, from counsels in which he would otherwise 
 have taken a prominent part. It was a trial which he felt most 
 sensibly; and his unreserved letters shew the conflict in his 
 mind between a sense of wrong and Christian submission. 
 
 " I cannot doubt your prayers for me," he writes in April, 1809, " at 
 this time of severe trial. My integrity is known to the Searcher of 
 hearts, and, 1 trust, has not been doubted for a moment by any of my 
 friends. Indeed, I hope my friends give me credit for something more 
 than integrity, for a perfect disinterestedness of character. Yet it is 
 impossible for me not to feel most acutely in the circumstances in which 
 I am now placed. My trust is in that God whom I hope I have sin- 
 cerely, however imperfectly, endeavoured to please and serve. I have 
 put my cause into His hands, and I think He will not forsake me, nor 
 suffer my enemies to triumph over me. What stores of comfort against 
 a time of trouble are provided in the Book of books ! what a consolatory 
 companion in affliction is the holy Psalmist ! I have found much sup- 
 port in the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh Psalms ; and 
 again in the thirty-first, thirty-second, thirty-fifth, thirty-seventh, and 
 forty-second. These are, indeed, cordials to the drooping spirits." 
 
 Joshua Watson hastened to him immediately on receiving this 
 letter; for Bowles writes again the next day at some length, 
 expressing his thankfulness for the visit, which, he says, was 
 made more valuable by his having paused to master the case, 
 and so to be able to justify him in the eyes of others and pre- 
 serve his powers of usefulness. It is plain that he considered the 
 reputation of his friend in the City, as at once one of the most 
 upright and able men of business, to be likely to serve him 
 essentially in establishing his innocence. While others suffered 
 themselves to be carried away by the prevailing misapprehen- 
 sions, he was still more impressed with the persevering kind- 
 ness which he found in this quarter. " One such friend," he 
 says, in the July following, " is more than the just claim of any 
 one in a world like this." Subsequently he apologizes for 
 having mentioned his name in confidence to his fellow-com- 
 missioners, for which he had drawn upon himself a remon- 
 strance : " Surely it is right, though on a nobler principle, that 
 men should know their friends as well as their enemies. And
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 49 
 
 never had men a more valuable friend than the Dutch com- 
 missioners have found in you." 
 
 It was some relief when, a short time afterwards, an unex- 
 pected champion arose. A pamphlet was published in vindi- 
 cation of the Dutch commissioners by a writer who was a poli- 
 tical antagonist of Bowles himself, and an enemy to the Society 
 for the Suppression of Vice, of which Bowles had been an active 
 promoter. A copy of this pamphlet was sent by Bowles to 
 Joshua Watson : " My satisfaction in it," he says, " is inex- 
 pressibly heightened by the reflection that I am sending it to 
 a friend, whose penetration detected, and whose affection led 
 him to expose, and that instantaneously, the subtle and mis- 
 chievous fallacies which this author, after a long investigation, 
 has successfully pointed out." " A friend," he wrote again, 
 " who actually stemmed the torrent, when its apparently re- 
 sistless force seemed likely to overwhelm me." 
 
 It was an act of delicate kindness when, at this period of 
 public distrust, Mr. Sikes invited him to join in the subscription 
 for the parsonage at Farningham, of which the story has been 
 told in a former chapter*. The following was his answer in 
 a letter addressed to Joshua Watson : 
 
 " Dutch Commissioner/ Office, Nov. 23, 1810. 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Be so good as to take charge of my contribution to Mother Church 
 in the person of one of her most faithful, able, and zealous ministers. 
 I cannot adequately describe the satisfaction I feel in such an oppor- 
 tunity of indulging at once my public and my private attachments. At 
 the same time, I hope our friend will not feel himself under the least 
 weight of personal obligation ; for though, in common with all who 
 join with me in the present measure, I entertain for him the most 
 sincere and affectionate regard, I consider what I am now doing as, in 
 the strictest sense of the word, an act of justice. I am ever, my dear 
 Sir, most affectionately yours, 
 
 " JOHN BOWLES." 
 
 During these years, it cannot but be now a strong corrobor- 
 ative proof of the integrity of the man to learn that he was 
 earnestly engaged, employing both his wealth and his personal 
 labour, in the promotion of public charities. None took a more 
 lively interest in the establishment of the National Society, even 
 when, to his severe mortification, it was not thought expedient 
 that his name should appear upon the committee, or accompany 
 any public notice of the proceedings. He comforted himself 
 
 Chap. iii. 
 E
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 that his friend's name was not involved in the consequences of 
 friendship with the unfortunate, since he was appointed trea- 
 surer. During the following years he was often employed in 
 preparing pamphlets, as before, in defence of Christian and loyal 
 principles : hut these were now anonymous. 
 
 The question on which it had been early determined to await 
 the decision of a court of law was long in a state of suspense : 
 it survived the war which had given occasion to it. In 1817 
 the storm, which had been partially lulled, seems to have 
 gathered with increased violence ; and his spirits, perhaps from 
 failing health in the decline of life, were more broken by it than 
 before. It was difficult for his friend, in the midst of his mani- 
 fold occupations at that period, to satisfy his craving for support 
 and sympathy. Yet we find, interspersed with occasional com- 
 plaints of a week's silence, warm thanks for his reiterated at- 
 tempts to see him ; at other times, for " a most consolatory visit," 
 and for actual assistance in his cause. And on one occasion, for 
 his appearance in court while the cause was in hearing : "I 
 cannot express," he says, "how much the sight of you revived 
 me." Among the advocates who conducted his defence there is 
 grateful mention made of Richardson. 
 
 At length, in May, 1819, judgment was given in the Court 
 of Exchequer, and the commissioners were pronounced liable to 
 pay more than 100,000 to Government. Whether this adju- 
 dication was so made as at the same time to remove the suspicion 
 which had been the heaviest burden to an honourable mind, or 
 whether it was felt as a relief to have the weary dispute at all 
 events decided, Bowles appears, for the short remainder of his 
 life, to have been more at ease. In the following month of June 
 he writes a cheerful invitation to a family party of Sikeses and 
 Watsons to spend a long day with him at Dulwich ; and he 
 speaks more freely about books and plans of church-building, as 
 if able to put his own affairs aside. His last letter to the 
 subject of this Memoir is dated July 24, 1819 ; and after speak- 
 ing of the Dutch business, which, though not quite concluded, 
 was then proceeding smoothly, it ends with the words, " How, 
 my friend, is this life found tolerable without the support and 
 comfort of religion ?" 
 
 A tablet to the memory of John Bowles is to be seen in the 
 Abbey church at Bath ; the inscription was furnished by Arch- 
 deacon Daubeny. Among the letters of condolence received by 
 his widow was one from Van Mildert, full of kindness for the 
 memory of one whom he calls " her late invaluable husband," 
 and claiming to be exceeded by none in " high appreciation of 
 his public and private worth."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 51 
 
 During the first years of his acquaintance with Bowles we 
 find also some notices of Joshua Watson's association with 
 William Cobbett, then better known by his first political name 
 of " Peter Porcupine." He came over from America at the be- 
 ginning of the present century, bringing a testimony from our 
 ambassador that he had stayed the tide of republicanism across 
 the Atlantic; and the prosecution which he had incurred in 
 Philadelphia had invested his character with something of the 
 attributes of a martyr to loyalty. He was soon introduced to 
 Bowles, Reeves, and Giffbrd, and for a time was received as an 
 ally. By degrees, however, the less worthy peculiarities of the 
 man became apparent, his self-sufficiency and unscrupulousness 
 in seeking to repair his needy fortunes. His coarse and forcible 
 style and spirit qualified him for a keen assailant rather than 
 a defender. There was no public man for whom he had then 
 a tittle of respect except William Windham, whom he used to 
 couple with himself, somewhat in the mood of Wolsey's Ego et 
 Rex meus : "I hope you understand me : I and Mr. Windham 
 have alone saved this country." He perceived after a time that 
 Joshua Watson sought gently and gradually to shake him off; 
 and in his resentment he published what is supposed to be the 
 only malicious abuse which was ever attached to the name of 
 Joshua Watson. Among the papers which have remained to us 
 there is a rough draft of a remonstrance, which he was moved 
 to pen by the false statements made by Cobbett about his brother's 
 preferments; but it bears upon it the words, "Never sent." 
 He would sometimes in later years look back to the short ex- 
 perience he had made of this singular acquaintance, and speak 
 of it in a tone of apology : " We were then young, and his 
 violence was rather a recommendation to us than otherwise ; he 
 was so hearty in hating what we hated." Nor did he forget to 
 tell with evident pleasure, in doing justice to a redeeming 
 feature in his character, how, at a time when he was struggling 
 for his own bread, Cobbett generously took upon himself the 
 whole charge of a brother's orphan family. 
 
 But it was to labours more directly in the service of the Church 
 and of the poor that Joshua Watson's energies were now to be 
 permanently devoted. There is evidence of the number and 
 variety of these services, even at this early period, in the col- 
 lections of papers, which were not disturbed from their admi- 
 rably arranged order till he quitted his London home in 1 840. 
 He himself attributed bis introduction to these most important 
 labours of his life mainly to the partial kindness of his friends ; 
 first Boucher and Stephens, and afterwards H. H. Norris and 
 Christopher Wordsworth, through whose representations Arch-
 
 52 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 bishop Manners- Sutton was first induced to place confidence in 
 him. Of the degree in which he afterwards enjoyed the confi- 
 dence of that prelate he would often speak with unfeigned won- 
 der. His part, he would say, was simply to lay information be- 
 fore him of things which, in his higher sphere, he could not see 
 with his own eyes. The faithfulness and ability with which this 
 was done advanced him, without expectation or seeking of his 
 own, to an authority in counsel which his humble spirit could 
 hardly realize to itself, though to others who witnessed such 
 discerning diligence it appeared the most natural thing in the 
 world. 
 
 He had, with H. H. Norris, become a member of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge a little before the close of 
 the last century. In recalling those times he used to say that 
 "they were both reformers," so much so, that a worthy digni- 
 tary of the London diocese predicted that 'their schemes would 
 ruin the finances of the Society. However, its income was 
 shortly trebled by the formation of district committees; and 
 from this measure, of which he used to attribute the chief 
 credit to Christopher Wordsworth, a further most beneficial re- 
 sult followed, as an organization was prepared which greatly 
 aided the establishment of the National Society. These district 
 committees had the effect of making those operations, which had 
 been almost confined to London, then first felt in remote corners 
 of the country ; and the impulse from without was not long in 
 being communicated to the centre. 
 
 " You are again wanted," he writes to Dr. Wordsworth in January, 
 1811, "and we depend upon your aid. I write to request that you will 
 appoint a time for summoning a council to take into consideration the 
 
 S roper steps to be pursued at the next monthly meeting in Bartlett's 
 uildings. 
 
 " At the Board to-day a communication was made from the Colchester 
 District meeting, which awakened all the fears and all the prejudices of 
 our worthy Secretary 1 "; and Mr. Agutter was employed to put an ex- 
 tinguisher on the rising flame. This attempt to get so summarily rid 
 of such important matters in a thin meeting provoked me, who nave 
 never before been moved to interfere in any public discussion, to submit 
 to them both a resolution for instructions of a very different cast from 
 Mr. Agutter's, and also a notice of a motion next month for the appoint- 
 ment of a special committee, to whom should be referred the considera- 
 tion of the several suggestions sent up by the district committees for the 
 furtherance of the great objects recommended to them last summer from 
 the general meeting. Thus I am unexpectedly, but I tru^t not prema- 
 turely, committed ; for I rely upon your renewed exertions in the good 
 cause for my extrication from the scrape into which I have fallen, and 
 
 b Dr. Gaskin, Rector of Stoke Newington.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 53 
 
 cast upon you the whole conduct of the matter, from which my entire 
 unfituess for public business obliges me to withdraw. My notice is, 
 I believe, of too general a nature in any wise to embarrass your future 
 proceedings, and the resolution adopted to-day so simply inoffensive, 
 that I trust it would have had your concurrence, as it had the sanction 
 of your friends N orris and Bowles." 
 
 "I rejoice to hear," Dr. Wordsworth immediately replied, writing 
 from Lambeth Palace, " of the proposition which you mean to bring be- 
 fore the Society. I am well assured that everything depends upon it ; 
 and you may rely, therefore, on all the little support and strength which 
 I can give." 
 
 Meantime there was a negociation carrying on for the recovery 
 of the " British Critic," which was at this time edited by Arch- 
 deacon Nares. With the wish to preserve this literary journal, 
 and devote it to the designs intended by its first founders, Jones 
 and Stevens, it was now purchased by Joshua Watson and H 
 H. Norris, towards the end of 1811, or beginning of the follow- 
 ing year ; and Van Mildert appears to have undertaken the con- 
 duct of it, till shortly afterwards his other engagements were too 
 many and important to leave time for reviewing. It was also 
 for a short space under the hands of Middleton. 
 
 H. H. Norris had in 1809 undertaken the permanent spiritual 
 charge of the southern portion of Hackney parish, and thus be- 
 came the coadjutor of his friend aud brother-in-law, John James 
 Watson. A small chapel-of-ease had been erected in this district, 
 at no great distance from his family residence in Grove-street. 
 Of this chapel in 1810 he became perpetual curate, and continued 
 constantly to preach and minister there for nearly forty years, 
 till, chiefly owing to his charitable zeal in his old age, the pre- 
 sent noble church was erected on a site which he gave for it, the 
 living having been fgrmed into a separate rectory. In 1811, 
 Joshua Watson also took up his abode in his brother's parish, 
 having purchased a house at Clapton, within five minutes' walk 
 of Hackney .Rectory. Every counsel and almost every thought 
 was shared with that beloved brother, to whom he was in turn 
 the most trusted adviser in those cares and difficulties which 
 attend the charge of a large and laborious parish. 
 
 The following letters from H. H. Norris relate to this period ; 
 and they speak also of a remarkable man who during this period 
 was an occasional visitant at all three houses. This was Dr. 
 William Hales, Hector of Killesandra in Ireland, the author of 
 a learned but somewhat fanciful work, a "New Analysis of 
 Chronology." There was a simplicity and humourous shrewd- 
 ness combined in his character, which was one of great Christian 
 worth and zeal for truth ; and these qualities imparted a very
 
 54 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 lively freshness to his conversation in old age. He was one who 
 loved to speak afterwards of what he called "the Hackney 
 phalanx," and the hospitable kindness with which they had en- 
 tertained him while engaged in carrying his great work through 
 the press. "The recollection of that kindness," he said, "made 
 his heart warm to every Englishman he met." None who sur- 
 vive to remember the moral influence of the Hackney phalanx, 
 an influence won by the union of men who were bound together 
 by a disinterested love of the best things, will wonder at the 
 warmth of this testimony. It was an influence which for many 
 following years drew to these houses a varying but never-failing 
 band of the wise and good, and from which many a young stu- 
 dent in the discipline of life and truth found his aims directed 
 and his youthful vows confirmed. 
 
 H. H. Norris to Joshua Watson. 
 
 "Bath, June 25, 1809. 
 " MY DEAR JOSHUA, 
 
 "I enclose you a letter I received some days ago from Dr. Hales, and 
 I wish you to engage in that good work for him which he wishes to im- 
 pose upon me, and for which you know me to be wholly unqualified. 
 You will see that I brought this upon myself by representing to him 
 what I thought of importance to the reputation of the work, that he 
 should divest it of those extraneous matters on which I am very doubt- 
 ful whether he entertains sound opinions, or whether he will not mount 
 so high into the clouds as to be profoundly unintelligible. Do pray send 
 to Rivington's for the MS., and use your pen without mercy. 
 
 " I am working, perhaps, harder than in prudence I ought, to get 
 something in season against the time when the chapel is opened. But, 
 like Pharaoh's, my wheels drive very heavily, though I hope, if not over- 
 taken by time, I shall succeed better than he did. I am investigating 
 the doctrine of holy places, intending to handle the subject didactically, 
 and thus to avoid, if it be possible, all reference to gainsayers, and as 
 much as in me lies, the giving of offence. 
 
 " Archdeacon Daubeny is at Bradley, and I am here, his locum tenens 
 for this and next Sunday. 
 
 " You won't write to me, I conclude ; else I should be glad to hear 
 anything good you have to communicate of our friend Bowles. But you 
 are a chamber counsel, never to be either seen or heard of but at home. 
 Thus it is that nature conceals her choicest jewels in the obscurest 
 pkces, and that brilliants drag poor mortals down from their own pure 
 atmosphere into the bowels of tne earth. I shall not say anything better 
 than this if I write till dinner-time, so I will leave it last upon your mind 
 that it may make the deeper impression ; and with my fair wife's regards 
 to your little brunette, I remain your affectionate friend, 
 
 "H. H. NORRIS."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 55 
 
 From the same to John James Watson. 
 
 " MY DBAB. VlCAB, 
 
 " Had I nothing to reply to your last, gratitude would extort a letter 
 from me to thank you for your very entertaining and bountiful despatch. 
 Indeed, I never think of Hackney without being proud of my relation 
 to it, and rejoice exceedingly that I have been anyways instrumental in 
 the celebration of its praises, though your report is the first intimation 
 I have had of having rendered it this piece of service. Rasselas, you 
 know, concludes his researches after happiness with the resolution of 
 returning to his own country, and forming there a society of chosen 
 men ; and why should not I engage in the same undertaking ? We read 
 yesterday of Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek casting their heads toge- 
 ther with one consent ; and why are we to suffer our English phlegm to 
 keep us in a state of individuality ? I want to see a centre formed, to 
 which every zealously-affected Churchman may resort, and counterplot 
 the numerous and most subtle devices against our very existence which 
 every day is bringing to light. If we but knew our strength as our 
 enemies do theirs, we should all be encouraged and strengthened. Dr. 
 Hales has returned to Ireland thus benefited ; he thought himself like 
 Elijah, but now knows that the cause of religion is not yet deserted ; 
 that, notwithstanding the prevailing apostasy, there are many who have 
 not bowed the knee to Baal. I have done some good, therefore, by this 
 modest assurance of mine; and so, friend John, I shall proceed, and 
 wherever I can find a sound Churchman, I will lay violent hands upon 
 him if I can. Yea, as David resolves, ' Mine eyes shall look upon such 
 as are faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me.' Kirby you 
 would be much pleased with. He is a quiet, unassuming man, who has 
 thought very deeply upon the most interesting of subjects, and though 
 not loquacious, is easily drawn out. His book is not put to press yet, 
 and he seems in no haste to make it public, knowing himself to be 
 treading on very tender ground. He considers the present a most 
 eventful period, and he has all his eyes about him to catch every ray 
 which is thus thrown upon his favourite subject ; and by the help of it 
 either confirms or rectifies all his conclusions. He seems to possess all 
 that caution and hesitancy winch so well becomes the interpreter of un- 
 fulfilled prophecy ; and in this respect excels, I think, all the later ex- 
 positors of this portion of Scripture who have preceded him. My first 
 introduction to him was not at my last visit : I passed, about three years 
 ago, some days with him at Livermere. We stay here till Thursday 
 sennight, then go to Lynn for a few days. How we afterwards dispose 
 of ourselves depends upon Mr. Lathbury, of whom, I am sorry to say, 
 we have not received good reports. At all events, however, I shall be 
 at home before the third Sunday in September, and very probably much 
 sooner. Wife unites with me in kind regards. 
 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 "H. H. NOKKIS."
 
 56 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 The National Society. State of education for the poor previously. System 
 of Bell and Lancaster. The Society's three founders, John Bowles, H. 
 H. Norris, and Joshua Watson.- Services of Dr. Herbert Marsh. Its 
 progress and chief supporters in the first three years. Estimate of its 
 work by Hj). Blomfield. 
 
 rpHE year 1811 will ever be an important one in the annals of 
 JL the Church of England, for it witnessed the formation of the 
 National Society for the Education of the Poor. There could 
 now be only a few living to remember the state of things in 
 town or country, and what kind of schools there were in popu- 
 lous places or rural districts, before this remarkable institution 
 was founded. It is not to be supposed that the charity of Eng- 
 lish people had been previously unexercised in efforts for train- 
 ing the children of the poor in the paths of religion and virtue ; 
 the multitude of charity schools in London, and many old- 
 fashioned clothing and teaching foundations in provincial towns, 
 attest the contrary. Much, no doubt, was done piously and well 
 by Christian landlords on their estates, and clergymen in their 
 parishes. But there was a lamentable want of any good system 
 of dealing with the numbers who required instruction, a want 
 which pressed heavily on the poorer classes, to whom the means 
 of learning were unattainable ; a general and sensible want of 
 any good elementary books and manuals for teaching, and, still 
 more, a want of teachers. 
 
 The origin of the National Society is to be attributed to the 
 meeting of three friends at the house of the subject of this Me- 
 moir ; the resolution to attempt the great work was shared first 
 by only three counsellors, John Bowles, H. H. Norris, and Joshua 
 "Watson. It was a time when much public attention had been 
 called to the mode of organizing large classes of children in 
 schools, and using the help of the elder ones in teaching the 
 younger, introduced by Dr. Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster. 
 Trifling as this improvement may now appear to those who are 
 familiar with it, the change which it then effected in the general 
 diffusion of the elements of knowledge was something previously 
 incalculable ; and it is no doubtful mark of the discernment of 
 this little knot of friends, that they saw immediately how it could 
 be turned to the best of purposes. 
 
 Joshua Watson was the Treasurer of the National Society from 
 the date of its foundation ; he watched over its prosperity and 
 efficiency with unceasing and laborious care from the be "inning;
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 57 
 
 and his interest in it survived when, after thirty years of diligent 
 service, he resigned the care of its funds to other hands. There 
 were some of the first promoters of the new Society who would 
 have had it made a department of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge, and some who objected to the name which 
 was finally chosen, as if it had heen borrowed from late Gallican 
 precedents : but its meaning was explained by the principle set 
 forth in its first report, "that the national religion should be 
 made the groundwork of national education," and "that the first 
 and chief thing to be taught to the children of the poor was the 
 doctrine of the Gospel, according to the excellent Liturgy and 
 Catechism provided by the Church of England." 
 
 One of the first experiments of the new system had been made 
 by William Davis, Esq., at a school which he had established at 
 Leytonstone : and it is supposed that H. H. Norris's account of 
 a visit which he had made to this school was the means of sug- 
 gesting to the friends in council the adoption of that useful 
 machinery, which afterwards became general. Mr. Davis was 
 also the founder of the Free Schools in Gower's Walk, White- 
 chapel, which still remain as a memorial of his Christian zeal 
 and bounty. "After Dr. Bell himself," says Herbert Marsh, in 
 a letter of this period, "perhaps no man is so well qualified to 
 organize schools on Dr. Bell's plan as Mr. Davis ." 
 
 The following letters will serve to illustrate the character of 
 these early measures, and of the agents most concerned in 
 them : 
 
 From John Bowles to Joshua Watson. 
 
 " Sept. 21, 1811. 
 " MY DEAB SIR, 
 
 " I very much wished to see you to-day to concert proceedings which 
 must not now be delayed. You will learn with inexpressible satisfaction, 
 I am sure, that our Society has the countenance not only of the Arch- 
 bishop, but also of the Prince Regent, who, speaking of the Church, 
 calls it an establishment iuterwoven with the constitution of the country. 
 The Archbishop has declared his readiness to attend the first meeting of 
 the Society. A preliminary meeting will, however, be necessary, and 
 I wanted to arrange such a meeting with you and Norris. Dr. Marsh d 
 expresses a hope that we may be able to meet the Archbishop and all 
 other bishops in and near London, next Thursday, at Bartlett's Build- 
 ings, by which day he hopes to have answer from most of the bishops. 
 I will come to Town on Monday expressly on this business ; and I en- 
 
 c Mr. W. Davis died at an advanced age in the same year with Joshua 
 Watson and George Lord Kenyon, all three among the first supporters of 
 the National Society. 
 
 d Herbert Marsh, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough.
 
 58 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 treat that you and Norris, with anybody else you please to invite, will 
 give me the meeting here at half-past twelve. 
 
 " I am ever yours affectionately, 
 
 " JOHN BOWLES." 
 
 From John Bawdier the elder to H. H. Norris. 
 
 " Hayes, Sept. 25, 1811. 
 
 " I thank God, and I congratulate you and all good Christians. 
 " I hope you are not weak enough to be puffed up by my praise ; if 
 you are, recollect all your faults and failings, for I must say that you 
 appear to me to have managed this matter most ably, and to have done 
 what may prove of the most essential service, to this Church and king- 
 dom. Go on and prosper. 
 
 "I can do little to help you. The Attorney-General 6 is absent till 
 Saturday. I must go on Tuesday, I guess, to Widley near Portsmouth 
 with John f , who has had a relapse, and, though again better, must go 
 abroad by the first opportunity. But as far as I can, I feel it my duty 
 to assist this great cause. I entirely agree to all you say. Much, very 
 much, depends on the first impression, and therefore on the first meet- 
 ing. When a subscription is set on foot, pray let my name appear, but 
 with such a sum as becomes a country gentleman of very small estate. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " JOHN BOWDLEB." 
 
 From James Allan Park to Joshua Watson. 
 
 " Oct. 8, 1811. 
 " MY DEAD, WATSON, 
 
 " I will do anything. I would give the world to see you. I shall go 
 to Bartlett's Buildings at twelve on the chance of seeing you. The pro- 
 spectus must be altered as to being members of the Society for Pro- 
 moting Christian Knowledge ; it is amazingly misunderstood, and gives 
 much offence to excellent people. I have just had a second letter from 
 his R. H. the Duke of Gloucester, desiring he may be one of the first 
 subscribers, leaving it to me to decide whether fifty or a hundred guineas. 
 
 "Yours ever, 
 
 " JAMES ALLAN PARK." 
 
 Among the most zealous labourers for the cause was Dr. Her- 
 bert Marsh, then Lady Margaret's Professor at Cambridge, after- 
 wards Bishop of Peterborough, who was in almost daily corre- 
 spondence with Mr. Norris, and most effectually recommended 
 the design to the bishops and leading divines of his own Univer- 
 sity by letters and personal applications. And it is very pleasing 
 
 e Sir Thomas Plumer. 
 
 1 John Bowdler the younger, of Lincoln's Inn, whose "Theological 
 Essays," published shortly afterwards by the father, after his son's death, 
 are still among the treasures of meditative Christian readers.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 59 
 
 to find that in these labours he did not hesitate to seek, and was 
 not disappointed in expecting, the willing aid of his well-known 
 literary antagonist, Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle, and President 
 of Queens' College, whom he generously vindicates in one of 
 these letters from an objection made against the smallness of his 
 contribution : 
 
 " What right have you or I to remonstrate in respect to voluntary 
 contributions ? I really think that fifteen guineas from Dr. Milner is 
 as much as 100 from a man of larger fortune. His mastership is very 
 small ; he has no living ; his deanery not above a third of either Canter- 
 bury or Lincoln : he has no private fortune whatever, and has nephews 
 and nieces who are wholly dependent on him. I cannot, therefore, urge 
 him to subscribe more ; and I only hope that this letter will arrive in 
 time to prevent the omission of his name from the first list." 
 
 Such a diligent ally was necessarily desired in London as the 
 time approached for the public announcement of the new Society. 
 He writes from Cambridge, Oct. 13, 1811, to Joshua Watson: 
 
 "DEAR SIR, 
 
 " As it is so much your desire, and the desire of Mr. Bowles and Mr. 
 Norris, that I should attend the meeting, I will certainly come. And 
 as we shall have many propositions to arrange and discuss preparatory 
 to the meeting, I propose that we should dine together in a private 
 room of some coffee-house near the Royal Exchange about half-past five 
 ou Tuesday, and that Mr. Bowles and Mr. Nonas be of the party. In 
 this interior cabinet we can arrange the propositions which are to be 
 brought forward at the cabinet council." 
 
 That same day Archdeacon Cambridge writes from Twicken- 
 ham, expressing his readiness to answer Joshua Watson's call to 
 the approaching meeting ; and suggesting some little alterations in 
 the prospectus, so as to take avowedly a more distinctly national 
 ground, and to make Dr. Bell's system appear in its true place, 
 as only the best means of working out the great objects of the 
 Society. " Our proper basis," he says, "is that of the national 
 Church, and our proper patrons are not only all the dignitaries 
 of the Church, but all others placed in high authority under the 
 constitution of which the Church forms an integral part, as well 
 as every other person distinguished for station, character, and 
 consequence." And then he adds, that the improvements in the 
 mechanism of education being recognised, " it will follow, as a 
 matter almost of course, that Dr. Bell's system, which makes 
 religious instruction an essential and necessary part of the plan, 
 shall be adopted in preference to Mr. Lancaster's, which confines 
 itself to the mechanical part alone." 
 
 Of Joseph Lancaster, a name of some consideration at this 
 period, but one that has since shared the fate of those who are
 
 60 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 raised to undue notoriety, there is the following account in a 
 letter written a few years later by H. H. Norris : 
 
 " While here at Bath, one of my walking companions in the pump- 
 room has heen Hoare Barclay ; from him I learnt this morning Lancas- 
 ter's origin. He came from Bristol ; his mother kept a small shop 
 there, was a Baptist, and bore a good character. Lancaster was an un- 
 settled boy ; and Fry, I believe, found his mother in great distress about 
 him, as he had run off and enlisted himself as a common seaman in a 
 ship of war. An interest was excited about him by Mrs. Fry, the lady 
 now in Newgate, with the Thorntons and their friends, and a subscrip- 
 tion was raised to send about thirty children to school to Mm. So he 
 continued for some time," probably some "years if this account is correct, 
 " till one day he called on Mr. Barclay, and said that a new light had 
 broken in upon him in the science of education, and he could teach 
 a hundred scholars. He went on progressively, till at length he came 
 and told Mr. Barclay he could teach a thousand. Barclay, who had dis- 
 trusted some of his former assertions, now thought him crazy, and told 
 him he must depend no more upon liim : upon which Lancaster slammed 
 the door in his face, saying as he left the room, ' If you will not assist 
 me, there are others who will.' " 
 
 In earlier years he had travelled about England and Ireland, 
 accompanied by a Moorish friend, Ombark Boubi, of whom a lively 
 account is given in the correspondence of Alexander Knox s . It 
 is now known and acknowledged, and it was indeed acknow- 
 ledged by Lancaster himself, though for a time he seemed willing 
 to appropriate the credit as his own, that whatever originality 
 there was in the system was due to Dr. Bell, who had learnt it, 
 while employed as one of the East India Company's chaplains at 
 Madras, from the practice of the Hindoos, and had given an ac- 
 count of it in different publications some years before Lancaster 
 began his lectures and experiments. That which finally made it 
 impossible for Church-of-England men to continue any negocia- 
 tion with him was his own presumptuous intolerance. He war 
 endeavouring to establish a school at Hochester, when the old 
 Archdeacon, John Law, put this question to him, " Will you, if 
 you establish your school here, suffer your pupils to learn the 
 Church Catechism?" His answer was emphatically, "No." 
 This is related by Andrew Downes at the time to H. H. Norris. 
 
 We cannot consider this part of our narrative complete with- 
 out adding the following characteristic letter from Sir John 
 Richardson : 
 
 " Wanlip, Oct. 3, 1811. 
 " MY DEAR NORRIS, 
 
 " I am very happy to hear that your plan is in such forwardness, and 
 that the Archbishop is disposed to take the lead, and act the part that 
 
 f Letter 44. See also Knox's Remains, iv. 199.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 61 
 
 belongs to him. We seem to be agreed that the co-operation of all good 
 sort of people is necessary to give full effect to this important measure ; 
 and I think we are also agreed that the best way to induce them to co- 
 operate with us is not to upbraid them for their past errors. I myself 
 should be disposed to coax them a little ; and this with me would be 
 no stretch of charity, because I am easily persuaded, and encourage 
 myself in that persuasion, to think very favourably of those who mean 
 to do well, and actually set about doing it, although they may not at 
 first have adopted the most judicious way. The fault of most good sort 
 of people is, that they confine their goodness to meaning well without 
 doing anything. 
 
 " Now I am afraid you will be disposed to class me among those who 
 come under tliis description when you find how little I have done for 
 you. However, I think it better to answer your letter, though I have 
 as yet little to communicate. I wish you to accept my own name to 
 a place in your list with a donation of ten guineas. The Rev. W. R. 
 Tvson, Rector of Thurcaston, wishes to become an annual subscriber. 
 Tliis gentleman is a magistrate and an active man, and highly approves 
 of your plan ; he has founded Sunday schools in his parish. I am living 
 here at present very privately, and seeing very few people. 
 
 " Ever truly yours, 
 
 "JOHN RICHARDSON." 
 
 The meeting for which all these preparations were made was 
 held on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1811. Archbishop Manners- Sutton 
 was in the chair, as he also was on the following Monday, Oct. 
 21, when the Prince Regent's offer of patronage was communi- 
 cated, and the Regulations were made by which the newly con- 
 stituted Society was to be governed. There was no fear or sus- 
 picion on the part of the promoters of this salutary measure lest 
 too much power in council should be given to the bishops ; they 
 were to be ex officio vice-presidents, and members of the com- 
 mittee. How the other members were to be appointed will ap- 
 pear from the following circular, printed from a copy which is 
 signed with the autograph of Archbishop Manners-Button : 
 
 "Addington Park, Nov. 1, 1811. 
 "SIR, 
 
 " At a meeting at Bow Church on Monday the 21st of October, holden 
 for the purpose of instituting ' A National Society for Promoting the 
 Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church 
 throughout England and Wales/ the Archbishop of Canterbury, Presi- 
 dent, in the Chair ; it was resolved, 
 
 " That a Committee of sixteen, besides the President and Vice-presi- 
 dents, who are Members ex officio, be appointed to manage tho afl'airs of 
 the Society -. and that the appointment of the sixteen for the present 
 year be left to the President, the Bishop of London, and such other 
 Bishops, if any, who shall be in Town.
 
 6 2 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "In consequence of the above Resolution, you are earnestly requested 
 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of London, Win- 
 chester, and Ely, to become a member of the said Committee. 
 "I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your faithful humble Servant, 
 
 " C. CANTUAR." 
 
 "What was thus avowedly done at the outset was effectually 
 for many years the rule of appointment for the governing or 
 managing body of the new Society. The bishops had the chief 
 part in the nomination of those who were thus associated with 
 them, whether of the laity or clergy. It may be that the per- 
 sonal dignity and authority of the then Archbishop made it easier 
 for him to do this than it would have been for another in the 
 same position : but it is impossible not to regard with some 
 regret the contests which have sometimes arisen in that and 
 other Church Societies since that deference to authority has been 
 impaired. 
 
 The first Vice-presidents who were associated with the bishops 
 were the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the Earls of Shaftesbury, Hard- 
 wicke, and Liverpool, Lords Grenville, Kenyon, and Redesdale ; 
 the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir William Scott, and 
 the Right Hon. Richard Ryder. Admiral William Lord Rad- 
 stock, a very active friend from the first, Sir John Mcholl, Sir 
 Vicary Gibbs, Dr. Gerrard Andrewes and Dr. Vincent, Deans of 
 Canterbury and Westminster, Dr. Wordsworth, Dr. Weston, and 
 Dr. Barton, Archdeacon Cambridge, Francis Burton 11 , George 
 Wharton Marriott, Quarles Harris, William Davis, and James 
 Trimmer, Esqrs., and the Rev. R. Lendon and H. H. N orris, 
 were the first-appointed members of the Committee. Richard 
 Richards, afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer, long known 
 to the subject of this Memoir among the friends of William 
 Stevens, and of whom he was wont to speak as " the inimit- 
 able Chairman of Nobody's," and Sir Thomas Plumer, some- 
 time Master of the Rolls, were associated with this board as 
 Auditors. 
 
 Within a few months James Allan Park, Dr. Ireland, C. H. 
 Turner, Esq., and John James Watson, became members of the 
 Committee, in the room of the two Deans, of Dr. Weston, and 
 Sir Vicary Gibbs. 
 
 h " I have already promised my arm to my friend Mr. Burton, who, 
 notwithstanding his loss of sight, will be found not only one of the most 
 intelligent, but one of the most active and useful of our members." 
 Archdeacon Cambridge to H. H. N orris. This good man was one whose 
 history might form a chapter in the wonders of Providence displayed 
 towards the blind.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 63 
 
 Tip to the time of the regular organization of the Society, H. 
 H. Norris had been the acting Secretary ; and it is helieved that 
 his advice guided the Archbishop to name Joshua "Watson as the 
 first Treasurer. The Rev. T. T. Walmsley, afterwards Vicar of 
 Hanwell, was by the same recommendation appointed Sec- 
 retary; an appointment which his zeal and devotion to the 
 work amply justified. "Let me congratulate the National 
 Society," writes Dr. Marsh, "that you are elected Treasurer. 
 Norria has informed me of it, though you have not : pro- 
 bably you did not know it yourself. You cannot conceive 
 how much I rejoice at it." During this interval Mr. Bowles 
 wrote to H. H. Norris : 
 
 " Tunbridge Wells, Nov. 8, 1811. 
 " MY DEAR NORRIS, 
 
 " In consequence of your letter I have determined to quit this place 
 to-morrow, that I may attend your summons on Monday. I own I re- 
 gret losing my potations for two days, especially as I did not begin 
 quaffing till yesterday, having left home only on Wednesday, but when 
 the Church calls I hope I shall ever obey. 
 
 " I rejoice to learn at last that an approving answer is come from the 
 Prince. I wish our application had been specific, and then the answer 
 must have been so too. 
 
 "I am glad that you are nominated on the Committee, though it 
 could not be doubted that this would be the case. As to myself, I shall 
 say nothing, but that the man does not live who is more anxious to 
 serve the cause ; as I trust has been already shewn : but I deem it im- 
 possible that my friend Joshua should be passed over. Such an omission 
 would be unpardonable, and is not supposable. 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " JOHN BOWLES." 
 
 The Reports shew that no time was lost, when once the machi- 
 nery was complete. On the 9th of May, 1812, a purchase was 
 made of premises in Baldwin's Gardens, near Gray's Inn-lane, 
 which in a very short time were ready to receive six hundred 
 boys and four hundred girls ; a temporary school on a smaller 
 scale having been previously at work, at which Dr. Bell assisted 
 in the direction. Provision for the training of teachers was one 
 of the first cares. A worthy clergyman from the Lake District, 
 the Rev. "W. Johnson of Grasmere, afterwards Rector of Bishop 
 Pearson's Church, St. Clement's, East-Cheap, undertook this 
 special charge, with the appointment of Head Master to the 
 Central School. 
 
 We must not estimate the means which were then placed at 
 the disposal of the new Society according to our present standard, 
 when a long peace, little broken for more than forty years, has
 
 64 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 poured the wealth of the world upon our shores. The nation in 
 1811 was struggling on to support the long exhausting war with 
 France. There was a dawn of hope from Sir Arthur Wellesley's 
 brave and skilful defence of Portugal : but the field of Salamanca 
 had not yet been fought, and Napoleon was arming for his gigan- 
 tic contest with Russia, his spell of success as yet unbroken. At 
 such a time it was something if a sum of 15,000 was at once 
 contributed, in the course of about a month from the first adver- 
 tisement of the Society's formation. The two Universities con- 
 tributed shortly afterwards a sum of 500 each from their public 
 chests, and several of the colleges voted sums of 100 or 50 
 from their separate bodies. Oxford was effectually excited by 
 the correspondence of Dr. John Randolph, Bishop of London, 
 with Dr. Parsons and Dr. John Eveleigh, the then excellent 
 Heads of Balliol and Oriel. Cambridge was already prepared 
 by the exertions of Dr. Marsh. District Societies were formed 
 in several parts of the kingdom, particularly at Exeter and Win- 
 chester. Lord Kenyon was labouring like a schoolmaster in 
 Shropshire and on the borders of Wales. And in the following 
 spring Mr. Sikes was able to report a most successful meeting 
 in the county-hall at Northampton, where the eloquence and zeal 
 of Lord Lilford were so well seconded as to command contributions 
 on the spot to the amount of 1,200. 
 
 Among the remarkably gifted women whose powers had been 
 displayed in the service of religious education before the close of 
 the last century, Sarah Trimmer had been already called to her 
 reward about a year earlier; but her influence survived in the 
 Countess Dowager Spencer, a name familiar to the readers of 
 Mrs. Trimmer's Biography, and which appears among the first 
 contributors. Her daughter, another Sarah Trimmer, did much 
 to recommend the cause to pious Church-of- England persons 
 in the circles where her mother's worth was known; and her 
 kinsman, William Kirby, was no idle correspondent in Suffolk. 
 "How often," he writes to H. H. Norris, "do I now think of 
 Mr. Jones, and wish another would arise." Hannah More was 
 one of the first to answer the call of Lord Radstock with a dona- 
 tion of 10. 
 
 Mr. Norris did not confine his labours to his voluntary duty 
 as Secretary ; but when he was on his summer tour in July, 
 1812, he did not forget to seize all opportunities of advancing the 
 good design. He writes from Cromer in this month : 
 
 " I have been visiting my correspondents all the way down ; and to- 
 morrow I return to Nonvich.to assist in adjusting matters for the dio- 
 cesan meeting, which is convened for the next day to establish the 
 National Society in this county."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 65 
 
 Joshua Watson writes in reply : 
 
 " Clapton, July 27. 
 
 " At the last Committee little was done but to adjourn until the 19th 
 proximo, and take into consideration a very interesting letter I laid 
 before them from the secretary of Sir E. Pellew ', now commanding in 
 the Mediterranean. It was addressed to Park, (from whom I got it on 
 his departure for the Northern Circuit,) enclosing a subscription and 
 donation to the National Society. And it promised to take charge of 
 and provide for a master, (if we would send him one,) who might 
 establish the system in the flag-ship, whence the example might spread 
 naturally throughout the fleet. The door thus opened to us, I found 
 no difficulty in persuading the Committee to give the necessary powers 
 for our profiting by it; and the business will,! hope, go forward. There 
 are, I know, differences of opinion on the subject in the navy; but 
 surely in the present state of society our duty is a clear one ; and we 
 must, at all events, obtain the direction of a power, whose tremendous 
 force is capable of too much good or evil, according to the hands in 
 which it is placed, not to be called into action by the enemies of all 
 that is good or great, if it be neglected by their friends from any fear of 
 its abuse. Archdeacon Cambridge rejoices with me to hear that you 
 are thus going about doing good, and is himself most actively and 
 usefully employed in supplying the absence of our wandering friends. 
 I met him again to-day at Bartlett's Buildings, where I strained a point 
 to attend, lest, whilst the main pillars of the Committee of Correspond- 
 ence were wanting, any mischief should be done to the establishment. 
 
 " Wordsworth has been called home, and has taken his work with 
 him ; for he was so laboriously engaged in attendance upon dirty books 
 and papers in the back office at Bartlett's Buildings, tnat I could not 
 help interfering, and requiring for him assistance from the front office, 
 in the drudgery of selecting materials, and in the forwarding them, when 
 selected, to Booking, that he might at least have the convenience of 
 examining them at his leisure at the deanery. And hard enough, after 
 all, in the way lie sets to work, will his task be. With our united 
 regards, and best wishes for the full benefit of your excursion, yours 
 ever affectionately, 
 
 J. W." 
 
 "What Lord Exmouth thus proposed to do for the navy had 
 been previously designed for the army, the Prince Regent 
 himself ordering that a serjeant should attend every battalion 
 in the service as schoolmaster, and General Calved, by the 
 Prince's command, desiring the Chaplain of the Forcjs to obtain 
 Dr. Bell's opinion as to the best mode of instructing these ser- 
 jeants in the use of the new system. Such a measure, emanating 
 from royal authority in the course of a few weeks from the 
 institution of the National Society, is a strong proof of the rapid 
 success of the work in which the friends were engaged. 
 
 1 Afterwards created Viscount Exmouth.
 
 66 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 It could not be that so great a design should be accomplished 
 without some difficulties arising from the varying views and 
 tempers of those with whom the promoters had to do. There 
 would be no need to record them, even were there materials for 
 so doing ; but the following allusion to such things, in a letter 
 from Archdeacon Cambridge, is not without interest : 
 
 " I try to forget all that passed at our meeting to-day, but I find it 
 very difficult to do so, or to forgive those who have laid schemes to sow 
 schism among us. Let us, however, cherish the hope that it may 
 produce ultimate good, as it certainly gave rise to some important 
 explanations. And the manly, firm, and judicious manner in which our 
 President spoke, will perhaps prove a sort of rallying-point among us." 
 
 And there is also some interest in another extract which we 
 give from a letter of his written in 1814 : 
 
 " At Gloucester I had a great triumph, as I called on Mr. Raikes to 
 see his school, wliich is Lancasterian, just as he was returned from 
 a visit to the Bishop of Hereford, aud much impressed with the 
 superiority of the Madras system. I found his school full of parade and 
 military movements, but the reading very bad, and no spirit of emula- 
 tion. By examining the children I made this fully appear, to the great 
 mortification of the master : but Raikes was too caudid not to acknow- 
 ledge it. 'I am convinced,' he said; 'the one mode is the manual, 
 the other the intellectual? " 
 
 The Bishop of Hereford at this period was Dr. John Luxmoore. 
 His lady's efficient services at the Central School for Girls are 
 mentioned in one of the early Reports. 
 
 One of the first cares, as the system extended itself, was to 
 prepare terms of union for district committees and the trustees 
 of provincial schools. These were prepared and adopted as early 
 as February, 1812. They are supposed to have been framed by 
 Joshua Watson conjointly with Dr. John Parsons, then Dean of 
 Bristol and Master of Balliol College, afterwards Bishop of 
 Peterborough, an able and upright man, whose death the subject 
 of this Memoir afterwards especially regretted as a public loss. 
 Instruction in the Church Liturgy and Catechism was made an 
 essential requisite, and attendance at the Church services, un- 
 less satisfactory reasons for non-attendance were assigned to the 
 managers of the school. And the choice of books was restricted 
 to those approved by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge. 
 
 To exhibit in the early Reports the progress of these unions 
 was part of the cares of Mr. N orris : 
 
 To Joseph Addison, Esq., of the Temple. 
 " MY DEAH SIR, 
 " I think the important results to be brought together in the synopsis
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 67 
 
 you have kindly engaged to draw up, are, in the first place, where it 
 can be stated, the number of parishes which have made no returns ; 
 2. those which have made returns, but have no schools ; 3. those which 
 have schools, but on the old system, and resolve to continue so, if this 
 can be ascertained; 4. those which are prevented from adopting the 
 national system in consequence of temporary obstacles, present teachers 
 not having mastered it, or being averse to it; 5. those prevented in 
 like manner from want of means; 6. those who have adopted the 
 system in part ; 7. those that have entirely adopted it. 
 
 "By casting our eye over the returns, I think you will at once 
 perceive that the answers resolve themselves into these heads ; at least, 
 from the inspection I have given them, these are what, upon recollec- 
 tion, suggested themselves to me. We wish the specifications to 
 ascertain generally where education is inefficiently, and where schisma- 
 tically, given; both which points wonld be very useful to us, (see 
 Durham Report,) and may progressively be acquired through our com- 
 mittees if we can once form our points of observation, and infuse energy 
 into them. But festina lente is a good apophthegm. What we have 
 achieved is a good earnest that in due time we shall accomplish our 
 object if we faint not. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "H. H. NORRIS." 
 
 There was one branch of the National Society in which Joshua 
 "Watson always took an especial interest. It took the name of 
 the City of London Auxiliary School Association, was founded 
 in 1812, and immediately began its operations in the very heart 
 of the City. There are not wanting indications in Joshua 
 "Watson's correspondence of his anxiety for the prosperity of 
 this branch or off-shoot through a long period of years, shewn 
 both in his own personal exertions, and also in his desire to 
 distinguish and reward the services of those who laboured in the 
 arduous work, by recommending them to the notice of his friends 
 upon the Episcopal Bench, transgressing his usual restraint upon 
 himself in all such matters. 
 
 In 1813 the Treasurer had to acknowledge the receipt of 
 3,766 in donations and subscriptions ; the names of contributors 
 to the parent Society are near two thousand ; and there is an 
 index of diocesan and district societies and schools which there 
 had been occasion to notice in the Report, containing not much 
 fewer than six hundred names of places. The number of chil- 
 dren in schools connected with the Society was now stated to bo 
 40,484. In twenty years more they had increased tenfold, and 
 are now supposed to be beyond a million. It cannot be too 
 much to say that the work begun in 1811 has withstood for half 
 a century the anti-Christian struggle to deprive religion of the 
 support of education. The following extracts from Bishop 
 Blomfield's letter to the Secretary in June, 1856, seem to define
 
 68 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 in a few emphatic words the important benefits that have heen 
 the result, through the Divine blessing, of this great effort : 
 
 "Of the National Society it is but justice to say, that the great 
 educational movement, which for nearly half a century has been 
 pursuing its steady course, and diffusing more and more from year to 
 year the blessings of civilization and religious truth throughout the 
 land, originated in a great degree with that Society, and has ever since, 
 under Providence, been sustained by its influence. Hence we find that 
 the number of children at this day in National Schools alone amounts 
 to 988,276. 
 
 "Besides contributing to extend instruction, the Society has done 
 much in various ways to improve it, to make it real, and not visionary ; 
 intellectual, and not mechanical. 
 
 " And above all, the Society, as our Church at large can testify, has 
 been essentially instrumental in connecting sound religious principle 
 inseparably with useful knowledge in the education of the people. The 
 Society has, by God's help, contributed to resist successfully the multi- 
 plied attempts of philosophical or political theorists to introduce their 
 systems of merely secular teaching, or of a religious teaching so re- 
 stricted and so generalized as to be comparatively inoperative." 
 
 CHAPTER .VI. 
 
 Peter Lathbury, Rector of Livermere. Dr. Wordsworth's services to the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Family Bible. 
 Review of Tracts. Use of district depositories. Correspondence with 
 Van Mildert, Sawbridge, and H. H. Norris. Mr. Norris's cathedral 
 preferments. 
 
 AMONG the country clergymen who took a lively interest in 
 the first institution of the National Society, a brief tribute 
 is due to the name of Peter Lathbury, Rector of Livermere in 
 Suffolk. Mr. Norris had become acquainted with him in the 
 course of his summer visits to his friends in the Eastern Counties 
 a few years earlier, and had introduced him to Joshua Watson 
 by the following characteristic letter : 
 
 " Walsingham, Sept. 28, 1803. 
 " DEAR JOSHUA, 
 
 "I have been passing two most profitable and pleasant days hi 
 a village, where I have seen realized what hitherto I had thought to be 
 but ideal perfection, the whole of it the domain of one proprietor k , 
 who resides in a most noble mansion surrounded with most highly 
 
 k Acton Lee, esq., of Livermere Hall.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 69 
 
 ornamented grounds, and who is not merely the lord of the soil, but the 
 father of his tenantry, and at the same time the most dutiful son of his 
 parish priest ; which parish priest has been for three generations ap- 
 pointed by himself and his ancestors from the same family, and has 
 been, and still is, a living representative of Herbert's Country Parson. 
 There are no poor-rates ; for the 'squire and the clergyman supply all 
 their people's wants, as well physic and food, as instruction. . But it 
 was not to describe the place to you that I took up my pen, but to 
 introduce to you Mr. Lathbury, who is the happy pastor of this happy 
 flock. He is continually going about doing good, and will be in Town, 
 I believe, next week, upon a very charitable errand, and one which, I 
 think, requires and deserves the co-operation of others. And as I 
 know you are ever ready to lend a hand on such occasions, I have 
 given him an introductory letter to you. The present object of his 
 charitable exertions is Tabart, the children's bookseller in New Bond- 
 street, whom several of the trade are endeavouring to ruin, because he 
 steadily resists the receiving into his shop any books of an evil tendency, 
 and is a regular attendant at his parish church. Mr. Lathbury happened 
 to hear of his case, and wrote him word that, if he could find good 
 security, there was a person who would advance him some money. His 
 next-door neighbour immediately came forward, and on being asked 
 what he knew of Tabart to induce him to become his security, he 
 answered that he knew nothing, but that he observed that his neighbour 
 was an industrious man and a regular Churchman, and such a one he 
 had no hesitation to trust, for he was persuaded he would, if supported, 
 do well. Mr. Lathbury has advanced him 400 ; but more is wanting 
 completely to extricate him, and Mr. Lathbury's object in coming to 
 London is to intercede with a stockbroker, to whom, I believe, Taoart 
 is heir, to advance him what is wanting on security. You will probably 
 know this stockbroker when you hear his name, and may be of some 
 service by your recommendation. 
 
 "If you have time to hold a long conversation with Mr. Lathbury, 
 you will hear from him some very important facts respecting Sunday 
 schools and Methodism ; you will find him thinking just as we think ; 
 in short, you will be much obliged to me for introducing him to you. 
 " Believe me, your affectionate friend, 
 
 "H. H. NOKRIS." 
 
 From this introduction, to the close of Mr. Lathbury's useful 
 life in 1820, there was amongst these friends an unfailing inter- 
 change of kind services and co-operation in works of beneficence 
 and piety. The man was worthy of their friendship. With no 
 abundance of worldly wealth, and with a weakly frame of body, 
 he did his duty as a parish priest, and also as a magistrate in 
 troublous times, more effectually than many have done with an 
 ample purse and robust constitution. And there was in all he 
 did the charm of right-aiming simplicity of purpose, and a trans- 
 parent sincerity which gave a natural grace to his words, and 
 won confidence and affection. " If you ever meet with a Peter
 
 70 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Lathbury," Joshua Watson said long afterwards to his nieces and 
 his daughter, "you have my free consent to take him without 
 a pound in his purse ; for he will have what is much better, he 
 will speak of heaven, and shew the way." " His indefatigable 
 and clear-sighted exertions in the best of causes," as Mr. Norris 
 characterized them, were continued consistently to the end. 
 When he knew himself to have the first visitings of the disease 
 upon him, from which he could not recover, he ascended his 
 pulpit for the last time, and addressed his flock in such earnest 
 words as could only flow from one with whom the hope which 
 had sustained his life burned brighter from the nearer prospect 
 of eternity. 
 
 During a fortnight which he spent at Joshua Watson's house, 
 his days were devoted to the closest attendance at the Central 
 School, striving to correct the ill results of some temporary mis- 
 management. A little diary kept by him at the time shews 
 how high was his standard for discipline and real efficiency, 
 while it also testifies to the diligent and habitual visiting at the 
 School practised by those whose guest he was. He spoke of the 
 National Society as a system designed " to restore to England 
 her true-born." 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth was all this time labouring as earnestly in the 
 cause of education, as he was also in the service of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It was about this time 
 that the Society's edition of the Bible with notes, commonly 
 called the Family Bible, was projected. It is believed to have 
 been chiefly the advocacy of Joshua Watson with his friends in 
 counsel, Christopher Wordsworth, Van Mildert, and Thomas 
 Fanshawe Middleton, afterwards first English bishop in India, 
 which excited the members of the Society to the work. But 
 his plan was not altogether followed. What he had designed 
 was a double commentary, one for the student, the other for 
 cottage-readers. The first was to have been prepared by Yan 
 Mildert and Middleton, the other by Richard Mant, then Vicar 
 of Coggeshall in Essex, one of Archbishop Sutton's chaplains. 
 The rule proposed to be observed in the selection of notes was to 
 confine all authoritative exposition of texts to divines of the 
 Primitive Church, or of the Church of England since the Re- 
 formation: other writers were to be used more sparingly, and 
 only when the Church had given them some sanction by adopting 
 them into common use. The plan was, however, in some degree 
 baffled by the Archbishop committing the task to his own two 
 chaplains, Mr. Mant and Mr. George D'Oyley, an arrangement 
 with which Joshua Watson would not attempt to interfere, 
 though he did not lose sight of his original purpose, and many
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 71 
 
 years afterwards made another effort to set on foot a Cottage 
 Bible. He often regretted the failure of this design; but, to 
 use his own words, "it was not easy to find the right persons 
 for a work which required great and extensive learning, and 
 the rare talent of giving the results of much knowledge in the 
 simplest form." 
 
 It is certain that the first promoters of the Family Bible were 
 not altogether satisfied with the change of plan, or the mode 
 in which the task was executed. The sources from which the 
 commentary was compiled were not always the best ; some of 
 the authors used were of doubtful orthodoxy, and had but a low 
 conception of the Christian scheme ; and their imperfect views 
 sometimes found a place in a note on St. John or St. Paul, ex- 
 pressed in terms little satisfactory to the disciple of Augustin or 
 Chrysostom. But the general acceptation given to the work 
 must redeem it from the indiscriminate charge of failure ; it had 
 access at once to the homes of pious Church-of- England persons 
 in very different ranks of life ; it has continued to be welcome to 
 many readers in the middle classes, and to help the schoolmaster 
 in his Sunday school. Bishop Mant, who was probably the 
 principal labourer in the work, was encouraged a few years later 
 to send out after it an edition of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 with notes selected on a similar principle ; and this work was 
 also well received. 
 
 There was one portion of the task which devolved on the 
 subject of this Memoir, aided by his friend Archdeacon Cam- 
 bridge ; and many letters are preserved which attest the care 
 and thought bestowed upon it. They conferred with the artists, 
 and directed the preparation of the plates for the illustration of 
 the Family Bible; in which it will probably be allowed that 
 they manifested a reverential spirit, combined with much taste 
 and judgment. In one of his letters Joshua Watson had suggested 
 that the subjects of the engravings should be taken from the 
 Sunday Lessons. This, his correspondent replies, he had found 
 to be impracticable; because thus some of the most striking 
 miracles and typical events recorded in the Old Testament 
 would have been left out. He specifies two, which he desired 
 to introduce in the books of the Prophets, as, to borrow a phrase 
 of Dr. Marsh's, " embodying prophecy." These were introduced 
 as illustrations to the book of Isaiah, "The Virgin and Child," 
 and " The Man of Sorrows." 
 
 "Nothing," he says, "is more suited to impress these im- 
 portant passages on the minds of children, than such repre- 
 sentations." 
 
 Again he writes: "Your short note needed no apology. I
 
 72 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 am always glad of a word from you, because it is always to the 
 purpose. You wish to change that beautiful subject of Poussin, 
 ' The Golden Calf,' and I should wish to do so too, for Raphael's, 
 of 'Moses giving the Law.' But I wish you to turn to the 
 passage, and see if there is any moment when we can venture 
 to shew Moses turning to the people without his veil. The 
 shining of his face might be represented by a faint glory ; but 
 a veil, in our manner, would hardly do." 
 
 On another engraving, which seems to have been one of the 
 "Adoration of the Shepherds," he says : " A shepherd, kneeling 
 in the foreground, holds up his hand to keep off the brightness 
 of the light which comes from the Infant. This action is not to 
 my taste ; it is too ordinary, too corporeal, and not suited to the 
 character of that divine effulgence of the Saviour who had been 
 announced to them. Pray consider this." 
 
 It appears that some of the plates were contributed by differ- 
 ent benefactors ; one is mentioned as " the gift of the Norfolk 
 Clergy." 
 
 Again, this correspondent speaks of the care taken in pre- 
 paring the maps which accompany this edition of the Bible : 
 " You have, indeed, been indefatigable in your pursuit of ex- 
 cellence in the map-department, and bid fair to satisfy even the 
 nice and critical wishes of the Speaker." 
 
 Evidently the zeal of these friends, to make the work appear 
 to advantage, and to be in every way as useful as possible, was 
 not abated by the feeling which they from time to time acknow- 
 ledge, that it was not to be altogether what they had designed. 
 
 In the meantime, the new interest awakened for the further- 
 ance of the designs of the Society engaged the band of friends in 
 many conferences on the publications which were proposed to be 
 issued with the common approval. The following portion of 
 a letter from Dr. Wordsworth may serve to prove, what some 
 later currents of opinion have tended to call in question, that 
 while he and his fellow-labourers were zealous to maintain " the 
 Establishment," valuing our national ecclesiastical institutions 
 with all the earnestness of true patriotism, they never confounded 
 this civil position of the Church with the enduring realities of 
 the Church itself : 
 
 " April 20, 1815. 
 
 "... I do not see that I have any remarks to make further on any 
 particular passages beyond what will occur in an observation to which 
 the pending subject leads me, viz., that you should not omit to notice 
 a species of phraseology almost new to the Society, in which these 
 papers somewnat largely indulge. We have, 'members of the Esta- 
 blished Church,' ' well-affected to Church and State,' ' the friends of the
 
 Memoir ofJosJma Watson. 73 
 
 Church,' ' all friends of the Established Church,' and ' members of the 
 Established Church,' again repeated. 
 
 " Now I will venture to express myself freely : there is a great deal 
 too much of all this. First, the habit of our Society has been to act, 
 and not to talk : these professions are beneath its dignity. Its prin- 
 ciples are well known, its character does not need these ostentatious 
 testimonies. Pray, let us continue, as much as may be, grave and 
 sober, and catch as little as is possible of the character and temper of this 
 pragmatical, factious, and professive age. These are serious concerns ; 
 and much depends on the example and dignified deportment of our Society. 
 
 " Secondly, with regard to the expression, ' Established Church,' the 
 worthies who first joined together our Society, and who have constantly 
 had sway in it, were, I believe, little in the habit of knowing or think- 
 ing that there was any other Church in this country, but one: and 
 therefore any distinguishing expression, particularly such an one as 
 leads the mind to rest on temporal concerns, was to be used, they 
 thought, (and so they practised,) very sparingly ; to be kept down 
 rather than encouraged or obtruded. 
 
 " Thirdly, the times do and will force us, on occasion, to talk and 
 think of Establishment and Dissenters, and Test-laws, &c., but too 
 much and too painfully. Only, on that very account, let these things 
 be kept the more to their proper places and times. Inopportune talk 
 shews confusion and alarm, and weakness. Our high theme and argu- 
 ment is religion, and Christian knowledge. That will lead us, I do not 
 deny, to establishments, and more to the opposition of schism ; and so 
 we have our division of tracts on those subjects. But 1 am persuaded 
 we should be far better pleased to know and think that/ there were no 
 such persons as Dissenters in the world ; which if there were not, the 
 main work of our Society would still remain. You have gone quite far 
 enough in requiring that the persons attending committees should all be 
 members of the Established Church ; further, I am persuaded, than the 
 Society itself meant to do, so low down as the time of Archbishop 
 Seeker. Gladly, therefore, would I have you stop here, and let all 
 those expressions, ' friends of the Church,' ' Established Church,' &c., 
 be changed into ' the laity/ or other more general terms. The subject 
 is important, and ought not to be treated lightly." 
 
 It was about this time that a new Society was proposed, 
 which was to have borne the name of "Friends of the Esta- 
 blished Church." There had been a movement at Norwich for 
 such an association, whose office should be to circulate hooks or 
 tracts to counteract those of an opposite tendency. Dr. Words- 
 worth dissuaded it. " Some storms," he wrote, " will sooner 
 spend their force by being a little yielded to, or, as it were, less 
 accounted of, than by being encountered and opposed, especially 
 if by newly devised obstacles and resistances. These often do 
 but exasperate the fury of the time, and by their own counter- 
 blasts increase the hurly-burly." His feeling was that even the 
 Church had more societies than it knew how to manage well ;
 
 74 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and he wished, as many have wished in those days and since, 
 that there might rather be one society sanctioned by public con- 
 sent, to aid in the work of Christian education, and promote the 
 knowledge of the doctrine and discipline which we have received 
 from the beginning. 
 
 In writing for the poor or lower orders, he said it was a man's 
 duty to lower and simplify his style : but he adds, with a feeling 
 worthy of the good poet's brother, "I own I think also that, in 
 writing for these classes, one ought, in point of substance and 
 sentiment, to write one's very best. Whatever is laid before 
 them, especially by our Society, ought, as far as it goes, to be 
 as good in every quality as it can well be made." 
 
 It appears that Dr. Wordsworth was at this time engaged in 
 revising many tracts, which it was proposed to reprint ; and he 
 was desirous that a systematic revision of them all should be 
 effected, though it might occupy two or three years. There 
 were some complaints, such as were made with more justice at 
 a later period, about the alterations of an author's original text, 
 which were found in the Society's reprints. Joshua Watson 
 writes to his friend in October, 1814, to inform him of these 
 complaints, as if the editions "gave rather what the Society's 
 editors thought the authors should have said, instead of honestly 
 printing what they had said. The charge," he says, "is a 
 serious one, and gives too much sanction to a practice of which 
 we reasonably complain in some of our opponents. It is but 
 common justice to the author to relieve him from responsibility, 
 where improvements are made in his text ; such altered pieces 
 should be dealt with and published as new works, bearing in 
 their front the name of the editor, who alone will remain fairly 
 answerable for the contents." Dr. Wordsworth advises this 
 rule to be followed with some distinction of cases : " Where any 
 book or tract requires any extensive alterations, such as to affect 
 its identity, the revising committee should recommend that it be 
 not reprinted: but where, from any incorrectness in fact or 
 impropriety in sentiment, a sentence or clause may need to be 
 qualified or omitted, let omission be allowed rather than alter- 
 ation; yet even alteration, rather than that the Society should 
 sacrifice to any subordinate considerations its first object, the 
 promotion of Christian knowledge. Where, as in older tracts, 
 a learned phraseology is prevalent, explanatory words may be 
 added for the help of the unlettered reader : a practice justified 
 by an authority which all will reverence, as any one may see who 
 compares the first edition of our Liturgy and Book of Homilies 
 with subsequent editions of the same under superintendence of 
 the like authority." And the ground of objection might be re-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 75 
 
 moved, if the fact of any such alterations being made were 
 avowed in prefatory notices to the tracts, as well as records of 
 them preserved in the documents of the Committee. 
 
 As long as these prudent precautions were observed, they seem 
 to have satisfied the supporters of the Society. It was not till 
 more than twenty years later that the complaints were renewed, 
 and the unadvised alterations made in Nelson's " Festivals," and 
 other books of standard value, rendered it necessary to put 
 a check to a discretion which was no longer in safe hands. 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth was not well satisfied with the mode of elect- 
 ing members of this Society by ballot, particularly of country 
 members, as a mode that checked and discouraged the co-opera- 
 tion" of quiet people. He also wished to have a rule added, 
 recommending some scheme of annual or periodical collections; 
 and he foresaw, what has been proved true by late experience, 
 that such an expedient was wanted to give efficiency and per- 
 manency to the operations of the District Committees : " In 
 my own parish I have made a collection annually for the last 
 four years, by which I have raised between 90 and 100 ; and 
 hence, without any dis-service to the Society, I have had at my 
 disposal 60 worth of books estimated at their reduced prices 
 an advantage which I need not stop to enlarge upon. I wish 
 your wealthy parishes in London and its neighbourhood would 
 try the scheme and manifest its potency." 
 
 It appears that a correspondent of Joshua "Watson had com- 
 plained of Dr. Wordsworth for making his district depository 
 available for Dissenters. He refuses to be troubled at this accu- 
 sation. " If we have a depository, whether for Bibles, or for 
 Tracts, or for Liturgies, or for all these, would I not give a Dis- 
 senter any one of them that he might require ? And would I 
 not also permit him to purchase one ? Yes, and for these two 
 reasons : first, because I would wish him to have the books ; 
 and, secondly, because I would have my fountain so bounteous 
 and large, that none other should be known or heard of in all 
 the land." He would also have advised the admission of books 
 and tracts on the Society's catalogue which were not written by 
 members of the Church of England, if they were otherwise wor- 
 thy of approval. This, at least, seems to have been one of his 
 proposals in a letter which Joshua Watson answers in 1816 : "I 
 have done as you bade me ; I began Gilpin, and could not help 
 finishing it, and scarcely know when I have been more delighted. 
 It is indeed an exquisite piece 1 . But what can we do with 
 
 1 This seems to be the old Life of Bernard Gilpin by Bishop Carlton, re- 
 printed afterwards by Dr. Wordsworth in the " EccL Biography."
 
 76 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Bunyan and Alleine ? I could admit them, but the Society 
 never can, never ought." 
 
 Shortly after the date of this letter, Dr. "Wordsworth accepted 
 the offer of the Archbishop to exchange the living or Deanery of 
 Booking, for the Rectory of Lambeth, to which was added also 
 the Rectory of Sundridge in Kent, an occasion which drew 
 forth the following warm congratulation : 
 
 " Clapton, Saturday night, \March 2, 1816.] 
 
 " MY DEAK FRIEND, 
 
 "I presume you hold your conversation with N orris a sufficient 
 notice to me, and that I may not look for a more formal redemption of 
 your promise. Without waiting, therefore, for a regular notification of 
 your purpose to accept the Archbishop's offer, I do hereby most heartily 
 thank you for your acquiescence in a change, which we all see must 
 bring with it a great surcharge of persoual exertion and anxiety. 
 
 "But these are times in which, surely, one would much rather wear 
 out than rust ; and whenever your labours are at any time overwhelm- 
 ing, you have only to think of what you said to poor Johnson under 
 similar circumstances, and to take comfort from a consideration of the 
 varied usefulness of your services, and the importance of the interests 
 for which you are sacrificing yourself. 
 
 " On this subject I will say no more. You, who know how deeply 
 I deplored your former secession from Lambeth, may guess a little at 
 what I feel on your return : but I do wish that the Archbishop could 
 know how much others, who love our Church, will feel at his thus re- 
 calling to his side the tried friend and enlightened counsellor, whose 
 services would at any time be of great worth, but in this day of rebuke 
 and blasphemy are by his well -tempered zeal and practical knowledge 
 set above all price, and leave us only to desire that they may be long 
 continued to us. 
 
 " Forgive me, and believe me with unfeigned affection yours always, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 This return of his friend to the neighbourhood of London was 
 the beginning of new labours in the cause of the Church and her 
 missions, of which some account will hereafter be given. 
 
 It may readily be supposed that William Van Mildert was no 
 indifferent spectator of these labours, though he was now re- 
 moved from his London parish, and called to a different and more 
 congenial sphere of action in Oxford. We find him writing to 
 Joshua Watson, soon after the appearance of the Family Bible, 
 expressing much anxiety that its circulation should be extended, 
 and active steps taken to meet the demand for a cheap edition. 
 He recommends the increase of local depositories, and suggests 
 
 See a letter from Joshua Watson on this subject further on, in chap. xv.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 77 
 
 a measure which has lately been tried for good purposes with 
 some success, the employment of licensed hawkers. 
 
 As was before mentioned, from the time when this excellent 
 man became preacher at Lincoln's Inn, his rise was rapid. His 
 character as a learned divine was already known from the Boyle 
 Lectures ; but his discourses in the pulpit, full of calm religious 
 reason, were exceedingly valued by the audience, chiefly com- 
 posed of members of the Inns of Court, which he found at Lin- 
 coln's Inn Chapel. And as he became privately better known, 
 his native grace of manners and refined sense of Christian duty 
 greatly commended his doctrine. Sir Vicary Gibbs spoke of him 
 to Lord Liverpool. That virtuous minister was on the watch 
 for men who would discharge the higher offices of the Church 
 with ability and faithfulness; and he made a purely disinter- 
 ested choice when he recommended Van Mildert for Regius Pro- 
 fessor at Oxford. He was then at his country living at Farn- 
 ingham, and his domestic economy, under the pressure already 
 related, was so strictly maintained, that the Premier's private 
 messenger could find only one servant a female presiding at the 
 churn. She was willing to seek her master, who had walked 
 out into the garden, if the messenger would take her place, and 
 keep the churn in motion. 
 
 In September, 1814, the Professor writes to Joshua "Watson, 
 who was then at his brother's parsonage, at Diggeswell, Herts., 
 sending six of his Bampton Lectures, asking for them "his 
 strictest criticism." He speaks as if he was himself by no means 
 content with his own work in these Lectures : "I often think 
 what a castigation I could give them if I were a reviewer ; 
 therefore be you my reviewer beforehand, and let me see the 
 worst of it." " I have cast my eye over your notes," he says, in 
 another letter, on receiving back the MS., " and I see enough to 
 know that I am, as usual, very much your debtor." And on 
 another occasion : " You have a happy talent of making a man 
 satisfied with himself, even when he imagines* that he has failed 
 in his object. I have only again to thank you for applying to 
 my nervous frame so very efficient a corroborative as your letter 
 has proved to be." 
 
 It would be of some interest if any means remained of re- 
 covering some of these critical remarks, but the delicate sense of 
 the sacred privacy of friendship, which governed the conduct of 
 Joshua Watson in all such relations, suffered no record of them 
 to remain save in the hands of the friend to whom they were 
 addressed. In these letters Van Mildert speaks as if he knew 
 his friend to be engaged in more public services, probably with 
 reference to the bishopric of Calcutta, which was founded the
 
 78 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 same year : " I am glad, for the good of the public, if not for 
 your own, that the Prime Minister occupies so much of your 
 time; and in this rejoicing I am clearly disinterested, as you 
 acknowledge that I am a loser by it. But I am accustomed to 
 think of you as one of whom it may be said, Look, whatsoever he 
 doeth, it shall prosper' 1 
 
 The following letter from the Rev. John S. Sawbridge, while 
 it exhibits a striking picture of the piety and zeal of a country 
 clergyman in a more retired sphere of duty, may also serve as 
 one proof among many of the encouragements which such efforts 
 found wherever they were known to Joshua Watson : 
 
 " Stretton, Aug. 16, 1812. 
 " MY DEAK WATSON, 
 
 " You have taken such an interest in my parish, and participated so 
 much in my parochial gratifications, that, before I inform you in what 
 stage the repairs of the chancel are, I must notice the result of this 
 day. It was the celebration of the additional Communion which I 
 commenced last year, and am truly gratified to find the continuance 
 improving on the commencement. Several new communicants at- 
 tended, as indeed there have at all the intervening Communions. The 
 number this day was eighty -five: upon looking over my list I find 
 sixty-eight more who are in the habit of attending, but in most houses 
 the man or his wife must stay at home. This makes the whole number 
 of communicants 153. But a further inspection of the list of my 
 parish shews me ninety-one more who ought to attend, to whom I shall 
 open the subject, and express my opinion and advice as opportunities 
 offer. Many, perhaps most, will listen, and be brought to attend. If 
 I am blessed with success in this further attempt, the whole number of 
 communicants, Deo volente, may be 244 in a population of 610. 
 
 " So you see, my dear friend, what you have done : you have ani- 
 mated and assisted the pastor, and must and shall take credit for bring- 
 ing into the safest part of the fold many of his scattered and wandering 
 flock. May the good Shepherd of us all look upon you for good, for 
 all that you have done for the house of our God, aud for the offices 
 thereof ! 
 
 "We are at length proceeding, or beginning to proceed, to put hi 
 effect your kind intentions to the chancel. The old ceiling is pulled 
 down ; the new beam for a covered ceiling put up. This allows us to 
 add a foot and a-half to the window, which gives the Gothic arch more 
 
 point, and improves the appearance very much The middle 
 
 compartment of the window is made to fit the painted glass which 
 Isorris gives us ; to which a Gothic head is added, and I have just 
 ordered the words explanatory to be inscribed, He was known of them in 
 
 breaking of bread. The pews hi the body of the church are 
 
 completed, the seats for the women under the gallery are in hand, the 
 benches for the men at the lower part of the new aisle are done ; and. 
 when the chancel is ready, I shall place the Sunday School boys in the
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 79 
 
 back part, and the farmers' servant-lads, reserving two rows in the 
 front near the desk for the deaf and infirm. So, thank God, I have 
 the comfortable prospect of accommodating all my flock, and may hope, 
 by His blessing, to be thus promoting the progress of our holy faith; 
 for your kind assistance in accomplishing which be assured of the true 
 regard and sincere acknowledgments of yours very truly, 
 
 " J. S. SAWBRIDGE." 
 
 ' It was with some reference to the welcome which he continued 
 to find at the house of this good parish priest, with whom he had 
 first served as curate, that Mr. Norris writes in one of these 
 years: ''Frequently have I been constrained to acknowledge, 
 and, I hope, not without gratitude, that few men can have so 
 many delightful homes open to them, and such friends to greet 
 and cherish them." These were almost the only recreation 
 which he sought, and from which he returned to his suburban 
 charge with renewed spirits and vigour. But he was now 
 also concerning himself earnestly about the catechetical in- 
 struction to be supplied by the Society for, Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge. He would have proposed a resolution to be adopted 
 by the Society in these terms : " That uniformity of religious 
 instruction being a point most essential to the integrity of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, so deemed by our Reformers, and specially pro- 
 vided for by the Church Catechism which they put forth, the 
 same character ought scrupulously to be preserved in all the aids 
 used for its further illustration." And therefore, "That the 
 department of the Society's tracts relating to catechetical instruc- 
 tion ought to be kept to one uniform plan, and to comprise 
 a series of the best Explanations, rising one above the other, 
 which the labour of our divines in that elementary branch of 
 Christian knowledge can furnish." He complains that the Com- 
 mittee had frequently to wage battle on this point, " as often as 
 a young sprig of divinity, pleased with his own performances, 
 the first in all probability in which he will engage, wants the 
 imprimatur of the Society to procure them more extensive ad- 
 miration. I have a Catechism, with which, when newly finished, 
 I was monstrously pleased, but which I am now sure I shall 
 destroy, and only deler doing so because it makes me a Cate- 
 chetical Common-Place-Book." 
 
 Dr. Herbert Marsh, having been promoted in August, 1816, to 
 the bishopric of Llandaff, attested his value for the character of 
 Mr. Norris by offering him the first preferment which fell vacant 
 in his cathedral, the prebendal stall named after St. Dubricius, 
 the ancient British founder of the see. The pecuniary value of 
 this dignity was so small, that there could scarcely be any im- 
 putation made on b,is disinterestedness if he accepted it. But he
 
 8o Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 felt some reluctance: "When I take preferment," he said, "I 
 cease to be a volunteer in the service of the Church ; and perhaps 
 it is conducive to the effect of my services that I should not lose 
 this character." He therefore referred the decision to Joshua 
 Watson : " I am your yoke-fellow, and therefore you have a 
 right to turn the scale which nearly balances." The advice ap- 
 pears to have been to accept it, and " give to St. Dyfric one true 
 Briton more :" for he held the honour till his death. And it is 
 not improbable that some of his friends may have represented it 
 to him as a step that was likely rather to increase than to impair 
 his useful influence. For some, who had less sympathy with his 
 aims, had publicly objected to the marks of confidence bestowed 
 on him by persons in high station, when he was no more than 
 a subaltern. They wondered at the effect of the labours of the 
 curate of St. John's, much as a Roman cardinal is said to have 
 been surprised at the stir made by Martin Luther : "It was all 
 very well that the Church should be reformed ; but what had 
 a paltry friar to do with it r" For the same reason probably he 
 afterwards accepted from Bishop Howley in 1825 a non-residen- 
 tiary stall in the cathedral of his own diocese. The dignity gave 
 him a claim to a voice in public counsels. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Joshua Watson's retirement from mercantile life. Retrospect. Benefits of 
 his influence and ready benevolence as a London merchant. His increas- 
 ing engagements in religious and charitable labours. Fund for the relief 
 of sufferers in the war in the North of Germany. Waterloo fund. 
 
 IT was in the year 1814 that Joshua Watson, at the age of 
 forty-three, retired from the mercantile business, to which he 
 had been consigned so early in life by his father's choice, and 
 which, pursued at first under the obligation of filial duty, had 
 lately become successful enough to have strong attractions for 
 a spirit less engaged in a more exalting service. Several years 
 later he speaks of the event in a letter to one of his subordinates, 
 who was then leaving the country, not without some substantial 
 proofs of mindful kindness on his former employer's part, for 
 a situation in Canada : 
 
 "DEABSlB, 
 
 " I had some expectation of being in Town before your departure, and 
 of delivering the inclosed into your own hands : but this seems now out
 
 . Memoir of Joshua Watson. 81 
 
 of the question, and I must therefore entrust it to the post. It shall 
 not, however, go unaccompanied with the expression of my good wishes 
 for the success of your present enterprise, and of the satisfaction with 
 which I heard you declare the spirit in which it was undertaken. I have 
 no taste or talent for preaching ; but the occasion leads me to add a hope 
 that the just view you took of the dangers and difficulties of the lite, 
 from which you were withdrawing, will become clearer and stronger as 
 you are more and more removed from their influence. Whilst engaged 
 in all the hurry and bustle of business, and in a daily struggle perhaps 
 for the very being of one's family, many an iniquity in buying and 
 selling is lost sight of in the dust our own contentions raise about us, 
 which, when we are away from the field of action, will begin to shew 
 itself in its true light. Many a thing, which perhaps the custom of 
 trade never allowed one to scruple about, or which the arts of com- 
 petitors in a market seemed to make a necessary part of self-defence, 
 may then possibly appear in more questionable colours. I know pretty 
 well the temptations to which your mercantile career from its commence- 
 ment to the present hour has exposed you. In my own case I rejoiced 
 when ' the snare was broken ;' and I can truly add that the wish to 
 make my escape, and to be secure against the risk of being ' again 
 entangled therein and overcome,' prevailed much in my early retirement 
 from the profits of Mark Lane, which, however they have since failed, 
 were certainly at the time not a little tempting. 
 
 " You will not wonder, therefore, if, though late, and under different 
 circumstances as your change is made, it still seems a subject of con- 
 gratulation ; for though without doubt every state and condition has its 
 own peculiar temptations and trials, yet those with which one's own ex- 
 perience has made one most conversant must always make the strongest 
 impression. Most sincerely, then, do I hope that you will derive solid 
 and substantial comfort from the change, and find that you have im- 
 proved your chance for happiness, not only in this world, but what is of 
 incalculably greater moment, in that which is soon to follow, and then 
 endure for ever. And here I should certainly have done ; for I see I am 
 in danger of being led on into a little sermonizing, spite of the dis- 
 claimer with which I honestly began. But I find it hard to stop here. 
 And really, when I consider this as the last intercourse we are ever 
 likely to 'have, and call to mind that, as your commercial life began 
 under my father and myself, you may perhaps have been first led into 
 temptation by a desire to recommend yourself by what might naturally 
 enough appear good service to him and to me, I can hardly help falling 
 into a graver tone than befits either ordinary correspondence, or the 
 relation in which we now stand to each other. You will however, I 
 trust, excuse it, and not think I am taking too much upon me if, at 
 such a time and under such circumstances, I add in conclusion an 
 earnest intreaty, that, before you are plunged again into new cares, in 
 your entry on a new and untried state of life, you would fairly and 
 honestly examine into the past, and, judging yourself by very different 
 rules than the world prescribes, give thanks wherever you nave over- 
 come the temptations to which your condition exposed you, and repent 
 wherever they have surprised or been an overmatch for you.
 
 82 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " But in adding this I am probably suggesting only what has already 
 often passed through your own mind, and am certainly far from supposing 
 any particular need ot the suggestion in your case. Such a supposition is 
 not to be admitted after the conversation of the other morning. Yet 
 still the examination can scarcely be at any time out of season, and 
 under the circumstances referred to you will feel, I am sure, that I am 
 but delivering my own conscience. Repeating every good wish for 
 a prosperous voyage, and a happy establishment to yourself and family 
 in the new world you are seeking, and above all, for the best blessings 
 in that which is to come, I am, &c. 
 
 " J. WATSON." 
 
 There are many proofs of his conscientious vigilance, in the 
 midst of his life of business, to encourage any good which he 
 could find. But we must content ourselves with one which is 
 perhaps more striking as coming from a quarter which is not 
 commonly deemed accessible to either charitable or good moral 
 influences. The writer was the keeper of a spirit-shop in Shore- 
 ditch, who, in his dealings with Mark Lane, had learnt to value 
 and to emulate in his degree the Christian merchant, of whom 
 he speaks in terms bordering on veneration. 
 
 " SlK, 
 
 " Had I not accidentally heard that you had read my former letter, 
 and intended honouring me with a call, I should certainly not have 
 troubled you with this, which shall not be repeated, if you think it not 
 worth a reply. But I think I cannot be mistaken in your disposition to 
 embrace all opportunities .of doing good. And being thoroughly aware 
 how much I am indebted to a kind Providence and a generous public 
 for my success in this world's affairs, I now beg leave to solicit your 
 assistance in advising me in what way or manner you think I may now 
 be best capable of acknowledging those obligations. 
 
 " I humbly hope I am not destitute of benevolent feelings, and I have 
 almost persuaded myself I could leave off working for profit, if I could 
 get employment worthy of a rational being without any. But I feel 
 quite incapable of exposing myself to a life of total inactivity, and do 
 not see in what way to set myself about anything useful. Could you 
 give me any occasional employ as a sub-agect to assist in your labours of 
 beneficence, I think that would contribute much to my satisfaction. 
 Since I have known a little of myself, I have discovered that sort of de- 
 fective judgment, which is not so well adapted to guide or direct in any 
 new emergencies, as it is to be guided by a superior one. 
 
 " Be assured, Sir, I have no wish to claim any troublesome familiarity, 
 but beg you will keep me at as great a distance as you please, and treat 
 me as you think I deserve. And, with all due respect, I remain, Sir, 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 
 " JOB JEFFKINS." 
 
 There had been a period of distress among the working classes 
 in that part of London; and Job Jeffkins had been his coadjutor
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 83 ' 
 
 in some efforts to redeem workmen's tools and clothes from the 
 pawnbrokers. The worthy man was gratified in his humble 
 wishes, and continued afterwards to apply for advice to guide 
 his virtues in their narrow round. " You have in some degree," 
 he says, two or three years later, " awakened my mind and con- 
 science : and I humbly hope and pray that I may not entirely 
 disappoint and deceive you." 
 
 As a lay-inhabitant of his brother's parish, Joshua "Watson 
 found many opportunities of exercising his discerning spirit in 
 offices of charity. He paid particular attention to the workhouse, 
 sometimes spending whole mornings there, endeavouring to 
 remedy abuses in giving or withholding relief. He made it one 
 of his objects to procure the allotment of separate rooms for the 
 most deserving among the aged married pairs. There are letters 
 of thanks to him from the boys in the workhouse " for their 
 education;" and little lists that were sent to him of boys and 
 girls who had received small rewards for good behaviour certified 
 by their employers. 
 
 At the same time he had to satisfy some unusual claims of 
 private friendship. A sudden change of temporal prosperity had 
 involved a family of highly accomplished and amiable persons in 
 painful embarrassments. It was a case that became known to 
 him through his friend Archdeacon Cambridge, and it was one 
 which called for anxious and laborious occupation continued for 
 many years. His skill as a man of business was in this instance 
 the means of rendering material assistance assistance most affec- 
 tionately acknowledged to the good Archdeacon, whose own 
 labour of love in the same cause he delighted to call the most 
 beautiful example of Christian friendship. A visible blessing 
 rested upon it ; and a third generation is rising up to continue 
 the same good works, and adorn the memory of so gracious 
 a benefactor. 
 
 In another very different case he was engaged with his brother, 
 and with his friends Baden Powell and Judge Park, in a patient 
 endeavour to rescue the son of an old and honoured friend from 
 the downward path which he was treading. There was one time 
 at which he appears to have thought it the part of true kindness 
 to withdraw his aid and countenance from one who had so often 
 disappointed them ; but his severity was not proof to the generous 
 intercession of his benevolent counsellors. " You see," writes 
 Judge Park, "how he loves you, and how he laments being de- 
 prived of your correspondence. Might not a line from you con- 
 firm his good resolutions, and restore him to peace of mind, and 
 to his God?" "I cannot but think," says Baden Powell, with 
 a happy faith in the power of good, "that a man who has had 
 such good principles instilled into him must have an inclination
 
 84 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 to return to better habits; and this may be the opportunity 
 which, if seized, may be the turning-point in his life." For 
 a long course of years Joshua Watson persevered in lending such 
 aid as the case admitted of to one who was in danger of perish- 
 ing from "the vile sin of self-neglecting;" and he had at last 
 the comfort of learning from a clergyman who had attended the 
 poor offender in his last moments, that he believed him to have 
 found the peace of repentance at the close. "Providence celeste," 
 says a good Frenchman of the old regime", "tu ne desesperes 
 pas du vice ; et nous n'en desesperons pas non plus !" 
 
 It was about the time of this retirement that Dr. Hales wrote 
 to thank him for manifold little services, and to make a new 
 request, for which he pleads in a style somewhat Hibernian : 
 " If you had not more business on your hands than any one 
 else, for your friends and the public, I should not trouble you 
 with this application : but I am persuaded that the more business 
 a man has, the more he can do, confirming Virgil's maxim, ' They 
 can, because they think they can.' " 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth hailed the release as a matter of congratula- 
 tion, "for the sake of everything that is solid and valuable 
 amongst us ;" and expressed a hope that he might himself benefit 
 by the greater leisure which it promised for social and disengaged 
 converse on subjects of the highest interest. But the private 
 records of the time exclude the notion of any such leisure : the 
 retirement was indeed only a step to consecrate his whole time 
 and powers to the tasks of religion and charity which one by 
 one were opened to him, and were continually multiplying on 
 his hands. The only feeling to those who have seen the papers 
 relating to this period is one of surprise how so many occupations 
 could be carried on at once, and with such remarkable success to 
 the trusts which he administered. 
 
 It was not only the increasing ties which bound him to the 
 work of the Church Societies, though it might be mentioned that 
 in this year he was elected on the Court of Assistants of the Sons 
 of the Clergy, and was no idle member of it, that he was always 
 to be found with his brother and H. H. Norris at every meeting 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that the National 
 Society, the City Schools, and the Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge were all depending upon provisions which none 
 but he could satisfactorily arrange. But this year, so remarkable 
 jn the public annals of Europe, was one which called for and 
 witnessed some almost unexampled efforts made in England to 
 assuage the miseries of the countries which had been most visited 
 by the scourge of war. 
 
 n Degerando, Le Visitcur du Pauvre, c. 2.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 85 
 
 A committee was sitting in London for the relief of the manu- 
 facturing districts; and there were efforts required to lighten 
 the distress of the working classes in Shoreditch and Spitalfields. 
 Joshua Watson had a part to discharge in all such labours. But 
 his greatest public service was displayed in the conduct of the 
 fund for the aid of the sufferers in Germany, after the close of 
 the desolating campaigns which marked the last years of Napoleon. 
 Here he had a noble opportunity, which he is confessed to have 
 used to the grateful admiration of all who witnessed it, of con- 
 secrating his remarkable skill as a man of business to the cause 
 of charity, humanity, and true patriotism. 
 
 The great misery which prevailed in those districts of Germany 
 had at an early date in the year suggested a plan for its relief. 
 An association was formed with great energy and liberality in 
 the City of London, to which Joshua Watson was a subscriber, 
 and had a seat at the board by which its funds were adminis- 
 tered. But he was not content without a further extension of 
 the benefit, under more direct religious influence. He went to 
 Archbishop Manners- Sutton, and represented to him that it was 
 due to the honour of the Church of England in the eyes of 
 Europe that she should not be left behind in such a work of 
 mercy, and at such a time. The Archbishop answered his appeal 
 as he was wont to do ; he would consent to originate a subscrip- 
 tion in Westminster, if Mr. Watson would manage the details. 
 Eventually it was arranged that Mr. Watson should be secretary, 
 jointly with Rudolf Ackermann, who was a valuable counsellor, 
 equally active and benevolent, in the cause of his fatherland. 
 The plan prospered, and was forwarded by many most influential 
 persons. A king's letter was obtained for a collection in the 
 churches, and Parliament made a grant of 100,000, payable to 
 the Archbishop. But Archbishop Sutton had so great a dread 
 of becoming a public accountant, that he would almost have 
 declined the trust, had not Joshua Watson again come to his 
 assistance, and made such an arrangement with the Bank of Eng- 
 land as relieved him from the toil of figures and calculations. 
 By a skilful co-operation with local committees formed on the 
 Continent, the disbursement and distribution of the money was 
 so managed, that Sir George Rose, who was so long conversant 
 with the business of the Treasury, declared that no such specimen 
 of clear and exact accounts as this had ever come uuder his eye. 
 
 Meanwhile the City meetings were not deserted, but a regular 
 correspondence and good understanding was kept up between 
 the two charitable administrations in the east and west. There 
 are preserved two official communicatit ns, dated November, 1814; 
 one, a vote of thanks from the Westminster to the City Com- 
 mittee, for some valuable suggestions which their experience had
 
 86 
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 enabled them to make for the distribution of the Parliamentary 
 grant; and the other, a courteous reply, expressing satisfaction 
 at having been able to give assistance, and readiness to be of 
 further use if needed. There is also a private note of a later 
 date from Mr. Martin, the City Secretary, shewing a perfect un- 
 derstanding to have been continued to the last, and concluding 
 with the words, "Accept my congratulations on the brilliant 
 finish of your labours, and my thanks for every assistance." 
 
 The Parliamentary grant, by a careful investment in Ex- 
 chequer Bills, was increased to a sum of 101,185 11s. 7d. 
 A small expense, not amounting to so much as 100, was in- 
 curred in postage and other needful provisions of the time ; and 
 after this little deduction, the whole was distributed in 211 
 separate gifts to the foreign committees or persons of trust who 
 acted for the different districts. Of the papers enumerating these 
 gifts a little specimen is here subjoined : 
 
 "Payment of Grants voted by theCommittee of the Westminster Associa- 
 tion for German Sufferers, out of the Parliamentary Grant of 100,000. 
 
 DATE OF PAYMENT. 
 
 1815. Jan. 13 
 22 
 
 PAY- NUMBER 
 MENT. OP BILL. 
 
 Wesel and Buderich 
 Dutchy of Halberstadt 
 Homberg on the Hohe in Hesse 
 Nied, Dutchy of Nassau . 
 Golnhausen . . . 
 Wurtzburgh, Northern parts 
 Hamburgh 
 
 Rutzenbuttel and Cuxhaven 
 Electorate of Hanover 
 
 (And so on to the number of 211.)" 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 .oOO 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 600 
 
 3 
 
 182 
 
 600 
 
 4 
 
 189 
 
 400 
 
 5 
 
 193 
 
 200 
 
 6 
 
 176 
 
 800 
 
 7 
 
 128 
 
 5,800 
 
 8 
 
 130 
 
 100 
 
 9 
 
 136 
 
 3,000 
 
 At the end of the Minute Book of the Westminster Association 
 from March 26, 1814, to May 1, 1816, there is the following 
 4 Recapitulation,' in the handwriting of Joshua Watson : 
 
 "Prussia and Brandenburg 
 
 Silesia 
 
 Circle of Weissen "\ 
 
 Erzebirge / g< 
 
 ,, Lower Thuringia > j 
 ,, Wittenberg ijj 
 
 ,, Leipsig J 
 
 Lusatia 
 
 Hamburgh and District 
 
 Hanover Electorate 
 
 Various Towns, &c. 
 
 Voigtland 
 
 Upper Thuringia . 
 
 Dantzig 
 
 Total of grants 
 
 TO SUFFERERS. TO ORPHANS. 
 
 6,000 2,000 
 
 10,000 1,500 
 
 ^8,875 1,600 
 
 \ 2,125 500 
 
 . \ 3,000 400 
 
 I 2,650 500 
 
 Vs. 6,250 500 
 
 9,300 600 
 
 8,000 
 
 12,200 1,000 
 
 9,400 l,6.iO 
 
 2,700 100 
 
 7,500 850 
 
 . 2.000 
 
 89,000 11,000 
 
 11,000 ==. 
 
 . 100,000 
 Ent d . JOSHUA WATSON."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 87 
 
 The auditors of these accounts, whose names are subscribed to 
 the closing record on the 1st of May, 1816, were Lord Calthorpe, 
 Eight Hon. G. Eose, Sir T. D. Acland, W. Wilberforce, Esq., 
 and Eobert H. Inglis, Esq., afterwards Sir Eobert H. Inglis. 
 A vote of thanks from the Committee for his able and laborious 
 services was accompanied with the following note from the Arch- 
 bishop : 
 
 "Lambeth Palace, May 3, 1816. 
 
 " SIR, It is not a very easy matter to express the satisfaction I feel 
 in conveying to you the unanimous thanks of the General Committee 
 whose functions are described in the enclosed paper, for your able and 
 gratuitous services as one of their secretaries. This satisfaction I con- 
 fess is very closely connected with the many personal obligations I owe 
 to you for the assistance you have unremittedly afforded me in the 
 whole of this business ; but more especially in the management of the 
 Parliamentary grant of 100,000. It is to you, Sir, that I am indebted 
 for the security I have felt during the distribution of this money, and 
 the gratification I am now feeling from the masterly manner in which 
 you have submitted to the General Committee the vouchers and evi- 
 dences of the faithful discharge of this important trust. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with great respect, Sir, 
 
 " Your faithful and obliged humble servant, 
 " C. CANTTJAB." 
 
 It would, he difficult to describe the plan of these accounts 
 properly. Every bill, after having done its work in Germany 
 and received the proper signatures, returned to the secretaries, 
 and was pasted in its allotted place, so as to be a visible security 
 of the correctness of the transaction. These vouchers were bound 
 up and preserved in the Lambeth library. 
 
 It is equally difficult to select from the letters of thanks which 
 flowed in from the recipients of the bounty thus distributed. 
 Those that remain are probably but a small part, selected by the 
 care of his wife and daughter. There is necessarily a great 
 similarity in them, but the tribute of grateful admiration to our 
 nation is most generously rendered, and sometimes happily ex- 
 pressed. Thus the Central Eelief Committee for the Principality 
 of Lunenburgh write as follows to the Secretaries : 
 
 " When they return, in the name of these unfortunate people, their 
 warmest thanks for this gift, by which their misery has been greatly 
 alleviated and lessened, they beg leave to unite to it then- truly sincere 
 wish that it may always be the happier lot of Great Britain to be exempt 
 from the ravages of war in the interior of their country, to assist in re- 
 building what has been ruined by warfare on the Continent, and that 
 they may never want the power to afford relief to oppressed nations, and 
 the means to wipe away the tears from the eyes of the unfortunate."
 
 88 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The Territorial Councillors, &c., of two districts in Mecklen- 
 burg, acknowledging the bills received, and speaking of "the 
 great struggle for the deliverance of Germany from the incon- 
 ceivably hard pressing yoke of despotism, which had drawn upon 
 their country burdens from which they could not for a long time 
 be relieved," go on to say that they "consider it a sure indica- 
 tion of the return of better times, that nobly-minded men, re- 
 siding in a distant but happy country, who know nothing ex- 
 perimentally themselves of the misery which desolating warfare 
 spreads over the scenes of its action, are prompted solely by 
 active benevolence to expend large sums for the purpose of re- 
 lieving the unhappy victims of it. Their silent gratitude, their 
 prayers, will add to the reward which the consciousness of having 
 lessened the sum of human misery has already deposited in your 
 breasts." 
 
 From Dantzic there are more details both of the needs, and of 
 the care taken to make the help afforded go as far as possible. 
 As many as 1,761 buildings are said to have been demolished, 
 4,420 damaged, a great number of inhabitants had lost their all, 
 and were driven almost to desperation. A careful selection of 
 cases was therefore necessary, and the Committee had given 
 a preference to widows with young families, to those who had 
 known better days, to those who could with help rebuild their 
 dwellings, and again pursue their trades, &c, " By this means," 
 the letter concludes, "upwards of 2,000 persons [in that one 
 district] have been comforted, gladdened, refreshed and main- 
 tained, of which the accompanying statement will furnish the 
 particulars." 
 
 It is evident that the distress was so great and so widely 
 spread, that the British bounties could have been but of little 
 avail had there not been an active spirit of charity at work in the 
 desolated countries themselves, shewing itself in efforts to which 
 the assistance from our island gave heart and hope. This is 
 strikingly shewn in two or three letters about the Orphan-house 
 at Pirna, then established "in the midst of nearly fifty totally 
 destroyed villages and towns." In this establishment, two sisters, 
 the Countesses of Schonberg and Dohna, appear to have taken 
 the most lively interest. The Countess of Schonberg, writing to 
 Joshua Watson in April, 1815, from Dresden, states the need, 
 and what had been done to meet it. Five hundred orphans 
 (afterwards the number grew to near 1,000) were received 
 gratuitously into families, while relief was afforded to the 
 mothers of fatherless children, and the home was provided for 
 the sickly. or crippled who had no friends. "This relief," she 
 says, " has been owing chiefly to the British generosity." She
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 89 
 
 entreats a further grant, and commends the case to Joshua 
 Watson's care, " praying he would be pleased to be the guardian, 
 and even the father, to these our poor little ones. God may 
 direct you, and give us joy through your means." In the follow- 
 ing year she acknowledges a renewed grant of 784 10s. 2d., 
 which "would assure to the orphans a wished-for continuance of 
 their present happy state. God be praised for it, and as for you, 
 Sir, receive our warmest thanks for the philanthropic benevolence 
 with which you take this concern to heart, and our sincerest 
 prayers that God will bless you for the active, steady zeal in 
 which it has been manifested." Francis, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, 
 wrote a similar expression of thanks, and said that in his heart, 
 and in the hearts of all well-intentioned persons in his dominions, 
 the terms of a true philanthropist and a Briton are synonymous. 
 The minister of Dennewitz, himself a sufferer, having escaped 
 with only the lives of his wife and children, sends an exact ac- 
 count of the distribution in which he had himself shared. " The 
 place had been overlooked," he says, " in the first distribution, 
 to the great grief of the inhabitants ; but now they acknowledge 
 that there is not a more generous nation than the British." They 
 had been striving with commendable industry to cultivate their 
 desolated ground again, and the assistance had been most timely 
 to give them fresh vigour. "May you," the Avriter says, "ever 
 be in the enjoyment of the most enviable peace, and never ex- 
 perience such scenes of horror." Another extract is from a letter 
 dated Hernnhut, March 1, 1815 : 
 
 " We have here likewise conformed ourselves to the rules laid down 
 for us, and it would be impossible to describe the sensations which were 
 produced. We shall only instance a few cases which occurred hi the 
 villages. An old man bordering upon eighty said, ' he had seen many 
 wars in his time, and had himself been a soldier in the Seven Years' 
 war, but had never heard of a whole nation, like the English, com- 
 miserating the inhabitants which had been impoverished and rendered 
 unfortunate by it, and relieving them liberally and effectually, as the 
 English have done ; they must be truly pious Christians.' " 
 
 Another said, 
 
 " Nothing could have made the adherents to the Trench cause more 
 ashamed of themselves, or refuted their principles better, than this 
 benevolence of the British people. One has often been obliged to hear 
 it asserted that the English were the sole cause of the war and the mis- 
 chief resulting from it ; but a nation which made so many sacrifices for 
 the relief of the unfortunate, and spent so much to lessen their distress, 
 would not be likely to be instrumental in spreading misery and ruin over 
 other countries 
 
 " May the powerful protection of God and His choicest blessings con- 
 tinue to attend the British nation !"
 
 po Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Another letter is somewhat foreign in its exuberance of ex- 
 pression, but is not on that account less impressive : 
 
 " Let it never be doubted that German hearts are open to every feel- 
 ing of gratitude and love for such generous benevolence shewn them by 
 that happy country in which you, most noble of men, reside. Even 
 towards myself, the effusions of thanks from all ranks and stations, high 
 and low, rich and poor, are directed without ceasing ; and what share 
 have I had in the drying of those bitter tears ? None ; the work is yours 
 
 alone ! Ever will it be the first wish of my heart that God* may 
 
 bless Britannia and her exalted folk !" 
 
 This letter also speaks of much and grievous misery remaining. 
 
 Another correspondent, Hillmer, privy councillor to the King 
 of Prussia, writes to his friend Mr. Ackermann in the warmest 
 strain of gratitude, saying how a letter just received from the 
 two Secretaries had comforted, rejoiced, moved, and put him 
 to shame : 
 
 " No thanks to me," he says, " no thanks to us on this side the sea ; 
 but thanks, ardent, unceasing thanks and blessings from us to you be- 
 yond the ocean ; to you, noble Britons ! to you, my dear and never-to- 
 be-forgotten friend !" 
 
