[The date of the letter of which the following is a fragment is lost, but from the allusions in it, especially to the death of George II., it must have been in the latter part of 1760. It seems to be the letter afterwards alluded to as dated Nov. 4, 1760]. "I come now to your letter of July 13, 1760, and assure you that I shall always be pleased with your notifying and proposing to me whatever you apprehend to be material; because I know it will always be done with good intention, and almost always furnish me with useful notices; and indeed will be of no small use, even when you may happen to judge amiss, as it will give me an opportunity of setting you right. In my opinion, the paper intended for the London Magazine, and the letters for Lord Halifax and Mr. Pitt, are of the latter sort. The things said in them are, in the main, right, so far as they may be practicable; but publishing them to the world beforehand, instead of waiting till the time comes, and then applying privately to the persons whose advice the king will take about them, is likely to raise opposition, and prevent success. Publishing them, indeed, in a magazine, may raise no great alarm; but then it will be apt to produce contempt: for those monthly collections are far from being in high esteem. And as soon as either of those great men should see that the queries offered to him were designed to be inserted in any of them, he would be strongly tempted to throw them aside, without looking further into them, even were he otherwise disposed to read them over : which men of business seldom are, when they receive papers from unknown hands, few of them in proportion deserving it. You will pardon the frankness with which I tell you my thoughts. Whatever good use I can make of your notions, I will. But the use which you propose is not agreeable to my judgment. "The Dissenters here, and too many who continue in the Church, have been running, for a considerable number of years, into what you call Taylorism. I am glad that the clergy in your parts are orthodox. Mr. Maclaneghan gives them a very different character. I hope they will cut off all occasion from them who desire occasion against them, by preaching faithfully and frequently the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel; which we in this nation have neglected too much, and dwelt disproportionately on morality and natural religion; whence the Methodists have taken advantage to decry us, and gain followers. "I will take notice of what you say in this letter, as well as a former, concerning missions and missionaries, and write further to you, as soon as I can do it to any purpose." "I have spoken concerning a new Lieutenant-Governor, in the manner which you desired, to the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, and also to Lord Halifax, in whom the choice is. They all admit the request to be a very reasonable and important one; and promise that care shall be taken about it. The last of them is very earnest for bishops in America. I hope we may have a chance to succeed in that great point, when it shall please God to bless us with a peace. "We have lost our good old king, a true well-wisher to his people, and a man of many private virtues. His successor is a regular, and worthy, and pious young man; and hath declared himself, I am satisfied very sincerely, to have the interest of religion at heart. God keep him in the same mind, and bless his endeavours. He continues the same ministry which his grandfather had, with as few changes as possible: and I know not whether this nation was ever so much at unity in itself as it is at present." "God bless you, good Dr. Johnson, and all your brethren, and his whole church in your parts. I am, with regard and esteem, your loving brother, "Tho. Cant." "Lambeth, Jan. 20, 1761. "The king hath had no opportunity as yet of shewing what his dispositions are towards the American churches, excepting that in general all his dispositions are good. But whom he will consult particularly on this head hath not hitherto appeared. I presume the Episcopal Clergy will transmit addresses to him, as their predecessors, when they were much fewer, did to the late king. This may lead him to inquire concerning them, and express himself in relation to them. If any such addresses come to me, I will take the best care of them that I can." "Lambeth, December 10, 1761. "Good Dr. Johnson,-I have been a very bad correspondent, and scarcely dare promise to amend, though I propose it, God willing. Besides much extraordinary business, arising from the king's accession, marriage, and coronation, and two visitations of distant parts under my jurisdiction, I have had a severe fit of the stone, and am now under a second fit of the gout within these six months; and must not hope, in my sixty-ninth year, that these complaints will grow lighter, but expect to be overwhelmed by additional ones. However, I have forced myself to take up my pen, to make my excuse to you as well as I can. "You judged rightly from my letter of January 20, that I had written a former, which had not come to your hands. It was written November 4, 1760. I should have sent a duplicate of it soon after. But all that I can do now is to send you a copy, and another proxy, that which accompanied it being, I presume, lost with it. "I thank you for your draft of an Address for Bishops on a peace. Would to God both events were nearer than they seem to be at present. The right time to try is certainly when a peace is made, if circumstances afford any hope of success. But this is a matter of which you in America cannot judge; and therefore I beg you will attempt nothing without the advice of the Society or of the Bishops. The address of the clergy in and near Boston to the King upon his accession, which was sent to the late Bishop of London to be presented, never was presented, because he thought it mentioned bishops prematurely. When I presented that which came from New-York, signed by you, I told the King that there had been one from New-England, transmitted to Bishop Sherlock (who was dead when I spoke to his Majesty), but that what he had done with it I knew not." "The new Bishop of London (Dr. Hayter) is a very able, and active, and spirited man, and hath much influence with some who have influence with the King. I hope, therefore, that he will be very useful to the colonies." "Mr. Martin, of St. Andrews, in South Carolina, is come over hither, and hath very honourably told the Society that he thinks his salary of thirty pounds a year may be better employed by them. I wish we had more such instances, where circumstances will allow them. And I cannot help thinking that the laity of our church abroad are not so liberal to their ministers as they might be, and as those of other denominations are, but lean too hard upon the Society: in which, perhaps, their ministers sometimes encourage them, or connive at them, in order to live upon better terms with them. You will tell me whether I am right in this notion. 