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 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 OP 
 
 FRANCIS ATTERBURY, D.D.
 
 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANCIS ATTERBURY,D.D., 
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTICES OF HIS DISTINGUISHED CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 Conipilcb, tl/ufln from iU ^ttfrbwrir anb Stuart facers, 
 
 BY 
 
 FOLKESTONE WILLIAMS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "L.VE9 OF THE ENGLISH CAKD.NAL8," "THE COUKT AND TIMES OF JAMES I. 
 "THE COURT AND TIME8 OF CHARLES T.," ETC., ETC. 
 
 VOLUME THE FIRST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 WM H. ALLEN AND CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W 
 
 1869. 
 
 [Alt rlylUH i-mcrved.]
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 
 
 MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.
 
 
 4 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 V. I 
 
 g PREFACE 
 
 CO 
 
 >- 
 
 Beaufort and Wolsey of the Ang-lican Church, in 
 
 CT the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in their secular 
 
 importance were followed by the Primates Laud and 
 
 ;' Williams of the Ee formed Church of England. The 
 
 i impression the last two left upon the minds of the 
 
 rising generation of Churchmen (the " young Levites") 
 
 was not permitted to fade. Even during a period of 
 
 great trial to the clergy, some of the ablest evidently 
 
 kept before their eyes those remarkable exemplars of 
 
 ^ united Church and State influence just mentioned. 
 
 -' Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, seems to have 
 
 entertained notions of again exercising a similar 
 
 ^ amount of political sway ; but his royal patron 
 
 ""^ happened to be averse to ecclesiastical statesmen, 
 
 and instead of playing the part of premier, he had 
 
 to be content with that of historian. 
 
 In a contemporary he met with a Protestant 
 Churchman equally ambitious but better principled, 
 while singularly accomplished, eloquent, and enter- 
 prising. As the favourite chaplain of Queen Anne, 
 Francis Atterbury was enabled to surround himself 
 with the master minds which distino-uished the 
 Renaissance of English literature under her auspices ; 
 as her favourite prelate he was equally the centre 
 
 fvu «-? <»-) O' rud 9
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 of its political celebrities. Bishops were then very 
 active in the senate, as well as particularly'- indus- 
 trious in the study ; and Atterbury spoke and wrote 
 in a manner that marked him out as being pecu- 
 liarly adapted for administrative employment. His 
 royal patroness chanced to close her reign somewhat 
 suddenly, and the more popular party in the State 
 promptly and skilfully established the Elector of a 
 minor German State as her successor. 
 
 In furtherance of the late Queen's known wishes, 
 her confidential counsellor had held communications 
 with the exiled Royal family. The new sovereign — 
 at the suggestion, no doubt, of a rival — chose to put 
 an affront upon him in reply to an act of courtesy. 
 Having received this intimation of displeasure, the 
 Bishop of Eochester was the more readily induced 
 to join the large body of noblemen and gentlemen 
 who preferred an English to a Grerman Prince. 
 
 Looking down from the vantage ground of the 
 nineteenth century, nothing is easier than to de- 
 nounce a " meddling priest " for taking the losing 
 side in the game of politics ; but, in justice, the 
 transaction ought to be judged in connection with 
 the surrounding circumstances. It may be admitted 
 that the Stuarts were not worthy of being again 
 restored ; but the spirit of fair play which should 
 characterize an Englishman must condemn the 
 atrocious scheme to which the most corrupt minister 
 of his age had recourse, for the purpose of secur- 
 ing the expatriation and ruin of an opponent who 
 thought he had good reason for believing they de- 
 served a second restoration. The grossest act of
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 despotism was committed by a majority in tlie two 
 houses of the lesrislature against the leader of the 
 minority, and this has been supplemented by con- 
 stant persecution and calumny. The truth has been 
 carefully concealed. Long after Bishop Atterbury's 
 death, the evidence that would have exposed the 
 malice of his enemies was guarded with the most 
 jealous supervision. 
 
 All such arts, however, failed in destroying his 
 reputation. During his lifetime, an attempt at 
 biography was perpetrated; and subsequently the 
 writers of the "Biographia Britannica" included him 
 in their compilation. It was not till the year 
 1783 that John Nichols published two volumes of 
 " The Epistolary Correspondence, Visitation Charges, 
 Speeches, and Miscellanies of the Right Reverend 
 Francis Atterbury, D.D., Lord Bishop of Rochester, 
 with Historical Notes." In the preface the Editor 
 acknowledges that " he once entertained some degree 
 of prejudice against him, which he since discovers 
 to have been ill founded." This was so well re- 
 ceived, that Mr. Nichols issued another collection 
 the following year, a third in 1787, and a fifth in 
 1795 — the last a volume entitled "The Miscel- 
 laneous AVorks of Bishop Atterbury, with Historical 
 Notes." It commences with a brief memoir, which 
 contains no account of his proceedings after his exile. 
 The correspondence is extremely inaccurate, and 
 several series of errata were printed chiefly to correct 
 the mistakes published in the " corrections." 
 
 Notwithstanding that the government of Sir 
 Robert Walpole abstracted a considerable portion
 
 Vlll l'KEl>'ACE. 
 
 of Bishop Atterbury's papers alter his decease, his 
 faniily preserved many interesting memorials of him, 
 including faithful transcripts from the originals of 
 letters to and from his private friends. These were 
 prepared for the press by a son of the Bishop's 
 son-in-law, the Eeverend William Morice, Bector 
 of Tackley, near "Woodstock. To the notes he 
 added, I have appended his initials. During his 
 labours he applied for permission to inspect the 
 contemporary State Papers and the Stuart Papers, 
 and was denied.* He attempted a biography, but 
 this was merely a repetition of the names, incidents, 
 and dates to be found in Chalmers's and other 
 biographical dictionaries. Of the Bishop's later life 
 and correspondence he knew nothing. 
 
 At Atterbury's death a considerable portion of his 
 correspondence was claimed by the Pretender, and 
 carried to Italy. Cardinal York, as the sole sur- 
 vivor of the exiled Stuarts, became the custodian of 
 the papers addressed to his brother, his father, and 
 their ministers, and presented them to the Prince 
 Begent. They have remained among the Boyal 
 MSS. ever since, access being permitted only to a few 
 favoured individuals. 
 
 In the year 1847, Mr J. H. Glover, then Her 
 Majesty's Librarian, was permitted to publish a 
 volume of the Bishop's correspondence while the 
 latter was in the service of the nominal " James III." 
 It is much to be lamented that this task was not given 
 
 * The Bishop bad bequeathed his papers to his son-in-law, therefore the legal 
 right to their possession was in his family. They have recently been purchased 
 by Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co.
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 to one of tlie able editors of the State Papers, that were 
 published under the superintendence of Sir Samuel 
 Eomilly, the Editor's 103'alty apparently having caused 
 him to practise an amount of reticence respecting 
 the Jacobite author of the letters, likely to be far 
 from satisfactory to the historical student. Never- 
 theless, the volume, though awkwardly arranged and 
 most perplexingl}^ illustrated, is extremely valuable 
 for the broad light it throws on the administrative 
 career of one of the most distinguished statesmen of 
 his time. 
 
 The "Atterbury Papers," consisting of original 
 documents and equally trustworthy transcripts, have 
 fitrnished an important portion of the materials of 
 these volumes. An equally interesting portion is 
 derived from the " Stuart Papers ;" and other collec- 
 tions have been drawn upon when necessary. 
 
 Worthy of high appreciation must be the man 
 w^ho was warmly loved by Pope, revered by Wesley, 
 admired by Steele, and honoured by Swift ; who was 
 the centre of that brilliant social circle that included 
 Busby, Dry den, Addison, Prior, Congreve, Gay, 
 Arbuthnot, Garth, Padcliffe, Parnell, Eowe, Dr. 
 William King, Dean Aldricli, Lords Orrery and 
 Stanhope, Drs. John and Pobert Freind, Locke, 
 Newton, Bentley, the able critic, and Bingham, the 
 learned divine. 
 
 Nor was he less an object of regard to the rival 
 interests struggling for pre-eminence at court, 
 represented by Marlborough, Shaftesbury, Sunder- 
 land, Godolphin, Halifax, Somers, Lansdowne, 
 Dorset, Harcourt, Bathurst, Bolingbroke, Oxford,
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 Buckingham, Walpole, Carteret, Townsliend, and 
 Pulteney — not forgetting the fair candidates for 
 power, the Duchesses of Marlborough, Buckingham, 
 and Queensberry, and Lady Masham. In his own 
 profession he was honoured with the affection of 
 Bishops Trelawney, Gastrell, and Smalridge, and 
 Dr. Sacheverell ; though he excited the hostility 
 of Hoadly, Wake, Burnet, and Tenison. Such 
 were his coadjutors and opponents to the period of 
 his arbitrary banishment, when he was obliged to 
 mingle in a new set of associates, who endeavoured 
 to support the claims of the son of James II. — the 
 Dukes of Ormonde and Wharton, Lord Marischal 
 Keith, Lochiel, and the rest of that brilliant staff 
 of adventm'ers and enthusiasts who sacrificed their 
 fortunes or their lives in his service — includino; the 
 traitors who took bribes to betray its secrets. 
 
 Particularly worthy of notice will be found Atter- 
 bury's relations with his home circle ; for as he was 
 honom^ed as a prelate, and esteemed as a statesman, 
 ■he was loved as a parent. The episode in his career 
 in which his daughter figures, must be classed 
 amongst the most touching ever narrated. 
 
 An actor of such prominence in the historical 
 drama then in course of performance, ought not to be 
 denied his claim to honourable fame because he chose 
 to commit himself to legitimacy when that cause was 
 embraced by an important section of the intelligence 
 and wealth of the country. The Editor therefore 
 confidently appeals to his readers in favour of this 
 victim of party vindictiveness. It is scarcely ne- 
 cessary to assure them that in doing honour to
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 the man who, for honesty, consistency, and disin- 
 terestedness, ought to be considered the marvel of 
 a corrupt age, they may, without reproach, forget 
 the Jacobite. He never would have been one had 
 he been fairly treated. He was forced into the 
 ser^dce of the Pretender. When he found those 
 patriotic anticipations which first induced him to 
 support the cause were not likely to be realized, 
 he was wilhng to acknowledge his error ; but the 
 injustice that produced his banishment maintained 
 it till his death, and has ever since raised a senseless 
 clamour against his memory. 
 
 We have for more tJian a century been content to 
 look at the History of England, during the reigns 
 of Greorge I. and II., from the Walpole point of view. 
 That there might be another, comprehensive ob- 
 servers have long been satisfied. Its aspect from 
 the standing point now selected will be found to 
 present some remarkable features. If not quite so 
 j)icturesque as the familiar one, it possesses the re- 
 commendation of being a great deal more true.
 
 CONTENTS TO YOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 
 
 Page 
 
 Generations of Atterburys Clergymen of the Church of England 
 — Rev. Lewis Atterbury, D.D. — Popular Religion — Crom- 
 well a Patron of Merit — Dr. Lewis Atterbnry at the Restora- 
 tion — Condition of the Anglican Church — Petition against 
 
 """Dr. Atterbury — His sons Lewis and Francis — Westminster 
 School — Dr. Busby — Francis Atterbury at Westminstei* — 
 Contemporary Scholars — Bishop Trelawney — Nicholas Rowe 
 — John Dry den and his Sons — Matthew Prior — Waller's 
 Description of St. James's Park — Steele's Account of Beau 
 Fielding and the Westminster Boy in the Mall — " The Poet 
 Squab " — Performance of Dryden's " Cleomenes " by the 
 Scholars — The School described in Verse ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 OXFORD, AND " THE CHRIST-CHURCH WITS." 
 
 Christ Church College, Oxford, a Nursery of Humorists — Will 
 of Jasper Maync — Dr. William King — Dean Aldrich — Dr. 
 Smalridge — " Old Westminsters " oppose Obadiah Walker's 
 efforts to Romanize the University — Francis Atterbury 
 writes a Defence of Luther — Penn the Quaker — Arthur 
 Mainwaring — John Locke — Thomas Deane — Dr. Thomas 
 Smith's Interview with James II. — The King's arbitrary 
 Conduct towards the Universities^ — Dr. Radcliffb and Obadiah 
 Walker — Literary Productions of Francis Atterbury at 
 College — His Latin Translation of Dryden's " Absalom and 
 Achitophel" — His Remarks on Translation — His Admira-
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Pago 
 
 tion of Milton — Oxford during the Crisis — Atterbury and his 
 Father— His Pupil the Hon. Robert Boyle — The Epistles of 
 Pbalaris — The Controversy with Dr. Bentley — Temple — 
 Swift — Dr. William King — Atterbury 's Share in the Con- 
 troversy— " The Battle of theBooks "and "Tale of a Tub "— 
 Waller — Atterbury 's Preface to his Poems — Lord Roscom- 
 mon — John Phillips — Lowth — Addison — Steele — Locke's 
 " Reasonableness of Christianity" — Creed — Atterbury 
 maiTies — Leaves Oxford . . . . .17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COURT CHAPLAIN. 
 
 Lectureship of St. Bride's — Bishop of London nominates Atter- 
 bury — Is appointed Chaplain to the King and Queen — His 
 Sermon on Charity attacked by Dr. Hoadly — Prior's Poem 
 on the same Subject — Indifference of William III. to the 
 Anglican Church — Atterbmy's Sermon preached before 
 Queen Mary — Steele's Description of Atterbury as a 
 Preacher — Dr. Burgess, the popular Dissenter — Dr. Atter- 
 bury at the Chapel Royal — In Convocation before the House 
 of Commons — Appointed to the Rolls Chapel — Dr. Hoadly 
 again rushes into Controversy — Atterbury becomes Arch- 
 deacon — Thomas Yalden — The Royal Chaplains — Dr. 
 Smalridge Almoner to the Queen — Steele's Description of 
 him — Archdeacon Atterbury's High Church and High State 
 Principles — Court Physicians — Radcliffe — Mead — Garth . 66 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LITERARY FRIENDS. 
 
 Atterbuiy's Intimacy with Contemporary Men of Letters — 
 Dryden's Loyalty and Religion — His " Hind and Panther " 
 — Prior, as Diplomatist and Poet — Was he ever a Vintner ? 
 — The " Town and Country Mouse" — Prior in Parhament — 
 His " Solomon "—Atterbury's Opinion of " The Tale of a 
 Tub" — Swift connected with the Tories — His "Project 
 for the Advancement of Religion" — Steele — His Plays — 
 Originates the Tatler — Addison dedicates his Remarks 
 on Italy to Swift — His Career as a Statesman and as a
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Page 
 Journalist — Contributors to the Tatler and Spectator— ^\v 
 Isaac ISTevvton — Lord Harcourt and St. Joliu — Pope — His 
 close Intimacy with Atterbury — Gay — Pope's Afiection for 
 him — Dennis, the Critic . . . • • .86 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POLITICAL FRIENDS AND FOES. 
 
 Whig and Tory— Robert Walpole— Lord Shaftesbury— Charles 
 Montagu (Lord Halifax)— Robert Harley — Effect of Queen 
 Maiy's Death on Parties— Return to Court of the Princess 
 Anne and the Marlboroughs — Position of Atterbury— 
 Venality of Public Men— Jacobite Plots — Nonjuring Clergy- 
 men — Association for King William — Sir John Pen wick — 
 King William reconciled to the Duke of Marlborough — 
 Lord Sunderland and his Son Lord Spencer — Lord Clan- 
 carty — Death of James II. — " The Pi^etender " acknow- 
 ledged by the King of France as James III. — Dr. Burnet — 
 Duke of Dorset— Death of William III. — Advantage to 
 Atterbury of the Accession of Queen Anne — Walpole and 
 the Marlboroucrhs — A Political Crisis — The New Influence — 
 Trial of Dr. Sacheverell — Sir Simon Harcourt's Defence — 
 Atterbury and Dr. William King's Proceedings — The 
 Examiner — Dismissal of the Whigs and the Camarilla . 121 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DEAN OF CARLISLE, CHRIST CHURCH (oXON), AND WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Archdeacon Atterbury appointed Dean of Carlisle — His Cor- 
 respondence Avith the Bishops of Carlisle and Exeter — A 
 fine Gentleman — Lord Stanhope's quizzical Reference to the 
 Earl of Orrery — Letter to the Bishop of Winchester — Dean 
 Atterbury and John Strype — Swift, a Neighbour of the Dean 
 at Chelsea — Atterbury appointed Dean of Christ Church — 
 Swift's Letter of Congratulation — Mrs. Astell — Lay Baptism 
 — Letters from the Dean to the Bishop of Winchester — Dr. 
 Atter])ury gives up Preaching at Bridewell — Swift appointed 
 Dean of St. Patrick's — Dean Atterbury's Congratulations — 
 Dean Swift's Description of his Position — Dr. Atterbury
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 apiiointed Dean of Westminster — His Letter of Advice to 
 Dean Swift — Fallacies respecting his Despotic Manner — 
 Swift's Reply — Atterbury as an Antiquaiy — His First 
 Volunic of Sermons ....... 155 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Swift's Liberality to Poor Authors — His Self-denial, Exaggera- 
 tions, and Self-laudation — Atterbury's reported Attemj^ts 
 to convert Pope to Protestantism — Congreve's First Novel 
 and Play — Jeremy Collier — Atterbury discourages Attacks 
 upon the Theatre — Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough — 
 Her Devotion to Congreve — Atterbury consulted by Pope — 
 His Letter respecting the Preface to Pope's Poems, and a 
 Juvenile Epic — The Death of the Poet's Father, and on 
 Milton — Pope's Reply — Appeal from Prior declined — His 
 Epigram on Atterbury's Preaching — Pope's Account to 
 Atterbury of the Lovers destroyed by Lightning — Atter- 
 bury's Reply 189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 POLITICIANS. 
 
 Harley and the Tory Government of Queen Anne — Walpole 
 goes into Opposition— Expelled the House of Commons for 
 Corruption ; and committed to the Tower — The Examiner 
 and the Medley — Addison and Steele attack the Adminis- 
 tration — Grarth V. Prior — Addison's Compliment to Atter- 
 bury's Poetical Talent — Panegyi'ists and Satirists — Dedica- 
 tions — The Medley — Dr. William King — Lord Lansdowne 
 — His Eulogium on James II. — Steele and Walpole — Main- 
 waring — Robert Molesworth — Archdeacon Coxe's Suppres- 
 sions of the Influence of Atterbury, and Misrepresentation 
 of his Conduct — Lord Halifax impeached . . .217 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 Dr. Sprat — Queen Anne makes Atterbury a Bishop — His Visit 
 to Pope's Villa — Dr. Wake — The Bishop of Winchester —
 
 CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 Page 
 
 Dean Swift's Congratulations — Bisliop Attei'bury's Letters to 
 Bishop Trelawney — Prior solicits Preferment for a Friend — 
 Bisliop Atterbury recommends a Clergyman — Queen Anne's 
 Deatli — George I. prejudiced against the Bishop of Roches- 
 ter — He and the Bishop of Bristol refuse to sign the Decla- 
 ration of some of the Protestant Prelates in 1715 — Dr. 
 Wake Archbishop of Canterbury — Ballad on Drs. South X'S" '^ ~ 
 and Sherlock — The Bangorian Controversy — Dean Swift to 
 Bishop Atterbury — The Bishop to Sir Jonathan Trelawney 
 — His Letter to Pope respecting Prior — Infant Baptism — 
 Peerage Bill — Dr. Lewis Atterbury's Correspondence with 
 his Brother — The New Dormitory in Westminster School 
 projected by the Bishop ....... 241 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 _ COMMENCEMENT OF THE GEORGIAN ERA. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Harcourt consults Atterbury respecting his 
 first Communication to Greorge I. — His Reply — Letter from 
 Lord Boliagbroke — Prior in Custody — The Duchess of 
 Marlborough appeals to the Bishop — The Duke of Ormonde, 
 Atterbuiy, and Sir William Wyndham — Addison's Mar- 
 riage — Eustace Budgell — Gay and " The What d'ye Call 
 It " — Is offered the Post of Gentleman Usher to one of the 
 Princesses — Jacobite Pamphlet attributed to Atterbury — 
 The Duchess of Buckingham — Steele rewarded — Death of 
 Prior — Lord Bathurst — The Bishop writes to Pope — Lord 
 Lansdowne in the Tower — Honest Shippen — Pope to 
 Atterbury on the South Sea Bubble — Atterbury to Pope on 
 the Arabian Tales — Atterbuiy to Bishop Trelawney — His 
 Letters to Pope — Pope's Estimate of Addison in his Epistle 
 to Arbuthnot— Scurrilous Pamphlet — Pope's Villa — "On 
 the Bishop of Rochester's Preacliing," by the Duke of 
 Wharton 276 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CONSPIRATOR. 
 
 The " Pretender" and the Jacobites — His Claim to the Throne 
 — Bolingbrokc his Secretary of State — Movement in 1715 — 
 VOL. I. 1 +
 
 XVIU CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Bolingbrokc dismissed — Bishop Attei'bury receives Secret 
 Communications — Execution of Clergymen — James Murray 
 an Agent of the Pretender — Atterbury writes to James — 
 The Stuart Papers — Keply of James — His significant Allu- 
 sion to a Cardinal's Hat — Opinions respecting Atterbury — 
 Desire of the Pretender to stand well with English Pro- 
 testants — The Bishop collects Funds for him — Marriage of 
 James — Atterbury to Lord Mar, on the Pretender's Affairs 
 — Mystification — Quarrels of King George and the Prince of 
 Wales — Atterbury writes to Lord Mar, referring to an 
 intended Jacobite Enterprise, and the Cardinal's Hat . 316 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BISHOP ATTEKBURY's PLOT. 
 
 The Pretender writes to Lord Cadogan — The Bishop to Lord 
 Mar, respecting the Whig Government — Dismissal of 
 Lord Townshend — Trial of Lord Oxford — Bishop Atterbury 
 describes to Lord Mar the State of Parties — Duke of 
 Ormonde sent by James to Russia — Atterbury writes a 
 Secret Letter to General Dillon — Marriage of the Pretender 
 with the Princess Clementina Sobieski — Another treason- 
 able Communication from the Bishop — Cardinal Alberoni 
 and Spain — Bishop Attei-bury to "James III." and General 
 Dillon on the State of the Jacobite Cause — Mismanage- 
 ment of the Leaders — Atterbury desired to take the 
 Direction — Correspondence between Pope and Atterbury — 
 Fatal Illness of Mrs. Atterbury — Publications against the 
 Parliament and Hanoverian Succession — Atterbury to Lord 
 Oxford — His Liberality to Dr. Fiddes — Walpole's Proposals 
 to Atterbury rejected — Death of Marlborough — Letters of 
 Pope and Atterbury ....... 346 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BISHOP ATTERBURY IN THE TOWER. 
 
 Sources of Treachery open to Walpole — Correspondence Inter- 
 cepted — Bishop Atterbury, Lord Boyle, and others com- 
 mitted to the Tower — Letters of Pope and Atterbury — 
 A treasonable Communication from the Bishop read to the
 
 CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 Pago 
 
 House of Commons — Dr. Yalden's Tliorougli-paced Doc- 
 trine—" The Bill of Pains and Penalties "—Public Sym- 
 pathy with the Bishop — The Subservient Parliament — The 
 Prisoner Assaulted and Deprived of his Property — Severity 
 of his Imprisonment — Sympathy of Pope and Swift — The 
 Bishop's Letter to the Speaker — Vindictive Articles of his 
 Impeachment — The Intercepted Correspondence — The Dog 
 Harlequin — The Defence — Pope a Witness in his Favour — 
 Bishops Gastrell and Hoadly — Noble Conduct of Pope — 
 His Con-espondence with Atterbury in Prison — Apocryphal 
 Anecdote—" The Black Bird"— The Westminster Scholars 
 visit Atterbury in the Tower — His Departure — The Duke 
 of Wharton's Poem " On the Banishment of Cicero " . 382 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ^^ . THE bishop's family. 
 
 Atterbury's Children — His Daughter Mary — Her Education and 
 Marriage — The High Bailiff of Westminster — A Mysterious 
 Advertisement — shorn Atterbury at Christ Church — His 
 Father's Letter to him — Alarm of the Bishop's Family on 
 learning his Arrest — His Daiighter denied Access to him — 
 Her Petitions to the Lord Mayor, Lord Townshend, and 
 Lord Carteret — The Bishop writes to Lord Townshend — 
 Mrs. Morice permitted to see her Father — She insists on 
 accorupanying him in his Banishment — Their Embarkation 
 — Land at Calais — Loi"d Bolingbroke — The Bishop goes to 
 Brussels .......... 432
 
 "
 
 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 OP 
 
 BISHOP ATTERBURY. 
 
 CHAPTER J. 
 
 WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 
 
 Generations of Atterburys clergymen of the Church of England 
 — Rev. Lewis Atterbury, D.D. — Popular Religion — Crom- 
 well a patron of merit — Dr. Lewis Atterbury at the Restora- 
 tion — Condition of the Anglican Church — Petition against 
 Dr. Atterbury — His sons Lewis and Francis — Westminster 
 School — Dr. Busby — Francis Atterbury at Westminster — 
 Contemporary Scholars — Bishop Trclawney — Nicholas Rowe 
 — John Dryden and his Sons — Matthew Prior — Waller's 
 Description of St. James's Park — Steele's Account of Beau 
 Fielding and the Westminster Boy in the Mall — " The Poet 
 Squab " — Performance of Dryden's " Cleomenes " by the 
 Scholars — The School described in Verse. 
 
 The Atterburys flourished for many years at Great 
 Houghton, in North amptonshu'c, and were an emi- 
 nently relij^ious race. Several in' succession held pre- 
 ferment in the Church of England. Francis, rector 
 of Middleton Malsor, or Milton, in the same county, 
 who had a numerous family, in 1648 subscribed 
 
 VOL. J. 2
 
 Z RELIGIOUS CHANGES. 
 
 the Solemn League and Covenant. He had then a 
 son Lewis, who the previous year had been entered 
 a student of Clirist Church College, Oxford, and in 
 February of the year following obtained a Bachelor of 
 Arts' degree. Lewis Atterbury continued his studies 
 during the startling events that were then affecting 
 both Church and State, and on March 1, 1651, per- 
 mitted himself to be created M.A. by dispensation 
 from the very remarkable Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, Oliver Cromwell.* 
 
 The Presbyterians, who had been such active assail- 
 ants of the Church of England, could not easily 
 reconcile themselves to the supremacy of the Inde- 
 pendents, for whose overthrow they engaged in plots ; 
 but Cromwell seized the plotters, and their leader, a 
 popular preacher, Love, was executed at Tower Hill 
 on the 22nd of August, 1G51. 
 
 During the Commonwealth the Reverend Lewis 
 Atterbury appears to have submitted to the Lord 
 Protector's government, if he did not adopt his 
 notions of theology, notwithstanding the struggle for 
 pre-eminence between the Presbyterians and Lide- 
 pendents, who now maintained the late relative posi- 
 tions of the Churches of England and of Eome. In 
 1654 he contrived to secure the rectory of Eissington 
 in Gloucestershire, while three years later he was 
 appointed rector of Middleton Keynes, or Milton, in 
 Buckinghamshire. During this period the Anglican 
 Church underwent strange changes. Her hierarchy 
 was abolished, and her services more or less set aside. 
 
 * He resigned in 1657, and was succeeded by his son Richard. Wood, Fasti, II., 
 114.
 
 CROMWELL. 
 
 An affectation of simplicity of doctrine and severity 
 of manners, after the model of Scottish sectarians, 
 had prevailed generally, but this was presently super- 
 seded by more rigid rules and a sterner appearance of 
 sanctity. 
 
 The principles of the popular religion were sin- 
 gularly attractive. No man, it was averred, could be 
 made pious by compulsion, nor be forced to adopt 
 a particular ceremonial. True worship consisted in 
 works of righteousness and mercy ; false in injustice, 
 infidelity, and oppression ; and the civil magistrate 
 was bound to encourage the one and repress the 
 other. Eeligious quarrels were considered destruc- 
 tive to true religion, and punishments for difference 
 of opinion were pronounced irrational as well as 
 unjustifiable. 
 
 Cromwell caused these principles to be generally 
 accepted ; but, though a fanatic, his shrewd practical 
 sense enabled him to put a restraint on the ten- 
 dency towards extravagance of his more zealous sup- 
 porters. He favoured scholarship, virtue, genius, and 
 science ; and among the many meritorious men he 
 patronized — including the poets Milton and Waller, 
 the patriot Andrew Marvel, and the scholars and 
 philosophers Usher, Pell, Hartlib, and Hobbes — was 
 Lewis Atterbury. 
 
 To the toleration that could afford a handsome 
 funeral for the Archbishop of Armagh, the rector of 
 Milton doubtless owed the quiet enjoyment of his 
 preferment; and many a clergyman was permitted to 
 do clerical duty in country parishes who prudently 
 refrained from preaching against the Government. 
 
 2 *
 
 4 CHARLES THE SECOND. 
 
 Tliis course the Anabaptists and Quakers declined to 
 follow, and certain zealots of each sect were in conse- 
 quence severely punished — the vain dreams of the 
 Fil'th Monarchy men obtaining from the vigilant 
 Lord Protector of the Commonwealth a particularly 
 rude awakening. Unmolested the Eev. Lewis Atter- 
 bury remained in Buckinghamshire, devoting himself 
 to his parish, when news arrived in the autumn of 
 1G58 of the death of Cromwell. 
 
 During the year of uncertainty that followed this 
 termination of the Protectorate, the beneficed clergy 
 who had conformed outwardly to the theological rule 
 of its government saw that but one arrangement 
 could save the nation from religious and political 
 anarchy. As the army, after some hesitation, adopted 
 the same idea, the exiled King was recalled. To 
 ministers of the Church of England the Eoyal exile 
 was especially indebted for whatever interest lay 
 members of that community felt in his fortune. 
 Dr. Barwick was indefatigable in his demonstrations 
 of loyalty, but after running many risks, and endur- 
 ing a strict imprisonment, he was sent over by the 
 prelates to His Majesty for the purjDOse of making 
 the latter acquainted with the position of the Anglican 
 Church. Charles II. landed at Dover on the 25th of 
 May, when Monk, who had the command of all the 
 military force in the country, at the head of a 
 numerous deputation of the nobility and gentry, 
 placed him in possession of the kingdom. 
 
 The rector of Milton had married a few years 
 before this apparently auspicious event, and now, 
 being the father of a flourishing famil}^, hastened to
 
 BR. LEWIS ATTERBURY, SENR. 5 
 
 take advantage of the new influence. He proceeded 
 to town, and was well received at Court ; lie se- 
 cured his benefices by institutions under the Great 
 Seal, and obtained the appointment of Chaplain 
 Extraordinary to the King's younger brother, the 
 Duke of Gloucester ; but as the Prince died on the 
 20th of September, his post could not have been 
 very profitable. 
 
 The Eev. Lewis Atterbury, created Doctor of 
 Divinity in the following December, had two sons — 
 Lewis, born on the 2nd of May, 1056, and Francis, 
 whose birth did not take place till March 6, 1662-3. 
 Both were born at the rectory, which is in the 
 parish of Newport Pagnell. Between the Eestora- 
 tion and the birth of the Doctor's second son, im- 
 portant revolutions had been effected throughout the 
 country, particularly in the position of his brother 
 clergymen. The hierarchy were restored to their 
 rights, privileges, and possessions ; nearly all the 
 Presbyterians were dispossessed of the Church livings 
 they had obtained ; and the Anglican Church, under 
 the direction of the Chancellor Hyde, Lord Clarendon, 
 put in full possession of the authority it had exercised 
 during the primacy of the unfortunate Laud. On 
 the 17th of May, 1662, was passed the Act of Uni- 
 formity, to which the rector, with all persons, vicars 
 and curates, subscribed his " assent and consent." 
 
 A i)etition from Edmund Hall, chaplain to Sir 
 Edward Bray, was sent in May, 1661, for a recall of 
 the presentation to Lewis Atterbury to the rectory 
 of Broad Eissington, m Gloucestershire, stating that 
 he had been presented to it by the patron of the
 
 6 CHARGE AGAINST LEWIS ATTERBURY. 
 
 living-, Sir E. Bray, four years before, but deprived 
 because Sir Edward was sequestered, and he opposed 
 to the existing Government. The petitioner avers 
 til at he returned to Eissington at the Eestoration, and 
 that his patron would be greatly prejudiced " should 
 Atterbury, a person who served against His Majesty," 
 be suffered to retain this preferment.* He addressed 
 another petition about the same period, praying for 
 confirmation of his title. 
 
 How the rev. gentleman appealed against had 
 committed himself towards Royalty, as thus referred 
 to, does not appear. His offence probably was having 
 conformed to the religious opinions of the intruding 
 Government, which he shared with many other 
 Anglican priests. Indeed, in subsequent years, when 
 reaction was strongest in a portion of the clergy, 
 they were often reproached for their Presbyterian 
 and Independent conformity. 
 
 The incumbent in possession evidently took advan- 
 tage of his legal nine points, for he retained this 
 preferment as well as the rectory in Buckinghamshire, 
 though residing chiefly at the latter, where he brought 
 up his family ; educating his sons with great care till 
 they were of an age to profit by the advantages of 
 the first public seminary in the kingdom. 
 
 After the Benedictines had established themselves 
 in England, their larger monasteries were not more 
 famous as religious houses than as nurseries of 
 learning. In several, schools of great local celebrity 
 were founded, and one of the best was the College of 
 St. Peter's, attached to the minster in the western 
 
 * State Papers. Domestic Series ; Charles II. Green, I., 600.
 
 DR. BUSBY. / 
 
 subui'b of the metropolis. It flourished age after 
 age, producing scholars and divines remarkable for 
 their attainments. The Eeformation introduced a 
 new order of thino-s. The monks ceased to be the 
 great educationalists of the nation ; their school at 
 Westminster was preserved, but before long it was 
 established on a totally different system. In the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, Lord Burleigh, who had 
 received his schooling here, contrived that the for- 
 feited possessions of the suppressed fraternity should 
 be restored, to create a new foundation for a " third 
 University of England." The new college of St. 
 Peter's, as a nursery of instruction in grammar, rlie- 
 tai'ic, poetry, and the classics, thenceforward under 
 the auspices of such able head masters as Adams, 
 Passey, Udall, Eandall, and Camden the historian, 
 continued to be regarded as the best of our public 
 schools. The brightest ornaments of Church and 
 State laid there the solid foundation of their emi- 
 nence, and the great families, as well as the families 
 that desired to be great, either sent their sons to 
 study there, or sought to have them placed among 
 the forty King's scholars on the foundation. 
 
 The most celebrated master of Westminster, the 
 scholastic autocrat who for half a century reigned 
 supreme over generation after generation of school- 
 boys, was Dr. Eichard Busby, whom Charles II. good- 
 humouredly permitted to go covered before him, 
 while he bore his hat in his hand, on the Doctor 
 representing that his authority would be at an end 
 if his scholars thought there could be a greater man 
 in the world than himself.
 
 8 WESTMINSTER SCHOLARS. 
 
 Dr. Busby was the intimate friend of the elder 
 Atterbury, who sent both his sons to prolit by liis 
 teaching. Lewis left in the year 1074, and Francis 
 remained six years at the school, experiencing all tlie 
 benefits that could be derived from that famous sieve 
 which produced so much scholastic talent in Church- 
 men and in statesmen of the first rank.* These were 
 stirring examples to Francis Atterbury, and he devoted 
 himself to his duties with an earnestness of purpose 
 certain to secure profitable results. He, too, fonnd 
 himself associated with young adventurers scarcely 
 less enterprising, who inspired him with a sufficient 
 amount of emulation. Ten scholars on the foundation 
 are annually sent to College, four to Christ Church, 
 Oxford, and six to Cambridge, and they must be the 
 best classics in the school. There are generally about 
 thirty candidates, and those selected must have estab- 
 lished a superior knowledge in Greek, by challenging 
 their rivals to a display of their acquirements in that 
 language. They were in the habit of committing to 
 memory a variety of passages, and acquired a familiarity 
 with several of the Latin dramatists by acting the 
 plays of Terence and Plautus. 
 
 * Justice was subsequently done to this eminent educationalist by Steele, who 
 wrote : " I must confess (and I have long reflected upon it) that I am of opinion 
 Busby's genius for education had as great an effect upon the age he lived in as 
 that of any ancient philosopher, without excepting one, had upon his contem- 
 poraries." He presently adds, " I have known great numbers of his scholars, 
 and am confident I could discover a stranger who had been such with a very little 
 conversation ; those of great parts, who have passed through his instruction, 
 have such a peculiar readiness of fancy and delicacy of taste, as is seldom found 
 in men educated elsewhere, though of equal talents." In conclusion he avers, 
 " The soil which he manured always grew fertile ; but it is not in the planter to 
 make flowers of weeds : whatever it was, under Busby's eye it was sure to get 
 forward towards the use for which nature designed it,''
 
 BISHOP TRELAWNEY. 9 
 
 Francis Atterbiuy had the advantage of making 
 many school friendsliips that lasted through a long- 
 period of his active career. Jonathan Trelawney was 
 a Westminster boy. He went, as usual, from the 
 school to Cluist Church, Oxford, at the age of eighteen 
 (1G68), and took his M.A. degree in 1675. He 
 entered the Church, receiving some preferment in 
 Cornwall, but his elder brother dying in 1G80, he 
 succeeded to the baronetcy, and was appointed to the 
 bishopric of Bristol in 1685.* 
 
 Bishop Trelawney had, as was customary, left a 
 name behind him, which, carved on the woodwork, 
 kept his more aspiring successors in mind of the re- 
 compense that awaited the zealous student. Francis 
 Atterbury had subsequently reason to remember this. 
 The very Eeverend Sir Jonathan Trelawney, baronet, 
 visited the school as an old Westminster when 
 Francis was in his last year of pupilage. Nicholas 
 Eowe was a contemporary schoolfellow of Atterbury's, 
 worked with him under the severe rule of Busby, 
 wdth the usual result — proficiency as a scholar and 
 inspnation as a poet. He produced several Greek 
 and Latin compositions that were much admired 
 by his contemporaries ; and his early attempts at 
 poetry were considered to be equally meritorious. f 
 
 His talent for tragedy presently displayed itself 
 
 * The bishop had a younger brother, Major-General Charles Trelawney, who 
 survived till 1731. 
 
 + He quitted school to follow the profession of his father, who had attained 
 the rank of Serjeant-at-law, leaving the studies at Westminster for those of the 
 Middle Temple ; where, however, he soon displayed his natural bias, illustrating 
 the familiar couiilet, — 
 
 "A youth condemned his father's soul to cross, 
 And pen a stanza when he sliould engross."
 
