Captain was severely felt by his widowed partner, whose sorrow was considerably augmented by the daily development of her youthful son's evil and much-dreaded dispositions of mind and character. Self-will, that darling sin of our fallen nature, was the ruling passion of the young Arthur's bosom. With indisputable supremacy it swayed the feelings and desires of the boy as he grew in years; and ere his parent was called from his side, it was evident to all around that it had taken deep root within his breast. His fond mother found it now in vain to attempt an eradication of an evil principle which had been suffered to expand through the earlier periods of his existence, and often would her tears of mourning for the departed be mingled with the deep drawn sigh of regret and remorse, that her boy should possess such sinful passions.

Shortly after his father's death he quitted the church his parents loved-at whose font he had been dedicated to God in holy baptism -before whose sacred altar he had participated in the rite of confirmation-from whose pulpit he had heard preached the tender love and mercy of his gracious Saviour, and whose walls exhibited the memento of a departed father's faith and hope. From that moment

the “truth as it is in Jesus" began to wane in the small town of Orpington, and as the saying of Scripture cannot be broken, "one sinner destroyeth much good," so was it fulfilled, unhappily, in the case before us. The heart of the widowed parent was broken; she had again and again, when it was too late, poured forth the prayerful desire, and that too with intense fervency-"O that Ishmael might live before thee!" But her prayer was unanswered: there came over her the memory of her past neglect, and the solemn question planted many a thorn in her dying pillow: "What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?" Her last hours were thus embittered by these melancholy reflections, and although we trust she finally entered into rest, yet it pleased God to chastise her at the last for so sad a breach of a great and solemn duty. Her boy followed her to her last resting-place, and returned, not to weep and lament, and to seek an entrance again into the fold of Christ's Church, but to renounce the truth and to embrace and disseminate error.

CHAPTER IV.

"The thirst for power in men who ne'er concede."

WORDSWORTH.

"When the man you see,

You find him what you saw the boy would be;
Years from the mind no native stain remove,
But lay the varnish of the world above."

CRABBE.

that we

It will be suitable to our purpose
pass over the few years of our hero's life which
immediately followed the decease of his parents,
and that we bring him again before our readers
at a more recent period of his career.

It will be remembered that at the outset we stated some of the particulars which marked the changed aspect of our town. The old church was now succeeded by an elegant Gothic edifice, and the fine Saxon tower and porch no longer met the eye of the lover of antiquity; the venerable vicar had been gathered

to his rest, and another had succeeded him in the living. The before-mentioned Dissenting meeting-house remained where it was, but a schism had taken place in the congregation; some of the wealthiest and most influential of them having quarrelled, relatively to certain contrary opinions entertained by each of them: one was favourable to the introduction of the Liturgy, and another was adverse to it; some wished the minister to wear a gown, and others declaimed against their pastor appearing clad in a "rag of popery," as they termed it; some desired an organ, others strenuously opposed it: thus, as in too many instances, personal animosities were occasioned, and every week became stronger, till at length they parted in a spirit quite at variance with the principles each party professed: the separatists subscribed together, and having raised a sufficient sum for the purpose, they bought a spot of ground, built a spacious and handsome chapel, and being the upholders of the Liturgy and the organ, the prayers were read, and a splendid instrument erected; the minister of course was arrayed in the robes of a clergyman, gown, cassock, and band, and to complete the absurdity, occasionally wore a scarlet hood. The result of this separation was, that many were

attracted to the new place, and the numbers who attended the old meeting considerably diminished, till at length a few of the very oldest supporters of the place were the sole remaining attendants. Besides these two opposing congregations, another sprang up in the town a small, neat building, presented itself to the eye at the entrance of the marketplace, and the title it bore was "The new Unitarian Chapel." It was capable of containing from four to five hundred persons, and, alas! it was generally well filled, for the preacher was a man of powerful talent, and celebrated for pulpit effect. A still stronger mark of absurd inconsistency than even the college hood worn by the Independent minister, was observable here, for a stone cross was affixed to the top of that building, within whose walls the doctrines of the Cross were denied and repudiated. To this place did Arthur Hutchinson resort directly after he quitted the bosom of the church, and oftentimes ere his afflicted parent was removed, did he plead as his reasons for an attendance there, "the right of private judg ment," liberty of conscience, and the propriety of worshipping the Supreme as his feelings and wishes dictated; as though God could be worshipped acceptably except through a divinely