C

STEPNEY CHURCH, MIDDLESEX. THE parish of Stepney, or, as it is named in the "Doomsday Book," Stebunhythe and Stebanhy the, stands to the east of London, on the northern bank of the Thames, and formerly occupied a widely extended district, and, from the pleasantness of the situation, became the resort of persons of rank, wealth, and fashion: strangely contrasting with its present appearance, surrounded as it is with hamlets which have been, from time immemorial, separated from it. Henry, first marquis of Worcester, had a mansion near the parsonage, of which the handsome brick gateway, with a turret at one of the angles, is still extant. Sir Henry Colet, father of dean Colet, founder of St. Paul's school, lived in a spacious mansion, west of the church, called the Great place," now Spring Gardens," a place of public entertainment.

66

According to Dugdale, from the 26th of Edward I., several inquisitions were made to examine the state of the banks and ditches between this place and the Thames; and the tenants who were found negligent were liable to be presented as delinquents. The tracing of the old embankments and sluices might afford matter for curious investigation.

The parish suffered greatly from the plagues of the seventeenth century, 2978 having died in A.D. 1625, not less than 6583 in A.D. 1665, among whom were 116 sextons and grave-diggers. A most calamitous fire broke out in a builder's, by the overflow of a kettle of pitch, in A.D. 1794, by which more than half of the houses were destroyed

the number exceeding 600-together with thirty-six warehouses, filled with articles of combustion. "Ecclesia The church, known originally as was subsequently dediOnnium Sanctorum," cated to St. Dunstan. It may be considered as among the earliest ecclesiastical foundations; but there is no positive evidence in the architectural features of the present edifice to indicate a period earlier than the thirteenth century, or a little be

VOL. XXI.

fore the time when the manor was held by John de Pulteney, four times lord mayor of London, viz., in 1330, 1331, 1333, and 1336. However, the style of the greater part of the church is that peculiar to the latter part of the fourteenth century, and downward; and the only vestiges of great antiquity may be conceived to exist in the masonry of the tower, and the strong rubble, plentifully mixed with flint, of the walls. There are several monuments.

In this church there is a mural stone dedicated to the memory of dame Rebecca Berry, wife of sir Thomas Elton, of Stratford Bow, and relict of sir John Berry, 1696. It bears the following epitaph:

"Come, ladies, ye that would appear

Like angels fine, come, dress you here;
Come, dress you at this marble stone,
And make this humble grave your own,
Which once adorned as fair a mind
As ere yet lodged in womankind.

So she was dress'd whose humble life
Was free from pride, was free from strife,
Free from all envious brawls and jars,
Of human life the civil wars;
These ne'er disturb'd her peaceful mind,
Which still was gentle, still was kind.
Her very looks, her garb, her mien,
Disclos'd the humble soul within.
Trace her through every scene of life,
View her as widow, virgin, wife;
Still the same humble she appears,
The same in youth, the same in years;

The same in low and high estate,

Ne'er vexed with this, nor moved with that.
Go, ladies, now, and if you'd be

As fair, as great, and good as she,
Go, learn of her humility."

The monument itself is one of the indescribable
forms which were in vogue in the seventeenth
century.

B 2

Biography.

SIR T. POWELL BUXTON.

No I.

SIR Thomas Fowell Buxton, eldest son of T. F. Buxton, esq., of Earl's Colne, Essex, who married miss Hanbury, of Holfield Grange, in that county, was born A.D. 1786. His father died when he was very young, and left him, with two brothers and two sisters, under the care of his widowed mother. Thomas displayed, when a boy, those noble dispositions which marked his maturer years. His mother placed him at the school of Dr. Burney, of Greenwich, where he made good proficiency in his studies. In consequence of a conception that he was the lawful heir of a large landed property in Ireland (a conception never realized), he was afterwards committed to the private tuition of a clergyman in that country, and became an undergraduate of Trinity college, Dublin. Here he carried off the highest college prizes of each successive year, almost without exception, and also the medals of the "Historical Society" of Dublin. When he had attained the age of twenty-one, he was earnestly requested to become a candidate for the representation of the university of Dublin in the British parliament; there being no doubt of his election, should he be willing to offer himself on the occasion. Sensible, however, that he was by no means fully prepared for a parliamentary career, he declined the invitation, and settled down as a private individual, having married (in 1807) Hannah, the fifth daughter of the late John Gurney, esq., of Earlham Hall, near Norwich. His connexion with a family distinguished for philanthropy doubtless gave, or decided, the direction of his mind to those great objects of Christian benevolence with which his name is inseparably blended. Afterwards he became a partner in the brewery of Truman, Hanbury, and Co., and displayed, in his control and management of that vast business, the same masterly power which he subsequently applied to very different objects. But he was far, even in those early days, from being engrossed by affairs of a pecuniary nature. Many of his hours were devoted to the further cultivation of a mind remarkable for its comprehensiveness and perspicuity, and for its faculty of intense application. He was well acquainted with the best English poets, whose writings he often quoted with facility and point. But philanthropy was his great calling; and, under the influence of the highest principle which can actuate mankind, even the love of God in Christ Jesus, he soon became devoted in heart and soul to the welfare of his fellow-men, and especially to the relief of the most distressed and afflicted of his species.

