see of Landaff to that of Salisbury, Dr. Watson's merit, supported by the recommendation of the Duke of Rutland, procured him the vacant seat. The bishopric of Landaff, however, not being celebrated either for its extent or its riches, he was permitted to hold with it the archdeaconry of Ely, a rectory in Leicestershire, and the Divinity Professorship, to which is annexed the valuable living of Samesham. These combined advantages produced a handsome income, and rendered the circumstances of his lordship perfectly easy.

The success of his Chemical Essays, the first volume of which he published in 1781, encouraged him to give to the world, at different times, four additional volumes, all of equal merit with the first. In the preface of the last volume, he has these remarkable observations :-"When I was elected Professor of Divinity, in 1777, I determined to abandon for ever the study of chemistry; and I did abandon it for several years; but the veteris vestigia flamme still continued to delight me, and at length seduced me from my purpose.

"When I was made a bishop, in 1782, I again determined to quit my favourite pursuit: the volume which I now offer to: to the public is a sad proof of the imbecility of my resolu tion. I have on this day, however, offered a sacrifice to other people's notions, I confess, rather than to my own opinion of episcopal decorum-I have destroyed all my chemical manu. scripts a prospect of returning health might have persuaded me to pursue this delightful science; but I have now certain. ly done with it for ever: at least I have taken the most effec. tual step I could to wean myself from an attachment to it; for, with the holy zeal of the idolaters of old, who had been addicted to curious arts- I have burned my books.'

,,,

Soon after his elevation to the see of Landaff, he addressed a letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, stating the hardships of the inferior clergy, and the necessity of an equalization of church preferments. Howsoever laudable the intention might be, the attempt was certainly too precipitate. The irregularity of a printed address, from the júnior prelate on the bench to the metropolitan, was obvious to every mind; and some severe strictures were passed on the subject by Mr. Cumberland, a writer

to whom the interests of religion and morality are deeply indebted.

The public curiosity was greatly excited, when it was understood that the Bishop of Landaff was appointed to preach before the Lords, on the 30th of January, 1783. His discourses at Cambridge were still' fresh in every person's renembrance, and therefore, something unusual was expected on this occasion; but the bishop conducted himself with extreme caution, and delivered a sermon admirable in its composition, and very temperate in its sentiments.

At Cambridge, in 1786, his lordship published A Collection of Theological Tracts, in six volumes, octavo, designed entirely for the use of students in divinity. This collection consists of pieces on the most interesting subjects in sacred literarure, by different writers, many of which were become exceedingly scarce. It is remarkable, however, that the greater part of them are written by Dissenters.

The French revolution, which has been the parent of so many monsters, could not fail of arresting the attention of his lordship. Accordingly, in June 1791, in delivering a charge to his clergy, he offered some pointed remarks on the subject, adverting to the state of things in our own country.

In 1796, his most useful and important work appeared. This was his Apology for the Bible, in a series of Letters, addressed to the Author of "The Age of Reason." Paine's publication demanded an answer; not for the learning which it dis played, or for the arguments which it produced; but that its specious, though shallow plausibility, so peculiarly adapted to impose on the weak minds of the vulgar, should be exposed and counteracted. To men of talent and education, Paine's

"

Age of Reason" appeared, what it unquestionably was, the effusion of ignorance, impudence, and self-conceited sophistry. It was, nevertheless, a powerful weapon in the hands of jacobinical infidels, who were labouring hard to overturn both church and state; for they knew, as well as Paine, that the ignorant and the undiscriminating formed the great mass of the community; and that, to gain the great mass of the people on their side, was, in a principal degree, to accomplish their

views.

The man, therefore, who would undeceive the ignorant, who would unmask the flimsy pretexts of imposture, and thus promote the preservation of religion, morality, and order, deserved the best thanks of his country. To these thanks is the Bishop of Landaff most justly entitled. Not that the sacred bulwarks of the Bible would have fallen by the feeble artillery of Paine's reasoning; for, as the bishop observes, they had withstood the " learning of Porphyry, and the power of Julian,' "the genius of Bollingbroke, and the wit of Vol. taire;" but the mind of the public might have been corrupted, our hallowed temples might have been defiled, and a revolution, the grand aim of the jacobins, might have been produced. This dreadful prospect, the laudable exertions of the bishop in a great degree' tended to dissipate.

