jects particularly agitated the public mind, neither of which has, as yet, subsided, or is likely to lose that degree of interest which belongs to religious questions when taken up in connexion with parties. On the claims of the Roman Catholics, which were then urged with great vehemence, his lordship observed: "I am sure your good sense will anticipate me in thinking, that toleration is one thing, civil power, rewards, and privilege, another. When toleration is granted, that is granted to which all peaceable and conscientious dissenters have a claim. But when men ask to be armed with extensive and formidable powers, it is very natural, it is strictly justifiable, it is highly prudential, to ask, how power has been used by this sect in time past? If doctrines sanctioned by the highest authority in the Church of Rome, have never, by the same authority, been repealed or disavowed, it cannot reasonably be expected, that their practices (if the means of execution were allowed) would be materially different. It is a wellknown truth, that from no one principle which the Church of Rome has ever authoritatively made, it has ever authoritatively receded."

The other point on which the Bishop felt himself called, by his intercourse with the clergy, to give his opinion, was, the alleged Calvinism of the Church of England; a charge, as he observed, perfectly groundless, and flatly contradicted in the articles themselves, where universal redemption is stated in express terms, as well as the possibility of falling from grace. On Calvinism itself, the Bishop says: "I confess I never could be induced to think, that the doctrines peculiar to Calvin (for of such only I speak) are analogous to those ideas which all religion, natural as well as revealed, suggests to us, concerning the perfections of a God. It was wisely observed, by an ancient philosopher, that peculiar care was to be taken in obtaining sound and right sentiments concerning the Deity and his attributes. Whatever perversity of opinion enters into men's creeds on this head, must, in a great measure, tincture their whole conduct; and, I think, it can scarcely be denied, that the conceptions of those who are biassed towards

Calvinism, seem peculiarly calculated to influence and keep alive a spirit of fanaticism, not altogether reconcileable with true charity and humility. Those who can work themselves up to a persuasion, that from all eternity they have been the designated vessels of the Divine favour, without any reference to their virtue, their moral conduct, or even their faith, will naturally be elated with a fanatic presumption, little calculated to render them moral in their dealings, mild in their deportment, or submissive to those whom it has pleased Providence to place over them."

On

In 1806, Dr. Fisher preached the anniversary sermon at the meeting of the charity-schools, before the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in St. Paul's cathedral. the 25th of February, 1807, being the day appointed for a general Fast, he preached a sermon before the House of Lords in Westminster Abbey. In this admirable discourse, his lordship took occasion to enter minutely into the want of places of worship in the large outlying parishes of the metropolis, where the increase of the population obviously called for an additional number of churches and chapels. The observation produced a lively effect at the time, but owing to the pressure of the war, no plan adequate to the necessity could then be adopted by the government; and without that support, the benevolent suggestions of the Bishop were hardly practicable. He had the pleasure, however, to see his ideas, at a subsequent period, taken up actively, and on an extensive scale, both by parliament and by the people.

On the death of that distinguished scholar, Dr. John Douglas, in 1807, Dr. Fisher was translated to the diocese of Salisbury.

It 1818 was printed, at Guernsey, a sermon which his lordship preached at the consecration of St. James's Church in that island; and with this the list of his publications ends: for though no divine of his rank was better qualified to instruct men from the press, as well as from the pulpit (for he was a most accomplished scholar), his invincible modesty was such, that nothing but a compliance with established usage could

have prevailed upon him to publish even the few discourses here enumerated.

Sincere and unostentatious in his piety, Dr. Fisher was at all times desirous to promote, to the best of his judgment and the utmost of his ability, the cause of true religion and practical benevolence. Ever the firm and steady friend of all that was valuable in society, his anxious wishes and active services were unceasingly devoted to the security and prosperity of our established church. In the peculiar duties of his diocese, he was most exemplary and attentive. Desirous not only to correct abuses, but to promote what was beneficial to the general and local interests of the church, he was at all times most readily accessible to his clergy. He was not merely their diocesan, but their father and friend. To every thing suggested to him he gave a most willing attention and serious consideration; and his warmest support and co-operation to all that was praise-worthy, and tended to a laudable object.

express.

