entertainments upon Sunday evenings, without even prayers or a sermon. I therefore thought it highly necessary, in order to prevent our places of public worship from being converted into concert-rooms, to endeavour to check this musical madness, and if possible to bring back our psalmody to its antient purity and simplicity."

For his opinions and advice, both which are extremely judicious upon this subject, I must refer the reader to the Charge itself, which will be found in his Works. It is a composition throughout of great elegance and ability; and there is one circumstance in it which I cannot suffer to pass without notice, namely, the high testimony which it bears to the talents and virtues of his venerable predecessor, Bishop Lowth.' The See of London had never been filled

by

by a more distinguished prelate; and his successor felt that it would have been an act of injustice to so great a man, if he had not offered some part at least of that tribute which was justly due to his memory, and publicly expressed his deep regret for the loss sustained by the church, and by the world at large. The character he has given of him is forcibly and ably drawn: and, although the necessity of enlarging upon other important matter prevented him from saying much upon the subject, he would yet but ill have satisfied his own feelings, or the expectations of his clergy, if, with such an opportunity before him, he had said less.

Not many months after his return from the visitation of his diocese, a decree given in his favour by the Court of Chancery enabled him to prosecute a

plan,

plan, which he had long had much at heart, for improving the condition of the Negro Slaves employed in the cultivation of the West-India Islands, and particularly for their better instruction in religious knowledge. As he has left in manuscript the following statement of the causes and consequences of that decree, it is here inserted.

"In 1691, the great Mr. Boyle left a sum of money, amounting to £.5,400. for the advancement of the Christian religion amongst infidels. With this sum an estate was afterwards purchased at Brafferton, near Boroughbridge in Yorkshire. The Earl of Burlington, and the Bishop of London for the time being, were constituted trustees of the charity; and in 1693, they directed that the profits of the estate should be paid to the President of William and Mary College,

in Virginia, to be by them applied to the education and instruction of a certain number of Indian children. This appointment was confirmed by a decree of the Court of Chancery in 1698. The charity continued to be so applied till the breaking out of the American war, soon after which the then Bishop of London forbad the Agent of the College to remit any more money to Virginia. After the peace, the College claimed the rents of the estate, and all the arrears that had accumulated, which, with the sale of some timber, amounted to a very large sum. This was resisted by Bishop Lowth; and on my succeeding to the See of London, a regular suit in Chancery was commenced between me and the College in Virginia. The question was, whether they, being now separated from this kingdom, and become a

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foreign,

foreign, independent state, were entitled to the benefit of this charity. It was the first question of the kind, that had loccurred in this country since the American Revolution, and was therefore in the highest degree curious and important. The Chancellor, Lord Thurlow, decided against the College. He excluded thém from all share in the charity, and directed that the Trustees should offer a plan for the appropriation of the charity to some other purpose. In consequence of this decree, I gave in to the Master in Chan cery, Mr. Orde, my plan for the ap plication of Mr. Boyle's charity, and proposed for its object, the conversion and religious instruction of the Negroes in the British West-India Islands. This has been subsequently approved by the Lord Chancellor, and there will now be noiazim

I

a revenue