find in matters of a more difficult nature, good effects of activity and resolution, I mean Bermuda, with which my hands are full, and which seems likely to thrive and flourish in spite of all opposition." On May 12th, 1726, he alludes to the debate in the house of commons, in which none spoke against his motion but two mercantile men; and, among other incidents of the question, he mentions, that the fear entertained by the mercantile interest was, lest America might become independent by the advance of civilization.

We have already noticed the discrepancy which has often been found to exist between the motives of public bodies, and those by which individuals are governed,-a phenomenon of frequent occurrence, which it is not necessary to explain by the assumption of any degree of private corruption or baseness; though such, in numerous cases, will afford the most adequate explanations. But the too prevalent disposition to impute low motives must be, in some measure, checked by a consideration of some prevalence; though by no means so easily comprehended. Prudence, discretion, and the sense of personal responsibility, are the prevalent influences which favour the private counsels of the individuals; while the man, who is but one of the aggregate, and divested of these in proportion to the number with whom the weight of division is to be shared, is more accessible in nearly the same proportion to those more liberal, generous, or disinterested views, which eloquence, or the imposition of circumstances may call forth, and which all are disposed to indulge in at no cost. Hence splendid schemes of good will excite a public enthusiasm sufficient to deceive a single-minded being, who, like Berkeley, is ever ready to see the conduct and professions of mankind through the light of his own spirit. He thought all difficulties over in a single stage of his proceedings, when no person could have said or done otherwise than to approve of a measure, the advantages of which could not be denied, on any public ground, without first advancing reasons which would be both unpopular and untrue. But, on the part of practical politicians, (too generally men of a very inferior range of knowledge and views,) no large or decided plan for the promotion of human welfare, unconnected with some immediate interest, was likely to be sincerely entertained. To men like Walpole the Summer Island scheme was a chimera of speculation, and its author an amiable visionary: £20,000 was a serious outlay on a dream of Utopia; and, to an experienced observer of the world, its frustration might have been predicted. To Berkeley's simplicity, the address of the house was a decisive incident: the opposition of the council, which was silenced, and apparently set at rest by it, went for nothing. Everything seemed for a while to prosper; meetings and conferences were held to adjust the manner of the grant, and the legal difficulties were easily obviated. It was arranged to settle it by a rent-charge payable on the whole lands, redeemable on the crown paying £20,000 for the use of the president and fellows of the college of St Paul, and their successors. As the time drew nigh, Berkeley expressed great anxiety to pass three months in perfect seclusion, in some lodging near Dublin, and the reasons are not explained; but it may possibly have been to avoid the press and interruptions of society, while he transacted the necessary prelimi

naries with his associates. His position was at least peculiar enough to make such interruptions peculiarly troublesome and jarring. The death of George I., for a moment, threw a passing cloud over his sanguine impatience,—the broad seal had not been annexed to the grant,— a new warrant had to be made out,—and several tedious delays had to be encountered. These delays were overcome, and, in February, he writes to Prior, "I need not repeat to you what I told you here, of the necessity there is for my raising all the money possible against my voyage, which, God willing, I shall begin in May, whatever you may hear suggested to the contrary." At last, in September, he writes, "To-morrow, with God's blessing, I set sail for Rhode Island with my wife and a friend of her's, my lady Hancock's daughter, who bears us company. I am married since I saw you to Miss Forster, daughter of the late chief-justice, whose humour and turn of mind pleases me beyond anything I knew in her whole sex." He then mentions that he shall want £300 before the income of his deanery was to become due. His next communication is a letter from Newport, in Rhode Island, in the April of the year 1729. He, at some length, describes the place, and mentions that the inhabitants consisted of a great variety of sects, each of which allowed the church of England to be the "second best." He expressed strong anxiety about the punctuality of his remittances, but does not yet appear to entertain any misgivings about the good faith of the government. His friends had gone to live at Boston, while he and his own immediate family, preferring domestic quiet to the bustle and noise of cities, lived on a small estate which he had purchased. "Among my delays and disappointments," he says, on March, 1730, "I have two domestic comforts that are very agreeable-my wife and son-both which exceed my expectations, and answer all my wishes." On May 7, 1730, he writes, "I must tell you that I have no intention of continuing in these parts, but to settle the college his majesty hath been pleased to found in Bermuda, and I want only the payment of the king's grant to transport myself and family thither.” He adds, that his friend Dr Clayton was at the time engaged by his desire to negotiate, and that he had written directions to him to go to the treasury, with the letters patent in his hands, and there make the demand in form." He goes on, "I have wrote to others to use their interest at court; though, indeed, one would have thought all solicitation at an end, when once I had obtained a grant under his majesty's hand, and the broad seal of England. As to my going to London, and soliciting in person, I think it reasonable first to see what my friends can do; and the rather because I have small hopes that my solicitations will be regarded more than theirs. Be assured I long to know the upshot of this matter; and that, upon an explicit refusal, I am determined to return home, and that it is not at all in my thoughts to continue abroad and hold my deanery. It is well known to many persons in England that I might have had a dispensation for holding it in long absence during life, and that I was much pressed to it; but I resolutely declined it: and if our college had taken place as soon as I once hoped it would, I should have resigned before this time." After some further remarks of the same

