of England in life and doctrine, Dr. Lancelot Andrews, afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester. It was the custom of this good divine, when any necessary occasion required the absence of Mr. Ireland from the school, to take his place and examine the scholars; and at such times he was not slow to discover the early promise of young Hacket, whom he took into his particular favour, and continued to shew him kindness from that period till the time of his own death.

In the year 1608, Hacket was elected, with Mr. George Herbert, afterwards so well known as a pattern for christian pastors and as a sacred poet, to Trinity College, Cambridge: and Dr. Thomas Neville, the master of the college, who gave him the appointment, is said to have been so impressed with a sense of his merit, that he declared to his father, "he would rather carry him on his back to Cambridge, than lose him from his college." He was there so much noted for his painful studies, sober life, and great proficiency in learning, that he was shortly elected Fellow on that foundation; and continuing there for a few years in the charge of pupils, was in high reputation as a tutor. In 1618, he was

ordained by Dr. John King, bishop of London, a skilful divine and promoter of missions to the new English settlements in America, who seems to have intended his preferment; but in 1621 he was induced to accept an offer of a chaplaincy to Dr. John Williams, bishop of Lincoln, afterwards archbishop of York, keeper of the Great Seal. By this prelate he was recommended to be chaplain to King James, who in 1624 preferred him to the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and afterwards added to it the parsonage of Cheam, in Surrey. These two livings he held, till the Rebellion broke out in 1642, being constantly resident at one of them; and at his church. of Holborn he was distinguished as well for his excellent preaching as for his good order in his parochial charge. As a proof of his activity and zeal, it is related that, finding the church in much decay, he eagerly solicited his great friends to contribute to the rebuilding, and had obtained some thousands of pounds for that purpose: but the members of the Long Parliament, chiefly consisting of Presbyterians, most iniquitously seized upon that fund, as they did also on a large sum of money collected for the repair of St. Paul's cathedral, to carry on their rebellious war against King Charles.

At the beginning of these troubles Dr. Hacket, who was now archdeacon of Bedford, and canon residentiary of St. Paul's, was diligent in promoting every effort that was made for peace; and consented to be named as one of a committee, with several eminent bishops and presbyters, to consider certain reforms then proposed in the liturgy and government of the church. While he was thus employed, a Bill being brought before the House of Commons for the abolition of the cathedral clergy, he was chosen by the heads of that body of clergy to plead their cause at the bar of the house. He made his appearance there on the 12th of May, 1641, where he spoke with such persuasion in defence of choral music, and in praise of the noble edifices supported by cathedral institutions, and the encouragement thus afforded to scriptural preaching and sound learning, that for a time. the spoliation then meditated was deferred-the authors of the measure foreseeing that if it had been put to the vote, a large majority would have refused their sanction to the act of sacrilege. But shortly afterwards, the public confusion and violence still increasing, the bishops were deprived of those votes in the legislature, which they had enjoyed from the first conversion of

these kingdoms to the christian faith; and Dr. Hacket, flying from the metropolis, where the laws gave him no protection, retreated for a time to Cheam, which he seems to have kept during the Usurpation. His living of St. Andrew's and his dignities were taken from him, and at one period he was imprisoned by the rebel army under the Earl of Essex; but the committee of the Long Parliament, then sitting in Surrey, and labouring for the removal of Scandalous Ministers, (a name given to all such as were loyal to their king and true to their church,) were unable to find any pretext for ejecting him. He continued to use the Liturgy of the Church of England, till its public use was forbidden by the

usurpers.

He was more fortunate than the majority of sufferers in those evil days in having his life spared to the Restoration, when he was first appointed by Lord Clarendon to the bishopric of Gloucester; but declining it, in about a year afterwards was promoted to the see of Lichfield. At this time he was near seventy years of age, and had been the father of a large family, which at such a period of privation could not have added much to his worldly wealth. But the conduct of the good man in his episcopal charge,

did not disgrace the fair unblemished reputation with which he had previously lived. The comely cathedral church of Lichfield had been reduced by the civil wars almost to a heap of ruins: the stone roof, and the timber and lead above, the glass and iron from the windows, the organ and all the internal decorations, were completely destroyed, or carried off among the spoils. The loyalists had used it as a garrison for the king, and a marksman from the roof had killed, with a musket shot, the rebel general, Lord Brook, as he was leading his troop to summon them to surrender. Enraged at this loss, his followers pointed their artillery at the building, battered down the spire, and a great part of the fabric; two thousand shot of great ordnance, and fifteen hundred hand-grenades, having been discharged against it before it surrendered. This was a comfortless spectacle to the old bishop when he entered on his new promotion; but the next morning after his arrival, he set his own carriagehorses to work, with other teams, to carry away

*

-fanatic Brook

The fair cathedral storm'd and took;

But thanks to God and good St. Chad,

A guerdon meet the rebel had.

Sir Walter Scott.