William Preston. BISHOP OF KILLALA, AND OF FERNS AND LEIGHLIN. 1730-1789. W его "The praise that's worth ambition, is attain'd By sense alone, and dignity of mind."—ARMSTRONG. ILLIAM PRESTON is one, and not the least, of that bright galaxy of talent which appeared all at once in Heversham School; Backhouse*, Prestont, Watson‡, Sir John Wilson§, and Ephraim Chambers, are names which must, so long as education endures, throw over the Vale of Levens intellectual sunbeams of no ordinary attraction and renown. And what, above all, shall we add of Thomas Watson, who gave to all of them (except to his son, the Bishop of Llandaff) the first rudiments of wisdom? May he rest in peace! *Head Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Bishop of Llandaff. § Judge of the Common Pleas. Author of, &c., &c. See Lives. And may the school which has contributed so largely to the advancement of knowledge and to the happiness of mankind, regain its ancient strength and prestige under the fostering control and management of its present obliging and able master*! But Preston's intellectual powers were among the meanest of his virtues. He was a man whose life was pious, whose mind was enlightened by genius, enlarged by travel, softened by benevolence, and accomplished by societyt. By his happy career and great success in life, he roused the jealousy of his old school-fellow and townsman, Watson, of Llandaff; which (for reasons better to be understood after reading Watson's own Memoirs) we class high amongst the excellencies of Preston's life; for there are many men whose censure is better than their praise,-whose jealousy is preferable to their love. Preston was born at Endmoor in the township of Preston Patric, in the year 1730; and as already stated he was sent as a boy to the neighbouring school of Heversham. He was educated under Thomas Watson (the father of Richard Bishop of Llandaff), and, after his retirement, by Mr. Nicholson. From this school he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, with the exhibition of £.50 a-year, which belongs *The Rev. J. H. Sharples; as to the endowment of it, &c. see p. 192. † See Epitaph. to this school; and in which he was a few years afterwards succeeded by young Watson. In time he became Scholar and Fellow of his College. The official entries in the College books are few and far between; but they show that he took his Bachelor of Arts' degree in the year 1753, and that of Master of Arts in 1756, and lastly, that he gave up his Fellowship in September 30, 1765, while Backhouse was tutor of the College. To this date his residence in college seems almost without a gap. He now went upon his travels, visiting nearly every capital in Europe. He seems to have lived some years in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire. The probability is, for we can produce no positive evidence of the fact, that he went as tutor to some scion of the house of Rutland. Watson, in a letter hereinafter mentioned, tells us that he solicited for Preston during his absence the Professorship of Modern History in the University of Cambridge; but as Professor his name does not appear in the Cambridge Calendar. The Duke of Rutland had been, as the reader will find, the pupil of Watson, in Cambridge; but whether he introduced Watson to Lord Granby, or Watson was the true Mecenas, we are unable to determine. According to Watson's own account the credit was due to him; but so inordinate was the man's vanity, so abominably conceited and selfish, that when self or politics were concerned, he was not (as the Spectator says of Will Honeycomb in matters of women) he was not a very honest man. But to return: The Duke of Rutland succeeded Lord Northington in the vice-royalty of Ireland, in June 1784, and continued there till October 1787. Preston went over with the Lord Lieutenant as his domestic chaplain; or, as the Duchess of Rutland has caused to be recorded on his monument, Private Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was probably both, and this will reconcile all the authorities on the point. His Grace, to mark his esteem for our countryman, conferred upon him the only vacant See during his administration, namely, the Bishopric of Killala. Gore, Bishop of Limerick, died, and Pery of Killala was translated to fill his place; then in 1784 Preston was consecrated Bishop of Killala. According to the college books, this took place December 24th, 1784. Here he remained until June 1788, when he was translated to the Sees of Ferns and Leighlin. Now, in the order of time, falls a very important passage from the Anecdotes of Bishop Watson, written by himself, and which throws considerable light upon the characters of both. "About this time (says he), hearing that my old friend Preston, then Bishop of Ferns, was dangerously ill in Ireland, I felt my regard for him (which had been lessened by his acceptance of a bishopric) returning with all its force, and I wrote the following letter to him: "You have never written to me since you went to Ireland; I know nothing of you except by report. I cannot however suffer an ardent friendship of many years' standing to cool so suddenly, as not to be greatly interested in what I hear of you, and they tell me that you are ill, and dangerously ill. If the fact is so, and you think my consolation can be of any use to you, command me in any way, and to any extent you judge fit. Some twenty years ago, you were then, I believe, at Vienna, I preferred your interest to my own, in soliciting for you the Professorship of Modern History, and you wrote me word that you should die contented in having met with a true friend : that friend is still what he was then, and, though both our situations are mended, yet the principle of regard remains the same, "I am," &c. By way of breviary, as a postscript often is, follows this: "I ought not to give you advice, for you have not consulted me; and if you had, our feelings |