best ecclesiastical preferments persons who were absolutely ignorant of Welch. Under such circumstances the care of the Welch churches naturally devolved upon men who were, in the strictest sense of the phrase, the "hireling shepherds" alluded to in the gospel; and who, for the sake of a moderate subsistence, were content to serve two, three, or even four congregations, at the distance of several miles from each other. The duties of the holy office were necessarily hurried over in a slovenly manner; the people derived little advantage from public instruction; and the more important benefits which ought to have accrued to the rising generation from private teaching, and the example of the teacher, were wholly unknown to them. To these defects in the administration of the national religion may be ascribed that ignorance which generally prevailed in North Wales in the early part of the last century; and to the same cause may be attributed the rapid progress of Methodism in that country, and the prevalence of various absurd and fanatical sects, more especially of that which is peculiar to Wales, and which is known, by the whimsical appellation of

Jumpers." Mr. Lewis Rees, during the whole of his ministry, discouraged in his followers every species of enthusiam, but his zeal in the assertion of the doctrines of Christianity was eminently distinguished. In the laborious discharge of all the duties pertaining to a Christian minister he was singularly assiduous and indefatigable. The insults which he frequently experienced in the performance of his sacred functions excited his pity and sorrow, but had no effect in abating his ardour. To avoid the assaults and indignities of the bigot and fanatic, who even threatened his life, he travelled from place to place in the darkness of night. On Sundays, and during the hours of leisure on other days, he preached to crowded congregations; and he neglected no fit opportunity which presented itself of instructing in virtue and the Christian religion the children and younger branches of those families who attended upon his ministry. Such was his success, that he became most popular in the very places

in which he had begun his labours at so much personal hazard. In the course of a few years the minds of a great mass of the people became enlightened, and their dispositions ameliorated to a degree scarcely conceivable; and the name of Lewis Rees is to this day held in veneration by the descendants of those who were originally his bitterest enemies and persecutors. After having spent the most vigorous and active part of his life in this scene of labour and danger, and having laid the foundation of many dissenting congregations in North Wales, he removed to Glamorganshire, where he passed his remaining years, an eminently popular and useful preacher; and died at the advanced age of ninety.

By his mother's side, Dr. Abraham Rees was collaterally descended from the celebrated Perry, who died a martyr to nonconformity in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Dr. Rees was born at or near Montgomery, in the year 1743. Having, with a view to the ministry, to which his father devoted him from his birth, received the elements of education under Dr. Jenkins, who superintended a respectable seminary for Protestant dissenters at Carmarthen, he was removed to London, and became a pupil in the academy for dissenting ministers, founded by Mr. Coward at Hoxton, and which was then conducted by Dr. David Jennings, the learned author of a work on Jewish antiquities, and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Samuel Morton Savage. Here he made such proficiency, especially in the mathematics and in natural philosophy, to which studies, on the recommendation and with the assistance of his friend Dr. Price, he devoted as much of his time as his other engagements and his views as a candidate for the ministry would allow, that in 1762, on the death of Dr. Jennings, and when a new arrangement took place in the academy, Dr. Kippis being appointed classical tutor, Dr. Rees, although only nineteen years of age, and although his regular term of study was not completed, was appointed by the trustees of the institution to the mathematical department of tuition. In this arduous situation he gave so much satisfaction, that he was soon after chosen to the more responsible office of resident

tutor, which he continued to hold for twenty-three years, to the credit of the academy, and the great advantage of the dissenting cause. During the time that Dr. Rees retained these appointments, he had under his tuition many gentlemen who afterwards became eminent as preachers in their respective denominations, and not a few survive who are well known to the religious and the literary world.

