thy successor and biographer of the learned printer, William Bowyer; and it is to be hoped will now be given to the public, especially as the original work is become very scarce. vacant see were considered as irresistible. The king, however, had already made up his mind on the translation of his own bishop, and though uncommon exertions were made on behalf of two or three prelates, Dr. Barrington carried off the valuable prize, with the full approbation of Mr. Pitt and the chancellor. In 1792 the bishop delivered a charge at his Having mentioned Dr. Owen, it may not be amiss to state that he was the first person chosen by the bishop for his examining chaplain when nominated to the see of Llandaff. As that bishopric is poor in itself, so the cler-primary visitation, which at the regy in general are very low in their circumstances; on which account it is seldom that curates can be obtained who have had an academical education. Though it may well be supposed that under such circumstances the candidates for orders are not always richly endowed with literature, necessity compels the bishop to admit persons of inferior qualifications to the ministry, provided their morals are irreproachable. To remedy the want of a regularly educated clergy, Dr. Owen drew up an admirable little tract, entitled "Directions for Young Students in Divinity, with regard to those attainments which are necessary to qualify them for Holy Orders." This manual of instruction was dedicated by the author to his patron, who procured it to be inserted among the publications of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. The bishop had it not in his power to befriend Dr. Owen substantially, and as he wished, till the year 1775, when the valuable vicarage of Edmonton coming into his gift, as canon residentiary of St. Paul's, he immediately bestowed it upon his chaplain. Nor ought we here to omit, what should properly have been observed before, that some years since, bishop Barrington established a fund sufficient to produce the sum of one hundred pounds a year, which is divided among the most necessitous of the clergy of Llandaff, by their diocesan. In 1789 the bishop of Salisbury published "A Letter to his Clergy," containing general rules for their conduct, and directions to be observed in regard to Orders, Institutions, and Licenses. In 1791, Dr. Thomas Thurlow, Bishop of Durham, died, on which, of course, a pretty active stir was made to succeed him, by the aspiring members of the episcopal bench; the principal of whom was Dr. Cornwallis, bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, whose pretensions to the quest of the clergy was printed the same year, and soon reached a second edition. From this excellent discourse many valuable passages might be given, but while our limits prevent expansion, we cannot debar ourselves the pleasure of extracting one or two passages. On the duty of the christian minister to declare the whole counsel of God, the bishop says, "Divest Christianity of its faith and doctrines, and you despoil it of all that is peculiar to it in its motives, its consolations, its sanctions, and its duties. You divest it of all that made revelation necessary; you reduce it to the cold and inefficient substance of what is called philosophy; that philosophy which has of late years shewn itself not the friend of religion, learning, and civil order, but of anarchy, conceit, and atheism ; you reduce it to the obscure glimmering of human knowledge; that knowledge which the first and greatest of the ancient philosophers confessed to be totally insufficient to satisfy the doubts and solici tude of an inquiring mind; and looked forward with a kind of prophetic exultation, to the period when divine Providence, in compassion to the weakness of our nature, should enlighten mankind by that revelation of himselfwhich modern philosophers reject." (To be concluded in our next. ) APHORISMS FROM THE WRITINGS OF (Continued from col. 418.) 131. It is the preference of duty to inclination in the ordinary course of life, it is the practice of self-denial in a thousand little instances, which forms the truest test of character, and secures the honour and reward of those who "live not to themselves." 132. True humility does not lead its possessor to depreciate his talents, nor to disclaim his virtues; to speak in debasing terms of himself, nor to exaggerate his imperfections and failings. It will teach him the surer art of forgetting himself. 133. How is it that the disposition of mankind is so much at variance with their prospects? that no train of reflections is more unwelcome than that which is connected with their eternal home? If the change is considered as a happy one; if the final abode to which we are hastening is supposed to be an inprovement on the present, why shrink back from it with aversion? If it is contemplated as a state of suffering, it is natural to inquire what it is that has invested it with so dark and sombre a character? what is it, which has enveloped that species of futurities in a gloom which pervades no other? 