Hanover, and Thomas Watkins, of Henrico. Or But during their famous journey to Williamswe are to look for them among those who were burg, this title was relinquished and another indicted for worshipping contrary to law, during adopted in its stead, under circumstances deeply the short visit of Davies' forerunner, Rev. Mr. striking and romantic. Roan: Thomas Watkins, son of Edward, Joshua It seems to have been summer. One of the Morris, Isaac Winston, Sr., John Sims, son of party was, by some means or other, detached John, Roger Shackelford, Thomas Green, and from his companions during the journey, and William Allen. The first four confessors, were while travelling thus alone was overtaken by a no doubt, Morris, Hunt, and some two of these. violent storm, from which he sought shelter in In order to understand correctly the nature of the house of a poor man by the wayside. There this movement, it is indispensable that the reader was in this poor man's house an old volume, lying of Foote's Sketches should retain distinctly in upon a shelf, covered with dust, which our trayview, the fact of which the book furnishes am- eller took down for his entertainment while he ple proof that it was not sectarian or schismat- should be detained there. To men who had ical in its character. It was very far from being seen no summary of religion but the articles of a movement growing out of opposition to the the establishment to which the law itself allowed peculiarities of the established Church. It grew certain exceptions-men who called themselves out of a desire for things which were believed to Lutherans merely because they had made imbe the soul of all religion, which were not found portant practical use of a commentary by that in the establishment; they felt themselves com- Reformer on one of the apostolic epistles-to pelled to forsake a particular form of church men who felt the form of their religion, rather government from fidelity to that without which than saw it any where clearly summed up, such all forms of church government are empty and a volume as this proved to be, must have been vain; they were far from being mere proselytes very acceptable. When the storm had abated, from one sect to another; they were converts to and the traveller was to resume his journey, he the Holy Evangel in its living power; they had offered to purchase the book, but the poor man no definite idea of the form of Church govern- made it a present to him as being of no use there. ment to which they were going; they had no The book was examined by the whole party when definite objections to the form of Church govern- they got again together; and they all agreed with ment, (considered as such) from which they were surprise and pleasure that it was a methodical going; they left the established Church not on statement of the faith which they held. The account of what it had, but on account of what, title-page of the book was probably torn off. It so far as they saw, it had not. It is true that at does not appear that these men knew the ecclethe sessions of the General Court in April, 1747, siastical name of the church of which it was the Robert White, Senior, Margaret White and John symbol. But on their arrival in Williamsburg, White, Junior, were presented by the Grand Jury they presented it to the Governor and Council for reviling the Church of England. And there as the symbol of their faith. It was the Conwere presentments of the same description fession of the Church of Scotland. Gooch was against that not probably very discreet minister Governor; and Gooch had himself been educaRoan, and others at the time of his visit to Vir-ted in the Scottish church. He knew the book ginia two years before. But this was several at once; and declared that men of that faith years after the opening of the Reading Houses, were to be acknowledged as a part of the Estaband grew out of a peculiarity of spirit in Roan, lished Church of Great Britain. In addition, he which most others embarked in the same cause had promised kindness to the professors of that regretted. Moreover these charges were after- faith in the valley of the Shenandoah, a few wards disproven.

years previously, on account of the resolute and Among these nonconformists, Samuel Morris sturdy defence which they made of the frontier seems to have been deservedly regarded as the of the colony against the Indians. These things leader, both as to the firmness of his principles which disposed the mind of the Governor to and his discreet conduct. Again, the four men clemency on the occasion, did not of course opeprobably the same four who had met at first before rate on the Council; and they might still have the county magistrates—were summoned to Wil- been found refractory; but again there was a liamsburg, to answer for themselves before the severe thunder-storm-raging while these men Governor and Council. Morris had been fined stood before the Council-the second occurrence about twenty times for dissent. He and his breth- of the kind, which had been linked with their ren had at first called themselves Lutherans, on affairs since they left home-"shaking the house account of the great service rendered them by and wrapping all in sheets of fire," which had a Luther's work on the Galatians, and because softening influence on the minds of the Governor they merely knew Luther as an eminent reformer. and Council, inclining them to deal gently with

