his assistant a whole week in Latin, for they would not allow them, all the time of this curious trial, to speak a word of English.

The following story of a bishop's examining a young man for orders I heard him often tell, and once in particular when Dr. Thomas Campbell was in company, who, I dare say, recollects it even now. He happened to come to the bishop's house too late to be examined by the archdeacon with the other candidates. However his lordship said to the young man, " as I have a regard for you, I'll examine you myself." Accordingly he brought him up to his study, which was lined with books, and made him sit down at a table that was covered with huge folios and quartos. Immediately his lordship sat down opposite to him, and thus, as Skelton said, hostilities commenced. His lordship's first question was, "Pray, Sir, how old is this world we live in?" The young man answered he could not tell. "A very sensible answer," his lordship gravely replied, "for the Septuagint says one thing, the Hebrew another, the Valmud another, the Targum another; in fact, no two of them are agreed among themselves about the age of the world, and therefore your answer is the most sensible imaginable." He then asked him again, "How old is the new world?" The young man said, naturally enough, he did not understand the question. "I mean," his lordship said, "how long is it since America was discovered?" The candidate then answered at a guess, it was so long, but happened to be wrong by fifty years. Very well, very well," replied his lordship, "you are within fifty years of it, which is no great distance, upon my word: this is enough." Thus the exami nation concluded; parturiunt montes. When his lordship came down to the rest of the candidates, he said to them, "Gentlemen, I had some notion of making each of you write a little piece of composition, as is usual on such occasions; but I have thought better of it now, and in place of it, I'll only ask you to listen to a piece of advice, I'll give you after dinner, relating to your behaviour as clergymen, which will be more useful to you, and more pleasing to me, than any nonsense you could write." His lordship then, after dinner, according to his promise, gave them this advice. "You may think," he said, "that good preaching will

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make you agreeable to your people: but here I must tell you, you are quite mistaken; it is not for this they'll like you; but I'll teach you a method of gaining all their favours. Look out for some humorous jest book, and pick out all the droll stories you meet with in it, and get them by heart. Then, if you be able, make up some new ones of your own with all the circumstances of time and place, and the like; indeed, if I had leisure, I could tell you a few of my own making, which might serve you on occasions. Take care also to recollect, if possible, every witty thing you hear in company, and fix it in your memory. Thus equipped, you will be well qualified to do the duties of your parish. For when you go to christenings, marriages, or wakes, you may easily entertain every one present by your witty jokes and droll stories, with which, you know, your head will be full; so that your company will be sought for, over the whole parish. With respect to your conduct in church (his lordship continued), I have a word or two to say to you, if you happen to make a blunder in reading prayers or preaching, don't stop to rectify it; but go boldly on; for 'tis ten to one, if a single person in the whole church be listening to a word you say; but if you stop, and go back on the word, and begin to hum and haw, the hearers will immediately prick up their ears, and whisper to one another, Ah! the curate's out, the curate's out: and thus you'll be exposed to ridicule."

The living possessed by Dr. Madden is called Drummully, worth at that time about 4007. a year; but the church, of which Mr. Skelton served the cure, is adjacent to the village of Newtown-Butler. When the living of Drummully fell vacant, the doctor was a colonel of militia, and was then in Dublin dressed in scarlet. The right of presenting to this benefice being divided between the doctor's family, and some other; his family had presented on the last vacancy, and of course the other had a right to present now. His family, however, offered to give up all right of presentation in future, if they were allowed to present on this occasion; which was agreed to, and thus the doctor got the living.

The doctor, beside his living, had a very good estate; but as he was entirely devoted to books, or acts of charity

and public good, he left the management of his income, both ecclesiastical and temporal, to his wife, a lady well qualified for the business, as she was of a different turn of mind from her husband. Mrs. Madden was also in a high degree possessed with what we call family-pride. Her grandfather, it seems, had been lieutenant of the Tower of London in the civil wars of Charles I. which made her assume a haughty superiority over most people that approached her. The place of their abode was called Manorwater-house, and is situated three miles from NewtownButler. Here Skelton lived as private tutor in his rector's family, having three or four boys to instruct in English, and the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages. His situation here was not very pleasant, for he had great trouble with his pupils, and especially with the mother's favourite, who assumed great airs, and was very refractory. But Skelton would not be guided entirely by the mother's caprice; he insisted on having the management of the boys to himself, and she on the contrary was very unwilling to grant it. He thus had frequent bickerings with her, as ladies in such cases often interfere from a mistaken affection for their children.

