which I pray I may be enabled to act up." The success of the work (in a pecuniary sense) was astonishing. The third edition was sold in four hours! and the work went through five editions in one year. Its success in a better sense was not trifling. The removal from high life of many practices which had a tendency to demoralize every class of society, may fairly be traced to a composition than which none was more fashionable; which was universally read and quoted. Having thus exposed iniquity in high places, she prepared to carry the voice of instruction into a region where hitherto it had been altogether unheard. Her great moral victories had as yet been achieved in the meditative silence of her study-her pen had wrought them all. But she now contemplated the extension of her beneficent conquests to a region where the pen would have been an useless weapon; and the reduction of which was not to be effected by recluse meditation, but by what it is scarcely a figure to call direct campaigning. In the end of the year 1789, Mrs. More's four sisters retired, in affluent circumstances, from the labour of education. They had built for themselves a house in Great Pulteney-street, Bath, at which, and at Cowslip Green, they purposed to reside alternately. Mrs. Martha spent much time at the latter place with her distinguished sister; and, in their rural excursions, they had frequent opportunities of observing the gross ignorance which prevailed in the surrounding villages. Cheddar, in particular, was thus dishonourably distinguished. This village is situate about ten miles from Cowslip Green. The scenery is of a most peculiar character. The traveller winds, for the distance of about two miles, along a dim and sombre glen, bounded by cliffs of the most fantastic description, in many parts resembling monastic ruins, and reaching, in some places, the height of 400 feet. In the sides of this majestic barrier are many caves; some, the resort of summer pleasure parties, who contrive to spread in them a table of no inconsiderable length; others, inhabited by persons of the wildest character, whose door (where they have one) consists of a block of wood or stone, and whose chimney is a fissure of the rock. These persons obtain a precarious subsistence by the sale of the mineral productions of the country, and the seeds of the "Cheddar pink," with which the rocks abound. Such is Cheddar at the present day; but when first it came under the eye of Mrs. More it was incomparably behind its present moral position. The humorous descriptions in "Hester Wilmot" of the alarm entertained by farmers at the introduction of "religion," are no caricatures, but faithful representations of the feelings discovered by them and similar classes, when the attempt was made to establish a system of instruction at Cheddar. An opulent man of this description, Mrs. More informs us, observed that "the country in which the ladies were introducing this disturbance, had never prospered since religion had been brought into it by the monks of Glastonbury!"* The "chief despot of the village," whom Mrs. More visited "in a country as savage as himself, near Bridgwater," "begged she would not think of bringing any religion into the country; it was the worst thing in the world for the poor, for it made them lazy and useless." These discouragements, however, produced no effect on the steady zeal and determinate purpose of the christian amazon. She took up her abode awhile at the inn at Cheddar, and thence made her aggressive excursions. Personally did she canvass, for the countenance of her projected school, wretches, "ignorant as the beasts that perish, intoxicated every day before dinner, and plunged in such vices as made her begin to think London a virtuous place." On one of these occasions, when she had met with a very impracticable farmer, a lady who was with her suggested that when the children were in school, they could not rob his orchard. This argument succeeded. He who nerved her feminine spirit with the courage and determination necessary to encounter so revolting an opposition, blessed her efforts with astonishing success. A house, with about an acre of garden ground, was immediately engaged by Mrs. More at six guineas and a half per annum, for seven years! and a Sunday school immediately established. In the same year (Mr. Roberts does not favour us with the date, but it was, we believe, 1790,) Mrs. More says, in a letter to Mrs. Kennicott, 66 we have a great number who could only tell their letters when we began, and can already read the Testament, and not only say the Catechism, but give pertinent answers to any questions which involve the first principles of Christianity; but then the ability and piety of the teachers we have there, surpass what we can expect to find again."