less utility for the same purpose. In the efforts which he made for this purpose, he is supposed to have received assistance from Swift, whose good offices were engaged by Archbishop King. He is two or three times alluded to by Swift, in his Journal, and his mission rather coldly and doubtfully mentioned. The archbishop, in a letter to Swift, states his opinion, that it was not desired very unanimously, that the native Irish should be converted. And this was, we cannot doubt, the main and only effectual obstacle to such a result. The protestant gentry of Ireland were then, as they have been since, far more zealous to act upon paltry and erroneous views of self-interest, than either for the welfare of the country, or the truths of religion. They saw, truly indeed, that a general conversion of the Irish would both add to the influence of the church, and that it would raise the people themselves to a condition of more real power (which is absolutely dependent on civilization,) by redeeming them from the tyranny of superstitions which bound them to the earth. But they did not see, that their own respectability must depend on that of the country, and that the value of their estates must sooner or later depend on the wealth of the community: they did not look to the consequence, now become so plain, that no country can advance to wealth, civilization, and civil liberty, with the gangrene of perpetual dissension in its bosom: and that the period must arrive when a dangerous inequality must be developed, between the popular power, and the popular civilization; for the one would flow in from the mere connexion with England, while the other would be dependent upon the dissemination and growth of the principles of truth and order. These things were not understood by a large and prevalent section of the Irish nobility and gentry, who were then willing to keep back the people lest their own church should be strengthened by their accession, as they have since shown themselves equally ready to oppress their own religion, by seconding undue and unconstitutional efforts, of which the pretence was to raise the condition of the people. In both cases have they been found warring against God, and in both the eventual record of history will be the mischief they have done, and the retribution they have suffered.

In our own times we are happy to say better prospects have in this respect arisen; not from the wisdom of parliament, or the care, patriotism, and piety, of the higher classes; but from the persevering energy of the church, the clear-headed sagacity of the Irish peasantry, and the blessing from above which never deserts the truth of God. Controversies of seemingly doubtful issue have had strange effects, even as yet imperfectly explained: the disputants for the papal creed adopted the dangerous artifice of comprehensive retractations and denials of the tenets which they found themselves unequal to defend: a retreat was covered by virtual concessions; but a people who had grown up at the feet of O'Connell were too sharp not to seize upon the consequences. A spirit of inquiry began; many falsities were rejected; the scriptures ceased to be the object of a superstitious prejudice; and at this moment, when there seems an authoritative and strong accession to the papal cause, popery is itself unconsciously losing its form, and stealing without recognition into the principles of the opposite side; so that there is no extravagance in surmising, that in the very season of triumph it will cease to exist.

To forward this desirable object should be now the main effort of every enlightened mind, of every protestant church. And happily no further obstruction is to be apprehended from either the ignorance of the peasantry, or the barrier presented by language. Nor are the people reluctant to hear, or slow to acknowledge, truths spoken in goodwill. But we must not be diverted further from our record.

The following letter from primate Boulter contains nearly all we have been able further to obtain of the life of this illustrious christian. It is written to the duke of Dorset.

"My Lord,

"The deanery of Duach or Kilmacduach, I know not which they call it, is now vacant by the death of Dr Northcote, worth about £120 or £140 per ann. I should be very much obliged to your Grace if you would be pleased to bestow it on Mr John Richardson, rector of Belturbet: he is a worthy person, and well affected to his majesty, and was many years ago cóncerned in a design to translate the Bible and Common Prayer into Irish, in order the better to bring about the conversion of the natives; but he met at that time with great opposition, not to say oppression here, instead of either thanks or assistance; and suffered the loss of several hundred pounds expended in printing the Common Prayer Book, and other necessary charges he was at in the undertaking.

"I should be very glad, I could contribute somewhat to make him a little easy in his circumstances, and procure him by your Grace's favour some dignity in the church.

"DUBLIN, 3d Sept., 1730."

"I am, my Lord, &c."

The duke of Dorset consented, and he obtained the deanery; a subsequent attempt to exchange it for the deanery of Kilmore, worth £300, a-year failed. A like effort to gain the appointment to be chaplain o. a regiment, likewise failed from Mr Richardson's inability to raise a sum of money which it was customary to pay the colonel, on such appointments.

