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THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1834.

MEMOIR OF THE RIGHT REV. BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D.
LATE BISHOP OF LONDON.

(With a Portrait.)

THIS eminent prelate was born at York, on the 8th of May, 1731, and was the youngest but one of nineteen children. His parents were natives of Virginia, in North America, but removed to England, in order to give their children greater advantages of education, though at considerable injury to their fortune-an instance of disinterestedness, which was amply repaid to them by the future elevation of the subject of this memoir. After having been for several years at a small school at York, Mr. Porteus was placed at Ripon, under the care of Mr. Hyde, of whose character he has often spoken in terms of great respect. At an earlier age than is common in the present day, he was removed to the University of Cambridge, and entered as a sizer at Christ's College, where he applied with such diligence to mathematical studies, as to obtain the honour of tenth wrangler in 1752, when he took his Bachelor of Arts degree. His attention, however, was not directed solely to these pursuits; for having shortly after become a candidate for one of the gold medals instituted by the Duke of Newcastle, to reward eminence in classical literature, he obtained the second, after a long and severe examination.

In the spring of the same year, Mr. Porteus was elected fellow of his college, and shortly afterwards succeeded Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Burroughs, as esquire beadle. This office he kept but for two years, preferring to increase his income by means more agreeable to himself; namely, that of taking 'private pupils, whom his rising eminence easily obtained for him. Among them was Lord Grantham, who was afterwards Secretary of State, and Ambassador to Spain.

Having deliberately chosen the profession of the church, he was ordained at the age of twenty-six by the Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards by Archbishop Hutton, at York, where he preached the ordination sermon. In the midst of these engagements, however, he was not negligent of politer studies, and gave some attention to the cultivation of poetry. Of his success in this latter pursuit he soon after gave ample evidence, by obtaining Seaton's prize for the best English poem on a sacred subject. The subject selected was Death; and it was one which was the more consonant with his feelings, from the fact of his having but lately lost his respected and excellent father. Undoubtedly," says his biographer,

2D. SERIES, NO. 43.-VOL. IV.

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"as a private performance there are few superior; for it displays a correctness of taste, combined with a sublimity of thought, and a power and justness of expression, which have seldom been exhibited in the first effusions of poetry."

Mr. Porteus's reputation was now rapidly increasing, and was still further promoted by the publication of an excellent sermon, preached at the University church, as a reply to a profane pamphlet which had recently appeared, entitled, "The History of the Man after God's own Heart." Its object was to bring discredit upon the Christian religion by ridiculing the character of the Jews, and of David in particular. It is scarcely necessary to add, that Mr. Porteus succeeded not only in controverting the particular statements of the work, but also in exposing the utter fallacy of the principles upon which its arguments proceeded.

In 1762, he was appointed, by Archbishop Secker, one of his domestic chaplains, and quitted college to reside at Lambeth. The associations into which he was led by this preferment had a most important influence on his future character, as appears from his own words. He describes the Archbishop as a man "endowed with superior talents, which he had highly cultivated; of a strong and sound understanding; of extensive and profound erudition, more particularly in Hebrew literature, and every branch of theology; an admired and useful preacher; of unblemished purity of manners, unaffected piety, unbounded benevolence, and exemplary in the discharge of all his various functions, as a parochial clergyman, a bishop, and a metropolitan." "He was," he adds, "to me a most kind friend, and a bountiful benefactor: but, far beyond all the other benefits I derived, was that invaluable one of enjoying his conversation, of being honoured with his direction and advice, and of living under the influence of his example: these were advantages indeed; and although I did not profit by them so much as I ought, yet to them, under Providence, I ascribe whatever little credit I have attained in the world, and the high situation I have since arrived at in the church."

On the 13th of May, 1765, Mr. Porteus married Margaret, eldest daughter of Brian Hodgson, Esq. of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, and in the course of the same year was presented by the Archbishop to the two small livings of Rucking and Wittersham in Kent: these, however, he soon resigned for the rectory of Hunton, in the same county, which he enjoyed in addition to a prebend at Peterborough, that had been previously given him by his Grace. Upon the death of Dr. Denne, in 1767, he obtained the rectory of Lambeth, and soon after this took his degree as Doctor in Divinity, on which occasion he preached his commencement sermon.

In 1768, Archbishop Secker died, after a severe illness; and Dr. Porteus, in accordance with the feelings which had possessed him during the life of his excellent patron, paid a last tribute to his memory in a "Review of the Archbishop's Life and Character," a masterly performance, and a very happy specimen of biographical composition. In the following year he was appointed chaplain to his Majesty, and master of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester.