'A strict examination hath been made here into the state of our Barbadoes affairs, which appear to have been very bad for many years past; and a new committee is appointed to watch over them more diligently for the future. At the head of this committee is Dr. Drummond, now Archbishop of York, a man of very extraordinary talents for business of all sorts: and I am persuaded that we shall reap great advantages from what will be done*."...... • How far the Archbishop's hopes were realized, let Bishop Porteus attest. Every A "Lambeth, October 6, 1762. "Good Dr.Johnson,—I am fallen again into my old fault of not answering your letters regularly. But indeed I have more business here than my declining health will permit me to go through as I ought. On the first of June the gout seized my right hand, and disabled me, I think for more than two months, from subscribing my name with it: nor is it well yet. When it grew better, my left hand was attacked; and as that mended, the same distemper laid hold on one foot and knee, of which it is now in possession, not without threatening the other. But God's will be done.......The Lord President (Earl of Granville) opposed your college very strongly, and engaged Lord Egremont, Secretary of State, to take the same side; but at last we got the better. Dr. Smith hath acted very honourably and disinterestedly in this whole affair; and was well contented with my procuring twice as much from the King for New-York college as for Philadelphia, because the former is a royal foundation, and hath no other patron. pamphlet hath been sent me from America, entitled, 'The real Advantages which Ministers and People may enjoy by conforming to the Church of England, faithfully considered and impartially represented.' It is written in a ludicrous manner, yet with great virulence, and seems likely enough to do great mischief. Yet surely the Dissenters who have any seriousness cannot approve such a method of writing against us; at least they might be brought to disapprove it by the prudent use of very mild and friendly remonstrances, setting forth the uncharitableness of such treatment, and the injustice of such representations. With the author himself stronger expostulations, yet grave and gentle ones, might be used; begging him, with fit expressions of concern for him on some of the more flagrant enormities of his pen, to consider what spirit he is of. Some good persons, who are not of our church, one should hope, might thus be brought over to take part with us. And other ways of answering, I apprehend, would do us little good, but perhaps much harm. The American facts alleged or alluded to are so many that no one who hath not been a good while in our colonies, can make a full answer, unless more than ordinary pains were taken to furnish him with materials. And an intemperate answer would be, and a defective one might be, worse than none.......I should have said one thing more about the pamphlet, which is more material than all the rest, that whereinsoever we are justly accused, clergy or people, we should own it and mend; which is the only good answer in such cases. "The Society hath not met since May (five months). I have been ill, and the Bishops, the Secretary, and the Treasurer, out of town. In the mean time I have paid the bill of five hundred pounds from your college out of my own pocket. And I think I have secured from the Crown one hundred and seventy pounds for the damages done by the soldiers to Mr. Charlton's glebe on Staten Island. I hope there will not fail to be a meeting next week. Whether I shall be able to go to it is very doubtful. But at least I promise myself that I shall talk over matters with such as can go: and then I propose, God willing, to write you another letter: for there are several particulars in yours of last April, relative to Society affairs, yet unanswered by me. But I must go no further at present. Only I assure you that no one hath hitherto intimated to me the least desire of the office of Bishop in America: and that I am entirely of your opinion, that the Crown should not begin with clergymen already settled there. God bless you, good Dr. Johnson. Pray for your loving brother, Tho. Cant." successive race of bishops has hoped to get those slave estates better managed, but in vain. The vice, the sin, the crime, the misery, are inseparable from the system. What has become of the boasted prospective ameliorations promised two years ago? How many of the poor slaves have become free? CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 376. 2 F "Lambeth, March 30, 1763. Good Dr. Johnson,—I thank you for the kind condolence which you express in your letter of January 6. I was then in a fresh fit of the gout, and have another upon me now. These attacks unfit me greatly for business, else I should have written to you sooner. As Mr. Beach hath under. taken to answer the late virulent pamphlet, I hope he will do it in such a manner as to win over the more moderate of the Dissenters from some of their prejudices against us, and shame even the more vehement, by a good example, into some degree of mildness and fairness....... Probably our Ministry will be concerting schemes this summer, against the next session of Parliament, for the settlement of his Majesty's American dominions and then we must try our utmost for Bishops. Hitherto little hath been said to them, and less by them, on the subject. Our Dissenters, however, give out the contrary, and endeavour to raise an alarm. God prosper us, if it be his will ..... 