young clergyman of regular education, appeared, on the day of election, to have but seventeen votes between us; and that a methodistical enthusiast, who had once been a carpenter, bore away the prize with a majority of a hundred and twenty.

Though disappointed, I was not dejected; and I applied to a certain Rector for his Curacy, the duty of which consisted in prayers twice a day, a sermon on Sundays, and innumerable burials, christenings, and weddings. I thought myself happy, however, in being offered forty guineas a year, without surplus, or surplice fees; but how was I chagrined, on being told by the Rector, on the very first Sunday I went to officiate, that I need not trouble myself, as another gentleman had undertaken the whole duty at forty pounds!

"I waited now a considerable time in expectation of something to fall; but heard of nothing in which there was the least probability of success, unsupported, as I was by friends, and unknown to fame. At last, I was informed by an acquaintance, that a certain Clergyman in the city was about to resign his Lectureship, and that he would probably resign in my favour, if I were early enough in my application. I made all the haste I possibly could to reach this gentleman before his resignation; and found very little difficulty in persuading him to intercede in my favour. In short, his endeavours, joined to my own, secured the Lectureship, and I was unanimously chosen. The electors, however, expressed a desire, that I would quit my place of residence, which was a long way off, and live in the parish. To this request I consented; and immediately fixed myself in a decent family, where I lodged and boarded for fifty pounds a year; and as I was not so ambitious as my father, I congratulated myself on the happy event, and

was I confounded, when my collectors brought the annual contribution, to find it amount to no more than an exact sum of twenty-one pounds two shillings and threepence three-farthings! I was under an immediate necessity of discharging my lodging, resigning my preferment, and quietly decamping with the loss of no inconsiderable sum.

Yet

"Thus, Sir," said he, "have I now for these twenty years been tossed about in the world, without any fixed residence, and without any certain prospect of my bread. I must not however complain, as I am well assured there are many in the metropolis in situations very similar to mine. sometimes, I own, I cannot help being foolish enough to imagine, that I might, perhaps, have been happier, and I am sure I could have been richer, had I been brought up to my paternal awl and last. My poor father died about two years ago, and I have reason to think, his disappointment and sorrow for my ill success hastened his dissolution.

"I now support myself tolerably well in the capacity of, what the world ludicrously calls, a Hackney Parson. And though I do not get quite so much as a journeyman shoemaker, I make a shift to keep soul and body together; and I thank God for that. If, Sir, here is my could recommend me, you address, up four pair of stairs."

He was proceeding, but he had too powerfully excited my sympathy; and after consoling him to the best of my power, I took my leave of him, not without severe reflections on those parents who, to indulge a childish vanity, bring up their offspring to misery and want.

No. CXX.

On Decency, as the only Motive of our apparent Virtues, and particularly of our Religious Be

haviour.

WHATEVER may be the vices of this age, it cannot be said to be particularly distinguished by hypocrisy. Selfishness reigns triumphant; and men, for the most part, pursue whatever they think conducive to their own pleasure or interest, without regarding appearances, or the opinions of others, except, indeed, when their interest or their pleasure are immediately concerned.

Even they who fill offices of confidence and honour in the community, are, in this age fond of divesting themselves of that external dignity with which the wisdom of our ancestors judged it right to surround them. They descend with a peculiar kind of pride from their natural or political eminence, and will not even display the appearance of those virtues and abilities which are absolutely necessary in their offices and stations. They ostentatiously exhibit a carelessness and profligacy in their conversation and behaviour, which, if they really possess, ought to displace them from their rank, and strip them of their blushing honours.

In those who fill public offices, or who are fixed in the more important professions, a regard to external decency is itself a virtue. But, in truth, if the present disordered state of things would permit, none ought to fill those offices and professions, whose regard to decency does not arise from a regard to virtue.

sort of persons, but whose goodness is unprincipled, and appears to arise solely from a regard to external decorum, or, what is called, the saving of appearances. And this motive, poor and contemptible as it is, in comparison with rational principles arising from conviction, is very often the only avowed motive for the regular performance of all external duties; but more particularly of those which concern religion. The following imaginary transaction will, perhaps, suggest an idea of that poor and political decency which it is thought a very extraordinary effort of virtue to maintain. Let us then invent a scene of fiction by way of exemplification.

"We must have a Fast Day soon," says the Statesman, "for the Americans have had one already." "It is unnecessary," replies the Privy Counsellor in the jockey dress, aiming at a wretched pun, "it is all a farce." "Between friends," subjoins the Statesman, "I am not fonder of such formalities than you are; but you know it is decent, and we must conform, externally at least, to the prejudices of the mob." "It is decent, my Lord," reechoes the bench of Bishops.

"There is a Sermon preached to-day before the House of Lords," says a member; True," says another, “but I vote it a Bore; and besides, I am engaged to see a fine bitch pointer that I think of buying;" Well," resumes the other, "but let us make a party of two or three to church, because it is decent." "We beg, my Lords," softly whispers an episcopal voice, "you would not put yourselves to the smallest inconvenience, for half a dozen of us have determined, though we have a thousand engagements, to postpone them an hour or two for the sake of decency. Decency, my Lord, must supersede every consideration." "Will you go to

No. CXX.

On Decency, as the only Motive of our apparent Virtues, and particularly of our Religious Be

haviour.

WHATEVER may be the vices of this age, it cannot be said to be particularly distinguished by hypocrisy. Selfishness reigns triumphant; and men, for the most part, pursue whatever they think conducive to their own pleasure or interest, without regarding appearances, or the opinions of others, except, indeed, when their interest or their pleasure are immediately concerned.

Even they who fill offices of confidence and honour in the community, are, in this age fond of divesting themselves of that external dignity with which the wisdom of our ancestors judged it right to surround them. They descend with a peculiar kind of pride from their natural or political eminence, and will not even display the appearance of those virtues and abilities which are absolutely necessary in their offices and stations. They ostentatiously exhibit a carelessness and profligacy in their conversation and behaviour, which, if they really possess, ought to displace them from their rank, and strip them of their blushing honours.

In those who fill public offices, or who are fixed in the more important professions, a regard to external decency is itself a virtue. But, in truth, if the present disordered state of things would permit, none ought to fill those offices and professions, whose regard to decency does not arise from a regard to virtue.