anxious wish to be entirely freed from the responsibility of his charge; but this being a case specially reserved to the Holy See, he could not resign without the express permission of the Holy Father. Cardinal Antonelli, to whom he had, long before, intimated his desire, positively refused to countenance any application of the kind, and insisted, in the name of the Sacred Congregation, that he should continue to govern the Mission while he had strength to do so. Indeed it was only a few years before his death, when mental and bodily prostration rendered it impossible for him any longer to superintend the affairs of the Vicariate, that His Holiness could be prevailed upon to accept his resignation.
The zeal and prudence of his coadjutor, however, did much to lessen the burden of responsibility on Dr Hay, and to reconcile him to his position. He had unbounded confidence in Dr Cameron, and he, on his part, did nothing without the advice and consent of his superior.
At length he was relieved of his charge, and he retired to the Seminary at Aquhorties to prepare for death. Here he devoted himself to prayer and pious reading until his mental faculties began to give way. The intense study and continual mortification of his long and active life had worn him out, and he sank, literally exhausted by labour, into a second childhood. In this state, rendered still more affecting by the loss of speech from paralysis, he continued for nearly two years, enjoying, in other respects, comparatively good health. At last a severe illness exhausted his remaining strength, and he gradually sank till his death, on the 15th of October 181 1, in the eighty-third year of his age, and forty-third of his episcopal dignity.
The influence which Bishop Hay had so long exercised in the cause of religion did not die with him. It has been perpetuated and extended by his writings. Nor is this surpris-