their fellow men.* The confessors were accord- withdrawing from Davies the licenses they had ingly dismissed with gentle admonitions to pre- given him. And as to Rodgers they said: "We serve the peace. There is much significance have Mr. Rodgers out and we are determined to and grandeur in that scene when it is fully con- keep him out." Gooch has been charged with ceived on the one hand the Governor and his duplicity in thus favouring Davies and presentCouncil, bearing themselves with the dignity ing so different a front to Roan and Rodgers. It which marked public men especially in our colo- is thought to have been a personal favour of the ny from the earliest times; and dressed in that Governor to young Davies. There is a power really splendid and gorgeous court-dress of those in the spirit of a naturally noble man-in his very times, which those who have seen the full length eye-which in such cases often commands resportraits of "King Carter" of Corotoman, the pect and conciliates favour imperceptibly to him predecessor of Gooch in the Governor's chair, who exerts it, and to him who nobly feels and can appreciate on the other haud the confes-owns it; and which it is hardly less complimensors themselves, stout-hearted, yet staid, sober tary to be under the influence of, than it is to men, unwilling to be breakers of law, yet asking wield it. Such we believe to have been the true rights of conscience; wishing to render his own secret of the favour with which Governor Gooch to Cæsar if they may at the same time render treated Samuel Davies. Yet there are not wantHis own to God; then there was the old and ing some other little incidents in the life of Gooch, probably dilapidated volume, of whose historical in addition to the kind treatment extended by importance they to whom it afforded present him to the first four confessors, and afterwards shield and defence, were not informed, passing to Davies, which show him to have been very from their hands to those of the Governor; and capable of generous impulses without any other lastly, the lurid flashes of lightning illumining the than the best motives being imputable. One scene, and awing to gentleness those who might such incident occurred during the short time which otherwise have been severe and harsh. It may Rodgers spent in company with Davies in Virremind us in some respects, of that other scene ginia: "One of the clergy of Hanover followed so frequently met with in pictures on the walls of Messrs. Davies and Rodgers to Williamsburg and American people, where nearly the same num- complained that Mr. Rodgers had preached in ber of men stand presenting to the Continental the province without license and demanded the Congress the first draught of the Declaration of rigid enforcement of the law. From members Independence.

of the Council he met with encouragement: but It was among these men that Samuel Davies from the Governor a rebuke-"I am surprised made his appearance as their teacher and guide. at you!-you profess to be a minister of Jesus He appeared before the Governor and Council Christ, and you come and complain of a man, at Williamsburg, in April, 1747, with a petition and wish me to punish him for preaching the that they would grant him liberty to officiate at gospel! For shame, sir! go home, and mind four preaching places in and about the county of your own duty. For such a piece of conduct Hanover. The annoyances of the Dissenters you deserve to have your gown stripped over had not ceased. Other missionaries had visited your shoulders.'' It is in reference to this peHanover since 1743. A presentment had been riod of time that Burke, the historian, makes his made against one of them-Mr. Roan—in 1745, noted remark, (quoted by Foote, 166,) that “alwhich together with those against the Whites, most all the intelligent men in the colony, and already mentioned, could not be sustained, and among the rest several who afterwards became were accordingly dismissed. But the suits against distinguished as the champions of an unqualified certain persons as the hearers of Roan had not freedom in everything relating to the human mind, been relinquished, and some of them were actu- and even the venerable name of Pendleton, apally on trial in court on the very year and month pear in the class of persecutors; a proof that on which Davies obtained his licenses for Hano- liberality and toleration are not instinctive qualiver. In fact, in two days after the date of Da- ties the growth of an hour; but the result of wisvies' license, the trial of those who had been in-dom and experience." dicted for hearing Roan, commenced before the Though Davies was now settled in Virginia same tribunal at the same place. And on the himself, and had obtained four preaching places next year, when young Rodgers, who afterwards according to the Act of Toleration, yet when he became the famous Dr. Rodgers of New York, attempted to introduce Mr. Rodgers as his ascame down to Virginia with Davies and at his sistant, the Williamsburg tribunal held that the earnest solicitation, to become his co-labourer interpretation of the Act of Toleration was doubtshould the way be clear, Gooch successfully ex-ful as to the admission of preachers; and when erted himself with the Council to prevent their Davies applied, as he soon did, for the licensure *Foote, p. 124. Campbell, p. 116. *Foote, p. 168.

