comforts of life, is a much more ho- law; and circumstances called him nourable character than that of him away early from college, for so great who lives by increasing the miseries was the opinion of his merits that, of human life, or like a drone by con- without allowing him time to take his suming the produce of the honest and degree, he was chosen in January industrious, without adding at all to 1767 to be the assistant to Dr. Sumthe comforts of the society, or using ner, his master at the school at Harhis talents to any purposes but those row; and the master was as well of vice and prodigality. pleased with the assistant as he had In his two occupations of surgeon formerly been with the scholar, and apothecary, the father of Dr. Parr His connection, however, with the gave great satisfaction to an extensive university of Cambridge did not cease neighbourhood; his practice was very upon this appointment, for he considerable, and his medical science could continue his studies at a dis was superior to that of many physi- tance from Alma Mater; and he cians. It was his intention to bring came, though at different intervals, up his son to the practice of physic, to receive from her hands his acadeand could he have determined his des- mical titles. tiny we might probably have long ago He first took his batchelor's degree seen the doctor at the head of his pro- in civil law, and some time afterwards fession. Every circumstance leads us to he was created a doctor in the same this conjecture. The doctor was born faculty. At both times the schools at Harrow-on-the-Hill, on the 20th were crowded to hear the exercise of January, 1746-7. The school at which he performed upon these that place has long been distinguished, occasions; and seldom, if ever, and the father, observing the rising talents of his son, was happy in the opportunity of having him under his eye, and sending him to a school to which he was much attached. Here he behaved like other school-boys, and was noted only for being at the head of the school at so early an age as fourteen. At any time this would be considered as an indication of peculiar merit, but it is not a little enhanced when we recollect that his contemporaries were Sir William Jones and Halhed.

have been witnessed within these walls such a display of talents. His logical acumen, his deep erudition, his command of language, were the theme of universal admiration; and every Harrow boy was on those days doubly proud of the school in which he as well as the doctor was educated. Dr. Parr's connections with the university would not have ceased to this year, if symptoms of bigotry and intolerance had not strongly appeared. in a place which ought to have been the freest from them; but, by taking The wishes of the father not being his name from off his college boards in unison with those of the son, pa- sometime ago, he spared himself the rental affection gave way to the pre- mortification of belonging to a body dilection manifested by the son for which could petition the house of the church, and he was in conse- commons to stop the progress of a quence sent to Emanuel College, bill, to permit the king to use the serCambridge, in the year 1765. This vices of his catholic subjects; though college was originally puritanical; this very university has not manifested but that stain, if it be any, had long any irritation at foreign catholics rebeen washed out, and the doctor, ceiving the king's pay, or a regiment who was always a staunch whig, was of dragoons receiving honours from doomed to receive his academical edu- the pope.

cation among professed tories. We The doctor's residence in the unido not doubt that the same talents versity, we have mentioned, was which had placed him at the head of stopped by a call to his school at the school at Harrow would, if he had Harrow, and here he passed four pursued the general line of study, years in a very happy and useful manhave placed him at the batchelors' ner, being equally beloved by the Commencement at the head of the master and the scholars. In this time first tripos. But he had chosen a dif- he was ordained, having gone through ferent line, and declared for the civil that ceremony under Bishop Terrick,