134. If the indisposition to realize a life to come arises in any measure from a vague presentiment that it will bring us, so to speak, into a closer contact with the Deity, by presenting clearer manifestations of his character and perfections, (and who can doubt that this is a principal cause?) the proof it affords of a great deterioration in our moral condition is complete. 135. The essence of christian perfection consists in a sole and supreme desire to do the will of God. 136. True christian benevolence will not spend itself in a hollow and unmeaning complaisance to the impugners of the gospel, but in efforts to convert them; and just in proportion as welove our fellow-creatures, should be our anxiety to preserve, unimpaired and unmixed, the doctrine by which they are to be saved. 137. Love, in its sublimer form, constitutes the moral essence of the Deity, as well as the very sum and substance of true religion. Of the great prizes of human life, it is not often the lot of the most enterprising to gain many they are placed on opposite sides of the paths, so that it is impossible to approach one of them, without proportionably receding from the other. 138. Religion combines in itself, without imperfection, and without alloy, all the scattered portions of good for which the votaries of the world are accustomed to contend. 139. So little is this sublunary state adapted to our rest, that we are usually more alive to the good we want, than to that which we possess: the slightest check in the career of our desires, inflicts a wound which their gratification in every other particular is incapable of healing. 140. The fruition of religious objects calms and purifies, as much as it delights; it strengthens, instead of enervating the mind, which it fills without agitating, and by settling it on its proper basis, diffuses an unspeakable repose through all its powers. 141. With the best regulations of human wisdom, executed with the utmost partiality, malevolence will ever be armed with the power of inflicting a thousand nameless indignities and oppressions with perfect impunity. 142. Though the efficacy of human laws is far more conspicuous in restraining and punishing than in rewarding, in which their resources are extremely limited, it is only in those flagrant offences that disturb the public tranquillity, to which they extend; while the silent stream of misery, issuing from private vice, which is incessantly impairing the foundations of public and individual happiness by a secret and invisible sap, remains unchecked. 143. The enlightened observer of human affairs is often struck with horror at the consequences incidentally resulting from laws and institutions which, on account of their general utility, command his unfeigned veneration. 144. As the present state is one of probation, the irregularities by which it is distinguished, in the frequent exultation of the wicked, and the humiliation and depression of the righteous, are such as furnish the fittest materials for trial. 145. How strange it is, then, that with the certainty we all possess of shortly entering into another world, we avert our eyes as much as possible from the prospect; that we seldom permit it to penetrate us; and that the moment the recollection recurs, we hasten to dismiss it as an unwelcome intrusion. MEMOIR OF MR. THOMAS BAKEWELL. (Concluded from col. 416.) "ON first being established at Spring Vale, I was well assured that the pauper lunatics were grossly neglected by their respective parishes, and as there was then no law to enforce better treatment but by a reference to the County Asylum Law, and knowing that Mr. Proud, of Bilston, and myself, had accommodations for all the purposes of curing all cases that might be deemed curable, a person waited upon the chief magistrate, to make a proposal that these two private asyJums should be adopted by the magistrates as county asylums. The answer was short, the magistrates will have an asylum of their own.' If the proposal had been acceded to, I calculated that seven hundred pounds a year would have covered all the expenses of providing the best means of cure for all the curable cases, and under which the evil of insanity must, as I believed, have very much decreased in the county. Since that time, more than seven thousand pounds a year have been expended upon the insane, and the evil of insanity has very much increased in the county. The purity of the motives of the magistrates could not be doubted, but the plain fact was, they undertook a thing they did not understand, and ignorance is often the parent of confidence; they did not suppose they wanted any instructions. When I heard for certain that a County Asylum was determined on, and that the magistrates had only to fix upon the situation and plan of the building, matters of no little importance, I felt a desire to give my opinion upon them, and went to Stafford for the purpose. The answer I received was, that the magistrates had made up their minds, and had no opinion to ask; and it may be fairly concluded that no opinion on either was asked, for a worse situation for the purpose could not have been found, or a worse plan of a building been fixed upon. examination. I repeated what I had said, and my reasons for it; he turned away in anger, and no change was made, though it was not then too late for any alteration that might have been thought proper. Some two years or more after this, being in company with the same magistrate, he turned to me, and said, Well, Mr. Bakewell, our institution is nearly ready for the reception of patients, and we feel ourselves out at sea; we expect you to take the superintendence of it.' 