a thorough-paced Calvinist. It would seem from the words-the King passing by, that Charles was in Devonshire, or in Potter's neighbourhood at this time, but upon what errand we know not, for as yet the kingdom was in a state of profound peace, the strife being as yet pent up within the walls of the Houses of Parliament-being as yet vox et præterea nihil. It may be conceded to malice, that Charles was not influenced solely by religious motives (a charge that rests on conjecture only) in restoring Abbot of Canterbury, and raising this good man to the See of Carlisle. What then does it detract from the merits of the latter appointment? It is, we think, one of many lasting proofs that Charles, if the representatives of the sovereign people would have let him, was ready to give his country Liberty, and to begin with it, where it must ever begin to be enduring, in proclaiming to the world freedom of conscience. When the mind's eye wanders from the present to the past, from this point to that of the chart, from what is called bigotry in one age to liberality in another : when we find first principles disturbed, confused, and transposed, as if they were made but to be tinkered, one scarcely can help exclaiming, what a paradox is man! In apprehension how like a!

Before we plunge into the stormy sea of politics, let us see what men thought of him in the retirement of private life. A just idea of the home of this good man could only be conveyed by a reprint

of the whole of Lloyd's memoirs of him, who, as we think, wrote many things of his own knowledge, rather than from hearsay or tradition; but, as the design of this work will not admit of such a course, we must content ourselves with a few of the crumbs that have fallen from his table. He tells us, amongst other things, that Potter was so good a master of his family, that his house was a church; that family duties [constant prayers, catechising, reading Scriptures, expounding Godly conferences, speaking to one another in psalms and spiritual hymns] were performed so regularly, and so constantly, that it was called the praying family; and that in the neighbourhood where he lived not a house was to be had; nay, that the very necessaries of life were affected in value from the consequent increase of his followers. That he was a most affectionate husband; more a friend to his servants than a master; To the fatherless children and widow the faithful guardian; To the poor and needy a ministering angel; In his carriage so exemplary that several recusants that could not go with him to church, yet conversed much with him, because (said they) they would go with him to Heaven.

From a man so fully employed in practical Christianity, we could not look for much of the metaphysical; though no man more able to demonstrate its great truths. It appears, however,

that he published Lectures on the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 Chapters of Genesis. On the Plagues of Egypt from Exodus; and on the Beatitude from part of St. Luke; and several sermons, as (1.) The Baronet's Burial; or a funeral sermon at the solemnities of that Honorable Baronet Sir Edward Seymour's burial, on Deut. 34, v. 5. Oxon. 1613. (2.) Sermon on Easter Tuesday at the Spital, &c.

As in 1628 he was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle, and died in January 1642, about fourteen years may be assigned to this period of his life-a period big with the fate of Cæsar and of Rome! To be a bishop was to be a culprit with the mob; there needed no other evidence of a man's treason against the majesty of the people; from the virtuous and liberal-minded, and once popular Abbot, to the Court Evangelist, Dr. Mainwaring, one and all might say populus me sibilat. Nay, such was the Civium ardor prava jubentium that poor Ecclesiasticus (whoever he might be) was not allowed to escape Scot free. "What trou ye make (said King James to Dr. Reynolds at Hampton Court) these men so angry with Ecclesiasticus; by my sol I think he was a bishop, or else they would never use him so." What this fury led to in the end, we shall presently see. His Episcopal Palace was, like his house in Devonshire, the centre of all that was good. There he resided for the most part,

taking lodgings only in Covent Garden, London, for an occasional attendance in Parliament. Enough has been said to shew that he was a man pre-eminently gifted with the faculty of speech, yet, as a spiritual peer he was silent," and so he was the cause others spoke not so much as they intended, awing the zeal of the most unruly to a moderation, by the discretion, good advice, and management of his own." He was naturally indeed a man of few words; for, as we have seen, King Charles loved him the more for this good quality. This was the calm, and sober, and judicious course he pursued amid the difficulties and dangers that surrounded the Established Church. That jealousies and animosities were easier raised than allayed, was as much a rule of his own life as a precept of wisdom for others to go by. Had the rest of his Episcopal brethren followed his example and his admonitions they would have deferred, if not avoided, the impeachment for High Treason; and perhaps their exclusion as members from the Upper House of Parliament. He was not one of the twelve bishops who signed the petition, which was made the pretext and groundwork of the prosecution, and therefore escaped the popular violence and the dangers of the Tower*; but his prudence and

* See Trial of the Bishops in State Trials. Whitelocke, p. 51.

moderation did not save him from that infernal engine, which on January 9, 1641, swept them, one and all, like a whirlwind from their legislative seats. Fuller says "that he was the last bishop that dyed a member of Parliament in the year of our Lord 1642." He certainly died in that year, but he did not die a member of Parliament, for he fell with the rest. The plea of Puritanism, to use a Red-Republican phrase, was now too late. Besides, the offences usually in times of strife imputed to men of rank in the Church, were now imputed to him, and he was set down as a Papist, merely because he was a Bishop. When in London he preached much and often. He was accounted a Godly and powerful preacher; and his sentiments were generally approved of. "There need (concludes Lloyd) no more added to his life, or written on his grave, than that this was the man-1. That had been a constant preacher, and reputed at his death that he had not been a more constant catechist. 2. That interceded for liberty of conscience so long for non-conformists with the King, till he saw that neither the King nor himself could enjoy their own consciences. That feared the pretence of religion would overthrow the reality of it, and that the divisions in his age would breed Atheism in the next." Naturally of a weak constitution, still more enfeebled by hard study, broken-hearted, and broken down by the