THE MEMOIR.

IN my seventy-first year, with a memory decayed and a mind weakened, I have been persuaded to undertake a trying task, to which, in my best days, I was unequal; and which, to perform it worthily, would require talents like his of whom I am to speak. But they to whom these Volumes are addressed, will surely excuse all my failures, when they reflect, that the only motive for the attempt, is to gratify them, by stating a few interesting particulars of the life and character of the Friend whom they have lost.

He was born in London, February the 4th, 1783, and even in infancy, shewed signs of his future character and talents. Before he could stand alone, his Grandmother (of whose singular sagacity none. could doubt who knew her), having set him on her knees with his face towards her, and played, and talked to him, and watched his countenance for a considerable time, said to his Mother," Here, Harrietta, take your boy, and if he is a fool, I will never trust physiognomy again."

I

While so young as to be pleased with a wooden spade and rake, he was one day lost; and continued missing so long, that the whole family were alarmed, and ran repeatedly over every part of the garden, seeking and calling him in vain. At length, being found among some shrubs, with his rake and spade, he was brought by the terrified servants to me. He seemed surprized and frightened. soothed him; and then tried to learn what he had been doing, and whether he had not heard us call (which we had done repeatedly when almost close to him); but he could give no account of himself, or his intentions, save that he had gone out to work; nor did he appear to have any idea of the length of time he had been absent; so that it was plain he had been absorbed in thought. This taste for abstraction continued long (if not to the last); for when much older, he would climb up into an immense old pollard, and sit for hours on the top of it.

Having through life felt the advantage of the instructions, which, in my earliest years, I received from my excellent parents, in religious knowledge, as well as in arithmetic, geography, chronology, &c.; I endeavoured, with the assistance of an indefatigable helpmate, to pursue the same course with my children. All knowledge was readily received by John. Of his power of numbering he gave a striking proof in his sixth year. Having asked me whose portraits hung round my library, he seemed

struck at discovering that he had two Grandfathers, and four Great-Grandfathers; "and then," said he, "I had eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two," and so went on doubling, till he got to several thousands; when, in a peculiarly modest tone, he said, "I believe I can't go any farther." I, who had observed the ease and correctness with which he performed the calculation, was persuaded he could have gone on; but afraid of overstraining his little brain, said, "you have gone far enough," and broke the chain.

But from the first dawn of reason, Religion was his favourite study-I say study, for such it was. He would lie on the carpet reading, and trying to discover the moral of what he read; and when he thought he had succeeded, would apply to his Mother to learn if he was right in his conjecture. He one day said to me, "Papa, if any body is very naughty, and then very sorry for it, God Almighty will forgive him."-"Yes, John." "But if he is very naughty again, and then very sorry, will he forgive him?"-"Yes, if he is really very sorry." "But if he goes on being very naughty, and then very sorry, and then very naughty, and then very sorry, and then dies?" Thus would he frequently drive me to the wall with difficult questions; and as I was unwilling to evade his inquiries, and he would neither admit an unsound reason, nor an unsatisfactory decision, I soon found it necessary, when

attacked, to prepare myself, and be upon my guard, in the same manner as if an older person had come to consult me on an intricate or abstruse point: for such his often were.

He went early as a day-scholar to the Grammar School at Seven Oaks, where we then resided; from which he was removed, first to Hyde Abbey School, and then to the College at Winchester (but not on the foundation). At this last, he had the happiness to have for his Master, the Rev. Dr. Wm. Stanley Goddard, to whose kind and judicious treatment, I am convinced he owed, in no small degree, his future excellence. For though he had always an affectionate heart, and had early imbibed sound Christian principles, his temper was naturally irritable and violent, and his spirit so high, and his courage so great, that harsh treatment and severity would have been not merely useless, but ruinous.

Of his courage, an incident which happened before he left school, may give some idea. Being himself a slender youth of sixteen, and having received some ill-treatment from a young man of nineteen, and six feet high; a regular battle ensued on a boarded floor. After two or three rounds, his seconds, judging from the superior strength and reach of his antagonist, that success was hopeless, urged him to submit; but in vain. His spirit supplied his other deficiencies, and after a long contest, in which he suffered most severely, he com

pelled his opponent to yield. His Master told me, he had said little to him, as it was obvious, that the provocation must be great, which could induce a boy to fight a man.

It was now time to fix his future plan of life, and it was my wish to place him with a Proctor of eminence; but on proposing this to him, he inquired what he could be next. It was vain to It was vain to urge all the advantages attending that lucrative branch of the profession; the answer was still the same,-"Then I can never be Lord Chancellor." I was therefore compelled to change my plan; and proposed his being articled to a Solicitor, that when out of his clerkship, he might either pursue that line, or be called to the Bar. This also was contrary to his inclination, for the University offered numberless gratifications; but when convinced, that the placing him there might be inconvenient to my finances, he cheerfully submitted to the confinement and drudgery of an attorney's office. It was in the heart of the city, and being lodged and boarded in the house, he had few opportunities of enjoying the pure air of the country. Though treated with much kindness by his Master and his family, the confinement was great; and his eagerness to acquire at once legal and other knowledge, led him to apply too intensely to his studies; until from these, or other causes, he was seized with one of those dreadful long fevers, which, even when not fatal,