 10 DRYDEN AND IIlS SONS. 
 
 SO conspicuously, that it attracted influential friends 
 towards liim, and under tlieir auspices his career 
 became exclusively literary. 
 
 John Dryden was another great example. Two 
 of his sons were also educated at Westminster, and 
 did not leave till they had been made excellent 
 scholars. The elder, Charles, remained till the sum- 
 mer of 1G83, and displayed proficiency in Latin 
 verse in an address to Lord Roscommon, for his Lord- 
 ship's "Essay on Translated Verse," published in the 
 course of the following year. This was followed, in 
 1GS5, by a contribution in the same language to the 
 Cambridge Monodies on the Death of Charles II., as 
 well as by a description in Latin verse of Lord 
 Arlington's gardens, for the second Miscellany of his 
 father, to whose translation of Juvenal he contri- 
 buted the seventh Satire. 
 
 The second son, John, was not less carefully in- 
 structed, but was subsequently, in consequence of his 
 father's conversion, when sent to Oxford, placed under 
 the care of Obadiah Walker. He contributed the four- 
 teenth Satire to his father's translation of Juvenal. 
 
 Matthew Prior was kept at Westminster till Busby 
 had made a scholar of him worthy of supporting the 
 fame of the school, particularly in the composition of 
 Latin verse. How he excelled in this accomplish- 
 ment may be seen in his addresses to the Bishops of 
 Rochester and Ely, and to Lord Dorchester, and in 
 several of his short pieces. That his acquirements 
 were above the average was also proved by his career 
 at Cambridge, of which University he became a Eel- 
 low of St. John's College. Bishop Burnet's account
 
 waller's ST. James's park. 11 
 
 of him is disfigured by tliat party-writer's prejudices. 
 Prior w^as the son of a London citizen, and is said to 
 have been born in the metropolis on July 31, 1664.* 
 He must therefore have been sixteen in his last half- 
 year with Francis Atterbury. There were many 
 more eminent school contemporaries and predecessors 
 mth whom the latter, as will be seen, resumed friendly 
 associations during his career. 
 
 Whilst at school, young Atterbury explored the 
 neighbourhood till he had acquired a pretty accurate 
 knowledge of its attractions. After sufficiently 
 familiarizing his mind with the rural beauties of 
 Tothill Fields, he went further afield. Waller 
 had recently attempted to do justice to an early 
 effort in landscape gardening in this neighbour- 
 hood, in a poem entitled " On St. James's Park, as 
 lately improved by His Majesty." That there must 
 have been sufficient excuse for rambling out of 
 bounds, is evident from the opening verse : — 
 
 Of the first Paradise there is notliing found ; 
 Plants set by Heaven are vanished — and tlie ground — 
 Yet the description lasts. Who knows the fate 
 Of lines that shall this Paradise relate ? 
 
 One of the marvels of " Eden's Garden," appears to 
 have been the water, which the poet, apparently with 
 a special call upon his imagination, calls tlie tide, the 
 sea, and the river. Then the foliage is described : — 
 
 For future shade, young trees upon the hanks 
 Of the new stream appear in even ranks ; 
 The voice of Orjjheus, or Amphion's hand, 
 In better order could not make them stand. 
 
 * History of his Own Time, compiled from the original MSS. of his late 
 Excellency Matthew Prior, Esq., 1740, p. 2.
 
 12 COURT BEAUTIES. 
 
 The Court poet now ventures to anticipate : — 
 
 Methinks I see the love that shall be made, 
 The lovers walking in that amorous shade, 
 The gallauts dancing by the river's side. 
 They bathe in summer, and in vifintcr slide. 
 Methinks I hear the music in the boats. 
 And the loud echo which returns the notes ; 
 Whilst overhead a flock of new-sprung fowl 
 Hangs in the air, and does the sun control. 
 Darkening the sky they hover o'er, and shroud 
 The wanton sailors with a feathered cloud ; 
 Beneath a shoal of silver fishes glides, 
 And plays about the gilded barges' sides. 
 The ladies angling in the crystal lake, 
 Feast on the waters with the prey they take ; 
 At once victorious with their lines and eyes. 
 They make the fishes and the men their prize. 
 
 The same vein of exaggeration goes on for a 
 hundred lines. But nothing of the kind here de- 
 scribed was seen by the young Westminster of that 
 day, or has been known to his successor two hundred 
 years later. The locality has seen many changes, yet 
 never realized the fanciful picture painted by Edmund 
 Waller, as he acknowledges in the opening sentence 
 of his preface, " only to please himself and such 
 particular persons for whom his talent had been 
 exercised." 
 
 Proceeding to the ornamental water in the centre 
 of the park, the scholars amused themselves by feed- 
 ing the ducks, which had been the care of the Merry 
 Monarch and his idle court, when the too ingenuous 
 Pepys, or the prudent and virtuous Evelyn, made 
 one of the loyal throng who looked on admiringly ; 
 and thence strolled into the Mall, where the impru- 
 dent Nelly, the more evil-disposed Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth, the haughty Castlemaine, and a score of other 
 Court beauties, still displayed their attractions to the
 
 BEAU FIELDING. 13 
 
 licentious gaze of the Sedleys, the Ethereges, the 
 Buckinghams, the Eochesters, and the other reckless 
 spirits of a shameless age. 
 
 Young Atterbury and young Prior strolled with 
 other adventurous " Westminsters " into the great 
 promenade of fashionables, and there gazed admir- 
 ingly on Beau Fielding taking an airing in his 
 carnage, when that model fine gentleman behaved in 
 the manner subsequently chronicled by a congenial 
 spirit. After a characteristic speech, quite as offen- 
 sive as vain-glorious, the very gallant hero is reported 
 to have exclaimed, " AVliy, you young dogs, did you 
 never see a man before ? " 
 
 ' -Never such a one as you, noble general," replied 
 a truant from Westminster. 
 
 " Sirra ! I believe thee," answered the coxcomb. 
 " There is a crown for thee. Drive on, coachman." * 
 
 Among the notables, over whom a few brief years 
 before the sagacious Clarendon had been the pre- 
 siding spirit, Atterbury could have distinguished the 
 swarthy features of the heir to the throne, under one 
 or other of the two mischievous influences that were 
 shortly to bring much evil on his country — the 
 female or the priestly — in gallant attendance on the 
 mother of the Duke of Berwick, or absorbed in the 
 deep-laid schemes of Father Petre. After witnessing 
 the worship of the rising sun among the waiters on 
 Providence, who appeared to dog the Duke's foot- 
 steps, the youth's attention was sure to be attracted 
 to a short familiar figure, with fat florid face almost 
 lost under an immense wig, nicknamed by the licen- 
 
 ♦ 
 
 TaAler, No. 50. Dated from " White's Chocolate House."
 
 14 PLAYS AT WESTMINSTER. 
 
 tious Rochester " the Poet Squab," and by other 
 irreverent associates " Little J3ayes," but known and 
 honoured in the cloisters at Westminster as John 
 Dryden. 
 
 In the year 1695 there was at Christmas a repre- 
 sentation by the scholars of Dryden's " Cleomenes," 
 for which Prior wrote a prologue that was spoken by 
 Lord Buckhm-st : — 
 
 Pish. ! Lord, I wish this prologue was but Greek, 
 
 Then young Cleonidas would boldly speak ; 
 
 But can Lord Buckhurst in poor English say, 
 
 Gentle spectators, pray excuse the jilay ? 
 
 No ! witness all ye gods of ancient Greece, 
 
 Rather than condescend to terms like these, 
 
 I'll go to school six hours on Christmas day. 
 
 Or constrae Perseus, while my comrades play ; 
 
 Such work by hireling actors should be done, 
 
 Who tremble when they see a critic frown ; 
 
 Poor rogues that smart like fencers for their bread. 
 
 And if they are not wounded are not fed. 
 
 But, sirs, our labour has more noble ends ; 
 
 We act our tragedy to see our friends. 
 
 Our gen'rous scenes are for pure love repeated. 
 
 And if you are not jileased — at least you're treated. 
 
 The candles and the clothes ourselves we bought. 
 
 Our tops neglected, and our balls forgot. * 
 
 To learn our parts we left our midnight bed ; 
 
 Most of you snored whilst Cleomenes read. 
 
 Not that from this confession we could sue 
 
 Praise undeserved — we know ourselves and you. 
 
 Resolved to stand or perish by our cause, 
 
 We neither censure fear or beg applause, 
 
 For those are Westminster and Sparta's laws. 
 
 Yet if we see some judgment, well inclined. 
 
 To young desert and growing virtue kind. 
 
 That critic by ten thousand marks should know 
 
 That greatest souls to goodness only bow ; 
 
 And that your little hero does inherit, 
 
 Not Cleomenes' more than Doi-set's spirit. 
 
 But both the Atterburys had left the school long 
 before this. Francis, in the year 1680, at the head of 
 
 * An execrable rhyme.
 
 CLASSES. 15 
 
 the four selected for Oxford, all of whom Dr. Busby- 
 had passed through his " sieve," with what results 
 their several careers have shown. His companions were 
 Henry Mordaunt, Francis Gastrell, and Welbore Ellis. 
 No one ever felt his obligation to the great master 
 more profomidly than Francis Atterbury, and no one 
 ever expressed them with so much scholastic fervour ; 
 evidence of wliich may be found in two Latin letters 
 addressed to his distinguished preceptor after he had 
 quitted Westminster. 
 
 The positions of the different classes into which 
 the school was divided, and their various studies, 
 have been thus described : — 
 
 Next to tlie door the first and last appears, 
 
 Designed for seeds of youtli and tender years. 
 
 The second next your willing notice claims, 
 
 Her numbers more extensive, more her aims. 
 
 Then, a step nearer to Parnassus' height, 
 
 Look cross the school, the tlurd employs your sight ; 
 
 There Martial sings, there Justin's works appear, 
 
 And banished Ovid finds protection there. 
 
 From Ovid's tales transfen-ed, the fourth pursues 
 
 Books more sublimely penned, more noble views. 
 
 Here Vii'gil shines, here youth is taught to speak 
 
 In diflferent accents of the hoarser Greek. 
 
 Fifth, those better skilled and deeper read in Greek 
 
 From various books can various beauties seek. 
 
 The sixth, in ev'ry learned classic skilled, 
 
 With nobler thoughts and brighter notions filled, 
 
 From day to day with learned youth supplies 
 
 And honours both the Universities, 
 
 Near these "the Shell's" high concave walls appear.* 
 
 Though these lines are of a later date, and refer 
 to the great head master as a pictorial decoration 
 only,— 
 
 There Busby's awful picture decks the place, 
 Shining where once he shone — a living grace ; 
 
 * Gentleman's Mayadne, 1739.
 
 1() THK SHELL. 
 
 their details may be relied upon as representing tlie 
 scene over wliicli he presided in person, sitting under 
 the " shell," when Atterbury and Prior were among 
 his favourite scholars, and the inspiring name John 
 Dryden stood conspicuous among old Westminsters 
 of a departed generation, carved by himself on one 
 of the benches.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OXFORD, AND "THE CHRIST-CHURCH WITS. 
 
 j> 
 
 Christ Churcli College, Oxford, a Nursery of Humorists — Will 
 of Jasper Mayiie — Dr. William King — Dean Aldrich — Dr. 
 Smalridge — " Old Westminsters " oppose Obadiah Walker's 
 efforts to Romanize tlie University — Francis Atterbury 
 pyrites a Defence of Luther — Penn the Quaker — Arthur 
 Mainwaring — John Locke — Thomas Deane — Dr. Thomas 
 Smith's Interview with James II. — The King's arbitrary 
 Conduct towards the Universities — Dr. Radcliffe and Obadiah 
 Walker — Literary Productions of Francis Atterbury at 
 College — His Latin Translation of Dryden's " Absalom and 
 Achitophel" — His Remarks on Translation — His Admira- 
 tion of Milton — Oxford during the Crisis — Atterbury and his 
 Father — His Pupil the Hon. Robert Boyle — The Epistles of 
 Phalaris — The Controversy with Dr. Bentley — Temple — 
 Swift — Dr. Wilham King — Atterbury's Share in the Con- 
 troversy— " The Battle of theBooks "and "Tale of a Tub "— 
 Waller — Atterbury's Preface to his Poems — Lord Roscom- 
 mon — John Phillips — Lowth — Addison — Steele — Locke's 
 " Reasonableness of Christianity" — Creed — Atterbury 
 marries — Leaves Oxford. 
 
 Christ Church College, Oxford, was full of facetious 
 traditions of former students and canons, who appear 
 to have cultivated a taste for humour, occasionally not 
 unlike that for which Rabelais was famous amongst 
 his countrymen in a preceding age. Jasper Mayne 
 was a writer of much divinity and talker of much 
 profanity, a royal chaplain, canon of Christ Church, 
 and Archdeacon of Chichester, who died December 
 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 18 DR. WILLIAM KING. 
 
 ()tli, Hi 7.0, leaving a will in whicli he mentioned an 
 old servant, whose bibulous propensities he appeared 
 to encourage by bequeathing him a box containing 
 something that would induce him to drink after the 
 testator's decease. The man heard the will read, and 
 hurried to take possession of the promised provision, 
 anticipating nothing less than the run of the cellar, 
 or imlimited credit at the tavern. He burst open the 
 box and found — a red herring. 
 
 The community of this College acquired a particular 
 recommendation, being known in the University as 
 "Tbe Christ Church Wits." One of them, Dr. WilKam 
 King, left Westminster School in 1681. At college 
 his severe application has been exaggerated into 
 reading and annotating twenty-two thousand volumes ; 
 nevertheless there is no doubt he was an excellent 
 scholar. He also possessed humour and satire in no 
 ordinary degree.* 
 
 While enjoying the reputation of a wit, he 
 endeavoured to gain estimation as a critic and a 
 divine, by an able reply to Varilla's attack upon the 
 first and greatest of English reformers of the Church 
 of Eome.f This appears to have been published in 
 the year 1688, when he took his M.A. degree. He 
 then devoted himself to the study of civil law, with 
 a view to the profession of an advocate in the eccle- 
 siastical courts. 
 
 * See among numerous facetiaj his poem "Molly of Mountown," the heroine 
 being a red cow of his, -when he ruralized, instead of fulfilling important duties 
 in Dublin, to which he got appointed about the year 1702. Much more amusing 
 was his satire on Sir Hans Sloane, entitled, " The Transaotioncer." 
 
 t Reflections upon M. Varilla's History of Heresy, Book I., tom. I., as far 
 as relates to English matters, more especially those of WickliiTe.
 
 ROMANIZING AT OXFORD. 19 
 
 Another " old Westminster," Henry Aldrich, was 
 a canon in 16S1, and soon after took his degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity. He was one of the ablest tutors 
 in the University, and became Dean of Christ Church, 
 moreover was an intimate friend of Francis Atterbnry. 
 He came forward prominently against those enterpris- 
 ino; Eoman Catholics who were encouraged to attack 
 the Church of England. Burnet published a high 
 opinion of him.* 
 
 Georsre Smalridee left Westminster School for 
 Christ Church, May 17, 1G82. He possessed a sin- 
 gularly amiable disposition, with much application, 
 and soon gave evidence of superior attainments. His 
 classical knowledge was fully appreciated at the Uni- 
 versity, and he lived to be one of her most celebrated 
 scholars ; but he distinguished himself in other labours 
 that were equally esteemed. It had been constantly 
 and confidently rumoured, since James had succeeded 
 to the throne, that conversions to the Catholic faith 
 w^ere multiplying so rapidly that the Romanizing of 
 the entire kingdom might soon be looked for. The 
 universities were specially referred to as centres of this 
 alleired movement, and the Oxford converts were re- 
 ported to be in extraordinary abundance. Dr. Obadiah 
 Walker, however, w^as not permitted to make sucli 
 statements unchallenged. The old Westminsters lost 
 no time in taking counsel on the critical state of 
 
 * *' He examined all the points of Popery with a solidity of judgment, a clearness 
 of arguing, a depth of learning, and a vivacity of writing, far beyond anything that 
 ha<l before that time appeared in our language." History of his Own Time. In 
 the year 1087, Dr. Aldrich published his "Reply to two Discourses [by Walker] 
 lately published at Oxford, concerning the Adoration of Our Blessed Saviour." 
 Obadiah Walker animadverting on this, he wrote a "Defence" of it in the 
 following year. 
 
 3 *
 
 '20 atterbury's defence or ltjtiier. 
 
 the Cliiircli of England, and resolved to do battle in 
 her defence. 
 
 In May, 1C87, the Popish master of University 
 College having issued a pamphlet advocating the 
 o^^inions James was endeavouring to bring into 
 fashion, the following month Smalridge attacked it, 
 and exposed the fallacy respecting tlie pretended exten- 
 sive secessions. In August, this opening of the con- 
 troversy was followed by his friend Atterbury, in a 
 spirited defence of Luther — the first attempt of the 
 kind that had been made by any member of the 
 Anglican Church.* These productions eminently 
 excited Protestant zeal, awakening the more apathetic 
 Churchmen to a proper sense of their duty. It was 
 not Oxford alone that engaged in the contest thus 
 commenced. Every Anglican minister in the country, 
 as well as every member of his congregation, were 
 profoundly concerned in the issue ; tliough probably 
 few felt a deeper interest in it than the incumbent of 
 Middleton Keynes. 
 
 The Roman Catholics taunted the Protestants with 
 deriving their religion from a foreigner, oblivious of 
 the fact that there were Church Reformers in England 
 before Luther was born, and that their writings had 
 inspired the reformation which had spread from Bo- 
 hemia into Germany, f Atterbury does not seem to 
 
 * "An Answer to some Considerations on tlie Spirit of Martin Luther, and 
 tlie Original of the Reformation." Tlie Considerations bore tlie name of Abi-aham 
 "Woodhead, though written by Walker. In the answer the author asserts, ' ' Let the 
 spirit of Martin Luther be as evil as it is supposed to be, yet the proof of this 
 would not blast any single truth of that religion he professed ; though upon a 
 faithful enquiry it will be found that his life was led up to those doctrines he 
 preached, and his death was the death of the righteous." 
 
 + The subject is treated fully in the Author's " Lives of the English Cardinals."
 
 THE REFORMATION ATTACKED. 21 
 
 Lave been aware of the excitement on the subject 
 that had existed in Oxford in the reign of Edward III., 
 or else contented himself with a defence of the sup- 
 posed originator of the reformed religion. The Preface 
 shows with what spirit this was undertaken. He 
 thus attacks the " Considerations :" — 
 
 TVTien I first happened upon this pamphlet, and, by some 
 peciiliar beauties in the style, easily discovered its owner, I was, 
 I must confess, not a little surprised. I could not have imagined 
 that a man of so big a reputation as the author of " The 
 Guide to Controversy "—one whose thoughts had for some 
 years conversed with nothing less than oecumenical councils, 
 popes, and patriarchs — should quit all those fine amusements for 
 the humble task of Hfe- writing and drawing of characters. It 
 was mean prey, I thought, for a bird of his pounces ; and the 
 design he did it with made it ten times more a riddle. The 
 doctrines of the Reformation have, for near two centuries, kept 
 the field against all encounterers ; and does he think they may 
 be foiled at last by two or three little remarks upon the life and 
 actions of a single Reformer? But it looks like a jest, when the 
 ii'regularities committed by Luther in Germany are turned upon 
 us here in England, as if anything that he said or did could affect 
 a Church established upon its own bottom, and as independent 
 of any foreign authorities as the crown her defender wears. 
 
 The young controversialist, with the same confi- 
 dence in his own strength, adds : — 
 
 Luther's voice is indeed to us what our author terms it, 
 " the voice of the stranger." And though we are always ready to 
 wipe oflT the unjust aspersions cast upon him by his enemies, yet 
 this is what we are obliged to, not as sons, but as friends. When- 
 ever injured virtue is set upon, every honest man is concerned 
 in the quaiTel. But these last attacks have been so very feeble 
 that had we for once trusted the cause to its own strength, it would 
 have suffered but little damage. And I for my part should have 
 done so, did I not know there were a sort of men in the world 
 who have the vanity to think everything on their side unan- 
 swerable that docs not receive a set reply ; though at the same 
 time they are pleased to answer nothing themselves. They light.
 
 22 PENN, THE QUAKER. 
 
 indeed, all of tliem, like Tartars — make bold and furious onset, 
 and if that does not do, they retreat in disorder, and you never 
 hear of them afterwards. 
 
 William Penn was a Gentleman Commoner at 
 Christ Church in 1G60, but he does not appear to have 
 left any trace of the rigid sectarianism he afterwards 
 professed. When Atterbury joined this college, the 
 founder of Pennsylvania had become a personage of 
 large social influence. As a Nonconformist of special 
 celebrity he was in great favour with King James 
 and Father Petre, and known to be constantly at 
 Court. The object of the King was transparent, and 
 the Quaker was reputed to be turning Papist, which 
 occasioned an interesting correspondence between him 
 and Dr. Tillotson. In other communications Penn 
 denied having anything to do with the King's religion, 
 or his intentions ; nevertheless he continued to be 
 regarded with distrust by all friends of the persecuted 
 Church, for which prejudice he suffered severely after 
 William ascended the throne.*' 
 
 Arthur Mainwaring was at Christ Church when 
 James II. commenced his plan of re-Romanizing the 
 country. His tutor was Dr. Smalridge, Atterbury's 
 most cordial friend. All we know of the Doctor's 
 political opinions at this period is that they did not 
 accord with those of the King ; nevertheless his pupil, 
 several years later, in a periodical called " The 
 Medley," set up in opposition to " The Examiner," 
 represents him as a Jacobite. His High Church 
 
 * In 1686 he published " A Persuasive to Moderation to Dissenting Christians, 
 &c. , humbly submitted to the King and his great Council." Some interesting 
 particulars of his conduct at Oxford will be found in Wilmot's " Life of Bishop 
 Hough." This should be borne in mind in connection with his subsequent dealings 
 with the Jacobites. Lord Macaulay, Hist, of England ; V. 218, 231, 257 ; VI. 24.
 
 JOHN LOCKE. 23 
 
 predilections were made sufficiently clear, and as 
 they implied a leaning towards hereditary succession, 
 the approach from ultra-orthodox religious opinions 
 to the cause of banished royalty was always open. 
 Mainwaring made his own sentiments plain in a 
 poem called "The King of Hearts," which was 
 attributed to Dryden. Though the great poet dis^ 
 owned it, he named the author, and probably had 
 seen the MS.* 
 
 John Locke was among the illustrious pupils of 
 Dr. Busby, who retained him at Westminster till he 
 was nineteen. Subsequent studies at Christ Church, 
 Oxford, made him as able a philosopher as he was a 
 scholar. His famous essay on the Human Under- 
 standing showed to what profit such studies had 
 been directed at those pre-eminent nurseries of learn- 
 ing. Lord Shaftesbury, one of the truly great states- 
 men of this period, had given him several important 
 employments ; but he shared in the misfortunes of 
 his patron, and then was an object of suspicion to 
 the Government, who, in 1CS4, contrived to have 
 him expelled the University, f 
 
 Thomas Deane, Fellow of University College, came 
 to the assistance of Obadiah Walker, doubtless to the 
 satisfaction of his co-religionist ; but did not lessen 
 the effect produced by the careful, argumentative, and 
 
 * Mainwaring made friends at Court who induced him to change his oiiinions, 
 and he became not only a favourer of the revolution, Ijut a zealous Whig. 
 
 t Lord Sunderland to Bishop Fell. "Whitehall, November G, 1G84. The 
 King having been given to understand that one Lochc, who belonged to the late 
 Earl of Shaftesbury, and has u^jon several occasions behaved himself very factiously 
 against the Government, Ls a student of Christ Church, His Majesty commands 
 me to signify to your Lordship, that he would have him removed from being a 
 student," &c.
 
 24 DR- THOMAS SMITH. 
 
 learned pciibrmance of Francis Atterbiiry. This 
 defence of Luther brought him into great repute 
 with his superiors, with whom it laid the foundation 
 of an attachment that considerably assisted his sub- 
 sequent progress in his profession.* 
 
 Dr. Thomas Smith, one of the Pellows of Magda- 
 len College, has left a detailed account of the pro- 
 ceedings of the King, Lord Sunderland, who had 
 turned Papist, and Father Petre, the King's prin- 
 cipal adviser. The Doctor, who was an eminent 
 scholar and divine, had declined the Presidency of 
 his college, in consequence of certain conditions 
 attached to his acceptance of that dignity; and 
 when required to acknowledge the Bishop of Oxford 
 as President, he also acknowledged the King's supre- 
 macy " out of a principle of conscience and loyalty, as 
 becomes a priest of the Catholic and Apostolic Church 
 of England." He appears to have been much con- 
 sulted during the whole affair, nevertheless did not 
 gain favour from either party. 
 
 Dr. Smith went to London, where this partial com- 
 pliance was strongly censured ; and Dr. Lloyd, Bishop 
 of St. Asaph, and Dr. Thomas Tenison, afterwards 
 Primate, were averse to his publishing any defence. 
 He shortly afterwards was admitted to the King's 
 presence, and the interview is thus described : — 
 
 That night, having sent away my letter by a sure hand to 
 Bishop Lloyd, in the morning a gentleman came to me in. my 
 lodging, telling me that the King, hearing I was in town, com- 
 manded me to come to his levee the next morning, which was 
 
 extremely surprising to me. — Friday morning, November 25th. 
 
 f 
 
 * Among the Atterbury Papers, there is preserved a MS. dissertation (in Atter- 
 hury's hand), entitled, "The Ways that are taken to bespatter Luther."
 
 Ills INTERVIEW WITH JAMES II. 25 
 
 I went to Whitehall. The King was then under the barber's 
 hands — several lords and gentlemen attending, as is usual. Soon 
 after, the King admitted me to the honour of kissing his hand, 
 and called me into his closet, where he said he had heard well 
 of me, and that I was a loyal and honest man. I answered that 
 I had endeavoured to do my duty to his Majesty as became a 
 loyal and honest man, for which I suffered a thousand re- 
 proaches. He bid me not to value them; and then he was 
 pleased to tell me that he had a letter from the Bishop of Oxon, 
 that the Demies were mutinous. I said that I had endeavoured 
 to satisfy some of them, but I feared they were not to be wrought 
 upon. The King was pleased to add these very words: 
 " The College has been mutinous and factious ever since my 
 brother was restored." Some little discourse happened about 
 my having lived some time at Constantinople, and I thought 
 lit to acquaint the King, that of late I had not been constantly 
 resident in the College, but lived in London ; which I thought 
 proper to say, because I resolved to go down no more while 
 things continued in this disorderly condition. After this short 
 stay, the King said, " Doctor, I tliank you. I will stand hy tJiem 
 who stand hy me. You shall fmd it so,'' or words to that purpose. 
 I most humbly thanked his Majesty, and was dismissed. 
 
 The crusade against the Anglican Church that had 
 been carried on in the High Commission Court, was 
 now to be directed against the universities. In 
 February, 1G87, the King had written to the autho- 
 rities at Cambridge, commanding them to admit to 
 tlie degree of Master of Arts a Benedictine monk, 
 known as Alban Francis — unquestionably an illegal 
 act ; and on their exhibiting reluctance, the infamous 
 Jeffreys, at the head of the new High Commission, 
 deprived the Vice Chancellor Pechell, and bullied his 
 colleagues — among whom was the illustrious Isaac 
 Newton, Fellow of Trinity and Mathematical Pro- 
 fessor. In Oxford, University College was in the 
 same arbitrary fasliion placed under the direction of
 
 26 COERCING THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 one bigoted Papist, and Christ Cliurcli under anotlier. 
 " Tlie Wits " held indignation meetings, and wrote 
 indignation rhymes. Probably neither talked nor 
 wrote with much regard to decorum. One of the 
 popular ballads had as a refrain, — 
 
 Old Oliadiah 
 Sings ave Maria ! 
 
 The crowning insult came in the King's appointment 
 of an apostate scamp, named Farmer, as President of 
 Magdalen College ; nevertheless the Fellows exer- 
 cised their privilege, and elected an excellent divine. 
 Dr. Hough. The High Commissioner deprived him ; 
 but the unfitness of Farmer was so notorious, that 
 Jeffreys could not contend against it, and when the 
 Fellows respectfully, but firmly, insisted on the legality 
 of the election made by them — in a letter addressed 
 to the Earl of Sunderland, to which were appended 
 the signatures of the Duke of Ormond, and the 
 Earls of Halifax, Nottingham, and Danby — even the 
 headstrong James hesitated as to taking coercive mea- 
 sures to support his second nomination. He visited 
 Oxford, and endeavoured to force the election of the 
 Bishop of Oxford by threats. This also proving 
 ineffectual, Penn, the Quaker, was induced to attempt 
 to cajole the refractory Fellows, but did not succeed, 
 and his proceedings have drawn severe censure upon 
 his memory.* 
 
 After this came a special commission, escorted by 
 three troops of cavalry. Dr. Hough having resolutely 
 defended his position, he was proclaimed an intruder, 
 and the Bishop of Oxford put in his place. Subse- 
 quently all the Fellows were ejected, and pronounced 
 
 * Lord Macaulay, Hist, of England, Chap. VIII.
 
 POPULAR EXCITEMENT. 27 
 
 incapable of holding preferment. These senseless 
 acts created an impulse in public opinion, which in- 
 creased in force when it was known that Magdalen 
 had been turned into a Popish seminary, with a Roman 
 Catholic bishop (Bonaventure Giffard) as President. 
 
 The excitement in the universities extended over 
 the kingdom. Every minister of the Establishment 
 became aware that his position, as well as his religion, 
 was in jeopardy, and frequent deprivations, forfeitures, 
 and punishments of beneficed clergymen kept him 
 in a constant state of alarm. 
 
 It seems that the royal promise brought no satis- 
 factory result. The Protestant Eellows having been 
 expelled. Papists took their places. Dr. Smith's 
 expulsion did not occur till the 3rd of August, 1688, 
 after which, October 3, Archbishop Sancroft and 
 several bishops made a strong representation to the 
 King. The Popish Fellows were dismissed, and the 
 Protestants restored, Dr. Smith being of the num- 
 ber. He went back to Oxford, but became an object 
 of suspicion, on account of his partial concurrence in 
 the coercive measures of the King.* 
 
 Dr. Eadcliffe was so influential a man in society, 
 that James, after he came to the throne, set his heart 
 on his conversion. He employed one of his chap- 
 lains and Obadiah AValker to effect this, when Father 
 Saunders had failed. Dr. Walker, who had been his 
 
 • 
 
 Biographia Britannica, VI. On July 25, 1692, Dr. Smith was forced to 
 surrender both his Fellowship and his living (Heylesbury), for declining to take 
 the oaths to King William and Queen Mary. He was an accomplished .scholar, 
 and devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits. He was a Fellow of 
 the Royal Society, Keeper of the Cottonian Library, and the author of some 
 thirty or forty different works. (See a list in Biographia Britannica, 3722, 3.) 
 He died in London, May 11, 1710.
 
 28 DR. walker's letter. 
 
 fellow student, lost no time in endeavouring: to fulfil 
 his royal master's wishes. After his best endeavours 
 had proved fruitless, he addressed the following com- 
 munication to the popular physician : — 
 
 University College, May 22, 1688. 
 
 Worthy Sir, 
 
 Were it possible for me to bring you to a true sense of 
 your unhappy condition, in pinning your faith upon a few 
 modern authorities of no credit, I should grudge no pains of 
 producing more and more instances, which the inspired writers 
 and the Fathers of the Church abound with. But since a man 
 of your excellent parts and great knowledge in things that con- 
 cern the health of the body, that is only to endure for a moment, 
 thinks it of less weight to consult the welfare of your soul, 
 whose pains and whose pleasures must be equally everlasting, 
 give me leave to tell you, from a heart full of grief for your un- 
 willingness to be converted, that I have left nothing unattempted 
 to absolve mine, in relation to the argument you are so willing 
 to drop the pursuit of. 
 
 You bid me read Dr. Tillotson upon the Real Presence, with 
 his answer to Mr. Sergeant's Rule of Faith. I have done both 
 with the greatest impartiality, and find no other impression from 
 them than what fixes me in the profession of that faith, which, I 
 bless God, after so many years of adhering to a contrary persua- 
 sion, I have, through his great mercy, embraced. I have entreated 
 you to do the same, by another, whose judgments have ever been 
 had in remembrance, and whose determination must be infallible, 
 from the Holy Spirit that conducted them. And you send me 
 word the duties of your profession bend your studies another 
 way, and that you have neither heart nor inclination to turn 
 over pages that have no value in them but their antiquity. 
 This is indeed somewhat unkind ; but the goodness you always 
 received me with on every other occasion, and the regard you 
 have shown, and say you will further show, to the foundation 
 which I have been thought fit, howsoever unworthy, to preside 
 over, engages me to make you as little uneasy as possible. I 
 shall, therefore, pm'suant to your desire, dismiss the matter, 
 which I could willingly wish to hold longer in debate, on 
 account of the reasons before mentioned ; and since you seem
 
 DR. RADCLIFFE's REPLY. 29 
 
 ardently to desire a mutual correspondence as to the other 
 affiiirs, continue to oblige you in fulfilling every request you 
 shall make to me. 
 
 In the meantime be assured that I shall be incessant in my 
 prayers to the great God above, and to the Blessed Virgin for 
 her intercession with the Lamb that died for the sins of the 
 world, that you may be enlightened, and see the things that 
 belong to the peace of yom' immortal soul. Who am, in all 
 respects, worthy su', your most obliged and most humble 
 servant, O. Walkee. 
 
 It is quite plain from the foregoing that the writer 
 never had any chance of succeeding with the physi- 
 cian ; hut to place this beyond the possibility of 
 doubt, the latter replied as follows : — 
 
 Bow Street, Covent Garden, May 25, 1688. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I should be in as unhappy a condition in this life, as you. 
 fear I shall be in the next, were I to be treated as a turncoat, 
 and must tell you that I can be serious no longer, while you 
 endeavour to make me believe what I am apt to think you give 
 no credit to yourself. Fathers, and councils, and antique autho- 
 rities, may have their influence in proper places, but should any 
 of them all, though covered with dust 1,400 years ago, tell me 
 that the bottle I am now drinking with some of your acquaint- 
 ance is a wheelbarrow, and the glass in my hand a salamander, 
 I should ask leave to dissent from them. 
 
 You mistake my temper in being of an opinion that I am 
 otherwise biassed than the generality of mankind are. I had 
 one of your converts' new poems in my hand just now — you will 
 know them to be Mr. Dry den's, at first sight — and on what 
 account they are written. Four of the best Hncs and most 
 apropos run thus : — 
 
 Many by education arc misled ; 
 So they believe, because they were so bred. 
 The ijriest continues what the nurse began. 
 And thas the child imposes on the man. 
 
 You may be given to understand from thence that, having 
 been bred l)y a Protestant, at Wakefield, and sent from thence 
 in that persuasion to Oxford, where, during my continuance, I
 
 30 NO POPERY. 
 
 had uo relish for absurdities, I intend not to change principles 
 and turn Papist in London. 
 
 The advantages you propose to me may be very great for all 
 that I know. God Almighty can do very much, and so can the 
 King ; but you will pardon me if I cease to speak like a physician 
 for once, and with an air of gravity, am very apprehensive 
 that I may anger the one in being too complaisant to the other. 
 
 You cannot call this pinning my faith on any man's sleeve — 
 those that know me are too well apprised of a quite contrary 
 tendency. As I never flattered a man myself, so it is my firm 
 resolution never to be wheedled out of my real sentiments, 
 which are, that since it has been my good fortune to be edu- 
 cated according to the usage of the Church of England estab- 
 lished by law, I shall never make myself so unhappy as to shame 
 my teachers and instructors by departing from what I have im- 
 bibed from them. Yet, though I shall never be brought over to 
 confide in your doctrine, no one breathing can have a greater 
 esteem for your conversation, by letter or word of mouth, than, 
 sir, your most obedient and faithful servant, 
 
 John Radcliffe.* 
 
 Dr. EadclifFe, the preceding year, had contributed 
 to the College, of which Dr. Walker was the prin- 
 cipal, the magnificent east window, in stained glass, 
 representing the Nativity, in grateful remembrance 
 of the education he had received there. Of the society 
 he was still on the books as senior scholar ; and it 
 is to this benefaction that the President alludes in 
 his letter. But the confidential medical attendant of 
 the Princess Anne was not at all likely to commit 
 himself to Popery if he could help it. Probably the 
 friends with whom, as he intimates, he had been 
 enjoying his wine, when he despatched his no-Popery 
 declaration, may have included such convivialists as 
 Charles Montagu, Prior, and other equally zealous 
 and almost equally facetious Protestants : hence its 
 
 * Memoirs of Dr. Radcliffe, 17.
 
 ATTERBURY AND DRYDEN. 31 
 
 unequivocal sj)irit and its stinging allusion to apos- 
 tasy and to Dry den. 
 
 Be this as it may, the correspondence must soon 
 have been known in the University, and discussed 
 with speciahearnestness by the Christ Church wits. 
 
 In the 3'ear 1GS2 Francis Atterbury had, while 
 stud} in g here, published a quarto volume of Latin 
 versification, entitled, " Absalon et Achitophel : 
 Poema Latina Carmine donatum." Dry den's well- 
 known poem appears to have excited a little rivahy 
 amongst the students, for a Latin version was pro- 
 duced about the same time by a scholar of Merton, 
 WiUiam Coward, a physician. Atterbury was assisted 
 in- his by another Christ Church scholar, Mr. Francis 
 Hickman.* His version was considered the best : 
 the composition was not only an improving exercise 
 in Latinity — it was a decided initiation into politics, 
 and gave a bias to the translator's opinions which 
 influenced the more active portion of his career. 
 
 In the original, Dr. Burnet, to wdiom the translator 
 was to be opposed, is delineated as Balak : in " Sagar 
 of Jerusalem," he found his future diocesan. Dr. 
 Compton, Bishop of London ; and in Zadoc his 
 primate, Dr. Bancroft. The Hebrew priests of the 
 poet were to be his fellow labourers in the ministry 
 of the Church of Encrland ; and Jerusalem the 
 London in which he was to flourish as a popular 
 preacher. The two eminent public characters denoted 
 in the title, were the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, 
 and that much more able leader, the Earl of Sliaftes- 
 bury ; while certain other courtiers and statesmen, 
 
 * Anthony Wood. Athenae Oxonienses.
 
 32 atterbury's studies. 
 
 whose acquaintance he was to form — Eochester, 
 Halifax, and the Dukes of Grafton and Buckingham 
 — were introduced to him as Hushai, Jotham, 
 Otliniel, and Zimri. 
 
