, London During much of the following 20 years – a time of national and international political upheaval, Porteus was in a position to influence opinion in the influential circles of
the Court,
the government, the
City of London and the highest echelons of
Georgian society. Porteus did this, partly by encouraging debate on subjects as diverse as the slave trade,
Catholic emancipation, the pay and conditions of low-paid clergy, the perceived excesses of entertainment taking place on Sundays—and by becoming a vocal supporter of William Wilberforce,
Hannah More and the
Clapham Sect of
evangelical social reformers. He was also appointed as one of the members of the Board for Encouragement of Agriculture and internal Improvement in 1793. He was active in the establishment of
Sunday Schools in every parish, an early patron of the
Church Missionary Society and one of the founder members of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, of which he became vice-president. He was a well-known advocate of personal Bible-reading. He even gave his name to a system of daily devotions using the
Porteusian Bible, published after his death, highlighting the most useful passages. He was responsible for the new innovation of the use of
tracts by church organisations. Porteus was a Church of England man however, he eagerly worked with
Methodists and
dissenters and recognised their major contributions in
evangelism and education. In 1788,
George III had again lapsed into one of his periods of mental derangement (now diagnosed as
manic depression) to national concern. The following year, a Service of Thanksgiving for his recovery was held in
St Paul's Cathedral, at which Porteus himself preached. The war against
Napoleon began in 1794 and was to drag on for another 20 years. Porteus' tenure as Bishop of London saw not only services of thanksgiving for British victories at the Battles of
Cape St. Vincent,
the Nile and
Copenhagen, but the great national outpouring of sorrow at the death of
Nelson in 1805, and his
state funeral service in St Paul's Cathedral in 1806. As Bishop of London, Porteus may have officiated at some of these services, although it is unlikely that he did so at Nelson's funeral, because of the Admiral's reputation as an adulterer. After a gradual decline in his health over the previous three years, Bishop Porteus died at
Fulham Palace in 1809 and, according to his wishes, was buried at St Mary's church,
Sundridge in Kent – a stone's throw from his country retreat in the village – a place to which he had loved to retire every autumn. ==Legacy==