of three additional places of preaching, then the is now retained of the great debate between Williamsburg tribunal held that the interpreta- Webster and Hayne in the United States, was tion of the Act was doubtful as to the licensure without much room for doubt, when Davies apof additional places. The king's Attorney Gen-plied for license for the three additional places of eral at this time was PEYTON RANDOLPH-a man preaching.* Davies was permitted to speak for whose course, as the standing adversary of Da- himself on the occasion. He was about twentyvies, during all this struggle for toleration, ap- seven years of age. His opponent was the Atpears the more singular, as he afterwards became torney General of Virginia, one of the ablest one of the leading asserters of civil liberty in the lawyers and most eminent men in America. The colony. He was in fact the first President of the Attorney General was believed to have intended Continental or Rebel Congress; and but for his the amusement of the court that day at the exuntimely death in 1775, in the fifty-second year pense of the Dissenters. Perhaps it was owing of his age, would probably have been the leading to that intention on the part of the keen, highlawyer and statesman of the American Revolu- spirited cavalier lawyer- himself just at the same tion. His opinion on the whole subject of tole-age as Davies-that the latter was permitted to ration seems to have been an opinion constructed manage his own cause on the occasion. Ranfor a purpose, not an opinion dictated by fair dolph's intention had probably been scented dujudgment. From all that we now know, he did ring his opening speech. A "titter" circulated not admit the application of the Act of Tolera- in the audience as Davies rose to reply. When tion to the colonies at all. But Davies being in, he had been speaking for a while, one remarked, he modified that opinion so as to hold that Dis- as his anticipated fun was in the act of being senters ought to be limited to a very small num- spoilt or transferred; "The Attorney has met his ber of places. And yet if the license of Davies match to-day"—another said: "There is an exwas lawful, the license of Rodgers under the same cellent lawyer spoilt." Nor is it remarkable that circumstances would have been lawful. And if an intelligent audience should have made such it was lawful to open four places for Davies, it remarks. Randolph had maintained, perhaps was lawful, under the same demand, to open rather more unguardedly than usual, that the forty places for Davies, and for whomsoever else Act of Toleration did not apply to the colonies. the worshippers might desire. And on this subject And though nothing of his speech has come down there was almost a life-long contest between the to us except this general ground of it, yet we king's attorney, and the dissenting leader, the may well conceive that his argument would be champion of uniformity and the champion of lib- drawn from the fact that the religious laws of erty. In the modified opinion on the subject, the British parliament, growing out of the cirwhich Randolph adopted on the occasion of Rod- cumstances of that kingdom, and made to meet gers' application for license, and on the occasion the exigencies of that people, could not therefore of Davies' application for the three places addi- be properly applicable to the colonies where the tional to the first four, the Attorney seems to have same circumstances, the same exigencies did not conformed to the views, which had by that time exist. This argument Davies turned completely been made known, of the Bishop of London, against him, by arguing that if the Act of ToleDr. Thomas Sherlock, to whose diocese the prov-ration did not apply to the colonies, neither did ince of Virginia was recognized as belonging. the Act of Uniformity apply to the colonies, since That eminent prelate thought that one preaching the same things might be said precisely of the place was all that a Dissenter in Mr. Davies' sit-adaptation of that act also to the exigencies of uation could ask for; and to this opinion Peyton the mother country. The Dissenter gained "the Randolph seems to have immediately couformed, laurels" of that day and also gained his cause. forgetful of the fact that though the Bishop of The Governor and a majority of the Council London might hold it consistently, yet it involved sustained him. him in inconsistencies on every side. To hold that a Dissenter was entitled to only one preaching place, was to stultify the government at Williamsburg, which had already granted Davies four; and it was also an admission that the Act of Toleration did apply to the colonies-a position that he had long battled against, and which he still continued to resist!

