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not mere hollow mercenaries who were ready to bow down before whatever was the popular opinion of the day, but resolutely held their own on matters which seemed to outsiders of little moment.

The wind of adversity was mercifully tempered to many of these sufferers for conscience sake. Richard Baxter, their leader, who had refused the bishopric of Hereford, was in his forty-seventh year happily married to Margaret Charlton, scarcely past her twentieth year, a lady of gentle birth, rich in the gifts of nature and of fortune. The story of their happy married life, though, as Sir James Stephen remarks, it will not fall handsomely into any niche in the chronicles of romance,' is an interesting record of how a stern and powerful mind was subdued by the kindly influence of a tender and accomplished woman who with unremitting care ministered to his wants. Some became chaplains to wealthy and noble patrons, as for instance the profound, eloquent, and philosophical John Howe, who was engaged in that capacity to Viscount Massarene at Antrim Castle, Ireland. Others were chosen as ministers to the English factories at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, Middelburgh, and the East Indies. Some who practised as physicians or became lawyers rather gained than lost by the exchange. The great misfortune of that memorable St. Bartholomew's Day in 1662 is that it has left a sting of bitterness behind it, which even after the lapse of two centuries stands in the way of union among those who profess and call themselves Christians. It has been said that Sheldon and the bishops lost a golden opportunity at the Savoy Conference, but with our experience it may be doubted whether the Church of England would have been re-established upon a broader basis. So deeply rooted were the doctrinal prepossessions of the Presbyterians that they would have made the National Church more narrow rather than more comprehensive. To set up the authority of the kingdom of God upon earth along with free play for individual freedom of thought belongs to a higher power than human conferences and councils.

The subsequent history of the Presbyterian body in England would form an interesting chapter in what Cardinal

Newman calls the Theory of Religious Development.' Many of the English Presbyterians would have been almost as little willing to subscribe to the Westminster Confession, which became the symbol of Scotch Presbyterianism, as to submit to the Prayer Book. Common form of creed was there none among them. Creeds had become detestable to them, partly because of their own sufferings from refusing to sign theological formulas. In a short time the principle of repudiating forms of faith was put to a severe test. When about the beginning of the eighteenth century the Unitarian controversy began, one of the Presbyterian ministers declared himself to belong to the Unitarian persuasion. This caused much excitement in the general body of what were called the Protestant Dissenters. It led finally to a great representative meeting of Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists in Salter's Hall in 1719, to advise the congregation of the professing Unitarian minister how to act. After three days of eager discussion a majority resolved to bind their members by no form of creed. The Baptists were nearly evenly divided. The Independents voted as a unit in the minority. The mass of the Presbyterians voted in the majority. The votes were fifty-seven to fifty-three. The feeling of the time was expressed popularly, The Bible won by a majority of four.' A full account of these remarkable proceedings can be read in Colonel Maurice's most interesting Life' of his father, Frederick Denison Maurice, vol. i. pp. 1-5.

After the decision in Salter's Hall the defections from the original Presbyterianism rapidly increased, so that towards the close of the century almost every congregation of the old Presbyterians was in fact Unitarian in doctrine. As these congregations possessed chapels and endowments, the question came into the law-courts. A certain Lady Hewley in the reign of Charles II had left manors in Yorkshire, in trust to support godly preachers of Christ's holy gospel.' When the Presbyterian body to which Lady Hewley belonged had become Unitarians, a minority among the ministers and congregations retained their former views and asserted that the Unitarians had forfeited their right to hold the bequest. A report of the Charity Commission sanctioned.

