mous passions; to search for truth alone, and to propose his conclusions to his reader with that degree of evidence and certainty, or of doubt and difficulty, which they have in his own mind. He is required to consider himself as accountable to God for misleading any man by the superiority of his talents; and as accountable to his reader for the insolence of endeavouring to impose on him by means of any real or imagined advantage he has over him. If these virtues were practised by every writer, we should receive more profit from the best and less hurt from the worst, than we now reap from either of them; and writing would then be in the best state that this state of imperfection will allow."*

Lord Barrington, though sincerely attached to the cause of the Dissenters, did not consider an occasional conformity as inconsistent with that character; and he probably carried this sort of compliance to a length which we should find it difficult to reconcile to our principles. This is, however, the almost unavoidable result of an elevated rank, in exposing those who occupy it to temptations, from whose influence humbler men may think themselves happy to be exempted. That the consequence was, his family altogether deserting the cause of which their father had been the advocate and ornament, can excite little surprise. Lord Barrington left six sons, one of whom died young; while the other five all entered into public life, and arrived at high stations in their respective departments. The eldest, who, of course, succeeded to his father's honours, filled

Misc. Sacra, Essay i, sec. 16.

successively the offices of Secretary at War, and Chancellor of the Exchequer; another became a Judge, and a third a General, a fourth an Admiral, and the youngest, Shute Barrington, who entered the church, was raised to the Bishopric, first of Llandaff, afterwards of Salisbury and of Durham; in which last eminent station he died, at a very advanced age, in 1826.

249

SAMUEL CHANDLER,

ONE of the most learned and eminent of the liberal divines of the last century, was descended from ancestors distinguished for their attachment to religious liberty, and who, in less fortunate times, had suffered in defence of their principles; bearing cheerfully the spoiling of their goods, that they might better preserve their peace of mind, and maintain inviolate their title to a more enduring substance. He was born in 1693, at Hungerford in Berkshire, where his father, the Rev. Henry Chandler, was then minister to a congregation of Protestant dissenters. Mr. H. Chandler afterwards removed to Bath, where he spent the greater part of his ministerial life. He is said to have been a man very respectable for talents and character, though he was not led by circumstances to present himself prominently to the public notice. The subject of this memoir discovering at an early age a decided taste for literary pursuits, it was carefully cultivated with a view to the Christian ministry for which he was destined. For this purpose he was sent first to an academy at Bridgewater, under the direction of Mr. Moore; but was afterwards removed to Gloucester, where he became a pupil of Mr. Samuel Jones, a dissenting minister of great learning, and deservedly high reputation as a teacher. Under this gentleman's instructions, at Gloucester, and afterwards at Tewkesbury, many of those were trained who in the succeeding age occupied the most eminent

stations in our churches, and two at least of the brightest lights of the establishment received the greater part of the accomplishments which fitted them to adorn and do honour to the elevated stations to which they were afterwards raised. Secker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Butler, better known to later times as the author of the celebrated treatise on the Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, than by the bishopric of Durham, to which his talents and merit alone elevated him, were both fellow-students with Chandler in this humble seminary. The three companions were at that period nearly on a par in condition and expectations, as well as in abilities; and though the very different course which they pursued through life permitted two of them to rise to high stations and take rank with the great ones of the earth, they retained to the last a regard and friendship for their old associate; and perhaps were ready to acknowledge, in the midst of the outward pomp and grandeur of the world, that in the true dignity of the mind he was still their equal. Chandler continued steady to his original principles and profession as a Protestant dissenter, and defended them in several of his publications with no small spirit and success; though it has been stated that he had repeated offers of valuable preferment in the church, perhaps through the influence of these early connexions, who would doubtless have been very ready to tempt him to follow their example.

Mr. Chandler, having made a suitable improvement of the advantages he enjoyed under Mr. Jones in the acquisition of those stores of classical, biblical, and oriental learning, which he

extended in after-life, and displayed in numerous and valuable writings, quitted the academy in 1714, and soon distinguished himself by his talents in the pulpit. In 1716 he was chosen minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Peckham, near London, where he continued for some years. Whether he took any active part at this early period in public affairs relating to the dissenters, does not appear; though it is not improbable that his energetic character and powerful talents would lead him to come forward when he had an opportunity, and, if he came forward, he could not fail to distinguish himself. His name occurs in the honourable list of the majority on the celebrated question of subscription at Salters' Hall, in 1719, along with those of Hunt, Lardner, Lowman, and other worthies of that and the coming age. While at Peckham he married; and shortly afterwards had the misfortune to lose a great part of his property in the fatal South Sea scheme of 1720. Becoming thus embarrassed in his circumstances, he engaged for some years in the trade of a bookseller, still retaining, however, his ministerial connexion with his congregation at Peckham. In consequence of this secular occupation, several of his earliest works bear his name in the double capacity of author and publisher; a circumstance which, it seems, misled Archbishop Wake, to whom he had presented one of them, and who, not knowing that he was any thing but a bookseller, naturally expressed surprise to find so much good learning and just reasoning in a person of his profession, and regret that one so well able to write good books should occupy his time in selling them.