 Though Atterbury could not speak French fluently, 
 he made himself acquainted both with French as 
 well as with Italian literature. He also produced 
 an interesting compilation — a small volume, with 
 a well written preface, under the title, " Antho- 
 Iqgia, seu selecta qua?dam Poematum Italorum qui 
 Latine scripserunt." It was published in London, 
 in the year 1684. Warton has endeavoured to take 
 the credit of the work from Atterbury, but the 
 intensity of his political prejudices made him seize 
 upon every opportunity of mentioning this excellent 
 scholar disparagingly.* 
 
 Among the results of his classical studies were 
 " Some Notes on Suetonius's Life of Horace ; " 
 " Something required by Lucian to make up the 
 Character of a true Historian ; " " Notes on Csesar's 
 Commentaries." He wrote, besides the version of 
 Dryden's poem, two or three Latin epigrams and 
 epitaphs, and an elegy ; and among numerous trans- 
 lations there are preserved from Horace three odes 
 and part of an epistle, an eclogue from Virgil, as 
 well as an idy Ilium from Theocritus. f It has also 
 been stated that he prepared a version of the Georgics, 
 but there is no trace of such a work among his papers. 
 Some remarks of his are inserted here. 
 
 * Chalmers. General Biographical Dictionary, 1812, includes it among his 
 College jiroductions. It is not mentioned in his life, inserted in the Biographia 
 Britannica, 1747. 
 
 + Nichols. Atterbury's Epistolary Correspondence, II. 397 ; III. 503.
 
 HORACE AND CICERO. 33 
 
 On Translation. 
 
 Looseness of interpretation lias been encouraged by nothing 
 more than that passage of Horace, perversely taken, " Nee 
 verbum verbo," &c., which, by Cowley, Drj'den, and a gi^eat 
 number of our modern ^\'its, is pleaded as a rule for transla- 
 tions in general. Whereas, if we have recourse to the two lines 
 immediately foregoing, we shall find the sense of the words 
 merely relative, and that no more is signified by them than this, 
 that if you have a mind to have something drawn from another 
 pass for your own, you must not play the interpreter too 
 nicely : — 
 
 Publica materies privati juris erit, si 
 Nee circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem, 
 Nee verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus 
 Interpres 
 
 so that "what is here urged seems rather to destroy than any- 
 way* advance this liberty of rendering ; for in all cases but this, 
 Horace requires a faitJ/ful translation, and therefore calls everi/ 
 translation so. Roscommon, I do not know how, has hit the 
 true sense of these VFords in his translation, and missed them in 
 his preface to it ; for he there represeiits Horace as an enemy to 
 too faithful interpreting. TuUy has something akin to this of 
 Horace in his "-Tusculan Questions," the authority of which I 
 the rather consider, because Tully himself was really a very fine 
 translator. The words are — " Neque tamen exprimi verbum e 
 verbo necesse erit, ut interpretes indiserti solent, cum sit ver- 
 bum, quod idem declaret, magis usitatum." This, at first sight, 
 seems a heavy censure of strict translation ; but if it be looked 
 into, it means no such matter. The occasion of the words is 
 this : Cato is desired to explain the opinion of the Stoics upon 
 a point. He pleads the difficulty of expressing himself on that 
 occasion. Why so, says Tully — " Si enim Zenoni licuit, cum sem 
 aliquam invenisset inusitatam, inauditum quoque nomen impo- 
 rere, cur non liceat Catoni ? " And then follow the words before 
 cited. By which it is ])lain his reflection is aimed only at the 
 strict and punctual translators of terms of art, who were for 
 putting all kind of words into their own language, let them 
 look ever so barbarously. This the following words plainly 
 make out : — " Equidem soleo, quod uno Gra;ci, si aliter non 
 possum, idem plnribus verbis exponere ; et tamen pnto conrodi 
 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 34 LORD ROSCOMMON. 
 
 nobis oportore ut Grteco verbo ntamiir, si quando minus occurret 
 Latinuni ; ne hoc EpLippiis et Acratapboris potius (piam proeg- 
 minis et apoproegminis concedattu': quanquam baic prceposita 
 recte et rejecta dicere licebit." 
 
 Roscommon's " Translation de Arte Poctica " is a model for 
 all translators — wbere he -does translate, I mean ; for bo takes a 
 liberty of leaving out wbat be does not tbink to bis purj)Ose. 
 His design was, to frame a complete body of rules for writing : 
 wbere anytbing is not useful in tbat way, be makes no scruple 
 of leaving it out. His words are all pure and expressive, like 
 Horace's. He tbinks to tbe bottom of bis autbor ; and tben 
 does liim rigbt in expressing bis sense. Sometimes (if I am 
 not out myself) be misses bis meaning ; but it is rarely — very 
 rarely, and perhaps even tben be knew tbe true, and cbose tbe 
 false as more to bis pui'pose. A man, bowever, should be cau- 
 tious bow he accuses him of this ; because wbat at first sight will 
 not perhaps seem to bit so exactly with bis autbor, upon second 
 thoughts we shall often find does ; for my lord wrote at random 
 the least of any man in the world. The greatest fault of bis 
 verse is its wanting variety in tbe number. It has but one 
 kind of turn all over : when you have read a few, you have read 
 all. He does not run one verse into another ; but all bis full 
 stops, half stops, and almost commas too — every little division 
 • — still ends the verse. He bad been used so much to that way 
 in rhyme (where it is a less fault, though a fault still) that when 
 be turned bis pen to blank, be could not alter it. After all, 
 be is to me beyond, all the commentators tbat ever wrote on 
 Horace. 
 
 Tbe best translation extant is tbat of the Bible. It is a 
 scrupulous literal version ; yet in its plainest parts maintains 
 tbe perspicuity of tbe original, and tbe height of it in the 
 loftiest. It was performed in King James's days, and yet the 
 English is now as fresh as if it bad been a work of yesterday. 
 
 Every language is in some measure capable of representing 
 all tbe varieties of styles tbat are in any other, just as the same 
 alphabet extends to all sounds. Sometimes, indeed, a guttural 
 or so of another country will not come under tbe laws of our 
 letters ; but that is but seldom, and even tben we may so order 
 our letters as to come something nigh it. Tbe tru.th is, if any 
 author have anytbing so particularly its own tbat no counterpart
 
 MILTON. 35 
 
 can be found in the other language, it is the language bears the 
 fault, and not the interpreter. But, generally speaking, as lan- 
 guages had all one father, so they are not so far divided and 
 subdivided in their branchings as not to have a great deal in 
 them near akin at this day.* 
 
 A letter adcbessed to William AVhitfield, M.A., a 
 student of Christ Church, then in London, dated 
 January 21, 1GS7-S, gives an account of Delia Casa, 
 a poet of a very licentious fancy. It is tliere stated 
 that he presented a copy of improper verses to the 
 Pope, in mistake for a petition, " which was said to 
 be the reason why he did not rise to greater pre- 
 ferment." f This letter Nichols prints in the first 
 volmne of his " Epistolary Correspondence," &c., &c., 
 but, as he subsequently discovered, Francis Atterbury 
 was not the writer. 
 
 Atterbury was a fervent admirer of Milton, not- 
 withstanding the poet's strong anti-Church and anti- 
 university principles, with which feeling he joined his 
 Dean in a subscription for a handsome edition of the 
 "Paradise Lost," published in 1688, in which they 
 were associated with WaUer, Dryden, the Earl of 
 Dorset, and many other distinguished characters. The 
 author had been dead about sixteen years, but his 
 extraordinary genius was cordially recognized by all 
 true judges of poetical merit. An interesting evidence 
 of Atterbury's study of the great poet may be seen in 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 f These objectionable composition.s of the Author of " Latina Monimenta," and 
 "Galateo," belong to a very early period of his career ; and his not rising higher 
 than Archbishop and Papal Nuncio, appears to have been owing to his getting 
 himself involved in the disgrace of Cardinal Alexander Famese. Subsequently, 
 Paul IV. permitted Delia Casa's return from Venice to Rome, where he devoted 
 himself to literary occupations till his death, in 1556. 
 
 4 *
 
 3G THE PRlIsCE OF ORANGE. 
 
 a careful analysis made by him of the action of 
 " Paradise Lost." * 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the interest Francis 
 Atterbury took in the Romanizing proceedings at 
 Oxford, as well as in those which followed when the 
 scene was removed to London. The incarceration 
 of the Seven Bishops, one of whom was an " Old 
 Westminster," Sir Jonatlum Trelawney, greatly in- 
 creased his excitement, which did not abate in the 
 university when it became known that the prelates 
 of the Anglican Church had joined in sending an 
 invitation to William of Orange. The Protestant 
 champion came, and clerical excitement was at fever 
 heat ; the Popish oppressor fled, and a frenzy 
 of congratulation seized upon the members of the 
 rescued Church. It was long before the divinity 
 students could resume their academical pursuits ; 
 then came reflection and examination, and the en- 
 thusiastic Churchmen began to experience some 
 misgivings as to the value of the change they had 
 helped to effect. 
 
 While exercising tutorial functions, Atterbury ob- 
 tained as a pupil the Hon. Charles Boyle, a student 
 in his college, to whose advancement he dedicated 
 himself with remarkable assiduity. But it is evident 
 that he longed for a more active career. He wrote to 
 his father : — 
 
 OxoD, Oct. 14, 1690. 
 My pupil I never had a thought of parting with till I left 
 Oxford. I wish I could part with him to-morrow on that score, 
 
 • It was preserved among the Walpole Papers, and has been printed by John 
 Nichols, "Epistolary Correspondence, &c., of Bishop Atterbury," 5 vols.
 
 atterbury's father. 37 
 
 for I am perfectly wearied with tliis nauseous circle of small 
 affairs, that can now neither divert nor instruct me. I was made 
 I am sure for another scene, and another sort of conversation, 
 though it has been my hard luck to be pinned down to this. I 
 have thought, and thought again, sir, and for some years now — I 
 have never been able to think otherwise than that I am losing 
 time every minute I stay here. The only benefit I ever propose 
 to myself by the place is studying, and that I am not able to 
 compass. Mr. Boyle takes up half my time, and I grudge it him 
 not, for he is a fine gentleman, and while I am with him I will 
 do what I can to make him a man. College and university 
 business take up a great deal more, and I am forced to be useful 
 to the Dean in a thousand particulars — so that I have very 
 little time. 
 
 The E-ector of IMiddleton Keynes did not approve 
 of his younger son's dissatisfaction with his position, 
 and wrote him a parental lecture by way of answer 
 (Nov. 1st). 
 
 I know not what to think of your uneasiness. It shows un- 
 like a Christian, and savors neither of temper nor consideration. 
 I am troubled to remember it is habitual. You used to say, 
 " When 3'ou had your degrees, you should be able to swim with- 
 out bladders." You seemed to rejoice at your being Moderator, 
 and of your quantum and sub-lecturer : but neither of these 
 pleased you, nor was * you willing to take those pupils the house 
 afforded you, when Master, nor doth your lectures please, or 
 noblemen satisfy you. But you make yourself and friends uneasy 
 — cannot trust Providence. 
 
 Do your duty and serve God in your station, until you are 
 called to somewhat better. Man's ways are not in himself, nor can 
 all your projecting change the colour of one of your hairs, which 
 are numbered ; and a sparrow falls not to the ground without 
 a divine oversight. What may we tliink of our stations ? You 
 need not doubt but I could loish you all the great things you are 
 
 * The reverend gentleman, in his anger, loses sight of grammar — a very common 
 fault in his day. The ofIi';i; held tiy his son will he ])resently noticed. The writer 
 means that his son had desired to take pupils before be obtained his M.A. degree, 
 aii'l that since he had secured this he had become careless on the subject. 
 
 lA r^ ^ N /'^l
 
 38 A CAREFUL PARENT. 
 
 capable of, but I can neither secure them to you nor to myself, 
 but must leave all to time and Providence. 
 
 The clerical Paterfamilias now ventures upon some 
 details of Atterbury biography, that indicate the 
 position of more than one member of the family. 
 
 I am not wanting in pains and prospect, and deny myself 
 more in toiling and sparing than you ever did or will do ; and all, 
 I see, to little purpose, Avhen it is of no better effect with you. 
 It hath cost me several journeys to settle things with my brother; 
 and your brother knows no more than he heard from me or his 
 wife, for it was done in his absence, and he knows not, nor they, 
 what I designed for you. Besides, I have obliged myself to be 
 his bailiff as long as I live. 
 
 These sentences imply an arrangement in Francis's 
 favour, which probably caused the subsequent es- 
 trangement of his elder brother. The writer then 
 refers to the rectory he had held since 1654, in the 
 gift of the Bray family. 
 
 And for Rissington it cost me long and wet journeys, besides 
 expense. Madam Bray is very civil to me, without the Dean's 
 interposing. I met her at the Wells. If she would give you the 
 next turn on my death or resignation, it would be somewhat, but 
 you may enjoy it better and without charge or loss of anything 
 in Oxford, under my title — it may close with every preferment 
 elsewhere better, when not charged with this. I know and have 
 been assured that she had rather have me there than Chetwode,* 
 and he hath another argument (besides his own expense) to 
 incline him to peace, in that I can make him pay my charges, 
 and refund our main profits. If you can do anything to make 
 him sensible of it, it may do well. 
 
 The prudent father now directed his son's attention 
 to a matter of interest to every young man desirous 
 of rising in the world. 
 
 * Dr. Knightley Chetwode, Rector of Great Rissington. He became Dean of 
 Gloucester in 1707, and died on the 4th of April, 1720.
 
 HON. CHARLES BOYLE. 39 
 
 "For matcliiug," be writes, " there is no way for preferment 
 like mai'rying into some family of interest, either Bishop or 
 Archbishop's, or some courtier, which may be done with accom- 
 plishments, and a portion too ; but I may write what I will, you 
 consider little, and disquiet yourself much." He concludes, 
 " that God would direct and reason you with His fear, is the 
 earnest prayer of youi' loving father, Lewis Atterburt." 
 
 The correspondence of the Hon. Charles Boyle with 
 his tutor, does not impress on the reader a very high 
 idea of the young man's talents. In November 15, 
 1691, he thus expresses his appreciation of the most 
 profound thinker of his as^e : "I have just made an 
 end of Locke. I was all along extremely pleased 
 with him. I think there is a great deal of very good 
 sense in him." He expresses opinions of the most 
 distinguished philosophers and scholars much in the 
 same tone. 
 
 Some reports to Mr. Boyle's prejudice reached Mr. 
 Atterbury, who lost no time in bringing them under 
 his attention. Mr. Boyle assured him in March that 
 they were untrue, and that he would be more cautious 
 for the future ; nevertheless, he was presently again 
 found fault with, which elicited from the young 
 gentleman a touching remonstrance : " After having 
 been three years your pupil, I am sorry, for your own 
 sake as well as mine, you do not think me able to 
 write my own letters." The effect of this evidence of 
 his impatience he immediately tries to lessen by 
 bearing cordial testimony to the kindness of his con- 
 scientious preceptor. There seems to have been some 
 sort of disincHnation on his part to parental as well as 
 to scholastic control. He objects to going to Ireland 
 witli his mother (Mary, married to Kogcr, second
 
 40 PHALAlllS. 
 
 Earl of Orrery), never mentions his father, is not 
 inclined to enter the army, and prefers a place at 
 Court as Grroom of the Bedchamber, which he hopes 
 to get through the interest of Sir William Temple. 
 Nevertheless, he went to Ireland and entered the 
 army. 
 
 The tutor fuliilled his duty by him, and something 
 more ; he made a man of him,* and did his best to 
 prove that he had made him a scholar. Mr. Boyle was 
 not without ambition; his self-confidence is evident in 
 the estimates he expresses in his letters of the authors 
 he has read. 
 
 He now desired to edit a classical work, or come 
 forward prominently as a distinguished author. An 
 opportunity shortly presented itself. He set about a 
 republication of a collection of letters, attributed to 
 the Tyrant of Syracuse, who is said to have employed 
 a brazen bull for torturing the victims of his cruelty. 
 There was a MS. in the royal collection the young 
 editor desired to consult, and he applied to the King's 
 Librarian, Dr. Bentley, who behaved somewhat dis- 
 courteously. In the preface to his volume the young 
 editor sharply commented on this. 
 
 Dr. William Wotton wrote " Reflections on Ancient 
 and Modern Learning," and Dr. Bentley appended to 
 it a " Dissertation on the Fables of ^sop, and the 
 Epistles of Phalaris." Bentley not only denounced 
 the latter as spurious, but in rather arrogant language 
 animadverted on Mr. Boyle for desiring to republish 
 such fabrications. The tutor felt this attack quite as 
 
 * Subsequently pi-oved at the bead of bis regiment at the battle of Malplaquet, 
 after he had succeeded to the earldom.
 
 SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. 41 
 
 much as the pupil, and resolved on publishing a fit 
 reply. He devoted himself to the task with great 
 assiduity, occasionally calling into counsel the ablest 
 scholars of his college, leaving to Mr. Boyle merely 
 a nominal share in the labour. The work was not 
 published till 1G9S, when it appeared with the title, 
 "Dr. Bentley's Dissertation on the Epistles of 
 Phalaris, and the Fables of ^sop, examined by the 
 Hon. Charles Boyle." 
 
 Sir William Temple entered into the controversy 
 in favour of the ancients, referring to the Epistles of 
 Phalaris as showing " such diversity of passion, such 
 freedom of thought, such knowledge of life, and con- 
 tempt of death, as breathed in every line the tyrant 
 and the commander." Swift espoused the cause de- 
 fended by his patron, and supported by many persons 
 in Oxford, who treated him with particular consi- 
 deration, during a visit he paid that university. A 
 little later he acknowledged that he had been per- 
 mitted to consider himself one of the Christ Church 
 men. His sympathies in this direction were 
 strengthened by his aversion to the arrogant bearing 
 of the great critic, and having fallen in with Courtenay's 
 " Histoire Poetique de la Guerre nouvellcmcnt declarce 
 entre les Anciens et les Modernes," he improved upon 
 it, and forwarded the result to his scholastic friends. 
 
 Pope subsequently gave Dr. Warburton a detailed 
 account of the division of labour among the Christ 
 Church wits, in dealing with the formidable critic : — 
 " Boyle wrote only the narrative of what passed 
 between him and the bookseller, which, too, was cor- 
 rected for him. That Freind, the Master of West-
 
 42 LETTER OF FRANCIS ATTERBURY. 
 
 minster, and Atterbury wrote the body of the 
 criticisms, and that Dr. King, of the Commons, 
 wrote the droll argument, to prove that Dr. Bentley 
 was not the author of the Dissertation on Phalaris 
 and the Index ; and a powerful cabal gave it a sur- 
 prising run." * 
 
 The poet wrote at a considerable period after the 
 transaction he ventures to describe, and could only 
 have repeated hearsay ; there is more trustworthy 
 evidence available. Dr. William King had been 
 rudely assailed by Bentley, but retaliated with in- 
 terest. 
 
 Mr. Boyle, as the reputed author of a controversial 
 work displaying much spirit as well as talent, rose 
 suddenly into favour, on the strength of which he 
 appears to have entirely overlooked his obligations. 
 He seems, indeed, to have discouraged the services 
 he received, and to have been dissatisfied with as 
 well as undervalued them. His conduct elicited the 
 following remonstrance : — 
 
 Rev. Francis Atterbury to the Hon. Chas. Boyle. 
 Sir, 
 
 You miglit have sent these papers to anybody better 
 than me, whose opinion all along in the controversy you have not 
 seemed very willing to take, and whose pains in it, I find, have 
 not pleased you. In laying the design of the hook, in writing 
 above half of it, in reviewing [revising] a great part of the rest, in 
 transcribing the lohole, and attending the press, half a year of my 
 life went away. What I promised myself from hence was that 
 some service would be done to your reputation, and that you 
 would think so. In the first of these I was not mistaken — in 
 the latter I am. When you were abroad, sir, the highest you 
 
 * Letters of Dr. AVarburton, Bishop of Gloucester, II,
 
 THE BOYLE CONTROVERSY. 43 
 
 could prevail with yourself to go in your opinion of the book 
 was, that you hoped it would do you no harm. When you 
 returned, I supposed you would have seen that it had been far 
 from hurting you. However, you have not thought fit to let me 
 know your mind on this matter ; for since you came to England, 
 no one expression, that I know of, has dropped from you that 
 could give me reason to believe you had any opinion of what I 
 had done, or even took it kindly from me. 
 
 Hitherto, sir, I have endeavoured to serve your reputation 
 without your thanks, and against your will ; but it does not 
 become rue always to do it. You will easily, therefore, excuse 
 me if I meddle no further in a matter where my management 
 has had the ill-luck to displease you and a good friend of 
 yours ; whereas, I had the vanity to think and hope that it 
 would have sat ill on nobody but Mr. Wotton and Dr. 
 Bentley. * 
 
 There is no trace of the fine gentleman con- 
 descending to answer this, nor of any subsequent 
 attempt at authorship beyond the composition of a 
 comedy. Mr. Bo3de contrived to enjoy the fame 
 which another's merit had procured for him, appa- 
 rently fully satisfied with his claim. Mr. Atterbury 
 never troubled himself further with the Boyle con- 
 troversy : never even endeavouring to set right the 
 opinion current at Oxford that the bold attack upon 
 the overbearing critic was the joint production of 
 " the Christ Church wits." 
 
 His schoolfellow, Smalridge, was in communica- 
 tion with Sir Jonathan Trelawney. By a letter 
 from him to Atterbury, dated September 1, 10*J(),f 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. John Nichols. Epistolary Correspondence, II. 21. 
 
 t The writer also refers to the Wottons : — "I send this by an honest warm 
 fellow, W. Wotton, schoolmaster, of this town, and brother to a student of our 
 house. If you are civil to him, with a due care of your health, I will not com- 
 plain of it." He adds— "We are like at the assizes to have two very pretty
 
 44 THE NAKED GOSPEL. 
 
 it appears that the Rev. Arthur Bury, rector of 
 Exeter College, had written a work called " The 
 Naked Grospel," and as it displayed Socinian prin- 
 ciples. Bishop Trelawney had just caused him to be 
 ejected. This extreme measure excited much com- 
 ment, as well as some little controversy, including- 
 "An Apology for Writing the Naked Gospel." 
 
 In the following February Smalridge wrote again 
 to Atterbury : '' You are resolved to bestir yourself, 
 you say, in your office in the house, foresee some 
 trouble and ill-will, and are yet resolved for the good 
 of the house. A hero ! I suppose you expect to do 
 little good but upon the Westminsters. No gruff- 
 ness, I beseech you, — use them civilly, and stick to 
 your point." He then recommends to him several 
 works as likely to be of use to him as lecturer — 
 Nicholson's "Exposition of the Catechism;" Bishop 
 Chester, and Gill on the Creed; Dr. Jackson, and 
 Oley. They were to help him in the catechetical 
 lectui'e that had been founded by his schoolmaster. 
 
 Smalridge, writing to Walter, son and heir of Sir 
 Henry Gougli, of Perry Hall, Staffordshire, refers to 
 Hickman, who was Master of Arts, July G, 1688, 
 and then states that Atterbury was one whose 
 acquaintance would be of service to him. In a 
 subsequent communication, March :22, 1697-8, he 
 states, that he has read with pleasure the answer to 
 Bentley, which is very much liked by all classes of 
 
 trials here. One is Wotton's. He brings an action against a man for saying he 
 was expelled St. John's for drinking the Devil's health." The other was even 
 for a more infiimous libel.
 
 DR. BENTLEY. 45 
 
 readers, and he considers the work well worth 
 perusal. 
 
 The great critic, as we have intimated, was sharply 
 handled by Dr. William King, who, a little later, thus 
 addressed Atterbury on the subject : — 
 
 Give me leave, sir, to tell you a secret, — that I have spent 
 a whole day upon Dr. Bentley's late volume of scandal and 
 criticism ; for every one may not judge it to his credit to be so 
 employed. He thinks meanly, I find, of my reading, as meanly 
 as I think of his sense, his modesty, or his manners. If you 
 have looked into it, sir, you have found that a person, under 
 the pretence of criticism, may take what freedom he pleases 
 with the reputation and credit of any gentleman ; and that he 
 need not have any regard for another man's character who has 
 once resolved to expose his own. 
 
 The writer then adduces instances of Bentley's 
 " rude and scurrilous language," and refers to his 
 volume as a " disingenuous, vain, confused, unman- 
 nerly performance." He adds : — 
 
 As to the particular reflections he has cast on me, it is no 
 more than I expected. I could neither hope nor wish for 
 better treatment from one that had used you so ill. It is 
 reputable both to men and to books to be ill-spoken of by him, 
 and a favourable presumption on their side that there is some- 
 thing in both, which may chance to recommend them to the 
 rest of the world. It is in the power of every little creature 
 to throw dirty language ; but a man must have some credit 
 himself in the world l:)eforc things he says can lessen the 
 reputation of another ; and if Dr. Bentley must be thus quali- 
 fied to mischief me, I am safe from all the harm that his malice 
 can do me.* 
 
 Wliy literary controversy cannot be carried on in 
 the courteous spirit that commonly characterizes less 
 
 * Nichols' Epistolary Correspondence, IV. 337.
 
 46 swift's battle op the books. 
 
 intellectual contests, no one has been able to discover; 
 but there certainly cannot be an excuse for the tone 
 and manner of such critics as Dr. Bentley. His 
 learning has never been denied ; but, however great 
 his superiority in this respect, it must not be per- 
 mitted to sanction his overbearing manner towards 
 a literary opponent. This was the result, no doubt, 
 of an unfortunate temper, frequent displays of which 
 threw much discredit on his scholastic career; but 
 there was nothing in the subject in dispute that 
 ought to have excited the provocations he gave. 
 
 We have a description a few years later, from a 
 master-hand : — " A captain, whose name was Bentley, 
 the most deformed of all the moderns ; tall, without 
 shape or comeliness ; large, but without strength or 
 proportion. His armour was patched up of a thousand 
 incoherent pieces, and the sound of it, as he marched, 
 was loud and dry, like that made by the fall of a 
 sheet of lead, which an Etesian wind blows suddenly 
 down from the' roof of some steeple." * The re- 
 mainder of the description is still less flattering. 
 The other combatant is thus introduced : — " Boyle, 
 clad in a suit of armour, which had been given him 
 by all the gods, immediately advanced against the 
 trembling foe." 
 
 The gods do duty for the Christ Church wits, of 
 which Atterbury was considered the chief. The 
 battle is brought to a speedy climax by Boyle throw- 
 ing a spear that transfixes Bentley and Wotton like 
 a brace of woodcocks. 
 
 * " Battle of the Books," Scott's Swift, X. 253.
 
 WALLER. 47 
 
 Swift's " Tale of a Tub " was a religious squib. 
 The three sons of the man by one wife — Peter, 
 Martin, and Jack — are supposed to represent the 
 Pope, Luther, or Church of England, and Calvin, or 
 the Nonconformists. The allusions to the former 
 are attacks upon the Papac}^ The Peformation is 
 thus travestied : " Harry Huff, Lord of Albion," is 
 represented engaged in a fierce contest with Martin, 
 in which both were victorious. 
 
 How Martin's fi-iends applauded his victory, and how Lord 
 Harry's friends complimented him on the same score ; and 
 particularly Lord Peter, who sent him a fine feather for his cap, 
 to be worn by him and his successors, as a perpetual mark for 
 his bold defence of Lord Peter's cause. How Harry, flushed 
 with his pretended victory over Martin, began to huff Peter 
 also, and at last downright quarrelled with him about a 
 wench.* 
 
 This work was eagerly read at Oxford, and par- 
 ticularly appreciated by the Christ Church wits. 
 
 Edmund Waller's family were from Buckingham- 
 shire (his mother being the sister of John Hampden), 
 though the poet was born in Hertfordshire. He 
 became member for Chipping Wycombe, in the for- 
 mer county; his kinsman, Mr. Morley (subsequently 
 Bishop of Winchester), was a student of Christ 
 Churcli ; hence, both at home and at college, Francis 
 Atterbury found traces of the poet that must have 
 given him a special interest in his works. Among 
 them were charming traditions of high-born beauties, 
 Saccharissa and Amoret (Lady Dorothy Sydney and 
 
 • Scott's Swift, X. 206. Dr. William King had previously written "A 
 Dialogue showing the way to Modem Preferment ;" " Dialogues of the Dead ;" 
 and "Journey to London."
 
 48 atterbury's preface to waller. 
 
 Lady Sopliia Murray), together with recollections, 
 scarcely less pleasing, of his intellectual, his political, 
 and his social eminence. The poet had kissed the 
 hand of Charles I. in the garden of Christ Church 
 College, before he engaged in the adventure for 
 which his name became famous. He had immor- 
 talized the Lord Protector ; he had been one of the 
 choice spirits that constituted the court of " The 
 Merry Monarch ; " but the last years of his brilliant 
 career were spent in retirement and devotion. He 
 died on the 21st of October, 1G87.* 
 
 A volume of Waller, published in the year 1008, 
 appears to have been in frequent request with Francis 
 Atterbury, probably during his college career. It 
 contains numerous corrections by him — some unques- 
 tionable improvements. That he was extremely par- 
 tial to this poet is evident, not only from the fact of 
 his having compiled a collection of select passages 
 still in his handwriting, but from his having written 
 a preface to a new edition of Waller's works, con- 
 taining a cordial commendation of his genius, f 
 
 * Waller remained fashionable during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. 
 Steele says, "Ned Softly is a very pretty poet, and a great admirer of easy lines. 
 Waller is his favourite, and as that admii-able writer has the best and worst verses 
 of any among our great English poets, Ned Softly has got all the bad ones 
 without book, which he repeats upon occasion, to show his reading and garnish 
 his conversation." He adds, with equal judgment, "Ned is indeed a true English 
 reader, incapable of relishing the great and masterly strokes of this art, but 
 wonderfully pleased with the little Gothic ornaments of epigrammatic conceits, 
 turns, points, and quibbles, which are so frequent in the most admired of our 
 English poets, and practised by those who want genius and strength to rejiresent, 
 after the manner of the ancients, simplicity in its natural beauty and perfection." 
 Tatlcr, No. 163. 
 
 + This Preface, published in 1690, is thus noticed by Fenton, in his 4to edition 
 of Waller, brought out in the year 1729 : — 
 
 "It is generally known to liave been written by a person whose fine genius and
 
 LORD ROSCOMMON. 49 
 
 As an advertisement for the volume, the preface is 
 everything the publisher could have desired ; but to 
 less interested admirers of the poet, it may be con- 
 sidered a little too eulogistic, especially the opening 
 assertion that Waller was " ilie first that showed us 
 our tongue had beauty and numbers in it." 
 
 Lord Eoscommon's poetry was also much admired 
 by Francis Atterbury ; but the man, on the testi- 
 mony of his contemporaries, was no less worthy of 
 study than his writings. 
 
 Pope thus distinguishes him : — 
 
 Roscommon not more learned than good, 
 With manners generous as his noble blood ; 
 To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, 
 And every other merit but his own. 
 
 The mind of the poet had become refined from the 
 evil influences that had affected it in the vicious 
 court of Charles II. ; and he was engaged in forward- 
 inc: noble desig-ns for the advancement of literature, 
 when his career was suddenly brought to a close on 
 the 17th of January, 1684. 
 
 John Philips was also a contemporary at Christ 
 Church, and distinguished himself among his clas- 
 sical associates. " The Splendid Shilling " was the 
 first of his poetical works that attracted public atten- 
 tion. It became extremely popular, particularly with 
 Dean Aldrich and other lovers of the weed, who, 
 more than a century and a half ago, patronized 
 the particular form of pipe still considered worthy 
 
 consummate learning have long rendered liini one of the brightest ornaments of 
 our age ; and though it was a casual essay, composed in his youth, it is too 
 finished a masterpiece for me to have expected either pardon or praise, had I 
 attempted another dissertation." 
 
 vol.. I. ^
 
 50 JOHN PHILLIPS. 
 
 Oxonian appreciation among Teutonic meerschaum 
 and Oriental liookali, — 
 
 Or some tube as black 
 As winter chimney, or well-polishcd jet, 
 Exhale mundungus, ill-perfuming scent ! 
 Not blacker tube, nor of a shorter size, 
 Smokes Cambro-Briton. 
 
 The liumour of the idea is admirably sustained, 
 with as much invention as Butler, and as much 
 vivacity as Swift, and with far more refinement than 
 either. Philips's memory was excellent ; he had the 
 whole of Virgil by heart, and so perfect a knowledge 
 of both Greek and Latin poets, that when perusing 
 the works of Milton, it has been asserted that he 
 could at once quote a parallel passage from the 
 classic authors. He wrote an epic entitled " Cyder," 
 in honour of his native county, and "the theme 
 being yet unsung." It is in blank verse, fashioned 
 upon the Oeorgics : — 
 
 On the barren heath 
 The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop 
 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 
 Sufficient. After them the cackling goose. 
 Close grazer, finds wherewith to ease her wants. 
 What should I more ? E'en on the cliffy height 
 Of Penmenmaur, and that cloud-piercing hill, 
 Plynlimmon, from afar the traveller kens, 
 Astonished how the goats their shrubby browse 
 Gnaw pendent ; nor untrembling can'st thou see 
 How from a craggy rock, whose prominence 
 Half overshades the ocean, hardy men. 
 Fearless of rending winds and dashing waves, 
 Cut samphire, to excite the squeamish guest 
 Of pampered luxury.* 
 
 The last description found its source nearer home 
 than Rome or Greece; in truth, the work does not 
 
 * "Cyder," a Poem.
 
 ADDISON. 51 
 
 at all suggest a classical inspiration. It is a faithful 
 description of rural life, though laboured. 
 
 In his poem " Cyder," he takes occasion to praise 
 an indulgence often had recourse to in conjunction 
 with the favourite beverage — the more particularly 
 by the studious and the imaginative. Its value as 
 an aid to conviviality at the wine parties of the 
 Oxford undergraduates, was as fully recognized as 
 at present : — 
 
 Friend to the spirits, which, with vapours bland, 
 It gently mitigates. Companion fit 
 Of pleasantry and wine — nor to the bards 
 Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell 
 Warble melodious their well-laboured songs. 
 
 Again, in " The Splendid Shilling," Philips refers 
 to the enjo3mient : — 
 
 Meanwhile he smokes and laughs at merry tale. 
 Or fun ambiguous, or conundrum quaint. 
 
 Among Atterbury's fellow students was William 
 Lowth, subsequently eminent as a controversialist 
 with the Dissenters and Catholics, as well as for 
 w^riting several excellent expositions of theology. 
 He became a prebend of Winchester, and chaplain 
 to .the Bishop (Dr. Mew) ; and his comprehensive 
 learning was of special assistance to other laborious 
 scholars engaged in similar undertakings. 
 
 Another distinguished contemporary was Joseph 
 Addison, whose father, the Dean, was also educated 
 at Oxford. Both studied at Queen's College, and both 
 were celebrated for their Latin verses, as well as 
 for their admiration of Dryden. Addison cultivated 
 a warm friendship for a fellow student, with whom 
 Atterbury was to be very closely connected ; and to 
 
 ,5 *
 
 52 STEELE. 
 
 H, S. [Henry Sacheverell], in 1695, lie addressed his 
 verses on tlie English poets. The poem indicates the 
 manner in which the writer was desirous of recom- 
 mending himself — an art practised by him with as 
 much industry as success. He wrote : — 
 
 I'm tired of rhyming, and would fain give o'er, 
 But justice still demands one labour more ; 
 The noble Montagu remains unnamed, 
 For wit, for humour, and for judgment famed. 
 To Dorset he directs his artful muse. 
 In numbers such as Dorset's self might use. 
 How negligently graceful he unreins 
 His verse, and writes in loose familiar strains ! 
 How Nassau's god-like acts adora his lines, 
 And all the hero in full glory shines! 
 We see his army set in just array, 
 And Boyne's dyed waves run purple to the sea. 
 Nor Simois, choaked with men, and arms, and blood, 
 Nor rapid Xanthus' celebrated flood. 
 Shall longer be the poet's highest themes, 
 Though gods and heroes fought promiscuous in their streams. 
 
 This strong appeal for Court favour conckides with 
 a somewhat tame reference to the popular minister : — 
 
 But now to Nassau's secret councils raised, 
 He aids the hero whom before he praised. 
 
 Addison followed this up with laudatory poems to 
 King William and to the Lord Keeper (Sir John 
 Somers). He dedicated his Latin poems to the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, to whom he subsequently 
 wrote an epistle in verse. 
 
 Richard Steele was pursuing his studies at Oxford 
 when Atterbury was there gaining eminence as a 
 tutor. He was at Merton College in 1692, where he 
 made his first essays in authorship, apparently with 
 but little promise of success, an attempt at comedy 
 having been condemned by a judicious friend. Three 
 years later he appeared in print, in the shape of a poem
 
 LOCKE. 53 
 
 called " The Procession," intended to describe the 
 popular feelings on the death of Queen Mary. It is 
 purely artificial in style, and so laboured that it ought 
 to have gone the way of the abortive comedy. The 
 social qualities of Steele rendered him accessible to 
 many of his fellow students, but he did not distin- 
 guish himself in the eyes of the professors, and 
 left the university without taking a degree. The 
 fact is, his predilections were for a military career, 
 and to gratify them he presently entered the Horse 
 Guards as a private. 
 
 It has been averred that Locke forfeited his student- 
 ship by quitting the university without leave, in con- 
 sequence of which, when he returned from Holland, 
 in February, 1G89, the authorities declined to restore 
 him to his privileges, though they offered to admit 
 him as a supernumerary student, which he declined. 
 His services to the cause of the revolution could not, 
 however, be overlooked, and as he had already shown 
 a talent for public business, he was offered an offi- 
 cial post. He accepted the Commissionership of 
 Appeal, devoting himself, however, almost entirely 
 to literary pursuits. 
 
 His "Letter upon Education," another on the value of 
 money, and two treatises on civil government, increased 
 the admiration excited in the mind of Atterbury by 
 his " Essay on the Human Understanding ;" but the 
 philosopher's important work, "On the Reasonableness 
 of Christianity," more directly appealed to him. Many 
 clergymen attacked it publicly. Dr. Stillingfleet and 
 the author carried on a controversy respecting some of 
 its opinions, and charges were brought against him of
 
 54 CREECH. 
 
 Socinianism, wliicli he repelled in two separate Vin- 
 dications. Locke had apparently written to favour 
 King AVilliam's scheme of " Comprehension" quite 
 as much as to reconcile Deists to Christianity ; and 
 his moderation was not cordially appreciated either 
 by sectarians or Churchmen.* 
 
 Towards the close of the century, Atterbury had 
 among" his clerical and poetic contemporaries in 
 the university Thomas Creech, who produced several 
 translations from both Greek and Latin poets. His 
 " Lucretius " was printed at Oxford in the year 1682, 
 and Thomas Brown, a student of Christ Church, 
 Dryden, Waller, and other distinguished authors, 
 added complimentary verses. The work was subse- 
 quently severely attacked for its irreligious tendency, 
 though it had been partly translated by John Evelyn 
 Nevertheless, this translation was much admired. The 
 author entered into holy orders in 1701, and his first 
 preferment was Welwyn, Hertfordshire ; but in the 
 following year he died by his own hand, while at 
 Oxford, owing, it has been reported, to his having 
 been jilted by a girl to whom he was attached ; but, 
 as he was a little over forty at this time, a disappoint- 
 ment of such a nature was not likely to affect him so 
 severely. 
 