 He then speaks of the encouragement he had received in his 
 own office of distributor, and continues, 
 
 "What is more like God, and also more pleasing to Him, than to 
 relieve our suffering fellow-creatures ! And I was only the hand of the 
 donor, not the donor himself. But to the disciples of our Lord it was 
 a great happiness that through their hands He provided the miraculous 
 repast for the five thousand." 
 
 There was a subscription list opened in "Westminster, from 
 which a sum of 11,598 was paid over to the City Committee. 
 And this included about 1,300, the produce of a concert at 
 Whitehall, at which Joshua Watson was one of the stewards, 
 "the only mean man," as he said of it, "among them." The 
 duty of this office led him into a scene of amusing confusion. 
 The veteran Blucher was leaving the concert-room, and coming 
 down the stairs, when a number of footmen in the lobby, whether 
 from zeal or impudence, rushed upon him to shake hands with 
 him. The old warrior seemed almost to suspect mischief in this 
 unlooked-for and novel attack, and the steward with his wand 
 of office came to the rescue, and cleared the way before him, but 
 not till his own lace-ruffles had been torn in the scuffle, and re- 
 mained a trophy of the exploit. 
 
 It was on this occasion, after the royal family and their guests 
 had partaken of the refreshments provided for them, that the 
 Duke of Cambridge insisted on presenting him to good Queen
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 91 
 
 Charlotte; and the Queen, with an earnest simplicity of voice 
 and manner, pronounced the \vell-rememhered words, " I thank 
 you, Sir, for your kindness to my poor countrymen." 
 
 From the King of Prussia he received a memorial of his ser- 
 vices in a valuable ring ; a pair of Dresden vases from the King 
 of Saxony; and a gold medal and diploma from the Patriotic 
 Society of Hamburg. 
 
 Subsequently the Waterloo Fund, a sum of near 500,000, 
 raised for the widows and orphans of those who fell in that short 
 and glorious campaign, was left very much to his management 
 and that of one other member of the Committee to which it had 
 been entrusted. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 State of the Colonial Churches at the return of peace. Bishop Middleton, 
 Bishop John Inglis, and W. G. Broughton. Treasurers/tip of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Efforts of Joshua Watson and his 
 friends for the re-construction of Church Missions. Retrospect of the 
 Indian Missions. Memorial to Archbishop Manner s-Sutton. Founda- 
 tion of Bishop's College, Calcutta. Revival of the Society for Propa- 
 gating the Gospel. Retrospect of its North American Missions. H. U. 
 Norris and Bishop Hobart. 
 
 AMONG the earliest cares which followed the return of peace, 
 in the mind of Joshua Watson and his friends, was the con- 
 dition of the Colonial Church and its ill-provided episcopate. It 
 is due to the truth of history, no less than to the memory of his 
 services, to place on record some particulars of his labours in this 
 field of widely-extended interest. 
 
 The three remarkable men who were sent out to preside over 
 the Church in India, Nova Scotia, and Australia, Middleton, 
 Inglis, and Broughton, were all bound to him by more than 
 common ties of Christian friendship. The first was indeed re- 
 moved from his great mission after a few years of noble aims and 
 excellent services, of which the fruit has ever since remained ; 
 but with the other two he continued to maintain a lively cor- 
 respondence to the close of life ; and the continued demand of all 
 three for aid, for comfort, and counsel, were such as to strengthen 
 an affection long cherished and sustained by such willing and 
 constant exercise. 
 
 To those to whom the name of Bishop Middleton is now a name
 
 92 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of a generation passed away, it may be necessary to introduce it 
 with a brief account of his earlier life, of -which a fuller memorial 
 has been given by his able and eloquent biographer, the Rev. 
 C. W. Le Bas. 
 
 Thomas Fanshawe Middleton was the son of Thomas Middle- 
 ton, Rector of the little benefice of Kedleston, near Derby, where 
 he was born in the month of January, 1769. He was sent at an 
 early age to Christ's Hospital, for which he had in after-life that 
 warm attachment which is so remarkable in Blue-coat boys to 
 the school of their childhood. Thence he went with a school- 
 exhibition to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and took his degree 
 of B.A. in 1792, and M.A. in 1795. Soon after he had first 
 graduated, he became Curate of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, 
 and then undertook for a time the charge of tutor to the sons of 
 Dr. John Pretyman, Archdeacon of Lincoln ; through whose re- 
 commendation he obtained the Rectory of Tansor in Northamp- 
 tonshire, to which was shortly afterwards added the Rectory of 
 Little and Castle Bytham. He had established for himself a 
 lasting reputation as a scholar and divine by his memorable 
 critical work, " The Doctrine of the Greek Article," which first 
 appeared in 1808 ; when he was made a Prebendary of Lincoln, 
 and shortly afterwards, in 1811, Rector of St. Pancras, and, in 
 1812, Archdeacon of Huntingdon. On his removal to London 
 his Christian zeal made him a diligent member of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge ; where we have already seen 
 him in counsel with Joshua Watson and Van Mildert on the 
 design of the "Family Bible." He also undertook for a short 
 time the editing of the "British Critic;" but his active mind 
 found more direct practical employment in his efforts to obtain 
 a new church for his populous parish. These efforts were not 
 at that time successful ; it was a time at which a sense of the 
 need of new churches had yet to be awakened in the hearts of 
 English people : but his noble self-devoted character was seen 
 and acknowledged in the progress of the struggle. Meantime 
 his intimacy with the subject of this Memoir, with J. J. Watson, 
 and H. H. Norris, was continually growing firmer ; and when at 
 first his diffidence had shrunk from the charge proposed to him 
 in the newly-founded Indian diocese, it is supposed that their 
 words were not without weight in persuading its acceptance. 
 For the rest of his life these three friends were, as they are 
 truly called by Mr. Le Bas, " the chosen and devoted friends of 
 Bishop Middleton, and his confidential auxiliaries in every de- 
 sign for the advancement of the Christian cause in India; to 
 whom he wrote on all great questions which occupied his heart 
 and mind, and by whose help and sympathy his spirits were
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 93 
 
 mainly supported under the multiplied difficulties incident to his 
 new and almost overwhelming charge." 
 
 He was consecrated on May 8, 1814. On the seventeenth of 
 the same month a special meeting of the Society at Bartlett's 
 Buildings was held for the purpose of bidding him a solemn 
 farewell. An address gratefully recognising his worth, and ex- 
 pressing the confidence of the members in the appointment, had 
 been prepared by Dr. Wordsworth. But it was then that Joshua 
 Watson saw that a time was come to venture on what was pre- 
 viously a step without a precedent, though it has happily led to 
 many similar acts of bounty from the same source, "not only to 
 recapitulate their past services" to the Missions in India, "and 
 to promise future exertions ; but to make a positive grant of 
 money, to be placed at the disposal of the new bishop, for such 
 objects within the scope of their designs as he might feel anxious 
 to promote." The proposal was at once received; a sum of 
 1,000 was unanimously voted: and this was the humble be- 
 ginning of the aid by which hereafter the Bishop was encouraged 
 to found his noble college at Calcutta. 
 
 John Inglis, who was consecrated third Bishop of Nova Scotia 
 in 1825, was at this time a missionary of the Society for Pro- 
 pagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, employed in the diocese 
 of his father, Charles Inglis, the first bishop. On the death of 
 that excellent father, who had done his duty well, first as a loyal 
 English clergyman at New York, and then for nearly thirty 
 years in the episcopate, 1787 1816, it is probable that the 
 government at home, had they followed the public wish, would 
 have appointed the son as his successor. But the practice of the 
 age of Gregory Nazianzene was not yet to be a precedent for 
 Downing-street to follow. They selected a Dr. Stanser, a bishop 
 whose infirm health detained him in England for the greater 
 part of his tenure of the office ; and it was not till nine years 
 had been nearly lost to the colony that John Inglis was made its 
 chief pastor. In that higher station he was, as has been well 
 said by the historian of our Colonial Church, " equally faithful 
 and blessed in the fruit of his labours :" but his true worth will 
 be further manifested in his long communion of counsels with 
 Joshua Watson, John James Watson, and H. H. Norris. 
 
 Of William Grant Broughton, it will be less necessary to offer 
 any imperfect account to the reader of this Memoir, as his memory 
 is more recent, and the principal facts of his life have been lately 
 collected by one who has discharged the task with a fidelity and 
 zeal worthy of the upright and single-hearted character whom it 
 
 The Rev. James M. Aiidersou, Hist, of the Col. Church, iii. -43 i.
 
 94 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 commemorajtes p . At the date of Bishop Middleton's consecration 
 he was a young writer in the East India House, but with a strong 
 desire to obtain a more sacred occupation ; which, after some 
 years of patient duty, he was enabled to satisfy. In the autumn 
 of that year he removed to Cambridge, becoming a resident mem- 
 ber of Pembroke Hall ; and after graduating there in 1818, when 
 his name appeared as sixth wrangler, he was ordained deacon, 
 and subsequently admitted to priest's orders in the same year. 
 He had held the Curacy of Hartley Wespall, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Strathfieldsaye, from the time of his ordination, and 
 through the friendly offices of Mr. Briscall, the Duke's Chaplain, 
 he became known to the Duke of Wellington, who nominated 
 him to the chaplaincy of the Tower; and under the same dis- 
 cerning patronage he became in 1829 Archdeacon of New South 
 Wales, the colony being then considered as annexed to the see of 
 the East Indies. It was not till early in the year 1836 that he 
 was consecrated first Bishop of Sydney, the first English Bishop 
 who was permitted to exercise his functions on the shores of that 
 new continent ; which, as he foresaw from his first acquaintance 
 with it, was likely to be peopled in all its habitable extent by 
 British settlers. It appears that he was made acquainted with 
 Joshua Watson before his appointment to his first charge in 
 Australia; but it was chiefly from the date of his consecration 
 to his death that this indefatigable missionary priest and prelate 
 was in continual confidential correspondence with him and the 
 friends who shared his counsels. 
 
 It seemed right in some measure to anticipate the order of time 
 by mentioning these three names here together, as their relation 
 to the subject of this Memoir was so remarkably sympathetic, 
 and their services to the cause of Christian truth in their respec- 
 tive positions maintained in a spirit so congenial. But we must 
 now return to the date from which we have made this brief 
 digression. 
 
 The same year which was distinguished by Bishop Middleton's 
 consecration, was that in which Joshua Watson was elected Trea- 
 surer of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Those 
 who did not know the man, could be little aware of the refined 
 modesty of feeling with which he seemed to shrink from the 
 honour, but not from the toil, of an office to which he was 
 invited, in the words of Archdeacon Cambridge, "by the uni- 
 versal request of archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons," 
 and in which the Church witnessed for many years his constant 
 
 P Prefatory Memoir to Sermons by W. G. Broughton, D.D., late Bishop 
 of Sydney ; by Archdeacon Harrison.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 95 
 
 and untiring services. He was publicly elected at a very full 
 meeting of the Society, June 3, 1814, held at the old house in 
 Bartlett's Buildings. Archbishop Manners-Sutton presided, and 
 in proposing the question, which had been previously moved by 
 Archdeacon Pott, enlarged in an address of dignity and grace 
 on the character of the treasurer elect, "whose talents and un- 
 wearied zeal for whatever was most dear and valuable" had been 
 long known to him from the charitable labours in which they had 
 been associated together, or in which he had sought and obtained 
 his counsel, or profited by his experience. 
 
 This appointment was shortly followed by a measure which, 
 together with his friend Dr. Wordsworth, he had long earnestly 
 desired, the reconstruction of the missionary institutions, which 
 this Society had previously fostered as a kind of deposit consigned 
 to us from the Danish Government, in the East. It was in the 
 year 1706 that the excellent and indefatigable Bartholomew 
 Ziegenbalg began his labours as first Protestant missionary on 
 the continent of India. The Dutch East India Company had 
 before the close of the previous century established a missionary 
 college in Ceylon, and the missions under their care are said to 
 have numbered eighty thousand native converts : but it is to the 
 honour of Frederick IV. of Denmark that he was the first of 
 Protestant sovereigns who became the patron of a like design. 
 By his aid Ziegenbalg founded his mission at Tranquebar. The 
 friendly relations between England and Denmark in Queen Anne's 
 reign were such as to facilitate the means of support to this Chris- 
 tian enterprise almost from the first ; and collections were made 
 for it in this country as early as the year 1710. When in 1716 
 Ziegenbalg had for a time returned to Europe, he was presented 
 at the Court of George I. by Archbishop Wake, and received some 
 pecuniary aid both from the Christian Knowledge Society, and 
 from the East India Company, who appeared, with their then in- 
 considerable power or patronage, not so much afraid, as they have 
 been at later times, to acknowledge a sympathy with the Chris- 
 tian cause. The company at that time had no conquests to govern, 
 or account for : their possessions were confined to a few forts and 
 factories in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and their dependants 
 among the natives are supposed to have been about 200,000 
 families. The Dutch Company was richer and more flourishing 
 than the English. For it must be remembered that the Mogul 
 Empire was as yet consolidated. Aurungzebe was still living 
 when Ziegenbalg landed in India, and it was not till many years 
 had passed that the expedition of Nadir Shah, and the anarchy 
 which followed that breaking up of the great empire, made way 
 for the marvellous changes of a later century.
 
 96 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The Danish Mission, therefore, from the first was a kind of 
 joint-trust with us and the Lutherans of Denmark and the north 
 of Germany. But it naturally fell more and more into the hands 
 of the English Society, which had first held out a helping hand 
 toward it : and, as it had now heen for many years chiefly 
 supported by the Church of England, it was neither ill-timed 
 nor unreasonable to desire that it should be transferred in all 
 respects to the control of an English board of governors, and 
 regulated on the English ecclesiastical system. This was of 
 more special importance now that Bishop Middlcton's mission 
 would give the missionaries their duly constituted head and 
 source of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in India. But, in recom- 
 mencing the work on a new and sound foundation, it was by no 
 means the wish of Joshua Watson or his friends to do anything 
 that might appear to throw a censure on those who had first 
 cherished the Danish mission, or had continued to sustain it faith- 
 fully, in times when funds were not easily provided even for 
 one such field of labour. It could be no disgrace to have assisted 
 a mission which began with Ziegenbalg, and ended with Schwartz ; 
 and among those who may be inclined to feel surprise that the 
 Church of England should have remained so long without a mis- 
 sion of her own in India, there wili yet be some who will under- 
 stand the enlightened liberality which forebore to impose con- 
 ditions on the meritorious recipients, and scrupulously abstained 
 from changing the terms on which the aid had been so long 
 bestowed. 
 
 The measure by which the change was effected, was now pro- 
 posed by the new treasurer, and was carried, not without some 
 opposition, but with the approving support of Archbishop Sutton. 
 By a resolution passed at a full meeting, the Society for Pro- 
 moting Christian Knowledge handed over its Indian fund to the 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel, reserving only what was 
 sufficient to provide for the existing missionaries, and their 
 widows, who might survive. 
 
 The Society for Propagating the Gospel was at this period 
 indeed rather an ecclesiastical board for furnishing aid and ad- 
 ministration to the funds which the Government supplied to the 
 clergy in the North American Colonies, than a Missionary Society 
 for the Church at large. Its annual subscriptions and donations 
 did not amount to a thousand pounds from voluntary sources. 
 It was the earnest desire of Dr. Wordsworth at this time to 
 have obtained the consent of the first promoters of the Church 
 Missionary Society to such modifications of their system as he 
 considered to be essential to the full exercise of the episcopal 
 rule of government. " Korris would tell you," he writes in
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 97 
 
 December, 1816, "I talked to him immeasurably on my favourite 
 scheme." But these treaties were not successful. Had his de- 
 sign prospered, it is possible that the aggregate of the Danish 
 missions might have been consigned to that Society, and the 
 partial inconvenience might have been obviated of having two 
 Church Societies occupying the same ground, while they profess 
 the same object. But it is the common lot of British colonies to 
 represent all the sectional distinctions of Christianity, English, 
 Scottish, or Irish, which are found nearer home ; and certainly 
 the Indian missions have hitherto been no exception to the rule. 
 What these two friends now saw to be required was, that with 
 the consignation of the Indian Mission to the Society for Pro- 
 pagating the Gospel, an effort should be made to extend the 
 Society at home, and obtain such support and public recognition 
 of its claims, as might be in some degree commensurate with the 
 greatness of the work proposed for it. The time was not yet 
 come when the eyes of the State of England, like the eyes of 
 a well-painted portrait, were to look with equal favour on all 
 shades of Christian opinion. It was still a cherished principle 
 that Church and State were too far identified for the Church to 
 move without the sanction of the State. Dr. Wordsworth there- 
 fore proposed that" some special effort should be denned, and 
 a royal letter procured for a general collection in the parish 
 churches. The subject being thus recommended to more general 
 notice, diocesan committees might subsequently be formed, and 
 the extension become permanent. To this Joshua Watson seems 
 to have assented : 
 
 "Tell me," he writes to Dr. Wordsworth, Nov. 28, 1817, "tell me, 
 my good friend, where we are to work, and especially tell me where we 
 are to find our workmen ; for we cannot use the same instruments with 
 others less scrupulous. If this be done, I have no fear of moving our 
 Corporation, or of stirring up auxiliary committees to action with it in 
 every quarter of the kingdom." 
 
 It was probably in pursuance of these counsels that he shortly 
 afterwards drew up the following careful memorial to the Arch- 
 bishop on the subject of the Tranquebar mission, and the state 
 of Christianity in Ceylon. It was prepared at the Archbishop's 
 desire, for the purpose of being shewn to Lord Liverpool ; and 
 was sent in December, 1817, accompanied with the letter which 
 we copy : 
 
 "Clapton, December, 1817. 
 
 " When your Grace allowed me the honour of engaging your atten- 
 tion to some suggestions for extending the operations of the Society for 
 
 H
 
 98 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, you were pleased to direct 
 that I should reduce to writing those specific propositions which, your 
 Grace was of opinion, might be most safely entertained. In pursuance 
 of this direction, I have now to request your Grace's indulgence towards 
 the imperfect sketch here inclosed; which I should have been glad to 
 withhold, until I was at liberty to take counsel and assistance from 
 those friends who would have enabled me to lay it before you in a form 
 more worthy of your Grace's consideration, and of the importance of 
 the subject. But I felt it my duty to lose no time in fulfilling my in- 
 structions ; and I have the high satisfaction of stating, not only that 
 the paper herein submitted has already passed the ordeal to which you 
 desired it might be subjected, the Ecclesiastical Department of the 
 Board of Coutrol, but that there is good ground to hope that any 
 measure taken up in the same sober spirit, and having equally the secu- 
 rity of your Grace's superintendence, would be as favourably received. 
 
 " The overbearing necessity of providing sound religious and moral 
 instruction for the Anglo-Indian population of our Eastern Empire, and 
 that without delay, is deeply felt by the governments at home and 
 abroad'. And it is perhaps equally felt, that this provision can never 
 be so safely and so surely made as through the agency of the Church of 
 England; which in its well-established order subjects each individual 
 minister to the control of his ecclesiastical superior, and places the 
 whole in proper connection with the State. And though your Grace's 
 judgment as to the present improved prospect of success, from well- 
 regulated missionary and ministerial laoours, needs not any confirma- 
 tion, it is not amiss to observe how the sound thinkers on the conversion 
 of India in former years agree with the Society's learned and eloquent 
 preacher of the present year' as to the facilities to be derived in ' the 
 arrangement and prosecution of their beneficent schemes for the advance- 
 ment of the Gospel' from the formation of an ecclesiastical establish- 
 ment on the genuine model of antiquity in the capital of our Eastern 
 dominions. 
 
 " Dean Prideaux says, ' that so soon as a bishop be settled, a seminary 
 should be erected in India for persons to be bred np to supply the 
 missions 8 .' Tor,' he says, 'experience had shewn that it was not 
 
 i We find a testimony to the truth of this statement in the following note 
 from James Gumming, Esq., Secretary to the Board of Control, to Joshua 
 Watson, on the subject of this Memorial : 
 
 " India Board, Dec. 23, 1817. My dear Sir, I have read your Memoir 
 with much attention, and have made in the margin the only alterations and 
 remarks which occurred to me. I consider it a valuable paper, and I heari ily 
 wish you every success in the prosecution of your important design. Of this 
 I am sure, that there are few men in whose hands it is more likely to be 
 brought to a practical bearing than yours. 
 
 " I send you for your perusal a most interesting letter from Sir E. Hyde 
 East, Chief Justice of Calcutta, to the late Lord Buckinghamshire, which 
 relates to the matters which now engage your attention. I am, with true 
 esteem and regard, yours, JAMES CTTMMING." 
 
 ' Archbishop Howley, then Bishop of London. 
 
 1 Letter to Archbishop Tenison, in 1694; Life of Prideaux, 1748, p. 171.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 99 
 
 possible to carry on the work of the ministry either in the East or 
 West Indies with any good success, unless there might be bishops and 
 seminaries settled in them, that so ministers might be bred and ordained 
 on the spot '.' Dean Vincent not only says as expressly,, ' Christianity 
 cannot take root effectually, till there are native priests and ministers,' 
 but confirms his words as it were by Apostolical authority, adding that 
 in Greece, Asia, and throughout the Roman Empire, we scarcely read of 
 any successors to or fellow-labourers with the Apostles who were of the 
 Jewish nation ; Titus of Crete, Timothy of Lystra, Dionysius of Athens, 
 Clemens of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna, &c., &c. 
 
 " Still, however, my lord, it cannot be questioned but that our 
 prudence lies in confining the present effort within the limits which, 
 under your Grace's direction, I have endeavoured to trace in the paper 
 I have now the honour to inclose ; and that having once put the Church 
 forward in an attitude of readiness to answer any call that may be made 
 upon her by authority, she must be content to wait for further invita- 
 tions to proceed; and especially, that while everything be done with 
 due deference and respect to the episcopal office in India, care be taken, 
 until time and the sound discretion of the Bishop of Calcutta have 
 abated existing jealousies of the new establishment, that his lordship be 
 not rendered too prominent in our proceedings. 
 
 " But in the course which your Grace is inclined to recommend, it is 
 surely a singular felicity that, whilst it is helping to lay wide and deep 
 the only foundation on which the Church of Christ in India can solidly 
 be reared, it is at the same time in a crisis of peculiar difficulty and 
 danger, strengthening the bulwarks of the National Church at home, by 
 using for its purpose the instrumentality of her ancient associations. 
 By thus putting forward the Society for Propagating the Gospel, your 
 Grace cannot fail to direct into a proper channel much of that well- 
 intended bounty which is now, I fear, running worse than to waste, and 
 to furnish a safe employment for that excursive benevolence which is 
 often too much heated in the pursuit of its foreign objects to be very 
 wise in the choice of its domestic agents. 
 
 " To give perfection to the plan, it would only seem further necessary 
 to give it unity; and this perhaps might in due time be done by trans- 
 ferring to the Propagation Society, to which they legitimately belong, 
 the missionary trusts of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 
 whenever your Grace saw the proper moment for the purpose. And 
 then, my lord, the Church of England, strong in her three chartered and 
 ancient Societies, each with undivided energy pursuing its own single 
 and simple object, and having a common centre of union in your Grace's 
 presidency, might, in her Education Society, her Bible and Religious 
 Tract Society, and her ilissionaij Society, boldly offer to her members 
 all that the most zealous of her communion need desire in the great 
 concern of religious and moral instruct ion at home and abroad. 
 
 "I beg your Grace's pardon for thus long trespassing upon your 
 time, and have the honour to be, &c., &c. 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 . * Letter to Archbishop Wake; Life of Prideaux, p. 186, written in 1718.
 
 ioo Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The Memorial was as follows : 
 
 " The spirit in which your Grace has always discountenanced those 
 exertions of irregular zeal in making proselytes which compromise at 
 ouce the character of our Religion and the quiet of the State, affords 
 the best ground for confidence in your favourable reception of an attempt 
 that seeks chiefly to maintain in its purity and strength Christianity 
 among Christians ; and through these means principally, if not entirely, 
 to spread its blessings among the natives of the East. 
 
 "It is unnecessary, therefore, as it would be unbecoming, to seek to 
 gain your Grace's attention to the general object by any of those high 
 considerations of duty and policy which on its very first suggestion re- 
 sistlessly recommend it to notice. These are ever present to your 
 Grace's mind, and leave to me only the task of laying before you, simply 
 and respectfully, the particular object of this address. 
 
 "And this is, in the first place, to implore your Grace to save and to 
 uphold the present Protestant Mission of India, the fruitful source of all 
 that exists of native Protestant Christianity in the south of Hindostan. 
 On the former character of the Tranquebar mission it is needless to en- 
 large. For more than a century its tame has been in all the East : and 
 to prove that it has not yet much degenerated in spirit, though it is 
 greatly wasted in substance, nothing more can be necessary to those who 
 know the admirable discretion and sound judgment of the Bishop of 
 Calcutta, than to learn that he has twice felt it his duty to stretch forth 
 his hand to rescue it from ruin ; and to establish at once the necessities 
 and the deservings of this venerable mission, it will be enough to state the 
 fact, that it is at this moment solely sustained by his Lordship's support. 
 
 " It is notorious, however, that no funds are possessed by the Bishop 
 of Calcutta for the continuance of this charge, and that without speedy 
 help from England, the Mission must either wholly sink, or fall into 
 the hands of very unworthy successors of a Schwartz, a Gericke, or 
 a Kolhoff, whose Christian prudence and sober piety conciliated the 
 affections of the native powers, and the esteem of the constituted autho- 
 rities for the government of our Eastern possessions. 
 
 " The maintenance of this Mission, identified as it is with the Chris- 
 tian Knowledge Society by a close connection and interchange of good 
 offices for more than a century, so legitimately belongs to the Church of 
 England, that the duty of supporting it, and thus securing to the most 
 ancient Protestant mission in India the blessing of a good ecclesiastical 
 government, seems to require no enforcement ; and the discharge of that 
 duty by a Church-of-Eugland Society therefore can, it is conceived, 
 excite no jealousy at home or abroad. If, then, the mere preservation 
 of the Tranquebar Mission, and the bringing its members into com- 
 munion with the Church, were the only purpose of this appeal, it might 
 here be closed. But intimately connected with the peninsula, another 
 object of still higher concernment in the same quarter presses upon your 
 Grace's attention, the island of Ceylon, a possession of not more political 
 importance than of religious interest. It is, perhaps, the master-key of 
 Hindostan, and it contains, I believe, more Christian subjects under 
 British rule than all the rest of India put together. 
 
 " The claims of six or seven hundred thousand half-taught Christians,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 101 
 
 it is true, are not easily answered ; and the magnitude of the task might 
 well enough, in ordinary circumstances, deter from making the attempt. 
 But the circumstances are not only peculiar, tut they are of the most 
 encouraging kind. The authorities abroad are thoroughly alive to the 
 spiritual wants of this people, and at the earnest request of his Excel- 
 lency Sir John Brownrigge, his Majesty's government at home have 
 promptly appointed an Archdeacon for Ceylon; and in placing them 
 under episcopal direction, have given the best pledge of their concern 
 for their welfare, and afforded one of the greatest facilities for promoting 
 it. No native power hostile to the interests of Christianity exists in 
 any force upon the island. No establishment for the priests of Buddha 
 or Brahma obtains in any part of the country, so that in fact, with the 
 help of duly commissioned and duly qualified missionaries, catechists, 
 ana schoolmasters, there is nothing nere beyond the ordinary obstacles 
 to oppose the propagation of the Gospel even through the Pagan popu- 
 lation ; in short, none of either the real or supposed impediments to the 
 Christianizing the Continent of British India stand in the way of this 
 happily conditioned island. 
 
 " The accomplishment of such an end, the bringing the population of 
 a million and a-half of souls, in such a critical position, to speak the 
 English language under the mild sway of English laws, and to profess, 
 under its purest form, the Christian religion within the pale of that 
 Church which has ever given the best security for the loyalty of its 
 members, is confessedly an object of most commanding interest. And if, 
 from the present outgoings ot the settlement, its full attainment be con- 
 sidered as beyond the immediate reach of his Majesty's Government, 
 I submit that it might still be effected by the exertions of the Society 
 for Propagating the Gospel, aided by a small Parliamentary bounty, in 
 like manner as, with due reference to the bishops of the two dioceses, 
 the spiritual wants of British North America are at tliis time supplied. 
 Nay, even if the pressure of other calls nearer home should disincline 
 his Majesty's Ministers from proposing at this moment any Parliamen- 
 tary grant, it cannot be doubted but that a well-directed appeal to 
 public liberality, enforced under the proper authority from all the pulpits 
 m the country, would be answered by large voluntary contributions 
 towards its accomplishment. The exertions thus made for the best ob- 
 jects would then be felt to be made in the best way : every step would 
 be taken under the patronage and control of the constituted! authorities, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, both at home and abroad ; and a measure, thus 
 carrying with it both the feelings and the judgment of every sound and 
 sincere Churchman, could not fail of very considerable success. And if 
 to these two objects could be added the establishment and extension of 
 schools for the half-caste or Anglo-Indian population at each of the three 
 Presidencies, and the grafting thereon a few free scholarships for the 
 proper education of the sons of missionaries, and others wining to dedi- 
 cate themselves to missionary service, or any other unobjectionable ex- 
 pedient for the due preparation of a native race of missionaries, every- 
 thing perhaps would be done, that can at present be safely done, towards 
 the attainment of a result most devoutly to be wished, but not im- 
 patiently pursued."
 
 102 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The immediate result of this Memorial was, that the Arch- 
 bishop at the commencement of the following year excited the 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel to vote a sum of 5,000 to 
 be placed in the hands of Bishop Middleton for the cause of 
 Christianity in India. The good bishop received the news in the 
 following September, and it was, as he said, the breath of life to 
 him. By his representations to Lord Liverpool, the Archbishop 
 also was able to announce to the Society, and to send the welcome 
 tidings to Calcutta, that the Prince Regent had readily granted 
 a royal letter. This was the immediate impulse that encouraged 
 Middleton to propose his scheme for Bishop's College. It was 
 received by the Society at home in May, 1819. The contribu- 
 tions made to it from that source were 50,000 ; and grants 
 were made of 5,000 each, from the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge, the Church Missionary Society, and the 
 Bible Society, all being placed at the disposal of the Bishop, but 
 the last being for the translation of the Scriptures into the 
 Asiatic languages. 
 
 It will be readily supposed that such a revival of the missionary 
 labours of the Church was not effected without the most un- 
 wearied efforts on the part of the friends, who united hand and 
 heart in such a cause. A letter of Joshua Watson's to Dr. 
 Wordsworth, dated Feb. 27, 1818, speaks of a long conference 
 with Bishop Howley, who appears in the earlier days of his 
 episcopate to have been withheld by a kind of reserve, which is 
 sometimes found in highly accomplished scholars, and which 
 ever attended him in public speaking, from affording them as 
 much as they desired of his public support. Archdeacon Cam- 
 bridge had expressed his regret for this in the previous December. 
 "How to proceed," he says, "in the absence of our excellent 
 Bishop, is not so easy to determine. The cause, effect, and all, 
 we must sincerely lament. There is not a week in which he 
 hides himself from business when his absence is not felt." Now, 
 however, he ended by assenting entirely to the plan which the 
 friends proposed, and promised to advance it with all his power. 
 " Every day," he said, " wasted in further consideration is a day 
 lost to useful action." 
 
 The difficulty was, how to persuade the presiding authorities 
 to venture on a scheme of such unusual agitation : for what has 
 since become a matter of constant occurrence, and prescribed 
 under later circumstances alike by necessity and duty, was then 
 regarded as scarcely consistent with the respect due to the 
 Government. The prudent caution of Joshua Watson was rather 
 severely taxed in overcoming this difficulty, as will be evident 
 from the following letter to the Archbishop :
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 103 
 
 " March 10, 1818. 
 "MYLOKD, 
 
 "I have the honour to forward the inclosed in obedience to your 
 Grace's commands, and in the full assurance that you will do me the 
 justice to believe it is submitted with, the sole view of exhibiting at 
 a glance the. whole extent of proceedings contemplated, and not with 
 the presumptuous intention of indicating in any degree the course to 
 be pursued. 
 
 " On this subject your Grace is aware of the anxiety I feel ; yet 
 if after the kind attention which you have given to every suggestion 
 I have ventured to offer, your Grace does not at this time see fit to 
 bring the measure forward, it will not be less my duty than the in- 
 clination of my judgment to desist from any present prosecution of 
 my plan. 
 
 " But if, as I am rather encouraged to believe, you approve the spirit 
 of the resolutions, I would then take the liberty of asking whether 
 something in the shape of the second paper inclosed may not be ex- 
 pedient as a prefatory minute or preamble. 
 
 " In my view it is indispensable to the proper character and full 
 effect of the measure, not only that your Grace do actually and for- 
 mally originate our proceedings, but that it be shewn, and always ap- 
 pear on record in our transactions, that they did so originate. I be 
 leave therefore to submit the whole to your Grace's consideration, and 
 to express my hope that the deep interest I have taken in this concern 
 has not at any period led me to transgress by undue importunity." 
 
 One of the suggestions which, he appears to have offered was 
 a scheme for inviting an. increase of annual subscriptions to the 
 Society, without multiplying the number of corporate members. 
 His opinion of the principle of the old constitution of the Gospel 
 Society may be worth, recording : 
 
 "It cannot be concealed," he says, "that the object of the royal 
 charter was, not to incorporate an association of subscribers, but by 
 giving to certain high ecclesiastical officers and other persons of con- 
 sideration, and their successors, a corporate character, to ensure the 
 maintenance of a permanent body of stewards and managers for the ad- 
 ministration of their contributions, and ' for the better and more orderly 
 carrying out of then* charitable purpose ;' a purpose which, most warmly 
 engaging the feelings, demanded more than most others the exercise of 
 a sound discretion and well-tempered zeal in its conduct, lest by any 
 means the great object for which the Society had been instituted should 
 be brought into danger." 
 
 Another object was to request the president to communicate 
 these proceedings to the Irish Church through its primates. 
 
 Mr. Norris aided these counsels by a careful research into the 
 old records of the Society, to find anything that might guide 
 them in reviving what had fallen into neglect : 
 
 " Down to the period of the American war," he says, " the Society's
 
 IO4 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 exertions were kept up to their original standard. There is a remark- 
 able characteristic in the abstracts for the ten years preceding this 
 period, that they seem to have drawn forth from their missionaries 
 statements of the harmony subsisting between them and the Dissenters, 
 and to lose no opportunity of stating it : whilst surely in a general way 
 the reverse to this might have been the case. I should say that the 
 failure of our exertions in America was judicial. The people themselves 
 put the Gospel away from them, and God's Spirit would strive with 
 them no longer. The disinterested munificence of pious men in this 
 country, to an immense amount, was devoted to the propagation of the 
 Gospel among them for near a century, and they persevered in their 
 ruthless animosity against it. The country was lost to us by the non- 
 establishment of episcopacy. All the machinery but this primum mobile 
 was formed and forced into action, for it was the exertion of the 
 Society which kept Christianity in action ; but the measure failed from 
 the want of episcopacy." 
 
 " I have carried my enquiries," he wrote in another letter, " as far as 
 the year 1760 ; and I have no hesitation in saying that to this period 
 the Society can make out such a case as will place it upon a level with 
 any body of men engaged in the great work of diffusing the Gospel of 
 
 Christ The labours of the Society are uniformly spoken of as 
 
 having three objects in view. The primary object was the re-evangeliz- 
 ing of the colonists who, for want of religious instruction and the means 
 of public worship, were in a state a few degrees better than heathenism. 
 The next object was the conversion of the Negro slaves ; and the ulti- 
 mate object was the conversion of the native tribes, not merely of 
 America, but of all our colonies, and of the whole world in regular 
 progression. 
 
 " With regard to the first object, the Society found in America, ex- 
 clusive of Virginia and Maryland, five Church-of- England congregations, 
 and left them, at the termination of the rebellion, two hundred and 
 fifty. With respect to the second, they overcame violent prejudices, 
 which at first seemed insurmountable ; had several Negro schools, be- 
 sides generally commending the Negroes to all missionaries, and at the 
 above period some 100,000 of them were regular attendants upon the 
 Christian congregations. With respect to the third, they made at 
 a great expense several unsuccessful attempts, being opposed alike by 
 Papists, sectaries, and infidels. They were not, however, discouraged 
 by this opposition; but wherever an opening presented itself, they 
 ardently embraced it. The Mohawks, however, seem to have been the 
 only Indian tribe amongst whom they made much progress ; and this 
 tribe requited the Society's exertions by steady adherence to our 
 Government during the troubles." 
 
 He mentions the name of Philip Quague, a missionary on the 
 Gold Coast, who had been for fifty years in the service. He 
 was one of three negro children sent over to this country for 
 education by Thomas Thompson, a preceding missionary, and 
 kept till thoroughly instructed for holy orders, when he was
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 105 
 
 ordained by the Bishop of London. From such instances Mr. 
 Norris desired his friend to see the inference, that in earlier 
 days the designs of the Gospel Society were co-extensive with 
 our foreign settlements, though practically little was done out 
 of America. 
 
 This Thomas Thompson was afterwards Vicar of Reculver in 
 Kent. He was a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, and 
 went out as a missionary of the Gospel Society to New Jersey 
 in the spring of the memorable year 1745. After passing about 
 five years in that colony, he was at his own request sent on 
 a missionary voyage to the Coast of New Guinea, where he em- 
 ployed himself for nearly five years more, zealously endeavouring, 
 and not without some success, to make converts among the 
 natives and mixed race of people near the European forts and 
 settlements. The Society listened to a proposal of his to send as 
 many as six negro boys, if he could procure them, to be educated 
 in England at their charge ; and eventually he was able in 1753 
 to send three, who were carefully taught and trained in Chris- 
 tian principles by a Mr. Hickman, a schoolmaster at Islington. 
 Philip Quague appears to have been one of these three. Thomp- 
 son afterwards published an account of his missionary labours in 
 a plain and unpretending style of narrative. It is the work of 
 an intelligent and zealous-minded man, and is one of the most 
 interesting records of the Church's missions in the last cen- 
 tury". 
 
 From the success which had attended the appeal made for 
 India, Joshua Watson now felt that the difficulty was not so 
 much to procure money, as to find missionaries. In the corre- 
 spondence with H. H. Norris, the latter had suggested that the 
 National Schools might be made serviceable. " In the immense 
 number that we now educate there, some specimens of shining 
 talent will be brought forward, and some who will not willingly 
 sink into the multitude. If we do not make use of them, our 
 enemies will. Might not a fund be formed for educating them 
 to be sent out as missionaries ?" Joshua Watson was unwilling, 
 without more urgent necessity, to lower the standard of qualifi- 
 cation for such an important service. The difficulty has since 
 been met by the foundation of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, 
 towards which institution in his old age he shewed his hearty 
 good will by other proofs, and especially by giving to the Col- 
 lege the greater part of his valuable library. 
 
 It was about this time that, through the introduction of John 
 
 n Account of Two Missionary Voyages, by Thomas Thompson, A.M., 
 Vicar of Reculver in Kent. Load. 1758, 87 pp.
 
 io6 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Inglis, the excellent and energetic John Henry Hobart, Bishop 
 of New York, had become a correspondent of Mr. Norris x ; and 
 a Christian friendship grew up between two original and con- 
 genial minds, though the American was as firm a republican, 
 as the English clergyman was devout in his admiration of 
 George III. One of Hobart' s great efforts was for the establish- 
 ment of a theological seminary, for which Mr. Norris was ready to 
 obtain him aid from England. Joshua Watson's sympathies were 
 at that time more strongly engaged in behalf of Windsor Col- 
 lege, in Nova Scotia, then suffering from some public injustice ; 
 and he gently remonstrated against losing sight of the prior 
 claim of an unrevolted colony. His friend admitted that claim 
 in the fullest degree : 
 
 " Still," lie says, " I do not quite go your lengtli in saying that it 
 should put by the New York appeal altogether. The enlarged view of 
 the subject appears to me to be the correct one ; that view, I mean, 
 which comprehends reformed episcopacy wherever existing, as within 
 the sphere of its succour and encouragement. It is only Mr. Pitt's 
 policy applied to religion. How did he lay his plans for arresting the 
 strides of France towards universal tyranny ? Was it not by succour- 
 ing legitimate government, wherever it shewed a disposition to with- 
 stand the encroachments of the enemy ? And did not this eventually 
 succeed? I think the course of Christian policy is the same. You 
 have in Bishop Hobart all you can desire in an agent to act in 
 America in complete unison with your proceedings here ; and you can 
 secure at a comparatively small sacrifice all his talents and energy to 
 raise the necessary barrier there, which you are endeavouring to raise 
 here and in all our dependencies." 
 
 Such declarations of the great aims and multiplied beneficence 
 of these friends, in so many different quarters of the world, will 
 perhaps suffice to give the reader a little insight into the cha- 
 racter of their lives and employment in the first eventful years 
 which followed the restoration of peace to Europe. The fruit of 
 such labours has not perished with them. 
 
 1 See Dr. Berrian's Life of Hobart, pp. 213, 214
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 107 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Public labours. System of Royal Letters, when and why adopted. Dr. 
 Wordsworth's return to Lambeth. His brother the Poet. Archbishop 
 Manners-Button. The first days of the Church Building Society. 
 Public Commission for new Churches. Influence of Joshua Watson's 
 personal character, 
 
 IT is scarcely possible for those who have not had access to 
 Joshua Watson's papers and correspondence to form any esti- 
 mate of the amount of his public labours, and the multiplied 
 demands made on him for aid and counsel at this period of his 
 useful life. Nor is it at all an easy task to select proofs of 
 these labours out of the mass of evidence which these papers 
 supply. His most constant ally was his excellent brother- 
 treasurer, Archdeacon Cambridge, whose brief notes addressed to 
 him on all occasions from year to year, often full of grateful 
 sentiments most gracefully expressed, shew the perfect har- 
 mony of two minds brought together with the purest aims and 
 purposes : 
 
 " Mr DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " Your arrangements are always right. You will be best at Bartlett's 
 Buildings : 1 will do what I can at St. John's Wood. Does the audit 
 continue de die in diem ? Or shall I find you at St. Martin's Library 
 to-morrow ? 
 
 "Yours ever, G. 0. C." 
 
 " You need never apologize to me for any delays in our correspond- 
 ence, as I have too firm a reliance, founded on invariable experience, 
 that your valuable time is first given to whatever is most urgent ; and 
 that under no circumstances shall I find myself, or anything of interest 
 to me, unheeded or forgotten." 
 
 " The list of quarterly payments is not the least useful part of your 
 arrangement. It will save me a wonderful deal of trouble, and my bro- 
 ther treasurer I hope some little time and thought. For, heavy as the 
 office is on me, I have yet some shame, and still more regret, for the 
 time and trouble it costs him ; and, had I the abilities, most gladly 
 would I relieve him. But he never touches the subject without con- 
 vincing me that I had better be quiet and not interfere." 
 
 The following words from a letter of Dr. Wordsworth will 
 explain the views of the associated friends in seeking those 
 Royal Letters, which for forty years afterwards continued to 
 recommend the channels in which the alms of the Church were 
 likely to flow with the best effect. Dr. Wordsworth desired 
 these letters as preferable to any Parliamentary grants j not only,
 
 io8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 as lie said, to avoid the unseemliness of Parliamentary conflicts 
 on such questions, but much more, to quote his own words, 
 " because I am persuaded that the raising of the money by an 
 appeal through the clergy, and afterwards the laying out and 
 superintendence of money so raised, would both of them conduce 
 much better to the introduction of the system generally through- 
 out the kingdom, and to the maintenance of it when so intro- 
 duced. If you employ the clergy to raise money, we are laid in 
 some degree under an obligation to understand what it is for, 
 and to shew that the object is a good one. And afterwards also 
 we are laid under another obligation of responsibility, that the 
 money shall be well disposed of. In short, the getting at the 
 gold is but a small part of the business." 
 
 These words may serve in some measure to explain the views 
 which led to what may be called the system of Royal Letters, 
 and collections under the authority of Royal Letters. It was 
 not then considered right or lawful to collect alms for such public 
 designs without this form of public authority. This is not the 
 place to discuss the political or prudential reasons which have 
 led a later assemblage of men in office to refuse to continue 
 a system for so long a period productive of so much public 
 benefit. It is only to be hoped and believed, that though the 
 winds of State doctrine may sometimes blow against it, the 
 stream of enlightened charity will keep its course. 
 
 In the autumn of 1815 Dr. "Wordsworth became a widower; 
 and his bereavement, leading him as it did to seek in the fulness 
 of affectionate confidence for the support and comfort of Joshua 
 "Watson's friendship, was thus, through God's mercy, the means 
 of knitting them together in a closer union ; so that, when after 
 the lapse of many years he also was left alone, it was to Dr. 
 Wordsworth, more than any other friend, that his heart turned 
 for sympathy. Those who have experience of the offices of 
 Christian friendship, and know the power of it under such trials 
 of mortality, will understand the warmth of gratitude with which 
 the solitary father speaks of his friend's acceptance of the request 
 to become an executor to his will, a trust involving the possible 
 guardianship of his three sons, then of the age of boyhood : 
 
 " Deanery, BocJcing, Oct. 25, 1815. 
 " MY DEAK FRIEND, 
 
 " If I have not yet thanked you for your last letter, it was not because 
 I am insensible to its contents. On no occasion of my life did I ever 
 feel that I had received from any man so great a favour ; and I can 
 truly say that my heart and tongue have overflowed with thanksgiving 
 to the Author of every good. The blessing of him that seemed almost 
 ready to perish has been upon you ; and you have made my widowed
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 109 
 
 heart to sing for ioy. Your consent seems to give me a hope and 
 strength for life, beyond what any other human event now could 
 have done." 
 
 In the following year the Archbishop's offer of the Rectories 
 of Lambeth and Snndridge, " in terms which could not be set 
 aside," recalled Dr. Wordsworth to a position of greater influence. 
 How cordially his friend rejoiced in the event, has been shewn 
 in his letter printed in a former chapter. They were soon closely 
 engaged together in cares for the National Society, the prepara- 
 tion of books and tracts for the Christian Knowledge Society, 
 and those designs for extending the Church's Missions, of which 
 some account was given in the preceding pages. 
 
 The Reverend William Johnson, afterwards Rector of St. 
 Clement's, Eastcheap, was the able and diligent viceregent of 
 Dr. Bell, and manager of the Central National School, an office 
 of some trial to the temper, when many varying influences were 
 at work ; and he seems at one time to have contemplated re- 
 tiring from it : 
 
 "Pray entreat him," said Dr. Wordsworth, "and from me, if that 
 will have any weight, to do nothing hastily. His is a situation of such 
 vital importance, that a man, conscious in the strength of his own 
 mind that he discharges its duties, might be well content to be reviled, 
 and envied, and persecuted, and almost martyred at his post. But he 
 need not doubt that in due time justice will be done him ; and forbear- 
 ance and patience will be then among the most valuable of his in- 
 valuable laurels." 
 
 In the December of the same year we find the first direct re- 
 ference in his letters to the name of William Wordsworth : 
 
 " I wish you could have been here," he says, " during my brother's 
 visit. I think you would have approved, and not a little prized, his 
 conversation ; and not the least on those subjects on which you are 
 yourself so strenuous a labourer. Health and success ! Your ever 
 affectionate friend, 
 
 " CHR. WOBDSWORTH." 
 
 It appears from a memorandum in a private diary of Joshua 
 Watson, that he dined at Lambeth with Dr. Wordsworth and 
 his brother on the 6th of December, 1817. From this introduc- 
 tion a friendly mutual regard was maintained between them, 
 which went on increasing to the close of the honoured lives 
 of both. 
 
 It was of course inseparable from the post of influence which 
 he had now attained, that Joshua Watson should be often called 
 to guide and restrain, as well as sometimes to animate, the exer- 
 tions of others. His zeal for the best of causes, and his brotherly
 
 no Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 charity, seemed to have worked together in due proportions, and 
 made him at once forbearing towards the weaknesses and indis- 
 cretions of good men, and skilful in bringing into action their 
 nobler and better qualities. The letters of many correspondents 
 bear witness to this trait in his character. To bring forward in- 
 stances of siich temperate restraint might be less convenient, as 
 it might exhibit in an unfavourable light the infirmities of some 
 whose names are worthy of honour. But it is impossible not to 
 feel how blessed this influence was, when we see the immediate 
 effect acknowledged by those who came into contact with it, and 
 how he could change a tone of impatient and forward activity, 
 which had been a source of annoyance to others and himself, into 
 one of kindly deference, submitting to a more practical wisdom 
 the decision of schemes which the promoter had at last found to 
 be unmanageable. 
 
 There is a satisfaction to eveiy honest mind in doing justice to 
 the memory of those who in a former generation did acts of duty 
 and praise in an exalted and responsible station. In a letter of 
 H. H. Norris, written May 1, 1817, there is this feeling tribute 
 of respect to Archbishop Manners- Sutton. He had a toilsome 
 office then upon his hands in preparing the reports of the National 
 Society, a voluntary labour which he sustained, as we have al- 
 ready seen, with a characteristic energy of love : 
 
 " I feel myself bound," he says, " to the Archbishop, as having been 
 the iuternuncio to him, and in that capacity have contributed to his 
 coming forward. And most certainly, while I can hold a pen, or com- 
 pose a sentence, he shall not be without such a detail of our proceed- 
 ings as will do justice to the great sacrifices he makes to give full effect 
 to the Society 3 ^ exertions. But, indeed, the letters should undergo 
 a more solemn consideration than they have hitherto received in my 
 study ; and as soon as I return, I shall be glad to put-to my hand in 
 concert with my new associates." 
 
 It so happens that a fuller record is preserved of Joshua Wat- 
 son's daily labours in 1817 and 1818 than of almost any other 
 period of his life, in a little manuscript book containing a kind 
 of diary or account of his time, kept for about twenty months 
 successively. There is nothing of a private nature in this relic ; 
 but it is of interest as affording proof and confirmation to the 
 details of his history gathered from other sources ; while it shews 
 how unreserved was the devotion of his outer life to the service 
 of the Church and of his friends. The very first notice happens 
 to be much fuller than subsequent ones, and deserves to be given 
 here. It is in April, 1817 : 
 
 " Breakfasted at Rectory, Lambeth. Called at the palace by appoint- 
 ment. The Archbishop most graciously declaring intention to give
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. in 
 
 St. Dunstan's to Mr. Hesketh, upon the public grounds I had sub- 
 mitted y , having neither personal knowledge, nor other recommendation. 
 His Grace thanked me for the opportunity of shewing what he wished 
 to be known, that great exertion in a good cause gave a fair claim to 
 patronage." 
 
 A few days later there follows ; 
 
 " Attended examination and anniversary dinner of City Schools. After 
 the examination the Archbishop desired me to introduce the Rev. R. 
 Hesketh to him, for the purpose of receiving his Grace's appointment 
 to the Rectory of St. Dunstan's." 
 
 It was his frequent habit at this period to be present at the 
 service which was held in the schoolroom for the children of the 
 Central School, before it was found possible to obtain space in 
 any parish Church for the regular attendance of so large a body. 
 He spoke in later years of this congregation as one possessing 
 a thrilling interest, rescued, as many of the children were, 
 " almost from the kennel." A friend remembers accompanying 
 him to this service, when he went with his wife and daughter 
 on Sunday, Sept. 21, 1817. The master, the Rev. W. Johnson, 
 having read the Sunday Lessons, and not those for St. Matthew's 
 Day, one of the boys shewed some token of surprise, which did 
 not escape the notice of Joshua Watson. After the service he 
 called the boy to him, and by a few simple words explained to 
 him that his master was right. " "Whose day is this ?" he asked. 
 The boy readily answered, "The Lord's Day." "Then," re- 
 joined Joshua "Watson, "the servant cannot be before his Lord." 
 
 The Society which has now been employed for more than forty 
 years in contributing to the multiplication of churches in our 
 land, had its origin about this time, and appears at first in the 
 private diary and correspondence under the name of the Church- 
 Room or Free Church Society. The following is one of the first 
 entries respecting it : 
 
 "July 4, 1817. Church- Room Society. Appointed to prepare 
 an address to the public, to precede rules, &c." 
 
 The same day goes on : " Received Duke of Wellington at 
 Waterloo Committee;" that trust continuing some time longer. 
 
 There is evidence that he was instrumental both in the forma- 
 tion of this Society, and the drawing up of its original regula- 
 tions. On this subject he seems to have taken counsel with Arch- 
 deacon Daubeny, who was perhaps the first Churchman who had 
 made a public step to provide free accommodation in a new 
 
 > Mr. Hesketh's labours had been in the establishment of the City 
 Schools.
 
 112 
 
 Church for tl 
 Bath, Dec. 15 
 
 "MY DEA] 
 
 " I have rece 
 It does not app 
 your regulation 
 drawn. Somet 
 fifteenth resolvr 
 has been diges 
 entitled to atte 
 an object with 
 son of the Cha 
 active instrume 
 
 The worth 
 vourite object 
 ment which ic 
 when he rem.< 
 Bath. In faj 
 
 a donation of 500 to the new Society, tnougn ne naa many 
 scruples against incurring the charge of ostentation by an- 
 nouncing it with the publication of his name z . 
 
 Early in 1818 a letter of Van Mildert announces a grant of 
 1,000 from the members of the Christ Church Chapter to the 
 first formation of this fund for Church-building ; while his pru- 
 dence suggested that " there seemed to be wanting some security 
 for the endowment as well as for the erection of new Churches." 
 
 Meanwhile the public Commission for the same object had been 
 formed by Lord Liverpool's Government. It was now only 
 natural, that Joshua Watson's name should be announced as one 
 of the commissioners, and that Archdeacon Cambridge should be 
 one of those associated with him. While yet uncertain who would 
 be in the Commission, the Archdeacon had said, " My main hope 
 is that I shall find myself by your side, and then I shall know 
 how to act." 
 
 It is probably to one of the preliminary meetings of this body 
 that the following letter of Archdeacon Pott refers : 
 
 " St. Martin's Vicarage, Dec. 26. 
 " MY DEAH FRIEND, 
 
 " If you think we can do without you, you are the only person of that 
 opinion ; for though we met at our post, and the poor Bishop came on 
 horseback, we resolved, nem. con., to do nothing till we had your aid, and 
 
 1 See the Memoir of Archdeacon Daubeny, p. liv., prefixed to the last 
 edition of his writings. 1830.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 113 
 
 therefore broke up, concluding that the fog had deprived us of your pre- 
 sence, and much applauding your prudent care. I persuaded the Bishop 
 not to ride back, for in Westminster the fog was very thick." 
 
 Details of Church Commission are henceforward of frequent 
 occurrence in the letters between Joshua Watson and Dr. Words- 
 worth. We find the former invoking his friend's aid in obtain- 
 ing a clause in an Act to authorize parishes to borrow money 
 upon rates for the enlargement of existing churches, as well as 
 for building new chapels. The notices in these letters, like others 
 already quoted, mark how constant was his attendance on these 
 new duties. Thus Dr. Wordsworth writes : 
 
 " It is so rare a thing not to find you at the post of duty, that I can- 
 not be easy without a line sent to enquire after you, and without saying 
 that we wanted such help as yours at our meeting to-day." 
 
 We cannot wonder that in the October of this year, one of 
 Joshua Watson's notes to his friend, who was then at Sundridge, 
 after specifying some of the work in hand, should conclude with 
 these words : 
 
 " And now I depend upon you who come fresh with unclouded facul- 
 ties, to take a heavy load off my addled pate : for in truth I am so dis- 
 trait, that I know little more than that I am always your affectionate 
 friend, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 Or that Archdeacon Cambridge should have urged him to take 
 some necessary rest both of body and mind, adding, " In aid of 
 which I demand to take your place, wherever I can, with all the 
 confidence of a Radical." 
 
 The same over-abundance of work appears in the following 
 note to Dr. Wordsworth, in Jan. 1819 : 
 
 "Mr DEAK FRIEND, 
 
 " Your hasty intimation of your visit to Lambeth, and intended call in 
 Bartlett's Buildings, found me just set down to home business, (a luxury 
 I can rarely indulge in,) and, with an alacrity which entirely missed its 
 reward, I put by all my papers and put myself into the carriage, posting 
 to the office hi the hope of a short conference with you on the many 
 matters of common interest which then engaged my attention. You may 
 guess, then, my mortification at losing you by a few minutes, and find- 
 ing no encouragement to expect your return. Some of these matters, 
 however, still survive, and I long much to talk them over with you. 
 
 " When and how can we meet ? If you leave Sundridge in time, pray 
 push on to Holborn on Monday, for there I expect to be imprisoned for 
 three or four or five hours at least ; and on Tuesday we are not likely 
 to come together, as you will think your strongest call to Great George- 
 
 I
 
 H4 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 street*, and I certainly feel mine to be to Bartlett's Buildings, and will 
 not therefore at any time sacrifice it to my new occupation in West- 
 minster", which I assure you demands sacrifices enough. 
 
 "On Tuesday, from S.P.C.K. I go down to Twickenham, and on 
 Thursday I must be at St. John's Wood. 
 
 " Affectionately yonrs, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON. 
 " Will you meet our friend the new judge b on Monday the 18th ?" 
 
 Thus again he replies to an earnest entreaty from Dr. Words- 
 worth to come and counsel him in the Church Building affairs of 
 Lambeth, after the attendance it was presumed that he would 
 give in Westminster : 
 
 "The consolidation of our S.P.G. concern is of too much moment to 
 give way even to Church Commission, and here (at Bartlett's Buildings) 
 I must remain till the business is done, and, par consequence, till it be 
 too late to see you in Westminster." 
 
 It was in this same month, January, 1819, that he received 
 from Dr. Wordsworth a letter from which the following extracts 
 are taken, for the gratification of those who can see in them some- 
 thing much more than a brother's partiality. Dr. Wordsworth 
 had seen in the "British Critic" a notice of the poet's writings, 
 which he thought both flippant and unfair ; and his whole soul 
 seemed stirred to justify him. And believing that it might be in 
 Joshua Watson's power to convey a wholesome and needful check 
 to the reviewer, he addressed himself to him. He allowed that 
 a reviewer had a full right to undervalue William Wordsworth, 
 either as a poet or a prose-writer, and to proclaim what he 
 thought : 
 
 "But being myself, on the other hand, of opinion," he continues, 
 "that my brother is among the greatest men that this country has 
 produced ; being of opinion that it would be one of the greatest hap- 
 pinesses of the present age that they should understand his value ; and 
 not doubting that England in future ages will regard his name with 
 a gratitude something like that which she pays to her Milton and 
 Shakespeare ; considering myself also perhaps more indebted already to 
 his writings than to any other except the Scriptures, I think myself 
 bound in gratitude, and in regard to the good of others, to look upon 
 any unfair attack upon him as an injury to the truth and the public 
 good, which I am bound therefore to disapprove of, and on proper occa- 
 sions also to express my dissatisfaction. Besides, considering that my 
 brother's writings are 01 prime importance, not only to the general in- 
 terests of mankind, but also to those special interests in Church and 
 State which it is the aim of the ' British Critic ' to uphold, I the more 
 
 * Church Commission Office. b Sir John Richardson.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 115 
 
 regret that in matter or manner towards him they should imitate that 
 other review, whose editor hates his beams at the very time, and because, 
 he knows their influence." 
 
 Dr. "Wordsworth's first impulse had been to say all this to 
 another friend : 
 
 " But he perhaps would not so well enter into my reasons for this in- 
 terposition as you will do, though even you do not know the extent of 
 my veneration for my brother. He, too, has had, I know, many vexa- 
 tions about the ' British Critic ;' and I would not add to their number ; 
 while you, as an acknowledged point, are born to be troubled. 
 
 " I leave the matter in your nands. If this reviewer will but think 
 twice, and if he has the power of thinking, I have little fear for the re- 
 sult. Let him be assured, however, that my meaning is good, and that 
 I know hardly anything that I could wish better for my best friend, or 
 my worst enemy, than that he should study and prize my brother's 
 writings." 
 
 The generous feeling which pervades this appeal sufficiently 
 marks the writer's confidence that it would meet with a con- 
 genial response. He to whom it was addressed was blessed with 
 a brother, who watched over his own growing fame and influence 
 with a like ardent affection. It will hardly be doing a wrong to 
 the memory of Joshua Watson or that brother, to place on record 
 the following letter. It was written on Ash -Wednesday, Feb. 4, 
 1818, a day on which the Archdeacons of the diocese of London 
 used to meet for the distribution of some public charity : 
 
 " MY DEAR SISTER, 
 
 " I cannot, even on this day of self-denial, refuse myself or you the 
 gratification of communicating to you the very high testimony borne to 
 your good husband's invaluable services this day by the company in 
 which I have been sojourning since two o'clock, and who are better 
 able to appreciate their worth than almost any one, (yourself and me 
 always excepted). Archdeacon Pott said that the audit the other day 
 was the surprise and admiration of all present, who had never seen any- 
 thing in the least approaching to it before, and could not have believed 
 it possible. Archdeacon Cambridge joined cordially in the praises of 
 his brother treasurer, and said that still more hi the German contribu- 
 tion the accounts drew forth yet greater admiration ; and that old 
 George Rose declared that though so much conversant with business 
 and figures as he had been for the last fifty years, he had never seen 
 anything like it ! It was quite beautiful ! Then they went on to other 
 matters, and agreed not only that all the best interests of the Church 
 were infinitely more indebted to Joshua than to any other individual 
 who could be named, but that all the highest authorities in it felt and 
 acknowledged as much ; and that though so complete a man of business 
 himself, the Archbishop always appeared at a loss, and without his right 
 hand, when Joshua chanced to be absent. They then instanced the ad-
 
 n6 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 mirable manner in which he generally contrived to carry liis points, 
 which were at all times important ones ; and among other proofs in- 
 stanced his last victory on Tuesday over the proud Lord , who 
 
 gave up his opinion to him, and even expressed his conviction of 
 having been wrong, when they were sure he would have done so to 
 no one else. 
 
 " I have sent this for a little chit-chat between you and my father ; 
 and need not say how heartily /joined in every feeling and sentiment 
 expressed by my brother Archdeacons. Good-night to you. These are 
 some little sets-off against all Joshua's hard fagging ; and though I want 
 not to be reminded of the much higher principles which influence and 
 animate Ms unexampled labours in the best of causes, yet I trust that 
 the testimony of two such men as the Archdeacons of London and Mid- 
 dlesex, given in the manner and to the effect above stated, will not be 
 unacceptable to him and you. As such I send it, and again subscribe 
 to it most cordially in its largest acceptation. 
 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 "J. J.W." 
 
 " Pray tell your husband I will start with him at his own hour in 
 the morning." 
 
 Those whose words the affection of a brother had thus pre- 
 served in memory, were among the few whom all revered as 
 numbered with the wise and good of their generation. Their 
 praise he knew to be sincere, and he could not but regard it as, 
 humanly speaking, well-merited. But he knew also that it was 
 safely to be confided to the keeping of one who was most nearly 
 interested in it, and might be reported without danger to one 
 whose habitual self-discipline had made such words as these to 
 be his own : " They praise me ; but they know nothing : Thou 
 art silent; but Thou knowest all ." 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Van Jtfilderfs elevation to the Bishopric of Llandaff. His services at 
 Oxford. Joshua Watson's honorary degree there. Letters upon it. 
 Purchase of Ely Chapel, Holborn,for the Central National School. 
 Bishop Ryder. Clergy Orphan School. Vaudois Clergy. Dr. Words- 
 worth made Master of Trinity College. Church Building. Public 
 disorders on account of the Queen of George IF. Her visit to St. Paul's. 
 Private Chanties. 
 
 the month of March, 1819, "William Yan Mildert was raised 
 to the episcopal bench as Bishop of Llandaff. He had not 
 
 r 
 
 c See Jer. Taylor's Worthy Communicant.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 117 
 
 suffered his post of Regius Professor at Christ Church to become 
 a sinecure. Besides his most direct duties with Lectures, he 
 had written to Joshua "Watson on subjects which engaged his 
 attention as a delegate of the Clarendon Press, and at one time 
 to give a commission about an Homeric MS., which had ap- 
 peared to be offered for sale at some literary market. He speaks 
 also of having engaged Mr. Peel, afterwards Sir Robert, to op- 
 pose some provisions of a church-building bill introduced by Mr. 
 Vansittart, afterwards Lord Bexley. Through this concurrence, 
 "the excrescence," as Van Mildert speaks of it, " was separated 
 from the main body of the tree," and the salutary portion of the 
 measure was preserved. 
 
 It was about the same time with his own promotion that he 
 was the medium through which the offer of an honorary degree 
 in the University of Oxford was made to Joshua Watson. When 
 announcing the intention of the Vice- Chancellor and Heads to 
 propose his name in Convocation, as the Treasurer of the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of the Clergy Orphan School, 
 and of the National Society, Van Mildert assured him that it had 
 originated entirely on public principle ; in a just sense of the 
 value of the services he had rendered, and was still rendering, to 
 the best interests of the community at large, and of the Church 
 in particular, by his unwearied labours, and his munificent sup- 
 port of all those institutions which give stability both to Church 
 and State. " I have long known," he writes, " that your worth 
 in these respects has been here well appreciated, and I rejoice 
 that this public testimony of it is now resolved upon." 
 
 It was evident that Van Mildert had no thought of the hesi- 
 tation and reluctance which his friend would feel, and which re- 
 strained him at first from answering the communication. Van 
 Mildert had written again and urgently, deprecating the pos- 
 sibility of any doubt as to accepting the offered honour from 
 " a Body for which he knew he entertained sentiments of more 
 than ordinary regard ;" when J. W. sent the following letter, 
 (of which he preserved a copy) : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEHD, 
 
 " The kindness of your letter is really quite unanswerable ; and I find 
 my pen at this moment refusing, as much as my tongue would do if you 
 were present, to tell you how I feel the subject of your communication, 
 and the affectionate warmth of expression with which it is made. Be- 
 tween us, however, this is of little consequence, as I am sure you have 
 known me far too long not to guess pretty well at the sensations with 
 which it has been received ; and, in truth, for a right notion I had much 
 rather depend upon your acquaintance with my mind and its old associa-
 
 u8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 tions, than upon anything I could say in acknowledgement of an honour 
 from Oxford. 
 
 " But if I may make a confessor of the friend, to whose partiality 
 alone, (disclaim it as he will,) I feel I entirely owe the offer of a distinc- 
 tion to which services of a very different order from mine can rarely 
 aspire, I would gladly disclose so much of another feeling as, you will 
 see, makes your counsel and advice on the occasion of much value to 
 me. Taking credit with you, then, without scruple for a proper pride 
 in the proposal, and consequently with a pride much above coquetting 
 with it, I confess to you I cannot but shrink from accepting it. To 
 have been so thought of in Golgotha is to me, who, thank God, am not 
 indifferent or insensible to the praise of the great and good, of itself a 
 reward as much out of all calculation as beyond desert, and of itself far 
 more than enough for my ambition. And furthermore, if I may take the 
 vote in question as an .evidence that I have been really useful where I 
 chiefly desired to be so, I am, indeed, richly recompensed for all I can 
 do, and ought to be abundantly grateful for the opportunities which a 
 good Providence has afforded me of promoting in any degree those in- 
 terests for which it is now, I am sure, especially every man's duty to 
 spend and be spent. But I must, moreover, confess, (odd as it may 
 seem from the mouth of such a pluralist, if you did not know how much 
 has been jussu superiorum, and how personal objections have been re- 
 quired to give way to alledged calls of duty,) that the kind of public 
 character which an accumulation of office gives to private labours is to 
 me, who have not a real taste for the thing, one of the greatest sacrifices 
 they demand. So that if, with becoming respect to the Vice-Chancellor 
 and the Heads of Houses, the matter might rest where it now is, and I 
 remain in quiet possession of the knowledge of their good opinion, and 
 of the presumption it affords that I have not laboured in vain, I must 
 say it would better accord with my personal feelings and love of privacy 
 than any more public expression on the subject. 
 
 k " You see, then, my dear friend, how the case stands. If the pre- 
 vious question had been put, there had been no difficulty in deciding. 
 My present perplexity arises out of a doubt as to the manner in which 
 it becomes me to deal with it in the present stage of the proceeding, 
 lest I seem ignorantly or insensibly to throw back an honour which they 
 have gone so much out of their way to propose. Into your hands, there- 
 fore, I commit myself, assured on the one hand you will indulge my per- 
 sonal feelings, if it can with propriety be done ; and on the other, effec- 
 tually preserve me from all suspicion of lightly regarding the honour, 
 when in truth the very high value I set upon it is one very weighty 
 reason for desiring to decline it. I say, therefore, only be candid, and 
 
 five your advice without reference to your own friendly share in the 
 usiness, and I will obey. 
 
 "In adverting again to your share in the business, I beg not to be 
 misunderstood in what I have said either here or in a former part of my 
 letter. I must not be supposed to imagine that the University have re- 
 gard to personal considerations in these matters generally, or even in 
 the case in question have proceeded upon any other than public grounds. 
 But what else than the partial colouring with which your friendship
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 119 
 
 has from time to time delighted to paint my little services, can have led 
 the Heads of Houses in Oxford for a moment to conceive any public 
 principle involved in the notice of them ? You need not affect to dis- 
 guise them ; nor will I at present say more on the subject, but with 
 kindest regards from all here, waiting your answer, remain as ever your 
 affectionate friend, 
 
 "J.W." 
 
 This letter drew from Yan Mildert on the 3rd of April a re- 
 peated assurance that the proposal was purely from the Vice- 
 chancellor, Dr. Frodsham Hodson, and had been met by the 
 whole body, not merely with acquiescence, but with individual 
 expressions of the warmest approbation ; and that, so far from 
 his own private friendship having given the bias, it had in 
 truth caused him to check a former proposition from the Vice- 
 Chancellor, lest it should be surmised that any gratification of 
 a personal feeling on his own part had contributed to forward 
 the design. 
 
 " To lessen, however," he continued, " the weight of personal feeling 
 which so much oppresses you, I must also add that a desire of bearing 
 public testimony of the regard the University has for all those institu- 
 tions which profit so much by your services, has had especial influence 
 in this proceeding. The daily increasing necessity for upholding these 
 institutions, and raising them by all proper means in the general estima- 
 tion, is a motive which has prevailed in the present measure. And since 
 there is no one who appears more decidedly than yourself as their accre- 
 dited representative, how can this desire be more appropriately or signi- 
 ficantly manifested ?" 
 
 Other letters followed, shewing that he was still desirous, if 
 possible, to rest in the quiet testimony of the vote, without being 
 obliged to appear in Convocation. But when it was represented 
 to him that the refusal would embarrass his friends, and be liable 
 to misconstructions which all would regret, he at once yielded. 
 And on the 10th of April the Vice-Chancellor addressed to him 
 the following letter : 
 
 " Brasenose College, April 10, 1819. 
 
 " I proposed to our friend, Dr. Van Mildert, well knowing that I 
 should thereby give him pleasure as well as increase yours, that he 
 should be the first to communicate to you the resolution which had been, 
 passed by the Board of Heads of Houses and Proctors. But I cannot 
 forego the satisfaction of informing you officially that it is our una- 
 nimous wish that it should be proposed in the Convocation to be holden 
 in the Theatre on Wednesday, June 23, to confer upon you the honorary 
 degree of Doctor in Civil Law. I earnestly hope that this mode of tes- 
 tifying our respect for yourself and our sense ot your various services to
 
 120 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 so many institutions connected with the Established Church may be ac- 
 ceptable to you ; and that it may afford you as much pleasure to receive 
 it as it does me to communicate it, and as I am confident it will the 
 whole University to confer it. I have the honour to be, dear Sir, with 
 the sincerest esteem, your obedient humble servant, 
 
 "P. HODSON, Vice-Chancellor ." 
 
 To this J. W. answered : 
 
 " Clapton, April 12. 
 "DEAR MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR, 
 
 " I have the honour to thank you for your obliging communication of 
 the resolution of the Board of Heads of Houses and Proctors, and grate- 
 fully to acknowledge the renewed expression of their regard for those 
 Church Societies which their Treasurer is, however unworthily, con- 
 sidered on the occasion to represent. 
 
 " In offering these acknowledgements, I beg to assure you that it is 
 to me a matter of high personal gratification that they have chosen to 
 make this fresh declaration of their good-will to the Societies in ques- 
 tion by a vote which proposes to unite me in membership with the 
 University of Oxford, who have always been regarded by me as the 
 most zealous assertors of those principles which lie at the very founda- 
 tion of the institutions with which I am officially connected. 
 
 " If anything could add to the value of an honour thus endeared by 
 the sentiments of affectionate respect with which I have, from early as- 
 sociations, long looked up to the venerable Body from whom it proceeds, 
 I hope you will allow me to say that it is not a little enhanced by the 
 channel through which it comes, and the manner in which it is conveyed. 
 
 " With the highest esteem, then, believe me to be, dear Mr. Yice- 
 Chancellor, your obliged and very obedient servant, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 He accordingly went down to Oxford for the ensuing Comme- 
 moration, and received his degree at the same time with Lord 
 Hill, Sir W. Grant, Sir H. Hardinge, and Robert Southey. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1819, J. W. succeeded in com- 
 pleting a purchase of a long lease of Ely Chapel, Holborn, at a 
 cost, it is believed, of about 3,700 cash, or 6,000 stock, and 
 presented it to the National Society for the use of the Central 
 School. He thus accomplished, as far as circumstances would 
 allow, that which had been a cherished object with him for a 
 considerable time, although he could not induce the proprietors 
 to part with the ground. For the purchase of this also he made 
 provision, and received the contributions of friends, investing the 
 small dividends regularly until the close of his life, and making 
 repeated but ineffectual attempts to obtain entire possession. 
 
 His views in this transaction may be best explained in his 
 own words. A rough memorandum in his own writing declares 
 that the Society was to receive the produce, and defray all such
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 121 
 
 charges as the Bishop might think fit, hut was to exercise " no 
 interference, direct or indirect, with any of the appointments of 
 the chapel," " the whole control heing left to the Bishop in all 
 and every point and particular." 
 
 J. W. (the memorandum says) would have had no hesitation 
 in taking upon himself the risk of the chapel, and merely giving 
 the room, &c., to the school ; but his great object was to divest 
 himself of it entirely, and leaving it no private proprietary cha- 
 racter, to place it under the bishop of the diocese. It had been 
 exempt and extra-parochial, and it was not possible with only a 
 lease to make it a parochial chapel of ease. Among the acknow- 
 ledgments which he received on this occasion, one from Bishop 
 Ryder, of Gloucester, may be selected, which evidently gratified, 
 if not himself, at least his brother, who in returning it said, " I 
 cannot but love him for it :" 
 
 "Dec. 2, 1819. 
 "MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I could not remain, in consequence of a sudden call of business, to 
 add my feeble testimony to the general feeling of gratitude and respect 
 which pervaded our meeting on Wednesday at St. Martin's Vestry, and 
 was, no doubt, ably and worthily expressed in the letter drawn up by 
 the Bishop of Ely. 
 
 " Your noble gift has, however, often recurred to my mind, and I 
 could not be satisfied without individually assuring you of the high sense 
 I entertain of its motives and value. May the service of the chapel 
 prove, under the Divine favour, the seal and support of every sound and 
 religious impression which may be made at the Central School, and pro- 
 duce in the succession of youthful hearts which will pass under its in- 
 fluence such a warm, practical, and permanent attachment to the Church, 
 as may withstand the temptations of a corrupt nature and an ensnaring 
 world, the assaults of infidelity, and the lures of dissent ! May the de- 
 visor of such ' liberal things' find himself the blessed promise true, that 
 by ' liberal things he shall stand !' Believe me, my dear Sir, your obliged 
 and very sincere, humble servant, 
 
 "H. GLOUCESTER." 
 
 " Clapton, Dec. 9, 1819. 
 
 ness 
 
 opinion . 
 
 yourself at our outset to establish in the plan of union, is reallv the 
 
 corner-stone of our Society ; and that it matters comparatively little 
 
 how much, or even how well, we teach our children in the week-day, if 
 
 we do not carry them to church on the Sunday. 
 
 " With esteem and respect I have the honour to be, my Lord, your 
 lordship's obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON."
 
 122 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Though praise thus followed after him, he certainly did not 
 sound a trumpet before him. It was four or five weeks later, 
 Jan. 12, that Archdeacon Cambridge wrote from Bath : 
 
 " Was there ever anything like your doing all you have done with 
 Ely Chapel, and my knowing nothing of it but by the ' Christian Re- 
 membrancer ?' Oh fie ! And why did you not encourage me to come 
 up to the National Society meeting the day after we met in Great 
 George-street, when I should have heard what I should so much have 
 liked?" 
 
 In the spring of 1820 there is evidence of an endeavour to 
 give a fresh impulse to the Clergy Orphan School; and a note 
 from Bp. Howley to Joshua "Watson of rather earlier date shews 
 how earnestly that prelate endeavoured to promote it. He had 
 recommended the charity in his Charge, so that in one instance 
 the whole company had resolved after his departure to subscribe, 
 and had paid their subscriptions on the spot. 
 
 " I have engaged," he wrote, " to use my endeavours to raise the es- 
 tablishment to its full complement ; and as I see there is to be a meet- 
 ing on the 13th instant, it is my intention to attend and propose some 
 effective measure. I wish you would consider whether donations or in- 
 crease of annual subscriptions would be most effective. I am ready to 
 contribute in either way, feeling the present incomplete state of the 
 charity to be a reproach on the clergy at large." 
 
 Joshua Watson was associated with Wm. Wilberforce as joint 
 members with the Rt. Hon. J. Villiers of a sub-committee of 
 S.P.G., in an endeavour to improve the condition of the Vaudois 
 clergy; and there are several proofs of his seeking information 
 about their history and claims. 
 
 He was, however, prevented from taking his usual share in 
 such works during the earlier months of the year 1820 by a 
 severe illness. We find him on the 9th of June returning to 
 the use of pen and ink, and devoting his first effort to an en- 
 quiry addressed to his friend at Lambeth, who was also ill, whe- 
 ther he could in any way serve him or his churches; "for in a 
 feeling of interest for the well-being and well-doing of both these 
 he would yield to no one except the rector himself." Dr. Words- 
 worth was engaged in building, or at least in preparing to build, 
 four new churches in his great suburban parish; and Joshua 
 Watson was a frequent referee in all the difficulties that arose in 
 the prosecution of so great an undertaking. 
 
 " Hampstead Heath, June 13. 
 
 "I grieve to find," Dr. Wordsworth wrote, "that though you give 
 no proof of it to me, you have still so much occasion to complain of the
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 123 
 
 weakness of your head. What shall I say ? When I see you with the 
 many and important demands upon your attention, and that in things 
 which no other man is able to do, I am a thousand times tempted to say, 
 How can he do less ! And yet on the other side again, when I look at 
 the multiplicity of these demands upon you, and the evident delicacy of 
 your frame and constitution, I again say, How is it possible that he can 
 do, or how can he be justified in attempting to do, so much ? In this 
 dilemma I am driven to have recourse to the highest tribunal, and to 
 pray earnestly that you may have strength given according to your own 
 need, and to the measure of the needs of the mighty concerns that call 
 for and want your aid. I remain, my dear friend, ever most affec- 
 tionately yours, 
 
 " CHKISTOPHEB, WOKDSWORTH." 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth was still very far from well when, on the 
 28th of June, he received, through the Archbishop, Lord Liver- 
 pool's offer of the Mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Joshua Watson was immediately applied to by his friend for 
 counsel, and by the Archbishop as the person to persuade him to 
 accept the appointment, which the Prime Minister was seeking 
 to dispose of on the highest principles. The next morning found 
 him at Hampstead, in his friend's sick-room, and the matter was 
 at once determined. For the same evening he wrote : 
 
 " Clapton, June 29. 
 
 " I cannot despatch the enclosed without expressing my anxious wish 
 for an early assurance that the important discussion of to-day has pro- 
 duced no inconvenient excitement ; and that the decision is fully con- 
 firmed by your own further consideration, and the concurrence of your 
 incomparable friend d , who, I think, will understand better than most 
 people how much personal feeling was sacrificed to higher considerations 
 when I unhesitatingly recommended your removal from Lambeth, and 
 the transfer to Cambridge of all those powers of usefulness which must 
 here be so continually missed by yours affectionately, 
 
 " J. W." 
 
 " Mrs. J. W., who remembers how greatly you were desired at Lam- 
 beth, sends you every good wish, but can hardly bring herself yet to 
 send you congratulations on the occasion." 
 
 The next letter stands alone, and refers to a church-building 
 plan at Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells, for which his 
 correspondent, Mr. Baden Powell, was gathering funds. It was 
 written from Diggeswell P^ectory, his brother's pleasant home 
 in Hertfordshire, where at that time old Mr. Watson was also 
 residing : 
 
 d His hostess, Mrs. Hoare.
 
 124 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "Aug. 20, 1820. 
 "DEAR BADEN, 
 
 "Your letter, by an awkward kind of detour having visited both 
 Guilsbro' and Clapton before it found its way hither, must now be an- 
 swered immediately, lest inferring from my silence something like con- 
 sent to your proposition, you precipitately carry it into effect, and erase 
 our names from your friendly list of contributors, a measure which 
 can only cost us more than you have at present charged us with ; for 
 unless you have found it prudent to keep down subscriptions in order 
 to increase subscribers, I should certainly deem the sum you mention 
 disproportionate to its object, and request the amount to be doubled at 
 least. In truth, as you hint, these are not times for hoarding ; for the 
 hour may not be far distant to any of us, in which we may feel that of 
 all which we possessed that only remains to us which we have well 
 spent ; and sure I am, if in mercy far beyond our deserts the hour be 
 averted from us, we shall have a debt of gratitude to discharge which 
 ought to pledge deeply whatever is left to us. So that in any case, and 
 without any croaking, you will, I hope, consider us not only as com- 
 mitted for the trifle you mention, but as cheerfully answerable for an- 
 other call if your necessities require it. Prosecute vigorously, however, 
 your suit before the public, and I trust you will find you have no need 
 of us ; which is better still, as an evidence that the signs of the times 
 are not wholly without their effect even on the visitors of a watering- 
 place." 
 
 Such was the spirit in which he met the occasions of doing 
 good, and encouraged the promoters of good works. An aged 
 person, who had been a friend of his wife's, was conversing with 
 him in the year 1853, when mention was made of Mr. A. B. 
 Hope's munificent charities, and the different spirit which had 
 arisen in this particular from that which had formerly prevailed : 
 " Ah, Mr. Watson," she said, very earnestly, " you did more to 
 give an impulse to such charities amongst us than any other man, 
 particularly in the city of London. Where we gave 2, you 
 gave 50 ; and there is no knowing the good it did. You have 
 been a Wellington in your way." 
 
 In the letter which has just been given, to Mr. Baden Powell, 
 by speaking of " the signs of the times," he seems to allude to 
 the spirit of misrule and faction, which was excited by the pro- 
 ceedings against the Queen of George IV. There are frequent 
 allusions to these troubles in the letters of his correspondents, 
 fears of local disturbances, and sometimes of personal danger. 
 It was a question which in the middle ranks of society for 
 a time divided houses against themselves. His care and pru- 
 dence were employed in labouring for peace, and aiding the 
 counsels of his brother, who was often hindered by illness 
 from appearing in public, to preserve the quiet of the parish of 
 Hackney.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 125 
 
 Among his friends the one who was most exposed to the 
 storm was Bishop Van Mildert. He had fearlessly given his 
 support to the Bill of Pains and Penalties ; and his letters shew 
 how entirely he was persuaded that such a vote was demanded 
 of him under a painful sense of public duty. But it may be re- 
 membered how some words used by a distinguished opponent of 
 the Bill in the heat of the debate were calculated to act as 
 a conductor to direct the electric fluid of public wrath upon the 
 heads of the bishops. In the county of Oxford, not at that time 
 under very efficient magisterial regulations, there were some 
 disorders. A tumultuous crowd of country-people attacked the 
 house of the Regius Professor at Ewelme, hurled stones at 
 the windows, and were with difficulty deterred from further 
 acts of violence. 
 
 Two or three days afterwards it was announced to him as 
 Dean of St. Paul's, by some of those who were in official attend- 
 ance on the Queen, that it was her intention to visit the Cathe- 
 dral in public state, to give thanks for her rescue from the 
 prosecution which she had suffered. Fully resolved that he 
 would in no way sanction what he could only regard as " a 
 mockery of religion and an insult to the Church," he was yet 
 somewhat perplexed how to act without danger of exciting 
 a riot, and acts which might desecrate the sacred building. He 
 wrote to the Ministers of State, and to the Archbishop and 
 Bishop of London ; but it does not appear that they were imme- 
 diately able to advise him. Joshua Watson's advice was both 
 prudent and magnanimous ; that, since the Queen's rank was 
 now recognised, and the prosecution abandoned, she should be 
 received with all the outward respect due to her title. Some- 
 thing of this kind might possibly have been done, had not some 
 of her more forward counsellors desired some alterations of the 
 service, and more things than could be legally granted. Van 
 Mildert, therefore, determined not to come up from Oxford- 
 shire, but arranged what was necessary by correspondence with 
 Dr. Hughes, the canon in residence, a man as brave and sagacious 
 as himself 6 . Having first informed the Queen's officer of the 
 ordinary times of Divine Service at St. Paul's, he simply refused 
 to make any alteration on account of the Queen's attendance ; 
 and as to any ceremonial, the clergy of the cathedral were to be 
 merely passive, referring it to the civic authorities, who had 
 made it their business on former occasions. This passive resist- 
 
 e Dr. Hughes was the father of the late ingenious John Hughes, Esq., 
 of Oriel College, and grandfather of the author of " Tom Brown's School 
 Days."
 
 126 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 ance was not ineffectual. Whether the transaction was one 
 among many proofs of the truth of the poet's saying, 
 
 " For all things are less dreadful than they seem ;" 
 
 or whether the mischief was really averted by the wise pre- 
 cautions taken, it is certain that, as an attempt at a demonstra- 
 tion of strength or dignity on the part of the Queen or her ad- 
 visers, this visit to the cathedral proved to be an utter failure. 
 
 It was natural that in these difficulties Van Mildert should 
 have had recourse to his early tried ally : " I have no friend 
 whose judgment I value in comparison with yours ; none who 
 know half so well what times and persons and circumstances re- 
 quire or admit in such a case as this." And again, in acknow- 
 ledgment of Joshua Watson's answer: "My dear Friend, 
 I am more obliged and more comforted than I can express by 
 your two kind letters. I never yet found you a broken reed to 
 lean upon, and I am persuaded I never shall." 
 
 There is one other subject of public interest in the corre- 
 spondence of Joshua Watson for the year 1820, which perhaps 
 deserves to be mentioned ; not on account of any results from 
 what was contemplated, for it failed, apparently from lack of 
 efficient agents, but because it shews how readily he and his 
 friends were disposed to promote any means for restoring unity 
 in Christendom. It was a scheme tor supplying the impoverished 
 Christians in Greece with cheap reprints of portions of their own 
 early Greek Fathers, thereby to revive among them views of 
 primitive truth, and remove somewhat of the barrier of separation 
 between them and the English Church. 
 
 It must not be supposed that, among so many public aims, 
 Joshua Watson was ever regardless of the claims of any of his 
 own kindred, even those who were but remotely related to him, 
 whose circumstances were a plea to urge lor kindness. He 
 responded to such claims, not profusely, but constantly and 
 systematically, using the agency of those who were most able 
 and willing to turn his supplies to the best account. We find 
 a letter from the cousin who was chiefly employed in such ser- 
 vices, dated November, 1820, acknowledging the yearly remit- 
 tance of a sum exceeding 100 : 
 
 " If I knew how to thank you, I would do it ; but I am conscious 
 that no words of mine can adequately express my sense of your great 
 and unremitting kindness and benevolence : neither are your deeds done 
 for the sake of the thanks of men. I hope, however, I feel and shall 
 ever feel it as I ought, and that all possible happiness, both here and 
 hereafter, may be your reward."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 127 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Domestic events : illness of his brother, and death of his father. Dr. 
 Wordsworth's designs and labours at Trinity College. The Church 
 Commission, and Bishop Ryder. Death of John Bowdler: his last 
 cares for the Scottish Episcopal Church. Joshua Watson removes to 
 Westminster : his residence in Park-street. Dean Bennell, and his son 
 Thomas Rennell of Kensington. Other distinguished clergymen of Joshua 
 Watson's circle at this period. Bishop Lonsdale, Bishop Blomfield, and 
 Dean Lyall. Public farewell to Bishop Heber. Bishop Hobarfs visit 
 to England. Fan Mildert's Life of Waterland. Dr. Wordsworth's 
 " Who wrote Eikon Basilike?" Blomfield, as Bishop of Chester. 
 
 rpHE year 1821 began with some incidents of domestic anxiety 
 J_ and sorrow. His brother was visited with a dangerous sick- 
 ness, followed by a long period of suffering. It was the begin- 
 ning of a disease from which he was ordained to suffer for the 
 remaining portion of his life, and by it to shew forth more 
 eminently the meek graces of his character. Mr. Sikes, who 
 visited him at this first time of trial, writes of it in the follow- 
 ing words : 
 
 " I consider the two or three weeks I spent at or about the vicarage 
 of Hackney as some of the most important time I ever passed. I thank 
 you, dear Watson, for some invaluable lessons in true Christian phi- 
 losophy; the best clinical, practical, and experimental lectures that 
 a Christian, willing to improve, could learn. God grant me grace 
 to do so !" 
 
 It was a necessary consequence of this illness that a larger 
 share of the attendance on his father's declining years devolved 
 on Joshua Watson ; and it was at his house at Clapton that this 
 beloved parent expired, in August, 1821, at the advanced age 
 of 85. It was an abiding principle with Joshua Watson, that no 
 voluntary duties, of however high a kind, can excuse the neglect 
 of those which are appointed us by Divine Providence. And 
 Archdeacon Cambridge knew well his friend's views, when, 
 shortly before, he had demanded, with affectionate earnestness, 
 to work for him in his public offices, while he was engaged in 
 what he termed " the higher duty of filial care." 
 
 The feelings awakened by his father's death cannot be better 
 represented than in the following letter of H. H. Norris, who 
 had received the tidings while absent at Guilsborough :
 
 128 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "My DEAE JOSHUA, 
 
 " The letter of this morning has, I need scarcely assure you, carried 
 all our thoughts to you, and mingled them with yours in the scene 
 which is now before you. I cannot depict it to myself as a melancholy 
 scene ; for, when the pang of nature is over, what is there in it which 
 does not raise the mind to cheering reflections ? It is neither more nor 
 less than the ingathering of a shock of corn ripe for the garner : there 
 is no violence in the dispensation, nothing of prematureness to occasion 
 regret at blasted expectations. On the contrary, it is but expectations 
 all realized, the course finished, the battle won, the faith kept, and the 
 crown of victory awarded. 
 
 " The discharge of filial duty has been, I know, to you a source of the 
 most exquisite gratification. And whilst the object of your affectionate 
 solicitude had any enjoyment of life, there would have been the loss of 
 this reflected delight to inflict a sense of bereavement upon you. But 
 God in His mercy had led you to the point of temporary separation by 
 the most gentle steps. He had imperceptibly withdrawn those intellec- 
 tual endowments which take the fastest hold of the afl'ections ; and the 
 body alone had remained to receive the final summons. And if you look 
 at your own years and not over-robust constitution, the thought that 
 you have with your own hands discharged the last duties which it would 
 nave been most poignant to you to have been constrained to delegate to 
 others, will add another and a very comforting one to your other 
 numerous consolations. 
 
 " I wait your summons to offer my last tribute of respect to a memory 
 most highly venerated. The journey will be nothing on such an occa- 
 sion : so, 1 pray, let not distance suppress your wish, if my presence, 
 had I been on the spot, would have entered into your arrangements." 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth had begun, at a very early period after his 
 appointment to the Mastership at Trinity College, to aim at 
 a great public work in the improvement of the college buildings, 
 so as to double the number of rooms for students. The esti- 
 mated cost was 40,000. Joshua Watson was his guest more 
 than once at the Lodge while these designs were in agitation ; 
 and it may easily be supposed that he entered warmly into his 
 friend's anxiety for their success. " The subscription," says 
 Dr. "Wordsworth in one of his letters, "now amounts to about 
 6,600 ; and I will beg of my own kitchen-maid but it shall 
 soon mount up to 10,000." 
 
 A constant source of occupation in these years was the Church 
 Commission. Many of the bishops seem habitually to have made 
 him their channel of communication upon the wants of their re- 
 spective dioceses. It would be tedious to enumerate many 
 instances of this ; but the following letter from Bishop Ryder 
 may be singled out as recounting the completion of the first 
 church that was erected with the aid of the Commissioners :
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 129 
 
 " Deanery, Wells, Sept. 17, 1821. 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " The early and kind and unremitting attention which you were so 
 good as to pay to my favourite object, the new church at Bitton, is 
 much too strongly impressed upon my mind to allow me to delay any 
 longer the gratifying intelligence that I consecrated it on Tuesday last. 
 In spite of one or two slight defects in architectural taste, it is a fair 
 Gothic structure. In situation ' set upon a hill ' indeed, observed and 
 admired by the people for several miles round. Its internal accommoda- 
 tion is excellent, both for sight and hearing. The day was almost the 
 only fair one amidst a series of gloomy and tempestuous weather. 
 From 1,500 to 1,600 persons crowded the area, which, however, will 
 contain from 1,000 to 1,200 persons, I understand, conveniently. Many 
 of the dissenters, and some of the wildest practical infidels of the 
 neighbourhood, were present. Great decorum, attention, and some de- 
 gree of apparently deep interest were observable in the congregation. 
 I preached upon the text ' Where two or three,' &c. The curate, who 
 is to be the incumbent, bids fair to prove admirably suited to his 
 most interesting but arduous charge. The district contains about 3,650 
 souls. A Lancastrian school of 100 flourishes not far from the church. 
 Most of them attended on the day, and sung the proper psalms in 
 a very orderly and pleasing manner. There are good hopes that with 
 very wise and conciliatory management they may DC brought in time to 
 admit of our rules, at all events to attend church. The Wesleyan 
 chief has, I understand, shewn a very favourable disposition. But of 
 course much doubt and mistrust as to such plausible appearances must 
 be entertained, and the clergyman will have to maintain liis steady con- 
 sistency of clerical conduct, while he endeavours in the language of the 
 service ' to reduce in the spirit of meekness/ Happily ne nas had 
 
 a good deal of experience in such matters I am sure that this 
 
 rather prolix statement will not need an apology with you, and I re- 
 main, dear Sir, your obliged and sincere, humble servant, 
 
 " H. GLOUCESTER. 
 
 "P.S. I believe that, as the application was the first granted, the 
 building is the first consecrated under the Commissioners." 
 
 It will be remembered by the readers of the Memoir of John 
 Bowdler, by his son, the late excellent Thomas Bowdler, how 
 some of the old man's latest cares were for the Scottish Episcopal 
 Church'. In these last years of his life, his letters to Joshua 
 Watson shew how prominent these thoughts were in his mind, 
 and how assuredly he counted upon the sympathy of his corre- 
 spondent. But we have little means of tracing in what parti- 
 culars this sympathy was called into action. There was an old 
 literary alliance between Bishop Gleig and the editors of the 
 " British Critic ;" and the good offices of Joshua Watson and 
 Van Mildert were sometimes employed in reconciling differences 
 
 1 See the Memoir referred to, p. 269. 
 
 X
 
 130 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which arose between English and Scottish writers on questions 
 where metaphysics had as much concern as theology. This 
 mediation had also been called in, in much earlier days, when 
 John Skinner of Forfar was among the contributors to the 
 " Antijacobin Review," enlisted probably by Stevens. It is re- 
 markable how the letters of this learned Scottish clergyman, ad- 
 dressed to Joshua Watson while Stevens was yet living, appeal 
 to him as even in those early days the acknowledged reconciler 
 of disputes, and counsellor who would do impartial justice be- 
 tween complainants : 
 
 " I cannot enter on the contents of your note to Mr. Stevens," says 
 Dean Skinner, " without expressing what inclination as well as duty 
 suggest, the respect for your character with which your zeal in matters 
 pertaining to faith and godliness has inspired me g ." 
 
 The same grateful respect, but still more warmly expressed, 
 pervades John Bowdler's last letters : 
 
 " How great an addition it would be to the comfort of my remaining 
 days, if those whom I saw in your parlour yesterday were my neigh- 
 bours, and had time to converse with me on the subjects which are 
 uppermost in all our minds, and on which I believe we all think alike. 
 But you are better employed, and I have few wishes ungratified, except 
 for such companions." 
 
 The worthy man died within a month after he had drawn up 
 his last address in behalf of the Scottish Church, at the age of 77, 
 June 29, 1823 h . 
 
 In the winters of 1821 and 1822, as has been previously men- 
 tioned, Bishop Van Mildert and Joshua Watson were joint occu- 
 pants of a house in Great George-street, Westminster, and had 
 therefore much enjoyment of each other's society. To Joshua 
 Watson it was desirable to have a residence in Westminster, on 
 account of the increasing demands upon his time from the Church 
 Commission. While residing near the office, he spent many 
 mornings there in close attention to its business, and particularly 
 in framing the provision of the Acts of Parliament which were 
 required, and surmounting other practical difficulties which re- 
 mained, from defects too little regarded in the outset. But what 
 was of equal importance in the eyes of the joint tenants of the 
 house, the place was soon made famous by the choice society 
 which it assembled together, some of the best and ablest and 
 most distinguished characters in the sacred and learned profes- 
 
 * Letter dated 1804. 
 
 h See a postscript to the later editions of Judge Park's Life of William 
 Stevens.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 131 
 
 sions, who continued to be attracted to the same centre during 
 many succeeding years, while Joshua Watson lived in West- 
 minster. It was about this time that John Lonsdale's name first 
 occurs in the private records of the family. He was at this time 
 Christian Advocate at Cambridge, and had a little while before 
 become domestic chaplain to Archbishop Manners- Sutton. Pos- 
 sibly he was in some degree indebted to the good opinion of 
 Joshua "Watson and Dr. Wordsworth for this appointment. It is 
 certain that he was willing to attribute it to their good offices. 
 It was the beginning of an honourable course to one who has lived 
 to fill many honourable posts of public labour, and is now men- 
 tioned with honour as the occupant of the ancient see of St. Chad 
 at Lichfield. 
 
 Another young clergyman of great promise, who was from this 
 time frequently to be found in these circles, was Thomas Rennell 
 the younger, son of the Dean of Winchester of the same name, 
 who will still be remembered by some who listened to his grave 
 and eloquent discourses in the Temple Church, often pointed with 
 learned allusions. The Dean had been in earlier life a familiar 
 friend of T. I. Mathias, the poet of the " Pursuits of Literature," 
 and was supposed to have had a part in those learned notes which 
 contributed so much to its celebrity. Mathias combines his name 
 with those of Bishop Horsley and Bishop Douglas in his poem. 
 The conversation of the old man, full of the Latin learning of all 
 ages, not without Greek when it was wanted, and animated with 
 a strong horror of Jesuitism, was such as to remind the hearer of 
 the notes to the " Pursuits of Literature." 
 
 The Dean was one of the most intimate friends of H. H. Morris, 
 often staying at his house in Grove-street, and receiving him to 
 an annual visit at Winchester. He had formerly known the ex- 
 cellent and patriotic Josiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, and used 
 to relate some of his personal memorials of the memorable Bishop 
 Butler, to whom Tucker had been some time chaplain. He had 
 been walking by the Bishop's side one day in his garden, and 
 observed him to be unusually abstracted. At length he asked 
 what were his thoughts. " I have been thinking," said Butler, 
 " what would be the effect if, instead of madness being con- 
 fined to individual cases, it should be permitted, for the execu- 
 tion of some design of Providence, that a whole nation should go 
 mad at once'." 
 
 Dean Kennell died at a very advanced age in 1840, surviving 
 
 See the " Analogy," c. iii., where Butler puts the imaginary case of 
 rational and irrational creatures possessing like external shape and manner. 
 [See also the Editor's Preface.]
 
 132 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 for many years the short and brilliant course of his son, which 
 was brought prematurely to a close on the 30th of June, 1824, 
 in his thirty-seventh year. Elected from the King's scholars at 
 Eton to King's College, Cambridge, he was distinguished both at 
 school and at the University for high classical attainments, and 
 obtained in 1808 Sir William Browne's medal for a Greek Ode. 
 There he afterwards filled the office of Christian Advocate, and 
 in 1816 was presented by Bishop Howley to the vicarage of 
 Kensington. He was for some time editor of the " British 
 Critic," and his pen was unweariedly employed in the service of 
 theology and sacred criticism ; as was proved by many publica- 
 tions from time to time. Of these perhaps that which attracted 
 most attention was one entitled " Remarks on Scepticism," in 
 answer to Morgan, and Lawrence, and other writers, who were 
 then obtaining some notoriety by their advocacy of materialism. 
 This work appeared in 1819, and passed rapidly through six 
 editions. It is remarkable that Lawrence, then a young surgeon 
 of extraordinary skill in his profession, and almost without a 
 rival as a scientific operator, found his practice much impeded 
 by the distrust which his sceptical opinions had occasioned. He 
 had imbibed these opinions, as is most probable, more from 
 youthful vanity than any settled conviction : and it is believed 
 that the check interposed had a salutary effect upon his mind; 
 as it was the account of one who knew him and valued him in 
 later years, that he lived to regret the public offence which his 
 writings had given k . Rennell's last publication was one with 
 the same scope, a translation of Munter's " Narrative of the Con- 
 version of Count Struensee ;" which he had only just completed 
 before his death. His lively powers of conversation and bril- 
 liancy of remarks, ready on all subjects, made his society accept- 
 able in many circles, and it was perhaps natural that the con- 
 sciousness of his power should have given some pleasure to the 
 exercise of it. Whatever excess there was, was of a purely in- 
 tellectual kind : but it is supposed that the consequences were 
 destructive of the powers of life. After an evening party, he 
 would return home and employ the hours which nature required 
 for sleep in some of his literary occupations, or in preparing for 
 the pulpit ; in which his discourses were always energetic and 
 often marked by much persuasive power. 
 
 Among other frequent visitors from this period at Westminster 
 were also Joseph Holden Pott, successively Archdeacon of St. 
 Alban's and of London, a man of learning, and of a most primi- 
 
 k The late Richard Antony Stafford, an excellent London surgeon, who 
 resided for some years iu Saville-row.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 133 
 
 tive simplicity and piety of life, and Charles James Blomfield, 
 then Rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopgate, and in, 1822 made 
 Archdeacon of Colchester ; where he was, in 1824, succeeded by 
 "William Rowe Lyall, late Dean of Canterbury. This upright 
 and sincere good man was, equally with Bishop Blomfield, a 
 friend retained without interruption to the last. At this time 
 also we begin to find the name of the warm-hearted Dr. Warne- 
 ford mentioned in these familiar records. The advancement of 
 such men was a matter of great satisfaction to their host, or 
 hosts, at Westminster. Thus Joshua Watson writes to Dr. 
 Wordsworth in October, 1823, from Guilsborough : 
 
 " You will have heard, in course, of our excellent and amiable friend 
 Pott's preferment to a stall at St. Paul's ; but perhaps you do not know 
 that it is one of the very best things in Bishop Howley's gift. It will, 
 I hope, set that good man at ease in his profession. Lyall, too, a capital 
 fellow for a Trinity man, succeeds to Blomfield's chaplainship at London 
 House ; and T. L. Strong, to the great comfort of Bishop Van Mildert, 
 
 fains a little living from the Chapter of St. Paul's. And so the party 
 ere, which has been enriched by the addition of the Cambridges, is in 
 high spirits, rejoicing that it is well with then- friends, (Prov. xi. 10,) 
 and looking forward with increased confidence to new causes of congra- 
 tulation on the same grounds of general joy." 
 
