IRISHMEN. NO. XV.

WE have, in a former volume of our journal (Vol. XXVI. page 480), availing ourselves of letters hitherto unpublished, and other authentic sources of information, given an account of the life of the late Archbishop Magee, from his earliest years to the period of his delivering in the chapel of Trinity College the very remarkable sermons or lectures afterwards embodied in his work on the atonement.

The reader will be interested by his own account of the actual commencement of his exertions in theological literature, which began with his appointment as Donnellan Lecturer in the University. His design he thus states in a letter to Dr. Percival :

"The subject I have chosen is the proof (of the Christian religion) from prophecy; and this has taken me into a very wide field, indeed. For, as the controversialist cannot quit his post while a single champion is to be seen upon the arena, I am obliged to make myself acquainted with the opinions of all who have written either professedly or incidentally on the subject of Scripture prophecies, lest some objection deserving notice should be overlooked. The course of reading to which this has led me has been extensive, laborious, and sometimes tedious. One advantage, however, I have derived from my researches on this head-that in every step of the inquiry I have added strength to my own conviction of the truth of Christianity, whatever may be my success in communicating conviction to the minds of others. Among the discoveries to which my pursuit has led me, one has fallen in my way, which I hope will enable me to settle the long-controverted question of Daniel's seventy weeks. The lecturer is obliged, by the terms of his appointment, to publish his sermons. Six only are required of him. But I fear I cannot do justice to the point I am concerned with in a smaller number than, with the necessary supplements and authorities, will fill two volumes octavo."

In 1797, he suffered considerably from

a tendency of blood to the head. A removal to the country was advised by his friend, Dr. Plunket (elder brother to Lord Plunket); and he took, or purchased, a small place about five miles from Dublin. This, however, occasioned no light addition to the labour of his avocations for the three succeeding years, during which he conti. nued a junior fellow; as during this interval he was, through the terms, compelled to ride into town at a very early hour in the mornings, and being kept busy through the entire day, to return home at a late hour in the evening. He could not remit his laborious private studies; but for these there was no time but in the night; and consequently, it now became his custom, for several years, after his cup of coffee and family prayers, to retire about nine every night to his study, where he continued engaged, mostly standing at his desk, till two, after which hour he retired, wearied and worn, to rest for the few hours which remained, until it was again time to start for college with the break of

morn.

The place which he took near Dublin, might have seriously involved him in the trouble of farming concerns, so little compatible with his character, habits, and avocations, but for the cleverness and activity of his excellent and exemplary wife, and the skill and attention of his father, who was at the time (1797) living within a hundred yards of his house.

We learn from his private correspondence, that after his six sermons, as Donnellan Lecturer, had been delivered, he now continued the subject on which they had been employed, as preacher for the succeeding year. After mentioning this purpose, he goes on to give the following interesting sketch of his whole design:

"With a view to establish the proof from prophecy, my design is to demonstrate a continued series of predictions, and an unbroken unity of plan pervad

ing the entire of the Old Testament, and all looking to one great Person, and one grand event. This has necessarily led me, in the first instance, to combine the various parts of the Pentateuch, and to digest the writings of Moses into one connected system. Thus much the lecture sermons have brought to a conclusion, and consequently they will admit of separate publication, and may be followed up at leisure by two other volumes, to which I find my subject will unavoidably carry me; one exhibiting the same systematic view of the prophetic and historical books, as had been in the first instance given of the books of Moses; and the other displaying the accomplishment of the whole series of prophecies in the life of Jesus Christ, and the establishment of the Christian religion. The former of these I should hope to bring out in the summer of 1798, and the latter in the summer of 1799, if health and the French permit."

After dwelling a little on the place and method of printing and publishing, he adds :

"If Eyres of Warrington were the printer employed, it would contribute much to my convenience, as I might thus enjoy the society of my friends in Lancashire next summer, instead of passing my time in London during the period of printing. I should mention that Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic types would be necessary, for which I fear Eyres is not furnished."

How deeply must the scholar and the divine who may read these lines regret the suppression, through whatever means, of such a plan as is here sketched out, and afterwards, as we can authoritatively state, executed by the most profound theologian of modern times!

