, a celebrated Irish preacher, descended from an ancient Roman catholic
, a celebrated Irish preacher,
descended from an ancient Roman catholic family, was
born in Galway, about 1754. He was sent in early youth
to the college of the English'Jesuits at St. Omer’s; and at
the age of seventeen embarked for the Danish island of
St. Croix, in the West Indies, under the protection of his
father’s cousin-german, who had large possessions there;
but after enduring for six years a climate pernicious to his
delicate constitution, and spectacles of oppression and
cruelty shocking to his feelings, he returned to Europe in
disgust. He then went to the university of Louvain, where
he received priest’s orders, and was soon after honoured
with the chair of natural and moral philosophy. In 177$
he was appointed chaplain to tfye Neapolitan ambassador
at the British court, and at this time attained some fame
as a preacher, and published some sermons, of which,
however, we find no notice in any literary journal, and as
his family could not discover any copies, we suspect his
biographer has been mistaken in this point. In 1787 he
resolved to conform to the established religion, for what
reason we are not told, unless “a conviction that he should
thus obtain more extensive opportunities of doing good.
”
He was accordingly introduced by the rev. Dr. Hastings,
archdeacon of Dublin, to his first protestant congregation,
in St. Peter’s church, where he preached on June 24th of
that year. His audience was impatient to hear the causes
of his conversion, but neither at this time, nor any other,
either in the pulpit, or in his most confidential communications, did he “breathe a syllable of contempt or reproach against any religious persuasion whatever.
”