that I have been informed from the most undoubted authority, that he always kept the anniversary of her death as a kind of fast, or time more peculiarly devoted to meditation and prayer; shutting himself up in his own room, and taking nothing in the course of the day but an apple and a piece of bread, or such slight refreshment.' p. 39.

In 1769, he undertook another journey of curiosity to the continent, with the intention of passing the winter in the south of Italy. His reasons for altering that determination are at once so honourable and so characteristic, that we shall give them in his own language as extracted from his private journal.

"Turin, 1769. Nov. 30. My return without seeing the Southern part of Italy was on much deliberation, as I feared a misimprovement of a talent spent for mere curiosity at the loss of many Sabbaths; and as many donations must be suspended for my pleasure, which would have been, as I hope, contrary to the general conduct of my life, and which, on a retrospective view on a death-bed would cause pain, as unbecoming a Disciple of Christ-whose mind should be formed in my Soul-These thoughts with distance from my dear Boy determines me to check my curiosity and be on the return. Oh! why should Vanity and Folly, Pictures and Baubles or even the stupendious Mountains, beautiful Hills, or rich Vallies, which ere long will all be consumed, engross the thoughts of a candidate for an eternal everlasting Kingdom.-A worm ever to crawl on earth whom God has raised to the hope of glory, which ere long will be revealed to them who are washed and sanctified by Faith in the Blood of the divine Redeemer! look forward Oh! my soul ! how low, how mean, how little is every thing but what has a view to that glorious World of Light, Life and Love-the preparation of the heart is of God.-Prepare the heart Oh! God! of thy unworthy Creature, and unto Thee be all the glory through the boundless ages of Eternity. Signed "J. H."

This night my trembling soul almost longs to take its flight to see and know the wonders of redeeming love-join the triumphant choir- Sin and sorrow fled away-God my Redeemer all in allOh! happy spirits that are safe in those Mansions"

We have copied this impressive evidence of Howard's devotional spirit, as well as of the determination with which he followed up the convictions of his conscience, precisely as given by Dr. Brown from the manuscript, with all its irregularities of orthography and punctuation. We feel, however, a little uncomfortable in doing this, since these peculiarities have an injurious effect on what may be otherwise very respectable composition; and we regret that Dr. B. should have deemed it expedient to adopt, as a general rule, what is admissible only as an occasional illustration.

We shall follow up the preceding extract with another of

the same devotional cast, written while on his journey homeward.

"Hague, 1770. Sunday Evening, 11th Feb. I would record the goodness of God to the unworthiest of his creatures. For some days past an habitual serious frame, relenting for my sin and folly, applying to the blood of Jesus Christ, solemnly surrendering my self and babe to Him, begging the conduct of his Holy Spirit.I hope a more tender conscience, by a greater fear of offending God; a temper more abstracted from this world, more resigned to death or life, thirsting for union and commuuion with God as my Lord and my God. O the wonders of redeeming love! Some faint hope, even I, through redeeming mercy, in the perfect righteousness, the full-atoning sacrifice, shall ere long be made the monument of the rich, free grace and mercy of God, through the Divine, Redeemer. O shout my soul, Grace, Grace, free, sovereign, rich, and unbounded Grace!-Not I, not 1, an ill-deserving, helldeserving creature; but where sin has abounded, I trust grace superabounds. Some hope-what joy in that hope!-that nothing shall separate my soul from the love of God in Christ Jesus; and, my soul, as such a frame is thy delight, pray frequently and fervently to the Father of spirits to bless his word, and your retired moments, to your serious conduct in life.

"Let not, my soul, the interests of a moment engross thy thoughts, or be preferred to my eternal interests. Look forward to that glory which will be revealed to those who are faithful to death. My soul, walk thou with God; be faithful; hold on; hold out; and then-what words can utter!"' J. H."'

Such, however, was the state of his health, and so overpowering the dejection of his spirits, that he was compelled to lay aside his intention of returning home, and again to direct his movements southward. We may be assured that this measure could have been taken by Howard, only under the influence of a paramount necessity; and we find him, in his journal, sifting his own motives, jealously watching over the tenderness of his conscience, and deprecating the slightest departure from the path of providential guidance.

"No step," is his language, "would I take without acknowledging God. I hope my present journey, though again into Italy, is no way wrong; rejoicing if in any respect I could bring the least improvement that might be of use to my own country."

In this last expression, we may distinguish the internal workings of that master-passion, as yet undefined even to the mind of Howard himself, but which was, at no distant interval, to break forth with an energy of beneficence, of which the salutary effects will cease only with the end of time.

- In September 1770, he reached England. His return to Cardington seems to have revived feelings which had given an irrecoverable shock to his constitution, and his health again failed. At Bristol Hot Wells, which he visited in the course of a western journey, he was confined during six months by a severe attack of gout; he took up, in consequence, a resolution, from which he never afterwards swerved, to abstain from all vinous and spirituous liquids. On his return to his own mansion, he busied himself in devising plans for the 'melioration of the condition of the poor in the immediate "neighbourhood,' in which the low, marshy situation, combined with the poverty of the inhabitants and the want of comfort in their dwellings, made intermittent fever distressingly prevalent.

، With a view, therefore, to remedy this inconvenience, he at different times pulled down all the cottages on his estate, and rebuilt them in a neat, but simple style; paying particular attention to their preservation, as much as possible, from the dampness of the soil. Others, which were not his property before, he purchased, and reerected upon the same plan; adding to the number of the whole, by building several new ones in different parts of the village. To each of these he allotted a piece of garden-ground, sufficient to supply the family of its occupier with potatoes and other vegetables; and generally ornamented them in front with a small fore-court, fenced off from the road by neat white palings, enclosing a bed or two of simple flowers, with here and there a shrub, or an evergreen, in the midst of them; thus imparting to these habitations of the poor, with their white fronts and thatched roofs, uniform in their rustic simplicity, though purposely varied in external form and appearance,-that air of neatness and of comfort, so strikingly characteristic of every thing in which he engaged.

