this and his other publications, to take Mr. Porteus under his own immediate patronage. He accordingly was pleased immediately to appoint him one of his Domestic Chaplains; and soon after presented him, in succession, to the rectories of Wittersham, and Hunton, in Kent; and of Lambeth, on the death of Dr. Denne, in Surry. A prebendal stall, in Peterborough, soon followed; and on the demise of that eminent and very pious prelate (Archbishop Secker) in 1768, he (Mr. Porteus), in association with Dr. Stinton (Domestic Chaplain also to Archbishop Secker), edited and published his Works, seven volumes, consisting of sermons, charges, and lectures; to which was prefixed a Life of Secker, written by Porteus, which obtained the praise of Johnson.'

Previously to the decease of Secker, 1765, Mr. Porteus was married to a Miss Hodgson, at Matlock in Derbyshire, where she then dwelt, by the primate himself. It is said that her father was once in the inn-keeping business. Mr. Porteus acquired considerable property by his marriage with this lady, who survives him; but they have had no children...

In 1767 the University of Cambridge conferred upon Mr. Porteus the degree of D. D. Hearing of his great fame, and satisfied as to the purity of his life, her Ma

jesty, it is said, now sent for him; and Dr. Porteus was engaged by her to be her private chaplain. Secker, his first and firm friend, had, there is no doubt, as intimated in a preceding part of this work, before his own decease, prepared this opening for Dr. Porteus.

Such

a high opinion,' says one who does not incline to flatter him, did her Majesty entertain of his piety and endowments, during his short attendance in consequence of a short illness, that she was determined to complete what Secker had begun. Accordingly, January 1777, on the translation of Dr. Markham to the archbishopric of York, the royal interposition was employed in favor of Dr. Porteus; who was immediately raised to the episcopal bench, as Bishop of Chester.'

Benevolent as was his disposition, it was nevertheless his lot, in 1807, towards the close of his mild career, to become unhappily engaged in the painful duty of prosecuting one of his clergymen. Every one knows the case of Francis Stone. Cited by the Bishop's apparitor, as the Rector of Cold-Norton in Essex, to answer, in the Spiritual Court, to a charge of having revolted from, impugned, and depraved some one or morè of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, in opposition to the 39th of Elizabeth,'-Mr. Stone persisting in his heresies, Bishop Porteus, attended by

the Dean (George Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln), the Chancellor (Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Knight, D. C. L. &c.), and several of the Prebendaries of the Diocess of London, were introduced, May the 14th, 1808, when the Right Reverend Bishop pronounced Sentence of Degradation against Mr. Stone, according to the forms prescribed by law; depriving him of his be-> nefice of Rector of Cold-Norton, in the county of Essex.

One of our own order,' observes the truly Rev. Thomas Robinson, glancing at this event, in a Visitation Sermon, preached by him at Leicester, about the same period, has lately made a flagrant attack upon these fundamental doctrines. An elderly clergyman, in a Visitation Sermon, has impudently avowed his disbelief of the Godhead and atonement of the Saviour, and has insulted our ecclesiastical governors by publishing that avowal. I rejoice that a general abhorrence of such conduct has been expressed, and that, by the decision of an episcopal court, the honour of the Church has been vindicated. I augur good, both from the prosecution and the sentence. I rejoice not in the degradation or the sufferings of the delinquent. But shall the man who aims a fatal stab at the vitals of his parent, not be deprived of the power of accomplishing his purpose? I shall not wonder, if some be disposed to admire and

celebrate him as a martyr; but I trace a very different character. I ask not where is the Christianity of a Socinian? but where is manly firmness, where is common honesty, in that person, who has continued, even to old age, to eat the bread of the Church, which he has invariably endeavoured to subvert; and who, at last, declares, with meanness and pusillanimity, his unwillingness to relinquish his preferment? This is not the spirit of a martyr! The case is calamitous ;-but it will do good. It will rouse us to consider what are our principles; and the world shall know that there still exists among us a firm regard to the Doctrine of our Articles; -that we honour the Son, even as we honour the Father; and that we preach redemption only through his blood!' How different is the Visitation Sermon of Thomas Robinson, from the Visitation Discourse of Francis Stone !!

Such, however, was the humanity of his diocesan, that, commiserating the situation of a numerous family, Francis Stone was not rejected from the temporalities' of his benefice; but is said still to eat,' contrary to conscience, the bread of the Church which he endeavoured to subvert.'

Bishop Porteus had long felt his health decay. 'The unavoidable suspension of the Bishop's visitation

at the customary period,' says the Archdeacon of Middlesex (George Owen Cambridge, M. A. and F. A. S.), in his last Charge, 1808, to the Clergy, left the performance of that duty, last year, to the Archdeacons of the diocess, and gave me the unexpected pleasure of meeting you sooner than I should otherwise have done.' 'It must, I am sure,' he shortly after adds, 'be a matter of general and sincere regret, that our venerable Diocesan should still find himself uncqual to the fatigue of visiting his extensive and populous diocess.' Only two days before his death, however, he arrived at Fulham, from London. He died very early on the morning of the 14th of May, 1809. It was Ascension Sunday, when he happily ascended to his Father and his God!

Like many pious men, who think soon and much of death, he died as it was his wish to die. His early poem on Death' contained his final prayer for death.

At thy good time,

Let Death approach; I reck not-let him but come

In genuine form, not with thy vengeance arm'd,

Too much for man to bear. O rather lend

Thy kindly aid to mitigate his stroke :'

But chiefly Thou,

Whom soft-eyed Pity once led down from Heav'n

To bleed for man, to teach him how to live,