It appears from a passage in one of the primate's letters, that he contributed from his private means to Mr Richardson's maintenance. Richardson was advanced in life at the period here alluded to, and the last notice we can find of him is in 1734. He is not likely to have long survived this period.

CHARLES LESLIE, CHANCELLOR OF CONNOR.

DIED A. D. 1722.

CHARLES LESLIE was the second son of Dr John Leslie, bishop of Clogher. He received the first rudiments of his education at Eniskillen, and in 1664 entered the university of Dublin as a fellow-comHe continued his studies in the college until he obtained his degree of A.M. after the regular period. He was perhaps designed

moner.

for holy orders by the bishop; but in 1671, on his father's death, he resolved on the study of the law, which to one of his uncommon powers of reasoning, must have offered strong attractions. But like many who are led from their course by such an impulse, he changed his mind after a few years, and entered upon the study of theology. We may be wrong in explaining his change of purpose by a very common succession of motives, of which we could adduce many living instances. The practice of the bar has a charm for the youthful, at that period when expertness and ingenuity seem to be the most important and elevated capabilities of the intellect, and the youthful mind, deeply engaged in acquiring the methods and principles of reasoning, has not yet obtained an adequate notion of their proper aim and end. The bar alone retains the ancient character of a system of dialectic antagonism, and thus appears to offer a fair field for the prowess of the young logician. There is, however, a wide chasm of probation to be passed, of which the youthful aspirant has seldom formed any notion: but, during his attendances at Inns of court,-while forming a first acquaintance with the true principles, the practice, and the members of his intended profession-he begins to perceive that a long course of duller and drier studies must be passed, and years of less ambitious drudgery must elapse before he can acquire the enviable privilege of chopping chancery logic. In the mean time, if he may chance to have, like Charles Leslie, an intellect bent for the higher applications of reason in the broader and loftier field of philosophic research, and the investigation of truth, his reflecting powers will often be drawn aside by the many profound questions, doubts, and speculations, which are in numberless forms presenting themselves to every thinking person. And there is no one path of professional study so various or so wide in the range of truths it offers, or so fertile in true and satisfactory solutions, as that of the theologian. The real aim and end of human existence the history and destinies of man-the true grounds of motive and obligation—the mingled web of good and evil in moral and physical nature the foundation in fact and probability of all these, while they offered a grasp to the comprehensive intellect not to be found in any other pursuit; at the same time appear in a sounder, more simple, and satisfactory form, in the writings of our great English divines, than in the confused and contradictory speculations of mere philosophy. Indeed, there is a result which not unfrequently has occurred, when the bar was less educated than in the present day; and therefore liable to admit the taint of that infidel tone which is the frequent result of shallow ingenuity combined with ignorance: in a circle thus constituted, a scholar like Leslie would be very likely to be thrown upon an anxious effort to recollect and keep in view the rational grounds of faith. Nor would it unfrequently occur, that he might be compelled to stand upon his defence and wield those powers, which were so happily displayed in his argument against the Deists, and which have made the world his debtor.

After nearly nine years spent in the study of law, ne entered into holy orders in 1680, and in a few years more, was appointed chancellor of the cathedral church of Connor. About the same year, an occasion presented itself for the exercise of his controversial powers. The

II.

2 s

Ir.

bishop of Clogher having died, the see was filled by the appointment of a bishop of the Romish church, by James II. This bishop, whose name was Patrick Tyrrel, brought several well-trained disputants along with him, and at his visitation had recourse to the singularly indiscreet step of proclaiming a challenge to the Protestant clergy: these, on their part, were then, as ever, willing to maintain their profession, and Leslie accepted the challenge. Of the result we have no distinct record; but, at a second meeting for the same purpose, he met two very eminent persons selected for the occasion, in the church of Tynan in Armagh, before a very crowded assembly; and his success is more distinctly indicated by the fact, that Mr John Stewart, a gentleman of respectability, was so convinced that he renounced the papal creed.