 In the course of this year he had taken up his abode perma- 
 nently in Westminster, having purchased the lease of a house in 
 Park-street, No. 6, where he continued to reside for the follow- 
 ing sixteen years. It was a residence in which hospitality was 
 made to subserve the highest uses of Christian charity ; and the 
 remembrance of the spot is still cherished by those who can re- 
 call to mind the assembling of the wise and good within those 
 walls, and yet more, the playful tenderness and unreserved con- 
 fidence which marked the domestic intercourse of their enter- 
 tainer, the calm thoughtful hours and sacred rest of the Sundays, 
 with which not even such counsels as his week-days were de- 
 voted to were allowed to interfere. One who was in those years 
 a constant guest in Park-street, and was to him almost as a 
 daughter, has recorded her impression of this point of character : 
 " I hope I shall ever remember his exemplary manner of spend- 
 ing Sunday. One thing that strikes me is his determination to 
 avoid all discussion of worldly business of any kind, while he 
 allows and encourages mirth and even playfulness in the inter- 
 vals of serious employment." 
 
 His feeling of the frame of mind required for keeping the 
 Christian weekly festival was entirely in harmony with the well- 
 known words of Tertullian, "Diem solis loctitise indulgemus." 
 He called it the day of Eucharist; and would sometimes say
 
 134 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 he could wish the daily service to be so restored, that the 
 Litany might be omitted from the public prayers on the first 
 day in the week, and all the service given up to thankful joy and 
 praise. But not only was there more special provision for the 
 times of family prayer on that day, and religious care for the in- 
 struction of all who were under his roof, that they might be 
 joined together in the same mind, but there could be no house- 
 hold in which the private hours were more carefully given to de- 
 votional reading, and that kind of communing together which 
 devotional reading brings, those joint meditations and enquiries 
 of spirits mutually intent on spiritual things, which are at once 
 so animating to the young, and so full of comfort to the old. 
 
 Such was the character of the life within those walls while 
 the familiar circle was unbroken. And again, when earthly 
 trials had changed the first aspect of the cheerful home, there 
 was added to its usual charm the bright example of calm sub- 
 mission, and untiring love and duty, which shone forth in his 
 days of sorrow. 
 
 The death of Bishop Middleton in July, 1822, was felt as 
 a public loss to the Church of England and her reviving missions 
 in the East. Joshua Watson was the treasurer of the fund sub- 
 scribed to raise the monument which records his name in St. 
 Paul's ; and as the good Bishop had left a widow with but a 
 scanty provision from an income freely expended in the public 
 service, he exerted himself to procure an annuity for her in her 
 declining years from the East India Company. 
 
 There was a brilliancy in the character of Middleton's suc- 
 cessor, Bishop Heber, which when he also, after an interval of 
 little more than three years, was to be remembered in a public 
 monument, seemed to have made a wider impression on the mind 
 of Englishmen than had been made by Middleton's firm and solid 
 virtues. The two men were greatly different. Let nothing be 
 said here to detract from the praise of a man of remarkable 
 genius and lively feeling, who died on a mission to which he had 
 been led by the highest motives to devote himself, and for which 
 he gave up ample preferment, and a large social circle to which 
 he was much endeared, on the borders of his native vales in 
 Cheshire and Shropshire. His Indian journal, perhaps the most 
 remarkable production of his pen, has done more than any work 
 which has even yet appeared to help the English reader to a due 
 estimate of that wide and wonderful portion of our empire, its 
 inhabitants and resources. If he had done nothing else, by the 
 observations which he wrote upon this journey through the 
 Indian provinces he would have proved that he had not lived in 
 vain. Still there were reasons to justify the doubts which the
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 135 
 
 friends of Middleton entertained of his fitness for this eminent 
 position of arduous duty. It is certain that his early career was 
 that of a young poet, a traveller, and accomplished gentleman, 
 rather than that of a zealous parish priest or studious divine. 
 And it cannot be maintained that he ever succeeded in establish- 
 ing any high character subsequently as a theologian or able 
 critic of theology. When the remembrance of his " Palestine" 
 and other juvenile distinctions had led to his appointment as 
 Bampton Lecturer at Oxford, his graceful appearance in St. 
 Mary's, and graceful delivery of eloquent sentences, commanded 
 the attention of youthful hearers ; but there was little remark- 
 able in the argument of his discourses, except some crude specu- 
 lations on the angelic natures, which offended older judgments, 
 and are now deservedly forgotten. When he afterwards wrote 
 his Life of Jeremy Taylor, though his taste and feeling were 
 manifested in a very pleasing manner, his discernment as a critic 
 was remarkably defective. To one so deeply imbued as Joshua 
 Watson with the spirit of Taylor, this Life could not be entirely 
 satisfactory. 
 
 However, no private misgivings, whatever cause might have 
 suggested them, were allowed to influence the public counsels. 
 Heber was invited to a meeting at Bartlett's Buildings, where 
 the Society there assembled, or rather the Church at home 
 speaking by the mouth of Bishop Kaye, bade him a solemn 
 farewell, and recommended to him the care of the pious works 
 which Middleton had begun. It is probable that this remarkable 
 scene which will be remembered by all, who are yet living, and 
 then listened to the address, and the eloquent and expressive an- 
 swer of the newly-appointed missionary bishop was arranged in 
 pursuance of the advice of Joshua Watson. He speaks of it 
 a few days afterwards in a letter to Dr. Wordsworth, dated June 
 24, 1823: 
 
 " You will be glad to hear that we have made an additional grant of 
 5,000 to the Society for Propagating the Gospel, that we are going to 
 put all the pulpits of the kingdom in requisition for the National Society, 
 and that we have obtained attention to our plan for the establishment of 
 a West Indian episcopate. Of the valediction you will doubtless have 
 heard much that is satisfactory. It was indeed a grand day, and every 
 one seemed delighted with it ; and none more so than your Archbishop, 
 who told me a day or two afterwards, with his usual emphasis, that ' it 
 was perfect.' He is looking well again, you will be glad to learn ; and 
 so are the elite of his corps, the Bishops of London and Llandaff. The 
 flower, too, cf the other Bench, our capital friend Richardson, I rejoice 
 to add, is much recovered. And if such men are restored to action, and 
 Trinity shall build quadrangles, and send Fellows by the half-dozen to Bart- 
 lett's Buildings, of what shall the friends of Church and State be afraid P"
 
 136 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 It seems to have made the same impression on Yan Mildert, 
 who writes to him about the same time : 
 
 " The impression of yesterday's delightful business still glows upon 
 my mind. I know not when I have had so exquisite a treat. It was 
 everything that the purest taste and the most unaffected piety could 
 desire." 
 
 Bishop Heber arrived in Calcutta on Oct. 10, 1823, and he 
 died in the month of April, 1826. His time was chiefly em- 
 ployed in India in journeys about the vast empire which had be- 
 come his diocese ; and his early death, followed as it was by the 
 deaths of his two successors at short intervals, was a serious 
 hindrance to the work which Middleton had begun. It was 
 a step in the right direction when he had accepted the presidency 
 of the Church Missionary Society in India, and had some voice 
 in the government of those missions ; which appear to have been 
 previously conducted, too much as Regular Missions were in the 
 Spanish colonies, by a director of their own, without communion 
 of counsels with the diocesan 1 . But it was naturally felt as dis-_ 
 appointing, when Heber's primary Charge appeared, that it con- 
 tained no notice of Bishop's College, "the great work of his pre- 
 decessor," as Joshua Watson with good reason called it, " upon 
 which Middleton had rested his claims to the grateful recollec- 
 tion of present and future times, and upon whicli all the hopes of 
 associated Churchmen are built for the Christianization of India." 
 
 The winter of 1823-4 was made memorable to the friends of 
 Joshua "Watson and himself by a visit of John Henry Hobart, 
 the vigorous-minded and zealous Bishop of New York, to these 
 shores. He landed at Liverpool at the end of the month of 
 October, 1823, and was cheered at his landing with the sound 
 of a melodious peal of church-bells. Mr. Norris had anxiously 
 expected his coming, and wrote a letter to meet him at the 
 port : 
 
 " Grove-street, Hackney, Oct. 13, 1823. 
 
 "You must be carried forward in the primitive way by the Church. 
 Your first stage from Liverpool should be to Birmingham, where I am 
 sure Mr. Spry, whom I left lately, will open his doors wide to receive 
 
 1 "Holy and obligatory," says Andrew de Rada, Father Provincial of 
 Mexico, " as it is for a prelate of the Church to maintain his jurisdiction, 
 it is equally so for a Superior to defend the immunity and credit of his 
 Society." Letters of Palafox, Madrid, 1761, p. 139. The practical com- 
 mentary on these words, supplied by the students of the Jesuit College, is 
 to be sought in Spanish records.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 137 
 
 you m . You should next proceed to Mr. Sikes's at Guilsborpugh, who 
 will send his carriage to Dunchurch, to which one of the Birmingham 
 coaches will convey you in four hours ; and from thence you should go 
 to Archdeacon Watson's at Digswell, your course to which place Mr. 
 Sikes will direct : and I will arrange with the Archdeacon for your safe 
 conduct from thence hither ; when you have given these three pillars of 
 sound religion as much time as you can spare In anxious expec- 
 tation of soon taking you by the hand, I remain very truly yours, 
 
 "H. H.NOEKIS." 
 
 This letter having reached Liverpool before Hobart's arrival, 
 was unfortunately forwarded to New York. But in the course 
 of the following month, and at other intervals during his stay in 
 England, he appears to have been a frequent guest under the 
 roof of both H. H. Norris and Joshua "Watson. There was some- 
 thing very striking in the character and conversation of Bishop 
 Hobart. His countenance was beaming with the ardour of the 
 spirit which dwelt within his breast, and his words were ready 
 to flow as from an unexhausted fountain. Such was the im- 
 pression on Mr. Sikes, who took great delight in him ; and spoke 
 of it in a letter to Park-street : 
 
 " We have been much interested with Bishop Hobart, who left us on 
 Friday. He is vastly pleasant, and brimfull. He made a thousand 
 apologies for talking so much ; but we should have been sorry had he 
 talked less. We have a chance of seeing him once more, should he ap- 
 proach our quarters on' his return from the North. Oh, it was funny to 
 see honest democracy and sincere episcopacy fast yoked in the man's 
 mind, and perpetually struggling for his heart." 
 
 His attachment to the political system of his own country was 
 indeed unshaken ; and it was scarcely possible, for those who 
 wera admitted to any personal intercourse with him during his 
 stay in England, not to see how his loyalty for the land of his 
 birth was ready to take the alarm, if he was ever suspected of 
 having imbibed any kindness for monarchy together with his 
 love for apostolical order. But at the same time he often spoke 
 of the American Government as being essentially a copy of the 
 British, except that the chief magistrate was one who held his 
 office for a limited period and by election : the Senate and Cham- 
 ber of Representatives answering to our two Houses of Parlia- 
 ment ; the judicial system almost entirely taken from ours, the 
 names of judges, juries, and sheriffs denoting the same offices as 
 in England. 
 
 In the following autumn he was a visitor of William "Words- 
 worth's and Itobert Southey's in the Lake District, and after- 
 
 m The late Dr. J. H. Spry, subsequently Prebendary of Canterbury, and 
 Rector of St. Mary-la- Bonne, London.
 
 138 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 wards passed some months in Italy, chiefly at Rome and Naples*. 
 He then returned again to England, and finding Joshua Watson 
 at Cheltenham, he partook of his last English dinner with him 
 there towards the end of August, 1825. 
 
 On his return to America he immediately preached, and after- 
 wards printed, a sermon, the object of which was to institute 
 a comparison between the United States of America and some of 
 the European countries through which he had travelled, and to 
 shew that he was still himself both contented and happy to be 
 a citizen of that wonderful republic, and would desire his hearers 
 to believe that he had found new reasons for such contentment 
 in what he had seen in other lands. This sermon was sent to 
 England with a Prefatory Letter to Joshua Watson ; and pro- 
 voked a degree of angry controversy without much reason from 
 an Irish divine of some eloquence who had been preferred to 
 a benefice in London. Those who knew Bishop Hobart were glad 
 to see his defence ably made in the "Vindication" published by 
 his friend, the excellent Hugh James Rose. As Joshua Watsoa 
 said of it: "The good Bishop always avowed in this country 
 the sentiments which he published on his return. His principle 
 was, that both our Lord and His Apostle abstained from inter- 
 ference with worldly persons ; and that he would have had no 
 right, even it he had been in theory a monarchist, to prejudice 
 episcopacy in the eyes of his republican brethren by identifying 
 it with monarchy." But in point of fact he returned to America 
 as true a republican as he quitted it. He may have been mis- 
 taken, or have been led to exaggerate the evils which he thought 
 he saw in the union of Church and State, the exercise of the 
 royal prerogative, and the preference he felt for a voluntary 
 system over one protected by old endowments ; but the honesty 
 of his purpose was so clear, that the attack it provoked rebounded 
 only to the disadvantage of his assailant. 
 
 During these years Bishop Van Mildert's summer-residence in 
 his dioctse was usually at Colbrook House, near Abergavenny. 
 Here Joshua Watson was sometimes his guest, and probably they 
 had some conferences on the Life of Waterland, which was pub- 
 lished towards the close of 1823, one of the most masterly and 
 perfect pieces of ecclesiastical biography which the Church of 
 England has produced. Van Mildert mentions it in some of his 
 letters written during this year : 
 
 "April 9, 1823. 
 
 " I send you a small packet of Waterland's letters, &c. Pray look 
 them over and return them, if you can, on Monday, with your opinion 
 whether they shall go to press." 
 
 " See his Life by Dr.Berrian, pp. 299327.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 139 
 
 "June 23. 
 
 "My DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " I have reason to be sorry, much more for my sake than for yours, 
 that you have not found time to give me the benefit of your critical 
 taste and judgment, from which I never yet failed to derive both profit 
 and pleasure, on the whole of the MSS. committed to vour inspection. 
 But for what you have been able to do for me I am thankful, and am 
 well aware that, the public has daily and hourly calls upon you for much 
 more substantial services." 
 
 This good and learned man was now beginning to feel pain- 
 fully the first approaches of deafness, an infirmity which he con- 
 tinued to experience more or less intensely during the latter part 
 of his life : 
 
 "If this should continue.," he wrote at the close of 1824, "my taking 
 the chair at the meeting you speak of will be quite out of the question. 
 Yesterday morning I coiild neither hear the responses of the Litany, nor 
 of the Commandments, and was obliged to blunder on by guess as to 
 the proper time of interposing my part of the service. Should this con- 
 tinue, there is an end to me as a public man, or even as a member of 
 society. But I am willing to hope that this extreme infirmity may be 
 only temporary." 
 
 Happily it was mitigated, and did not prevail to the impedi- 
 ment of public duty. 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth was about the same time preparing his book 
 of critical enquiry into the authorship of the Eikon Basilike, on 
 which he wished his friend to give him his opinion in person by 
 coming down to Cambridge to meet the poet: "To have two 
 such critics cutting one up at the same time would be delightful " 
 It does not, however, appear that Joshua Watson saw it before 
 it was printed. He then writes early in 1825 : 
 
 " Of the Eikon I hear much. It is in every body's hands ; and many, 
 I think, are pleased and convinced. For though few seem satisfied with 
 your theory of Clarendon's sulky silence, or Gauden's moral insanity, 
 vet most are interested by the discussion, and acquiesce in your decision. 
 The verdict, on a balance of evidence, must go in favour of Charles." 
 
 Mr. Hallam pronounced a contrary opinion somewhat per- 
 emptorily, and professed to think that Gauden's claim to the 
 authorship could not reasonably be disputed. It is the fate of 
 all controversies relating to the Stewart family, that they trench 
 so much on party feeling, that no impartial sentence can be ex- 
 pected. The present writer can see no ground for dissenting from 
 the sentence of Bishop Pearson, when the doubt was first started : 
 it is the King's own book ; for " none could pen it but himself ." 
 
 See the Memoir of Bishop Pearson, prefixed to his Minor Theological 
 Works, p. xliii.
 
 140 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The two friends had occasion once or twice during this period 
 to exchange congratulations on the promotions of Bishop Blom- 
 field and Archdeacon Lyall. Their feelings were such as may be 
 in some measure conceived from the following letter of Henry 
 Vincent Bayley, in which he gives a vivid account of Blom- 
 field's primary visitation in the diocese of Chester. The writer 
 was a man from whom it is some praise to have earned such 
 approval : 
 
 "Jan. 5, 1825. 
 "Mr DEAR SIR, 
 
 " You will perhaps be glad to hear something of this diocese, which 
 is my native one; from our Bishop himself you will have received 
 tidings of his marvellous activity and success. But at the same time 
 reports of his ultra-discipline, which are ve.ry widely circulated, may 
 have reached you. Having known and heard much of his proceedings 
 at Liverpool, &c., and having witnessed them at this most important 
 place, I can assure you that he has made an impression on the public 
 mind and feeling such as I never saw, or could have believed possible. 
 With the utmost firmness, openness, and decision, he joins a manner of 
 conciliation and a tone of persuasion quite irresistible. Every one sees 
 that his whole heart is in his duty ; that he does not seek popularity ; 
 and that his object simply is to do good. He has gained the Dissenters, 
 not by compromise, but by boldly and openly avowing his decided 
 attachment to the Church, and his full belief that in her services and 
 communion the best rules and means of Christian conduct are to be 
 found. At the same time he judges liberally of all men, and imputes no 
 bad motive to the less orthodox opinions of any person or sect. Keally 
 all sorts of people seem to contend who shall speak most highly of him. 
 The great secret of his popularity is manliness : speaking with authority, 
 and trusting to the character of his office, and to the truth of his argu- 
 ments, he convinces and influences all who hear him. In company he 
 is delightful. In short, I cannot picture to myself a more perfect image 
 of a Christian bishop. The only fault I can find is, that he will soon 
 sacrifice his constitution, if he persists in working so outrageously both 
 with mind and body. In addressing his ordinees on the subject of 
 amusements, he has deprecated fox-hunting, the Cheshire idolatry ; and 
 he is therefore represented by some of its votaries as proscribing all 
 amusements, dancing, singing, cards, &c. The fact is, he has never, 
 directly or indirectly, given any opinion on any one of these subjects; 
 and if you happen to hear the thing mentioned, you may most un- 
 equivocally contradict it. His usefulness must not be crippled by such 
 absurd reports ; if he was in a private station, they would be unworthy 
 of notice. 
 
 " Believe me with sincere esteem and respect, 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "H. V. BAYLEY."
 
 Memoir of Jos /in a Watson. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The commercial crisis of 1825. Joshua Watsorfs pecuniary loss provi- 
 dentially lightened by his charitable use of his wealth. Archbishop 
 Manners-Sutton. His generous friendship. His death and character. 
 Hugh James Rose. Efforts to increase the number of bishops in India. 
 Archdeacon H. V. Bayley. Chief Justice Tindal. Illness of Joshua 
 Watson in 1827, and letters to his brother. 
 
 rpHE close of the j T ear 1825 is chiefly rememhered as a period 
 JL of general distress, from the effects of that calamitous com- 
 mercial hurricane in which so many private fortunes and public 
 companies suffered shipwreck. Among the insolvent houses of 
 the time was one in which some near friends and connections of 
 Joshua Watson were deeply concerned ; and his own loss, though 
 not ruinous, was such as sensibly to impair his income for many 
 years afterwards. The day of adversity, however, to him was 
 more memorable for the testimony which it brought to the public 
 estimation of his worth. The writer, at that time almost a 
 stranger to the circle of Joshua "Watson's acquaintance, well 
 remembers how the news of this calamity was received among 
 those who wt re equally strangers, as a kind of public grief. 
 " Others might have lost what was valuable to themselves or 
 their families : but he was one who had held all he possessed 
 only for the uses of religion and charity, and the blow would 
 come altogether on the head of the sacred trusts for which he 
 lived and laboured." These were the words which were repeated 
 from rank to rank, and from man to man, wherever his name 
 and services were known. 
 
 But above all, Archbishop Manners-Sutton, though he was at 
 this time suffering from illness, roused himself to act a part 
 which ought to be mentioned to his honour, and was most grate- 
 fully cherished in remembrance by him to whom such unlooked- 
 for kindness was displayed. Among Joshua Watson's papers, 
 consigned to those who are answerable for this Memoir, is the 
 following brief note in the aged Primate's handwriting : 
 
 "Lambeth Palace, Dec. 19, 1825. 
 " MY DEAR SlB, 
 
 " When you called upon me a week or ten days ago, I was not well 
 enough to see you. I am now most anxious to have five minutes' con- 
 versation with you. Spare me, if you can, five minutes, to-morrow 
 inornuig, between the hours of ten and twelve. 
 
 " From, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Your faithful and obliged Friend and Servant, 
 " C. CAKTUAB."
 
 142 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 And on the same sheet of paper, as taken down from his lips 
 by one who shared his most private confidences, is an account of 
 the interview to which the note invited him. The Archbishop 
 began with apologizing for requesting him to call, instead of 
 coming to him; "His medical advisers," he said, "would keep 
 him at home ; but he could not bear any delay in telling him," 
 (which he did with more agitation than Joshua Watson had ever 
 witnessed in him, with a faltering voice and suffused eyes,) 
 " that from the bottom of his heart he felt for him, and that if 
 there was anything on earth which he could do for him, it would 
 be the greatest possible satisfaction. These are not words of 
 course," he said, " I speak from my soul; and upon every public 
 and private ground of personal respect I say, it would be the 
 highest gratification to me to come forward in any way that can. 
 be of use." His emphatic and earnest manner both surprised 
 and overpowered one who had so humble a sense of his own 
 claims on the good Primate's kindness. " It is more," he said, 
 " than I could under any circumstances have deserved ; far more 
 than I could have conceived possible on account of anything that 
 I have done." "Not so," said the Archbishop; "I have long 
 been under great obligations to you, beginning with the fund for 
 the German sufferers. They are obligations of many years ; and 
 again I say, if there be any way, in which I or mine, or any of 
 us can be of use, be sure you cannot do us greater kindness." 
 "When assured that there was no need, he seemed almost dis- 
 appointed, and would hardly accept the assurance. " Well," he 
 said, "perhaps not now: but it may be otherwise. Pardon me 
 for all I have said. I could not help saying it : I have never 
 been more earnest : I have never felt more strongly in my life." 
 Such an interview, from its very nature, could not be prolonged. 
 Joshua Watson hastened home, and gave vent to his grateful 
 feelings in a few words addressed the same day to the Arch- 
 bishop in writing : 
 
 "Dec. 20, 1825. 
 "MY LOBD, 
 
 " The condescension and kindness of your Grace this morning quite 
 overcame me. I had no words for my feelings at the time ; neither do 
 I feel myself at all more capable of doing justice to them at present. 
 
 " But I must assure your Grace, that what I then felt, never, uever 
 can be forgotten ; nor, I humbly pray, may it ever be remembered with- 
 out its proper effect on, 
 
 "My Lord, 
 
 " Your Grace's most grateful and obliged Servant, 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 Judge Park had been with the Archbishop on the day before 
 this interview, and the Archbishop sought counsel from him as
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 143 
 
 from a common friend. " Judge," he said, " I can tell you, I could 
 not love that man more were he my own son." Bishop Blomfield 
 also wrote to him immediately, pressing him to use not only his 
 whole balance at his banker's, but whatever his credit could 
 raise, with a tone of hearty kindness which the grateful mind of 
 Joshua Watson affectionately remembered in his old age long 
 after the occasion had passed away. The same generous sym- 
 pathy had probably been expressed by other bishops to the 
 Primate, as his words seem to imply. For seldom has any 
 primate presided over the English Church, whose personal dig- 
 nity of character commanded so much deference from his suf- 
 fragans, or whose position was so much strengthened by their con- 
 cordant support. The fact is certain; and the cause deserves 
 to be more studied than it has been by some writers on the state 
 of Church affairs during his primacy. 
 
 As to the immediate occasion of this demonstration of a bene- 
 volence so honourable to him as a Christian bishop, it is possible 
 that the offer might have been in some way accepted, had cir- 
 cumstances made it necessary. But it is not uninstructive to 
 know, that at such a perilous time Joshua Watson was rescued 
 from any immediate pressure by the repayment of a large sum, 
 which he had himself some years before lent for a most bene- 
 volent purpose to a good and honourable friend. Happily also 
 the monies, which he held as treasurer of the several Church 
 Sock-ties, were almost all in safe keeping elsewhere. So that, 
 though his private loss at the time was severe, it was not such 
 as to embarrass him ; and the only practical result of the inter- 
 view was to leave a most lively sense of the Archbishop's delicate 
 kindness. 
 
 Archbishop Manners-Sutton died about two years and a-half 
 after this interview, July 21, 1828, aged 73. He had received 
 his early education at the Charterhouse, with his brother, who 
 afterwards became a distinguished lawyer, Judge of the Ex- 
 chequer, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Thence he proceeded 
 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his first degree 
 among the wranglers in 1777. His first preferments were to 
 some family-livings in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. He 
 was then made Dean of Peterborough, and afterwards was the 
 successor of the excellent Bishop Home in the see of Norwich, 
 in 1792. He resigned the deanery of Peterborough on becoming 
 a bishop ; but about two years later was made Dean of Windsor, 
 and held this office till his promotion to Canterbury in 1805, on 
 the death of Archbishop Moore. It is supposed that he owed his 
 primacy to the especial preference of King George III., his great 
 minister Pitt having designed rather to advance his own tutor,
 
 144 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Bishop Tomline, to that high station p . If the fact is as supposed, 
 it is an instance of the King's discernment : for if the new Arch- 
 bishop was then under some sinister reports as a Churchman of 
 profuse expenditure, such a fault in a prelate was less censurable 
 than an inclination to the other extreme. But whatever truth 
 there might have been in these reports at an earlier period, his 
 good husbandry after he had become primate was sufficient to 
 efface any remembrance of them. And it was not, what is some- 
 times seen, a revulsion from one vicious habit to the opposite ; 
 but his expenditure was liberal, his household well provided for 
 and well-governed, his domestics orderly and attached to their 
 master, his public days marked by a degree of chaste splendour, 
 while his charitable donations continued to flow abundantly, yet 
 with careful discrimination. Joshua Watson's high estimate of 
 his private and public character, and of the wisdom of his ad- 
 ministration, was often and strongly expressed in later years. 
 It was, therefore, from no mere impulse of the time that he 
 wrote the following letter to the son of the departed Primate, 
 then Speaker of the House of Commons : 
 
 "Dec. 5, 1828. 
 "Mr DEAR SIR, 
 
 " May I have your leave to apply to Chantrey for half a dozen casts 
 of the bust, which he has, I understand, just finished for you. The re- 
 quest is large, I confess ; but, under all its circumstances, it may, I hope, 
 be excused. A strong sense of much undeserved kindness tor many 
 years to myself, no less than a deep conviction of the extraordinary 
 services which the late Archbishop was graciously permitted to render 
 to the Church of England during the most busy period of her history 
 since the Reformation, make me, I confess, most anxious not only to 
 possess such a memorial myself, but to be enabled to offer one to each 
 of the Societies which he delighted to honour by his personal attendance 
 at their several boards. How much time was given to these objects 
 vou, my dear Sir, are very well aware : but the public benefits conferred 
 by the daily sacrifice of private comfort by such a man none can know, 
 but those whose labours were animated by his presence, whilst his 
 judgment directed their counsels, and his courtesy won their affections. 
 
 " If there be, as I fear there is, somewhat of presumption in such an 
 individual tribute, I trust it may yet be forgiven to one who had more 
 than common opportunities of feeling in himself and witnessing in others 
 the happy influence of that presiding spirit which, equally fitted to con- 
 ciliate and control, seemed specially raised up to meet all the delicacy 
 and difficulty of the eventful season of his primacy. 
 
 " On these points, however, I feel it may not become me to enlarge. 
 I beg, therefore, to conclude with assuring you, that I have the honour 
 
 P The supposed purpose of Pitt is now ascertained to have been as here 
 stated. See Earl Stanhope's Life of Pitt, vol. iv. pp. 232, 233.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 145 
 
 to be, with much respect to yourself, and with most affectionate vene- 
 ration for the memory of the Archbishop, 
 
 " My dear Mr. Speaker, 
 "Yours, &c., 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 Mr. Manners- Sutton cheerfully acceded to this request, and 
 responded to the application in terms which attest the strength 
 of his filial affection. "In all you say, my dear Sir, of my dear 
 father, I so well know its truth, that I am sure you will not 
 think me ungrateful or uncourteous for your kindness, in de- 
 scribing your statement as strict correct justice to one of the best 
 of men, and one of the most valuable and efficient public servants 
 that ever lived." The services of the man who wrote these 
 words were rendered to a generation of legislators which is now 
 passing away ; but it is yet recollected that few have filled the 
 office of Speaker with more graceful dignity, more patient 
 courtesy, or strict impartiality; and the name of Lord Canter- 
 bury is mentioned with a portion of the same honour as belongs 
 to his father and Lord Manners. Seldom, to use his own word, 
 has the country enjoyed the benefit of three such valuable and 
 efficient public servants, within so short a period, from one 
 family. 
 
 To return to the date of the beginning of this chapter, private 
 concerns were not allowed to divert Joshua "Watson's mind for 
 any length of time from public duty. There was early in 1826 
 a negociation in hand with the Bible Society which might have 
 led to some plan by which the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge could have co-operated with it for their common 
 object. To this plan he seems to have devoted much earnest 
 consideration; but it led to no result, from causes which may 
 be easily imagined, and are in some degree explained by the 
 following letter of H. H. Norris : 
 
 " Feb. 8, 1826. 
 " MY DEAR JOSHUA, 
 
 " From what transpired last night in conversation at Dr. Bichards's, 
 I cannot refrain from giving you a word of caution upon the important 
 measure now in progress, lest after all your expense of time and thought 
 you should be overtaken by the fate of some other restorers of breaches, 
 and through the new material you are introducing the rent be made 
 worse. An allusion having been made accidentally to the plan of 
 pacification, as it was called, from that moment the whole of the con- 
 versation was engrossed by it. The whole company were startled ; and 
 after all the explanations I gave, none seemed to view the matter 
 favourably, and some shewed a decided hostility. I assure you I en- 
 deavoured to make it appear that principle was secured, and that every- 
 thing was conceded by the other party, upon which a stand ought to be
 
 146 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 made against their proposal, and, therefore, that all producible ground 
 of demurrer was taken away ; but I had no success. Now, my good 
 friend, you may fairly consider this party a sample of our whole Socii-t y ; 
 and if such was the impression here, what will it. be when the question 
 comes to be debated, not merely in Lincoln's Inn-square, but through- 
 out the country ? There are violent men on the uncompromising side of 
 the question, as well as on the side of conciliation: and what will the 
 issue be, if we transfer the apocryphal controversy from the Bible 
 Society to our own?" 
 
 It is now that we find his correspondence manifesting a grow- 
 ing interest in the rising reputation and character of the la- 
 mented Hugh James Rose. Bishop Selwyn, who was in this 
 year among those younger members of the University who 
 listened to his preaching at Cambridge, has on later occasions 
 borne witness to the effect it produced on those who heard it. 
 
 "We have had to-day," writes Dr. Wordsworth in April, 1826, 
 " a very excellent sermon from Rose, the second which I have heard, 
 on the duties of the ministry, both in a delightful frame of mind, and 
 evidently making a very satisfactory and deep impression. His voice 
 is sweeter than that of either Le Bas or Benson ; and he is a substitute 
 for them for whom we ought to be most thankful. I carefully delivered 
 to him your kind message : you must make him a bishop." 
 
 The discernment of Archbishop Manners-Sutton had been 
 attracted towards H. J. Rose by some letters which he had 
 written to the Secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge concerning its publications. The Archbishop re- 
 commended these letters to Joshua Watson's notice, and it led 
 to some pleasing correspondence between him and the writer of 
 the letters ; but he used to say that he was not prepared for the 
 congeniality of feeling and the rare qualities of heart and mind 
 of which he became conscious when they first had a personal 
 meeting together. The opportunity for this meeting was 
 given by Mr. Rose coming to call on his friend Bishop Monk, 
 then Dean of Peterborough, who was on a visit at Park-street. 
 From that time the bond of intimacy between them was formed, 
 and grew more and more entire, until the elder friend had to 
 mourn, with many of the wise and good, over the disappoint- 
 ment of high and cherished hopes by the death of the younger 
 in the meridian of his useful life and labours. 
 
 After the death of Bishop Heber, Joshua Watson was engaged 
 in some negociations with the East India Company for an in- 
 crease of the episcopate in India. A memorial was prepared 
 and agreed to by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowk dge 
 towards the close of the year in which the news of his death 
 arrived in England. But this proposal had no immediate sue-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 147 
 
 cess, as nine or ten years elapsed before the formation of the 
 sees of Madras and Bombay. Archdeacon Cambridge was not 
 present at the meeting, but read a report of it in a newspaper, 
 and wrote to express his satisfaction : " It was admirably 
 managed, quite like yourself; and whatever effect it may have 
 on those who have the power to accomplish the object, it can- 
 not fail, in my opinion, to excite a considerable sensation in the 
 country, and ultimately lead to the accomplishment of so neces- 
 sary a measure. Meanwhile it must add to the dignity and 
 character of the Society." 
 
 It is certain that the proceedings of the Society at this period, 
 and under the primacy of Archbishop Manners-Sutton, had 
 a weight of influence on the public mind of the Church which 
 made it perfectly natural for Archdeacon Cambridge to speak in 
 these terms of it. If this influence has scarcely been sustained 
 in later years, it may be worthy of consideration what causes 
 have led to its decline. 
 
 "While the hope remained that some more immediate effect 
 might appear in the resolutions of the East India Company, 
 Joshua Watson wrote to Dr. Wordsworth for his opinion on the 
 question, whether there would be any fatal objection against 
 sending out one bishop, with express commission to consecrate 
 a specified presbyter, and with direction to these two to conse- 
 crate a third, who should also be named in the patent. That 
 which suggested the question was obviously the loss and incon- 
 venience which the Indian Church had twice suffered, and was 
 still to suffer, from the death of bishops, whose health was not 
 equal to the trial of an Indian climate, and the subsequent long 
 vacancies of the see of Calcutta. " We know the practice," he 
 said ; " but we know the ground too ; and will not the end being 
 answered, and the exception not being extended beyond the 
 necessity of the case, satisfy for the deviation from the rule ?" 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth's answer was written during the Christmas 
 vacation, when, the libraries at Cambridge being closed, he could 
 not consult all the authorities he wished for to guide him to an 
 opinion ; nor could he undertake to say how far the royal prero- 
 gative might control the canon. " If, indeed, we are at liberty to 
 recur to first principles, then it should seem that the act of one 
 bishop alone is essential, and the reasons which are given by 
 Durandus for more, [Rationale Div. Offic., lib. ii. c. 11,] do 
 not, I see, extend beyond precedent and expediency. ' Trium 
 autem Episcoporum ad minus, computato Metropolitano, prse- 
 sentia requiritur, ratione et exemplo. llatione, ne tantum bene- 
 ficium vide&tur furtive praestitum, et pro illo pariter preces ad 
 Deum effundant. Et exemplo, quia et Jacobus frater Domini
 
 148 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 a Petro, Jacobo, et Joanne Apostolis ordinatus est Episcopus 
 Hierosolymitanus.' " 
 
 The question is one which appears to have been properly 
 decided by Bingham. In the primitive Church the canons re- 
 quired the consent of the bishops of the province to the conse- 
 cration of a new bishop ; and three bishops at least were re- 
 quired to be present at the act of his consecration*!. But what 
 is done uncanonically is not always invalid ; and there are a few 
 instances in which the Church seems to have ratified an irregular 
 consecration. The common consent of the episcopate at home 
 might probably have given validity in a case of necessity to such 
 a commission as Joshua Watson proposed. But as yet the ne- 
 cessity was not felt in those quarters where it was most essen- 
 tial to have it acknowledged. " India still continues without 
 a bishop," he wrote, in February, 1827; "and it is too clear 
 that it will some time longer remain without more than one." 
 
 With the same care for the cause of Christianity in India, and 
 for the encouragement of one of its most able and devoted mis- 
 sionaries, he was now endeavouring to obtain from the Cam- 
 bridge Senate a vote conferring a degree of D.D. on the learned 
 Dr. W. H. Mill, for many years Principal of Bishop's College. 
 This appears to have been impeded by some legal difficulties, till 
 it was accomplished by royal mandate in 1829. 
 
 There had been a wish indulged and expressed by the two 
 friends that Archdeacon H. V. Bayley might be appointed to the 
 Divinity chair at Cambridge, which about this time had become 
 vacant by the promotion of Bishop Kaye. But the Archdeacon 
 could not be persuaded to become a candidate, and Dr. Turton 
 was selected for the office. H. V. Bayley is scarcely known to 
 have published anything but a single Charge, if that may be said 
 to have been published which was printed at a country press, 
 and had little circulation except among the private friends of the 
 author. It is probably little known at present ; but for its 
 elegancy of style and learning, and practical advice on catechis- 
 ing and other difficult and important points of clerical duty, it is 
 a little tract of more than ordinary value. He was, however, 
 one whose cheerful spirit and natural love of freedom in private 
 life would probably have been too much burdened with the con- 
 ventional restraints of a public office. His mirthful kindness and 
 lively flow of soul gave him a singular power of attracting the 
 regard of the young, while the stores of a mind at once wise and 
 beneficent were equal recommendations to the old. In No- 
 vember, 1826, he was presented to the living of West Meon in 
 
 i See Theodoret, Eccl. Hist., v. c. 23.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 149 
 
 Hampshire ; on which he resided till his death in August, 1844, 
 and where he has left memorials of his good works. 
 
 He was now in frequent correspondence with Joshua Watson, 
 designing at once to build two new churches and a school on this 
 living; often wondering how his friend, who was at the time 
 suffering from illness, was yet able to work so ardently and 
 actively for the public at large. " Tour spirit travels," he said, 
 "in hundred-league boots." He sent the Charge above-men- 
 tioned to act as a sedative to the patient on his couch : "It 
 offers its services to supply the place of poppy and mandragora." 
 He then speaks, as he does in other letters, in a tone of heart- 
 felt humility, of the reasons which withheld him from consenting 
 to be named for the Regius Professorship, although his friends 
 had assured him of almost certain success. " I never was in- 
 tended to lead : to pioneer and to fight under good colours is 
 my talent, and my ambition, and my delight. I speak my in- 
 most thoughts to you as to a brother; for your kindness not 
 only demands that I should, but it has hindered my doing other- 
 wise. Somehow or other I never could behave before you : 
 perhaps you will be inclined to generalize this confession." 
 
 Among his early friends at Trinity was the late Chief Justice 
 Tindal, who, before his elevation to the Bench, was now for 
 a short time Member of Parliament for the University of Cam- 
 bridge. Of him he speaks in one of these letters : 
 
 "My most excellent friend Tindal, the Solicitor-General, who will 
 ere long be almost at the head of his profession, who is really the best 
 of laymen on my list of worthies, and who is as full of fun as he is of 
 law and sense, of black books and dark looks, writes thus to me : 
 ' I hope I need not inform you that in any way you can make use 
 of my name in the service of the Church, I shall not only be happy, but 
 feel highly honoured. Last year I was Steward to the Society for Pro- 
 moting Christian Knowledge. Do with me this year just as you think 
 I can be most serviceable. I look to you for an introduction to Mr. 
 Watson.' " 
 
 The illness to which Archdeacon Bayley alludes was a long 
 and painful attack of sciatica, which disabled Joshua Watson 
 during the most active period of the year in 1827, till he gradu- 
 ally recovered as the summer advanced, and was at length well 
 enough to leave his crutches in the autumn at Buxton. There 
 are many testimonies among his correspondence to the regret 
 occasioned by his absence from those meetings, at which there 
 were so many to welcome him as the best adviser ; and these 
 not merely from those who might be suspected as swayed by 
 private affection, but equally from those who could only speak;
 
 150 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 from regard to his public worth. But the language of H. H. 
 Norris is at once feeling and characteristic : 
 
 " I am right glad to hear such improved and improving accounts of 
 the progress you are making towards a complete restoration of health ; 
 nor am I less thankful than delighted. For all those important con- 
 cerns in which we have been so long jointly interested, have been in 
 the condition of Pharaoh's chariots, and in retrograde movement, since 
 your superintendence has been withdrawn ; and the times are come 
 when all the energy that can be thrown into their operations, and all 
 the tone and excitement which they can be made to communicate, will 
 be required." 
 
 The aspect of political affairs was now anxious : " a great 
 man had fallen in Israel ;" Mr. Canning had died after a short 
 and sudden illness on the 8th of August, 1827 : 
 
 " The gleam of light which you throw upon your picture of yourself 
 is that which we delight to dwell upon. So we hope and pray it may 
 shine more and more upon all of us ; for it is a common sorrow, and it 
 will be a common joy when we can see you fully restored." 
 
 This was not the feeling of partial friendship only. Arch- 
 deacon Pott, writing not long before to John James Watson, 
 used nearly the same terms : 
 
 "I have not for some time seen Mr. Joshua Watson, though he is 
 never for a day absent from my thoughts. How can he, when, day by 
 day, I am called to meetings of which he is the life, and a thousana- 
 fold the best adviser, whenever lie comes amongst us ?" 
 
 The following letter to the same excellent brother was written 
 with a trembling hand, when his illness had so far abated as to 
 allow him to resume his pen : 
 
 " MY DEAREST BROTHER, 
 
 " The firstfruits of my pen must be given, as they are most justly due, 
 to the dearest and most affectionate of many dear and affectionate 
 correspondents. 
 
 " It will be, however, I fear, a much more scanty offering than 
 I hoped and intended ; but it will go to one I know, happily for me, 
 always most ready to accept the will for the deed. It is well, therefore, 
 that the kindness of the principal and under-secretaries for the home- 
 department have left me little to tell of the state of my body ; and the 
 condition of my mind, and the feelings which govern it, have been so 
 delightfully expressed in two of your late letters, that I must either 
 repeat what you have said or say it worse. 
 
 " It is impossible, indeed, not to have wished sometimes during our 
 long separation, and under its peculiar circumstances, for an oppor- 
 tunity of interchanging our thoughts on the deeply interesting subjects 
 which, by God's grace and of a holy necessity, engaged them. But
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 151 
 
 even this has, doubtless for the wisest and best purposes only, been 
 withheld from us. I can already in some measure understand how this 
 may have been best for me. A brother's partial love might have made 
 you less able to help me in that rigorous self-enquiry, that lengthened 
 scrutiny into the past, to which I nave felt myself called. Such long 
 trials and protracted occasions of examination are not sent without an 
 object by that merciful Being who designs our good in every dispensa- 
 tion of His providence. And indeed the heart is not so deceitful but 
 that we know ourselves much better than any one else can know 
 us : and I acknowledge it to be amongst the greatest mercies, perhaps 
 I should rather say itself the greatest mercy, in a life rich with mercies 
 and blessings, that I have been thus constrained, in the retirement of 
 a sick room and the exclusion of so much of the world and its concerns, 
 to ask it many a home-question, which it has not failed honestly to 
 answer in a way to produce the deepest self-abasement, and make me 
 feel assuredly that it is only through the merits of my Saviour's sacrifice 
 that my very best actions can hope for pardon and acceptance. 
 
 " But I must have done. I have already gone much further than 
 I expected. I have tired myself, and probably have wearied you. So 
 I drop the pen, remaining as ever, if not more than ever, 
 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 Such outpourings of inner feeling from him have more force 
 and value because they were so rare, and found no utterance 
 except to those two or three with whom it was his joy and com- 
 fort that he had no reserve. In another letter, written about 
 a month later, he speaks of himself as partially restored to 
 society, but almost disabled from writing by the exertion of 
 seeing kind enquirers : 
 
 " Thirty years of almost continually growing happiness filled our 
 hearts with thankfulness almost to overflowing, and left, as you rightly 
 seemed to expect, no room for murmuring or repining at any little pre- 
 sent suffering, even if that suffering had not brought a blessing with it. 
 In truth, my dear brother, our chief concern was for yourself at Digges- 
 well ; and that was propitiously lessened, on the anniversary ol our 
 wedding-day, by Toulmin's report. So that our hopes for the future 
 were graciously permitted to unite with our gratitude for the past ; and 
 to these we had only to add our earnest prayers, that what had been 
 already sown in mercy might spring up in duty, and that, even if here- 
 after it was ordained that we should sow in tears, we might still reap in 
 glory ; which a good God of His infinite goodness grant to us and to 
 those most near and dear to us !" 
 
 When the brothers were at length permitted to meet again, 
 they were both laid on couches; and the meeting was almost 
 such as the interview between the two fathers of Jarrow, so 
 pathetically described by Bede, neither being able to move with- 
 out support. But after a lew days' rest at Diggeswell, he was
 
 152 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 so far recruited as to continue his journey towards Buxton, 
 a place which seems to be endued with some singular medicinal 
 virtue of air and water for the healing of such cases of suffering, 
 and which he gratefully remembered for the benefit he had 
 found there. 
 
 In his correspondence during the year 1827 there is to be 
 found one letter mentioning an instance of a practice which 
 Beems to have been not infrequent with him, and which shews 
 how he turned his business-habits to account for the aid of some 
 of the Church's labouring servants in distant lands. It would 
 sometimes happen that a temporary advance of stipend before it 
 was due was an important accommodation to a missionary going 
 out to his mission : an example occurs in this letter, which is 
 endorsed by Joshua Watson with the words, " .Remittance to 
 Madras, 450. Settled by his bill." The writer of the letter 
 says, " I cannot tell you how thankful I feel for the very valuable 
 accommodation you have so readily and liberally afforded us. 
 The relief was most substantial; yet I may say, Materiam 
 superabat opus." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Charles Lloyd, Bishop of Oxford: his services at Oxford. Van Milderfs 
 testimony to him. Is elected Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Regius 
 Professor. His diligence in his office. Literary and theological cor- 
 respondence with H. H. Norris. Reviews, and opinions of contemporary 
 theologians. Letter on the power of the Keys. His friendship with 
 
 . Joshua Watson. Reflections on the occasion of his death. 
 
 IT is about this time that we find proofs of a growing intimacy 
 between the subject of this Memoir and Charles Lloyd, Regius 
 Professor of Divinity at Oxford from the year 1822, afterwards 
 in 1827 for a short time bishop of that diocese. He had been 
 introduced to Joshua Watson and H. H. Norris by William Van 
 Mildert, with whom he was a great favourite. A well-remem- 
 bered verse describes the man as 
 
 " Honest Lloyd, blunt and bluff;" 
 
 and, as far as outward bearing is concerned, the description is 
 true : but it fails to represent the almost infantine tenderness of 
 nature which lay beneath the surface, the frank-hearted and dis- 
 cerning friendliness which shone through the sallies of a playful
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 153 
 
 humour too buoyant to be controlled. He had been for some 
 years one of the senior tutors at Christ Church, " the fairest 
 light in no dark time," when the College numbered among its 
 tutors Short and Longley, both since raised to grace the episcopal 
 bench, and Levett, Bull, and Cramer, all names worthy of re- 
 membrance for private worth, ability, and learning. But those 
 who survive will readily admit that Lloyd was more than their 
 equal for talents and acquirements of all kinds, for his varied 
 knowledge, and the ease and skill with which he communicated 
 his knowledge ; and second to none in the conscientious vigil- 
 ance with which he watched over the moral and religious training 
 of his pupils. It was a penetrating sagacity guided by affection, 
 which was irresistible. It was felt as a new offence to have 
 disregarded an appeal to duty from a mind so noble and so pure. 
 
 In 1819, on the retirement of Yan Mildert from Lincoln's Inn, 
 he was elected Preacher. His competitor was Reginald Heber, 
 who afterwards succeeded him in the Preachership. It would 
 Beem that Lloyd was not then so well known in London society 
 as his accomplished opponent ; and there were persons ready to 
 represent his claim as resting on little else than political support 
 from the Government. Such rumours drew from Van Mildert 
 the following letter to H. H. Norris, which, in honour to the 
 memory of the elder of the two friends, and as an act of justice 
 to the younger, it is proper to place on record : 
 
 " Christ Church, March, 29, 1819. 
 " MY DEAK NOKRIS, 
 
 " You know that it is a point of delicacy with me not to interfere 
 by espousing the interest of either of the candidates to succeed me at 
 Lincoln's Inn. But so far as concerns my excellent friend Mr. Lloyd, 
 I cannot forbear giving you an opportunity of setting any one right who 
 conceives a prejudice against him as relying upon undue Government 
 influence. I am confident it is not true that the Government interfere 
 as a body in his favour ; nor is it probable they should suppose that so 
 independent and high-minded a body of electors as the Benchers of 
 Lincoln's Inn can be wrought upon by such means. The fact is, I 
 believe that Mr. Peel, one of Mr. Lloyd's most intimate and attached 
 friends', and to whom Lloyd was tutor here, exerts his utmost personal 
 interest in his behalf ; ana his acquaintance is, of course, pretty exten- 
 sive among the members of Administration. But that no influence of 
 the Administration as a body is used, is evident from the known circum- 
 stance, that Mr. Vansittart supports Heber against Lloyd ; and that it 
 is yet unknown how some other Benchers connected with the Adminis- 
 tration intend to vote. Sir William Grant is known to be favourable to 
 Mr. Lloyd, but entirely on the score of his high character ; and indeed 
 
 r The late Sir Robert PeeL
 
 1 54 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 no one will suppose that Sir William's vote could be obtained by any 
 other kind of influence. I do not see that it can with more truth be 
 said that Government influence is used on this occasion, than it was 
 when I was elected. Mr. Perceval at that time avowedly supported 
 me ; but Lord Sidmouth, Sir W. Grant, and Sir Thomas Plumer voted 
 for Nares. But I have no hesitation in telling you confidentially, that 
 I consider Lloyd as the man most pre-eminently qualified for the situa- 
 tion. His principles are excellent, his judgment sound, his taste correct, 
 his learning various and extensive, his manner engaging. But I must 
 forbear : nor is it necessary to say thus much, it being a matter of noto- 
 riety to the whole University ; and therefore there is no need to quote 
 my authority on the subject. So farewell. 
 
 " Your affectionate Eriend, 
 "W. V. M." 
 
 Besides his public lectures in the Divinity chair, he used to 
 invite a select number of theological students to a more private 
 course, where questions might be asked and answered on either 
 side without reserve or restraint. His old pupils resident in the 
 University, the Bachelors and junior Masters, flocked gladly to 
 these colloquies. " It is delightful," wrote one of them to Arch- 
 deacon Cambridge, " to see the old fellow standing once more 
 with his back to the fire, delivering out oracles of wisdom, as he 
 did of yore." The quick intuitive power with which he could 
 seize on the merits of the cause, and detect the covert manner in. 
 any theological enquiry, gave a peculiar charm to his lectures, 
 and imparted a new impulse to the studies of that sacred science. 
 
 " The term Sacrament," he would sometimes say, " was scarcely de- 
 fined till the Reformation, or some time after. The existing notion was 
 perhaps that of an ancient ceremony of the Church, accompanied with 
 a divine promise. But the Romanists would be hardly put to it to make 
 out the promise belonging to some of their number : viz. Marriage, Ex- 
 treme Unction, Holy Orders. We are not, however, to deny the name 
 of Sacrament having been given by the Fathers to some of these cere- 
 monies ; nor to say that apostolic institution would not have been 
 sufficient. What we deny is the applicability of our definition." 
 
 There was a freedom and candour in the tone of his brief com- 
 ments on the conflict of doctrines at the Reformation character- 
 istic of a mind too clear and calm to be the exponent of any 
 partial system, too generous to dwell in verbal controversy. 
 "While he simply expressed his sense of the several points in 
 which the doctors of Trent had departed from the rule of primi- 
 tive truth, he would never press them with a consequence which 
 they would disclaim, or refuse assent to what they had decreed 
 on surer grounds and more salutary convictions. 
 
 "What the doctors meant by opus operatum is to be gathered by
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 155 
 
 inference," he said, "from its being found opposed to solam fidem in 
 their eighth canon on the Sacraments '. They never allowed that this 
 excluded the need of right disposition of mind. But we do not say that 
 the grace passes through the elements." 
 
 " The Council of Mayence, held in A.D. 1549, is the best and fairest 
 exposition of Roman doctrine'." 
 
 " Perhaps no great mischief was done by their declaring the Vulgate 
 to be authentic. For they meant only that it might be trusted for all 
 main points, not that it was to be set up against the original. But the 
 greatest error of the Council of Trent was their putting the Apocrypha 
 on a level with Canonical Scripture. Jahn, whom Elmsley always 
 doubted as being a moderate Roman Catholic, makes out that the 
 Council did not mean to equalize them". But the assertion of the 
 Canon remains, and most impudent it is." 
 
 " Justification, in Protestant theology, has usually one sense ; in 
 Roman Catholic, several. And this is the grand difference. Their 
 question always is, the quantum of righteousness in a man. Ours is, 
 Does a man acknowledge sin, and trust in Jesus Christ for acquittal ? 
 But the infused habit of righteousness, which they require, they say is 
 all from God." 
 
 "The term pcenitentia in the writings of the Reformers is often 
 equivocal : it may mean repentance, or the sacrament of penance. The 
 question is, How is forgiveness of sin after baptism to be obtained? 
 The Roman Catholic says, ' By the sacrament of penance ;' the Pro- 
 testant, ' By repentance and memoria baptismi' according to the sentences 
 at the beginning of the Church Service. The first of these are from the 
 Old Testament ; the last from St. John, addressed to the baptized, ' If 
 we confess our sins, &c.' There may be said to be one idea throughout 
 the Liturgy, forgiveness to the penitent." 
 
 Such are a few of the short notes preserved by one of his best 
 pupils, a mind congenial to his own. The selection might be 
 enlarged, if this were the proper place to attempt a more perfect 
 sketch of the character of Charles Lloyd, and if it were not 
 necessary to restrict this notice chiefly to his relations with 
 Joshua Watson and his friends. 
 
 His sense of the dignity of the science of theology was re- 
 volted by the superficial mode in which theological questions 
 were treated, even in some of the leading reviews of the day. 
 He refused to write in journals in which such great subjects were 
 
 " Si quis dixerit, per ipsa nova legis Sacramenta ex opere operate non 
 conferri gratiam, sed solam fidem divina? promissionis ad gratiam couse* 
 quendam biifficere ; anathema sit." Sess. vii. De Sacramentis, can. 8. 
 
 ' Harduin. ix. 21102140; Fleury, Hist., liv. cxlv. c. 89. 
 
 " Vid. Jahn, Introduct. in Libros Sacros Vet. Feed. Epitom., cap. ii. 30. 
 But the distinction of Proto-Canonical and Deutero-Cunonical is made by 
 other Roman Catholic divines.
 
 156 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 dealt with so negligently. But his mind may be best under- 
 stood by his letters about this time to H. H. Norris. 
 
 H. H. Norris and Joshua Watson had laboured assiduously, 
 Borne years before Hugh J. Rose succeeded iu establishing the 
 " British Magazine," to set on foot a periodical which might 
 assist the studies of the clergy, by furnishing literary notices of 
 books, essays of a critical character, chapters of ecclesiastical 
 history and biography, and selections from devotional writers. 
 It was the complaint of Bishop Hobart, when he visited England 
 in 1824, that he found the best educated among the English 
 clergy well versed in other branches of learning or science, but 
 ignorant of theology. There seemed some ground for such com- 
 plaint, when for a long time it was found impracticable to support 
 a journal of sacred literature. " The country clergy," said Mr. 
 Norris, " are constant readers of the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' 
 deep in the antiquities of the signs of inns, speculations as to 
 what becomes of swallows in winter, and whether hedge-hogs, or 
 other urchins, are most justly accused of sucking milch-cows dry 
 at night." No doubt there was often too much of that 
 
 " retired leisure, 
 
 That in trim gardens takes its pleasure." 
 
 A sense of this want induced him in the year 1818 to persuade 
 a zealous and intelligent clergyman, the Rev. Frederick Ire- 
 monger", to start the " Christian Remembrancer," which, after 
 undergoing several changes of editors and plan, has continued to 
 the present day. Van Mildert was consulted at the outset, and 
 took some interest in the design ; but discouraged any expectation 
 at that time of literary assistance from the Universities. " I 
 know," he said, "it is vain to look for it. Almost all the men 
 among us whose services would be of real value, are too deeply 
 engaged in the business of tuition, or in official concerns of the 
 University. If you knew the extreme difficulty we have in 
 finding persons sufficiently disengaged to carry on any literary 
 design beyond the ordinary routine of business, you would not 
 think of beating up for recruits in our quarters. Nor is it fair to 
 attribute this to any lukewarinness or indifference to the cause ; 
 
 T He was the author of a tract for educational purposes, placed on the 
 list of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He died in 1820, 
 when he had scarcely attained the meridian of life; but his eminent services 
 in the cause of Christian education and the virtues of his character caused 
 an abiding tribute of public respect to his memory to be paid in a monument 
 erected by subscription in the northern transept of Winchester Cathedral. 
 It is the work of Chantrey, and took its rise from the pence of the children 
 at the Diocesan Central School in that city.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 157 
 
 in which we are at least as deeply interested as those who are 
 generously fighting our hattles elsewhere. The most exclusive 
 occupation of the hest and ablest men of the University in the 
 immediate duties belonging to them is, in itself, the most effectual 
 service they can render : and when we recollect the prodigious 
 number of those who go forth from these sequestered abodes of 
 learning, to contribute their share to the welfare and preservation 
 of the community, perhaps they are doing as much substantial 
 good as if they were to abate some of their attention to their 
 pupils for the purpose of joining in literary warfare." He sug- 
 gested, what was evidently a practice of his own, from which he 
 was able to state with such clearness the arguments of different 
 treatises, as shewn especially in his " Life of Waterland," that 
 the " llemembrancer" should give succinct and careful abridge- 
 ments of standard theological works by the best English and 
 Foreign divines, "particularly those of Germany and Holland 
 who were contemporary with Fabricius, such as Budaeus, Pfeiffer, 
 "Werenfels, Carpsov, and Heidegger, men of profound learning, 
 and for the most part of sound principles. It might be well to 
 draw the attention of students to treasures of this kind, of the 
 existence of which many of them are scarcely aware, and of the 
 contents of which they know nothing. It would also give an air 
 of literary consequence to the plan, which would render it re- 
 spectable." Among English divines, the first in his list is Dr. 
 Thomas Jackson; but "with his works," he says to H. H. 
 Norris, " you are better acquainted than I am." 
 
 It does not appear that Lloyd had anything to do with the 
 " Christian Remenlbrancer ;" but some years later, when circum- 
 stances had thrown the " British Critic" more immediately into 
 the hands of the phalanx of friends, and most liberal efforts were 
 made by H. H. Norris, Joshua Watson, and others like-minded, 
 to secure the aid of first-rate writers for it, the design had the benefit 
 of his aid and counsel. The following letters are too instructive 
 and characteristic to be abridged : but it must be premised, that 
 Lloyd was wont to amuse himself, somewhat in the vein of " No- 
 body," of whose club he was a member, by inventing sobriquets 
 for his friends ; and Mr. Norris he addressed by the title of 
 " Patriarch ;" " for," said he, " your care for all the Churches 
 is more than an archbishop's : " 
 
 " Christ Church, Nov. 15, 1825. 
 " MY DEAR PATRIARCH, 
 
 Ktp8a\(o<j>pov 
 
 " I am glad the article gave satisfaction to you : it was written at 
 your request, and if it pleased you, I ^am content. I was afraid, entre
 
 158 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 nous, that it would not go far enough for you ; but I put down what I 
 believed to be the truth, and would not budge for any man. I wish 
 I could go 011 to be of use to the B. C. ; but I can do nothing for the 
 present, and can promise nothing for the future. I am occupied during 
 term-time from morning to night, with hardly a moment's relaxation ; 
 and in the vacation I have still much to do, many lacunas in my readings 
 to be filled up, and other occupations quce nunc describere lonyum est. I 
 think a very powerful article might be written on the political bearings 
 of the Roman Catholic doctrines. I had a MS. of Sir Matthew Hale 
 once in my possession, which entered very largely and minutely into the 
 subject ; and, if I had time, 1 would put my ideas upon paper. I should 
 like, too, to lash that scoundrel Doyle, both for his misrepresentations 
 of the Protestants, and his ignorance of his own religion'. Besides this, 
 an article ought to be written on the leading principle of Protestantism 
 the sufficiency of Scripture as a rule of faith. It is a hard subject, 
 and requires a strong man and a learned. Would not Van z do it ? 
 I think the first number has done well : the folks here talk of it, and 
 I think, if a strong squad could be formed, we might get something 
 which would last. 
 
 " I had written you a long letter last June ; but I would not send it ; 
 because, being at a distance, I thought I might seem to interfere, and 
 take upon me. But my ideas and my proposition came to this, that if 
 Van Mildert, and Blomfield, and Monk would promise you two articles 
 a-year, I would do the same ; and should then not have the smallest ob- 
 jection to my name being known. I understand such articles as I should 
 write for the ' Quarterly,' long, and containing as much original infor- 
 mation as I could throw into them. I think, under these circumstances, 
 I could persuade my friend Edward Burton" to join you, a man of ex- 
 treme learning, and a very plain sensible writer of his own language. 
 But my decided opinion is, that without some such confederacy, the 
 Review will not obtain that positive influence over the minds of men 
 which I wish it to have. But, if this cannot be eifected, at least I 
 would instil into the mind of every person that he should write such 
 articles as he would not judge unworthy of the best Review in England, 
 and, if on theological subjects, such as would give information to the 
 country clergy. In saying this, I allude more especially to the review 
 of Blomfield's Choephorce. I do not know who wrote it ; but I iudge it 
 from the internal evidence to be Maltby's b . Now neither Maltby nor 
 Monk would have dreamt of sending such an article to the ' Quarterly 5 
 or ' Edinburgh.' As far as it goes, it is sufficiently satisfactory ; but 
 there is not enough of it, and nothing that is new, no emptying of 
 a critic's commonplace-book. ' RennelTs Sermons' also are not done to 
 my expectation. The life is short and pretty ; but the sermons badly 
 
 t Dr. Doyle was an Irish Roman Catholic bishop, of some note in con- 
 troversy thirty or forty years ago. Lloyd speaks of him con amore, as 
 Dr. Johnson spoke of Pennant. 
 
 1 Van Mildert. 
 
 a Afterwards Lloyd's successor as Regius Professor. 
 
 b The late Bishop of Durham.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 159 
 
 extracted, and the remarks on them not written by a theologian. I saw 
 at ouce that Van had no hand in it. 
 
 " Now all this is very impertinent, particularly as I am fighting off : 
 but I send you my ideas, that you may laugh at them, or use them, as 
 you like best. 
 
 " I grieve to hear of Joshua's indisposition. I look on him as the 
 best layman in England ; and hope sincerely he may long go on to assist 
 the Church with his services and counsels. Give my very best regards to 
 him, and believe me, 
 
 " My dear Patriarch, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 "C.LLOYD." 
 
 " St. Georges-place, Cheltenham, Dec. 11, 1825. 
 " MY DEAR. PATRIARCH, 
 
 " Epp' ds Kopaicas- A fig for your disinterestedness ! A patriarchate 
 a place without profit ! "Why, had we not here, I mean, at Oxford, 
 two years ago, a Patriarch of Jerusalem who, under the auspices of 
 M*cb'ride, fleeced the University, and returned home kden with the 
 treasures of the West to build printing-presses on Mount Lebanon ? 
 Remember, master, that there was a time when the glory of the patri- 
 archate eclipsed the greatness of the bishop of Rome. And, suppose 
 a patriarch was only a great watch-dog ! Is a dog only to bark ? Ihis, 
 doubtless, is a great quality, and useful withal : but is he not to fight 
 upon occasion ? And has not your Holiness fought ? A fig for your 
 modesty ! 
 
 " But, as you desire to know what your duties are, I shall take leave 
 to tell you. I used to say of Van, that he was so great in his knowledge 
 of the exact doctrines of the Church of England, that orthodoxy oozed 
 out of his pores, and he would talk it in his dreams. Now I hold your 
 Holiness to be equally great in the knowledge of our ecclesiastical dis- 
 cipline, nothing doubting of your doctrine, and I suppose there is 
 not a Church in the universe with which you are not so intimately ac- 
 quainted as to be able to state at a moment's notice every heretic abiding 
 within the reach of it. Now it is, I conceive, part of the duty, and one 
 of the especial objects of the B. C., to convey this information to the 
 clergy ; and nobody can give it except yourself; and if in every number 
 one article of this kind were to be found, I think it would be of eminent 
 service. 
 
 " I am inclined to think that an article of the following nature would 
 be of great use, in the way of conveying information to such folks as 
 myself, who know nothing about the matter. The materials may be 
 obtained from Coleridge c , before he leaves the country. What was the 
 ecclesiastical state of the West Indies before the episcopal establish- 
 ment was begun ? What were the livings ? Who founded them ? Who 
 pays them? What were the causes which led to the new establish- 
 ment ? And what effects is it calculated to produce P What degree of 
 
 c W. H. Coleridge, first Bishop of Barbados.
 
 160 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 superintendence is committed to the bishop ? These and similar heads 
 would, I think, form a very useful and didactic article, with a preface 
 
 fiving a precis of the state of the West Indies for the centuries gone 
 y, the islands under each bishop, the number of livings in each, new 
 ecclesiastical measures, catechists, and Codrington College. 
 
 " I think Otter d a neat and gentlemanly writer of English, but no 
 theologian. In regard to light articles, Smedley c appears to me not at 
 all to be despised. Some articles in the old B. C., which were said to 
 be done by him, were written with taste, and what is of the last moment 
 in every review, with life and spirit. I could not put my hand on one 
 of them now, but I recollect thinking so at the time. I do not know 
 Monk ' well enough to write to him confidentially ; and I am not in- 
 clined to hold any official communication with him about it. It is in an 
 article of Greek criticism in which he may now and then lend a helping 
 hand. I do not know whether he has dabbled in theology : so I did not 
 refer you to him in that department. 
 
 "Ought not the subjects of the B. C. to be as follows ? 1. Divinity 
 for the country clergy and lords and gentlemen. 2. Learned divinity 
 for the learned, and for the character of the Review. 3. Learning in 
 the profane line for the general scholar, &c. 4. Voyages and travels^r 
 the ol iroXAof. 5. English literature in general. 6. Occasional meta- 
 physics, political economy, chemistry, &c., &c. Now turn in your great 
 mind what men are fit for these several lines, and suppose, for the pre- 
 sent, numbers 1 and 2 are provided for. For No. 3 Monk will be of 
 use, and perhaps my friend Burton, who is a very learned person ; but 
 No. 2 is his forte. Nos. 4, 5, 6 are very important. If anything should 
 turn up in metaphysics, Lyall is clearly your man, being Kopvipaios in 
 that line. Smedley may be of use, and Otter, in 5 ; and so on. Ne 
 sutor ultra crepidam. Find leading men, if you can, in each department. 
 Cannot you, every now and then, get a high Cambridge mathematician 
 to give you an article ? We can do nothing for you at Oxford in that 
 way. But the thing has its use, and must not be sneezed at. If I am 
 right, this should be your principle. Do not give scholarship to be re- 
 viewed by a mere theologian, or theology to a mere scholar ; and never 
 let a number come out without a good article in divinity. I am sure 
 you will lose character if you do. 
 
 "I am inclined to promise you the following articles : 1. A review of 
 what is going on on the Continent in the Popery line. I shall take De 
 Maistre's book Du Pape* ; the Bishop of Aire's Discussion Amicale ; 
 
 d Afterwards Bishop of Chichester. 
 
 ' Edward Smedley, author of Religio Clerici. 
 
 1 Late Bishop of Gloucester. 
 
 * This strange work of De Maistre appeared first in 1819. It was not 
 altogether received with applause in countries where its doctrines might 
 have been expected to be more congenial. Felix Amat, one of the most 
 learned and excellent ecclesiastics of Spain, wrote of it in 1824, a short time 
 before his own death, that " it was difficult not to think it intended to be 
 rather a mockery of the religion of Christ crucified, than a defence of the 
 authority of the Pope." See his Life, published at Madrid, 1835, p. 341.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 161 
 
 L'Amico d' Italia; Ami de la Religion et du Roi. 2. A review of the 
 Life and Works of Arminius, which are now in progress. I amused 
 myself four years ago in translating them, and they are now lying in 
 manuscript in my drawer; so that I know a little about it, but not 
 much ; but I have a knowledge of the documents to be referred to, and 
 may make something decent of it. 3. A review of the historical part of 
 the Unitarian controversy, which I consider a very important subject, 
 but about which I know nothing. I believe I may say certainly, that I 
 will give you an article next June and October. I shall keep No. 1. 
 till the next Parliament. Do not let me be forestalled in that subject ; 
 for I am tolerably well acquainted with the Gallican Church, and it 
 bears very strongly on the Irish question. 
 
 " And so you have some of my notions ; and I desire you will not 
 consider me as very presumptuous in sending them to you. 
 
 " I should like very much to spend a few days with you, and intended 
 to make out my whole Christmas vacation in and about Town, but it 
 has pleased Heaven to order otherwise ; I am here with all my family 
 waiting on a sick brother ; and here I shall be till the 20th of January. 
 Atoeays, my dear Patriarch, 
 
 "Most truly yours, 
 
 "C.LLOYD." 
 
 " Cheltenham, Jan. 13, 1826. 
 " MY DEAE PATKIARCH, 
 
 " I thought my mention of Macbride's patriarch would silence your 
 boast of disinterestedness. You seemed to have forgotten some of the 
 excellent company in which I had placed you. 
 
 " I approve much of the article on the Apocrypha, though I cannot 
 make up my mind on the question. There are great difficulties, as it 
 seems to me, in any Protestant society consenting to publish the 
 Apocrypha as part of the Bible in the order in which it occurs in the 
 "V ulgate h ; but I have not much considered the point. Viderint 
 docliores. 
 
 " I answer very shortly to your letter of this morning, because I hope 
 to see you next week at Christ Church. If you come on Thursday, so 
 much the better ; for I never like visits so well as at the beginning of 
 Term, before I have entered on my lectures and the other bustle of the 
 Term. 
 
 " But when Catullus invited Fabullus to sup with him, he told him 
 that he would give him an excellent supper on condition that he 
 (Fabullus) brought it along with him : 
 
 ' Si tecum attulcris bonam atquc magnam 
 Ccenam, non sine Candida puella, 
 Cccnabis bene.' 
 
 h Intermixed ; Esdras with Ezra, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus with the 
 Books of Solomon, &c. 
 
 X
 
 162 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Seriously, we shall feel much obliged if Mrs. N. will have the goodness 
 to see if she can do anything for us in this way, I mean, to provide us 
 with a cook. Pay twenty or twenty-five guineas : the first would be as 
 suitable as the second ; but, as they say, we will not quarrel about the 
 difference. Kitchen-maid ? Yes. Quiet family. Madame scolds ? Not 
 much. Must be able to dress a good dinner. Academics like to feed 
 well. 
 
 " So much theology for the present. 
 
 " Always, my dear P., yours, 
 
 "C. LL." 
 
 " Christ Church, Feb. 5, 1826. 
 " MY DEAB NORRIS, 
 
 " I am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken, and 
 the references with which you have supplied me. The tract of Womack 
 we have not in the librarv, and I am sorry for it, for I consider him 
 a very able writer l . Puller k I have read, and Boys ' ; the former has 
 not one reference which I had not discovered, and which is not in my 
 printed sermon : nor is there any expression of his which I doubt. In 
 p. 309, however, he says that 'the power of the keys is not only doc- 
 trinal and declaratory, but authoritative :' to which last epithet, if it be 
 explained by what he says pp. 318, 319, I have no objection ; but I fear 
 that he means more than this, as in p. 304 he has these words, ' The 
 power of jurisdiction is either internal, in retaining and remitting sins 
 in the court of conscience, common to bishops, priests, aud deacons ; or 
 external,' &c. I deny that the power or authority of remitting sins is 
 anything that can be strictly called a power of jurisdiction ; but as Puller 
 does not define precisely what he means, I cannot tell whether he may 
 not mean simply the same with what he has before denominated ' autho- 
 ritative,' viz., the power of declaring and pronouncing to God's people, 
 &c. But is this, after all, anything more than the power of orders, 
 which, he says, ' consists partly in preaching the word, and other offices 
 of public worship,' except that, instead of being public before the con- 
 gregation, it is private with an individual ? 
 
 " My idea is this : Suppose a person has been before a clergyman, 
 who has given him, as the Church says, the benefit of absolution, and 
 you ask him what the clergyman had done for him : could his answer 
 come to more than this, that the clergyman assured him if he repented, 
 &c., he was forgiven? Suppose you ask him further, whether he be- 
 lieved what the clergyman said, and that he answers, ' Yes ;' and that 
 you go on and add, ' What did the clergyman say, then ?' and he 
 
 1 Probably Womack's " Go, shew thyself to the Priests : Safe Advice for 
 a sound Protestant." London, 1679. 
 
 k Puller's "Moderation of the Church of England." London, 1679. This 
 work has been lately reprinted. 
 
 1 " Exposition of the Thirty -nine Articles." By John Boys, Vicar of 
 CoggeshalL London, 1716.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 163 
 
 answers, ' He said I was forgiven :' I hold this man now to describe the 
 whole process of absolution. He tells you that the minister first offered 
 him pardon ; that he, the penitent, accepted his offer ; that the minister 
 then sealed his pardon by assuring him of forgiveness. You may call 
 this authoritative if you will, or an exercise of jurisdiction, or by any 
 other name ; but it is surely nothing more than ' the word of God, or the 
 gospel of the remission of sins, declared in private to a Christian peni- 
 tent, by an authorized minister of God.' It excites the faith ot the 
 penitent, because it is the word of God. Why does he believe it to be 
 the word of God ? Because it is declared to him by one of those to 
 whom the words, John xx. 23, especially belong. 
 
 " I conceive further, that the absolution in the indicative form is well 
 fitted to be useful to the young, the unlearned, and the scrupulous in 
 conscience ; but not to others, because they do not require it. The two 
 former want it, because they want some stay for their faith besides their 
 own imperfect knowledge ; the last, viz. the scrupulous, want it, in 
 order that they may learn, as the Prayer in the Visitation for the Sick 
 expresses it, ' neither to cast away their confidence in God, nor place it 
 anywhere but in God.' But those who have a full and perfect know- 
 ledge of the Gospel promises, derived from their own study of the sacred 
 volume, or the regular instruction of the minister, and who have no 
 scruples of conscience, require no such absolution of the minister. Your 
 second postil on the Gospel of the first Sunday after Easter expresses 
 exactly my sentiments. It is, in fact, a literal translation of Luther. 
 The only real question to be examined is this : Is the authoritative 
 formula of absolution to be pronounced after an examination into the 
 reality of his faith and penitence ; or are you to be content with the in- 
 dividual's word, when he assures you that he repents and believes ? I 
 affirm the hitter. The Puritans and some of the divines of the Church 
 of England insist on the former. I say, you are to exhort to repentance 
 and faith as much as you can, to try to make both true and real ; but 
 that if the individual tells you that he has these, you are to give credit 
 to his word and absolve him. Yet the other course seems necessary if 
 you are to exercise what can be strictly called a power of jurisdiction. 
 The Visitation Service admits no inquisitorial examination. You rehearse 
 to the sick man the Apostles' Creed, and say to him, Do you believe 
 this ? He says, Yes. You go on, Do you truly repent ? Yes. Are you 
 troubled in conscience ? Yes. Then I absolve you. 
 
 " I should have been glad to know what your own sentiments are 
 precisely. Having once found your way, I trust you will every now 
 and then come and open the Term for us. 
 
 " Always very truly yours, 
 
 " C. LL." 
 
 " Christ Church, May 10, 1826. 
 " MY DEAR NOERIS, 
 
 "Many thanks for your kind letter. If I were in good spirits I 
 could laugh at you for saying that you can see no difference between 
 a power of orders and a power of jurisdiction. I know you cannot ; you
 
 164 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 would not be the patriarch you are if you could. But I have no spirits 
 to enter on these matters at present. I am living now between Oxford 
 and Cheltenham. My next brother is at the last of these places very 
 dangerously ill, and with little or no hope of recovery. I go down to 
 him on Saturday, and stay till Tuesday every week. I fear that I shall 
 not take many more journeys. I have written to Peel by this post ac- 
 cording to your directions. Always, my dear N., 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 ' C. LL." 
 
 It -would be hardly just to pass by the banter in the first 
 paragraph of this hurried letter without a word of explanation. 
 It must not be supposed that H. H. Norris had no perception of 
 the difference between a power of orders and a power of jurisdic- 
 tion. This difference, often confounded by controversialists in 
 the service of the Church of Rome, was the subject of a very 
 lucid argument in a speech of Van Mildert's in the House of 
 Lords ; to which H. H. Norris at the time called the attention of 
 the present writer, and expressed his own satisfaction with it m . 
 The remark, therefore, probably had reference to the passages 
 from Puller's book quoted in the preceding letter ; in which it 
 will be seen that Puller does not very closely distinguish be- 
 tween orders and jurisdiction. 
 
 A following letter, written in December, 1826, speaks of 
 a contest for a professorship in the gift of the Crown, for which 
 H, H. Norris laboured to secure the appointment of one candi- 
 date, while Lloyd was interested for another. But learning that 
 he had been misinformed in conceiving that Norris's friend had 
 no pecuniary need of the situation, he concludes what he has to 
 say, with characteristic conscientiousness, with the words, "I 
 shall write to Peel by this night's post, informing him that 
 I have stated that which is not true." Having thus disburdened 
 his tender conscience, he returns to play again : 
 
 "Why did you confine yourself so closely to the immediate objects of 
 your letter ? You might have thrown in some little anecdote on the 
 state of the Church of England in Madagascar or the Sandwich Islands, 
 or some other such domestic matter. Whom do you mean to send to 
 India ? You will, I think, hardly get three bishops before the expira- 
 tion of the charter. 
 
 "What say you to my friend Burton's book", and what have you 
 heard of it ? I am mightily pleased with it. This is the job which my 
 Lord of London wished Nolan to undertake some years ago. I put it 
 
 m See the following chapter. 
 
 " His book entitled " The Testimony of the Ante-Nicene Fathers."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 165 
 
 into Burton's hands, who, having already read his books, was not long 
 about it. 
 
 " How does your young friend like his sojourn in St. James's-square ? 
 These, and other matters of the same nature, you are aware that it is 
 your business to answer, the whole burden of the 'Ecclesiastical 
 Gazette' resting on your shoulders. 
 
 " Did you hear anything of Burton's review of Kaye's ' Tertullian ?' 
 I thought it well done, and was not sorry that he gave my Lord of 
 Bristol no great KvSos for what is, in truth, a very insignificant produc- 
 tion, considering the enormous praise which you Cantabs have always 
 given to the author. But, with Cambridge men, every goose is a swau. 
 And so I leave you." 
 
 Two months later, in February, 1827, he wrote to acknow- 
 ledge his friend's congratulations on his elevation to the see 
 of Oxford, and promising to visit him at his house before 
 his consecration on the 4th of March. "Your friends are 
 mine." 
 
 In his attendance on Parliament as junior bishop, he seems 
 sometimes to have availed himself of the hospitality of Park- 
 street, as we find him during this first year writing to Joshua 
 "Watson : 
 
 " MY DEAR SUCCESSOR OF MOSES, 
 
 "I am just setting off; but cannot run away without thanking you 
 for your exceedingly kind offer ; which I will not pledge myself not to 
 accept at some future time. But whether I do or not, I shall always 
 esteem it as one of the kindest things that has been done by me, not 
 having the smallest hesitation in saying that I shall infinitely prefer 
 Watson's to ' Warner's.' And so remain, 
 
 " Dear Joshua, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 "C. 0." 
 
 Within little more than two years from his consecration, this 
 happy-tempered, wise, and good man was cut off in the meridian 
 of manhood. He died on the 31st of May, 1829, in the forty- 
 fifth year of his age. Those who knew him best attributed his 
 last sudden and fatal illness in great measure to distress of mind. 
 It was the time of conceding the political boon somewhat in- 
 vidiously called Catholic Emancipat'on. The late Sir Robert 
 Peel, who had been his pupil, and for whom he had a strong 
 personal regard, had secured his support for the change of policy, 
 which he then thought the time demanded. In giving that 
 
 William Ralph Churton, Fellow of Oriel, then Domestic Chaplain to 
 Bishop Howley. Lloyd had recommended him for the office.
 
 1 66 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 support, Lloyd was led into an appearance of public conflict 
 with Van Mildert, whom he loved and venerated. It was his 
 last appearance in public ; and it was supposed that the shock 
 sustained by such a generous and friendly spirit had accelerated 
 his end. He died at a temporary residence in London not far 
 from Park-street ; and it is well remembered how Joshua 
 Watson enquired from hour to hour of his medical attendant, 
 and with what acute grief he heard the mournful tidings. 
 The whole question was not equal in value to the life of the 
 man who was thus made the victim of honest compliance 
 with a mistaken principle. 
 
 The writer was conversing a few years afterwards with 
 Robert Southey on the event which severed Peel for ever from 
 the representation of the University of Oxford. " Had I pos- 
 sessed a vote," said the veteran, "I would have journeyed 
 a hundred miles with a staff to oppose his return." Indeed, 
 Southey was on such points of a different mind from his literary 
 opponent Hallam, whose axiom was, that no man was a true 
 politician who never sacrificed principles. 
 
 By the death of Charles Lloyd the University of Oxford and 
 the Church of England lost a counsellor, whose sagacity and 
 strength of mind, joined to a hearty zeal and entire sincerity of 
 character, would have exercised an invaluable influence in the 
 times of difficulty which were soon to follow. He was suc- 
 ceeded in his Professor's chair by his friend Edward Burton, 
 a man equally learned and amiable ; but in what he wrote sub- 
 sequently, having no longer Lloyd's advice to refer to, he some- 
 times deferred too much to the opinion of critics inferior to his 
 own. When he also had been removed by an early death, the 
 choice of the next successor was attended with results, which it 
 must be left for another historian to record,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 167 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Clergy Orphan Sc/iool. Foundation of King's College, London. CKurcl- 
 Building Society. Fan Mildert on the concession of the Roman Catholic 
 claims. Public charities. Dr. W. Ward, Bishop of Sodor and Man. 
 Bishop Low. Hugh J. Rose. Dr. J. H. Monk, Bishop of Gloucester. 
 Dr. Wordsworth's administration of Trinity College. His notices of 
 books, and men and measures. Society at Park-street in 1830. 
 
 IN the month of February, 1828, Joshua "Watson gave up his 
 office of Treasurer to the Clergy Orphan School, his late illness 
 having persuaded him to seek relief from a portion of such ac- 
 cumulated charitable duties. He was succeeded by Dr. Shepherd, 
 Preacher of Gray's Inn, a man of eloquence in the pulpit, and 
 warm benevolence, and an old college-friend of John James 
 Watson. On this resignation we find, what is rare among his 
 papers, a record of what he said to the meeting to which it was 
 tendered. He was touched by the kindness with which his 
 services were acknowledged, claiming credit for nothing in him- 
 self, but an affection for the institution, and anxiety to promote 
 its welfare. 
 
 " Merit," he said, " for exertions in such a cause I must peremptorily 
 disclaim. The cause itself is enough to warm the coldest heart.. But 
 in my peculiar connection with it, to have been the continual witness of 
 the zeal and devotion to its service of those above me and about me, and 
 not to have kindled at their fire, not to have been excited to the utmost 
 exertions in one's power, was impossible. If, then, I have seen this in- 
 comparable charity prospering and going on to prosper, and greatly risen 
 in its tone and in the public favour, it would be base ingratitude in me 
 not to avow, even in the presence of those who alone will be offended by 
 the avowal, that it is to the hearty union of the great officers of the 
 Society with its Managing Committee, that it is to their exertions, 
 I will not say in season and out of season, (for we shall all agree that 
 exertions on the behalf of the orphans of the clergy can never be out of 
 season,) but to their exertions, and to your good- will conciliated thereby, 
 is it owing that the Society has prospered. And let me not forget to 
 add, it is owing to the care, kindness, and industry of their teachers, 
 that the children have been made good and happy, good, I mean, as 
 far as human infirmity will allow, and happy, I neea not say, in propor- 
 tion to their goodness. 
 
 " I beg pardon for this long trespass on your time ; but I have been 
 run away with by my subject ; and as it is the first offence of the kind 
 I have ever been guilty of, so it is like to be the last. Yet I cannot 
 conclude without briefly acknowledging that, besides these inducements 
 to labour according to my power, ana even beyond my power, in this 
 work of love, I found in my official situation with another Society, over
 
 j68 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and above these, a special incentive to exertion. I had seen how deeply 
 the cause of national education was indebted to the parochial clergy ; 
 and I confess I did feel doubly anxious that they should be paid in kind, 
 in the families of their poorer brethren, if they could not be repaid in 
 degree, for blessings and benefits conferred upon their country, in 
 a manner no less serviceable to the State than honourable to themselves." 
 
 There were abundant evidences given, as will be seen from the 
 later portions of this Memoir, of his continuing to act as a bene- 
 volent nursing father to the Clergy Orphans. The charitable 
 labours in which he was occupied for their benefit were the 
 solace of the last years of his life. It is only just to the memory 
 of his admirable wife to add, that her share in these cares of his 
 office was constant ; and a material addition to the school-build- 
 ings at St. John's Wood was the result of her own private bounty, 
 and a fund of her own raising. 
 
 In this year he took a part in the foundation of King's College, 
 London, and was from the first a member of the council. His 
 advice was sought in the measure which was now adopted for 
 the discontinuance of Church briefs, and in providing for the 
 want by royal letters, of which the first was issued at this time 
 for the Church-Building Society. The discontinuance of these 
 letters, if we remember the circumstances attending the sup- 
 pression of briefs, can hardly be justified as an act of good faith 
 to the Church, and was certainly not anticipated at the period of 
 their suppression. It has been succeeded by a doubtful and little- 
 prosperous mode of raising funds by single efforts and letters 
 travelling on the wings of cheap postage. The Church-Building 
 Society has been a more trustworthy dispenser of the alms com- 
 mitted to its care. 
 
 It was to be expected that on such important public questions 
 as were now in agitation, he should have been in frequent counsel 
 with his friend Van Mildert. The retirement of Lord Liverpool 
 was shortly followed by the repeal of the Te4 Act, and by the 
 removal of the disabilities excluding Eoman Catholics from the 
 legislature. To the repeal of the Test Van Mildert gave his 
 assent in a speech delivered in the House of Lords, April 17, 
 1828; and in some subsequent debates he further explained his 
 reasons for such assent. With a pardonable anxiety that he 
 should not be misrepresented, he afterwards caused some copies 
 of his speeches to be printed for circulation among his friends. 
 To tiiis he alludes in the following letter : 
 
 " April 30, 1828. 
 " MY DEAH FRIEND, 
 
 "It was a very rough and unsightly MS. which I left this morning for 
 your perusal, and for you to deal with, if you think fit, as you dealt with
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 169 
 
 another for me last week ; and I sincerely hope this may be the last 
 trouble of the kind that I shall ask you to take for me this session. The 
 Dean of Chester 1 " called on me yesterday purposely to thank me for this 
 last eifort to rescue myself at least, if not all my brethren, from the load 
 of obloquy which we had been compelled to bear. I have done it, I fear, 
 but feebly ; yet it called forth an expression of the kindliest feelings 
 from the good old Earl, whom I was most anxious to mollify, and also 
 a strong and unqualified assurance from the Great Captain, which I 
 felt to be better worth as a security than a hundred such bills as that 
 which we have returned to the Commons, improved doubtless, yet still 
 anything but satisfactory. 
 
 " I felt somewhat disburdened after this last effort to regain the good- 
 will of the Church's friends. But, after all, exercise your free judgment 
 as to furnishing the ' Mirror' with the report. I only want not to be 
 misunderstood, whether I am right or wrong. God knows, this whole 
 proceeding has been a bitter pill to me, from the effects of which I shall 
 not soon recover. 
 
 " Yours, my dear friend, 
 
 " Most truly and affectionately, 
 "W. DUNELM." 
 
 To the removal of the Roman Catholic disabilities Bishop Van 
 Mildert was resolutely opposed, justifying his opposition on 
 grounds which commanded some portion of the public attention at 
 the time, and which his biographer has done well to record <. 
 
 " Spiritual functions," he said, " belong exclusively to the Church > 
 spiritual jurisdiction to the State as allied to the Church. If spiritual 
 jurisdiction or authority, in whatever degree, be acknowledged as the 
 right of some other potentate, this authority, whether more or less, is so 
 much substracted from the supreme authority claimed, and justly claimed, 
 by the head of the State ; and the subject who is placed hi such a pre- 
 dicament can pay only a divided allegiance to his rightful sovereign ; an 
 allegiance which, however faithful and sincere as far as it extends, is 
 avowedly imperfect in this respect ; and consequently curtails his right 
 to the same tavour and privileges, the same degree of trust and power, 
 which others may enjoy who submit to the State without any such re- 
 servations or restrictions." 
 
 This was the simple ground upon which the exclusion was 
 maintained by those religious statesmen, of whose views probably 
 Van Mildert was the last public exponent. But he also added 
 to it another consideration. Having solemnly declared, on taking 
 his seat in the legislature, that the lloman Catholic religion was 
 idolatrous and superstitious, he could not consent to any measure 
 which appeared to him likely to destroy or weaken the distinction 
 between idolatrous superstition and the pure worship of God. 
 
 * Dr. Hunry Philpotts, now Bishop of Exeter. 
 ' Ives's Memoir of Bishop Van Mildert, p. 96.
 
 170 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 In explaining himself he limited the application of these terms 
 to certain practices in the Church of Rome, such as the adoration 
 of the Host, and the invocation of saints. "The charge," he 
 said, " can never fairly he construed to extend to the whole of its 
 creed or ritual. There can he no doubt that the Church of Rome 
 is a true Church, although a corrupt one. The Protest;mt 
 Church of England has derived its spiritual and ministerial 
 powers through the channel of the Church of Rome : hut it owes 
 no obligations to the Church of Rome for the pure doctrine and 
 worship it now possesses, those being of older date than Popery 
 itself." 
 
 It may he supposed that some of these declarations of opinion 
 were the subject of previous conferences with Joshua Watson. 
 A private journal of his wife, Mary Watson, kept for a short time 
 at this period, speaks of one such conference : 
 
 "March 30, 1829. M^ husband is now gone with the Bishop of 
 Durham to take a tete-a-tete dinner in Hanover-square, the Bishop 
 desiring to have some more friendly conference with him on the mo- 
 mentous question now pending in Parliament ; for which purpose he 
 called here and took Mr. Watson with him soon after six. , . . . The 
 carriage was ordered at half-past nine, but he did not return home until 
 after eleven, the Bishop engaging him in such confidential communica- 
 tions as I know not whether I may yet record, and expressing his 
 thankfulness for the hours thus devoted to him." 
 
 There can be little doubt that the friends were mutually 
 agreed on this question, and that what Van Mildert published 
 expressed the mind of both. Joshua Watson would have held 
 the exclusion from the legislature to be justified on political 
 grounds, and, as so justified, he would have maintained it. But 
 he also regarded the doctrines and practices in the Church of 
 Rome, which the Church of England rejects, to be dangerous to 
 the purity of Christian faith and duty. And from this opinion 
 he never departed. 
 
 A few further extracts from this journal will shew how his 
 days were at this period constantly occupied : 
 
 " Thursday, April 9. Mr. Watson was at home the greater part of 
 this morning in conference with Dr. Mill on Indian affairs, (Dr. Mill had 
 arrived in Park-street two days before) ; then with the Bishop of Bar- 
 badoes about West Indian concerns, chiefly Dame Mico's charity ; then 
 with the Bishop of Lichfield about church-building. Afterwards he and 
 the Principal went to St. Martin's library, and then he held conferences 
 in the Park with Messrs. Campbell and Lonsdale on S.P.C.K. subjects. 
 He aud Dr. Mill returned to dinner, and the evening was passed in con- 
 versation. He reposed a little time on the sofa, while Mary played on 
 the harpsichord some beautiful little pieces of Handel, Moffat, and
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 171 
 
 Worgan, which the Principal, who has much musical knowledge and 
 taste, greatly admired. 
 
 "Monday in Passion-week. Dr. Mill went with us to church, and 
 then returned to his friends. Mr. Watson then went first to the Church 
 Commission office in George-street, thence to Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 Evening, as usual, spent in writing : and lastly, Mary read to us Dean 
 Stanhope's Commentary on the Epistle and Gospel for the day. Mr. 
 Watson has selected from ' Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels' the 
 services for this week, putting them together in a little book, and calling 
 it the ' Holy Week.' He edited it this time last year." 
 
 The journal was not long persevered in. It ends abruptly 
 on the 1 3th of June, with a short notice of the previous month 
 as one of incessant engagement and occupation to her husband, 
 increased by the annual meetings, &c., of the Societies at that 
 season, and the consequent influx of clergy from all parts of the 
 kingdom. " So many of these apply to him for advice and aid, 
 that the business of the Church Commission, Church-Building 
 Society, &c., is carrying on at his private house when the offices 
 of the Societies are closed. Indeed, his visitants of this de- 
 scription are so numerous and so quick in succession, that they 
 are frequently waiting in different rooms for one another's 
 departure." 
 
 It may be mentioned here that it had been his regular practice, 
 from the first formation of the district committees of the National 
 Society, to entertain the Secretaries at dinner when they came 
 to Town for the general meeting. The same hospitality was 
 offered to them by Mr. Norris at South Hackney. 
 
 Who can wonder if one, who was habitually jealous of the 
 secularizing effect of much business even in the best causes, felt 
 himself in danger of being too much engrossed by such ceaseless 
 demands upon his time and thoughts, and wrote to his brother 
 and old friend at Guilsborough in a strain which drew from 
 Mr. Sikes an exhortation to persevere and bear the burden, as 
 assured that he need not wish to be found, when his Lord should 
 come, employed otherwise than in those works which were given 
 him to do ? " It has pleased Heaven," he said, " to give you 
 talent and occasion to do good, in a superior way, in a wholesale 
 way. You must shew me some strong reasons to justify any 
 neglect of this ' gift of God which is in thee.' No ; ' Put thou 
 thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good.' " 
 
 In June, 1829, we find the first record of a correspondence, 
 which was continued for some time, with Dr. William Ward, 
 then lately appointed to the bishopric of Sodor and Man. Bishop 
 Ward requested the recommendation of his name to an appeal, by 
 which he sought to bring the wants of his island diocese before
 
 172 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 the British public. The Church Commissioners and Church- 
 Building Society had been compelled to reject his petition, 
 because the Isle of Man was not within the appointed sphere of 
 their operations. He had, however, found by tablets in most 
 churches in the Isle that Bp. Isaac Barrow obtained from the 
 friends of the Church in England, including the two archbishops 
 and fourteen bishops, a sum which enabled him to increase the 
 revenues of the clergy. " I wish to add to the duties of mine, 
 and they pray that I may succeed." Two days after, the Bishop 
 returns him most grateful thanks for his note and liberal contents. 
 " Your name and subscription will greatly contribute to open the 
 Church-Building door to me. May the door of the Church 
 triumphant in heaven be opened to receive you, after you have 
 lived long enough to serve the Church militant on earth." He 
 wished for a short conversation with him that he might learn 
 "how a bishop may become a beggar with a good grace, and yet 
 with the best chance of success." 
 
 In July, 1830, he was again in correspondence with J. W., 
 and in a like zealous spirit. "You will perceive," he said, 
 "that your talent has gained many talents since you kindly 
 subscribed to my church-building this time last year. I shall 
 have four new churches on the stocks in the course of this week 
 and the next." 
 
 Again, from Bishop's Court, July 13 : 
 
 "MY DEAR SIB, 
 
 " It has been suggested to me by the Archbishop of Canterbury that 
 if I could raise a subscription of any reasonable amount and offer it 
 conditionally, the claims of the Isle of Man on the National Society 
 might again be proposed for consideration in the most favourable shape. 
 I embrace the oifer without loss of time, and shall transmit 100, with 
 the promise to exert my utmost power to raise an annual contribution 
 to the parent Society, on condition that they will take the Isle of Man 
 within the pale of their charter, and afford me the aid which I deplorably 
 want. Without foreign aid things must remain as they are ; that is, the 
 rising generation must be lost to the Church irrecoverably. A wiser 
 measure you could not adopt than to include all the colonial dioceses 
 within the charter, on the same condition of their contributing to the 
 parent institution. ' Give, and it shall be given unto you.' . . . 
 
 " I send you some sketches of the buildings we have at present in 
 hand. You see we have the boldness to found a college. This I am 
 doing on a fund bequeathed by Bp. Barrow one hundred aud sixty years 
 ago, for the purpose of educating young men for the ministry of the 
 Manks Church. I find the people co-operate and aid me in this most 
 zealously, as it comes home to their families and firesides in the educa- 
 tion of their sons and improvement of their property. This will be 
 a great blessing to the Isle of Man aud the Church at large. I hope we
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 173 
 
 shall be able to obtain for it the patronage of the King. A more eligible 
 seat of learning is not in the King's dominions. For pure air, sea- 
 bathing, cheap Hying, central situation, exclusion from every temptation, 
 the Isle of Man stands unrivalled. . . You can do much in obtaining my 
 object at the Board, and I have great dependence on you. Thanks and 
 blessings to you and all my liberal benefactors, who have enabled me to 
 supply the poor of this diocese with accommodations in the house of God. 
 My subscnption exceeds 4,000, a large sum in these hard times, 
 though still far short of our wants. But I have no fear that the same 
 kind Providence which has hitherto favoured my undertaking, will supply 
 the rest. I have only to entreat my friends to help me in my schools, 
 without which I am building churches to no purpose. Pray let this be 
 done before the bishops leave Town. 
 
 " Ever yours, my dear Sir, with sincere regard, 
 " W. SODOR AND MAN." 
 
 The remembrance of "William Stevens was enough to awaken 
 an interest in a claim for the Scottish Episcopal Church, especially 
 when it came from the poor Highland latitudes. It is, therefore, 
 no surprise to find a note of acknowledgment of much the same 
 date from Bishop Low : " To your good self, whose name is 
 known in all our Churches, and to the Bishop of London, I beg 
 leave to present my best thanks for your handsome donations in 
 favour of the pristine-mannered Episcopal congregation at Appin 
 in my diocese." 
 
 Perhaps a donation sent in this same spring as "an additional 
 subscription towards libraries in Iceland," may he admitted as 
 one of many proofs how free as well as careful he was in select- 
 ing the objects of his alms. " You must sleep well each night," 
 wrote the good nran who thanked him for this little gift, " when 
 your days are ever spent in so much true philanthropy." 
 
 During this period there was a continual interchange of 
 friendly offices and communion of public counsels with the ex- 
 cellent Hugh James Rose. There is mention of a visit to him at 
 Bocking, and at Hadleigh, where he rebuilt the parsonage, so as 
 to restore to use an ancient gateway and tower, which had pro- 
 bably stood there from the time of Rowland Taylor. " The ride 
 was delightful. A volume of W. Wordsworth in the carriage 
 afforded both conversation and reading;" and it will he readily 
 believed by those who remember a conversation with H. J. Rose, 
 that "his lively spirits and thoughtful feeling made the time 
 pass most pleasantly." Rose was a devout disciple of William 
 Wordsworth; but not so as to exclude also a warm affection 
 towards William Cowper. 
 
 Dr. James Henry Monk, having done good service as Dean of 
 Peterborough, where he had put the cathedral into an excellent 
 state of restoration at great personal cost, was in 1830 promoted
 
 j 74 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 to the see of Gloucester. This promotion was especially grateful 
 to Dr. Wordsworth ; and it seems to have been gratefully wel- 
 comed by Joshua Watson, at whose house the Bishop was enter- 
 tained for about a month when he attended Parliament after his 
 installation. 
 
 We find Dr. Wordsworth in these years frequently calling 
 upon his friend for advice and support in his labours at Cam- 
 bridge. It was impossible that Joshua Watson should not take 
 the warmest interest in his efforts to advance the cause of religion 
 and learning in his College and University. And in proportion 
 to his intimate knowledge of his aims and motives, and of his 
 difficulties, he loved and honoured him for his sacrifice of private 
 ease and of personal feeling to his toilsome, public, and official 
 duty. His mark upon one of Dr. Wordsworth's letters of 1828 
 shews the pleasure he bad in receiving it; it must have been on 
 account of the following passage : 
 
 "Nov. 11, 1828. 
 
 " I have of late teazed you more than enough with complaints, and 
 therefore I am the more bound to tell you that, so far as respects our 
 own College, I am increasingly hopeful and cheerful. Here we go on 
 with great harmony, and I think with increasing deference and regard 
 towards myself. The discipline, too, improves, and I think we are more 
 bent upon our duties. Only within these two days also I have gained 
 a most important point of discipline, with respect perhaps to the most 
 important and influential part of all our residents, the Bachelors ; and 
 for which I have been sighing, and from time to time endeavouring, ever 
 since I have been Master. It respects the degree of their attendance 
 at chapel, and the principles on which they attend ; and I consider it, 
 perhaps, the greatest gain for moral results which the College has ob- 
 tained for fifty years. When I told the young men, admirable and ex- 
 emplary heretofore in all other respects, that they had made yesterday 
 one of the happiest days of my life, you will not wonder if I desire of 
 you, my friend, to thank God, and to participate in my joy. 
 
 " lours most affectionately, 
 "C. W. 
 
 " Chris, has just got another prize (for Latin verse), which completes 
 the list of all he could possibly have got within the College." 
 
 About three months later he wrote again in a similar strain to 
 communicate another "most welcome event," by which his toil 
 had been cheered : 
 
 " You know, I believe," he continued, " how anxious I have been for 
 many years, (indeed ever since I knew the University,) and how much 
 I have laboured since I have been Master, to prevail upon our Trinity 
 men to proceed to their Divinity degrees. This I have considered as
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 175 
 
 the only thing that was wanted to make our College as eminent in 
 theological learning, and in its devotion to objects purely ecclesiastical 
 and professional, as it is in other things ; and now this is effected." * 
 
 One of the tutors had called on him a few mornings before to 
 declare his own intention, and several more were following the 
 example ; and the Master doubted not that 
 
 " The desuetude and obstacles being once surmounted, we shall have 
 a never-failing spring and stream from generation to generation. The 
 importance of this in our case it is hardly possible to rate too highly. 
 And this at length being accomplished, I am now ready to ask leave to 
 sing my Nunc Dimittis. 
 
 "Ever yours most affectionately, 
 " C. W." 
 
 "Feb. 24, 1829. 
 
