you a Master's degree by mandamus at Cambridge. I honour him for it-well, you desire to be admitted to the same degree at Oxford. Do you mean that such admission should give you the privilege of voting in our house for members of Parliament and academical honours or emoluments? In short, do you wish that the D. of Grafton should confer on you a Master's degree by mandamus at Oxford? Totov éppáσw rodí, says Archilochus. It is impossible, my dear friend. We do admit the validity of your degree when conferred, but not in our University. How can I insist upon the difference between an honorary and a mandamus degree, when that difference is unfavourable to

It is clear, that your Chancellor cannot, by conferring the latter at Cambridge, give his friend the least title to the same privileges at Oxford. I have mentioned this case to several Oxonians under the names of Caius and Titus; they all anticipate my objections before I have fully stated my case. Scott, I believe, sees it in the same light. If I do misapprehend you, explain the matter more fully. On the whole I do not see what degree at Oxford can accelerate your doctorate, except a degree by diploma, which the University seldom will confer even on men of their own body. This is the plain manner in which I speak, and in which I desire others to speak to me; if it were in its nature offensive, it would be excused by you, who know how truly and sincerely I am,

Your faithful friend, W. JONES. Paradise and I spent a fortnight at Paris last May. The nature of our business led us into the company of old Franklin. We dined with him twice, and conversed with him frequently. He is much respected in France. We had more success than I expected; our friend has some chance of receiving the profits of his Virginian estate. Lytton is turned farmer. I passed two days with him last week in Bucks. Pollard is at Paris in the deepest affliction, and most pressing distress. Alas! I could not relieve him without consummate imprudence; he cannot return to Barbadoes without more money than I could spare. He has not been to blame.

It appears by the letters of Dr. Forster and Mr. Twining, that it was not till Parr got to Norwich

that he gave up his intention of publishing his attack on the trustees of Colchester School.* Perhaps he was somewhat influenced by the shrewd remark of his friend Dr. Forster, that crape-makers would sympathize with rag-makers, and that the corporation spirit of trusteeship might be alarmed at Norwich, by what was published against Colchester. It was happily abandoned for a higher purpose: for in 1780 Parr appeared before the public as an author of Sermons. He was invited by the Mayor of Norwich in his official capacity, to print one preached in the Cathedral, and the other in the church of St. Peter's Mancroft, in that City. Of these two Sermons, which came out with the direct authority of his name, the first was preached in the Cathedral December 25, 1779, from Galatians iv. 4th ver. "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his only begotten Son." This Sermon, on the truth and usefulness

* The work alluded to in the beginning of the foregoing letter.

† Mr. Greene, of Ipswich, who afterwards published some Remarks on Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, and on Godwin's System, was one of the persons in office at Norwich when these Sermons were preached, and one of those to whom they were addressed, thus returns thanks for them:

Mr. Greene presents his compliments, and returns his thanks to Dr. Parr for the high honour he has done him, in prefixing his name (and in such respectable company) to the two Sermons with which Dr. Parr has obliged the public, and from the perusal of which he has received the greatest and most rational pleasure, satisfaction, and information.

Tuesday, 10 June 1780.

of Christianity, neither withholds nor dissembles the doubts and difficulties which have been started by sceptics, but discusses them with boldness and sincerity; it demonstrates the usefulness of the Gospel scheme with irresistible argument, and unfolds its excellence with all the earnestness of elo

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quence. Upon the whole (says Parr, in his conclusion of the Sermon,) if Christianity, upon a fair and comprehensive inquiry into its effects, be found to have done much towards the improvement of the world, let us cheerfully pay it that tribute of respect, in consequence of which it will be enabled to do more. If it appear to have done, what in our estimation is too little, let us search for the causes of every defect where alone they are to be discovered, not in the evidences or in the precepts of the religion itself, but in the infirmities of those who defend, without understanding, or who profess without practising it. At all events, let us not, by insulting its authority, and by depreciating its excellence, endeavour to reduce it to a total incapacity of doing any good; for the bulk of mankind will never obey the law which they are taught to despise, and we know from the melancholy experience of men, whose attainments and whose native vigour of mind set them far above vulgar prejudice, that, when the reverence for religion is once lost, the love of virtue is seldom retained.

ઠંડ

"There is a dark side belonging to all the concerns of man. Let us turn from it to the contemplation of those brighter scenes which unfold themselves to every unprejudiced and well-informed

Christian. Though God had, for many ages, delayed the appearance of his Son, he, in the fulness of time, sent him forth. Though many obstacles have, in our apprehensions of things, impeded the course of Revelation, it has spread itself over no inconsiderable part of the world. Though a variety of causes have obscured its lustre, and counteracted its influence, the effects of it have been sufficiently extensive and sufficiently beneficial to interest our attention, to excite our gratitude, and to warrant our faith. The tide of human affairs which, before and after the publication of the Gospel, has been secretly controlled by the Providence of God, and invariably directed to the known or unknown purposes which he had in view, is, in these later ages, apparently turning in favour of Christianity. Mutually assisting, and assisted by other causes, by the cultivation of polite learning, and of the more profound sciences; by experiments in natural philosophy, and by researches in moral; by the steady exercise, and humane temper of laws; by the liberal and enlarged principles of civil government, the Gospel is making new progress. The expectations of every worthy man may, therefore, be innocently employed upon the prospect of some happy period, when the belief of our holy religion shall be universal, and its efficacy shall be complete. His efforts, at least, may be laudably exerted in accelerating that momentous event, by which the cavils of unbelievers will be effectually put to silence, and by which the knowledge and the love of God will be deeply fixed in the hearts of all Christians, through all ages, and in all nations."

In this discourse he introduced himself to the public for the first time as a Christian teacher, and as a teacher of morals and learning he never ceased to inculcate that, when the reverence of religion is once lost, the love of virtue is seldom retained."

The second of these discourses was preached at St. Peter's Mancroft, March 24, 1780, from Hebr. xiii. 16th ver. “To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." The subject of this discourse is the education of the poor, and ably has he pleaded the noble cause: he recommends it as a Christian duty to do good and to communicate. He may be said to be one of the first divines in the crusade of education, and to have answered beyond all refutation the objections to a proper education of the poor. "Wide indeed (says he, vol. II. p. 69,) is the gulph which the Deity himself has placed between the poor and the rich," &c. &c.

Of these two Sermons I insert the opinions of Sir William Jones and Dr. Nathaniel Forster.

Sir William Jones to Mr. Parr.

21st July 1780. Temple.

I received your Sermons, and read them with no less eagerness than pleasure: they are written in a masterly style, and the second must carry conviction to the most obstinate. You call for censure; I have none to send you, nor have I time to give them their due praises. Let me hope that you will not sheath the pen which you have so nobly drawn in defence of religion and poverty, which are alike despised and unfriended by selfish men. I left your Sermons with Lytton, whom I left last Wednesday, and luckily found your letter on my table. I return to him to-morrow. He has observations to impart on your first