at Christmas, 1769, and he added to of the day. The master of the school the cares of a school that of a curacy. (Dr. Suniner) died at the early age of This gave him the opportunity of ac- forty-one, of an apoplexy, about the quiring and improving in that species middle of September 1771. It was of eloquence which is peculiarly natural that he who had been so useadapted to the pulpit, and in which ful an assistant, and who as both he afterwards so much excelled. For scholar and teacher had done such he was not content with some of credit to the school, should be a canthe usual modes of performing cleri- didate for the mastership. But his cal duties, whether by buying an old youth was made an objection; and sermon at a book stall, and inserting those qualities which had so distinit conveniently into a case of paper guished him at the age of fourteen, written on the margin, or by getting which made him a meritorious assist. some writing master as famed as him ant before he was twenty, could not of Trumpington to select and write overcome the prejudice in the mind out his sermons; or by writing out of the electors against a master of the sermons himself from an approved age only of five-and-twenty. It canauthor; or even by composing and not be doubted, that in general the writing out himself his own composi- want of years, which implies a want tion. The latter he thought was the of experience, is an objection to the least thing that a clergyman ought to placing of an individual in a respon do, and those persons who have little sible situation; but length of years else to employ themselves upon, in does not always give experience; and the course of the week, cannot easily the doctor, in his five years service as be excused, if they rely upon the ser- assistant, had sufficiently proved himvices of others for an essential part of self qualified for a superior station. their duty, and neglect to improve Dr. Heath was preferred before him, themselves in scriptural knowledge, and a rebellion broke out among the by frequent meditation on divine sub- boys. The latter served only to shew jects, and acquiring the easy habit of the attachment of scholars to their communicating their thoughts in writing from the pulpit. But Dr. Parr thought more highly of his employment, and he so meditated upon his Sunday's discourse that he made it completely his own; and, if he car ried notes into the pulpit, he was capable without them of carrying on his subject, or to add or omit at pleasure according as he perceived that either circumstance was best suited to his congregation. This faculty we recommend to every one who take upon himself the office of teacher, for it is preposterous to imagine that when so many persons can, in the house of commons, at the bar, or in municipal assemblies, talk their hour or two upon any subject, the clergy of the church of England are to be indulged in an idle and dronish habit, which is disgraceful to themselves and to their profession.

teacher; and the doctor very wisely resigned his office of assistant, and, taking a house at Stanmore, had the satisfaction of opening his school with forty-five boys, all of whom, except ane, had been under him at Harrow,

This situation was evidently too near the great school for the doctor to expect a very great concourse of scho Jars. Old habits are not easily broken, and parents too often send their sons to the school or college in which they themselves have been educated, with out reflecting on the change that may have taken place in the instructors. Happy, however, were the scholars under him, for they were well taught, and the severity of his discipline is remembered by them with affectionate attachment. In 1776, he was elected to the mastership of the school at Colchester, whose number he increased by the addition of the majo Whilst he was employed in the rity of his scholars at Stanmore. Here meritorious task of communicating he found some learned companions instruction as an assistant, a sudden in Dr. N. Foster, and Twining, the event took place which brought the translator of Aristotle. But his stay doctor into public notice, and the in- here was short, for in 1778, in the aucidents of the school made a very tumn, he was elected to the master conspicuous figure in the newspapers ship of the school at Norwich, where

he formed several eminent scholars, into too long a discussion: suffice it, during the eight years he remained in that in 1790, he exchanged his cuthis office. In 1780, he quitted the racy of Hatton for the rectory of Wacares and fatigue of public teaching, denhoe, in Northamptonshire, by retiring to his living in Warwickshire, which he became master of an annual and devoting his leisure hours to a income of one hundred and thirtyfew private pupils. During his resi- seven pounds a year, namely, one dence at Norwich he took his degree hundred and twenty pounds a year by of Doctor of Laws at Cambridge, his rectory, and seventeen pounds a being admitted to it in the year 1781. year by his prebend.

In 1779, the Doctor was presented One man was at last found who by Lady Trafford, whose son had could make use of his patronage to been his pupil, to the living of As- reward merit, and the circumstance terby, in Lincolnshire, a small piece deserves to be recorded. In the year of preferment, not netting to him 1802, the doctor received the followforty pounds a year; and this he re- ing letter from Sir Francis Burdett :signed in 1783, for the perpetual cu"SIR, racy of Hatton, in Warwickshire, to "I am sorry that it is not in my which he was presented by the same patroness. Bishop Lowth, on the re- would become you-I mean in the power to place you in a situation which commendation of the Earl of Dart- Episcopal Palace at Buckden: but I mouth, gave him about this time a can bring you very near to it; for I small prebend in the church of St. have the presentation to a rectory Paul's, bringing in an annual rent of now vacant, within a mile and half seventeen pounds a year; and this miserable pittance of ecclesiastical preferment was for many years the only rewards bestowed on a man confessedly one of the first, if not the first scholar in England: and who, by the discourses he had preached and published, had shown himself worthy to rise to the highest dignities of the church.

