and became more resolved than ever to make his son an active partner in the concern.

Don't be afraid [wrote young Smith to Mrs Beal in 1845] that I am becoming a Puseyite, a Newmanite, or Roman Catholic. If you think me really higher than I was, I have given you a wrong impression. I am only confirmed in my dislike for Wesleyanism as now carried out by preachers and people, and in my decided preference for the Church, and to a certain extent I judge of systems and principles by their results in the lives and ideas of those who hold them. I think the extremes of parties are decidedly wrong; and, besides, I should be careful how I held views which would give just occasion to certain parties to exclaim against what they would state was the inevitable result of a departure from Wesleyanism, for the sake of the Church itself. I am sometimes so much annoyed by these people that I should really say some unpleasant things to them, if I did not remember that they would be carefully treasured up and used at another time against the Church as an illustration of its principles, the aggravating cause being of course forgotten, or never mentioned.

Sisters are a little strong in their views now and then, and if I become a Roman Catholic they will go first; but there is no fear. We are all quiet enough and low enough to please even you, when we get amongst Church people, but now the very reverse is forced down our throats.

Nothing has transpired respecting the business or the change that appears to wait me. The increase of clerks promises a little ease, and, accordingly, Father does not say much of selling now. His idea was that after selling the business he would find sufficient employment for his time in attending to the business of the public

A.D. 1845.]

CHRISTIAN FATALISM.

29

companies with which he is connected, and in looking. after his other property. . . . I don't think, however, that even if I go out of it he will really sell the business; he may probably do less-perhaps take some one in, as Cyrus, whom he could manage completely; but he would never give up the position of master in the concern, nor when the time for action came would he like to give up altogether the influence and income which the business gives.

I shall endeavour to be perfectly content whatever may be the result of all these things, for I feel I should not be justified in doing that which would seem to anticipate the ordering of events. The position which I desire to occupy is of far too responsible a character to be regarded merely as an occupation. I shall not therefore be satisfied unless a clear opening presents itself, and if it does, I hope I shall be enabled to fulfil conscientiously the duties to which I shall then feel I am called.1

You need not fear I have any desire to tie 2 myself up for life. It is the opposite tendency that induces Father to suggest the subject so frequently, to our great amusement. He thinks that if I entertain such thoughts now, I shall then be settled to something like business for life. But whether I take orders or not, I shall certainly not think of anything like matrimony for some years to come.

1 This lofty tone of Christian fatalism remained with Smith throughout his life. It is the note on which Samuel Johnson continually dwelt. "To prefer," he wrote to Boswell in 1776, "one future mode of life to another, upon just reasons, requires faculties which it has not pleased our Creator to give us." Again, in 'Rasselas': "Very few,' said the poet, 'live by choice: every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate.'' 2 By marriage.

It would destroy all hope of mental improvement, and make me undoubtedly "soft."

How great was the sacrifice which young Smith was called on to make to his father's will, in resisting the strong vocation he felt for the Church, may be gathered from passages in a journal kept through part of these years. In 1846, the year

he came of age, he wrote:

August 6.—The past twelvemonth has been one of great importance to me, and as far as man may be permitted to judge, determined the particular course of life I shall lead, and the object to which my best energies shall be devoted.

The decision on these most serious matters was not, perhaps, in accordance with the hopes and desires I had long cherished.

Those who have a natural claim upon my respect and obedience so strongly opposed the schemes I entertained, and in such a feeling, as to render it impossible for me to carry them into effect.

It is true that many friends (whose opinions were freely and impartially given, and who, by their position, their knowledge of the world, and the soundness of their motives, were well qualified to give them) said that they thought I was fitted for, as I was inclined to, the high and exalted position of a Minister, and they judged my strong wishes in the matter to be an indication of the will of Providence. But it is not so, at least apparently, for he whose power is absolute in the matter-under Providence itself-by the strong expression of his wishes and intentions obliged me to yield my own desires and views, and adopt his instead.

A.D. 1846.] FEELING FOR CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 31

By this I do not mean that he acted otherwise than from the kindest wishes, as he no doubt considered the course of life he contemplated for me the best and most useful, and that, in fact, for which I am designed.

However it may be, I now, as a man, am called upon to fulfil obligations imposed upon all men to their Maker and to each other. I may not idly regret the disappointment of long-cherished hopes which, it may be, I have not been justified in entertaining, but it is my duty to acknowledge an overruling and directing Providence in all the very minutest things, by being, in whatsoever state I am, therewith content. . .

My conclusion is, then, that I am at present pursuing the path of duty, however imperfectly; wherever it may lead, or what it may become, I know not.

Bitterly as the young man felt the disappointment, he did not allow it to destroy the attraction which ecclesiastical matters possessed for him, and the tenor of his after-life was accurately forecast in one of Mrs Beal's letters expressing sympathy for him in the turn affairs had taken :

In your present situation there is nothing to prevent your being very useful. I know more than I once did the difficulty ministers find to get willing, intelligent, and suitable persons to co-operate with them in carrying out many benevolent designs: in this you may render many important services. You know that you used to agree with me that if a man had but the inclination he might be as useful out of office as in it. I trust in future years you will find this to be your experience.

There is no trace in the letters or journals of this period of his abrupt severance from the sect in which William had been brought up. On the contrary, for some time after he had become a member of the Church of England, he continued to attend Wesleyan services, though with a growing distaste for that form of worship. Thus, during a tour which he took in the autumn of 1846, after he was of age, with his mother and four sisters, in the English Lake district, he wrote from Kendal:

Sunday, 2nd August.-Attended St Thomas's Church in the morning, Mr Latrobe, an excellent man, duly valued; Trinity Church in the afternoon-the old church, of immense size, having five aisles; and the Methodist Chapel in the evening. To perpetuate my remembrance of this service would be unkind.

On January 29, 1847, he wrote to Mrs Beal :-

I am going on very comfortably with Father now, seldom or never going to Chapel, or asked to do so.

Another letter to the same, written a month. later, gives the impression made on young Smith by a well-known individual :

I have had an interview with the great George Hudson, the Railway King. The Times' wrote for a man to come up to town, on my representation, who knew something of the railways down in the North, and we went together to see this great man, and to remonstrate with him con