His situation as Metropolitan Bishop, exposed him to a prodigious number of applications, from the poorer order of clergymen. London is the point to which all direct their way, when matters have gone wrong in the provinces, either from misfortune, misconduct, or disappointed speculation. He attended to all, and relieved most. One peculiarity he had, which his successors, however amiable, or deserving they may be, would do well to imitate. He considered every clergyman as entitled to personal respect and attention; nor did he ever permit any letter to remain for more than a day unanswered. If he could not comply with the solicitation, he tempered his refusal with kindness and complacency. Nothing more highly gratified him, than an opportunity of indulging his wishes and intentions with respect to those whom he allowed to look to him with expectation.
In many instances he conferred preferment unexpected and unsolicited. The present D. of C. had never been introduced to him, when he received a letter, offering him the living of St. James’s, Westminster. He gave in the same manner, one of the best Prebends of his Cathedral Church to Dr. Paley. He was solely influenced, as he often said, in the first instance, by the deserved reputation of Mr. A. as a preacher, and in the second by the excellence and utility of Dr. Paley’s writings.
He demonstrated the very high estimation in which he held the venerable Mrs. Carter, by bestowing preferment upon her nephew; and he marked the great value which he put upon Mrs. Trimmer’s meritorious exertions and literary labours, by conferring a similar favour upon her son. His noble behaviour and generous intentions towards Dr. Beattie, are sufficiently detailed in the life of that amiable man, and excellent writer, by Forbes. He gave, with a very slight personal knowledge of the individual, a considerable benefice to Mr. Twining, the learned Translator of Aristotle’s Poetics, from no other inducement than his esteem for his talents and erudition.
As a reward for protracted, active, and useful service, in the laborious office of Curate of Fulham, he bestowed a valuable living upon ⸺, the Secretary of the Bible Society. Many, a great many other instances of the kind, might easily be specified; indeed it was very obvious to all who knew him, that having provided for those to whom the ties of consanguinity and relationship, gave claims upon him, his earnest employment was to seek out those, who for their piety, their usefulness, or their learning, were suitable objects of his patronage. There is probably no example, at least in modern times, of any Prelate’s distinguishing, with such solid marks of kindness, so great a number of literary characters.
His last act of beneficence of this kind, was that perhaps which most of all occasioned his judgment to be called in question; but his motives were as pure, and his intentions as laudable, as in any instance, in which he had ever been called upon to exercise his discretion. He had often and seriously lamented, that Oriental literature was not sufficiently cultivated by those who were destined for the ministerial office in the church, and he always wished for an opportunity of demonstrating his wishes and feelings on this subject.
About the year 1808, a person was introduced to him who had been born in Prussia, educated in Koningsberg, and had a licence for preaching granted him according to the ecclesiastical ceremonies of that country. He was afterwards elected by the people of Dantzick to the situation of Pastor to the Evangelical German Community settled at Smyrna.
Here he employed his leisure in the study of the Oriental languages, and here also he learned English; and having occasionally been permitted to perform the duty in English, at the chapel of that nation, he was afterwards appointed to that office by the Levant Company. From Smyrna he visited Egypt, from thence went to Syria and Jerusalem, and the more memorable places specified in Scripture. He next visited Damascus, Balbec, and the monastery of St. John. From thence he travelled to Tripoli and Aleppo, and visiting some of the Islands in his way, returned to Smyrna by sea. Having resided here some time, he went to Constantinople, and indulging his curiosity with respect to all the Greek islands of repute, he again returned to Smyrna. In 1795, he was introduced to Mr. Wilbraham, in whose company he examined the site of ancient Babylon, and crossing the Euphrates and the Tigris, visited Bagdad. From Bagdad the travellers made a journey through Hamedan, the ancient Ecbatana, to Ispahan, and to Persepolis and Shiraz. From the last place they went to Bussorah, and crossing the desart, after various deviations in different directions, once more took up his abode at Smyrna.
His subsequent adventures were not a little extraordinary. A dreadful insurrection of the Turkish mob compelled him to leave Smyrna, from which place he departed with two pupils, on his way to Europe, on board an Imperial ship. They had hardly entered the Adriatic gulph, before they were taken by a Tripoline corsair, and carried to Modor. At Modor he and his pupils were released by an English renegado, who had the command of the Tripoline squadron, and who remembered having seen them at Smyrna.
From Modor, therefore, they took their departure for Zante; but the French, who were then masters of the Seven Islands, detained them as prisoners of war. They were carried before General Chabot at Corfu, who treated them with civility, and gave them permission to proceed to Venice; thence they got to Vienna, Berlin, Hamburgh, and finally to England.
At this point, and not without reason, the individual, from whose short account of himself, printed at the Bishop’s expence, and distributed to his friends, this is taken, emphatically exclaims,