 "I thank you most heartily," J. W. answered ; " and rejoice with you 
 as sincerely, for the news of this morning, [the election of Dr. Words, 
 worth's son to the Craven Scholarship]. In this my Lord of London r 
 desires especially to join, and with particularly good feeling to hail his 
 own successor in the office. He joys too with you, heart and soul, on 
 the accomplishment of your great divinity object, and I hope will readily 
 say, ' God prosper you in all your good works, I wish you good luck, 3 
 as heartily almost as does yours affectionately, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 The next extract will be found to relate to a different subject : 
 but it seems due to the memory of two good men like Dr. Words- 
 worth and Joshua Watson, to record the estimate which they 
 immediately and mutually made of a volume, now cherished as 
 a sacred possession wherever the Church of England is extended, 
 but then making its voice first heard at a few religious homes in 
 a most unobtrusive form : 
 
 "Is it too late," Dr. Wordsworth writes this same month, "to tell 
 your ladies that I devoured their kind present with great avidity ? 
 I mean, Miss Watson's friend Keble. And let it be known that, though 
 I have devoured him once, I intend him to be, like Prometheus' liver 
 to the vulture, one of my standing dishes. In my reading I did not 
 look at the pencil marks of Miss Watson and her friend till I had 
 finished ; and I then found that every one which they had marked, 
 I had marked also. And the only difference between us I found was, 
 (which Miss W. will not wonder at,) that I had marked a very great 
 many more than they had done. In short, he is full of beauties and 
 goodness ; and I rejoice in my present ; and I have given a copy to 
 each of my three boys." 
 
 Bishop Blomficld.
 
 176 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "Your judgment of Keble," Joshua Watson writes in answer, "gives 
 all the delight you expected; and Hugh Rose has just expressed almost 
 equal satisfaction in a work so fitted," he says, " to make all men, and 
 especially clergymen, wiser and better." 
 
 In the same spirit of rejoicing in any signs of good, he thanks 
 his friend for a copy of a Commemoration Sermon, which had 
 been placed in his hands by Archdeacon Bayley, preached at 
 Cambridge by one who has since succeeded Dr. Wordsworth 
 in his office of Master, and held it with honour : 
 
 " When I first heard of your friend Whewell, and his character in the 
 University, I regretted that a vigorous mind Like his had been wholly 
 given to science, and not earlier turned to his profession. It is clearly, 
 however, far better as it is. He now sets up as a divine not only with 
 his original capital of acknowledged talent, but with the acquired credit 
 of a man of science, and enlarged and liberal views. How much this 
 must add to his usefulness in the place, it is easy to see. And it 
 is really cheering, in the midst of so many motives to despondency just 
 now, to see such powers united with such strong religious feeling in 
 a station which must make their influence extensively felt." 
 
 They were equally comforted with the sermons and other 
 writings of Robert Wilson Evans 8 , which were then beginning 
 to attract attention : 
 
 " Evans," writes Dr. Wordsworth, " as Select Preacher, is preaching 
 such sermons, and so preaching them, that you might almost think you 
 heard again old Richard Hooker. Thoughtful, wise, and excellent." 
 
 The two friends were at this period in frequent correspondence 
 on the progress of church-building ; and it is probable that Joshua 
 Watson's counsel influenced some of the provisions effected by 
 the legislature before the close of the reign of George IV., par- 
 ticularly those which enabled the Church Commissioners, with 
 the consent of the ordinary, patron, and incumbent, to convert 
 district chapelries into separate parishes for ecclesiastical purposes*. 
 It was a change requiring such practical prudence, and such 
 regard to the principles of the parochial system, as were not 
 always to be found in the applicants for the exercise of such 
 powers ; and it seems that some of his colleagues at the Church 
 Commission Board were inclined to grant the facilities sought 
 for, without due consideration of what Gerson calls "the minor 
 prelacy" possessed by every beneficed priest in his own parish. 
 Thus we find him writing to Dr. Wordsworth : 
 
 Now Archdeacon of Westmoreland. 
 
 * 3 Geo. IV. c. 72, 16.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 177 
 
 " In private converse with both the Archbishop and Bishop of London 
 this morning, I think I have made some way. They both confessed 
 their alarm at the number of applicants for the exercise of our powers 
 in their behalf, and seem willing to come to terms. Only they say 
 I will make no terms, that nothing will satisfy me but the entire re- 
 jection of the provision, which they nold to be, in the present temper of 
 the public, unattainable. But I tell them, I am not so impracticable, 
 and am ready to compound for all cases which can receive an ecclesi- 
 astical district with cure of souls." 
 
 There were some to advocate a scheme which, by a new valu- 
 ation of first-fruits and tenths, proposed to make old endowments 
 contribute a tax for the support of new benefices. This called 
 forth a warm remonstrance from the old Master : 
 
 " Let Church-property," he said, " be liable to every burden of the 
 State in common with ail other property, and to every call of voluntary 
 bounty and charity beyond all other. But, if there be God and another 
 world, let there never be a special legislation to make the clergy alone 
 improve the maintenance of the clergy." 
 
 These are the words of a man whose life and wealth were 
 spent in public aims ; and deserve to be recorded at a time when 
 so much has been done in defiance of so just a protest, and in 
 a way which is threatening speedily to eliminate munificence 
 from the sphere of a Churchman's virtues. There were some 
 temperate remarks on these schemes for a new distribution of 
 Church revenues in Van Mildert's last Charge to the clergy of 
 his diocese of Durham, delivered in 1831. 
 
 We find also some correspondence on the designs that were at 
 this time entertained for the improvement of the education of 
 the middle classes, who began to feel that the children of such 
 parents as were now benefiting by the National Schools, were in 
 many instances better taught than their own children at the sub- 
 urban academies, which used to invite the notice of Londoners 
 by gilded boards displayed on most of the great roads out of 
 London. The promoters of the London University and King's 
 College were contemplating the formation of Joint-Stock Schools 
 in these localities ; a plan which has been since prosecuted with 
 varied success, but not without public benefit, in other populous 
 districts of the kingdom. Dr. Wordsworth writes in October, 
 1 829, playfully attributing to his friend an unlimited degree of 
 public influence in this as in other matters : 
 
 " After you were gone I had an interesting correspondence with vour 
 brother on the subject of the new intended school in nis parish ; and" the 
 more we talked, tne more, I think, did it appear to us that things of 
 such a kind are likely to succeed and multiply in the vicinity of London. 
 
 N
 
 178 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Therefore we wished that you and the bishops would think seriously and 
 speedily of the matter, and give us, as soon as possible, the draught of 
 the scheme of regulations from King's College, to be put into the hands 
 of the well-disposed clergy and laity immediately, that they may not 
 always have to meet the reproach of doing nothing except in the way of 
 opposition. I think you have always been of opinion with the Bishop 
 of London, that the portion of your scheme at King's College most 
 likely to succeed and most wanted was the under-school. If this be so, 
 I think it is clear that one such establishment at the centre would do 
 but very little ; and hence the necessity of issuing a plan as the model 
 to be pursued in any parts of the kingdom where such schemes are 
 likely to be projected. We wished you had been with us, that we 
 might know whether there was any sense in our fancies." 
 
 Joshua "Watson answered this letter from Guilsborough : 
 
 "The subject of schools," he wrote, "we must talk down when we 
 meet. It is long and deeply interesting. At present I will only say 
 that the London education of children is not a very favourite object of 
 mine ; certainly not a primary one in my view of King's College. Fore- 
 seeing, however, the probability of schools being attempted by others, 
 both in the immediate neighbourhood of London and in many populous 
 towns, upon the alluring (not to say illusive) plan of combining the 
 protection of the paternal roof with the excitements of public teaching, 
 I was, I confess, anxious that King's College should so far run before 
 these attempts, as to hold out in its earliest prospectus or scheme of 
 proceeding, direct encouragement and invitation to their concert and 
 co-operation with the college. But the consideration of this question 
 was overlaid, I believe, by the pressure of other matters. In con- 
 sequence, however, of your call the other day, I have thrown the 
 subject again before the Bishop, who alone of the Council seems at 
 this season accessible. Kind regards from mine to you and yours. 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 These were the years in which the hospitalities of the house 
 in Park-street were most abundantly shared by the bishops and 
 distinguished members of the learned professions whose hearts 
 were alive to the interests of true religion, sound learning, and 
 enlightened charity. Among them might be found from time to 
 time the following names : Dr. William Carey, Bishop of Exeter, 
 and afterwards of St. Asaph ; Dr. Christopher Bethell, Bishop of 
 Banker ; Dr. John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln ; Dr. Robert Gray, 
 Bishop of Bristol ; Dean Monk, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester ; 
 Archdeacons Cambridge, Bayley, and Burney; William Howe 
 Lyall, afterwards Archdeacon of Maidstone, and subsequently 
 Dean of Canterbury, a generous scholar and divine, who was on 
 very familiar terms with the friendly host and his whole circle of 
 friends ; as was also Charles Webb Le Bas, a preacher and writer
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 179 
 
 of great power and eloquence. There might also be found, be- 
 sides other men of high abilities and promise, John Lonsdale, 
 now Bishop of Lichfield, Robert Wilson Evans, Hugh Rose, and 
 "William Ralph Churton, Fellow of Oriel College, a favourite 
 disciple of Charles Lloyd's, domestic chaplain to Archbishop 
 Howley, a bright spirit, whose earthly career was too short 
 for the great things of which he had shewn himself capable. 
 Of the legal profession, besides his friends Park and Richardson, 
 often mentioned, were Chief Justice Tindal, the venerable Judge 
 Bui-ton, Judges Patteson and Coleridge, and Sir William Page 
 Wood. From the medical school there were the Heberdens, 
 Bransby Cooper, Dr. Thomas Watson, and, one to be remembered 
 alike as a Christian philanthropist and able physician, Dr. Thomas 
 Todd. There was admission within the threshold to many whose 
 names were distinguished in science, such as Dr. Whewell, Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick, and Charles Lyell the geologist. The poets 
 Wordsworth and Southey were here to be heard of when they 
 came to London. And here were to be met some of the most 
 eminent sons of art, as Sir Francis Chantrey and Lough, Copley 
 Fielding, and George Robson, to whom this Memoir has already 
 paid a passing tribute. Of a more numerous class, whose private 
 worth was not unadorned with the accessions of taste and learn- 
 ing, it may suffice to mention Charles Henry Barnwell of the 
 Museum, and James Hey wood Markland. 
 
 At such a house it was but natural that it should have been 
 a coveted privilege with the young and hopeful spirits of the 
 time, whose aims were good and pure, to obtain admission. 
 Many live to remember those evenings with grateful thoughts. 
 Many were there confirmed in their good purposes by the counsel 
 and intelligence which enlivened the social board, and the refined 
 kindness of heart which controlled and directed all. But a change 
 was now at hand, of which some forebodings began to appear in 
 Dr. Wordsworth's letters towards the close of this period, and of 
 which some record, however imperfect, is required in a Memoir 
 of the Life of Joshua Watson.
 
 180 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Illness of his wife. Her return home and preparation for death. Her 
 continued interest in his public labours. Efforts to counteract injidel 
 and seditious agitators. Particulars of her last hours. Temporary 
 retirement of Joshua Watson from public life. 
 
 IT was now among the counsels of Divine Providence, to make 
 the example of such a life as his more perfect, to visit Joshua 
 Watson with domestic sorrow. He was destined to survive the 
 admirable wife who had shared and animated all his noble tasks 
 and purposes, and after a brief interval to mourn for the loss 
 of his daughter, his only child. The first serious apprehension 
 for his wife was felt at Brighton in September, 1830, and was at 
 once communicated in a letter to John James "Watson : 
 
 " Monday, Sept. 27. 
 " MY DEAREST BROTHEH, 
 
 "It has pleased God to arrest us in our journeyings, and turn us 
 back to our own home, that we may in peace and quiet seek the 
 counsel and advice on which, in subordination to His will and provi- 
 dence, we are most inclined to rely. Within the last week or ten days 
 my beloved wife, instead of gaining anything from change of air and 
 scene, has sadly and unaccountably dechned, and fills me full of anxiety 
 for the future. Indeed, I scarcely know how to look forward but 
 with serious forebodings. Only that I know that I am in the hands of 
 Him whose arm is not shortened, and who equally bringeth down to 
 the grave and bringeth up, and has before raised me from the lowest 
 depths. 
 
 " Give me your prayers, my dearest brother, and know me to be ever 
 yours most affectionately, " J. W." 
 
 " We hope to be at home to-morrow afternoon." 
 
 His brother hastened from Hertfordshire to meet him on his 
 return from Brighton. The physicians whom he most trusted 
 were quickly called to consultation; their opinion gave hope, 
 but not without trembling, and lingering uncertainty. He 
 wrote, therefore, at this time to Dr. Wordsworth : 
 
 " Upon the future I will not dare to speculate ; but in humble re- 
 liance upon that gracious Providence, wlu'ch has in time past so heaped 
 His mercies and loving-kindnesses upon me, I receive with devoutest 
 thankfulness the present blessing ; and knowing that He has good in 
 store for those who trust in Him, I will lay my hand upon my mouth, 
 and in silence wait the tune of my more perfect redemption. For this, 
 my dear friend, let me have your prayers. 
 
 " Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 "J. W."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 181 
 
 His friend's answer, full, of course, of affectionate sympathy, 
 haying shewn that he had received too hopeful an impression, 
 J. W. wrote again, Oct. 12 : 
 
 " The obscurity of our medical opinions, and their nice balancings of 
 our hopes and fears, I cannot conceal from myself, or from you any 
 longer, keep me in a state of anxious alarm, and make me dread lest my 
 cup has been too full of blessing, and may not be longer held by my 
 unsteady hands. I am thankful, however, to think that we have made 
 a little improvement since I last wrote." 
 
 At the end of the month he was enabled to speak of increasing 
 hope, which drew the following lines from the Master : 
 
 " MY VERY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " Your kind letter of yesterday must not be suffered to pass without 
 its word of thankful acknowledgment. It came like a gleam of light 
 from heaven through a dark cloud. God grant that you may see the 
 merciful hope augmented and strengthened day by day." 
 
 Of the invalid's own feelings on this return to the dwelling 
 which she was never to quit again during her earthly sojourn, it 
 would be difficult to speak with half the truth and simplicity 
 that are to be found in the following lines, dictated a short time 
 afterwards to one of her attendant nieces : 
 
 SICKNESS AND HOME. 
 
 While yet abroad our steps could roam, 
 Dear friends no want would let us know, 
 
 They bade us call their home our home, 
 And kindly made us feel it so. 
 
 But bless'd be God, who gave me power 
 To reach this dear-lov'd place of rest, 
 
 Where love and duty every hour 
 
 Seem striving who shall serve me best. 
 
 But love outstrips poor duty quite, 
 
 And moves in such a constant glow, 
 That duty is obscur'd from sight 
 In the effulgence of that light 
 
 Which love's soft rays around her throw. 
 
 Yet will she not her post forsake, 
 But sweetly lurks, and waits to start, 
 
 If love some little pause should make, 
 Where she may come to take her part. 
 
 Ah me ! the happy object of such care, 
 How shall I e'er my thankfulness express 
 
 To God, who did such hearts for me prepare, 
 To those dear hearts, that never tire to bless !
 
 1 82 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 It is a mark of the strength of her character that, while she 
 was thus resigning herself to a sickness, which she felt from the 
 first to be past human help, she was still sharing and striving to 
 animate her husband's public designs, as in her days of health 
 and vigour. Her private journal was renewed at intervals ; and 
 in Jan., 1831, it speaks of several conferences with Van Mildert 
 and Blomfield on the measures which might best be pursued to 
 oppose the spirit of infidelity then abroad, exhibiting itself in 
 virulent tracts and public lectures. There was some reason to 
 fear a new outbreak of the venom which had desolated the na- 
 tions, and a revival of the danger of the days but newly gone. 
 Happily, however, though there were busy hands employed in 
 throwing the burning straws, the materials around them were 
 not equally disposed to take fire. 
 
 One who had some practical acquaintance with the condition 
 of London at this period, went to attend and hear a famous in- 
 fidel lecturer at the Rotunda on a Sunday evening. The lecture 
 consisted chiefly of a recitation of a part of Milton's " Paradise 
 Regained," intermixed with a running comment of low buffoonery 
 on the history of the Temptation. After this had gone on a good 
 part of an hour, a working man among the audience, in a plain 
 russet jacket, calling to the lecturer by name, said, " Argument ! 
 argument !" The effect of these two calm words was electrical : 
 the orator paused like a man half choked with rage. The rest of 
 the hearers, who appeared to have come more out of idle curiosity 
 than zeal for irreligion, hailed his confusion with peals of laughter, 
 more loud than any which his previous scurril jests had called 
 forth. Then scarcely recovering himself, he turned towards the 
 person who had interrupted him, and repeated his word : " Argu- 
 ment ! I will give you such argument as none of your priests, 
 with all their craft, shall be able to answer." " Do so," said the 
 man in fustian ; " and then our time will not be wasted." The 
 result, however, was that the purpose of the entertainment was 
 sufficiently exposed by those two simple, honest words. The 
 spirit of the infidel advocate was rebuked. He tried to fall 
 back into his buffoonery, but with little success. The assembly, 
 which consisted of a few hundreds, chiefly of the lower ranks, 
 broke up by degrees, as some were ashamed, and others wearied, 
 to continue listening ; and the attempt, which at first had given 
 some uneasiness to the friends of religion and virtue, ended in 
 nothing. 
 
 The orator on this occasion was an unhappy renegade priest, 
 who had once been an officiating minister of the Church of Eng- 
 land in one of the southern counties. He had once before re- 
 nounced Christianity, but professed repentance ; and came to old
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 183 
 
 Dr. Gaskin, then Rector of Stoke Newington, to beg his kind 
 offices with Archbishop Howley, that he might again be restored 
 and permitted to take duty in his diocese. The benevolent old 
 man pleaded for him ; but the Archbishop gave a prudent answer : 
 " This is a case in which much public scandal has been given by 
 a public insult to the Christian faith. It cannot be that one who 
 was so lately an open apostate should at once be permitted to 
 preach and teach what he was yesterday trying to destroy. When 
 a young candidate for Holy Orders presents himself, we commonly 
 require a testimonial of the candidate's good life and conversation 
 for three years past from three or four clergymen. Let the 
 offender, if his repentance is sincere, live in retirement for the 
 next three years, and then bring the same kind of testimonial." 
 Before many days had passed, the wisdom of this answer was 
 manifested ; and the wretched recreant was outdoing his first 
 desperate declaration. 
 
 It is not impossible that this advice may have been the subject 
 of conference with H. H. Norris, who afterwards reported it to 
 the present writer, or with Van Mildert and Joshua Watson, who 
 appears, from the private journal just mentioned, to have had 
 several interviews with Archbishop Howley and Van Mildert 
 on this subject. There are also several notices of this kind : 
 
 " Wednesday, Jan. 19, 1831. The Infidel Tract Committee at 
 S.P.C.K 
 
 "Friday, Jan. 21. J. W. went early into the City to talk to some 
 active and influential men about establishing some plan for the production 
 and dissemination of anti-seditious cheap tracts. 
 
 "Friday, Jan. 21. He tells me that the coadjutors in the distribution 
 of small tracts will be in brisk action in a few days. They have already 
 so well contrived as to engage one of the wretches who vend the poison 
 to administer the antidote : so much for the best bidder." 
 
 The journal continues for more than two months longer, as 
 resumed occasionally in the intervals of sickness. It speaks 
 once or twice of a plan which Joshua Watson had proposed for an 
 Ecclesiastical Commission, of which some account will be found in 
 the following chapter. What is here subjoined is almost the last 
 entry : 
 
 " Wednesday, March 30. I am very sorry to find this pause so long, 
 but my illness makes me less and less equal to exertion. My husband's 
 daily proceedings have been, I know, according to the tenor of the fore- 
 going journal. He has been endeavouring to persuade William Words- 
 worth the poet to write on the present awful state of morals and politics ; 
 but the latter declares he cannot satisfy himself. However, I nope he 
 has not altogether given it up." 
 
 There was scarcely any period during her long illness in which
 
 184 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 she had not at her command, beside the unfailing attendance of 
 those most closely bound to her, the society of several cherished 
 friends, old and young. And besides her full and constant de- 
 votions with her husband, and the services of the clergy in her 
 own family, prayers were frequently offered up for her and with 
 her, at her own request, by Bishop Inglis, who was then in 
 England, by Dr. "Wordsworth at other times, and by Hugh J. 
 Rose. Her husband's words, from a private paper of his own, 
 will best describe the impression of all eye-witnesses who attended 
 in that sick chamber : 
 
 "It will be impossible for those who were privileged to attend her 
 lengthened trial to forget the lovely picture of Christian and cheerful 
 resignation which was continually presented to their eyes ; and some, 
 I humbly trust, will bless God to their latest hour for the silent elo- 
 quence of that lesson which spoke so sweetly and directly to the best 
 feelings of their mixed nature ; and shewed them how things temporal 
 might be subordinated to things eternal ; and how, whilst the thoughts 
 of her own departure, and preparation for it, were always uppermost in 
 her mind, ana might have generated something like an appearance of 
 unconcern for the interests and comforts of otiiers, there was an unvary- 
 ing manifestation of anxiety for their happiness, and of care and con- 
 sideration how she might yet advance it." 
 
 She did indeed believe that the good creatures of God and the 
 good services of our fellow men were to be received with humble 
 thanksgiving, to which all would tend if " used to its true use." 
 One day, after letting her eye rest upon a noble drawing of George 
 Robson's, a picture of Pont Aberglaslyn, she observed, how much 
 it was permitted us to enjoy in this world ; that we were in no 
 wise to turn our eyes away from the wonders of nature or art, 
 but only to guard carefully against their occupying our thoughts 
 so as in any degree to exclude spiritual things, to which a right 
 contemplation of them would rather lead us ; for " earth hath 
 this variety from heaven." And she then went on with deep 
 feeling to say how many delights she had enjoyed ; that it had 
 indeed been a good world to her ; and yet, she thanked God, she 
 could leave it without a sigh or regret. " She could hardly help 
 wondering at herself," as her daughter's pen recorded her words, 
 " that loving us all so dearly as she did, she should be without 
 a wish to be restored; she had always prayed it might be so 
 when death should be in prospect, but had hardly dared to hope 
 the feeling could be so complete." To the last her ardour of 
 love was unabated ; but she had perfect trust for them, and 
 strong faith and hope for herself. 
 
 She spoke of the text, St. John xv. 15, as at once a sanction 
 and a lesson for Christian friendship. " It implies," she said,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 185 
 
 " entire confidence, and unreserved communication of heavenly 
 knowledge, accordingly as each may have been blest with re- 
 ligious advantages." 
 
 Her thoughts for herself, as her daughter again wrote, were 
 only on a better world ; but for the sake of those who should 
 survive her, she seemed to divide them, as befitted one who now 
 almost touched that better world, yet felt and appreciated the 
 duties and blessings appertaining to the state of probation in 
 which she left those most dear to her. 
 
 As the spring advanced, her weakness increased, till early in 
 June the degree of languishing was such as to give tokens that 
 the end was near. On Saturday, June 11, she received the holy 
 Sacrament for the last time, at the hands of her husband's brother, 
 together with her nearest relatives, and with her maidens, who 
 earnestly sought to be admitted, and to whom she afterwards 
 gave her thanks and blessings one by one. Her daughter and 
 her nieces heard the husband and wife conversing together that 
 day on the comfort arising from faith in the atoning merits of 
 their blessed Redeemer's death and passion. " Yes," she said ; 
 " and it is a steady comfort." The word expressed the constant 
 frame of her mind. It was a steady, uniform, humble hope and 
 firm trust that sustained her, and gave her that unvarying placid 
 and devout serenity which marked every portion of her lingering 
 illness. 
 
 One further little instructive incident was remarked. Her 
 husband sate watching her the day before her death, and threw 
 in little words of comfort at intervals, when she was now almost 
 too weak to speak : " I can give voice to her thoughts," he said 
 to one of his nieces, " and that relieves her." It would be diffi- 
 cult to find a more touching proof of entire unity of spirit. 
 
 But this was almost the last hour of consciousness ; the shadows 
 were gathering round, and she expired without a struggle about 
 three o'clock in the morning of June 13. She was buried in the 
 family-vault in Hackney churchyard, where, after nearly four- 
 and-twenty years of widowhood, her husband's remains were laid 
 beside her. Knowing that the effort would have been too great 
 for the tender spirit and weak frame of their brother at the rec- 
 tory, H. H. Norris had offered his services to read the Burial 
 Office. There was something remarkable in the devout energy 
 with which this good man seemed inspired on such mournful 
 occasions. His melodious voice gave out tones which uplifted 
 the mourning soul from the dimness of the present scene, and 
 came over the spirits with a glow of comfort from above. The 
 deep and holy feeling which was on this occasion manifested as 
 he read the solemn and animating words, enabled even the sor-
 
 1 86 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 rowing daughter for the moment to lose all consciousness of pre- 
 sent grief in the joyful triumph of victorious faith. As to the 
 chief mourner, as he followed the bier out of the church, there 
 was an expression upon his countenance which those who noticed 
 it could never forget. It was literally " a beaming eye," which 
 spoke the calmness of a heart in which love and hope had sub- 
 dued all feeling but that of thankfulness. 
 
 From the expressions of sympathy which the bereavement of 
 one so generally beloved drew forth, we will select one or two 
 which bear marks of having been particularly acceptable to him 
 or to his daughter. Archdeacon Bayley wrote on the 23rd of 
 June: 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I well know that it would be more than idle in me to attempt to 
 suggest to you any topics of consolation. All that a man and a Christian 
 can have, are, and have long been, present to your mind. But I cannot 
 satisfy my own feelings without just expressing to you that my heart 
 is with you in this hour of trial. It seems to me that many marks of 
 a peculiarly kind Providence are to be seen in Mrs. Watson's last ill- 
 ness, in the support she received, which enabled her to bear up so firmly 
 and cheerfully, that the end of her life may perhaps be deemed more 
 exemplary and interesting to the objects of her immediate regard than 
 any former part of it. And the same gracious influence from above was 
 lent to promote and preserve their happv composure and presence of 
 mind. I have hardly a right to intenneddle with your sorrow by speak- 
 ing of what I feel to be my own share of loss in this visitation, merciful, 
 no doubt, as it is afflictive. But, indeed, I consider the friendship of 
 this admirable woman as having been one of the happiest privileges of 
 my life ; and the memory of her superior talents, consecrated by their 
 application, of her indefatigable charity, of her intellectual and animating 
 conversation, and of her truly Christian temper of mind, will ever con- 
 tinue, I trust, to cheer and stimulate me. My humble and earnest 
 prayer is, that you and yours may in this trying hour receive every com- 
 fort from the fcod of all consolation. Believe me, with most cordial 
 esteem and regard, yours, my dear Sir, 
 
 "H. V. BAYLEY." 
 
 A few sentences of the reply remain : 
 
 " All that is to you, was she to me, with tin's only difference, 
 
 that the blessing of health had, till within the last twelve months of her 
 
 precious life, enabled her to do without intermission what must 
 
 nave been too frequently interrupted in performing. It was as true in 
 my case as in your own, that I was like Potiphar in my house, and knew 
 not aught that I had save the bread that I aid eat. She sent me forth, 
 day by day, to my work, without a care or thought about home beyond 
 the feeling that, however wearied or baffled abroad, I was sure on my 
 return there to find both counsel and comfort from a depth of principle,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 187 
 
 a soundness of judgment, and an affectionate liveliness of temper, not 
 often united in an equal degree." 
 
 There was something peculiar in this liveliness of temper 
 which, accompanied hy a native shrewdness of observation, judg- 
 ment, and good sense, often added pointedness to her discourse, 
 and gave a key-note to the conversation of old and young in the 
 circles around her. " It was a vivacity and playfulness," says 
 one who often witnessed it, " which diffused life and animation 
 where it came. We shall never be such a joyous circle again." 
 
 These are the words of one whose close intimacy made her 
 aware of the little failings inseparable from such a character, 
 while it increased her love and value for her ; and she bears this 
 heartfelt testimony to the exemplary manner in which she profited 
 by her trial : 
 
 " I can only add that all the fine parts of her character shone with 
 increased brightness during her long illness, and every little blemish dis- 
 appeared ; and there was added a gentle tenderness, and a compassionate 
 consideration for the weakness of others, which seemed not to belong to 
 her before, and which endeared her to us a hundredfold." 
 
 The two branches of the family were almost as one during the 
 weeks that followed ; and for more than two months the widower 
 and his daughter made their chief home at Diggeswell Rectory. 
 Other friends vied with each other in personal offices of sym- 
 pathy ; and Dr. "Wordsworth wrote from Cambridge, July 7 : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " Day after day has passed, and I have omitted writing in the hope 
 that I should be able to say that I could spend a day or two hi your 
 neighbourhood, and so have the opportunity of seeing you again with 
 my very dear friend, Miss Watson, and of ascertaining what I am very 
 anxious about, how you are supported in health of body and health of 
 mind in the further progress of the deep and awful change into which it 
 has pleased Divine rrovidence to plunge you. 1 earnestly hope and 
 pray that His loving-kindness and mercy has, since we parted, continued 
 to be, and still is, with you both, as I felt confident it had been through 
 all the earlier stages, and in the last sad crisis, of your fiery trial. Pray, 
 if it be possible, let me have a line from you at Buxted. My quiet par- 
 sonage there, I hope, will be a place that you will think of among the 
 very first when you are able to think of encountering any change of place 
 and scene." 
 
 A letter from Bp. Van Mildert, written at the beginning of 
 August, is chiefly interesting as shewing how his friend must 
 have written to him, while it makes us regret the loss of that 
 and many other letters :
 
 1 88 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 "Your letter of last week is everything that can be hoped for or 
 desired as to your present state of feeling. . . . For the present I can 
 well conceive that Diggeswell with all its soothing and tranquillizing 
 advantages must give nse to frequent recollections and regrets not to be 
 put aside. Yet you do well in encountering these in their full force, as 
 the surest means of preventing their painful recurrence at an after 
 period. As to the state of mental discipline which you describe as the 
 result of your contemplation of the past, the present, and the future, 
 I can only say that it presents to my mind almost an enviable picture of 
 right Christian feeling, such as the best of us may desire to emulate 
 rather than hope to attain, and on which the Divine blessing cannot fail 
 to rest." 
 
 But Joshua Watson's affections were far too tender, and his 
 frame far too sensitive, to allow him any exemption from the 
 weariness and depression of spirits which so often follow after 
 the first pressure of affliction. And because, if we did not per- 
 ceive that he had a struggle to maintain, we should lose much of 
 the instruction and encouragement which his after life affords, 
 the following letter, though of a private nature, shall not be 
 withheld; full as it also is of "thoughts which in thankfulness 
 endure." 
 
 His watchful eye had seen some danger to the Church interest 
 in a Bill that was pending, and he had written urgently to draw 
 the Master of Trinity's attention to it ; and the Master had hailed 
 the letter as a symptom of his being again at his post in heart and 
 affection, and perhaps in person also. But he replied, 
 
 " MY VERY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " You are much too forward, I am sorry to say, in your friendly antici- 
 pations. Neither publicly nor privately do I feel any symptoms of re- 
 turning vigour ; but a listless inactivity of body and of mind makes me 
 shrink from everything which seems to call for exertion of the one or 
 the other. In public concerns, indeed, there is quite enough, from hope- 
 lessness of good, to indispose a much more ardent spirit than mine to 
 action. But nothing save the want of every vis but the vis inertice 
 could, I think, have kept your kind letter a week unanswered. This 
 inertness is, or rather has been for some time, sadly gaining upon me ; 
 and whether it be the consequent of premature age, or the too easy in- 
 dulgence of indolent habits, I cannot tell, (I fear Doth,) but I certainly 
 find it hard at present to fight against it, when all external circumstances 
 serve greatly to increase the difficulty of self-exertion. Do not, how- 
 ever, imagine from this, my dear friend, that I am at all unduly de- 
 pressed. The case, I assure you, is far otherwise. If, on the one side, 
 every day shews me more and more the magnitude of my loss, I thank 
 God it makes me also more and more sensible of the multitude of His 
 mercies ; and the one feeling only so corrects the other as to make me 
 deeply grateful for the blessings still lent to me, and more ready to part
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 189 
 
 with them whenever I shall be called to give them up. I can bless God 
 daily for the child and friends He has given me, and yet feel that the spell 
 is broken which made me think ' it is good for me to be here ;' and in 
 most thankful enjoyment of all that is left behind, prepare for following 
 what is gone before. And surely this ought henceforth to be the great 
 business of my life, and may well discharge me for the future from much 
 of the profitless labour in which I have been long engaged." 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Public affairs in 1830. Wordsworth and Southey. First step towards 
 an Ecclesiastical Commission. Joshua Watson's scheme, accepted by 
 the Duke of Wellington, superseded by Earl Grey. Labours of Hugh 
 J. Rose. Joshua Watson's Selections from Jer. Taylor. His resistance 
 to the sanction of Dissenting Manuals by the S. P. C. K. His concilia- 
 tion of opponents. 
 
 fTlHE private sorrow, related in the last chapter, had been 
 J_ impending over Joshua Watson at a time of much public 
 anxiety. The events in France and the Netherlands in the 
 autumn of 1830 had disturbed the settlement of the general 
 peace made fifteen years before ; and the trembling of the nations 
 was felt as before to reverberate nearer home. Some notices of 
 these gathering clouds appear from time to time in the journals 
 to which we have already referred. Dr. Wordsworth and William 
 Wordsworth dined with him in Park-street on December 22. 
 " The poet," says the journal, " was most eloquent on the subject 
 of the times : very high-minded, but very gloomy in his antici- 
 pations." On the following day he accompanied the two brothers 
 to dine at Lambeth, where Southey met them. Of Southey the 
 journal remarks, "His countenance is fine and peculiar ; his eye 
 bright hazel, not piercing, but very expressive ; his smile pleas- 
 ing, his manner gentle ; his conversation much less energetic 
 than William Wordsworth's." Those who were admitted to the 
 private board of Archbishop Howley know how capable he was 
 of guiding the conversation into a channel which would call 
 forth the literary powers of his guests, how cultivated a taste he 
 had in old English lore ; and on this occasion another passing 
 notice shews that he designedly avoided topics of public agita- 
 tion to refresh himself with the "feast of reason and the flow 
 of soul" 
 
 Southey breakfasted with Joshua Watson in Park-street on 
 the following morning. Many persons now living will probably
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 remember his earnest sympathy at this period with the loyal 
 Dutch, who bravely adhered to the fortunes of the house of 
 Nassau ; a sympathy perhaps the more enlivened by the recol- 
 lections of the hospitable kindness he had found for many weeks, 
 when disabled from pursuing his travels, with an amiable Pro- 
 fessor of Leyden, who made his house the poet's home. He 
 repeated with much relish the English version of a bit of Flemish 
 doggrel then circulated : 
 
 " Under our old Orange Head 
 We had butter with our bread : 
 Under Mynheer John De Potter 
 We have neither bread nor butter." 
 
 "The best Flemish poet," said Southey, "whom I ever met 
 with yet !" 
 
 From a letter of Dr. "Wordsworth's about a month later, Jan. 
 23, 1831, it appears that his brother was then with him in his 
 country rectory at Buxted. The friends had entertained a design 
 to employ the poet's pen in some political effort to alleviate the 
 dangers of the time; but it was without effect : 
 
 " What my brother is doing about the pamphlet," says Dr. Words- 
 worth, " I can hardly venture to say. Christopher and he have a great 
 deal of talk; and he is murmuring a good deal by himself; but that is, 
 I know, in part, poetical murmuring. I have not been well enough to 
 go out ; but he is out frequently, particularly at Lord Liverpool's, with 
 whom he walks and talks and dines continually. He wrote immediately 
 and urgently to Mr. Southey on the subject of an article for Bishop 
 Middleton in the ' Quarterly.' " 
 
 The poet and his brother were once on a visit to Sir George 
 Beaumont at Cole Orton, and taking a morning walk with 
 Francis Merewether, the Vicar, who was a great friend and ad- 
 mirer of the old Master : " Yours has been a life," he said, " which 
 hereafter should be worthily written." " Joshua Watson's," said 
 the Master, "is the life that should be written." " Yes," said 
 the poet, "it seems to me that in the Litany we ought to pray 
 for Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, and Joshua Watson." 
 
 It was at this period that the first steps were taken towards 
 the construction of what has since attained a kind of permanence 
 with all consecutive administrations, a Board of Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners. Joshua Watson had entered into the plan at 
 its first outset, not without hope of aiding towards a great public 
 benefit. He writes on Jan. 28 : 
 
 " I am satisfied with mv success on one point, on which I hope and 
 think you go with me. It is at length determined that a Royal Com-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 191 
 
 mission of Enquiry shall be issued ; that it shall be purely ecclesiastical 
 in its composition; that it shall embrace all variety of Church officers ; 
 and, I hope, be specifically restrained in its objects to the obtaining full 
 and accurate information on the state of Church revenues, with a view 
 to the suggestion of the best practical remedies for the evils of trans- 
 lations, pi unseemly commendanis, and offensive pluralities. In such 
 a Commission I think the Master of Trinity will work well ; and I hope 
 he would find good fellow-workers." 
 
 This Commission was more fully discussed in his correspon- 
 dence with Van Mildert; who seems about this time to have 
 conceived hopes that it would have been approved by Earl Grey, 
 the then Premier. He speaks of having been brought into com- 
 munication with him, when he found him "frank, disinterested, 
 and gracious." About two months later, however, in March, 
 1831, we find the plan was abandoned : 
 
 " The Commission," writes Joshua Watson, " is given up ; I believe 
 altogether given up: certainly in the only shape I thought it worth 
 having. And in lieu of it you are to be treated with a Bill of Restraint 
 upon Pluralities, perhaps with a Bill of Improvement of Residence; 
 certainly with one of Ecclesiastical Discipline ; and most probably with 
 one for the Composition of Tithes. Three of these I have seen, and 
 think they will have the common fate of all present measures pleasing 
 neither party." 
 
 The following is Joshua Watson's own draft of this Commission 
 of Enquiry. It bears a note in his own handwriting to the 
 effect that it had been first submitted to Van Mildert ; and when 
 Van Mildert after three days' consideration had returned it, de- 
 claring his own desire not to change a letter in it, it was then 
 passed on to Archbishop Howley, by whom it was equally ap- 
 proved, and by whom it was put into the hands of the Duke of 
 WeDington. The Duke approved of it : but it was stopped at 
 this point, not meeting the concurrence of Earl Grey : 
 
 "SCHEME. 
 
 " Commission from the Crown, to be obtained before the meeting of 
 Parliament, in order to prevent, if possible, Mr. Hume's Motion for 
 Committee or Commission of Enquiry; which, unless met by such 
 an answer as this will afford, Ministers can hardly, in the present state 
 of the Commons' feeling, turn aside. 
 
 "1. To consist exclusively of Ecclesiastics. Laymen would of necessity 
 be the Minister's nominees. This is a sine qua non: without it the 
 Church would be better without the Commission. The exclusion of 
 laics is indispensable to the very object of the Commission : otherwise 
 the measure will not be looked upon as a Church-measure ; it will be 
 considered either as forced upon the Church by Ministers, or as tamely 
 yielded by the Bench. On the one supposition the confidence of the
 
 1 92 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 clergy, in these days of general distrust, will be wanting to the measure ; 
 and on the other, what is far worse, it would be lost to their spiritual 
 governors. 
 
 " 2. To represent the several orders and interests in the Established 
 Church. About one-third bishops, and two-thirds members of capitular 
 bodies, archdeacons, heads of houses, and undignified incumbents. Per- 
 haps many of the selections to be made would include two or three of 
 these characters in one individual. 
 
 " 3. To be formed by the Premier out of a list prepared by the Primate. 
 The list to contain perhaps double the number required; that the 
 Minister, as representing the Crown, may choose and appoint, but not 
 introduce or admit. It is essential to the well working of the Com- 
 mission that it should have the confidence of Churchmen ; and this it 
 cannot have if Government do more than indulge their own preference 
 amongst persons recommended by the Archbishop and his council. 
 . "4. To be not less than eighteen, or more than twenty-four, in number. 
 It is important to limit the number, not merely because a few do busi- 
 ness better than many; but as the surest means of excluding unfit 
 persons from the final nomination. 
 
 "5. To be strictly limited in its objects, and fully provided with powers. 
 The limitation of objects is most desirable, as authorizing a declaration 
 of them, and so precluding the fears and jealousies which would inevit- 
 ably grow out of a general Commission of Enquiry, which can perhaps 
 no otherwise be precluded. 
 
 " 6. To have its objects declared to be the devising of fit and proper 
 re'inedies against frequent translations, commendams with cure of souls, or 
 other conflicting duties, and inconvenient pluralities ; and the reporting 
 thereof to the king. These perhaps are the spots most commonly seen. 
 An enquiry therefore instituted with a direct view to the reform of these 
 admitted evils cannot but be popular ; whilst its result will certainly 
 serve to remove the odium of them, in a great degree at least, from the 
 Church. 
 
 " 7. To be empowered, for these purposes, to enquire fully into the nature 
 and amount of Church-property, by calling for returns, and citing and 
 examining witnesses. The information thus collected and communicated 
 by authority will serve to disabuse the public mind of the gross prejudice 
 which prevails on this subject, and to establish the deep interest the 
 laity reallv have in maintaining the integrity of what yet remains to 
 the Church,. 
 
 "Each and every one of these points appears so essential that, rather 
 than bring any one of them into discussion, I would prefer to say, Here 
 is the plan which alone will ensure the confidence of the Church : and 
 that confidence is so indispensable to its prosperity at the present 
 moment, that we dare not risk the loss of it ; but would think it better 
 to bear the brunt of any assault, than to hazard a breach of the bonds 
 which yet bind the clergy to their bishops." 
 
 It is due to history, and to the design of this Memoir, to place 
 this document among the records of his life, as illustrating the 
 principles hy which that life was animated. Whether any Prime
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 193 
 
 Minister could, at that time, have safely proceeded towards reforms 
 in the Church by such gentle initiative steps as this document 
 marks out, may be doubtful : but it is certain, before any great 
 interval had elapsed, the inconvenience of proceeding without 
 previous enquiry was felt by some of those whose pens had been 
 before most sharply pointed against the abuses in question j and 
 it was time that such remonstrance should be heard. 
 
 At this period, however, the public zeal for reform was re- 
 garded, by many of the best men whom the Church numbered 
 in her ranks, as little else than a cloak for the designs of spolia- 
 tion. It cannot be said that there were no grounds for such 
 suspicions. The House of Commons had entertained proposals 
 which scarcely admitted of any other interpretation. The Irish 
 Church-property, about which there were the most vague reports 
 as to its extraordinary wealth, seemed already doomed. The 
 alarm of general confiscation had extended to Scotland, as was 
 manifested by the active part taken by Dr. Chalmers and other 
 Presbyterian clergymen in support of their establishment. The 
 coarse vehemence of Cobbett was employed on the side of de- 
 struction in some of the latest efforts of his pen; and Hugh 
 J. Rose had taken up his pen to answer him in his " Letters to 
 the Sussex Farmers." 
 
 It is difficult to do justice to the active zeal which this re- 
 markable man brought to the cause of order and public safety. 
 What is certain is, that from the time that he came forward 
 there has been no interval during which the Church has been in 
 want of well- organized literary support in that kind of periodical 
 literature, which is so needful for the changeful exigencies of the 
 day. The " British Magazine," which he established about this 
 time, was at once accepted by the Church as supplying a public 
 want. Some of the ablest rising men in the Universities became 
 contributors. The sacred poetry of the Lyra Apostolica first 
 appeared in its pages; and while he remained to advise and 
 guide, there was union and strength in the calm reasons and 
 practical prudence with which it treated the questions of the day. 
 For several successive years it continued to afford this service. 
 Subsequently his declining health made it imperative upon him 
 to relinquish it; and it came into the superintendence of his 
 friend, Dr. S. R. Maitland, by whom its literary character was 
 fully sustained. When Dr. Maitland had devolved the duty 
 into other hands, it did not command the same attention : the 
 phases of controversy had changed, and other periodical publica- 
 tions had arisen. When it no longer served the ends for which it 
 had been instituted, it was suffered to disappear. 
 
 As a few notices were preserved of Hugh J. Rose by those
 
 194 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 who at this time enjoyed his society at Park-street, and as 
 it is now perhaps too late to expect that a man, whose memory 
 might otherwise well claim it, will find a biographer of his own, 
 they shall be here inserted. Being asked his opinion of Bishop 
 Butler's "Analogy," he said: "The best answer I can give is, 
 that my own copy is worn out by frequent use. It is a book 
 that grows more and more upon you, as you become intimate 
 with it." This led to a conversation on the subject of Evidences. 
 " There are many minds which seem happy and safe in them- 
 selves without the study of such arguments ; and some appear to 
 shrink from the study, as suggestive of doubts which they have 
 never felt. But if I had the charge of the education of a young 
 enquiring spirit, I should think it my duty to provide all safe- 
 guards against danger." 
 
 He was a warm admirer of the theological writings of John 
 Miller, whom he conceived, as well as John Keble, to be deeply 
 imbued with the spirit of Wordsworth. In this high estimate 
 lie is now known to have been supported by the discriminating 
 judgment of Robert Southey. Those who were happy enough to 
 know the varied powers of mind and thought by which John 
 Miller was distinguished in private life, will bear witness to the 
 impressive wisdom and deep reason which pervaded his corre- 
 spondence and conversation; but as the privation of deafness, 
 under which he laboured, impaired the full effect of these 
 powers in the social circle, so the peculiarities of a somewhat 
 involved style have interfered to some extent with the popular 
 acceptance of his published works. His thoughts flowed faster 
 than his words, and his sentences are broken by parenthetic 
 reflections, shewing the meditations of a mind conversing with 
 itself, rather than the labour of one who sought to attract 
 a reader by any art of arrangement or composition. But, as Rose 
 said equally of Miller and Keble, " A time will come when we 
 shall be envied for having possessed such men in our day." 
 
 He could find relief under public anxiety in sacred poetry, 
 and spoke of Cowper as one of his sources of comfort : 
 
 " The nightingale in the hymn, ' Tar from the world, O Lord, I flee,' 
 especially pleases me. But I cannot always read Cowper. His melan- 
 choly, though morbid, was so real, and the pathos of his language goes 
 so directly from the heart to the heart, that, having passed the age 
 when. ' sad. fancies we affect,' I cannot always bear it." 
 
 Of Robert Wilson Evans and the "Rectory of Valehead," he 
 said : 
 
 " Our feeling towards the book is rather complex. We like it very 
 much, like it for its poetry, like it lor its purity, like it for its piety.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 195 
 
 But we must allow that, as a picture of real life, I mean of any thing 
 attainable in real life, even by the best Christian, it is an imagination, 
 I only wish that all fellows of colleges dreamt such beautiful dreams of 
 this work-day world. Nor do I say this as an objection to the book in 
 one sense : for I am far from thinking that an acquaintance with the 
 views which a pure and pious mind presents to itself of human life and 
 its possibilities is without its profit, as I am sure it is not without its 
 pleasure. The only thing is, to guard those who may not know the 
 truth against supposing that those persons among whom they may be 
 thrown are bad men and worse Christians, because they do not resemble 
 the imaginary pictures which have been presented to them." 
 
 To this period belongs a little reprint, made by Joshua Watson, 
 of the Introduction to the " Holy Living" of Jeremy Taylor ; 
 and a small volume of Devotions selected from the same store- 
 house followed in 1831 : 
 
 "I have furnished myself," wrote his friend Sir John Richardson, 
 " with some copies of your judicious selections from the evangelical 
 Jeremy Taylor. I never use the epithet but with due reverence. The 
 oftener I read him, the more I am satisfied of the excellence of his 
 tnethod of recommending holiness to the heart and imagination, as well 
 as to the understanding of frail man, by dwelling on the infinite love and 
 condescension of our gracious Father, in taking so much pains to make 
 it attainable, if not easy ; and by mixing it up with every act and duty 
 of ordinary life, so as to make every hour spent in the world, as well 
 as in the closet, when sanctified by its motive, an act of religion and 
 obedience. I have often wished to hear Christianity inculcated trom the 
 pulpit on this principle. How different was the impression left on the 
 heart from that sort of hopelessness, which you perhaps felt I am sure 
 I felt it after the first perusal of Law's ' Serious Call.' " 
 
 Sir John Richardson also confirmed the very high estimation 
 in which Joshua "Watson held the Ductor Dubitantium. They 
 considered it to be among the greatest of Taylor's writings, and 
 used to say that some of our most eminent lawyers had owned 
 themselves to be greatly indebted to it. 
 
 It was about this time that Joshua "Watson took a lively 
 interest in opposing a proposition made at the Society for Pro- 
 moting Christian Knowledge, to place a well-known manual of 
 the pious Dissenter, Dr. Isaac "Watts, on the list of the Society. 
 Van Mildert's letters shew that he was in correspondence with 
 him on this question, and shared his objections to the principle 
 of admitting a separatist to a place among the Church's teachers. 
 The proposition was rejected, very much on the reasons which 
 Joshua Watson delivered at the meeting on June 7, 1831 : of 
 which we have probably the substance in the following letter, 
 written by him shortly afterwards to a member of the Standing 
 Committee who had supported it:
 
 196 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "Mr DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I regret more than I can well express the discussion of last Tuesday ; 
 not from any difficulty in the question, but from the differences it has 
 a tendency to create amongst chief friends. For the question is one 
 which will appear to both sides so easy to be settled, that neither, I fear, 
 will be ready to do justice to the motives and feelings of the other. For 
 my own part, however, I own I have so much respect and regard for 
 those who divided from me on that occasion, that I cannot help shortly 
 stating to you the grounds on which I found myself compelled to act. 
 The question, I confess, came unexpectedly upon me : and, because of 
 some of its foreseen consequences, I was sorry that it had been raised. 
 But, when once raised, not on the merits of a book, or the worth of its 
 author, but upon a general principle, 1 felt I had no choice. To my 
 apprehension, no point can be more self-evident than that nothing short 
 of necessity, nothing but that spiritual destitution which amounts almost 
 to a famine of the words of instruction, could justify a Society like ours 
 in sending its members to be taught by ministers of dissenting com- 
 munions. This, one would think, might well-nigh be taken for granted. 
 No separatists, none but well-affected members of the Establishment, 
 can, by its fundamental principles, set a foot in its council-room, or take 
 part in its deliberations. Is it possible, therefore, that they may b 
 seated in our chair and go forth as teachers of the people, under our 
 authority and at pur expense ? Can this be, if there be such a thing as 
 consistency in principle or practice ? The case seemed so impossible to 
 be supposed, that it is, like parricide in the old Roman law, not even 
 provided against by statute; whilst the mind of the Society is to be 
 read by every one that runs, in her invariable, uudeviating practice on 
 this point for more than one hundred and thirty years. Ihroughout 
 this long range not a single precedent is to be found in her proceedings, 
 or her catalogues, as far as I have been able to enquire ; for the ad- 
 mission of the ' Divine Songs' is any thing but a precedent ; so perfectly 
 unique is the subject and nature of the case. So that only a necessity 
 such as no one can pretend, superseding law and practice, could warrant 
 any other decision than that to which the question was brought, or 
 justify a vote which, by formally admitting the instruction of the Dis- 
 senter, would have virtually proclaimed the incompetency of our good 
 mother to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord. 
 
 " I confess to you, I am not a little j'ealous on this point : so jealous 
 indeed that, although not unaware how illiberal, and narrow-minded, 
 and anti-catholic this feeling may be thought by many, and by some 
 whom I love and respect, I could almost desire, since the doubt has 
 been raised, that the point should be settled and the law publicly 
 declared. Any thing seems better than this perpetual liability to agita- 
 tion and dissension among ourselves. The principle is a broad one; 
 and the Society, I verily believe, would be found ready to take its stand 
 upon it when fairly laid down. Nor do I think that you, my dear Sir, 
 if you looked at it in one of your clear lights, would long hesitate to 
 entertain the same view. But that we may see alike, we must look 
 from the same point. Do not then, I pray you, mistake my ground.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 197 
 
 I consider the subject simply as an S. P. C. K. question; and I do not 
 conceive that the most bigoted, among those who had the pain of differ- 
 ing from you on Tuesday, would, if they could, prevent the printing or 
 proscribe the publishing, or even forego the perusal of Watts, Doddridge, 
 Baxter, and numberless other worthies, whom we might be happy to 
 imitate, as I think Johnson said with reference to Watts, in their 
 piety, and charity, and benevolence, in everything except their non- 
 conformity. 
 
 " The question, then, is reduced to this, in my apprehension at least, 
 Is it, or is it not, fitting that S. P. C. K., not only essentially, but ex- 
 clusively, a Church Society, shall place a Dissenter in her chair of re- 
 ligious instruction ; shall give her sanction to teachers not of her own 
 communion, and employ her funds in forcing the circulation of Dissent- 
 ing tracts ? This really seems to me the question ; and not whether 
 Watts be a classic and orthodox Dissenter, who may be safely read; 
 nor even whether his respectable recommenders may chance to be dis- 
 pleased at our non-acceptance. This consequence, however, I should 
 be most anxious to avoid, as I hope I always shall be to avoid any 
 unnecessary occasion of offence. And here surely your healing counsel 
 may be heard with effect. If the recommenders are, as you speak of 
 them, persons who deserve particular attention, surely you can have 
 little difficulty in satisfying them that they have really no ground of 
 complaint against S. P. C. K., if she has been unwilling to break her 
 uniform practice, and to let in a new principle of action, out of mere 
 respect to names and of compliment to a tract, of which the Christian 
 world has been in full possession for at least a century, without any one 
 of her members ever thinking it 'requisite to promote the designs of 
 the Society.' 
 
 "Think of this, my good friend, and see what you can do to prevent 
 a breach. Let not our house, if you can prevent it, be divided against 
 itself. And personally, I will add, let not such questions separate be- 
 tween you and yours ever faithfully, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 It is 'remembered how on another occasion, in a conversation 
 on such a question as this, when a friend had urged that the 
 Israelites at a time of need went down to the Philistines to 
 sharpen their axes and ploughshares, his rejoinder was, "Yes; 
 but it was only when there was no smith to be found in Israel." 
 
 The effect of such a letter could scarcely fail to be conciliatory. 
 The friend to whom it was addressed was one of the most earnest 
 in his condolence with Joshua Watson shortly afterwards, when 
 he was in the midst of his domestic affliction ; and he joined his 
 affectionate entreaty that he would return, as soon as he could 
 satisfy his sense of piety and natural sorrow, "to those great 
 duties, though voluntarily undertaken, which Christ and His 
 Church had called him to discharge. The Church," he said, 
 " as you know, requires your care, and will repay you in comfort
 
 198 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and blessing a thousand-fold. I cannot help saying that I know 
 no one to whom our blessed Saviour has entrusted higher privi- 
 leges than yourself. May that blessed One, from whose store 
 of blessed solace you have drawn and imparted to others, and 
 amongst others to myself, still be your comfort, and stay, and 
 guide." 
 
 But the feeling with which Joshua "Watson inspired his oppo- 
 nents is perhaps still more remarkably displayed in the following 
 letter from the same quarter : 
 
 "Mr DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I have thought again and again over the words which I intended to 
 use on Wednesday, and the interpretation put upon those which I did 
 employ ; and although unquestionably they were made to convey what 
 I never intended to utter, yet an explanation of them is by no means 
 my object in this letter ; for I was drawn to express myself too strongly 
 and too hastily. This, however, is not the point to which the sincere 
 feelings of my heart compel me to advert now. I cannot let another 
 day pass without assuring you, that if, as I fear, any word escaped me 
 which gave you pain, I regret it as deeply as if I had uttered it to my 
 own mother. Among all your friends ana admirers there is not one who 
 respects you more profoundly, or loves you more sincerely, than myself. 
 I do not ask your pardon, because I know you gave it immediately ; 
 nor do I express a hope that your kind feelings towards me may not be 
 quenched, because I inferred the contrary from your own expressions. 
 All I wish is to unburden my mind by confessing to you the pain with 
 which words that gave you pain have ever since filled my mind ; and to 
 express my hope that no sense of duty may hereafter betray me into 
 such an appearance Heaven knows it was an appearance only of un- 
 kiudness towards so dear a friend again." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Church in India. The Ecclesiastical Commission. Joshua Watson, 
 resigns his Treasurership of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge. The Address to the Primate, and Declaration of Lay Members 
 of the Church in 1833, '34. 
 
 THE change which had come over his now solitary home did 
 not drive a mind like Joshua "Watson's to seek relief in a re- 
 tirement from public calls to duty. "We find him shortly again 
 engaged in schemes for the same sacred cause to which his ener- 
 gies had so long been devoted. 
 
 The fatal rapidity with which Bishop Heber and his two next 
 successors had fallen victims to the climate of India, was pain-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 199 
 
 fully felt by one who had done so much to promote the mission 
 of the first English bishop to that great empire. It seemed as if 
 the work must be interrupted by these successive losses ; and it 
 called forth some very earnest complaints in his letters to his 
 friends. " Give me your counsel," he says to Dr. "Wordsworth, 
 " and tell me, if you can, what is to be done for India. Are we 
 thus to offer sacrifice after sacrifice to the Mammon of Leaden- 
 hall-street ? victim after victim to this Juggernaut of Europe ? to 
 go on sending forth one after another never to return?" Such 
 words can only give a faint impression of the trial still to be 
 undergone before the frugal charity of courts of directors and 
 cautious policy of boards of control were brought to consent to 
 measures more becoming the character of a Christian nation and 
 government. 
 
 He was now, in December, 1831, interesting himself equally 
 in efforts for the West Indies, where a fearful hurricane had 
 visited some of the islands with ruinous devastation. He com- 
 plains to Dr. Wordsworth of the parsimony of Cambridge in 
 answering to his call : " What ! has your Caput taken snuff or 
 pepper in the nose, that when an Oxford college votes 100, and 
 a poor little West Indian island gives its 1,000 sterling, and its 
 2,500 West Indian currency, it rejects a grace for 200 ? Proh 
 pudor ! what a lame and impotent conclusion !" 
 
 It is indeed evident, from the affectionate remonstrances of his 
 friends at this period, that he was exerting himself beyond his 
 bodily powers ; and Hugh Rose in particular earnestly exhorted 
 him to allow himself a more lengthened interval of rest. A wear- 
 ing cough seemed to be exhausting the strength of a frame which 
 had never been robust. But, as another correspondent said of 
 him, his case was like that of a physician in full practice, living 
 at the mercy of those who were constantly seeking his advice. 
 
 " I have bored you successfully but unmercifully," says Archdeacon 
 Bayley. " I do assure you it has not been through forgetfulness of 
 your painful endurance, but in the firm and deep conviction that, if the 
 Church was to be saved under the present danger, it was to be done 
 through you. In te domm inclinata recumbit. I shall never despair 
 while you are spared to us. Once more you have put us in the right 
 way ; and may you live to see Heaven's blessing on your good work 1" 
 
 He was watching with much anxiety the first measures of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission. The resolution taken in the outset, 
 to make no reports of their proceedings till their plans of re- 
 formation were prepared, filled him with serious apprehensions. 
 His own suggestion was, that a set of questions should have been 
 prepared, to which the clergy might have given answers ; and in
 
 2oo Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 this way the grounds of the changes in agitation would have 
 come before the public before legislation was attempted. This 
 suggestion was also supported by Van Hildert. But the com- 
 missioners, "marching on in double quick time," as he speaks of 
 it, could not wait for such deliberate advice. Indeed, their haste 
 was such as to give an appearance of unworthy fear in the 
 progress of their measures, as was pointed out with the well- 
 remembered caustic humour of Sydney Smith. 
 
 Joshua Watson had not ceased to regret that the composition 
 of the Board had been such as to exclude the greater portion of 
 the bishops, and to embody such an unequal proportion of the 
 lay element. "Assuredly," he said of it long afterwards, "it 
 ought on every account to have had much more of an ecclesi- 
 astical character in its first concoction, especially when it is con- 
 sidered that all its recommendations were to be referred to secular 
 decision. But if the axiom of our philosophic statesman be true, 
 we must be ready to give up as undesirable whatever we see to 
 be impracticable ; and therefore I say no more on that point." 
 The justice of this view has been now for some time admitted, 
 and all the bishops are, by virtue of their office, members of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission. 
 
 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had now es- 
 tablished its Committee of General Literature and Education; 
 which has been sustained to the present time, not without benefit 
 to the classes for whose service it was designed. But its com- 
 mission, not being at first very clearly pointed out, there were 
 some proposals put forth which might have led to inconvenience, 
 had not Joshua Watson and H. H. Norris remonstrated, particu- 
 larly one which contemplated the issue of cheap Commentaries 
 on the Bible in penny numbers. The friends were not un- 
 naturally startled at a scheme which implied such presumptuous 
 haste in its promoters. They were jealous for the character of 
 the old Society, and would not have her credit compromised by an 
 inconsiderate effort in a matter of such importance, in which 
 "neither friend nor foe would excuse a failure." Besides, it 
 was not for the Committee of General Literature to undertake 
 what was only to be properly sanctioned by the central authority 
 of the Society. 
 
 One may regret that, under the various difficulties attending 
 this design, it seemed as if the popular Commentary was never to 
 be prepared; but we may judge of the degree of discretion which 
 had dictated these proposals by another which followed from the 
 same quarter, for a poetical version of the Epistles and Gospels. 
 It was surely needful for the proposers to be asked to consider 
 Marvel's "Lines to the Poet of ' Paradise Lost.' "
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 201 
 
 Joshua Watson's official connection with the Society was now 
 drawing to a close. On the 2nd of July, 1833, it was announced 
 at a meeting, at which Archbishop Howley presided, that he 
 found it necessary to resign his duties as treasurer. Bishop 
 Blomfield had written to him a few months earlier to ask him to 
 defer this step, seeming to suppose that he had determined upon 
 it from some differences of opinion between them : 
 
 "I do most earnestly entreat," he says, "that you will not forsake 
 us ; for I am perfectly sincere when I assure you that, in the present 
 unsettled state of men's feelings and opinions, I do not think our two 
 great Societies can go on well without the balance which is supplied by 
 your experience and judgment. I am quite sure, that even those indi- 
 viduals who have been most opposed to your views on some important 
 questions would be among the first to deprecate your retirement from 
 among them." 
 
 It was, however, no personal regard to his own influence 
 which had any weight in his decision ; but a growing conviction, 
 from the experience of continual bodily weakness and suffering, 
 that his health was no longer equal to duties which he had 
 always discharged with close and anxious attention. He did not 
 cease for the rest of his life to consult for the good Society's wel- 
 fare ; and he was now cheered by the Primate's coming forward 
 to take a more prominent part, as President, in its proceedings : 
 but the period of near twenty years devoted to such self-denying 
 labour might well plead for an honourable release, prompted 
 only by a fear that his powers were not likely to sustain him 
 under it as before. 
 
 On this occasion Archbishop Howley spoke with much feel- 
 ing: 
 
 " There had never been an occasion, on which the best interests of 
 Church and State could be advanced or secured, when Mr. Watson had 
 not been among the foremost, both with his means and with his counsels, 
 to aid their cause. His genuine piety and unaffected benevolence had 
 secured to him the esteem and affection of all who, like the members of 
 their board, had opportunities of estimating their influence. His sound 
 understanding guided him at once to discern and deteimine what should 
 and what might be done; and his diligence and courtesy ensured the 
 hearty co-operation of his fellow -labourers." 
 
 He dwelt upon his firmness in essentials and absence of any- 
 thing like pertinacity on points of less importance. None of the 
 Societies to which he lent his assistance had suffered any loss 
 through his want of pains or vigilance : 
 
 " For himself he could say, that from no man had he received such
 
 202 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 ready and judicious counsel, or such friendly assistance, free from the 
 smallest taint of selfishness, and guided with the most unaffected and 
 retiring humility." 
 
 Bishop Blomfield followed with terms of equal affectionate 
 veneration. And Van Mildert confirmed all by appealing to the 
 experience of forty years of his own uninterrupted friendship 
 with him. Joshua Watson could not prevail upon himself to 
 encounter such a scene by being present ; but a record of it was 
 preserved by the affection of his brother : 
 
 " You and I," he wrote to his niece, " are perhaps the only persons 
 who can properly appreciate the truth of all that was said, and who, if 
 we had been less nearly connected with the object of these high and 
 well-earned commendations, could have added largely to all which fell 
 even from the lips of our kind and good Archbishop and the Bishop of 
 Durham, and which were so well and impressively delivered. I think 
 the Archbishop must have been quite inspired by his subject ; for 
 I never remember him to have spoken so eloquently. But what en- 
 deared so much all that was said by them, and I may very justly add, 
 by the Bishop of London also, was the abundant proof afforded by them, 
 that it was not the language of compliment, but the undisguised con- 
 victions of the heart, to which they gave utterance in all its fulness." 
 
 A report of what had taken place having been sent to 
 Joshua Watson at Guilsborough, called forth the following 
 characteristic letter : 
 
 1833. 
 "Mr DEAREST BROTHER, 
 
 " It would be as idle to dissemble, as it is hard to express, the feel- 
 ings of high and pure gratification with which I read your despatch this 
 morning, warm as it came from a heart always full of affection, and 
 always too kind in its judgment. For the glow thus thrown over 
 the whole picture I know how to make all due allowance : but, this 
 done, there still remains enough to put me to shame for the infinite dis- 
 tance between the portraiture of the Archbishop and the lineaments of 
 the original. 
 
 " On the subject itself I can no more speak than you could yesterday. 
 Most unfeigneoly do I feel it such an overpayment for everything but 
 what I intended and desired, that I can hardly receive it without 
 trembling. At my time of life, and with diminished powers, it would 
 be vain to add that I will try to deserve it : I can only say that I am, 
 and ever must be, deeply grateful for it to those who poured the 
 precious oil upon my head, and not less to those who so affectionately 
 rejoice in it. But while I am thus thankful to all His instruments, my 
 heart overflows with gratitude to the great Giver of all my good, whose 
 loving-kindness has followed me all the days of my life, even from my 
 mother's womb, ' to hoar hairs carrying me,' and who, though He has 
 removed the crown of all my earthly joys, lest I should indeed think it
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 203 
 
 good for me to be here, has that treasure still, I humbly but fairly trust, 
 in His holy keeping, and may even now permit her (is there harm in 
 thinking so ?) to joy in the joy of those she so dearly loved. But I will 
 not trust myself on this topic : I will only again repeat that I am, with 
 all devout thankfulness, most affectionately yours, 
 
 "J.W." 
 
 The period was that of the suppression of the Irish bishoprics, 
 to which allusion is made in a letter of Van Mildert's : 
 
 " The detestable Bill stands for our second reading on Monday next. 
 Sorely to my vexation and annoyance, I postpone my journey to the 
 North till the first night of the debate is gone by, intending to tell my 
 mind to their Lordships as briefly and temperately as I can, and then 
 leave my proxy in safe keeping, in case the debate be prolonged to an- 
 other night. The worst is, the probability that I may find myself in 
 collision with the person of all others from whom I should most 
 reluctantly differ. You know whom I mean. But I cannot help it : 
 again and again have I considered the matter, and can see only one 
 course open to me consistently with integrity or a safe conscience, or 
 with my notions of sound policy and discretion. You may be assured, 
 however, that my utmost endeavours shall be used to give no just 
 occasion for offence to opponents or to friend." 
 
 The event seems to have been such as to remove his apprehen- 
 sions in the particular instance to which he alludes, as Joshua 
 "Watson in his reply congratulates him on the unexpected ally 
 whom he found in the Primate, as well as on the stand which he 
 had so nobly made against a measure which they regarded as in- 
 volving principles of spoliation. 
 
 In the autumn of this year we find him in correspondence with 
 H. H. Norris, on an association which he had learnt to be in 
 progress of formation at Oxford, to resist some expected project 
 for reforming the Liturgy. This is nearly the earliest mention 
 that occurs in his papers of the band of friends whose labours in 
 many following years had such, remarkable influence on the 
 Church and University, resulting in the publication of the 
 " Tracts for the Times" and the controversies arising from their 
 publication, attesting the general anxiety excited by the un- 
 certain prospect of the Church's temporal position, from the dis- 
 covery and recognition of some deeper and more permanent prin- 
 ciples of union. The first public step to which this association 
 led was a preparation of an Address to the Primate, expressive of 
 respect for his personal character, and gratitude for the firmness 
 and discretion which he had evinced in a season of difficulty and 
 danger ; and pledging the subscribers to a cheerful co-operation 
 and dutiful support to him in carrying out any measures which, 
 while they preserved inviolate the apostolical polity of the Church
 
 204 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and the doctrine embodied in the Prayer-book, might tend to 
 revive primitive discipline, strengthen the connection between 
 clergy and people, and promote the purity, efficiency, and unity 
 of the whole body. This Address was in a short time signed by 
 more than seven thousand of the clergy. When the subject was 
 first mentioned to Joshua Watson, it seems to have been regarded 
 with feelings of a mixed nature. He had not been altogether 
 satisfied with Archbishop Howley's part in the Ecclesiastical 
 Commission; but his hesitation also arose from convictions, 
 which continued to appear in his conversation and correspondence 
 to the close of his life. He was deeply impressed with the earnest 
 zeal, the learning, and talents of the Oxford confederates. Some 
 of their writings, and especially some of J. H. Newman's earlier 
 sermons, he read with genuine admiration ; but he felt that there 
 was something unfixed in their aims and enquiries, something 
 which wanted guidance, but could not find, or acquiesce in the 
 counsels of, a needful guide. 
 
 " Langton, near Tunbridge Wells, Oct. 24, 1833. 
 " Ml DEAK NOBRIS, 
 
 " If you can call to mind John Whitaker's opening to his ' History of 
 Arianism,' you will read therein a good answer to your enquiry as to my 
 present state and condition, perhaps not quite asleep, but very little 
 willing to be disturbed or roused to any kind of exertion ; still, however, 
 I hope more from inability than from indifference. The truth is, as 
 I was obliged to confess the other day to tlie Bishop of Durham, I feel 
 the infirmities of premature age are come upon me, and find myself so 
 slow in apprehension and conception, in expression and action, as to be 
 greatly indisposed to exertion either of body or mind, and to be out of 
 humour wil h every person or thing that would move me to either. You 
 will understand, therefore, the spirit in which I set about the indispen- 
 sable duty of replying to your letter just received, and make the neces- 
 sary allowances tor the influence it will probably have on the answer you 
 call for. First, I want mateiials for an opinion. No prospectus has 
 reached me, and I know not what kind of reform is supposed by the 
 associators, nor by what kind of opposition it is intended to be met. 
 But there is also, prima facie, an objection to the unauthorized character 
 of the measure, until some sort of sanction, express or implied, be ob- 
 tained from the heads of the Church. There may, indeed, be a reluctance 
 on their part to speak on this occasion ; and there will be occasions in 
 which they may be glad to have that done, of which they may be able to 
 say when done, that it was done without reference to them : but still, 
 can you, who are in the habit of such frequent communication with all 
 whose counsel is worth having, act in a matter of this moment without 
 assuring yourself in some sort that you do not go against their wishes 
 and their judgments ? I trow not. Bayley talked to me some short 
 time since of a plan for bringing the clergy to a general declaration of 
 opinion, in a general Address to the Primate, expressive of their concur-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 205 
 
 rence in all that he had effected, and their confidence in his zeal and dis- 
 cretion, and devotion to the Church in all that he contemplated. Such 
 a declaration, if attainable in the present state of the clergy without 
 compromise, would doubtless strengthen the hands of the Archbishop, 
 and comfort him amazingly ; but I fear, in losing the advantage I was 
 most anxious he should make of the Ecclesiastical Commission, he let 
 the best, if not the only, opportunity for doiii" this well go by. If you 
 have not seen Bayley, I wish you would see him on this subject before 
 his month of residence is out. 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 H. H. Norris begins his answer : 
 
 " MY DEAR JOSHTJA, 
 
 " I well remember the passage to which you refer. It is one which 
 we admired and committed to memory together in those hours of sweet 
 counsel at Guilsborough, when the spring-time of life was smiling on us, 
 and the thing furthest from our thoughts was its present application. 
 In that application, however, is conveyed the most powerful call you 
 could make on me to disturb your slumber ; and so I occupy some of my 
 time in the discharge of this great act of charity." 
 
 He then goes on to explain the objects of the proposed associa- 
 tion, to which he had already sent in his adhesion. But he adds, 
 that he thinks the promoters of it were desirous of deliberate 
 counsel " in forming the terms of a solid union of such a character, 
 that those of their superiors who were true to their calling 
 should find a body formed to which they could appeal, and which 
 they could call to their support in the day of trial." 
 
 " It is no common occasion," he wrote again : " indeed, I know not 
 one that has occurred during our whole course of service where all the 
 experience and judgment that can be had is so much needed." 
 
 A rough draft of the Address was now sent up from Oxford ; 
 and it is evident that he was shortly afterwards closely and 
 earnestly engaged in the business with Dr. Wordsworth, Arch- 
 deacon Bayley, H. H. Norris, Rose, and Lyall, and all whose co- 
 operation in measures approved at Park-street was now almost 
 habitual. The only detailed account of this movement which has 
 yet appeared, as far as the present writer is aware, is the Rev. 
 William Palmer's Narrative", published ten years later. The 
 learned and diligent controversialist who wrote it could not well 
 escape the difficulties besetting a man who makes himself the 
 
 u A Narrative of Events connected with the Publication of the Tracts 
 for the Times. By the Rev. William Palmer, M.A., of Worcester College. 
 Oiford, 1843.
 
 206 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 hero of his own tale. It is also written with some tendency to 
 that vehemence and exaggeration which is apt to pervade the 
 eloquent narratives of natives of the sister country. But it is 
 a record of the impressions of one who took a lively interest in 
 the proceedings, animated by a warm resentment of what he 
 believed to be the beginning of desolation to the Irish Church 1 . 
 
 Mr. Palmer says that he himself drew up the form of Address 
 to the Archbishop, but that it was " communicated to the most 
 influential of their friends in London for revision." This is the 
 only intimation which his pages afford of the benefits which his 
 original draft appears to have received from this reference. It 
 seems to have been revised by a quartet of friends who met in 
 Park-street ; and Joshua Watson, speaking of the result in 
 a letter of Nov. 1, says, "My great object was to prevent the 
 reproach of unqualified opposition to all reform, without ad- 
 mitting the necessity of any ; and in effecting this, to make as 
 much use as possible of what had been got up at Oxford." 
 Probably the precise character and amount of the alterations 
 cannot now be ascertained. But it was after this revision that 
 it was put into circulation, and obtained that remarkable support 
 which could not have been secured without a persuasion on the 
 part of the clergy that the public danger called for some such act 
 of faithful concord, and that the paper was well adapted to the 
 emergency. It is to the praise of the Oxford associates that they 
 were the original promoters of so seasonable an expression of faith 
 and duty ; and it is no less to their praise that they yielded so 
 far to the advice of those who, to an equal zeal for the common 
 safety, added a more mature experience of public measures. 
 
 The project of a new association was shortly afterwards relin- 
 quished ; and perhaps this also was in some measure owing to 
 the advice of Joshua "Watson. " I have the greatest possible con- 
 fidence," he said, " in the principles and talents of its founders ; 
 but I cannot escape the conviction of the disagreeable alternative. 
 If it fails, it will be an injurious demonstration of weakness ; if 
 it flourishes, it will be a sadly unmanageable body, a body with- 
 out a head, presbyters without bishops, at once acephalous and 
 anomalous 7 ." 
 
 T It is certain that Joshua Watson expressed surprise at the air of 
 a party-movement ascribed to the preparation of the Address in Mr. 
 Palmer's Narrative, and the inclination to make a great era of the year 
 1833. " I am only solicitous," he said, " to get rid of all the history of 
 the agitation." For this reason he had deprecated the publication of 
 the Narrative itself. 
 
 ' Compare the words of Robert Southey in Mr. Palmer's Narrative, 
 p. 92 : "I do not perceive how such an association is to act. It is not
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 207 
 
 He expresses himself more fully in a letter written at the close 
 of November to Lyall, who was then Archdeacon of Colchester : 
 
 " I had prayed Norris earnestly to lay before his correspondents the 
 danger alike of success or failure, for I knew not at this time which 
 would be worst for the Church. They were, however, too far committed 
 to be open to such counsel as would have suspended all action ; their 
 ' Suggestions' were already in circulation, though I had not seen them, 
 and many promises of support had poured in upon them 1 . And 
 when such men as Keble, Newman, Palmer, and others were once up 
 and stirring, it was little likely they would be put down by one who had 
 never been applied to for an opinion, or that counsels of expediency 
 would prevail with these high-minded men over the dictates of duty. 
 Something, therefore, was to be done, and so done as to unite as much 
 as might be those whom an association would be sure to disjoin. And 
 for this, nothing seemed to me so promising as an Address to the 
 Primate. It allowed a declaration of principle without its appearing 
 a mere gratuitous act, for the Archbishop had earned the confidence and 
 gratitude of the clergy; and it involved neither a denial nor an ad- 
 mission of the question of reform; but by expressing thanks for the 
 past and trust for the future, it bespoke the clergy to be such as the 
 Archdeacon of Colchester, in his Essex Charge, had assumed them to 
 be. It is true, that in the various revisions and modifications the paper 
 has undergone, it does not effect this so completely as was intended ; 
 but I do hope that it says enough to satisfy most people, and enough 
 perhaps to excite our admiration of the readiness with which the first 
 movers of the association have come down from their own high ground 
 to meet us. But above all, I hope that you, my dear friend, will see in 
 it, with all its imperfections, enough of the spirit in which it is conceived, 
 of its tendency to strengthen the hands and comfort the heart of the 
 Archbishop and to unite the great body of the clergy in one general 
 demonstration, without any compromises of opinion or feeling of invi- 
 diousness towards their own bishops, enough of all this, 1 hope, to 
 ensure your hearty concurrence and support. It was certainly with 
 these views that I returned to the Address, not as connected with, but 
 as superseding, associations, tract circulations, &c., altogether; and 
 with these views, until better advised, I shall be very much inclined to 
 recommend subscription to all who ask my opinion. The direction has 
 been strictly to avoid every approach, save a personal friendly one, to 
 the officers of the Church, and everything which could give an air of 
 authoritative interference to the application for names. For it was to be 
 an expression of opinion made spontaneously, or it would be nothing 
 worth. It was not, however, intended that the officers should be ex- 
 eluded from the general muster-roll of the Church ; and it is hoped that 
 they will not desire it." 
 
 likely that it should avert the evils that are intended ; and certainly it will 
 prepare the way tor a reaction." Van Mildert's advice was to the same 
 effect. 
 
 1 See Southey's letter to John Miller, in his Life and Correspondence, 
 vol. vi. p. 221.
 
 208 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The Clerical Address was immediately followed by a Lay 
 Declaration, which in a short time received the signatures of 
 230,000 heads of families. It was drawn up in the following 
 form : 
 
 "At a time when the Clergy of England and Wales have felt it 
 their duty to address their Primate with an expression of unshaken 
 adherence to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of which they 
 are ministers, We, the undersigned, as lay-members of the same, are 
 not less anxious to record our firm attachment to her pure faith and 
 worship, and her apostolic form of government. 
 
 " We further find ourselves called upon, by the events which are daily 
 passing around us, to declare our firm conviction that the consecration 
 of the State by the public maintenance of the Christian religion is the 
 first and paramount duty of a Christian people ; and that the Church 
 established in these realms, by carrying its sacred and beneficial in- 
 fluences through all orders and degrees, and into every corner of the land, 
 has for many ages been the great and distinguishing blessing of this 
 country, and the means, under Divine Providence, no less of national 
 prosperity than of individual piety. 
 
 "In the preservation, therefore, of this our national Church in the 
 integrity of her rights and privileges, and in her alliance with the 
 State, we feel that we have an interest no less real and no less direct 
 than her immediate ministers ; and we accordingly avow our firm deter- 
 mination to do all that, in us lies, in our several stations, to uphold 
 unimpaired in its security and efficiency that Establishment which we 
 have received as the richest legacy of our forefathers, and desire to 
 hand down as the best inheritance to our posterity." 
 
 It is stated by Mr. Palmer in his Narrative, that this Declara- 
 tion was prepared in London by a layman, "whose virtues, 
 abilities, and munificence had for many years procured for him 
 the veneration of all true Churchmen." The fact appears to be 
 that it was drawn up by Joshua Watson. " I have been working 
 hard," he writes to his brother on the fourth of January, 1834, 
 "with Oxford and Cambridge; and I fancy I may now report 
 progress. The Master absolutely compelled me to get up a 
 Declaration for them ; and to my great surprise, notwithstanding 
 our expected conflict and collision of opinion, it has been un- 
 hesitatingly accepted by all to the very letter. And though 
 I have some sad misgivings as to the success, or rather sad 
 apprehensions as to the consequences of failure, it must now go 
 forward, and I can only say, God speed it." It was intended, as 
 he writes to Mr. Sikes, that while it approved of the Address of the 
 Clergy, " it should go beyond them in expressions of determina- 
 tion to oppose, by all lawful means, all devices, however specious, 
 which might threaten to impair the influence and lessen the 
 authority of the established Church, and so rob the State of all
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 209 
 
 the benefits and blessings derived from it." " I am not quite 
 without my fears," he says to another friend, "that the laity 
 will hardly be moved to run before the danger in sufficient 
 numbers to prevent it ; but there are those who, like your corre- 
 spondent, will prefer to set up their wall in troublous times, for 
 the sake of being sure, before the enemy makes the assault, 
 which their want of preparation would itself invite." 
 
 The Declaration, however, was accepted with remarkable una- 
 nimity among Churchmen of all ranks. Among other letters 
 was one from Sir Henry, afterwards Viscount, Hardinge, and 
 known to be then, as at other times, the great Duke's mouth- 
 piece, giving him authority to apply for the signatures of several 
 noblemen. These were not in the sequel found wanting. But 
 Joshua Watson felt and insisted, that it was desirable, first, to 
 bring out the feeling of the commonalty, of tradesmen and yeo- 
 men, and then, as far as possible, to obtain the sanction and 
 support of the higher ranks. It was accordingly promoted by 
 meetings in some of the most populous towns, particularly Not- 
 tingham, Birmingham, and Bristol, as a measure of expiation for 
 the tumults and disorders which some of these neighbourhoods 
 had previously endured ; but also in York, Gloucester, Liver- 
 pool, Norwich, Bath, Cheltenham, Hull, and Newcastle, and 
 many other places. There is a sign of his characteristic prudence 
 and modesty in his answer to some curious enquiries, forwarded 
 to him by his brother : 
 
 "As to the query, whence it comes and whither it goes, the only 
 answer is, what does that signify ? Never mind, if it dropped from the 
 clouds. If you like it, sign it : if you do not, leave it alone. 
 
 "As to its ulterior destination, I reply that, without the gift of 
 second sight, I pretend not to answer. If it please God to prosper it 
 to the prevention of any aggression, it has done its work, and may be 
 laid up as a weapon no longer wanted. If, on the other hand, the 
 assault still comes, it may at once be directed to the defence of the 
 point attacked, and without loss of time be made the foundation of an 
 Address to the Throne, or a Petition to Parliament. In the meanwhile 
 it will have brought out and created an amount of excellent feeling. 
 At least, so says and so hopes, 
 
 "Yours most affectionately, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 A deputation of lay-members from Nottingham waited upon 
 the Premier, Earl Grey, with a copy of the Declaration, in the 
 month of February, 1834. The Earl, after reading it, expressed 
 his full concurrence in the sentiments it embodied, and said that, 
 in any measures which might be brought forward by himself or 
 his colleagues, it would be has endeavour to maintain the stability 
 
 p
 
 2ro Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and promote the efficiency of the Church ; and disclaimed any 
 sympathy with a memorial which had heen presented to him by 
 a Mr. Howitt, a political dissenter of Nottingham, as of a de- 
 structive tendency. The general result of these unusual efforts 
 was undoubtedly beneficial. It demonstrated the latent feeling 
 of the English people to be still a deep-seated loyalty and attach- 
 ment to the Church of England, and that at a time of need it 
 would make itself powerful to preserve its own. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Charities. Reflections of a man long occupied in labours of chanty. 
 Death of Thomas Sikes, related by H. H. Norris. Van Milder? s 
 readiness in charitable calls. His care of his charge at Durham. The 
 New University there. Joshua Watson at Auckland, in Scotland, and 
 on a visit to the Poets at the Lakes. Last acts and death of Fan 
 Mildert. 
 
 was a very estimable and highly gifted clergyman, 
 who was about this time discovered by Joshua "Watson to be 
 silently suffering under a visitation of trying sickness and poverty. 
 When the case became more widely known at a subsequent period, 
 it was further aided by a literary effort, in which the late Spen- 
 cer Compton, second Marquis of Northampton, took a generous 
 interest. But the first relief came in a remittance of 300, sent 
 anonymously to the clergyman's wife, and by her acknowledged 
 in a public advertisement as having been received " with un- 
 bounded gratitude and astonishment." It was a jo'nt contri- 
 bution from Joshua Watson, T. Sikes, and H. H. Norris. The 
 
 note in which it was inclosed was as follows : 
 
 
 
 " MADAM, 
 
 " There is too much confidence in the true dignity of that mind, which 
 has hitherto carried itself with so noble a bearing under its severe 
 trials, to go about to propitiate Mr. - 's favourable acceptance of the 
 inclosed. It comes therefore simply as the tribute of Christian sym- 
 pathy for sufferings which an All-wise and All-good God has permitted 
 for the benefit of those who witness them, and, it may be humbly hoped, 
 for the greater reward of the sufferer. And it comes with only one 
 condition, but one on which there is a perfect inexorability, that it is to 
 be applied strictly to obtain a respite from that labour under which, if 
 continued, the powers of an eminently fine mind must certainly and 
 literally break down. . . . Let, then, dear madam, time be taken, for 
 a rally ; and then we might humbly hope for the blessing of God upon
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 211 
 
 our endeavours so made, and more cheerfully leave the result in His 
 hands, who never fails, when His poor creatures have done their parts 
 in active faith and pious trust, to ordain that which He knows to be 
 best for them. 
 
 " Yours, dear Madam, &c. 
 
 "X.Y.Z." 
 
 Van Hildert was no sooner aware of the case, than he wrote 
 to request he might have a share in what was done, and with 
 the same secrecy. 
 
 "I well recollect," he says, (and the reader, who has accompanied us 
 through some of the preceding pages, will understand the grateful 
 allusion,) "when a certain individual, in temporary difficulties far less 
 urgent, was extricated by the benevolence or another individual, who 
 insisted that the aid afforded was to be regarded in the light of a duty 
 to his mother Church, rather than as a largesse to the person so relieved. 
 I would fain, therefore, adopt the same view of the matter in the present 
 case, and persuade the good recipient that the help administered eman- 
 ates from a sense of public duty no less than from personal regard, and 
 is therefore clear from anything that shall be painful to a sensitive mind. 
 No one will know better how to do this than yourself, and such as may 
 
 co-operate with you in what is to be done I will add but one 
 
 word : 200 you will take as my minimum ; to be increased, as you may 
 advise, to 500." 
 
 Archbishop Howley and Bishop Blomfield were not slow to 
 offer their bountiful aid for the same purpose : and their benevo- 
 lence following what Joshua Watson truly called Van Mildert's 
 "noble and prompt response" to his representation, naturally 
 drew forth his grateful praise in reply : 
 
 "July 25, 1834. 
 " MY VERY DEAR LORD, 
 
 "I would if I durst, and if I could, would as I ought, thank you. 
 But it is above my acknowledgments : it is like yourself, who, instead of 
 the big qui cito, bid us read et bis et cito. How little do those, who 
 would fain make more equitable distribution of the revenues of the 
 Church, know of the manner in which its largest revenues are expended ! 
 AVould to God that, without offence to Christian humility, the plain 
 unvarnished tale might be fairly told in the ears of all the people. 
 
 " Your affectionate friena, 
 
 "JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 The limits of this Memoir will not allow the writers of it to 
 multiply such instances of his laboriousness in well-doing, con- 
 tin uaUy as they arose, and were rather extended than confined 
 to a narrower circuit in his years of comparative retirement. It 
 will not be of less interest to give an extract from a letter written
 
 212 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 at this period of his life to his brother, by whom these as well 
 as his other counsels were affectionately cherished. He says he 
 had felt it as "a danger, lest the business of religion and charity 
 itself, in which they were continually occupied, good as it was 
 in itself, should engage their time and thoughts to the compara- 
 tive, if only comparative, exclusion of the far higher and better 
 contemplations to which they were invited. Commissions and 
 Committees for Churches and Schools, for Almshouses and Parish 
 Trusts, for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and Propagating 
 the Gospel, are doubtless good in themselves, and in their con- 
 sequences to others. But may they not," he asks, "become 
 a snare to ourselves ? May they not so employ our strength as to 
 leave us little leisure and less energy for harder duties, more 
 personal and individual ; and delude us into the notion that we 
 are spiritual, whilst really we are in some sort carnal, and doing 
 perhaps some things which are almost sacred in a spirit well- 
 nigh secular ?" " Meditation and prayer are absolutely necessary 
 to fit us for active^ duties, and it is self-delusion to fancy that we 
 may omit the one, because we are required to discharge the other." 
 Throughout the year 1834 the health of Mr. Sikes had been 
 declining. Lyall speaks of it in one of his letters with an 
 expression of deep concern: "For I look upon him," he says, 
 " almost as a part of one of our old institutions." The tidings 
 of his death on the 14th of December in the same year was com- 
 municated to Joshua Watson by H. H. Norris : 
 
 " I had two most edifying interviews with him ia the course of yester- 
 day, at the last of which the whole household were assembled, and I read 
 the Visitation Service, in the whole of which he joined with a strength 
 of voice never surpassed in his most vigorous days ; arid I sat with him 
 in conversation afterwards, till drowsiness overpowered him. He had 
 a very composed and comfortable night, and the stroke of death was, as 
 his physician had said it might be, almost instantaneous. Thus closes 
 with me a friendship associated with my earliest recollections, and from 
 which, even in our boyish days, good influences were derived, ripened 
 afterwards by persevering nurture into whatever manhood has produced 
 of congeniality with his own excellent spirit, and of co-operation with 
 him in that ministry which he has so assiduously fulfilled. That sweet 
 counsel, which we three took together in the commencement of our 
 career on the spot from which I am now addressing you, always reflected 
 upon with delight, now forces itself more powerfully upon me. It is to 
 be enjoyed no more during our probationary course; but I humbly 
 hope, and most earnestly pray, that we may both so finish that brief 
 space which we have yet to run, that the autepasts of earth may be 
 consummated in heaven." 
 
 The same spirit of humble gratitude and generous affection
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 213 
 
 expressed itself in a few lines of thanks to Joshua Watson for 
 a birthday greeting the same year : 
 
 " How many happy returns of this day have I seen, and how largely 
 has the trifling incident which first brought us into close contact, con- 
 tributed to them ! How much do I owe to that ephemeral occasion, and 
 almost forgotten circumstance! Though hand passibus cequis is an in- 
 sufficient phrase to express my defective advances in the race compared 
 with yours, vet, such as they are, they have been guided by your counsel 
 and animated by your excitement ; and I can never be sufficiently thank- 
 ful to the good providence of God for having brought us at the com- 
 mencement of our career together." 
 
 Sir Robert Peel's return to office for a short time in 1834-5, 
 had served to cheer Van Mildert in his hopes and plans for 
 Durham. He writes, March 9, 1835, 
 
 "I would fain hope that prospects are brightening, though there 
 is still more than enough to check any sanguine expectations. From 
 my interviews with the Primate and the Premier, I am convinced that 
 there is the best possible feeling on the part of the Government towards 
 the Church ; ana I cannot help thinking that my own views of the ex- 
 pediency, the obligation, and practicability of preserving the consti- 
 tution of our ecclesiastical system entire and unbroken, are strongly 
 felt with reference to capitular bodies in particular. The case of 
 Durham especially seems to be regarded with a more favourable eye 
 than I had expected; and at all events, I am assured it will be con- 
 sidered on its own merits as entitled to separate attention. My object 
 will be to follow up this friendly disposition, and not to let it slumber. 
 I have also laid a foundation for effecting our purpose of annexing 
 prebendal stalls to academical offices, and moreover for obtaining a 
 royal charter for our University. I have not found any discouragement 
 to either of these projects, but a wish to facilitate their attainment." 
 
 It was not, however, granted to this new founder of Durham 
 to see the charter obtained. It was obtained in the year after 
 his death, in 1837. Private friendship could act where public 
 consent was not equally able to impose a constraint upon its 
 exercise; and the Editor of this Memoir must be allowed to 
 place on record an instance of it, which, while it would be un- 
 grateful on his part to suppress, will supply no uninstructive 
 picture of the correspondence of the two admirable friends to- 
 wards the earthly close of their long intimacy. 
 
 Joshua Watson and his daughter were on their way to a tour in 
 Scotland during the summer of 1835; and were entertained for 
 a few days by Van Mildert at Auckland. " It will be a grati- 
 fication to me beyond all price," he said, "that you have seen 
 Auckland and me together before one or the other, or both, may
 
 214 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 be levelled with the dust." It was at this time that the Bishop 
 presented the Editor to the living of Crayke, an act which 
 called forth the following characteristic letter : 
 
 " Callander, North Britain, Aug. 25, 1835. 
 "MY VERY DEAR LORD, 
 
 " This is our first day of rest, since we left your castle ; and it is, by 
 every right and title of grateful obligation, yours. Our hours in Edin- 
 burgh were so unceasingly occupied, the mornings in seeing all the 
 shows of that striking city, and the evenings in receiving the hospitali- 
 ties of friends, that it was as impossible to find time as ability to express 
 the sadly mingled feelings which had been called forth by the visit to 
 Auckland. It was indeed a strange conflict of affections, and may per- 
 haps be better conceived than declared. It told, however, too plainly 
 that it had been better for us both if the visit had been made before the 
 widowed feelings, as it were, of each of us had robbed the meeting of 
 half its charm. But this, perhaps, it is not good for us to dwejl upon ; 
 and after all, and with all this alloy, it must ever be a great joy to nave 
 seen your Lordship at Auckland, and to have shewn Mary her own 
 early friend, and one of the oldest of her father's remaining friends, in 
 the full possession of the homage which it is in the power of the State 
 to render to the Church, and in the receipt of the honour due to the 
 public and private virtues of the Christian divine. 
 
 " One thing, however, is far too much on my mind, and too individual, 
 not to be recurred to. I could say little about Crayke at the time, but 
 your Lordship's kindness there touched a string which vibrated home 
 indeed ; and you, who know so well under what circumstances the only 
 request I ever preferred on private grounds was made and granted, will 
 easily apprehend how this following up of the kindness was accepted. 
 The tender is to me of more value than I can tell. I feel it as a re- 
 newed offering to the memory of one who, living, lived as far as a Chris- 
 tian could, more for others than herself, and dying, still sought the 
 happiness of those she loved: and with this feeling, I need not say, 
 the kindness never will, never can be, forgotten. And here I will have 
 done. The subject must neither be enlarged upon, nor followed by 
 lighter topics. I will therefore only add our most affectionate re- 
 membrances, and earnest hope that the God of all mercy will afford 
 to you the largest measure of comfort and support that He knows 
 to be best for you. So will ever pray, 
 
 " Your affectionate Friend, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 "I dare not trust myself," Van Mildert writes in his reply, "to 
 
 ?3 into the delightful, yet painful topics of the main part of your letter, 
 et be assured they excite in me every kindred emotion to those that 
 ?assed in your own mind when you committed them to paper, and 
 trust they will not have been awakened in vain. As our earthly 
 enjoyments droop and fade away, we have to cling with more fixed 
 resolution and with firmer hold to those which can never be taken from 
 us, and hope for a reunion of affections, only begun here, to be per-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 215 
 
 fected where they can have no alloy. As to Crayke, every day increases 
 my satisfaction in having had the opportunity of rewarding good desert 
 on the one hand, and on the other, of enjoying the purest of all gratifi- 
 cations in testifying my affection for the very best of personal friends, 
 and the best of benefactors to everything deserving of support in Church 
 and State." 
 
 On their return from Scotland, where, as Joshua Watson spoke 
 of it afterwards to Van Mildert, "they missed nothing that they 
 had wished to see, of cities or men, lakes or mountains," they 
 passed some days at Ponsonby Hall, near Egremont, the seat of 
 G. E. Stanley, for a time M.P. for Cumberland, whose wife was 
 a niece of Mrs. Van Mildert, and whom they found " surrounded 
 by a fine family of delightfully trained and sweetly tempered 
 children." They found Southey at Keswick, and Wordsworth 
 at Rydal; and with Wordsworth they had more special com- 
 munication, "as he good-humouredly undertook to direct their 
 movements till they reached him, and, himself a lion, to lionize 
 the party after they had joined him." In fact, his directions 
 were given in a letter dated September 5, minutely tracing for 
 them a tour, beginning at Wastdale, and ending at his own 
 village, where he regretted that the illness of his beloved sister 
 prevented him from asking the travellers to make his house 
 their head-quarters. 
 
 After a few days, when Joshua Watson had passed on south, 
 wards, and had written to thank him for his hospitable attentions, 
 we find the poet writing to him again : 
 
 " Why did you give yourself a moment's trouble upon my having to 
 walk three miles, and through so beautiful a country? I was indeed 
 disappointed in having an hour or two less of your company, and not 
 being able to shew you more of the Lake : but my walk from Lyulph's 
 Tower to Hallsteacfs was beguiled by throwing into blank verse a de- 
 scription of the scene which struck Aliss Watson and me at the same 
 moment : 
 
 'Not a breath of air 
 Ruffles the bosom of this leafy glen : 
 From the brook's margin wide around the trees 
 Are stedfast as the rocks ; the brook itself, 
 [Following in patient solitude a course 
 Old as the hills that feed it from afar, 
 Doth rather deepen than disturb the calm, 
 Where all things else are still and motionless. 
 And yet, even now, a little breeze, perchance 
 Escaped from boisterous winds that rage without, 
 Has entered, by the sturdy oaks unfelt ; 
 But to its gentle touch how sensitive
 
 216 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Is the light ash, that, pendent from the brow 
 
 Of yon dim cave, in seeming silence makes 
 
 A soft eye-music of slow- waving boughs, 
 
 Powerful almost as vocal harmony 
 
 To stay the wanderer's steps and sooth his thoughts.' 
 
 I am sorry not to have been able to transcribe these lines for Miss 
 Watson with my own hand, but my arm is become so much worse 
 that I cannot even tie my own neckcloth. I remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfullv yours, 
 
 " W. WORDSWORTH." 
 
 It was not long after his return from this summer-tour that 
 Joshua Watson learnt with much sorrow that Van Mildert's 
 health was rapidly failing. In the middle of November he 
 received a letter from him, in which he said that his physician 
 had told him he must expect to be a downright invalid, but en- 
 couraged him to cherish the hope that, through God's mercies, 
 he might be permitted to pass the remainder of his days without 
 such extremity of suffering as he had sometimes mournfully 
 anticipated : 
 
 " But I cannot get over the listless disposition of which I complained 
 to you, and which makes me sit down to pen and paper with a re- 
 luctance such as I was not wont to experience in better days. Let this 
 be my excuse for abruptly closing this poor semblance of a letter to one 
 with whom I have been used for so long a period to lay open my inmost 
 thoughts upon all subjects. I can take but short nights, and am soon 
 weary. Only let me add that, whenever vou can bestow half-an-hour 
 upon me, on whatever topics, private or public, you will do a real act of 
 kindness, as well as of gratification, to one who reckons it among his 
 best privileges to be esteemed always, most truly and affectionately, 
 yours, 
 
 "W. DUNELM." 
 
 This immediately drew a long letter from Joshua Watson, but 
 chiefly on subjects of temporary interest. It was a time of severe 
 distress in Ireland. On his friend's report, the charitable Bishop 
 immediately sent a contribution of 200, in addition to 100 
 which he had just subscribed at Auckland. The letter went on 
 to make some sagacious and characteristic remarks on the pro- 
 ceedings in " the Ecclesiastical Divan." 
 
 "Athough," he says, "I have had an Ecclesiastical Commissioner 
 here, daily going in and coming out for a fortnight, yet I have done 
 little more than laugh at the expected secrecy of printed papers and 
 copied resolutions, when our friend has come home every afternoon with 
 his packet stamped with the talismanic words, Strictly Private"
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 217 
 
 Tan Mildert's last letter to his friend, written only three 
 weeks before his death, and dated Jan. 28, 1836, shews how his 
 last cares were devoted to the charge which he had so nobly and 
 faithfully administered : 
 
 " I have written somewhat largely to the Archbishop," he says, " on 
 our Durham University concerns, and the arrangement of our prebendal 
 stalls, which, I much fear, will not go on so smoothly as when Sir 
 Robert Peel was an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. I have stirred up 
 the Archbishop to do what he can for us ; and, knowing his good-will 
 in the matter, I hope for the best. But what is to be done with deans 
 and chapters ? I can gain no gleam of information. A rumour prevails 
 that, because four residentiaries suffice at St. Paul's, therefore the rest 
 may be reduced to that number, which, if carried into effect, will be as 
 decided a case of spoliation and confiscation as can be imagined, and can 
 hardly lead to less than the dissolution of the whole body. But the 
 mist must soon be cleared away, and our destiny disclosed." 
 
 "William Van Mildert expired on Feb. 21, 1836, in the seventy- 
 first year of his age. The bodily sufferings which he endured 
 in the latter period of his life had not been without intermission, 
 and he struggled manfully against his feeble condition and weari- 
 ness of the flesh, that he might still be employed in acts of duty. 
 In a letter to a friend at Llandaff, dated Auckland, Dec. 8, 1835, 
 he had sent his last customary gift of 100 to be distributed in 
 Christmas charities in his former diocese, and spoke of himself 
 as then a great sufferer, but ended with words of cheerful piety 
 and blessing. His last illness, of ten days' continuance, was 
 attended with such weakness and languor, as to admit of little 
 communication with those around ; but he had joined in prayer, 
 which was offered for him by his chaplain, the Rev. T. L. 
 Strong, with his habitual fervency. The pulsation at the wrist 
 had seemed to cease two hours at least before he died. His 
 form, always slender, and now attenuated by long weakness, 
 became wonderfully emaciated before he breathed his last, which 
 he did almost unconsciously. By order of the Dean and Chap- 
 ter his body was laid in a vault which they had caused to 
 be constructed near the foot of the altar in his cathedral. It 
 is no unfitting resting-place for the mortal remains of one, 
 who for his charity and learning was a worthy successor of 
 Richard Poore and Cuthbert Tunstall, of Cosin and Joseph 
 Butler. A monument executed by Lough, a sculptor in whose 
 prosperity Joshua Watson took a lively interest, was raised by 
 his friends to his memory. 
 
