of Donegal adjacent, and to a great extent, in which Mr. Skelton's parish lay, were mostly wild, mountainous, and covered with heath. The parish of Pettigo is fifteen miles long, and ten broad; of this he had the whole tithes, and had a glebe of a hundred and fifty acres situated in the county of Fermanagh. Yet, strange as it may seem, tithe and glebe did not on an average produce 2001. a-year. Possibly he might have collected a little more, had he been rigid in demanding his dues; though it is allowed that scarce a fourth part of the parish was arable. One Robert Plunket, brother to the dissenting minister, came with him from Monaghan, and got a cabin in Pettigo, with some land adjacent. He appointed him his tithefarmer, and also agreed with him for his diet and lodging.

The nature of the people was similar to that of the soil; they were rough, uncultivated, disorderly, fond of drinking and quarrelling. Mr. Skelton, by the account he heard of them, which, however, was greatly exaggerated, was really afraid they would kill him in that wild country, and therefore took with him from Monaghan, by way of servant, one Jonas Good, a great boxer, to defend him; a man of a decent family, who had a small freehold near that town, and yet consented to go with him through respect for his character. When he was agreeing with Jonas, he said to him," I hire you to fight, at which I am told you are very clever." The man said he could do a little that way, that he had never served any one before but the king, but he would serve him too, he was so good a man. "Well, sir, you must fight bravely; when you see me laying down my hands, be sure do the same, then strike stoutly, and when I stop, stop you." The man promised he would do so. To make him look more terrible, he got him a good horse, and a military saddle with holsters, in which he put two large pistols, and equipped him suitably in other particulars; though he did not dress him in livery, but in plain grave clothes. All this made his appearance decent and formidable, for he was a large able-bodied man. In their travels he always rode before him to face the danger, and got all the bows, as the people mistook him for the master. Mr. Skelton gave it out through the country, to raise a terror of him,

that he could easily beat three or four men, which excited the envy of some malicious people, who way-laid Jonas at night, and beat him most shockingly.

His parishioners were sunk in profound ignorance. One could hardly have supposed, on viewing their manners, that they were born and bred in a Christian country. Yet many of them were nominally Protestants. Mr. Skelton declared, they scarce knew more of the gospel than the Indians of America; so that, he said, he was a missionary sent to convert them to Christianity. Like others in a rude state, their chief study was to supply their natural wants, and indulge their gross appetites. The most of them seemed ignorant of the use of books, which they thought very few applied to but for some bad purpose. Mr. Skelton assured me, that soon after he came to Pettigo, he was reading one evening in his room by candlelight, with the window shutters open, and heard many people whispering in the street at his window, which brought him to the door to see what was the matter, when he found a whole crowd of people listening and watching him; for it seems they thought he was a conjuror, he dealt so much in books. So true is the observation of Swift,

Thus clowns on scholars as on wizards look,
And take a folio for a conj'ring book.

Such were the people whom he was appointed to instruct. To a benevolent clergyman like him, it gave concern, to see them in this state of ignorance and error. He had a wide field for improvement before him, and began to work immediately. He visited them from house to house; he instructed them late and early; he told them of Jesus Christ who died for their sins, whose name some of them had scarcely heard of before. In his journeys through the parish he took down the children's names, desiring their parents to send them to church to be instructed in the catechism; and introduced the proof-catechism, such as he had already made use of at Monaghan. During the summer, while he was thus employed, he explained the catechism on Sundays before all the people, which served to edify both young and old. At this lecture or explanation he spent an hour and a half every Sunday the whole summer season. He gave the

people this instead of a sermon, as it seemed to please them better, being delivered without notes, and also remarkably plain and instructive. He was thus, like Job, eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. When he had reason to suppose that the grown-up people were tolerably acquainted with their duty, by means of his public and private lectures and admonitions, he locked the church doors on a Sunday, when he had a large congregation, and examined them all to see what progress they had made under his care in religious knowledge. He would not intimate to them the day he intended to do this, well knowing if he did, that few or none of them would come. He thus endeavoured to work upon their shame, which is often a more powerful motive with men than the dread of temporal or eternal evils. In time, by his extraordinary care, he brought these uncultivated people to believe in a God who made them, and a Saviour that redemed them.

