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look on the rich vale below, (the sun shining gloriously upon it, and lighting up all the beauties of that enchanting scene) my heart sunk within me; and as I went slowly up the hill, I could not forbear repeating and applying to myself those exquisite lines of the Minstrel,

O! how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms, which Nature to her vot'ries yields;
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;
All that the genial ray of Morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of Even;
All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of Heaven;

O! how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiv'n! "It was indeed a long time before I could forgive myself. But various circumstances rendered this sacrifice necessary; and by degrees custom reconciled me to a scene very different from that to which

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which I had been so long accustomed, and which it cost me no small pain to

renounce."

AFTER kissing the King's hand for his new See, on the 8th of November 1787, and being confirmed at Bow Church on the 7th of December following, one of the first objects which engaged the Bishop's mind was the advancement of a Society, which had been set on foot about a year before, and which bore the title of "The Society for enforcing the King's Proclamation against Immorality and Profaneness." The necessity of taking some active measures for endeavouring to check, if possible, the increasing profligacy of the times, had been long apparent; and it was thought that it would be one very likely mode of furthering that important purpose, if

persons

persons of distinguished name and character would combine together to enforce the execution of the laws, and to support the magistrates in the conviction of offenders. This, by great perseverance, was at last effected; and the Bishop, who had been from the first a zealous promoter of the Association, and afterwards was elected President of it, had the satisfaction of seeing it productive of the best results. Many useful Acts of Parliament were obtained by its influence; many persons were prosecuted and punished for disseminating licentious books; and amongst other acts of beneficial interference, a check was in some measure given to that most pernicious custom of exhibiting publicly indecent prints. Most earnestly is it to be wished that it could be repressed altogether; and if this cannot be done by any statute at present in force,

it is surely incumbent upon the wisdom of the Legislature to take the subject into consideration, and to enact some positive law, which, by the infliction of a heavy penalty, may ultimately tend to the annihilation of a system, than which there can be none more injurious to good morals, nor any more prejudicial to the best interests of a State.

On the 10th of July 1788, Sir William Dolben's Slave-carrying Bill passed the Lords; an event which afforded the Bishop the utmost satisfaction. During its progress, so great was his anxiety for its success that he attended the House daily from Fulham for a month together; but had the fatigue of that attendance been even greater than it was, he would most cheerfully have submitted to it with such an object in view. The measure indeed fell far short of the whole extent of

his wishes: but, as under the existing circumstances, more could hardly be expected, he considered it, as in fact it was, a most important measure; since it lessened, at least in some degree, the horrors of the passage, and prevented the merchants from crowding into their ships too large a number of slaves, under the alarm of an approaching abolition of the trade itself. About the same time, on a motion by Lord Bathurst for an address to His Majesty, to instruct the Governors of the Islands to secure, by some legisla tive measure, a better treatment of the slaves, and provide for their religious instruction, he expressed in the strongest terms his entire approbation of the noble Earl's proposition; and availed himself of that opportunity to assure the House, that in the hope of promoting particularly the last of these purposes, he had addressed

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