servance of the Lord's Day to the interests of Christianity and of civil society, do declare that we hold it highly improper on that day to give or accept invitations to entertainments or assemblies, or (except in cases of urgency, or for purposes of charity) to travel, or to exercise any worldly occupations, or to employ our domestics or dependents in any thing interfering with their public or private religious duties. And as example, and a public declaration of the principles of our own conduct, more peculiarly at this time, may tend to influence the conduct of others, we do hereby further declare our resolution to adhere (as far as may be practicable) to the due observance of the Lord's Day, according to the preceding Declaration."

It might naturally have been expected that a measure of this temperate and judicious

judicious description, in which enthusiasm had no share; in which there was not the most distant intention of promoting melancholy or austerity, or of excluding from the Sabbath any innocent relaxation compatible with the sacred purposes of its institution; would have met with general approbation, and received the cordial support of all candid and reflecting men. Many of this character did in fact approve and sign it; but, as it always happens when more than ordinary efforts are made on the side of Religion, an outcry was immediately raised by the trifling and licentious; and the most shameful misrepresentations of the objects of the Society were industriously and widely circulated. Amongst other things, it was confidently affirmed in the newspapers of the day, that the Declaration was only a preparatory step to the introduction

introduction of a Bill into Parliament in order to take away from the common people all the usual comforts of the Sunday; to prevent them from seeing a single friend, or from taking their evening walk; to confine them rigidly in their own habitations, and to oblige them to spend the day in fasting and in prayer. In all this there was not, and could not be, a particle of truth; yet this, and other gross perversions of a most laudable design, but too well answered their purpose, by exciting groundless alarms and prejudices in a part of the community, who would otherwise, it is probable, have had no scruple in supporting a measure, the real and the only object of which was a more rational and a more religious observance of the Christian Sabbath. Upon this point, the Bishop makes the following just observation: "That men," he says,

"who

"who wish to see not only the Lord's Day, but the Christian Religion, extinguished in this country, should raise such an outcry against a measure calculated to preserve both, is no wonder: but that men of sense, of piety, and of virtue, should adopt the same language, and join in the profane and senseless uproar, is perfectly astonishing."

Early in 1800, his long and memorable contest with a Clergyman in his diocese was brought to a favourable conclusion, by the latter suffering judgment to go by default, and the consequent forfeiture to the Crown of a valuable living in Essex. The question thus terminated was of great importance to the Church of England; as it was the means of putting an effectual stop to a species of Simony at that time gaining ground; namely, purchasing

purchasing the advowson of a living, and then taking a lease of the tithes, glebe, house, &c. for ninety-nine years, at a pepper-corn rent, and entering into immediate possession of the premises, and all the profits, just as if there had been an immediate resignation. It is evident that a practice such as this was subversive of the proper exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, by virtually taking from the Ordinary the power, which by law he has, of rejecting the proffered resignation of a benefice under a suspicion of Simony. The Bishop therefore had long determined, whenever the living in question should become vacant by the demise of the incumbent, to refuse institution on the above-mentioned ground; and when the time arrived, he adhered inflexibly to his purpose, and tried the question. In doing this, he was well

aware