much benefited by it. I have with me the five younger children. I and E with a young friend of theirs, come down to me on Saturday, as they then break up for the Midsummer. Dear little F is one of the loveliest boys, perhaps, you ever saw. Rgrows a fine fellow, and often talks of you and his little wife. He is a good-looking boy, nearly as tall as G who is as wild as possible, and as lazy as T

I received a letter from him yesterday, at Cadiz, but there is no prospect at present of his coming home.*. God is my Shepherd, and all my concerns are in His hands. Blessed, forever blessed, be His dear and holy name, who has looked with everlasting mercy on such a poor, vile sinner as me, and encouraged me with such sweet manifestations of His love, to trust my soul and all my interests in His hands; and if God is for me, who can prevail against me? If Mrs. comes home, I will endeavour to see her for your sake; but I rather decline much intercourse with worldly people; for if one can do them no good, they are sure to do you some harm. May the Lord bless you in your soul, and enable you to follow after the one thing needful, and induce you to make that the chief concern of your life! Religion is a personal thing; we must not leave our salvation to an uncertainty, and merely consider Jesus as the Saviour of sinners; but we are to know that He is our Saviour; and the Scriptures encourage us to press forward until we do ascertain this; and God has never promised what he does not mean to perform. The ever-blessed Jesus has encouraged us to ask and implore, and we must take no denial, but, like the importunate widow, never rest until He blesses us, and assures us by the witness of the Spirit, that He is ours, and that we are His blood-bought children. May He give His blessing to these imperfect words, is the earnest prayer, my dearest mamma, of your affectionate daughter."

* Her eldest son, then a midshipman in the Royal Navy.

CHAPTER IV.

PROBABLY, in no part of God's dealings with His people is the perfection of His work more apparent-His wisdom, love, and power more clearly seen-than in fitting them for the exact niche in life He had pre-ordained them to fill. And it is no slight mercy for the Christian to have a clear, unmistakable perception of the Lord's mind concerning this matter; and then, be his mission lowly or exalted, his post of duty one of honour or humiliation, to have grace vouchsafed cheerfully to acquiesce, and promptly to obey. Thus had God remarkably fitted the subject of our Memoir for the position in life in which she was now, and for so many years, in sad and lonely widowhood, to glorify Him. The path she was henceforth to tread, demanded a character of no ordinary energy, fortitude, and strength; but more than this-and apart from which the mightiest powers of nature must have succumbed-a large degree of the Saviour's grace, so freely promised, and so richly bestowed upon all who humbly seek it. But, great as was the occasion which now summoned into action the best powers of her mind, by the help of Him who perfects His strength in human weakness, she proved herself equal to the emergency. And we will glorify God in her.

The retirement of Captain Winslow from the army has already been mentioned. The circumstances which led to this step it may be interesting to the reader more minutely to relate. It was at a critical period of her life-when dangerously ill in Ireland--that the 47th Regiment was under orders to embark for India. The troops had left Cork for Portsmouth, and were prepared to sail at a moment's notice; the wind was unfavourable, and the transports were detained. was a moment of intense anxiety to Captain Winslow. Unwilling to leave his wife under such circumstances, and with no prospect of hearing from her for many months to come, he resolved, without a moment's hesitation, to retire. Permission

It

to sell was asked from the Duke of York—the Commander-inChief. Mrs. Winslow's illness increased-the Duke hesitated —a slight variation of the wind would decide the question. The suspense was agonizing. At length the Colonel of the regiment handed him a letter from head-quarters, containing the Duke's consent. In less than an hour afterwards the wind veered, and the transports sailed; and Captain Winslow relinquished a commission in the army he had held from early life, with equal honour to himself and fidelity to his sovereign. Thus, often do the most signal events of our history-those upon which all the future turns as on a pivot-transpire as in a moment, and by a power manifestly beyond ourselves. This were a phenomenon utterly inexplicable, but for the doctrine. of a particular Providence, guiding and shaping the minutest as the most important events of our life. Nothing could have been further from his thoughts than the position in which Captain Winslow now suddenly found himself. A few hours before, he could not have conceived that he should be walking on the ramparts of Portsmouth, gazing upon the transports as they spread their canvas to the fair breeze, and stretched away to the ocean. This sudden and decisive step was, upon first reflection, a cause of much disappointment and regret to Mrs. Winslow, who had looked forward to the army-for which, from habit, she had now imbibed a strong liking—as the future profession of her sons. She lived, however, to acknowledge God's hand in this apparently adverse movement, and gratefully to acquiesce in a circumstance which threatened to blight so much hope, but which, in reality, resulted in so much good. And although her interest in military affairs never entirely ceased, yet as her Christianity deepened, she desired, and sought for her children other and more peaceful, yet not less honorable and useful vocations.