Being confined with his pupils the whole day until evening, he then went out among the neighbours, when he used to say, "Thank God it is evening, I have got loose from jail."

While he was thus busily engaged with his tuition, he was obliged every week to write a sermon, which he was forced to compose in the school-room among his pupils, who were constantly plaguing him with their exercises, lessons, or quarrels with each other. His situation here, it must be owned, was not very favourable for study. To complete all, he durst not, in making his sermons, borrow a word from any book but the Bible. For his pupils, he said, watched him with hawk's eyes, so that if he had any other book but the Bible before him they would immediately have given it out through the whole parish, that he copied and preached other men's sermons; which would surely have prejudiced against him the common country people, who would rather hear any nonsense of our own, than the best sermons of the most famous writers. I remember a sensible man, a dissenting minister, who attempted to read a

chapter or two of the Bible every Sunday to his people; but they began all to cry out against him, saying, " Give us something of your ain, we can read the Bible ourselves at hame." Mr. Skelton was obliged then to draw all his sermons out of his own head, which was too much disturbed by his pupils to be in a state fit for composition. It cannot therefore be expected that these sermons were very perfect in their kind; indeed he often declared, that in a year or two after they seemed so very nauseous to him, that it was as good as a vomit for him to read them. It is fortunate for a writer to see the defects of his own offspring, to which so many authors are blind.

At this time he began to perform some of those wonderful acts of charity, for which he was so remarkable during the rest of his life. The salary derived both from the cure and tuition, considering the trouble he had, was very small. Yet he gave at least the half of it away, hardly allowing himself clothes to put on. The following instance of his charity is well worthy of notice. Returning from church one Sunday, he came to a place where a cabin with three children in it had been just consumed by fire. Two of the children were burned to death; the third shewed some signs of life, but was horribly scorched. Seeing the poor people in want of linen, and touched with compassion, he stripped off his clothes, and tearing his shirt piece by piece gave it to them, as he found it necessary, till he scarce left a rag on his back.

Dr. Madden was, if possible, as charitable as he; his wife who knew his disposition, and was of a contrary disposition herself, took care to keep his pocket empty of money, for she ruled him with absolute sway. A poor woman came up to him one day asking for charity; he put his hand in his pocket, and found he had no money. At a loss how to relieve her, he gave her a pair of new gloves which he happened to have, desiring her to go and pledge them for bread.

Mr. Skelton, while he lived here, published an anonymous pamphlet in Dublin, recommending Dr. Madden's scheme for establishing premiums in Trinity College. This production, being probably the first from his pen that appeared in print, was sent immediately to the doctor, who

was highly delighted with the compliments paid him by the author, which he justly deserved, on account of his endeavours to promote the interests of literature and of the poor. When he had slightly looked over it he brought it into the school-room to Skelton, with joy in his face, and said, he had just now received from Dublin one of the finest pamphlets ever written, and must immediately solicit the acquaintance and correspondence of the author. Accordingly, he prepared a very complimentary letter addressed to the unknown author, requesting he would tell his name and honour him with his acquaintance. This letter, being approved of by Skelton, was sent to the printer of the pamphlet who returned an answer in a few days from the author, expressing the high sense he entertained of the great honour intended him by the good doctor, but that he was under the necessity, for some reasons he could not mention, of concealing his name at present. This answer was shewn to Skelton, who seemed in no wise concerned during the whole progress of the business. of the business. A second still more pressing letter was sent to Dublin, and an answer, with a civil refusal, returned; as Skelton judged it for his advantage not to discover the secret. Thus the rector and curate, one from the study, and the other from the school-room, in the same house, continued for a time, by the medium of a Dublin printer, this strange sort of correspondence. All this time, the doctor never suspected the person whom he complimented so highly to be his own curate, and the private tutor of his own children. If he had, possibly he might not have been so very respectful in his language, for people are not too apt to be complaisant to those whom they look on as their dependants, however superior they be to them in learning and abilities, which in this country are but little valued, unless dignified by the station or fortune of the pos

sessors.

Dr. Madden, as I understood from Mr. Skelton, was a gentleman highly esteemed in those times. And justly too, if a life spent in the practice of every private and public virtue entitles a man to the esteem of those who reap the benefit of his services. To the exertions of this worthy man we owe the embellishment of the Dublin Society, the advantages of which have been so often experienced. Mr.