 It was not long after his death that Joshua "Watson was con- 
 versing with a familiar circle on a quiet Sunday evening, when 
 the subject was Jeremy Taylor's treatise on Baptism, and the
 
 2i8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 blessing of prolonged life compared with that of dying in a state 
 of innocence. He said that he had once put a question to the 
 good Bishop, whether a Christian, who feels a comfortable hope 
 of salvation, should pray for longer life, or would not rather be 
 spared all further trials and danger of falling from grace. The 
 Bishop's answer was, that as perfect assurance belongs not to 
 mortals in this present life, he thought that the best of men must 
 always pray for more time, that they may endeavour to become 
 more fit for heaven, and also to attain higher degrees of glory. 
 Nothing short of such perfect assurance could make any one wish 
 for death. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 William Wordsworth. His advocacy of the claims of education. His 
 efforts for Church-building in the Lake-district. H. H. Norris. His 
 view of the decline of the Nonjurors. Deacon and Cartwright. Origin 
 of the Society for Additional Curates. Joshua Watson draws up its 
 rules. Dr. Samuel Wilson Warneford. Dr. W. H. Mill. Death of 
 Hugh J. Rose. A change made in the National Society. 
 
 rnHOSE who have taken charge of the literary remains of the 
 JL poet Wordsworth have done right to direct their attention 
 chiefly to the history of his poems : but some regret has been 
 expressed that something more could not be told of his private 
 life and social habits, particulars which, relating to such an ex- 
 traordinary man, could not be without public interest. There 
 can be no doubt, however, in his case, that his poems were the 
 image of the spirit of his life. The energetic vindication of the 
 rights of the people to freedom and protection in all innocent 
 pleasures, the claim of the humblest to be taught the rudiments 
 of moral and religious truth which he delighted to assert in so 
 many ways in his harmonious verse, he was not unwilling to re- 
 peat on suitable occasions to listening hearers in his native vales. 
 He had been no unconcerned spectator of the progress of edu- 
 cation among the poorer classes from the discovery of Dr. Bell ; 
 from which, in his own words, " it was impossible to overrate 
 the benefit which might accrue to humanity." 
 
 " The discipline of slavery is unknown 
 Among us, hence the more do we require 
 The discipline of virtue ; order else 
 Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 219 
 
 Thus, duties rising out of good possess' d, 
 
 And prudent caution needful to avert 
 
 Impending evil, equally require 
 
 That the whole people should be taught and train' d. 
 
 So shall licentiousness and black resolve 
 
 Be rooted out, and piety descend, 
 
 Like an inheritance from age to age." 
 
 He appears to have been in frequent correspondence with Joshua 
 "Watson on this and other kindred subjects in the early part of 
 the year 1836. " I send you," he writes in April that year, 
 " a Westmoreland Gazette, containing an Address of mine. The 
 conversations I have had with you upon the subject of education 
 tempted me to take an opportunity of making public some of my 
 opinions on this question. I am pleased to hear that they have 
 met with good acceptance in this quarter ; so much so, that I 
 have been requested to print the Address." 
 
 It will be seen by a reference to the Poet's Life, that he was 
 then taking an active part in an effort, afterwards happily com- 
 pleted, to build a new church in his native town of Cockermouth ; 
 to which the late Earl of Lonsdale generously contributed an 
 endowment. This design was the chief subject of his letters at 
 this period ; but he throws in remarks on other passing events : 
 " I avail myself of the opportunity to condole with you on the 
 death of the excellent Bishop of Durham. It is an event which 
 every rational friend of the Church must have looked forward 
 to with mournful apprehension." Of another Oxford divine of 
 a very different school, since raised to a place on the bench, he 
 says, " His notions, if correctly given in the newspaper- extracts 
 from his lectures, respecting Creeds, Declarations, and Articles, 
 appear to be irreconcilable with any Church, however Latitudin- 
 arian." He scrupled at this time to ask for a local appointment 
 which he desired for his younger son, although he believed he 
 had personal friends among the ministers of State, at whose dis- 
 posal it was. " I do so deeply deplore," he says, " and so strongly 
 disapprove of their public conduct, especially in respect to the 
 Protestant Church in Ireland, and their Municipal Bill for that 
 unhappy country, that I cannot solicit a favour at their hands. 
 As to the municipal measure, what should we say of an order for 
 two men's shoes to be made from the same last, though their feet 
 differed some inches in size ? We have as yet little reason to 
 applaud the new casting of the corporations for England ; but for 
 Ireland and the empire at large, the application of the same plan 
 must be ruinous." It must be for time and history to test the 
 truth of these opinions. 
 
 In the summer of 1836 Joshua Watson met with an accident
 
 22o Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 from the overturning of his carriage, in which, though his life 
 was preserved, his neck was injured, and for several weeks was 
 sensible of great suffering, the effect continuing to be felt occa- 
 sionally till the end of his days. It happened at Eastbourne, as 
 he and his daughter were driving from the house of the wise and 
 benevolent Davies Gilbert. They were carried back to the house, 
 and were received hy the master of it with the greatest kindness 
 and hospitality till surgical aid could be procured, and the patient 
 could safely be removed home. The accident for some time in- 
 capacitated him from appearing in public ; but his private friends 
 were able to profit by finding him more at leisure to afford them 
 times for unrestrained conversation. 
 
 Mr. Norris was at this time collecting materials for a history 
 of the Anglo-American Church, and conferred with his friend 
 over a collection of letters from Dr. Chandler of Connecticut, 
 Bishop Seabury, and other distinguished American divines. It 
 is supposed that this correspondence is now in the hands of some 
 of Jonathan Boucher's descendants. It was partly by aid of in- 
 formation derived from these sources, and on the advice of Mr. 
 Norris, that a younger writer composed two historical articles 
 on the American Church, which were printed in the " British 
 Critic," and reprinted in America ; and which may have fur- 
 nished the most complete summary of that branch of ecclesiastical 
 history, before the appearance of a work on the same subject by 
 the present Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 It was also a part of his concern at this time to investigate the 
 history of the decline and fall of the Nonjurors, more especially 
 from his persuasion of its practical bearing upon the controversies 
 of the day. There is a want of accuracy in the current state- 
 ments about the latest members of this communion, which may 
 perhaps be remedied by those who have the authentic records, 
 lately in the hands of Thomas Bowdler. Mr. Hallam, speaking 
 of William Cartwright, one of their last bishops, who died in 
 1799, has observed that " before his death he had become a very 
 loyal subject to King George ; a singular proof of that tenacity 
 of life by which religious sects, after dwindling through neglect, 
 excel frogs and tortoises ; and that even when they have become 
 almost equally cold-blooded a ." 
 
 This is prettily said, but as far as regards Cartwright, without 
 truth. Cartwright was never anything else but a loyal subject 
 to King George. His adherence to the party of Nonjurors was 
 given purely on religious grounds. There was a Scottish bishop, 
 
 Constit. Hist., iii. 341.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 221 
 
 the Hon. Archibald Campbell, author of a treatise on the Inter- 
 mediate State, who, from some difference with his northern 
 brethren, had come to reside in England. Here he consecrated 
 Roger Laurence, the learned author of a treatise called " Lay- 
 Baptism Invalid," acting alone in the consecration, and without 
 the consent of the other Conjuring bishops, about the year 1733 : 
 and subsequently Campbell and Laurence consecrated Thomas 
 Deacon, who in 1780 consecrated William Cartwright. 
 
 Thomas Deacon was himself an earnest Jacobite. He had two 
 eons, whom he had seen attach themselves to the ill-fated Man- 
 chester Regiment at the rising of Forty-five. Both were taken 
 prisoners at Carlisle, and one, at the early age of twenty-two, was 
 doomed to fall by the axe of the executioner, and to have his head 
 suspended at Manchester town-gate. It is said that the father on 
 passing the place took off his hat, and thanked God that one of 
 his children had been a martyr to such a cause b . But he was 
 also, as might have been expected, a zealous assertor of Camp- 
 bell's doctrines on the middle state ; and by these doctrines 
 Cartwright was attracted to declare himself a member of the 
 sect, which they styled the Orthodox British Church. 
 
 " I believe," says Cartwright, in an unpublished letter, " as the primi- 
 tive Catholic Church believed, that there is a state between death and 
 resurrection, in which the soul may be capable of receiving illumina- 
 tion, and of having its involuntary errors rectified. Is it not possible 
 that communications may be vouchsafed to it in that state, and know- 
 ledge received, from which unconquerable or unknown prejudices and 
 a wrong education here below may have precluded it ? But the per- 
 versely obstinate and wilfully blind have no right to expect such fa- 
 vour ; for Pertinacice nullum remedium posuit Deus." 
 
 There is some reason for this pious opinion ; and such doctrine 
 relating to the middle state is a comfortable relief from the Sad- 
 ducean disquisitions of some of Cartwright's contemporaries, who 
 appear to have held that the soul sleeps from the moment of its 
 separation from the body, and will so remain till the resurrection . 
 But since the like doctrine was preached by many learned and pious 
 clergy in the Church of England at the same time, and in pulpits 
 
 b Many interesting particulars of Thomas Deacon may be found in 
 "Byrom's Remains." He compiled what is sometimes called the Cle- 
 mentine Liturgy, a curious collection of devotions ; and a doctrinal 
 treatise entitled "A Full, True, and Comprehensive View of Christianity." 
 Lond., 1784. 
 
 c Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, and the author of an " Historical 
 View of the Controversy 011 the luterineiiate State." Loud., 1772.
 
 222 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 not far distant from Shrewsbury 4 , it seems strange that any 
 want of more precise definitions on the subject should have ap- 
 peared to call for his secession to the little community, among 
 whom it was made something like an article of their creed. Ac- 
 cordingly, Cartwright on his deathbed was probably visited by 
 some compunction, and felt that his unbending orthodoxy had 
 carried him too far. His last act was to receive the Holy Com- 
 munion from the hands of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, an excellent 
 man, who continued his ministerial labours in Shrewsbury, first 
 at the Abbey Church, and afterwards as parish priest of St. Mary's, 
 for more than fifty-five years, and died full of days and honour in 
 the year 1851. 
 
 It is scarcely correct to call the community, at least at this 
 latest period of its duration, a community of Nonjurors. They 
 did not care what king was on the throne ; but they struggled on 
 in defiance of Charles Leslie's prophetic warning % contending for 
 points almost buried in the dust of primitive usage, as if they 
 had been essential to the faith and discipline of a Christian 
 Church. Thus poor Cartwright had consecrated Thomas Gar- 
 net ; and Garnet, of whom nothing is known beyond his name, 
 consecrated Charles Booth. Booth is said to have died in Ireland 
 about the year 1805; and a crosier, which the community had 
 among them, was not long since in the possession of a club of 
 Odd Fellows at Manchester. The moral of the story is not so 
 much that which Mr. Hallam sets down, as it is another instance 
 of the tendency of all sects to break and divide from themselves, 
 each several particle, like the limbs of some of those wonderful 
 creatures discovered by the microscope, falling off to an indepen- 
 dent state of existence, and fighting for its own hand, till the 
 last fragments vanish out of sight. The lesson which H. H. 
 Norris deduced from it, was a warning to all rigid disputants 
 against multiplying divisions by stiff contention for unessential 
 things. 
 
 The spring of the year 1837 was marked by the formation of 
 the Society for the Employment of Additional Curates in Popu- 
 lous Places. The Pastoral Aid Society had preceded it by a few 
 months. The same effort had been made as in other instances to 
 effect a union of different parties in the Church, but without suc- 
 cess, the governing body in the association which was earliest 
 formed having claimed powers incompatible with the free action 
 of the Church's system. Joshua Watson was himself the framer 
 
 d See a sermon on the subject by Dr. Townson, pp. 211 222 of the 
 " Practical Discourses" published by the late Bishop Jebb. 
 
 ' See his letter on the New Separation. Works, vol. i., Oxford, 1832.
 
 Memoir of Josh ua Watson, 223 
 
 of the constitution of the Curates' Society : its rules were drawn 
 up in that spirit of simple trust in the apostolic order of the 
 Church's discipline, by which he was always guided, and pre- 
 scribing an equal regard to the wants of the parish, the rights of 
 the incumbent, and the authority of the diocesan. He undertook 
 the office of Treasurer, conjointly with Benjamin Harrison, Esq., 
 the father of Archdeacon Harrison, and gave a donation of 500, 
 which he followed up as long as he lived by an annual sub- 
 scription of 100. John Keble wrote in zealous approval of the 
 design : " One has the comfort of thinking that, whether it suc- 
 ceeds to any extent or no, it must, as far as it goes, do unmixed 
 good." " I shall return to the Church," says H. H. Norris, "to 
 aid her in this her need, all that my two dignities have put into 
 my pocket." These dignities were two prebendal stalls, at St. 
 Paul's and Llandaff. 
 
 At the same time Bishop Blomfield was accomplishing his 
 liberal-minded scheme for the promotion of metropolitan church 
 building. To this Joshua Watson contributed also 500. 
 
 This year was also remarkable as having been the date of his 
 first intimate charitable correspondence with the benevolent Dr. 
 Samuel Wilson Warneford. Joshua Watson had before received 
 occasional communications from him ; but this year, during a visit 
 to Brighton, Dr. Warneford sought him out, and began consulting 
 him on those munificent schemes of doing good, which he con- 
 tinued from this time to carry on in concert with him to the end 
 of his earthly pilgrimage. His first act was to place in his 
 friend's hand a cheque for 500, intended to found a prize essay 
 to encourage the study of natural and revealed religion among the 
 medical students at Queen's College, Birmingham ; but expressing 
 at the same time his willingness to change its destination, if his 
 friend thought it better to do so. Joshua Watson highly approved 
 of the object, but wished the gift might have a wider sphere of 
 usefulness by being entrusted to the metropolitan institution of 
 King's College, London, which was now under the able direction 
 of Hugh J. Rose, and in which he had taken an active interest 
 from the date of its foundation. Dr. Warneford responded by 
 sending him the same evening a second cheque for 500, not 
 willing to sleep till he had done it, " mindful," as he said, " of 
 the uncertainty of life." After a fortnight's interval, when he 
 had returned home to Bourton-on-the-Hill, his Gloucestershire 
 rectory, he wrote again, to say that, as the plan had met with the 
 full approbation of his friend Mr. Vaughan Thomas, he should 
 again double the amount of his donation, and give 1000 to each 
 institution. The benefaction to King's College was permanently 
 invested, under the advice of Joshua Watson and H. J. Hose, to
 
 224 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 secure an annual scholarship to be given to the medical student 
 who should pass the best examination in his professional studies, 
 and add to them an acquaintance with Holy Scripture and the 
 evidences of Christianity 1 . The " Analogy" of Bishop Butler 
 was a book in which they were expected to prepare themselves 
 for such examination. 
 
 It was a constant object with Dr. Warneford to promote the 
 endowment of churches : " He preferred," he said, "those appli- 
 cations of temporal means which afford the prospect of doing 
 most enduring good ; more especially enabling the poor to have 
 the Gospel preached to them." 
 
 He was a warm admirer of Bp. Broughton's character, never 
 mentioning his name without some strong expression of esteem ; 
 and of this esteem he afterwards gave sufficient proof by his bene- 
 factions to the see of Sydney, of which some notice will be given 
 in subsequent pages. 
 
 When, some years later, Joshua Watson had sent to him some 
 public expression of Bishop Blomfie^s admiration of his muni- 
 ficence to the Clergy Orphan School, his answer was, "Had I 
 done less, I should not in my own mind have discharged my 
 Christian duty as a clergyman, feeling that I am only a steward 
 of the worldly property entrusted to my care." He was one who 
 seemed to have a real enjoyment in the luxury of doing good, and 
 often spoke of the opportunities afforded him with thankfulness. 
 "Persevering in a good cause," he said, " we may ever calculate 
 on ultimate success. And experience may convince us, that good 
 deeds, as well as evil, are contagious ; e. g. how many inactive 
 personages have you, my dear friend, infected ?" 
 
 But the transaction just mentioned was the first in the series 
 of those works of charity which were henceforward continued 
 through many years of friendly intercourse. There was no vo- 
 luntary soliciting or suggesting on Joshua "Watson's part. The 
 first motion was always from Dr. Warneford, seeking counsel 
 which, when given, he never failed to take ; not blindly, or like 
 one who wished to save himself trouble or responsibility, but 
 with careful consideration, and with marks of increasing confi- 
 dence and regard. A summary of his benefactions thus deter- 
 mined on may be found in the Memoir of this generous benefactor 
 published by Mr. Vaughan Thomas. Those which were deter- 
 mined on in counsel with Joshua Watson appear to have ex- 
 ceeded 33,000. 
 
 In the year 1837, Dr. W. H. Mill, being then about to resign 
 
 1 See Vaughan Thomas's Memoir of Dr. Warneford, pp. 130, sqq.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 225 
 
 the post which he had filled with honour for many years in 
 India, as President of Bishop's College, Calcutta, published the 
 first edition of his ahle " Analysis of Bishop Pearson on the 
 Creed." It was dedicated in the following inscription to the sub- 
 ject of this Memoir : 
 
 " To Joshua Watson, Esq., to whom from its first foundation Bishop's 
 College lies under great and peculiar obligations, which can never tie 
 adequately acknowledged, this impression of one of its principal text- 
 books is inscribed, as a slight but sincere testimony of admiration for his 
 long and varied services in the cause of Christ's Church at home and 
 abroad, and of gratitude for much personal kindness and friendship 
 by the Author." 
 
 In a private letter, dated from Bishop's College, Sept. 8, 
 1837, Dr. Mill desired his kind allowance of the liberty he had 
 thus taken, and adds : 
 
 " It seemed to me, that the last of those connected with this place 
 who intimately remembered Bishop Middleton, ought not to depart from 
 India without leaving behind him in the College itself some standing 
 memorial of what it owed to Bishop Middleton's constant friend and 
 counsellor ; though the actual amount of obligation is what I have not 
 received your permission to disclose." 
 
 Before he left India he had the comfort of receiving a public 
 address, attesting the sense which the clergy and friends of the 
 cause of Christianity in that country entertained for his services ; 
 hut he quitted his office under dispiriting circumstances, the 
 Gospel Society having unfortunately found it necessary to reduce 
 the staff of the College, and thus partially impeded the fulfilment 
 of Bishop Middleton's designs for it. The native students under 
 education there testified their own affectionate esteem for him in 
 words of grateful simplicity ; and his subsequent course of honour 
 and usefulness at home, especially after his appointment to the 
 Regius Professorship of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1848, was suf- 
 ficient to prove that it was no desire of ease, or weariness of active 
 duty, which influenced his return. 
 
 But while Joshua "Watson was welcoming this learned and 
 good man to England again, he was compelled to take leave of 
 one still more dear to him, whose failing health drove him from 
 a career of unwearied service to the Church, to seek refuge in the 
 milder climate of Italy. There, after a protracted trial, borne 
 with the serene spirit of Christian patience, Hugh James Rose 
 breathed his last at Florence early in the month of January, 1839. 
 
 It is not easy to estimate the loss of such a man to the Church 
 of England at such a time. It is certain that, while he lived, 
 his eloquence in the pulpit, his ability as a writer, his wisdom 
 
 Q
 
 226 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 in counsel, his learning in controversy, and the many graces of 
 his personal character, had raised him, without his seeking it, to 
 the rank of a master in the schools of the prophets, and enabled 
 him to guide and animate the efforts of a large body of men of 
 the highest promise at either University. When he was re- 
 moved, the best of them were full of mournful forebodings ; the 
 bolder and less patient proceeded to those extreme expositions of 
 opinion, which he had never ceased to deprecate ; and the effects 
 were in many ways disastrous. 
 
 "I think that review of Froude," he wrote to Joshua Watson in 
 January, 1838, speaking of what had appeared in the "British Critic" 
 a short time before, "the most to be regretted of anything which I 
 have seen from our Oxford friends. It shews a disposition to find fault 
 with our Church for not satisfying the wants and demands, not of the 
 human heart, but of the imagination of enthusiastic, and ascetic, and 
 morbid-minded men. This no Church does or can do by any honest 
 means. He who has these desires may satisfy them himself. The mass 
 of men have them not. To quarrel with the Church on this ground is 
 to shew a resolution to quarrel with her." 
 
 It was only about two months before his death that John 
 Henry Newman had dedicated to him the fourth volume of his 
 remarkable Sermons. The dedication was dated Nov. 19, 1838, 
 and was in words as follows : 
 
 " To the Rev. Hugh James Hose, B.D., Principal of King's College, 
 London, and Domestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, 
 when hearts were failing, bade us stir up the gift that was in us, and 
 betake ourselves to our true Mother, this Volume is inscribed by his 
 obliged and faithful Friend." 
 
 Alas ! that the able and eloquent preacher should afterwards 
 have suffered himself to doubt the claims of that true Mother, 
 and have joined himself to one that has shewn herself too un- 
 deniably a step-mother to her most duteous children ! The 
 volume approved itself more to Joshua Watson's matured judg- 
 ment than any other of J. H. Newman's publications. One of 
 the sermons, the fourteenth, on " the Greatness and Littleness of 
 Human Life," especially arrested his attention, and he was much 
 moved by the solemn reflections which it contains, on the dis- 
 appointment felt when good men die before they have had time 
 to exercise the high powers of mind which they have begun to 
 disclose. It was impossible not to connc ct the subject of that 
 masterly discourse with the death of H. J. Rose. But in other 
 respects the earnest practical tone and touching eloquence of 
 those sermons left an abiding impression on Joshua Watson's 
 mind, and he often referred to them with grateful remembrance.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 227 
 
 The Editor must be allowed to repeat his own words on the 
 death of H. J. Rose, written on hearing the sad announcement 
 in a letter to Joshua Watson, preserved by him among other 
 tributes to such departed worth, and equally felt as true and 
 justified by later events, at the distance of more than twenty 
 years : 
 
 "Such high talents, governed by such admirable prudence, such 
 entire devotion -with singleness of heart to the exigencies of the Church 
 in those trying times, such unremitting zeal and attention always ready 
 to be directed to the quarter where any public difficulty lay ; and all 
 this in the midst of so much ill health, which might have been a just 
 plea for honourable repose ; the loss of such a man in the meridian of 
 life must in any case have been sad and difficult to supply. But now I 
 sadly fear it will remove the one salutary check on the more extreme 
 among our own valued friends, and leave us without the cement of 
 public reason, on which his determination was always taken, and which 
 from him spread its harmonizing influence over them." 
 
 Dr. "Wordsworth wrote with equal sorrow and apprehension 
 for the future : 
 
 " His uses to his Church and country at this most needful time were 
 of a kind and degree, which, I deeply fear, we must in vain look for 
 again, with all their promise, had it so pleased God, of increasing power 
 and efficiency." 
 
 His letter was also full of enquiries about his widow, an excellent 
 high-principled woman, with qualities of mind and heart which 
 had greatly endeared her to her husband's aged friends. " When 
 the proper time is come," he said, " I shall hope to be a partner in 
 some small part of your solicitude for her." It was known that 
 H. J. Rose had been too liberal in all public ways to have found 
 time to lay by worldly store, and it was feared lest his widow 
 should have been left with insufficient maintenance : but her 
 own extreme delicacy and firm decision of character prevented 
 any effort from being made to mitigate the comparative poverty 
 in which she passed the years of her widowhood. She would 
 not even allow herself to profit by any sums that might be raised 
 from the sale of her husband's writings, turning all such casual 
 accessions of income to charitable uses ; and allowed the book- 
 sellers to advertise as "Rose's Biographical Dictionary," a pub- 
 lication which they continued to bring out for many years after 
 his death, serving to evidence the literary value of his name, but 
 in which his own share could hardly have been prolonged beyond 
 the first few numbers. Shortly after her return, she went to 
 live under the roof of Hugh Rose's aged father, at Glynde in 
 Sussex, and there continued to nurse bis age till, after his death,
 
 228 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which did not long precede her own, she removed to a house at 
 Brighton. 
 
 Archbishop Howley one day asked Joshua "Watson whether he 
 could name any one to succeed their lost friend as chaplain at 
 Lambeth. " I do not ask," he said, " for a man to supply Mr. 
 Rose's place ; that is impossible ; it can never be supplied. But 
 he must have a successor." 
 
 A letter of Bishop Inglis, written many years afterwards, is 
 valuable, as representing the regard entertained by Joshua 
 Watson for this admirable man : 
 
 " Pardon my poor memory," he says, " for recollecting your feelings 
 and your expression of them, when you were all struggling and praying 
 that even the last flickerings of life should be prolonged in such a man 
 as Hugh James Rose. All hope of active employment had vanished ; 
 but you said, with very forcible expression, that his very name was 
 a treasure ; and, until the vital spark was gone, King's College, and the 
 Church, and his friends would still possess more than common riches in 
 his name. You infused your own feeling into mine, and there has been 
 no change nor perversion since." 
 
 A monument was erected to Rose's memory at Florence. 
 There was much correspondence between Dr. Wordsworth and 
 Archdeacon Bayley, and frequent reference to Joshua Watson, 
 on the terms of the inscription : and probably the words which 
 stand on the tablet were the result of the combined counsel of 
 the three friends. 
 
 It must have been a short time before this that he prevailed 
 by his counsel at the National Society to induce them to make 
 their terms of union more comprehensive. It will be remem- 
 bered that this Society, in its original construction, was almost 
 an offshoot from the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge ; and it was then at once convenient and natural to stipu- 
 late that in all schools connected with it the educational books 
 should be those which were to be found on the list of the Chris- 
 tian Knowledge Society. But he argued that the parochial 
 clergy might be as safely trusted with the selection of books for 
 their schools as with the charge of delivering Christian doctrine 
 to their adult parishioners. The restriction was accordingly re- 
 moved, but it is probably known to few, as it became only 
 casually known after a while to the members of his own family, 
 that his persuasion had effected its removal. 
 
 On the original terms of union for schools associated with this 
 Society, he wrote in one of the later years of his life : 
 
 " They were the best terms which our statesmen of that day in Com- 
 mittee would give us, Lords Grenville, Colchester, Dudley Ryder, &c.,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 229 
 
 although, being happily free from liberalism on the Bench, we fought 
 hard for more stringency in the exaction of Church-attendance. But 
 they are now bound upon us by our Charter, into which, when I 
 saw our downward tendencies, I was specially careful to have them in- 
 corporated, even with all their faults and deficiencies. And they must 
 ever be witnesses to the principles of our constitution." 
 
 This was written in 1848. In speaking of "liberalism on the 
 Bench" he alludes to Dr. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, 
 who at a meeting of the National Society had held out an offer 
 or promise of a large accession to its funds, if the teaching of the 
 Church Catechism might be left optional. The question was 
 decided by a few words from Joshua Watson: "You must bid 
 much higher, if you expect us to sell the Church Catechism." 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Death of his brother, John James Watson, Archdeacon of St. Alban's. 
 And of his daughter and only child. His days of mourning. Friendly 
 offices of Archbishop Howley, Dr. Wordsworth, and Bishop Inglis. 
 Changes in his domestic life. Public anxieties, and healing counsels. 
 Remark on the Life of Wilberforce. 
 
 IT is now necessary to record some changes in the domestic 
 relations of Joshua Watson, which influenced the remain- 
 ing years of his life. His daughter and only child was married 
 in July, 1838, to the Rev. Henry Michell Wagner, Vicar of 
 Brighton. In June 1839, her firstborn son, receiving his grand- 
 father's name at the font, had been baptized at St. Margaret's 
 Church, Westminster. But the happiness of this accession to 
 his family had scarcely been realized, before he was called to the 
 dying bed of his beloved brother. The union of sentiment and 
 affection between the two brothers had been so entire, that per- 
 haps for that very reason the name of John James Watson has 
 appeared with less prominence in the foregoing pages. It was 
 a harmony which was never interrupted from childhood to old 
 age, not expressed in words, and which words would fail to 
 express. Archdeacon Watson expired on Sunday, June 9, after 
 an illness with which his feeble frame, attenuated by many years 
 of weakness and suffering, only struggled for three or four days. 
 The stroke of death found him earnestly engaged in a plan for 
 building three new churches in his large and increasing parish 
 of Hackney. He had the comfort in the course of his last brief
 
 230 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 sickness of hearing the successful result of a meeting of his 
 parishioners to promote this object; and among the last words 
 which he uttered, he said with reference to this good news, 
 " Then I am satisfied." 
 
 On the 17th of June, Joshua Watson, with his brother's widow 
 and all the family, followed his remains to the grave. But they 
 were not alone : " They could not but be cheered," to use Joshua 
 "Watson's words to the Wordsworths, " by the extraordinary de- 
 monstrations of feeling from without. I know not whether any 
 report has reached you of this extraordinary tribute of affectionate 
 reverence from a whole parish, for indeed it was no less, to- 
 wards one whom all seem to have loved exactly in the degree in 
 which they knew him." 
 
 The following account, it is not known from what pen, ap- 
 peared at the time in a public print : 
 
 " It is customary to record the testimonials of respect which are fre- 
 quently paid by the members of their respective flocks to living clergy- 
 men : it seems equally due to the memory of the departed, and to those 
 who loved and esteemed him while living, to record a very impressive 
 and valuable testimonial of respect which has lately been paid to the 
 memory of their deceased rector by the parishioners of Hackney. The 
 venerable Archdeacon Watson, after having been incumbent of Hackney 
 for forty years, during which time he was ever actively engaged in pro- 
 moting the spiritual and temporal welfare of his parishioners, and never 
 more so, as far as health would permit, than at the time of his decease, 
 was, on the 9th of June, after an illness of only three days, taken from 
 them by death. No sooner was this melancholy event known through- 
 out the parish, than there was a strong wish expressed by the inhabit- 
 ants that they might be allowed to shew their respect for their departed 
 rector, and their unfeigned sorrow for his loss, by attending his funeral. 
 And this wish being most kindly complied with by the family of the 
 deceased, gave rise to a scene on Monday last, the 17th of June, the 
 day of the funeral, which those who witnessed it can never forget, and 
 which will be heard of with interest and gratification far beyond the 
 boundaries of the parish in which it took place. 
 
 "Those who know the locality, and the proximity of the rectory- 
 house to the church, will not be surprised at hearing that the funera 
 was a walking one, by far the more simple and impressive method of 
 conducting such a ceremony when practicable ; and it was attended by 
 all the members of the family of the deceased. A large number of 
 parishioners, four a-breast, took the lead of the procession ; then fol- 
 lowed a large body of the clergy in their robes, the greater part of them 
 uninvited, but willingly coming, some from considerable distances, to 
 bear testimony to their great esteem for their departed brother, and 
 to have the sad gratification of following his mortal remains to the 
 tomb. 
 
 "At the entrance of the churchyard, the officiating clergyman, the
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 231 
 
 Rev. H. H. Norris, brother-in-law of the deceased, met the mourning 
 party ; and as the long extended line slowly and silently, save when the 
 commencing words of the Burial Service fell upon the ear, approached 
 the great entrance of the church through the avenue which leads to it, 
 the effect was most solemn and imposing. Every part of the immense 
 edifice was crowded with spectators, by far the larger portions of them, 
 poor as well as rich, shewing by their dress that they came there as 
 mourners. This respect for the character of Archdeacon Watson was 
 not confined to members of his own congregation, or even to Church- 
 men. The Dissenters of the parish were equally ready with their 
 neighbours to close their houses and shops, as' an evidence that a 
 parochial loss had been sustained; and many of them, of various 
 denominations, joined the funeral procession. The scene presented to 
 the eye on this occasion was, as may well be imagined, most deeply 
 interesting and imposing ; but of far higher interest and value was the 
 moral lesson which it taught. It proved, for the encouragement of 
 those who are still bearing the burden and heat of the day, that, even, 
 in these days of rebuke and blasphemy, the minister of God who faith- 
 fully and conscientiously discharges the duties of his solemn trust, and 
 maintains his opinions with firmness and yet with kindness, with Chris- 
 tian courtesy and yet without compromise, may gain the esteem of those 
 around him, and may go down to the grave universally lamented. 
 Christian character, in whatever rank of life it appears, but more espe- 
 cially when it is exemplified in those who, from tlieir public station, are 
 as cities set upon a hill, must have its due weight. In its influence 
 upon the feelings, and, we trust, upon the hearts and lives of the in- 
 habitants of Hackney, it has not been displayed for forty years in the 
 person of the late lamented rector entirely in vain." 
 
 It was one of the remarks which the occasion called forth from 
 Joshua Watson, " The world is juster than one thinks." It i8 
 remembered that a stranger, a casual visitant at the place, on 
 that day sought admittance at a shop which, like the rest, was 
 closed, and was repelled, as he afterwards related, with the 
 answer, " Do you think us heathens, to be buying and selling on 
 such a day as this ?" The keeper of the shop was not any par- 
 ticular ally of the deceased rector ; but his conduct was a proof 
 of the general esteem held of one, of whom Bishop Inglis truly 
 said, " The sweetness of his Christian temper diffused his love 
 very generally around him." When his medical neighbour, who 
 had long known and attended him, came to announce to the 
 family that there were no longer hopes of his recovery, hia 
 words were, " We shall lose the pivot of peace in this parish." 
 
 The still greater bereavement of the following year may be 
 here more briefly related. On the 16th of July, 1840, he wrote 
 to his brother's family, full of joyful gratitude, to announce the 
 news which he had just received of his daughter's safety, and 
 the birth of her second son. The same feeling carried him down.
 
 232 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 rejoicing to Brighton on the 18th; bat before he had seen her, 
 cause had arisen for the most painful anxiety, and on the follow- 
 ing evening, July 19, Mary SDces Wagner expired. 
 
 H. H. Norris and his wife, and his nephew, J. D. "Watson, and 
 one of his nieces, who hastened down to Brighton to be ready to 
 give any comfort that he could receive at their hands, were wit- 
 nesses of his deep and tender sorrow, and of the thankful, loving 
 gentleness with which he accepted all such solace as they could 
 offer him. It was a pang to him, though he felt the arrange- 
 ment to be right, that his child's remains should be laid apart 
 from those of her parents ; but he received and acquiesced in his 
 friend H. H. Norris's words, "Remember at that day there will 
 be no space." 
 
 It is a feeling remark of the poet Gray in one of his letters, 
 " I know what it is to lose a person that one's eyes and heart 
 have long been used to; and I never desire to part with the 
 remembrance of that loss 8 ." But there was something more 
 touching! y persuasive in the words of Joshua Watson, when he 
 spoke at this time in the freshness of his sorrow, as he was wont 
 to do at later times, of the salutary impressions which grief 
 should teach us to cherish, and that we should not wish the 
 pain away till it has done its work : 
 
 " If it is good for us to be afflicted, it cannot but be good for us to 
 bring back to mind, with all the force we can, the impressions which 
 affliction made upon us. Time and the world are fighting against us for 
 their extinction, and we must do all we can to revive and nourish them ; 
 for hard as it may seem in the early period of our visitations to believe 
 that it ever can be thus, we shall assuredly find we need all s\ich helps 
 to a right use and improvement of the dispensation of a love "wiser than 
 our own." 
 
 "Fear not," he said to one of his nieces, who had consulted 
 him on this question at a later period, " Fear not that there is 
 danger either to yourself or others, unless the mind be diseased, 
 in doing all you can to keep your feelings and recollections as 
 fresh as at the first." In this solemn persuasion he kept up an 
 annual remembrance of a day or week of mourning, carefully 
 defending it against intrusions from without. 
 
 There were some whom the spectacle of such Christian sorrow 
 naturally prompted to say to him, " Suffering is such a privilege 
 to those that are God's servants, that one feels assured it must be 
 sent as a special favour to you, that your honoured gray hairs 
 have been spared for such sorrow." He acknowledged the kind- 
 
 Correspondence of Gray and Mason, p. 17.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 233 
 
 ness of such words, but he would not accept them as they were 
 meant. Rather would he speak of his bereavement as a proof of 
 love indeed, but yet as a merciful correction, of which he felt his 
 need. "The privilege of suffering," he said, "could belong 
 only to those who suffered for Christ. No one but himself could 
 know his omissions of duty; for he had been most singularly 
 blest throughout a long life, and he knew he had not improved 
 his advantages as he ought. His lot had been cast in a fair 
 ground ; he had passed very many years of enjoyment, and had 
 no excuse for murmuring." He repeated a little parable from 
 a book which he had been reading : A gardener who has reared 
 a tender flower with much care and anxious toil, suddenly misses 
 it when it has arrived at its full prime and beauty, and in great 
 distress and anger enquires who has dared to touch it. He is 
 told that his master has taken it, and is immediately satisfied, 
 for it was for his master that he had reared it. 
 
 He had now to shape his course anew, for all his views for the 
 short remainder of his life had been swept away by this unfore- 
 seen affliction. The question was brought to a practical issue 
 by an offer which was made him for the lease of his house in 
 Park- street. He resolved to accept the offer, desiring to set him- 
 self free from the incurabrances and responsibilities of house- 
 keeping. But it was a very unwelcome necessity which was thus 
 forced upon him to attend to the details of arrangement involved 
 in the change; and he was sometimes much depressed, and 
 scarcely equal to the task. He occupied himself at the abode of 
 so many touching remembrances for a good part of the month of 
 August, and toiled at the accumulated papers, records of his long- 
 sustained charitable services to the different Societies, and rules 
 for their management, in many instances drawn up by him, 
 though the framer's name had never been suffered to appear. 
 The niece who was with him noticed with admiration the very 
 exact method in which these documents were kept, in drawers 
 and cupboards full of divisions, all carefully labelled, and how 
 great was the number of the trusts which he had discharged, 
 even from the time when he was quite a young man. It was 
 a re-opening of the stores of one whom all had regarded as the 
 safest of public guardians. But with these papers the memory 
 of much that he accomplished has also perished. 
 
 It was his own earnest wish at this period to retire altogether 
 from public life, and to spend his remaining days in trimming 
 his own lamp and waiting for his summons. But he was not 
 allowed to escape without earnest remonstrance from his friends ; 
 and some words of Archbishop Howley had probably some weight 
 with him. Thia revered friend, who had warmly attested his
 
 234 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 sympathy on the death of his brother in the previous year, now 
 again called upon him ; and Joshua Watson spoke afterwards 
 very gratefully of the kindness and affection with which he had 
 urged upon him the duty and the blessedness of persevering in 
 his appointed work to the end. His thoughts turned both to his 
 brother's family, and toward the house at Clapton, in which he 
 had formerly resided, now occupied by other relatives, who most 
 gladly opened their door to receive him. Eventually he divided 
 his time almost equally between both, but he made no definite 
 plan ; and his thoughts and feelings may be best reflected in the 
 words of his long-tried friend, Dr. Wordsworth, written to him 
 at this time from Buxted : 
 
 " I am much interested by what you say of the possibility of your 
 taking shelter again for a few months of business at Clapton. How 
 wonderful will it be if, after a lapse of so many years, and of so many 
 changes and chances of this mortal life, I should ever again visit you 
 there, a spot peopled with so many distant but touching and tender 
 recollections of friendship and love. Can I ever forget your dear and 
 venerable father, (to draw a veil over others not far off,) playing on the 
 bowling-green with my dear boys, and the delight, the sweet delight, he 
 took in ministering to, and partaking in, their innocent pleasures ?" 
 
 Among more distant friends he was cheered by letters from 
 Bishop Inglis, who, after sustaining a long struggle in England 
 for his colonial Church and for extension of missionary labour, 
 had again returned to Nova Scotia. 
 
 "I know," he wrote, "that you have applied, in all the submission of 
 a holy resignation, to Power which has no limit, to Mercy that is never 
 wearied, to Wisdom that never errs, to Love which cannot be extin- 
 guished; and from the united application of all these, I trust, yea, I 
 am sure, you have found a stream of consolation directed to your 
 wounded heart, and a balm like that of Gilead to heal its bleeding. Oh 
 may these be so poured upon you, and so abundantly, that you may 
 realize the mercy and the wisdom which assuredly belong to the blow 
 with which you have been stricken." 
 
 And another letter, a few months later, in which he again 
 speaks of tbe heavenly comforts which he trusted were his 
 friend's blessed portion, closes with the heartfelt wish, "May 
 they long be continued in all their healing freshness !" 
 
 Reports of a threatening illness led the Bishop to say, in 
 a letter to H. H. Norris in 1841, 
 
 " I need not tell you how deeply and sincerely I have mourned over 
 the account you sent me of our dear friend, of whom, however, God be 
 praised, the latter accounts are more favourable. His loss, to our view, 
 would be irreparable. We have a friend in Boston, whom I have always 
 thought to resemble him in many points, and also in look and manner.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 235 
 
 My son Charles in writing of him says, 'Mr. Appleton is, I have no 
 doubt, the Joshua Watson of America ; but anything equal to the pro- 
 totype himself will not be found from one end of the Union to the other.' 
 May he still be spared to us, if so it shall seem good to the Wisdom 
 that cannot err. His name, his bare existence on our planet, is some- 
 thing, yea, it is hope, and strength, and power. Remember me most 
 affectionately to him, and to all the circle who love him as we love, 
 him" 
 
 And again he wrote in May, 1 842 : 
 
 " There is no person on your side of the ocean more frequently in my 
 affectionate thoughts than our dear friend Joshua Watson. No packet 
 sails by which I do not wish to write to him ; but I fear my letters 
 would be troublesome, and I would suffer great privation in preference 
 to adding the weight of a pin to any burthen upon him. Pray let me 
 know how he is in health, spirits, and occupation." 
 
 But shortly afterwards he wrote again directly to Joshua 
 Watson himself: 
 
 " Since we cannot retrace our steps, and would not if we could, it is 
 surely better that we should pass with humble but confiding hope 
 through the short passage that leads to our rest ; and until the sum- 
 mons comes, surely we are bound to preserve the thankfulness of heart 
 which may well be excited by a recollection of the blessings which have 
 mercifully been afforded to us. How ungrateful should we be if, when 
 we outlast many of our enjoyments, we should be willing to lose the 
 thankful recollection of them, great and unmerited as we know them 
 to have been. That every comfort may be imparted to you, and pre- 
 eminently among these an increasing and confiding trust in the mercies 
 of God through our adorable Redeemer, is the earnest prayer of your 
 long-attached and ever-affectionate friend." 
 
 It was long before Joshua Watson felt able to resume the 
 thread of correspondence with a friend like this, to whom he 
 was unwilling to write shortly, or without touching on subjects 
 which he felt to be sacred ; but a letter has been preserved, dated 
 from Clapton, Saturday, Feb. 24, 1843 : 
 
 "It has been no small comfort to me, my very dear lord, though, 
 perhaps, an undue encouragement in my long silence, to know that you 
 have from time to time been assured, by one kind friend or another, of 
 the strong feeling I had of the persevering kindness of your letters, and 
 of the deep sympathy and Christian consolation with which they were 
 continually charged. But this can no longer be done by commission ; 
 and though I find the subject of so much affectionate expression on 
 your part as unapproachable still in correspondence as in conversation 
 it ever will be, yet I must break the spell by which my pen has been 
 restrained from communicating with those few distant friends who knew 
 and felt as you did, and tell you, my dear Lord, that your wine and oil 
 were amongst the most* precious balms that were poured into the wounds
 
 236 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of your friend, and assure you that my gratitude, though silent, is any- 
 thing but cold. 
 
 " Of those who are gone before I will not attempt to speak ; and of 
 myself I will only say that I have never dared to murmur. I knew the 
 lesson was wanted, and why I was left the last, cumbering the ground ; 
 and have only had to pray night and day that the lesson and the long- 
 suffering might be improved to the ends in so much mercy meant ; and 
 for this I know I have had your prayers, my dear friend, and must still 
 earnestly beg them." 
 
 The letter then goes on to speak of such public matters as 
 were then deemed of moment, and to give intelligence on sub- 
 jects of more private and domestic interest, prefacing the com- 
 munications with a characteristic remark : 
 
 "Having now broken the ice, I begin to feel as heretofore, that a 
 very short letter to a distant friend is like a formal bow to an old one, 
 more of a cut than a kindness ; and so I may go on talking with you, as 
 I have often done before, without really having anything to say, rather 
 than seem to be desirous of bringing our parley to a hasty end." 
 
 Indeed he was, during this period of recent mourning, in fre- 
 quent communication with Archbishop Howley and with Bishop 
 Blomfield, on questions of the deepest interest to the English 
 Church. The bitter extremities of controversy were a source of 
 painful anxiety to the aged Primate ; and he is reported once to 
 have said that he sustained his soul from day to day by repeating 
 the sacred counsel of the inspired text to himself, " Leave off from 
 wrath, and let go displeasure : fret not thyself, else shalt thou 
 be moved to do evil." In these conversations, as Joshua Watson 
 afterwards spoke of them, "his chief comfort was derived from 
 the contemplation of the Archbishop's own calm temper, sound 
 judgment, and Christian prudence, equally distinguishable from 
 the indifference of some, the indiscretion of others, and the tem- 
 porizing expediency of many more." 
 
 The efficacy of these healing counsels is attested by many 
 proofs which, were not the times too recent, might be here more 
 fully exhibited. While he was yet at Brighton, he had many 
 interviews with a distinguished scholar and theologian, whose 
 name had been, and still is in some associations, made use of as 
 a word of controversy. 
 
 " I am glad," wrote this learned and pious divine, " to take this op- 
 portunity of expressing to you how cheering to me were those inter- 
 views. We seem to have been plying against wind and tide of late ; 
 and so many blasts have beat upon us from different, and some unex- 
 pected quarters, that one seemed to have little to look to except the 
 trust that we were hi the ark. One had become so much the object of 
 suspicion, that I cannot say how cheering it was to be recognised by
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 237 
 
 you as carrying on the same torch which we had received from yourself 
 and from those of your generation, who had remained faithful to the 
 old teaching. We seemed no longer separated by a chasm from the old 
 times and old paths, to which we wished to lead people back ; the links 
 which united us to those of old seemed to be restored. It seems hard 
 to wish to keep you from your greater rest ; yet I trust you will be 
 for some time spared to us, finding rest in diffusing peace amidst our 
 troubled waters, and a witness yet further to the principles you have 
 Brought down to us." 
 
 It was during this period that he read with lively emotions 
 the " Life of William Wilberforce." The mutual regard which 
 Wilberforce and many of his friends had entertained for Alexander 
 Knox and Bishop Jehh, shared equally by Joshua Watson and 
 H. H. Norris, had tended, towards the close of his long and 
 honourable course, to mitigate the remembrance of some things 
 in which these highly conscientious men had conscientiously dif- 
 fered ; and they were nearer together as they alike drew nearer 
 to their mortal bourne. " Have you yet read your five volumes ?" 
 Joshua Watson asked of a friend, whom he knew to have pro- 
 vided himself for their perusal. " And if so, with all the defects 
 of the biography and the little blemishes of the hero, do you not 
 really like Wilberforce better than you did ? From the date of 
 his involvement, to use our friend Norris's word, in his son's 
 misfortunes, does he not deserve our unfeigned esteem? And 
 does he not set beautifully ?" 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 John Inglis, third Bishop of Nova Scotia : his life and labours. Extracts 
 from his correspondence. State of the colonies comprised in his diocese. 
 His visit to Boston and New York. Withdrawal of the State allow- 
 ance from the British North American clergy. Efforts of the Bishop to 
 meet the emergency. His progresses in England in 1839, and remark- 
 able success. His Christian counsels to English friends. His private 
 life. His country-house at Clermont. His illness and death. 
 
 SOME account has been given in Chapter vm. of Joshua 
 Watson's intimacy with John Inglis, third Bishop of Nova 
 Scotia ; and the reader who has accompanied us through the pre- 
 ceding chapter will have seen this good bishop evincing his 
 Christian sympathy in letters to his distant friend in the days of 
 his domestic sorrow. But it is due to the memory of a character 
 of rare excellence to devote a little separate space to a record of
 
 238 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 his life and labours, and to shew with what continual commu- 
 nion of counsels he corresponded with the subject of this Memoir. 
 
 The friendship of John Inglis with Joshua Watson and his 
 brother, and with H. H. Norris, began in the earliest years of 
 the present century, and probably originated in their mutual in- 
 timacy with Jonathan Boucher. He had accompanied his father 
 to England in his childhood, and was with him a guest of Arch- 
 bishop Moore's at Lambeth in the year 1787, when Charles Inglis 
 was consecrated first bishop of the first colonial see h ; but his 
 letters to his English friends have been preserved from the time 
 when, in his father's later years as his representative, and after- 
 wards as Rector of Trinity Church, Halifax, while the succeed- 
 ing bishop was unhappily infirm and non-resident, the care of 
 the diocese was already in great measure upon his shoulders. 
 
 At the distance of half a century, when the progress of our 
 colonial empire has been so rapid, and the facilities of intercourse 
 by navigation so marvellously increased, it is difficult to estimate 
 the obstacles which then existed to any timely remedy for the 
 emergencies requiring aid from home to the Church beyond the 
 Atlantic. Inglis speaks of himself as having been sixty days at 
 sea on his return from a visit to England in 1813 '. There was 
 a great want of system and legal provision for the first colonial 
 bishoprics. In cases of discipline the bishop had no power to 
 require lay-evidence, or to enforce a sentence canonically pro- 
 nounced. His rank was not defined ; and this omission led to 
 subsequent contests with the Romanist prelates in different colo- 
 nies. Patronage was almost left to hazard. The Gospel Society 
 might be called the patron of their missions ; but as the missions 
 were often parishes, the governors of the provinces claimed the 
 appointments, and in some instances the people claimed them in 
 virtue of some clause in a colonial act of legislature. Some of 
 these anomalies Inglis pointed out in one of his early letters ; 
 but he added words which shewed his faint expectation of any 
 relief from them : " These are evils to be guarded against in limine; 
 they might be provided for in Archdeacon Middleton's appoint- 
 ment for India ; but it will never do to leave them to depend on 
 references to England ; and I fear they will be out of date when 
 this letter arrives V 
 
 His father, after some years of infirmity, disabling him from 
 all public episcopal functions, died early in 1816. He had 
 been in his youth the friend of the excellent and honoured 
 Dr. Chandler ; and was subsequently Rector of Trinity Church in 
 
 b Letter to H. H. Norris, March 27, 1848. ' To the same, Nov., 1813. 
 k To tlie same, April, 1814.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 239 
 
 New York. His care had been displayed towards the Negroes 
 and Indians in America. His loyalty during the revolutionary 
 struggle had been maintained with immediate peril of his life. 
 He was banished by Act of Congress in 1783, and sojourned in 
 England a few years, till, in 1787, he was sent forth as Bishop of 
 Nova Scotia. Of his services it would be ungrateful to withhold 
 his son's testimony. 
 
 "I am mortified," he writes 1 , "to find not a syllable respecting my 
 dear father in the records of the Society. His correspondence with the 
 Secretary for more than twenty -five years would form a very interesting 
 and curious history of the young Church in Nova Scotia. He subdued 
 many difficulties of various kinds by his temper, prudence, zeal, assi- 
 duity, fortitude, and orthodoxy. He had the happiness to see nearly 
 thirty churches rising up in the wilderness in opposition to very strong 
 prejudices Under his auspices, and chiefly through his zealous and 
 persevering struggles, a college has been built and endowed, and has 
 already produced many valuable soldiers in our citadel; and at this 
 moment the Church is looked upon with a respect that was hardly to 
 have been hoped for. Ought all these things to pass away without 
 a memorial or tribute to their active and useful author ? Deduct as 
 much as you please for the fond partiality of a son, and you will still 
 leave my father in possession of more merit than falls to the share of 
 ordinary men. He was especially fitted for the delicate and difficult 
 station in which he was placed, and used his opportunities with great 
 judgment and proportionate success." 
 
 In the following year he writes to John James "Watson, shewing 
 his zeal for the extension of Christian education in his own pro- 
 vince, in furtherance of the designs of the National Society. 
 
 " Our school was opened under many discouragements in December 
 last ; now it has one hundred and ten scholars, and will have more than 
 double the number in another year. It was visited a few days ago by 
 the Earl of Dalhousie m , attended by the council and assembly, and ex- 
 hibited a very perfect and striking specimen of a national school. Our 
 great defect is the want of a school-mistress. Do but send us one equal 
 to our master, Mr. West, and although I cannot promise, like Dr. Bell, 
 to rival Archimedes, I will promise a very rapid diffusion of the system 
 over an immense extent of country, and most important benefit to the 
 cause of pure religion and morals. You must not consider it merely as 
 a gift to Halifax, for we shall train masters and mistresses for all British 
 America. And if we have the blessing of God with us, for which we 
 will earnestly hope and fervently pray, we may be instrumental in the 
 
 1 Letter to H. H. Norris, June, 1816. 
 
 m The then Governor of the province. Inglis speaks of him, in a letter 
 to H. H. Norris, as "a plain straightforward soldier, but extremely be- 
 nevolent man." " He has certainly acted nobly towards us," he says in 
 another letter.
 
 24 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 prevention of much mischief, and the extension of the most valuable of 
 earthly goods." 
 
 He was one of those cheerful spirits which seem to rise under 
 difficulties and dangers; but in his happy temperament it was 
 still more the elasticity of a pure and loving heart and mind. 
 
 " The whole business of the diocese is now thrown upon me again," 
 he writes", " with all the responsibility of a bishop, without his dignity 
 and authority. But I bow with contentment and thankfulness. The 
 new bishop has at all times treated me with unlimited confidence ; and 
 in return I have endeavoured to render him whatever assistance it has 
 been in my power to afford." 
 
 In fact, this invalid bishop, after remaining a year at Halifax, 
 during which he was incapacitated from all active employment, 
 sailed for England in the autumn of 1817, and never returned. 
 For nearly twelve years no episcopal act was performed in the 
 diocese. 
 
 " I had seated myself," he writes again to H. H. Norris , " for the 
 purpose of opening my box of evils ; but I know not how it is, whenever 
 writing to you my views become more bright, for either I hope for valu- 
 able counsel and assistance, or I think it necessary to avoid giving you 
 pain." 
 
 Such words speak something both of the writer and the friend 
 addressed. 
 
 At length, in March, 1825, he was consecrated at Lambeth; 
 and there is abundant evidence of the active interest which 
 Joshua Watson took in previous arrangements, striving to secure 
 for him such a moderate income as might suffice for the needful 
 expenses of his episcopal duties, without involving him in harass- 
 ing cares for his family. 
 
 "I cannot express to you," the Bishop wrote, just after his conse- 
 cration, "how truly happy I should be if I coula now be made easy 
 about the provision for myself, and turn my attention earnestly to better 
 objects. 
 
 " Pray forgive me ; I shall soon be too far away to trouble you every 
 day as I now do, but not too far to recollect with affection and gratitude 
 how much I am yours greatly obliged, 
 
 " JOHN NOVA SCOTIA." 
 
 " We leave you," he wrote again, " with a regret that we are obh'ged 
 to subdue by every effort that we can make ; with hearts filled with 
 a sense of your kindness, and with the most affectionate thankfulness, 
 the only return we can offer, joined with our prayers that all good may 
 be showered upon you." 
 
 To H. H. Norris, Nov., 1817. March, 1818.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 241 
 
 In September, 1826, the Bishop sent a thankful report to his 
 friend of his first visitation. He had journeyed four thousand 
 miles, consecrated thirty-five churches, and held forty-seven con- 
 firmations; and in one week preached twelve times. His charge 
 then comprised Newfoundland, Bermudas, and New Brunswick, 
 as well as Nova Scotia. A few years later he had to report 
 nearly one hundred new consecrations. In voyaging and visiting 
 different stations on the coast of Newfoundland, he had been 
 followed by boat after boat from one settlement to another, the 
 people sailing when he sailed, and anchoring when he anchored, 
 that they might land and worship with their brethren where 
 he came. 
 
 "Bermudas," he said, "is the most church-regarding colony I have 
 seen, and deserves all the encouragement it requires. All the wishes of 
 Government with respect to the negroes might be accomplished there if 
 judiciously pursued ; and if accomplished there, the example might assist 
 in procuring similar results in other islands. New Brunswick ranks 
 next to Bermudas in this respect. It was settled by loyalists after the 
 peace of 1783 ; and men of principle and influence were scattered 
 throughout the province, whose value is still felt. There also, in the 
 missionaries Scovil and Andrewes, we had our western Schwartz and 
 Gericke, who, with God's blessing, firmly planted the Churches round 
 them. In Nova Scotia we have more difficulties. Dissent took an 
 early hold ; and the immigrations, which are chiefly from Scotland, 
 are adding largely to the seceders and the Romanists. But even here, 
 thanks to God, we are advancing." 
 
 He speaks more fully of his visit to Bermudas in another letter. 
 He had been received there with unbounded kindness, and met 
 with the readiest inclination to attend to his advice. He had 
 consecrated nine churches, confirmed near 1,300 persons of all 
 ages, ordained two deacons, and preached for them seventeen 
 times to immense crowds of both white and black people. His 
 peculiar aim was to establish eight or ten superior schools for the 
 blacks, and his designs were such as to meet with the acquies- 
 cence and co-operation of the masters. 
 
 So incessant were these labours, that it was not till two years 
 after his return to America that he could first congratulate himself 
 on having met with another English bishop on that soil, and re- 
 freshed his spirits in an opportunity of brief intercourse with 
 Bishop Mountain of Quebec. 
 
 Shortly afterwards he visited Boston and New York, in com- 
 pany with his brother-in-law, the ingenious and benevolent Judge 
 Haliburton. His open-hearted frankness made him acceptable in 
 the social circles of these great cities ; and the Americans saw 
 with pleasure the keen and almost playful interest with which
 
 242 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 he enquired into their institutions. The reader will not be un- 
 willing to see the following letter to John James Watson recorded 
 at length; more particularly from the notice it contains of the 
 cotton-factory at Lowel, which has more lately attracted at- 
 tention from other sources in our own country : 
 
 " New York, June 6th, 1828. 
 " MY DEAR. FRIEND, 
 
 " My last letter will have told you of our embarkation in the ' Ring- 
 dove.' After a pleasant and quick passage we landed at Boston on the 
 23rd of May, intending to remain there for two or three days ; but the 
 unbounded kindness we received detained us three weeks, and at last 
 we broke away with difficulty. The Bishop p was absent, but the clergy 
 were as attentive as possible. It was a subject of much joy and hope 
 to me, to see that the Church was gaining ground. Since the open 
 avowal of Socinian principles, which has been prominent for twenty or 
 thirty years, the Calvinists have not been wanting in their opposition to 
 them ; and many are daily manifesting a desire to find that nappy union 
 of faith and reason, on which they may repose amid the conflicts of ex- 
 travagance on either hand. Nothing can be more unfixed than the sen- 
 timents of the Socinians. No two persons have the same opinions ; and 
 indeed if they will but agree in denying the Godhead of the Son, they 
 seem at full liberty to believe or disbelieve whatever else they please. 
 They may receive the Scriptures in the literal sense, and admit their 
 inspiration ; or they may deny this entirely, and allegorize ad libitum. 
 It is impossible to believe that this state of mind can continue ; and it 
 is very gratifying to think that much may be accompl : bed for the pros- 
 perity of the Church in the change that seems inevitable. 
 
 " I turn to more pleasing details of existing circumstances. The dwell- 
 ing-houses in Boston are palaces, and very expensive ; but everything 
 else bears the mark of great frugality and good sense. Their hours are 
 early, and their habits very temperate. There is a moral sense diffused 
 among the people that is very striking. Among the many Institutions 
 that we visited I must name a cotton-factory at Lowel, twenty-five 
 miles from Boston, where a beautiful town has arisen within the last 
 five years. Such a factory I never saw before. Its entire neatness and 
 the healthy appearance of the people employed are most gratifying. 
 Nearly three thousand young women, from fourteen to twenty-five years 
 of age, are employed. They look like the better sort of ladies-maids, 
 whose dress is peculiarly neat, without extravagance or finery. Among 
 this large number there has been but a single instance of improper con- 
 duct in five years, and that terminated in a very appropriate marriage. 
 I endeavoured to get at the reason of so remarkable a fact, but was not 
 able to satisfy myself entirely. The candidates for employment are the 
 daughters of independent yeomen, who, encouraged by the certainty of 
 success if they are prudent, are looking for a little sum that will secure 
 their independence, and assist their settlement or marriage. The wages 
 
 t Bishop Griswold.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 243 
 
 are high, and their object is attainable in four or five years, beyond 
 which period very few remain in the manufactory. They are very hawks 
 in watching each other, and the least levity of conduct induces all the 
 rest to refuse working in the same room, or lodging in the same boarding- 
 house, with the suspected individual. There may be some influence also 
 from a religious excitement, which is common among them ; and many 
 of these young women have contributed twenty dollars to a church or 
 meeting-house. They all read and write, and are very well informed in 
 their station. Most of them have been brought up in good moral 
 habits, and with encouraging examples in their families. Whether this 
 state of tilings can be preserved, as manufactures increase, and employ 
 the mass of the population instead of a select few, is a problem to be 
 solved only by experience. 
 
 "The provision at Boston for universal instruction is very sufficient. 
 The teachers are amply provided for by a general tax, and schools of 
 every class are alike open to all, free of other expense. I visited 
 several, and found much that was gratifying. The National system, 
 though opposed as a pauper system, seems likely to gain its ground, 
 but there is less need of it here perhaps than in other places. 
 
 " If I might venture an opinion upon the Harvard University, I 
 would say that it is well qualified to give general and useful education, 
 but oifers little inducement to much erudition. No person can take 
 a degree unless he maintains a respectable character for diligence and 
 moral conduct, which is ascertained by yearly examination; but no 
 other examination is necessary for degrees. 
 
 " Judge Haliburton, my brother-in-law, is with us, and we were for- 
 tunate in visiting Boston when their Government and LegisL.ure was 
 to be organized, and several unusual public dinners were given, to which 
 we were invited. The oath of allegiance and fidelity was administered by 
 the Governor in the most impressive manner to more than four hundred 
 members of the Legislature. Then he called upon those to "ome for- 
 ward whose scruples of conscience prevented their taking an oath. 
 From these a declaration was required, and it was attended with equal 
 solemnity. I wish its concluding words were appended to your sub- 
 stitute for the original test : ' And this affirmation I make under the 
 pains and penalties of perjury.' If the declaration in England had been 
 so accompanied, and not confined to the influence derived from office, I 
 could have voted for it. 
 
 " This is a wonderfully increasing country, and must be very powerful. 
 An old Scotch gentleman, whom I saw this morning, told me he well 
 remembered the deputation from the vestry of Trinity, that was sent to 
 Maryland, to invite my father to this city. It then contained 15,000 
 inhabitants. Its present population exceeds 200,000. Bishop Hobart 
 is absent on duty for a few days, but I shall soon see him, as he has 
 been watching for n; ; last three weeks. 
 
 "June 24. Bishop Helmut has returned. Three days are to be 
 given to the Theological Seminary. I have preachea in crowded 
 churches, and to many of my father's old parishioners." 
 
 The correspondence of the years that followed, while thank-
 
 244 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 fully recording the progress of the Church under his charge, 
 " with happy influence securing respect, and extending her bor- 
 ders under blessing from above," is yet full of sad and earnest 
 deliberation how in any degree to avert the consequences of the 
 withdrawal of the funds hitherto supplied by the Government at 
 home to the Colonial clergy. It will be remembered, that the 
 State had long made an annual grant of 12,000 to the Gospel 
 Society, on an agreement that the Society should pay a stipend 
 of 200 a-year to each missionary. A promise had also been 
 notified in l)owning-street of pensions to retired missionaries and 
 their widows. All this was now to cease. It was most dis- 
 heartening to see the Colonial Church so crippled in her resources 
 at the very season when she seemed able most efficiently to em- 
 ploy them ; but the threatened sufferings to his clergy weighed 
 even more heavily on the Bishop's heart. Joshua Watson's sym- 
 pathies were deeply stirred ; and he urged upon his willing friend 
 the adoption of the plainest language, that at least among the 
 people of England the cry for justice might be heard. 
 
 "You know," he wrote in September, 1834, "I have always been 
 urgent for strong words and strong deeds in this case, and have been 
 the more obstinate in my conviction that there was no other safe way 
 of dealing with it, because it was in spite of my general tendency in 
 action to insist more upon the suaviter in modo than the fortiter in re. 
 It may be indeed that those who prevailed against me before may now 
 think that the time is gone by for any vigorous expression of feeling, 
 (though they did not deny it might have had some chance when first 
 urged upon them) ; and perhaps they might prove to be right ; but still 
 I would neither withhold the attempt, nor despair of its issue. A 
 stronger case than your poor clergy have can scarcely be conceived ; 
 and if they call loucl enough to be heard, I think they must be an- 
 swered." 
 
 The college at Windsor was experiencing the same kind of 
 treatment at the hands of the Colonial Government, and was 
 then and in after years the subject of most earnest solicitude to 
 the Bishop and to his friends. But he firmly refused to purchase 
 continuance of favour by any abandonment of the distinctive 
 character of the institution. " I will try, with God's blessing, 
 to maintain our integrity, and submit to present evil, in hope 
 a day may come for its removal ; but the character once gone 
 can never return." 
 
 One of these letters contains a warm tribute to the memory of 
 the Rev. Mather Byles Debrisay, a descendant of Cotton Mather's, 
 whose death, the effect of his abounding zeal, had " left five con- 
 gregations waste :" " I preached and read prayers in two of his 
 waste churches on Sunday, when none could approach to speak
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 245 
 
 to me but in tears." In another he pours out to his friend a 
 more depressing grief which had come upon him the discovery 
 of misconduct in one of his clergy whom he had trusted and es- 
 teemed. " The affair has given me a long-continued heart-ache 
 in this time of peril and of mischief." But jealous as he was 
 of the purity of the ministry, his loving heart yearned towards 
 the offender ; and in seeking his friend's faithful counsel on the 
 course to be pursued, he wrote, 
 
 " I wish he would consent to an open penance ; in which case I 
 would minister in his church, question him, exhort him and all around 
 him, and pray for him from my inmost heart. I received a most kind, 
 confidential letter and advice from the Archbishop on this difficult case. 
 It was truly paternal." 
 
 Of the general body of clergy in his diocese he bears this wit- 
 ness : " They feel the duty that is laid upon them, and increase 
 their labours as their wages are diminished. But they will not 
 lose their reward." " Write when you can," he thus closes one 
 of his letters. " Tour letters have always something that re- 
 freshes, although they do not convey as much comfort as you 
 would wish them to impart." Again : " Many thanks for your 
 letter of May 3. Tour communications are very encouraging to 
 my poor labours, and more cheering under difficulties than you 
 will readily believe. We owe you much for the successful 
 efforts on behalf of our college, which, I rejoice to say, is looking 
 up again." 
 
 The letter of May 3, 1837, thus referred to, will explain the 
 nature of these efforts : 
 
 "Your lordship's well-timed, and in all respects most satisfactory, 
 detail of facts has made a strong impression on the Archbishop's mind. 
 Oppressed as it is bv all the anxieties of a double representative of 
 Church and State, it is fully alive to the striking statements you have 
 made ; so much so, indeed, as to have thought at one moment of moving 
 the House of Lords for the production of the official papers. In truth, 
 he only relinquished the notion from a fear that the air that might be 
 given to it of party or political feeling under recent differences would 
 prejudice the cause which ought to have a much loftier origin. With 
 this original purpose in mind, his Grace did not communicate your 
 representation to the last Board, but he has since laid it before the Com- 
 mittee. . . In committee, therefore, I hope to follow it up ; and whatever 
 little I can do, or drive others to do, shall there be done. We shall not 
 indeed lose sight of any occasion of assisting your indefatigable exertions 
 for the prosperity of that portion of the Catholic Church which a good 
 Providence has placed under your lordship's charge. But it is impos- 
 sible to disguise to ourselves that whatever good is to arise at this time 
 must come out of evil ; and so we may well be content to go on doing
 
 246 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 our own clear duties, and patiently and piously leave results to Him 
 who alone can do that great work, and has the times and the seasons in 
 His own counsels. In this confidence I am much inclined to a bold 
 use of the funded property, for which you seem so solicitous. The 
 Church at home and abroad is, to all human calculation, in a great 
 crisis ; and to her immediate relief I am for applying all her present re- 
 sources. I would not husband, for I think I have no right to do so, 
 the actual means which the love of Christ's Church has put into our 
 hands. We mus f make great sacrifices and run great risks, and leave 
 to our posterity lue example of our forefathers ; and unless and until 
 we iix ourselves in this conclusion, there is, humanly speaking, no hope 
 for us. If we dare not for a few yc r to come spend much more than 
 our income, what is to become of your college and nursery of young 
 divines, what of India, East or West, and what, especially, of Australia ?" 
 
 Bishop Inglis was at this time framing his Church Society, 
 and employed his friend's agency in his communications with 
 the parent Societies at home. 
 
 "My great object," he says, "is to make our members understand 
 our Scriptural and evangelical doctrines in the real meaning of the 
 word, and our apostolic order, from a conviction that, as these are 
 better known, they will be more loved ; and as they are more lo^H, the 
 facilities, even among ourselves, for upholding and perpetua* cia, 
 
 under the Heavenly blessing will be largely increased." 
 
 And before he closed his letter, he was able thus to report his 
 success : 
 
 "We have had our meeting numerously and well attended, harmoni- 
 ous and respectful. All my points were agreed to without a dissentient 
 voice, and I trust that, with the blessing we have implored, the Society 
 will be an instrument of good. My clergy are dispersing; and it is 
 a subject for unfeigned thankfulness that all our own concerns and all 
 our intercourse have been gratifying without a single alloy. We lament 
 our external condition, and are grieved that those who should support 
 us are despoiling us ; but we are endeavouring to have recourse to Him 
 who will never leave us, and to exert ourselves under Him, and with an 
 eye of faith to His blessing, as we are bound to struggle. 
 
 " Do not laugh at our pigmyism when I tell you we collected more 
 than 100 in our room. I repeated my exhortation over and over 
 again, that money was a secondary object, and I implored that one con- 
 tribution might not be guided by another ; and that all would give with 
 a recollection tliat if our main objects were blest with the success for 
 which we hope, their own feelings would constrain them to larger gifts 
 hereafter. I begged for the smallest offerings of the humblest and the 
 poorest : our desire is to link together every member of our Church. 
 Our first receipt was the dollar 01 a poor widow. I hear every half- 
 hour of new members. Our Governor has just announced his accept- 
 ance of the office of patron, and his yearly subscription of 10." 
 
 Soon after this Bishop Inglis was again in England, labouring
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 247 
 
 most energetically to excite co-operation with the Society for 
 Propagating the Gospel, throughout the country. In this behalf 
 he was led to adopt what was then a measure of doubtful 
 promise, the advocacy of his cause at public meetings and on 
 platforms, to a degree, the necessity of which Joshua Watson, to 
 say the least, regretted, and doubted whether he could thus add 
 permanent strength to his cause. But the two were in constant 
 communication, aud laboured together with one accord for the 
 increase and efficiency of the staff of working officers at home, 
 while they sought to secure the i:r:ty ;;'id purity of the mis- 
 sionary body. It was to Joshua Watson that the Bishop looked 
 for counsel in the difficult question of balancing the calls of duty 
 at that juncture in England and in Nova Scotia. He was still 
 attending meetings at different towns, and receiving requests for 
 more, when, in Sept., 1839, he wrote from Huntingdon in 
 terms that shew he was then preparing to return home. He re- 
 ferred the question to Archbishop Howley, ana finding that he 
 concurred with Joshua Watson, he writes like a man relieved 
 after his labours, " feeling younger and happier." But a short 
 time afterwards there were some encouraging result be 
 expected by his exertions and those of his friends in Do ag- 
 street; and in his care for his diocese he determined to stay 
 through the winter. The following note of Joshua Watson's 
 shews us a glimpse of the prudent diplomacy with which these 
 matters were conducted : 
 
 " Wednesday night. 
 " Mr DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 "I cannot help fearing that if your friend S. S.* will take upon him 
 the task of answering H.M.'s High Commissioner in a hurry, clever as 
 he is, he will break down under the burden. 
 
 " No time is to be lost certainly, neither will any good result from 
 a perfunctory execution of the work. To do the thing quickly, and to 
 do it well, both indispensable in the undertaking, 1 can see but the 
 way already mentioned. Let three clever heads and hands be immedi- 
 ately set upon the job, with the threefold division we talked of. Let 
 Croker r take the party- politics, the Clock-maker the local politics, and 
 my good friend the Church politics ; and all that is wanted will be had 
 as soon as wanted, and no sooner said than done. 
 
 " To such a combination, or rather constellation, none of the lesser 
 stars, I am sure, can contribute any light. I really have none to add, 
 even if I had all the time I want ; or most gladly should your call be 
 answered by 
 
 " Your faithful friend, 
 " J. W." 
 
 * Mr. Justice Haliburton. ' The Right Hon. J. W. Croker.
 
 248 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 In the following spring, Joshua Watson wrote to his nieces, 
 telling of the Bishop's departure : 
 
 " It has been a sad parting ; for nothing can be more beyond human 
 expectation than the hope of ever seeing his face again, The Society 
 for Propagating the Gospel has greatly gamed by his stay in this 
 country. Certainly it owes to him the thousands of friends, and ten 
 thousands of pounds, which have been raised in the last two years. 
 "Without him, literally, there had not been a single public meeting in 
 town or country ; there had been no struggle for Church reserves or 
 school lands, no bishop in Newfoundland, no chance of one in New 
 Brunswick. So that, although I vehemently urged him to return last 
 year, I am compelled to admit that he has not remained in vain ; and I 
 hope to send after him a strong expression of our obligation to him for 
 really unparalleled services. Besides overcoming all the discouragements 
 cast in his way, and stirring up others to unwilling action, he preached 
 eighty sermons, and personally attended and pleaded at nearly one 
 hundred meetings ; and the result will be, I verily believe, trebled funds 
 before the year is out." 
 
 Bishop Inglis was a man in whom religious feeling flowed 
 freely forth from the springs of a warm and generous heart, 
 winning its way with the hearers by a plain sincerity and earnest 
 simplicity of eloquence, to which it was impossible to impute 
 affectation or parade. He did not adopt a course which has 
 been taken by some younger colonial bishops, and which the 
 circumstances might have justified, of soliciting funds for his 
 own province ; but feeling, as his friend Bishop Hobart felt, that 
 the existence of the reformed Church in America was, under God, 
 attributable to the sustaining care of the Society for Propagating 
 the Gospel, he undertook the effort for the general cause of the 
 British colonies, trusting to a sense of justice in those who 
 administered the funds at home that his own clergy would not 
 be neglected. This feeling he did not fail to impress on his 
 comprovincials when he had returned to Halifax. 
 
 " Our people here," he wrote in his first letter after his arrival, " are 
 full of gratitude for what has been done, and is doing, in England, 
 which, I trust, will not be allowed to rest. I will pledge myself for 
 more than inactive thankfulness as its result in this diocese. You have 
 given me a text ; I have a long and urgent sermon to preach upon it." 
 
 So little did he claim of merit for himself in what had been 
 done, and so little did he think of rest after his toilsome 
 embassy. 
 
 His gentle spirit and vigilant prudence preserved his diocese 
 from any inconvenience arising either from the disputes excited 
 by the Oxford Tracts, or subsequently from the Gorham con-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 349 
 
 troversy. He sometimes conferred by letter with Joshua Watson 
 on these questions. When the strifes at home began to be heard 
 beyond the Atlantic, he wrote in 1841, 
 
 " I am only able to gain a very slight knowledge of particulars in 
 reference to Oxford movements. But this I know, all my soundest 
 men feel grateful to them. Still I wish they would not write so much 
 that requires explanation, nor speak so tenderly of Trent." 
 
 Of his own clergy he was able to say, 
 
 "We are as nearly as possible of one mind; and surely there must be 
 strength in such unity. We shall have, when two vacancies are sup- 
 plied, on one continued line of road, eighteen missionaries, not only 
 most exemplary hi their lives, but particularly distinguished by sound- 
 ness and activity, bv zeal and devotion to their holy work. Shall I not 
 then cordially, but humbly, thank God, and take courage ?" 
 
 He responded most gratefully to his friend's letter of Feb. 24, 
 1843, mentioned in the preceding chapter: 
 
 "Halifax, April 3, 1843. 
 " MY VERT, VERT DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " I cannot describe the sensations which your thrice welcome letter 
 of Feb. 24 created. I hope a prevalent one was that of gratitude. That 
 you are able to write as in past time, and that you are not unwilling to 
 use that ability for the gratification of your absent friend, could not fail 
 to awaken both joy and thankfulness. It is also a rich enjoyment to be 
 assured that you have precious consolation in realizing the wisdom and 
 the mercy of the sorrows and sufferings which have been your portion. 
 I will no longer condole with you, but offer my congratulations on the 
 triumph of your faith. It is the victory of heaven over earth. Laus 
 Deo! 
 
 " I was not without uneasiness, before I left England, on account of 
 the extraordinary want of prudence in many of those who had power to 
 confer inestimable benefit upon the Church, and who, in despite of 
 headlong indiscretion, have conferred much benefit. Like all who knew 
 them, I was a willing captive to the engaging simplicity of their con- 
 versation ; but still I thought they were throwing away an opportunity 
 for doing more good than had been effected in many ages. Yet after all, 
 can we, or are we authorized to, hope for any essential benefit, except 
 through much tribulation ? If in the dawn of Christianity all the pro- 
 gress of its Divine Author was marked, in every step, by suffering and 
 sorrow, was there not intimation by this example, as well as prediction, 
 that the servants were to look for like difficulties ? And may we not 
 humbly hope that the very sufferings now brought upon us are harbingers 
 of the Church's growth and increasing influence P" 
 
 His thoughts on episcopacy, as opposed to systems of less
 
 250 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 primitive character, were expressed with, equal modesty and 
 moderation. 
 
 " We are not bound to pronounce, even to ourselves, upon the views 
 of others ; and often we are glad to abstain from strong opinions respect- 
 ing them. We are bound, however, to decide on what is necessary for 
 ourselves, although the plain inference from this necessity in reference 
 to others maybe painful. I cannot believe that I could have a valid 
 commission, if it had not come in some succession from the origin of 
 the authority. I may be told that the certain inference must be that 
 Dr. Chalmers has no valid commission. I cannot help this. I do not 
 dwell upon it. I will not pronounce dogmatically upon it. I can join 
 Dr. Chalmers in relieving the suiferers at Paisley or at Hamburgh ; but 
 I cannot take part in his lectures on Church establishments, or his views 
 of non-intrusion. But after all, we must acknowledge the narrow limits 
 of our knowledge, and our proneness to mistake and error. How 
 necessary is it that we should be guided and controlled in our words, 
 and works, and thoughts !" 
 
 Bishop Inglis's correspondence in 18-15 shewed an unwonted 
 depression of spirits, partly the result of ill health, but probably 
 in some measure influenced by what he speaks of in a letter to 
 H. H. Y "the lollies and the sin of those defections" from 
 
 which ti.L .mrch at home was then suffering, which, he said, 
 "should humble us to the dust." These things made him ill 
 able to bear the tidings that, after the struggles he had so long 
 sustained, rallying under so many adverse circumstances, the 
 Gospel Society was forced to withdraw its grant from his college. 
 He would not, however, yield to the sense of despondency, and 
 merrily replied to a letter in which his friend had written a few 
 words of encouragement: 
 
 " I certainly am no chicken now, but I could not have received more 
 benefit than your peppercorn has produced. It has cured my drooping, 
 
 and given me fresh elasticity and courage It is a curious fact, 
 
 that though we can now scarcely procure a fifth of the extrinsic help 
 which we formerly enjoyed when we attempted to build a church, we 
 build more than five times the number of churches that we ventured to 
 begin when we were more dependent upon distant aid. But still, many 
 of our settlements are so poor, that one trembles at the loss of any help 
 they were accustomed to receive or hope for. In my late visitation I 
 have broken up some new ground, and the first produce of this is always 
 sweet ; but it requires cherishing, that the first effects of the sun may 
 be retained. Your P.S. has encouraged me, and I shall proceed with 
 new hope in the efforts to which my attention must now be directed, 
 trusting in Him who has long been our Helper and Defender." 
 
 Certainly it was never the habit of Bishop Inglis to fold his 
 arms and desist from virtuous efforts under any temporary dis- 
 couragement. Speaking to H. H. Norris of an applicant for
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 251 
 
 English charity from America, who had diverted the stream to- 
 wards some less legitimate channel of his own, " It appears to 
 me," he said, " the sooner the case is allowed to go to sleep the 
 better; and we should go to work with some fitter object as 
 speedily as possible." Yet the yearnings of Christian friendship 
 were such as sometimes to make him feel painfully the distance 
 which severed him from more frequent comfort and counsel : 
 
 " You must deliver to your wiiole circle an ample share of our real 
 and affectionate regard. You have spoiled us for this side of the ocean, 
 and we think too much of you for our own comfort. Yet there is some- 
 thing delightful hi the recollection, thouga it invites many a sigh. But 
 it would be visionary to think either side of the water would be per- 
 mitted to afford enjoyment without the inseparable alloy of this un- 
 certain transitory state. Such joy is reserved till our voyage across 
 a wider sea shall be completed; and blessed is the faithful hope that 
 points to it s ." 
 
 His latest letters to Joshua Watson abound increasingly with 
 expressions ol affection for his friend, and all who were about 
 him. " That you all may be eminently blest in every hour of 
 your pilgrimage, is the fervent prayer of your grateful and affec- 
 tionate friend, John Nova Scotia." "How much, and how 
 heartily, I desire all blessings for you all, I may humbly tell to 
 Him who hears the silent movements of the heart." 
 
 It was a subject of gentle regret to him in his old age, that 
 none of his three sons were destined to continue those labours in 
 the Christian ministry which had been his best inheritance from 
 his father. But he wrote with an honest pride of the first ser- 
 vices of his eldest son, the late Sir John Eardley Inglis, in Upper 
 India ; and perhaps the domestic pattern of joyous zeal and 
 untiring duty might have some influence in sustaining the firm 
 soul of the gallant defender of Lucknow. He spoke of his 
 fatherly anxieties for his soldier-sons : 
 
 " They are great," he said ; " but we try to keep alive that humble, 
 faithful trust which can alleviate them; and I have very often felt 
 that this state of mind is a preparation for the liveliest and most 
 holy gratitude, if it shall seem fit to a gracious Providence to regard 
 our prayers and gratify our hopes ; while it is perhaps the only prepara- 
 tion, humanly speaking, for rightly receiving the disappointment of our 
 hopes, if He, who cannot err, shall see it right to bow us down by such 
 disappointment." 
 
 It was with a stedfast and confiding hope that he contemplated 
 the approach of death. 
 
 To H. H. Norris, Marcb, 1826.
 
 25 2 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " I cannot believe," he wrote, " that the contemplation of our end, 
 rightly entertained, should in the least diminish the enjoyment of the 
 earthly blessings permitted to us, while it must surely enhance the 
 value of those mercies which aid our passage to a better world. Nay, 
 I think we, who are old, should be ready to go up in comfort to Mount 
 Nebo and die, or to draw up our knees in our beds, and be gathered 
 to our fathers in perfect contentment, and in holy blessed hope. If 
 we take a patriarch's view of our pilgrimage, we shall be ready for 
 a patriarch's enjoyment of our home." 
 
 His letters to his friends were sometimes dated from Clermont, 
 a country farm at ninety miles distance from. Halifax. It was 
 a place, as he spoke of it, particularly endeared to his father, 
 who had reclaimed it from the wilderness. It was the scene of 
 his first little labour in the Church, and where he had passed 
 Borne of the happiest and most tranquil hours of his life. 
 
 "Our friend Norris," he writes in 1847, "has often smiled over my 
 father's familiar letters to Mr. Boucher from this place, in which he 
 could not help mixing up a little enthusiastic admiration of its beauties 
 and advantages. I may be less warm ; but the remembrance of my 
 father's happiness, when here, where he considered himself as on 
 a single plank thrown safely ashore, the remembrance of his happiness 
 enhances mine, and, I hope, enlivens our gratitude for the enjoyment 
 which is permitted to all of us in a brief visit to this retired and peace- 
 ful scene." 
 
 It was from this place that he wrote to two younger friends 
 in England on their marriage, telling at the same time an affect- 
 ing story of a lately-appointed pastor of Clermont, whose death 
 had left the Church destitute : 
 
 "He was a descendant of Bernard Gilpin, at Houghton-le-Spring, 
 and had sailed for Bermudas, his native soil, where his widowed mother 
 required his assistance, and a very engaging bride awaited his arrival. 
 He obtained with difficulty a passage in a ten-gun brig, having two 
 little boys with him, going to their families from the academy at 
 Windsor. The vessel has never since been heard of, and all hope of 
 hearing of her has long since been given up." 
 
 The letter ends with the following beautiful Christian ad- 
 vice : 
 
 "If you are as happy as I hope and wish and pray that you may 
 be, your lot will be as joyful as the inevitable cares and trials of 
 this world will permit. Do not allow your expectations to be too 
 buoyant; be prepared to comfort each other under sufferings that 
 may be consoled and sweetened by real sympathy. Do not trust too 
 much even to your attachment to each other. Cultivate and strengthen
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 253 
 
 it by unvarying offices of affection, such as may restrain every rising 
 of impatience, and keep down every movement of fretfulness. Pardon 
 this old man's failing, since it will betray itself. I am sure you will 
 forgive my last suggestion, which is to implore you never to forget 
 how essential to your happiness, under every event, the unceasing 
 blessing from above must be. Your attachment, I doubt not, was 
 consecrated in its first risings by being commended to heavenly guid- 
 ance ; let it for ever be cherished by piety and prayer." 
 
 His useful life was now drawing to a close. In the autumn 
 of 1850 he was attacked by sickness, from which he rallied 
 sufficiently to come to England for medical advice ; but it was 
 too late for human skill to arrest the progress of the com- 
 plaint.t He expired in Curzon-street on the 28th of October, 
 within reach of the friendly visits of H. H. Norris, who sur- 
 vived him only a few weeks, and receiving the ministra- 
 tions of the Church from Mr. Ernest Hawkins. Joshua Watson. 
 was not permitted to see him again, being then in North- 
 amptonshire. 
 
 " Clearly," as he wrote to H. H. N orris, " for some time past our 
 dear friend, as all his correspondence has shewn, was waiting only for 
 the Bridegroom's knock. Greatly should I have been gratified to be 
 with you, to have had a last converse with him, and to have helped you 
 in ministering to the comfort of the survivors. But this has been 
 denied, and other improvement must be made of the visitation. The 
 deathbed of every good man and his dying words are, to my mind, the 
 most precious of God's providences to those who are permitted to have 
 any part in them." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 William Grant Broughton, first Bishop of Australasia. His appointment, 
 first as Archdeacon, and afterwards as Bishop of Sydney. State of the 
 colony thirty years since. Character of its Governors. His labours in 
 founding Churches and Schools, and providing Endowments. His visit 
 to New Zealand, and views of the freedom and limit of Episcopal 
 power. His view of qualities requisite for a colonial mission. Judge 
 Burton. Mr. Moore's benefactions. Protest against the Papal Arch- 
 bishop. Hit See made Metropolitan in the colony. Principles of 
 Metropolitan power. His last visit to England, and death. 
 
 FT! HE last, but not the least deserving of honour, among the 
 J_ colonial bishops, friends of Joshua Watson, was William 
 Grant Broughton, first Bishop of Australasia. This Memoir has
 
 254 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 introduced the mention of his name, with that of Middleton nnd 
 Inglis, in the eighth of the preceding chapters : but there is 
 something more required to exhibit the character of this vigilant, 
 firm-spirited, and far-sighted Christian prelate, as well as to do 
 justice to the wise and benevolent counsels with which his aged 
 friend at home continued to sustain his labours to the last. 
 
 It was before mentioned that Broughton was introduced to 
 Joshua "Watson before his first mission to Sydney as Archdeacon in 
 1829. It appears that the introduction was due to the friendly 
 offices of Archdeacon Bayley ; but the immediate object was pro- 
 bably to forward some plan of aid to his new charge from the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In these plans 
 a ready interest was taken also by H. H. Norris, t<J whom 
 Broughton wrote, Feb. 9, 1829 : 
 
 " You are quite right in saying that there is no ground for congratu- 
 lation on my appointment. I see the whole extent of the prospect 
 before me, and shadows and darkness rest upon it ; but after the fullest 
 consideration I could give to the question, it did not appear to me 
 that I could decline a post to which Providence seemed to have led me, 
 without subjecting myself to self-reproach as backward and fearful in 
 our Master's service. Whether I have chosen rightly, or have taken 
 a step which prudence cannot justify, events may, to some extent, de- 
 termine ; but I have always the consolation of knowing that the final 
 judgment to be passed upon it will be one in which, I humbly trust, 
 success r failure will not so much be the points enquired into, as the 
 motives by which I have been guided, and the fidelity with which 
 I shall have sought to fulfil the duties I have undertaken. You have 
 taken what appears to me to be the truest view of the relation in which 
 the maintenance of the Church of England stands to the present and 
 future liappiness of mankind ; and it is truly in the hope of recommend- 
 ing such views that I am going to what I know and feel to be a banish- 
 ment. On account of my dear children, I should have been thankful to 
 have been spared the necessity of removing to an untried country ; but, 
 such being the appointment of God, I say most unfeignedly, May His 
 will be done !" 
 
 He did not overrate the difficulties which he manfully en- 
 countered on this first mission. When he first reached the shores 
 of the great southern continent, forty-two years after the founda- 
 tion of the colony, he found there were eight churches and twelve 
 clergymen in all New South Wales, and about four churches and 
 six or eight clergymen in Van Diemen's Land. The voluntary 
 emigrants were much like those who had settled a century earlier 
 in North America, persons of little education or refinement, of 
 unfixed opinions, of a democratical turn in politics, and indifferent 
 to religion. About one-third of the resident population were 
 Roman Catholics, children of expatriated Irishmen ; and these,
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 255 
 
 though, as in England, children of the poorer class of society, 
 had a powerful friend in the Governor, General Bourke, whose 
 aim was to place the Church of Rome at least on an equal 
 footing with the Church of England. An order in Council was 
 obtained from the English Ministry in 1833, by which the 
 Church lands provided in the colony were taken away : and these 
 complicated difficulties at length determined the Archdeacon to 
 re-visit England, in order, if possible, to delay the execution of 
 this act of public spoil. 
 
 "There is little," he said', "in the political or moral aspect of these 
 days, which gives me encouragement ; out so all-important is the object 
 of laying in this country the foundations of our pure Protestant Church, 
 upon such a well-devised system as may, under God's blessing, uphold 
 her principles among the people now and in future ages, that I do not 
 dread the prospect of a voyage round the world in the hope of being, by 
 any lawful means, the instrument of accomplishing it." 
 
 He came in the following year. The fluctuating counsels of 
 Lord Melbourne's Administration for a while delayed his return ; 
 and he appears at one time to have suspected that they were not 
 inclined to let him go again. 
 
 "If they would indeed set me free from the responsibility," he said", 
 " I might be under a weighty obligation to them ; but I hope my resolu- 
 tion is taken not to abandon the post of duty by a voluntary act, as long 
 as there remains the most distant prospect of doing good, or even the 
 shade of an obligation upon me to maintain it. Your own undeviating 
 line is that which I shall try to pursue, that which, after all, I believe 
 to be the safest and most satisfactory." 
 
 At length the wishes of those who desired the best things for 
 the colony prevailed, and arrangements were made for erecting 
 the archdeaconry into a bishopric. On Feb. 14, 1836, he was 
 consecrated at Lambeth. The two Societies at home were success- 
 fully urged by Joshua Watson to place a liberal grant at the new 
 Bishop's disposal in the outset of his work. It is scarcely neces- 
 sary to say, that this was done by the prime mover with charac- 
 teristic delicacy. " Your very kind support," Bishop Broughton 
 wrote, " was so unexpected, that, till you rose, I did not know 
 you were in the room." 
 
 Of the good effects of this timely aid his first letters from 
 Sydney were full. The Church-people in the colony made 
 generous efforts answerable to the encouragement they had re- 
 ceived from home, and a sum of more than 3,000 was raised 
 
 1 Letter to H. H. Norris, Oct. 1833. 
 To the same, July, Ib35.
 
 256 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 at a meeting attended by the principal merchants, settlers, and 
 public officers. But his own words are too remarkable to be 
 withheld : 
 
 " I feel," he said, " that in having such a spirit to direct, and so to 
 apply it as to ensure the greatest possible share of benefit to the present 
 and future generations, I have a weight of responsibility resting upon 
 me enough to make me tremble. See what this country has arisen to in 
 less than fifty years, and then calculate what it may arrive at in one or 
 two centuries. Feel for me, who am placed here as it were single- 
 handed, to work this mighty engine. May God give me His grace to 
 devote myself to the work, neither with foolish self-confidence, nor 
 with nerveless timidity !" 
 
 He had need of such support. It would seem as if the Govern- 
 ment at home was still regarding this rising colony as little better 
 than a convict settlement ; and the deputies who were sent to 
 administer its affairs, were chosen with far too little regard to 
 their fitness for a task of such importance. The Archdeacon had 
 been, by royal patent, a member of the Legislative Council ; but 
 on his return in his new dignity as bishop, Sir Richard Bourke 
 thought proper to exclude him, as not entitled, under that name, 
 to a seat at the Board. It cannot be expected that all general 
 officers of the army should know that every bishop is, by virtue 
 of his order, whenever he pleases, his own archdeacon ; and yet, 
 what would be thought of a commander-in-chief, who should 
 refuse a colonel his place in a military council because he knew 
 him to have been advanced to the rank of a major-general ? But 
 this piece of sharp practice kept the Bishop defrauded of his 
 rightful claim, and was not rectified without reference to the 
 Government at home, after a delay of two years. 
 
 The proceeding was the more suspicious, as the Governor 
 was at this time aiming to obtain a Colonial Bill, appropriating 
 a large grant of money to a scheme of education, from which all 
 distinctive religious instruction was shut out. The bill was 
 hurried forward, and passed the Legislative Council, but not 
 without a protest from four of the oldest and most respected 
 members of that body. The Protestant Dissenters on this occasion 
 supported the Bishop in his opposition to it. Probably the sense 
 of the indignity which had been put upon him gave strength 
 to their united effort, by which the measure was eventually 
 defeated \ 
 
 " He is valiant 
 That yields not unto wrongs, not he that 'scapes them." 
 
 x See Archdeacon Harrison's Memoir, pp. 19, 20.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 257 
 
 A second struggle of the same kind was to be encountered a few 
 years later, when Sir George Gipps was governor. But on this 
 occasion also the Bishop's efforts were successful ; and what was 
 most gratifying, the contest was the means of cementing a cordial 
 friendship between the two public servants in the Australian 
 Church and State, which continued to the end of their lives T . 
 
 Indeed, as Broughton wrote to Joshua Watson in October, 
 1836, the beneficial effect of the grant from the Church Societies 
 in England was immediately perceptible. 
 
 "I can now reckon," he said, "more than twenty churches, which 
 are in the fairest way of progress on the terms proposed by the Govern- 
 ment, viz., the inhabitants subscribing one half of the cost ; and such 
 subscriptions have been principally encouraged by the advances which 
 I have made or promised from the funds placed at my disposal. Some 
 of these advances do not exceed 25 ; and yesterday I believe I secured 
 the erection of two school-houses in a district where there had never 
 been one, by an advance of 5 a-piece." 
 
 He found among the colonists some men who could not be 
 surpassed in worth and sincerity, who were ready to guarantee 
 a sufficient income for a clergyman in their own locality ; but 
 for some time he had to sustain the depression of not being able 
 to supply these wants, and wrote to his friend in much sickness 
 of heart from hope deferred. At last, in November, 1837, he 
 poured forth his grateful acknowledgments on the arrival of an 
 advanced detachment of four new labourers, whose coming was 
 an earnest of more to follow. " Each of them may, I think, have 
 the effect of adding a year to my life, or of preventing its being 
 shortened through overwhelming anxiety and distraction." Before 
 another twelvemonth had expired, he was able to report the 
 welcome arrival of ten more, sent out with the aid of the Gospel 
 Society. Yet in the widely scattered settlements where they 
 were sent to labour, they seemed, as he said, to be lost like drops 
 in the ocean. 
 
 It was his anxious endeavour to secure to the new country, as 
 far as possible, the practical benefit of the parochial system, 
 though the name of it was as yet almost unknown. In this he 
 was assured of the warm sympathy of Joshua Watson, who had 
 said to another friend *, " Our strength lies in the fortification of 
 our parochial system. Parochial pastorship lies at the very 
 foundation, not only of the National Society, but of our national 
 Church." To promote such a system, however, he had few 
 resources except from the charitable funds raised in England. 
 
 1 See Archdeacon Harrison's Memoir, pp. 21, 22. 
 
 * To Archdeacon Harriaon. 
 
 8
 
 2$ 8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The letters patent under which the bishopric was erected and 
 incorporated, enabled the Bishop and his successors to hold lands 
 and tenements assigned for the endowment of the Church of 
 England. It was his design to lay out the money with which 
 he was entrusted in the purchase of landed property, the income 
 from which might be made to provide independent benefices. 
 " To work out this scheme successfully," he wrote to H. H. 
 Norris", "will demand years of care and anxiety; but I shall 
 cheerfully bestow them, and hope for the end, to endow our 
 clergy with some independence, however limited, in lieu of the 
 stipendiary pittance which is now proposed for them." 
 
 While he was thus prospectively concerned for more remote 
 places, he was building and preparing for the building of more 
 churches in Sydney also ; and ventured, in a spirit of faith, upon 
 the purchase of a plot of ground in the most populous part of the 
 city, at a cost of 1600, feeling confident that there were people 
 who would gladly avail themselves of the privilege of worship 
 with the Church of England, if the church were brought to 
 their doors. 
 
 The poor outcasts then in Norfolk Island, and the Church 
 missionary settlements in New Zealand, were the next objects of 
 his attention. He wrote to Joshua Watson on the eve of his 
 voyage to both these scenes of strange interest : 
 
 " We have, I trust, and shall have, the prayers of many good men in 
 our behalf; and this, coupled with the clearer assurance, which I seem 
 every day to acquire, of the soundness of our Church-of-England prin- 
 ciples, gives me confidence in the continued and effectual protection 
 of God." 
 
 An account of his visit to New Zealand in December, 1838, 
 was published in the Church Missionary Record for the following 
 year : and some particulars have since been given in the " Annals 
 of the Diocese of New Zealand V There can be no doubt that 
 his visit and report aided the subsequent colonization and happily 
 constituted diocesan regulation of that interesting country. 
 
 He had heard with some dismay of the sweeping changes, 
 sanctioned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at home, of the 
 cathedral establishments. "I may be mistaken," he said to 
 H. H. Norris : "but to me it appears that the time is only now 
 coming when their usefulness will be proved." In fact, he seemed 
 to anticipate, what has since been felt, that from such bodies, as 
 in earlier times, missions were to be nourished and sent out ; and 
 
 Letter, Sept. 1836. 
 
 b Published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, pp. 
 2328, 1847.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 259 
 
 by them the quality of candidates for missionary services would 
 be best secured. " Send me," he wrote again, " graduates of the 
 Universities if possible." But he thought it necessary to send 
 a caution against what is sometimes the vice of a learned educa- 
 tion, a too fastidious temperament, or sensitive disposition, in 
 a scene of labour where they must sometimes expect all day 
 long to witness some invasion of conventional propriety, and 
 would need the strong shield of impenetrable patience. 
 
 " Last week," he wrote on another occasion, " I consecrated a church 
 standing almost on the shore of Cook's River, near its entrance into 
 Botany Bay, and within a stone's throw, perhaps, of the very spot where 
 the great navigator says he landed, at the north point of the bay, and 
 upon ground which I think it very probable he, with Sir Joseph Banks, 
 may have walked over when here seventy years ago. With respect to 
 schools, I hope to have eight or ten more finished within next year. My 
 plan is to build them substantially, and as much in ecclesiastical taste 
 and form as possible." 
 
 For all this he sought further aid from the Societies at home ; 
 and it was with a glad zeal that Joshua Watson became his 
 advocate, and was instrumental in the accomplishment of more 
 than he asked, even before the bountiful munificence of Dr. 
 Warneford began to flow towards the Christian nurseries in 
 Australasia. But had he needed urging to greater efforts, he 
 might have been incited by another active fellow-labourer, a 
 colonial judge who visited England in 1840, and whom Bishop 
 Broughton had mentioned in terms of high commendation, as 
 a most upright man, and stedfast member of the Church, who 
 was also honourably distinguished by his concern for the poor 
 reprobates in Norfolk Island. Soon after his arrival in his 
 native land, Mr. Justice Burton wrote to Joshua Watson : 
 
 " MY DEAE SIR, 
 
 " Knowing the interest you take hi all matters relating to the Church's 
 welfare, and especially to that part of it which is under the jurisdiction 
 of the good Bishop of Australia, I presume to mention to you a subject 
 of more than ordinary importance, and upon which I feel a corresponding 
 anxiety. The stipend of his office, which is 2,000 a-year, I know to be 
 quite inadequate, under the yearly increasing expensiveness of all the 
 necessaries of life in the colony, to more than the decent maintenance of 
 even his moderate establishment ; and quite unequal to the additional 
 charges of travelling, on the necessary and frequent visitations of his 
 extensive diocese, and the discharge of those rites of hospitality to 
 which his own disposition would lead him, and wlu'ch his station renders 
 unavoidable ; whilst his lameness (even if the dignity of his office, in 
 a country where almost every tradesman of the better class keeps his 
 carriage, did not demand it of him), yould make the keeping of one in
 
 260 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 his case absolutely necessary. Besides all this, there are those constant 
 claims, public and private, on his benevolence, from which no Christian, 
 and least of all a Christian bishop, can withhold his hand. In a new 
 country these are out of all proportion greater than persons enjoying 
 such an income in England are subject to. I assure you, my dear Sir, 
 so strongly impressed am I with the sense of the weight of his burden, 
 that I really wonder any man can retain under it so elastic and active 
 a mind and body as he retains. It can only be attributed to the 
 bountiful favour of his heavenly Master, and, under God, to the cheering 
 effect of the aid and support he has received from the Church in England. 
 In the colony his friends have always felt the duty of alleviating his 
 burden as much as possible." 
 
 It was by this time known that Mr. Moore, an old and wealthy 
 Australian settler, was purposing to bequeath his property to the 
 Church. While there were any who had a natural claim upon 
 him, the Bishop had studiously discouraged him from his design. 
 But, upon the death of his wife and step-son nearly at the same 
 time, the objection seemed to be removed. " I must regard it," 
 Bishop Broughton said, " as a remarkable interposition of Divine 
 Providence looking upon our poverty, and by the most unex- 
 pected means supplying a portion of daily bread for His Church." 
 One part of the estate intended for the future benefit of the see 
 was a house and land, then let upon a twenty-one years' lease. 
 Judge Burton and Joshua Watson concerted together the raising 
 of a sum to buy up the lease, so as to make the house at once 
 available for the Bishop's use. And a grant was procured from 
 the Gospel Society of a stipend for a clergyman to be attached to 
 the Bishop's person, so as to prevent the undue pressure of ordi- 
 nary clerical duties upon him. But it was found impossible to 
 overcome his resolute disinterestedness. 
 
 " Tell me," he said, " my dear friend, what could be done ? Here 
 were and are two places full of ungodliness, for which no clergyman 
 could be provided. I could not endure to witness the continuance of 
 such a state of evil, in order that my own personal exertions might be 
 saved." " At this moment in the town of Sydney, containing about 
 18,000 members of the Church of England, I have but two effective 
 clergymen, Mr. AUwood, who brought, and who has justified to the 
 full, a recommendation from my Right Rev. Brother of Gloucester and 
 Bristol. He is a most invaluable man, but not strong in bodily consti- 
 tution. The other is Mr. Walsh, not to be surpassed, I am confident, 
 in any good and effective quality, so far as his strength, which he taxes 
 to the utmost, will carry him ; and the more valued by me because the 
 last legacy, I may say, of the good Archdeacon of St. Alban's. Our 
 other clergyman, Mr. Cowper, who has been thirty -three years in the 
 colony, has lost the sight of both eyes, and is on the point of going to 
 Euglaud to seek relief by couching. In order, therefore, to prevent
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 261 
 
 the closing of his church, I am compelled to buckle on the armour of 
 former days, and to execute all the duties of a parish clergyman." 
 
 Shortly after the date of this letter, in 1840, Mr. Moore had 
 peaceably ended his days. He had assigned his landed estate for 
 the endowment of a college, and had bequeathed 20,000 in 
 equal proportions, for the augmentation of clerical stipends, for 
 the maintenance of clergymen's widows and orphans, to the 
 Diocesan Church Societies, and to almsmen and almswomen, 
 members of the Church. 
 