This project for improving the general condition of the village where he resided, no less creditable to his taste, than it is strongly illustrative of his benevolence, he had begun to carry into execution before he was deprived of the invaluable assistance of his beloved partner in life, of whose entire concurrence and active co-operation in this, as in every other plan of usefulness; we may be, as her husband was, most fully assured. "I remember," says Dr. Aikin, in his memoirs of that husband's life, his relating that once, having settled his accounts at the close of a year, and found a balance in his favour, he proposed to his wife to make use of it in a journey to London, or any other gratification she chose. ، What a pretty cottage it would build,' was her answer; and the money was so employed. These comfortable habitations," continues his Biographer, on precisely the same information with my own, though, as I do not flatter myself that I can clothe it in better language, I gladly avail myself of that in which he first communicated it to the public, “ he peopled with the most industrious and sober tenants he could find;

and over them he exercised the superintendence of master and father combined. He was careful to furnish them with employment, to assist them in sickness and distress, and to educate their children. In order to preserve their morals, he made it a condition that they should regularly attend their several places of worship, and abstain from public-houses, and from such amusements as he thought pernicious; and he secured their compliance with his rules by making them tenants at will." The cottages which he thus improved so materially to the promotion of the health and comfort of their tenants, he always let at their original rent of from twenty to thirty shillings per annum; so that there was scarcely a poor person in the village who was not anxious to have the privilege of residing in them. The care with which he selected the most deserving of the applicants for this favour, was, however, a source of dissatisfaction in those who were not the objects of his preference.'

*

"He would visit the farmers, his own tenants especially," says a letter from my kind and excellent friend, the Rev. Samuel Hillyard, now minister of the church and congregation which Mr. Howard first attended at Bedford, "and converse with them in the most affable manner. He also visited the poor; sat down in their cottages, and generally ate an apple while he talked with them. Even the schoolboys, whenever they had an opportunity, would place themselves in his way; for he never failed to speak kindly to them, and to give each of them a halfpenny, if he had enough in his pocket to supply them, invariably concluding his advice by telling them to be good children, and to wash their hands and faces. To the cottagers he was also very particular in requesting them to keep their houses clean; especially recommending that the rooms should be swilled, (a provincial expression for washing the brick floors, by plentifully sluicing them with water,) and he had sinks made in them for that purpose. He not only gave away the milk of his dairy, which was not used in the house; but sent it round to the poor, that they might not lose their time in coming for it."

A less pleasant duty was forced upon him by his connexion with the Old Meeting-house at Bedford. The highly respectable pastor of the church assembling for worship in that place, having announced from the pulpit his rejection of podobaptist principles, and the majority of the members supporting him, this circumstance, combined with previous causes of dissatisfaction, led to a secession, in which Mr. Howard united, though without any diminution of friendly intercourse between himself and his old minister. While feeling himself bound to act upon his convictions, and to maintain his consistency, he was so far from yielding to capricious or uncharitable emotions, that he continued, until death, his subscription towards the support of the meeting, and his contribution for the relief of the poor of the church from which he had seceded.' We cannot

forbear the expression of a wish, that all separations might be conducted in a similar spirit.

The event which may be considered as the turning point in Howard's life, occurred in 1773, the year in which he was nominated to the office of high-sheriff of Bedfordshire. In the quarto edition of these memoirs, the well-known anecdote which describes the interview between Mr. H. and the Lord Chancellor Bathurst, was treated as an idle story,' with an intimation that the former took upon himself the office, and served it at all hazards; trusting, no doubt, to the liberal opinions which began to prevail even in those days, to pro⚫tect him from the pains and penalties of an act which, in ⚫ times as factious as they were intolerant, first found a place upon our statute-books We were a little surprised at finding this passage retained verbatim in the octavo edition, although it appears from subsequent communications, that the facts in question are substantially correct, and that Mr. Howard was so far from executing the duties of his post at all hazards,' that he acted under an express and satisfactory assurance of protection from Lord Bathurst. The following statement is from the unexceptionable authority of the Rev. Martyn Moyle, an aged and respectable Baptist minister, residing at Bedford.

I can perfectly remember, though it is thirty years ago or upwards, being in his (Mr. Howard's) company with the Rev. William Clarke, many years pastor of the Baptist church meeting in Unicorn Yard, in the Borough. I cannot recollect what introduced the subject, but Mr. Howard expressed himself as follows. "When I was appointed to be high-sheriff for the county of Bedford, I knew I was not qualified for that office, and I did not wish to refuse the office for the sake of avoiding the expense, as it was customary for those gentlemen who served on the grand jury, to serve that office; and instead of making my case known to others, I applied at first to the Lord Chancellor; and upon being introduced to his lordship, I stated my case, and I said, I wait upon your lordship on being appointed highsheriff for the county of Bedford. To which his lordship replied, And a very proper person, Mr. Howard, for that office. I answered, I am much obliged to your lordship for your good opinion, but I am incapable of being qualified for that office. To which his lordship answered (with surprize), Why, Mr. Howard, you cannot refuse to take the sacrament! No good Christian can refuse to take the sacrament. To which I replied, No, my Lord, I esteem it a great privilege; but, my Lord, I am a dissenter, and I could not take it as a test to qualify me for a civil office in my own community. To which his lordship answered, Well, Mr. Howard, this makes it a very different case, as you make it a point of conscience; however, I wish you to go down and serve the office, and take no notice of it. I cannot speak as a professional man that no difficulties shall arise; but if

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