 Surrounded by such associates, and engaged in such 
 pursuits, the tutor continued his vocation with not less 
 honour than success. He had filled several offices, such 
 
 * This opposition, together witii the intemperance of tlie dominant party in 
 politios, made him sigh for repose. He therefore gave up his jjublic employment, 
 and lived in undisturbed retirement at the house of his affectionate friend, Lady 
 Masham, where he died the 28th day of October, 1704.
 
 ATTERBURY MARRIES. 55 
 
 as Moderator, Censor, &c., had taken his M.A. degree 
 (April 20, 16S7), and had, moreover, taken a wife — a 
 young lady of considerable personal attractions, and 
 a fortune of £7,000. Miss Katherine Osborn was 
 believed to be a natural daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Osborn, and had resided in the neighbourhood of the 
 university. Though this was not very closely fol- 
 lowing the advice of his shrewd parent, the step was 
 looked upon as promising equal advantages. The 
 Benedict at once obtained holy orders, abandoned the 
 irksome duties of a tutor, and with his bride started 
 for London, in search of clerical distinction.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE COURT CHAPLAIN. 
 
 Lectureship of St. Bride's — Bishop of London nominates Atter- 
 Iniry — Is appointed Chaplain to the King and Queen — His 
 Sermon on Charity attacked by Ur. Hoadly — Prior's Poem 
 on the same Subject — Indifference of William III. to the 
 Anglican Church — Atterbury's Sermon preached before 
 Queen Mary — Steele's Description of Atterbury as a 
 Preacher — Dr. Burgess, the popular Dissenter — Dr. Atter- 
 bury at the Chapel Royal — In Convocation before the House 
 of Commons — Appointed to the Rolls Chapel — Dr. Hoadly 
 again rushes into Controversy— Atterbury becomes Arch- 
 deacon — Thomas Taldeu' — The Royal Chaplains — Dr. 
 Smalridge Almoner to the Queen — Steele's Description of 
 Him — Archdeacon Atterbury's High Church and High State 
 Principles — Court Physicians — Radclifie — Mead — Garth. 
 
 The Lectureship of St. Bride's was an object of 
 clerical ambition at this time. In the summer of 
 1G91, on a vacancy occurring, fourteen clergymen 
 presented themselves as candidates. Of these, two 
 were ordered to preach every Sunday, and when all 
 should have manifested their capabilities, the fourteen 
 were to be reduced to eight, another selection was to 
 cut down the candidates to four, and a third to two. 
 But, " to preserve the peace and unity of the parish," 
 it was resolved in the vestry, on the 1 5th of Septem- 
 ber, that the Bishop of London should be requested 
 to recommend a gentleman, not one of the compe-
 
 DR. BENJAMIN HOADLY. 57 
 
 titers; and he named the Eev. Francis Atterbury. 
 This nomination so pleased the authorities, as soon 
 as they could become acquainted with the merit of 
 their lecturer, that on the 2.2nd of October they 
 voted that thanks should be given to the Bishop for 
 recommending and licensing him. 
 
 Atterbury had begun his career as a London 
 preacher under the happiest auspices. He was pre- 
 sentl}" appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to 
 King William and Queen Mary, and about the same 
 time was elected preacher at Bridewell Hospital. 
 They were opportunities for making his talent 
 known which he was not likely to neglect. The 
 first sermon that attracted attention towards him 
 he preached before the Governors of Bridewell and 
 Bethlehem Hospitals, in the year 1694. It was " On 
 the Power of Charity to Cover Sin," and excited much 
 animadversion from Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, which he 
 published as "Exceptions." The text was taken from 
 St. Peter's well known assertion, and was thus ex- 
 plained : — 
 
 The virtue of charity is of so great price in the sight of God, 
 that those persons who possess and exercise it in any eminent 
 raanner are peculiarly entitled to the Divine favour and pardon 
 with regard to numberless slips and failings in their duty, which 
 they may be otherwise guilty of. This great Christian perfec- 
 tion of which they are masters, shall make many little imper- 
 fections to be overlooked and unobserved ; it shall cover the 
 multitude of sins. 
 
 The doctrine is as old as Christianity, but the 
 preacher, notwitlistanding he had to shape his dis- 
 course for the advantage of the institution to which 
 ho had been attached, carefully avoids the sense the
 
 58 SERMON ON CHARITY. 
 
 Roman Church has given to charity, by circumscrib- 
 ing its virtue on the sinner. The sins it covers, he 
 averred, are small sins only. He gives no encourage- 
 ment to the thoroughly wicked, to their hope of escap- 
 ing punishment by a surrender of their riches, when 
 these have ceased to procure them any enjoyment. 
 
 Hoadly was eager for controversy, and having 
 attacked the first edition of tliis sermon, in 1708, 
 followed the " Exceptions " with additional comments, 
 in which he remarks : " If God will accept one duty 
 in lieu of many others, and if our performance of that 
 shall be our justification, notwithstanding our omis- 
 sion of many others, this is a sort of salvation, in 
 my judgment, unworthy of the nature of man to 
 receive, and unworthy of the nature of God to offer." 
 
 The preacher had said nothing about justification 
 or salvation by means of charity ; indeed, he is par- 
 ticularly guarded in his estimate of its efficacy, 
 scarcely coming up to that of the Apostle, when 
 referring to the triad of Christian attributes — "but 
 the greatest of these is Charity." There was, how- 
 ever, not only an opening for controversy, but for 
 reproof, as seen in Dr. Hoadly 's concluding sentence. 
 
 Let me therefore intreat you to review the grotmdless and 
 pernicious doctrine you have unwarily taught on this subject : 
 consider if charity ought to be represented as founded upon a 
 temper inconsistent with innocence and an unspotted conscience 
 [the preacher had said nothing of the kind] as productive of vice 
 and folly and madness! — as leading to the neglect of the 
 principal branches of itself, and the like — and whether it becomes 
 a Christian Divine to set the several parts of God's law at variance ! 
 — and to make the performance of one of them an atonement 
 for the neglect of others, as indispensably required.* 
 
 * "Hoadly's Tracts," 224. 1715.
 
 PRIOR. 59 
 
 The controversialist, in his eagerness to find fault, 
 does not seem to be aware that he is quarrelling with 
 the Apostle, whose assertion that " Charity covereth 
 a multitude of sins," must mean either that its prac- 
 tice is an atonement for neglect of duty, or it means 
 nothing. His object was so transparent, that Atter- 
 bury would not condescend to reply ; and this appa- 
 rent contempt he never forgave. 
 
 It Avas probably a perusal of his schoolfellow's 
 celebrated sermon that inspired Prior with his fine 
 poem on the same subject : — 
 
 Charity — decent, modest, easy, kind, 
 Softens tlie liigli and veils the abject mind ; 
 _^__ - Knows with just reins and gentle hand to guide 
 
 Betwixt vile shame and arbitrary pride. 
 Not soon provoked, she easily forgives, 
 And much she sutfers as she much believes. 
 Soft peace she brings wherever she arrives. 
 She builds our quiet as she forms our lives ; 
 Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even, 
 And opens in each heart a little Heaven. 
 
 And in the same strain he concludes : — 
 
 Thou, constant Faith, and holy Hope, shall die. 
 One lost in certainty, and one in joy ; 
 Wliilst thou, more happy power, fair Charity, 
 Triumphant sister, greatest of the Three, 
 Thy office and thy nature still the same — 
 Lasting thy lamp, and unconsumed thy flame — 
 
 Shalt still survive ; 
 Shalt stand before the Host of Heaven confessed, 
 For ever blessing, and for ever blessed ! 
 
 The chaplain proceeded on his independent career, 
 earnest in loyalty to his royal patrons and patronesses, 
 but still more earnest in loyalty to his sacred profes- 
 sion. His honesty, as well as his courage, were fully 
 appreciated by WilHam III., wlio, however, cannot 
 be said to have shown any very sincere regard for the
 
 60 ATTERBURY AT WHITEHALL. 
 
 Anglican Cliurcli. Probably seeing the rock on which 
 the royalty of his father-in-law had been wrecked, he 
 chose to keep as much from it as possible, leaving the 
 critical navigation to his ministers and the prelates. 
 This want of zeal in the acknowledged head of the 
 Anglican Church, encouraged not only indifference, 
 but irreligion, and nominal members of the establish- 
 ment began to publish w^orks apparently intended to 
 startle the religious public by the heterodoxy of their 
 opinions. 
 
 In the year 1694, Atterbury preached a sermon 
 before Queen Mary, at Whitehall, " The Scorner 
 incapable of True Wisdom." This was also attacked, 
 and with increased bitterness, in consequence of its 
 containing something like a charge of Socinianism 
 against the late Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Til- 
 lotson), as well as some reflections on Sir Eobert 
 Howard, who, among other literary eflbrts, had ven- 
 tured upon a " History of Religion." But the " two 
 letters to Sir E. H.," in which the preacher was 
 assailed, did not disturb his equanimity, and he con- 
 tinued to deliver sermons to crowded congregations 
 with increasing popularity, both in the Court and in 
 the city. He preached before the Lord Mayor each 
 year, dedicating his sermons to the Eight Honorable 
 gentleman who filled the civic chair. 
 
 In a few years he became so attractive a preacher 
 that he was obliged to absent himself from Bridewell, 
 and there appeared to be a falling off in the receipts 
 of the chapel. Thereupon there was a meeting held 
 at the Court-house, on Thursday, the 8th of August, 
 1695, when the following resolution was passed :—
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH. 61 
 
 The Right Worshipful the President of these hospitals inform- 
 ing this Court that the duty of the minister of Bridewell 
 Hospital had not been of late performed according to the orders 
 of the same hospital, and that by reason thereof there was a 
 great decrease in the congregation of the chapel, this Court 
 doth refer it to the President, Treasurer, and Committee of 
 Bridewell Hospital to admonish the minister thereof. 
 
 There was another meeting in the Court-house on 
 the 15th of the following month, when this minute 
 was ordered to be expunged from the vestry book, and 
 lines were drawn across it. 
 
 In the farewell sermon Dr. Atterbury preached, 
 December 11, 1698, at St. Bride's, there occurs the 
 folloAving striking declaration : — 
 
 —Seven years I have from this place admonished, exhorted, 
 besought you : what success these labours of mine have had, 
 He knows best for whose glory they were designed. The in- 
 fidelity of the age has forced me to dwell often on the great 
 articles and mysteries of our Faith, and to explain them largely ; 
 but I call God to witness that I never proposed any explication 
 of these points, never I'ecommended anything of this kind to 
 your belief, but what T firmly and from the bottom of my heart 
 believed myself. The Faith I have delivered to you, the Faith of 
 the Church of England, into which we are all baptised, is, I am 
 entirely satisfied, the same that was once delivered to the Saints ; 
 I hope none of you will be ever in^dted by the specious arts and 
 insinuations of Heresy to depart from it. I am sure the profes- 
 sions of it, in all its branches and members, is what, by the Grace 
 of God, I intend to live and die in. The Church you are of, is 
 without doubt the purest and soundest, the most reasonable and 
 moderate Church upon earth. 
 
 Such was the character Francis Atterbury gave of 
 Church of England doctrine, in an early part of his 
 career as a Churchman, and such the resolution he 
 then formed to abide by it as long as he had life. 
 It will be seen in the course of this narrative that
 
 62 BISHOP TRELAWNEY. 
 
 his enemies more than once accused him of having 
 apostatized ; but nothing" will be easier than to prove 
 the falsehood of the charge. His aftection for the 
 faith in which he had been educated never abated. 
 
 In 1700 he put forth "The Eights, Powers, and 
 Privileges of an English Convocation Stated and Vin- 
 dicated," of which a second edition, much enlarged, 
 appeared in the following year. This work excited 
 extreme interest, and brought out many assailants, 
 among whom stood foremost Wake and Kennett ; 
 but, in the deliberate and dispassionate judgment of 
 Warburton and Hurd,* Atterbury was left complete 
 master of the field. 
 
 In January, 1701 (N.S.), Sir Jonathan Trelawney, 
 then Bishop of Exeter, collated Mr. Atterbury to the 
 archdeaconry of Totness, and subsequently to a pre- 
 bend in the cathedral.f 
 
 In April, 1701, the Court chaplain received the high 
 
 * Hurd, in a letter to Warburton, writes : "The main question Atterbury dis- 
 cusses, ' Whether the convocation or their legal meeting have a right to debate 
 and consult together on matters within their sphere, without a previous licence 
 from the Crown ?' seems unanswerably cleared, and his determination very justly 
 made in their favour. " Warburton replies: "Atterbury goes upon princi'ples, 
 and all that Wake and Kennett could possibly oppose are ^3?'ecec?€«ts; and these 
 are nothing when they oppose the genius of a constitution. And I lay it down 
 for a rule, that in a dispute concerning a public right, whether civil or ecclesiastic, 
 where precedents may (as they always may) be pleaded for both sides the question, 
 there nothing but the nature of the constitution can discriminate the legitimate 
 from the illegitimate." — See Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of bis 
 Friends. 
 
 + These favours are thus acknowledged in his dedication of a volume of sermons 
 to that accomplished prelate : — " They were not the effects of importunity, or the 
 just rewards of domestic service ; they sprang not from dependence or acquaintance, 
 being bestowed upon one who was (at the first) little known to your lordship, 
 otherwise than by his honest endeavours to retrieve those synodical Rights of the 
 Clergy, whereof you, my lord, have been all along, to your great honour, the 
 avowed Patron and Defender."
 
 ATTERBURY AS A PREACHER. 63 
 
 oratification of a vote of thanks from the Lower 
 House of Convocation, " for his learned pains in 
 asserting and vindicating their rights ; " and, at the 
 special request of that body, the university of Oxford 
 was pleased to confer upon him the degree of Doctor 
 in Divinity, by diploma, in the following month. 
 
 It was while Atterbury was preacher at Bridewell 
 Hospital that Steele published his remarkable esti- 
 mate of his ability as a preacher, singling him out as 
 a rare example of clerical eloquence and propriety in 
 the pulpit. He had then, however, received higher 
 preferment. 
 
 But of all the people on tlie earth, there are none who puzzle 
 me so much as the clergy of England, who are, I believe, the 
 most learned body of men now in the world ; and yet this act of 
 speaking, with the proper ornaments of voice and gesture, is 
 wholly neglected among them ; and I will engage, were a deaf 
 man to behold the greater part of them preach, he w^ould rather 
 think they were reading the contents only of some discourse 
 they intended to make, than actually in the body of an oration, 
 even when they are upon matters of such a nature as one would 
 believe it were impossible to think of without emotion. 
 
 I own there are exceptions to this general observation, and 
 that the Dean we heard the other day is an orator. He has so 
 much regard for his congregation, that he commits to his memory 
 what he has to say to them ; and has so soft and graceful a 
 behaviour, that it must attract your attention. His person, it is 
 to be confessed, is no small recommendation ; but he is to be 
 highly commended for not losing that advantage, and adding 
 the propriety of speech, which might pass the criticism of 
 Longinus, an action which would have been approved by 
 Demosthenes. He has a peculiar force in his way, and has 
 many of his audience who could be intelligent hearers of his 
 discourse, were there not explanation as well as grace in his 
 action. This art of his is used with the most exact and honest 
 skill : he never attempts your passions until he has convinced 
 your reason. All the objections which he can form are laid
 
 64 DR. IWRGESS. 
 
 open and dispersed before he uses the least vehemence in his 
 sermon ; but when he thinks he has your head, lie very soon wins 
 your heart, and never pretends to show the beauty of holiness, 
 until he hath convinced you of the truth of it. 
 
 Having dwelt sufficiently on the merits of tlie 
 preacher, he observes : — • 
 
 Would every one of our clergymen be thus carefal to recom- 
 mend truth and virtue in their proper figures, and show so much 
 concern for them as to give them all the additional force they 
 were able, it is not possible that nonsense should have so many 
 heai'ers as you find it has in Dissenting congregations — for no 
 reason in the world but because it is spoken extempore : for 
 ordinary minds are wholly governed by their eyes and ears, and 
 there is no way to come at their hearts but by power over their 
 imaginations. 
 
 The essayist then notices the arts employed in 
 certain conventicles, referring in the first place to a 
 popular Independent minister, Dr. Burgess, who 
 preached in a court near Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 After this general condemnation, he adds : — 
 
 There is my friend and merry companion, Daniel. He knows 
 a great deal better than he speaks, and can form a proper dis- 
 course as well as any orthodox neighbour. But he knows very 
 well how to bawl out " my beloved ! " and the words "grace, 
 regeneration, sanctification, a new light, the day, the day — ay, my 
 beloved, the day ! " or rather " the night, the night, is coming ! " 
 and "judgment will come when we least think of it," and so 
 forth.* 
 
 * There is a curious reference to the popular Dissenter who, by the way, was 
 an old Westminster, in another Tatler (No. 228), which will remind the 
 reader of a familiar passage in "The Hypocrite:" — "It would be like Dr. Burgess 
 dropping his cloak, with the whole congregation hanginc/ upon the skirt of it.''' In 
 one of his sermons he said to his congregation: "If any of you would have a 
 good and cheap suit, you will go to Monmouth Street ; if you want a suit for life, 
 you will go to the Court of Chancery ; but if you wish for a suit that would last 
 to eternity, you must go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put on His Robe of 
 Righteousness." This facetious vein has been cultivated with equal effect in the 
 Tabernacle in the present time.
 
 SERMONS. 65 
 
 He knows to be vehement is tlie only way to come at his 
 audience. Daniel, when he sees my friend Greenbat come in, 
 can give a good hint, and cry out, " This is only for the saints — 
 the regenerated." By this force of action, though mixed with 
 all the incoherence and ribaldry imaginable, Daniel can laugh 
 at his diocesan, and grow fat by voluntary subscription, while 
 the parson of the parish goes to law for half his dues. Daniel 
 will tell you it is not the shepherd but the sheep with the bell 
 which the flock follows. 
 
 More than a century and a half have passed since 
 this picture was drawn, and it is yet faithful in every 
 detail. Steele then calls attention to another defi- 
 ciency in officiating clergymen in his day, which may 
 still be noticed much too frequently. 
 
 Another thing, very wonderful this learned body should omit, 
 is learning to read, which is a most necessary part of eloquence 
 in one who is to serve at the altar ; for there is no man but must 
 be sensible that the lazy tone and inarticulate sound of our 
 common readers depreciates the most proper forms of words 
 that were ever extant in any nation or language to speak our 
 wants, or His power from whom we ask relief. 
 
 The essayist then gives an instance of the advan- 
 tage of action in recommending a discourse — no doubt 
 also a portrait from life. 
 
 There cannot be a greater instance of the power of action 
 than in little Parson Dapper, who is the common relief to 
 all the lazy pulpits in town. This smart youth has a very 
 good memory, a quick eye, and a clean handkerchief. Thus 
 . equipped, he opens his text, shuts his book fairly, shows that 
 he has no notes in his bible ; opens both palms, and shows all is 
 fair there too. Thus, witli a decisive air, my young man goes 
 on without hesitation ; and though from the beginning to the end 
 of his pretty discourse he has not used one proper gesture, yet 
 at the conclusion the churchwarden pulls his gloves from off his 
 hands — " Pray who is this extraordinary young man ? "* 
 
 * The Tatlcr, Saturday, September 10th. 1709, No. 66. 
 VOL. 1. 6.
 
 C)6 ATTERBURY AT THE CHAPEL ROYAL. 
 
 The distinctions that show the growing popularity 
 of Atterbury were supplemented by the following 
 announcement : — " The Rev. Dr. Atterbury * is ap- 
 pointed to preach at St. Paul's Cathedral this day, 
 it being the anniversary of the Restoration of King 
 Charles II. and the Royal Family, where the Right 
 Honble. the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs will 
 be present." f 
 
 "Whenever Dr. Atterbury preached at the Chapel 
 Royal, it was thronged by all who could obtain 
 admission. The most influential men of both parties 
 pressed in among the courtiers, wliose valuable privi- 
 lege it was to hear his discourses. The royal sisters 
 were specially charmed with him ; and after he had 
 preached before the House of Commons in 1701 — 
 when he included in his masterly review of our Con- 
 stitution in Church and State, his well merited 
 eulogium on the Prince to whom the nation was 
 indebted for its preservation — though others were 
 removed from the post of chaplain after Queen 
 Mary's death, he was retained. King WiUiam does 
 not appear to have taken an unfavourable view of 
 his recent pamphlet on Convocation ; probably too 
 much occupied by the trouble the lay parliament 
 gave him to heed the less important proceedings of 
 the clerical one. j 
 
 * He obtained his Doctor of Divinity degree this year. 
 
 t Protestant Mercury, May 29th, 1700. 
 
 X Dr. Atterbury had taken very high ground soon after he became a member 
 of the ecclesiastical legislature. He was regarded as the champion as well as the 
 oracle of the clerical pai-ty subsequently known as " High Church." In his 
 correspondence with Bishop Trelawney, who supported him warmly, he describes 
 the active part he took in Convocation. He not only opposed the Primate and
 
 PROLOCUTOR IN CONVOCATION. 67 
 
 No man had more capacity for judging the merits 
 of a contemporary divine, or more frequent oppor- 
 tunities of arri^'ing at a correct judgment in this 
 instance, than Dr. Smah'idge. His admiration of his 
 friend was as intense as his praise was cordial. He 
 wrote : — 
 
 With wliat applause has he often preached before the people, 
 the magistrates, the clergy, the senate, and the Court ! How 
 often has the late Queen Mary (now gathered to the saints 
 above) been charmed with his eloquence, and what address did 
 he use in tempering the soul of her sister when she was almost 
 oppressed and overcome by her late affliction. 
 
 He wrote, in 1708, " Reflections on a late Scan- 
 dalous Eeport about the Repeal of the Test Act."*' 
 
 In November, 1710, Atterbury, then Dean, was 
 elected by a great majority Prolocutor of the Lower 
 House of Convocation. At the same time his early 
 and esteemed friend William Bromley, Esq., educated 
 with him in the same principles, was chosen Speaker 
 of the House of Commons; a circumstance from 
 which Dr. Smalridge, who presented the new Pro- 
 locutor to the Upper House of Convocation, con- 
 fidently augured the best results. 
 
 When King William died his prospects became 
 brightened by the favour of Queen Anne, by whom, 
 as well as by Prince George of Denmark, lie was 
 greatly esteemed. 
 
 It will be seen that the spirit of strife between 
 
 hiB Low Church supporters by eloquent speeches in the Lower House, but attacked 
 them by equally eloquent ])airiplilet.s out of the House, carryinf; on the controversy 
 with pen and tongue, with equal vigour, against Wake, Jiurnet, Iloadiy, and 
 other equally able assailants. 
 
 • Preached in the Chapel Royal at St. James's, October 31, 1708. 
 
 G *
 
 68 PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK. 
 
 tlie two Houses of Convocation was not allowed to 
 evaporate. Another subject of controversy was 
 started in 1712, of wliicli there is more than one 
 reference in the Prolocutor's reports to the Bishop 
 of AVinchester, who seemed never t'o tire of doing 
 good offices to his friend, nor did his friend tire of 
 acknowledfjinc: them. Both were of one mind in all 
 ecclesiastical matters, particularly in their censure of 
 the opinions allowed to be published by Anglican 
 churchmen, such as Mr. Whiston and Dr. Clarke. 
 Dr. Atterbury was too sincere a Christian to sanction 
 the free and easy sentiments that were constantly 
 introduced into works written by clergymen of the 
 Church of England, and in one instance at least he 
 promptly interposed to check such a scandal. 
 
 During a sermon he preached before the House of 
 Commons on the 8th of March, 1703-4, Dr. Atter- 
 bury dwelt with impressive fervour on the amiable 
 characteristics of their royal mistress. The members 
 were not more pleased than the Queen ; and as the 
 imperious favourite, the Duchess of Marlborough, 
 professed to be equally gratified, the Court chaplain's 
 rise might safely have been predicted. His progress 
 in favour was much advanced by his arduous endea- 
 vours to afford pious consolation on the death of her 
 husband, in honour of whom he preached a sermon 
 that affected the entire Court. Prince George of 
 Denmark had hitherto been held in little account ; 
 neither the ministers nor the courtiers had shown 
 him much attention ; but the Court chaplain brought 
 out his unassuming virtues in such high relief, that 
 his widow could not but help feehng her irreparable
 
 DR. CHARLETT. 69 
 
 loss ; she equally felt the consolation of the preacher's 
 Christian arguments. 
 
 On the back of a letter from Dr. Smalrids^e to 
 Dr. Charlett, Master of University College, Oxford, 
 the latter wrote " About Dr. Atterbury being worthy 
 of the chair, and the character given of him." The 
 letter, dated July 3, 1708, contains the following 
 passage : — 
 
 I guess at the person whom the dean and president have in 
 their thoughts ; but if I know that person as well as they do, 
 and I should know him a little better, he will thank his friends 
 for the honour they intend him, but will never accept of it. He 
 has an hundred unanswerable objections against it ; but there is 
 one worth an hundred which you yourself suggest, that such a 
 compliment cannot be paid him without an affront to another 
 person whom he loves and honours, and who is the last man in 
 the world whom he would disoblige. That other person has 
 such an indisputable title to the post, and is in all regards so 
 well qualified for it, that I am not a little sm'prised or a little 
 concerned to find any other person thought of. I do not know 
 whether it will be in the power of our friends to fill that post 
 with one of their own side or not ; but if it should, let them 
 secure one who has served them so faithfully, and has suffered 
 so much in their service, to whom they owe all the powers 
 they have, and who has so heartily struggled for their having 
 more influence and interest than they yet have.* 
 
 Tlic position Dr. Atterbury assumed in Convoca- 
 tion was higlily offensive to all ecclesiastical time- 
 servers, some of whom were mean enough to spread a 
 report that he had offered to join the party of the 
 IVliig primate, but had been rejected ; they tried to 
 father this derogatory report on his friend Smah-idge, 
 
 * Ballard's Letters. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Vol. VIL, Nichols. Miscel- 
 laneous Works of Bishop Atterbury, V., 272.
 
 70 SIR JOHN TREVOR. 
 
 wlio, liowever, thus disposes of it under Ids own 
 hand : — 
 
 Chichester, August 21, 1708. 
 I received the favour of yours by tlie last post, wherein 
 you desire to know, whether I ever ^aid by Mr. Gibson 
 " that Dr. Atterbury came to Lambeth and offered himself to 
 come into our measures, but was rejected;" to which I take 
 the first opportunity to return this plain answer, that I never 
 did say so, either to Mr. Gibson or to any man living. I might 
 say that some years since there was a private proposal from a 
 person of note, to make matters more easy and quiet in Convo- 
 cation, and that mention was made of Dr. Atterbury as a per- 
 son that might be very instrumental in it, and of his coming 
 to Lambeth as the first step towards it. All this to my know- 
 ledge is true — that is, that such a proposal was then made ; but 
 that it was made by Dr. Atterbury, much less that he came to 
 Lambeth as the first step towards it, or that he was at all pi'ivy 
 to it, I never did say. By this post T write to Mr. Gibson, to 
 let him know that this is what 1 said to him ; and that if he 
 mistook and hath reported it otherwise, it is an injury both to 
 Dr. Atterbury and me, and he ought, in justice to both, to 
 undeceive as many as he has misled.* 
 
 Sir John Trevor, almost as intelligent a Master of 
 the Rolls as Sir John E,omilly, was one of the dis- 
 tinguished statesmen who frequently joined the con- 
 gregation of Dr. Atterbury. The Court chaplain 
 had the command of the best pulpits for influencing 
 society beneficially ; that he employed them to great 
 efiect, the most convincing proofs may be found in 
 the opinions of the best judges of such merit, not 
 exclusively among the members of his own church, 
 but among sectarian divines, whose judgment could 
 not be influenced by partiality, f 
 
 * Ballard's Letters. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Vol. VII., Nichols. Miscel- 
 laneous Works of Bishop Atterhury, V. , 273. 
 
 t ' ' The glory of English orators ! His language in its strictest purity and beauty ;
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 71 
 
 Hoadly, eager to gain publicity at the expense of 
 a brother clergyman rising into notice, in 1706, 
 attacked another sermon of Dr. Atterbury's, founded 
 on a text from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corin- 
 thians, XV., 19 : — " If in this life only we have hope 
 in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." The 
 preacher said : — 
 
 If all the benefits we expect from the Christian institution 
 were confined within the bounds of this present life, and we had 
 no hopes of a better state after this, of a great and lasting, 
 reward in a life to come, we Christians should be the most 
 abandoned and wretched of creatures. All other sorts and sects 
 of men would evidently have the advantage of us, and a much 
 surer title to happiness than we. 
 
 " This is not felicitously expressed ; but the Doctor's 
 meaning is that if members of the Church of 
 England were to content themselves with a Chris- 
 tianity that reached no farther than the grave, every 
 other community of Christians who entertained 
 hopes of eternal felicity must be considered in a far 
 better position. In respect of a future life, he argues 
 that men without the prospect of immortality would 
 be as the beasts that perish ; the best men being often 
 the most miserable. " I mean," he adds, " as far 
 as happiness or misery are to be measured from 
 pleasuig or painful sensations ; and supposing the 
 present to be the only life we are to lead, I see not 
 that this might be esteemed the true measure ol' 
 them." 
 
 nothing dark, nothing redundant, nothing defective, nothing misplaced. Trivial 
 thoughts avoided, uncommon ones introduced, set in a clear and strong light in a 
 few words ; a few admirable similes, graceful allusions to Scripture, beyond any 
 other writer. On the whole he is a model for courtly preachers." — Du. Doddridge. 
 This should be compared with Dr. Warton's gratuitous falsehoods.
 
 72 CONTROVERSY. 
 
 This was an unguarded expression of which 
 
 Hoadly took an unfair advantage, by representing 
 
 the preacher as having mistaken the Apostle's 
 
 meaning, and thus dogmatically pretends to set him 
 
 right : — 
 
 The apostle speaks of Christians professing faith in Christ, 
 Dr. Atterbury of persons practising the moral precepts of 
 religion; the apostle speaks of the condition of such Christians 
 in a state of the most bitter persecution, Dr. Atterbury of the 
 condition of virtuous persons in the ordinary course of God's 
 providence. The apostle designs nothing by his assertion and 
 supposition but to shame those ignorant unwary professors of 
 Christianity out of the denial of a general resurrection ; Dr. 
 Atterbury, on the contrary, draws from them an absolute argu- 
 ment for the certainty of a future state. 
 
 He concludes with the following^ confident summinsf 
 up : " So that upon the review it seems evident that 
 Dr. Atterbury has mistaken the assertion itself, the 
 persons concerning whom the Apostle intends it, the 
 times to which he manifestly limits it, and the con- 
 clusion which he designed should be drawn from it."* 
 
 Dr. Atterbury thought proper to answer this when 
 preparing a volume of his sermons for the press. In 
 some prefatory remarks to one of them, he replied to 
 his opponent with such force, strengthening his 
 arguments with so many quotations from our best 
 divines, that the pertinacious controversialist was 
 provoked to publish a second letter on the same sub- 
 ject ; but it elicited no rejoinder. Hoadly waited 
 impatiently for another opportunity, and found it 
 in a Latin sermon, preached by the Doctor in the 
 Rolls Chapel in 1709, soon after his appointment 
 
 Hoadly's Tracts, 1715.
 
 RISE OF ATTERBURY. 73 
 
 to that pidpit by the Master of the Eolls, Sir John 
 Trevor. 
 
 A httle before this Dr. xitterbury, in one of liis 
 Convocation pamphlets, had mentioned his opponent 
 as the modest and moderate Mr. Hoadly, and 
 acensed him of " treating the body of the Estabhshed 
 Church with language more disdainful and reviling 
 than it would have become him to have used towards 
 his Presbyterian antagonist upon any provocation, 
 charging them with rebellion in the Church, whilst 
 he himself was preaching it up in the State."* 
 
 Hoadly, stung by the reproof, issued another 
 vehement pamphlet, misrepresenting his opponent's 
 motives in carrying on the controversy.! It did 
 no harm to Dr. Atterbury, but proved an excellent 
 advertisement for himself. The Queen continued to 
 show unmistakable marks of her approval of her 
 chaplain, and her ministers now began to indicate 
 that they were not insensible to his increasing 
 influence. The Lower House of Convocation were 
 conscious not only of his ascendancy, but of his 
 devotion to the true interests of the Anglican Church 
 — in short, he was generally regarded as one of the 
 most able men in his profession. Queen Anne 
 accepted his advice on Church affairs, and at once 
 there was a marked change in the policy of the 
 Government, as acknowledged by Dr. Burnet. 
 
 All this was directed by Dr. Atterbury, who had the confidence 
 of the chief minister ; and because the other bishops had main- 
 tained a good correspondence with the former ministry, it was 
 thought fit to put the mark of the Queen's distrust ujion them, 
 
 * "Some Proceedings in Convocation, a.d. 1705, faithfully represented." 
 t " A large Answer to Dr. Atterbury's Charge of Keljclliou," «&c., 1710,
 
 74 BISHOP BURNET. 
 
 that it might appear with whom her royal favour and trust was 
 loils^ed. 
 
 Hoadly bad tlie mortification of seeing the royal 
 chaplain constantly rising in estimation, not only in 
 the Court but in the Church. In short, the advocate 
 of the Church, who had stood alone, found himself 
 at the head of a powerful party. He became the 
 director of the Lower House of Convocation, who 
 gave (11th May, 1711) another proof of their con- 
 fidence by appointing him one of the committee 
 selected to compare the doctrines of Winston with 
 those sanctioned by the Anglican Church. 
 
 Bishop Burnet, one of his opponents in the old con- 
 troversy, never misses an opportunity of betraying his 
 hostility to the champion of High Church principles, 
 and asserts in his " History "* that a representation of 
 the present state of religion having been deemed by 
 Convocation necessary to report to the Queen, Dr. 
 Atterbury contrived to get himself appointed to draw 
 it up, and that the result was a most virulent decla- 
 mation, defaming all the administrations from the 
 time of the Eevolution. 
 
 This " representation " was not presented to the 
 Queen, but it was published, and its disclosures 
 terribly annoyed the other party in the Church, who 
 were considered responsible for the lamentable state 
 of things it portrayed ; their writers were kept con- 
 stantly employed in Atterbury's vilification. 
 
 Dr. William King returned from Ireland, where he 
 had fiUed the important posts of Judge of the High. 
 Court of Admiralty, Commissioner of Prizes, Keeper 
 of Records, and Vicar-General of the Primate — with 
 
 * " History of his Ow Time," II., 569. 
 
 II
 
 DR. WILLIAM KING. 75 
 
 more honour to his red cow than to himself. He 
 preferred a residence in London, with leisure to write 
 squibs on whatever in his eyes deserved ridicule. 
 Such Avere " Useful Transactions in Philosophy and 
 other sorts of Learaing," " A Voyage to the Island 
 of Cajamai, in America," and " The Art of Cookery." 
 He resumed his intimacy with Dr. AtterLury, and it 
 presently grew into a close political alliance. He had 
 been Secretary to the Princess Anne in the late King's 
 reign, and became a strong partisan with his fellow 
 student against the Whig Government. He also took 
 a prominent part in favour of another fellow student, 
 whom the Cabinet unwisely sought to crush by a 
 prosecution. 
 
 Thomas Yalder was a Demy of Magdalen College 
 in 1G90, and attracted favourable attention by his 
 poetical compositions. In 1693 his "Ode on St. 
 Cecilia's Day " was set to music by Purcell, and two 
 years later appeared a Pindaric ode, addi*essed to King 
 William, " On the Conquest of Namur." In May, 
 1094, he had taken his M.A. degree, and went to 
 town with the object of getting clerical employment. 
 Dr. Atterbury was acquainted with his merit, and 
 ibrwarded his interests mth such effect, that in 1698 
 he succeeded to the pulpit the Doctor had been 
 obliged to resign at Bridewell. The obligation he 
 never forgot, attaching himself warmly to his friend, 
 and promoting his views whenever it lay in his 
 power. He joined the High Church party, and wrote 
 a poem to popularize their principles. 
 
 Of the six chaplains appointed to preach at White- 
 hall, Dr. Atterbury is placed first. His salary was
 
 70 DR. SMALRIDGE. 
 
 £80 a year.* The Lord Almoner, Dr. Wake, and 
 the Dean of the Chapel Royal, Dr. John Robinson, 
 Bishop of London, had c€200 a year; the sub- 
 Almoner and the sub-Dean, Dr. Cannon and Mr. John 
 Dolben, received £97 ILv. 3c/. and £91 5^., the first as 
 wages and board-wages, the other board-wages only. 
 There were forty-eight chaplains, four for each month 
 throughout the year, without salary. From the same 
 authority we learn that the income from the bishopric 
 of Rochester was only £358 4s. dd. Grloucester, 
 Llandaff, St. Asaph, and Bangor were valued respec- 
 tively at £315 7^. Id., £154 14*. 2d., £187 12^. 8d, 
 and £131 16^. Sd. Winchester was then richer than 
 either of the archbishoprics, its revenue being esti- 
 mated at £3,193 4^. l^d. 
 
 That Dr. Atterbury's orthodoxy was not unpopular 
 is proved by his having been selected to preach before 
 the House of Commons, and by the favour with 
 which his sermons, preached to the Court of Queen 
 Anne, were received. With his old friend Dr. Smal- 
 ridge he was in frequent communication. They had 
 been closely associated in classical study, and were 
 now coadjutors in theological as well as in literary 
 pursuits. Smalridge obtained the appointment of 
 Almoner to Queen Anne, which brought him fre- 
 quently into the society of her chaplain. They were 
 always found in the same company, where the con- 
 versational powers and extreme good humour of Dr. 
 Smalridge made him a favourite, particularly with 
 Steele and Addison, who have left evidences of their 
 partiality for this accomplished and amiable divine. 
 
 * Chamberlayne. " Magna BritanniEe Notitise, " 1716, 553.
 