 " The will is really a noble document," the Bishop wrote, " worthy of 
 better times, and shews how much good sense and sound principle may 
 be manifested under circumstances apparently the least likely to en- 
 courage or draw them forth ; for he was bred, and originally came to 
 this colony, as a ship-carpenter." 
 
 His next communication was saddened in its tone from the 
 tidings he had received of the death of his friend's beloved 
 daughter, one of whom he spoke as such as he could most 
 desire his own children to resemble; and he desired to assure 
 the solitary mourner, that at least one Bishop's tears had fallen 
 in the remembrance of her whom he still called Mary Watson. 
 
 " I can comprehend," he continued, " the all but total severance of 
 your affections from earth, which is consequent upon this stroke Still, 
 my dear Mr. Watson, I should form a wrong estimate of your prin- 
 ciples and disposition, were I to admit the supposition, that so long as 
 it pleases God to continue you a member of His Church on earth, you 
 will withdraw yourself from a regard for the welfare of those who are of 
 the same household. I am sure that with a view to your own personal 
 satisfaction, as well as from higher principles, it is to be desired that 
 while preparing to follow those who are gone before, your mind should 
 preserve its activity and interest in those plans which were cherished by 
 you and a few others within the bosom of the Church at a time when 
 the world at large, though retaining the word Church in the Creed, yet 
 seemed to have forgotten that it had any proper meaning. You have 
 lived to see the revival of a better feeling. 
 
 " Our episcopate now is, or shortly will be, so extended as to en- 
 compass the world, excepting only the continent of South America ; 
 and when you look back to the commencement of this under your great 
 friend, Bishop Middleton, and consider what a share God has permitted 
 you to bear in all that has been done towards the subsequent progress, 
 I feel persuaded that the subject will be among the very last from which 
 you will suffer your attention to be withdrawn. I shall hope, therefore, 
 to be allowed the privilege of continuing from time to time my rambling 
 reports of what is passing here ; and if the effort be not too painful, that 
 you will send me now and then a line, if it be no more, to inform ine 
 that you sometimes direct a thought towards us."
 
 262 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " You ask me," says Bishop Broughton in this letter, " why I visited 
 New Zealand, not being within my diocese. The immediate reason was, 
 that Sir R. Inglis, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, had asked 
 me to do so. But I had a further reason for complying with that re- 
 quest, to prove to the Romanists by practical evidence that they are 
 guilty of injustice in affirming that we neither have nor can exercise any 
 episcopal powers except such as are derived from our letters patent 
 under the great seal. I grant that I would never within the Queen's 
 dominions exercise episcopal functions except within those limits which 
 the Queen appoints; for this, I contend, is the object and effect of 
 letters patent, not to confer spiritual powers, but to define the range 
 within which each prelate shall exercise them. Beyond the limits of 
 the British sovereignty, I contend that every bishop has an inherent 
 right, in virtue of the powers conferred on him at the consecration, to 
 officiate, especially wherever the good of the Church may be promoted 
 by his so doing ; and there has been no episcopate previously established 
 upon which he would be an intruder. This view I think you will find 
 confirmed by Leslie in the Regale and Pontificate, and even by Arch- 
 bishop Wake, who seems to me to go upon rather low ground . Here, 
 then, was a case in point : New Zealand was a branch of the Church of 
 Christ not within the British dominions, not within the bounds of any 
 other episcopate, the members of which needed and invoked my offices. 
 
 " In doing so, I thought I took away all plea for the Romanists saying 
 that I possessed no power, nor dared to exercise any, except under the 
 authority of a temporal patent. I am for ever henceforth in a situation 
 to give a contradiction to this false pretension of theirs ; because I have 
 exercised all the powers of a bishop, ordaining, confirming, consecrating, 
 and issuing marriage licenses, in a country to which my letters patent 
 neither extended nor pretended to extend. Now, indeed, New Zealand 
 forms a portion of the British empire ; and therefore, as I have reported 
 to the Archbishop, a portion also of my diocese and of his Grace's pro- 
 vince. But then it did not ; and I assume to have done all I did in and 
 by that spiritual right which I derived from those true bishops who, by 
 the laying on of hands, admitted me to their own order. I do not know 
 whether any observation has ever been made upon my undertaking this 
 visitation ; I studied the subject carefully, and felt convinced that I was 
 acting canonically, and that my acts were valid. These were my mo- 
 tives, as now stated to you ; and if there be the least question raised 
 as to my course of action, I wish very much to have an opportunity 
 of making them generally known." 
 
 Joshua "Watson entirely approved of these orthodox views, 
 both of the freedom and the limit of episcopal power. 
 
 Bp. Broughton continued also to correspond with H. H. Norris ; 
 and of him he wrote in Sept., 1841, having then received an un- 
 favourable account of his health : 
 
 e " As for those realms in which the civil power is not Christian, natural 
 reason will prompt the members of every Church to consult together the best 
 they can," &c. Wake's Authority of Christian Princes, p. 266, ed. 1697.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 263 
 
 " There is no man living whom I hold in higher estimation ; and there 
 is the less reason for my hesitating to say so, because there is no pro- 
 bability that we shall in tins life ever meet again." 
 
 He rejoiced greatly in the prospect of a bishop coming to New 
 Zealand. "The Bishop of London's letter to the Archbishop is," 
 he said, " most admirable ; and will entitle his name to venera- 
 tion in this hemisphere as long as the sun and moon shall en- 
 dure." Bishop Selwyn and his wife paused at Sydney on their 
 way ; and Bishop Broughton wrote to the house in which Joshua 
 Watson then was, as well knowing the love which was there felt 
 for them, and the pleasure which his strong expressions of re- 
 gard for them would give. He spoke of Bishop Selwyn as one 
 with whom he could commune as with a friend and brother, 
 hoping to maintain the earnest and affectionate intercourse then 
 begun, to the day of their separation by death. Of Mrs. Sel- 
 wyn, who remained longer under hia roof, he wrote, 
 
 "We had great satisfaction in enjoying so long the society of one 
 who has every qualification to render it delightful, whether her talents, 
 information, or principles are regarded. When she had been here a 
 week, I told her it seemed utterly impossible we should not have been 
 longer acquainted; such rapid strides did we appear to have made 
 towards a maturity of friendship." 
 
 The next important subject that appears in the correspondence 
 is the protest which Bishop Broughton felt himself obliged to 
 make against the Pope's appointment, in 1843, of an Archbishop 
 of Sydney, and the avowed purpose of the colonial government 
 to give the honour of precedence to a papal title. He wrote on 
 this subject both to H. H. Norris and Joshua "Watson, feeling 
 very sensibly that such homage would be both an infringement 
 of the oath of supremacy and an indignity offered to the Queen's 
 appointment, and also a violation of the rights of his metropolitan. 
 
 " It would be far easier and more agreeable," he wrote, " to let the 
 thing alone ; but I am unable to reconcile such an acquiescence with 
 my notions of what a watchman's duty is, to give notice to those under 
 his charge of a danger to which, unless he point it out to them, they 
 will surely be blind. ... I take such a step only under a sense of 
 necessary duty, such as does not allow me to balance alternatives ; but 
 not without a full sense of the responsibility attendant on such a pro- 
 ceeding, and of the consequences which may follow." 
 
 He was forced to act without counsel, and without any cer- 
 tainty of having his acts approved and confirmed by those for 
 whom he was acting. He was very anxious for the best opinions 
 on the point, either to strengthen his hands if he was right, or
 
 264 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 to convince him if wrong ; in which case, he said, it would never 
 be too late to retract. 
 
 Of the step' actually taken we have Joshua Watson's account 
 in a letter to H. H. ftorris : 
 
 " You are aware of all the Sydney circumstances, I think. How Ihe 
 .Bishop, on ascertaining the Governor's construction of Lord Grey's de- 
 spatch as giving precedence at any government meeting to Dr. Folding as 
 Romish archbishop, has protested against such an indignity, in his per- 
 son, to the Queen's appointment, &c., &c. Having done this, he com- 
 mitted the case to his friends in England, leaving to their discretion the 
 choice of proceedings at home, with full power to act on his behalf as 
 they saw fit, even to the resignation of his see. I tried hard to per- 
 suade the Committee to turn at once from a colonial to a Church 
 question, having at all times power to fall back upon the original and 
 particular point. But this was not judged expedient. And so Lord 
 Grey has been allowed to escape upon the questionable assumption of 
 the superiority of metropolitical to archiepiscopal authority. The prin- 
 ciple is asserted, the ground is open for canonists and civilians to dis- 
 pute. Only hi the meantime Lord Grey's order goes out, and our good 
 friend of Australasia is saved from personal and official degradation. 
 And so we are to be satisfied." 
 
 He wrote also to the Rev. Benjamin Harrison, now Archdeacon 
 of Maidstone, on the same subject : 
 
 " In every quarter in which I have heard the protest spoken of, (and 
 in consequence of the Bishop's expressed anxiety for the judgment of 
 friends in England, I have invited opinions in many,) I have heard but 
 one sentiment of approval of the temperance and firm spirit hi which 
 the protest is framed, and of the discretion with which he lias cut off all 
 occasion of complaint." 
 
 It was a source of unfeigned satisfaction to this conscientious 
 man that his procedure met with the entire concurrence of Bishop 
 Selwyn. 
 
 Bishop Broughton dwelt thankfully at this period on the en- 
 couragements which abounded amidst his difficulties, especially 
 in the diminution of his responsibilities by the establishment of 
 fellow-labourers around. 
 
 " But of all my consolations," he wrote, " the principal is my having 
 among my clergv so many of right views, earnest, thinking, conform- 
 able, and devoted men. We all work together with so much harmony 
 that the impression is quite cheering, and the effect most exemplary. 
 Whatever efforts the Romanists may make, and, to do them justice, 
 they are not backward, they gain no advantages upon us. On the con- 
 trary, I see clearly there is a sentiment of respect for the Church of 
 England silently extending itself among them, which, whenever their 
 own hierarchy shews its genuine character and purposes, will give us
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 265 
 
 a fair prospect of gaining all from them who are true Catholics at heart, 
 and not capable of going any further than they have gone in adherence 
 to what is simply Roman. 
 
 " We have daily service twice in our principal church here : it has 
 continued since Jan., 1842. The attendance varies from ten to forty ; 
 on festivals it amounts to many more. We have a weekly adminis- 
 tration of the holy Sacrament in one of the Sydney churches, monthly 
 in the other three. There are weekly collections at the doors in all the 
 churches, as well as the offertory. In St. James's during the last year 
 about 692 was collected by voluntary oblations ; and in the other 
 churches the sums varied from 150 to 400. Thus we are not with- 
 out our fruits ; and there are those of another sort in the more frequent 
 coming of persons to their clergy to disclose their secret offences, to 
 ask advice, and thereupon amending, and being reconciled to enemies 
 of old date through the influence of the Gospel and in reverence for 
 the Church." 
 
 He speaks asain in another letter of the advantage which the 
 quiet, calm attitude maintained by the Church of England gave 
 her in the eyes of the more thoughtful and candid Romanists : 
 
 " Much of this feeling of increased respect is attributable, I am per- 
 suaded, to our mode of dealing with Dissenters ; not attacking or irri- 
 tating them, but positively and decidedly standing aloof from association . 
 maintaining that we have a claim to advance which they have not, and 
 cannot have, whilst they continue in their present position. My having 
 ordained a Presbyterian minister, and my purpose of acting so in a 
 second instance, has given rise to discussions, which have been in the 
 end most highly beneficial." 
 
 A letter dated Dec. 22, 1843, was written the day after his 
 return from an absence of fourteen weeks, spent in the Port 
 Philip district : 
 
 " Such a visitation here is an arduous thing, principally because there 
 are no clergy to be visited. It is a noble province of the empire, of 
 greater area, I conceive, than the whole of England and Wales and 
 Scotland. My position was extremely painful, but I did what was in 
 my power. In ninety days I preached very nearly sixty sermons. Devt 
 providebit is still my maxim ; but it is not to be concealed that I have 
 upon my mind the impression which dwelt so painfully upon the feelings 
 of your great friend, Bp. Middleton, that he had more to do than it was 
 possible for him to accomplish." 
 
 " My description, hi brief, of a colonial bishop," he wrote again, " is, 
 that he must be a man ready for everything and everybody that may 
 require him ; while himself must require nothing but just what he hap- 
 pens to find. My two dear brethren and colleagues in the neighbouring 
 sees [Tasmania and New Zealand] are altogether men of that stamp." 
 
 Pis diocesan visitation in 1845 afforded him, he said, "in all
 
 266 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 directions proof of much sincere, well-regulated piety, and of 
 much genuine Church principle prevailing where perhaps it 
 would hardly have been expected they should be found." In 
 that year he had consecrated twelve churches, and laid the 
 foundation of eighteen or twenty more, all which he hoped to 
 complete in the succeeding twelve months, if the good old Society 
 could hold out in supplying him with a few more hundred pounds. 
 
 " But, alas !" he continued, " it is too true and too evident that 
 Christianity cannot be propagated, nor its genuine influence impressed 
 upon a nation, by the mere building of churches. We need in addition 
 the services of men, with heads and hearts filled with the love of God, 
 and with correct principles and sound learning, and willing to devote 
 themselves and all that they have to working out the great purpose 
 upon which we are sent forth. Coleridge sends me from time to time 
 encouraging and hopeful accounts of the progress of St. Augustine's ; 
 and very thankful am I, my dear Mr. Watson, to find that the Arch- 
 bishop had, with his usual judgment and calm discrimination, placed 
 your name on the list of his committee. Indeed, I must say, if the 
 discretion had been offered me, I do not think my inclination would 
 have led me to make an alteration of even a single name. The entire 
 character of the colonial Church will be moulded according to what 
 St. Augustine's shall be during the next twenty years ; and therefore 
 I earnestly hope and pray that all things may be ordered and settled 
 there by your endeavours upon the best and surest foundations." 
 
 It was about this time that he was forming his disinterested 
 plan for the subdivision of his diocese, which was subsequently 
 effected. Joshua Watson's counsel appears to have been of some 
 weight in determining the future position of the Bishop as 
 Metropolitan. There were objections to the style of Archbishop 
 of Sydney. 
 
 "Patriarch," Joshua Watson wrote, "was obviously the fitting 
 thing, ecclesiastically speaking. But this involved, in my opinion, 
 a sovereignty of its own ; and, by cutting off all particular relation 
 to the Churcn in England, would have made the patriarchate of Austral- 
 asia in no greater degree related to the united Churches in England and 
 Ireland, than to Sweden or Denmark ; provided, that is, that the suc- 
 cession hi these has been preserved. And to such absolute independ- 
 ence in matters ecclesiastical, I expected the most decided objection 
 from our statesmen at home, from its loosening the best bond of colonial 
 allegiance to the mother country" 1 under circumstances in which, with 
 half the world between them, they could ill afford to let go any hold of 
 connection. Prom the first, therefore, I have pressed for a patent 
 
 d Bishop Inglis mentioned, as a fact known to him, that of the claims 
 proved by American loyalists, nine-tenths were those of Churchmen.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 267 
 
 raising the present see into a metropolitancy, with jurisdiction over the 
 new sees absolutely, and over the old sees conditionally at this moment, 
 (i.e. upon the surrender of their present patent of exempt jurisdiction by 
 the actual incumbents,) and hereafter peremptorily in the letter of the 
 succeeding patents. All this I have thought might be now settled, at 
 once and for ever, by a patent creating you in that manner Metropolitan 
 of Australasia." 
 
 The Bishop in reply said that he had read these observations 
 on the form of ecclesiastical regimen with great interest, and 
 with entire agreement in most respects. Only he suggested 
 a doubt whether " in retaining for the archbishopric of Canter- 
 bury the primacy over us for the sake of the political consolida- 
 tion of the several branches of the empire, there might not be an 
 inexpedient following of the example set by the Emperor Gratian, 
 who, he thought, was influenced less by a religious than a po- 
 litical motive when he threw into the hands of the chief bishop 
 that universal jurisdiction which was given by making him the 
 centre of all appeals 6 . 
 
 "So if our Primate have a corresponding privilege, it will be 
 difficult to make the world comprehend that we mean it to be 
 only or dine ecclesiastico, and not jure divino." 
 
 In a letter written on the 21st of August, 1847, Joshua Wat- 
 son congratulated his friend on the completion of this arrange- 
 ment, rejoicing heartily in seeing him in his proper position and 
 relation to the immense charge so long and so well sustained by 
 his Atlantean shoulders ; and assured him that on the point in 
 question there was as little difference between them as there had 
 hitherto been in matters of common discussion. He spoke of 
 the episcopal quaternion, consecrated on St. Peter's day, none of 
 whom, he said, were altogether personally unknown to him : 
 
 " It is indeed a matter of devout thankfulness to the great Lord of the 
 harvest that He has moved four such men to go forth, turning their 
 backs on brighter temporal prospects at home, and devote themselves to 
 His work in the wide-spread fields before them." 
 
 With Bishop Tyrrell in particular he had enjoyed some very 
 gratifying intercourse, from which he felt assured of the mutual 
 comfort which the Suffragan and the Metropolitan would find in 
 each other : 
 
 Bishop Broughton here alludes to an act of a council held at Rome 
 in A.I). 378, at which St. Ambrose was present. See De Marca's treatise 
 De Primnt., c. 12. Joshua Watson's view of primitive metropolitan juris- 
 diction is also confirmed by De Marca.
 
 268 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 " May a blessing be on both, I would say, if blessings could ascend, 
 and the greater be olessed of the less." 
 
 There are several allusions in the correspondence to the theo- 
 logical seminary which the Bishop was endeavouring to establish 
 in Sydney. To it Joshua Watson devoted a considerable portion 
 of his own library ; and both contributed himself to its funds, 
 and directed some of Dr. Warneford's willing liberality into the 
 same channel. 
 
 "As your lordship very well knows," he wrote in 1847, "I have 
 always looked to the foundation of provincial, i. e. local or colonial 
 colleges, as the best provision for the spiritual wants of the people 
 in the several dependencies of the British empire." 
 
 A period now ensued during which bereavement, and illness, 
 and sorrow, and care pressed heavily on the good Bishop, and 
 restrained his pen from taking counsel with distant friends as 
 of yore. 
 
 " Under all my distresses," he wrote, " I have derived comfort and 
 support, first from believing, and afterwards from hearing, that you 
 would and did sympathize with me. . . . The year 1849 has been ren- 
 dered memorable in the annals of my life as the season of chastisement 
 and taking up the cross. God grant it may not have been in vain !" 
 
 But when in 1852 he communicated his fixed purpose to come 
 over to England, he was able to speak with revived spirit : 
 
 " As my bodily strength and powers do not seem more unequal than 
 they ever were to the labour, I do not think I could be justified in de- 
 clining it. Many advantages may arise from tliis exertion; and I do 
 not know how it could be in my power better to wear out my remain- 
 ing years." 
 
 The circumstances of his voyage and of his short sojourn in 
 England are well known. One of his very first acts was to visit 
 his aged mother. 
 
 " Seventeen years ago I left her," he wrote, " at the age of seventy- 
 six ; and we then looked upon each other as for ever separated in the 
 body. And now to return and to find her still surviving has almost the 
 appearance of a miracle." 
 
 On his return from Sutton Coldfield, where this venerable 
 lady was living, the Bishop paused for two nights at the Lodge, 
 Daventry, and had most earnest and cheerful converse with his 
 old friend.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 269 
 
 This chapter may best close with the following little note, 
 written by Joshua "Watson to Canon Wordsworth, on Feb. 21, 
 1853: 
 
 " MY VERY BEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " Heu ! valde deflendus ! The good Bishop was yesterday released 
 from his sufferings and his labours, and, we may hunibly trust, is gone, 
 through the mercies of God and the merits of His Son, to an antepast 
 of that final reward which is promised to all good soldiers of Christ. 
 He has, so far as man's judgment may dare to pronounce, been per- 
 mitted to fight the good fight, and literally to spend himself in his 
 great Master's service. He is, indeed, little less a martyr than many 
 whom the Church gratefully remembers. He came with a clear fore- 
 sight of all the perils he was to encounter in a solitary voyage from one 
 end of the world to the other, with a certainty that, if prosperously 
 ended, it would be to battle with the dangers of a changeable climate at 
 the worst period of its year. Against this he was seriously warned : 
 but no dissuasions moved him. He thought there was a chance of his 
 being enabled in some way to advance the interests of the Church 
 Catholic at home and abroad ; and with this possibility in prospect he 
 determined to brave all evils and inconveniences. And verily, so far as 
 I can see, he has not been, humanly speaking, without reward even here. 
 He died in hope, the last words he was heard distinctly to utter being, 
 ' As the waters cover the sea !' " 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Oxford Tracts, and the controversies growing out of their publication. 
 Richard H. Froude. Newman's Sermons. Joshua Watson's opinions 
 on Nos. 89 and 90. Prosecution of J. H. Newman. Dr. Godfrey 
 Faussett. The " British Critic" Suppression of that review. Seces- 
 sion of J. H. Newman. "Essay on Development." Bishop Broughton's 
 judgment. Silence imposed on Dr. Pusey. Joshua Watson's remarks 
 on it. His value for the alliance of Church and State. Notice of 
 Dr. Arnold's views. Their correction to be found in the life and la- 
 bours of such men as Joshua Watson. 
 
 IT had by this time become evident that the association which 
 had produced the Oxford Tr;icts, and which now exercised 
 a sensible influence over the studies of that University and in 
 the Church at large, was no longer what it had appeared to be in 
 the outset, an alliance for the defence of the Church of England ; 
 but comprised, among many of its leading spirits, men whose
 
 270 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 views went beyond the existing emergency, and who were en- 
 deavouring to discover and promulgate another theory of Catholic 
 union, to which all other considerations were to bow. 
 
 The first clear indication of this new principle was seen in the 
 publication of the " Remains of Richard Hurrell Froude," a young 
 man of great promise, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, who died 
 at the early age of thirty-two, and of whose stray papers, letters, 
 and remnants of conversation a full collection was published by 
 J. H. Newman, then a Fellow of the same College, now for some 
 years past a member of the Society of the Oratory in the Church 
 of Rome. The first two volumes of these "Remains" were pub- 
 lished early in 1838. The work never obtained a wide circula- 
 tion ; but enough was done to give deep offence to many minds, 
 and to unsettle the principles of many more. 
 
 Those who knew Richard Froude best, knew that he was 
 in the habit of expressing himself, both by writing and in con- 
 versation, in strong, pungent sentences, such as are not altogether 
 uncommon with young men of brilliant minds and vivacious 
 temperament, and are often used by them as much with the 
 design of provoking answer and contradiction, as that of convey- 
 ing the speaker's real sentiments. But when the Editor, in his 
 Preface to an unlimited and indiscriminate accumulation of such 
 winged words, claimed for them the consideration due to the 
 deliberate opinions of a matured reason, it was a mode of treat- 
 ment which stamped them with an importance not properly their 
 own, and justified the censure of those who, without concerning 
 themselves much for the reputation of the dead, or making allow- 
 ance for what was with too little decorum brought before the 
 public, saw the publication announcing itself as an expansion of 
 the principles of the Tracts. And this claim was made, although 
 poor Richard Froude again and again declared himself in the 
 pages of these volumes as one whose mind was in a state of pro- 
 gress and puzzle, sympathizing at one time with Roman, at 
 another with Puritan, till, in a lengthened illness and absence in 
 foreign lands, it fed upon its own solitary musings, with that 
 morbid dissatisfaction at all things which sometimes accompanies 
 the decay of vital power. However, the appearance of such an 
 unreserved exposition of distracted fancies was a great discourage- 
 ment to the hopes which had for a while found their centre at 
 Oxford; and the disease of Richard Froude's mind seemed to 
 have communicated itself to his more distinguished editor. 
 
 There was nothing to be condemned simply in those longings 
 for a more comprehensive principle of unity, which now found 
 frequent vent in the writings of some of the associates. The 
 same feelings had prompted some of the most earnest aspirations
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 271 
 
 of the ardent "William Law in a former century f ; but without 
 disloyalty to the Sparta which had been no very indulgent 
 mother to himself. But with J. H. Newman from about this 
 time the idea appeared to have absorbed all others ; and he could 
 no longer speak of attachment to the Church of England, but as 
 what he called an insular theory, a national fancy, or a hanker- 
 ing after the privileges of Judaism in hearts which should be 
 free from the pressure of such bondage. And what was a mark 
 of the unsound judgment with which the subject was treated, 
 certain pointed phrases, more remarkable for wit than wisdom, 
 but not the less effective, except with those whom the worthy 
 Bishop Huntingford used to call "men of subact minds," were 
 now invented, and passed into proverbs, against those who held 
 more strictly to the national Church. 
 
 Some incidental notices of the way in which these changes 
 impressed themselves on the mind of Joshua Watson and his 
 confidential friends have already appeared in these pages ; but it 
 may be expected that a more separate space should be given 
 to the opinions which he from time to time expressed. It is not 
 easy altogether to satisfy such an expectation. It is certain 
 that, about two years after the publication of Froude's " He- 
 mains," J. H. Newman dedicated his fifth volume of "Parochial 
 Sermons" to Joshua Watson; but this was, as the terms of dedi- 
 cation expressed it, " an unsanctioned offering," made, as it must 
 be supposed, on the grounds of such public respect as the writer 
 entertained at that time for one whom he acknowledged as 
 a long- tried public benefactor. It is not known or supposed 
 that any previous private intimacy had prepared the way for 
 this act of public homage. The truth is, that his principles 
 were such as almost instinctively shrank from any attempt 
 to guide the current of opinion. It was not easy to call forth an 
 opinion from him, and he never voluntarily offered an opiuion 
 where it was not solicited. But at the same time, he felt acutely 
 for the danger to the Church, and to the teachers and followers 
 of what he sometimes called the new Oxford School. 
 
 Thus he answers a friend in Feb., 1841 : 
 
 " On the subject of the Oxford movement I dare neither argue nor 
 speculate. It is to me a fearful one. Hitherto I have delighted to 
 consider our friends as in some points only trimming the boat, and 
 avoiding le juste milieu, which their principles, their piety, and their 
 learning would naturally have led them under ordinary circumstances 
 to occupy, from a very justifiable dread of the dangers of an upset 
 
 ' See his Appeal for the Truths of the Gospel, 1756, p. 277.
 
 272 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 from the heavy bearing of the extreme gauche. And in this light 
 I have liked to look on any little overstraining, as it might seem, of 
 either opinion or practice, and shall still strive to do so. For I am 
 most sure that we have sorely wanted severe correctives both in the 
 one and in the other; and the stick has been so long bent in one 
 direction, that it is perhaps I only say, perhaps only by forcing it 
 in the other that it can be made straight again. But I will own to 
 you that my confidence in these views has received some rude shocks 
 lately. From nothing perhaps so rude as from the last number of 
 the Tracts, No. 89, on the Mysticism attributed to the early Fathers 
 of the Church." 
 
 Whatever anxiety he may have felt about No. 89, it was ab- 
 sorbed in the following month through the graver alarm oc- 
 casioned by No. 90. 
 
 " My dear Norris," he wrote in a little note to his friend in Grove- 
 street, " I am distressed more than I can tell you, and send an express 
 to ascertain whether I read and understand aright the Introduction 
 to No. 90. I have just perused it, and it is so startling that I cannot 
 rest until I know whether there is, in your apprehension, ground for 
 half the fears which oppress your aifectionate friend. 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 Yet he could write with cheerfulness to those who sought his 
 advice, quieting their fears of evil which might result from the 
 proceedings taken at Oxford. He dissuaded any attempt at 
 multiplying declarations on the controversy which was now 
 excited, justly regarding it as too deep for any summary or 
 arbitrary decision. But he sought with much earnest solicitude 
 the counsel of his friend Dr. Wordsworth, as one who, on his 
 post at Trinity, could neither be ignorant of the strife, nor 
 excused from the duty of advising many who were then likely 
 to look to him for guidance. 
 
 Dr. Wordsworth had been so warm an admirer of some of 
 Newman's earlier sermons, that he had spoken of himself as 
 ready to b'urn his own, that he might for the future preach 
 Newman. But when, thus prepared, he took No. 90 in hand, 
 and deliberately read it, he could only exclaim, " Oh, what 
 a fall ! Its perusal has lowered my opinion of the writer more 
 than I could have thought possible. I refer to all the important 
 points of learning and logic, history, clearness of ideas, and 
 accuracy of language and sentiment." It does not appear that 
 Joshua Watson partook of this impression of the decay of the 
 writer's ability or skill ; but in conversing about this famous 
 Tract sometime afterwards with another friend, he said his ob- 
 jections to it were mainly twofold. Being a work of thought 
 and learning, only to be judged of by persons of thought and
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 273 
 
 learning, it should have been written in Latin, not in English. 
 This would have brought it before competent judges, as an 
 appeal to the Church, instead of throwing it nakedly on public 
 opinion, as if it were an appeal to the world. Being an advance 
 towards another Communion, it seemed hardly fair to the Church 
 of England to reach the hand so far, without demanding some 
 corresponding advance and concession on behalf of the common 
 truth and peace. This was remembered afterwards as a singu- 
 larly pointed, yet calm and dispassionate and charitable, judg- 
 ment, amidst a tempest of passion and prejudice, with which this 
 unfortunate Tract was assailed, and in which all candour and 
 charity for a time seemed lost. 
 
 These things are still of too recent an interest for their history 
 to be impartially written. It is only the duty of those who are 
 responsible for the present Memoir to shew what was the part 
 taken by the aged counsellor, whose virtues it aims to record, at 
 different stages of the controversy, without any intention of re- 
 kindling the smouldering fires, but not suppressing any fact from 
 motives of fear or favour. He spoke with renewed regret of the 
 loss of Hugh J. Rose : " Others," he said to Dr. Wordsworth, 
 " may allay the storm, but he would have prevented the out- 
 break. He was perhaps the only man who, not going all lengths 
 with the authors of the movement, was really respected by 
 them." 
 
 After the Hebdomadal Board at Oxford, at the instance of 
 four tutors of different colleges, had taken the unusual course 
 of passing a kind of public censure on No. 90, .and the Tracts, 
 on the seasonable advice of Bishop Richard Bagot, had been 
 brought to a close, there was a short pause in the controversy. 
 But the strife was renewed by Dr. Godfrey Faussett, the Lady 
 Margaret Professor, who on the 3rd of June in the same year 
 ascended the pulpit in the Divinity School, and delivered a lec- 
 ture, partaking most emphatically of the character of a tirade, 
 against a battery which the enemy had ceased to work and 
 abandoned on capitulation. The Professor' had not sufficient 
 self-restraint to follow the Knight of La Mancha's rule alike 
 of courtesy and valour, to provide, if possible, a bridge of silver 
 for a retreating foe. 
 
 Tiiis ill-timed assault was resented with equal bitterness. The 
 next number of the "British Critics," which had now been for 
 the last two years conducted by an Oxford editor, contained the 
 famous apologue of "the 'Squire's two dogs, Growler and Fido." 
 Growler was the duly installed house-dog, too well-fed to bestir 
 
 Published in July, 1841. 
 I
 
 274 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 himself when thieves were on the premises. Fido, the pointer, 
 uneasy at certain symptoms, but unwilling to encroach on Grow- 
 ler's province, at last in foolish honesty and love attacked one of 
 the rohbers ; whereupon Growler wakening up, seized, not the 
 plunderers of the larder, but its vigilant defender. 
 
 The "British Critic" had passed into the hands of J. H. New- 
 man in the spring of the year 1839. The writer of these pages 
 had done his utmost from his retired position to prevent the 
 review from being consigned to such able but perilous custody. 
 But his aged friend H. H. Norris was now no longer able to 
 exert the salutary influence which he had repeatedly employed 
 in the more vigorous period of his life. The London clergy 
 seemed weary or otherwise engaged with more pressing duties. 
 There was no effective editor to be found among them. It was 
 for many reasons unadvisable that such an organ of ecclesiastical 
 literature and policy should be conducted by men whose vocation 
 was in that special kind of contemplative life pursued at a Uni- 
 versity, even if the danger had not now been greatly increased 
 by the existing controversies. But the keen hopes and strong 
 alliances then in energy were such as to overbear all cautious 
 counsels from a distance. 
 
 The same number of the review which dealt with Dr. Faussett 
 much in the vein of Junius with Sir William Draper, contained 
 a bad and bitter critique on the theological character of Bishop 
 Jewel, ending with the consistent resolution : " As we go on we 
 must recede more and more from the principles, if any such there 
 be, of the English Reformation." The writer of this critique 
 is supposed to have been Frederick Oakeley, sometime Fellow 
 of Baliiol College, now a priest in the orders of the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 The review did "go on" for about two years longer, when it 
 was brought to its last furrow in October, 1843. It is probable 
 that Newman had for some time ceased more immediately to 
 direct it ; and it had been guided by some of his younger dis- 
 ciples, who, as usually happens in these public heats, went 
 beyond their master ; since, as Joshua Watson happily expressed 
 it to Archdeacon Harrison, "in all serpentine movement, the 
 head must take the impulse of the tail." But he now thought 
 that Newman permitted extravagancies which he could not alto- 
 gether approve, thinking that the zeal of the phalanx was thus 
 more likely to be kept alive, and his own position strengthened 
 against opponents ; that the guerilla- warfare might be auxiliary 
 to more regular operations. For he judged hat such a leader 
 did nothing without a reason. 
 
 I -,^as a pity that, after a good half-century, during which
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 275 
 
 the trim old vessel had heen successfully piloted by Nares and 
 Van Hildert, caulked and careened by Charles Lloyd, manned by 
 an orthodox crew, among whom were at one time Bishop Gleig 
 and Bishop Horsley; at another, Dean Rennell and his sou 
 Thomas Rennell, Dean Lyall, and Charles W. Le Bas ; it should 
 have come to such an unworthy close. But after it had torn 
 down its English colours, it is less surprising that it should have 
 foundered in quicksands, pursuing a wisp-fire of Catholicity. 
 
 In 1845, after a period of much mental conflict, and after 
 witnessing the secession of many who had been in close relations 
 with him, J. H. Newman himself took leave of the Church of 
 England, and gave to the Church of Rome one who may be pro- 
 nounced the most highly-gifted theological convert she has ever 
 made from the Anglican communion. Of his reason fur this step 
 he gave an account at the time in his "Essay on the Develop- 
 ment of Christian Doctrine," following a theory which in its 
 essential features had been long ago propounded by the learned 
 Jesuit Petavius. Bishop Broughton in Australasia had heard of 
 this event before he had received a copy of the book, and he 
 appears to have written to Joshua Watson in some despondency. 
 
 His friend answered, June 16, 1846 : 
 
 " Surely these things cannot have taken you by surprise, neither need 
 they cause you to despair of the true Anglican Church system. Nothing 
 has happened but what one has foreseen for a few years past far more 
 clearly than one has been willing in charity to enunciate. Let not, 
 therefore, your heart, which has never yet failed you, be cast down. 
 Let us trust in God, my dear friend, and He will deliver us, but in His 
 own good time ; for which Churchmen just now seem to me especially 
 called upon to wait, watching the signs of the times, and possessing 
 their souk in patience. 
 
 "Our chief danger here appears to the calm and considerate to lie in 
 the impatience of the young and ardent, who, stimulated by the impru- 
 dent teaching of those they look up to, run abroad for that which they 
 cannot immediately find at home ; whilst no warning voice is raised 
 against the perils of apostacy, no Jeremy Taylor or Bishop Bull is to be 
 heard amongst their prophets, no Dissuasives from Popery, no state- 
 ments of the corruptions of Rome to alarm and restrain them ; but the 
 masters of the schools deal with it as with an open question, and all 
 equally refuse to consider the point of doctrine. One treats it as 
 a question of jurisdiction only; another is carried away by the seraplu'c 
 devotions of the convent and the monastery ; whilst many more, from self- 
 distrust and personal feelings, are led not only to think charitably but 
 to speak kindly of the deflections towards Rome ; not only unwilling to 
 cast the first stone at their erring sister, but shewing themselves both 
 to her virtues very kind, and to her failings very blind. 
 
 "Notwithstanding all this, my dear lord, I see much more to hope 
 for than to fear in the preseut signs of the Church. Nobody knows
 
 276 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 better than yourself the greatly improved feeling of the mother country 
 towards the Church in the colonies. Your voice, you must know, has 
 not been raised in vain; and I will hope that we shall yet feel the 
 blessing and the benefit of antipodal reaction." 
 
 Before this letter had time to reach, its destination, another 
 from Bishop Brou^hton crossed it on the seas, dated from Sydney, 
 July 20, 1846. The Bishop had now seen Newman's hook, and 
 was able to report the impression it had made upon him. 
 
 "To make a candid confession to you," he says, "I did not open it 
 without some uncomfortable apprehensions as to the formidable assault 
 which a writer of such high repute would make upon the towers and 
 bulwarks of the Jerusalem from which he had fallen away. You may 
 believe my assurance that I have really studied the book, reading it 
 piece by piece with attention many times over ; striving to make myself 
 master as well of the general argument as of the several details. And 
 now what shall I say ? It is the farthest thing possible from my wish 
 or intention to say anything savouring of arrogance ; and I would be 
 the last person to think or say that anything written by Mr. Newman 
 could be without its degree of cleverness and clearness. Still, I will 
 pledge my small share of judgment upon the assertion, that even as 
 regards those points, it is inconceivably below what he has heretofore 
 produced ; and that considered as a justification of a man's desertion of 
 the Church of England for the purpose of joining the Church of Rome, 
 it is the most inconclusive and unsatisfactory performance that it ever 
 fell to my lot to examine. 
 
 " Indeed, the Introduction is even worse. The sum and substance 
 of his argument appears to be, that the dictum of Vincentius h , if it admit 
 the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, cannot exclude the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation and the like ; it cannot condemn Aquinas and protect 
 St. Athanasius. It is on this point that I would come to issue with 
 them. My consolation is in thinking, after a very careful and, I trust, 
 impartial scrutiny, that upon the grounds of Scripture, reason, and 
 antiquity, the grounds which Waterland lays down as his basis, we 
 may embrace ana hold fast those blessed truths which our venerated 
 mother, the Church of England, has given us to confide in ; and yet may 
 upon the same principle reject the errors which a pseudo-catholic 
 system strives to obtrude upon us, as really satisfying the criterion of 
 Vincentius. For myself, I feel much more composure since reading 
 Mr. Newman's book. It allays all my apprehension of his ability to say 
 anything which can seriously embarrass the advocates of the Church ; 
 it awakens in me a strong hope that it will rectify the views of many 
 who have allowed themselves to be warped by his influence and 
 example." 
 
 The conviction thus expressed in his habitual calm temper by 
 
 h " Magnopere curandum est, ut id teneamus quod ubique, quod semper, 
 quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est enirn vere proprieque Catholicum." 
 Vine. Lir. Adv. HILT., c. ii. ix.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 277 
 
 Broughton, was that of many more of Newman's more immediate 
 friends. Indeed, to a well-disciplined enquirer, the best apologies 
 for the Church of England are the controversial essays of those 
 who have seceded to the Church of Rome, from the days of 
 Rainolds or Cressy to those of Newman and Manning. 
 
 It will probably be remembered that the proceeding which 
 appeared to accelerate Newman's final valediction to Oxford and 
 the Church of England, grew out of a prosecution instituted 
 against the Rev. W. G. Ward's "Ideal of a Christian Church." 
 The promoters of the prosecution, which had for its object to 
 deprive Ward of his degrees, or banish him from the Univer- 
 sity, were labouring to visit the author of No. 90 with a portion 
 of the same penalty. A majority of the Heads of Houses had 
 consented to the proposal of a decree to Convocation, by which 
 the acceptance of the Tract should be declared heretical under 
 the University Statutes; but the Proctors, Guillemard and 
 Church, interposed with their veto, and the measure was shelved. 
 For the four years which had passed since the first censure of 
 his Tract, the author had been living in comparative retirement 
 at Littlemore, near Oxford. But when four hundred and seventy 
 Oxford graduates exhibited this keen desire to bait him on the 
 public stage again, it was a proceeding which threw on them 
 a portion of the responsibility for the consequences. 
 
 Of the conduct of the Hebdomadal Board in this new emer- 
 gency, Joshua Watson said to Archdeacon Harrison, 
 
 " I have no love for it ; and certainly I think they have played their 
 game ill ; but the cards were dealt to them, and if they had refused to 
 play, they had surely failed in their duty to the University as custodes 
 juve/itutis academiccB. Nothing could release the body from their obliga- 
 tion to protect those entrusted to their charge from looking upon the 
 bonds of subscription as a mere rope of sand. Let who would bring the 
 bill, they were bound when, it was brought, by their oaths of office, to 
 find it a true bill, and send it to the regular tribunal for judgment. 
 I love justice ; and I think it has as little been dealt to the Hebdomadals 
 now, as to the six. doctors heretofore." 
 
 By the six doctors he alluded to those who in 1842 were con- 
 cerned in the decree by which Dr. Pusey was for a time forbidden 
 to appear in the University pulpit. His opinion of this sentence 
 was expressed at the time as follows : 
 
 " I believe this to be the right view of the Vice-Chancellor's sentence. 
 It passes no judgment upon doctrine, but silences the preacher, not as 
 an unsound, but as an unsafe, teacher of the youths committed to his 
 academical care, under the existing disposition to fall away to the 
 Romish Church." 
 
 Hia words seemed to be intended to state the ground on which
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 the authors of the decree might justify it, rather than to convey 
 the impression that it met with his own entire approbation. But 
 he disapproved of those who were raising a cry of persecution 
 against the sentence. " They have simply silenced him," he 
 said, " honestly considering that what may not be unsound, may 
 still be very unsafe teaching." 
 
 Eighteen years have passed since this sentence was pronounced 
 and the opinion given. Dr. Pusey has lived to refute the calum- 
 nies and suspicions which were then rife in many quarters ; and 
 if he should peruse these pages, he may bear with a patient 
 smile the modified defence which Joshua Watson made for the 
 honesty of the alarmists, who by this time probably know him 
 better. Nor will he probably deny that the discipline of age and 
 experience has served to modify some, and to mature others, of 
 his own earlier views and opinions ; for one who is in so many 
 points a fervid follower of St. Augustine, will not be likely to 
 forget, that one especial claim of that unequalled teacher to the 
 reverence of all after ages is to be found in the calm wisdom of 
 his Retractations. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply passages from the letters or 
 sayings remembered in the conversation of Joshua Watson, all 
 bearing on these and other kindred questions, if the compilers of 
 these volumes were to hold themselves under no restraint or just 
 reserve in the use of words never designed for the public eye, 
 and written or spoken under the changing aspect of different 
 questions, often only in the way of progress to their full solution. 
 It was certainly the bent of his mind to dissuade from measures, 
 the necessity of which was not imperative, and the probable 
 effect doubtful. He does not appear to have gone further than 
 to state the balance of difficulties which he expected to be found 
 in either scale on the revival of Convocation. He foresaw that 
 the introduction of the lay element would be the first disputed 
 point. " Lord Lyttelton, Gladstone, and Hope, with many more 
 of their way of thinking, would urge for their admission on 
 principle ; the colonial episcopate would press it upon grounds 
 of expediency; whilst the most orthodox of our clergy, on the 
 ground of primitive and apostolic practice, would contend most 
 earnestly for their exclusion." He wrote thus to Dr. C. Words- 
 worth in one of the latest years of his life, fearing that even the 
 agitation of such a question might create a schism in what he 
 would still call the Establishment. On this point his appre- 
 hensions were perhaps carried too far. 
 
 He was conversing with a young clergyman, who had imbibed 
 what he considered to be Anti-Erastian sentiments, and who was 
 inveighing against the choice of bishops by the State :
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 279 
 
 " By whom would you have them appointed ? By the Clergy ? We 
 know but of one Bishop who is chosen by ecclesiastics, and those of the 
 highest order, the Pope at Rome ! By popular election ? Such elec- 
 tions have been times of uproar. See what it is, when an Incumbent 
 of a parish, as is done in a few places in England, is elected by the 
 parishioners. I have witnessed an election at Clerkenwell ; it was an 
 occasion of such blasphemy as made one's blood run cold. I marvel to 
 hear the Regal choice complained of by men who claim to be high 
 Sacramentarians, as though the act of consecration could not repair any 
 defect in the appointment. I am well convinced, that any appointments 
 are safest in the hands of high and responsible authorities. I hate 
 democracy in any shape ; but of all shapes the worst is an ecclesiastical 
 democracy." 
 
 " You complain," he said to another, " that statesmen have chosen as 
 bishops the tutors of their own sons. But an English nobleman of 
 ability and prudence would desire to choose for the instructor of the 
 heir of his family the man whom he thought best endowed with the very 
 qualities that would fit him for a bishop. Let Bishop Wilson be taken 
 as an example. By this reasoning I formerly almost convinced Bishop 
 Hobart." 
 
 Such sentiments, which he was frequently in the habit of 
 expressing among his friends, and imparting to younger enquirers 
 who sought his counsel, may suffice to shew what he thought of 
 the Oxford movement, how far he regarded it with favour, and 
 how entirely he stood aloof from those who would have loosed 
 the vessel of Church and State from its old moorings. " Church 
 and State," he said, "in this kingdom, by the Providence of 
 God have been happily joined together. And woe be to the hand 
 that would sacrilegiously divide them ! Call me, if you will, an 
 Establishmentarian. It is a sobriquet, which, as a hearty lover 
 of my country, I cannot conscientiously repudiate." 
 
 Such sentiments are as far removed from the Roman system, 
 as an able essayist of the time could see and pointedly affirm, 
 "as the constitutional monarchy of England from the despotism 
 of Morocco'." One is only surprised that a mind so able as 
 that of the late Thomas Arnold should have been incapable of 
 marking this distinction. But Thomas Arnold's energetic vehe- 
 mence, urged on by the instinct of what he calls " his earliest 
 dislike," and perhaps a little jealous of the remarkable influence 
 then exercised by Newman, led him into other equally singular 
 confusions. He could see the genius, but not the reasoning 
 power, of Jeremy Taylor. He could find no apter terms in 
 speaking of the saintly Ken, than to describe him as one of 
 a "fierce and slanderous" heresy and faction 1 . His studies in 
 
 1 Quarterly Review, Jan. 1837, p. 214. 
 J Arnold's Life, sixth ed., p. 400, 442.
 
 280 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 English history did not deter him from saying that "the Puritans 
 led to the Nonjurors," a kind of descent which one would imagine 
 would be as little recognised by the fathers as by their supposed 
 children. In fact, the memorable character of Thomas Arnold 
 is only one of the latest proofs that universal philanthropy is 
 impossible to poor human nature. Comprehensive as it was of 
 almost all lights and shades of opinion, it was contracted to 
 a microscopic point when the shadow of a High Churchman 
 crossed its path, or one of those "base" and " detestable" Tories, 
 whose vision haunted him in his dreams. To such lengths did 
 he carry this aversion, that he even shrank from the noble efforts 
 which were making to send bishops to the colonies, because such 
 efforts were advocated by believers in Apostolical Succession k . 
 But, alas ! what was the system of Thomas Arnold himself, but 
 another phase of the Christianity of men above ordinances ? 
 There appeared to him " to be in all the English divines a want 
 of believing or disbelieving any thing, because it was true or 
 false 1 ." That is, they did not determine their belief, as poor 
 Arnold too often did, by consulting only the idols of their own 
 cave m . 
 
 We have spoken of these two eminent leaders of others' minds, 
 because the picture of the calm, practical, and retired wisdom of 
 Joshua Watson was, to all who witnessed it, the most instructive 
 contrast and preservative of those who came within its influence, 
 from the glare and dazzle of the rival and eccentric scintillations. 
 What were the fruits to be attained in a school equally distinct 
 from that of Newman and of Arnold, by a disciple of Jackson, of 
 Bull, and Waterland, by one who dwelt in holy meditations with 
 Taylor and Ken, while his counsel and his labour were ready for 
 every call by which the cause of religion and charity could be 
 advanced, and his spirit rejoiced in all good that was effected by 
 other hands, the closing years of Joshua Watson's life manifested 
 with growing clearness to the end. 
 
 Of the Oxford movement he could hope, with a confidence 
 only vouchsafed to a patient and faithful watcher on his post, 
 that whatever was monstrous and extravagant would, for that 
 very reason, die a natural death ; and the good, which the most 
 reasonable even of its opponents did not deny, would be per- 
 manent; as has been seen in the revived studies of Patristic 
 Theology; the greater depth, and freedom from narrow party- 
 shackles, which has marked the doctrine of English professors 
 and preachers; the care of students to be acquainted with the 
 
 k Arnold's Life, sixth ed., p. 604. ' Ibid., p. 400, note. Some 
 
 remarks of Joshua Watson on Arnold will be found in a later chapter.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 281 
 
 truth of Ecclesiastical History; and at the same time the ad- 
 vancement of works of Christian popular instruction, increased 
 services, and concern for the beauty and order of the house of 
 prayer. Those who have witnessed how many prejudices have 
 been surmounted, how many salutary changes effected, during 
 the last thirty years, will see reason both to cherish a portion of 
 the same confidence for the future, and to seek to imitate the 
 patient self-denying prudence, by which alone the Church or the 
 world can be persuaded to be made better. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 Joshua Watson's old age. Retirement at Clapton and Daventry. Recol- 
 lections of his conversation. Letters. Resignation of the Treasurership 
 of the National Society. Committee of Council on Education. Manage- 
 ment Clauses. Samuel Wood, T. D. Acland, and Gilbert Mathieson. 
 
 rPHE remaining portion of this Memoir has been supplied from 
 JL the notes of one of Joshua Watson's nieces, who during his 
 later years was to him as a daughter. Some selection has been 
 made ; but otherwise it seemed that it would be most just to the 
 subject, and most acceptable to the reader, to present it nearly 
 as it was first written down. And, unless the Editor deceives 
 himself, this will be found by no means the least interesting 
 portion of the narrative, exhibiting, as it does, the calm old age 
 of a mind unwearied in those charitable and benevolent occupa- 
 tions which had become like its daily food, and recording the 
 emanations of a bright unclouded spirit in the domestic circle in 
 which it conversed with such entire confidence and communion 
 of thought and feeling, as no less intimate experience could 
 supply, and which continued without interruption to the close. 
 
 WHEN William Stevens once declared himself to be "now 
 only fit for the chimney-corner," his young friend Joshua 
 Watson's response was something like this : " that is the place 
 one would most wish to be fit for." 
 
 How this aspiration was fulfilled ; how through God's grace 
 and mercy his old age became the fitting crown and completion 
 of a life spent in a humble following of the Great Example ; and 
 how, in the large measure of " wisdom and knowledge and joy"
 
 282 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which was granted to his grey hairs, he was reaping what he 
 had sown in his days of greater vigour and larger opportunities ; 
 those ought to be hest able to tell, who were allowed to witness 
 all this most closely, and whose happy duty it was, as bereave- 
 ment and increasing years withdrew him gradually from the 
 scene of his abundant labours, to welcome him to his evening 
 rest. And however faint and imperfect the picture may be, yet, 
 if the touches be but true and faithful, they may suggest some- 
 thing of the encouragement and stimulus which such a cha- 
 racter is fitted to supply. And this is the whole object of this 
 collection of Reminiscences, which are gathered, with but little 
 attempt at arrangement, from letters and other contemporary 
 notices of his sayings and doings during the last fifteen years 
 of his life. 
 
 The late venerable Primate of Ireland said in a letter to Canon 
 Wordsworth in 1855, that "every incident of his departed 
 friend's life and character would so well bear to be exhibited in 
 the fullest light, that the simple and truthful enumeration of his 
 various virtues and good works would be both pleasing and most 
 useful." To the very thankworthy degree in which this high 
 praise was deserved, it seems the part of those most constantly 
 with him to bear witness, especially if we receive a maxim of 
 his own, that the best way to test the workmanship of a building 
 is to examine some of its minuter and more hidden parts. In 
 this view his unvarying courtesy, never failing in the most 
 familiar intercourse of daily life, had no small share in the charm 
 which old and young alike felt in his presence. One of his 
 younger relatives observed that "No one ever wanted a listener 
 when Uncle Watson was of the company." No little service 
 rendered to him, however insignificant or habitual, ever lacked 
 its thankful acknowledgment. 
 
 He would never reproach any one for a fault or failure, unless 
 he felt that it called for direct reproof. His playfulness in con- 
 versation and quickness of repartee were never sarcastic, and 
 found their most frequent exercise in giving point and grace to 
 some expression of love or commendation. The refinement of 
 his taste was so delicate, that a friend who knew him well 
 declared it was " as if his whole study had been ideal beauty." 
 It was critical to a degree that might almost seem excessive in 
 trifles in which he was himself concerned, but was never selfishly 
 indulged so as to be a cause of uneasiness to others. 
 
 His attention to all little things was ever on the alert, and his 
 life-long habit of gathering up miscellaneous information never 
 forsook him. And this, together with his conviction that the 
 best way to impress any thing on one's own memory is to impart
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 283 
 
 it to others, added very much to his powers of entertainment 
 and of varied usefulness. My brother did hut express what we 
 all felt and acted upon habitually, when he said that there was 
 scarcely any subject on which he would not rather have my 
 uncle's opinion than that of any one else. 
 
 Once when I had excused myself for not having attended to 
 something that was read aloud because I had not heard the 
 beginning, "Oh, always pick up crumbs," he said: "you may 
 not always be able to get a mouthful." 
 
 He did not like the excuse for the omission of any little 
 attention that "it was not worth while;" once when I was 
 hesitating about some trifling act of courtesy on this plea, he 
 said, "Kindness is always worth while, whether it is necessary 
 or not." 
 
 Another little characteristic may be gathered from an expres- 
 sion in one of Archdeacon Cambridge's letters, referring to some 
 matter of domestic economy, which was almost repeated by an- 
 other friend. " But you never tell your difficulties, and hardly 
 allow your friends to suppose you have any." 
 
 ' He indulged much and frequently in making presents, but 
 there was no careless profusion in his gifts; rather was there 
 a wise economy in them as well as the most thoughtful kindness. 
 
 Nothing pleased him better than when the receiver could 
 honestly assure him that the gift had been happily chosen and 
 well-timed. Sometimes when he had been allowing himself 
 more than usual freedom in such liberality, I have known him 
 take particular care that there should be a balance against it of 
 some less agreeable, more self-denying charity. 
 
 " Love me, love my dog," was often playfully on his lips, but 
 seldom without an earnest dwelling on his meaning that he 
 could not be fully happy unless those he liked and loved best 
 liked and loved each other also. Often would his quick and 
 loving eye glance upon us, seeking to be assured of such harmony 
 of feeling. He always seemed to want our entire sympathy iu 
 everything, great or small, that interested him, and he had 
 almost the child-like instinctive desire to share everything with 
 those he loved ; so that it was really painful to him whenever it 
 was necessary to have any secrets from us. 
 
 Most gentle and courteous was he in argument ; and where he 
 felt it necessary, in speaking of the opinions or practices of 
 others, to blame most freely, he was ever ready and glad to have 
 some good to say of those he censured, and to give ungrudging 
 praise to all that was praiseworthy. It was probably this, to- 
 gether with his clear discernment of character, which gave him 
 much of the happy power which he had of healing jealousies, of
 
 284 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 drawing good men together, and of eliciting the good of which 
 each was capable. 
 
 One reason why, during his later years, he was always seek- 
 ing to withdraw from the exercise of the influence which he had 
 BO long possessed, was his fear of falling into what he considered 
 a weakness of old age, the being more positive in judgment 
 while the power of judging rightly was decreasing. It was not 
 that his conviction of the soundness of any principle on which 
 he had been wont to act was ever shaken ; no difference was to 
 be discerned in principle or practice from youth to age, but such 
 progress as time and the change of outward circumstances would 
 produce in one who was ever a humble learner in the school of 
 Providence ; but he used to say that although sure, perhaps 
 more sure than ever, through the accumulating experience of 
 years, of his conclusions, he could no longer work out an argu- 
 ment even to his own satisfaction, and he feared to weaken the 
 cause of truth by insufficient or incomplete reasoning. 
 
 His constant desire to keep himself out of sight, and to put 
 others forward in all the good and great works in which he was 
 engaged, was so unfeigned, and so habitually vigilant, that its 
 success was often complete, so far as the public was concerned, 
 though his example in this respect could not be hidden from his 
 fellow-labourers, many of whom bore witness after his death to 
 this part of his character. 
 
 "He was one whom the Church of England can never forget," wrote 
 Mr. Acland, " though his wonderful modesty took almost every precau- 
 tion to keep his own name out of sight in all he did." 
 
 " I was always struck," wrote Mr. Markland, " by his humility. What 
 an example was Mr. Watson to men of many words !" 
 
 Perhaps the most valuable testimony was that of the good old 
 Archbishop Manners- Sutton, who used to say of him, " that so 
 long as good was done, he never cared who was the doer of it ;" 
 and another, who knew him well, said to the same purpose, 
 " that his invisible working for good was almost like a human 
 providence, watching for the benefit of others without their 
 knowing it." 
 
 But it was not only public applause that he thus sought to 
 shun, he feared also the more subtle danger of the praise of 
 partial love ; and though this could not be wholly avoided, he 
 constantly strove to subdue the pleasure it could not but yield, 
 by earnest self-abasement and humiliation before God. Many 
 traces of his habitual, self-suspecting watchfulness remain in his 
 most private books of devotion, which are full of marks and fre-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 285 
 
 quent additions in his own hand. His humility towards God 
 was indeed very great. It was shewn not only in the more 
 direct instances of patient submission to chastisement, and the 
 utter absence of any confidence in his own merits, hut in the 
 spirit of thankfulness which breathed through his whole being, 
 welling out in fervent thanksgivings to the Giver of all good, 
 especially in that holiest service which he used to say should be 
 all eucharist, and overflowing in acts and words and looks of 
 loving gratitude towards those whom he regarded as " the chan- 
 nels of the undeserved mercies, the supple tory comforts," as he 
 would call them, of his later years. It was the happy privi- 
 lege of those who knew him best, to learn something of the 
 hidden sources whence the pleasant fruits of his beautiful old 
 age were nourished, and whereby all that was lovely in his life 
 retained its freshness undimmed and unwithered to the end; 
 reminding us forcibly of the promised blessing to the good man, 
 " His leaf also shall not wither." 
 
 My father's death in the year 1839, and my uncle's loss of his 
 most dear and only child in the following summer, seemed provi- 
 dentially to draw yet closer the bonds of love and intimate 
 relationship which had always united the two branches of our 
 family. In the autumn of 1840 my uncle, as has been said 
 be lore, gave up his house in Westminster, and became the inmate 
 alternately of his two sisters-in-law, his brother's widow and his 
 wife's sister, and received his nieces into an almost filial relation 
 to himself. During the first months of his bereavement my 
 sister Anne was his chief companion, and the nearest witness of 
 the desolation with which it pleased God to try him, and in the 
 midst of which it was granted him to be so bright an example, 
 " light," indeed, "arising unto him in the darkness." As hus- 
 band, brother, and father, the whole strength of his tenderest 
 human affections had found the fullest exercise, and with those 
 whom he had lost he had been wont to share every thought and 
 every counsel. How deeply he felt the loneliness in which he 
 was now left may be more truly imagined than told ; but from 
 time to time a few touching words would reveal the strength of 
 his sorrow, and enable us to estimate aright the thankful cheer- 
 fulness of his general demeanour, and his ability to welcome and 
 enjoy the comforts that remained to him. 
 
 On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1840, we received a note from him, 
 written at an inn, the first night after finally quitting his home. 
 " The poor pilgrim," he wrote, " has begun his wanderings, and 
 will, D. V., come and refresh himself with you." That afternoon 
 and the next morning he spent with us at Daventry, and then 
 proceeded onwards to Crayke, where he sought and found solace
 
 z86 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 in quiet converse with my eldest sister, who had been from 
 childhood bound to his own daughter in almost more than 
 sisterly affection and confidence. I was his companion on this 
 visit ; and then for the first time, but not the last, enjoyed the 
 uninterrupted intercourse for which his quiet posting journeys 
 afforded leisure and opportunity. We used to read the Psalms 
 and Lessons, and Hele's portion of Scriptural extracts for the 
 day, and often some lighter book ; and hence would arise plea- 
 Bant talks. One day he spoke of the manner in which the 
 purposes of Providence towards us are sometimes revealed, some- 
 times hidden, so as both to encourage and try our faith. The 
 impotent man waited thirty-eight years for his cure ; and when 
 at last it came, it was not according to, but far beyond, his 
 hopes. He noticed how all the most encouraging declarations of 
 Scripture are coupled with exhortations to holiness ; and re- 
 marked that the beauty of our Church service consists in its per- 
 fection of proportion, so that "the whole truth" of revelation 
 is delivered to us ; if one doctrine, even one article of the faith 
 is made predominant over all others, the result is as false to 
 truth as caricature is false to nature. 
 
 He spoke feelingly of his own bereavements, and of such dis- 
 pensations being designed to lead us to repentance. It is the 
 sense of our demerits, and of having provoked the punishment, 
 that alone does, as indeed it must, make God's chastening 
 "grievous for the present." If it were not for self-accusing 
 conscience, faith in His loving-kindness and merciful providence 
 would make all to be "joyous." He alluded to his having been 
 permitted to close the eyes of all those dearest to him ; of having 
 seen his little son, parents, wife, brother, and daughter die almost 
 in his arms. He felt this as a rare blessing. 
 
 There certainly never was a mourner more free from gloom. 
 The little ones at Crayke all learnt to love him dearly ; and his 
 departure occasioned a burst of childish sorrow, which, consider- 
 ing how very much worn in health and spirits he was at the 
 time, seems a remarkable instance of the gift of winning love 
 everywhere which was always his so abundantly. 
 
 "We returned to Daventry at the end of the month, and he 
 remained with us until after Christmas. 
 
 Once during this time, I remember that a question was raised 
 about a private administration of the Holy Communion to one 
 who had been long confined to the house, but who was not 
 dangerously ill : and we found that he thought that, although 
 the indulgence of a strong desire on the part of the patient 
 might be allowed for her comfort, yet that the most rightly- 
 informed conscience would submit longingly but patiently to the
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 287 
 
 imposed privation, without seeking to avail itself of a means 
 which the Church seems to intend only for extreme cases. 
 
 He said he supposed no conscientious person ever satisfied 
 himself with an excuse for any fault. 
 
 He liked to tell of his old acquaintance, the hlind Judge 
 Burton, of his wise and cheerful provisions to make himself 
 less troublesome to others in his infirmity. One day when my 
 uncle wanted to guide him down-stairs to the neglect of other 
 guests, he refused the preference, saying, " Be assured of this, 
 Mr. Watson, hlind people never want friends, they find them 
 everywhere." 
 
 He said that he once took Dr. Chalmers to dine at Lambeth, 
 and had felt afraid that the stateliness of the entertainment might 
 offend his presbyterian notions ; but on the way home he found 
 him quite ready to agree that the Archbishop was himself un- 
 touched in the midst of the fire ; " Yes," Chalmers added, "it is 
 as if the smell had not passed on him." 
 
 In November, Dr. Wordsworth, Master of Trinity, came to 
 us. The two old friends had much conversation, some of it very 
 animated, about men and things, and it was delightful to see 
 how our dear uncle's vigour and playfulness were revived by 
 this short visit. 
 
 In the beginning of January, 1841, he was looking at Dr. 
 Mill's "Analysis of Pearson on the Creed," which is dedicated 
 to him. He observed that it was the fullest and plainest state- 
 ment that he knew of the grounds of our faith. He then spoke 
 of the period since Pearson, and the decline of theology ; but he 
 thought this was now sometimes overstated. He spoke of Water- 
 land, and said the age which produced him ought not to be 
 decried ; then mentioned Seed, Waterland's curate, and repeated 
 to us, almost word for word, some beautiful and poetical pas- 
 sages from Seed's sermons, which upon enquiry we found he had 
 read last in Mincing-lane thirty years before. He thinks the 
 most valuable part of our English literature is in sermons. The 
 chronology of books, he said, should be noted, in order to mea- 
 sure the authority they derive from the names of their authors. 
 Beveridge's " Private Thoughts" were composed at the age of 
 twenty -three, and were not published until after his death. On 
 the other hand, the peculiar value of Bishop Bull's life-long 
 testimony to the truth arises from his confirmation of it on his 
 death-bed. 
 
 On the 5th he left us, and removed to the house at Clapton 
 which had been his abode before he lived in Westminster, and 
 which was no\v the residence of his sister- in-iuw, Mrs. JSnaith, 
 with her brother and daughter.
 
 288 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 He was very sad, and very full of tenderness in bidding us 
 good-bye ; for though he felt irresistibly impelled to seek his old 
 home, and it was his abiding wish "there to die, and there to 
 be buried," yet the return to it under his altered circumstances 
 was at first a painful effort ; nor did he yet know how to expect 
 such a welcome as that which awaited him there. Speaking of 
 this some years later, he thus wrote to his beloved niece at 
 Clapton : 
 
 "Here," meaning among those of his own name and kindred, "I 
 might have expected it as I found it, for I had been used to it all a long 
 while ; but what right had I to look for more in your dear family than 
 the ordinary sympathies of near connection, and the Christian charity 
 which kindly entertained a poor old kinsman half thrown upon you in 
 much infirmity and necessity ? It was this, Elizabeth, which astonished 
 me at first, and which stifl surprises me after five years' experience. 
 But the theme is endless ; and it had not now been touched upon, were 
 it not to stop your mouth, good niece of mine, who have taught me to 
 feel that I am as much uncle on one side as on the other." 
 
 A letter to Mrs. H. J. Rose, written very soon after his re- 
 moval to Clapton, thus touchingly expresses the mingled feelings 
 with which he returned to his old haunts : 
 
 " Of myself," he writes, " I can most thankfully say that I am 
 strangely supported, and marvel at myself all the day long, though the 
 evenings and the mornings take their full revenge in their recollections 
 of the past and the sense of present desolation. At this instant I am. 
 writing in the little room in which for the last time, exactly twenty 
 years ago, my good father received all then most near and dear to him 
 and to me, my brother, wife, and child ; and now I am alone, all one. 
 And what a feeling is this, who can feel better than yourself, dear 
 Mrs. Rose ? To you, therefore, I do not fear to give it vent, who, 
 I daresay, are not more willing to lose its sad and salutary im- 
 pressions than 
 
 " Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 The last words of this note hint at a feeling which he often 
 expressed to us, and which we know to have been a very strong 
 and abiding one. My eldest sister, who had been as another 
 daughter to him in 1831, during the last illness of his wife, had 
 made some allusion to that time of sorrow, which led to the 
 following message : 
 
 " To her, the first-born and longest in my love, I could have wished 
 to say a few words in particular to a feeling she has most touchingly 
 expressed with reference to 1831 ; I must, however, only say in general, 
 that it is a sad persuasion of the impossibility of keeping such exquisite 
 feelings in continual activity in our work-day world that makes me
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 289 
 
 encourage a somewhat strict observance of certain periods in each of our 
 lives, from its tendency to bring back those feelings in their first force 
 and freshness, in order, as our guide n tells us, that those impresses of 
 pious resolution and religious purposes, of fear and love, of hope and 
 desire which, by God's grace, present circumstances then wrought in 
 us, may in some sort abide in us ; and in the days of ease and safety 
 (or of business) may be as operative and productive of holiness as they 
 then were of hearty prayers and passionate desires for comfort and 
 support. May such' be the blessed effects of these occasional revivals 
 to every one of us. Amen." 
 
 In March he went to Brighton to see his motherless grand- 
 children and their father. In writing to the Master of Trinity 
 during his visit he thus speaks of himself : 
 
 " I am thankful to be able to confirm your inference as to my general 
 health. Not but that I greatly feel a general failure in all my powers 
 of mind and body. Walk and work I cannot ; and I find, with Lvall, 
 that to think is the hardest work in the world. Still, however, it is 
 a mercy for which I cannot be too thankful that, whilst others more ripe 
 and ready to be gathered into the Master's garner are removed, I am 
 permitted yet to cumber the ground, and to be tried for another while, 
 whether I will bear fruit or no. The very post which brought your 
 letter, brought also the tidings of the removal of a great and good man, 
 and one ot my earliest and most valued friends. Richardson is no 
 longer amongst us, but on Friday went, as we humbly trust, to join 
 many, many most dear to us, gone before. That we may be as well pre- 
 pared, most earnestly prays your affectionate friend, 
 
 "J. W." 
 
 In this spring he was much interested in the Pearsonian 
 researches in which my brother-in-law was engaged, and thus 
 wrote to the Master of Trinity : 
 
 "JuneU, 1841. 
 " MY DEAREST FRIEND, 
 
 " I cannot enclose this report of the Brasenose treasure without con- 
 gratulating you on having put our friend on the pursuit, which has led 
 to the discovery of this little mine. Of Pearson's ownership I expect 
 you will have h'ttle doubt. The evidence ab extra and ab infra are 
 perhaps more than enough to satisfy the most sceptical ; but I confess 
 that I am most fastidious in such cases, and desire always the fullest 
 (almost irrefragable) testimony to imputed authorships "before I can 
 consent to fasten them upon writers of established reputation. Even 
 in this case, therefore, I would strengthen, if possible, the external 
 evidence, and trace the property a little more home still, however well 
 satisfied with the internal evidence ; which certainly, if the little gem 
 
 n Jeremy Taylor's Works, vol. viii. p. 640, Eden's edition. 
 U
 
 290 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 on the English Reformation is anything of a fair specimen, speaks the 
 hand of a master in Israel. . . 
 
 " Always yours very affectionately, 
 "J.W." 
 
 To this the Master responded on the 17th : 
 
 " I do indeed rejoice most heartily with you and Mr. Churton, and 
 congratulate everybody very cordially on this his most happy discovery 
 of the precious remains of Bishop Pearson. I say of Bishop Pearson 
 without hesitation. That single circumstance of the four colleges in the 
 Bidding Prayer, is a host in itself. 1 will venture to say those four 
 colleges were never so combined upon one person since the days of Adam 
 except himself. The collection, therefore, is his, or it is a base forgery ; 
 and who, I ask, would or could execute such a forgery but he who was 
 the genuine author ?" 
 
 Soon after this my uncle wrote to tell us of " another flit to 
 the dear boy and babe at Brighton;" dwelling on the signs of 
 early promise he saw in the children with fond delight. Their 
 welfare was always most near his heart, and he seemed to feel 
 almost as if their mother's share in them had been bequeathed 
 to him. 
 
 In about a week after his return to Clapton he had a slight 
 attack of paralysis, so slight, indeed, that he was not prevented 
 from going down to Dr. Wordsworth's house at Buxted, seek- 
 ing its quiet seclusion and the support of his beloved friend's so- 
 ciety for the anniversary of his daughter's death. The alarming 
 symptoms, however, returned, and he posted back to Clapton, 
 where, as he afterwards told us, he found the very best of 
 nursing ; and though for a long time there was a tendency to 
 relapse, he gradually recovered. During this convalescence he 
 generally occupied "the little room" before mentioned; and here 
 he was often visited by his friend Mr. Norris, who thus writes 
 on July 28 : 
 
 " I did not forget your commendation of the sermon of Newman's 
 you were reading when I dropped in upon you," [apparently that on 
 the Individuality of the Soul]. " It is a very soul-absorbing view of 
 the subject. There is nothing in it to which any one but a Materialist 
 would not immediately assent when put before him. But still, being 
 out of sight, it is out of mind ; and is not, as the preacher says, realized 
 as it ought to be in our contemplations either of ourselves or of the 
 world around us, or of those generations which are passed and are 
 passing away. And so the most awe-inspiring part of a most concerning 
 subject is wholly lost sight of." 
 
 Tbr ughout the following autumn and winter, most of which 
 he spent with us at Daventry, he was full of vigour and ani-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 291 
 
 mation, taking the most lively and affectionate interest in my 
 sister Anne's engagement, and the preparations for her marriage, 
 though the memory of his own sorrow was still so fresh that 
 he could not trust himself to he present at the wedding. 
 
 Once during this autumn I remember that a friend having 
 pointed out the faults in some late public transaction in a tone 
 which shewed him to be over-much troubled by them, my uncle 
 was grieved and sorry ; sorry that amidst all his own cares he 
 should make more for himself. Mr. Sikes used, he told us, to 
 quote Luther's saying to Melancthon, "Philip is to be ad- 
 monished not to fancy himself the ruler of the world." Those 
 possessed of authority and wide influence may indeed be called 
 upon to look on national sins with a sense of personal responsi- 
 bility, but let private men vent all their rage upon their own 
 faults. This was the counsel of his old guide Jackson: "The 
 best advice that I can give unto you is, that every one of us, so 
 oft as we shall but in heart or secret thought repine or murmur 
 at the negligence, oversight, or wilfulness of higher powers, 
 would presently and peremptorily inflict this penance upon him- 
 self, to multiply his sorrow for his own sins past ." 
 
 He was reading the "Forest of Arden," and observed that he 
 did not like to hear Cranmer spoken of otherwise than as a truly 
 great and good man. " We are as sure as we can be," he said, 
 "that his repentance was sincere. It is not enough to express 
 gratitude for the good which has resulted from his labours, we 
 ought also to shew our value for the labourer." He considered 
 that it was not personal cowardice which prevented him from 
 breaking with Henry "VlIL, but his sense of the immense im- 
 portance of the interests at stake. His mind, too, was gradually 
 opened, and he shook off his errors one by one. It would be 
 better to honour than to despise the reverential caution of his 
 character, which made him slow to cast away old guides and old 
 principles. The line of conduct marked out for us in the words 
 " wise as serpents,'' seems to shew that Christian prudence must 
 not always go blindly straightforward to the mark, but will 
 sometimes use winding ways, compassing the obstacles like 
 a serpent, provided always that the means are " harmless." 
 Thus did St. Paul, whose natural character was most uncom- 
 promising. It is comparatively easy to entrench ourselves in 
 a principle, or to go boldly forward, looking neither to right nor 
 left, and everybody can admire that ; but it may be a harder 
 trial to brave the doubtful suffrages, which a course less seem- 
 ingly noble, but more charitable, will gain for us. In the case 
 
 Jackson's Works, bk. xii. cb. v. 13,
 
 292 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 of Cranmer, we probably owe the preservation of our Church 
 principles very much to his keeping peace with Henry. 
 
 He thought that great injustice was often done to the Re- 
 formers by regarding as their fixed and final opinions, assertions 
 made in the heat of controversy, or the sayings of some wilder 
 men among them. A broad distinction must also be made 
 between what was done by the civil, and what by the ecclesias- 
 tical, powers. The faults and sacrilege of the one should never 
 be charged on the other. 
 
 One thing is much to be observed in the spirit of our best 
 Reformers, that while they stedfastly adhered to every doctrine 
 which they believed to be established by Scripture and the 
 ancient Church, even though abuses might have grown upon 
 them, they did not hesitate sometimes to set aside primitive 
 custom, if it had been made an occasion of evil, according to the 
 example of Hezekiah with regard to the brazen serpent. But 
 it is a great mistake to draw a line of demarcation between 
 doctrine and discipline, as though they did not both rest on the 
 same authority, and come to us from the same source. 
 
 Soon after my uncle had taken up his quarters again with us 
 in the summer of 1842, the Rev. W. J. Copelai:d paid us a short 
 visit. There was much conversation, chiefly in connection with 
 the very critical state of things in Oxford. " Keep to your post," 
 was my uncle's key-note. " Things are not so bad as they 
 appear. The good cause must work its own way, if its friends 
 do not ruin it. Their motto must be, In patience possess ye 
 your souls." 
 
 Mr. Copeland has kindly furnished a few recollections of his 
 intercourse at this and other times with my uncle, which may be 
 best introduced here : 
 
 "I remember a long and lively conversation about the poor, and 
 certain provisions in the Poor Law manifestly at variance with Christian 
 principles. He said, 'From the moment a Government calling itself 
 Christian could deliberately pass such an act, I confess I am a radical, 
 and have ceased to hope for any good as long as it remains.' On some 
 remarks being made on words in the New Testament minutely expres- 
 sive of our duties and the nature of the services we are to render to the 
 poor, he observed how far the common way of speaking on the matter, 
 such as the terms, ' forbearance,' ' making allowance,' or even ' kindness,' 
 falls short of the true measure, wliich implies entire sympathy, aud 
 simply putting ourselves in their place. 
 
 "A conversation on education, and on the way in which a false 
 etymology of the word had led to great errors about the thing itself, 
 brought out his careful weighing of the meaning of terms, the word 
 education being immediately derived from the word ediico-are, ' to train 
 up,' not from educo-ere, ' to draw out.'
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 293 
 
 " He spoke of the newspapers and their multifarious anonymous cor- 
 respondence as continually reminding him of 'the fiery darts of the 
 wicked ' flying in darkness, of which no one can tell whence they come, 
 nor whither they go, nor whom they will strike, and which no one can 
 parry in their course. 
 
 "One of D'Israeli's anecdotes of Charles I. was mentioned, that 
 Mvtcns, the Dutch painter at court, growing jealous of the increasing 
 popularity of Vandyke, the King, in order to reconcile them, said, play- 
 fully, that he should command them each to paint his own picture, and 
 then hang his royal self between them, to prevent their quarrelling. 
 Mr. Watson remarked that the story brought out a feature in the 
 character of Charles which he had often looked for, but of which he 
 found but little trace, namely, fun and playfulness. This led to observa- 
 tions on the fact that there is generally found in the deepest and most 
 serious minds so great a fund of playfulness and humour, and often so 
 lively a sense of the ridiculous ; and to speculations full of interest on 
 the possible reason and philosophy of this. I much wish I could re- 
 member more of this conversation, because it reminded one throughout 
 of his own delightful way of conveying the deepest truths with a striking 
 kind of pleasantry and cheerfulness, and sweetness of expression, which 
 it is as impossible to describe to those who never knew it, as it is lor 
 those who had known it to forget it. One remark was that some 
 thoughts and some feelings lie so very deep, and so far beyond the 
 power of any adequate expression, that there is no relief or safety-valve 
 but in playful half expression, or a sort of irony, as is so wonderfully 
 exemplified in the character of Hamlet. Our often uncontrollable 
 tendency to laugh amidst our most serious and sorrowful circumstances, 
 the common remark on the numberless occasions when the wisest 
 scarcely know whether to laugh or cry, the one step between the 
 sublime and the ridiculous, all came into the conversation ; but I most 
 distiuctlv remember our agreeing that one great source of the humorous 
 in the wise and grave would seem to lie in the vividness of imagination 
 with which deep minds often bring together remote analogies or resem- 
 blances, such as are brought out in amusing metaphors, and in deep and 
 quaint proverbs or proverbial sayings. 
 
 " He expressed great misgivings about the speculations so often 
 indulged in on the literal interpretation of the prophecies about the 
 restoration of the Jews, distinguished, however, if I remember right, 
 from those, such as Mede's, which speak of their possibly miraculous 
 conversion. ' If this were to be looked for,' he said, ' it was difficult 
 to see how the Jews in our Lord's time were so much to blame in 
 their literal interpretations ; and though it might seem that some few 
 passages looked that way, he believed them to be capable of being 
 reconciled with the other view.' 
 
 " He doubted the wisdom of putting forth too much of the mystical 
 interpretation of the Scripture. 'One fears,' he said, 'to think how 
 much may be lost or wasted, especially when one considers how much 
 there is to pour in, and into what narrow-necked vessels it has to be 
 poured.' 
 
 " On an observation being made how sadly tender consciences have
 
 294 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 been tried in the late trying times, he insisted on the necessity of dis- 
 tinguishing between a tender conscience and a morbid one. 'What 
 better,' he said, ' than a tender conscience ? and what worse than 
 a morbid one ? and yet how difficult often to distinguish the one from 
 the other P!' 
 
 " A remark being made that after all that good, and active, and 
 zealous men may be doing to advance and recommend the cause of the 
 Church by public meetings and speeches,- &c., the cause is more truly 
 and substantially served by quieter ways of reflection and intercession, 
 as in fact the way of faith, he said quickly, ' Quite true : it is all Martha 
 and no Mary.' 
 
 " I spoke to him of canonization. He said it seemed to be at variance 
 with the words, ' Judge nothing before the time.' 
 
 " He doubted how far it was desirable to translate into English, works 
 designedly written in Latin ; and instanced the works of Bishop Bull, 
 who wrote commonly in English, but purposely chose a learned language 
 when he wrote for the consideration of the learned. 
 
 " He said he was never satisfied with Douglas' Criterion of Miracles ; 
 he had always felt the want of a safer and better criterion. 
 
 " The very last time I saw him, I detailed to him the particulars of 
 the latter days of one of my poor agricultural labourers, a most remark- 
 able old man ; and I cannot forget the interest with which he listened 
 to the whole tale, and expressed a wish that it should be all told, adding, 
 ' This is village-preaching with a witness.' " 
 
 In the course of this autumn he took much pains to find 
 a suitable pattern for a vessel in which the water might be 
 carried to the font ; and also had a waste-pipe made in several 
 churches to convey the water away after the service; his object 
 being that there should not be less outward reverence paid to one 
 Sacrament than to the other. 
 
 He was a most thoughtful student of his Prayer-book, and was 
 wont to observe that the language had been evidently so carefully 
 chosen that it claimed great attention and study from those who 
 read and used it. 
 
 He pointed out in the opening of the service how the priest 
 calls on the people to accompany him with confession to the 
 mercy-seat, and thence, as it were, proclaims in whose Name he 
 speaks, and whose message he bears. He would understand by 
 the words " There is no health in us," there is no healing power, 
 no salvation in us; and thus instead of countenancing the Cal- 
 vinistic doctrine of extreme human depravity, which he thinks 
 
 v "Scrupulousness is not piety," he said to another friend. "It is not wise 
 in matters where we have Christian liberty, to shackle ourselves with re- 
 ducing everything to exact rules. St. Paul's rule is the safest : ' Happy 
 is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth,' con- 
 demueth not, that is, on trial of himself."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 295 
 
 the fraraers of the Confession have especially guarded against, the 
 phrase does but lead us on with full desire to seek health and 
 salvation where it maybe found. "But Thou, O Lord," &c., 
 "Spare Thou," "Restore Thou," &c. : he thought the earnest 
 iteration here ought to be much observed. 
 
 He regretted the common neglect of the study of elocution, so 
 much so that he told us he had once offered to found a professor- 
 ship to promote it. He quoted a saying of Walker's which he 
 thought good, that expression is better given by inflexion than 
 by emphasis. 
 
 Those who have been by my uncle's side at church have been 
 struck by his impressive recitation of the Te Deum, confession of 
 faith and hymn of praise all in one ; also in the Nicene Creed he 
 would mark emphatically the sense, " The Lord and Giver of 
 Life ;" and in the Athanasian Creed he would carefully correct 
 the misapprehension to which the pointing leads, and repeat, 
 " Perfect God; and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human 
 flesh subsisting." He thought there was a reverent grandeur in 
 the simplicity of the two first words, standing alone and un- 
 explained. 
 
 One quiet Sunday evening he spoke to us on the subject of 
 Prayer, expressing his feeling that almost the greatest of all 
 mercies, save only the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, is 
 the command to "pray without ceasing." He has embodied 
 this thought, which was often present with him, in the words 
 "in wondrous mercy" which he has inserted into Taylor's 
 "Prayer against Wandering Thoughts," adopted by him into 
 " Hele's Offices ;" also in the words " not only permitted but 
 commanded me," &c. t which he has inserted in the Sunday 
 evening prayer in the same manual. We are not only permitted 
 to draw nigh to God, but we are left without excuse if, either 
 from backwardness or fear, we neglect communion with God, and 
 distance ourselves from Him. It is as though He had said, 
 " Though you feel unfit to come, yet come that you may be made 
 fit." He said one of the best tests of a devotional spirit is the 
 power of using an old and familiar form of prayer with the 
 freshness of a new one. He noticed that most forms of private 
 morning devotion begin with praise, as the natural expression of 
 the heart waking with the day. 
 
 On the 30th of August, 1842, he received a note from 
 Mrs. Kingsmill with what seemed a hopeless account of her 
 father, Archbishop Howley. He was at first much overcome, so 
 that his looks almost alarmed us, but he soon began to talk of 
 the Archbishop more calmly, of his placid temper, of his studious 
 habits, of his kind and attentive reading of books sent to him,
 
 296 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and his discerning criticisms upon them. The accounts from 
 Addington soon improved, and a saying of good Queen Adelaide 
 was reported to us, " That the Archbishop's restoration must be 
 in answer to the prayers of thousands and thousands." After 
 one of the favourable bulletins, my uncle wrote to Mrs. H. J. 
 Hose, 
 
 " I trust there is every ground for comfort, and of hope for as much 
 service to the Church as can be expected from seventy-seven ; aud that 
 we may be blest with a few years more of his heart-winning example in 
 private life, in which, whatever some may think of his public govern- 
 ment, all must admit he reigns ahnost without au equal." 
 
 He told us that the Archbishop had observed to him how 
 greatly beloved Mr. Rose was throughout his household : " Each 
 one, from Mrs. Howley to the lowest servant, would do anything 
 for Rose." 
 
 At the beginning of September my uncle received a letter of 
 thanks from a clergyman who, by the private aid of a few 
 friends, had been relieved from great difficulties and restored to 
 his duties. He was personally quite unknown to my uncle, and 
 in a very pleasing simple note " called down upon him the bless- 
 ing promised to him who should give a cup of cold water because 
 of the belonging to Christ." The note was put into my hands 
 with the tearful words, " One does feel a blessing here." Often 
 did he win that blessing : many instances necessarily became 
 known to us, and many more will I believe always remain un- 
 known, in which he sought out ways of assisting poor and 
 deserving clergymen, accompanying each act of kindness with 
 that peculiar grace of delicate courtesy which adorned everything 
 he did, making the manner of the gift often more grateful to the 
 receiver even than the gift itself. 
 
 One clergyman about this time wrote in a strain of warmest 
 gratitude to Mr. Rodber, through whose mediation a nameless 
 friend, evidently my uncle, had placed a sum of money at his 
 disposal, enabling him to seek, at a crisis in his health, needful 
 rest and refreshment. The success of the experiment was com- 
 plete, and the clergyman was able to return to his duties. An- 
 other thus writes : 
 
 "Let me once more assure you how much I feel your kindness. The 
 mere exhibition of interest in my welfare is, perhaps from its unwonted- 
 ness, most grateful and encouraging, and therefore, if we proceed no 
 further, you will have been a benefactor by refreshing one who was 
 wayworn and weary." 
 
 Another, a very young clergyman, wrote about this time, 
 acknowledging
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 297 
 
 " The receipt of your most kind note, enclosing what will be so very 
 valuable, though I dare not trust myself to speak beyond the simple 
 prayer, May God requite you ! I am sure the Dest return I can make 
 for your kind cautions is the assurance that I will always labour, under 
 my vicar and the bishop, to obey in thought, word, and deed. I can 
 only thank you from my heart for all your endearing kindnesses." 
 
 I was one day remarking on some less interesting objects 
 of his habitual bounty, and the absence of any pleasure or satis- 
 faction in relieving them : Keble's lines naturally suggested 
 themselves, 
 
 " And shall the heirs of sinful blood^ 
 Seek joy unmix.' d in charity ?" 
 
 He called for the book, and read the poem through, saying as 
 he laid it down, " that is one property of the ' Christian Tear,' 
 one cannot glance at it and say, I know it ; one must read to 
 the end." 
 
 During the autumn of 1842 he read some of the newly- 
 published translation of the Catena Aurea. He observed that 
 one valuable inference from it, but not probably what the editors 
 directly intended, is that different opinions and the exercise of 
 private judgment should be tulerated in the Church, since each 
 of the Fathers is shewn to have had some opinions not shared 
 by all. He thought the rule of Vincentius, Quod semper, quod 
 ubique, quod ab omnibus, must not be taken in a negative sense, 
 as if nothing should be believed that has not been universally 
 received, but positively, that all that has been universally re- 
 ceived must be believed as Catholic truth. 
 
 We accompanied my uncle in October to Buxted, where he 
 enjoyed much and animated conversation with his old friend. 
 Dr. Wordsworth was full of cheerful hope and courage as to our 
 national prospects : "If there are but two or three public men 
 \vho hold high and true principles, we shall do. There is a readi- 
 ness in Englishmen, nay in human nature, to follow after such 
 principles when fairly set before them." My uncle once ob- 
 served to me, as a proof of something great in the English cha- 
 racter, that worthless men have never been long or generally 
 popular in this land. 
 
 They talked about the " British Critic," and of the unfilial 
 tone of some of its later articles, to which reference has been 
 made in the preceding chapter, depreciating our own Church, 
 and making unfair comparisons with foreign Churches, setting 
 the theory of Rome again>t the actual state of England, and 
 drawing most unjust conclusions. Dr. Wordsworth observed how 
 little heed these writers paid to our own best divines, Hooker, 
 Saravia, and Jewel. One of them had condemned Jewel through
 
 298 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 mere ignorance of the true sense of his words. He has been 
 accused of holding lo\v views of the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, because he uses the term " signs exhibitive." Now in 
 Jewel's phraseology, and the sense of the period, " such signs 
 are what they signify, and convey what they exhibit." Witness 
 the term 'exhibition' as used in foundations of that date. 
 
 They spoke of young H. Goulburn, who was at this time sink- 
 ing into an early grave, as a young man of high and holy pro- 
 mise ; an eminent lawyer had said of him that he had only to 
 walk up to the wool-sack ; he had been senior classic and second 
 wrangler at Cambridge ; while there was that in his looks which 
 made my uncle feel unable to withdraw his eyes from him as he 
 stood waiting before the altar in Trinity College chapel in 1837. 
 
 From Buxted we proceeded to Brighton, and spent three 
 weeks there ; but the excitement and pleasure of being with his 
 dear grandchildren proved too much for him, and there was 
 a slight return of paralysis one night which took away in some 
 measure the use of some of his fingers, and for the next few 
 months he was compelled to abstain as much as possible from 
 writing and thinking. 
 
 He spent part of December at Daventry parsonage. One 
 evening he and my brother-in-law talked of Dr. Johnson, my 
 uncle quite roused up by his favourite subject, telling anecdotes, 
 and full of enjoyment and interest. I remember his repeating 
 some lines of the "Bristol Milk- woman," which he owned he 
 had not seen for fifty years. 
 
 On the whole, we could not perceive the least failure in his 
 powers of mind or memory, and his cheerful kindliness and most 
 endearing playfulness were as great as ever. Still, he would not 
 suffer the warning conveyed by this return of paralysis to be 
 forgotten by himself or others, and sought more and more to 
 withdraw from the struggles and controversies of the day, and 
 to leave the field for younger and stronger labourers. It has 
 been mentioned that it was his wish in his old age to retire from 
 all public connection with the charitable societies which had 
 been the objects of his diligent and watchful care for so many 
 years of his life; it was in 1842 that he withdrew from his 
 official connection with the excellent institution, of which he was 
 almost the founder, the National Society for the Education of 
 the Poor in the Principles of the Church. His last act before 
 he resigned the Treasurership was to protest against accepting 
 a grant from the Committee of Council on Education, which he 
 thought would involve the Society in a practical forsaking of her 
 fundamental principles. He regarded the National Society's 
 schools as the training institution of the Church of England,
 
 Memoir of Joshtia Watson. 299 
 
 subject only to her bishops; and he preferred to retire rather 
 than join in an act which would virtually subject them to the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 He had before this been seriously apprehensive that the great 
 expenses in which the Society had embarked, in the new esta- 
 blishments at Stanley-grove and at Battersea, would drive it 
 into dependence on the Committee of Council, possessing, as 
 that Committee did, and most skilfully wielding, the power 
 of the purse. 
 
 " The mind of the State on this great subject," he wrote, "is neither 
 more nor less than the transference of the people's training from the 
 Church to themselves. And for this purpose they must degrade the 
 
 National Society and reform the Universities I confess I cannot 
 
 rid myself of my fears at the steadiness of purpose with which this 
 object is pursued." 
 
 At a later period he laboured earnestly to disentangle the 
 Society from being involved with the Committee of Council in 
 forcing upon the schools receiving grants certain management 
 clauses which invaded the authority both of the parochial clergy- 
 man and the diocesan, transferring the government of the schools 
 to committees, the members of which might be of any or even of 
 no creed. 
 
 "The National Society," he said, "in no one instance that I can 
 recollect interfered with the management or constitution of a school 
 trust. In mere trusts it may have given counsel when consulted. But 
 if the terms of union were accepted, the mode of conduct and manage- 
 ment was, on principle and policy, left to the discretion of the applicant, 
 the applicant being nine times out of ten the minister of the parish." 
 
 When once all responsibility with regard to those clauses was 
 eschewed, he seems to have been comparatively content to fall 
 back upon the simple objects for which the Society was founded, 
 in the distribution of the moneys placed at its disposal, leaving 
 the Church at large to deal with the Committee of Council, its 
 practices and designs. A declaration of adhesion to the Charter 
 and the Catechism, put forth in 1852, was perhaps the last mea- 
 sure in regard to which he took an active part in the Society's 
 counsels. 
 
 In all that regarded this Society, as in manifold other kin- 
 dred interests, he was in close and constant intercourse with 
 H. H. Norris, with Archdeacon Harrison, and Canon Wordsworth. 
 But there were three others closely connected with him in the 
 work, of whom he was wont to say that he had rendered the 
 National Society its best service when he introduced them to 
 its counsels. These were Sam. Wood, Gilbert Mathieson, and
 
 300 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 T. D. Acland, Esqs. It is true that his judgment could not always 
 keep pace with their zeal ; but in points in which he was not 
 ahle to go entirely with them, it was his desire (to use his own 
 words) " to remove out of their way every obstacle to the free 
 course and fair trial of their experimental measures." 
 
 " Oh, how I wish," wrote one of this trio, " that I could recall some 
 of my visits to you in Park-street, when you first introduced me into the 
 secret workings of the Church system. Your prayers are with those to 
 whom you have handed down some of your objects of interest; but your 
 constant counsel and watchful care are daily desiderated." 
 
 Mr. Wood, while telling him that one of the inducements that 
 had led him to remain in London was the hope that he mirjht be 
 of a little service in attending to the interests which Mr. Watson 
 had bequeathed to his younger friends, adds, 
 
 " It has been owing to the great kindness and confidence you have 
 shewn to two or three of us ; and there is such a want of labourers now 
 in this department, that I should be sorry indeed to have to give 
 it up." 
 
 Joshua "Watson mourned most sincerely over the early death 
 of this good man, which took place in 1843, speaking of him as 
 one "in whom a very high tone of principle pervaded every 
 thought and action ;" and again, more familiarly, as a man " with 
 whom one feels to fit in at once ;" who, though a lawyer, " would 
 rather have translated St. Chrysostom for the ' Library of the 
 Fathers,' than taken a brief for Sir W. Follett ;" than whom " no 
 one ever looked death more steadily in the face. Such a man," 
 he said, " ought not to be suffered to leave the world without 
 a record." 
 
 To Mr. Acland, the only survivor of those of whom we have 
 been now speaking, these pages are indebted for the following 
 contribution, which, short as it is, is of no little value on ac- 
 count of the truth and affection ateness, as well as the inde- 
 pendence, of the witness it bears. After speaking of Mr. Mathie- 
 son as desiring to "build a great expansion of the educational 
 system of the Church for the poor and the middle classes on the 
 foundation of the charter of the National Society," and as " at- 
 taching a great importance to this centre as a fixed point on 
 which to turn round a machinery, involving wheel within wheel 
 over a large circumference," Mr. Acland goes on to say, 
 
 " The most remarkable part, as it has always seemed to me, in the 
 transactions of that time, was the intuitive and liberal judgment with which 
 Mr. Watson, who had been looked upon as the holder of the fastnesses 
 of exclusive Church societies, seized the occasion, went to Archbishop 
 Howley, aud, as I believe, told his Grace plainly that he ought to take
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 301 
 
 up Mathieson and his friends. But for Mr. Watson's influence, joined 
 with the Archbishop's, this never would have been done. And it led to 
 very intimate relations between him and the persons above named, as 
 from that day forward he never failed us, but listened to every proposal, 
 discussed it on its merits, and, even though it reversed the policy of his 
 life on a point of tactical importance, he was ready to fall back on the 
 ground of principle, and change the details. A remarkable instance of 
 this was his readiness to agree to a modification of the terms of union 
 of the National Society ; to abandon the exclusive rule which limited 
 National schools to the use of S.P.C.K. books, and to fall back on prin- 
 ciples really far more ecclesiastical as now embodied in the terms of 
 union ; on the Catechism, namely, and the position of each clergyman 
 in his o^vn parish. On this basis the old High Church and Evangelical 
 parties met for the first time as on common ground. It was so new 
 a thing coming from the quarter from whence it came, that it took 
 people by surprise. But there was wisdom and policy also here. 
 
 " One of Mr. Watson's wise sayings, with a touch of humour in it, 
 has been to me a guide through life. He used to meet the attempts to 
 give a locus standi to dissent in schools founded by Churchmen by the 
 saying, ' Do not set up iniquity by law, but give all the latitude you can 
 by practical arrangements to suit the circumstances.' He was always 
 for dealing practically with the facts of the case before him, avoiding the 
 discussion of abstract principles whenever possible." 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Correspondence with Archdeacon Harrison. Revived Rubrical observ- 
 ances. Newman's Preface to Fleury. The Society for the Propagation, 
 of the Gospel. Letters and conversation on Church matters. New 
 edition of Helens Select Offices. Memorial tablet in Hackney Church. 
 Lord Sidmouth. Homerton Church. Free medical attendance for the 
 clergy widows at Bromley College. Recollections of conversation. 
 
 FROM the year 1841 until his death my uncle maintained 
 a frequent communication and correspondence with Arch- 
 deacon Harrison, who was, during the first part of this time, 
 domesticated with Archbishop Howley as chaplain. This highly 
 valued friend has kindly allowed use to be made of some of the 
 letters addressed to him, which have the more interest, as there 
 was perhaps no one to whom in his old age he wrote more freely, 
 or with whom there was more entire agreement of judgment and 
 opinion. In November, 1842, the revived attention to the rubric 
 in points which had been allowed to fall out of common observ- 
 ance, occupied his thoughts. He would remark that custom, in 
 matters of ceremonial, &c., should not be altogether slighted,
 
 302 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 and that it behoved men at least to consider why a usage had 
 been discontinued before they re-established it. He was very 
 anxious that the Archbishop's mind should be made known on 
 this subject, and thus wrote to Mr. Harrison : 
 
 "Nov. 24, 1842. 
 
 "Have you heard anything of a new movement towards Lambeth, 
 praying the Archbishop to take into his serious consideration the 
 expediency of putting forth a set of Lambeth injunctions or instruc- 
 tions, with the concurrence of his suffragans, for the general guidance 
 of the clergy in their ministrations, under the new impulse given by my 
 Lord of London towards somewhat strict rubrical observances ? 
 
 " If there is to be strict uniformity, there must be a rule rigid and 
 unbending. This, in the present state of things, the rubric is not, per- 
 haps cannot be. It may, however, be the Church's cynosure ; and in 
 the lack of Convocation or royal commission, could anything avail so 
 much towards an agreement in practice, and the abolition of various 
 uses, as the issue of a body of pastoral directions from an authority so 
 loved and respected, based upon the rubrics, with such reference to 
 canons as might be deemed necessary ? ... It would seem that, in the 
 manner of the Commiuation Service, the officiating clergy might he 
 reminded that there was a time of godly discipline and practice in the 
 Church, to which certain directions were well suited, and that it is 
 greatly to be desired that such times might return ; and that till then it 
 seems expedient, that for the guidance and relief of tender consciences, 
 some advice should be afforded as a temporary help in the observance of 
 the rubrics, pointing out the rules which may at all times and in all 
 places be followed, and from which, therefore, no deviation can be 
 sanctioned ; those which are very generally, though not universally, 
 practicable, and are not therefore hghtly to be departed from ; and those 
 which long disuse and the present settled habits of society make it 
 highly inexpedient to insist upon. It really strikes me that the officiat- 
 ing clergy have a right to expect, at a time when the rubric is set up as 
 their rule of duty, and as it is an admitted impossibility that they should 
 follow it out, that they should be told what is required of them, and 
 what, with due reference to authority, they are permitted to put aside 
 for the present. 
 
 "But I do not mean to trouble you with more upon this subject, 
 seeing that I do not wish to travel out of my sphere, and (considering 
 to whom, if the question should arise, it must necessarily be referred,) 
 read a lecture on the art of war to Hannibal." 
 
 In another letter, dated Dec. 5, 1842, he thus sought ilr. 
 Harrison's opinion on Newman's Preface to Fleury : 
 
 "It is your own view of the discussion of the ecclesiastical as dis- 
 tinguished from the Gospel miracles that I want. True it is that the 
 writer does draw his distinction between them with great ability. But 
 does he not seek to establish, that belief in the one is as necessary to
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson 303 
 
 belief in the Catholic Church, as belief in the other is to the acceptance 
 of the Gospel ? and does he not seem himself to believe, and almost to 
 teach, that we can only receive the Gospel at the hands and on the 
 authority of the Church ? And thus, I grieve to ask, does he not realize 
 the fears we previously expressed as to the probable effects of the dis- 
 sertation upon the superstitious and the unbeliever ? Alas, alas ! that 
 lessons so precious as to have almost filled the University with their 
 odour should be marred like the apothecary's ointment with these flies 
 in the pot !" 
 
 "I think," Mr. Harrison wrote in answer, "that to impress upon 
 men the duty of not blaspheming or speaking lightly, primd facie, of 
 works which may be exercises of divine power, but of being ready to 
 examine evidence, is highly salutary ; but it does seem to me most 
 dangerous and mischievous to give a quasi sanction to the falsehoods 
 and profaueness of unbelievers, in speaking of miracles which we know 
 and believe to have been divine on the authority of the Word of God, 
 if we endeavour to establish others, the evidence of which may be con- 
 clusive that they were also divine, but for which we have not the like 
 sanction of inspiration. Does not the writer somewhat lose sight of 
 this point ? Does he not speak of inspiration rather as securing a certain 
 manner of relating the events, than as securing that the events are all 
 true, and the working of the Divine Power ? But surely the character 
 of facts, or rather the question whether they are facts, and how far they 
 are facts, is affected by incorrectness of report, by their being mixed up 
 in a confused mass of truth and fiction. ' And such,' he allows, ' is the 
 state in which ecclesiastical miracles actually do come to us, because in- 
 spiration was not continued ; they are dimly seen in twilight and among 
 shadows ; let us not quarrel with a circumstance which is but the con- 
 sequence of the acknowledged absence of the necessary cause.' But 
 then, surely, we may add, let us not allow infidels and sceptics to throw 
 the like obscurity and doubtfulness over those which inspiration has put 
 under the blaze of full and clear light. ' It is objected,' the writer tells 
 us, p. 58, 'that the ecclesiastical miracles are not distinct and un- 
 suspicious enough to be true ones, but admit of being plausibly at- 
 tributed to fraud, collusion, or misstatement in narrators ; yet in like 
 manner St. Matthew tells us that the Jews persisted in maintaining 
 that the disciples bad stolen away our Lord's body, and He did not 
 shew Himself, when risen, to the Jews ; and various other objections, 
 to which it is painful to do more than allude, have been made to other 
 parts of the sacred narrative.' Was there then, are we to understand, 
 ' plausibility* in the idea that the story of the -Resurrection was a fraud ? 
 If, however, it be meant only that there will always be unbelievers, be 
 the evidence what it may, it is doubtless a valid argument against that 
 which is drawn from the disbelief in the ecclesiastical miracles; but 
 surely we should at the same time allow the different shades of evidence 
 to appear. Is it true ' that, though attention was called to Christianity 
 from the first, yet it did not succeed at the spot where it arose, but 
 principally at a distance from it ?' (p. 109.) Where was it that it was 
 said, ' Thou seest, brother, how many ten thousands there are of the Jews
 
 304 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which believe ?' Acts xxi. 10 With regard to the idea of belief in 
 
 the miracles being necessary to belief in the Catholic Church, the passage 
 from St. Augustm \T)e Unit. Eccles., 49, 50] quoted pp. 43' 45, ex- 
 pressly reverses it, calling on men to believe, rather, in the miracles 
 because wrought in the Church." . . . 
 