§ From Cheddar Mrs. More and her sisters extended their operations over six other parishes; and, in the course of the same year she says, "We have established schools and various little institutions over a tract of country of ten or twelve miles, and have near 500 children in training." In one of these, where 170 youths were educated and brought to church, several had been tried at the last assizes; three were the children of a person lately condemned to be hanged; many, thieves; all ignorant, profane, and vicious beyond belief. While occupied with these extraordinary exertions for the benefit of the humbler portion of her species, Mrs. More had not forgotten the amelioration of the higher. In 1790 she published her "Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, by one of the Laity;" which, in two years, went into a fifth edition. In the year 1791 the sisters had advanced operations considerably. + Ibid. p. 207. Ibid. p. 213. Some of their schools were at so great a distance from their residence, that, on occasion of their visitations, the ladies were, in some instances, obliged to sleep in the neighbourhood. Shipham and Rowberrow, two mining villages on the top of Mendip, were this year taken into the association. The system pursued in these establishments may be gathered from the account which Mrs. More herself gives us of the first of them, the school at Cheddar: compared with some "Hints" on the subject sent by her to Mr. Wilberforce. The Sunday school met at nine in the morning, when the rules were read; then some suitable portions of Scripture, and part of the XXXIVth Psalm, then a hymn, then a prayer, composed for the occasion, from the Cheap Repository Tracts. There were four classes-Bible-Testament-Psalter-and those who began to read. The last were questioned out of the little questionbook for the use of the Mendip schools. The first subject of instruction was always the three parables in Luke xv.; then Gen. i. ii. iii. The children committed to memory, Isaiah ix., liii., Psalm li., the Sermon on the Mount, and parts of our Lord's discourses in St. John's Gospel. School, in the afternoon, concluded with prayer and a hymn. In the evening, a sermon (usually from Bishop Wilson or Burder) was read, to those who chose to attend. In the weekly school, the principal difference was the introduction of sewing, knitting, and spinning. On the Wednesday nights, some of the parents would attend; and on Tuesday, several of the young people met at the school-room to read the Scriptures and hear them explained. Bibles, Prayer-books, and other books were distributed as rewards to those whose conduct and proficiency were most praiseworthy. An attentive girl, who continued. to attend the school when grown up, received on her marriage a new Bible, five shillings, and a pair of white stockings. All the children had articles of clothing at the end of the year. In connexion with the schools, Mrs. More established Female Friendly Societies, on the principle of those so generally adopted by men. The subscription was three halfpence per week, and the benefit could only be enjoyed by those women who, with their children, conformed to the school regulations. The payments were, in sickness, 3s. per week for a lying-in, 7s. 6d. In some parishes the members of these societies amounted to 150. Every year they had a feast of tea, after divine service and a sermon, and the neighbouring clergy and gentry attended to witness the proceedings. After tea, the journal and accounts were read; and the conduct of the parishioners in the past year became the subject of a strict, but grave and christian censorship, in which commendation bore its due proportion to reproof. These institutions yet remain in some of these parishes; the anniversary of one of them it was our good fortune to witness; and a most gratifying sight it was. Once a year, a dinner of beef, plum-pudding and cider, was given to all the children of the different schools on the top of one of the Mendip hills. The Clergy of the various parishes attended, and said grace at the respective tables. Nearly 1,200 children were sometimes regaled on these occasions. In the sixth year of its institution, Cheddar school had a constant attendance of 200 children, and a considerable number of aged people. The expenses of this school alone amounted to about 100l. per annum. The sisters, therefore, felt it expedient to appeal to the liberality of some affluent friends; nor was the appeal disregarded. Of all the current opinions of the day which circulate as unquestionable, there is none, we are convinced, less entitled to the credit it enjoys, than that which ascribes the growth of dissent to the supineness of the Clergy. We are not about to deny or affirm the equally prevalent belief that the Clergy were much less active some years ago; it is sufficient to remind those who hold it that they acknowledge the improvement of the present clerical generation. But whatever may have been the conduct of the Clergy, we are perfectly satisfied that their supineness is not the solution of the present problem. On the contrary, we believe that their activity has been one among various causes which have concurred to produce the effect. As far as our