dressing, his servant knocked at his door, and handed him the foregoing letter, which was marked, 'Immediate and special,' and addressed, Granby Cumberland, Esq.

Hotel,

Llanberris, North Wales.

The letter had been delivered by a servant man, who after leaving it with the landlord, and charging to have it delivered without delay, rode off in great haste. The letter was

written in a female hand.

The worst insinuations of the anonymous correspondent were found by Cumberland to be perfectly true; I cannot describe the agony and perturbation of his mind, as he thought of the dreadful position in which he had been placed.

CHAPTER XVII.

CIRCLES OF THOUGHT-A GREAT PHILOSOPHER.

THE effect of Cumberland's matrimonial misfortune was to turn me more to reflection. It forced me to consider more curiously than ever, the nature of life, and the character of society. I became sensible, that in such a scene of extraordinary trial, as I saw mankind exposed to, that something more than mere philosophy should be given to people to sus

tain them in their progress through the

world.

I entered upon a diligent course of study, and changed my habits from a gay to a grave and reflective person. I was astonished to find that the more I read of moral subjects, the more I saw was to be said in favour of the Christian religion. I read through an extended course of philosophy and theology, and the works of Barrow, Hooker, Warburton, and Bishop Butler, gave my mind abundant reasons for totally changing the views with which the specious and artful sophistry of Foss, the eloquent Socinian lecturer, had for a brief time indoctrinated me. I spent my time chiefly at Wycombe Hall, and made occasional visits to town; and the celebrated Sir Charles Maclaurin, who had been one of my uncle's most particular friends, often came down for a couple of days to my seat in Surrey,

and I learned a great deal from his richly stored mind, and most instructive conversation.

I felt much more happy, when my views on religion became fixed, and ascertained. Although heartily wishing (like Bishop Burnet) that our church was well rid of the Athanasian creed, I became certain that there was no religion more Catholic, and philosophical, than that which comprehended Hooker and Chillingworth, Barrow and Taylor, South, Warburton, Berkeley, Butler, and spirits so entirely dissimilar as the utilitarian Paley and the pietistic Heber. Over the sophistry and false learning of rationalism I obtained a conquest, by the careful study of Christian history. The same arguments which made me a believer, secured me against religious credulity and Pantheism. The Roman Catholic system of religion I naturally turned from with

the instinct of an Englishman; for no true Englishman could be, now-a-days, a Roman Catholic. The Protestant creed has favoured the development of our national mind and character, while Roman Catholicism drags in its rear a long train of unwholesome foreign influences— a language, and a claim in the subjugation of our wills, that none but a degenerate people could ever acknowledge. I studied the Roman Catholic system, and admired its symmetry and logical harmony; but I was not deceived, therefore, into supposing that its skilfully piled formulæ possessed the unity of truth. Here my political reading and reflection served to keep me straight. The Austrian empire rests as a system on a more coherent and harmonious logic than the antagonistic principles of the British Constitution; but is it, therefore, more true, more real in its nature, and inspired by