[297] The editor, once conversing with the late Rev. Andrew Fuller, the well-known secretary of the Serampore Missionary Society, on the subject of Sunday schools in connexion with that noble institution, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the latter observed, "Yes: if the Bible Society had commenced its operations earlier, its usefulness would have been comparatively limited, because the faculty of reading would not have been so generally acquired. Each institution is in the order of Providence:—God first raised up Sunday schools, and children were thereby taught to read; afterwards, when this faculty was obtained, in order that it might not be perverted to wrong ends, God raised up the Bible Society, that the best of all possible books might be put into their hands. Yes, Sir," he added in his emphatic manner, "the wisdom of God is visible in both; they fit each other like hand and glove."
[298] Private correspondence.
[299] The epistle in which he commemorates his friendship for Mr. Hill begins as follows:—
"Dear Joseph—Five-and-twenty years ago—
Alas, how time escapes! 'tis even so—" &c. &c.
We add the two concluding lines, as descriptive of his person and character.
"An honest man, close button'd to the chin,
Broad cloth without, and a warm heart within."
See Poems.
[300] Ashley Cowper, Esq.
[301] Private correspondence.
[302] The Peterborough family had formerly a mansion and large estate in the parish of Turvey. It is mentioned in Camden's Britannia, so far back as in the time of Henry VIII. There are some marble monuments in the parish church, executed with great magnificence, and in high preservation, recording the heroes of foreign times belonging to that ancient but now extinct race.