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church, who have no dealings with Dissenters, and no pleasure in those who have, she was called a Methodist; while by the worldly of all parties, with whom seriousness is cant, she was ridiculed as a fanatic; and "pious Hannah," with a sneer, was no unusual designation. Some of her productions, especially her religious novel, "Colebs in Search of a Wife," were severely criticized in the "Edinburgh Review," and in other less able but equally hostile journals.

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It was chiefly, however, in her management of Sunday schools, which with the efficient aid of her sister Martha, she established and for a series of years maintained in the villages around Bristol, that it was her lot, as has been the lot of other zealous philanthropists, to encounter, not prejudice only and indifference, but in one instance, at least, the most inveterate hostility. For the details of this singular persecution, such her biographer terms it, we must refer our readers to the Memoirs themselves (Vol. 11. pp. 62-80), which will also exhibit in their true light the patience, gentleness, and benevolence with which by both herself and her sister Martha it was sustained. It must suffice for us to say, that it originated in the wayward temper of a hot-headed Welshman, of the name of Bere. This personage was the curate of Blagdon, the parish in which Cowslip Green, Mrs. More's residence, was situated. He seems to have run well for a season, but something hindered, which it were even charity to ascribe to some copious potations of that muddy beverage denoted by his name. He began with earnestly inviting the two sisters to extend their charitable labors to the children of his large parish, notorious at that time for its ignorance and profligacy; †

*The notice of this popular novel, more than thirty large editions of which have been published in our own country, is exceedingly severe. The writer, seemingly of that class whose religious faith is but imperfectly developed, begins with an apology to his readers for daring to treat any book of "the celebrated Mrs. Hannah More as a merely human or uninspired production, and ends with cautioning them against "the trash and folly of Methodism."

The same journal, which about this period seems to have been engaged in a bloody crusade against zeal of all sorts, comments also with great harshness upon her "Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess"; assuming what was only for a short time supposed, that the anonymous author was a man, evidently for the sake of more liberty in handling him.

Of this ignorance Mrs. More relates an instance, in a little boy, who, on her inquiring of him, "Who was Abraham?" answered, after

and ended with the grossest calumnies and ill-treatment of them both. Nor was this extraordinary conduct his alone. Charges of sedition and fanaticism, of disaffection to the church, of endeavouring to corrupt the children by teaching French principles, and even of getting them into her power to sell them as slaves,* were widely circulated against her. She was annoyed by anonymous letters. A scandalous pamphlet was published, the author of which she was advised by the Lord Chancellor Loughborough to prosecute. But this she refused from her dread of litigation; and it was not till after three years, during which (amidst serious sicknesses, the effect of her anxiety) "this persecution was carried on with unabated virulence," and she had appealed to her bishop, Dr. Beadon of Bath and Wells, in a letter of singular dignity and power, that the torrent was stayed. Her infamous persecutor died under general contempt some years after. But from her letters at this painful crisis, it may be seen how serious and extensive was the mischief he had occasioned. Even her best friends, of whom was Bishop Porteus, were not without their alarms; and the result was by no means so satisfactory, as from the justice of her cause might have been expected.

"To Mr. Wilberforce.t

"MY DEAR FRIEND,

"Cowslip Green, 1801.

Though I knew that B- and his adherents had spread abroad the most flagitious reports respecting my political and religious principles, yet I own I was inexpressibly shocked the other night at Patty's receiving from the Bishop of London a most am

some hesitation, that "he believed Abraham was an Exeter man." The boy himself was of Somersetshire.

This, it may be noted, was in the neighbourhood of Bristol, where as in Liverpool, the slave-trade was at that time a common traffic. A circumstance which may account for the absurd nature of the charge.

Our readers who have associated with the name of this excellent man the idea of venerable age, or have heard of him only since the meridian of his fame, will be gratified by the following reference to him in the beginning of his strength. — Writing to Mrs. Carter, in 1787, Mrs. More says, "I have much at heart the project to abolish the Slave Trade in Africa. The young gentleman, who has embarked in it with the zeal of an apostle has been much with me, and engaged all my little interest in it.'"- Vol. 1. p. 266.

biguous and alarming note, expressing the utmost terror on my account, yet refusing to explain himself; saying if what was reported were true, she would understand what he meant. All we can collect from this obscure giving-out, what out of tenderness he seems to have half concealed, is, that this mock trial has been fabricated by B's emissaries into an official one, and that I am found guilty of sedition, and taken up and sent to prison.' Vol. 11. pp. 77, 78.

Again, writing to the same;

"MY DEAR SIR,

"Priory, Monday, 1801,

"The farmers at Wedmore have formally presented me at the archdeacon's visitation last week for teaching the poor without a license. They say they will never rest till they have worried me out of the parish; and as they have employed an attorney of bad character, they will, I fear, be able to give me a good deal of trouble.'"

