concerned in the distribution of Lord Wharton's Charity to poor Dissenting ministers. They were said to pursue the motion made in Parliament for a discriminating test, by a positive determination that no non-subscriber, however otherwise qualified, should have any share in that Charity." It thus appears that (1) in addition to the Bible Charity, Lord Wharton made provision for assisting "poor Dissenting ministers" after his decease, through his trustees, and without restriction to any particular locality. The grants made to them as above stated, if made out of the Bible Charity, would not have been in accordance with the trust-deed and instructions, and must have been paid out of other property left by him. (2) Although the provision was not made in his will, it may have been made in other ways, such as by a trustdeed of lands, or coal and lead mines, under more or less definite conditions, or by a gift of money with a written or verbal expression of his wishes, but at the discretion of the trustees. (3) About the time when the last of the donations mentioned above were given to Dissenting ministers and congregations, there was, according to the author of the "Memoirs" and Dr. Calamy, "a great interruption if not a misapplication" of the Charity, in some way connected with "the elections," in which the opposite political parties of that time fiercely strove for supremacy. Edward Harley, brother of the first Earl of Oxford, was then almost the only original trustee remaining, and had practically its control in his hands. But as to whether, or the extent or manner in which he failed to carry out the intentions of the founder, neither of the authors referred to affords any definite information. (4) The Charity seems, from the last quotation from Calamy, to have been in operation in 1719. After that no trace of it is found. Possibly it came to nought about the time when the South Sea Bubble burst, or amidst the dispersion of the Wharton estates, which occurred a few years afterwards, and left only the Bible Lands remaining. "THE BOOK OF BOOKS." "A Book to which no Book can be compared Is proper to it, and cannot be shared. Belongs to it, or none."-HErbert. "By the preaching of God's Word the glory of God is enlarged, faith nourished, and charity increased; by it ignorance is instructed, the negligent exhorted and incited, the stubborn rebuked, the weak comforted, and to all those that sin of malicious wickedness the wrath of God is threatened."-Archbishop GRINDAL. "Who has this Book and reads it not, Who reads but understandeth not, Who understands but savours not, Who savours but obeyeth not, He hath his judgment double; Who reads this Book, who understands, His soul shall stand at God's right hand ORIGIN OF THE CHARITY, 1690. "A most excellent spiritual Charity, whereby many poor families' not otherwise provided, became acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make them wise unto salvation."-THORESby. "This year, 1690," wrote Ralph Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, "the no less pious than Right Honourable Philip, Lord Wharton, began his noble Charity, in sending Bibles to be distributed to the poor. Some of a warm spirit were displeased at the conditions required of the poor children, not only to repeat seven Psalms memoriter, but the Assembly's Catechism, which wanted the stamp of public authority, and was above their capacities. But this did not hinder their repeating the Church Catechism in public; nor was it above their capacities when more adult, and it comprehends an excellent summary of the Christian religion. Upon these conditions, four score Bibles were sent to Leeds, and the like number to York, &c. . . . . My Lord was pleased to continue this number to the time of his death and condescended to acquaint me that they should be for my time, too, and perhaps for ever." (Diary I. 195.) At the time mentioned the Revolution had been peacefully effected. Nonconformists, after a long period of repression and persecution, once more breathed freely, built about a thousand meeting-houses in England in the course of a few years, and openly assembled for worship therein under the protection of the Toleration Act. This Act was entitled "An Act for Exempting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects Dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws." Hence the name of Protestant Dissenters, which now came into common use. Like many others, Lord Wharton may possibly have indulged the hope of a Comprehension, but being by no means certain even of the continuance of a toleration (which was in fact seriously imperilled a few years later), he availed himself |