Towards the close of 1781, the great question between the then Bishop of London, Dr. Lowth, and Mr. Disney Fytche, a gentleman of Essex, with respect to the validity of a general bond of resignation, that is a bond to resign, whenever called upon by the patron, came to a hearing in the Court of Chancery; when it was determined by Lord Loughborough, that such bonds were good in law. Notwithstanding however this decision, it was deemed expedient, in a matter of such consequence, to carry the cause before the House of Lords; and it must ever redound to the Bishop of Chester's honour, that such a man as Bishop Lowth, who in the fullest meaning of his own words, as applied to Archbishop Secker, was "vir summus summo in loco," but who was then unable from illness to attend in Parliament, should

particularly

particularly have selected and requested him to undertake the management of it. I mention the circumstance, merely with the view of marking the high sense which that distinguished Prelate entertained of his character and talents. With respect to the contest itself, the issue is well known. The judgments of the Courts below were reversed; general bonds of resignation, when given, as in the present case, to procure a presentation, were declared to be illegal, and the presentation procured by them to be corrupt, simoniacal and void.

On February 11th, 1783, the Bishop preached before "the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel;" and he chose as his subject, the Civilization and Conversion of the Negroes in the British West-India Islands. It appears that for

some time before this he had turned his mind very much to the condition of that oppressed and suffering people, and had corresponded and conversed on the subject with several persons possessing property in the Islands, and others in this country. The result of his inquiry was, that the state of the Negroes was a most. deplorable one, as well in a temporal as a spiritual point of view; and he therefore thought himself called upon by every principle of justice and of policy to excite if possible the attention of the public to this great question. This he did, in the first instance, by recommending it strongly to the Society, in the discourse which he addressed to them, to begin on their own trust-estate in Barbadoes a regular system of religious instruction, as an example to the planters, and to appropriate a portion of their funds to so desirable

desirable a purpose. The suggestion at the time met with general approbation; and he was therefore induced early in the following year to lay before the Society a plan* which he had drawn up, and in which he had the concurrence of several of the Bench, and other intelligent friends, for carrying it into execution. It however very soon appeared that nothing would be done; for a Committee, to whom, after much opposition, the question was referred, gave it as their opinion in a short sitting of four hours, that his Lordship merited the thanks of the

Society

* This plan is now incorporated in "an Essay," which he afterwards printed and published, "towards the more effectual Civilization and Conversion of the Negro Slaves on the Trust Estate in Barbadoes, belonging to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The reader will find it in

his Volume of Tracts.

Society for the great pains and trouble he had taken, but that the circumstances of the Society rendered it at that time unadvisable to adopt the plan.

66

Thus," says the Bishop," was a final period put at once to a most interesting and important subject, and the spiritual condition of near half a million of Ne

gro Slaves decided in four hours. That the particular plan offered to the Society might stand in need of improvement, and that a better might have been substituted in its room, is very probable.

I

would have given my hearty vote for any wiser plan in preference to my own. It was not the mode, it was the measure, I had at heart. But that the discussion of this subject should have been entirely finished at one meeting, which every one expected would have taken up two or three; that no other plan should be

adopted