religious and political subjects, different men will form different opinions. Concerning the integrity of his heart, and the consistency of his character, there can be but one opinion amongst those who enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance.

"The foundation of this integrity, and this consistency, was laid in early life. In the course of his academical studies, he imbibed from the fountains of Greece and Rome an ardent love of truth, a generous regard to public freedom, a manly sense of personal dignity and independence. He had too many occasions of observing, that, without these moral feelings, splendid talents are only higher qualifications for mischief, fitting and tempting those who possess them to become the advocates of error, the apologists of vice, and the tools of oppression. He therefore fortified his mind against those allurements of vanity and ambition, to which minds of such a texture as his are so much exposed, by cherishing those magnanimous sentiments with which his favourite authors abound. Too many of his contemporaries seem to have regarded these sentiments as fit to be the passing amusement of a youthful fancy, but too romantic for that state of society in which they rise most surely to wealth and honour, who can

cringe with the most fawning servility at the foot of

power.

Very different were the views of Mr. Wakefield; he did not throw off his early convictions with his academical gown, and think only of employing his talents to secure his preferment. On the contrary, that which began in the honest feelings of his nature, he gradually improved into a permanent principle, of which he became the more tenacious, the farther he advanced in life. Those generous purposes of soul, which the sages of Athens engendered, were nursed into vigour by the seers of Judea, and the spirit which he inhaled upon Parnassus, was illumined and sanctified by the purer and more elevated spirit of Mount Zion. That love of truth and virtue which philosophy had taught him as a dignified sentiment, Christianity consecrated as a religious duty; and whilst he listened with respect to the advices of Socrates, he bowed with submission to the authority of Jesus.

"His researches into the Sacred Volume produced a full and permanent conviction of the truth of revelation, and a firm resolution to teach and to practise nothing but what he thought strictly conformable to its spirit; and as he soon found reason to adopt opinions very different from those of the Church in which

he had been educated, with that disinterested rectitude which so strongly marked his whole conduct, he sacrificed his advantages and expectations to his sense of duty, and relinquished a situation which he could no longer hold consistently with his convictions.

"But though he left the church of England, he did not cease to labour (O! that he might have laboured longer) to enlarge and edify the church of Christ. He resolved, independent of any established creed, and unbiassed by any worldly emolument, to employ his learning in elucidating the sense and morals of the Gospel, and in holding up to veneration the God-like character and unparalleled sacrifices of its author. Unhappily for the interests of biblical criticism and genuine religion, the Christian world is deprived, by his untimely death, of those exertions which were to be expected in this line of study from the vigour of his age and judgment; whilst the lovers of classical literature have equally to lament the disappointment of those wellfounded hopes which they entertained from his indefatigable and accurate investigation of Greek and Roman learning.

"It is not the object of this article to detail the dates and circumstances of Mr.Wakefield's life and writings: nor is it intended to com

ment upon the occasion which drew down on his head the weight of ministerial vengeance. This only it may be permitted to say, whatever political malevolence may assert or in-. sinuate to the contrary, that in connexion with the general cause of freedom and humanity, no man was more deeply concerned for the real prosperity of his country, or better disposed to sacrifice all personal considerations in promoting it.

"Actuated by this spirit of disinterested patriotism, his mind was too ardent to weigh expressions in the balance of worldly prudence, when reprobating measures which, to his judgment, appeared destructive of those great objects that were ever uppermost in his thoughts. If, in opposition to these measures, he sometimes became too indignant to accommodate his language to that courtly standard which men of colder temperament have fixed, allowance will be made by the candid, even among his political opponents, for feelings constitutionally strong, and irritated by the conviction, well or ill-founded, that his country, through the mal-administration of its affairs, was hastening to inevitable ruin.

"That intrepid spirit which he displayed in the course of his prosecution, will naturally be held up by those to whom it was obnoxious

as the effect of obstinacy; but to those who were acquainted with his character and principles of action, it is known to have proceeded from a deep-rooted conviction, that he was bound as a Christian to bear witness to the truth, without fearing what man could do unto him.' Of the conduct of administration in instituting such a prosecution upon such grounds, against such a man, impartial posterity will judge; and it requires but little sa-gacity to foresee that the result of that judgment will be a sentence of reprobation.

"The length to which this article has already extended, prevents the writer of it from saying what justice requires him to say of Mr. Wakefield's domestic virtues. To those who know how much these virtues endeared him to his family, and how deeply he is lamented by all who saw him in the intercourses and enjoyments of domestic life, no other testimony is necessary. How much he possessed the power of attaching his private friends, was sufficiently seen in that almost unexampled anxiety which his illness excited; in that unfeigned sorrow which followed his death, and in that tribute of affectionate regard which many of them paid to his memory in attending his remains to the place of his interment. Were any other evidence wanting, we might