Winchester-was intended to be a miscellany of narration, " poetry, dialogue, and digression." But illustration has been thrown on some of the most eventful periods of English history -on circumstances of unknown and delicate interest, which made Bishop Ken so adverse to the government of King Wil. liam-on the times of fanatical persecution on the characters of Cromwell and Milton, who, I have conceived, suggested the solemn spectacle of a national trial, when Charles I. was a captive. The motto to Milton's "Ready Way to Establish a Commonwealth" is "et nos "CONSILIUM dedimus SYLLE." The reader will find, moreover, the only information that exists of the origin of the long friendship between poor Piscator Walton, Ken's brother-in-law, and the Bishop of Winchester, Morley. But now, in Miltonic phrase, hear, reader, what moved me to indite these miscellaneous matters in a style so various, and, peradventure, which thou, as well as my critic, mightest deem somewhat incongruous with the solemnity of episcopal biography. It was, simply, that in a miscellaneous history I might " steer " From grave to gay, from lively to severe," that I might avoid that most besetting sin of all biography, especially episcopal, which is not unaptly ycleped-" НомDRUM." To say nothing that fanatical fury might well move " alternate scorn and horror," "alternate laughter and tears," the sad eloquence of Clarendon and the laughter of Hudibras, I remembered the style and interesting digressions of Isaac Walton himself, the near relation of Ken. These considerations induced me to adopt the style I have used. But the Life of Ken is before the candid and fair judging. I cannot conclude what is written better than with "GREAT TOM!" whom the Reviewer introduces so facetiously. I can smile at this part of the "merry" criticism, as much as any reader of the Edinburgh Review, from Aberdeen to Oxford. But it would have been fair to have given some portion of the context. "A church-going bell," in the long dismal reign of the Puritans, was "idolatrous," and all belfries silent. Dr. Fell gave this bell, called still "Great Tom," in his exuberant anti-puritan feelings, after the Restoration, as much as to say to the shuddering saints within its hearing, "now you shall hear a bell indeed!" I could not well omit this incident on the subject of the Restoration, but the Reviewer has taken care to omit, what, if a fair man, he ought not to have omitted, my sentiments on Fell. "He (Dr. Fell) should have answered, when the King demanded the expulsion of Locke, 'Sir, I have eaten the bread of adversity for not obeying the Parliament, and I shall never consent to expel an innocent man, though I eat the bread of adversity and poverty again." "-Life of Ken. These are trifles, but surely I have ground to remonstrate, both as a Christian and a Christian minister, when the deathscene of Charles II. is quoted, and the conclusion left out, to make it appear that the awful scene of death could be only a matter of ridicule! Whereas, if the whole passage had been quoted, (and three lines would have been sufficient) it would have been seen that my intention was to show how inefficient were all the outward shows and solemnity of absolution, when the heart of the dying libertine was " unchanged." The words which would have explained the whole, and which were omitted, are these :-" And he goes to the judgment of the King of kings, with these words trembling on his tonguethey show, at least, his kindness of heart, but show also how far that heart was from Christian conversion."*-Life of Ken. The doughty Presbyterian speaks with proper contempt of the Arminian prelatick's " small batoon!" "My small batoon" consists of a few "small unanswerable facts," but there are many errors and oversights which the Reviewer has passed over, and for which I thank him. W. L. BOWLES. * The critic's judgment on the biographer is a critic's assertion. He who in these days defends the altars of his reviled church, knows on what penalty. I have testimonies of which I might well be proud, in direct opposition to the critic. It might be proper for me, before I lay down my pen, to remark, respecting the National Church, which I have had the hardihood to deem "Apostolic and Catholic," that every child repeating his creed, professes to believe in "the holy Catholic Church," and that Church " 1 believe" to be both Apostolic and Catholic, which is a branch of the primitive church before it was corrupted by the innovations of Popery or Puritanism. I should be justly amenable to the censure of making what was particular universal, had I spoken of the Roman Catholic Church. + See an eloquent and candid writer in that clever miscellany-Fraser's Magazine -Gentleman's Magazine-British Magazine-Christian Remembrancer-the Times (anti-episcopal as they are!) and the various publications of the day, speaking directly in opposition to John Knox's critical decrees, or, peradventure, those of the Rev. Dr. Macrae, Critic and Calvinist. We have spoken, in the foregoing pages, of "The Use of Deans and Chapters." The following history, among "the short and simple annals of the poor," may give some idea of what use, also, are the Parochial Clergy. Narrative of some Passages in the Life of a Labourer in Husbandry, JOHN HARDING, of Bremhill, who received the Premium of the Bath and West of England Society. [FROM THE BATH CHRONICLE.] We stated in our last the effect produced by the appearance of the two labourers before the company after dinner, one of whom had bred up, without any assistance, fourteen children, and who was then in his eightieth year. His history was thus given, as nearly as we can recollect, in the words of the Clergyman of the parish, the Rev. W. L. Bowles. "John Harding, my old parishioner, having received your bounty, I feel it a duty-having brought him here in my car riage to narrate some circumstances in his exemplary life, not on his account, but on account of the Christian example, in times like the present. "John Harding, now standing before you, a grey-haired and interesting old man, is the son of a plain honest farmer who rented a farm in the parish of Bremhill, and who was enabled, at his death, to leave twelve children one hundred pounds each, and no more! John, one of the children, was eighteen years of age when he received his humble share of his father's goods, and was a carter working on his father's farm. Now his having, at this early age, got possession of such a sum, I trust you will think redounds the more to his credit, as it shows his temperance and attention to those industrious and religious duties in which he was carefully bred up, and which he has preserved "from his youth up," for what would be the language of most young men in the same situation? Why, 'I can but follow the plough when my money is gone!' On the contrary, never forsaking his honest, laborious employment, John prudently resolved to put out his money to use,' as it is called, and save it till it was most wanted. 6 " John had his village sweetheart, whom he married at the age of twenty-five, when he had saved enough to begin humble housekeeping. He laboured on the farm as a carter to his eldest brother, and continued in his service three and twenty years, when his brother died. He then went into service on another farm in the same parish, possessed by two brothers of the name of Crook. One of these brothers is yet living, and John continued to work on the same farm from that time till the present year, living on one farm in the parish of Bremhill twenty-three years, and on the other farm thirtyseven years, and (with his original hundred pounds laid by for what is called a rainy day) breeding up, industriously and religiously, FOURTEEN CHILDREN ! "John continued 'Jocund to drive his team a field,' till his increasing family began to press hard upon him, for having had one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight -nine-ten children, it might be thought that with not one penny besides what he gained by his weekly labour, six shil |