'Indeed,' I answered, I will not. I will have nothing at all to do with it. You have managed it your own way hitherto, and you shall manage it your own way on, for me.' He turned from me in great anger, and never spoke to me after. But in a few days I had a request made to me, in the names of two lords and their ladies, and a magistrate whom I highly respected, that I would take upon me the superintendence of the County Asylum, and they should feel themselves obliged by my doing so. Out of great respect to the party, I then gave in a proposal in writing, and I was informed that my proposal met their entire approbation, but that the power of accepting it did not rest with them. My proposal was, that the interests of Spring Vale and the County Asylum should be united; that the former should be the receiving house for all cases of insanity considered as curable; that none should be kept there deemed as incurable; that they should be kept at the County Asylum, which should be regulated upon the least possible expense that could be consistent with the comforts of the inmates. In this proposal I certainly did not consult my own pecuniary interests. I only considered what might produce the greatest possible good in a matter highly important to suffering humanity. Had it been accepted, a large sum of money might have been saved to the county, and the number of incurable lunatics chargeable upon their respective parishes within the county would, no doubt, have been less by at "Some time after this, I was ex- least one hundred and twenty, a matamined by a Select Committee of ter of great consequence to the present the House of Commons, on Mad-as well as to succeeding generations; houses.' Questions were put to me upon the intended County Asylum at Stafford, and I gave my free opinion. Soon after, the magistrate before alluded to questioned me upon my 90.-VOL. VIII. for in no case are the evils of hereditary disease so great as in those of insanity. "I would by no means wish to cast any imputations upon the managers 2 K as incurable; but I cannot give credit that great numbers have been admit- or servants of the institution, of whom I know nothing that is at all censurable; the fault is in the law, and the system it has introduced, by which the number of incurables will be much larger in every county where it has been acted upon, than it was pre-mates of that house. It is well known viously; that is, a less proportion have, no question, recovered, than would have recovered if no such law had ever been promulgated. The simple short law of Lord Eldon was, the law to do good without mixture of injury; that is, a law to compel overseers of parishes to procure means of recovery for all pauper lunatics, leaving it to the judgment of the magistrates as to where the patient should be sent for the best means of recovery, except in counties having a public asylum, these taking away the option; so that the County Asylum Law completely counteracts the good effects of Lord Eldon's Law, one object of which, no doubt, was, to create a competition in the cure of insanity; while the County Asylum Law puts down all competition as it refers to the most numerous classes of society, and as a monopoly it may be furnishing the very worst system of cure, in place of the very best. I have no cause for complaint against the County Asylum as it regards my pecuniary interests, I have certainly done better in that respect since its establishment than I ever did before, or ever should have done if it had not been established; for, if it had not, I should have made it a point of conscience to have taken paupers for the purposes of cure, and by them I could not expect to get money, while they would have been a continual bar to my having more profitable patients. But I have, as I believe, been prevented by it the curing at least a hundred of my fellow-creatures, who have not been cured elsewhere. "As the marks of recovery are very deceptive, this must be the case in some degree in all asylums, but it is the very great number of these cases that I speak to, and fully accounting for the prodigious number of admissions stated, (five hundred and ninetynine,) supposing only four hundred of these were pauper lunatics belonging to the county of Stafford, and that is less than the proportion, it would be twice the number that have really occurred as fresh cases, as I firmly believe. I would not state these things for the information of the county of Stafford, but for the better information of those counties which have not a public asylum, and have one in contemplation. As for Staffordshire, the die is cast, the county asylum, as a public measure, must be supported, and, in spite of all that any one can say or do, there is scarcely a magistrate or other leading person in the county but what would recommend it in preference to any private asylum in the kingdom. 