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an inquiry into the grievance of the dissentients from the general body, and a Bill was filed in Chancery to dispossess the Unitarians. The judges of the Court decided against the Unitarians, who appealed to the Lords. The Lords required the opinion of the judges, who, with the exception of Mr. Justice Maule, were unanimous in their opinion (delivered in July, 1842) that the Unitarians were excluded from the bequest. The Lords of course affirmed the judgement of the Court of Chancery. After a litigation of fourteen years this decision was pronounced in 1842. Such were the difficulties of the case arising from this almost universal change in the doctrine of the Presbyterian body that the Government was obliged to make a permanent settlement of the question. The Lord Chancellor therefore brought in a Bill, called the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, into the House of Lords, which was passed by a considerable majority. In the House of Commons, where the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, defended the action of the Government, the majority for the third reading was 120 in a House of 282. Some slight amendments having been made in Committee the Bill was returned to the Lords, where it was again passed by a majority of 161 in a House of 243, and presently became law, thus making the Unitarians the legitimate successors of the English Presbyterians. Various reasons have been assigned for this development out of the so-called Calvinistic creed, which, in spite of the absence of any set form of words, had been at first the popular tradition among the Presbyterians in England. M. Merle D'Aubigne, the Swiss historian of the Reformation, took an especial interest in this matter, and has expressed his opinion upon it. Colonel Maurice, in the volume referred to above, has given what appears to me a very satisfactory and conclusive judgement on this point, but it would be trenching upon ground belonging too exclusively to the subject of theological and religious doctrine for me to enter upon it in these pages, well worthy as it is of investigation by those who are interested in the way in which old principles appear under new forms.

June 4, 1887.

QUERY-RICHARD WAVEL.

IN a very interesting Life of John Bunyan which has been lately written by the Rev. John Brown, B.A., minister of the Church at Bunyan Meeting, Bedford (London, 1885), the writer (p. 382) mentions among Bunyan's earliest London acquaintance Richard Wavel, son of a Royalist major in the Isle of Wight, and a preacher who, like Bunyan himself, was only too familiar with the inside of jails and the other rough. experiences of those early times.'

The early Nonconformist congregations, so it appears, were in the habit of using the halls of the city companies before they had buildings of their own. The pastor of one of these congregations, that which met in Pinners' Hall, Old Broad Street-a spacious building, having on three sides of the hall two tiers of galleries--was this Richard Wavel. It was here that as early as 1672 there was established the Merchants' Lecture which, with some migration of place, has come down to our own times, the first preachers of the lecture being Bates, Manton, Owen, Baxter, Collins, and Jenkyn, all of them names illustrious in the annals of Nonconformity.' Wavel was a man of some wit and humour, for it is told of him that, when there came some fresh outburst of persecution, he exhorted his people to constancy, assuring them that if they would venture their purses he would venture his person.

ness.

So notable a man among the Nonconformist worthies of the Isle of Wight should not pass away into utter forgetfulPerhaps this query may draw forth some notice of the life and labours of one who belonged to so ancient and highly respected a family in the Isle of Wight as that which bears the name of Wavel or Wavell.

November 13, 1887.

JOHN CHURCHILL, AFTERWARDS DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, M.P. FOR NEWTOWN, I. W., A. D. 1679.

DISTINCTION is conferred upon the Isle of Wight by the fact that its Parliamentary boroughs should have returned as their representatives at different times the two greatest military commanders whom England has produced-John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Both of these illustrious men were not only famous captains in war, they were also statesmen and diplomatists; but as men their characters were very different. Without adopting Lord Macaulay's harsh judgement on John Churchill, it must be acknowledged that Marlborough was greedy and grasping in money matters; the Duke of Wellington was the soul of honour, integrity, and disinterestedness. It is recorded of him that his steward had been commissioned to purchase for him a piece of ground, which it suited his grace to annex to his estate of Strathfieldsaye. The steward, taking advantage of the necessities of the seller, drove a very hard bargain in behalf of his master. When he told the duke that he had secured the land for a thousand pounds less than it was worth, he was disappointed that his employer did not admire his bargain-making, as he had expected. Go this instant, sir,' said the duke, 'make my respects to my neighbour, and present to him this cheque for a thousand pounds of which you have defrauded him; and if you presume to make any more of these good bargains for me, I shall look out for another servant who will be more trustworthy.'

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John Churchill was born on Midsummer Day, 1650, and was the second son of Sir Winston Churchill of Dorsetshire, a poor cavalier knight, who haunted Whitehall, and made himself a laughing-stock by writing a dull and affected folio in praise of monarchs and monarchy. The future victor of Ramillies and Blenheim was sent at an early age to St. Paul's

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