was not one able to attend the rest, or to search the fields or ditches, for sorrel and nettles, to relieve a perishing parent or child; that some months before he had borrowed sixty-four pounds to buy meal for them, all of which was almost expended now, though the dearth had not as yet arrived at its height; that he had no other prospect but of a broken heart, nor his numerous poor any hope of redress but in death, unless the gentlemen who had estates in the parish would lend their aid; that the tenants on his glebe, and his tithe farmers owed him more than would be sufficient to preserve his poor, but should he attempt to force payment, he should do it in vain, or increase instead of mitigating the calamity.

This letter had the desired effect. A great part of the money thus obtained, he laid out immediately on oatmeal, which was bought in Drogheda, and conveyed by carmen to Fintona in certain quantities as necessary. On Friday, which was the market day, he appointed to divide it among the poor. Part of it he intended to give away, and part to sell at a lower rate. The former was placed in the parlour of his own lodgings: the latter in the street. On the first day of the division, having dressed himself in his gown and band, he asked Mr. Eccles the Squire of his parish, who was present, if he had a fine suit of clothes, who told him he had, and put on a suit of green and gold. Thus equipped, they both walked out into the street, when the poor, anxious for food, gathered about them in crowds. Mr. Skelton then spoke to them thus:-My good people do not despair; after all the meal we have bought, we have still money remaining. You see Mr. Eccles here ready to help you; the rest of the gentlemen of property have also contributed, and I your minister, as usual, will assist you. Those that have money will get meal for three-pence a

peck

peck lower than the market price, and those that have no money will get it for nothing; but the poor that have no money must be served first.

During that summer, from May till September, he distributed gratis among his indigent parishoners, an hundred and twenty-five pecks of meal every week. In this account, the meal sold at a low rate, which was far more, is not included. For that time there were on the poors list from an hundred and sixty to two hundred, all of whom used to assemble on the market day in the street opposite his parlour window. When he was ready to divide the meal, he put his head out of the window, and shouted to them-come all of you and get your shares.

A decent looking woman went to him one day, and falling down on her knees to him, declared that she and her family were starving; but she was ashamed to take meal with the rest, having never been accustomed to ask charity before. Moved by her tender tale, he relieved her privately, and kept her alive.

4

The meal being once all spent before a fresh supply arrived from Drogheda, Mr. Skelton was just sitting down to his breakfast on a Friday morning, when he asked the people he lodged with, if the meal had come from Drogheda? They answered, no. What, said he, shall I feed myself while my poor are starving? and sent off immediately before he would eat a morsel himself, and bought as much meal at a dear rate as was sufficient for that day's division.

Having some suspicions that both meal and money would fail before the dearth would end, he starved himself, I may say, of the common necessaries of life, to buy more meal for those in need. As a substitute for snuff, which was also very dear, he made use of a sort of snuff of heath, and also pinched himself, eating only a little

şlink veal every day for his dinner, as much as was barely sufficient to subsist on. The most indulgent father could not have the welfare of his family nearer his heart, than Mr. Skelton had that of his people. He used to say triumphantly," they all came through, and none of them starved."

At this season of calamity, the lady of Mr. Knox who was then deputy Secretary of State, sent over money to his poor. Upon which he and his congregation publicly prayed for her and her husband. It is to be supposed, that they were not unmindful in their prayers of the rest of their benefactors.

(To be continued.)

MEMOIRS OF THE LATE BISHOP HALLIFAX.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

IN your 4th vol.

your 4th vol. p. 164, an inquiry is made after Memoirs of the late Dr. Hallifax, Bishop of St. Asaph. As I have not observed an answer to it by any of your ingenious correspondents, I send you the following, which is taken from Edwards's new Edition of Willis's "Survey of St. Asaph."

Jan. 12, 1804.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your constant reader and admirer,

B.

"Samuel Hallifax, LL. D. and D.D. was born at Mansfield, Derbyshire, eldest son of Mr. Samuel Hallifax, by Hannah, daughter of Mr. Jebb, of Mansfield, by

which means he was first cousin of Sir Richard and Dr. J. Jebb. He was admitted at Jesus College, Cambridge, at a very early age, where he proceeded A.B. in 1744, and A.M. in 1747; he removed to Trinity-hall (where are only two fellowships in divinity) and proceeded LL.D. in 1764. He was many years Arabic Professor at Cambridge, which he resigned in 1770, and was then made Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge, and in 1775 was created D.D. by mandate. In the service of his Professorship he acquired some eminence by a work intituled, " An Analysis of the Civil Law." He was Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty: Master of the Facultics in Doctors' Commons, worth 4001. a year, in which he succeeded the late Dr. Topham. The late Mrs. Galley, relict of Dr. Galley, Prebendary of Gloucester, and mother of J. Galley Knight, Esq. M. P. and Fellow of Trinity-hall, Cambridge, rewarded his eminent services in the cause of religion with an unsolicited presentation to the valuable rectory of Worsop, Nottinghamshire. He was Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, which he resigned upon being advanced to the See of Gloucester, on the translation of the Honourable BishopYorke to Ely in 1781, and from thence he was translated to St. Asaph, upon the death of Bishop Shipley in 1787. He was F.S.A. His lordship published fourteen single sermons; à volume upon the Prophecies concerning the Christian. Church, and in particular concerning the Church of Rome, in Lincoln's-inn Chapel, at the lecture of the late Bishop Warburton of Gloucester. An Analysis of the Roman Civil Law; in which a comparison is occasionally made between the Roman laws and those of England; being the heads of a Course of a Lectures publicly, and with great celebrity, read by him in the university of Cambridge, in 1774. He was a prelate of great knowledge

and

and of great ability, an incomparable civilian, and an extremely acute public speaker.

"His sermons at Bishop Warburton's Lecture are much esteemed; his Analysis of Bishop Butler's Analogy (a book entirely abstruse and metaphysical) annexed to the charge he published of that Bishop to his clergy, is written with great elegance of style, as well as with much profundity of thinking. He was also editor of Ogden's Sermons, to which, and the Analogy, he prefixed vindicatory and unanswered Prefaces.

Bishop Hallifax was the first English Bishop that was translated to St. Asaph, and the second that was translated to a Bishopric in North Wales. Bishop Cecil was the first who was translated from Bristol to Bangor in 1784." P. 162.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

ON THE COINCIDENCE OF DOCTRINE IN THE ANGLOSAXON CHURCH AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AT THE REFORMATION.

MR. EDITOR,

WHEN you have a spare page or two unoccupied by matter of greater consequence, I shall thank you to insert the following remarks in your Magazine. They relate to the strong, and impressive coincidence which appears between the doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church, in the tenth century, and those which were adopted at the period of the Reformation. A coincidence which, in days when Catholic emancipation forms a leading topic of discourse, should not be forgotten. When Archbishop Parker edited the paschal Homily Vol. VI. Churchm. Mag. Jan. 1804.

C

of