But the lot of Dr. Parr was cast in evil days. The reign of Mr. Pitt, every body knows, was fatal to talents. This haughty supercilious minister could brook no contradiction. Every one who was not his timeserving-tool, or by whose advancement his ministerial authority was not promoted, was completely excluded from any access to honour or reward: add to this the whig principles of the tutor, and we need not wonder that he was kept in the back ground. But it may be asked, how it came to pass that the whig families whose private patronage was so extensive, could never find an opportu

of it, which is very much at Dr. Parr's service. It is the rectory of Graffhamn, at present worth two hundred pounds a year, and as I am informed may soon be worth two hun dred and seventy; and I this moment learn that the incumbent died last Tuesday.

"Dr. Parr's talents and character might well entitle him to a better patronage than this from those who know how to estimate his merits; but I acknowledge that a great additional motive with me to the of fer I now make him, is, that I be lieve I cannot do any thing more pleasing to his friends, Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Knight, and I desire you, Sir, to consider yourself obliged to them only."

"I have the honour to be,

"Sir,

"With the greatest respect,
"Your obedient servant,
"FRANCIS BURDETT."

To this letter the doctor returned

Vicarage House, Buckden,
Sept. 26, 1802.

nity of doing something for their the following answer :-
champion. The doctor was received
by them with every mark of distinc-
tion, made one at their private parties
-was panegyrised in a manner the
most flattering; but the solid marks
of distinction were carried away by
very inferior characters. The causes
of this mode of patronage would lead

"DEAR SIR,
"After rambling in various parts
of Norfolk, I went to Cambridge,
and from Cambridge I yesterday
came to the parsonage of my most
respectable friend Mr. Maltby, at

"I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect and most unfeigned thankfulness, dear Sir, "Your very obedient "faithful servant,

"S. PARR."

Buckden, where I this morning had give you great satisfaction, and therethe honour of receiving your letter. fore I shail beg leave to state it. The Mrs. Parr opened it last Friday at living of Graffham will be of infiHatton, and I trust that you will nite value to me, because it is tenapardon the liberty she took in desir- ble with a rectory I now have in ing your s rvant to convey it to me Northamptonshire; and happy I am, in Huntingdonshire, where she knew that my future residence will be fixed, that I should be, as upon this day. and my existence closed upon that Permit me, dear Sir, to request spot where Sir Francis Burdett has that you would accept the warmest given me the power of spending my and most sincere thanks of my heart old age with comforts and conveni for this unsolicited, but most honour- ences quite equal to the extent of my able, expression of your good will to- fondest wishes, and far surpassing wards me. Nothing can be more im- any expectations I have hitherto venportant to my worldly interest than tured to indulge. the service you have done me, in presenting me to the living of Graff ham. Nothing can be more exquisitely gratifying to my very best feeling, than the language in which you have conveyed to me this mark of your friendship. Indeed, dear Sir, you have enabled me to pass dett the doctor was first made easy in By the public spirit of Sir F. Burthe years of declining life in com- his circumstances, and this was a prefortable and honourable indepen- lude to another piece of good for dence. You have given me additune. It has been mentioned that he tional and unalterable conviction, had a small prebend in the church of that the firmness with which I have St. Paul's. Soon after his accession adhered to my principles has obtained for me the approbation of to the living, the lives on which the wise and good men. And when that lease was held whence his prebendal approbation assumes, as it now does, doctor had the power of granting a income derived, dropped; and the the form of protection, I fairly confess to you, that the patronage of new lease for three lives, by which Sir Francis Burdett has a right to he secured to himself an addition to his income of a few hundreds a year, be ranked among the proudest, as well as the happiest, events of my an income which all his friends wish life. I trust that my future conduct him long to enjoy, though they de will justify you in the disinterested and spair of seeing him in that situation generous gift which you have bestowed into which they expected, that a whig administration would have placed him. upon me and sure I am that my friends Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Knight, will not only share with me in my joy, but sympathise with me in those sentiments of respect and gratitude which I shall ever feel towards Sir Francis Burdett.