Sir James Caldwell's residence being at the extremity of the parish, he preached once in the month, on a Sunday, in his parlour, where he had a tolerable congregation, and used also to examine the people there in religion. He was once examining some persons of quality there, when one of them told him there were two Gods, and another three Gods, and so on. Such was their ignorance. One of them indeed, who had nothing to say, every question he was asked, made a genteel bow, in which he was better instructed than in religion.

In Pettigo the greater number of the inhabitants were poor Catholics, living in wretched hovels, among barren rocks and heath; of whom there were many real objects of charity, that required the assistance of the humane. In such a place the benevolent disposition of Mr. Skelton found full room for exercise; and, I may safely say, that no human breast ever had more genuine charity than his. His wonderful acts of goodness will be remembered for ages in that remote corner of the North, and be transmitted from father to son for successive generations. But a particular display of them is reserved for its proper place.

On his first coming there, he made an agreement with his hearers to give as much in charity in the church, as the

whole collection on a Sunday should amount to. But when he perceived the people began to give less than what they used, he said to them, "farewell conjunction for the time to come; you are now falling short of what you gave at first, but you shall not confine my charity;" and then divided his own portion among the poor every month.

He also practised physic at Pettigo, as at Monaghan, and bestowed on his people medicines that he had procured for the purpose. His medicines and advice must have been indispensably requisite in a country so uncivilized, that such assistance could not be easily obtained. Yet in dangerous cases he would not depend on his own skill, but sent fourteen miles off to Enniskillen for his intimate friend Dr. Scott, to whom, for his trouble in attending his parishioners, he allowed, I am assured, rent-free, the whole glebe of the parish of Pettigo, already mentioned, which is now let for 401. a year.

Soon after he got this living, the bishop of Clogher let him know by a message, that he expected he would preach the next visitation-sermon. Though he was unwilling, as some others, who were promoted before him, had not then preached, yet he promised to prepare himself for it. But his lordship had soon reason to suspect he would speak some disagreeable truths in his sermon, and make some sharp remarks on those clergymen who enjoy ecclesiastical emolu ́ments though they disbelieve or oppose the principal doctrines contained in our articles. Consequently, as he was afraid, that some of the weapons which the preacher might dart from the pulpit would hit himself, he began to repent that he had offered to put him in a situation so convenient for him to make his attack upon others. His apprehension, increasing daily as the visitation approached, caused him to send to him a favourite clergyman, one happily of his own religious notions, to inform him that the bishop would not ask him to preach at the visitation. But having, in compliance with his lordship's desire, made a sermon for the purpose, he told the clergyman, that he had prepared his sermon, and that he would preach it at the visitation. The bishop, it may be supposed, did not interpose his authority, and therefore he preached his sermon entitled, the Dignity

of the Christian Ministry, at the visitation in 1751. This probably is one of the best sermons of this nature extant in our language. Its style is clear, forcible, animated with true piety. He makes in it a very proper distinction between the temporal dignity derived from the possession of worldly goods, and the spiritual dignity conferred by Jesus Christ upon the ministers of his gospel. To quote every excellent part in this sermon, would be indeed to quote the whole; and it is impossible to contract it, as it contains almost as many thoughts as words. The bishop himself, and all double-dealers in the church got a gentle rub as he passed; but he made no personal application. For any farther particulars the inquisitive reader is referred to the sermon itself.

The publication of the "Essay on Spirit," which made a great noise in the world, produced, as might be expected, some very severe answers. Mr. Skelton, who apprehended not without reason, that the bishop suspected him to be author of some of them, wrote him a letter (in 1752) assuring his lordship he was not. He used to say in private companies, that he would not write against the bishop, as he considered himself under obligations to him for the living of Pettigo. Yet his solemn asseverations were not sufficient to remove his lordship's scruples, who, notwithstanding, under pretence of being convinced by his letter, dined with him afterward in Pettigo.

The want of rational company added to the natural gloominess of the place. Pettigo, he called Siberia, and said he was banished from all civilized society. I heard him often declare, he was forced to ride seven miles before he could meet with a person of common sense to converse with. He found it necessary, in his own defence, to take frequent excursions to hear some rational conversation, and to get rid for a while of the illiterate people of Pettigo, whose barbarous language was constantly in his ears. Sir James Caldwell, Dr. Scott, Rev. Dr. Mac Donnel, Rev. Mr. Wallace, and some other clergy of the diocess of Clogher, were the persons he used generally to

visit.

Plunket, with whom he lodged, could give him but one room with an earthen floor, where he slept and studied; in