promoter of the same general principles as Mr. Burke, and as a member of the University of Oxford, that you have, in so great a degree, rescued its character from this reproach, and confined the blame within its proper limits.

Let me, in conclusion, repeat my satisfaction, in having been made the medium of a communication so creditable to both parties; and, with my best compliments to all friends who may be at Oxford, I beg you to believe me,

Dear Sir,

Most truly and faithfully yours,

W. WINDHAM.

Hill Street, Dec. 29. 1790.

TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM WINDHAM.

MY DEAR SIR,

THE valuable tribute of approbation which I have received from so many distinguished Graduates in the University of Oxford, becomes doubly valuable by passing through your hands. Gentlemen so eminent for their erudition and virtue, and who possess the uncommon art of doing kind things in the kindest manner, would naturally select a person qualified like themselves to convey honours and distinctions to those whom they are inclined to favour.

Be pleased to assure those learned gentlemen that I am, beyond measure, happy in finding my well

meant endeavours favourably received by them; and I think my satisfaction does not arise from motives merely selfish, because their declared approbation must be of the greatest assistance in giving an effect (which, without that sanction, might well be deemed wanting) to an humble attempt in favour of the cause of freedom, virtue, and order united. This cause it is our common wish and our common interest to maintain, and it can hardly be maintained without securing in a stable perpetuity, and preserving in an uncorrupted purity, those invaluable establishments which the wisdom of our ancestors devised, and thus of giving permanency to those blessings which they have bequeathed to us as our best inheritance. We have, each of us, a common interest in maintaining them all; but if all, excepting those who are more particularly engaged in the conduct of those establishments, and who have a peculiar trust in maintaining them, were wholly to decline all marks of concurrence of opinion, it might give occasion to malicious people to suggest doubts whether the representation I had given was really expressive of the sentiments of the people on those subjects. I am obliged to those gentlemen for having removed the ground of those doubts, and I have the honour to be,

My dear Sir,

Your most faithful and obliged humble Servant,

EDMUND BURKE.

Duke Street, St. James's, Dec. 22. 1790.

CHAP. XIII.

TRANSLATION OF DR. SHUTE BARRINGTON TO THE SEE OF DURHAM. MR. BURGESS RESIGNS THE TUTORSHIP OF CORPUS. A PREBENDAL STALL GIVEN HIM AT DURHAM AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE LIVING OF HIS STYLE OF LIFE THERE.

WINSTON.

1791 to 1795.

UPON the death of Dr. Thurlow, Bishop of Durham, in 1791, Dr. Shute Barrington was translated to the vacant see. This event naturally produced a great change in the plans and professional avocations of Mr. Burgess. The duties attached to the office of Bishop's chaplain in a diocese so remote and important, being incompatible with those of Tutor of Corpus, he prepared to bid adieu to Oxford. In quitting the scene of his early literary triumphs, endeared to him also by so many ties of friendship, and by such varied and interesting associations, a heart even less susceptible than his would naturally have been agitated by conflicting emotions. Not only a separation from friends, but from the libraries, and other learned advantages of the University, were painfully felt by one so wedded to study and contemplation. But the bright star of his patron's favour and friendship summoned him

away; and above all, the guidance and disposition of that gracious Providence which had opened to him, step by step, and by means unlooked for and unexpected, the path of usefulness and honour, and which was preparing him for extended services and further advancement.

A conscientious desire to promote men of learning and piety formed one of the distinguishing features in the character of Bishop Barrington; and it was his happiness, in the great majority of instances in which he disposed of his extensive patronage, to find that he had not been deceived in his estimate of character. Never had he more reason to indulge this pleasant reflection than in one of the earliest of his acts of this description after his translation. In the course of the year 1794, he gave the first stall which became at his disposal to his excellent Chaplain, and before the close of the same year changed it for another more valuable. In addition to learned and professional eminence, attained by a path every step in which had been honourable to his character, Mr. Burgess now found himself in possession of a lucrative piece of preferment, and in a post of honour and usefulness in the church. The mutual feelings of the Bishop and Chaplain are most pleasingly developed in the following letter:

Mongewell, Dec. 5. 1794.

It may be matter of doubt, my dear Burgess, whether you derive more pleasure from your pre

ferment, or I from having bestowed it. The thanks of both are due to a gracious Providence: from me, that it has given me the power of rewarding distinguished and unassuming merit from you, that you have been the object of my choice. You have obtained the comforts which flow from ease and independence: I, those which result from the consciousness of having acted right; from the credit of my appointment; and from the friendship which this connection has produced between us, and which I value among the happy circumstances of my life. Be that life long or short, may I, during the remainder of it, never forget, that patronage is a trust to be rendered subservient to the great interests of religion and learning.

As this will probably find you within forty-six miles of this place, I wish you to be informed that I do not mean to stir from hence till after Christmasday, when the meeting of Parliament will compel

me to remove.

Believe me, with the truest regard,

Your affectionate Friend,

S. D.

For three years Mr. Burgess assiduously discharged the various duties which devolved upon him as Bishop's Chaplain, and Prebendary; and, according to ordinary estimate, few situations in the Church could have been more enviable. He was surrounded with the luxuries attendant on high station, without