Worcester.
Mr. Hone, whose friendship I enjoyed for some years, became toward the
latter part of his life a devout and humble Christian, and member of the
dissenting church under the pastorate of the Rev. Thomas Binney, to
which also several members of his family[3] belonged. Meeting him
accidentally, about ten years since, in Great Bell Alley, London Wall,
he led me to a small bookshop, kept I think by one of his daughters, and
showed me part of a pamphlet he was then engaged upon, relative to _his
own_ religious life and experience, as I understood him. This, I
believe, has never appeared, though he published in 1841 _The early Life
and Conversion of William Hone_, of Ripley[4], his father.
[Footnote 3: "His wife, four daughters, and a son-in-law."]
[Footnote 4: London: T. Ward and Co. 8vo. pp. 48.]
At p. 46. of this interesting narrative, he subjoins an extract from a
new edition of Simpson's _Plea for Religion_, printed for Jackson and
Walford, describing the happy change which had taken place in his own
mind. To this account, written, as Mr. Hone says, "by a very dear friend
who knows me intimately," he sets his affirmation; so that there can be
no doubt of its accuracy.
A Life of William Hone, by one who could treat it philosophically, would
be so deeply interesting, that I am surprised it has never been
undertaken. "The history of my three days' trials in Guildhall," says
he, "may be dug out from the journals of the period: the history of my
mind and heart, my scepticism, my atheism, and God's final dealings with
me, remains to be written. If my life be prolonged a few months, the
work may appear in my lifetime." This was written June 3, 1841. Was any
progress, and what, made in it?
Who so fit to "gather up the fragments," as his late pastor, Mr. Binney,
the deeply thoughtful author of one of our best biographies extant, the
_Life of Sir T. F. Buxton_?