partiality for some of the practices of that body, he was led to attend the Friends' meeting, in Devonshire-house, Bishopsgate, and continued to do so, with his wife, till the year 1811, the year in which he became a partner in the brewery.

"In that year they were persuaded by an excellent clergyman, with whom they were intimately connected, to attend this place of worship, then called Wheler chapel, Mr. Pratt having lately entered upon his ministry here. And most beneficial to them was the result, as well as to other members, direct or indirect, of their family, many of whom, together with the widow of the deceased, were baptized within these walls as adults, having been previously members of, or connected with, the society of Friends, several of whom have testified to me on this occasion how great was the profit which they derived, and in how lively a manner they still bear in recollection different sermons which they once heard from our dear father, Mr. Pratt.

"But it was not till the year 1813 that Mr. Buxton became decided in his religious opinions. And in his case, as in the case of so many others, this is to be distinctly traced to two causes-the ministry of the word, and affliction. Mr. Pratt's ministry in this place was exceedingly serviceable to him, and prepared his mind for the teaching of God's providence in the school of trial. For this year God was pleased to visit him with a most alarming illness; and it was while in these deep waters that he appears to have been impressed with the evil of sin, the emptiness of the world, and the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ. The ministry of the late rev. Samuel Crowther, who was then afternoon-lecturer at Bishopsgate church, and on whose afternoon-lecture he was in the habit of attending, was also an assistance to him; although it was from Mr. Pratt's ministrations that, under God, he derived especial benefit. And so attached was he to the same, that he continued his attendance on it after he removed from Spitalfields, and while he resided at Hampstead. For ten years he was a very constant attendant here, and here he first became a regular communicant, and received the emblems of his Saviour's dying love. The rev. Edward Bickersteth writes to me in a letter, which he states that I am at full liberty to use-I yet remember with deep interest the dear and honoured face of Buxton in his constant attendance at Wheler chapel, his marked devotion, and his breathless attention to the rich treasures of Christian truth and experience which our beloved Pratt poured forth from sabbath to sabbath.' Our departed friend had a large share of trials. Some years after, in less than five weeks, he lost by death four beloved children; not to refer to two other children who were also taken from him. But we would allude now, more especially, to his "In the year 1808," says Mr. Garwood, own illness in 1813, when he was about twenty"Mr. Buxton came to reside in Spitalfields. six years of age. And did he, suppose you, murHe had been baptized in the church of Eng-mur at this? So far from it, beloved, he ever land in his infancy, by desire of his father, who was a member of that church; but, by the death of his father, when be was very young, he had fallen to the especial charge of his mother, who was a member of the society of Friends, and having afterwards himself married a Friend, and retaining at this time a degree of

esteemed it the richest mercy. You shall hear his view of it in his own words. In a letter to a friend, he writes: You call it a chastisement; but I never felt it as such. I looked upon it, when at the worst (and I have not yet ceased to do so), as a gift, as a blessing, and the chiefest of my possessions. When I was too weak to move