66 It grieves me to concur in postponing any of the new missions which you would have us establish. But indeed some of those which we have established already in New England and New York have so few members of our Church in them, and there are so great numbers in other parts destitute of all instruction, whom we may hope to secure to our Church, by sending missionaries to them before other teachers get amongst them—I mean the new and frontier settlements-that I think we cannot avoid preferring the latter. Would to God we could effectually assist both; but we must not bring ourselves under the necessity of making another collection for the Society soon. Indeed, it must be put off some years the longer, on account of that which is now making for the two colleges; for they will be considered as akin one to the other. "I told you that I thought I had secured one hundred and seventy pounds for Mr. Charlton's damages on his glebe. And I have still reason to believe that the King did sign a warrant for that sum to be paid here to the Society's treasurer. But remonstrances were made against it by some officer, through whose hands the business was to pass. And now the Secretary at War hath written to Sir Jeffry Amhurst about it, whose answer is in these words: The case of Mr. Charlton is this, that he really suffered by the encampment of the troops; and I was in hopes that the Assembly of the province would have considered his losses. If that doth not take place, I shall pay him out of the contingencies, in the manner you are pleased to direct.' This, therefore, I hope will be done. I hope also that Mr. Charlton will lay out what he receives upon his glebe faithfully and prudently. If you can contribute to his doing so, I hope you will: for I know not how to contrive that the money may be paid into the hands of any one that should act as trustee on the occasion...... "It would be inconvenient and disagreeable to Mr. Beach, and not desirable in itself, to have a formal controversy raised upon this wretched pamphlet. And in order to avoid it, his answer may be anonymous, as the pamphlet is; or, however, he may signify that he doth not intend to take notice of any reply, or enter further into a discussion of particulars; his principal view being to convince persons, and, if it may be, the writer himself, that since we are all to give an account of every idle word, and no denomination of Christians is faultless, and mutual charity is the great precept of our Saviour, we should treat all religious matters with seriousness, and one another with mildness and candour....... "The affair of American Bishops continues in suspense. Lord Willoughby of Parham, the only English dissenting Peer, and Dr. Chandler, have declared, after our scheme was fully laid before them, that they saw no objec tion against it. The Duke of Bedford, Lord President, hath given a calm and favourable hearing to it, hath desired it may be reduced to writing, and promised to consult about it with the other ministers at his first leisure. Indeed, I see not how Protestant Bishops can decently be refused us, as in all probability a Popish one will be allowed, by connivance at least, in Canada. The ecclesiastical settlement of that country is not made yet, but is under consideration; and I hope will be a reasonable and satisfactory one. Four clergymen will be appointed for Florida, with salaries of one hundred pounds each; and four schoolmasters, with twenty-five pounds each: and the Society have been desired to provide them. This I consider as a good omen; yet much will depend on various circumstances, and particularly on the opinion, or persuasion concerning the opinion, of the Americans, both Dissenters and Churchmen. "The Bishop of London (Dr. Osbaldiston) died last week. Poor man, he was every way unequal to that station. His successor, Dr. Terrick, is a sensible and good-tempered man, greatly esteemed as a preacher, and personally liked by the King, as well as favoured by the Ministry; therefore I hope he will both have considerable influence and use it well. . . . . . We must not run the risk of increasing the outcry against the Society, especially in the present crisis, and so perhaps lose an opportunity of settling Bishops in our colonies, by establishing two or three new missions in New England. Our affairs are not to be carried on with a high hand; but our success, if we do succeed, must arise from conciliating the minds of men: and this ought to be laboured very diligently, abroad as well as at home...... "The Archbishop of York is very active in our business, as well as able. He hath brought the estate of Codrington college out of a most lamentable condition into a very hopeful one. And he hath done a great deal with the Ministers in our ecclesiastical concerns. But these, and particularly what relates to Bishops, must be managed in a quiet, private manner. ...... I shall only add, that I heartily pray God to give you every blessing needful for you, and earnestly desire your prayers in return, for your loving brother, "Tho. Cant." "Lambeth, July 31, 1766. "Good Dr. Johnson,-I am very much ashamed that I have so long delayed to answer your letters, and still more grieved that I cannot do it now to my own satisfaction or yours. It is very probable that a Bishop or Bishops would have been quietly received in America before the Stamp Act was passed here. But it is certain that we could get no permission here to send one. Earnest and continual endeavours have been used with our successive ministers and ministries, but without obtaining more than promises to consider and confer about the matter; which promises have never been fulfilled. The King hath expressed himself repeatedly in favour of the scheme: and hath proposed, that, if objections are imagined to lie against other places, a Protestant Bishop should be sent at least to Quebec, where there is a Popish one, and where there are few Dissenters to take offence. And in the latter end of Mr. Grenville's ministry, a plan of an ecclesiastical establishment for Canada was formed, on which a Bishop might easily have been grafted, and was laid before a committee of council. But opinions differed there, and proper persons could not be persuaded to attend; and in a while the ministry changed. Incessant application was made to the new ministry : some slight hopes were given, but no one step taken. Yesterday the ministry was changed again, as you may see in the papers; but whether any change will happen in our concern, and whether for the better or the worse, I cannot so much as guess. Of late, indeed, it hath not been pru |