At this period, Dr. Magee's zealous and alert spirit engaged him, to a greater extent than is generally known, in the great political contest which then agitated the country. It was the time when the government was engaged in endeavouring to effect the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, by means which, considered apart from any question as to their political fitness, were of a nature

to revolt every high and honourable spirit. It is also to be observed, that whatever prospective advantages, mature and deliberate wisdom might discern as the future result of that measure, the immediate disadvantages, real and apparent, were then more obvious. And it is not to be considered matter either of wonder or as involving any solid inference, if men like Bushe, Saurin, Plunket, and Magee, were among its earnest and prominent opponents. It will be no derogation from the high reputation of any one of these most illustrious men, to say that, with all their vast intellectual power and varied professional attainments, not one of them could, with any regard to accuracy of terms, have then been thought entitled to the appellation of statesmen. As divines, lawyers, orators, &c., they stand highest in the respective classes to which they are to be referred; but the laxity of popular discussion alone could have either named their then opinions as authority, or their subsequent changes of opinion with reproach. With the eminent persons above-mentioned, and several other distinguished men, Dr. Magee was associated in a paper at that time published mainly to oppose the Union; it was called "The Antiunion." Among other articles contributed to it by Magee, we may more particularly notice one which formed the main substance of the twelfth number, published January 22, 1799; this was a most able and eloquent address to the electors of the kingdom of Ireland on the subject which then so entirely engrossed the public mind. cannot very conveniently select extracts from this clever production, both because the peculiar powers of Dr. Magee are not such as to be fairly represented by specimens; for he did not, like several of the most eloquent men of his time, so much excel in passages worked up for effect, as in the even flow of a well-sustained, clear, forcible, and argumentative style; and also because, in fact, he argues against the Union with so much power and command of argument, that, considering the present state of the public

We

offers a still surer criterion.

mind, we should feel obliged to waste very considerable space in reply to reasoning very far superior to any which is now used on this beaten subject. We must, therefore, be content to put in his claim to a partnership in a paper of which the writers were the most illustrious men of their day; and to a composition not inferior to the most celebrated of those speeches in the Irish parliament, which have been so often quoted with merited admiration. From this and numerous other political papers and addresses at this period, we have been led to the inference, that if Dr. Magee had been a lawyer or a member of parliament, he would have taken as high a place in either as he has done in the Church; -that is, the highest. We cannot be mistaken in the comparison which we have been enabled to make between the best efforts of his contemporaries; and though he may have been excelled by some of these in many lesser qualifications, he has no equal for a peculiar combination and scope of the higher faculties of the reason, and for a perfect mastery of argument, and of the materials of argument. Inferior to Plunket in dexterity, to Bushe in the exquisite play of an unrivalled fancy, or to Saurin in the admirable simplicity of connected narrative, and the clear thread of discursive statement; he was superior to all in the union of their respective powers; together with an unrivalled mastery of the most comprehensive range of attainment possessed by any individual since the days of Burke.

On the 3rd March, 1800, Magee became a senior fellow, and on the 19th of the same month was elected to the chair of mathematics, which he filled with high credit till 1813, when he was succeeded by Dr. Lloyd. The state of mathematical learning in the British Isles, during that interval, was not such as to require that we should enter at any length upon the subject of his labours. In later times there can be little doubt as to what so much intellect, combined with such industry, might have done; but while the mathematical and physical sciences were obtaining some very wonderful developments on the Continent, England was, in a sense different from the poet's, penitus toto divisos orbe Brittannos. It remained for that

able and excellent man, the late Dr. Lloyd, in better times to raise our university to her proper rank as a fountain of modern science.

During the interval between his accession to the rank of Senior Fellow, and 1813, he continued mainly in the same round of academic and literary labours thus traced out. Four editions of his discourses on the Atonement had spread the reputation of his name wherever there was learning or talent. Among his admirers and correspondents he might number every person of known pretension to wit or genius. The Glasgow Religious Tract Society, with his permission, published a large portion of his work in the form of a tract, and its effect was found to be very considerable in resisting a heresy, which from its combination with revolutionary politics, rather than from any intrinsic pretension, had long been spreading. În his notes to the same work he measured himself against the ablest of the modern metaphysical writers, Smith, Hume, and Stewart, on the question of the origin of language, and gained the respectful notice of Stewart. Having most attentively studied the statements on every side, we cannot feel the slightest hesitation in affirming the decided superiority of Dr. Magee's view of the question, and of his manner of treating it. That such pretensions met with the deserved acknowledgment, we are enabled satisfactorily to ascertain from the numerous letters from the best English divines and scholars, which now lie on our table.

An interval of twenty years from the period of his marriage, had by imperceptible degrees placed him under the many anxious cares and responsibilities which belong to the father of a large family. And it is impossible to doubt that he began to feel what we know to have at the time been generally felt, his decided claim to preferment. On the death of Dr. Richard Stack, in 1818, Dr. Magee succeeded him in the livings of Cappagh and Killyleagh. He soon after removed with his family to Cappagh, in the diocese of Derry. Of this benefice, the tithes amounted to

£1000 a year. There was also glebe

land to the amount of 1572 acres, of which no more than four hundred and ten acres were then under cultivation. There was a handsome church about