Some years after Captain Winslow's retirement from the army, his ample fortune became seriously impaired through illadvised and disastrous investments. It was this circumstance

-an important link in the chain of events, evolving God's purposes of love-that suggested a removal to the United States of America, as offering wider scope for a family composed almost entirely of boys, and a place of residence more favourable to resources now sadly crippled. Accordingly, at the close of the Peninsular war, the subject of this Memoir, accompanied by a family of ten children and several of her

attached household, embarked for New York. Her husband -whom she was desirous of preceding, with a view of welcoming him, on his arrival, to a new and pleasant home-was to follow her in a few months. It was a novel and a serious undertaking for a female, lone and unaided,--her eldest son yet a minor, and her youngest child an infant at the breast. Writers of taste have been wont to expatiate with great eloquence and feeling upon the sublimity presented in the spectacle of a woman educated amidst the elegancies and indulgences of prosperous life, meeting the sudden reverses of fortune with fortitude, and proving the comforter and the support of her husband when bowed beneath the stern blast of adversity. "As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage. about the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs; so it is beautifully ordained by Providence, that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in their happier hours, shall be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart."* At no period of Mrs. Winslow's life did her mental force and decision of character appear more transcendent than now. The reverse of fortune, which well-nigh crushed the spirits of her husband, but served to nerve and animate her own. The calamity which despondingly depressed him, gave intrepidity and elevation to her. She struck upon an expedient and resolved upon its execution. Few individuals, yet fewer of her gentle sex, could have braced themselves to responsibilities so great, or would have submitted to sacrifices so costly. To expatriate herself from a land of such endeared associations-voluntarily to relinquish a home of such luxurious comforts, and a circle of friendships so choice-to adjust herself with such grace to altered circumstances to confront with firmness new difficulties, and enter cheerfully upon unknown trials, called into play no ordinary powers, and fully realized the exquisite picture of woman in adversity, as sketched with so much elegance and truth by the American writer we have quoted, and for which, so accurate is the resemblance, she might have sat as the original.

* Washington Irving.

It was in the month of June, 1815, accompanied by her responsible charge, she embarked from Gravesend for New York. The Divine precept, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," was still her guiding star. Having engaged for her large party of ten children and her servants, the entire cabin of the vessel, she was not long in consecrating it to the service of God. As soon as possible, the family altar was again reared, and throughout the voyage. she was enabled to maintain morning and evening worship; and during the day to carry out her little plans of domestic instruction and usefulness, with the same regularity__and zeal as at home. In this God remarkably aided her. For when the voice of praise and prayer first ascended to the deck, the captain, on ascertaining the cause, immediately gave the strictest orders that all interruption should cease during the service; and he was frequently observed quietly to descend the companion-way, take off his hat, and kneel outside the cabin during the prayer. He was subsequently invited, with a few others, who requested the favour, regularly to unite in the family devotions. Thus did God honour one who, in her conscious weakness but godly sincerity, everywhere sought to honour Him. It was a favourite maxim of hers, which many readers of this volume will recognise, "Walk in the precept, and God will fulfil the promise." In the intermediate part of the ship she discovered a young lady, far advanced in a decline, and who, with her little son, was on her way to rejoin her husband. She immediately had her removed to her own cabin, that she might administer to her temporal comfort, and that the invalid migh tenjoy the daily religious privileges of the family. Thus, one who was destined to expire with the first breath she inhaled of the land air-for she died as the ship dropped her anchor in the placid waters of the Hudson, and before she met her husband-was permitted, ere she entered the eternal world, to hear frequently explained, and affectionately enforced, the grand theme of the gospel-that Christ Jesus came into the world to save the chief of sinners.

Mrs. Winslow found, in the land of her adoption, a home and a sanctuary. Furnished with introductions to some of the leading families of New York, amongst whom were Colonel Bayard, formerly of the British Consulate, and Divie Bethune, the son-in-law and biographer of Mrs. Isabella Graham, she was solaced with the reflection that, though an exile, and in ad