some books, which, if they were not designed to destroy the Christian religion itself, were certainly meant to set aside all form, ceremony, and even practice of devotion; and more especially to debase the office of the clergy in general. "We have power and authority," says the bishop, "both from God and the laws, to rebuke gainsayers; and while we are unanimous and faithful in the discharge of our duty, we may hope that our people will not be corrupted with novel opinions. Now the most effectual way to prevent this will be, for all of us that are appointed to watch over the flock of Christ, to employ our thoughts, our zeal, and our time, in promoting of true piety; in labouring to make men good; and in converting sinners from the error of their ways, that we may preserve the power, as well as the form of godliness. In a word, there was never more need than now, of hearkening to the apostle's advice and exhortation to the Elders at Ephesus, to take heed unto ourselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers; to ourselves, lest we give any just occasion of offence; and to our flock, lest they be infected with novel opinions contrary to faith and godliness." These extracts are exceedingly applicable to the present times, when opinions are gone forth, not only subversive of Christian doctrine, but of Christian discipline. When the Church of England is not only in danger from the hatred borne towards her by republicans and levellers, but from the irregular conduct of certain clergymen within her pale, and the puritanic enthusiasm of self-appointed teachers without. Both have conspired to destroy her unity; the former by violating her discipline, the latter by intruding themselves into functions to which they have not been regularly called; both are actuated by one spirit, and both seem to have leagued together for the destruction of her apostolic authority. But whoever will read St. Ignatius's Epistles, will see what that holy martyr and disciple of St. John saith, "of the necessity of being in union with the bishop; and that such as are not so, are not in union with Christ."

We come now to a circumstance that makes us feel exceedingly for the cruelty which this apostle of Christ endured for righteousness sake, and excites our indignation at the conduct of those who ought to have known the value of such a character to society, and the duty that they owed to one who discharged the obligations of his sacred office with such laudable zeal, and exemplary fidelity.

In the year 1719, Mrs. Horne, wife of Captain Horne, governor of the island, accused Mrs. Puller, a widow-woman of fair character, of fornication with Sir James Pool; and from this story, Archdeacon Horobin, to please Mrs. H. refused Mrs. Puller the sacrament. Uneasy under this restriction, she had recourse to the mode pointed out by the constitution of the church to prove her innocence; and no evidence being produced to convict her of guilt, she and Sir James Pool were acquitted of the charge by

the

the bishop; and the accuser was sentenced to ask pardon of the parties whom she had so unjustly traduced. This she refused to do, and treated the bishop and his authority, as well as the ecclesiastical constitutions of the island, with contempt. For this indecent disrespect to the laws of the church, ecclesiastical censure was pronounced, which banished her from the sacrament till atonement was made. The archdeacon, who was chaplain to the governor, out of pique to the bishop, or from some unworthy motive, received her at the communion, contrary to the custom of the church. An insult to himself the bishop would have forgiven, but disobedience to the church and its laws he could not pass over. He considered it as the oblation of wrath, rather than the bond of peace, and at last suspended the archdeacon; who, in a rage, instead of appealing to the archbishop of York, as metropolitan, threw himself on the civil power; and the governor, under pretence that the bishop had acted illegally, and extrajudicially, fined him fifty pounds, and his two vicars-general, who had been officially concerned in the suspension, twenty pounds each. This fine they all refused to pay, as an arbitrary and unjust imposition; upon which the governor sent a party of soldiers to seize their persons, and on the 29th of June 1722, committed them to close confinement in the castle of Ruthin, and at the same time forbade any person being admitted within the walls to see or converse with them. The concern of the people was so great, when they heard of this insult offered to their beloved instructor, pastor, and friend, that they assembled in crowds, and were with difficulty restrained from pulling down the governor's house; but were diverted from their purpose by the mild behaviour and persuasion of the bishop, who was permitted to speak to them through a grated window, or address them from the walls of the prison, whence he blessed and exhorted hundreds of them daily, telling them that he meant to appeal unto Cæsar, meaning the king. He likewise sent a circular letter to his clergy, to be publicly read în the churches throughout the island; which comforted and appeased the people, who had so much reason to reverence and love their bishop.

The worthy prelate and his vicars-general were confined in this prison two months, and treated with all the strictness of persons confined for high treason. They were allowed no attendants but common jailors, and these were instructed to use their prisoners ill.-A strange return this for a long course of favours and hospitality which the governor and his wife had received from the bishop at his house, where they had frequently resided for days and weeks together!

On the 4th of July 1724, the king and council reversed all the proceedings of the officers of the island, declaring them to be oppressive, arbitrary, and unjust; but they could grant no 3 C 2 costs;

costs; and the expences of the trial fell very heavy on the bishop, although he was assisted by a subscription to the amount of nearly four hundred pounds.

The bishop was advised by his solicitor to prosecute the governor and others in the English courts of law, to recover damages, as a compensation for his great expences, but to this he could not be persuaded. He had established the discipline of the church, and he sincerely and charitably forgave his persecutors. Nay, one of the most inveterate of them, being afterwards confined for debt, the bishop visited, and administered comfort to him. The king offered him the bishopric of Exeter, vacant by the translation of Dr. Blackburn to the see of York, to reimburse him; but he could not be prevailed on to quit his diocese. His Majesty therefore promised to defray his expences out of the privy purse; and gave it in charge to Lord Townsend, Lord Carleton, and Sir R. Walpole, to put it into his remembrance; but going soon afterwards to Hanover, and dying before his return, this promise was never fulfilled.

