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twenty-three years of age; whereas, in America, candidates are admitted to clerical offices, at the age of twenty-one.

One day, when in conversation with Dr. Milnor, he alluded to an address, published in England by Dr. Chase, late Bishop of Ohio, encouraging English clergymen of the Established Church, to emigrate to the United States, and promising them a hearty welcome and a liberal support. "The promise and encouragement," said he, "was contrary to my advice; for I knew that it could not be fulfilled, and might occasion much distress and disappointment. The bishops of this country," he added, "have no power whatever to appoint a minister over any congregation. The only thing they can do for a clergyman is to recommend him. His nomination rests with the people who support him." On explaining to him the nature of my own views, as to teaching, and the reasons for my abandoning a country, where patronage and aristocratic interest were every thing, and where heavy exactions eat up the earnings of industry; he smiling replied, "In our country, every man can repose under his own fig-tree and his own vine, and can eat without molestation the fruit of his own labours. But it is not every person, who visits this country, that finds his expectations realised in it. Instances are neither rare nor solitary, of persons coming hot from Europe, and returning soberer than they came."

A clergyman from Ireland, with whom I had a short conversation soon after my arrival, on being told my object, and learning that I was not immediately pressed to seek employment, said, "It is well for you that you are not so. Look around deliberately, before you enter on any thing; and if afterwards you decide upon a permanent residence, you must adopt this proverb in its literal sense. 'When at Rome, act as do the Romans.'

I was repeatedly asked if I would accept a situation in Ohio, and as repeatedly declined such a place

of exile. My habits had fitted me for other scenes, and required more domestic comforts than a wilderness can furnish.. Besides, I was early made acquainted with the sort of people I was likely to find for associates in places remote from the frontier. As I perceived that persons of the same standing, even in New-York, are not the most amiable or liberable, I feared their manners would not be improved, by contiguity to forests, bears, and Indians.

During the year preceding our emigration, the pastor of St. Thomas' in New-York, was obliged to resign, and retired with his family into the Ohio Territory. His great crime was, his being an Englishman. He had, moreover, not been so submissive to the freeborn Americans as to endure passively, various things in their conduct, which to him appeared unpleasant. As the purse strings of the clergy are generally in the hands of their flock, they can always clothe and feed them and their families as they please. For although, by a canon of the Episcopal church, no minister of that denomination is liable to be expelled by his hearers, yet, presents, and subscriptions can be withdrawn when they please. The minister of St. Thomas' had given some offence to a few individuals, native Americans. The thing was canvassed among their countrymen, and the result was, that the greater part of his congregation withdrew their subscriptions and attendance. The minister, finding himself forsaken, and without resources, was obliged to relinquish the place of his sojourn, and to bury his griefs and necessities in the solitudes of Ohio.

Such was the statement of an English lady in NewYork. Similar statements have been made to me by various persons, whose narrations I could not disbelieve, respecting several English clergymen, who, after years of laborious duties, have been turned adrift by those who had been benefitting from their instructions. My fair informant expressed a wish that I might be so fortunate as to obtain that church. "But,"

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added she, "if you have still a friend in England, return again. America is a place of refuge, but to such only as are of doubtful character, or completely distressed. You will always be considered as having fled your country on account of something which had blasted your comfort at home; and any success or respect, however small, will be considered greater than your merits and character deserve, or than you could have obtained in England. I myself came thence several years ago, allured by the flattering promises of Americans, whom I then considered as friends, but whom I have since found to be heartless beyond description. There is no dependence to be placed upon the promises or friendship of any person in this country. There is not, indeed, sir," she added, "therefore return to England, if you have one friend there, and do not suffer any thing they may tell you to induce you to accept a situation here, if you can live elsewhere. But you know best your own circumstances. I would have returned to England had I not lost every thing, and my sons not being apprenticed, or placed in business." Such were the sentiments of one who could not possibly have a motive to mislead me ; and they are worthy the attention of clergymen, who are friends to democracy.

During my sojourn in New-York, Dr. Milnor once granted me the use of his pulpit, and I enjoyed the pleasure of delivering a discourse to his highly respectable flock-the only sermon I preached in the States. The Doctor praised my discourse, but stated that my plain manner of delivery would not suit Americans, from their fondness of high declamation, action, and attitude, so different from the chaste style of the English preaching. Effect is more aimed at in American, than in English churches; and is, I believe, more necessary in the dawn than in an advanced state of society. But perhaps other causes are in operation, to require rhetorical action there more than with us. The people are remarkably active and restless;

and a dependent minister must use every exertion to adapt his mode of delivery to the taste and temperament of his hearers. Yet, I must say I have seen it carried too far.

It is impossible for me to quit the subject, without giving almost unqualified praise to the worthy and estimable charecter of the episcopal clergy of NewYork generally. Their church discipline and government is admirable; and is making rapid advances, not only in that State, but throughout all America. The episcopal church is gaining strength there, fully equal to the spread of knowledge, and the increase of population; and will ultimately be matured, in my opinion into a national church. Its members are adopting every available means for rendering the ministers of their order as competent as possible to sustain the sacred character with becoming dignity; and to merit, and consequently secure, the respect and support of every well informed and rationally pious Christian. If they have not yet attained to that elevation of character, that dignity, and learning, enjoyed by ministers of the established church of England, we must remember, that they have neither the means nor the incentives to attain it; that they have not British audiences to preach to; that their church, and the society around them, are in a state of infancy; and that their means of instruction, and the manner of imparting it, correspond with their institutions, and the habits of the people. The episcopal clergy are greatly in advance of those of all other denominations, and march in the van of learning, improvement and public virtue.

One Sunday morning I entered the methodist chapel, without being previously aware that it was one. What a difference in the language and manner of the preacher, from what I had heard and seen elsewhere! It reminded me forcibly of an observation made by the Catholic Bishop when I called on him. "Although," said he, "all sects and denominations are said to be placed on equal footing here, yet I respect

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the episcopal church more than any other. Its ministers are men of greater learning than the rest, and the most respectable citizens are included within its pale." The same thing occurred to my recollection, when returning through the States from Canada. methodist printer, who had struck off some hundred copies of a portion of Watts' hymns, and who was wandering up and down to vend them; on learning that he was in company with an episcopal minister, coarsely asserted that our church was the devil's house, and that the wise and prudent, the mighty, the learned, and the wealthy, every where belong to it. "How surprising," continued he, "it is, to find that the best informed and the wealthiest are the devil's own children, and belong to his house!" Ignorance and illiberality are generally found to go hand in hand.

The congregations of ministers are generally the best criterion of their pastor's worth. All the churces I had an opportunity of entering, while in NewYork, and they were not a few, were numerously and respectably attended. The devout behaviour of episcopal congregations could not be exceeded by that of any congregation of any church in London. If I were asked whether, in the churches I attended, a greater number of males or females were present, I should feel great hesitation in deciding.

Those only who have travelled to a distance, can conceive how gratifying it is to an English clergyman, properly imbued with the spirit of his calling, to find, in places so far from his former home, and even in another hemisphere, not only the same language spoken, but the very customs of his native country imitated and adopted, as far as a change of circumstances and a diversity of governments will allow. Here he finds the same prayers, the same ceremonies, the same version of psalms and tunes in psalmody, the same decent solemnities of worship, the same sort of discourses, as in our churches, with but a slight and immaterial alteration, and that alteration generally for

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