find in matters of a more difficult nature, good effects of activity and resolution, I mean Bermuda, with which my hands are full, and which seems likely to thrive and flourish in spite of all opposition." On May 12th, 1726, he alludes to the debate in the house of commons, in which none spoke against his motion but two mercantile men; and, among other incidents of the question, he mentions, that the fear entertained by the mercantile interest was, lest America might become independent by the advance of civilization.

We have already noticed the discrepancy which has often been found to exist between the motives of public bodies, and those by which individuals are governed,-a phenomenon of frequent occurrence, which it is not necessary to explain by the assumption of any degree of private corruption or baseness; though such, in numerous cases, will afford the most adequate explanations. But the too prevalent disposition to impute low motives must be, in some measure, checked by a consideration of some prevalence; though by no means so easily comprehended. Prudence, discretion, and the sense of personal responsibility, are the prevalent influences which favour the private counsels of the individuals; while the man, who is but one of the aggregate, and divested of these in proportion to the number with whom the weight of division is to be shared, is more accessible in nearly the same proportion to those more liberal, generous, or disinterested views, which eloquence, or the imposition of circumstances may call forth, and which all are disposed to indulge in at no cost. Hence splendid schemes of good will excite a public enthusiasm sufficient to deceive a single-minded being, who, like Berkeley, is ever ready to see the conduct and professions of mankind through the light of his own spirit. He thought all difficulties over in a single stage of his proceedings, when no person could have said or done otherwise than to approve of a measure, the advantages of which could not be denied, on any public ground, without first advancing reasons which would be both unpopular and untrue. But, on the part of practical politicians, (too generally men of a very inferior range of knowledge and views,) no large or decided plan for the promotion of human welfare, unconnected with some immediate interest, was likely to be sincerely entertained. To men like Walpole the Summer Island scheme was a chimera of speculation, and its author an amiable visionary: £20,000 was a serious outlay on a dream of Utopia; and, to an experienced observer of the world, its frustration might have been predicted. To Berkeley's simplicity, the address of the house was a decisive incident: the opposition of the council, which was silenced, and apparently set at rest by it, went for nothing. Everything seemed for a while to prosper; meetings and conferences were held to adjust the manner of the grant, and the legal difficulties were easily obviated. It was arranged to settle it by a rent-charge payable on the whole lands, redeemable on the crown paying £20,000 for the use of the president and fellows of the college of St Paul, and their successors. As the time drew nigh, Berkeley expressed great anxiety to pass three months in perfect seclusion, in some lodging near Dublin, and the reasons are not explained; but it may possibly have been to avoid the press and interruptions of society, while he transacted the necessary prelimi