 Steele's character of him. 77 
 
 w 
 
 Steele, in one of his inimitable essays, after a 
 letter, supposed to come from a member of the 
 Society of Friends, describing the apathetic manner 
 of a fasliionable preacher, refers to his clerical friend 
 under the tiom de plume " Favonius " : — 
 
 " In the midst of a thousand impertinent assailants of the 
 divine truths," he remarks, " he is an undisturbed defender of 
 them. He protects all under his care by the clearness of his 
 understanding and the example of his life ; he visits dying men 
 with the air of a man who hopes for his own dissolution, and 
 enforces in others a contempt of this life by his own expectation 
 of the next. His voice and behaviour are the lively images of 
 a composed and well-governed zeal. None can leave him for 
 the frivolous jargon uttered by the ordinary teachers among 
 Dissenters, but such as cannot distinguish vociferation from 
 eloquence, and argument from railing. He is so great a judge 
 of mankind, and touches our passions with so superior a com- 
 mand, that he who deserts his congregation must be a str-anger 
 to the dictates of nature as well as to those of grace."* 
 
 To Addison, in conjunction with Steele, has been 
 attributed another portrait of this estimable man. 
 The Editor of the Tatler describes a visit paid by 
 him to the dying wife of a friend, who resided at a 
 house in Westminster : — 
 
 At the door of it I met Favonius — not without a secret 
 satisfaction to find he had been there. I had formerly conversed 
 with him at this house ; and as he abounds with that sort of 
 virtue and knowledge which makes religion beautiful, and never 
 leads the conversation into the violence and rage of party 
 disputes, I listened to him with great pleasure. Our discourse 
 chanced to be on the subject of Death, which he treated with 
 such a strength of reason and greatness of soul, that instead of 
 being terrible, it appeared to a mind rightly cultivated 
 altogether not to be contemned, or rather to bo desired. 
 
 As I met him at the door I saw in his face a certain glowing 
 
 * TaUer, No. 72. September 24th, 1709.
 
 78 atterbury's politics. 
 
 of grief and humanity, liciglitened with an air of fortitude and 
 resolution, which, as I afterwards found, had such an irresistible 
 force as to suspend the pains of the dying and the lamentation 
 of the nearest friends who attended her.* 
 
 A few years later, when Dr. Smalriclge had been 
 raised to the episcopal bench as Bishop of Bristol, 
 Addison, in a letter to Swift, October 1, 1718, men- 
 tions him thus cordially: — "The greatest pleasure 
 [ have met with for some months is the conversation 
 of my old friend Dr. Smalridge, who, since the death 
 of the excellent man you mention, is to me the most 
 candid and agreeable of all bishops." 
 
 Archdeacon Atterbury was not content with being 
 a fashionable preacher. His High Church predi- 
 lections had filled him with high State notions. 
 Thouo-h he could not be what the more distinguished 
 ornaments of the Galilean, the Spanish, and the 
 Italian Church had been, and though the road to 
 the dignity of a Wolsey was as completely closed 
 as'ainst him as that to the honours of a Eichelieu or 
 a Ximenes, the Church of England had in his own 
 era produced statesmen, who were its primates, whose 
 position in the government of the country seemed 
 scarcely less worthy of his ambition. Atterbury, 
 therefore, began to give more attention to politics. 
 His High Churcli principles led inevitably to his 
 adoption of the doctrine of legitimate succession, and 
 made him sensible of the existence of a Prince who 
 had been excluded from the country, though, as the 
 son of James the Second, he possessed apparently an 
 indisputable right to the British throne. 
 
 ♦ Tatler, No. 114. December 31, 1709.
 
 JACOBITES AND TORIES. 79 
 
 Such were the ideas he might hear constantly 
 expressed by partisans, called either Jacobites, from 
 their known devotion to the exiled family, or Tories, 
 the political party opposed to the AVhigs. And they 
 might be entertained \\4th perfect loyalty to his royal 
 mistress, for the few persons who enjoyed Her 
 Majesty's confidence were aware that she felt a deep 
 sympathy for her brother, and quite as strong an 
 aversion to the Electress of Hanover. The Tories 
 were the supporters of High Church principles, and 
 as the avowed champion of these principles in Con- 
 vocation, Archdeacon Atterbury must take his place 
 with that party. At present he cared only to 
 show himself a partisan in literature, as well as in 
 theolosfv, and seemed satisfied with the additional 
 arena afforded in the columns of certain periodical 
 publications. 
 
 Some of the physicians moved as prominently in 
 society as the chaplains. After the revolution had 
 been accomplished. Dr. Eadcliffe's decided Protest- 
 antism gained him as much influence at Court as his 
 recognized talent in his profession. He became the 
 principal physician to their Majesties, with a hand- 
 some salary. Besides enjoying a large practice 
 amongst his own countrymen, he acquired the favour 
 of the King's Dutch favourites, Bentinck, Earl of 
 Portland, and Zulestein, Earl of Eochford. Moreover, 
 his social and intellectual talents made him regarded 
 as an acquisition to the best society of the metrop- 
 olis. The Bull's Head Tavern, in Clare IVIarket, 
 was one of the favourite resorts of the gay spirits of 
 this convivial generation, and here he was in the
 
 80 trior's epigram on radcliffe. 
 
 habit of circulating tlie sparkling wine, as well as 
 the no less sparkling jest, with some of his most 
 distinguished contemporaries. 
 
 Dr. Atterbury could not have ftiiled in being 
 included in the increasing circle of the fashionable 
 Doctor's friends, for his devotion to the Church of 
 England continued to be a prominent characteristic. 
 With much eccentricity of character the Doctor was 
 of a singularly benevolent disposition, and performed 
 many noble acts of charity. The poor clergy, non- 
 jurors and others, were often indebted to his liberality 
 — Dr. William Lloyd to the amount of £500 ; and as 
 his Avealth increased so did his benefactions. He 
 was a governor of Bridewell when Dr. Atterbury 
 was preacher at the chapel. 
 
 Dr. EadclifFe was a prodigious gossip, and when 
 indulging this weakness with persons whose time 
 was valuable, or whose intelligence despised such 
 small entertainment, he did not escape being stigma- 
 tized as a bore. This elicited one of Prior's happiest 
 epigrams : — 
 
 I sent for Radcliffe, •was so ill, 
 
 The other doctors gave me over ; 
 He felt my pulse, prescribed his pill, 
 
 And I was likely to recover. 
 But when the Wit began to wheeze, 
 
 And wine had warmed the Politician, 
 Cured yesterday of my disease, 
 
 I died last night of my Physician. 
 
 In writing to his right reverend patron Bishop 
 Trelawney, Atterbury introduces the following anec- 
 dote of his celebrated friend : — 
 
 June 15, 1704. 
 Dr. Breach is in town, being sent for by the Master of the 
 Rolls in order to take care of my Lady Trevor, whom Radcliffe
 
 MEAD AND GARTH. 81 
 
 liad given over as incurable. I am afraid she is so : however, 
 the very sending for Dr. Breach (as it displeases RadclifFe much, 
 and may perhaps occasion a hreach there), so it is for Dr. Breach's 
 honoui" ; and, if ever he thinks of settling in town, will make 
 way for him. The Master thought it a compliment to Badcliffe 
 not to join any of the London physicians with him, but to send 
 for an old crony of his to consult with him. But Radcliffe, I 
 find, is nettled with this conduct. He sets out speedily for the 
 Bath with Colonel Specot, 
 
 Dr. Mead possessed liigli social eminence. He had 
 travelled extensively, and acquired in Italy sucli 
 taste and judgment in tlie Fine Arts, as enabled liim 
 to form an excellent gallery of paintings. As a 
 scientific physician he ranked with the foremost — 
 indeed filled a distinguished place in the Royal 
 Society, of which he was one of the vice-presidents. 
 His acquirements were held in the highest estimation 
 by Sir Isaac Newton, and at the death of the eminent 
 Dr. Eadcliffe,* the world of rank, of fashion, and of 
 science, at once accepted him as his successor. He 
 was much in the society of men of letters, particu- 
 larly in Atterbury's circle ; but though sometimes 
 engaged in professional controversies, took no promi- 
 nent part in politics. 
 
 Dr. Garth wrote his poem, " The Dispensary," 
 when the CoUege of Physicians to which he belonged 
 had their quarrel with the apothecaries near the close 
 of the seventeenth century, respecting a charitable 
 institution the former desired to establish to provide 
 medicines for the sick poor. It was an exposure of 
 the mercenary spirit that prevailed in the subordinate 
 
 * Novenilier 1st, 1714. 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 b2 THE KIT KAT CLUB. 
 
 members of the profession, which met with marked 
 encouragement — six editions being called for in as 
 many years. He had previously attacked quacks in 
 an annual oration in Latin before the College, which 
 evinced no less scholarship than spirit. He had been 
 educated at Cambridq;e. 
 
 Pope was one of the most earnest of his admirers, 
 and Addison not less cordial — in short, his active 
 benevolence, quite as much as his great talents, re- 
 commended him to all discerners of merit. 
 
 His political principles were displayed by his 
 joining some friends of the Hanoverian succession, 
 who met at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, 
 close to the shop of one Christopher Kat, who sup- 
 plied them Avith pastry. This name, abbreviated to 
 " Kit Kat," was adopted as that of the club. It was 
 eminently convivial, and included men of distinction, 
 who prided themselves on their good fellowship, cir- 
 culatins: as much wit as wine. Dr. Garth distin- 
 guislied himself amongst them by his readiness in the 
 expression of epigrammatic humour. He possessed 
 good feeling as well as good humour, and when his 
 patron. Lord Godolphin, was displaced in 1710, he 
 addressed his lordship in a complimentary poem. 
 
 Dr. Garth, while enjoying the credit of rank- 
 ing among Atterbury's friends, received the addi- 
 tional distinction of being the subject of a poem on 
 the merits of his "Dispensary," from the pen of 
 Dr. Atterbury's former pupil. This was published 
 with the work, with other complimentary verses — a 
 mode of advertising that had not quite gone out 
 of vogue. The doctor, however, drew off from both
 
 A HANDSOME QUAKERESS. 83 
 
 these earnest friends, when their political princij^les 
 brought responsibility to master and pupil. Bat 
 the physician was a courtier, and having paid his 
 court assiduously to the rising Churchman, paid it 
 still more assiduously to persons of greater influence 
 when patronage was at their disposal. 
 
 One of the earliest of Dr. Garth's public appear- 
 ances was at the trial of Spencer Cowper, for the 
 alleged murder of a handsome Quakeress, Hannah 
 Stout. He was a rising barrister, and the girl had 
 seen him and become enamoured of his good looks ; 
 and after an inter\dew at her father's house in Hert- 
 ford, in which he had apparently given her no 
 encoui'agement, she was found di'owned in a neigh- 
 bouring piece of water, called the Priory Eiver. The 
 Quakers, rather than submit to the reproach of one 
 of their members having committed self-destruction, 
 sanctioned a prosecution of the last person seen in 
 her company. Garth was summoned on behalf of the 
 prisoner to give medical evidence against the opinion 
 of some of the witnesses for the crown, that the girl 
 had been made away with, and then thrown into the 
 water. His evidence was conclusive as to suicide, 
 and the jury returned a verdict of " Not guilty." 
 
 Of the many kindly acts performed by him which 
 rendered him eminent among the philanthropists of 
 his age, were his exertions to secure for the corpse of 
 John Dryden suitable funereal honours. The great 
 poet died on the 1st of May, 1700, leaving his 
 widow. Lady I]liza1)etli Howard, slenderly provided 
 for. It has been stated that Dr. Sprat, Bishop of 
 Rochester, promptly sent word that an interment in 
 
 7 *
 
 84 MARGARITA. 
 
 the Abbey would be provided free of expense, and 
 that about the same time Lord Halifax communi- 
 cated to the family his wish to provide a fitting 
 monument, and defray all expenses. All, however, 
 that is certain, is, that Dr. Garth, learning- the dis- 
 tress of Lady Elizabeth and her children, caused the 
 body to be taken to the College of Physicians, and 
 instituted a general subscription, which enabled him 
 to honour the poet's remains with a magnificent 
 funeral in Westminster Abbey, after he had pro- 
 nounced a Latin oration to a distinguished company 
 of mom-ners who had assembled in the College. 
 
 Atterbury, while writing to his old friend Bishop 
 Trelawney on clerical affairs, did not forget occasion- 
 ally to season his epistle with town gossip. In July, 
 1703, he announced that " Margarita, the Italian 
 singer, is run away lately from the man who brought 
 her over, and enjoys the profits of her singing. And 
 the town hath, upon that, produced the scandal which 
 I enclose : — 
 
 ORPHEUS AND MARGARITA. 
 
 Hail, sacred pair ! tell by what wondrous cbanns 
 One 'scaped from Hell and one from Greber's arms. 
 "When the soft Thracian struck the trembling strings, 
 The winds lay hushed and furled their airy wings. 
 And since the tawny Tuscan raised her strains, 
 Sleep lulls our fleets and trances our campaigns: 
 Why both attract, the Muses can relate — 
 He trees and stones — she Ministers of State." 
 
 One of the subjects of town talk soon after the 
 commencement of the century was the duel between 
 Dr. Atterbury's late jDupil, the Hon. Charles Boyle, 
 M.P. for Huntingdon, and Mr. Wortley, the de- 
 feated candidate. They fought, as was customary.
 
 MR. boyle's duel. 85 
 
 with swords, and the result was in Mr. Boyle's favour ; 
 but he was so severely wounded, that it was some 
 months before he became convalescent. His election 
 had been opposed on the ground of illegal practices ; 
 and during a debate in the House of Commons, he 
 had defended himself spiritedl}^ not forgetting to 
 reflect on his opponent. Much publicity, therefore, 
 was given to the quarrel, and the encounter was for 
 several days the favourite topic at White's Chocolate 
 House, the coffee-houses, and the clubs.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LITERARY FRIENDS. 
 
 Atterbury's Intimacy witli Contemporary Men of Letters — 
 Dryden's Loyalty and Religion — His " Hind and Panther " 
 — Prior, as Diplomatist and Poet— Was he ever a Vintner ? 
 — The " Town and Country Mouse" — Prior in Parliament — 
 His " Solomon "—Atterbury's Opinion of " The Tale of a 
 Tub"— Swift connected with the Tories— His "Project 
 for the Advancement of Religion" — Steele — His Plays — 
 Originates the Tatler — Addison dedicates his Remarks 
 on Italy to Swift — His Career as a Statesman and as a 
 Journalist — Contributors to the Tatler and Spectator — Sir 
 Isaac Newton — Lord Harcourt and St. John — Pope — His 
 close Intimacy vnih. Atterbury — Gay — Pope's Affection for 
 him — Dennis, the Critic. 
 
 Francis Atterbury had written both verse and 
 prose, with a fair amount of success ; and while 
 enjoying his respectabihty as a court chaplain, culti- 
 vated the opportunities this post afforded him for 
 associating with men of letters. Some of these had 
 already been school or college associates ; but he con- 
 trived to make intimacies with others not less worthy 
 of his regard. The reign of Queen Anne has se- 
 cured an Augustan celebrity for its literature — this 
 is. surely an exaggeration ; nevertheless there was an 
 impulse then given to the cultivation of imaginative, 
 political, and critical composition, by the publication 
 of periodicals that produced the great results of the
 
 dryden's loyalty. 87 
 
 century. To this impulse Atterbury largely con- 
 tributed; but before his labours are described, it is 
 necessary to dwell upon those of his immediate pre- 
 decessors, who prepared his mind for the conflict of 
 opinion, in which he was desirous of gaining distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Dryden's facility in adopting himself to circum- 
 stances, was shown in two compositions written 
 within a couple of years of each other. In the first 
 he wrote thirty-seven verses in this style : — 
 
 Though in his praise no man can lib'ral be, 
 
 Since they whose Muses have the highest shown, 
 
 Add not to his immortal memory, 
 
 But do an act of friendship to their own. * 
 
 In the second he put together a longer and more 
 laboured composition to 
 
 The lest, and best beloved of Kings, 
 And best deserving to he so ! 
 
 The first was to the immortal memory of Oliver 
 Cromwell, the other to the very mortal memory of 
 his contrast, Charles II. The poet, not content with, 
 in the latter instance, producing a farrago of inflated 
 nonsense in honour of the dead king, pays court to 
 his successor, by concluding with a complimentary 
 prophecy equally fallacious. James is first referred 
 to as a nonsuch : — 
 
 But ere a Prince is to perfection brought, 
 He costs Omnipotence a second thought. 
 
 The " lively sense of favours to come " then 
 intoxicates his muse into predicting : — 
 
 * Heroic Stanzas, &c. Dryden's Poems, 1. lU'J. Cooke's Edition.
 
 88 dryden's religion. 
 
 With a distant view I see 
 Th' amended vows of English loyalty ; 
 Ami all beyond that object there appears 
 
 The retinue of a prosperous reic/n — 
 A series of success/ ul years! &c., &c.* 
 
 In the year 1082 Dry den published his first reli- 
 gious poem, "Religio Laici ; or, The Layman's Faith," 
 representing the Scriptures as the only religious autho- 
 rity and guide. It appears to have been written 
 for a friend who was translating Simon's Critical 
 History of the New Testament, and advocated the 
 reformed Church of England, in preference either to 
 the Church of Eome, or the doctrines of the Non- 
 conformists. On the Roman priests of the Middle 
 Ages, and the sectarians of his own time, he is 
 sternly severe. This poem forms a curious contrast 
 with " The Hind and Panther," written only five 
 years later ; but in the interval the Duke of York 
 had ascended the throne, and honours and rewards 
 were to be had by writers of talent who would under- 
 take lo write up the Papacy and write down the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Dryden abandoned Protestantism for Popery, and, 
 with an extravafjant estimation of the faith he em- 
 braced, endeavoured to decry the one in which he had 
 been reared ; completely oblivious of the striking truths 
 he had expressed a few years before in his " Religio 
 Laici." It has been stated that he made the change 
 from the resentment he had cherished against the 
 Church of England, because he had been refused 
 when he sought ordination, and denied the provost- 
 ship of Eton when a candidate. This is adverted to 
 
 * Threnodia Augustalis. Dryden's Poems, I. 108.
 
 DR. STILLINGFLEET. 89 
 
 as a fact by those wlio commented on liis apostasy. 
 His malevolent feeling towards tlie Anglican clergy 
 he exhibited at every opportunity, as rancorously as 
 he malisrned the Protestant faith.* 
 
 Dr. Stillingfleet had ably exposed a publication 
 purporting to be drawn up from documents written 
 by the late Kingf — about the last person likely to 
 have written a line of them — and Dryden rushed into 
 controversy with more zeal than discretion.! After 
 lauding his adopted church, with this illogica l argu- 
 ment : — " The church is more visible than the scrip- 
 ture, because the scripture is seen by the church," 
 he as maliciously as falsely asserts of the Eeforma- 
 tion : — " It was erected on the foundation of lust, 
 sacrilege, and usurpation, and that no paint is capable 
 of making lovely the hideous face of it." 
 
 The Reformation in England had had a century of 
 development before Henry VIII. was born, and was 
 the national protest against Papal abuses the writer 
 had described only two or three years before : — 
 
 Then Mother Church did mightily prevail, 
 She parcelled out the Bible by retail, 
 But still expounded what she sold or gave, 
 To keep it in her power to damn or save. 
 
 * "But, prythee, why so severe always upon the priesthood, Mr. Baycs ? You, 
 I find, still continue your old humour, which we are to date from the year of 
 Hegira, the loss of Eton, or since Orders were refused you." "The Reasons of 
 Mr. Bayes' changing his Religion considered," &c., by Thomas Browne, ItiSS. 
 " The late Converts exposed," &c., 1690, a second part of the preceding. "Ever 
 since a certain worthy bishop refused orders to a certain jjoet, Mr. Dryden has 
 declared open defiance against the whole clergy." — Langbaine. 
 
 f "Answer to some Papers lately printed concerning the Authority of the 
 Catholic Church in matters of Faith, and the Reformation of tiie Church of 
 England," 1686. 
 
 J "A Defence of the Papers written by the late King of Blessed Memory 
 and found in his strong box," 1686.
 
 90 DRYDEN AS A CONVERT. 
 
 Scripture was raised, and as the market went, 
 
 Poor laymen took salvation or content 
 
 As needy men took money, good or Lad. 
 
 God's word they liad not — but the Priests' they had.* 
 
 Dr. Stilliiigfleet replied to the tradncer with well 
 merited severity. f 
 
 The royal papers were notorious fabrications ; 
 nevertheless there were plenty of advocates for their 
 genuineness. 
 
 " If I thought," wrote the Doctor, " there was no 
 such thing as true religion in the world, and that the 
 priests of all religions are alike, I might have been 
 as nimble a convert and as early a defender of the 
 royal papers as any one of these champions. For 
 why should not one, who believes in no religion, 
 declare for any ? " 
 
 This serious charge might have been founded on the 
 absence of any religious principle in Dry den's career. 
 On this subject an able apologist has said: — "His 
 tendency to profaneness is the effect of levity, negli- 
 gence, and loose conversation, with a desire of 
 accommodating himself to the corruptions of the 
 times, by venturing to be wicked as far as he durst. 
 When he professed himself a convert to Popery, he 
 did not pretend to have received any new conviction 
 of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity." | 
 
 His new conviction came from the same source 
 that had changed him from a partisan of the 
 Commonwealth to an enthusiast for the monarchy — a 
 desire of advancing his own interests ; and with this 
 
 * Religio Laici. 
 
 t " A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers," 1687. 
 
 J Dr. Johnson, " Lives of the Poets." i
 
 HIS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 91 
 
 impulse he sat down to write a long poem of a contro- 
 versial character, in which the Church of Eome was to 
 be represented by an innocent hind, and the Church 
 of England by a sanguinary panther. The converted 
 poet's determination to recommend himself to the 
 royal convert was evident ; while pourtraying the first 
 as a harmless creature, no less servilely sycophantic 
 was his representing as a savage beast a church that 
 had not committed a single massacre, had refrained 
 from estabhshing the inquisition, and had never 
 ventured upon a solitary religious crusade. The two 
 animals enter into a controversy on doctrinal points, 
 in which the gentler creature has it all her own way. 
 iN^ot satisfied with these labours, Dryden showed his 
 devotion to the cause of his royal master by trans- 
 lating Varilla's History of Heresies ; but this he did 
 not complete. Dr. Burnet heard of his labours, and 
 was more severe upon them than Dr. Stillingfleet had 
 been of his previous experiment. In reference to the 
 published poem and the announced translation, he 
 wrote : — 
 
 If his grace and his wit improve both proportionably, we shall 
 hardly find that he has gained much by the change he has made, 
 from having no religion, to choose one of the worst. It is true 
 he had somewhat to sink from in matters of wit ; but as for 
 his morals, it is scarce possible for him to grow a worse man 
 than he was.* 
 
 It was Dryden's famous political poem that again 
 brought him directly under the attention of Atterbury. 
 His religious writings, though to him not worth trans- 
 lating, were always worth reading. 
 
 Many of Dryden's contemporaries liad an entliu- 
 
 * Defence of the Reflections on the Ninth Book of the First Volume of Variiln.
 
 92 CONGREVE. 
 
 siastic appreciation of his merit. Congreve, who 
 edited his dramatic works, asserts, in his Dedication 
 of them to the Duke of Newcastle : — " He was an 
 improving writer to the last, even to near seventy 
 years of age ; improving even in fire and imagination, 
 as well as in judgment— witness his 'Ode on St. 
 Cecilia's Day,' and his Fables, his latest perform- 
 ances." He presently adds to his encomium: — "I 
 have heard him frequently own with pleasure that if 
 he had any talent in English prose, it was owing to 
 his having often read the writings of the great Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson." It is a pity that such frequent 
 perusal should have kept him insensible to the argu- 
 ments of the accomplished primate, while doing 
 justice to his style. Congreve felt that he had a 
 duty to perform, having thus been appealed to : — 
 
 Be kind to my remains, and defend, 
 Against your judgment, your departed friend ; 
 Let not th' insulting foe my fame pursue, 
 But shade those laurels that descend to you. 
 
 He was, therefore, as kind to his literary, as was Dr. 
 Garth to his human remains ; all errors of omission 
 and commission were forgotten in a desire to honour 
 the man whose intellect had made a lasting impres- 
 sion on the taste of his age. As Atterbury was a 
 warm admirer of Pope, who professed as cordial an 
 appreciation of Dryden, it is not unhkely that the 
 poet was favourably considered by the former when 
 the apostate was most condemned.* 
 
 * Charles and John Dryden had entered the service of the Pope, in which the 
 latter died of fever the following year ; but the elder brother had left Rome and 
 returned to England. About four years after his father's funeral, in attempting 
 to swim acro.%s the Thames near Datchet, he was drowned. The youngest .son of
 
 PRIOR AS A VINTNER. 93 
 
 Edmund Smith was also educated at Westminster 
 Scliool and Christ Church College. Having acquired 
 the usual scholastic advantages, he proceeded to 
 London, and bei^an to write for the theatre. His 
 " Phsedra and Hippolytus" came out with a Prologue 
 by Addison ; then he wrote a poem on the death of 
 John Philips ; and subsequently employed himself 
 upon translations. Though he acquired some cele- 
 brity as a poet and a scholar, he obtained more as a 
 sloven. Among: the women he was known as " The 
 handsome sloven ; " by his own sex he was called 
 " Captain Rag." He grew as careless of his habits 
 as of his dress, and gradually slunk into sloth and 
 drunkenness.* 
 
 Prior, after he left Westminster, is said to have 
 lived with his uncle, a vintner, in Charing Cross ; but 
 the poet's reference to him suggests an hypothetical 
 employment, consequently the anecdote about his 
 proficiency in the classics having gained him the 
 patronage of those noblemen who frequented his 
 kinsman's tavern, is open to question. Prior says : — 
 
 My uncle, rest his soul, wlien living, 
 
 Mi<j}U Lave contrived me ways of thriving, 
 
 Taught me with cyder to replenish 
 
 My vats, or ebbing tide of Rhenish. 
 
 So, when for Hock I drew pricked white wine, 
 
 Swear it had the tiavour, and was right wine, t 
 
 the poet, Erasmus, who was not educated at Westminster, but at the Charter 
 House, after filling at Rome the post of Captain of the Pontifical Guards, succeeded 
 to the Baronetcy in his family ; but leaving no son, when he died in 1710, the 
 succession was continued by an uncle, and after several singular changes, the titl 
 is now pos.sessed by Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden, of Canons Ashby , 
 Northamptonshire. 
 
 * He died in the year 1710. 
 
 t Epistle to Fleetwood Sheppard, Esq. Prior's Poems, Vol. III.
 
 94 PRIOR IN HOLLAND. 
 
 He was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 
 in 1082 ; and in the course of a few years the 
 evidences he gave of his talent made him the delight 
 of the University. He gained an introduction to the 
 Earl of Dorset, who secured for him 'the appointment 
 of Secretary to Lord Dursley (Earl of Berkeley) ; in 
 1G90 was appointed Plenipotentiary from the Court 
 of St. James to the Congress at the Hague. In a 
 Latin letter, addressed to his principal, the young 
 Secretary mentions the marriage of his lordship's 
 daughter, Lady Theophile Lucy, to Mr. Robert 
 Nelson.* During his diplomatic service he con- 
 trived to write several poetical pieces — generally in 
 a careless easy style, with irresistible touches of 
 pleasantry, and occasionally with indications of 
 feeling. 
 
 It was in 1093 he paid his court to William III. 
 by ridiculing Boileau's Ode to Louis le Grand; but 
 a more characteristic production of his was written 
 in Holland in 1090. It commences: — 
 
 While with labour assiduous due pleasure I mix, 
 And in one day atone for the business of six, 
 
 And concludes much lively versification with 
 
 But why should I stories of Athens rehearse, 
 
 Where people knew love and were partial to verse ? 
 
 Since none can with justice my pleasures oppose, 
 
 In Holland, half drowned in interest and prose. 
 
 By Greece and past ages why need I be tried, 
 
 When the Hague and the present are both on my side ? 
 
 And is it enough for the joys of the day, 
 
 To think what Anacreon or Sappho would say ? 
 
 When good Vandergoes and his provident vrow, 
 
 As they gaze on my triumph, do freely allow 
 
 • The Editor of the "Biographia Britannica" quotes this as the only specimen 
 of his Latin epistolary style. Of his Latin poems and epitaphs there are many 
 examples.
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY MOUSE. 95 
 
 That searcli all the province, you'll find no man there is 
 So blessed as the Engllsen Ilcer Sccretaris.* 
 
 Serious subjects presented themselves, and lie did 
 justice to Ms poetical powers, as in the Ode to King 
 William after the Queen's death, 1695. 
 
 He was also present at the Congress which concluded 
 the peace of Eyswick, as Secretary to the British 
 Embassy. [He had previously been appointed a 
 Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, and nominated 
 principal Secretary of Ireland.] This w^as a remark- 
 able treaty, for by it on the one part Louis XIV. 
 abandoned the cause of James II., and on the other 
 William III. abandoned the cause of the Huguenots. 
 
 After this Prior accompanied the Earl of Portland 
 as Secretary, when his lordship was appointed Am- 
 bassador Extraordinary to the Court of France. 
 
 The production that first brought Prior into notice 
 was his inimitable burlesque on the " Hind and the 
 Panther." The provocation which Dryden's bare- 
 faced attempt to falsify history had offered to the 
 whole Protestant community, gave the " Town and 
 Country Mouse " special claims to attention. Its 
 popularity caused it to be quoted everywhere, greatly 
 to the irritation of the new Court poet, who could 
 not reconcile himself to the ridicule it drew upon 
 him. Atterbury, by liis translation of " Absalom 
 and Achitophel," had evinced his admiration of the 
 author ; but in the poet's new capacity of propagandist 
 of Popery and Jesuitism, he excited his indignation 
 — under whicli feeling, if he did not contribute to 
 this memorable castigation of the recreant West- 
 
 MiscellaneouH Works, 1740, p. 23.
 
 9() rillOR AS A DIPLOMATIST. 
 
 minster by his clever sclioolfellow, tiiere can be no 
 doubt that he enjoyed it thoroughly when published. 
 
 Prior was kept constantly occupied in negotiations, 
 some of a very confidential nature. His chief was 
 anything but qualified for his office, but contrived to 
 dress the character of Ambassador from the Court of 
 St. James's becomingly. Had Portland's intelligence 
 been equal to his magnificence, his secretary might 
 have had less to do. Nevertheless, alternating poli- 
 tics with poetry, he appears to have passed his time 
 agreeably — sometimes in Prance, sometimes in Hol- 
 land. Having won golden opinions from nearly all 
 influential persons in the King's diplomatic service, 
 he wrote the " Carmen Seculare " — an elaborate com- 
 pliment to his sovereign. 
 
 In the year 1700 Prior was created Master of 
 Arts by mandamus, which was very agreeable to 
 him, for he continued to interest himself in classical 
 studies, as became an old Westminster, and Dr. 
 Busby's pupil. 
 
 His diplomatic labours, however, presently were 
 interrupted by his removal from the embassy; and 
 in 1704 he entered Parliament as member for East 
 Grrinstead. Soon afterwards came the impeachment 
 of Lords Portland, Somers, Halifax, and Orford, for 
 arranging the Partition Treaty, and the turmoil be- 
 tween the two Houses. This was Mr. Prior's first 
 session, and a very stormy one it was ; it was the 
 last Parliament of William III. The King dissolved 
 it on the 11th of November, and called another to 
 meet on the 30th of the following month. He died 
 on the 8th of March.
 
 FEMALE FASHIONS. 97 
 
 When Queen Anne succeeded to the throne, Prioi 
 found ample employment for his muse. The crown- 
 ing victory at Blenheim afforded him an opportunity 
 of again ridiculing the rant of Boileau, — 
 
 Grand Eoi, cesse de vaincre, o u de cesse d'^crire! 
 
 Other triumphs of the Duke of Marlborough were 
 done justice to, but his desire to take a prominent 
 pai*t in politics soon afterwards caused him to neglect 
 poetry for essay \\Titing. 
 
 The grace and tenderness of Prior are patent in 
 the following lines from his " Henry and Emma," 
 and are worth quoting as a poet's protest against 
 feminine fashions : — 
 
 Thou, ere thou goest, uchappiest of thy kind, 
 Must leave the habit and the sex behind. 
 No longer shall thy comely tresses break 
 In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck; 
 Or sit behind thy head, an ample round. 
 In graceful braids, with various ribbon bound. 
 No longer shall the bodice, aptly laced 
 From thy full bosom to thy slender waist, 
 That air and harmony of shape express, 
 Fine by degrees and beautifully less ; 
 Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait. 
 From thy fair side dependent to thy feet ; 
 Arm their chaste beauties with a modest pride, 
 And double every charm they seek to hide. 
 
 Unquestionably the finest of Prior's poems is 
 " Solomon," w^hich contains passages that very few 
 of his contemporaries could have equalled, whilst 
 the amount of religious feeling and of philosophical 
 knowledge to be found in it makes it wortliy of having 
 been produced by the friend of Francis Atterbury, and 
 the colleague of Isaac Newton. The soaring of human 
 reason to arrive at the subtle elements of Divine 
 Intelligence is thus described : — 
 
 VOL. I. 8
 
 98 STELLA. 
 
 Alas ! we grasp at clouds and beat the air, 
 
 Vexing that spirit we intend to cheer. 
 
 Can Thought beyond the bounds of Matter climb ? 
 
 Or who shall tell me what is Space or Time ? 
 
 In vain we lift up our presumptuous eyes, 
 
 To what our Maker to their ken denies. 
 
 The searcher follows fast — the object faster flies. 
 
 The little which imperfectly we find 
 
 Seduces only the bewildered mind 
 
 To fruitless search of something yet behind. 
 
 Various discussions tear our heated brain ; 
 
 Opinions often turn, still doubts remain, 
 
 And who indulges thought increases pain. 
 
 How narrow limits were to Wisdom given ! 
 
 Earth she surveys — she thence would measure Heaven ! 
 
 Through mists obscure now wings her tedious way, 
 
 Now wanders dazzled with too bright a day ; 
 
 And from the summit of a pathless coast 
 
 Sees Infinite — and in that sight is lost. 
 
 Both parts of this admirable production are full of 
 similar beauties ; and a perusal of them makes the 
 reader of taste lament the evidences of indelicacy 
 and coarseness to be found in the author's fugitive 
 pieces. Atterbury was earnest in his admiration of 
 his schoolfellow's good qualities, and watched his 
 career with special interest. 
 
 It has sometimes been stated that Swift was the 
 natural son of Sir William Temple, and the brother 
 of "Stella; " but he was the son of Jonathan Swift, 
 who died in Dublin in April, 10G7, seven months 
 after which his widow gave birth to his namesake 
 in the house of his elder brother, Mr. Godwin 
 Swift. Stella was most probably a natural child of 
 Sir William, and was born at Eichmond, in Surrey, 
 not far from his mansion at Sheen. There can be 
 no doubt that she was a pupil of Swift's when he 
 resided with Sir William Temple. 
 
 After some previous study he repaired to the
 
 SWIFT. 99 
 
 principal English University. He was entered of 
 Hart Hall (Hertford College), and took his Master 
 of Arts degree in July, 1G92. He always enter- 
 tained a lively recollection of the kindness he expe- 
 rienced at Oxford. In a letter to his uncle, dated 
 November 29th of the same year, he w^'ote : — " I 
 never was more satisfied than in the behaviour of 
 the University of Oxford to me. I had all the 
 civilities I could wish for." He studied here till he 
 returned to the house of his patron, Sir AVilliam 
 Temple, Moor Park, w^here he wrote his " Tale of 
 a Tub," published in 1705. He obtained prefer- 
 ment in Ireland, but subsequently came back to 
 England, and wTote " The Battle of the Books," 
 in which his patron and his Oxford friends were 
 made to figure prominently. Having vainly endea- 
 voured to obtain promotion from the King, he became 
 Cliaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, who procured him 
 two livino-s in Ireland. He again visited Oxford, 
 for his Doctor's degree, and shortly afterwards com- 
 menced his political career as the author of a dis- 
 course, in which Portland, Somers, Orford, and Halifax 
 are introduced as Phocion, Aristides, Themistocles, 
 and Pericles. 
 
 To Bishop Trelawney (June 15, 1704) Atterbury 
 
 writes : — 
 
 I beg your Lordship (if the book is come down to Exon), to 
 read "The Tale of a Tub," for, bating the profaneness of it, it 
 is a book to be valued, being an original of its kind, full of wit, 
 humour, good sense, and learning. It comes from Christ Church, 
 and a great part of it is written in delence of Mi-. IJoyle against 
 Wotton and Bentley. The town is wonderfully pleased with it.* 
 
 • Attorbury Papers.
 
 100 TALE OF A TUB. 
 
 On Jiily 1, lie adds : — 
 
 The author of "A Tale of a Tub" will not as yet be known; 
 and if it be the man I guess, he hath reason to conceal himself 
 because of the profane strokes in tliat piece, which would do his 
 reputation and interest in the world more harm than the wit can 
 do him good. I think your Lordship hath found out a very 
 proper employment for your pen, whicb he would execute very 
 happily. Nothing can please more than that book doth, here at 
 London.* 
 
 The Queen, influenced by Lady Marlborough, 
 highly disapproved of " The Tale of a Tub ; " so also 
 did Dr. Sharp, Archbishop of York. The author's 
 irreverent treatment of religious subjects created 
 a prejudice against him, which proved a bar to his 
 preferment in the Church of England. When he 
 found the principal Whigs disinclined to forward his 
 interests, and the imperious Duchess directing her 
 royal mistress to consider him as little better than 
 an infidel, Swift began to pay court to the Tory 
 leaders. He wrote pamphlets on popular subjects ; 
 one, "Predictions for the Year 1708, by Isaac Bicker- 
 staff, Esq.," was extremely popular. 
 
 In the year 1709 Swift published his brochure 
 entitled " A Project for the Advancement of Peli- 
 gion," and dedicated it to the Countess of Berkeley, 
 the lady of his patron, with whom he had lived as 
 chaplain, not only at Berkeley Castle, but when 
 Lord Berkeley was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 The project is what might be expected from the 
 author, or, as a contemporary stated, "It is written 
 with the spirit of one who has seen the world enough 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 STEELE. 101 
 
 to undervalue it with good-breeding." Swift's good- 
 breeding, however, might have been improved upon — 
 in his pleasantries unquestionably. The critic adds : 
 
 The aiitbor must certainly be a man of wisdom as well as 
 pietj, aud have spent much time in the exercise of both. The 
 real causes of the decay of the interest of religion are set forth 
 in a clear and lively manner, without unseasonable passions ; and 
 the whole air of the book, as to the language, the sentiments, and 
 the reasonings, show it was written by one whose virtue sits 
 easy about him, aud to whom \nce is thoroughly contemptible. 
 It was said by one of the company, alluding to the knowledge 
 of the world the author seems to have, " The man writes 
 much like a gentleman, and goes to Heaven with a very good 
 mien."* 
 
 He must have been known to Atterbury at Oxford. 
 They renewed their acquaintance when both were 
 beginning to make themselves names in the enlarged 
 circle of town life. It will presently be shown how 
 closely they were brought together, particularly as 
 colleagues in literature and politics. 
 