Having settled the parochial libraries in the Isle of Man, and established petty schools throughout the diocese, under the government of the clergy in their respective parishes, in 1724, he founded a school at Burton, the place of his nativity; and in 1732 built a school, and a house for the master, endowing it with a revenue of thirty pounds per annum.

In 1730, the bishop established a fund for the support of clergymen's widows and children in the island, which was the more necessary, as, from the smallness of the livings, few were able to make a provision for their families. A sum of money was raised for this purpose by subscription, and placed in the funds. Some years after, this sum was considerably augmented by purchasing of the Duke of Athol the thirds of the living of Kirk-Michael, which his grace made over to the trustees for the use of that charity for ever.

In 1739, the clergy of the island were thrown into great trouble and perplexity by the death of the Earl of Derby, who dying without issue, the lordship of Man, as a barony in fee, became the property of the Duke of Athol, who had married the heiress of a late Earl of Derby. This had well nigh deprived the clergy of their subsistence; for the livings of the Isle of Man consist of a third of the impropriation, which had been purchased of a former Earl of Derby, by a collection made in the episcopate of Dr. Barrow, in the reign of Charles II.-At the same time, to strengthen the title, and secure the purchase, an estate in England, belonging to the Earl of Derby, had been collaterally bound for the payment of the clergy.-Now, on the alienation of the island from the Derby family, the Duke of Athol claimed the impropriations as an inseparable appendage of his estate and

royalty,

royalty, of which it could not be divested by any right that had or could be shewn.-The deeds of conveyance from the Earl of Derby to Bishop Barrow, by some means or other, had been lost from the records of the island, and the clergy were in danger of losing all their property; and to such great distress were they driven, that, unable to contest their rights by law, they would have taken a very trifling consideration for their loss. The Duke of Athol's claim was incontestible: but by the pains and industry of the bishop and his son, Dr. Wilson, the deeds which secured the impropriations to the clergy were at last discovered in the Rolls Chapel, where they had been deposited pro salva custodia. This put an end to the great dispute, and in 1745 they were exemplified under the great seal, and every precaution was taken for the future payment of the money.

In 1740, the scarcity of corn was very great in the Isle of Man; added to this appearance of famine, an epidemic flux raged in the island, and carried off many of its inhabitants. The corn being almost exhausted, the bishop, together with the Duke of Athol, immediately contracted for two ship-loads; and these ships arrived just time enough to save the people of the island from starving: yet the poor could not even now obtain support, from the high price that it sold at. Our good and charitable prelate, however, assisted them. He says, "What I give at home to poor people, I give gratis; having, through God's blessing, about one hundred and fifty Winchester bushels to spare, But my method in the four towns has been, to buy it at the market price, which is high enough indeed, and to order it to be sold at half prime cost, but only to poor people, and not above two pecks to any one body *." In 1741, the bishop published his Instructions to the Indians; but he seems to have had

no great opinion of its success. In a letter to his son, he says, "I will now fall on the preface without delay. I have the poorest opinion of my own abilities; and I can approve of little that I have done on this head; but since it is gone so far, there is no drawing back †. The "Instructions," however, have passed through several editions, and are continued to be read with great edification.

Some time about 1743 and 1744, the bishop settled a plan for translating the New Testament into the Manks language. This design had been originally concerted between himself and Dr. Walker, when prisoners in Castle Ruthin. The bishop did not live to see farther progress made in this great work, than the translation of the Gospels, and the printing of St. Matthew. This, however, was afterwards completed by his very worthy successor, Bishop Hildesley, and the clergy, assisted by the So+ October 10, 1739.

* Letter to his son, April 2, 1741.

ciety for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.-In summing up the character of this truly good man, every part of his life affords a display of the most genuine charity and benevolence. Whether we consider him as a son, a husband, a parent, a master, or a bishop, we shall find few equal, not one superior to him.

Having the precepts of his Divine Master constantly before him, with the lives and writings of the Apostles and primitive Christian Fathers; he from them laid down his plan of life, and steadily copied their example. There is scarcely a part of human science that could be valuable or serviceable to his diocese, which he did not understand. He was an excellent classical scholar, and understood the Hebrew well. In the younger part of his life he had a poetical turn, but afterwards he laid aside such amusements, as thinking them inconsistent with his episcopal character. He had studied and practised physic with success. For some time after he settled in the island, he was the only physician in it keeping a shop of drugs for general use, which he distributed, as well as his advice, gratis; but when some gentlemen of the faculty came, he gave up to them that part of the practice which alone could conduce to their emolument, but the poor he kept always to himself. He instructed young candidates for orders, and maintained them at home, under his own immediate care; nor did he ordain them, until he found, on a strict and careful examination, that they were perfectly well qualified. He was an able mathematician, an excellent botanist, and, if we view him as a farmer, we find, that by a judicious and successful cultivation of the ecclesiastical demesnes, which before his coming to the island produced little or nothing, he in a few years fed and clothed the poor of his diocese. The whole was a sheep-walk; but, by tillage and manure, it bore excellent corn; and his coffin was made from one of the elm-trees which he had planted soon after his coming to the island, and which was cut down, and sawed into planks for that purpose, a few years before his death. He was so charitable, that it was not unaptly observed by a gentleman of the island who knew him well, that " he kept beggars from every body's door but his own." He always kept an open hospitable table, covered with the produce of his own demesnes, in a plentiful, not extravagant manner.-As the friendly host or master of that table, he was the most entertaining and agreeable, as well as instructive; his manners, though always consistently adorned with Christian gravity, were ever gentle and polite; and from his natural sagacity, and distinguished erudition, he seemed to have the world in his possession. He was the divine, the scholar, and the gentleman. He often on a Sunday visited the different parishes of his diocese without giving them notice; and, after do