observation extends, the dissenters have rarely occupied the neglected and uncultivated vineyards. The Methodists have, indeed, done so in some instances; but the Methodists are not to be classed with dissenters. We know instances where parishes have been neglected, but not a single dissenter has appeared; the moment, however, an active clergyman has taken the superintendence, a meeting-house has forthwith started up. This opinion of ours meets full confirmation from a letter of Mrs. More, to Mr. Wilberforce, in which she says: I think it right that you and Mr. W— should know what a sad spirit sets these new Seceders at work. You may depend on the truth of the inclosed. They do not now so much go to places which are in darkness and ignorance, as they once professed to do, but rather where the gospel is preached, in order to draw people away from the Church and State. I imagine they will quite knock up our labours at Cheddar, but we must strive the harder. I leave you to judge whether they are wanted at that place. Poor D— preaches most faithfully to them on Sundays, and gives them a lecture in the Church on Tuesday evenings, all for 25 per annum. We have at school, a sermon on Sunday evening, with a more select meeting of the most serious on Wednesdays; add to this, that both D and our excellent Mrs. T at the school, have their doors open at all seasons to the distressed or inquiring.-Vol. II. p. 321. That Cheddar was grievously deserted by its lawful pastors is a melancholy truth; but let the dissenters make what use of this they * *It is not true, however, that there was no resident minister. The Rector, Mr. Long, was in residence. please. If instruction was neglected by the Clergy, it was reserved for the dissenters to have the honour of opposing it. * In the year 1792, there was almost an universal call for Mrs. More to advance her victorious pen against the extending principles of the French revolution. From a feeling of modesty, however, she declined undertaking a work of such apparent difficulty even to her. Still, however, after having publicly refused it, she felt it her duty to try her powers in secret, and, in a few hours, composed the dialogue of " Village Politics, by Will Chip." But distrusting her ability to produce any thing efficacious on such a subject, she clandestinely sent it, by a friend, to Mr. Rivington, employing him instead of her regular publisher, Mr. Cadell, to avoid suspicion. She waited not long for the event, for, in three or four days, every post brought her from London a present of this admirable little tract, with urgent entreaties that she would use every possible means of disseminating it, as the strongest antidote that could be administered to the prevailing poison. It flew, with a rapidity which may appear incredible to those whose memories do not reach back to that period, into every part of the kingdom. Many thousands were sent by government to Scotland and Ireland. Numerous patriotic persons printed large editions of it at their own expense; and in London only, many hundred thousands were soon circulated. Internal evidence betrayed the secret; and, when the truth came out, innumerable were the thanks and congratulations, which bore cordial testimony to the merit of a performance, by which the tact and intelligence of a single female had" wielded at will the fierce democratie of England," and stemmed the tide of misguided opinion. Many persons of the soundest judgment went so far as to affirm that it had essentially contributed, under Providence, to prevent a revolution; so true was the touch, and so masterly the delineation, which brought out, in all its relief and prominence, the ludicrous and monstrous cheat, whereby appetite, selfishness, and animal force, were attempted to be imposed upon us, under the form of liberty, equality, and imprescriptible right. -Vol. II. pp. 346, 347. In the following year, her pen was again at work in the same good cause. She produced some masterly remarks on the atheistical speech of Dupont to the National Convention. This she published with her name. The profits of this work, amounting to about 240l., were applied by her to the relief of the French emigrant clergy. She also wrote an "Address to the Ladies of Great Britain" in behalf of the same victims of Jacobinical cruelty. Three of these unfortunate men dined at her table at least twice in the week. The success of "Will Chip" induced Mrs. More to undertake a task of immense usefulness, for which, perhaps, no contemporary writer was so well qualified. This was, to bring out every month three tracts, comprising narratives, ballads, and something of a directly religious kind. The price of these was to be so far reduced as to Candour requires us to admit that one clergyman, subsequently, organized a general opposition to Mrs. More, which, of course, extended to Cheddar. This we shall notice presently. But, as he was discountenanced by his Rector and his Bishop, he is to be considered merely in the light of an individual. |