In the year 1763, Dr. Porteus entered on an undertaking which, whatever may be thought of its policy, certainly reflects upon him infinite credit for manly integrity and independence of mind. His own account of it is as follows:-" At the close of the year 1772, and the beginning of the next, an attempt was made by myself and a few other clergymen, among whom were Mr. Francis Woolaston, Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, and Dr. Yorke, now Bishop of Ely, to induce the Bishops to promote a review

of the Liturgy and Articles, in order to amend in both, but particularly the latter, those parts which all reasonable people agreed stood in need of amendment. The plan was not in the smallest degree connected with the petitioners at the Feather's Tavern, but, on the contrary, was meant to counteract that and all similar extravagant projects; to strengthen and confirm our ecclesiastical establishment; to repel the attacks which were at that time continually made upon it by its avowed enemies; to render the 17th article on predestination more clear and conspicuous, and less likely to be wrested by our adversaries to a Calvinistic sense, which has been so unjustly affixed to it; to improve true Christian piety amongst those of our own communion, and to diminish schism and separation, by bringing over to the national church all the moderate and well-disposed of other persuasions. On these grounds we applied to Archbishop Cornwallis, requesting him to signify our wishes, (which we conceived to be the wishes of a very large proportion of the clergy and laity,) to the rest of the Bishops, that every thing might be done, which could be prudently and safely done, to promote these important and salutary purposes."

But these were not the days of reformation, and the only answer that they received from the Archbishop was as follows:-" I have consulted severally my brethren the Bishops; and it is the opinion of the bench in general, that nothing can in prudence be done in the matter submitted to our consideration."

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On the 20th of December, 1776, Dr. Porteus kissed the King's hand on his appointment to the see of Chester; a preferment, on his own part unsolicited, and entirely unexpected. In consequence of it, he immediately resigned the living of Lambeth, which he was permitted to retain, though from various causes of delay it was not until July in the following year, that he entered upon the functions of his new office. In addition to the sedulous discharge of his official duties, Dr. Porteus employed himself in various affairs of general interest at the time. The principal of these were the Protestant Association against Popery, the civilization of the Negroes, and the establishment of Sunday-schools. With respect to the alleged increase of Popery, from which the Protestant Association had its origin, the Bishop's own words are indicative at once of his high estimation of what he conscientiously believed to be the truth, and of his enlightened liberality towards those who differed with him. Undoubtedly," he says, "we ought to be on our guard against the arts and industry of those who profess to teach the tenets of popery; we ought to combat their manifold errors as occasions offer, both in the pulpit and from the press; and we should, in an especial manner, instil carefully into the minds of the young the true principles of Protestantism. But, on the other hand, admitting the fact, as represented, to be true; if it appears that the schools and masshouses, so much complained of, are frequented only by persons of the Roman Catholic persuasion; if the priests and their congregations take the prescribed oath; if no undue endeavours are used to make proselytes, and no doctrines are taught hostile to the government of the country; I do not see how, on the principles of toleration and Christianity, any other opposition can be made to them than that of argument and persuasion, and increased activity and zeal, on our part, in guarding those entrusted to our care, against the superstition and error of the church of Rome.

In 1787, on the death of Bishop Lowth, Mr. Pitt recommended Dr. Porteus to his Majesty as a fit person to succeed to the diocese of London; and his Majesty having expressed his entire concurrence, he was accordingly installed. Here he prosecuted, with augmented zeal, the same

order of labour to which he had devoted himself in his former stations. On the breaking out of the first French revolution, he examined, with a most vigilant eye, the development of those new principles and opinions to which that great event gave rise; and, wisely avoiding that whirlpool of party spirit and turbid political feeling into which many less cautious minds. were attracted, and in which they made shipwreck, he fixed upon the infidel principles which marked the revolutionists, as the appropriate point of his attack; and in the charge which he addressed to his clergy in 1794, he delineated, with admirable fidelity, the traits of the French school, and called upon the natural defenders of the faith, not only to contend for it with more than usual earnestness, and to fortify themselves in its various evidences, but also to strive with especial assiduity to recommend it, by exhibiting its influence both in their official and their private capacity. "Draw out," said he," from the whole body of the Christian evidences the principal and most striking arguments, and bring them down to the understandings of the common people. If this, or any thing of a similar nature, were thrown into a regular course of sermons or lectures, and delivered in an easy, intelligible, and familiar language to your respective congregations, I know nothing that would, in these philosophic times, render a more essential service to religion." Moreover, to shew that he was willing himself to take his full share of the burden which he imposed on others, he undertook, in 1795, to prepare and deliver at St. James's church, his justly celebrated Lent lectures, which were received by the public with marked demonstration of gratitude, both from the pulpit, in which they were repeated for some succeeding years, and from the press, where they went through several editions.