 Steele having for a sufficient reason, as he himself 
 describes his military experience, " cocked his hat, 
 and put on a broad-sword, jack-boots, and shoulder- 
 belt, under the command of the unfortunate Duke of 
 Ormonde," was living upon the town as a gentleman 
 at large — depending on his pen. He published " The 
 Christian Hero" in 1701, he being then an ensign 
 in the Guards. This was a moral treatise that 
 certainly owed nothing to the writer's example, 
 nevertheless its dedication to Lord Cutts procured 
 for him the post of secretary, followed by promotion 
 to a company in Lord Lucas's regiment of Fusiliers. 
 
 * Sir Richard Steele. Taller, No. 5.
 
 102 ORIGIN OF THE " TATLER." 
 
 The author was better qualified as a dramatist than 
 as a moralist, and had recourse to the theatre, where 
 he succeeded in winning friends for his play of " The 
 Funeral, or Grrief a-la-Mode," who got him the ap- 
 pointment of Grazetteer. This connection with the 
 press brought him many literary and political asso- 
 ciates — Atterbury, his fellow-student, and Addison, 
 his reputed schoolfellow, being the most distin- 
 guished. 
 
 To Addison Steele dedicated his comedy of " The 
 Tender Husband, or the Accomplished Fools," first 
 acted in the year 1704. It was a decided success, 
 while "The Dying Lovers," an attempt at a moral 
 play which followed, was as decided a failure. 
 
 It is curious that whenever the Captain endea- 
 voured to be more correct in his writings than he 
 was, in his conduct, he obtained no favour ; his repu- 
 tation as a dashing thoughtless reckless soldier ren- 
 dered his associates of the clubs and cofi"ee-houses 
 impatient of his delineations of a better life. This 
 want of appreciation of his good intentions induced 
 Captain Steele to attempt some other method of 
 combining the qualifications of moralist and humor- 
 ist, and he projected the publication of periodical 
 essays on life and manners. The result was the 
 Tatler. 
 
 In the production of his new serial Steele availed 
 himself of the services of a literary acquaintance, 
 then like himself striving to find a profitable invest- 
 ment for his talent. The obligations he was under 
 to the inimitable wit and humour of this gentleman 
 he has himself recorded. Dr. Swift, under the nom
 
 ADDISON. 103 
 
 de pliwie "^ickersiaff,"* forwarded contributions that 
 materially assisted in making the work popular. 
 They, however, did not long remain coadjutors, and 
 having ceased to be friends, became bitter opponents. 
 Steele called in the assistance of Addison, and both 
 were under many obligations to the Whig leaders. 
 Swift adopted opposite politics, and cordially joined 
 in the proceedings of the Tories, particularly such as 
 were suggested by his friend Atterbury. The Tatier 
 had warmly praised those accomplished preachers 
 Atterbury and Smalridge, but as soon as the element 
 of Whiggism was permitted to appear, no High 
 Church clergyman was commended. 
 "^ Steele was assuredly treated illiberally by his co- 
 adjutor, who, not content with marking his own 
 contributions to prevent their being claimed, took 
 exclusive possession of Steele's original idea, the 
 character of the immortal Sir Eoger de Coverley, 
 and in the same spirit terminated the knight's career, 
 that no one should share in his popularity.! The 
 paper fell off afterwards in circulation. 
 
 Addison, as the son of a clergyman, had strong 
 claims upon the regard of Atterbury. He had distin- 
 guished himself as a scholar at Oxford, where he took 
 his M.A. degree in 1693, and soon after strove to dis- 
 tinguish himself as a courtier in London, where he, in 
 1095, addressed a poem to King William, with some 
 introductory lines to Lord Somers. He continued to 
 
 • Employed by him in the "Predictions." 
 
 t Addison's Edition. TickcU asserted that tlie papers in the Spectator 
 had been marked by the author as a precaution against his colleague. This Steele 
 resented.
 
 104 POETTCAT. COURTIERS. 
 
 write Latin verses, for two years later appeared those 
 on the peace of Ryswick. They were handsomely 
 rewarded in 1099, with a pension of £300 a year, and 
 this permitted him to indulge in a tour tlirough 
 Fi-ance and Italy.* 
 
 The Whigs were the possessors of office, and to 
 their leaders Addison had devoted liimself ; Somers 
 and Montagu obtaining the largest share of metrical 
 honoui's. To the Chancellor of the Exchequer he 
 was introduced by Congreve, to the Lord Keeper by 
 himself, he having addressed to him liis poem on 
 "William III. Notwithstanding his admiration of 
 Dryden, Addison became the panegyrist of those 
 the elder poet had most abused, and rivalled him 
 in the extravagance of the eulogy by which he 
 chose to rise. That he did rise by it there cannot be 
 a question ; it is, however, doubtful if in this way 
 he served his patrons as effectually as he served 
 himself. 
 
 As Aristides was ostracized for the frequency with 
 which he was styled " the just," the popularity of 
 the Dutch king had been placed in jeopardy by 
 poetical courtiers insisting on his " godlike acts;" and 
 his principal ministers had to endure more or less 
 popular odium in consequence of the pertinacity with 
 which the same authorities insisted on their perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 * Addison wrote in a coi^y of his "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c.," 
 1705, Svo : "To Dr. Jonathan Swift, the Most Agreeable Companion, the 
 Truest Friend, and the Greatest Genius of his Age, this Book is presented by 
 his most humble Servant, the Author." George Daniel, in Notes and Queries, 
 VII., 255.
 
 ADDISON AND THE WHIGS. 105 
 
 It was after Lord Halifax had been driven from 
 the Government by grave charges that Addison, then 
 making a tour in Italy, addressed to his lordship an 
 epistle no less consoling than adulatory. There was 
 a chance that his lordship might be restored to his 
 position and 1ms patronage ; there was more than a 
 chance that his Whig colleagues would rew-ard any 
 poet suflSciently adventurous to endeavour to stem 
 the tide of opinion which threatened their party ; and 
 so it proved. The poet, on his return, was employed 
 to sound the praises of a still more illustrious member 
 of the Grovernment. The result of the campaign was 
 similar to that of its predecessors : posterity has found 
 the demigod but poor human nature. 
 
 His foot secure on the first round of the political 
 ladder, w^ith the assistance of the be-praised Halifax 
 Addison began to ascend. 
 
 The advantages of eulogizing a cabinet minister in 
 respectable verse, and of being able to compose toler- 
 able Latin poems, were in those days very great 
 indeed. The "Whig leaders of the present age would, 
 I am afraid, be insensible to the distinction of an 
 epistle in verse — however classical or poetic. Nor 
 did Lord Godolphin stand alone in his regard for the 
 poet ; for the Marquis of Wharton, when appointed 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, selected him to be his 
 secretary, and gave him another post worth another 
 £300 a year. 
 
 The fact was, England was then the paradise of 
 eulogists. Every person of influence was sure of 
 being the subject of poetic inspiration. In addition 
 to Addison's labours in this direction just noticed,
 
 iOO WHIG PATRONAGE. 
 
 the Court poet paid liis devotions, in the way of a 
 dedication to his opera of " Rosamond," to the then 
 omnipotent Duchess of Marlborough. 
 
 Though loving money far more than poetry, 
 " Queen Sarah " knew the value of a fluent writer, 
 and secured his services as a supporter of the Duke's 
 political interests. 
 
 The claims of Addison to Whig patronage could not 
 be overlooked by grateful clients. He was appointed 
 a Commissioner of Appeal by Lord Grodolphin, and 
 Lord Halifax, in 1705, took him to Hanover, where 
 he left an impression that might be of service to him 
 on a much desired contingency. On his return he 
 was appointed Under Secretary of State, first to Sir 
 Charles Hedges, then to Lord Sunderland. 
 
 As Atterbury was at this period devoting his 
 energies to the advancement of opinions in direct 
 opposition to those of the Government, the hostility 
 of these Whig writers became a matter of course ; 
 it was sometimes restrained by a sense of respect. 
 
 In the year 1709 Addison went to Ireland with 
 Lord Wharton, and besides enjoying his official 
 emoluments, succeeded Dr. William King as Keeper 
 of the Records, with an increased salary. During 
 his absence the excessive adulation the dispensers of 
 patronage had received was creating a reaction in 
 the public mind. One idol after another had been 
 overthrown. At last Atterbury and his High Church 
 friends combined their force for a general shock, and 
 the entire temple of Whiggism was overthrown. 
 Addison had the mortification of seeing all the illus- 
 trious patrons he had endeavoured to deify tumbled
 
 THE SPECTATOR. 107 
 
 from their pedestals, and their very mortal clay ex- 
 posed to derisiou and contempt. This apparently 
 made him more Wh.iggisli ; and, in conjunction with 
 Steele, set him to work at journalizing, partly to 
 defend his fallen patrons, partly to attack their 
 periodical assailants. 
 
 It w^as while Addison was in Ireland that Steele, 
 on the 12th of April, 1709, commenced the Tatler, 
 the first of a small armament of journals in which 
 both writers separately or in conjunction led the 
 van. It was begun without any assistance from his 
 friend, but as soon as the latter became aware of 
 its existence he forwarded a contribution, followed 
 by others, till the dismissal of the Whigs aflbrded 
 him more leisure, and he employed the bulk of it 
 in essay writing. Though the Tatler stopped Jan- 
 uary 2, 1711, neither Steele nor Addison chose to 
 remit their labours as Whig journalists while aware 
 that Atterbury and his colleagues were actively en- 
 gaged in supporting the Tories. The Spectator was 
 therefore started on the 1st of March, 1711, and met 
 with well-deserved success. 
 
 Addison brought out his play " Cato " in 1713, 
 Pope writing the prologue and Garth the epilogue.* 
 Certain sentiments expressed in the play made Whigs 
 and Tories equally eager to identify their cause with 
 its success. Lord liolingbroke was present at the 
 first representation, and sent for Eooth, who played 
 
 * The Editor of the "Biograijhia Britannica," Vol. I., p. 36, Edition 1747, 
 states that Dr. Atterbury was the author of the Latin translation of "Cato's 
 Solilof|uy," ])ut)liHhed in the Spectator, No. 628. This, however, was written by 
 Dr. Blanil, Head Master, afterwards Provost of Eton and Dean of Durham.
 
 108 JOHN HUGHES. 
 
 the principal character, into his box, where he pre- 
 sented the accomplished actor witli a purse of filty 
 guineas for defending the cause of liberty so well 
 against " Perpetual Dictators." Pope, in a letter, 
 adds : — 
 
 The Whigs are unwilling to be distanced in this way, and 
 therefore design a present to the same Cato very speedily. 
 In the meantime they are getting ready as good a sentence on 
 their side ; so betwixt them it is probable that Cato, as Dr. Garth 
 expressed it, may have something to live upon after he dies.* 
 
 A pamphlet called " The Public Spirit of the 
 Wliigs," published by Swift, so annoyed the party, 
 that Lord Halifax moved in Parliament that a pub- 
 lic censure should be passed upon it. The satirist 
 was, as usual, sufficiently abusive, but his lordship, 
 having gone through the castigation of Dryden in 
 prose and verse, ought to have been able to endure 
 this attack without flinching. 
 
 Mr. John Hughes contributed nineteen articles 
 to the Spectator, three to the Tatler, and several 
 to the Guardian, its successor. He possessed con- 
 siderable merit as an essayist, critic, poet, and 
 translator, and was much respected by Pope, Steele, 
 Rowe, Congreve, and Southern. Addison does 
 not appear to have treated him well in refusing 
 to insert some complimentary verses, written to be 
 published with his play " Cato ; " but his modest dis- 
 position endeared him to friends of a more genial 
 spirit, and Lord Cowper, and afterwards Lord Mac- 
 clesfield, afibrded him a comfortable employment as 
 
 * Letter to Sir William Thornhill, Vol. V. Pope's Letters.
 
 JOHN BYRON. 109 
 
 Secretary to the Commissioners of the Peace. " The 
 Siege of Damascus " was considered his best play, 
 which Pope warmly commended.* 
 
 John Byron w^as a pastoral poet, and obtained no 
 slight celebrity, in consequence of Addison- having 
 inserted in Xo. 603 of the Spectator his poem, en- 
 titled " Colin and Phoebe." The source of his inspira- 
 tion was Joanna, daughter of Dr. Bentley, Master 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Byron was a 
 student. He had previously been a contributor 
 to the same periodical of two prose papers, and as 
 the critic was one of its subscribers, these were sure 
 of comino; under his notice. The Doctor seems to 
 huve been pleased with them, and the author was 
 soon afterwards a FeUow of the College, and a 
 Master of Arts. He did not succeed with the young 
 lady, who subsequently married Dr. Cumberland, 
 Bishop of Clonfert and Killaloe, and became the 
 mother of Pichard Cumberland. 
 
 There is a playfulness in these verses that no doubt 
 recommended them to the father if not to the daughter, 
 and now and then a touch of sentiment that must 
 have been equally appreciated. Por instance, the 
 verse, — 
 
 Rose, what has become of thy delicate hue ? 
 
 And where is the violet's beautiful blue ? 
 
 Does aught of its sweetness the blossom beguile ? 
 
 That meadow — ^those daisies — why do they not smile ? 
 
 Ah ! rivals. I see what it was that you dressed, 
 
 And made yourselves fine for — a place on her breast; 
 
 You put on your colours to pleasui-e her eye, 
 
 To be plucked by her hand — on her bosom to die.t 
 
 * The author died on the day of its first representation, February, 17, 1719-20. 
 f In after years he invented a system of short-hand, and taught many dis- 
 tinguished x>uxuls, among them Lord Camden and Drs. lloadly and Hartley. In
 
 110 ROWE. 
 
 Rowe had written a series of tragedies, of" 
 wliicli "The Fair Penitent," "Jane Shore," and 
 " Tamerlane," enjoyed a large share of popularity, 
 and they brought him the important patronage of 
 the Duke of Queensberry, who, when Secretary of 
 State, appointed him Under Secretary. His poems, 
 especially his translations, were also much admired. 
 His last, Lucan's Pharsalia, gained him high com- 
 mendation from Addison,* to whose party he had 
 attached himself, and had been appointed Poet 
 Laureate, as well as received two or three employ- 
 ments that secured him an excellent income. He was 
 a great favourite with some of his contemporaries, 
 whose affection for him still survives in verse, — 
 
 Zealous and active like immortal Rowe ; 
 
 and " soft complaining Eowe " will be found in the 
 complimentary verses of Amherst. When he died, 
 December 6th, 1718, his old schoolfellow and warm 
 admirer, Francis Atterbury, performed the funeral 
 service, as he was interred in the Abbey, where a 
 handsome monument was erected to his memory ; but 
 a more enduring memorial was raised for him by a 
 mutual friend. Pope wrote : — 
 
 1724 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed to its 
 Transactions two lettters on the subject. He wrote other poems of more preten- 
 sion ; such was " The Fall of Man," as a reply to certain opinions of Bishop 
 Sherlock, and "Enthusiasm," which is as full of classical as the former is of 
 religious allusions ; but neither attracted the attention bestowed on ' ' Colin and 
 Phcebe." His devotional appear to have been as singular as his poetical ideas, 
 sometimes mystical, in the manner of Jacob Behmen, whose works he studied, 
 sometimes fanatical, after the more rigid sectarians ; but he still professed 
 attachment to the Anglican Church. He was more steady in his political 
 principles, which he shared with Dr. Atterbury. He survived till September 
 28, 1763. 
 
 * Freeholder, No. 40.
 
 PARNELL. Ill 
 
 " Poor Pariiell — Garth — Eowe, 
 " You justly reprove rae for not speaking of the 
 death of the last. Parnell was too much in my mind 
 — to whose memory I am erecting the best monument 
 I can, by pubHshing, at his request, a select collection 
 of his writings ; yet I have not neglected my devoirs 
 to Mr. Eowe. I am writing this very day his epitaph 
 for Westminster Abbey. It is as follows : — 
 
 Thy reliques, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust, 
 And sacred place by Dryden's awful dust. 
 Beneath a rude and nameless stone lie lies, 
 To which thy tomb shall guide enquiring eyes. 
 Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest ! 
 Blest in thy genius — in thy love, too, blest. 
 One grateful woman to thy fame supplied, 
 Wliat a whole thankless land to his denied. 
 
 The monument was erected at the expense of the 
 widow of the deceased, a Dorsetshire gentlewoman 
 (Mr. Eowe was her second husband) ; but these lines 
 were not accepted as his epitaph. 
 
 Thomas Parnell had lono- moved in the same 
 eminently social circle with Atterbury. He was a 
 clergyman in Ireland, and asj)ired to be a fashionable 
 preacher in London ; but not succeeding, contented 
 himself with assisting Addison and Pope, joined 
 Atterbury 's party, and paid court to Harley. He 
 became a prebendary as well as a poet. His verses 
 found numerous admirers ; had the distinction of 
 being edited by Pope and Goldsmith, and praised by 
 Dr. Johnson ; but the preferment he received in the 
 Irish Church he scarcely enjoyed, for he died at 
 Chester, in his thirty-eighth year, while travelling to 
 take possession. 
 
 The favour with wliich Addison's " Cato " was
 
 112 SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 
 
 received greatly increased the reputation of the 
 aiitlior. It so happened that it produced indications 
 of friendly regard from Atterbury, Bolingbroke, and 
 Pope, which excited some suspicions among his poli- 
 tical associates, and a clever pamphlet was published 
 with the title, " Mr. Addison turned Tory." This so 
 disturbed him, that when Queen Anne sent him word 
 that she wished his play to be inscribed to her, he 
 cautiously published it without any dedication. That 
 some approximation had taken place between Addison 
 and the Tories is more than probable ; but he had so 
 completely cast in his fortunes with the Whigs, that 
 desertion was out of the question. 
 
 With Sir Isaac Newton Dr. Atterbury enjoyed an 
 intimacy that lasted twenty years. The philosopher 
 was strongly attached to the Church of England, 
 though liberally inclined towards those not of her 
 communion. Among his various studies were chro- 
 nology and theology, and at a later period he wrote 
 " Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the 
 Apocalypse of St. John." 
 
 Lord Halifax was enamoured of a niece of Sir 
 Isaac Newton, the widow of Colonel Barton, but 
 still young, and possessed of such personal attrac- 
 tions as rendered her the special object of convivial 
 gallantry, and the theme of much sentimental versi- 
 fication. As an inscription on a wine-glass, the 
 author of " The Toasters " writes : — 
 
 Stamped with her reigning charms, this hrittle glass 
 Will safely through the realms of Bacchus pass ; 
 Full fraught with beauty, will new flames impart, 
 And mount her shining image in the heart. 
 
 Another poet of the same class asserted that —
 
 ST. JOHN. 113 
 
 Beauty and Wit strove, each in vain, 
 To vanquish Bacchus and his train ; 
 But Barton, with successful charms, 
 From both their quivers drew her arms ; 
 The roving God his sway resigns, 
 And cheerfully submits his vines ! 
 
 Among Lord Harcourt's meritorious acts in tlie 
 service of literature, must not be forgotten liis pro- 
 curing a monument to the memory of John Philips, 
 "to be erected in Poet's Corner, inscribed with a 
 Latin epitaph, from the pen of Dr. Preind, the head 
 master of the school." The author of " The Splendid 
 ShiUing" died February 15, 1708, in the thirty- 
 third year of his age, to the irreparable loss of those 
 to whom he was endeared by his amiable disposi- 
 tion, as well as by his virtuous and intellectual life ; 
 among whom the most distinguished were Atterbury, 
 Bolingbroke, and Harcourt. Lord Grodolphin re- 
 warded him for his poem " Blenheim" with a pension. 
 Philips never excited censure in any of his literary 
 rivals, except Blackmore, whose 
 
 En\-ious muse by native dulness cursed. 
 Damns the best poems and conceives the worst. 
 
 St. John, like many other eminent contemporary 
 statesmen, was very friendly to literary men. He 
 found a home for John Philips in his town house, 
 which kindness the poet acknowledges in a fine Latin 
 ode, worthy of Horace. In " Blenheim " there is an 
 equally grateful reference : — 
 
 Thus from the noisy crowd exempt, with ease 
 And plenty blest, amid the mazy groves 
 (Sweet solitude !), where warbling birds provoke 
 The silent muse — delicious rural seat 
 Of St. John, English Memmius, I presumed 
 To sing Britannic tro^jbics — inexpert 
 
 VOL. 1. 9
 
 111. POPE. 
 
 Of war — with mean attempt ; while he, intent 
 (So Anna's will ordains) to expedite 
 His military charge, no leisure finds 
 To string his charming shell. But, when return'd, 
 Consummate Peace shall rear her cheerful head ; 
 Then shall his Churchill in sublimer verse 
 For ever triumph — latest times shall learn 
 From such a chief to fight, and bard to sing. 
 
 A more celebrated poet mentions the statesman's 
 patronage of merit : — 
 
 And St. John's self, great Dryden's friend before, 
 With open arms received one poet more.* 
 
 Pope, like Atterbury, was a great admirer of 
 Waller, till the works of Dryden fell into his hands. 
 There are traces of the study of both popular poets 
 in his early compositions. At sixteen he had made 
 so many experiments in verse, that he thought him- 
 self qualified to attempt an epic poem ; he therefore, 
 taking his favourite models, wrote, with more indus- 
 try than inspiration, till he had completed the task 
 he had set himself. Doubtless he considered it a 
 grand achievement, for he preserved it for several 
 years with as much affection as care. " Alcander," 
 however, like all the author's poetical efforts till his 
 muse had developed its strength, was but an imita- 
 tion, and not a very happy one. It was not till the 
 year 1704 that he essayed a style of composition in 
 which success was more easy. 
 
 Since the age of Spenser, the lovers of English 
 poetry had exhibited a preference for descriptions of 
 rural life ; and although the Arcadian pictures brought 
 before them were not more reliable than such as may 
 still be found in the tapestry chamber or the china 
 
 * Pope.
 
 HIS PASTORALS. 115 
 
 closet, they pleased the fine gentlemen and fine ladies 
 of that age, and even found admirers in persons of 
 education and refinement. Pope, after a course of 
 study of Virgil and of Spenser, produced his Pastorals, 
 which he submitted in MS. to Wycherley, who 
 appears to have been a guest of Sir William Trum- 
 bull when the young poet was staying at Eastham- 
 stead. These productions pleased the dramatist so 
 much, that the author subsequently forwarded them 
 to an amateur poet. 
 
 Mr. Walsh, as Gentleman of the Horse to Queen 
 Anne, was thought worth propitiating, and his critical 
 examination of the Pastorals desired with the usual 
 humility of talent seeking appreciation in high 
 places. The courtier, though possessed of little 
 poetical talent, had a fair share of judgment, and 
 suggested improvements — hinting also that more 
 invention was equally desirable. Pope took the 
 criticism in good part, and amended the versification ; 
 but it was beyond his power to invest with origi- 
 nality what was obviously imitative. In return Mr. 
 Walsh forwarded the interests of his client as far as 
 it lay within his power. He, however, died in the 
 year the Pastorals were published (1708), and his 
 memory was honoured in a much more important 
 work on which the poet was then engaged. 
 
 Such late was Walsh, the Muses' judge and friend. 
 
 He had also been the friend of Uryden, who enter- 
 tained an exalted opinion of his judgment ; and his 
 letters to Pope prove that this was not misplaced. 
 The Pastorals had a i'air amount of success, but 
 " Windsor Forest," written also in 1704, though not 
 
 9 *
 
 116 WINDSOR FOREST. 
 
 jniblislicd till 1710, much increased tlie circle of 
 admirers gained for him by the friendly recommen- 
 dations of the Queen's Equerry. As a descriptive 
 poem it is laboured, and somewhat dull ; nevertheless 
 it indicated poetical powers which were not lost upon 
 the riper judgments of Congreve, Garth, Swift, and 
 Atterbury. With the latter he had entered into a 
 close intimacy, that extended to his personal friends, 
 St. John and Harley, whose political opinions he 
 adopted; nevertheless, this does not appear to have 
 prevented his exciting a warm regard in Lord Lans- 
 downe, to whom the poem was dedicated, as well 
 as in Lords Somers, Sheffield, and Talbot. 
 
 The year in which " Windsor Forest " issued from 
 the press was rendered memorable by the rise of 
 Atterbury's friends to supreme political power, and 
 their conclusion of " The Treaty of Utrecht," on 
 which subject the poet dilated with something re- 
 sembling inspiration at the close of his work, and in 
 their favour makes a strong partisan reference to the 
 defeated Whigs. 
 
 Envy her own snakes shall feel, 
 And Persecution mourn her broken wheel ; 
 There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain, 
 And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain. 
 
 Addison, who was intensely Whiggish, regarded 
 this passage as reflecting on " the noble victory " he 
 had exerted himself to immortalize, as well as upon 
 the late ministry, his special patrons, and could not 
 reconcile himself to the favour with which the poem 
 was received. He displayed his prejudice* in the 
 
 * Spectator, Np. 253.
 
 JOHN GAY. 117 
 
 following year. When ostensibly writing on envy 
 and detraction, lie mentions the recently published 
 "Essay on Criticism," with much commendation cer- 
 tainly, but with an insinuation of deficiency of origin- 
 ality that could not but have been galling to the 
 young author. The accomplished essayist continued 
 his subject in subsequent papers, but the rising poet 
 is not again mentioned. It is quite clear that Addi- 
 son was merely deprecating the attacks made upon 
 his patrons. 
 
 Pope never forgave the covert charge of plagiarism. 
 He entered into friendly relations with Addison a 
 little later, but discovering some underhand proceed- 
 ings of his to create a prejudice against him, discon- 
 tinued them, and waited his time for retaliation. He 
 became intimate with Steele, whom he eulogized in 
 his " Temple of Fame," and assisted in " The 
 Guardian ;" but when that furious partisan attacked 
 Lord Oxford, he withdrew from all association with 
 him and his colleagues, and drew closer to Atterbury, 
 whom he regrarded with as much affection as venera- 
 tion. 
 
 Into this pleasant circle came John Gay, who had 
 won the regard of Pope and Swift by his happy 
 disposition, unaffected simplicity, and genuine good 
 nature. His publications had as yet not been very 
 important. The first was the " Rural Sports," a 
 pastoral poem, written in a pleasant vein of rus- 
 ticity — a vein wliich he worked out with greater 
 care in his "Sliepherd's Week." Pope had ah-eady 
 made this Arcadian style iu some degree ])0])ular, 
 and Ambrose Philips had been striving to gain popu-
 
 118 gay's trivia. 
 
 larity in the same way. Gay, however, was less 
 artificial than either, and his success greater. The 
 afiectation of rural simplicity not unfreqnently dege- 
 nerates into commonplace, and examples of the art of 
 sinking into bathos are not uncommon. For instance, 
 in Philips, what can be more insipid than — 
 
 Mild as a lamb, and harmless as a dove, 
 True as a turtle is the maid I love. 
 How we in secret love I shall not say ; 
 Divine her name — and I give up the day. 
 
 Gay had a humour in his rustic narrative that 
 saved it from vulgarity, as in — 
 
 The witless lamb may sport upon the plain, 
 The frisking kid delight the gaping swain ; 
 The wanton calf may skip with many a bound, 
 And my cur Tray play deftest feats around ; 
 But neither lamb, nor kid, nor calf, nor Tray, 
 Dance like Buxoma on the first of May. 
 
 The new poet pleased the Court ; the Duchess of 
 Monmouth had just taken him to be her secretary, 
 and St. John accepted the dedication of his last 
 pastoral. 
 
 Gay's "Trivia, or Art of Walking the Streets," 
 followed his English Georgic " Eural Sports ;" and 
 the favour it received encouraged him to proceed to 
 other poetical attempts. Pope, while applying for a 
 subscription for liis own translation of Homer to the 
 Hanover Club, had been treated with rudeness by 
 their secretary, Ambrose Philips, a successful rival 
 as a pastoral poet. He now suggested to Gay the 
 idea of supplanting Philips in this style of compo- 
 sition, and the author of " Eural Sports " assenting, 
 produced in 1714 his "Shepherd's Week," which 
 had all the effect Pope had anticipated.
 
 AMBROSE PHILIPS. 119 
 
 Pope's aflfection for Gay is cliarmingly displayed in 
 the letter the former addressed his brother poet on 
 his return from Hanover. 
 
 "Welcome to your native soil ! " it commences, " welcome to 
 your friends ! Tkrice welcome to me ! Whether returned in 
 glory, blessed with Coui't interest, the love and familiarity of 
 the great, and filled with agreeable hopes ; or melancholy with 
 dejection, contemplative of the change of fortune, and doubtful 
 for the futui'e — whether returned a triumphant Whig or despond- 
 ing Tory, equally all hail ! equally beloved and welcome to me. 
 I know you will be an honest man, and an inoffensive one, 
 incapable of being so much of either party as to be good for 
 nothing. Therefore, once more, whatever you are, or in what- 
 soever state you are, all hail ! " 
 
 He who wrote — 
 
 A wit's a feather, and a fool's a rod, 
 
 An honest man's the noblest work of God." 
 
 was sure cordially to appreciate John Gay, whose 
 kindly unsophisticated nature had won the regard of 
 Atterbmy, and of all the members of his friendly 
 coterie. Pope presently adds : — 
 
 Come and make merry with me in much feasting. We will 
 feed among the lUies. (By the lilies I mean the ladies.) Are 
 not the Rosalindas of Britain as charming as the Blowzalindas 
 of the Hague ? Or have the two great pastoral poets of our 
 nation renounced love at the same time? For Philips, immor- 
 tal Philips, hatli deserted — yea, and, in a rustic manner, kicked 
 his RosaHnd. 
 
 The same cordiality met the returned secretary 
 from all his literary friends. Philips was not merely 
 a rival pastoral poet, and had thus rendered himself 
 obnoxious to Pope ; he was now joined with Steele 
 and Addison as political partisans. 
 
 John Dennis was both poet and critic, and appears
 
 120 JOHN DENNIS. 
 
 to have eulogized and abused with about equal reck- 
 lessness. " Ramilies " and " Blenheim," though great 
 subjects, he had not the power to treat greatly ; and 
 his party pamphlets on behalf of the Hanoverian 
 succession, or in support of Marlborough and Godol- 
 phin, were equally insignificant. His criticism and 
 his plays are cast in the same contracted mould. He 
 wrote "Plot and no Plot," 1697, to ridicule the 
 Jacobites; but its littleness made it fall far short 
 of its object. His name has been saved from oblivion 
 in consequence of his figuring in the " Dunciad," for 
 quarrelling with another illustrious obscure. 
 
 Blockheads witli reason wicked wits abhor, 
 But fool with fool is barbarous civil war. 
 
 The idea is infinitely better than the rhyme. Atter- 
 bury, however, who was kindly considerate to every- 
 body, proved specially so to the bitter critic. When 
 Dennis had most influence, the fashionable London 
 preacher had not made many adventures in author- 
 ship ; in poetry, in scholarship, in divinity, and poli- 
 tics, his productions had not taken a shape that could 
 provoke the hostility of the Aristarchus of his day ; 
 but if the author escaped this Scylla, he shortly found 
 more than one Charybdis in clerical critics, whose 
 acrimony by contrast must have rendered tonic the 
 bitterness of John Dennis. 
 
 Atterbury's controversial works, though they raised 
 a host of vindictive rivals, did not stop his prefer- 
 ment. As a High Churchman he was not long before 
 he found the appreciation he deserved.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 POLITICAL FRIENDS AND FOES. 
 
 Wliig and Tory — Robert Walpole — Lord Sliaftesbury— Cliarles 
 Montagu (Lord Halifax) — Robert Harley — Effect of Queen 
 Mary's Death on Parties — Return to Court of the Princess 
 Anne and the Marlboroughs — Position of Atterbury — 
 Venality of Public Men — Jacobite Plots — Nonjuring Clergy- 
 men — Association for King William — Srr John Fenwick — 
 King William reconciled to the Duke of Marlborough — 
 Lord Sunderland and his son Lord Spencer — Lord Clan- 
 carty — Death of James II. — " The Pretender " acknow- 
 ledged by the King of France as James III. — Dr. Burnet — 
 Duke of Dorset — Death of William III. — Advantage to 
 Atterbury of the Accession of Queen Anne — Walpole and 
 the Marlboroughs — A Political Crisis — The New Influence — 
 Trial of Dr. Sacheverell — Sir Simon Harcourt's Defence — 
 Atterbury and Dr. William King's Proceedings — The 
 Examiner — Dismissal of the Whigs and the Camarilla. 
 
 Neither of the party terms " Wliig " and " Tory " 
 is of English derivation. The first is a Scotch word 
 for sour whey, for a long period the ordinary beverage 
 of the poorer classes ; the second is said to come from 
 " tar-a-lli" " Come, King ! " a frequent exclama- 
 tion of the royalists during the rule of Cromwell, 
 lloger North, in his " Examen," dwells on the 
 use of opprobrious titles fixed on the favourers of 
 Popery ; and Burnet, who has been followed by most 
 subsequent explainers, states that "Wliiggan" was 
 used by the carters of tlic South-west of Scotland
 
 122 ROBERT WALPOLE. 
 
 while driving their horses, and subsequently era- 
 ployed as a term of reproach against all persons in 
 opposition to the Court.* Dr. Lingard traces Tory 
 to toringliin — to pursue for the sake of plunder — 
 and the pursuers, who were outlaws, hiding in bogs 
 and inaccessible places, were termed rapparees and 
 " Tories." 
 
 So much for these distinctive terms. What Whigs 
 and Tories were during the career of Atterbury must 
 now be stated. 
 
 Among the rising men in the House of Commons, 
 during the reign of William III., was a Norfolk 
 squire, member for Castle Rising, who affected a 
 hearty zeal for popular principles in religion and 
 politics ; but for the first Robert Walpole cared very 
 little, and the latter he entered into only in the 
 spirit of partisanship. The arbitrary proceedings of 
 the House, that appeared to have no higher object 
 than the ruin of every distinguished man in or out 
 of that assembly, to make way for the noisy crew 
 who clamoured him down, found in him an active 
 advocate. 
 
 In the following reign he was returned for Lynn 
 Regis, and became attached to the Whigs, then 
 assuming the exclusive advocacy of popular princi- 
 j)les. He associated himself with the leaders of the 
 party, with whom his convivial habits recommended 
 him quite as much as his political enterprise. He 
 was even noticed by the Duchess of Marlborough, 
 whose penetration detected his usefulness. 
 
 * Hist, of his Own Times, I., 43.
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY. 123 
 
 Antlionj' Ashley (the grandson of the Lord Chan- 
 cellor), Earl of Shaftesbury, was first known to Dr. 
 Atterbury as the member for Poole till 169S : he did 
 not succeed to the earldom till his return from Hol- 
 land. He gave important assistance to King Wil- 
 liam in the creation of a Parliament likely to assist 
 in passing the beneficial measures his Majesty had 
 projected, and is said to have been consulted by the 
 King. On the accession of Queen Anne he paid 
 very little attention to public afiairs, devoting himself 
 to literary pursuits, varied by another residence in 
 Holland. Though his writings are of more than 
 questionable tendency, and he indulged in severe 
 reflections upon the clergy, he professed much ad- 
 miration for the Sermons of Whichcote, for which he 
 composed a Preface. He wrote several treatises, in 
 an over-refined style, that found admirers. Those 
 published in tliree volumes, in 1711, with the title of 
 " Characteristics," are best known. His " Letter 
 concerning Enthusiasm," his " Soliloquy, or Advice 
 to an Author," and the " Essay on the Freedom of 
 Wit and Humour," were much praised ; and Bishop 
 Hurd styles his " Moralists : a Philosophical Ehap- 
 sody," published in 1709, one of the best productions 
 of the kind in the language ; but Dr. Blair has 
 condemned its excessive elaboration. There was an 
 afi'ectation cultivated about this time of being classi- 
 cally philosophical, and the noble author adopted it. 
 His lordship has had many imitators. In the summer 
 of 1711 the state of his health induced him to travel 
 to Italy, where he remained till he died, February 14, 
 1713.
 
 124 LOKD HALIFAX. 
 
 Cluirles Montagu benefited by the instructions of 
 Dr. Busby, and in 1083, when at tlie advanced 
 schoolboy age of twenty-one, proceeded to Cam- 
 bridge, to join his friend Stepney, who had preceded 
 him to that university the year before. He soon 
 distinguished himself among the versifiers of his age, 
 assisting Prior in that admirable fable, " The City 
 Mouse and the Country Mouse." He took care to let 
 his share in the composition of such a clever parody 
 be widely known, and the value of this service to the 
 cause of Protestantism was recognized by King Wil- 
 liam when the Earl of Dorset, his Lord Chamberlain, 
 introduced him with the suggestive recommendation, 
 " I have brought a mouse to have the honour of 
 kissing your hand." His Majesty, smiling, replied, 
 " You will do well to put me in a way of making a 
 man of him."* A pension of £500 a year was fol- 
 lowed by public employments, and in a few years 
 Montagu made such an impression in the House of 
 Commons as to be considered one of the ablest 
 statesmen and cleverest financiers of the age. He 
 held the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, First 
 Commissioner of the Treasury, and Auditor of the 
 Exchequer; and was created, 13th of December, 1700, 
 a peer by the title of Baron Halifax. 
 
 The House of Commons, in the session of 1G93, 
 
 * Prior refers to the patronage of his colleague, and the neglect of himself, in 
 his "Epistle to Fleetwood Sheppard, Esq." 
 