 To this letter my uncle answered, 
 
 " Thank you for your remarks on the Fleury. I put them by amongst 
 my jiigemens des savans, on account of their perfect agreement with 
 my own." 
 
 In January, 1843, great anxiety was felt about the affairs of 
 the Society for Propagating the Gospel, which at a season of 
 pressing need and difficulty was assailed by unhappy misrepre- 
 sentations at home, threatening very serious hindrance to its 
 efficiency. 
 
 "In truth I would say," wrote my uncle, "that the S. P. G. will never 
 be safe till it accepts the proposition, (and stands thereon, for the pro- 
 position was accepted,) by which it was sought a few years ago to take 
 the choice of the missionaries out of the hands of the Society or Com- 
 mittee, and place it formally in the hands of episcopal commissaries, 
 especially appointed by the prelates nominated under the Act for co- 
 lonial ordination, and the colonial bishops, for whose dioceses the candi- 
 dates were respectively offered. Such an authorised commission would 
 he a committee of triers to sift the character of the applicants, (whether 
 for Orders or for service,) and their referees or recommenders, and to 
 ascertain their peculiar fitness for missionary work; and then, with 
 a report on their qualifications, submit them to the examination of the 
 ordaining bishop, if for Orders, or the diocesan, if for an appointment." 
 
 In another note he enquired, with a carefulness for the honour 
 of the Church in the persons of her chief ministers which ha- 
 bitually ruled his conduct even in little things, whether it was 
 true that the Archbishop was thinking of putting forth an appeal 
 for " our poor damaged S. P. G. I ask, because it will be better, 
 if it is to be made by authority, that it should seem to be the 
 effect of an impulse from, rather than of a pressure upon, those 
 in high places. I hold back, and keep others back, till I know." 
 
 This was at a time when he felt that the paramount duty of 
 all, in preference even to the best new schemes, was to make first 
 the long pull, and the strong pull, and the pull all together for 
 the extrication of the great mother of missions from her critical 
 circumstances' 1 . 
 
 * " The large addition recently made to the number of the missionaries 
 (150 in five years) has imposed upon the Society an annual charge consider- 
 ably beyond the amount of its present income. Hitherto the excess of ex-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 305 
 
 "I own," he said on March 3, 1843, "my feelings are so strong as to 
 the necessity and overbearing obligation of throwing all our strength at 
 this moment into the S. P. G. concern, with its 400 missionaries, with 
 their wives and their little ones, resting for their very being on the 
 Society, at whose invitation, and at their Master's call, they have, as 
 it were, exiled themselves from home and all its relations, that I do 
 earnestly hope the President will, as primate, make his call upon his 
 suffragans and clergy, and people of his province, to come to its nelp, 
 or, as I would say with Deborah, come to the help of the Lord. If this 
 be done, the Colonial Church may be saved." 
 
 Archdeacon Harrison seems to have thought that the bounty 
 of the bishops had been so largely taxed that they should not be 
 asked to head this subscription. 
 
 " I know full well," my uncle replied, " the calls that are made upon 
 the bench, and how liberally, or rather how munificently, they have re- 
 sponded to the calls. I have often because of this knowledge saved 
 them from such calls, and oftener still, in the case of the three prelates 
 now appealed to, have had occasion respectfully to restrain the overflow- 
 ings of their bounty. Yet notwithstanding all this, I must candidly ex- 
 press my conviction that the case calls for a great sacrifice, that nothing 
 less will meet the emergency, or satisfy the expectation of the Church. 
 Every appeal without this (take the ghost's' word for it) will fall in- 
 finitely snort of its object, which is really great enough and good enough 
 to be worth some self-denyings." 
 
 " The appeal," he wrote again, " should be made to rest on the claims 
 of justice and love of the brethren, and should be framed so as to make 
 the cause appear to be x , as it is hi truth, the causa, not of the Society, 
 but of the Church. This done, simply, singly, shortly, and strongly, 
 and apart from self-approving testimonials, cannot but make its way 
 even against all present discouragement and difficulties : for what 
 signify the faults and offences of the Society, were they really as num- 
 berless as the charges of her enemies, until another agency is found for 
 meeting these claims of charity and justice ?" 
 
 The appeal was made, and the result, as shewn by the Society's 
 Reports for 1843 and 1844, fully justified this counsel. The 
 bountiful liberality of the bishops 8 , and the effect of their ex- 
 ample on the Church at large, may be truly said to have saved 
 the newly founded missions from being left to perish in their 
 
 penditure has been provided for by sales of stock, but the capital of the 
 Society, already much reduced, will be inadequate much longer to nu'et 
 these increased demands." Report of S. P. G.for 1843. 
 
 r A phrase he used not unfnquently in half-playful earnest, to shew that 
 he looked on himself as one of the bygone age. 
 
 The donations of the archbishops and bishops in 1843 amounted to 
 nearly 1,200, besides former donations and annual subscriptions. 
 
 X
 
 306 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 infancy. The amount of voluntary contributions in 1843 was 
 the largest the Society had ever received ; and though the ex- 
 penditure of the year still exceeded the annual income, the im- 
 mediate danger was safely passed. 
 
 My uncle's own donation in this emergency was 200. 
 
 This was a year of considerable alarm and excitement in Church 
 matters, and he could not but watch with anxiety the increasing 
 feverishness and partizanship which seemed to infect many good 
 and zealous men. He was in constant communication with his 
 aged friend Mr. Mortis all through this period, sharing with 
 him, as had been his wont, every counsel ibr the welfare of the 
 Church. 
 
 " Nothing has yet fallen out," he wrote, " contrary to my expectations, 
 but I do not, therefore, feel confidence in my fears. Rather when I see 
 how good and great men are blinded on one side, I remember how we 
 all deceive ourselves, and am willing to believe myself an alarmist. . . . 
 Indeed, I fear my own misgivings on the subject, and have not dared 
 for a long time to realize my apprehensions as to the natural results of 
 party leaderships, which will ordinarily be little different in a Newman 
 or a Simeon." 
 
 "Much of the evil we now deprecate," he observed, "arises from 
 those who are now agitators not having seen the Church in her beauty 
 in then* own early days." 
 
 It was no rare thing at that season to hear a feeling expressed 
 with regard to some whose stedfastness was doubted, that " such 
 good men could not be suffered to err." He thought this most 
 dangerous and delusive. It is presumptuous to expect for our- 
 selves, or for any teacher of our choice, or indeed for any man, 
 special guidance where ordinary means are within reach. God 
 has given us reason, and He will not overrule it. And herein 
 lies our responsibility, from which we may not seek to escape. 
 He shewed us that remarkable passage in Vincentius, in which 
 the father points out this deception as prevailing with the fol- 
 lowers of Nestorius and Apollinaris, (Commonit. c. xi.) 
 
 "Do you read the ' Ecclesiologist ?' " he wrote to Mr. Harrison: 
 " the impertinence of these Camdeuians is perfectly unendurable ; . . . 
 they would almost seem to take to themselves the language of the 
 prophetess, and say that the highways were unoccupied, and the people 
 wandered in byeways, until the Carndenians arose, masters in Israel." 
 
 He was much grieved at what he called "a cruel prejudice," 
 which seemed at this time to be preventing Dr. Mill from taking 
 the position at Cambridge which his character and learning de- 
 served ; especially as he feared that the suspicion with which he
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 307 
 
 was regarded had been partly provoked by the indiscreet zeal of 
 some of his friends. 
 
 " What a school of divines," he wrote to Mr. Harrison, " might not 
 Cambridge have turned out under the teaching of Mill and IJlunt ! 
 enough to have excited the jealousy of her elder sister, even in the 
 breast of a charitable fellow like yourself ?" 
 
 Again : " Has Mill told you, or does he himself know, why he has 
 been called a Puseyite? For neither more nor less than his being 
 flagrantly convicted of going to St. Mary's on Saints' days ! Surely 
 now we must give him up !" 
 
 Dr. "Wordsworth was keenly alive to the great value of Dr. 
 Mill's writings, and wrote about this time to my uncle : 
 
 " Have you read Mill on the Mythical Interpretation of St. Luke ? 
 Pray get it. It is very valuable, and much of it exceedingly wise, 
 learned, and beautiful." 
 
 My uncle often observed that good schemes were not seldom 
 rendered fruitless by the mere want of patience of their promoters, 
 repeating frequently this caution, " Let us instil, not pour, when 
 we have narrow-necked vessels to fill." In one instance, where 
 he thought there had been an unwisely-timed attempt to revive 
 long-disused Church practices in an institution in which he was 
 earnestly seeking to raise the tone and spirit of Christian principle, 
 he entreated a friend to use his influence to satisfy the ardent 
 reformers, " that while to enforce one particular practice might 
 be to lose much of the general good now in progress, so to en- 
 courage the good generally will assuredly lead to and bring in 
 the particular." 
 
 I well remember a conversation between him and my Uncle 
 Norris, in which they agreed that the true plan of Christian 
 education, especially in public schools, should be not to enforce 
 a high standard of practice in religious observances, but to im- 
 plant and strengthen the principles which must produce the 
 practice in due process of ripening. "Sow seeds; don't trans- 
 plant shrubs in flower into your garden." 
 
 When he was told of some measure of wise self-restraint or 
 withdrawal of unsafe counsels, adopted by those who had been 
 hurrying on too fast, and the narrator implied that the effort 
 came too late: "Not so," he replied; "I will not have the 
 past brought forward to undervalue the present." 
 
 But although he often felt compelled to check the eagerness 
 and over-zeal of some of his younger friends with these counsels 
 of prudent caution, he used to regret the necessity very much, 
 and in half-sad playfulness call himself "the wet blanket."
 
 308 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 "It is very hard," he would say, "to be obliged to argue oa 
 this side, for I know all the while that you are on the higher 
 ground." 
 
 And again, speaking of some whose conduct in these days of 
 suspicion he could not but blame as wanting in wisdom and for- 
 bearance, he added warmly, " But one cannot but feel how good 
 these men are, and wish oneself as good as they." He was some- 
 times very sad in speaking of these subjects, when he regarded 
 the too probable effects of the excitement upon many of the 
 younger generation ; dreading most of all the reaction, which he 
 feared would follow, and the revulsion which the extravagance 
 of partizans would cause against those very principles which they 
 desire to recommend. Still, he expressed a confident hope that 
 the good results of the movement would long out-last the evil. 
 "Of course," he wrote to Mrs. H. J. Rose, after calling himself 
 an alarmist, "I mean only the first end, so to speak; of the 
 ultimate result no good Christian can have a doubt." 
 
 Speaking of alarmism, and of the avoidance of a wrong temper 
 with regard to it, he said, "It is only a sense of great and 
 present danger which can justify a quick sight of error; but 
 in that case it becomes a matter of charity. If we saw a 
 great fire burning, we should urge people not to go near it, 
 especially if they were clad in muslins imaginative, that is, 
 and easily caught. If our alarmism is the fruit of a carping 
 temper, it is of course our duty to check it; but there is 
 sometimes an equally strong temptation to try to appear candid 
 and liberal." 
 
 One night, after an evening spent in a good-humoured yet 
 determined combating with the extreme statements of a young 
 friend, he said to me as he retired to his room, "He is a nice 
 fellow ; his errors are all on the right side. I only want to 
 throw out some things for him to think of himself. I do not 
 expect to convince him now. If he will but be honest to himself 
 and honest to others, not taking a one-sided view of things, all 
 will be well." And in ihe same tone he wrote to my Uncle 
 Norris, urging him to use his influence to persuade others to 
 a right mind. "I cannot help thinking that you may often do 
 much good by a temperate exposition of your opinion, where 
 you fail absolutely to change theirs ; and may give a check where 
 you cannot give a turn. On this ground I have acted, and per- 
 haps not altogether without effect." 
 
 He once told me how he had been trying to persuade a friend 
 not to look upon the Church on earth as a little separate flock 
 of perfect Christians, but rather as leaven to leaven the whole 
 lump.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 309 
 
 In answer to a remark about the evils attending on worldly 
 wealth, and the purifying power of affliction and persecution, 
 almost leading to the thought that such a sifting might even be 
 'desired to free the Church from her temporal estate and her false 
 friends together, he replied that this would be a dangerous and 
 uncharitable wish. It would be an attempt to anticipate the 
 future state, separating at once the sincere from the insincere, 
 and making it very difficult for the latter to reform ; it would be 
 wishing to gather all " the salt of the earth" into one heap, leav- 
 ing the mass which it was meant to season and preserve to turn 
 to corruption. 
 
 He always very strongly blamed the temper which would 
 court persecution, and thought that they who so make their 
 brethren to offend, are in truth themselves guilty of a very great 
 offence against the law of charity ; while, on the other hand, he 
 considered it an admirable and rare quality to be "hurt" hurt 
 in spirit " by no persecutions." 
 
 He would say that though no principle must be abandoned for 
 any cause, it may sometimes be the part of Christian charity and 
 prudence to abstain from needless declaration of a principle. He 
 observed that the phrase, "to carry out a principle," was often 
 used dangerously. Some keen and subtle minds, who see at once 
 the full and furthest bearings of a proposition, will not suffer 
 a man to embrace one statement without paying, ' Then you 
 grant such a thing further, and such.' This is both unfair and 
 unwise dealing. No one can know all that is involved in the 
 plainest statement of doctrine : it is safest to keep to our Articles 
 of Faith and the very words of Holy Scripture, without building 
 even what seem necessary consequences upon them. 
 
 He was very earnest in saying that he who has an important 
 truth to teach has no right to indispose people for its reception 
 by his mode of putting it before them, or by frightening them 
 with minor points. And in matters of practice, what is not 
 good in its effect on the mass is not likely to be good on the 
 individual; no one ought to follow out blindly just what seems 
 right to himself, if it gives offence to his brethren who might 
 have been won by forbearance. If he were in charge of a parish, 
 it would be his rule, he said, never to persist in any practice 
 which alienated any one of the flock, without scrupulously asking 
 himself whether it were a point of necessary duty. And in 
 a letter of remonstrance against the spirit of agitation then 
 abroad, he wrote, "I know that wind and storm fulfil His 
 word ; but it is not in storms of our own raising that we may 
 have that happy confidence, though even they may be over- 
 ruled to good."
 
 310 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 During this winter he was engaged in a careful revision of 
 Hele's " Select Offices of Devotion." Since his first republication 
 of the work in 1825, it appeared that 16,000 copies of the entire 
 Offices, and nearly 100,000 of the various parts which were 
 printed separately, had been issued ; and a new edition was now 
 called for under the auspices of the S.P.C.K. He had a limited 
 number of copies printed on larger paper, and bestowed great 
 care upon the binding, intending them as memorial gifts for those 
 friends who would value them for the sake of the two most dear 
 to him, with whom the book was closely associated, on account 
 of their great value for it, and their willing assistance in prepar- 
 ing his first edition of it for the press. 
 
 " It is in this character," he wrote to my brother, " that I wish you 
 to receive the volume, praying always that we may be enabled to use it 
 with devout thankfulness, as a remembrance of the most comfortable 
 doctrine of our Catholic Church, and with it feel the blessing of a holy 
 communion begun here on earth, over which, as Bishop Pearson says ', 
 death has no power." 
 
 He of course received many letters of thanks for this gift. 
 
 The aged Archbishop of York u took the opportunity, when 
 acknowledging the offering, to bear this testimony to my uncle's 
 long services : 
 
 " During a period of full thirty years, and whilst it was the pleasure 
 of the Almighty to enable me in my particular station to fulfil the duties 
 of a public life, there was hardly any occasion on which I had those 
 duties to discharge in London that did not afford me the gratification of 
 sharing them with yourself, and of witnessing your zeal and efficiency 
 in promoting the accomplishment of every good and laudable object 
 submitted to the consideration of the several committees we were in the 
 habit of attending together." 
 
 Almost the last of Archdeacon Bayley's letters to my uncle 
 was prompted by this present : 
 
 " West Meon, May 12, 1843. 
 " MY DEAB, MR. WATSON, 
 
 "I have received from our friend Jennings the treasure of a book 
 made still more valuable by the inscription. You duly estimate my 
 filial love and respect for yourself, and the cordial regard with which 
 I cultivate the memory of those who were once so happily employed in 
 the preparation of the little work before me. You may judge, too, of 
 my feelings by your own, towards two late ladies of my own family, 
 
 ' See Pearson on the Creed, on the IXth Article, 2nd part. 
 u Archbishop Vernon-Harcourt.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 311 
 
 whose names I associate almost daily with theirs. Pray for me that 
 your gift may be to me inestimable, may every day be in my hand and 
 heart, and help me so to follow the good examples then and still before 
 me, that with them I may be a partaker of the heavenly kingdom. 
 
 "Most gratefully and devotedly thine, 
 "H. V. BAYLEY." 
 
 During the season of anxiety which preceded the bereavement 
 alluded to in this letter, Archdeacon Bayley had sought and 
 found much comfort from his friend's sympathy. 
 
 "I feel a consolation," he then wrote, "in saying all to you. You 
 have witnessed it all. Would that I could sanctify to myself this visita- 
 tion as you have done ! . . . How is it that I never can think of you 
 without a mixture of veneration and boyish playfulness ? Happy the 
 day that gave me the benefit of your acquaintance !" 
 
 About a year afterwards my uncle heard of the peaceful death 
 of this beloved friend ; " he passed away," we heard, " like an 
 infant going to sleep ; his end was peace." 
 
 The new edition of Hele's "Offices" had a no less rapid and 
 extensive circulation than the former ; and it was a constant source 
 of thankful gratification to my uncle during the remaining years 
 of his life to observe the steady progress which these Scriptural 
 Offices, after more than a century's comparative neglect, were 
 making throughout the country x j and still more to receive, as 
 he did from time to time, the heartfelt testimony of those who 
 had learnt to know and value them as they deserved. " Hele's 
 'Offices of Devotion,'" wrote the venerable Dr. "Warneford, 
 "afford me continual solacement and peace." And again, some 
 years later : "I have been obliged to take to my crutches as 
 necessary aids to get to my study, where Hele is my constant 
 companion and comforter." And once more, as late as 1853 : 
 " As to myself," he wrote, "I am, thanks to an Almighty Pro- 
 vidence, mercifully spared to enter on my ninety-first year. 
 Hele is my daily comforter." 
 
 The kind feeling of the inhabitants of Hackney was engaged 
 during the spring of 1843 in the preparation of a monumental 
 tablet in memory of their late rector. My uncle had a share in 
 framing the inscription which they put upon it, but he was very 
 solicitous that it should not be ' sacred' in God's house, (however 
 classically the word might be intended to express ' set apart' 
 merely,) to anything but the glory of God. 
 
 " In a Christian temple," he wrote to Mr. Norris, " surely no inscrip- 
 
 * Between the years 1843 and 1857 more than 140,000 copies of the 
 whole or portions of the book were issued by the S.P.C.K.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 tion should be admitted which records only the virtues and good deeds 
 of the creature. It is to me perfectly unendurable. Praise him, if you 
 will, for benefits conferred and good qualities displayed; but let the 
 thanks be given to the Author of all good for the instrument." 
 
 He then alludes to some suggestion which, is not preserved : 
 
 " With regard to the ' preaching,' &c., the expression grew out of the 
 remark of a Dissenter in an omnibus, in consequence of a dialogue 
 between two of his fellow-passengers respecting the late Rector of 
 Hackney. The one asking, ' Was ne a good preacher ?' was answered 
 by the other, ' I never heard him preach since I have been in the parish.' 
 (His voice and strength had long been unequal to the exertion of 
 preaching in the great church, although he continued to officiate to the 
 end of his life.) He was rebuked by the Dissenter interposing with, 
 ' Why, he has been preaching to you thirty or forty years by the most 
 powerful of all preaching, the preaching of his good example. I am 
 sure I never had reference to him or intercourse with him in all this time 
 without feeling that I came away bettered.' " 
 
 I think it was in this year that my Uncle Norris received the 
 following report of a conversation with Lord Sidmouth in a letter 
 from the Rev. Charles Forster : 
 
 " I had a delightful day with good old Lord Sidmouth. When I gave 
 him Mr. Joshua Watson's message of kind remembrance he quite 
 kindled up, asking, ' When shall you see Mr. Watson ? Whenever you 
 do see him, assure him from me that there is not the man living in 
 England for whom I have a higher respect or more cordial regard.' 
 I give you as nearly as I can the ipsissima verba. Lord Sidmouth said 
 more, but this is what I am surest of." 
 
 Several years before, my eldest sister and her husband had met 
 Lord Sidmouth at Hadleigh, and he had congratulated C. on 
 being "the niece of the best man that ever lived." He after- 
 wards told stories of Pitt, Fox, Wyndham, Sheridan, and Can- 
 ning ; " but Mr. Joshua Watson," he said, " is what I call a true 
 patriot." 
 
 My uncle was now occupied in the preliminary arrangements 
 for the building and endowment of a church at Homerton, in 
 fulfilment of the wish and projected plan of my father. This 
 undertaking, from its beginning to its happy completion four 
 years later, was always near his heart, and engaged his most 
 assiduous care in every step of its progress. 
 
 He was also busy in promoting a kind scheme for the comfort 
 of the clergy- widows in Bromley College, to secure for them free 
 medical attendance. This object was accomplished ; and it was 
 an additional pleasure to him, when the grant was obtained 
 for the purpose, that the first person appointed to the office
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 313 
 
 was one who had been himself a clergy-orphan boy, and was 
 at this time practising in Bromley, and already much liked by 
 the inmates of the College. The old chaplain, Mr. Scott, wrote 
 to express the grateful thanks of the widows and daughters, 
 and also mentions another important addition to their health 
 and comfort, the opening of windows in the daughters' bed- 
 rooms, which he implies to have been at least partly owing to 
 my uncle's assistance. 
 
 In July he came to us at Daventry; we were warned that 
 there was still liability to a return of paralysis, and often trembled 
 at the amount of mental exertion which it seemed impossible for 
 him to refuse ; but happily this danger was averted, and though 
 often reminded of the tendency, there was no serious relapse. 
 One morning in August he surprised us by going to the early 
 service, for which he was generally too feeble ; he had had, he 
 said, so good a night, he could not otherwise make due return 
 for it. 
 
 In August the younger Dr. "Wordsworth visited us ; one beau- 
 tiful day we walked into a pleasant field, and our dear uncle sat 
 on a gate, in great enjoyment of the quiet summer beauty. He 
 spoke of his friend's uncle as " the poet of heaven and home." 
 (See "Lines to a Skylark.") 
 
 One day when walking in the garden with me he said, " Well, 
 this earth of ours is a wonderful thing ; it never palls upon the 
 senses." And then he spoke of the lavish bounty with which 
 beauty is scattered around, even where the eye of man never sees 
 it. " There is enjoyment in the very thought of the profusion." 
 He used to say he did not like to hear it insisted on that every 
 created thing must have its definite use; much may have been 
 made " for glory and for beauty." 
 
 We had a merry little discussion about forms of courtesy and 
 their alleged insincerity and emptiness ; and he led us to con- 
 clude that conventionalisms do not deceive, and are not meant to 
 deceive, but are wholesome checks to the roughnesses of human 
 nature ; while the omission of them has often more real untruth 
 in it, giving offence where none is intended. 
 
 At the end of this month our Uncle and Aunt Norris came to 
 us for a week, a time of great enjoyment to both the old friends, 
 who were sometimes so full of mirthful fun together that we 
 were almost tired with laughing. It was indeed a picture of 
 what the poet Wordsworth desired for himself: 
 
 " And I would have my careless season 
 Spite of melancholy Reason ; 
 Would walk through life in such a way, 
 That when time brings on decay,
 
 314 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Now and then I may possess 
 Hours of perfect gladsomeness : 
 Spite of care and spite of grief 
 To gambol with life's falling leaf y ." 
 
 There was, however, much grave and anxious counsel between 
 the aged friends on matters of Church interest, and sadly did 
 both watch the growing animosity of party spirit. Both were 
 labouring for peace, and seeking earnestly to turn the zeal of 
 those who came to them for counsel into channels wherein all 
 their strength and energy could find full exercise, without turn- 
 ing their arms against their brethren. 
 
 My uncle once quoted the story of Nelson on the eve of battle, 
 finding two of his captains were "not on terms." "Terms! 
 Shake hands, gentlemen ! yonder is the enemy !" " And yet 
 we find this hateful term applied by brethren to brethren, for 
 perhaps one point of difference, with unbelief and godlessness 
 swelling throughout the land, and calling loudly on the Church 
 to put forth all her strength to stem the torrent." 
 
 On Michaelmas Day we read Newman's Lecture for the fes- 
 tival. My uncle regretted the poetical fancies which fill the 
 first part of the sermon, thinking they rather weakened the 
 impression which a thoughtful consideration of what has been 
 revealed concerning the blessed angels should make. He said 
 he thought the subject an important one; and that they who 
 forgot the presence and ministry of the angels lost a very power- 
 ful deterrent from sin, and a strong incentive to reverence and 
 willing duty. He thought perhaps the most sure practical use 
 of our belief in their ministry would be to exercise our faith 
 in what is unseen, and to inspire us with reverence, such as Eli- 
 sha's servant must have felt when his eyes were opened to see 
 what flesh conceals. 
 
 Soon after this we read with him Newman's Sermon on Re- 
 liance on Religious Ordinances. While fully valuing the search- 
 ing character of the sermon, he observed in it the germ of 
 a principle which he said "has since been carried too far," 
 that of making the pain we find in doing our duty to be good 
 in itself. 
 
 " It can be so only as a means of strengthening our habit of obe- 
 dience; and even thus the conscious thought of it is dangerous, and 
 borders closely upon presumption, if we desire the difficulty. Secret 
 self-applause for doing that which is but simple duty is too likely to 
 insinuate itself, and to be like the fly in the apothecary's ointment." 
 
 y " The Kitten and the Falling Leaves."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 31-5 
 
 He referred us to Jeremy Taylor on this point, and quoted his 
 reasoning, from which he thought there was no escape : 
 
 " He that must judge himself, must condemn himself if he be guilty ; 
 and if he be condemned he must be punished. . . . True repentance is 
 a punishing duty, and acts its sorrow, and judges and condemns the sin 
 by voluntary submitting to such sadnesses as God sends on us ; or, to 
 prevent the judgment of God, by judging ourselves, and punishing our 
 bodies and our spirits by such instruments of piety as are troublesome 
 to the body'." 
 
 " It is safest and best, when possible, to receive rather than to choose 
 our cross." 
 
 I was reading the Psalms and Lessons to him on the evening 
 of Oct. 28; he observed on the connection of the 12th and 13th 
 verses of Phil, ii., and said that the "fear and trembling" must 
 be because our failing would be so utterly without excuse : "If 
 God be for us, who can be against us ?" 
 
 A kind note of birthday greeting, containing the wish that the 
 recipient might have "a conscience lighter and lighter every 
 year," led him into quiet talk. He said that it was a true wish, 
 and that though the load of sin be in itself continually accu- 
 mulating, yet there is a most real and comfortable distinction 
 to be drawn between suffering our consciousness of sin to be 
 deadened, and feeling our burden to be lightened by a growing 
 hope of God's mercy. For though our sins of whatever magni- 
 tude, if returned to, will return upon us, yet the certainty of 
 the; increasing peace felt by all true penitents is one of the com- 
 fortable encouragements held out to us. 
 
 He told me that he thought most of the good purposes of his 
 life had begun on Sunday evenings. 
 
 One day soon after this we read a triplet of Dante to him : 
 
 " E si come secondo raggio suole 
 Uscir del primo, e risalire insuso 
 Pur come peregrin che tornar vuole," (Farad, c. i.) 
 
 It was evident that he knew it of old : " yes," he exclaimed, 
 "it was there I first learnt to fancy that about the light." 
 Light, and the singing of birds, might, he thought, he regarded 
 as unsullied relics of Paradise. 
 
 We read a very able paper of Mr. Gladstone's on the present 
 aspect of the Church. My uncle said his description of what 
 bishops ought to he for the present time was so good that he 
 would trust him to choose them. 
 
 One evening at dinner there was some animated conversation 
 
 * Holy Living, chap. iv. sect. 9.
 
 316 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 on various matters, in which my uncle bore a full part. Instances 
 were given of mental power, of rapid grasping of subjects, of the 
 faculty of abstraction ; he spoke of Bishop Blomfield, whom he 
 remembers coming in to a Board, having just despatched forty- 
 two letters, and attended two committees, while two more were 
 in prospect, and yet he was ready to concentrate all his attention 
 on the work immediately before him. Another day thirty letters 
 were given him in the carriage ; he took his pencil and noted his 
 answer on the fly-leaf of each as he read it ; and all were done 
 by the time he reached Fulham. 
 
 The plan of encouraging National schoolmasters to seek Holy 
 Orders was mentioned as questionable; my uncle agreed in 
 thinking it not a well-advised scheme. He observed that in 
 most cases it would unsettle the master, and take the interest 
 out of his present duties : let a man rise in his profession, not 
 out of it, is the best general rule. 
 
 He was about this time interested in the rescue of a building 
 at Hackney from a bad use, and was bearing a liberal part in the 
 arrangement, although the way did not seem open to making any 
 good appropriation of it. " Depend upon it," he said, " if we 
 do what ought to be done, some good will follow." 
 
 Another little rule which he commended, and on which I have 
 noticed that he acted, was that it is not well to take the duties 
 of other people out of their hands. " Life," he would sometimes 
 say, " is chequered like a chess-board ; and I take it that very 
 often we may walk on the black or the white as we choose." 
 
 " Much scandal is ill-naturedly believed because of the maxim 
 that there must be some fire where there is much smoke." 
 And it was a saying of his with a more public bearing, that " it 
 is miserable legislation which regards individual character." 
 
 He had been speaking one evening of rapidity of motion as 
 a natural sign of joy. So Dante has it; and he made us observe 
 how Milton has described the rapid pauseless moving of the eye 
 and mind from one object to another, like a butterfly's flight : 
 
 " Straight mine eye Lath caught new pleasures," &c. 
 
 He repeated most of 1} Allegro himself, his eyes sparkling with 
 the delight the lines themselves gave him, and the pleasant 
 associations belonging to them. 
 
 In a Sunday reading of Bishop Taylor together I asked him 
 about forms of confession, and the very strong expressions used 
 by good men, which sometimes almost perplex weaker Christians. 
 "You will not find them too much as time goes on," he said; 
 "I have restored many expressions which I had cut out in 
 former days." He referred especially to the fuller meaning one
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 317 
 
 learns to see in the Decalogue. He felt the evil of unreality 
 in confession ; but thought that words expressing what we 
 wish and try to feel may be used, and may help to beget the 
 feeling. 
 
 At another time, when I was myself suffering from illness, he 
 said that it was among his causes of daily thanksgiving that he 
 had had pains and bodily chastenings : else the comforts and 
 blessings with which he had always been surrounded would have 
 been quite too much for this life. 
 
 He spoke of one who, finding in illness that she could no 
 longer recall some well-known prayers, said, " "Well, I have this 
 comfort, I can still address my Heavenly Father in the words 
 His Son taught me by His Holy Spirit ; and they will stay by 
 me while memory retains any power 1 ." I believe it was his 
 wife of whom he told this. He once pointed out the deep signi- 
 ficance of the latter portion of the Lord's Prayer, as the words of 
 Him who had Himself struggled with the Evil One, and over- 
 thrown his false assumption of the kingdom, and the power, and 
 the glory. 
 
 It was in 1843 that Theophilw Anglicanus was published, and 
 approved itself greatly to his judgment. " It bears," he wrote 
 to the author's father, " it bears, so far as I may presume to 
 opinionize, the promise of high usefulness." 
 
 At the close of this year he gave up his coachman and horses, 
 which he had hitherto retained, thinking the luxury too expen- 
 sive to be kept only for himself. About the same time I chanced 
 to discover that a frequent pensioner of his, to whom he was 
 sending a Christmas gift, had no other claim upon him than that 
 of having been a former rival in business. 
 
 I was telling him of a good little school-girl, who was so quiet 
 that I feared she would always stay at the bottom of her class. 
 "Some of the best things," he replied, "always do stay at the 
 bottom." 
 
 Cf. " Sickness, its Trials and Blessings," pp. 255, 256.
 
 318 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Adaptation of books published by the Christian Knowledge Society. Death 
 of Baden Powell of Speldhurst. The poet Wordsworth. " The Birth- 
 day." Dr. Arnold. Memorial Churches. Correspondence with J. H. 
 Markland. Retrospect. Council for framing the Constitutions for 
 St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. Dr. Wordsworth's last visit and 
 Ms death. Letters and recollections of conversation. Colonial Church 
 matters. Church of England Bible. Threatening symptoms of illness. 
 Danger averted. 
 
 IN the spring of 1 844 the affairs of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge caused some anxiety to its best friends, 
 and there was much correspondence between my uncle and Mr. 
 Harrison on the subject. Attacks had been made, apparently 
 from opposite quarters at once, on the Society, charging it with 
 unfaithfulness, in making alterations in the books published 
 under its auspices. The letters shew that it was the deliberate 
 opinion of both the friends, that the Society had all along held 
 itself bound to publish its books with such needful adaptation as 
 should fit them for the wants of the poor, " for whose use and 
 for whose sake," wrote my uncle, " their dispersion was ori- 
 ginally undertaken. This point," he added, " should be always 
 kept before members as the only warranted application of their 
 funds for charitable distribution." There was no doubt that 
 some unwarrantable abuses of this trust in unfair and uncalled- 
 for alterations had been occasionally committed, and my uncle 
 was willing and anxious that every precaution should be taken 
 to prevent the like in future, as well as that these blemishes 
 should be removed ; but he could not allow that the liberty of 
 correction and adaptation ought to be given up by the Society. 
 It was certain that Robert Nelson had felt the necessity of using 
 this freedom, and in his preface to his " Kempis' Christian Ex- 
 ercise" had " admirably stated the principle of alteration in de- 
 votional works as distinguished from others, such as critical, 
 scientific, &c. ; while at the same time he put in a very pithy 
 passage about ' careful' republishing of old authors, which is the 
 epithet in our Society's resolutions in 1841. It shews that 
 Nelson held both principles, and saw how, practically, the two 
 
 might be reconciled If therefore," wrote Mr. Harrison, 
 
 " they attack the Nelsonian practice, we must say, let them take 
 down his picture from the board-room. . . . The question is pretty 
 well reduced to this : whether we are to stand by him, or to give 
 him up and throw him overboard, as after all but a wretched
 
 Memoir of JosJma Watson. 319 
 
 eighteenth- century Churchman." It was agreed by both, that 
 wherever any alterations were made, the fact should be indicated 
 by some form of words in the title-page. 
 
 Mr. Harrison's diligent researches in the service of the S. P. O.K. 
 at this time seem to have quite satisfied him and my uncle that 
 the Society's edition of Bishop Wilson's " Companion to the 
 Altar" by no means deserved to be called "a garbled edition." 
 It was proved to have been so published in the Bishop's lifetime, 
 and may be regarded as embodying his own latest corrections. 
 Of the "Family Prayers" also there appeared to be two clear 
 and distinct lines of tradition. 
 
 A visit to Tunbridge "Wells, which my uncle made in July, 
 together with his two nieces and his little grandsons, was sad- 
 dened by the death of my mother's brother, Baden Powell, of 
 Speldhurst, in hopes of renewed intercourse with whom this 
 visit had been planned. This good man was associated with 
 some of the happiest recollections of youthful days, when the 
 familie.s of Sikes, Morris, Powell, and Watson, were neighbours 
 at Hackney ; and his open heart and kindly temper gave him no 
 inconsiderable part in weaving the chain of brotherly friendships 
 which proved so enduring and so full of life-long blessing. My 
 uncle had been with him in the spring of this year, and was now 
 able to attend his funeral, and to visit his widow in her afflic- 
 tion. She, too, had been for many years the cherished friend of 
 his wife. 
 
 In August he received an interesting letter from the Master of 
 Trinity, written at Bydal Mount, giving the following sketch of 
 the venerable poet's way of life during the Lake season : 
 
 " Here," wrote Dr. Wordsworth, " besides a large party in the house, 
 the callers have been almost innumerable ; and to me it is quite amazing 
 how my brother is able, from early morning often till late at night, to 
 talk to, and apparently greatly to interest, them all. I have thought 
 often of you during all this time, and have wished you could have been 
 here, if it were only to see several of the churches and chapels which 
 have been springing up, none of them without some counsel or other 
 aid from you." 
 
 On September 1st he came as usual to us in Northampton- 
 shire ; occasional headache was still almost the only symptom of 
 the tendency to paralysis which we could perceive in him. He 
 always greatly enjoyed a good story, particularly children's tales ; 
 indeed, this was one of the points in which he was always young. 
 We were reading " The Birthday" to him about this time, and 
 his lively interest and pleasure in it really sometimes seemed to 
 threaten him with the headache ; but in commenting on it after-
 
 320 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 wards, he said lie thought some of it was fitter for himself, to 
 make him think how he could deny himself, " spite of the in- 
 dulgences you force upon me," than for children. He thought 
 it harmful to wind up motives too high in childhood; e.g. he 
 would hesitate to make a child realize very strongly that giving 
 to the poor is giving to Christ ; there should be some reserve in 
 the use of the deepest and strongest principles of action ; at least 
 the conscious application of them to trifling actions should not be 
 forced upon a child. 
 
 He had been reading the Life of Dr. Arnold, and often spoke 
 of it. He feared much that the winning charm and the many 
 points of real excellence in the character, would blind young 
 minds to the very grave faults of the man, which made him so 
 dangerous a guide. "Arnold was," he said, " a very Ishmael in 
 his opinions, his hand against every man, and utterly without 
 reverence for what was time-honoured." But he fully appre- 
 ciated the wise uprightness of his government, especially his 
 inspiring truth and honour among his boys by shewing that he 
 trusted them, and the reality of his own character, which made 
 the moral strength of his authority so powerful. In this point 
 he said Archdeacon Lyall resembled him. He also pointed out 
 one letter which he much liked, in which Dr. Arnold urges one 
 troubled with doubts on some mystery of the faith, to treat them 
 as moral trials, to be withstood by prayer and obedience, not by 
 arguments ; advising him not to discuss them, lest he should 
 realize them more to himself. 
 
 The feeling embodied in the following letters to Mr. Markland, 
 which he has kindly allowed to be copied, was strong and 
 habitual with my uncle : 
 
 " The Lodge, Daventry, Nov. 21, 1844. 
 
 "Many thanks, my dear Mr. Markland, for the Ken paper. It is 
 a pleasant assurance that old recollections have not yet passed away. 
 I seem not, however, to want the little bond to tell me the hand from 
 which it comes, unless, indeed, the simple piety and unaffected good 
 taste of the address, together with its sympathy with certain ' Remarks 
 on English Churches,' have misled me in my ascription of the plan to 
 your pen. In spite, therefore, of the unsafety of determining authorships 
 by internal evidence, I will venture to make my acknowledgments to 
 you both for the project and the paper, and shall be glad to answer your 
 call for the memorial and for the church in the way you have put it, and 
 because you have put it so. Nevertheless, 1 must frankly own to you 
 that it would be much more agreeable to my own judgment, or more 
 properly to my feeling, to give my five guineas to the memorial and ten 
 pounds to the church, separately and distinctly, than to bleud the two 
 objects in the first sum. Will you forgive me if I say that not even 
 you, and all the good and wise who have agreed with you, have quite
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 321 
 
 satisfied me as to the fitness of this mixture of motives ? It is hard, I 
 know, in this imperfect state to hinder the intrusion of lower feelings 
 into our very best actions, and perhaps in some the alloy may be excused. 
 But from all direct offerings to God's honour, to His house, and to His 
 service, I own I feel as if they should be rigorously excluded. Soli Deo 
 gloria ought, I verily conceive, to be in all such instances the only pro- 
 fessed object of the offerer's mind. This principle has indeed hitherto 
 been so strong with me, that I have turned aside from not only the 
 Martyrs' but the Hooker Memorial also ; and might possibly have turned 
 away from your kind application likewise, but that it seemed to admit 
 an anonymous subscription to the honour of one of the seven golden 
 candlesticks, one of that portion, I mean, who did not turn out in tho 
 long run to be no better, as our friend ' Nobody' used to say, than 
 Prince's metal. 
 
 Excuse this rambling note, and believe me, with kindest regards to 
 Mrs. Marldand, and with unfeigned esteem for yourself, 
 
 " Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 " Daventry-lodge, Nov. 26, 1844. 
 " MY DEAB, MK. MARKLAND, 
 
 " Will you think me pertinacious if I hold fast my opinion, spite of 
 what you have so fairly urged on the other side of the question ? In 
 saying this, however, I have no thought of opening a discussion on the 
 point; only I should be sorry to be misunderstood oy my good friend on 
 such a question. The simple truth is, that in the matter of oblations 
 and direct offerings to ^he honour and glory of God, I have a stronger 
 feeling of jealousy for the principle of exclusiveness, than can be over- 
 come by any sense of the subordination you so well insist upon. We 
 both of us know that, through manifold infirmity, other considerations 
 will creep in upon us, even where the object has been designed in all 
 singleness of purpose. And therefore what sad cavilling it would be to 
 except against a good thing merely on account of the probable or even 
 actual admixture of inferior motives ! 
 
 " Of this, then, I would not have you think me capable. My objection 
 was, and still is, to the inversion of the order of things, to the making 
 the inferior motive to be the moving principle. I can easily propose to 
 myself to seek the honour of God in the honouring of His faithful ser- 
 vant ; but I cannot, without violence to the feeling I have adverted to, 
 set about 'the restoration of God's house in memory of Bishop Ken.' 
 Out of this difficulty I trusted to you to find or make a way for me ; and 
 still I shall be glad to leave myself in your friendly hands. 
 
 "My wish, abstractedly, would be to offer five pounds to the me- 
 morial, and ten pounds to the restoring of the church. But I fear in 
 doing this I should seem to be implicitly condemning a proceeding in 
 which many much wiser and better than myself have unhesitatingly 
 acquiesced. In this dilemma what can I do so well as beg of you 
 to dispose as you please of 
 
 " Yours with unfeigned esteem, 
 
 " And ever faithfully, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON."
 
 322 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 The Rev. Fitzherbert Marriott, then Archdeacon of Hobart- 
 town, was at this time on the eve of his return to Tasmania, 
 after a visit to England, during which he had been engaged in be- 
 half of the convicts recently sent into Van Diemen's Land. The 
 Government had undertaken to supply them with religious in- 
 structors, and had now, on the Archdeacon's recommendation, 
 appointed several clergymen and candidates for Holy Orders for 
 this duty, who were to embark with him in November. Shortly 
 before sailing, he spent an evening with us, and there was much 
 interesting talk between him and my uncle about the objects of 
 his mission to the Government at home, and the affairs of the 
 colonial Church. My uncle said that the first and chief care of 
 the Church must be to feed and keep her own ; he thought that 
 even the winning of ten aliens would not compensate for the loss 
 of one soul committed to her charge. 
 
 "Nothing," he said, "is so comfortable as to be disabused of 
 a prejudice against anybody. I have been undeceived that way 
 much oftener than the other." He thought it was but right and 
 Christianlike habitually to expect to like people better the more 
 we know of them. " I am persuaded," he said, " that there are 
 more people in the world better than we think them than worse." 
 
 In our dear uncle's retrospective thoughts there was ever a very 
 deep sense of the undeserved and ' never-ceasing shower of bless- 
 ing' which had been his portion through Mfe ; and now that so 
 much was taken away, he was always full of humble and wonder- 
 ing gratitude for what remained. "When alone with one of us 
 this feeling often seemed irrepressible ; and he would speak of 
 past and present mercies, and most touchingly express his gra- 
 titude for our love, and his fears lest he might through increasing 
 infirmities become more burdensome to us. He dwelt on his 
 brother's partial love for him, and his ever-ready sympathy and 
 help in every need, great or small. "He spoilt me," he said; 
 " the truth is, I have been spoilt. I have all my life long had 
 counsel, and sought it, and acted on it ; and now it is very hard 
 to me to decide without it." One evening when my sister and 
 I were in his room, and had been reading some old letters of 
 family interest, he again spoke most feelingly of the kindness 
 and affection which had ever encircled him, and at last, in an un- 
 dertone of much emotion, murmured, " I have been so loved." 
 Presently afterwards, more playfully, when one of us complained 
 of having been a spoilt child, he took it to himself with his 
 loving gratefulness, "I am the worst off, then, for I am a spoilt 
 child again, in my second childhood." " I certainly do love to 
 be obliged," he said at another time. 
 
 In the spring of 1845 he was very full of business ; the affairs
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 323 
 
 of the Societies, his church at Homerton, and the new Missionary 
 College at Canterbury, all made large calls upon him ; for though 
 always thinking his o\vn powers dimmed and weakened, and 
 most heartily seeking to avoid being in any degree made an 
 oracle, his help and counsel were hardly less sought for than in 
 the days of his full vigour. 
 
 At a meeting of the Additional Curates' Society, it so hap- 
 pened that he had felt obliged to oppose the Bishop of London in 
 some small matter. The Bishop seemed annoyed at first, but 
 presently said, " I am never easy, Mr. Watson, when you differ 
 from me," and the discussion ended in entire agreement. 
 
 We were at this time staying at Mr. Norris's house in Grove- 
 street, Hackney, and often had the pleasure of seeing our two 
 dear uncles together ; one day Archdeacon and Mrs. Lyall were 
 there, whum it was a great pleasure to my uncle to meet again. 
 There was much talk about the plans for Canterbury College, my 
 uncle, though sorely against his will, having been made one of 
 the council for framing its constitutions. "It must be," was 
 the only answer he could obtain to his remonstrances. " Now, 
 Archdeacon," he pleaded, "you have no fudge about you; you 
 see how unfit I am for it ; you can bear testimony for me." " It 
 must be," was the reply; "you shall not have the trouble of 
 attending the meetings, we will only have your opinion." " Yes, 
 but think what the responsibility is of forming an opinion on so 
 weighty a matter ; and if others differ from me, I shall have to 
 defend it." " No, it sjiall be law" " What, by way of lessening 
 the responsibility?" The Archdeacon ended by saying, "Well, 
 I will not assert whether your opinion be worth anything or 
 not, but people have a notion that it is, and so we cannot do 
 without it." 
 
 The urgent desire of the Archbishop and the Bishop of London 
 alone prevailed with him to take any share in the business of 
 the Council ; but when once engaged in it, he spared himself no 
 pains or trouble, but gave his best service to the cause. In the 
 beginning of May he had an interview with Bishop Coleridge, 
 whose views about the College were very satisfactory to him. 
 He was very anxious that no party-name or party-spirit should 
 intrude into the arrangements ; he thought it should have no 
 narrower basis than the Church of England itself. As to 
 observances, he would have nothing prescribed but the ritual 
 of our Church and stated hours, leaving to individual consciences 
 what the Church has so left. He said, some years later, that one 
 of the best uses of this College would be lor youths who had been 
 educated in Colonial Colleges to spend a year or two there in 
 preparation for Holy Orders.
 
 324 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 During our visit at Grove-street, he often called for us on his 
 way into London, and one day he shewed us the house that had 
 once been his in Mincing-lane, now part of the Commercial Sale- 
 rooms ; the very counting-house and desk which he used to 
 occupy alone remained unaltered, and there we accompanied him 
 to receive a dividend. Another day we accompanied him to 
 King's College, to see the distribution of prizes to the medical 
 students by the Archbishop. The Bishops of London and Lich- 
 field, Sir E,. H. Inglis, and Mr. Gladstone were also there. My 
 uncle sat by Mr. Gladstone, and had much talk with him. 
 
 Just before we left Hackney, we called to wish him good-bye. 
 "We knew that he had just heard of Newman's defection, and we 
 had received a few lines from him, bearing traces of the saddened 
 heart with which he wrote them. On going in, we thought him 
 looking better than we had expected, and told him so. His 
 ready answer was most characteristic in its affectionate courtesy 
 and grace : " You always forget what a difference you make 
 directly you come." 
 
 Soon after this he visited Brighton Vicarage, and came to us 
 early in September. 
 
 On the 1 8th, Dr. "Wordsworth came, and Mr. and Mrs. Norris 
 the day after. The three aged friends were once more all under 
 one roof, and very happy they were in each other, as full of 
 vigorous conversation and playfulness as ever, and most kind to 
 the younger members of the party. The old Master amused us 
 greatly by long stories of his adventures in the North and at 
 Leamington, sometimes reminding us of his brother's poems, by 
 finding " a tale in everything." One day he came in late for 
 breakfast, and apologized for it, giving a detailed account of his 
 early walk, and how he had stopped to help some children who 
 were picking haws in a hedge. They thanked him so many 
 times, he said, that he should have had no milk of human kind- 
 ness in him if he had refused to help them all he could. 
 
 In a sadder vein he spoke of public events and anxieties, 
 especially lamenting the want of sound and deep learning in 
 those who come forward in modern Church controversies, com- 
 pared with our great divines of the seventeenth century, with 
 whom such slight acquaintance is now cultivated. Still, hope 
 and faith were always strong enough in him to conquer all pass- 
 ing anxieties; and the warmth with which he and his two 
 friends in their advanced old age could welcome and rejoice in 
 the zeal of the young can never be forgotten. "Ah," said Dr. 
 Wordsworth, one day, of a family of hopeful children, "there is 
 the strength of the Church of England !" And at another time, 
 " I never can despair of a good cause. Our rescue may be in-
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 325 
 
 deed through chastisement, which we deserve for our thankless 
 enjoyment of the blessings we have. But it is not good to dwell 
 overmuch even on that view. Let us each do our part well and 
 firmly, and leave events simply to God's Providence." 
 
 On Sunday, our two venerable guests preached in Daventry 
 Church; Dr. Wordsworth in the morning, upon our Lord's 
 benediction on Mary anointing His Body for His burial ; shewing 
 how acceptable unto Him was her loving, reverent sympathy in 
 the great end for which He came. Mr. Norris followed him in 
 the afternoon, taking St. Paul's defence before Agrippa for his 
 subject : both his old friends declared they had never heard him 
 excel his preaching to-day. 
 
 On Monday morning the old Master left us, and no more 
 intercourse was granted on earth to these friends, whose mutual 
 affection and esteem had been maintained for nearly forty years. 
 The last greeting which Dr. "Wordsworth sent to my uncle was 
 dated the Epiphany, 1846 : 
 
 " I have never been at all well," he wrote, " since my pleasant and 
 interesting visit at Daventry. Old age, I find, has made rapid and great 
 strides upon me. Still I am thankful to be so well off even as I am, in 
 body ; and these things at my time of life are what are to be expected. 
 And what of them, if only meanwhile, as the outward man is perishing, 
 the inward, through God s grace, be in any little degree renewing day 
 by day ?" 
 
 "Within a month from the date of this letter he died, Feb. 2, 
 1846. My uncle wrote thus to me, accompanying the letter 
 which brought the intelligence : 
 
 "DEAREST MAKY-NIECE, 
 
 "I expect Elizabeth has told you the sad all that was to be told 
 
 To have been so much in the thoughts of such a friend at such a season, 
 you can tell how it is felt by yours, 
 
 " J. W." 
 
 The autumn and early winter of 1845 were spent by my 
 uncle quietly at Daventry ; often during this time allowing me 
 to share his private readings, and helping me with his thoughtful 
 observations and reflections. 
 
 On the words "Forbid him not" in St. Luke ix. 50, which 
 occurred in the Morning Lesson on the 23rd of October, he 
 observed that the words which are added in St. Mark's account 
 sufficiently guard the permission from being made a plea for un- 
 authorized teachers; the test of the man's being "for us" being 
 that he was endued with the power of working miracles in the 
 Name of Christ.
 
 326 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 He rather shrank from the use of the argument sometimes 
 urged in sermons, that heaven will be no heaven to those whose 
 whole joy is not in adoration now. Either there is merciful 
 provision made for the happiness of minds cast in different 
 moulds, or the vessels will be made fit for the happiness prepared 
 for them. Perhaps for this very reason the precise nature of 
 the joy is left in gracious obscurity, lest it should dazzle our 
 unprepared sight. His brother-in-law, Mr. T. Sikes, used to 
 reproach him for not having so ardent a love for music as he 
 himself had, urging that it would be the employment of heaven ; 
 but he would reply, that if once admitted there, the one would 
 play as sweetly on the harp as the other. 
 
 He spoke very earnestly of the dangers attending labours in 
 the cause of religion and charity; the proneness to self- deceiving, 
 and to subtle excusing of ourselves from uninteresting duties for 
 the sake of doing good, as we think, in ways that we like. 
 
 His old friend Baden Powell used to say to him mournfully, 
 " My talk is of sheep and bullocks, while yours is all of schools 
 and churches." But he assured him that it is as easy to have 
 a secular spirit in one pursuit as the other. The only safeguards 
 are in Bishop Taylor's signs of a pure intention, shunning human 
 praise, and content in failure b . He said he thought the only 
 principle which nothing could shake must be found in obedient 
 duty ; the desire, not to accomplish any object, however laud- 
 able, but to obtain the blessing of having done what we could ; 
 philanthropy alone must fail from disappointment. Another 
 day he spoke strongly of the harmfulness of being so bent upon 
 some object out of reach, however good it may appear, as to 
 overlook and leave undone the best that is attainable. He used 
 to quote a rule of Burke's, that what is not attainable cannot be 
 desirable. Possibly his thoughts took this shape from his interest 
 in a plan just then in preparation by Canon Wordsworth for 
 bringing the waste places of Westminster under spiritual culti- 
 vation. He thus wrote to his friend to express his warm sym- 
 pathy in the plan : 
 
 " MY DEAK FRIEND, 
 
 " The scheme is worthy of the projector, and I can only say, ' God 
 speed it !' Be not turned aside by any of the lets and hindrances which 
 will be sure to meet you in the way. Digest your plan well, (St. Luke 
 vi. 28), it will call for large means ; and you must prepare yourself, as 
 Ben Sirach says, if you seek to serve the Lord, for much trial and 
 temptation. You will find many coldnesses and discouragements where 
 perhaps you little look for them. But having set your heart aright, you 
 
 b "Holy Living," Chap. I. Sect. 2.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 327 
 
 will constantly endure, and not make haste in time of difficulty ; and 
 being fore-warned, will be in some sort fore-armed against the troubles 
 that may cross your path." 
 
 A friend who had been spending some time in Scotland drew 
 him into conversation about the Presbyterian Kirk. His objec- 
 tion to joining in its services rested mainly on the doubtful 
 validity of the Sacraments. He could have better hope of mercy 
 and grace without the use of any outward means than with one 
 which deviated in any way from the command of the Ordainer. 
 To the argument that episcopacy, however good, is not vital, 
 or it would be more clearly insisted on in Scripture, he would 
 reply that men do not legislate about what is in hourly 
 practice c . 
 
 Three appointments which took place this winter gave him 
 very heartfelt pleasure. In the end of November we heard of 
 Archdeacon LyaLTs being made Dean of Canterbury, and Mr. 
 Harrison, Canon of the Cathedral and Archdeacon of Maidstone. 
 A few weeks later my brother-in-law was appointed to the arch- 
 deaconry of Cleveland. 
 
 To Mr. Harrison he thus wrote : 
 
 "To your letter full of business, my dear friend, I believe I have 
 nothing to say just now ; and to its deeply interesting P.S. I should 
 perhaps say little more than is emphatically included in what I say from 
 the bottom of my heart Leo gratias, I may not gratulate you, I know, 
 on the occasion of honours and dignities which bring with them any 
 accession of duties and responsibilities; but I may congratulate with 
 others on many of the circumstances of the arrangement. I may rejoice, 
 as I most heartily do, with Mrs. Howley, that she will still have so 
 much of the comfort she has long felt in the affectionate attentions of 
 the chaplain to her lord; and with your excellent father, who has so 
 frequently deprecated, in our occasional talks on the subject, any offer 
 from the Archbishop which might threaten a separation between those 
 who were both bettered by being together ; and finally, with the best 
 friends of the Mission College, on the now greatly-improved prospect of 
 its right connection with the chapter. I am now beginning to press 
 with confidence its patronage upon others, and will no longer despair of 
 a happy issue to the noble exertions of Coleridge and Hope, and the 
 labours of the Provisional Committee. 
 
 " Yours, with every good wish, 
 
 " Faithfully and affectionately, 
 "J. W." 
 
 c " The manner in which the bishop or angel of each Church is referred 
 to in the Revelation, argues that his position was then thoroughly esta- 
 blished." Stunt's Church in the Three First Centuries, chap. ii. ; see whole 
 chapter.
 
 328 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Of Dean Lyall he often spoke with warm esteem and regard. 
 He once said of him that he had known some as fair in argu- 
 ment, and others possessed of as good judgment, but none who 
 so united both qualities. It was curious to see how he would 
 pause in the midst of an animated discussion, if a reason on 
 the other side struck him as cogent, and frankly yield his point 
 at once. 
 
 On hearing of the third appointment, my uncle wrote to the 
 aged Archbishop of York, and received in answer the following 
 letter, which I remember his carefully preserving when he was 
 destroying many of his letters, and which, if only for the sake of 
 the venerable writer, of whose gracious old age it gives a charac- 
 teristic picture, I must be allowed to insert : 
 
 " Bishoptkorpe, Jan. 9, 1846. 
 " DEAR SIB, 
 
 " That any act of mine has afforded gratification to you is, and ever 
 will be, a subject of sincerest gratification to myself; for my personal 
 regard and unfeigned respect for your truly estimable character will 
 cease only with my own existence. In selecting, however, Mr. Churton 
 for the archdeaconry of Cleveland, I considered only which of my clergy 
 in that archdeaconry was the fittest and best qualified to undertake 
 so responsible an oifice, and who, by his faithful and conciliatory dis- 
 charge of the duties of it, would obtain the abiding good opinion and 
 esteem of his clerical brethren. His acceptance, therefore, of the offer 
 I made to him, (which, from love for the person and respect for the 
 memory of my excellent friend the la.te archdeacon, I delayed till a few 
 days after his funeral), afforded me the most sincere pleasure. 
 
 " I thank you much for your very kind wishes to myself. I have 
 abundant reason for gratitude to the Almighty, who nas graciously 
 vouchsafed to bless me with the continuance of good health, and witn 
 other innumerable benefits at my very advanced age. I am in my eighty- 
 ninth year, with my sight and hearing but little impaired, and my 
 memory only so with reference to names of individuals and places, and 
 to occurrences of very recent date. 
 
 "Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 " With the sincerest esteem, 
 "Faithfully yours, 
 
 "E. EBOB." 
 
 In some of the quiet talks which were allowed me with my 
 dear uncle during this winter, he would break through the 
 reserve which was usual with him, and speak freely of those he 
 had loved best on earth ; he would sometimes blame his own 
 reserve as selfish, saying that we had a right to be made better 
 by his recollections of the departed. He again dwelt on the use 
 of observing private anniversaries as a means of keeping up com- 
 munion, and of the great blessing of the ordinance of day and
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 329 
 
 night. Wrong as it would be to disturb others with the expres- 
 sion of our private sorrows, how forlorn would the mourner be 
 did not night come to restore the fellowship, and suffer him to 
 water his couch with his tears ! And in times of business and 
 prosperity, what should we do if night did not return to draw, 
 like sickness, its merciful curtain between us and the vanities 
 of life ! 
 
 On the 12th and 13th of January I travelled with him to 
 Clapton, and many were the subjects of which he spoke on the 
 way. One was the doctrine of a particular providence. He 
 thought we must not look for, or even dare to ask for, special 
 direction in particular cases, where ordinary rules and guidance 
 are given ; above all, where the right path might be ascertained 
 by a straightforward honest appeal to Scripture ; but that we 
 may and ought so entirely to commit our whole being into God's 
 hands, as to feel assured that all accidents, great and small, will 
 be made to work together for our good. 
 
 He spoke of the unhappiness of being acute in seeing faults, 
 especially in comparative strangers ; as for those who are dear to 
 us, love will sharpen the sight. Looking inwards is the only 
 cure. And in a lighter vein he repeated a fable, how Apollo 
 supplied a critic with a sieve, desiring him to sift the wheat 
 carefully from the chaff ; then gave him the chaff for his pains. 
 Again he spoke of the self-denial requisite for telling friends of 
 their faults. He had been perplexed, he said, about this duty, 
 and also about that of religious conversation. 
 
 On our arrival at Clapton, Mr. Norris came to greet us ; he 
 was in excellent spirits, and said he quite marvelled at himself, 
 lie was so busy and so well. The following day was his seventy- 
 fifth birthday, and we kept it by surveying with him his new 
 church at South Hackney, the walls of which were rising fast. 
 We mounted with him to the top of the unfinished west wall, 
 and thence looked down on the whole. 
 
 In the spring of 1846, my uncle's thoughts were again much 
 occupied about the interests of the Colonial Church. He had 
 been very anxiously watching the difficulties and hindrances 
 which beset the labours of the excellent Bishop Broughton of 
 Sydney, and rejoiced greatly at the more hopeful prospects 
 which now seemed to dawn upon the Australian Church. The 
 hope of the formation of new dioceses, and the encouragement of 
 some of Bishop Broughton's best schemes for Sydney, gave him 
 great joy, which he thus expressed to his friend Archdeacon 
 Harrison : 
 
 " I have never expressed half the delight I have felt at the Arch- 
 bishop's prosperous negotiations for Australia. He will in all human
 
 33 o Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 probability have added years to the life of an invaluable servant of the 
 Church." 
 
 And a few days later, his anxiety on this point being so much 
 relieved, he turned to the other colonial diocese, in which he felt 
 the strongest personal interest, Nova Scotia; it being this year 
 deemed right that the Society for Propagating the Gospel should 
 withdraw some of the support which had been hitherto granted 
 to King's College, Windsor, as the time seemed to be come when 
 the colony ought to maintain its own institutions. 
 
 " Can you tell me," wrote my uncle, " whether any step, or move to- 
 wards a step, has been attempted in the matter of the Windsor College 
 Memorial ? I took the infection strongly from the late Archbishop, 
 (Manners-Button), who was ever most strenuous in his advocacy of that 
 institution. Latterly he used to say it was his old master's college, and 
 he felt the support of it a legacy of duty, as it were, bequeathed unto 
 him by George the Third. You will not wonder, therefore, at my con- 
 tinued anxiety on the subject, and at my saying, now that the Arch- 
 bishop has accomplished so much for Australia, it is almost the only 
 remaining colonial matter, Calcutta excepted, wliich is much an object 
 of solicitude to 
 
 " Yours faithfully and affectionately, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 He was not unmindful either of the American Church; the 
 interest awakened long before by the visit of Bishop Hobart had 
 never been slackened. 
 
 " Thank you," he wrote to Archdeacon Harrison, in May, " for good 
 Bishop Doane's letter herewith returned. When you write to New 
 Jersey, I pray you do not forget to tell your obliging correspondent 
 how greatly I am gratified by his kind recollection, and how highly I 
 value the expression, or rather the possession, of his esteem ; and how 
 assured he may be of the prayers of his Cis- Atlantic brethren for a bless- 
 ing on his faithful labours. And when you write to me, pray tell me 
 what progress is making in the selection of new bishops, including of 
 course the two of Miss Burdett Coutts' foundation, which I assume to 
 
 be the addition you allude to Is there any hope of re-establishing 
 
 under the Gladstone regime the colonial Chaplaincy-General, extinguished 
 by the Whig government ? The multiplication of sees must surely make 
 it equally to be desired by Church and State." 
 
 In the summer of 1846 my uncle spent a fortnight at St. 
 Leonard's, and after a short interval at Clapton, during which 
 Homerton Church occupied much of his attention, went to pay 
 his usual visit to Brighton. He lost no opportunity of having 
 his grandchildren with him, and his solicitude for their happi- 
 ness and improvement was unfailing. A friend then resident in 
 Brighton, for whom he felt a warm regard, sought his advice
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 331 
 
 whether she should continue to cultivate the friendship of one 
 whose judgment she could not trust; he replied, " Go on, hy all 
 means. It is not meant that we should he able to depend on any 
 human being in all things. We must not expect any to be alto- 
 gether right, nor shrink from the responsibility which belongs to 
 our condition as moral agents." 
 
 In October, when he had been already for some time with us 
 at Daventry, Mr. and Mrs. Norris came, and though we had no 
 longer the animating presence of the third beloved friend, the 
 " old Master" having now gone to his rest, our dear uncles had 
 much enjoyment of each other's society, and the visit was most 
 delightful to us. One day they both expressed a decided opinion 
 that our Church does not recommend confession as an universal 
 practice, but for those who cannot quiet their own consciences by 
 the means she has specified self-examination, private prayer, 
 and amendment. And in this way, Mr. Norris added, he was 
 familiar with its use, and so he doubted not were many of the 
 parochial clergy. 
 
 Soon afterwards we had a visit from Canon "Wordsworth, who 
 has kindly furnished the following letter written to him by my 
 uncle a day or two after they parted, on a subject which hud 
 occupied much of their conversation, and which was always one 
 of great interest with my uncle : 
 
 " Daventry-lodge, Oct. 20, 1846. 
 " Mr DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " After most heartily thanking you for your kind and welcome visit, 
 I return to the subject which we so fully discussed, with our usual con- 
 currence in opinion, that but for your desire to see a little more in detail 
 the scheme we talked over, I should certainly have said no more about 
 it, but have left the matter in your own and Mr. Spottiswoode's hands. 
 
 "The thing to be supplied is a characteristically Church of England 
 edition of the Bible, without note or comment beyond what the trans- 
 lators of 1611 have supplied, and without the omission of any helps 
 they have actually furnished. The first point would perhaps oe best 
 attained by marking in the margin the use which the Church of Eng- 
 land has made of each portion of Holy Scripture by assigning it in 
 her calendar of proper lessons to any holy day specifically, and to 
 any Sunday service, or in her Commou Prayer to an Epistle or 
 Gospel, or in her daily lessons to such or such a day of the month 
 in her annual progress through the sacred volume. This might pos- 
 sibly supersede the simple prefix of the Liturgical Calendar, but 
 I should be sorry if it did; although perhaps if but one can be 
 afforded, many may be inclined to prefer the ordinary calendar, yet it 
 is to be considered that will be no guide to the Epistles and Gospels 
 of her Communion Service ; and to the straightforward reader of the 
 Bible no present indication of the more particular stress she may be
 
 332 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 supposed to lay upon particular chapters by her selection of them for 
 Sunday lessons. 
 
 "For the second point, it is important that the various renderings 
 should be distinctly brought out to the reader's eye, and the headings 
 or contents of the several chapters be retained, and properly placed 
 against the several verses to which they severally refer. This would 
 remove them from the position which could not be found for them in 
 our great desideratum, a Paragraph Bible, but would fix them in the 
 margin as aids to the reader, who, it is to be feared, seldom gives them 
 the consideration they are entitled to as authorized note and comment. 
 .... With respect to the benefit of what is called above a Paragraph 
 Bible, nothing need be said. It is so obvious, that one cannot but 
 wonder, when it was shewn that all readiness of reference could be pre- 
 served with it, that so little use has been made of it. I am not aware 
 that since the editions of my old friend, John Reeves, now little short of 
 half-a-century ago, any edition, except one on the Religious Tract 
 Society's List, has been offered to the public. Reeves' Bibles are not 
 often to be met with, and moreover, when met with, they exhibit nearly 
 the worst specimens of typography I know ; paper bad, ink bad, letter 
 bad, and blunders many. It had long been in my mind to bring the 
 subject under the consideration of Mr. Spottiswoode, and therefore 
 rejoice that you will take the matter in hand. 
 
 " One other point only it occurs to me to add on this subject. I hold 
 (and I hope you will agree with me) that an English Churchman's copy 
 of S.S. is incomplete without the Translators' Preface. After Bishop 
 Marsh's insinuation, that our authorized version is little more than an 
 English rendering of Luther's Bible, I think you will deem it due to its 
 English translation to let its authors speak for themselves. The dedica- 
 tion I leave to your tender mercies, and veneration for James I., in 
 much of which you know me to accord with you, and yet I own I have 
 often wished it had not been the common prefix to our Bibles. The 
 chronology must of course be preserved, but the running titles of each 
 page should perhaps be, on each, only the book and the chapter. 
 
 " And now having wearied both you and myself from a strong feeling 
 of the importance of our subject, I take my leave, with the kind regards 
 of all here to their late visitant, and the affectionate remembrance to 
 him and his of their friend " J. W." 
 
 His correspondence with his niece at Clapton was at this time 
 very full of the arrangements for the completion of Homerton. 
 church, to all the details of which he gave the most constant and 
 careful attention. He was very solicitous about the appearance and 
 real convenience of the benches ; the first, he thought, was " out 
 and out more important in the general effect than the pulpit or 
 reading-desk." And with regard to convenience, he was anxious 
 to satisfy gentle as well as simple. " I confess," he wrote, " that 
 I am inclined to like inclosures, but I am not quite so sure that 
 I like them to one set of benches and not to others. Are you 
 altogether satisfied with any differences ?"
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 333 
 
 I wish it were more possible to preserve his fun ; but it was 
 so full of allusion, and so much enhanced by the playful grace 
 with which it was uttered, that it seems a vain attempt. 
 
 A delicate vein of humour, and an unusual readiness of re- 
 partee, were perhaps its chief characteristics, often playing with 
 words, so as to give a double edge of kindly meaning to Ids fre- 
 quent expressions of affectionate tenderness or gentle courtesy. 
 
 One day he was watching us wind worsted, and I was asked 
 some question about it ; he turned to my sister Anne, who had 
 been his 'niece filial' before me, " She has learnt of you how 
 to wind round well enough," he said. 
 
 I asked him one day if he wanted anything before I went out. 
 "No," he answered ; " I shall want nothing till you go." 
 
 On a cold morning in December, he was standing over the fire, 
 and I urged him to hold a screen for his head, which required 
 to be kept cool. " It is too much trouble," he said ; " you don't 
 know what a little thing is trouble to . . " and then he paused, 
 and changing his tone, added, " to one that has none." 
 
 A trifling fact was disputed between him and a young lady 
 sitting by his side at dinner : I was opposite, and hearing him 
 say, "That's a triumph," I asked, " Which way is it?" " Oh, 
 it would have been no triumph to have triumphed over me." 
 
 We were discussing the reasons for and against something : 
 "What shall we weigh them by?" I asked. "By scruples," 
 was the ready reply. 
 
 In Christmas- week my mother was summoned to the sick-bed 
 of her eldest brother, Mr. J. Clark Powell, and I was left alone 
 with my uncle. He seemed bent on making our tete-a-tete 
 happy for me, and was most kind and communicative. 
 
 He said that the second chapter of Romans always reminded 
 him of a very eager discussion which he and his friends Sikes 
 and Norris had fifty-five years before with another friend about 
 the meaning of it ; he remembered how, in order to defend their 
 strong jealousy of so-called natural religion, they were ready to 
 make the text bend to their purpose in a way which his calmer 
 judgment utterly disallowed. He said the remembrance of their 
 hot-headedness and prejudice, and of their readiness to suspect 
 heresy or moral fault in those who differed from them, which 
 was, he thought, the worst feature in their state of mind, made 
 him very lenient now to the excesses of young men of either high 
 or low opinions, and very hopeful, too, of their righting in due 
 time, if they do not, by keeping exclusively among themselves 
 and fanning the flame, precipitate themselves into some wrong 
 action. At another time he told me how, when he and his friend 
 N orris first became members of the S.P.C.K., they were such re-
 
 334 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 formers that they were told their schemes would be the ruin of 
 the Society : " When I see young men going on now, as I think, 
 too fast," he added, " I am reminded of those days, and remember 
 that now /am the old man." 
 
 He spoke of meditation. He said the best rule for it was to 
 strive to disengage our minds from the crowd of worldly things, 
 so as to be able to embrace thoughts of heavenly things as they 
 are offered to us. He sometimes felt a difficulty suggested in his 
 daily reading of the Psalms and Lessons, whether he ought to 
 take each verse separately, to draw forth the teaching which 
 each contains, or whether to content himself with the general 
 lesson conveyed by the whole, or by some more striking passage. 
 I know that as he grew more old and his deafness increased, he 
 habitually went over again, after service, through the chapters 
 that had been read at church, and this with unsparing diligence 
 and deliberate care, " that nothing might be lost." One day, 
 when he had been lingering thus over the Lessons, he noticed to 
 me the wonderfully quiet and comfortable opening of the Sermon 
 on the Mount, and our Lord's calm and unobtrusive, yet unmis- 
 takable, assumption of authority. He said that the beauties of 
 the book of Job opened upon him more and more in his advanc- 
 ing years. He spoke feelingly of the very great difficulty of carry- 
 ing forth with us into the world, the view we take in our closet, 
 of the relative value of things. As an instance of what he meant, 
 he said, " In our morning and night thoughts, of how little im- 
 portance does it seem to us, what others think of us ; but when 
 we come down, why, even a child's opinion has weight." 
 
 He mentioned the opinion which a friend had strongly ex- 
 pressed to him, that money should descend in its natural course, 
 so as to let successors have the means of doing the duties which 
 would become theirs. Some years ago, he said, he had devoted 
 legacies to every charity he was connected with, and could he 
 take his money away with him, he might still think it right to 
 do so, but he had, during the past week, destroyed even the 
 memoranda of his former intentions. 
 
 And now came a short time of excitement and anxiety. Our 
 medical man pronounced that a swelling, which had been for 
 a little while troublesome to my uncle, was a carbuncle, and 
 knowing such to have been the death-warrant of more than one 
 dear friend, the announcement was received in a spirit, indeed, 
 of most entire and ready submission, but with apprehension of 
 the probable danger which made the short interval before he 
 could accomplish the journey to Clapton a time of avowed pre- 
 paration for a final parting from Daventry. Thankfulness, 
 humility, and love were more than ever prevailing ; and when
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 335 
 
 on the 14th of January we had posted to Clapton, and every- 
 thing was found to be going on most favourably, he was ready to 
 greet Mr. Norris, who came in to welcome him, with his usual 
 affectionate playfulness. We had not much conversation on the 
 journey, but a reading of Jeremy Taylor led him to observe upon 
 the irreverence and bad taste of aids to meditation on the solemn 
 scenes described in Scripture which seek to bring them more 
 vividly before us by inventing circumstances not revealed. This, 
 he said, was such a frequent fault in the pictures most familiar 
 to us from childhood, that it was exceedingly difficult to find 
 any entirely free from really misleading errors. He had been 
 made aware of this difficulty when the selection of pictures for 
 the Family Bible was made, in which he had taken so consider- 
 able a part. At another time he had observed that there seemed 
 to him to be error in appealing strongly to mere human feelings 
 of pity and sympathy, in dwelling, as some devout writers, espe- 
 cially of foreign lands, have done, on the bodily sufferings of our 
 blessed Lord. It is not to these that the apostles seek chiefly 
 to direct our thoughts, but to His humiliation and His agony of 
 spirit, which we must believe to have far outweighed the bodily 
 pains of His Passion. 
 
 The danger which my dear uncle had apprehended was merci- 
 fully averted, and he was able to devote himself with full vigour 
 to the business of Homerton church, and to his usual interests 
 and occupations, during the spring of 1847. 
 
 CHAPTER XXYIL 
 
 The famine in Ireland and Scotland. Measures of relief, and communica- 
 tions with Bishop Low and with an Irish clergyman. Consecration of 
 St. Barnabas' Church, Homerton. Recollections of conversation. 
 Illness and death of Archbishop Howley. Consecration of South Hackney 
 Church. Newly discovered letters and writings of Jeremy Taylor.- 
 Joshua Watsons long and severe illness. Opinion on the right of 
 authority to claim submission. The Gorham Judgment. 
 
 EARLY in 1847 the sufferings of the poor in Ireland and in 
 part of Scotland from famine and disease were calling loudly 
 on England for sympathy and help. It may be well supposed 
 that my uncle's willing liberality was ready to meet the call ; 
 but he was characteristically anxious not only that the utmost 
 should be done, but that it should be done in the best way. As 
 iu his exertions for the German sufferers in 1814 and 1815, he
 
 336 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 was very desirous that, according to apostolic practice, the Church 
 should be the treasury of the poor, and wished that the funds 
 now collected for the relief of the sufferers should be placed in 
 the hands of the clergy of the famine-stricken districts. 
 
 The following letter, which has already appeared in the 
 Memoir of Bishop Low, bears witness to this principle, which 
 indeed he acted on through life : 
 
 " Feb. 23, 1847. 
 "Mr DEAR BISHOP, 
 
 " I venture to trouble you with the enclosed, to add to any offerings 
 which other friends may have put into your hands to help towards the 
 relief of the distressed poor in your Lordship's diocese. I should be 
 ashamed of tendering so little help in so great a necessity, but that one 
 knows how little ofttimes helps, and that at the present time so large 
 a share of one's attention is drawn off to the still more awful destitution 
 of the Irish sufferers. You have this trouble, my dear Bishop, from a 
 conviction that you will kindly excuse it, under a feeling that although 
 a Churchman's alms should not be restrained to the relief of Church- 
 men's needs, they ought, wherever it is practicable, to be passed through 
 a Churchman's hands. I have the honour to be, with unfeigned esteem 
 and respect, my dear Bishop, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 To this letter Bishop Low replied : 
 
 "MY DEAR EXCELLENT SlR, 
 
 "Thank God, the Robert Nelsons are not extinct, I am favoured 
 with your very gratifying letter, as all your letters are, and have also 
 received your handsome donation of 25 towards the relief of the desti- 
 tute members of the Church in my very extensive and interesting 
 diocese. In their name and my own I present our united thanks, and 
 as you will have their blessing, so you have mine." 
 
 Of the strong interest felt by my uncle in the trials of the 
 Irish clergy at this time, and of the manner in which his counsel 
 was sought and his active sympathy relied upon by those most 
 concerned, the following letter gives evidence, while it also bears 
 witness to some points in the Irish Primate's character, which 
 he loved to hold up to admiration. It was written by a clergy- 
 man of Irish family, then resident in England ; he had called at 
 Clapton and found my uncle absent. 
 
 " My object was," he wrote, " to talk with you on a matter regarding 
 which I had a conversation on Friday with the Archbishop of Armagh, 
 and promised his Grace to see you and confer with you. The question 
 is now beginning to assume a truly serious aspect, What is to become 
 of the clergy hi Ireland. Those who have private property may woather
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 337 
 
 out the storm ; but what is to become of the rest one cannot imagine. 
 They have been spending everything they could lay hands on to save 
 their poor people. And now the storm is falling on themselves, the 
 landlords getting no rent, and unable, those who are willing, to pay the 
 tithe-rent charge. And then the new poor-rate is so heavy, that in 
 some parishes it will sweep away one-half of the tithe, and in several, 
 I fear from what I have learnea, the whole. The Archbishop of Ar- 
 magh is really perplexed; every day brings him many letters from 
 clergymen in the greatest distress ; curates who had tried to get on by 
 borrowing money, on whom executions are now laid to recover what 
 they have no means to repay. The difficulty is that it is a very delicate 
 matter to bring before the public. I told the Archbishop I would see 
 you and consult with you whether you thought vou could advise any- 
 thing in the way of a private subscription. He said he would be obliged 
 to me to do so, and that his name may be used ; that he would give nis 
 sanction to the plan, and a subscription. I said I thought it hardly 
 fair to expect him to do that, but that his name and countenance would 
 be desirable. If you think anything can be done, will you write him 
 a line ? you know what a heart and hand he has ; but there must be 
 some limit, and now, I know, he is not receiving any of his rents. My 
 notion would be that if anything could quietly be raised, it should be 
 placed at his disposal, though I said nothing of that sort to him. How- 
 ever, all this I merely suggest for your consideration, as on any such 
 question I should feel implicit reliance on your judgment." 
 
 Full well did the writer of this letter know the truth of the 
 labours and sufferings of the uncomplaining Irish clergy. His 
 own brother was at this very time making exertions and sacrifices 
 in his famine-stricken parish with a " devoted earnestness" to 
 which his diocesan bore strong testimony when, after the lapse 
 of a few years, his own health and that of his wife proved to 
 have been irrecoverably undermined by anxiety and privation, 
 and his children became candidates for our orphan asylums. 
 These children had a share in my dear uncle's thoughts during 
 his last illness, and one of his very latest gifts was towards a fund 
 for their benefit. Perhaps therefore a few particulars respecting 
 the labours of this zealous man may not be out of place here. 
 " Tell all the good you can," was always a maxim of my uncle's. 
 In March his brother gave the following report : 
 
 " The plan he pursues with regard to sowing the poor people's ground 
 with corn, is to hire them to dig, drain, and sow their own little plots 
 for themselves. He pays them not in money, but food ; and he sup- 
 plies them with seed-corn, taking in every case their note of hand for 
 the price of seed, to be paid at the end of harvest, if he shall choose to 
 demand payment. They are most grateful for this, as, instead of con- 
 suming on then- own food almost all the wages given by Government, 
 which are so very small, they have the Indian meal which he gives them 
 
 z
 
 33 8 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 dressed in their own cabins, and eat it hot and comfortable along with 
 their families at home ; he says that the contrast between their looks 
 and those of the road-labourers is remarkable." 
 
 A short time after this my uncle received an interesting letter 
 from the devoted clergyman himself, thanking him for a dona- 
 tion of 10 towards the establishment of the fifth school in his 
 parish, and detailing some of the difficulties and opposition which 
 had beset, but had not been able to hinder, his gallant labours. 
 Some of the animating thoughts which such an example must in- 
 spire seem to be well expressed in the following rough draft of 
 a letter which my uncle wrote in answer to a friend who, after 
 many years of unremitting toil in his sacred calling, had con- 
 fessed some sense of weariness and longing for retirement. 
 
 " None can deny your title to repose : A., B., and C." (naming the 
 Spheres of his correspondent's labours) " have amply earned for you all 
 that you could wish for of ease and relief. But a sad but indeed if 
 Atlas wants rest under his burden, where is now the Hercules to relieve 
 him ? I remember a Nonconformist, commenting on David's wish, ' Oh 
 that I had wings like a dove,' asks, whether it would not have better 
 become him to pray for the neck and shoulders of the ox to bear the 
 yoke and burden of the Lord ? Now certainly I have no thought of 
 applying this rough teaching of the Puritan to you, who have shewn, 
 both the strength and patience of the labouring animal ; but for your 
 present support and encouragement I cannot help adding what the good 
 Archbishop [Howley] said to a friend d who sought leave to retire from 
 action, having run out his threescore years and ten, alleging that it 
 could scarce be right to die in harness. ' True, not in the world's har- 
 ness/ was the answer : ' but can a man fall better than in his Master's 
 service? And who, being harnessed, would be like the children of 
 Ephraim, and turn back in the day of battle 5" " 
 
 My uncle's own time and thoughts were very fully and 
 actively employed this spring with business connected with 
 several important interests of the Church at home and abroad. 
 The charter for the new Missionary College at Canterbury, the 
 patent for Bishop Broughton's metropolitaucy, and his usual care 
 for the Church Societies, were all subjects of anxious attention, 
 and of much correspondence with Archdeacon Harrison. 
 
 " I was grieved," he wrote, " to learn the dependence of the S.P.G. 
 upon its Committee of Finance. Be assured that if we make any other 
 use of such committees than to excite our friends to action, they will be 
 our ruin. The economists have never done good in any generation, at 
 least never where, in any work for the honour of God and His Church, 
 they have opposed themselves to the children of faith." 
 
 d Joshua Watson himself.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 339 
 
 He was in correspondence with the Bishop-elect of Newcastle, 
 and had the happiness of knowing that he had been instrumental 
 in bringing about the close union of counsels which afterwards 
 subsisted between him and Bishop Broughton. 
 
 He had before pointed out the importance of naming new sees 
 from the cities, not from the countries where they are esta- 
 blished. " I hope," he wrote in 1845, "that Chapman will be 
 Bishop of Colombo, not of Ceylon ; for see, the enemy who keeps 
 up with, or rather outruns us, in the episcopal race, is let in in 
 every case; Archbishop of Sydney, Bishop of Hobart-town," &c. 
 
 He had for some years been anxiously watching over the 
 course of an unhappy boy, a runaway from home and friends, 
 who had a distant claim of family connection ; he had made 
 repeated efforts to restore him to Christian society, and to give 
 him every chance of amendment under kind and watchful care ; 
 a short gleam of better hope had been hailed by my uncle with 
 glad thankfulness, but it was soon overclouded with sorrowful 
 disappointment. 
 
 " What can be said or done," he wrote to me, " in the matter of my 
 sad enclosure ? Humanly speaking, one would say the case is hopeless ; 
 but I have told his aunt we have no right to despair of one another. 
 Whilst a merciful God gives life, He bids us hope. He does not 
 continue our being merely that we may fill up the measure of our iniqui- 
 ties, and He the vials of His wrath. No opportunity of repentance, we 
 may be sure, is afforded in mockery even ol the vilest sinner. I have 
 entreated his friends to pursue their inquiries after the wretched lad, 
 and never to give him up e ." 
 
 Another chance was given him, in emigration under favour- 
 able auspices, but the result was never known to my uncle. 
 
 On the 29th of July, 1847, the church of St. Barnabas, Homer- 
 ton, was consecrated. Throughout all his labours for this object, 
 my uncle loved to consider himself as only the executor of his 
 brother's last wishes ; and it was on the anniversary of our 
 father's death that we received his congratulations on the com- 
 pletion of some needlework which he chose to consider as the 
 finishing stroke, knowing the gratification it would be to us 
 to feel it such. "May you all be permitted," he wrote, "long 
 to joy in the success of this labour of love, for indeed it promises 
 well for the fulfilment of all our Christian hopes." 
 
 We were all assembled for the day of consecration, and after 
 the service there was a large gathering of friends at Clupton : 
 the kind Bishop of London joined us, and spoke himself and 
 drew from others words which went to the hearts of all who had 
 
 A similar case has been related in the seventh chapter of this Memoir.
 
 340 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 known and loved the late Rector of Hackney ; nor could some 
 expressions of heartfelt love and respect be withheld when the 
 Bishop spoke of the surviving brother. I wish I could preserve 
 my dear uncle's few and touching words to Mrs. Snaith, whose 
 eightieth birthday was kept this day. On the following Sunday 
 we accompanied him to the new church, where the Holy Com- 
 munion, of which notice had been given on the day of consecra- 
 tion, was administered for the first time, and shared his thankful 
 rejoicing in the accomplishment of his long and patiently-cherished 
 purpose. 
 
 About a month later he came to us as usual, apparently in 
 very comfortable health and spirits, and quite ready for conversa- 
 tion. A friend who was with us led him to speak of what are 
 called the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed, alleging 
 the common objections that are made against them. He justified 
 them, and pointed out that the condemnation is declared only 
 against apostates, those who do not " keep whole and undefiled 
 the faith once delivered ;" not ruling the case of untaught un- 
 believers. But when we were alone, he acknowledged that he 
 had felt it to be unlike the general tone of our service, and could 
 have almost wished that it should be reserved for special occa- 
 sions, or for the clergy only; but he would not risk the conse- 
 quences of making any change. 
 
 It was a principle with him carefully to avoid the using of 
 any text of Scripture to inculcate anything, however good and 
 true in itself, except the lesson which it is, to the best of our 
 knowledge, designed to teach. 
 
 I sought his counsel for another friend about the study of 
 unfulfilled prophecy. He said he thought we should read it 
 onl-y to cultivate awe and humility, not to search into its applica- 
 tion ; he thought that the fact of such research having led so 
 many wise and good men into error and fanaticism, was a strong 
 indication against it. The Jews erred not through neglect of 
 their prophetic books, but through carnal misunderstanding of 
 them. Immediate inspiration was needful to unfold their mean- 
 ing even to the Apostles in the midst of their actual fulfilment. 
 
 As to the attempts to calculate times and seasons, he thought 
 our Lord's own words were conclusive against them f . A tew 
 days afterwards he found and read to us a good lecture on this 
 subject by Archbishop Whately, an unwonted authority with 
 him. 
 
 When Mr. and Mrs. Norris came to us for their usual short 
 visit in the autumn, the two old friends were as full of vigour in 
 
 1 St. Matt. xxiv. 36; Acts i. 7.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 34 1 
 
 conversation and enjoyment of each other's company as ever. 
 They spoke of sinecures : both regretted that the Archbishop had 
 lost his options ; my uncle observed that it was as monstrous to 
 assert that there should be no sinecures in the Church, as that 
 there should be no pensions in the State. They talked of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission : it was shewn that some of the com- 
 missioners had been actuated by higher motives than are com- 
 monly imputed to them. For instance, the Bishop of London 
 knew that the increasing value of land in London must ere long 
 render the income of the see so great that it could scarcely escape 
 the cupidity of those in power ; and by providing that the surplus 
 should go permanently into Church funds, he averted secular 
 spoliation. A similar motive had partly induced Bishop Van 
 Mildert to endow Durham University out of episcopal and capi- 
 tular funds, but in this case there was no diversion from the 
 purpose of the founder, since a clause in the foundation declared 
 education for the ministry to have been one of the objects origi- 
 nally contemplated. 
 
 On the last evening of the visit our two dear uncles spent some 
 little time privately together; when they rejoined us, it was 
 easy to perceive from a few words they uttered, and the over- 
 flowing kindness of their manner, that they had been exciting 
 one another to thankfulness for all the mercies bestowed upon 
 their old age. 
 
 Shortly after this, we received tidings of the death of an 
 excellent clergyman in Yorkshire, leaving a large young family 
 under nine years of age : my uncle said it was one of the mys- 
 terious dispensations of Providence, that a person on whom so 
 much depended should be taken away in the prime of life, while 
 he, useless and unneeded, was left to his seventy-seventh year. 
 
 He observed one day that the unmarked way in which years 
 pass in old age, might help us to receive and understand that 
 description of the opening of eternity, "that time should be no 
 longer." He quoted a saying which he thought very true, that 
 the term of our own existence is our only apprehension of time, 
 and that it is thus that a month in childhood seems so much 
 longer than it does afterwards. 
 
 One Sunday in November we had been reading Bishop Taylor's 
 Sermon "On doing God's Work Deceitfully:" he was resting 
 afterwards in his arm-chair, and hearing a sigh, I went up to 
 him, and asked if he was weary? "No." "Sorry?" "Yes." 
 The intelligence of the death of the Archbishop of York had 
 come in the morning, and I guessed his thoughts were upon 
 that : but he said, " No ; for ' doing work deceitfully :' you have 
 been stinging me."
 
 342 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 We spoke of the trial of perplexity of duty, as apparently an 
 innocent infirmity, and yet one which our Great Example could 
 not share. He said that it would cease in proportion to our 
 growth in wisdom and goodness ; and drew a distinction between 
 perplexity as to duty and in matters of judgment. 
 
 A very interesting letter was sent him to read, from the 
 British Consul at Jerusalem, once a national schoolboy in 
 Baldwin's Gardens, addressed to his old master, Mr. Johnson. 
 At the time when my uncle was in the habit of constantly 
 visiting this school, thrice a week and nearly always on Sundays, 
 he had noticed this boy, and introduced him to Lord Clarendon. 
 He then told us of another boy, " whom we sent to Cambridge," 
 and who, after being employed in education in a Scotch diocese, 
 returned to London to seek Holy Orders, and was so well pre- 
 pared that the Bishop broke through his rule, of admitting none 
 beyond a certain age, in his favour. 
 
 My uncle said that he had never witnessed a more interesting 
 scene than that in the schoolroom of Baldwin's Gardens the first 
 few Sundays after Mr. Johnson had obtained the Bishop's leave 
 to have service there. Children raked almost out of the kennel 
 were before him, ranged in order and decency, and joining with 
 apparent devotion in the service. The eagerness with Avhich he 
 told this made us reproach him playfully for not having more 
 sympathy than he had sometimes seemed to shew with the 
 modern Eagged Schools. "I do not know but that I have," 
 was his reply; "I have tried much to get satisfactory informa- 
 tion about them, but in vain. They had their origin, perhaps, 
 rather with those whose object was to produce an effect." 
 
 The same evening he brought out a packet of our grandfather's 
 letters for us to read to him. The abiding warmth and reve- 
 rence of his filial love were very remarkable. 
 
 A little note written to Clapton about this time begins thus 
 characteristically : 
 
 " DEAEEST ELIZABETH, 
 
 " I would apologize for my cuckoo note of thankye, thankye, thankye, 
 but that one has been assured by the best authorities that the note of 
 the cuckoo is in itself the most perfect of animal sounds ; and so, as 
 I know you love the song of the birds, I shall persevere in repeating my 
 single and simple strain, until you shall please to discontinue your calls 
 for it. And when this shall be, perhaps you can tell better than I, for 
 I cannot guess." 
 
 Shortly after, he wrote again, in a graver tone of deep thank- 
 fulness and gratitude " for all the solace, as undeserved as unex- 
 pected, of the last six years of his widowed life," while yet 
 owning his sometimes painful sense of increasing weakness.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 343. 
 
 " I am truly overwhelmed," he wrote, " by the weight of to-day's and 
 yesterday's posts. Some agreeable, but all, alas ! troublesome (at least 
 to your poor broken-down uncle) letters, requiring sadly considerate 
 replies. MSS. and pamphlets all calling for opinions ; the tale of bricks 
 not diminished, straw not at hand, and stubble only to be gathered in 
 the land." 
 
 "This morning," he wrote to Mr. Norris, who had complained of 
 being almost overwhelmed with correspondence and applications of 
 the same sort, "left twenty letters and three papers at the Lodge; 
 and how many of them for your poor broken-down friend I leave you 
 to guess." 
 
 It was indeed a time of much labour and anxiety to both the 
 old friends, and both were, as Mr. Norris expressed it, "pining 
 for a little sweet counsel together," on the subjects which filled 
 their minds with grave fears. Disappointment in some of whose 
 power and will to uphold the Church's interests they had enter- 
 tained gqpd hopes, grief at the course of public events affecting 
 those interests, and apprehensions for the cause of religious 
 education, for which both had laboured and striven so much, all 
 weighed heavily on their minds ; but though at times oppressed 
 and almost overborne, thankfulness and cheerful trust seemed 
 ever to prevail. With regard to the National Society, in the 
 course of many conversations on the subject of the changes which 
 he deplored, as secularizing what he held to be a sacred thing, 
 I never remember to have heard one word from my dear uncle 
 that seemed to betray personal regret or wounded feeling for the 
 disappointments which arose in a scheme which had been so 
 much his own. 
 
 Before he left us this winter, he had been busying himself, 
 with his usual minute thoughtfulness, in various little acts of 
 kindness and affection, interesting himself in every detail as if 
 his mind had been entirely disengaged from other cares. The 
 last few evenings, especially, he was very cheerful and tenderly 
 kind, as thankful for the loss of a loose tooth as many would be 
 for far greater comforts, and repeating again and again his 
 thankful acknowledgments of the blessings he enjoyed. "His 
 was a singular lot," he said, " to have all care taken from him." 
 
 During the month of January the health of Archbishop Howley 
 was visibly giving way, and towards the end of it he was very 
 ill, though with fluctuations of improvement which kept up 
 hope. Archdeacon Harrison had kindly written frequent reports, 
 while the illness continued, to my uncle, well knowing the love 
 and respect with which he regarded the Primate, and how truly 
 he would sympathize in all the alternations of affectionate hope 
 and fear which those nearest th*e sick bed were feeling, and
 
 344 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which were finally set at rest on Feb. 11, 1848, by the Arch- 
 bishop's peaceful death. The following letter brought the intel- 
 ligence to my uncle a few hours after the event : 
 
 " MY DEAK MK. WATSON, 
 
 " Your affectionate reverence for the Archbishop makes yon to be of 
 the number of those to whom a special messenger must be sent, to tell 
 you that which you will hardly be otherwise than prepared to hear, that 
 lie who has so filled all our thoughts and cares is now beyond the reach 
 of all earthly thoughts and cares, entered, as we assuredly and blessedly 
 hope, into his long and earnestly-desired rest. He breathed his last 
 breath this morning at about ten minutes after two. He had been 
 sleeping quietly for some hours, and awoke only about half an hour 
 before the time when he ceased to breathe. He is sleeping now, indeed, 
 as Holy Writ teaches us to speak of death, with the same calm expres- 
 sion on his countenance which marked it so strikingly in life. Ever, my 
 dear Mr. Watson, (and now not least,) 
 
 "Your faithful and affectionate, 
 " BENJ. HARRISON. ' 
 
 This event could not but be deeply felt by my uncle, who, 
 warmly as he had for many years personally loved and honoured 
 the Archbishop, now, mourned his removal from the helm no less 
 on public than on private grounds. He delighted to dwell on 
 the many instances which were known to him, which illustrated 
 the beauty of his revered friend's character, especially in points 
 wherein he thought that justice was seldom done him even by 
 those who were willing to acknowledge his private excellence. 
 I remember his relating how on one occasion, when there was 
 reason to fear a most calamitous nomination for a vacant bishopric, 
 the Archbishop had told him that he had fully made up his mind, 
 if such nomination were made, to refuse to consecrate. He would 
 sooner sacrifice fortune, office, and even life. 
 
 The delightful portrait of the Primate's character, which was 
 so faithfully and affectionately drawn by Archdeacon Harrison 
 in his next Charge, was studied by my uncle with very great 
 interest and satisfaction ; he was also much gratified by the very 
 general expression of public feeling, which, he said, " was as 
 satisfying as could, perhaps, in this worldly world be looked for." 
 
 w I return," he wrote in July, " the Earl of Aberdeen's letter, which 
 I have read more than once with increasing pleasure. To us, indeed, 
 the testimony was not wanting; but we might be partial, and glad, 
 therefore, one would have been if it could have been made a pendant to 
 the Charge. For to the world the witness of one who, having seen so 
 much of it, came under no such suspicion, and yet could only say that 
 after forty years of intimate acquaintance he had found less of human 
 infirmity in the Archbishop than in any man, without exception, he had 
 ever known, would perhaps have told more even than the congregated
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 345 
 
 evidence of varied excellence, which, I think with Lord Aberdeen, the 
 Charge has brought out with nice discrimination." 
 
 Two or three years later, when the possibility of producing in 
 due time a worthy Memoir of Archbishop Howley was discussed, 
 he enquired what means remained of bringing forward the testi- 
 mony of the Archbishop's own correspondence, official and non- 
 official. 
 
 " Upon this, after all," he said, " one must depend for a due apprecia- 
 tion of the character ; for it is not what can be said of him, but what has 
 been said by him, that can enable the reader to understand the exqui- 
 sitely beautiful traits which lay so open to those who lived with him." 
 
 My uncle had heard him deliver at St. Paul's a sermon which 
 he thought the most beautiful to which he had ever listened. 
 Sir John Eichardson, who was by his side, turned to him and 
 said, " Joshua, I had no idea that man could be half so eloquent ; 
 he not only believes what he says himself, but it seems as if he 
 would be unhappy if every one of his hearers does not believe 
 it also." 
 
 In April, 1848, a time of some public apprehension owing 
 to the mutterings of sedition at home, which threatened London 
 with a monster Chartist demonstration, in too much sympathy 
 with the revolutionary outbreaks on the Continent, my uncle 
 was at Clapton, and wrote to report to us the happy results of 
 the great Duke's wise measures of prevention. 
 
 " I have just been favoured with a visit from the energetic old man 
 of Grove-street," he told us ; "in the kindness of his heart, having just 
 received from an eye-witness some slight information of the present 
 tranquillity of the town, he posted up through the dirt and darkness to 
 impart the welcome intelligence to the recesses of Clapton-corner." 
 
 In the July following, the new church of South Hackney was 
 consecrated, and we were all assembled to witness it. This was 
 indeed an occasion of deep interest to all who loved "the ener- 
 getic old man," as his friend aptly called him ; seeming at once 
 the crown and completion, and almost the monument, of his long 
 pastoral labours. On the following Sunday he preached most 
 impressively on 2 Cor. xi. 2, the very text which he had taken 
 when beginning his ministrations at South Hackney thirty-eight 
 years before. He also administered the Holy Communion. 
 
 In August a plan was made and carried out for a visit to 
 Malvern on account of my mother's health ; my uncle entered 
 heartily into it, delighting in the opportunity it afforded him of 
 being our host, and providing everything for our comfort and 
 pleasure. He seemed greatly to enjoy the beauty of the scenery, 
 especially in a long drive we took one day round by Mathon and
 
 346 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 the west side of the hills. One day we made a memorable ascent 
 of the Sugar-loaf hill, four septuagenarians, my dear mother and 
 her two sisters, as well as my uncle, being of the party. 
 
 During this visit to Malvern he exerted himself to enliven us 
 with his cheerful and varied conversation, as well as by the spirit 
 of enjoyment which he threw into everything that was done or 
 planned, as if he had been the youngest of us all. He told 
 a curious story of Thurlow and Horsley, tracing Horsley's pre- 
 ferment to an apparently trivial accident. Thurlow, starting 
 from a friend's house for a solitary journey, when in the carriage 
 asked for a book to amuse him ; his host, hastily seeking what 
 might serve the turn, laid his hand on Horsley's Letters to 
 Priestley, which chanced to he on the table, and threw them to 
 the Chancellor. The minds of Thurlow and Horsley were of 
 a kindred stamp, and Horsley's fortunes were made. 
 
 We were reading "Southey'sLife of "Wesley ;" it appeared that 
 Southey's communication to the Archbishop of the overtures made 
 through, him by the Yorkshire Methodists, was sent to my uncle ; 
 but he did not think it afforded real hope of permanent union. 
 
 He laughed at the recollection of what he called Bishop Blom- 
 field's inability to keep back a sharp and witty word, though he 
 would utter it in no unkindness. As an instance of what he 
 meant, he told how he had once pointed out to the Bishop 
 a certain person present possessed of more beauty than brains, as 
 "he with the head of Antinous." " You should say Anti-nous" 
 was the quick whispered answer. 
 
 He was at this time in treaty for the purchase of the old house 
 at Homerton, opposite the church, in which his parents had lived. 
 It was not in itself a good bargain, but he felt strongly tempted 
 to buy it, that he might dedicate it to Church uses as a thank- 
 offering for all the blessings which had sprung out of his father's 
 residence in it, his own and his brother's connection with Hack- 
 ney parish, and with the families of Sikes, Powell, and Norris. 
 
 " My dearest Elizabeth," he wrote, when the treaty was completed, 
 "you must not in your great kindness for me scold about this encumber- 
 ing myself with an old house at more than seventy-seven. You roust 
 call to mind that from this old house, humanly speaking, all I have ever 
 known, or now know, of worldly happiness proceeds ; and when circum- 
 stances brought it within my reach, it seemed impossible not to try to 
 make it help to express my gratitude by its return of good to its own 
 neighbourhood. Without it, what should I have known of Tryon's 
 Place, Hackney Rectory, Grove-street, &c. ?" 
 