The later conduct of his life was in perfect accordance with its previous tenor. He expended its diminished energies on works of religious and political usefulness, and of general benevolence, and chiefly on the support of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the triumphant efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade. At length, after some years of ill health, he sunk under the pressure of complicated disease, on the 14th of May, 1808, in the 78th year of his age.

After what has already been said, it is hardly necessary to delineate in detail the character of this excellent prelate; and we will therefore conclude this sketch with the words in which that character is summed up by his friend and biographer, the Rev. Robert Hodgson.

"Upon the whole," says he, "the Bishop was, and so at least posterity will consider him, a light in his generation, an ornament to the times in which he lived. Firm and fixed in his own principles; candid and liberal in his sentiments of others; unalterable in his attachments; unbounded in his acts of charity; meek and humble in his disposition; affable and courteous in his manner and deportment; ardent in his piety; devoted to his God; surely such a man well maintained the Christian character.

"That all men indeed should think of him as I do, is hardly to be expected. When the heart overflows with gratitude, such as, I trust, I shall ever feel for a long course of uninterrupted kindness, friendship, and protection, it is perhaps impossible to divest the mind altogether of partiality; I am not, however, aware that I have over-stated a single fact, or ascribed to him a single quality which he did not possess. All, therefore, I can say, is-and they are his own words as applied to Archbishop Secker-that if he really so lived and acted, that the most faithful delineation of his conduct must necessarily have the air of panegyric, the fault is not in the copy, but in the original.'"

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AFRICAN DISCOVERY.

"THE proper study of mankind is man," says a poet, whose opinions on points of morals are recommended to our acceptance by an acquaintance with human nature, in which he excelled most other poets as decidedly as they have surpassed him in the more essential features of the poetic character. It would be well if both governments and individuals regarded this maxim more carefully. Were this the case, the latter would be prevented from frittering away their time in those comparatively trifling studies which they dignify with the title of scientific; they would devote less of their brief lives to the classification of shells, spiders, and pebbles, and more of it to those pursuits which are at once nutritious to the intellectual, and beneficial to the moral nature. On the other hand, were states, in their collective capacity, more deeply impressed with this truth, we should hear less of those mad freaks which serve to stimulate and feed the idle curiosity of the public, and more of those enterprises, hitherto undertaken either by individuals or limited societies, whose object is to enlarge our knowledge of, and increase our sympathy with, the human species; and to extend to nations, who know not of the existence of a civilized and christian world, that knowledge and those principles which alone dignify the nature of man, and render his life desirable.

It cannot but be considered as reflecting a deep disgrace on this country, so abundantly furnished with the resources for maritime discovery and enterprise, that so vast a portion of the human species should be almost as little known to them, and as little benefited by their superior advantages, as if they occupied another planet. But there is a still more condemnatory view to be taken of our conduct, in common with that of other European nations. In various instances, the disclosures which have been made of the character and condition of barbarous nations, have been furnished by those who have only visited them in order to bring upon them the unknown horrors of European warfare, or to associate the name of Whiteman' with the still more infernal atrocities of the slave-trade. This remark has more particular reference to the Continent of Africa. With this quarter of the globe the English nation has, until lately, only become acquainted through the medium of a traffic which forms the deepest and most indelible disgrace upon our national history, from the ages of barbarism to the present times. The pernicious moral results which have flowed from European intercourse with the African race, are fully equal to the misery and desolation which their rapacity has occasioned. This is evident from the lamentably degraded character of the natives of the coast where European influence has been chiefly felt, as compared with the 'inhabitants of the interior. Of this difference, a use has been made every way worthy of the diabolical cause which the argument was adduced to support. The whole race has been represented as radically ferocious, sensual, cruel, and in all respects degraded to the character of a mere connecting link between the human and the brute species. Nothing can be more entirely unfounded than this aspersion. The travellers who have visited the interior of Africa assure us that the natural disposition of the negro is mild, gentle, and amiable in an extraordinary degree; that, far from wanting ingenuity, they have made no contemptible progress in the fine arts; and have even entered into political societies of great extent and complicated structure, notwithstanding the grievous obstacles which are thrown in the way of their civilization, owing to their remote and almost inaccessible situation, and their want of water-carriage;—that their disposition to voluntary and continued exertion of body and mind, and their capacity of industry, the great promoter of human improvement, are in no degree inferior to the same principles in other tribes similarly situated. It is only those who live near the coasts, and who have come under the pestilent influence of European slave-dealers, and the still more blighting and demoralizing influence of a state of slavery, to whom the calumnies to which we have alluded apply; and these indeed, by their character and condition, justify the emphatic language in which a French writer has described Africa as "la terre de malediction ;"--the lar

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