In the relations of private life, they who experienced his excellent qualities will bear testimony in the poignancy of their feelings, to what, in language, they will find it impossible to With all the cheerful vivacity and engaging urbanity of manners which were the overflow of a truly amiable and well-ordered mind, he was invariably modest, humble, kind, benevolent, and charitable, even to an extreme.

The principal feature in the Bishop's character was the command of his temper. Suffering during life under bodily indisposition, he was seldom heard to complain; but bore pain with a patient smile, well known to those about him, He seemed to make it his first study that the mind should not partake of the irritability of the body. If an expression of impatience escaped him, it was followed by instant placability; and a restlessness discovered itself in his manner, until by some act of kindness every unpleasant impression was effaced from the mind of the offended party. His anger was never provoked on his own account: seldom stirred, except when he heard the absent attacked, -a practice which he never indulged in himself, nor was able silently to endure in

others. It roused him in his most placid moods. From pride of place and person he was entirely free. And although he passed the larger portion of his life in the intoxicating air of a court, was distinguished by the personal friendship of his sovereign, and elevated to the highest rank of his profession, he preserved uniformly his natural character. Mild, quiet, and unassuming, he was always ready to attribute his rise to the preference of his royal patron, rather than to his own deserts. If vanity ever discovered itself, it was when he related with honest pride the act of self-denial and integrity to which he owed his advancement. And this, he used to thank God, he had had the grace to practise, and the king the goodness to appreciate. His unbounded benevolence was at once the ornament and the fault of his character. He wished to oblige and serve every man that approached him; and by his urbanity and accessibility he sometimes, perhaps, led the over sanguine to entertain hopes which no human means could realize. Such a disposition was incompatible with the vice of avarice. After his advancement to the episcopal bench, he made it a rule to appropriate a considerable portion of the revenues of each diocese to charitable uses. One proof of his uncommon disinterestedness appeared in his declining to renew the lease of the best manor belonging to the temporalities of the see of Salisbury, by which extraordinary sacrifice, the sum of thirty thousand pounds falls into the hands of his excellent friend and successor, bishop Burgess. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Dr. Fisher left his bishoprick as he came to it, master only of his private fortune.

After a life of much, though not ostentatious, activity, this Pamiable and venerable prelate died on the 8th of May, 1825, at his house in Seymour-street, London, in the 77th year of his age. On the 16th of the same month his remains were interred with appropriate ceremony in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor. The body was conveyed in a hearse drawn by six horses, caparisoned with purple velvet covering and rich plumes of ostrich feathers, with escutcheons and armorial bearings. The hearse was followed by five carriages

of the royal family, one of which belonged to Prince Leopold; also by three mourning-coaches with four horses each; the family carriages; the carriages of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Bishop of St. David's, the Bishop of Winchester, and Bishop of St. Asaph; the carriages of the Earl of Pembroke, Earl Nelson, Lord Bridport; Wądham Wyndham, Esq., and several others. The body on entering St. George's chapel was met by the Rev. Dean and Canons, together with the Rev. Mr. Gosset, the Rector of Windsor, the Rev. Mr. Sumner, and the surrounding clergy. The whole were dressed in their full canonicals. The burial service was read by the dean, and the body was deposited in a vault in the chapel prepared for the purpose.

Since the funeral, letters of administration have been granted by the Commons to Dorothea Fisher, widow and executrix of the bishop, by which it appears, that his personal property amounted to no more than 20,000l.

A portrait of his lordship, as Chancellor of the Garter, adorns the great room in Salisbury Palace.

Some notes which we were so fortunate as to obtain of his lordship's life, have enabled us to correct and enrich the foregoing memoir, which is, however, principally compiled from the Imperial, Gentleman's, and Monthly Magazines, and the Berkshire Chronicle.