ance with public affairs in England, and by his experience and skill in business, and the excellent reputation he bore amongst all ranks of people. His general knowledge of men and manners, and of the laws and customs of the country, rendered him peculiarly fitted to conduct the affairs of the Catholics in those times especially.
He was recommended also by the London Clergy and by the immense flock in London, of which he had the charge for over thirteen years, which loved him for zeal, prudence, and most tender charity. He was es teemed by his old Protestant friends and by those who knew him from his infancy. He had lost much temporal prosperity by his conversion to Catholicism.
"On the 27th of November, 1827, Dr. Bramston wrote to Dr. Gradwell, at that time Rector of the English College in Rome, announcing the death of Dr. Poynter his predecessor, and takes occasion also to mention that he himself was in his seventy-fourth year, in the March past, and to tell Dr. Gradwell not to be surprised if he were soon to apply for a Coadjutor. He said he had in his mind for that office the Abbé Griffiths, Rector of St. Edmund's Seminary, and the Rev. M. Kimball of Moorfields.
"On the 10th of May, 1828, Propaganda elected Robert Gradwell to be Coadjutor to Dr. Bramston, with the right of succession. Dr. Gradwell was consecrated, June 24, 1828, and on the 3ist of August, 1828, he wrote to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda, saying I arrived in London on Saturday last and received a most kindly welcome from Bishop Bramston who, although almost always sick in body, is yet vigorous in mind.
"Bishop Bramston, on the 25th of March, 1829, assisted by the Right Rev. Thomas Weld, Bishop of Amycla, and Coadjutor to the Bishop of Upper Canada, and by Bishop Gradwell, consecrated Daniel McDonnell, to be Bishop of Olympus, in partibus, and Vicar-Apostolic in Trinidad, and other Islands; and again on the 5th of February, 1832, with the assistance of Bishops Baines and Gradwell, he consecrated William Placid Morris, the