 "There's one thing more I'd almost slipt, 
 But that may do as well in postscript ; 
 My friend Charles Montagu 's preferred. 
 Nor would I have it long observed. 
 That one mouse eats, whilst t'others starved ! "
 
 WHIGS AND TORIES. 125 
 
 had been thrown into a state of intense commotion 
 by the refusal of the King to sanction "the Phxce 
 Bill." Popular opinions were expressed by the Tories, 
 and Harley and his friends prepared a remonstrance, 
 to which they gave the inofiensive name of "a repre- 
 sentation ; " and, with some modifications, this was 
 presented as the address of the House. The King was 
 courteous, but firmj the Tories were for insisting, 
 the Whigs for conceding their right ; and a division 
 decided the question in favour of the latter by a 
 large majority. The party became strengthened in 
 the Ministry ; the Earl of Shrewish ury accepted the 
 seals and a dukedom, to the disappointment of the 
 ■Jacobites, who had been striving to enlist him for 
 James. At last the only Tories left in the Adminis- 
 tration were the Lord President Carmarthen and the 
 First Lord of the Treasury, Godolphin. Another 
 naval disaster in Camaret Bay occurred, and it was 
 affirmed that this had been caused by the Tory spies 
 in the Cabinet ; the party became unpopular, Jacobite 
 agents were more active than ever in Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, where new plots were discovered. Traitors 
 and informers changed places, perfidy grew common, 
 and the rascality of Titus Gates was rivalled by the 
 scoundrelism of Taafe. 
 
 Just as the ex-government Jacobin informer had 
 succeeded in saving the conspirators he had pre- 
 viously caused to be arrested, the Primate Tillotson 
 expired, after a short ilhiess, and a Churchman very 
 much inferior to him in ability, Tenlson, was ap- 
 pointed to the vacant archbishopric. This loss to the 
 Church was shortly afterwards followed by a still
 
 126 IIARLEY. 
 
 greater loss to the State : Queen Mary died of the 
 small-pox, near the close of the year, and the new 
 archbishop preached her funeral sermon. 
 
 At the head of the Tory chiefs was Robert Harley, 
 who was rapidly gaining celebrity by professing High 
 Church principles. He had distinguished the Court 
 Chaplain by his notice, and evidently by such atten- 
 tion won his regard. A cordial intimacy led to a 
 close communion of sentiment, political and religious ; 
 for the popular preacher found himself in an atmo- 
 sphere where partisanship was a large element — 
 where, too, it was constantly changing its character 
 and increasing its intensity. The genuine Church- 
 man was to be known by his devotion to the Church ; 
 but it could not always be clear to him that his 
 Church was the one established by William and 
 Mary. As the King desired to remain independent 
 of the two parties, his administration was for some 
 time a mixed one ; and their contests for the entire 
 control of the State were incessant. 
 
 The demise of William's amiable consort made 
 important changes which powerfully affected Dr. 
 Atterbury's interests at Court. The sermons he had 
 preached before Queen Mary had been circulated far 
 and wide ; and though the jDreacher had not super- 
 seded her favourite. Dr. Burnet, he had been honoured 
 with much kindly attention. Lord Somers, after 
 her death, had recommended to the King a recon- 
 ciliation with his sister-in-law, shortly after which 
 the Princess resumed her apartments at St. James's, 
 whence she had been banished for suspected sym- 
 pathy with her father and brother. Atterbury was
 
 JACOBITE PLOTS. 127 
 
 ah'eady favourably known to her, and was not insen- 
 sible to the advantage of improving his opportunities. 
 But with the Princess came back the Marlboroughs, 
 and througli them alone could he hope to obtain any 
 share of her royal highness 's favour. 
 
 The death of her sister had left the Princess Anne 
 next in succession to the throne ; this materially 
 altered the policy of her two Ix lends. So far from 
 suggesting submissive letters to the royal exile, or 
 reporting to St. Germains important intelligence as 
 evidence of devotion, they now studiously en- 
 deavoured to ignore all ideas of filial duty, and 
 maintained a strict reserve respecting William's pro- 
 ceedings. Headers are sufficiently famiHar with the 
 easy terms on which Mrs. Freeman lived with 
 Mrs. Morley ; they can therefore the more readily 
 understand how essential it was for the chaplain of 
 the King to endeavour to make a friend of the con- 
 fidante of the Princess. 
 
 The change in the position of affairs at St. James's 
 was promptly taken advantage of by the royal exile 
 at the court of St. Grermains, and new conspiracies 
 set on foot. Charnock, whom Atterbury had known 
 as Vice-President of Magdalen College — the only 
 apostate in the community — had since the Eevolution 
 taken up the trade of Jacobite spy, with the rank 
 of captain in the military service of King James. 
 He had been employed on secret errands between 
 London and Paris, and now engaged in a plot to 
 assassinate King William, and to organize an inva- 
 sion from France. Nevertheless, William, after the 
 sucf^essful siege of Namur, gained so much upon the
 
 128 JACOBITE CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 nation, that, in the general election for 1G95, a large 
 number of members was returned to supjDort his 
 government. The schemes of his enemies were 
 oblicred to be deferred. 
 '^^^ In his various posts Lord Halifax took advantage 
 
 ^ of the facilities they afforded him of making money. 
 Several instances of his having improperly secured 
 large sums were brought under the notice of Parlia- 
 ment, but the King did not heed such accusations, 
 and he was not molested.* 
 
 The perfidy of the confidential servants of William, 
 in communicating his designs to his enemies in Paris, 
 was, if possible, exceeded in baseness by the venality 
 of such men as the Speaker of the House of Com- 
 mons, Sir John Trevor, and the Duke of Leeds, then 
 Lord President of the Council. The latter was dis- 
 graced, and there remained only one Tory in the 
 Government. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1696, another 
 gang of conspirators was despatched from France, and 
 at their head was the Duke of Berwick, natural son 
 of the expatriated king, who was to raise a general 
 insurrection. The Duke failed, and returned to his 
 
 * When Queeu Anne came to the throne, the opposition to him became more 
 intense. He was attacked in prose and verse, and his sincerity called in question 
 as much as his honesty. In ' ' The Golden Age," the author says of the new 
 sovereign : — 
 
 "Dissembling statesmen shall before thee stand, 
 And Halifax be first to kiss thy hand." 
 
 Nevertheless, so eminent a patron was sure to find plenty of poetical defenders. 
 One addressed a poem to him as 
 
 Quintus Arbelius, to Charles, Lord Halifax. 
 "Thou, great Charles, the glory of that Court," 
 meaning the court of the deceased King.
 
 JEREMY COLLIER. 129 
 
 fatlier ; tlie ruffians were betrayed by a member of 
 tlieir own band, and only one succeeded in escaping 
 to his employer. Charnock and some of liis accom- 
 plices were executed ; the discovery of the plot raised 
 William to the highest eminence of popularity 
 among his people, and sunk James into irretrievable 
 contempt. The criminals were attended by non- 
 juring divines, whose ostentatious sympathy on the 
 scaffold excited much popular odium against them. 
 One, the celebrated Jeremy Collier, published a 
 defence, which elicited among other answers a de- 
 claration signed by Archbishop Tenison and twelve 
 bishops — all the prelates of the Anglican Church 
 then in town. 
 
 The conduct of Collier and his nonjuring asso- 
 ciates, Cook and Snatt, in publicly absolving, in the 
 form employed in the Anglican Service for the Visi- 
 tation of the Sick, convicted assassins, was regarded 
 by all less bigoted Churchmen as a grave scandal. 
 Atterbury, who had hitherto refrained from any exhi- 
 bition of extreme views, either in religion or politics, 
 must have looked upon it as a profanation. Jeremy 
 Collier was determined to make the most of the 
 opportunity for braving the Government, and pub- 
 lished another defence ; rather a collection of quota- 
 tions than an argument. lie fled the country, and 
 was outlawed, but survived the sentence thirty 
 years. Zealots of his stamp were common at this 
 period ; indeed the principle of the divine right of 
 hereditary succession remained a stuml)ling-block to 
 the courtiers of King William as long as he lived. 
 It came into great prominence shortly afterwards, 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 130 SIR JOHN FENWICK. 
 
 when the h)yaUy excited in the nation by the assas- 
 sination plot made the Whigs endeavour to make 
 great pohtical capital, by forming an association to 
 support the King; and a large majority of the mem- 
 bers of the Lower House having subscribed sucli a 
 dechiration of union, the peers were required to add 
 their signatures. The Tories objected to King Wil- 
 liam being styled " rightful and hiwful " sovereign, 
 and there was vehement discussion till the Duke 
 of Leeds proposed the instrument should acknow- 
 ledge that His Majesty had the exclusive right 
 by law to the Crown ; and this suggestion was 
 adopted. Everywhere else the original language of 
 the association was accepted, and in many places its 
 members publicly wore a red ribbon encircling their 
 hats, bearing the inscription, " Greneral Association 
 for King William." This enthusiastic loyalty largely 
 increased the influence of the Whigs. 
 
 Confessions of plotters were invariably against dis- 
 tinguished Tories, with a view doubtless to secure the 
 favour of the now dominant Whigs. Sir John Fen- 
 wick, one of the worst of double traitors, when his 
 life was forfeited by the failure of the last conspiracy, 
 denounced others as well as the leaders of that party, 
 such as the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lords Eussell, Marl- 
 borough, and Godolphin. King William would hear 
 of no accusations from such a source ; but when Lord 
 Grodolphin proffered his resignation, it was accepted. 
 Pen wick was proceeded against by a Bill of Attainder 
 in the House of Commons, for having also endea- 
 voured to cast suspicion on the leaders of the Whigs. 
 The Tories now opposed this somewhat arbitrary if
 
 TORY APPOINTMENTS. 131 
 
 not unconstitutional course, and there was fierce de- 
 bating ; but the bill, after some fluctuating divisions, 
 passed by a majority of thirty-three. 
 
 Fenwick's Bill of Attainder was carried to the 
 House of Peers on the 20th of November, 1690. 
 Marlborough and Godolphin denied ever having had 
 any communication with the prisoner, and there 
 ensued more fierce debating. Among the speakers 
 for the Bill Bishop Burnet distinguished himself. 
 At the third reading the Primate also made a speech 
 in its favour ; but decreasing majorities marked every 
 division, and the last showed one oi fve only. On 
 the 28th of the following January, Sir John was 
 executed on Tower Hill, attended by Dr. White, the 
 displaced Bishop of Peterborough. A still heavier 
 blow and greater discouragement was in store for the 
 baffled Jacobites : their unfaiHng resource, "the Grreat 
 King," abandoned the cause of James, and agreed to 
 his being banished to Avignon, instead of remaining 
 the patron of plotters at St. Grermains. A day of 
 thanksgiving for the peace was appointed for the 2nd 
 of December, and Dr. Compton preached a sermon in 
 the new cathedral of St. Paul's. 
 
 It w^as at the end of the parliamentary session 
 of 1098 that William III. made some suggestive 
 chansres amonfj; his ministers. The Whi<j:s had re- 
 cently afforded many striking instances of disho- 
 nesty. He now appointed a Tory Secretary of State, 
 Lord Jersey, and a Tory Privy Seal, Lord Lonsdale. 
 There were other indications that the monopoly of 
 confidence was coming to an end. Some elections 
 to(^k place in wliicli Tory candidates gained a majority. 
 
 10 * '
 
 132 COURT AT ST. GERMAINS. 
 
 Before William left England for Holland in 1008, 
 as evidence of liis being completely reconciled to 
 Marlborough, the latter was appointed Governor to 
 the Duke of Gloucester, then in his ninth year, as 
 well as a member of the Eegency. The Bishop of 
 Salisbury at the same time became the young 
 Prince's Preceptor. Albemarle, one of the King's 
 Dutch favourites, was on intimate terms with Marl- 
 borough, but the other, Portland, was not so well 
 disposed towards him ; he, however, was supposed to 
 be declining: in influence with the King^. Marl- 
 borough's position, therefore, was one that ought to 
 have satisfied any man's ambition ; but it does not 
 seem to have contented either him or his wife, whose 
 appetite for power was getting insatiable. 
 
 The promise that had been given of removing 
 the pretended English Court from St. Germains, 
 had not been fulfilled. The Duke of Portland, now 
 at the head of an Embassy to Louis XIY., remon- 
 strated ag-ainst this evasion of the understandino- 
 come to at the peace of Pyswick, and ofi'ered a hand- 
 some provision for the royal exiles if they were sent 
 to Avignon, as previously arranged ; but Louis would 
 not expel his kinsman, nor would James, knowing 
 the opportunities his present residence gave him for 
 plotting against his hated son-in-law, hear of any 
 change. Negotiations were carried on between the 
 Courts of England and France on many subjects of 
 interest, but the fugitive Jacobites remained in 
 Paris waiting their opportunity for renewed action 
 in combination with their confederates in Eng-land, 
 Scotland, and Ireland.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SPENCER. 133 
 
 The character of Lord Sunderland was, in an 
 eminent degree, that of the politician of the time ; 
 caring little for the principles either of Whig or 
 Tory — caring less for religion, Eoman or Anglican ; 
 ready to be ever}H:hing by turns, but not longer than 
 suited his interests, and being consistent only in his 
 steady devotion to them. Towards the close ol' the 
 reign of King AYilliam he was an assertor of popular 
 rights, but his patriotism always began and ended 
 in self. As a statesman he was full of resources, 
 prudent and calculating, and did his best to con- 
 solidate the Whig party, because he was convinced 
 that in the present temper of the nation they alone 
 co^ld establish a durable Government. He was Low 
 Church, not either from partiahty or conviction, but 
 simply from antagonism — the opposing party being 
 High Church. 
 
 His eldest son. Lord Spencer, had been educated 
 under the corrupting influence of an age in which 
 puljlic virtue seemed almost ignored, and entered the 
 House of Commons in the year ld95 on popular 
 principles of a somewhat indefinite character. He 
 was accomplished, possessed of much literary taste, 
 a lover of books, a patron of authors, and apparently 
 in every way gifted so as to insure for himself a 
 Ijrilliant career; nevertheless, there could l)e little 
 d(^ubt that his ideas of government were based on 
 classical recollections rather than on a study of the 
 En"-lish Constitution. He went with the Whigs in 
 all tli(.'ir experiments on Church and State, but was 
 too thoroughly an aristocrat to forget the privileges 
 of rank ; therefore was not more reliable a \u)V\-
 
 134 LORD CLANCARTY. 
 
 tickm than liis ever shifting, ever intriguing- pro- 
 genitor. 
 
 Sunderland had created for himself a reputation 
 that made his favour with the King precarious ; a 
 large and increasing party in the House of Commons 
 distrusted him. They at last made their unfavour- 
 able opinions so prominent that he found himself, 
 in 1G98, forced to resign his post of Lord Cham- 
 berlain, and with it his position of confidential 
 counsellor to the King. The Whigs now felt them- 
 selves more secure, and proceeded to legislate for the 
 strengthening of their own position, and for the 
 further weakening that of their opponents. Acts 
 concerning high treason were ostensibly directed 
 against the Jacobites, but included the Tories sus- 
 pected of holding secret communication with the 
 exiled family. It so happened that they were 
 scarcely passed when some Whigs found themselves 
 unpleasantly affected by tliem, they being Lord 
 Sunderland and his son, Lord Spencer. 
 
 A near relative. Lord Clancarty, had crossed the 
 Channel in spite of the severe enactments just passed 
 against the adherents of James ; and Lord Spencer 
 having ascertained that his sister — to whom the Irish 
 nobleman had been married when they were both 
 children — had given him refuge, denounced him to 
 the Secretary of State. Clancarty was torn from the 
 arms of his young wife and hurried to the Tower. 
 Notwithstanding this harsh proceeding on the part 
 of the brother-in-law, the notorious insincerity of 
 Lord Sunderland laid him open to the suspicion of 
 being engaged in treasonable communications. Con-
 
 DEATH or JAMES II. 135 
 
 siderable sympathy was excited for the young couple ; 
 and when Lady William Eussell, with true womanly 
 devotion, took Lady Clancarty with lier to Ken- 
 sington to appeal to the King, a full pardon was not 
 only promptly granted, but a pension given, to permit 
 them to live in comfort abroad. 
 
 In the month of September, 1 701, the exiled King, 
 after returning from a visit to the waters of Bourbon, 
 had another fit of paral3^sis, from which it was evident 
 he would not recover. On hearing the news Louis 
 visited him, and although a council of ministers had 
 decided against any recognition of the son of the 
 dying King, their monarch came to a different deter- 
 •Qiination. In the presence of James's attendants 
 he declared his intention of acknowledging, on the 
 father's demise, his son as King of England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland. James died on the IGtli, and his 
 successor was proclaimed shortly afterwards at the 
 palace gates by a herald, in the prescribed form, as 
 " James III.," and was subsequently received at 
 Court with the honours due to a sovereign Prince. 
 He was a boy of thirteen, and played the King in a 
 style that delighted the French courtiers : by English 
 Protestants he was known only as " the Pretender." 
 
 The insult offered to the King of England by the 
 grand monarque was resented by the whole nation as 
 spiritedly as by AVilliam. A general election occur- 
 ring at this crisis, the conflict of Whig and Tory 
 was ibuglit over again at the hustings — the popular 
 candidate, as usual, laying all tlic l)lamc ol' this 
 want(jn infraction of the treaty of Kyswick, as well 
 us the responsibility of every evil that had alllicted
 
 136 UNPOPULARITY OF DR. BURNET. 
 
 the country from time immemorial, on the Tories. 
 They could make but little defence, and lost ground. 
 
 Atterbury, from his post of observation, had ex- 
 cellent opportunities for seeing the game of politics 
 then playing. He saw quite enough to make him 
 distrust the winning side. They made it more than 
 sufficiently plain that they were not acting honestly. 
 
 The turn of the prosperous and popular Montague 
 came at last, and he fared no better than other 
 Whigs who had preceded him in their fall from 
 political eminence. He was reviled in lampoons, and 
 abused in pamphlets ; attacked in debates, and ridi- 
 culed in coffee-houses. He lost his authority as 
 leader of the House of Commons ; he lost his posi- 
 tion as Chancellor of the Exchequer; he lost his 
 character as an able administrator of the State, and 
 sank into the vortex of public opprobrium, with the 
 name of "Filcher" as a brand on his reputation. 
 Such was the last victim of popular institutions. 
 The House became more and more arbitrary, till a 
 Government coexisting with it seemed to be out 
 of the question. 
 
 The Bishop of Salisbury's appointment as tutor to 
 the Duke of Grloucester gave offence to many members 
 of the House of Commons, and those who caused his 
 sermon to be burnt by the hangman had seized the 
 first opportunity that presented itself (1699) to 
 attack him for having published unconstitutional 
 sentiments. They moved an address to the King to 
 remove him from his post of Preceptor to the heir 
 apparent. The discussion that ensued created great 
 excitement in St. James's ; the Marlboroughs exerted
 
 LORD DORSET. 137 
 
 all their iufliience to defeat the motion, as if appre- 
 hensive that its results might compromise them. The 
 address was negatived by a considerable majority. 
 A similar attack on Lord Somers was attended with 
 a like defeat. 
 
 Bishop Burnet was a zealous politician on the minis- 
 terial side, but the opposition of the two branches of 
 the legislature caused his zeal so to outrun his dis- 
 cretion, that he uttered an exclamation of impatience 
 and contempt when a peer was addressing the House 
 in favour of amendments on the Irish Forfeiture Bill. 
 When they came to a division the numbers were 
 even ; the adroit Primate made a sign to his episcopal 
 brethren, and they all left the House. On the next 
 division the amendments were abandoned, and the 
 Bill suffered to pass.* 
 
 The Earl of Dorset was a genuine friend of litera- 
 ture, in which character he was be-dedicated to a 
 prodigious extent. Among his lordship's numerous 
 beneficent acts, none did him more honour than his 
 liberality to John Dryden, after, on the accession of 
 Williain and Mary, he had been dismissed from those 
 offices (poet laureate and historiographer), and deprived 
 
 * Hampton, the translator of Polybius, writes of Burnet : — "His personal 
 resentments i)ut him upon writing history. He relates the actions of a persecutor 
 and benefactor, and it is easy to believe that a man in such circumstances must 
 violate the laws of truth. The remembrance of his injuries is always present. 
 Let us add to this, that intemjjerate and malicious cuiiosity which penetrates 
 into the most jjrivate recesses of vice." — "Reflections on Ancient and Modem 
 History. Oxford, 1746." A much severer estimate of the Bishop's character will 
 he found in Mr. Mark Napier's "Moutro.se and the Covenanters," I., 13, when 
 commenting on Burnet's infamous letter, addressed to Lord Halifax, but intended 
 fur the King's perusal, a little before the execution of Lord Russell. Dr. Burnet 
 was not then a Bisliop, but he was a priest. Under his own hand he has left 
 damnatory evidence of his want of principle.
 
 138 Dorset's humour. 
 
 of tlieir emoluments, to gain wliich he had laboured 
 so hard in the service of King James. Unostenta- 
 tiously the Earl made the poet's life easy, by con- 
 tinuing the lost income out of his own resources. 
 
 Dorset displayed no small degree of talent in the art 
 in which his eulogists Prior and Pope excelled. Very 
 happy, and very suggestive to them, is the humour 
 of his poem addressed to Edward Howard, author 
 of "The British Prince," an epic, which Addison 
 taught the public to laugh at by quoting the absurd 
 couplet, — 
 
 A coat of mail Prince Vortigem had on, 
 Which from a naked Picl his grandsire won ! 
 
 Lord Dorset thus attacks it : — 
 
 Come on, ye critics, find one fault who dare, 
 
 For read it backward, like a witch's pray'r, 
 
 'Twill do as well : thi'ow not away your jests 
 
 In solid nonsense that abides all tests. 
 
 Wit, like tearse claret, when 't begins to pall, 
 
 Neglected lies, and 's of no use at all ; 
 
 And in its f uU perfection of decay 
 
 Tunis vinegar, and comes again in play. 
 
 Thou hast a brain, such as it is, indeed, 
 
 Or what else should thy worm of fancy feed ? 
 
 Yet in a filbert I have often known 
 
 Maggots survive when all the kernel's gone. 
 
 This simile shall stand in thy defence, 
 
 'Gainst such dull rogues as now and then write sense. 
 
 Thy style 's the same, whatever be thy theme, 
 
 As some digestions turn all meat to phlegm. 
 
 He lies, dear Ned, who says thy brain is barren, 
 
 Where deep conceits, like vermin, breed in carrion. 
 
 Thy stumbling foundered jade can trot as high 
 
 As any other Pegasus can fly. 
 
 So the dull eel moves nimbler in the mud 
 
 Than all the swift-finn'd racers of the flood. 
 
 As skilful divers to the bottom fall 
 
 Sooner than those that cannot swim at all, 
 
 So in the way of writing without tliiuking. 
 
 Thou hast a strange alacrity in sinking.
 
 pope's ET7L0GTUM. 139 
 
 Thou writest below e'en thy own natural parts, 
 
 And with acquired dulness and new arts 
 
 Of studied nonsense takest kind readers' hearts. 
 
 Therefore, dear Ned, at my advice forbear 
 
 Such loud complaints 'gainst critics to prefer, 
 
 Since thou art turned an errant libeller. 
 
 Thou sett'st thy name to what thyself dost write — 
 
 Did ever libeJ yet so sharply bite !* 
 
 A careful comparison of these lines with much of 
 " The Dunciad," and particularly with " The Art of 
 Sinking in Poetr}^" shows a resemblance both in 
 spirit and in phrase. The writer was worthy of imi- 
 tation in other things, and well deserved the studied 
 commendation of those men of letters he particularly 
 obliged. 
 
 Pope wrote of him : — 
 
 Dorset, the grace of Courts, the Muse's pride. 
 
 Patron of arts and judge of nature, died ; 
 
 The scourge of pride, though sanctified or great. 
 
 Of fops in learning and of knaves in state. 
 
 Yet soft by nature, though severe his lay, 
 
 His anger moral, and his wisdom gay. 
 
 Blest satirist, who touch'd the mean so true. 
 
 As show'd Vice had his hate and pity too. 
 
 Blest courtier, who could King and country please. 
 
 Yet sacred keep his friendship and his ease. 
 
 Blest peer, his great forefathers' every grace 
 
 Reflecting and reflected in his race ; 
 
 Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine, 
 
 And patriots steer and poets deck the line ! + 
 
 * A poem to Mr. Edward Howard, on his incomprehensible poem, "The British 
 
 Prince." 
 
 + Pope's Works. Prior was under considerable obligations to Lord Dorset, and 
 these, in a dedication to his son, after his decease, inspired him to attempt to do 
 justice to his merits. "Waller," he wrote, "thought it an honour to consult 
 him in the softness and harmony of his verse, and Dr. Sprat in the delicacy and 
 turn of his prose ; Dryden determines by him, under the character of Eugenius, 
 as to the laws of dramatic poetry ; Butler owed it to liim that the Court tasted 
 his ' Hudibras ;' Wycherley that the town liked his ' Plain Dealer ;' and the late 
 Duke of Buckingham deferred to piililixh his ' Hehuarsal ' till he was sure, as he 
 expressed it, that my Lord Donsct would not rehcar.se ujioii liini again. If we 
 wanted foreign testimony, La Fontaine and St. Evremoud have acknowledged that
 
 140 DEATH OF WILLIAM ill. 
 
 On the 20th of February, 1702, William III. was 
 thrown from his horse while riding in the park at 
 Hampton Court. He fractured his collar bone ; it 
 was set, but the jolting of his carriage as he rode 
 to Kensington Palace necessitated its being reset. 
 The shock to his system was more injurious than the 
 fracture, and in little better than a week dangerous 
 symptoms manifested themselves : in another week 
 his life was despaired of. The Primate and the 
 Bishop of Salisbury attended him assiduously in his 
 last moments. He received the Sacraments from their 
 hands, and expressed the firmest faith in the truth of 
 Christianity. In short, his end was no less edifying 
 than his life ; his last act and last word evincing a 
 tenderness of heart that surprised all present who 
 were familiar with his habitual reserve and apparent 
 insensibility. 
 
 The accession of Queen Anne was an event of vast 
 importance in the career of the Court chaplain. He 
 had contrived to interest the Princess in his favour, and 
 had won the regard of her husband. Prince Greorge of 
 Denmark. The new Queen at once showed her 
 esteem for Dr. Atterbury in a way that excited the 
 jealousy of those members of his profession who 
 ftmcied they were entitled to a monopoly of Eoyal 
 patronage, as well as the enmity of political adven- 
 turers eager to make the most of Court influence. 
 
 In the summer of 1705 Walpole was aj)pointed as 
 a member of the Council of Prince George of Den- 
 he was a perfect master of tbe beauty and fineness of their language, and of all 
 they call les belles lettres." He adds that he was equally accomplished as a 
 connoisseur of art.
 
 THE MARLBOROUGIIS. 141 
 
 mark; two years later, by the Marlborough in- 
 fluence, he was placed at the Board of Admiralty. 
 The Yorkshire squire had not only become a member 
 of the Queen's Grovernment, but a confidential friend 
 of the Queen's favourite, and might consider himself 
 on the hiofh road to fortune. But the Government 
 to which he devoted himself, and the royal affection 
 for his patroness, on the duration of which all his 
 hopes rested, though apparently firm as the founda- 
 tions of the universe, had never been so insecure. 
 
 The Whig leaders were secretly disliked by the 
 Queen, while the subjection in which Her Majesty 
 lived under a Camarilla composed of the Duchess 
 and her female connections, was becoming daily more 
 intolerable. 
 
 Lord Dorset, whether in the royal household, in 
 the Cabinet, as a diplomatist, or as a statesman, was 
 always the cordial friend of genius. He remained 
 the chief ornament of four several Courts, but in the 
 last, that of Queen Anne, increasing infirmities caused 
 him to retire from the Council to his seat in Sussex, 
 where he died January 19, 1705-6, an irreparable loss 
 to literature as well as to society. 
 
 At the close of the autumn of 1707 there were 
 violent discussions in both Houses of Parliament, in 
 the course of wliich first the Duke of Marlborough's 
 Ijrother, and then the Duke himself, were sharply 
 attacked. There was an attempt to strengthen the 
 Government, and the Marlboroughs made strenuous 
 efforts to maintain their power, but the combined 
 force of the entire Whig party failed to get rid of 
 Harley by denouncing his secret correspondence with
 
 142 ABIGAIL MASHAM : 
 
 France. They recommended the Queen to dismiss 
 liim. Her Majesty not following this advice, Godol- 
 phin and Marlborough gave in their resignations. 
 Care was taken that they should be supported by the 
 rest of the Whigs in office ; and the Tories, not being 
 prepared to form an administration, Harley had to 
 give way, and with him went St. John and Lord 
 Harcourt, equally warm friends of Atterbury. Wal- 
 pole now became Secretary at War, in which he 
 studied to make himself useful to the Duke and 
 agreeable to the Duchess. Again there was immense 
 confidence in the Whig camp, and equal satisfaction 
 among the Camarilla, with no sliglit amount of in- 
 solence on the part of their haughty director. The 
 Duchess of Marlborough and her daughters, Lady 
 Godolphin and Lady Spencer, considered the Queen 
 to be completely in their power, and behaved them- 
 selves accordingly. 
 
 But though Harley had been disposed of, at least 
 two earnest friends of his could still share the royal 
 confidence, to the prejudice of his political opponents. 
 One of the Queen's female attendants, Abigail Masham, 
 could be constantly with her in private, notwithstand- 
 ing the untiring efforts of the Duchess to have her 
 removed ; and the other Harleian, the Queen's chap- 
 lain, could as little be prevented holding similar com- 
 m.unications with equal secrecy. 
 
 The Government now distinguished themselves by 
 their prosecution of Mrs. Manley for having written 
 her once celebrated novel, " Memoirs of the New Ata- 
 lantis," 1709, in which, under fictitious names, she 
 had introduced the principal persons who had been
 
 HER INFLUENCE. 143 
 
 eniraiied in tlie Eevolution. Lord Sunderland, the 
 Secretary of State, caused lier to be committed to 
 close custody, and debarred pen, ink, and paper. The 
 Whig leaders, whom she had used with great free- 
 dom, fancied that she had been instigated to attack 
 them ; but after two or three examinations, that 
 elicited nothing, they began to see the false position 
 in which they had placed themselves, and discharged 
 their prisoner, Asa natural consequence, the authoress 
 became amazingly popular, and her book extremely 
 fashionable. 
 
 AYalpole endeavoured to conciliate the new in- 
 fluence, which he could not help obser\dng. Acts 
 vvere done ostensibly by the Queen, but unquestion- 
 ably by a power behind the tlu-one greater than the 
 throne itself. The Grovernment were astonished by 
 the appointment of the Duke of Shrewsbury as Lord 
 Chamberlain. After this Walpole thought it high 
 time to propitiate ISIrs. Masham, and ha\'ing obtained 
 the Duke of Marlborough's approval, waited on Her 
 Majesty with a list of officers for promotion, includ- 
 ing the new favourite's husband ; but, much to the 
 Secretary of State's surprise. Queen Anne insisted 
 that her friend's brother should also be in the list, 
 and the Commander-in-Chief had no alternative but 
 to comply. Another startling sign of autliority now 
 stirred tlie whole Court. Tliis was the dismissal of 
 Lord Sunderland, the Secretary of State. 
 
 The share Dr. Atterbury had in these transactions 
 does not appear in history, but his acknowledged 
 participation in the powerful assault on the Govern- 
 ment, that soon afterwards excited general attention.
 
 144 DR. SACHEVERELL: 
 
 make it sufficiently probable that lie was as cognizant 
 of them as his friends Harley or St. John. Walpole 
 could scarcely have been unaware of this when he 
 employed his voice and his pen in denouncing the 
 Tory manoeuvre. The manoeuvre, however, proved 
 irresistible ; the Whigs strove with desperate tenacity 
 to hold their places. It soon became clear that the 
 Queen, despite of a long course of domineering, had 
 adopted Tory principles, and that the nation were 
 following her example. 
 
 The education of Henry St. John was completed at 
 Christ Church, whel-e probably his regard for Atter- 
 bury commenced. Their natural love of classical 
 knowledge and admiration of Dryden brought them 
 into very friendly association, but it was not till after 
 the former had entered Parliament, in the year 1700, 
 and became closely connected with Harley, that they 
 were united by a close political alliance. The Whigs 
 had monopolized all popular professions, and the Oppo- 
 sition were left to create a party with whatever prin- 
 ciples they could advocate. They wanted "a good 
 cry," and the Tory Court chaplain presently provided 
 them with one of first-rate quality. 
 
 A sermon was preached before the Lord Mayor at 
 St. Paul's, in commemoration of the signal escape of 
 the Protestants on the 5th of November. The text 
 was "In perils among false brethren." The preacher 
 was Dr. Atterbury's very intimate friend. He pro- 
 fessed, first, to show in what sense, and upon what 
 accounts, men may be denominated false brethren ; 
 secondly, to lay before his congregation the great 
 peril and mischief of such, both in Church and
 
 HIS SERMON. 145 
 
 State ; tliirdly, to set forth the heinous malignity, 
 and enormous guilt and folly of this prodigious sin ; 
 and, lastly, to prove what mighty reasons we have at 
 all times, and more especially at present, to adhere 
 firmly to the principles both of our Church and Con- 
 stitution, and how much it concerns us to beware of 
 all those false brethren that desert or betray them. 
 
 Dr. Sacheverell described "a false brother" in three 
 divisions. He first said, " Let the Christian world 
 be judges who best deserve the name of Chm'chmen, 
 those that strictly defend and maintain the Catholic 
 doctrine upon which the Church as a society is 
 founded, or those who would barter her for a mon- 
 grel union of all sects." He denounced " a secret 
 sort of reserved atheists," who pretend to be of the 
 Church as long as anything is to be got by it ; as 
 well as another kind of false brethren, who aifect 
 perfection of piety, and another kind who are defi- 
 cient in zeal. Then he dwelt on " false brethren 
 with relation to the State," holding up certain 
 proceedings of certain statesmen to reprobation, and 
 styling them encouragers of impiety as well as dis- 
 loyalty, while secretly favouring the introduction 
 of Popery into the kingdom. Having shown that 
 such "false brethren" arc as destructive to our civil 
 as to our ecclesiastical rights, he dilated, in very 
 forcible language, on the mischief done to the com- 
 munity by their influence. 
 
 It must be admitted that the Hijjh Church 
 preacher made the most of his occasion ; and if he 
 failed in causing tlie entire corporation to be sensible 
 of the backslidingsoftlieQiieen's Government, it was 
 
 VOL. I. 11
 
 110 SIR SIMON IIARCOURT. 
 
 no fault of his. So inflammatory a discourse could not 
 but liave become the subject of conversation through- 
 out the city. Dr. Sacheverell increased the effect 
 he had produced by publishing his sermon, with a 
 dedication equally defiant, addressed to Sir Samuel 
 Garrard, Bart., then Lord Mayor. It met with a 
 prodigious success, edition after edition being called 
 for. The author, however, had made too public an 
 attack to be permitted to escape with impunity. The 
 ministers were provoked at what was regarded as a 
 slap in the face quite as much as a condemnation. 
 Dr. Sacheverell was prosecuted, and forced to stand a 
 public trial. 
 
 Sir Simon Harcourt, a warm friend of Dr. Atter- 
 bury, was one of the counsel for Dr. Sacheverell. 
 How he distinguished himself on the occasion Dr. 
 Smalridge thus reports : — 
 
 "We had yesterday the noblest entertainment that ever 
 audience had, from your friend Sir Simon Harcourt. He spoke 
 with such exactness, such force, such decency, such dexterity ; 
 so neat a way of commending and reflecting, as he had occa- 
 sion ; such an insinuation into the passions of his auditors, as I 
 never heard. I will not pretend to say one word ; for I am sure 
 I could say nothing without spoiling it. I will only observe to 
 you, that throughout his whole discourse he spoke with appro- 
 bation of the Revolution, allowed it to be an excepted case, and 
 defended his client upon this ground — that he had asserted the 
 utter illegality of resistance without excepting any cases, and 
 proved from authority, human and divine, from our municipal 
 laws, from our Homilies, from the testimony of the Fathers and 
 writers of our Church, from irrefragable reasons, that it was 
 lawful for a preacher — that it was his duty — to lay down the 
 general rules of non-resistance, without making any exceptions ; 
 which was very different from affirming it admitted of no excep- 
 tions. His speech was universally applauded by enemies as well
 
 sacheverell's defence. 147 
 
 as friends, and his reputation for a speaker is fixed for ever. But 
 then the mischief was this — it was his vox cygnea ; for he is 
 returned, and we hear him not to-day, and shall hear him no 
 more.* 
 
 Dr. Saclieverell's defence, known to have been 
 written by Atterbury, created intense interest. The 
 Doctor is made to say, in the opening of his speech, 
 that the managers had acknowledged he was only 
 regarded as the tool of a party, and that the avowed 
 object of his impeachment was "to procure an eternal 
 and indelible brand of infamy to be fixed in a par- 
 liamentary way on all those who maintained the 
 doctrine of non-resistance, and to have the clergy 
 dii'ected what doctrine they ought to preach." He 
 then exposed the unfairness with which the observa- 
 tions in his discourse had been treated by prejudice 
 and animosity, and declared that he had never 
 thought of applying his doctrine of non-resistance to 
 the Revolution, but had expressed it in the general 
 terms used by the Apostles. He insisted that all he 
 had said was warranted by law as well as by the 
 Gospel. 
 
 He denied that he had complained of favours 
 granted to Dissenters, and avowed his opinion of 
 them in terms of moderation. He cleared himself 
 from the accusation of having asserted that the 
 Church had been endangered by the acts of the 
 Government, while he insisted, in the strongest lan- 
 guage, on the danger of Christianity from the general 
 diffusion of infidelity and atheism. Then he referred 
 
 * "Ballard's Letters," Boflleiaii Library, Oxfortl, Vol. VII. Nichols. Miscel- 
 laneous Works of Bi.shop Atterbury, V., 273. 
 
 II *
 
 148 THE SACHEVERELL FEVER. 
 
 to tlie sui^gestions he had made, that the hiws ai^ainst 
 papists should be enforced, justified them, and then 
 declared his loyalty to the Queen in language that 
 has considerable pretensions to eloquence. He averred 
 that his college (Magdalen, Oxford) would testify to 
 his character, as well as one of the bishops, and 
 numerous persons wlio had been educated by him. 
 He made a solemn denial of the malicious intentions 
 attributed to him, and appealed to the sense of justice 
 of the lords temporal and spiritual, whom he was 
 addressing; concluding by insisting that the doc- 
 trines he had taught were in perfect consonance with 
 the Scriptures.* 
 
 There is no doubt that Atterbury took a prominent 
 part in this attack upon the Whig Government, 
 assisted by Dr. William King, who published pam- 
 phlets in favour of Sacheverell, and supported his 
 other fellow-students in bringing out a periodical 
 that shortly distinguished itself by the fierceness of 
 its invectives against ministers. Sacheverell, how- 
 ever, was condemned by the court that tried him ; a 
 result by w^hich his prosecutors suffered a good deal 
 more than himself. 
 
