me.

adopted or proposed, nor any one effectual measure taken for the conversion and salvation of near 300 Slaves, who were the immediate property of a religious Society, did, I own, a little surprise The Society had undoubtedly an opportunity of rendering their name illustrious in every part of the world, by beginning on their own plantation the civilization and conversion of the Negroes, and thereby at once shewing the possibility of it, and the method of doing it, and setting an example, which might excite the attention, and by degrees the imitation, of all the West-India proprietors. If this example be not set; if this attempt be not made by a Society, whose professed purpose is to ' propagate the Gospel in Foreign Parts' among Infidels and Heathens; by whom is there the least probability that it can or will be undertaken?

undertaken? It is not small difficulties, it is not great difficulties, that should have deterred us from an undertaking, in which our credit, our reputation, our interest, and the interests of religion, are so essen→ tially concerned. Nothing less than an absolute demonstrable impossibility should have discouraged us from the attempt. This was the opinion of Bishop Gibson half a century ago, as expressed in the admirable Letters which he wrote upon this subject; and it is, I will venture to say, the opinion of every unprejudiced man in this kingdom, who has considered the subject with sufficient attention and sufficient sensibility.”

From this passage, it appears evidently that the Bishop was both disappointed and hurt by such a hasty rejection, on the part of the Society, of a plan on which he had bestowed considerable care

and

and thought, and which it was admitted came within the letter and spirit of their charter. But though he failed in this endeavour, he was not discouraged, as the following pages will shew, from pursuing steadily his favourite object, the civilization and conversion of the Negro Slaves in our West-India colonies.

In the mean time his attention to the duties of his diocese was constant and unwearied. Amongst other things, he took infinite pains to establish an annual subscription for the relief of his poorer clergy. Such an institution, more particularly in the Archdeaconry of Richmond, was greatly wanted; and by urging the subject in the course of conversation, and circulating besides a printed letter, in which he very strongly pressed the necessity of the measure, he at last succeeded.

His efforts were also directed with the same active zeal to the establishment of Sunday Schools. Of this admirable plan, first suggested by Mr. Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, for diffusing amongst the poor the principles of religious knowledge, at an age when they are most capable of receiving them, and in a manner which in no respect interferes with their ordinary occupations, he had early conceived a very favourable opinion, and in several instances privately encouraged it. But, as an act of prudence, he determined not to give it the sanction of his public approbation, till, as he observes, "time and experience, and more accurate inquiry, had enabled him to form a more decided judgment of its real value, and its probable effects." When, however, repeated information from various quarters, and particularly

from

from some of the largest manufacturing towns in his diocese, had convinced him that such institutions, wherever the experiment had been fairly tried, had produced, and could not fail to produce, if discreetly regulated, essential benefit, he no longer hesitated in promoting them generally throughout his diocese. With this view, as the wisest and most effectual mode of giving publicity to his sentiments, he addressed to his clergy a very excellent letter, containing, in a short compass, a plain, temperate, and judicious exposition of the advantages of Sunday Schools, and of the rules by which they should be conducted.

The time had now arrived, when the Bishop of Chester was destined to fill a still more distinguished situation in the English church. The high character

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