For some time Dr. Rees officiated only as an occasional preacher. At length, in July, 1768, he was unanimously elected pastor of the Presbyterian congregation, St. Thomas's, Southwark, (since removed to Stamford-street, Blackfriars Road), a connexion of which he was always accustomed to speak with pleasure. His predecessor was Mr. Henry Read, who, with his brother, Mr. James Read, strenuously opposed, in 1719, the imposition of articles and confessions of faith upon dissenting ministers, for which they suffered not a little obloquy from some of their more complying brethren. Mr. Henry Read had presided over the congregation in St. Thomas's above half a century, and with such popularity, that

many years he was obliged to take his station in the pulpit nearly an hour before the commencement of the service, on account of the crowds of auditors who literally blocked up the aisles of the meeting. Dr. Rees remained in this situation fifteen years, and the congregation flourished under his ministry. At the end of that term, on the death of Mr. Nathaniel White, he was invited to become minister of the congregation of Jewin Street, then assembling in the Old Jewry, in a place consecrated by the labours of a succession of eminently pious men, nearly the last of whom was the highly-gifted and learned Dr. Chandler. From various causes, the congregation had much declined, and it was judged (wisely as appeared by the event), that Dr. Rees would revive the interest; and with this hope, and without any calculation of an increase of emolument, with the consent of his friends at St. Thomas's, he accepted the invitation, and from 1783 to the period of his death, continued to labour with unquestionable and increasing success.

But we must now revert to his academic occupations. In the year 1784, Dr. Savage and Dr. Kippis resigned their connexion with the seminary at Hoxton; and Dr. Rees soon after followed their example. The cause of this separation has never been properly explained; but there is reason to believe that it was occasioned, in a great measure, by some dissatisfaction expressed on the part of the trustees, at the wide departure of this academical institution from the doctrinal principles which it was established to support. The old seminary at Hoxton, therefore, being now broken up, and that at Warrington, as well as the one at Daventry, falling into rapid decay, it was resolved by a meeting of the more liberal and wealthy dissenters in London, to form another near the metropolis, on a more extended scale than had as yet appeared in England, for the education of young men in the free principles of nonconformity, unshackled by creeds, articles, and confessions of faith. Accordingly, a large subscription, headed by Mr. Newton, a gentleman of fortune, was entered into, and in a short time a fund was provided, sufficient for the purchase and fitting up of some extensive premises at Hackney. The building went on with alacrity, and at the opening of it in 1786, Dr. Kippis, the principal director and tutor, preached a sermon, which was published, The next commemorative discourse was preached by Dr. Price, who was succeeded, in 1788, by Dr. Rees, and he by the younger Mr. Hugh Worthington, of Salter's Hall, after whom followed Dr. Priestley, with whom, we believe, the series of annual sermons ended. From the beginning of the design, Dr. Rees was looked up to as the person best qualified to discharge the duties of a resident tutor in the natural sciences; and he continued to do so as long as the institution existed. But though great things were expected from the New College, as it was called, there were not wanting some persons of shrewd judgment, to foresee and predict the speedy fate of this splendid edifice. One objection to the new establishment, was the expensiveness of the system of education therein adopted; and another, of equal, if not greater import

ance, was the circumstance of admitting other pupils besides those intended for the ministry. It was observed, that such an association tended to raise the views of theological students above the condition they were about to occupy in life; and it was reasonably feared, that a promiscuous education like this, would rather weaken than cherish the spirit of zeal and humility which ought to be the leading characteristic of the Christian teacher. In answer to this, the English universities were referred to, where, it was said, young men sometimes form connexions with the sons of the nobility, and thereby procure valuable preferment. But as it happens that the dissenters, while they remain such, can enjoy no ecclesiastical benefices or distinctions at all, it is surprising how such an idea could have entered the heads of intelligent men. And even had there been any justification for such a plea, it could only have been one that was at direct variance with the fundamental principles of nonconformity, at least as far as regards the character and conduct of its ministers, of whom it is expected that they should be abstracted from selfish views and worldly ambition. Considering all this, the decline of the New College at Hackney was no more than the natural consequence of an immature project; but there were other causes which combined to hasten its dissolution. The primary or ostensible object of the scheme, was the settlement of an academy to prepare young men for the ministerial office, and on that account ample funds ought to have been secured in the first instance; instead of which, the expences of the establishment were such as to exclude youths of little property from enjoying the benefits of the foundation; and as to eleemosynary tuition, it was out of the question altogether. Again, the burden attached to the preceptorial chairs soon became too heavy for the very learned persons who filled those situations; especially as the salaries and perquisites were far from proving an adequate remuneration for the sacrifice of so much time and labour. In the endowed schools and colleges connected with the established church, the masters and professors are made easy, by the assurance that their

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