The doctor, it has been observed, is a staunch whig. This is a sufficient ground of exclusion, in these unhappy times: but besides, though a true son of the church, he is a true protestant, and a friend to the most enlarged to"Most assuredly I shall myself leration. Of course, here was anset a higher value upon your kind- other ground for depriving him of ness, when I consider it as intended the rewards due to his talents; but to gratify the friendly feelings of the manner in which he manifested those excellent men, as well as to his tolerant principles deserves to be promote my own personal happiness. recorded, and may rescue his name "I shall wait your pleasure about from the disgrace which will attach to the presentation: and I beg leave to the county, in which he resided in the add, that I shall stay at Buckden for memorable year 1791. one week only, and shall have reached Hatton about this day fortnight, where I shall obey your commands. One circumstance, I ain sure, will

Dr. Priestley was born among the dissenters, received a Calvinistic education, and by the study of the Holy Scriptures rescued himself from the

slavish principles which had been in- brace his sentiments. A greater folly culcated by his parents and teachers. cannot exist, than to draw a line of He adopted the belief, and boldly separation on account of certain docpromulgated the truth, that the scrip- trinal points; but this line is vinditures acknowledge no other God than cated by a passage of scripture. Rethe God and Father of Jesus Christ. ject an heretic. Unfortunately, the This opinion created him as many people in general who use this phrase enemies among the dissenters as among do not know what Paul meant by a the church people, for the dissenters heretic; and they would be surprised are many of them as much or more to hear from him, if he could visit us bigotted to their traditions than either at this time, that they were the hethe churches of England or at Rome. retics. In fact, every man is a heretic Dr. Priestley was a minister at Bir- who becomes a partisan of any sect, mingham, but, from various circum- whether that sect is established or stances, he did not fall into the way not, whether he is a papist or a proof Dr. Parr till the year 1790. Early testant, a church of England man, a in that year they happened to meet calvinist, or a methodist. It is an unat the house of a common friend, and due attachment to names and parties, it is needless to say, that when two that constitutes heresy: and from this men of enlarged minds meet together sin every true christian should endea they are attracted to each other by vour to free himself, by not permitmutual sympathy, and a friendly con- ting any man or sect to get the betnection took place between them. ter of his understanding, and by bend"Here," to use Dr. Parr's own ing in religious matters to no other words, begins a black catalogue authority than that of our only master of crimes, which have been long Jesus Christ. enveloped in darkness, but which I The Warwickshire men in 1791 am now audacious enough to plant thought differently. Not to believe before legions of senseless and merci- as they believed, or pretended to beless calumniators in open day. lieve, was the greatest of crimes, to "I knew that Dr. John Leland of be expiated only by fire and faggot, Ireland lived upon terms of intimacy An easy pretext was found for their with many English prelates; that intemperate zeal: they burned down Archbishop Secker preserved his ac- the house, destroyed the philoso quaintance with Dr. Chandler; that phical apparatus, and tore to pieces Dr. Johnson admitted the visits of the books of Dr. Priestley; and would Dr. Fordyce, and did not decline the have roasted him by a slow fire, if company of Dr. Mayo. When I he luckily had not, by escaping in myself too lived at Norwich, Mr. time, prevented such an accumulaBourne, a dissenting minister, not less tion of national disgrace. They eminent for the boldness of his opi- wreaked their vengeance on the nions than for the depth of his re- chapel in which he preached, and on searches, was very well received by several houses of dissenters in the the worthiest and most respectable town; and their zeal was applauded clergymen of that city. I was there- by those, whose education and birth fore, and now am at a loss to see gave hopes of a better spirit. why a clergyman of the church of Dr. Parr had also a library, was a England should shun the presence of man of talents, and was known to a dissenting minister, merely because have visited Dr. Priestley.. This was they do not agree on doctrinal points, enough for the wise men of Warwhich have long divided the christian wickshire, to whom talents and books world; and, indeed, I have always were odious; and they threatened found that when men of sense and with similar destruction the library virtue mingle in conversation, the and residence of Dr. Parr. Fortu harsh and confused suspicions which nately the men of Warwickshire they entertained of each other give were prevented from putting this deway to more just and more candid sentiments."

Dr. Parr is perfectly right, but men of narrow minds will not easily em

sign into execution, but not till they had created the greatest confusion in the doctor's family, and the anxiety he felt upon the occasion is best expres