An Address to the People of Great Britain, relative to the state of public affairs, issued from his lordship's pen, in the year 1798. Here, again, he stood upon the high ground, waving every enquiry as to the justice or injustice of the war itself, he only contended, that we were then in a most perilous situation ; a situation which demanded all our energies, all our exertions ; a situation which left no man at liberty to say, "I am not wanted!" His grand aim was, to insist upon the necessity of great sacrifices on the part of the public, in order that the con. test might be vigorously prosecuted, and gloriously terminated.

The last work which his lordship published, we believe, was, The Substance of a Speech, intended to have been spoken in the House of Lords, November 22, 1803. Of this intended speech, it may be said, that it contains some good matter, some that is bad, and some that is indifferent. The reason which his lordship assigns for preferring to appear before the public, in the character of an author, to delivering those sentiments in parliament, which he deemed of such consequence, that he resolved to circulate them through the kingdom; is, that he felt himself unable to comprehend all that he wished to say in a short speech, and that he was unwilling to take up the time of the house with his speculations. His lordship has, indeed, been suspected of having a secret reason for declining to obtrude himself on the attention of parliament; but, be

this as it may, the exordium of his intended speech is highly animated, and contains a strong appeal to the loyalty and patriotism of the country; with a brief, but forcible exposition of the blessings which even the poorest subject of these realms enjoys, and for the preservation of which it is equally his duty and interest to fight. His lordship then energetically des cants on the pusillanimous conduct of the infatuated powers of the continent, on the slavery of the French, and the ambitious projects of Buonaparte; objects to which his remarks now apply with equal effect as at the moment in which they were written. After this he contends for the necessity of making Great Britain, in some degree, a military country, by teaching a given proportion of her inhabitants the use of arms, so as, in the course of six years, to have a permanent, well-disciplined body of three hundred thousand men. How far this idea has been car. ried into effect, by the volunteer system, we leave our readers to judge. The annihilation of the national debt next claims his lordship's attention. This he considers to be, "not only a possible, but easily practicable," by the levying of a tax, somewhat similar in principle to that which now operates on income. He does not absolutely propose any proportion of contribution; yet he says," A man of ten pounds a year is as able to pay (I mean with as little privation of his comforts)}, ten shillings annually, as a man of five hundred a year is to pay five hundred shillings." Such a position requires no argument to refute it; but we shall take the liberty of observing, that had his lordship ever been at the pains of calculating, or had he ever been reduced to the necessity of existing on ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty pounds a year, he would have been fully satisfied, that he could not spare ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty shillings, out of such incomes, with as little difficulty, as a man may spare five hundred shillings out of the same number of pounds. Indeed, the grand defect of the income, or property tax is, not that it operates on small incomes, but that it operates in an equal proportion on small incomes, above a certain amount, as on large ones.

In this intended speech, his lordship appears as the advocate for Catholic emancipation. Our limits will not permit us to

enter into an examination of his arguments on this subject; but we cannot refrain from saying, that, howsoever good his intentions may be, many of his observations are of a nature and tendency highly improper to have issued from the pen of a clergy man of the established church. His lordship again de fends the Dissenters, and again brings forward his exploded arguments for a repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.

Exclusively of the above-mentioned intended speech, and of the works which we had previously noticed, his lordship has published the following::-" Richardi Watson, A. M. Col. Sacr. Sanctæ. Trin. Sor. et Chemia Professoris in Academia Cantabrigensi Institutionum Chemicarum in prelectionibus Academis explicatum Pars Metallurgica, 8vo. 1766."-" An Essay on the Subject of Chemistry, and their general Divisions.”—“ A Defence of revealed Religion; in two Sermons, preached in the Cathedral Church of Landaff.". "-"A Charge to the Clergy of that Diocese, in June 1795."-" Sermons and Tracts," in one vol. 8vo.-and "A Charge to his Clergy, in 1790.”

Of his lordship's merit, as a writer, it may be observed, that his periods are full, manly, and decisive; and that his style, though plain, is neat, pure, nervous, argumentative, and perspicuous. As a public speaker, his delivery is chaste and correct, his action is graceful, his voice full and harmonious.

His lordship's principal seat is at Calgarth Park, which is delightfully situated near the lakes of his native country; where, blessed with a numerous family, he chiefly resides.

WILLIAM HAYLEY, Esq.

THE respectable subject of these memoirs, William Hayley, who may justly be considered as a poet, a critic, and a biographer, was born at Chichester, in the month of October, 1745. Of his parents we learn, that these were Thomas, the only son of Thomas Hayley, dean of Chichester, and Mary, daughter of Colonel Yates, who represented that city in parliament. Before