"Poor Patty [her sister Martha], in bad health herself, fights manfully, and combats well with those domestic sorrows. She is holding our annual club-feasts, and feasting six or seven hundred each day with outward cheerfulness. It puts me in mind of poor actors, who play their comic parts gayly on the stage, when, perhaps, they have all sorts of miseries at home."" - Vol. II. p. 80. Of the absurdity of the charges thus brought against this excellent woman, distinguished through her long life for her loyalty, attachment to civil order, and to the church, of which she was an exemplary member, it were idle to waste a syllable in proof. In general, Mrs. More was characterized by prudence and gentleness. How far her benevolence or her zeal may have tempted her in the management of her Sunday Schools, her favorite charity, to disregard persons and circumstances, we have no means to determine. She might have occasioned, but it was certainly not in her temper to provoke, hostility. And very possible it is, that to her virtues, which were preeminent, she united the faults which are common to successful philanthropists, namely, an extravagant estimate, growing out of a fervid enthusiasm, of the object to which they are exclusively devoted, coupled with a corresponding estimate of their own gifts, destiny, and influence to accomplish them. Or if, which is very rare, their humility represses the vanity, to which the foolish flattery of admirers or of their young disciples in philanthropy so strongly tempts them, there will still be found some fond partiality to the particular

theory or measures they have themselves adopted, which beginning with excess hastens to be blind, and seldom fails to end in obstinacy. Such are the common errors of philanthropists. They were those of Hanway, who would never hear a word against what he once resolved, witness his unauthorized use of the name of Mary Magdalene to designate his houses of refuge for penitent women, against the learned and earnest remonstrances of Dr. Lardner.* They were the faults of Howard; and have been, and therefore probably will be, those of other imperfect good men. Who, then, shall say, that Hannah More was altogether free from these? When we consider the praise, that sovereign remedy of humility, that was poured upon her from such various and distant sources, from the king on his throne, who more than once sent her his gracious approbation, and from the bishops, who conveyed it, to colliers in their mines and the children of colliers in her sunday schools; from Doctors and "Heads of Houses," who praised her books, to the factory people, who were charmed into loyalty by her "Ballads"; from noblemen and landed proprietors fearing a rebellion, to their tenants reformed and kept quiet by her "Tracts";†-who could

* See Lardner's letter to Sir Jonas Hanway.

The popularity and effect of Mrs. More's Ballads and Tracts were quite unprecedented. Indeed, among all her eminent gifts, none truly was more remarkable than her tact in amusing and setting right the people. Whatever she attempted in this way she always accomplished. A formidable riot among the colliers near Bath, the whole plan of which had been thoroughly settled, was prevented by her ballad of "The Riot." Her "Village Politics, by Will Chip," which she composed in a few hours, had an immediate and almost incredible influence in repressing a spirit of discontent and rebellion, which was common throughout England at the time of the revolutionary excesses in France. In London alone, many hundred thousand copies were circulated. Numerous patriotic individuals and societies printed large editions of them at their own expense, and they were sent by government to every part of the kingdom. Of her "Cheap Repository Tracts," a well-known monthly publication, to which her sister also contributed many excellent pieces, no less than two millions were sold in the first year; and Dr. Porteus in a charge to the clergy of his diocese in 1795, recommending her books as suitable for distribution, says, "They have contributed very essentially to counteract the poison of infidelity," &c. And a nobleman, one of the largest landholders in the kingdom, addressed to Mrs. More a letter of thanks for the good influence of yet another of her Tracts, in actually suppressing a disturbance, which had begun among his tenants. -Memoirs, Vol. 1. p. 420.

expect that she should always be perfect, or that in a long series of labors, taxing severely her patience and self-denial, she should never betray infirmities, which, meeting with the greater infirmities and poorer virtues of others, might be the occasion of opposition.

With the religious opinions of Mrs. More we have not the slightest wish or intention to enter into controversy. These were doubtless the pretext for part of the hostility she experienced. Yet without just reason. She was born a member of the church of England, and to that church she cherished through life a filial attachment. But her orthodoxy was ever united to charity. Her preference of her own religion did not require her to hate that of others. She delighted in the "excellent" of every name, and for the characters of some distinguished Dissenters she entertained a high respect, sometimes attending their chapels, particularly Mr. Jay's of Bath, and coöperating in some of their charities. And though unquestionably, in certain of her religious works, we are constrained to approve more her seriousness of spirit and earnestness to do good, than the exactness of her theology; nay, though as Unitarians we should dissent strongly from some of her positions, nor suffer a less gentle or less venerable antagonist to escape unrebuked, they still leave us much to admire. And we can say to any young friend asking of her writings, what Johnson, in a passage already quoted, said to herself, defending a devotional book of Pascal," Child, I am heartily glad that you read pious books, by whomsoever they are written."

And who, we ask, may not cherish a charity like this, if he will but reflect, that to the devout of every name there is one "spirit of faith" to unite them all? That the principles and strength of a true piety are to be found, not in what is peculiar to some, but what is common to most. For ourselves we rejoice

* From other hands, so disposed, she may receive, as she merits, a rebuke for her unfair judgment of Dr. Price and Mrs. Barbauld, as well as of some other distinguished Unitarians. But for ourselves, happening at this present to have our charity in full flow for the lady,

we are willing to consider for her apology "what company she kept." And we beg our readers also to consider how difficult it must be for one like Mrs. More, whose talk and correspondence were with bishops and earls and prime ministers, to look with complacency upon Unitarians, who are, and always have been, the determined friends of liberty both in church and in state.