152 Mr. Field's Memoirs and Opinions of Dr. Parr. [FEB. 



chapter for five hundred pages we have it ! " Dr. Parr's opinions" 

 on this, that, and the other ! On " Parliamentary Reform" on " The 

 Fortification Plan" on " The Indian Government" on " Burke' s 

 Reflections" on " Paine's Rights of Man" on "The Riots at Birming- 

 ham" on " Mr. Erskine" " Mr. Windham" " The French Revolu- 

 tion" and a hundred other subjects (for all subjects were alike) ; and 

 under every head, almost without exception, where the reader looks for 

 originality and wit up comes some comment as poor and pointless, or 

 argument as trite and ostentatious, as futility could desire ! 



Of the doctor's talents for conversation, we have given some examples. 

 Of his powers as a preacher, the two chief anecdotes recorded, are that 

 in his second sermon at Norwich (which, when printed, " filled seventy 

 quarto pages," and " occupied full an hour and a half in the delivery"), 

 the impatience of the auditors was not only visible in their looks ; but 

 openly displayed, by " appeals to watches, and other significant hints !" 

 and the " Spital Sermon" at Christ-church encountered a fate as bad or 

 worse.* And even, touching his claims as a schoolmaster these obser- 

 vations are absolutely forced from us but it will be remembered that his 

 schools always failed! and, certainly (from the present work), there 

 do seem to have been some causes at work which rendered it not wholly 

 unaccountable that they should have done so. 



The matter rests, then, as it seems to us, between the doctor and his 

 biographers. Either Mr. Field, who speaks of him from a long acquaint- 

 ance, and also from the added testimony of along list of friends either 

 Mr. Field has treated the doctor unfairly or the doctor (we challenge 

 contradiction, after the extracts we have made) was any thing rather 

 than an extraordinary person. 



The truth will probably lie something midway. Dr. Parr was no conjurer ; 

 but it is a hard trial to put any man's mind to, to take him upon his state- 

 ments of those who write his life. There are one or two points, too, upon 

 which, as we take it, Mr. Field has inadvertently reflected more severely 

 upon his friend than he intended to do we hope more severely than full 

 justice and consideration would have warranted. The statement that the 

 doctor caused his pupils to fight under his window, that he might " see 

 the sport, without compromising his dignity," must, we think, be 

 founded in some misconception or mistake. And the other general accusa- 

 tion that he was " disposed to urge and promote measures privately, 

 which he dared not openly avow," if it be the fact, is at least a piece of 

 information which Parr's political friends (and Parr a clergyman, 

 too!) will scarcely thank his historian for bringing forward. It is 

 possible that both these passages may have been written by Mr. Field, 

 without a sufficient perception of the strong reproof which they convey : 

 but, as they stand, they certainly do constitute charges against the moral 

 feeling of the doctor, which we who do not appear as his apologists 

 should not have thought of urging. 



* The account of this affair (p. 381) deserves to be given in Mr. Field's own words 

 " Before the service began," he says, " I went into the vestry, and found Dr. Parr seated, 

 with pipes and tobacco before him on the table. He evidently felt the importance of the 

 occasion, but felt at the same time a confidence in his own powers. When he ascended 

 the pulpit a. profound silence prevailed," &c. &c. And how does the reader suppose all 

 this breathless excitement and expectation ended ? " Unfortunately, from the great extent 

 of the church, his voice was very imperfectly heard, especially towards the close of his 

 sentences. The sermon occupied nearly an hour and a quarter in the delivery." And 

 in allusion to its extreme length, it was remarked by a lady, who had been asked her opinion 

 of it, ' Enough there is, and more than enough the first words of its first sentence." All 

 this puts one so much in mind of that other good old man, " Major Cartwright !" 



