Q. C. Camb. Feb. 26, 1811.
My very dear Friend,
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SINCE I last wrote to you I have been spending a few days at Islington;
but my stay being very short, I was obliged to confine myself wholly to
home. I visited but one person all this time. I had hoped, however, to
have returned again soon, and to have done myself the pleasure of calling
on my several friends; but a very unpleasant circumstance has hindered
me—the bishop has refused me ordination at present: and I am under the
necessity of waiting till it shall please my gracious God to show my
path. My vicar is a _notorious_ character, and my friends have all along
been apprehensive lest I should find some difficulty in getting ordained
to his curacy. I must say, I shall not be a little disappointed should I
be obliged to relinquish all thought of Wellington; but the matter is in
the Lord’s hands, and I would willingly leave it to his all-wise
disposal. If I have learned anything by my past experience, it is this,
to feel fully persuaded that all our concerns, however unpleasant they
may be at the present, will, either in this world or in the world to
come, terminate in our good. In affairs of this kind it is better to
make as little fuss as possible: I must therefore beg you will not
mention it to any one. I shall wait quietly for the present, in hope
that the bishop may relent; but should not this be the case, I must
content myself with some other situation. Poor G. is similarly
circumstanced with myself; he has been refused _three_ times, and that,
too, in spite of the interest of the Master; he wishes to be ordained on
his Coll. Fellowship, and that lover of the truth, the good Bishop of
Ely, has every time put a spoke in his wheel. But what a mercy it is
that, notwithstanding all the opposition which serious candidates meet
with, still they are not, cannot be, entirely hindered and excluded! * *
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And believe me to remain,