CLAUSES directed by the FOUNDER to be always prefixed to the HULSEAN DISSERTATION.

CLAUSES from the WILL of the Rev. JOHN HULSE, late of Elworth, in the County of Chester, clerk, deceased: dated the twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven; expressed in the words of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, thought proper to draw and write the same himself, and directed that such clauses should every year be printed, to the intent that the several persons, whom it might concern and be of service to, might know that there were such special donations or endowments left for the encouragement of Piety and Learning, in an age so unfortunately addicted to Infidelity and Luxury, and that others might be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions.

He directs that certain rents and profits (now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly) be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master of Arts, as shall compose, for that year, the best Dissertation, in the English language, on the Evidences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles in particular, or any other particular Argument, whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the

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Christian Religion, in order to evince its truth and excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of them, on New Year's Day annually; and that such Dissertation as shall be by them, or any two of them, on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also printed, and the expense defrayed out of the Author's income under his Will, and the remainder given to him on Saint John the Evangelist's Day following; and he who shall be so rewarded, shall not be admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in the same way, to the intent that others may be invited and encouraged to write on so sacred and sublime a subject.

He also desires, that immediately following the last of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this invocation may be added: "May the Divine Blessing for ever go along with all my benefactions; and may the Greatest and the Best of Beings, by his all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my fellow-creatures!"

Subject proposed by the TRUSTEES for the Year 1850. "The Christian Clergy of the First Ten Centuries ; their Beneficial Influence on European Progress.”

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PREFACE.

THE unusual circumstances under which the following Essay is published require a few words of explanation. Henry Mackenzie was declared to be the successful candidate for the Hulsean Prize at the close of the year 1850. "On the first of March 1851", his mother writes not many weeks after his death, "he was summoned to Edinburgh to attend the deathbed of his father, and "to scenes of complicated sorrow and distress, as well as "of long protracted and most exhausting anxiety: after "nearly four months of which, and five months previous "to his father's death, his own health completely gave "way under the pressure of sorrow and anxious watching, " and never rose again." The Hulsean Trustees accordingly granted him an extension of the period of twelve months usually allotted for publication: this indulgence was the more necessary, as he was most anxious to fill up in some measure what he felt to be a rough and provisional sketch by additional notes and appendices. "Till November 1852 he was unable, partly from illness "and partly from travels on the Continent in the vain "endeavour to regain health, to attempt carrying the Essay through the press or preparing the notes. The

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"latter, as far as it has been accomplished, has been so during eleven months of continually increasing illness "and weakness, with very frequent attacks of suffering "which brought him over and over again to the brink of "the grave":"during many of those months he was

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actually too weak to lift those very books which he was

so anxiously reading." But his exhausting disease at length prevailed, and on the thirteenth of October 1853 he died peacefully and happily, in the twenty-sixth year of his age. This is not the place to speak of the worth which made him dear to so many friends. They also alone can know what results might have been hoped for from his quiet strength and rapid energy of mind; of which the present volume may convey to others some partial indication.

It remains for me to give some account of the welcome task entrusted to me, of preparing for the press the materials which he had collected for the illustration of the Essay. Many apologies are due to his relatives and friends, and to the Hulsean Trustees, for the considerable delay which has taken place in publication: want of experience in literary work, the pressure of other occupations, and above all the peculiar nature of the case will, I hope, be taken as some excuse. The manuscript placed in my hands consisted of 440 closely written quarto pages, containing notes and extracts from a large number of documents (chiefly epistles, chronicles, and biographies) bearing on the history of the first ten centuries, and in some cases (Bede's historical works, for