 He told us that in "the Master's" copy of "Hele's Offices" 
 there was this memorandum: "Four best books of devotion; 
 this, Bishop Cosin's, Bishop Andrewes', and Archbishop Laud's."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 347 
 
 We asked him whether a passage in the Oxford Tracts' translation 
 of Andrewes, "making mention of the all-holy, undefiled, and 
 more than blessed Mary," &c., was a true representation of the 
 Bishop's meaning? He said that Bishop Andrewes had only 
 retained the very words of the ancient Greek Liturgies, which 
 his reverent and devotional spirit would shrink from rejecting ; 
 but that the translator had exaggerated the expression in his 
 rendering 8 . 
 
 When Mr. and Mrs. Norris were with us for a few days in 
 October, I remember the old friends on one happy evening 
 sitting together at a little table, at first full of mirthfulness 
 and fun, but afterwards falling into grave and earnest talk. 
 They spoke together of priestly absolution, and the meaning 
 of the Church's three forms. Mr. Norris said he thought the 
 priest's part was, as on the day of atonement, bringing his own 
 siris and the sins of the people in a posture of humiliation : he 
 said he could only venture to use the form of Absolution in the 
 Visitation of the Sick by remembering our Lord's provision for 
 human inability : "If the son of peace be there, your peace shall 
 jest upon it ; but if not, it shall turn to you again." 
 
 Mr. Norris read to us during this visit Wordsworth's Hulsean 
 Lectures on the Canon of Scripture. They were much to his 
 satisfaction, especially the seventh, which he said was " q. e. d." 
 
 My uncle was talking of composition, and quoted Bishop 
 Copleston, who welcomed as valuable praise the remark that 
 "his words were in their right places," as a point of even more 
 importance than the best choice of the words themselves. He 
 told us of another maxim which he greatly approved : " If 
 a word is in itself the best word for your purpose, do not take 
 another merely to avoid repetition." 
 
 He and H. T. Powell had ngreed before this that there should 
 be three rules for written controversy, which would tend greatly 
 to clear away apparent differences. The parties should agree 
 upon a glossary of terms. They should not write anonymously. 
 And remembering that they write for opponents, they should 
 seek so to write that not even single sentences should be justly 
 liable to misconstruction. 
 
 Queen Charlotte was mentioned, and my uncle was always 
 glad of an opportunity to speak good of her. He said it was 
 utterly false to accuse her of stinginess; that she had four 
 almoners, all bound to the strictest secresy, and that she was in 
 the habit of giving away so largely through them that she some- 
 times left herself unable to pay a due regard to the outward 
 
 * See Angl. Catb. edition, p. 140.
 
 348 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 discharge of duties becoming her position. He told another 
 anecdote of her : one of her ladies had been importunate in re- 
 questing her to receive back a person of blemished fame who 
 had been banished from the court, and pressed for a reply which 
 she might communicate to her friend. "Tell her," was the 
 Queen's dignified answer, "tell her that you durst not ask me." 
 
 A little hesitation of my mother's in taking her place at table 
 one day, drew from him a graceful story of the Empress Catherine 
 of Russia. She was, I think, entertaining a party of savans, 
 and an eminent philosopher who was blind, coming in, was at 
 a loss where to seat himself. The Empress, observing his em- 
 barrassment, said with happy tact, " Asseyez-vous ou vous voulez, 
 Monsieur; ce sera toujours la premiere place." 
 
 In a quiet Sunday talk shortly before he left us this winter, 
 he spoke of his growing disinclination to enter into discussion 
 on subjects of deepest importance in our faith, especially on any 
 points connected with the mystery of the Divine nature. He 
 would rather not assert even the plainest inference or deduction 
 from the words of Holy Scripture, but would cling simply to 
 the words themselves. At another time I found him with St. 
 John vi. before him, and he pointed out our Lord's plain declara- 
 tions of His eternal Sonship, and yet how unbroken the mystery 
 remains. " That is the reason," he said, " I do not like to read 
 books ' On the Incarnation ;' I feel now that I cannot doubt the 
 doctrine, and I think that is full faith." 
 
 He thought there was always danger in trying to prove too 
 much, and said that he dared not risk the simplicity and firmness 
 of his faith by studying human reasons, and proofs, and explana- 
 tions with which he might be dissatisfied. He had closely 
 studied the Athanasian Creed with the help of "Waterland, but 
 it was at an age when one likes to enquire, rather than to rest 
 in results, and even then he had done so rather in order to be 
 able to meet the doubts of others than to establish his own faith, 
 which had been long before implanted in him by his Catechism ; 
 and advancing years only led him more and more to trust that 
 earliest guide, though he might sometimes wish that it contained 
 a plainer declaration of the office and orders of the Church. It 
 was a frequent observation of his that it is to be expected that 
 the trials of our faith should be as many and as searching aa 
 those to which our will* are subjected. And after dwelling on 
 our inability to comprehend even faintly that word ' eternity,' 
 which is on all our tongues, he said, "I confess I could scarcely 
 rest my faith on any system which was level to our understand- 
 ing; for I should suspect that if man could comprehend, man 
 might also have invented, it."
 
 ' Memoir of Joshua Watson. 349 
 
 He had been much interested by the discovery which enabled 
 my brother-in-law to prove that the suspicions which he and my 
 uncle had both entertained for many years concerning the author- 
 ship of a treatise called " Contemplations on the State of Man," 
 included by Heber among Taylor's Works, were fully justified. 
 An old translation by Molyneux of a Spanish treatise of Nierem- 
 berg was now brought to light, from which it was evident that 
 the " Contemplations" had been manufactured, as was shewn in 
 my brother-in-law's pamphlet h . 
 
 Very soon after this, a most valuable Letter by Jeremy Taylor, 
 containing a catalogue of theological books for the use of a stu- 
 dent in divinity, which had been preserved in the library of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, was published in the Irish Ecclesiastical 
 Journal 5 . 
 
 " Taylor's exhumation," wrote my uncle to Canon Wordsworth, 
 Jan. 5, 1849, " is most seasonable. Churton is quite grateful for such 
 a turu-up, confirming him in his wrath against Heber's unwise deprecia- 
 tion of Andrewes, Laud, and others. By the way, is not the catalogue 
 in itself curious? Well might our good old King say, 'There were 
 giants in those days !' for nothing less than a giant's maw and a giant's 
 digestion could master such a meal for breakfast. What would Jeremy's 
 full fare have been ? Must we not wish that Todd's industry may disinter 
 some more of such remains ? And may we not set Bishop Taylor's un- 
 qualified eulogium of Episcopius against the suspected eulogia of Lim- 
 borch and Le Clerc ? 
 
 "I rejoice," the letter continued, "in the accession of Lord John 
 Thynne to S. P. G. counsels. He will, I apprehend, be ever on the 
 right side, and so bring considerable weight to their views. I hope you 
 did not fail to gladden him with Bishop Gray's account of Archdeacon 
 Merriman's exertions. He has nobly redeemed all Lord John's promises 
 and predictions concerning him." 
 
 On Easter Monday he wrote with happy thankfulness to tell 
 us of a visit from the clergyman of Homerton, who had been 
 able to report, he said, 
 
 " with much ministerial joy, of eighty-five communicants yesterday. He 
 rightly considers this a proof of an established congregation. I hope, 
 my very dear Mary, you will like this as well as I do. Indeed I am 
 sure you will, for I have just been saying to Elizabeth how much more 
 blest than I can tell, in the identity of feeling and principle, is her and 
 your loving uncle, " J. W." 
 
 h "A Letter to Joshua Watson, Esq., D.C.L., containing an account of 
 a singular literary fraud practised on the memory of Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 By Edw. Churton, M.A." 1848. 
 
 1 It may be fonnd in a note at p. Ixxxviii. of the first volume of Taylor*! 
 Works, Eden's edition.
 
 35 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 In August lie returned to Daventry, "where lie found Mr. and 
 Mrs. Morris, and a party of younger relations, assembled to aid 
 in giving him a glad welcome ; peculiarly genial weather helped 
 also to make this summer gathering a very delightful one. The 
 first three days after his return were marked by a Confirmation, 
 the re-opening of a neighbouring church, and a small parochial 
 meeting for the Society for Propagating the Gospel and the 
 Additional Curates' Fund, in all of which my uncle was able to 
 take his full share of active interest. 
 
 When we were again alone, we read with him a review of Eliot 
 "Warburton's "Prince Rupert." The reviewer seemed to object 
 to Warburton's view of the kingly power apart from the Church's 
 consecration. My uncle observed that the divine right of kings 
 is sealed and sanctioned by the Church, but not derived from it. 
 
 He liked to tell of the devout humility which appeared in the 
 young Queen's behaviour at her coronation, and of the beautiful 
 feeling and piety which Archbishop Howley had seen in her, 
 when she received from him the first intelligence that she was 
 Queen. On the same authority, he spoke of King William's 
 deathbed: "There was faith, and there was repentance, and 
 there was charity," were the Archbishop's words. 
 
 He was much engaged this autumn in considering the catalogue 
 of his books, of which he was anxious to make as good a dis- 
 tribution as possible, and to do it himself, in order to spare his 
 executors the labour. It was a work of toil and time, comprising 
 as it did several objects, Bishop Broughton's intended Theo- 
 logical College at Sydney, St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and the 
 library of the medical students at St. Bartholomew's, besides in- 
 dividual clergymen and many private friends, among whom his 
 own grandsons and godchildren were foremost in his care. When 
 we came to the title of L'Estrange's " Josephus," which is now 
 gone to St. Augustine's, he mentioned that it had been his com- 
 panion at school, he thought when he was eight years old, and 
 that he used to read it by the light of a wax taper purchased 
 by himself, lights not being provided in the schoolroom for 
 play-hours. 
 
 He told u.s about Dr. Nott's translation of the English Prayer- 
 book into Italian, and his wish to have it adopted by the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. My uncle, who was then 
 Treasurer, had hesitated, because in one or two expressions he 
 thought the Church's meaning was not correctly represented, and 
 because, though the book was printed in Italy, the title-page 
 was to be struck off in England and marked "Londra," and he 
 doubted whether this were not a "pious fraud." 
 
 He was considering a sermon in which the safety of persons
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 351 
 
 remaining in the Roman Communion was by implication declared 
 to be almost impossible. This, he said, he would not only refuse 
 to affirm, he would entirely deny : there had been too many great 
 and holy men within her pale to make such an assertion tenable. 
 This was very different from believing, as he did, that those who 
 desert to Rome are in great danger. "The faithful watchman 
 must," he continued, "cry aloud and spare not, to stay the flock 
 from straying ; but it requires very great discretion so to cry as 
 not to make a harsh and uncharitable sound in their ears." 
 
 I once asked him what his opinion was about private members 
 of our Church going to Romish places of worship. He said that 
 if tli ere were no other service within reach, the question would 
 be a difficult one, and he did not rule it; but if it were only as 
 a matter of interest or of curiosity, he should not be himself 
 disposed to go, for the following reasons. He would not go to 
 the House of God in any spirit of curiosity or prying ; neither 
 would he by joining in the service, as he could not but do were 
 he present, give his implied sanction, however unimportant, to 
 a ritual in which he knew there was so much that was wrong, 
 but which was yet sincerely performed by those around him. 
 He would not put himself in a situation in which he would have 
 to stop short, as it were, in the midst of an address to God, and 
 sit in judgment on it. 
 
 He was speaking of education, disliking the "high-pressure 
 system," and deprecating the use of stimulants; he said the 
 effect of excitement was bad intellectually and morally, prevent- 
 ing the slow and strong growth of principles, and causing the 
 minds of children to run up weak and puny, like forced plants, 
 unfit to bring forth fruit in due season. 
 
 He told us that his early boyish reading had been wholly un- 
 guided and unchecked ; but he would not give any opinion as to 
 whether it had been a safe experiment, such as might be tried on 
 others. He thought it might be true as a matter of fact that 
 persons of the greatest powers and soundest views had generally 
 ranged most widely in their early reading ; and as to such a case 
 as one we had in view, where there was certainly genius, and 
 where sound principles had been rooted in, he said, he would 
 keep a rein, but would let it be long and loose. 
 
 During the closing months of 1849 he was disabled by severe 
 illness, spasmodic asthma, accompanied with sciatica, originating 
 I believe from an unfortunate exposure to draught in a hot and 
 crowded room when giving his vote for a good officer in the 
 Northampton Infirmary. As the sciatica increased, we could see 
 that his temperament was acutely sensitive to pain, though his 
 patience was unconquerable, and indeed was almost lost to sight
 
 352 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 in the loving thankfulness which so gratefully welcomed every 
 alleviation, and acknowledged every little service that was 
 rendered to him. He spoke more than once of the positive 
 pleasure of the intervals of ease, "They are so wonderfully 
 refreshing." We tried to make him forbear his " cuckoo note" 
 of thanks, his cough being so easily excited that even a word 
 cost him much suffering ; so then he chose to have a sign instead, 
 holding up his fingers. One night when he had allowed me to 
 be his chaplain, he said, " You must let me thank you for such 
 services as that." "Well then," I replied, "you must take 
 thanks from me too." " I will take anything from your hands," 
 was his whispered answer. And when his niece at Clapton 
 thanked him in a note for some kind thought for her during his 
 illness, he said, " Would you have me think of nothing ? I must 
 think for others if I think at all ; I have no need to think for 
 myself in anything." It always seemed to be an enjoyment to 
 him in seasons of weakness and pain to have the Scriptures read 
 aloud to him, he found the voice so great a help in this and de- 
 votional exercises. When he began to try to read alone again, 
 the weakness made him unable to fix his attention, and he 
 mourned over the readiness with which the mind was drawn 
 away by a little inconvenience or thought of action. It had 
 been the aim of his life, he said, to acquire a habit of meditation, 
 but his life had been so busy, that he had always had to lament 
 the intrusion of thoughts of action, what was doing, or what 
 ought to be done. 
 
 He noticed one day how both warning and encouragement are 
 conveyed in the words, "Enter ye in at the strait gate;" the 
 necessity of striving, and the difficulty ; yet the openness to all, 
 till the door be shut at the last 
 
 We came to the words, " There is joy in heaven over one 
 sinner that repenteth ;" he said this always seemed to him one 
 of the most gracious declarations, even transcending in loving- 
 kindness all promises of mercy, and offering the most prevailing 
 motives to repentance. 
 
 Of Jeremy Taylor, whom he always made his constant com- 
 panion, he observed, that besides the substantial food for heart 
 and mind which he supplied, there was also in his writings 
 entertainment of the richest kind for fancy and imagination, so 
 that he could turn to his pages for play as well as for study and 
 devotion. In one of our readings, however, we came to an ex- 
 pression he thought not quite guarded, approaching to regarding 
 suffering as expiatory; he observed that there was comfort for 
 a desponding soul, even in the greatest afflictions, in the con- 
 sideration that since no suffering of ours here can possibly satisfy
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 353 
 
 divine justice, there must be great reason to hope that it is 
 merciful chastisement. 
 
 He said also that in listening to the blessed promises of the 
 Gospel, he felt that he must pause and ask himself, To whom are 
 they made ? And the answer must ever temper hope with fear. 
 
 When I went to him in the morning, his greetings were 
 generally cheerful, and often playful; hut one day he was 
 obliged to own that the pain had made him very restless and 
 wakeful the first part of the night, it seemed so impossible to 
 find an easy posture. " So then," he continued, " I said, ' I will 
 lie still,' and went to sleep." 
 
 His pain and languor increased again, and with them, it really 
 seemed, his thankfulness. No little movement for his ease, how- 
 ever trifling, could escape his grateful notice; once, when his 
 suffering drew from me an expression of regret, he said, " Why 
 should a man complain? a sinner for the punishment of his 
 sins?" And another time, "It is far best it should be so," he 
 said, " except for others." 
 
 On the 12th of December I accompanied him to Clapton ; his 
 carriage was made thoroughly warm, and he was carried down, 
 into it ; the journey was accomplished without any harm. Again 
 our Scriptural reading led him into quiet talk. It grieved him 
 when, as by some writers is done, the love and mercy of God the 
 Father in the work of redemption are obscured or forgotten, in 
 the vain notion of thereby exalting the love and mercy of God 
 the Son ; representing the Father as a Being of stern justice 
 alone, and attributing, as it were, different characters to the 
 divine Persons : the " comfortable words" adopted into our 
 Communion Service are alone sufficient to correct this error. 
 
 He used often to express his strong conviction that when in 
 the institution of the Lord's Supper the Apostles heard the words, 
 " THIS is My Body," they were to them the solution of a long- 
 pondered mystery, the explanation of their Master's previous 
 teaching in St. John vi. ; and he would point out the parallel be- 
 tween our Lord's proceeding in this instance and in His institu- 
 tion of Baptism after the discourse to Nicodemus ; first declaring 
 the doctrine, and afterwards ordaining the Sacrament. 
 
 He observed that most of the Romish errors might be traced 
 to an origin in natural and innocent feelings. The doctrine of 
 purgatory may be considered as springing from a sense of the 
 unfitness of even the holiest men for God's presence, and might 
 be forgiven, if it were not for the frightful consequences which 
 have proceeded from it, the impious traffic, and the meddling 
 with what man must " let alone for ever." 
 
 But yet most of all could he have sympathy with them in 
 
 A a
 
 354 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 their prayers for the dead. It is difficult to refrain from going 
 as far as Dr. Johnson, and saying " so far as may he lawful," 
 when one thinks of one's own failures of duty towards the de- 
 parted, the omissions or commissions, when one might have 
 helped them onward. But he repeatedly said that the practice 
 of praying for the dead could not be defended, much less en- 
 joined. It could only he the strong wish and yearning that we 
 know not how to express, that we may hope they may he for- 
 given. There is comfort, he said, in the thought that those who 
 are removed from us may witness the anxious desire to make 
 amends for those offences towards them which we hoped to have 
 had opportunity to retrieve. But he would not venture to teach 
 that the departed pray for us individually, lest it might seem to 
 ascribe to them something of divine omniscience. The Church 
 Triumphant may pray for the victory of the Church Militant, 
 even as the Church Militant prays for the final consummation of 
 the Church Triumphant. 
 
 But, after all, the best and surest way in which we may keep 
 up communion with the departed is in sharing with them our 
 daily sacrifice of praise. " Let them give thanks whom the Lord 
 hath redeemed and delivered from the hand of the enemy." " 
 ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord, praise 
 Him and magnify Him for ever." 
 
 In reading 1 Pet. iii. 15, he said he thought the sense was, 
 " Be ready with meekness and fear to give an answer," &c. ; i.e. 
 exhorting to preparedness rather than to promptness. "What 
 prudent man," he would ask, "does not fear lest his unskilful 
 handling of Divine things should damage them in the eyes of 
 others r" 
 
 Before the close of this year I left him at Clapton; his re- 
 covery was very gradual, and it was not until the following 
 spring that he b> came quite free from sciatica. He was, how- 
 ever, able to take his usual interest in the affairs of the Societies ; 
 and though he could no longer attend the meetings, yet when 
 difficulties arose, he was still chamber-counsel to all his friends, 
 and both in conversation and correspondence endeavoured to help 
 and advise those who applied to him. In every case that con- 
 cerned the constitution and government of the Church Societies, 
 he was most anxious to preserve the principle of loyalty to epi- 
 scopal authority, however much the acts of individual bishops in 
 particular instances might be regretted. 
 
 A friend asked for his judgment on an argument which had 
 been drawn out somewhat to this effect, That a judge forfeits 
 his claim to submission if he ceases to judge according to law ; 
 Charles Leslie and other high authorities being quoted in con- 
 firmation of the opinion.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 355 
 
 " To this argument, ably and clearly as it is put, I should have ob- 
 jected," my uncle said, " that the principle of Bracton and Leslie, how 
 good soeve*r in abstract, would practically, four times out of five, erect 
 the subject of authority into the judge of its lawful or unlawful exercise 
 in the particular instance. And Leslie perhaps saw this, when he made 
 his question to the sheriff to be the turning-point of his decision, ' Sir, 
 have you qualified according to the law?' resting the judgment upon 
 a mere matter of fact : and only refusing to receive his claim to the 
 office by virtue of the sovereign's appointment, answering to that plea, 
 that the sovereign's will could not be certainly known, save when it 
 declared itself by the mouth of the law. Such 1 believe to have been the 
 real state of the case ; and if so, why then I in no wise perhaps exceed 
 the constitutional toryism of Charles Leslie ; and with this I am content, 
 eschewing, as I heartily do, extreme cases in argument, as they will 
 always provide for themselves." 
 
 In trie controversy on baptismal regeneration, which was agi- 
 tating the Church about this time, my uncle ^iad the happiness 
 of finding all his most immediate connections and friends in entire 
 concord with himself and with one another. Of the judgment in 
 the case of Mr. Gorham he wrote, 
 
 "I cannot bring myself to take part in the emeute, or join with the 
 unions in their clamour for an ecclesiastical convention, however con- 
 stituted There is no new heresy to condemn, and all sound doc- 
 trine has been long since established, as we ourselves assert, past 
 controversy, hi our publicly-received Liturgy and Articles." 
 
 His view of the judgment was that it in no sense involved the 
 Church in any definition of her doctrine, but that it merely testi- 
 fied to the fact that scope is allowed for different opinions and 
 interpretations of her formularies. 
 
 " For my own part," he wrote, " I am almost ready to say that I 
 accept the Bishop of London's refusal to concur in the decree as a set-off 
 against the whole sentence. It will do as much good, a mon avis, at 
 least, as the judgment can do harm." 
 
 In a letter which he dictated to Canon "Wordsworth, he ex- 
 pressed a high opinion of a Charge on Baptismal Regeneration by 
 Archdeacon Pott, pointing out his strong testimony to the value 
 of Bishop Bethell's treatise, but referring to the recorded judg- 
 ment of the two last Archbishops of Canterbury on the same 
 point of doctrine as of still more important value : 
 
 "When an attack was made," he said, "upon the S.P.C.K. about its 
 tracts on baptismal regeneration, and there was a special committee ap- 
 pointed, the late Archbishop, as Bishop of London, was its chairman 
 and mouth-piece, and his report was adopted at a very full meeting, at
 
 356 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 which Archbishop Manners-Sutton presided, (this not being an usual 
 thing with him, shewed his sense of the importance of the occasion) ; 
 Bishop Van Mildert also was on the committee. This Report ought to 
 be found in the minutes of the S.P.C.K., but it may be feared that there 
 is no one now in the office who is likely to know of it. It must probably 
 have been more than thirty years ago, soon after the publication of 
 Mant's Bampton Lectures. About that time the blunder which had 
 crept in without authority into the list of collects at the end of Nelson's 
 Festivals and Pasts, calling the Christmas collect Tor Regeneration,' 
 was detected, and the words, ' For Renovation,' were substituted. We 
 have just seen that in the Society's edition of 1848 the old error has 
 been restored, it is to be hoped without any manner of authority." 
 
 " To your enquiry about silence," he wrote to Archdeacon Harrison, 
 "I should answer, Speak where a fair and good occasion for speaking 
 offers ; but I am not ready to say, Speak for fear only that your silence 
 should be taken for acquiescence." 
 
 And soon after, in returning the proof-sheets of his friend's 
 Charge, 
 
 " Verily," he wrote, " I have only to thank you for having afforded 
 me so early an opportunity of perusing them. The use of Ridley and 
 Cranmer is admirable ; and many, I think, will .be grateful to you for 
 your harmony of the Apostles on the point of regeneration." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Advancing old age, Thoughts of approaching death. Conversation. 
 Church Unions. Private charity. Recollections of Mr. Hansard. 
 Death of Bishop Inglis, and of H. H. Norris. " Life of Bishop 
 Ken." Dr. S. W. Warneford's gifts. New Clergy Orphan School 
 at Canterbury. North aisle of Homerton Church Duke of Welling- 
 tons death. Anecdotes of him. Visit of Bishop Eroughton : his death. 
 Bishop Selwyn. Resignation of the Treasurers/tip of the Additional 
 Curates'" Society. Recollections of the last autumn of Joshua Watsons 
 life. His illness and death. 
 
 A SCENSION-DAY in 1850 fell on my dear uncle's birth-day, 
 J\, May 9, as in the year when he was born. He was able to 
 keep it by his first attendance at church after more than six 
 months' imprisonment. The Holy Communion was administered 
 on this festival in six churches in Hackney, the revival having 
 been begun in the mother church by my father at the close of 
 bis ministry. A few weeks later my uncle was able to spend two
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 357 
 
 days in London, meeting many old friends, and seeking to stir 
 up auxiliaries for Bishop Tyrrell of Newcastle ; he then joined 
 us at Tunbridge "Wells, where we hoped that a short sojourn 
 might complete his recovery. He was in excellent spirits, and 
 seemed in much-improved health and vigour ; but the following 
 little note to Canon Wordsworth shews what was the tenor of 
 his own thoughts about himself: 
 
 "Hose-hill, Tunbridge Wetts, 
 
 Eve of St. Barnabas, 1850. 
 " Mr VEET DEAB, FKIEND, 
 
 " I sorrow that we part so far asunder without a personal farewell k . 
 For I have many warnings of the little probability there is that we shall 
 ever meet again as we should have met last week ; but Fiat voluntas 
 Dei. If, contrary to reasonable expectation, and the feelings for some 
 time past of almost daily lessening powers of body and mind, they (body 
 and mind) should last out till your return, I trust the interval may be 
 blessed to each of us according to our several necessities, which He alone 
 knoweth, who alone is mighty, through His mercy and His Son's merits, 
 for their relief." 
 
 Rose-hill was filled with a large gathering of the family, 
 which he seemed thoroughly to enjoy; and while considering 
 it as probably almost a closing scene of his life, he shewed in 
 many characteristic ways that he looked upon it as a time of 
 unusual family blessing, for which he was devoutly thankful. 
 He took the kindest interest in the children of the party, seeming 
 bent on giving them every pleasure and advantage the place 
 could afford, and, as was his wont, endearing himself to their 
 hearts and memories for life. Before the end of June I re- 
 turned with him to Clapton, where we paused a little while before 
 our journey to Daventry. One evening Mr. Ernest Hawkins, 
 whom he used to call " the best servant the S.P.G. ever had," 
 came to spend an evening with him, and many good stories were 
 told of bountiful almsgiving, such as my uncle always delighted 
 in making known, of Bishop Bethell, for instance, who habitually 
 gave thirteen per cent, of his income to the great Church So- 
 cieties ; of Bishop Blomfield, who, as they said, " gave to every- 
 thing," and who, when my uncle thanked him for his continual 
 exertions in behalf of the Clergy Orphan School, replied, " Bless 
 you, no thanks ; I do not know how much my children may be 
 indebted to it." Camberwell parish was reported to send up 
 500 yearly to the S.P.G. My uncle told of a Yorkshire clergy- 
 man, Hamond Roberson, who, many years ago, after laboriously 
 
 k The Wordsworths were bound for Bjdal Mount.
 
 358 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 toiling in tuition, devoted his hard- won gains to build one of the 
 first free churches, serving it himself, acting also as schoolmaster, 
 and training some pupils to become teachers. He said he ranked 
 him next to good Mr. Lathbury. 
 
 The feeling that he was probably doing everything for the 
 last time was very strongly upon him still, and when he left 
 his Clapton home for Daventry, his heart was, in his own words, 
 " veiy, very full. It has yet had no vent," he wrote to the 
 niece he had just left, " and it cannot find it now ; but it will 
 have its course ere long." 
 
 We began to perceive that his power and inclination to join 
 in general conversation were lessened, though in talking with 
 him alone there was no failure of his ready interest, and the 
 clearness of his mind and memory seemed perfectly undimmed, 
 so that, excepting slightly increased deafness, we never felt the 
 signs of advancing decay of which he appeared so feelingly aware 
 in himself. A little visit from Canon Wordsworth gave him great 
 pleasure, and he was fully able to enjoy the society of his friend. 
 The following striking words from a letter of the poet Words- 
 worth were re. id to us by his nephew : 
 
 "The best test of an end being good is in the purity of the means 
 which, by the laws of God and of our nature, must be employed to at- 
 tain it. Even he interests of eternity are distorted when viewed 
 through the med um of wrong means." 
 
 My uncle was often consulted on the subject of Church Unions ; 
 several of his friends had been inclined to favour their formation, 
 in hopes of their serving as rallying-points in dangerous times : 
 but from the first he had expressed his fears that they were 
 likely to become mere ecclesiastical clubs or cliques, and that 
 a narrow and factious temper would be fostered by them. " They 
 are a sort of machine," he said, " that cannot stand still. Our 
 friends give their names, and then stand aloof; and while they 
 do so, the engine gains force and impetus, and when they desire 
 to use and control it, they will find it unmanageable." Mr. 
 Norris, who had at one time joined the Unions, now fully con- 
 firmed his friend's opinion : " I have long since ceased," he 
 wrote, " to attend Union meetings : but now there is no shadow 
 even of a forlorn hope for their being a rallying-point under any 
 emergency." 
 
 One day, when we had been sorrowing over the tidings of some 
 fresh defections to Rome, my uncle pointed out to us the force 
 which the last verses of 1 Cor. x. and the first verse of the fol- 
 lowing chapter gain by being taken together. " Give none of- 
 fence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 359 
 
 of God : even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine 
 own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be 
 ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." He said he 
 thought the lesson thus brought out a very useful one in these 
 days. Going one's own way, reckless of others, has been a snare 
 to many. Speaking of the application sometimes made of late of 
 the maxim, Fiat justitia, mat cesium, he said, " I cannot help 
 thinking that when made a rule of invariable action, it will be 
 often found a real sacrifice of the end to the means ; if not some- 
 times also a greater indulgence of mere temper and di-position 
 than the parties are themselves at all aware of." 
 
 It must not be supposed that this is by any means a complete 
 record of the ways in which my dear uncle was still endeavour- 
 ing to do good. He was at this time engaged in many and 
 various works of kindness and charity, of which it is not now 
 possible to give a full account. For instance, he was trying to 
 save a young man, a far-off" cousin, from ruin. He sent him 
 between 200 and 300, having reason to hope that it would 
 be the means of enabling him to pursue an honourable employ- 
 ment. Another petitioner had proved so unworthy that he had 
 felt obliged to desire that he would write no more : but he seemed 
 very uneasy until he could feel at liberty to relieve him through 
 another hand, not that he doubted the justice of his prohibition, 
 but " because," he said to me, " one cannot say one's morning 
 and evening prayer without feeling what it would be if the same 
 measure were dealt to us." Once, a year or two later, I gained 
 another glimpse into the history of his private charities. He was 
 destroying a great number of old letters, having been always in 
 the habit of preserving them with the most careful arrangement 
 and precision : in helping him at this work, one could not refrain 
 from trying to elicit reminiscences of the past, and he was veiy 
 kind in answering enquiries, though he said it was hard to tell 
 stories of the past, " for one only remembers the matters in which 
 oneself was concerned, and then it is impossible not to talk about 
 oneself." Yet he contrived to make what he told do honour to 
 others, especially to John Reeves, Wynclham, and Alderman 
 Wood, who were all associated with him in the charge of an 
 orphan family committed to them by a dying clergyman. Literally 
 hundreds of these letters referred to cases of charity in which he 
 had been engaged. With regard to one or two of these, in which 
 I knew that he had been led by the claims of hereditary friend- 
 ship and distant relationship to expend both time and money 
 largely without any apparent good result, I asked whether he 
 would hesitate to do the same again in similar cases. " No," 
 ho answered decidedly, " not with the same inducements." " He
 
 360 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 who -will never be content to stumble," he said, when some gift 
 had failed of its purpose, " must stand or sit still. Many mis- 
 takes are made from the fear of being wrong." 
 
 He said, however, that the result of his experience was to 
 make him rarely hope to see a man refrain from getting into debt 
 again after the penalty had been once incurred. It almost seemed 
 that, the barrier once past, the descent was easier. 
 
 "We were reading with him Southey's Life and Correspondence, 
 in which he was greatly interested ; often was he reminded by 
 the letters of circumstances long past, public events, and inci- 
 dents in his own life. The accounts of Southey's little son 
 Herbert brought to mind his own little firstborn, Joshua, who 
 died in 1802 ; it seemed hardly possible to believe that this 
 child's term of life was but tbree years, so much was crowded 
 into his father's recollections of him : indeed, the love and ten- 
 derness with which his memory was cherished were as fresh as 
 if the loss had but just occurred. 
 
 Another evening, the book led him to speak of the principle of 
 punishment. He thought that retributive justice must be for 
 God alone to exercise. Man must only punish in obedience to 
 the divine law, and in self-preservation, that is. in preservation 
 of the well-being of society. He remembered talking over this 
 view of the subject with Lord Sidmouth, who, " like Owen" said 
 the matter had never been made so clear to him before. This 
 " like Owen" was a playful allusion to an unlucky speech of 
 mine a few days before, when he had told us a story of Robert 
 Owen's consulting him about one of his schemes of political 
 economy. My uncle had said to him, "You do not want to take 
 people's property from them ; you only desire to make it of so 
 little value that it should be worth nobody's while to have it." 
 To which Owen replied, " You are the only man who has under- 
 stood my plan." Not having learnt to place any great faith in 
 Owen, I chanced to say that I wondered to how many people 
 Owen had said the same thing. This struck my uncle as so pro- 
 vokingly true that it drew upon me a burst of merry wrath, and 
 I was not permitted to hear the last of it for some time. 
 
 He gave us a most pleasing sketch of the character of a good 
 man, whom he had known many years before, Mr. Hansard, 
 printer to the House of Commons, a resident in St. Giles' parish, 
 the doer of everything good in it while it was neglected, and 
 afterwards the clergyman's right hand. It was his habit to have 
 all the apprentices in his large and flourishing business living in 
 his house, and on Sunday evenings he used to instruct them 
 himself. He was a man of most unfeigned humility, seeming 
 heartily to believe every one better than himself. He always
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 361 
 
 used a little ' i' in his letters, not at all out of ignorance or con- 
 ceit, as the Speaker bore witness, but out of a true genuine feel- 
 ing. In the same temper, having once occasion to visit my uncle 
 during an illness, he exclaimed, wonderingly, " You in bed, and 
 I going about my business !" 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1850 that the last two of my dear 
 uncle's band of coeval friends were removed by death. Bishop 
 Inglis died near the end of October, and within a month Mr. 
 Norris was seized with paralysis, from which he never recovered. 
 His last letter to my uncle related to his visit to the dying bed of 
 the excellent Bishop, whom they had both known and loved so 
 well j it closed with these words : 
 
 " I am really overdone ; and there is such a pressure of claims all 
 rushing together upon me, that I fear I shall break down before I have 
 discharged them all ; and the times are such that I cannot bear to shrink 
 from any as at present." 
 
 The rest which he would not take while any power to work 
 for his Lord remained, was nearer than he thought. 
 
 There is something in this last letter very characteristic of 
 what he was the zealous, unselfish Churchman, the ever-ready, 
 ever- welcome friend in sickness and sorrow. " I know not," my 
 uncle once said of him, " the man I would rather have near me 
 in any time of trouble." On the 28th of November the two old 
 friends met once more ; my uncle wrote to tell me of his visit to 
 Grove-street, which, was one of much comfort to both, and it 
 seemed by no means certain at the time that further intercourse 
 would not be possible. That very night, however, a second 
 stroke took away all hope of recovery; and he remained in- 
 sensible, in a tranquil sort of sleep, until the following Wed- 
 nesday, Dec. 4, when he gently breathed his last. On that 
 same day my uncle wrote to Canon Wordsworth : 
 
 " MY VERT DEAR CHRISTOPHER, 
 
 " I believe you have heard already that this morning all our anticipa- 
 tions with regard to Grove-street fears and hopes have had their full ac- 
 complishment. Soon after nine, my old and dear friend, the very oldest 
 and of the dearest of my surviving friends, ' good Mr. Norris, as our 
 Bishop calls him in his last letter, ceased to breathe, without suffering 
 and without a struggle. ... In him we have lost one of the soundest, 
 staunchest, of the sons of our Church, and I a friend with whom sweet 
 counsel has been taken for more than half a century. He is the last of 
 the knot of which your dear and honoured father, and the excellent Van 
 Mildert were the most honoured members. Sit anima mea cum illis. 
 Pray for this, my dearest friend, on behalf of 
 
 " Yours ever most affectionately and faithfully, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON."
 
 362 Memoir offoshtta Watson. 
 
 To Archdeacon Harrison he also wrote in the same strain : 
 
 "lean say nothing but what you feel and know," were his words. 
 " Our departed friend was the last link of, to me, an almost golden chain, 
 by which I had been bound for more than half a century. For full that 
 period we have taken sweet counsel together, and I do not know that 
 I can call to mind a single point of diiference even in opinion, much less 
 in principle or practice. I bless God that I have been permitted, after 
 the direction of a yet earlier friend, ' to keep my friendships in repair,' 
 and that in a degree for which I cannot be sufficiently thankful ; but 
 still, there must be a void which cannot be filled up on this side of the 
 grave. Let me therefore have your prayers, my dear friend, that the 
 long-suspended call may find me, whenever it is made, watching and 
 waiting, and not unprepared for the summons which must very soon meet 
 " Yours faithfully and affectionately, 
 
 " JOSHUA WATSON." 
 
 Two days after the funeral, which he was urgently dissuaded 
 from attending, he wrote to me : 
 
 " The tribute of reverent affection in most, and of respectful regard in 
 others, seems to have been offered in all sincerity on Thursday, and the 
 public and private debt to your dear uncle's memory most dutifully 
 paid. That I was not permitted to join will long be a pain and grief 
 to me, notwithstanding all the fresh evidences it has brought forth 
 of love and affection, of which I wish I was half as worthy as I am 
 grateful for them. I can only repeat the evening Good-night ; 
 God bless you all, and thank you." 
 
 In March, 1851, he wrote sadly to tell us that Archdeacon 
 Manning and Mr. James Hope had made " the fatal plunge." 
 For Manning he had expressed shortly before a really distressing 
 solicitude : 
 
 " I will wait and pray for him for his own sake, and for the sake of 
 the many whom his fall would be especially likely to draw down after 
 him. He is by general consent in himself one of the most loveable of 
 men ; and his sermons have, I know, prepared a host of earnest young 
 hearts, male and fenlale, to follow his lead whithersoever it may carry 
 them ; and although he has never seemed to me a satisfactory teacher, 
 his hold upon them and their affections is hardly to be shaken." 
 
 Over Mr. James Hope he mourned sorrowfully ; he had felt, 
 and often expressed, for him a very warm regard. 
 
 " He was to me," he said, " one of the most interesting persons it has 
 ever been my lot to fall in with." 
 
 In May, 1851, having now completed his eightieth year, he 
 actually visited the Great Exhibition, and came back resolved 
 that we and other friends at a distance should go there too.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 363 
 
 I thought him looking well when I saw him next, and he was 
 able to go himself to Whitefriars about a stained-glass window 
 which he was intending to send down for the church at Brom- 
 field, in Cumberland, the place where his father went to school. 
 Soon afterwards he came to Daventry, and certainly shewed no 
 diminished powers of enjoyment, full of thankful pleasure in the 
 beauty of the summer, in gathering his nieces about him, and 
 talking quietly to us of past and present, of sorrow and thanks- 
 giving ; happy himself and making all around him happy too. 
 
 Having been asked one or two hypothetical questions as to 
 what would be right under circumstances which some thought to 
 be near at hand, he said that he had a strong objection to ab- 
 stract questions in matters of conscience, or to forestalling diffi- 
 culties which might indeed be coming, but which might also be 
 averted. And as to impending troubles for the Church, her sons 
 must indeed seek to prepare and fortify their minds so as not to 
 be confounded in the perilous times which they know must be, 
 but not by contemplating this or that particular form of danger 
 which they imagine to be threatening, and fostering despondency 
 and alarm in themselves and others. The "way to escape" is 
 promised " with the temptation," we must not expect to be 
 always able to discern either the danger or the escape before- 
 hand. 
 
 Another day, when a morning visitor, himself a very peaceful 
 man, chanced to say at the close of a talk about the troubles and 
 schemes of the day, "I suppose something must be done," my 
 uncle, half-laughing, asked him whether he had not noticed how 
 the mischief had, all along, come from that cry : " Men join 
 together, meet and talk, and then ' must do something,' and the 
 most rash and violent are always the foremost in settling what 
 the ' something' shall be." 
 
 About the end of July he received a little visit from the Eev. 
 J. B. Sweet, who came to talk over a plan for an Insurance 
 Fund for superannuated clergymen, an object which, together 
 with some provision for dilapidations, he had especially desired 
 to see effected. He recommended its being attached to the Cor- 
 poration of the Sons of the Clergy. 
 
 We were reading the Life of Bishop Ken, by a Layman, which 
 often led my uncle into interesting talk. He had early in life 
 imbibed a strong sympathy with the Non-jurors, and their his- 
 tory was always an interesting subject with him. But he used 
 to point out as a warning to the zealous and uncompromising 
 of the present day, how the so-called "carrying out of a prin- 
 ciple" had borne away the later Non-jurors far from their first 
 starting-point, so as to lose their catholicity and bccomo at last
 
 364 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 a mere schism. They took up what they thought primitive 
 practices, and erecting them into essentials, condemned the 
 Church of England for not adopting them, and ended by re- 
 nouncing the Book of Common Prayer. He admired the spirit 
 in which Bishop Ken said that "in multitudine peccantium" he 
 found a reason for a charitable relaxing of canonical strictness. 
 
 A packet of letters and journals from New Zealand came to us 
 this autumn. In everything relating to this missionary diocese 
 my uncle took the warmest interest, and especially in everything 
 that personally concerned the Bishop and his wife, who for her 
 father's sake, the dear and honoured friend of his youth, as well 
 as for her own, was always regarded by him with something of 
 parental affection. "Many thanks," he wrote to me in the 
 spring of this year, in return for one of the letters, " to my very 
 dear niece for her early transmission of this delightful epistle. 
 It is a happy evidence of unchangeable temper, and makes it 
 impossible not to be a sharer in all its present joys and hope- 
 ful anticipations for the future. Which may a gracious God in 
 mercy bless !" 
 
 And when these fresh despatches came, he listened to all with 
 eager interest. "They make one feel ashamed," he said, "of 
 one's own idle life ;" and almost tearfully he spoke of the plea- 
 sure it would be to him to embrace his old friend's daughter 
 once again, though with little expectation that the wish could 
 be realized 1 . 
 
 He was much engaged about this time in correspondence with 
 the munificent Dr. Warneford, who sought his counsel as to the 
 direction of some of his princely acts of bounty and charity. His 
 gifts of 1,000 to Bishop Broughton's collegiate establishments, 
 of 2,000 to the S.P.C.K., of 2,000 to the S.P.G., of 5,000 
 to the Additional Curates' Fund, of 5,000 to King's College, 
 London, and, lastly, of 10,000 to the Clergy Orphan School, 
 were all made about this time. I never can forget my dear 
 uncle's look of thankful delight when he put into my hands the 
 letter which announced the noble-minded giver's intention to 
 place this last sum at his discretion. He lay awake most of the 
 night planning for the benefit of the Clergy Orphans, and think- 
 ing how much he had personally to be thankful for, in the share 
 he was permitted to have in bringing about the good work. He 
 had just been wondering, he said, and asking himself what good 
 
 ' It was in one of these letters that Mrs. Selwyn, after telling of her hus- 
 band's return to her at St. John's College, Auckland, with the unexpected 
 accompaniment of ten Island-children for her to welcome and to provide 
 with board and lodging, merrily observed, " It is better to be making beds 
 than difficulties :" words worthy to become a household proverb.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 365 
 
 lie was doing, and now this seemed to give an answer, and 
 " almost made him feel as though his last year were not given in 
 vain." Certainly he spared no pains to secure the utmost pos- 
 sible good from his friend's bounty by diligent consideration, 
 deliberate counsel, and laborious correspondence. To the very 
 close of his life, the undertaking in behalf of the Clergy Orphans, 
 begun in consequence of Dr. Warneford's promised donation, to 
 which the same munificent benefactor afterwards added the beauti- 
 ful site on which the new Boys' School is built, was the object of 
 my uncle's unremitting care, and occupied some of his very last 
 earthly thoughts. As was his wont, his first aim was to induce 
 the bishops to take the lead, "as in a work especially pressing 
 upon the members and ministers of the Church :" but he felt 
 the duty to be yet more incumbent on the wealthy Christian 
 laity ; and among other efforts to incite them to take up the cause 
 of " the children of the prophets," as he called them, he printed 
 and widely dispersed a sermon of Bishop Sherlock's, " On the 
 Measures of Christian Charity," in the hope that it might pre- 
 dispose its readers to meet heartily and liberally the coming ap- 
 peal. His own donation to the new building fund was 500. 
 A large proportion of Dr. Warneford's 10,000 was appropriated 
 to the foundation of scholarships to enable the Clergy Orphan 
 School to retain its more promising pupils to complete their 
 education. 
 
 He allowed himself little or no respite from business ; letters 
 crowded in upon him, and though with increasing difficulty and 
 fatigue, he neglected no means that remained to him of using his 
 experience or influence in behalf of the objects for which he had 
 lived and laboured so long. 
 
 One letter which he received spoke of the pleasure there must 
 have been in working the Church Societies in his younger days, 
 contrasted with the endless splittings and heart-burnings now. 
 "It certainly was so," he said: "because one could keep all 
 together as one." After he had left us and returned to Clapton, 
 he wrote feelingly of his own increasing infirmities, " thankful 
 indeed," in his own words, " for every remaining portion of 
 strength of body or of mind, but seriously conscious that in each 
 the only abiding vis is the vis inertia." 
 
 In March he wrote to make me share his delight in a passage 
 of Jeremy Taylor : 
 
 "Are you," he asked, "in a course of 'Readings for Lent' selected 
 by Miss Sewell from Jeremy Taylor ? If not, turn to vol. v. (Hcber's 
 edition,) p. 70, and say if you ever met with anything in verse or rhyme 
 more beautifully imaginative than the illustration of the skylark ? The 
 added thought of the poor bird's having learnt music and motion from
 
 366 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 the passing ministry of an angel, added when one might have supposed 
 the figure to have done all its work, make it to my feeling one of the 
 richest flights of fancy I could call to mind ; surpassing even your poet's 
 ' music of the eye.' " 
 
 This is an allusion to the lines on Airey-Force Valley, which 
 the poet Wordsworth sent in a letter to my uncle after accom- 
 panying him and his daughter to the spot which suggested 
 them m . 
 
 He was engaged throughout the spring of 1852 in building 
 a north aisle to Homerton Church. Preparation had heen made 
 for this in the original plans, and the congregation had increased 
 so rapidly, that the addition was required much sooner than had 
 been expected. Tt was a great pleasure to my uncle to be thus 
 enabled to see the work really completed, and to have the oppor- 
 tunity of making several minor improvements which had sug- 
 gested themselves since the consecration. On the 1st of August 
 it was re-opened, a most happy day to all, though he himself 
 shrank from the excitement, and went as usual to the parish 
 church, where it was the Communion Sunday. The weather was 
 very sultry, and he was much enfeebled by it : in walking home 
 from church with me one day, he said, " he had been musing 
 on the Psalmist's description of old age ' labour and sorrow ;' 
 most true it was that everything now was labour to him, but as 
 to sorrow, why, that was all taken from him." Soon after this, 
 I mentioned to him the opinion of Waterton which my brother- 
 in-law thought probably true, that the " sparrow" in Ps. cii. was 
 the " solitary thrush," a bird whose habit is to sing " alone upon 
 the house-top." This led him to speak of the character of David, 
 and to say that most likely it was his devotional spirit which 
 made him " the man after God's own heart." And then he ob- 
 served how David's fall had been turned to the good of the 
 Church in all ages: "for what would his penitential psalms, 
 comparatively speaking, be to us, if we did not know him to 
 have felt and prayed them for himself?" 
 
 After he returned to Daventry it seemed to me, in our morn- 
 ing walks round the garden, as if his great enjoyment of the 
 beauties of earth and air was ever increasing. The clouds espe- 
 cially he was never weary of watching, pointing out their change- 
 ful beauty of form and hue. One day he said, " I have been 
 thinking, after all, rose colour is a very beautiful colour, and it 
 must be good to look at things through it." He often observed 
 that the wonders of the microscope were even greater than those 
 of the telescope, and liked to dwell on the remark that is fre- 
 
 m See Chap. xvn.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 367 
 
 quently made on the difference between the works of God and 
 man, in that the perfection of the one and the imperfection of 
 the other are more seen the more they are sea: ched into. He 
 gave a different turn to this thought another day, finding comfort 
 and encouragement in the marvels of the microscope. " But for 
 the little things, the minute insects, &c., which Divine "Wisdom 
 has, if we may so speak, thought it worth while to create, how 
 could we dare to think that all our little ways and actions were 
 in His sight and under His care ?" 
 
 On Sept. 16 the intelligence of the Duke of "Wellington's 
 death reached us. My uncle and Mr. George Crawley, who was 
 our guest at the time, had much interesting conversation ahout 
 his life and character. A very good article in the " Irish Eccle- 
 siastical Journal" which appeared soon afterwards drew out more 
 recollections and remarks from my uncle. He especially valued 
 some proofs which were given of the great Duke's increasing 
 piety, shewing that we were not vainly idolizing a mere hero 
 and conqueror. He used to tell of what he had heard from one 
 who visited him in Spain, of his self-denying care for the coin- 
 fort of his men, of his painful sense of the impatient and unjust 
 complaints made in England against him, although he steadily 
 resisted the temptation to he provoked thereby into premature 
 action. Lord Sidmouth told him that when the Duke was 
 a member of the ' Cabinet, the other ministers were wont to 
 set aside any knotty point of debate with a " Leave that till 
 Wellington comes." y 
 
 Another story, illustrating the depth of feeling which always 
 belongs to true grandeur of soul, but which is but little ap- 
 preciated by those who think of Wellington merely as " the 
 Iron Duke," my uncle told on the authority of Lord Mount 
 Edgecumbe. Sir Charles Brook went to the Duke's tent imme- 
 diately after the battle of Waterloo, intending to offer his glad 
 congratulations. He found the General leaning on the table, 
 with his face buried in his hands, and tears upon his cheek : and 
 the answer to Sir Charles's greeting was, " Well, I hope I have 
 done some good ; I hope some good has been done ; but now I 
 can only think of the brave friends I have lost." "And how 
 do you think I felt ?" [Sir Charles had said to Lord Mount 
 Edgecumbe :] " As if I belonged to an inferior race of beings !" 
 
 My uncle used to be rather fond of telling of the answer which 
 a French refugee nobleman, who had been Napoleon Bonaparte's 
 schoolfellow at Brienne, made to his enquiry as to the degree of 
 talent which the future conqueror had shewn. " He was not 
 what we call * profond,' but what you call ' deep.' " 
 
 One evening about this time he mentioned that George IV.
 
 368 Memoir of Joshua Watson, 
 
 when Prince Regent had refused to alter any of the Royal 
 Household during his father's illness, in order that if the King 
 should recover, he might find all unchanged, as though he had 
 been only asleep. 
 
 We were a large family party when he told this, and one of 
 my cousins was in the act of leaving the room, but he playfully 
 insisted on her staying to hear this, for " he loved," he said, "to 
 tell good of those who had none to speak well of them." One of 
 my mother's sisters, a most kind and charitable old lady, who 
 was present, said, " I shall claim you then as my champion, Mr. 
 Watson." " Ma'am," he replied, " I will never tell good of 
 you ; some people's acts say enough." 
 
 I remember that he was moved to tears in repeating the fol- 
 lowing little story of delicate kindness in one who has a name 
 for roughness of character. An officer's widow came to consult 
 Abernethy, who only advised her to go and reside by the sea. 
 "Will nothing else do?" she asked anxiously, for so expensive 
 a remedy was utterly out of her reach. " Nothing," he replied. 
 So she went away. Abernethy wrote off to Brighton and engaged 
 a house in his own name ; then wrote to her saying that there 
 was a house at Brighton just then empty, and asking whether 
 under the circumstances she would object to take charge of it for 
 a time. It was not till long after that she discovered that he 
 had taken it for her use. 
 
 There were several instances this autumn in his correspondence 
 of his happy power of softening refusals and of heightening 
 kindnesses by his manner of writing. One old acquaintance 
 whose request for aid he had been compelled to decline, because 
 of the pressure of other claims, said in answer, that he had con- 
 trived to say "No" so as to give more pleasure than "Yes" 
 would have afforded from most people. 
 
 It was in December, 1852, that Bishop Broughton's short visit 
 to my uncle, already referred to, took place. He seemed in 
 great vigour, both of body and mind, in most cheerful spirits, 
 full of anecdote and animated talk. Among other things, he 
 told us of his visit to the gold diggings at Bathurst, where he had 
 spent a fortnight, and set up a temporary church, which he hoped 
 would last seven years. He said the view of the diggings, seen 
 from the hill above by the light of the early sun, was really 
 beautiful ; the tents which from that distance at least looked 
 white, stretching along the banks of the river for fifteen miles. 
 He used to go down to the diggings twice every day, and found 
 much kindness and good feeling there, and but little harm except 
 gambling. There were three rough steep places on his path, 
 where, in spite of his lameness, he preferred trusting to his feet.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 369 
 
 One morning he found the first of these nicely levelled : next day 
 he came upon a man busy with spade and pick-axe at the second : 
 not liking to assume, though half suspecting, that it was done 
 for him, he asked what he was about ; and was told that they did 
 not like to see him going down those rough ways every morning. 
 
 He spoke most warmly of Bishop Tyrrell, saying of him that 
 "he worked as hard as his brother of New Zealand;" adding 
 merrily, "but I think I could get through as much work as 
 either of them, even now !" 
 
 The good Bishop's work on earth was, however, all but ended, 
 for in two months from this time he was gone to his rest. My 
 uncle felt very deeply the greatness of this loss, and spoke of the 
 disappointment as well as sorrow which it caused, but dwelt also 
 on the blessedness of such a "dying in harness," and of the 
 Bishop's being called away, like Nelson, in the hour of his 
 highest honour. 
 
 On Jan. 4, 1853, I travelled with my uncle to Clapton, after 
 a very happy Christmas in which he had taken his full part both 
 at Church and at home. Our Scripture reading as usual led him 
 into thoughtful observations. He said he thought the word 
 "sin" in Gen. iv. 7 undoubtedly meant "sin- offering:" and 
 that the verse thus understood contained a most beautiful and 
 touching expostulation. If Cain had done well, he would be 
 accepted ; but if he were conscious of failing and infirmity, he 
 need not turn away in despair; let him offer Abel's sacrifice with 
 Abel's faith and humility, and he would be heard. Thus was 
 the forgiveness of sins declared in the first history of transgres- 
 sion after the Fall. 
 
 Before I left him he spoke again of his consciousness of failing 
 powers, his strengthlessness, as he called it, of mind and body, 
 which he seemed anxious to make us aware of; though these 
 talks generally ended with some expression of his loving thank- 
 fulness for the mercy which had put it into the hearts of all to 
 be "so kind" to him. 
 
 "We were with him again in the course of the spring, spending 
 some very happy hours with him on his birthday, and on Whit- 
 Monday driving with him to the Forest ; the pleasure he always 
 took in watching scenes of holiday enjoyment was very cha- 
 racteristic. On this occasion he was full of interest and amuse- 
 ment in the groups of Whitsuntide merry-makers, and seeing on 
 solitary rambler, he cried out that " he could not abide to see 
 any one alone on such a day." 
 
 He was attending to Clergy Orphan School business with his 
 usual diligent care, and at a meeting at St. John's Wood was so 
 Ml of vigour and zeal, that it was said " he seemed to have 
 
 Bb
 
 37 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 more young blood in him than any other member of the 
 committee." 
 
 He also, as in former years, attended the Examination of the 
 Clergy Orphans on the 20th of June. 
 
 A few weeks later he was again in Northamptonshire. It so 
 happened that we had several opportunities of seeing him with 
 children and young people, in whose society he always seemed 
 especially happy, and whom I think he never failed to delight 
 in no common degree. One of those whom he used to call " his 
 pets," wrote to me after his death : 
 
 " I only knew dear Mr. Watson a very little, yet it was the greatest 
 treat to me to see him, and more especially when (as he almost always 
 did) he spoke kindly to me. I wish he could ever have known half the 
 pleasure he gave to at least one child in that way." 
 
 It was in this autumn that Bishop Short of Adelaide came to 
 Daventry for a few days. My uncle was fully able to enjoy his 
 intercourse with Bishop Short, and had a great deal of interest- 
 ing talk with him. 
 
 "The Adelaide party," he wrote to his niece at Clapton, "have been 
 so pleasant, and so pleased with their visit, that it is only just now that 
 the Bishop has called to bid us farewell. He speaks most cheeriugly of 
 his own diocesan affairs, in which he seems to think that, as the State 
 will do nothing, literally nothing, for the Church in his province, the 
 Church will do more for herself. He speaks highly, as we know they 
 deserve, of our friends Allwood and Walsh, as well as of his brothers of 
 New Zealand and Newcastle." 
 
 At the opening of the new year, 1854, he thus expressed to 
 the same beloved niece his habitual sense of gratitude for all the 
 blessings and comforts of his old age : 
 
 " It is impossible to look back on the year past without a heart full 
 of thankfulness to the great Giver of all good for its undeserved mercies, 
 and of great gratitude to those dear ones who have been the willing in- 
 struments in His hand to fill up the measure." 
 
 And again, a day or two later, after most affectionate thanks 
 for a note just received : 
 
 " To it I can only answer in the words of the dear ' Fragment at 
 Home",' which if you can remember, you cannot fail to apply in all their 
 force to yourself and your kind partner here, for your inexpressibly 
 affectionate care of one who, whatever you may both say, can make no 
 return to either but in prayers for each, which in sad Christian sincerity 
 
 " The lines written by his wife when she returned home at the beginning 
 of her last illness. Sec Chap. xiv.
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 371 
 
 he feels he dares not hope can avail much, though unfailingly offered 
 day and night for every blessing, spiritual and temporal, to you both. 
 But I thank God, that if I can make no return, you have, for that very 
 reason, the promise of a better recompense, St. Luke xiv. 13. And to 
 that I may gratefully leave you and her especially, albeit other kind 
 friends may come in, on this sure principle, in their several proportions, 
 for a share of the reward. You must forgive this. It is, as I have said, 
 a relief to acknowledge obligations when one cannot discharge them ; 
 and it has its excuse, I am sure, in the provocation that you have just 
 now given." 
 
 He was deliberating on the best means of turning to per- 
 manently good account a sum of 1,000 which Dr. Warneford 
 had placed at his disposal for the benefit of the Australian 
 Church. He proposed to found with it a Broughton scholarship 
 in the late Bishop's new College at Sydney. A friend suggested 
 that it should be for a professorship, saying, " There is a rage for 
 scholarships just now." But my uncle replied in half-playful 
 earnest, " Don't you, set yourself against a thing merely because 
 there is a rage for it. You are not old enough for that yet." 
 
 We were at this time watching with much apprehension and 
 sorrow the progress of the lingering illness of a near relation, the 
 Rev. H. T. Powell of Stretton, an anxiety which my uncle most 
 heartily shared, feeling the value of his life both to his family 
 and parish. 
 
 " Stretton, alas ! lingers on," he wrote, "but without hope of restora- 
 tion. Perhaps I ought not to have said ' alas ! ' for much is the stay 
 amongst them doing for all about him. Useful as his life has been, his 
 long dying, from all I hear, has better uses still. May a good God bless 
 it fully to the survivors !" 
 
 On the death of another excellent man, Mr. Frere, with whom 
 he had had a friendly acquaintance for many years, he wrote to 
 Canon Wordsworth : 
 
 " Though I may not condole with you on the peaceful release, I do 
 
 most sincerely sympathise with you and dear S in all your personal 
 
 feelings on the removal of one so justly dear to you both. To me it is 
 only a short absence from one of my earliest and most valuable ac- 
 quaintances, if it please a merciful God that I may for our blessed 
 Saviour's sake be admitted into the same blessed mansions, whither in 
 Christian faith we trust that he is gone before. It is to me another 
 knell of parting day, and forces me to ask why I am still cumbering the 
 ground. Pray for me, dear friends, pray for me." 
 
 In May he had a severe attack of bronchitis, which weakened 
 him very much, and it was long before he recovered from its 
 effects. When I was next alone with him, after some happy
 
 372 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 Sunday reading and talking, his mind seemed to return to very 
 solemn thoughts of death. He spoke of the overpowering awe 
 of the thought of heing "in a moment" in the world of spirits. 
 I think, in my dear uncle, anything like a longing for death, 
 either from weariness or confidence, was always kept in check hy 
 his unfeigned humbleness of heart, as well as by his devout spirit 
 of gratitude, which made him always thankful for every recovery 
 from sickness, and for each year that was granted him for further 
 advance and improvement. 
 
 On the 26th of July, 1854, he began his last sojourn with us. 
 The recollections of it are not perhaps such as to interest others 
 greatly, but are most dear to ourselves. While the summer 
 weather lasted we persuaded him to be out with us as much as 
 possible, as the air seemed to keep up his strength. He always 
 enjoyed the little drives, his eye and heart as open as ever to 
 delight in the beauty of sky and trees, and every little pleasure 
 that came in his way. On Sunday evenings he used often to sit 
 in our west bay window, watching the glories of the early 
 autumn sunset, while we read to him from the old books which 
 he loved, Taylor, Barrow, Donne, or Stanhope. I remember 
 his especial enjoyment of Barrow's Sermon on the "Unsearch- 
 ableness of God's Judgments." 
 
 One Communion-Sunday, as he was coming down the steep 
 path from church, leaning on my arm, he said in his loving 
 earnest tone, "This is the way you stay my downward steps." 
 On these days it often seemed as if his tenderness and grateful 
 affection overflowed even their ordinary bounteous measures. 
 These were indeed most happy seasons. Often, however, now 
 a look of age and infirmity would come over his countenance, 
 especially when, from increasing indistinctness of hearing, he 
 would give up the attempt to listen to the passing conversation 
 of others. His eye too was becoming dim, and he felt the loss 
 of power at times to see distinctly the faces he loved, nor could 
 he read for any length of time. But often when he seemed to be 
 dozing or resting, he was trying to repeat psalms or hymns, 
 or passages of Jeremy Taylor's practical thoughts, or prayers. 
 And he would mourn over the difficulty he found in fixing his 
 thoughts, and take himself to task for idleness and waste of 
 time. He told me how he found the forcing himself to answer 
 the daily questions of self-examination in Hele's Offices to be 
 a very useful check against the growing indolence of old age. 
 It might often seem useless now, yet the knowledge that he 
 should have to answer them at night served to stir up the dying 
 flame, and to make him still strive to do a little. He would even 
 invite one as it were to help him by the actual suggestion of his
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 373 
 
 own habitual thoughts. Now and then a little feeling of anxiety 
 would appear lest there should come a season of failure and in- 
 firmity which might be burdensome to us, but it was always 
 quickly lost in thankful trust and humility. 
 
 It was in the last week of October that we had the great 
 happiness of welcoming the long-promised visit of our friends 
 from New Zealand, though it shrank into a few hours of the 
 Bishop's company and only two days of his wife's. We had 
 seen them in the spring, soon after their arrival in England, and 
 there had been one or two happy days at Clapton, when my uncle 
 had the joy of welcoming his old friend's daughter according to 
 his wish, and of holding converse with the Bishop on matters 
 deeply interesting to both. But this little meeting at Daventry, 
 including as it did many who had been wont to assemble in their 
 young days in the old homes at Diggeswell and Park- street, and 
 who were now once more gathered together around our dear 
 uncle, he being still as of old a sort of centre of the happiness 
 of the whole party, must always be a cherished recollection to 
 those who took part in it. A few months later Bishop Selwyn 
 wrote thus of the intercourse which had been permitted him with 
 his aged friend, intercourse of which he said publicly that if he 
 had gained nothing else by his visit to England it would have 
 been an ample recompense for the journey : 
 
 " It is no small happiness to me to have been just in time to see him, 
 and to have enjoyed t^o long and precious interviews, when the setting 
 sun, though just touching the horizon, was still unclouded, and differing 
 only from its former self in the mellowness of its evening light." 
 
 Not long after the departure of these beloved guests, a clergy- 
 man, long known to my brother, but comparatively a stranger to 
 my uncle and to us, came one morning to breakfast with us; 
 once before in the preceding year he had spent an evening and 
 part of another day in my uncle's company, yet this scanty in- 
 tercourse enabled him to draw so true and beautiful a picture, 
 that I cannot refrain from copying it here, though, like Bishop 
 Sclwyn's words quoted above, it was not written till after my 
 dear uncle's death : 
 
 " I shall ever look upon it as one of the privileges for which I am 
 deeply thankful, the opportunity of seeing and conversing with Mr. 
 Joshua Watson within the last year at Daventry. I remember so well, 
 as a lad, case-hardening myself against the name of Joshua Watson, 
 which I was continually hearing quoted as a final authority in all 
 Church-matters, and I pictured to myself a hard, dry, impenetrable 
 man, who had no sympathies beyond a Committee-room in Pall Mall 
 or at Fulham. I certainly long ago learnt to change this opinion of
 
 374 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 youthful conceit, but it was a real delight to me to do my inward 
 penance at his own table, and have my former self condemned, and yet, 
 as I felt, at the same time absolved, by his unaffected wisdom and piety, 
 his pleasant and even playful conversation, and the zeal with which he 
 entered into the newest and most advanced Church schemes, without 
 a shade of the dogmatizing of old age, or the assumption of an authority 
 which would have been so readily admitted. He seemed still the helper 
 and sympathizer, indeed rather the listener and learner, encouraging 
 instead of damping new projects. A less set and prejudiced man for 
 one of strong fixed principles I never saw, and it was delightful to see 
 the vigorous life of faith and love as fresh as ever within its wasted 
 tabernacle. Excuse me for running on with what must be commonplace 
 home-truths to you, but it revives in me for a while a blessed memory 
 in which I cannot deny myself the pleasure of indulging." 
 
 The days of this November passed by so uneventfully that 
 there is little to record; and yet even at the time I felt sure 
 that I should regret having no account of them ; of my dearest 
 uncle's thoughtful kindnesses of word and deed, his loving watch- 
 fulness for every occasion of doing good or giving pleasure in 
 countless little ways, of 
 
 " That best portion of a good man's life, 
 His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love," 
 
 in which he really seemed to abound more and more even to 
 the end. 
 
 We were reading "Heartsease," and he often seemed the 
 youngest of the party in the keenness of his interest in the 
 characters, and his never-failing recollection of every circum- 
 stance of the story. He was also much pleased with some speci- 
 mens of a little series of stories called "Buds and Blossoms." 
 One, called "Busy Bees," had power to bring a tear to his eye, 
 while "Hushaby" made it glisten with laughing. Even in 
 his last illness he felt the simple pathos of the "Fisherman's 
 Children." 
 
 About this time he resigned his last office as a public servant 
 of the Church, the Treasurership of the Additional Curates' 
 Society, which he and Mr. Benjamin Harrison had held together 
 from the foundation of the Society. The Bishop of London is 
 believed to have drawn up the Resolutions which were recorded 
 on the Society's Minutes, on the occasion of the resignation of 
 its first two Treasurers : 
 
 "Expressing a grateful sense of their unceasing zeal, activity, and 
 liberality in promoting the success of the Society, with the assurance 
 of its earnest prayers to Him whose glory they have laboured to 
 promote, that He may be pleased to remember the good deeds which
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 375 
 
 they have done for His Church and for the offices thereof, and to bless 
 the evening of their long and useful lives with the abundant consola- 
 tions of His Holy Spirit." 
 
 The war with Russia was sometimes a theme of rather melan- 
 choly thought with my uncle, who doubted very much whether 
 the clear necessity which he thought could alone justify war, 
 was in this case made out. 
 
 "You ask me," he wrote to his niece at Clapton, Dec. 1, 1854, 
 " whether I have yet any ' sympathy about the war ?' None yet, dearest 
 Regina, for its abettors ; but much, very much for its sufferers ; alas, 
 already too large, and too surely a sadly-extending class. Erom the first 
 I felt it to be a war lacking the only justifiable defence of warfare ; 
 resting for its vindication only on a desperately far-sighted view of 
 policy, distrustful utterly of any overruling Providence, which could as 
 easily break the power of a Nicholas as of a Nebuchadnezzar when the 
 proper time should come, without the hateful union of the Crescent and 
 the Cross. . . . Nevertheless I can rejoice with you and your friends on 
 the gallant feats of the 55th, which seems to have had its double share 
 of duty and of danger, acliieving much distinction for your Colonel- 
 Cousin." 
 
 Bishop Selwyn's heartfelt tribute in his Cambridge Sermons 
 to the memory of Mr. H. J. Rose at this time was reported to 
 my uncle by Mrs. Selwyn, and by him forwarded to Mrs. Rose, 
 who was then in failing health, and who acknowledged her 
 grateful pleasure in the last words she ever addressed to him. 
 
 " How many precious sunbeams," she wrote, " have you, my dearest 
 friend, cast on my path, of a similar nature to the present ! and yet I 
 cannot remember one brighter than this ; and coming at a time when 
 I felt more than usually reduced in health, it was indeed very precious 
 to me. The place, the time, and above all the man, made the whole 
 complete." 
 
 She then consulted him about other matters, and some little 
 business of charity, concluding thus : 
 
 " I am asking a world of questions, but what can a poor body do, who 
 is pinned to her sofa all day long, and no one near who can help, but 
 apply to a source that has never yet failed her ? 
 
 "With much love around you, ever yours affectionately and gratefully, 
 
 " A. C. ROSE." 
 
 She died about Easter in the following spring. 
 
 Christmas and the week following found my uncle fully able 
 to take his wonted share in everything : he was most anxious 
 that no one who could possibly expect to be remembered by him 
 should be passed over in his Christmas and New Years' gifts,
 
 376 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 which, were as usual very numerous indeed, and occupied much 
 time and thought beforehand. 
 
 He was also much interested in all that concerned the de- 
 parture of a highly- esteemed friend, who was just now sailing 
 on her mission as one of the nurses for the naval hospital at 
 Therapia. 
 
 On New Year's-day he received the Holy Communion in 
 Daventry Church, and on the Sunday following, as it proved, 
 for the last time. 
 
 On the 9th of January he hade farewell to the Lodge, and 
 taking me for his companion, set forth on his last journey to 
 Clapton. The weather was extremely mild for the season, and 
 it was not till we had gone some little way that I perceived 
 that an attack of bronchitis was coming on. It advanced rapidly, 
 and he was feverish, and the weakening effect of it was very soon 
 perceptible. Of course we did not talk much, but I watched 
 him sadly and read to him. We sent for our medical friend as 
 soon as we arrived. My uncle was able to dine with us and to 
 talk cheerfully, and was so much his usual self, that this short 
 evening, interrupted by frequent coughing, was enough to de- 
 light in no common degree a lady who then saw him for the 
 first time, and who chanced to be staying in the house, so as to 
 shew her in great measure what he was. He retired early, passed 
 a bad night, and the next day was in a very exhausted, and as I 
 thought critical state, being in a sort of stupor very unusual with 
 him. He awoke from it in the evening, and rested in the arm- 
 chair, but did not attempt to do more. For several days there 
 was little change ; he was able to give directions for a letter to 
 Dr. Warneford about the Clergy Orphan School, and to express 
 his wishes about some books which he desired should be sent to 
 a young kinsman just entering upon business in London, for the 
 purpose of making his evenings pleasant to him in lodgings. 
 
 On the 15th we told him of Dr. Warneford's death, which had 
 been expected daily for some time. He had felt anxious to be 
 assured that his old friend's death-bed, unattended as it was by 
 any very near relatives, was not wanting in such comforts, es- 
 pecially spiritual comforts, as he could receive : and the account 
 which we now read to him, he said, was quite a comfort. 
 
 As the days passed on he seemed often greatly worn and ex- 
 hausted by the cough, but at other times more comfortable, and 
 frequently expressed with wonted playfulness the loving thanks 
 which repaid every little service. He made a great effort to sign 
 a draft for some charitable uses ; and when he relinquished the 
 pen into my hand, for the last time as it proved to be, it was 
 with the characteristic words, " Thank heaven and bless you."
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 377 
 
 Elizabeth and I shared the nursing, and read with him alter- 
 nately. One night he asked me to read as " almost devotional" 
 the two last sentences on Prayer in Jeremy Taylor's " Holy 
 Living." The weather hecame more severe, and there was an 
 evident increase of his bronchitis on the 22nd ; he was very ill, 
 and hardly seemed able to take any notice all the next day ; but 
 he asked me to read prayers, and desired to have penitential 
 prayers, and one against the fear of death. 
 
 On the 25th he said, "I can't go to Church, I want the 
 Church to come to me." The Eev. George Powell, of Clapton, 
 accordingly visited him on this and the following days ; and my 
 uncle expressed his grateful satisfaction in these visits. On the 
 morning of the 27th he seemed worse ; but rallied as the day ad- 
 vanced, and the medical man pronounced every symptom im- 
 proved. About 3 o'clock he said to me, " It is strange that 
 when I am told I am better I should be feeling so much weaker 
 and unable for anything. I wanted to have some more prayers, 
 and some more talk with dear Mary." We agreed that our com- 
 fort was that there was now no need of words ; we knew what 
 he would say. About an hour afterwards he received his last 
 Communion, with three of his nieces. As soon as we had risen 
 from our knees, I heard him say my name, and when I went to 
 him, he said, "There should be no Sacrament without an oblation ; 
 take out two five-pound notes, and give them to Mr. Powell." 
 He was extremely exhausted after this ; I think his only words 
 were, " It is an awful thought that it may be the last time on 
 earth." The next day he asked for the " Prayer when there is 
 little hope," in the New Manual. " What can you say to help 
 me ?" he said, when I was with him alone : and then described 
 his distress at the constant interruption which the cough and the 
 accidents of his illness caused to his devotional exercises. A 
 paragraph in the " Holy Dying," Chap. iv. 1, 6, on patience 
 in the desires of religion, seemed exactly to the purpose : and 
 he most heartily agreed that in the word "Father" was the 
 real support under that trial : " Your Father knoweth what 
 things ye have need of," &c. " Yes/' he added, " and He 
 knoweth that we need the chastisement, as well as the relief 
 when it is over." The sense of weariness was very oppressive 
 to him, and he was distresssd when he shewed it. " Forgive 
 me my little impatiences," he said to Elizabeth. On the 29th 
 he grew worse towards evening, so that we thought the end was 
 approaching, and resolved not to leave him. The cough at last 
 subsided, but the breathing became more rapid. We thought he 
 was asleep, and Elizabeth went to rest for a little while. While 
 she was away I pressed him to take some nourishment : then he
 
 378 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 said, most calmly, so calmly that I felt calm too, "I don't want 
 to frighten you ; but the time has come when all this does not 
 matter." I called Elizabeth back : his voice was becoming pain- 
 fully indistinct ; he said, " I have not been able for any devo- 
 tions," and murmured, " Visitation. " "We read some of the 
 prayers. He seemed to look on either side to be sure that we 
 were both there, and when we each took a hand, he said, " My 
 two comforts." Soon afterwards we made out a word rather 
 eagerly repeated to be " St. John's," and venturing to guess 
 his meaning, I began to repeat, " Lord, and what shall this man 
 do?" from the " Christian Year," knowing it to be a great fa- 
 vourite. He joined me, and when I was omitting a verse, 
 supplied the first words. I went on to his other favourite in 
 the same book, " Lord, my God, do Thou Thy holy will." 
 
 This was in the early morning : the following hours were 
 spent in painful restlessness of body and in rapid incoherent talk- 
 ing, like dreaming aloud ; occasionally came words of prayer 
 which we could distinguish : once, " Lord be merciful to me, 
 a chief of sinners," and, " By Thy precious sacrifice." At noon 
 Mr. Powell came, and when he began to pray, our dear uncle's 
 attention was instantly aroused, and he joined with all his 
 wonted fervour and humility, following with his voice in the 
 Lord's Prayer, and in " Lord, lift Thou up," &c., adding his 
 accustomed "Amen, Amen." When some of the "comfortable 
 words" in Ps. xxiii. and St. John xiv., &c., were repeated, he 
 said every word after the minister, in the most touching child- 
 like way. " That where I am, there ye may be also," were thus 
 almost the last words he uttered. After a while he seemed to 
 be in a tranquil sleep, which lasted till, without opening his 
 eyes, or the slightest struggle, the gentle spirit fled. We watched 
 the almost immediate change of expression to peace, I might say 
 to joy, which came over the countenance, and rested there till 
 the eve of his burial- day. There seemed a glow as of health, 
 and the smile seemed full of that sure and certain hope, in which 
 one felt that his part was all the more secure because his hu- 
 mility had kept him back from confidently claiming it too 
 soon. May we not be forgiven, if sometimes as we gazed upon 
 the face, we seemed to read in it also that look of confiding, re- 
 posing affection, strong in death as in life, which had so often 
 blest us ? 
 
 The funeral, which according to his desire was simple and in- 
 expensive, took place on Feb. 7, attended by his nearest relations 
 and most intimate friends, and the Bishops of London and Lich- 
 field. He had given directions for his burial in his last Will, 
 which was dated December, 1846, and began with these words :
 
 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 379 
 
 " In the Name of the holy, blessed, and undivided Trinity : Amen. 
 
 " I do, after humbly commending my soul to Almighty God, direct 
 that my body may be interred in the family vault at Hackney, in which 
 lies all that is mortal of my honoured Parents, and beloved Brother, and 
 of her who by God's blessing was for thirty-four years of my life the 
 overflowing channel of His many and great goodnesses to me. To 
 these, therefore, I greatly desire to be gathered in all Iramility, that as 
 by the blessing of God we all here lived together in perfect affection 
 and Christian love, so we may all, through the atoning efficacy of our 
 Saviour's sacrifice, together have a part in the blessed Resurrection 
 to eternal life." 
 
 On the Sunday after his funeral, memorial sermons were 
 preached at Hackney and at Homerton, both of which were 
 published". The respect and love so generally felt for our dear 
 uncle found expression in the very many kind letters of sympathy 
 which his mourners received, especially after the distribution of 
 these sermons, bearing precious testimony to the value and in- 
 fluence of such a life and example as his had been, even from 
 his " happy boyhood" to his " beautiful old age." We felt the 
 truth of his own words to Mrs. Rose long before, after perusing 
 a letter written by Archbishop Howley on the death of her 
 honoured husband : 
 
 "For after all, how confident soever in the strength of one's own 
 feelings, we find great delight in having them echoed back to us, now 
 and then, by those whose judgment cannot be suspected, and who seem 
 only to have loved those whom we love, less, in the exact proportion in 
 which they must have known less of them." 
 
 This Memoir may not unfitly close with an extract from one 
 of these letters, written by Bishop Blomfield the very day after 
 my uncle's death, containing words valuable for the sake of the 
 kind and honoured hand that penned them, as well as for the 
 worth of the testimony which they bear to those excellences 
 which few had more power and opportunity to know and 
 judge of: 
 
 " When a good man, full of years, departs in peace, our first thought, 
 no doubt, ought to be one of thankfulness at his having passed without 
 suffering to his reward. And surely this is such a case, if ever there 
 was one. But I cannot hear of the death of one whom I have loved and 
 venerated for thirty-five years, and who, I know, reciprocated my feel- 
 ings of affection, without a strong emotion of sorrow. I use the word 
 ' venerated' as most truly describing the sentiment with which I re- 
 garded Mr. Joshua Watson. He was the most remarkable instance 
 
 " The Gifts of God to the Good," by Edw. Churton, M.A., and " Whose 
 Faith Follow," by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D.
 
 380 Memoir of Joshua Watson. 
 
 I have ever personally known, of a Christian man, devoting all the 
 faculties with which God had endowed him, and a very large portion 
 of the means which are more valuable in the world's estimate though 
 not in his, to the promotion of God's glory in His Church. Of the 
 soundness of his principles and opinions respecting the Church, I ought 
 not perhaps to say more, because they were in entire agreement with 
 my own. The firmness, but perfect charity with which he maintained 
 them, gave an example which, if it had been more widely followed, would 
 have prevented many of the unhappy dissensions which disturb and 
 weaken our Church. The soundness of his judgment was such that I 
 never differed from him in matters of minor importance, (for on questions 
 of moment there was no difference between us,) without mistrusting my 
 own conclusions. The young men of this generation are but little aware 
 of what the Church of England owes to my venerable friend. I never 
 omit to assert his claim to their gratitude upon all fitting opportunities. 
 " If I were called upon to name three persons to whom I more es- 
 pecially looked up with respect and affection when I was a young 
 Clergyman, and whose memory I can never cease to cherish, they would 
 be your excellent father, Joshua Watson, and Mr. Norris."
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABEBNETHY, 368. 
 
 Absolution, doctrine of, 162, 163, 
 
 347. 
 Ackerman, Rudolf, his services in 
 
 the Fund for German Sufferers, 
 
 85, 90. 
 
 Acland, Sir T. D., 87. 
 Acland, T. D., Esq., 300, 301. 
 Additional Curates, Society for, 
 
 222, 223. 
 
 Alderson, Baron, 18. 
 Allwood, Rev. Robert, 260. 
 Amat, Felix, 160, n. 
 Andrewes, Bishop, 347. 
 Apocrypha, 155. 
 Appleton, Mr., 235. 
 Arminius, 161. 
 
 Arnold, Dr. T., 279, 280, 320. 
 Athanasian Creed, 295, 340. 
 Augustine's, St., Canterbury, 105, 
 
 266, 323. 
 Australia. (See Broughtou, Bp.) 
 
 Barrow, Bishop, 172. 
 
 Bayley, Henry Vincent, Archdeacon 
 
 of Stow, 140, 148, 149, 199, 228, 
 
 254, 310, 311. 
 Bell, Dr. Andrew, 56, 57. 
 Beresford, Dr. J. G., Archbishop of 
 
 Armagh, 282. 
 
 Bethell, Dr. C., Bp. of Bangor, 357. 
 Bible, Church of England, 331, 332. 
 Bishops, appointment of by the 
 
 Crown vindicated, 278, 279. 
 Blomfield, Dr. C. J., Bishop of 
 
 London, 133, 140, 143, 158, 201, 
 
 211, 223, 263, 316, 346, 357, 
 
 378, 379. 
 
 Blucher, Field Marshal, 90 
 Blunt, Professor J. J., 27, n., 327. 
 Boston, in America, 241, 242. 
 Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 9 12, 
 
 238. 
 
 Bowdler, John, 22, 129, 130. 
 Bowdler, Rev. Thomas, 18, 220. 
 Bowles, John, 4450, 56, 57, 63. 
 
 " British Critic," literary history of, 
 16, 157, 226, 273275, 297. 
 
 Broughton, Dr. W. G., first Bishop 
 of Australia, 93, 94, 224. Memoir 
 of, 253 269. Joshua Watson's 
 estimate of him, 269, 329, 330, 
 368. 
 
 Bull, Bishop, 287. 
 
 Bullet, Professor, his "History of 
 Christianity," 38. 
 
 Burke, 326. 
 
 Burton, Dr. Edw., Regius Professor 
 at Oxford, 158, 160, 165, 166. 
 
 Burton, Francis, 62, 287. 
 
 Burton, W. W., Judge, 259. 
 
 Butler, Bishop, 131. 
 
 Cambridge University. (See Words- 
 worth, Christopher.) 
 
 Cambridge, George Owen, Arch- 
 deacon of Middlesex, 5, 42, 66, 
 71, 72, 83, 107. 
 
 Campbell, Archibald, Nonjuror, 221. 
 
 Canonization, 294. 
 
 Cartwrigbt, W., of Shrewsbury, 
 Nonjuror, 220222. 
 
 Catena Aurea, 297. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr. T., 250, 287. 
 
 Chandler, Dr., of Connecticut, 220, 
 238. 
 
 CHABLES I., 293. 
 
 CHABLOTTE, QUEBN, 90, 91, 347,3 18. 
 
 Children, motives to be suggested to 
 them, 320. 
 
 "Christian Remembrancer," 156. 
 
 Chrysostom, St., quoted, 27, . 
 
 Church Unions, 358. 
 
 Churton, Ralpb, Archdeacon of St. 
 David's, 35. 
 
 Churton, W. R., 165, 179. 
 
 Clergy Orphan School, 167, 364,369. 
 
 Cobbett, William, 51. 
 
 Coleridge, Biahop, 323. 
 
 Communion of the Sick, 286. 
 
 Confession, forms of, 316; practice 
 of, 331.
 
 382 
 
 Index. 
 
 Conscience, difference between a 
 
 tender and a morbid one, 294. 
 Convocation, 278. 
 Copebind, Rev. W. J., 292, sqq. 
 Copleston, Bishop, 347. 
 Cormvallis, Archbishop, 13. 
 Cowper, W., the Poet, 194. 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, estimate of 
 
 his character, 291. 
 Crawford, W., Archdeacon of Caer- 
 
 marthen, 7. 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland, 
 
 worthies of, 2, 3. 
 Gumming, James, Esq., 98, n. 
 
 Dalhousie, Earl of, 239. 
 
 Danish Mission to the East Indies, 
 95, 96, 100. 
 
 Daubeny, Charles, Archdeacon of 
 Sarum, 8, 50. 
 
 Davis, William, 57. 
 
 Deacon, Thomas, the Nonjuror, 221. 
 
 Debrisay, Rev. M. B., 244. 
 
 De Maistre, 160, 161. 
 
 Doane, Dr. G. W., Bishop of New 
 Jersey, 330. 
 
 Douglas, Bishop, his "Criterion," 
 294. 
 
 Downes, Rev. Andrew, 60. 
 
 Ductor Dubitantium, Jeremy Tay- 
 lor's, 195. (See Preface to First 
 Edition.) 
 
 Durham, University of, 213. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Commission, 190 193, 
 199, 200, 216, 217. 
 
 Education, 307, 351. 
 
 Ellis's " Knowledge of Divine 
 Things," 37. 
 
 Elmsley, Dr. Peter, 41, 155. 
 
 Ely Chapel, Holborn, 120, 121. 
 
 Episcopius, 349. 
 
 Evans, R. W., Archdeacon of West- 
 moreland, 176, 194, 195. 
 
 " Family Bible," edited by Bishop 
 Mant and Dr. George D'Ovly, 
 7072. 
 
 Faussett, Dr. Godfrey, 273. 
 
 Feathers Tavern Petition, 16. 
 
 Forbes, Hon. Duncan, 20. 
 
 Forster, Rev. Chm-les, 312. 
 
 Frere, George, Esq., 371. 
 
 Froude, Rev. R. H., 226, 270. 
 
 Garnett, Thomas, 222. 
 
 Gen. iv. 7 explained, 369. 
 
 GEORGE III., attempt on his life 
 
 in 1795, 43,- his choice of Dr. 
 
 Manners - Sutton for Primate, 
 
 143. 
 
 GEORGE IV., 367, 368. 
 Germany, Sufferers in, and Fund for 
 
 their relief, 85, sqq. 
 Gifford, John, 45, 46. 
 Gilbert, Davies, Esq., 220. 
 Gipps, Sir George, 257. 
 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 278, 
 
 315, 324. 
 Gleig, Dr. Geo., Bishop of Stirling, 
 
 21, 129. 
 
 Gorham Case, 355. 
 Goulburn, Henry, Jun., 298. 
 Gray, the Poet, remark of, 232. 
 Greek Church, 126. 
 Grey, Earl, 191, 209, 210. 
 
 H.le, Sir Ma'thew, 158. 
 Hiilcs, Dr. W., 53, 54, 55, 84. 
 Haliburton, Judge, 241, 243, 247. 
 Hallain, Henry, Esq., 139, 220. 
 HansMrd, Mr., Printer to the House 
 
 of Commons, 360, 361. 
 Harcourt, Dr. Edw., Archbishop of 
 
 York, 310, 328. 
 Hardinge, Viscount, 209. 
 Harrison, Archdeacon, 256, 264, 301, 
 
 sqq , 318, 327, 344. 
 Harvard University, 243. 
 Hawkins, Rev. Ernest, 253, 357. 
 Heavenly happiness, capacity for, 
 
 326. 
 
 Heber, Dr. Reginald, Bishop of Cal- 
 cutta, 134, 136, 153. 
 "Hele's Offices of Devotion," 310, 
 
 sqq. 
 Hobart, John H., Bishop of New 
 
 York, 106, 136138, 243, 279. 
 Hodgon, Dr. Frodsham, Principal of 
 
 Brasenose College, 119. 
 "Holy Week," by Dean Stanhope, 
 
 171. 
 Homerton Church, building of, 332, 
 
 339, 349, 366. 
 Home, Bishop, 13, 21, 24. 
 Horsley, Bishop, 33, 316. 
 Howley, Dr. William, Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury, 80, 98, 102, 122, 
 
 183. Public Addresses to him,
 
 Index, 
 
 383 
 
 189, 203207. See also 211, 
 
 228, 233, 236, 245, 287, 295, 
 
 296, 338, 344, 355. 
 Hughes. Dr. T., Prebendary of St. 
 
 Paul's, 125. 
 
 Hurd, Bp., Preface to First Edition. 
 Hutchinsonianism, 20, 21, 333. 
 
 India, bishoprics, 146 148. (See 
 
 Middleton, Heber, &c.) 
 Inglis, Dr. Charles, first Bishop of 
 
 Nova Scotia, 238, 239. 
 Inglis, Dr. John, third Bishop of 
 
 Nova Scotia, 93, 228, 234, 235 ; 
 
 memoir of, 237 253 ; his death, 
 
 361. 
 
 Inglis, Sir J. E., 251. 
 Inglis, Sir Rob. H., 262. 
 Ireland, suppression of Irish sees, 
 
 203 : see also 336. 
 Iremonger, Rev. F., 156. 
 
 Jackson, Dr. Thomas, 157, 291. 
 Jebb, Dr. John, Bishop of Limerick, 
 
 237. 
 
 Jefferson, Archdeacon, 3. 
 Jeffkins, Job, 82, 83. 
 Jewell, Bishop, 297. 
 Johnson, Rev. W., 63, 76, 342. 
 Jones of Nayland, 15, 16, 17, 21. 
 Justification, doctrine of, 155. 
 
 Have, Dr. John, Bishop of Lincoln, 
 165, 178. 
 
 Keble, Rev. John, 175, 176, 194, 
 207, 223, 297, 378. 
 
 Ken, Bishop, 320, 363. 
 
 Kenyon, George Lord, 57, n., 62, 
 64. 
 
 King's College, London, 168, 177, 
 178. 
 
 Kirby, Rev. William, the Ento- 
 mologist, 16, 55, 64. 
 
 Lancaster, Jos., 59, 60, 66. 
 Lathbury, Rev. Peter, 55, 6870. 
 Law, Edmund, Bp. of Carlisle, 221,n. 
 Law, William, 195, 271. 
 Lawrence, the Surgeon, 132. 
 Lawrence, Roger, 221. 
 Le Baa, Rev. C. W., 92, 178. 
 Leslie, Charles, 222, 355. 
 Letters Patent, how far they affect 
 spiritual authority, 262. 
 
 Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 
 second Earl, 7, , 77, 123. 
 
 Lloyd, Dr. Charles, Bishop of Ox- 
 ford, 37, ., 152, sqq. ; his public 
 services, 153, 154; his letters to 
 H. H. Norris, 157, sqq. ; his 
 death, 165. 
 
 Lonsdale, Dr. John, Bishop of Lich- 
 field, 131, 378. 
 
 Low, Dr. David, Bishop of Moray, 
 173, 336. 
 
 Lowel, factory at, described, 242. 
 
 Lyall, Dr. W. R., Dean of Canter- 
 bury, 133, 140, 160, 178, 205, 
 323, 327, 328. 
 
 Manners-Sutton, Dr. Chas., Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, 42, 52, 61, 
 85, 87, 95, 96, 97, 102, 135 ; his 
 generous friendship for Joshua 
 Watson, 141 143 ; his death and 
 character, 143145, 355, 356. 
 
 Manning, Rev. H. E. 362. 
 
 Mant, Dr. , Rich., Bishop of Down 
 and Connor, 70, 71. 
 
 Markland, J. H., Esq., 179, 320. 
 
 Marsh, Dr. Herbert, Bishop of Peter- 
 borough, 63, 64, 71, 79. 
 
 Mathieson, Gilbert, Esq., 299. 
 
 Mayence, Council of, 155. 
 
 Merriman, Archdeacon, 349. 
 
 Metropolitan Jurisdiction, 266, 267. 
 
 Middle State, 221. 
 
 Middleton, Dr. Thos. F., Bishop of 
 Calcutta, 70, 92, 93, 100, 102, 
 134, 136, 225. 
 
 Mill, Dr. W. H., 148, 170, 224, 225, 
 
 287, 306, 307. 
 Miller, R*v. John, 194. 
 
 Milner, Dr. Isaac, Dean of Carlisle, 
 59. 
 
 Miracles, ecclesiastical, 302 304. 
 
 Monk, Dr. J. H., Bishop of Glouces- 
 ter, 158, 161, 173. 
 
 Moore, Mr., of Australia, 260, 261. 
 
 More, Hannah, 64. 
 
 Mourning, thoughts on, 232, 233, 
 
 288, 289. 
 
 Mystical sense of Holy Scripture, 293. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, 367. 
 National Society, its formation and 
 
 early history, 56 68, 105, 120, 
 
 228, 229, 298, sqq.
 
 384 
 
 Index. 
 
 Nelson, Lord, 314. 
 
 Nelson, Robert, 318. 
 
 Newman, Rev. J. H., 207, 226, 271, 
 272, 275277, 290, 302304, 
 314, 324. 
 
 New Zealand, 258, 262, 364. 
 
 " Nobody's Friends," 18. 
 
 Nonjurors, 220, 363. 
 
 Norris, Rev. Henry Handley, 28 
 33, 79, 80, 92, 103, 104, 106, 
 127, 136, 145, 150, 157, 164, 171, 
 185, 200, 203, 204, 212, 220, 222, 
 223, 232, 240, 290, 306, 313, 325, 
 329, 331, 343, 345, 347; his 
 death, 361, 362. 
 
 Northampton, Marquis of, 210. 
 
 Oakeley, Rev. Fred., 274, 297, 298. 
 
 Otter, Dr. W., Bishop of Chichester, 
 160. 
 
 Owen, Robert, 360. 
 
 Oxford, (see Van Mildert, Lloyd, 
 &c.), 203, sqq., proceedings there, 
 in reference to Tract 90, &c., 277. 
 
 Palmer, Rev. W., 205, 206. 
 
 Park, James Allan, Judge of the 
 Court of Common Pleas, 83, 142. 
 
 Parsons, Dr. John, Bishop of Peter- 
 borough, 66. 
 
 Patteson, Sir John, 18. 
 
 Pearson, Bishop, 139, 287, 289, 290. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 153, 165. 
 
 Pellew, Sir Edward, Viscount Ex- 
 mouth, 65. 
 
 Percy, Bishop, 16. 
 
 Phil. ii. 12, 13, remark on, 315. 
 
 Plumer, Sir Thomas, Master of the 
 Rolls, 62. 
 
 Poor Law, 292. 
 
 Porteus, Bishop, 16. 
 
 Pott, Dr. J. H., Archdeacon of 
 London, 132, 150. 
 
 Powell, Baden, Esq., 123, 319, 326. 
 
 Powell, Rev. H. T., 371. 
 
 Prayer, Lord's, remarks upon, 317. 
 
 Prayer : the command to " pray 
 without ceasing," 295. 
 
 for the Dead, 354. 
 
 Prayer-book, language of, 294. 
 
 Presbyterian Kirk, 327. 
 
 Prophecies, interpretation of, 21, 22, 
 293, 340. 
 
 Providence, 329. 
 
 Pusey, Dr. E. B., Regius Professor 
 of .Hebrew at Oxford, 26, 236, 
 277, 278. 
 
 Quague, Philip, 104, 105. 
 
 Raikes, Richard, E<q., 66. 
 
 Reeves, John, 44, 45, 332, 359. 
 
 Reformers, judgment to be made of 
 the, 292. 
 
 Religion of Nature, 36, 37. 
 
 Rennell, Dr. Thomas, Dean of Win- 
 chester, 131. 
 
 Rennell, Thomas, Vicar of Kensing- 
 ton, 131, 132. 
 
 Richards, Richard, Chief Baron of 
 the Exchequer, 42. 
 
 Richardson, Sir John, Judge in the 
 Court of Common Pleas, 5, 23, 24, 
 25, 195, 289. 
 
 Rome, Church of, doctrines in con- 
 troversy with, 154, 155, 169, 351. 
 
 Rose, Sir George, 85. 
 
 Rose, Rev. Hugh James, 138, 1-46, 
 173, 193195, 223, 225228, 
 273, 296, 375. 
 
 Rowland, Rev. W. G., 222. 
 
 Royal Letters, 107, 108. 
 
 Rubrical observances, 301, 302. 
 
 Ryder, Dr. Henry, Bishop of Glou- 
 cester and Lichtield, 121, 128. 
 
 Sawbridge, Rev. J. S., 29, 78. 
 
 Scott, Jas. Hope, 162. 
 
 Schonberg, Countess of, 88, 89. 
 
 Seed, Jer., his Sermons commended, 
 288. 
 
 Selwyn, George A., Bishop of New 
 Zealand, 25, 146, 263, 264, 265, 
 364, 373, 375. 
 
 Short, Aug., Bishop of Adelaide, 370. 
 
 Sidmouth, Henry Addingtou, Vis- 
 count, 154, 312, 360, 367. 
 
 Sikes, Rev. Thomas, 2528, 127, 
 137, 171, 212, 326. 
 
 Skinner, Dr. John, Bishop of Aber- 
 deen, 19. 
 
 Skinner, John, of Forfar, 130. 
 
 Smedley, Rev. Edward, 160. 
 
 Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, 52, 70, 74, 75, 195, 
 alibi 201, 355. 
 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel 
 in Foreign Parts, 304, 305, 306.
 
 Index. 
 
 385 
 
 Southey, Robert, Poet Laureate, 
 120, 137, 166, 189, 190, 207, ., 
 215, 346, 360. 
 
 Stafford, Rich. Ant., 132 n. 
 
 Stevens, William, 1323, 130, 321. 
 
 St. John xv. 15, remark on, 184. 
 
 Strong, Rev. T. L., 133, 217. 
 
 Talfonrd, Mr. Serjeant, 43, 44. 
 Taylor, Jer., 25, 27, n., 116, 195, 
 
 217, 289, 315, 316, 326, 341,349, 
 
 352, 365, 377. 
 Thelwall, John, 43, 44. 
 Thomas, Rev. Vaughan, 223, 224. 
 Thompson, Thomas, 104, 105. 
 Thorndike, 27. 
 Tindal, Sir Nicolas, Chief Justice, 
 
 149. 
 
 Todd, Archdeacon, 328. 
 Todd, Dr. J. H., 179, 349. 
 Tooke, John Home, 43, 44, 47. 
 Townson, Dr. T., 221, 222. 
 " Tracts for the Times," 27, 203, 269. 
 Tranquebar Mission, 95, 96. 
 Trimmer, Sarah, 64. 
 Tyrrell, Bishop, 267, 369. 
 
 Van Mildert, Dr. William, Bishop 
 of Durham, 5, 3341, 76, 77, 
 116, sqq., 125, 126, 129, 130, 
 135, 138, 139; bis, relations with 
 Bishop Lloyd, 152, 153; his theo- 
 logical opinions, 37, 39, 156, 157 ; 
 alibi his speech on the repeal of 
 the Test Act, 168; his resistance 
 to the Reman Catholic claims, 
 169, 203 ; his private charities, 
 211, 216; his latest episcopal 
 acts, 213, 214; bis death, 217, 
 218. 
 
 Vincentius Lirinensis, 297, 306. 
 
 Walmsley, Rev. T. T., 63. 
 Walsh, Rev. W. H., 260, 370. 
 Ward, Dr. W., Bishop of Sodor and 
 
 Man, 171173. 
 Warneford, Dr. S. W., 223, 224, 
 
 259, 811, 364, 365; bis death, 
 
 376. 
 Watson, John, father of Joshua 
 
 Watson, 27. 
 Watson, John James, Archdeacon 
 
 of St. Alban's, 4, 7, 115, 127, 150, 
 
 202, 229, sqq., 312. 
 
 WATSON, JOSHUA, subject of this 
 Memoir, born in 1771, 4; his 
 early life and education, 7. 8 ; his 
 marriage, 8 ; his early friendship 
 with Jonathan Boucher and Wil- 
 liam Stevens, 10, 12, 13, 19 ; with 
 John Richardson, Thomas Sikes, 
 H. H. Norris, and William Van 
 Mildert, 23 41; his services to 
 Archbishop Manners-Sutton, 51, 
 52 ; to the Church Societies, 56, 
 57, 222, and passim; his efforts 
 for the German sufferers, 84 91 ; 
 his Memorial on the Indian Mis- 
 sions, 97 ; his honorary degree at 
 Oxford, 117, sqq. ; his residence 
 at Park-street, Westminster, and 
 society there, 130, 134, 178, 179 ; 
 his rule for private observance of 
 Sundays, 133, 134; reflections in 
 a time of sickness, 150, 151 ; 
 death of his wife, chap. xv. ; his 
 scheme for an Ecclesiastical Com- 
 mission, 190 193; resists sanc- 
 tioning a Dissenting Manual of 
 Religious Instruction, 195 197 ; 
 bis part in the addresses to the 
 Primate in 1833, 203 209 ; 
 draws up the constitution of the 
 Society for Additional Curates, 
 222, 223 ; death of his only child, 
 and brother, 231; his labours 
 for the Colonial Church in North 
 America, 244, 245; and in Aus- 
 tralia, 259, 260; his opinion of 
 the " Tracts for the Times," and 
 especially No. 90, 271, 272, 275, 
 sqq. ; reminiscences ot him in the 
 later years of his life, 281, sqq. ; 
 his characteristic conversation, 
 293 ; private charities, 296, 297, 
 359; his jealous vigilance for the 
 honour of God in holy places, 
 311, 312, 320, 321 ; his study of 
 Holy Scripture, 334; his prefer- 
 ence of gifts to legacies, 334 ; his 
 thankfulness in sickness, 351 
 353; his enjoyment of natural 
 beauty in his decline of age, 313, 
 315, 366; other memorials of his 
 last days, to the end. 
 
 Watson, Dr. Richard, Bishop of 
 Llandaff, 15. 
 
 Watts, Dr. Isaac, 196, 197. 
 
 C C
 
 3 86 
 
 Index. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 94, 169, 191, 
 209, 367. 
 
 Whewell, Dr. W., Master of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, 176. 
 
 Wilberforce, William, 122, 237. 
 
 Wilson, Bishop, 319. 
 
 Windsor in Nova Scotia, 244, 330. 
 
 Womack, Bishop, 162. 
 
 Wood, Samuel, Esq., 299, 300. 
 
 Words, choice of and arrangement, 
 347. 
 
 Wordsworth, Dr. Christopher, Mas- 
 ter of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 42, 51, 52, 53, 7276, 93, 95, 
 107, 108, 114, 123, 139, 147,174, 
 
 177, 190, 234, 272, 287, 297; his 
 
 death, 325. 
 Wordsworth. Dr. Christopher, Jun., 
 
 299 ; alibi 317, 326, 347. 
 Wordsworth, William, the Poet, 3, 
 
 42, 109, 137, 173, 179, 189, 190, 
 
 215, 216, 218, 219, 313, 319, 358. 
 Wyndham, Rt. Hon. W., 359. 
 
 Youthful reformers, Joshua Watson's 
 indulgence for, 333, 334. 
 
 Zealand. See New Zealand. 
 Ziegenbalg, Bartholomew, 95. 
 
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