which were only prevented by her death, of sending out two Bishops for the Islands, and as many for the Continent.

It was about this period that America, failing in her moderate and reasonable requests for an Episcopate from the national Church, had recourse to the Nonjuring Bishops, who could not be deprived by the civil authorities of their inherent power of conferring Holy Orders and of consecrating Bishops. In 1723 two missionaries of the S.P.G. solicited and obtained consecration as Bishops from the Nonjurors, and started for America. The two Bishops, Dr. Whelton and Mr. Talbot, observed the greatest secrecy in the performance of their episcopal functions, but there is reason to believe that they did. privately administer Confirmation, and in a few cases confer Orders. Accounts of their proceedings were, however, before long sent to England by those who were hostile to the Episcopate; Dr. Whelton was ordered on his allegiance to return, and Mr. Talbot, the oldest Missionary of the Society, was deprived of his office under the S.P.G. But this circumstance of the Nonjurors, who were the foes of the government, having exercised Episcopal functions in America was made capital of by the Clergy in that country; they represented the danger of "corrupting the affections of the people of that country to our most excellent constitution and the person of his most sacred Majesty," and "the great use and benefit of

our orthodox and legal Bishops residing among them ;" and Bishop Gibson pressed upon the government the expediency of sanctioning for America the consecration of Bishops favourable to the House of Hanover.

This is the proper place to introduce one of the greatest Bishops and the greatest metaphysician of the age, the good and great Bishop Berkeley. George Berkeley (1685-1753) was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which, in 1707, he became a Fellow, and was ordained in 1709. As early as 1710 he published his great work, "A Treatise concerning the principles of Human Knowledge," which he brought out in a popular form in 1713, under the title of "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, the design of which is plainly to demonstrate the reality and perfection of Human Knowledge, the Incorporeal Nature of the Soul, and the immediate Providence of a Deity; in opposition to Sceptics and Atheists." In 1713 he contributed to Steele's paper, the "Guardian," fourteen Essays against the Freethinkers, more especially the Deist Collins, who had lately published his "Discourse on Freethinking." In 1722 he was appointed Dean of Dromore, a lucrative sinecure of about £1,400 a year, and as it required neither residence nor the performance of

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duties, he was able to hold with it the office of Senior Proctor and Hebrew Lecturer at the University. In 1724 he was appointed to the Deanery of Derry, worth £1,100 a year.

Of Berkeley, to whom Pope ascribes "every virtue under Heaven " Dr. Swift writes to Lord Carteret in 1724: "Dr. George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, the best preferment among us, hath for three years past been struck with a notion of founding an University at Bermuda, by a Charter from the Crown... His heart will break if his Deanery be not taken from him, and left to your Excellency's disposal. I discourage him by the coldness of Courts and ministers, who will interpret all this as impossible and a vision, but nothing will do. And therefore I humbly entreat your Excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one of the first men in this kingdom for learning and virtue quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his romantic design." The design to which Swift referred was one for "converting the savage Americans to Christianity by a

"Manners with candour are to Benson (Bishop of Gloucester) given,

To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven."

Atterbury said of him, "So much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I did not think had been the portion of any but angels, till I saw this gentleman."-Jones of Nayland's Works, vi. 53.

College to be erected on the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda." Dr. Berkeley succeeded through private influence in interesting King George, and obtaining from him a Charter for his proposed institution, under the name of St. Paul's College, Bermuda, which was to consist of a President and nine Fellows, and the King commanded Sir Robert Walpole to introduce an address into the House of Commons for endowing the College with £20,000. The address was carried almost unanimously, but Walpole was from the first and, as we shall presently see, to the last, opposed to the whole measure. Berkeley, however, was full of hope; all difficulties and obstructions were on the point of being removed, but at the last moment, just before the great seal was to be attached to the grant, George I. died.

All, therefore, had to be begun afresh. Such, however, was Berkeley's energy, that every difficulty seemed on the point of being overcome. He proposed to resign his Deanery, reserving for himself only £100 a year; and three Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, whose names deserve to be recorded,-King, Thompson, and Rogers-with a zeal worthy of the best ages of the Church, were found ready to resign their Fellowships, and to accompany him to America, on salaries of £40 a year. In vain Queen Caroline, with whom he was a favourite, offered Berkeley a Bishopric, if only he would remain

at home; nothing could deflect him from his purpose, and in 1728 he sailed for America. For three years he waited patiently, labouring amongst the inhabitants of Rhode Island, making provision for his future College, and expecting the payment of the promised £20,000. On a sudden all his hopes were dashed to the ground. The government appropriate the money for another object, and when Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, interrogated Walpole on the subject, the only reply he received was: "If you put the question to me as a Minister, I must and can answer you that the money shall most assuredly be paid as soon as suits the 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 to Europe and to give up his present expectations." The good Dean was obliged reluctantly to follow the advice of Gibson, and in 1731 he quitted America, after having spent on the scheme "much of his private fortune and more than seven years" of his valuable life. But even then, with the kindness and generosity which was part of his nature, he gave his house and 100 acres of cultivated land around it to Yale and Harvard Colleges, and presented the books, to the

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Berkeley is represented to have answered: "I would rather preside over the College of St. Paul at Bermuda than be made Primate of All England.”—Bartlett's Mem. of Butler, p. 258.