66 "In the acrimonious and personal paper war which took place betwixt me and some of those attached to the County Asylum, I was not the first aggressor; and if I had the advan tage, which I must presume I had, it was simple truth and common sense which gave it to me. For is it not obvious, that a large prison, in which a large proportion of the inmates are incurable pauper lunatics, criminal lunatics, or dangerous idiots, cannot be eligible for the purposes of curing nervous or mental diseases? I would not set such an institution in competition with a well-regulated private asylum; I would only have it placed in competition with no asylum at all; and I firmly believe that if there were not an asylum in the whole kingdom, either public or private, that the insane would recover in a larger proportion than they do of pauper lunatics in counties that have public asylums." So far as we have quoted the words of Mr. Bakewell, it may be supposed, that nothing has been said but what is certainly in his own favour. We are not however to presume that he has always been infallible in his reasonings, or immaculate in his resolutions; and admitting what he has from time to time advanced on the nature, cause, and cure of mental diseases to be quite correct and highly important, yet it may be questioned whether he has not injured his own cause by the confident manner he has frequently urged it; and if his system of treatment be of so much consequence, it might have been well if he had accepted the situation of superintendant to the County Asylum upon the terms of the other party; and have introduced those changes he wished for by degrees, and as he obtained the confidence of the highly respected managers of it. But it was his foible to be too tenacious of his resolution; and his pride in asserting that his resolutions, once made, are like the laws of the Medes and Persians, they change not. This may do very well for the keeper of a mad-house, but in the relative affairs of life it may lead to irreparable errors. It must be admitted that he has many times struck on this rock, though in his own house, and the management of his inmates, a steady firmness of mind may have been highly useful. Mr. Bakewell has often been heard to say, that for years after he kept an asylum, he was fretful and uneasy, under the idea that he did not understand the theory of the disease he undertook to cure, and that he could not obtain any satisfactory information from books upon the subject; but by analyzing the human mind in the most simple manner possible, he felt himself at once relieved. By making a distinction betwixt the involuntary action of thought, and the exercise of the acquired knowledge, the whole phenomena of the disease may be explained, the disease being in the involuntary thoughts or imaginations, while the reasoning powers are not diseased, or destroyed, or injured, but only suspended so long as the erroneous or visionary idea or mental feeling remains. But this he had explained himself, as it has often been said, very clearly. Mr. Bakewell has been a writer upon various subjects, but has published very little. Numbers of letters upon domestic and political economy, have been published in newspapers, that have not been preserved, nor can they be referred to; those that can, are the "Domestic Guide in cases of Insanity," published in the year 1806; "A Letter addressed to the Chairman of the select committee of the House of Commons, on the nature, causes, and cure of Mental Derangements, published in the year 1815:" Letters on various subjects published in the Monthly Magazine; Sixteen Letters called "Useful Selections" inserted in a short-lived weekly publication at Stafford a few years ago, entitled the Book Worm.' Letters published in the Imperial Magazine, and a Pamphlet entitled "Remarks on a late publication by James Loch, Esq. on the improvements made upon the estates of the Marquis of Stafford in Sutherlandshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire." This publication met with great local publicity, and excited much interest. But admitting that Mr. Loch's publication was injudicious at that particular time, yet it may be fairly urged, that Mr. Bakewell's "Remarks" were equally so, for he does not impute to Mr. Loch any sinister views or corrupt motives, and upon the merits or demerits of the improvements he could not be competent to speak; but conceiving that many had been injured by them, he had recourse to the weapons of ridicule and satire. These he wielded with such an unsparing hand, that a very candid reader has been heard to |