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    MISS BOSANQUET. 85

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    Considerable Interest Having Been Expres...

    visit "while yet quite a young man , he fell into society which deepened the impressions of religion upon his ever reverent and sensitive

    mind , and entered the ministry as a clergyman of the Church of England , and was presently made Yicar of Madeley . The Methodists

    had not at that time separated from the Church , and Mr . Fletcher lived and died in the communion , though an intimate friend and

    disciple of John Wesley ' s . He was in all ways a remarkable man ; in person talldignifiedand of great skill in manly exercises , owing

    to his youthful , training , . He was an accomplished classical , scholar , and versed in polite literature ; but in later life his whole being was

    given over to the service of Christianity . His political opinions "were high Toryand were so acceptable to George III ., that that

    monarch desired , to give him preferment . But Mr . Fletcher , who cared nothing for riches , and whose Toryism only sprang from

    his constitutionally loyal and somewhat romantic mind , made the characteristic answer that " he wanted nothing but more grace . " The

    humble vicar of Madeley was a man whose endowments _might have laced him on the eminence of a Fenelonor a St . Vincent de Paul .

    p , But he chose to spend his life in comparative obscurity , among a sect who were then ridiculed as fanatics and despised as fools , and

    his name therefore is appreciated or disregarded in proportion as the great reliious revival of the last century is held to be a glory

    or a reproach g . But there are hundreds of thousands of the lower classes in England and America to whom the name of " Fletcher of

    Madeley" is a dear household word , and we know not what any man Such mig was ht more the hu desire sband . of whom Miss Bosanquet writes , " I have

    such a husband as is in everything suited to me . He bears with all my faults and failings , in a manner that continually reminds

    me of that word , ' Love your wives as Christ loved the Church . ' His constant endeavour is to make me happy ; his strongest desire , my

    spiritual Three growth years . " they lived together at Madeley , occupied in onerous

    parish struck him duties down ; and . then The details a fever of , caug that ht last in illness visiting are his all peop told le in ,

    • a long letter written by Mrs . Fletcher to Mr . Wesley , —the terriblo week of anguish inwhich every hour brought more certain doom ,

    . and the prayer which struggled with his failing breath , " Bead of the Churchbe head to my wife ! _" It is impossible , in the space of

    thi which s paper for , , public to do more and for than private to indicate interest the exceeds outlines to of our a mind story closest

    almost connection any to biograp the h great y we measures know ; linked of essential social as it amelioration is by the which and

    have marked this century . In all respects Mr . Mrs . Fletcher were democratic , and the spirit of their exertions and that not bi

    goted was immeasurabl , though _devotitl y wider y orthodox than their . They creed adopted , fellowshi was p with

    d 2

    Miss Bosanquet. 85

    MISS BOSANQUET . 85

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/35/