In the same troubled period, when there was a confusion of public authorities occasioned by the efforts of James II. and his party, to substitute papists for protestants in every post of authority, an incident occurred which manifests the influence which Leslie's reputation had gained by his talent and probity. A sheriff of the papal faith was appointed in Monaghan: the gentry of the country took the alarm, and flocked to Leslie for advice. His advice was given; but they requested his personal attendance on the bench at the approaching sessions, as a justice of peace; and promised faithfully to support him. He had the gout, and was carried with much severe suffering to court. There, a question was put to the sheriff, "whether he was legally qualified:" he answered that "he was of the king's own religion, and that it was his majesty's will that he should be sheriff;" Leslie then told him "that they were not inquiring into his majesty's religion, but whether he had qualified himself according to law, for acting as a proper officer. That the law was the king's will, and nothing else was to be deemed such, &c.:"—on this, the sheriff was committed for intrusion and contempt, by the bench.

This spirited conduct is, indeed, the more creditable to Leslie, because it stands separated from all party feelings, as his known political prepossessions lay entirely in the opposite direction. Though like every person of honest heart, and sound understanding, he condemned the treacherous and unconstitutional proceedings of James; yet, on the other hand, he refused to recognise the extreme case which had arrived. Like a few other honest and able men, his mind submitted to a prejudice which had grown up in the hotbed of absolute power, and under the shade of despotic thrones maintained by papal power. The notion of an indefeasible divine right had not yet been assailed by the writers of the revolution. And while the plain common sense of the practical part of the nation followed the suggestions of an apparent necessity; some who, like Leslie, had been trained within the pale of theories and systems, sternly adhered to the lessons they had learned in their school of constitutional theory. This, in our opinion, is the true account of this seeming absurdity in a man of Leslie's profound understanding. And we cannot help considering it important for the purpose of reconciling the able understanding in controversies and questions, with the seeming inconsistencies and practical errors of this truly able and good man, to remind the reader of the differ

ence which occasionally offers itself in experience between the precise and deep thinker, and the prudent and practical man of the world. The several qualifications of such persons are both common enough, perhaps in their separate perfection; but it does not very frequently happen that they are found together. A large development of the powers of external perception, and a profound expansion of the faculties which can familiarly move in the depths of abstraction, include some opposing habits, and perhaps conditions of the understanding There is, thus, a simplicity in the philosopher which sometimes exposes him to be the dupe of shallow knaves; and that such was characteristic of this illustrious divine, there is much evidence in his life, and even some in his writings. Of the first, we shall presently offer specimens enough: of the latter, we may adduce in evidence some facts which we would fain dismiss before we proceed further. We mean his strange contradiction of the statements of archbishop King's well-known history of those troubles of which he was an honest and sagacious witness, and which, from their nature, and the prominent character of the events which they relate, admit of little mistake. Now, it must be observed, that the whole history of the archbishop, and all his letters and other writings, plainly manifest all the indications which can be sought for of sagacity and integrity. During the troubles in question, he was not only an intelligent and watchful actor, but he was also placed in a position the very best for observation. Any one, however able, may be liable to err in his public sentiments, or in his deductions of political consequences; but, it is only a fool who can be persuaded that he is in the very midst of a scene of outrage, oppression, and flagrant crime, where there is all the time little or no ground for it. The writers who would impute such folly

cannot have considered the numerous absurdities which it involves; and they who would suspect the whole to be a mere party statement, either have not reflected on the high character of the writer, or must themselves think truth and falsehood matters of entire indifference. Again, to apply similar considerations to Leslie-he was not a witness, -he was a zealous partisan-his temper was pre-eminently controversial-and though a reasoner of unequalled power, he was far from possessing either the knowledge of Irish affairs, the observant sagacity, or the neutral spirit of Archbishop King. Thus modified by circumstances and natural temper, the several courses pursued by these two eminent men are to be compared. King, when he had adopted the principles of the most eminent whigs, the same which time has pproved, pursued them without manifesting the slightest tendency to party; and when the revolution was confirmed, applied himself to his own official duties with an active and uncompromising zeal which gave offence to the government, who were disappointed to find no subserviency in one who had given them a constitutional support, and was as ready to offer a constitutional opposition. And such is the person who has been accused of publishing in the face of a million of adverse witnesses, a collection of the most outrageous and monstrous lies. Such a charge demands better authority than has been yet found.

Now, on the other hand, let us look again at Leslie's course of conduct