continued without interruption to the day of his decease, which occasioned an expression of sincere regret at the meeting at which it was mentioned, and was noticed in the following eloquent and pathetic extract from the annual report for the year 1823.

"The past year has to record the loss of three of our Vice Presidents, through the awful visitation of God; **** ** the third demanding more particular notice from us, as being one of the first promoters and patrons of this District Committee, and, during the first years of their sittings, till the infirmities of age compelled him reluctantly to withdraw from the office, their appointed and constant Chairman, the late John Bowdler, Esq. On his retiring from the chair, the committee passed a resolution, expressive of their warm attachment and gratitude for his services; and on his summons from this world, they passed another resolution, to mark their sense of concern at the mournful event. But as these resolutions are confined to the minute book of the meetings, the committee have thought it due to the of their late Chairman to bear this more pubmemory lic testimony to his worth and their regret. It is needless, they know, to dwell in panegyric on a character so extensively known and so deeply revered; nor can their praises throw fresh honors round the tomb of one, with whose name and whose family has long been connected every thing that is active and excellent in virtue, all that is sacred and venerable in religion. But although it be needless to dwell in panegyric, as far as the extension of his good name is concerned, it is, nevertheless, a just and gratifying obsequy to departed merit, to record the sorrow of survivors, and an encouragement to exertion in the holy cause of God;

to shew that, while the name of the unprofitable servant is forgotten or despised, the righteous will be had in everlasting veneration and remembrance."

Another society to which Mr. Bowdler paid much and anxious attention was that for the suppression of vice. It had been instituted at the beginning of the present century, but had fallen very low through several unfortunate circumstances. Mr. Bowdler was greatly instrumental in increasing its funds and the number of active members; and for several years, till within a few months of his decease, bore a prominent part in its concerns, rejoicing much in its successful endeavour (far beyond what its means would seem to admit) to check the alarming progress of infidelity and profaneness. The prosecution of Carlile and others, and (which was much more satisfactory) the putting an entire stop to many flagitious proceedings through the dread of a prosecution, bear testimony to the exertions of the society in the cause of religion and morality.

But the object which, more than all others, Mr. Bowdler pursued with assiduity, and which he lived to see accomplished in the society for the building and enlarging of churches and chapels, was the providing of accommodation to enable the lower orders to attend divine worship. To the want of this he had been accustomed to attribute in a great degree the increase of error and dissent;

and as he left it to others to build churches for the higher orders, and set himself decidedly against the expending of money in needless decoration, so he was ready at all times, according to his means, and even beyond them, to support any welldirected design for enabling the poor to worship the God of their fathers according to the ritual of the church of England*. With this view he joined with three of his friends, with whom he had had frequent communications upon the subject, in presenting the following letter to the bishop of London, which was drawn up under his direction.

"My Lord,

"Lincoln's Inn Fields, May 4, 1814.

"This letter is addressed to your Lordship, not only because from your presidency over this diocese you are the fittest object of that address, but because your Lordship is well known to be most zealously attached to the church of England, of which you are from duty, as well as inclination, one of the brightest supporters. Your Lordship cannot but feel, in common with us, that the want of places of worship upon the establishment is, at this day, become an evil of no common magnitude.

* Among these it would be improper to omit the assistance which he contributed, both in money and advice, towards the erection of a chapel and school-room at Torpoint, in the parish of Anthony, near Plymouth, which, during a considerable period, engaged much of his time and thoughts; or to pass over the zealous activity and perseverance of the Rev. Duke Yonge, the vicar of that parish, which so greatly contributed to the completion of the work, and to beneficial effects, beyond what the most sanguine hopes could have anticipated.

"Whenever a sectary wishes to establish a place for the promulgation of his wild and enthusiastic doctrines, he has little more to do, than to express that wish; and the required building in a few month rises to his view. On the other hand, we speak a melancholy truth, to which your Lordship's own observation must bear testimony, that in many districts in the west and east parts of the metropolis, in populous parts of the county of Middlesex, and also in many great towns in other parts of the kingdom, not a tenth part of the church of England population can be accommodated in our churches and chapels, to worship God after the manner of their forefathers. We who subscribe this letter, have maturely considered the subject; some of us have occasion annually to traverse a considerable part of the kingdom, and we are thoroughly convinced that the great majority of the people of this land are, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, strongly attached to the church of England, and that one great cause of the apparent defection from the church, and of the increase of Sectarism and Methodism, is the want of places of worship upon the establishment. We know that those who are strongly impressed with a sense of the duty of worshipping God, but who have not had the means of obtaining correct notions of attending only to duly commissioned instructors, wander from the fold, rather than not worship God in public at all, and thus become for ever lost to the church of England. If this be the case in general, and if the duty of every member of the church, ecclesiastical or lay, has for many years imperiously called upon him to strain every nerve, and to exert all the means with which Providence has blessed him, to provide a remedy for this dreadful evil, think, we entreat your Lordship, to what an amazing degree this call has been enforced upon all of

us, by the business in which this nation has lately been so meritoriously and gloriously engaged. We, who subscribe this letter, your Lordship, to whom it is addressed, all the other prelates, and many of the most virtuous and distinguished nobles and commons of our land, have been exerting their utmost strength, and dedicating their time, their talents, and their wealth, to the important purpose of educating the children of the poor in the principles of the national church. We endeavour, and we trust we shall succeed in teaching thousands (and we hope, when we are gone to our rest, that thousands yet unborn will be taught) that by a due conformity to the principles and doctrines of our most holy faith, as illustrated by the precepts, and by the rites, ceremonies, and liturgy of the church of England, they may be made wise unto salvation. Think then, my Lord, what our responsibility will be, if, after having instructed them in those things which we think of the highest importance, the moment these children become adults, and are gone forth from our protection, we afford them no opportunity of practising what they have learnt under our tuition. Will it not be the greatest act of cruelty, after we have taught them the way of salvation, to debar them from the means of walking any more in it, but compel them, by the want of free churches or chapels for the accommodation of the poor, to return again to that state of spiritual misery, from which the members of the national school had rescued them, or drive them into the arms of Methodism and enthusiasm, which will be stretched wide to embrace them all? Will it not be a heavy offence in the sight of God, after feeding these children with the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, not to afford them any free churches or chapels in which the means of grace, which we have taught them to use, may be dispensed for