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

or to speak, my.... only lamentation was, that I
could not feel sufficiently thankful and grateful
for the mercy, as unbounded as unmerited, which
I experienced.' 'I would not,' said he, 'exchange
this illness for any thing in the world.' He had
previously lived a life of particular correctness
outwardly; but he now received a remarkable
view of his own sinfulness by nature and practice.
'The mercy,' he remarks, of my affliction was
to know the sinfulness of my past life, that the
best actions in it were but dust and ashes, and
good for nothing, and that, by the righteous doom
of the law, I stood convicted and condemned.' The
same gracious God who brought him thus low also
raised him up.
He showed him his sin and dan-
ger, to lead him to lay hold of an escape from the
same; for he was now brought to confide his soul
in the merits and atonement of Jesus Christ. A
verse of the New Testament was especially ap-
• He
plied to his mind. It was 1 John v. 12:
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life.' His belief was
that he should not recover from this illness; and,
while he lay upon his bed, his prayer was that he
might have Christ. If,' said he, 'I do not re-
cover, I care not, if Christ is mine.' At length
he was enabled to lay hold on his Saviour by
faith, which removed all fear of death from his
mind. His joy was extreme; and it so inspired
him that he felt he could go through any pain.
Its elevation was so great, that he was led to ask
himself whether it was not presumption in him to
exercise it, while his former life had given him no
title to his Redeemer's love; but he checked him-
self with the words: Who shall pretend to de-
scribe the limits or the person to whom the free
grace of God shall be extended? It was at this
time a matter of deep anxiety with Mr. Buxton,
that, if he should recover, he might live a life de-
voted to God. He dreaded the thought of a return
to the world and its attractions; and this amounted
even to a strong fear; but it pleased God, of his
mercy, to raise him up, and to keep him, by his
almighty power, through the remainder of his
days, although he was called on to mingle so
greatly with men of the world, and to be so busily
engaged in the things of the world.

And now, having found mercy himself, his
great desire was to show mercy to others; an ex-
cellency in which he made such attainment, that
an excellent clergyman, who knew him intimately,
and who is well fitted to judge, has said of him
that he never yet met with an individual who ma-
nifested such constant and earnest desire to do
good to his fellow-creatures. The genuineness of
the Divine principle which had changed his heart
showed itself (as it always will do) in the concern
which he manifested for his fellow-men. Mr.
Pratt's mind was peculiarly filled with the urgent
claims which a perishing world presented on the
sympathies of Christians. Being the secretary of
the Church Missionary Society, he had gradually
drunk deep of a missionary spirit; and in his mi-
nistry he very constantly urged on his hearers at
this time that, having secured their own salvation,
they should employ whatever talents and oppor-
tunities it might please God to give them, in the
promotion of the kingdom of his Son. These
constant appeals made a great impression on Mr.
Buxton's mind, when, after his recovery, he was

enabled again to attend here. In a letter of a re-
cent date, which he addressed to the late rev. Josiah
Pratt, with reference to the Niger expedition, he
wrote: My impressions and anxieties with regard
to Africa, and my desire for the spread of the gos-
pel, were planted in my mind in Wheler chapel.'

Mr.

"In the year 1813 Mr. Buxton appeared as the public advocate of the British and Foreign Bible Society, at a meeting which was held for the formation of the North-East London Auxiliary, at the London tavern, in Bishopsgate-street, and at which the father of our present most gracious queen, his royal highness the late duke of Kent, presided. His speech is still on record. Buxton, from a very early period of his attendance here, professed himself, on principle, to be warmly attached to the church of England; but, when it was contended by the learned, that the word of man was the safeguard of the word of God, he at once saw how dishonourable to God and his word was such an idea, and how entirely it was opposed to the principles of the church of England itself. If the law,' said he, was once, Search the scriptures,' shew us when and how that law was repealed. The scriptures once contained the whole doctrine of Christ: let our adversaries show us the period when the All-wise and the Almighty, finding the insufficiency of his own work, condescended to seek improvement from the puny understanding of man.'

NEW ZEALAND.

THE following is the plan of the college instituted by the bishop:~~

St. John's College, Bishops' Auckland-Industrial System.

eat.

St. Paul's Rule and Practice.-"That ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we command you" (1 Thess. iv. 11). "Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves For even an ensample unto you to follow us. when we were with you, this we commanded you, For we hear that there are some which walk that if any would not work, neither should he among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own "Ye remember, bread" (2 Thess. iii. 8, 12). brethren, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God" (1 Thess. ii. 9). this present hour we labour, working with our own hands" (1 Cor. iv. 11). "Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered I have showed you all things, how that so unto my necessities, and to them that were with labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive"

me.

"Even unto