That notable occasion of the "keen encounter of their wits" between Davies and Randolph, of which our ancestors retained, for two or three generations, a remembrance probably as vivid as

But the opposition of Randolph did not cease there. In the year 1753, Davies went to England, partly on behalf of the new College of Nassau Hall, New Jersey, and partly on behalf of the Dissenters of Virginia. A diary which he kept of his journey, in fifty rather closely printed pages in the work of Dr. Foote, giving with great distinctness a view of Great Britain as it then was, which we should not know where to find elsewhere, is itself alone worth the price of the volume. But he had not escaped his "old * Foote pp. 171-293.

66

adversary" by crossing the Atlantic. Under date Davies was elected President of Nassau Hall, of March 4th, 1754, he says: "I find Peyton Ran- New Jersey, and removed to Princeton, July, dolph, Esq., my old adversary, is now in London: 1759. He departed this life in February, 1761, and will no doubt oppose whatever is done in favor aged 37 years. Gordon, of Wicomico, says in of the dissenters in Hanover." And again under his journal, under date of March 12th, 1761 : date of March 16th, he says: The death of Mr. Yesterday heard the disagreeable news of the Pelham-the prospect of sending a bishop over to death of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Davies. Never America-the confusion between the Governor and was a man in America, I imagine, more lamentAssembly in Virginia,—and Mr. Randolph, my ed." It was perhaps Sir Walter Scott who old adversary, being now in London, are all great said, on hearing of the death of Lord Byron : obstructions at present to the relief of my oppressed" only thirty-seven years old and so much done people." Yet he did succeed in obtaining the opinion of Sir Dudley Ryder, the King's Attorney General for England, in opposition to that of the King's Attorney General for Virginia, that the Act of Toleration did extend to the colonies.

for immortality!" The manifold works which Davies had wrought for immortality, by the same period of life, crowd upon the thought in thickcoming forms of reality, and of so much more lasting material, and of so much higher dignity The storm of war now came on-first the than the deeds for immortality of the bards of French and Indian War of 1755-and afterwards the nations-who, high and admirable souls as the wilder and fiercer storm of the Revolution. they often are-yet only sing for the ear of earthThey were, in effect, like the flashing tempest ly fame, or seek the prizes of human ambition, which surrounded the Council Chamber when that we pretend no adequate expression of them. the first four confessors stood before the Gover- He has left nobler monuments for the future than nor and Council; they "had a softening influ- even emancipated Greece. His ecclesiastical ence on the minds of men, inclining them to deal posterity regard him as probably the best preachgently with their fellow men," who were their er whom America has to this day produced. His fellow-citizens, and were struggling with them, printed sermous are, to this day, probably the best with mighty ardor, for civil liberty. The har- on the book shelves; taking precedence over those rassing trials of the Dissenters now in a great of Robert South as being equal to them in every

measure ceased.

important quality, and far superior to them in temper and spirit; taking precedence, at least for practical worth, over those of Robert Hall, as coming down more directly to "men's business and their bosoms," than the more stately and classical orations of the great English Baptist.

It would be pleasant to occupy more space than we can here claim, to speak of those sermons of burning patriotism which Davies delivered to the Hanover volunteers which stirred their spirits more than drum and fife; after which they were ready to say: "Let us march against the enemy"-"Let us conquer or die;"-after which new men would rush to the recruiting officer to be enrolled in greater numbers than he was authorized to receive; after which whole deeper charm for many readers than those which regiments would crowd around him to catch every falling word; and from which there is good reason to believe that

66

Henry, the forest-born Demosthenes,
Whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas,"

first caught the electric sparks of his high orato-
ry, his bold spirit and his love of liberty.*

We are yet arrived only at the fourteenth of the twenty-four chapters of "Sketches." There are scenes and persons in them. yet untouched in this review, which would probably possess a

The fore.

we have brought forward. But for having already taken so much space, we should strongly desire to speak at some length of JAMES WADDELL, the blind preacher of Wirt-the blind secluded Milton, yet the eloquent Chrysostom, of the book, whom we seem to see far more distinctly in these pages than we had seen him beWe should much desire to speak of the forest in which Lord Byron represents his Ame-"three auxiliaries to the cause of Liberty of rican Demosthenes as being born, was the forest Conscience," of which the fourteenth chapter in which Davies preached, and the forest in which treats; and of the progress of that cause during the young Demosthenes used to drive his mother in a gig to hear Davies preach. But we must leave these things to be sought in "the Sketches" themselves, by those who love to trace those inward genealogies which sometimes exist, by the wafting of sparks of the spirit's purest fire from one to another, and their kindling to the highest issues.

Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 133.

the Revolution, and of the deeds of Jefferson and Madison in its behalf, of which the fifteenth treats; where a high tribute would be due to the men of the old Hanover Presbytery, whose recorded action is now, for the first time, we believe, collected before the public eye, and whose motives are placed beyond the reach of obloquy by the incontestible proof that they preferred general liberty to a proffered participation in the

HOMES OF THE POETS.

HURSLEY VICARAGE.

66

BY REV. PROF. SPENCER, AUTHOR OF THE EAST," &C.

"Eternal blessings on the Muse,
And her divine employment!

The blameless Muse, who trains her Sons
For hope and calm enjoyment;
Albeit sickness, lingering yet,

Has o'er their pillow brooded;
And care waylays their steps-a sprite
Not easily eluded."- Wordsworth.

benefit of the Legislative enactments on the subject of religion, which were proposed and which they resisted. We had also much wished to quote at large, Patrick Henry's powerful and characteristic speech in a cause involving religious liberty, at Fredericksburg, which we believe is not found in Mr. Wirt's pages, at least it was new to us here. We also desired to call attention to the circumstances in which the College of Hampden Sydney had its rise, and the care which was taken by Henry, Madison, Cabell, and its other first trustees, that it should be, and remain, a seminary of the principles of freedom indicated in the names which it bears; and to those thrilling times when the President of Hampden Sydney. Blair, Smith, and most of its stu- Dear Mr. Editor,-It is with considerable hesidents, rushed as volunteers to the Revolutionary tation that I venture to send you a paper respectstandard. We should much like to sketch on ing the author of the "Christian Year," and his these pages the rise of Washington College, and home. My visit to his delightful residence was the life of that great, strong man, William Gra- much shorter than I could have wished, and the ham, who led it into existence; and the life of personal intercourse which I was permitted to the silver-fisted Lacy, one of the most pleasant have, was much less than I earnestly desired; so characters in the book; and that strange scene that I almost fear to say what impressions were at Harrisonburg, when an armed force interfered made upon my mind by a visit to Hursley Vicain a debate between Hoge and Graham, on rage, lest I should unconsciously do injustice to Hoge's side, and were quelled by Hoge's rush-one whom I reverence and esteem very highly in ing among them and entreating order and peace. love for his work's sake. Yet, so distinct are my Of these scenes and persons and of many other recollections of this visit, and so very marked scenes and other persons, worth the attention of were some things which occurred, in enabling every reader who loves the good fame of his one to form an estimate of the poet's habits of State, as made up of the noble spirits and noble mind, peculiarities of thought and expression, deeds of the olden time, we should have greatly and various personal characteristics, that if I can desired to take a much more extended notice, if this article were not already so protracted, and if we did not earnestly hope that the greater part of those who may peruse what is here written, will also read the book of which we have been speaking.

SONG.

The walls of Cadiz front the shore,
And shimmer on the sea:
Her merry maids are beautiful,
But light as light can be.

J. H. B.

succeed in telling the story as I would, I may perhaps be able to convey something of an idea, however inadequate, of the home of Keble and Keble himself. I was certainly very much interested in several things during my visit, things not of much consequence in themselves, but which seemed to me to bring out those striking points of character, which mark the pure and vigorousminded poet and scholar, and which are so soothingly, so sweetly, and so effectively taught and enforced in the "Christian Year." Let me try, then, if I can express at all fittingly and sufficiently the impressions made upon my mind and heart at the time when I was privileged to see Keble in his own home.

It was about three months after I had been at Rydal Mount, before my engagements admitted of leaving London. I had previously enclosed to the poet a letter of introduction from a brother and kindred spirit in America, and by return of post had received a most affectionate and pressing invitation to visit Hursley at my earliest convenience. Accordingly, so soon as I was able, I named a day on which I would come, being, you may be sure nothing loth to see face to face, one of whom I had already formed a tolerably distinct idea from his noble contributions to the