naries with his associates. His position was at least peculiar enough to make such interruptions peculiarly troublesome and jarring. The death of George I., for a moment, threw a passing cloud over his sanguine impatience, the broad seal had not been annexed to the grant,— a new warrant had to be made out, and several tedious delays had to be encountered. These delays were overcome, and, in February, he writes to Prior, "I need not repeat to you what I told you here, of the necessity there is for my raising all the money possible against my voyage, which, God willing, I shall begin in May, whatever you may hear suggested to the contrary." At last, in September, he writes, "To-morrow, with God's blessing, I set sail for Rhode Island with my wife and a friend of her's, my lady Hancock's daughter, who bears us company. I am married since I saw you to Miss Forster, daughter of the late chief-justice, whose humour and turn of mind pleases me beyond anything I knew in her whole sex." He then mentions that he shall want £300 before the income of his deanery was to become due. His next communication is a letter from Newport, in Rhode Island, in the April of the year 1729. He, at some length, describes the place, and mentions that the inhabitants consisted of a great variety of sects, each of which allowed the church of England to be the "second best." He expressed strong anxiety about the punctuality of his remittances, but does not yet appear to entertain any misgivings about the good faith of the government. His friends had gone to live at Boston, while he and his own immediate family, preferring domestic quiet to the bustle and noise of cities, lived on a small estate which he had purchased. "Among my delays and disappointments," he says, on March, 1730, "I have two domestic comforts that are very agreeable-my wife and son-both which exceed my expectations, and answer all my wishes." On May 7, 1730, he writes, “I must tell you that I have no intention of continuing in these parts, but to settle the college his majesty hath been pleased to found in Bermuda, and I want only the payment of the king's grant to transport myself and family thither." He adds, that his friend Dr Clayton was at the time engaged by his desire to negotiate, and that he had written directions to him to go to the treasury, with the letters patent in his hands, and there make the demand in form." He goes on, "I have wrote to others to use their interest at court; though, indeed, one would have thought all solicitation at an end, when once I had obtained a grant under his majesty's hand, and the broad seal of England. As to my going to London, and soliciting in person, I think it reasonable first to see what my friends can do; and the rather because I have small hopes that my solicitations will be regarded more than theirs. Be assured I long to know the upshot of this matter; and that, upon an explicit refusal, I am determined to return home, and that it is not at all in my thoughts to continue abroad and hold my deanery. It is well known to many persons in England that I might have had a dispensation for holding it in long absence during life, and that I was much pressed to it; but I resolutely declined it: and if our college had taken place as soon as I once hoped it would, I should have resigned before this time." After some further remarks of the same

general purport, he goes on to mention, "I have been at great expense in purchasing land and stock here, which might supply the defects of Bermuda in yielding those provisions to our college, the want of which was made a principal objection against its situation in that island." Among other things, it appears that letters took, in general, at the least, half-a-year, and oftener twice that time, in reaching him from Ireland. Talking of himself and his wife, who had at the time sustained a miscarriage, he says, "Our little son is great joy to us: we are such fools as to think him the most perfect thing in its kind that we ever saw."

It is mentioned by Dr Clarke that the settlement of affairs respecting the will of Miss Vanhomrigh with his joint executor, Mr Marshal, and with a Mr Vanhomrigh, involved Berkeley at this time in great trouble. From the extracts which Dr Clarke has given from his letters to Prior on the subject, it appears that, while all sorts of delay were caused by the refractory temper of Mr Vanhomrigh, the whole creditors of the testatrix were importunately pushing their claims. One of these extracts will serve our purpose here. "November 12, 1726.—I have sent to you so often for certain eclaircissemens, which are absolutely necessary to settle matters with the creditors, who importune me to death, you have no notion of the misery I have undergone, and do daily undergo on that account. For God's sake,

pray disentangle these matters, that I may once be at ease to mind my other affairs of the college, which are enough to employ ten persons.' He mentions in the same letter, "I have spent here a matter of £600 more than you know of, for which I have not yet drawn over."

Berkeley, in this interval, had exerted himself with all the vigour of his mind and body to bring the projected plan to a completion. At last all the arrangements were effected, and nothing remained but to give effect to the agreements he had entered into, by the necessary payments. But in this lay an obstacle not to be surmounted by industry, talent, and enthusiasm. Walpole had, from the first, been unfavourably inclined to the project; and it was probably by the exertion of his influence that the money which had been allotted for the grant was turned to some other use. The lands sold in St Christopher's brought £90,000; of this £80,000 went to pay the portion of the princess royal; the rest was obtained by general Oglethorpe for his new colony in America. Bishop Gibson, on Berkeley's part, applied to Sir Robert Walpole, and at last received the following answer:-" If you put this question to me as a minister, I trust, and can assure you, that the money shall most undoubtedly be paid as soon as suits with public convenience; but if you ask me as a friend whether dean Berkeley should continue in America, expecting the payment of £20,000, I advise him, by all means, to return home to Europe, and to give up his present expectations." This plain speaking had the effect of exposing to Berkeley the entire futility of the dependence on which he had thrown away so much good money and irretrievable time; and, after seven years of vain labour and expectation, he prepared for his return. He distributed his books among the clergy of Rhode Island, and was soon on his way to London. When he arrived