 There was much to be done with the cry of 
 "Church in danger " before the Tory party could 
 expect to profit by it in the manner they desired. 
 The Sacheverell fever had to be kept uj), and the 
 Doctor was now induced to make a journey into 
 Wales that led to frantic demonstrations of devotion 
 to the endangered Church in every town through 
 
 * Speech of Henry Sacheverell, B.D. &c., March 7, 1709.
 
 LORD HALIFAX. 149 
 
 which he passed. There was another cry sought to 
 be raised, of ahnost equal significance. It was not 
 quite "the State in danger;" but a condition of 
 affairs was made public which intimated that the 
 Queen was not only not a free agent, but was sub- 
 jected to a state of intolerable thraldom, which pre- 
 vented her fulfilling the benevolent wishes of her 
 heart. The sympathy of her loyal subjects was 
 readily excited, while intense indignation was created 
 against the faction that so usurped and controlled the 
 royal authority. 
 
 The popular enthusiasm partook of the character 
 of a frenzy in the eyes of the calmer lookers-on. 
 Dr. Musgrave of Exeter, writing to Walter Moyle, 
 an active Fellow of the Eoyal Society, says, — 
 
 It looks as if Saclieverell's farce, by the aid of Harley 
 and St. John, has had the same efiect on us as that tragedy [the 
 Andromeda of Euripides] had on the people of Abdera, who, you 
 know, were in days of yore as famous for their politics and good 
 sense as the people of England are at present. However, there 
 is this difference ; the frenzy of Abdera vanished with the first 
 frost — ours, it seems, is to last for two years, and from thence to 
 the end of the next session of Parliament ; and, I am afraid, 
 will never be thoroughly cured but hj opening the jugular vein 
 of some persons wJiere the infection began.* 
 
 Lord Halifax t not only aided his colleagues in 
 the prosecution of Dr. Sacheverell, but strove to 
 bring his supporters into trouble, by drawing up, 
 
 * Moyle's Posthumous Works, L 
 
 f Lord Halifax was as notorious for hLs gallantry as for his wit, and having 
 been disappointed in a design he had entertained of taking a second wife, his 
 lordship contented himself with the handsome widow Barton, on whom he made 
 a very liheral ]>rovision at his death, by settling upon her the Rangership and 
 Lodge of liushey Park, 5,000/., with an annuity of 200/., besides his manor of 
 Apscourt, in Surrey.
 
 150 LORD SOMERS. 
 
 a dozen queries called " Seasonable Questions," in 
 which the seventh and eighth were, — 
 
 Whether the ])crmittiug Dr, Sacheverell to ride in triumph 
 from place to place, being convicted by the High Court of Par- 
 liament, be not the greatest indig-nity that ever was, or can be, 
 acted against the State ? and, 
 
 Whether those persons that have aided and abetted the Doctor 
 in his progress may not justly be accounted enemies to Her 
 Majesty and her Government, tending only to raise commotions 
 in the kingdom ? 
 
 There was a third query, that cautiously reflected 
 upon the High Church party, — 
 
 Whether it may not be an encouragement to the French 
 king to throw in the Pretender upon you in the time of 
 choosing a new Parliament ; and who are most likely to come 
 to his assistance, the moderate Churchmen and Dissenters, who 
 acknowledge and will stand by Her Majesty's parliamentary 
 rights, or the Highfliers and Sacheverellites, who will own no 
 other but what is hereditary ? * 
 
 Lord Somers, whose important step in his profes- 
 sion had been the defence of the Protestant prelates, 
 was naturally against the prosecution of Dr. Sache- 
 verell. Dean Swift assures his readers that he heard 
 his lordship condemn that prosecution as well as the 
 conduct of certain of the Whig ministers to Queen 
 Anne, f 
 
 It was about this time that Prior was again brought 
 into close association with his old schoolfellow Francis 
 Atterbury, who, with certain of his literary friends, 
 had published a periodical to support the policy of 
 Harley and St. John — then anxious to put an end 
 to the war, and, consequently, to the Marlborough 
 
 * " Life of Charles, Earl of Halifax," 141. 
 
 t " History of the Foiu- Last Years of Queen Anne."
 
 THE EXAMINER. 151 
 
 influence at Court. In the year 1710 The Examiner 
 was started ; the literary staff to support it con- 
 sisting of Drs. Atterbury, King, and Freind, Messrs. 
 Prior and Oldsworth, and ]\Irs. Manley, who were 
 presently joined and directed by Dr. Swift. The 
 principal object of the journal was to write down the 
 ministers who had encouraged the war, of which the 
 nation was beginning to inquire the advantage to 
 England, as well as to complain of the cost; and 
 the work was commenced with great vigour. 
 
 St. John was himself an early contributor to its 
 pages. A letter from him contained the following 
 passage : — 
 
 Not-withstanding all the pains which have been taken to 
 lessen her character in the world by the wits of the Kit-Kat 
 and the sages of the cellai*, mankind remains convinced that a 
 Queen possessed of all the virtues requisite to bless a nation, or 
 to make a private family happy, sits on the throne. By an 
 excess of goodness she delighted to raise some of her servants 
 to the highest degree of riches, of power, and of honour, and 
 in this only instance can it be said to have grieved any of her 
 subjects. 
 
 The rule which she had prescribed to these persons as the 
 measure of their conduct was soon departed from ; but so 
 unable were they to associate with men of honester principles 
 tlian themselves, that the sovereign authority was parcelled out 
 among a faction, and made the purchase of indemnity for an 
 offending minister. Instead of the mild influences of a gracious 
 Queen governing by law, we soon felt the miserable conse- 
 quence of subjection to tlie will of an arbitrary junto, and to 
 the caprice of an insolent woman. 
 
 There can be no doubt who are referred to here — the 
 Whig ministers were the arbitrary junto, and " the 
 insolent woman " Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. 
 That Queen Anne's favourite chaplain shared the
 
 152 
 
 THE COTERIE. 
 
 royal confidence there can be no question, but how 
 mucli he had to do with putting- forward Abigail, now 
 Lady Masliam, to supplant the domineering favourite, 
 can only be left to conjecture. We continue the letter 
 to The Examiner : — 
 
 Unhappy nation, wliich, expecting to be governed by tbe best, 
 fell under the tp-anny of the worst of her sex ! But now, thanks 
 be to God ! that fury who broke loose to execute the vengeance 
 of Heaven on a sinful people is restrained, and the royal hand 
 is already reached out to chain up the plague. 
 
 Invisum numen terras ccelumque levabit. 
 
 One would expect that on the first appearance of the Queen's 
 displeasure these little tyrants should have had recourse to sub- 
 mission and to resignation ; but they believed the whole nation 
 as debauched and corrupted as those profligate wretches who 
 were in their confidence ; they imagined that under the name of 
 their Prince tliey should be able to govern against her declared 
 intention ; and having usurped the royal seat, resolved to ven- 
 ture overturning the chariot of government rather than to lose 
 tlieir place in it.* They set their mistress at open defiance ; 
 neither the ties of gratitude nor the bands of allegiance were 
 any restraint to them. 
 
 Their first attempt was to take that privilege from her which 
 the meanest of her subjects enjoy ; and slavery was to pursue 
 her even into her bedchamber. Here the nation in general took 
 the alarm ; a spirit of loyalty began to rise, which the faction 
 foresaw would no longer bear to have the meanest submission 
 shown to the ministers, whilst common decency was hardly 
 used towards the throne. The conspirators resolved themselves 
 to precipitate their measures, and a sermon f was made the pre- 
 tence of their clamour. Those who prove themselves friends to 
 this Government by avowing principles inconsistent with any, 
 presumed daily to try the title of the Queen, and to limit the 
 allegiance of the subject. The party agents of every rank were 
 employed to declaim in public places, and we had the mortifica- 
 
 * In such a contingency how they were to keep their places does not appear. 
 There are other rash statements in this production, 
 t Sacheverell's.
 
 ST. JOHN AND HARLET. 153 
 
 tion to see cabals of upstarts sit in judgment on the right and 
 authority of the Crown, who, had it not been for the profusion 
 of the royal favour, could have had no pretence to be common 
 triers in any cause. By long insipid harangues and fulsome 
 panegp-ic the merits of the ministers were exalted — the whole 
 success of the administration, both at home and abroad, were 
 singly attributed to them ; and lest the Queen should think fit 
 to declare them dangerous, she was by necessary consequences, 
 from the positions laid down, declared herself to be useless. 
 
 The Camarilla awoke from their dreams of confi- 
 dence when punished for their abuse of power, Wal- 
 pole had advised a dignified surrender of office, and 
 there presently ensued a general resignation ; but 
 in more than one instance it was accomplished with 
 a bad grace. There were notable exceptions ; but 
 Marlborough and his colleagues had so long fostered 
 the delusion that the country could not dispense with 
 their services, they only by slow degrees could be 
 made to understand that they had made a mistake. 
 They beheld their places in the Government occupied 
 by persons they had afiected to despise, and the 
 country going on apparently with exactly the same 
 regularity as if the State machinery had not been 
 altered in a single wheel. 
 
 The plans of the confederates having been success- 
 fully carried, they began to realize their political 
 influence. St. John, in July 1712, was created 
 Baron St. John and Viscount BoHngbroke ; but now 
 an unhappy jealousy manifested itself between him 
 and Harley, created Earl of Oxford, each intriguing 
 against the other to secure the entire direction of 
 affairs in the Queen's Councils. Tlieir quarrel gave 
 great concern to Atterbury as well as to other infiuen-
 
 154 WALPOLE. 
 
 tial Tories, and proved extremely detrimental to them 
 as a party at a very critical period ; while to Walpole 
 and his convivial friends at the Kit-Kat* it was of 
 the greatest service. It enabled them to predict with 
 confidence the collapse of their authority, and to take 
 such measures as should expedite it as much as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 * "The Kit-Kat Club" was established about the time of the incarceration of 
 the Protestant prelates by James II., in Shire Lane. During the reign of 
 William and Mary it increased, and in that of Queen Anne could boast of at 
 least forty members, all zealous friends of the Hanoverian succession, noblemen 
 and gentlemen of high social position. Their engraved portraits are well known.
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 DEAN OF CARLISLE, CHRIST CHURCH (OXON), AND 
 
 WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Archdeacon Atterbuiy appointed Dean of Carlisle — His Cor- 
 respondence with, the Bishops of Carlisle and Exeter — A 
 fine Gentleman — Lord Stanhope's quizzical Reference to the 
 Earl of OiTery — Letter to the Bishop of Winchester — Dean 
 Atterbury and John Strype — Swift a Neighbour of the Dean 
 at Chelsea — Atterbury appointed Dean of Christ Church — 
 Swift's Letter of Congratulation — Mrs. Astell — Lay Baptism 
 — Letters from the Dean to the Bishop of Winchester — Dr. 
 Atterbury gives up preaching at Bridewell — Swift appointed 
 Dean of St. Patrick's — Dean Atterbury's Congratulations — 
 Dean Swift's Description of his Position — Dr. Atterbury 
 appointed Dean of Westminster — His Letter of Advice to 
 Dean Swift — Fallacies respecting his Despotic Manner — 
 Swift's Reply — Atterbury as an Antiquary — His first 
 Volume of Sermons. 
 
 It Las been asserted, on the authority of an anony- 
 mous pamphlet, that Bishop Nicholson refused to 
 institute Dr. Atterbury as Dean of Carlisle because 
 he had not brought a formal resignation from his 
 predecessor ; therefore that the Doctor was detained a 
 month at Carlisle till the paper could be procured. 
 Then that a flaw was discovered, it having been dated 
 a month after Atterbury's collation, which rendered 
 it null and void. As the Bishop was obstinate, it is 
 stated, on the same authority, that the Doctor re- 
 turned to town, and fruitlessly endeavoured to have
 
 156 BISHOP OF CARLISLE. 
 
 tlie date altered, as well as that of its registra- 
 tion.* 
 
 As no trace of tliis story is to be found in the 
 Atterbury Papers, it is evidently one of the many 
 fabrications by which he was assailed at every step 
 of his career. What did occur will now be learnt. 
 
 The Archdeacon of Totness was, in July 1704, 
 appointed by the Queen to the deanery of Carlisle, 
 but his diocesan contrived to delay his institution till 
 the following month of October. In the same year a 
 canonry at Exeter was bestowed on him by his cordial 
 friend Bishop Trelawney. 
 
 Dr. Atterbury's elevation was not permitted by his 
 ecclesiastical superiors without an attempt on their 
 part to produce his humiliation, by making their 
 sanction of it depend on his recantation of his High 
 Church principles. How he met this movement will 
 be seen in the communications that follow. It is 
 scarcely possible to imagine any conduct more digni- 
 fied than was his on the Bishop of Carlisle attempt- 
 ing to force a retractation from him, when the Doctor 
 presented himself for institution. 
 
 Dr. Atterbuky to the Bishop of Carlisle. t 
 
 Bishop's Thorp, September 4, 1704. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I came hither on Saturday even, and intended to have 
 set out this morning in order to pay my duty to your lordship 
 at Rose Castle ; but am stopped by a letter of your lordship's 
 to his Grace [of York J], part of which his Grace hath been 
 
 * "Biographia Britannica," I., 269. Note M. "A Letter from the South byway 
 of Answer to a Letter from a Northeru Divine, giving an Account of a Strange 
 Attempt made by Dr. A[tterbury]," &c. 
 
 t Dr. William Nicholson. J Dr. John Sharp.
 
 DEAN ATTERBURy's LETTERS. 157 
 
 pleased to communicate to me. And therein I find that your 
 lordship is firmly determined not to give me institution yourself 
 (should I wait upon you for it) unless I do openly and freely 
 revoke and renounce three propositions, relating to Her Majesty's 
 supremacy, there specified ; and -which seem to your lordship 
 deducible fi'om somewhat which I have heretofore asserted and 
 published. 
 
 I\Iy lord, there are many reasons for which I can by no means 
 comply with this or any such proposal ; and with which there is 
 no need that I should at present trouble your lordship, especially 
 since your lordship hath in the same letter desired his Grace 
 that, in case I consented not to your proposal, he would please 
 to admit me, and send his metropolitical mandate for my instal- 
 lation. His Grrace, I find, is very ready to fulfil your lordship's 
 desire in that respect (as I am also to take this method of being 
 instituted) as soon as your lordship shall have made such a 
 remission of your right and authority in this case, under your 
 episcopal seal, as may be judged a legal and efiectual warrant 
 for his Grace's giving me institution and my receiving it. 
 
 To this end I may, I hope, be permitted to ofier myself thus 
 by letter to your lordship for institution, since your lordship 
 hath expressed a concern to prevent the unnecessary expense of 
 my coming fourscore miles in order only (as your lordship is 
 pleased to speak) to be sent back by you. And, therefore, with- 
 out waiting in person upon your lordship (as I was ready to 
 have done), I will expect your lordship's pleasure here at Bishop's 
 Thorp ; hoping for such dispatch from your lordship in the 
 matter of my institution as may enable me safely to proceed to 
 my instalment without further delay. — I am, &c.* 
 
 Dr. Atteebory to the Bishop of ExETER.f 
 
 York, September 11, 1704. 
 
 I have been stopped a week at Bishop's Thorp, in my way 
 to Carlisle, by a letter to the Archbishop from the Bishop of 
 Carlisle, wherein lie positively refused to institute me unless I 
 revoked some propositions relating to the supremacy which he 
 thought deducible from my writings. I will enclose the paper 
 
 • Atterbury Papens. t Bishop Trelawney.
 
 158 BISHOP NICHOLSON: 
 
 the Bishop drew up on that occasion.* At the end of it he 
 desired the Archbishop to admit me himself, by his metropolitic 
 authority, if I would not consent to revoke and renounce as he 
 had prescribed. 
 
 There were some thoughts that this might be done, and that 
 my journey to Carlisle might be saved by that means, which 
 hath occasioned my stay here ; but some forms, which are to 
 pass the Bishop in order to it, could not be procured ; so I am 
 now setting forward myself for Carlisle to tender him my man- 
 date ; before he will receive which, and give me institution upon 
 it, he will, I believe, be pretty troublesome to me ; but it will 
 end in more trouble to himself, for the affront is not so much to 
 me as to Her Majesty, and will be resented accordingly. This 
 is, I suppose, intended also as a return to the demur which the 
 University of Oxford made on my account to the giving of the 
 Bishop his degree. But they could demur in this case with 
 somewhat more safety than the Bishop can. 
 
 I will give your lordship a further account of this matter when 
 I come to Carlisle. — I am, &c. 
 
 De. Atterburt to the Bishop of Exeter. 
 
 Carlisle, September 21, 1704. 
 
 When I came to the Bishop at Rose Castle for institu- 
 tion, he withdrew the tliree propositions I sent you, and would 
 not insist upon them ; but, instead of them, offered me another 
 sort of retractation to sign ; a copy of which I have enclosed.f 
 
 * "1. — The Queen of England, out of Parliament, bath not the same authority 
 in Causes Ecclesiastical that the Christian Emperors had in the primitive 
 Church. 2. — The Church of England is under two sovereigns ; the one absolute 
 and the other limited. 3. — The Supreme Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, annexed 
 to the Imperial Crown of this realm, can be exercised no otherwise than in 
 Parliament. 
 
 "These three propositions, separating Her Majesty's authority from her person, 
 and impeaching her regal supremacy, are erroneous, and contrary to the received 
 doctrine of the Church of England, as well as the known laws of the realm. 
 And, therefore (as far as they, or any of them, are deducible from anything that 
 I have heretofore asserted and published), I do hereby openly and freely revoke 
 and renounce the same. — W. M." 
 
 + "The Church here in England is under the government, both of the abso- 
 lute and limited sovereign ; under the government of the limited sovereign within 
 the compass of his prerogative ; under the government of the absolute sovereign
 
 HIS UNFAIRNESS. 159 
 
 It was a surprise to me. I desired a little time to withdraw and 
 consider it, and pen, ink, and paper to set down my thouglits 
 upon it, wliich were gi'anted me ; and in his house I soon drew 
 up the answer, which I have also transmitted to your lordsliip.* 
 Upon hearing which the Bishop grew very much out of humour, 
 and I discovered a great deal of disorder both in his looks 
 and discourse : he in passion demanded my orders and letters 
 testimonial of my good life and bcha\'iour ; and said he would 
 examine me as to my learning ; and soon afterwards went back 
 from aU this, and produced a paper, ready written by his Registrai", 
 commanding me to appear again at Rose Castle on the 12th of 
 October, and then and there receive his answer. 
 
 Nothing could be more barbarous and unfair than the whole 
 scene of this conduct ; for, in the first place, he contrived tilings 
 so that I should know nothing of his intentions to refuse me 
 institution till I came to York ; then he stopped me eight days 
 at York under a sham pretence of desiring the Archbishop to 
 institute me in his stead ; but, when I applied for a request of 
 that kind to the Archbishop under his episcopal seal, he would 
 not grant it, but have me come to Rose Castle and receive insti- 
 tution from him ; and yet, when I came thither, took advantage 
 of the twenty-eight days allowed him by the Canon, without 
 reckoning in those in which he himself had detained me at 
 Bishop's Thorp. We parted, however, pretty civilly ; and, I 
 thank God, I had that command of myself that, notwithstanding 
 his rudeness to me, I was not moved to do or say anything 
 indecent. That night I went to Carlisle, where I have been 
 ever since at the Deanery, expecting what they will do above in 
 this matter, where I have lodged a full account of it. The Bishop 
 had taken as much care as he could to have aU manner of slights 
 
 without any restraints or bounds, except what the revealed will of God, and the 
 eternal rules of right reason prescribe. The Pojie usurped not only on the King, 
 the limited ; but on the King and Parliament, the absolute sovereign ; and what 
 was to be taken from him, therefore, wa« not all to be thrown into the preroga- 
 tive, but restored severally to its respective owners. 
 
 " I do hereby, open and freely, revoke and renounce whatever in this paragraph 
 may reasonably seem to impeach Her Majesty's regal supremacy, inherent in her 
 royal ijerson ; or any ways necessarily to infer a co-ordination with her in the 
 sovereignty of this realm. — W. M." 
 
 • See at the end of this letter.
 
 IGO ROYAL SUPREMACY. 
 
 put upon mc. The bells were not to ring, the choir not to attend 
 upon me, nor the corporation to take any notice of me. 
 
 It is a little nncomfortablc living here in a country where I 
 have nobody that I can advise with, or confide in, upon points 
 of so great moment to me ; and where I have to deal with sharp 
 and subtle heads, which oblige me to be ever upon my guard, 
 and to tread very warily. I know not when I shall be able to 
 return to London, being resolved to wait here the event of this 
 matter ; and have accordingly sent to put off my waiting in 
 October.* 
 
 I thought myself bound to give your lordship some account 
 of these my poor affah's ; though it will be a good while before 
 it comes to your hands in Cornwall. The ill-usage I have had 
 from this gentleman makes me reflect often on the contrary 
 treatment from your lordship ; and would, if anything possibly 
 could, raise my gratitude to your lordship for all your noble 
 favours to me, and for the obliging manner wherein you have 
 ever bestowed, and by that means doubled them. 
 
 Dr. Atterbury to the Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 Tour lordship demands of me, that, in order to my insti- 
 tution to the Deanery of Carlisle, I should make the preceding 
 retractation. In answer to your lordship's demand, I humbly 
 
 reply,— 
 
 " 1. That I offer to qualify myself for institution by taking all 
 those oaths, and making all those subscriptions or decla- 
 rations, which are required by any Law or Canon of this 
 realm, or Church of England. 
 
 " 2. That, in the passage cited by your lordship, I do not, 
 after a very deliberate consideration of it, find anything 
 asserted which, upon a fair and candid construction of 
 the words, can reasonably seem to impeach Her Majesty's 
 regal supremacy inherent in her royal person, or any way 
 necessarily to infer a co-ordination with her in the sove- 
 reignty of this realm. 
 
 " 3. No man living can be more ready than I am to assert 
 Her Majesty's supremacy, in the utmost legal extent of it, 
 upon all proper occasions ; or to retract anything which 
 
 * As one of the Queen's chaplains.
 
 attekbury's resolution. 161 
 
 may have casually fallen from my pen, and may reasonably 
 seem to be in the least derogatoiy to it. But to do this 
 in order to obtain possession of the Deanery of Carlisle, 
 which Her JNIajesty has granted me under the broad seal 
 of England, and after a manner no way that I know of 
 prescribed either by the Canons or Laws of Church or 
 State, would, I apprehend, on my side, be rather injurious 
 than respectful to Her Majesty's regal supremacy and 
 prerogative ; inasmuch as it tends to introduce and estab- 
 lish new tests and qualifications unknown to our consti- 
 tution, and which may in future times be required of all 
 those who shall have like grants from the crown of this 
 or any other Deanery. And, therefore, the surest mark 
 of my regard for the Queen's regal supremacy will, I 
 presume, be humbly (as I now do) to desire your lordship 
 that you would, in virtue of Her Majesty's letters patent 
 now tendered to your lordship, grant me institution to 
 the Deanery of Carlisle without delay, and without 
 insisting on any such retractation. Provide always your 
 lordship have full and sufficient right to grant such insti- 
 tution to me, of which I cannot be supposed a competent 
 judge ; and which exception I desire may be understood, 
 and included, in everything that I have done, or said, 
 towards desiring institution from your lordship. And I 
 humbly pray that the Notaries now present may draw up 
 in form a notarial act of this your lordship's demand and 
 my humble reply. 
 
 Fr. Atterbury. 
 
 Rose Castle, September 15, 1704." 
 " Test. Joh. Nicolson, Not. Pub. 
 G. Longstaffe, Not. Pub. " 
 
 Conspicuous among the fine gentlemen of the time 
 was Eol)ert Fielding, described as of Fielding Hall, 
 Warwickshire, the " Orlando the Fair " of Sir Fiichard 
 Steele — the Beau Fielding of every one else — " the 
 fir.st and most renowned " of good-looking fellows 
 — " that eminent hero and lover Orlando the hand- 
 some " — the lady-killer, par pxcollencp, in an age of 
 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 102 COLONEL riELDINCx. 
 
 gallantry, who first flourished in that appropriate 
 epoch, the reign of the Merry Monarch, and having 
 won his way to distinction among the dispensers of 
 fame in an exceptional reign, strove to gain a more 
 masculine reputation by raising a regiment of War- 
 wickshire lads, to which he was appointed Colonel, 
 when the still more exceptional reign of his successor 
 had ended in his flight from the kingdom. 
 
 Dean Atterbury, as well as his literary friends, 
 knew the Jacobite Colonel before, like the hero of 
 " Hudibras," he went " a colonelling." Every one 
 was acquainted with the fashionable figure that drew 
 the eyes of all admirers of elegance in the Mall, in 
 St. James's Park, or the promenade from Storey's 
 Grate to Rosamond's Pond ; but to no one was it more 
 familiar than to the contemporary man of fashion and 
 wit about town, who had frequented the same coflee- 
 houses, tlie same playhouses — in short, the same haunts 
 of every kind. He wrote in August, 1709, — 
 
 Ten lustra and more are wholly past since Orlando first 
 appeared in the metropolis of this island ; his descent noble, his 
 wit humorous, liis person charming. But to none of these 
 recommendatory advantages was his title so undoubted as that 
 of his beauty. His complexion was fair, but his countenance 
 manly, his stature of the tallest, his shape the most exact, and 
 though in all his limbs he had a proportion as delicate as we see 
 in the works of the most skilful statuaries, his body had a 
 strength and firmness little inferior to the marble of which such 
 images are formed. 
 
 The inordinate vanity of this man, of which the 
 reader has akeady one illustration, fed by his suc- 
 cesses among women too easily won, appears to have 
 affected his brain, and caused him to indulge in
 
 LORD STANHOPE. 163 
 
 extravagances that brought on hhn no small share of 
 ridicule ; nevertheless the Beau paraded his perfec- 
 tions in public with the most ostentatious equipage 
 and dress. At home he affected as much state as in 
 public. This Steele thus amusingly exaggerates : — 
 He " called for tea by beat of drum, his valet got 
 ready to shave him by a trumpet to horse, and water 
 was brought for his teeth when the sound was changed 
 to boot and saddle." 
 
 He fancied himself a general officer, and as such 
 "UTote to Dean Atterbury, who enclosed the commu- 
 nication to his friend Lord Stanhope. His lordship 
 replied, Dec. 27, 1705,— 
 
 Mr. Dean, 
 
 I had a letter from you this day, and a very diverting one 
 enclosed in it from a mad imaginary general, who is so happy as 
 to be fond of that which my father and all the world beside 
 himself were weary of long ago.* 
 
 The wTiter alludes to Lady Castlemaine, the warm 
 patroness of the handsome Churchill, as weU as the 
 handsome Fielding. A marked difference attended the 
 future of her favourites; the first being the most illus- 
 trious, most influential man at Court — the all power- 
 ful Marlborough ; the other, choosing to marry his 
 paramour, now Duchess of Cleveland, though already 
 a Benedick, became disgraced and impoverished. 
 
 While holding his new preferment, Dr. Atterbury's 
 friend. Lord Stanhope, wrote (Oct. .1, 1705) the fol- 
 lowing amusing reference to the Dean's ungrateful 
 pupil : — 
 
 Really, Mr. Dean, I would write a play to divert m3\self, and 
 pass away time, but that I am at such a distance from the Earl 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 12 *
 
 104 LORD ORRERY. 
 
 of Orrery, th<at I cannot in conscience ask his lordsliip's assist- 
 ance.* Since I cannot hear, I would willingly coui't the ladies 
 in a new fashion, by writing love verses to them ; but that you 
 know very well that the author of " Boyle against Bentlcy" 
 long ago refused me his assistance, which I believe is what 
 the modern Wotton or the learned Wakef could never have 
 haggled at. 
 
 They became reconciled ; indeed, Lord Orrery 
 adopted liis old tutor's political opinions. 
 
 The Dean of Carlisle preached before the Queen, 
 October 1, 1705, and subsequently printed his ser- 
 mon. On sending a copy to his cordial friend. Lord 
 Stanhope, his lordship, while expressing his acknow- 
 ledgments, does not forget to indulge in some sharp 
 comments on Lord Orrery. " I am convinced," he 
 writes, " by the reading of it, that you had no assist- 
 ance in vour dull sermon from the Earl of Orrery, 
 any more than he had from you in the witty play he 
 writ." Lord Stanhope rarely communicates with his 
 friend without similar allusions to the Earl. 
 
 Among the Dean's supporters in the Anglican hier- 
 archy there remained faithful to his interest Sir 
 Jonathan Trelawney, translated from Exeter to the 
 wealthiest of English bishopricks, June 14, 1707. It 
 appears that the Doctor had been promised another 
 deanery. 
 
 The Dean of Carlisle to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 [No Date]. 
 
 I had received the same intelligence, that the Dean,]; on 
 
 Monday, in the afternoon, began to be much better, and was 
 
 going this moment to send your lordship word of it. God 
 
 knows, I am far from being fond of that deanery. But it hath 
 
 * Two years before he had brought out a comedy entitled "As You Find It." 
 
 + Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 + Probably Dr. Aldricb, Dean of Christ Church.
 
 STRYPE. 165 
 
 been promised me ever since I was Dean of Carlisle ; and, had 
 it fallen, I should have thought it proper to put the Lord Trea- 
 surer * in mind of that promise, which was made me without 
 mj asking it. Indeed, I never asked anything of his lordship 
 personally but a canonry of Christ Church, which he readily 
 assured me of. But the deanery of Carlisle being given me, I 
 acquiesced in it, and never since troubled my Lord Treasurer, 
 or anybody else, with the least request. I will wait upon your 
 lordship some time before evening prayers to-day, in order to 
 receive your commands. 
 
 As we have shown, Atterbury loved to associate 
 with men of letters, and enjoyed pleasant colloquies 
 with the brightest and best of them in tiieir favourite 
 places of resort. He was as well known at Tom's or 
 Button's as Steele or Pope ; possibly had ventured to 
 the Chocolate House with his brother parsons, Swift 
 and Parnell, or enjoyed a dinner at one or other of 
 the fashionable taverns with St. John and Congreve ; 
 but the claims of the hard-working author were 
 always readily recognized by him, and to no one did 
 he show more regard than to that industrious historical 
 collector John Strype, with whom he lived in very 
 friendly communication. He also was a brother cler- 
 gyman, and preached at St. Augustine's, Hackney, for 
 many years. f The only letters from Atterbury to 
 him that have been preserved are the following : — 
 
 The Dean of Carlisle to the Rev. John Strype. 
 
 Chelsea, Wednesday Night, Jan., 1709-10. 
 
 In your " Annals of the First Twelve Years of Queen Eliza- 
 beth," p. 279, 1 liud a passage out of a sermon ])reuchcd before 
 the House of Commons ; the preacher of which says, that he 
 liad once in his hand an original Journal of the Lower House of 
 
 * Sidney Lord Godoliiliiii. 
 
 t He died iu that pari.sh in December 13, 1737, at the age of 94.
 
 166 SWIFT ATTERBURl's NEIGHBOUR. 
 
 Convocation, in the fifth year of the Queen. I shoukl be ghid 
 to know wliat tliis sermon was, when preached, and by whom, 
 and whether you can allow me a sight of it ? If you can, please 
 to let me know by the penny post, directing to Chelsea, and you 
 will much oblige, &c. 
 
 I beg also to know of you whether the omitted articles in 
 your appendix are intended to be printed ; because I have been 
 told that you had such a design.* 
 
 The Dean of Carlisle to the Rev. John Stktpe. 
 
 Chelsea, Friday Noon, March 25, 1710. 
 You will be pleased to put me down for a subscriber to the 
 " History of Archbishop Grindall." I am sorry you do not think 
 yourself at liberty to let me know in whose hands that Lower 
 House Journal of 1562 was supposed to be lodged. Upon a 
 review of your account of Convocation matters in that year, I 
 find various particulars which are not to be justified by the 
 extracts and other MSS. relating to that year now in my hands; 
 and therefore I should think you had recourse to some other 
 authorities for those particulars, which I should be glad to be 
 acquainted with. Of those things I would fain discourse you 
 for half an hour when you come to town ; but am going on 
 Monday to Benet College, Cambridge, to view the MSS. there, 
 and shall not return from thence till toward the end of the week, 
 if so soon : after that, upon notice of your coming to town, and 
 at what time and place you will be found, I should be glad to 
 wait upon you, and am, &c. f 
 
 Swift renewed his intimacy with Atterbuiy in the 
 spring of 1711, after the Dean had taken up his 
 residence in Church Lane, Chelsea. He lodged oppo- 
 site Atterbury's house, and Mrs. Atterbury, learning 
 who was her neighbour, showed the stranger kindly 
 attentions, which were not lost upon him, as may 
 be seen in the entries of his Journal to Stella. " I 
 crossed the way to see Mrs. Atterbury and thank her 
 for her civilities. She would needs send me some 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. + Ibid.
 
 KINDRED SPIRITS. 1G7 
 
 veal and small beer and ale to-day at dinner." He 
 records the visit of Dr. Freind, the physician to the 
 Atterburys, who obligingly took him to town in his 
 chariot ; then his sitting with the Prolocutor, " my 
 neighbour over the way," whom he is thenceforward 
 constantly visiting. He also dined with him at 
 Prior's, and his obliging neighbour sends his carriage 
 to bring him to Chelsea when he stays late in town. 
 He constantly accej)ts dinner invitations from the 
 Dean of Carlisle, and very pleasant company he met 
 there. The hospitable Dean also took him excursions 
 that appear to have been equally well appreciated : — 
 
 July 0. — I walked to Clielsea, and was there by nine this 
 xnornine', and the Dean of Carlisle and I crossed the water to 
 Battersea, and went in his chariot to Greenwich, where we dined 
 at Dr. Gastrell's, and passed the afternoon at Lewisham at the 
 Dean of Canterbury's, and there I saw Moll Stanhope, who is 
 grown monstrously tall, but not so handsome as formerly. It is 
 the first little rambling journey I have had this summer about 
 London ; and they are the agreeablest pastimes one can have, 
 in a friend's coach and good company. 
 
 The entries respecting similar social gratifications 
 
 follow each other, after only brief intervals. Atter- 
 
 bury and Swift were kindred spirits, and with Prior, 
 
 Dr. Freind, the Head Master of Westminster, Dr. 
 
 William King, and other equally convivial and 
 
 equally accomplished minds. Swift lived a life of 
 
 thorough enjoyment. A little later we learn from 
 
 the Journal : — 
 
 I walked to-day to Chelsea, and dined with the Dean of 
 Carlisle, who is laid up Avith the gout. It is now fixed that he is 
 to be Dean of Christ Church in Oxford. I was advising him to 
 use his interest to prevent any misunderstanding between our 
 ministers, but he is too wise to meddle, though he fears the thing
 
 168 ATTERBURY, DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 and the consequences as much as I. He will get into his own 
 quiet deanery, and leave them to themselves — and he is in the 
 right. 
 
 The promised deanery of his old college was given 
 to Dr. Atterbury, and on the 1 st of September his 
 frequent guest wrote him the following letter of con- 
 gratulation : — 
 
 Dr. Swtft to Dean Atterbury. 
 Sir, 
 
 I congratulate with the college, the university, and the 
 kingdom, and condole with myself upon your new dignity. 
 The virtue I would affect by putting my own interests out of the 
 case, has failed me in this juncture. I only consider that I shall 
 want your conversation, your friendship, your protection, and 
 your good offices, when I can least spare them. I would have come 
 among the crowd of those who make you compliments on this 
 occasion, if I could have brought a cheerful countenance with 
 me. I am full of envy. It is too much in so bad an age for a 
 person so inclined and so able to do good, to have so great 
 a scene of showing his inclinations and abilities. If great 
 ministers take up this exploded custom of rewarding merit, I 
 must retire to Ireland and wait for better times. The college 
 and you ought to pray for another change at Court, otherwise I 
 can easily foretell that their joy and your quiet will be short. 
 Let me advise you to place your books in movable cases, lay in 
 no great stock of wine, nor make any great alterations in your 
 lodgings at Christ Church, unless you are sure they are such as 
 your successor will approve and pay for. I am afraid the poor 
 college little thinks of this. 
 
 It will presently be seen that the prophecy here 
 expressed was fulfilled ; but if it was a gratification 
 to Atterbury to become the head of his own college, 
 it was no less so to his fellow-collegians, among whom 
 we find one rejoicing, whose cordiality on the occasion 
 we had scarcely looked for. 
 
 Under the date March 13th, 1712, in the Journal 
 to Stella, there is an entry that the writer's friend
 
 MRS. ASTELL. 109 
 
 carried liim from Chelsea to town, he being " engaged 
 to Lord Orrery with some other Christ Church men," 
 — they had long since admitted Swift of their frater- 
 nity. "The feast of reason and the flow of soul" 
 at this meeting may be imagined more readily than 
 described. 
 
 Among Dean Atterbury's neighbours at Chelsea 
 was Mrs. Astell, a lady who had made considerable 
 progress in various branches of study. She was 
 pious as well as learned, and to her classical and 
 philosophical reading had added no small amount of 
 theology. This seems to have made her not only 
 pedantic, but a great advocate of what more recently 
 Las been styled " the rights of women." With this 
 idea she proposed an institution for female educa- 
 tion, which might have been carried into effect, but 
 for the remonstrances of Dr. Burnet, who looked 
 upon it as a nunnery. Then the lady wrote several 
 books about marriage, and more than one on religion, 
 remarkable for the boldness of the thoughts expressed. 
 
 Her life was evangelical, notwithstanding that her 
 opinions were sometimes anything but feminine ; as 
 the Dean represents them in the following letter to 
 his friend Smalridge, in the year 170G : — 
 
 Dear George, 
 
 I happened about a fortnight ago to dine with Mrs. Astell. 
 She spoke to me of my sermon,* and desired me to print it ; and 
 after I had given her the proper answers, hinted to me that she 
 would be glad of perusing it. I complied with her [request] 
 and sent her the sermon next day. Yesternight she returned 
 it, with this sheet of her remarks, which I cannot forbear com- 
 municating to you, because I take them to be of an extraordinary 
 
 * On the elcclion of the Lord Mayor, 170t).
 
 170 LORD stanhope's BANTER. 
 
 nature, cousidering they come from the pen of a woman. 
 Indeed, cue would not imagine a woman bad written them. 
 There is not an expression that carries the least air of her sex 
 from the beginning to the end of it. She attacks me very 
 home, you see, and artfully enough, and under pretence of taking 
 my part against other divines, who are in Hoadly's measures. 
 Had she as much good breeding as good sense, she would be 
 perfect ; but she has not the most decent manner of insinuating 
 what she means, but is now and then a little oifensive and 
 shocking in her expressions- — which I wonder at, because a civil 
 turn of words, even where the matter is not pleasing, is what 
 her sex is always mistress of. She, I think, is wanting in it, but 
 her sensible and natural way of writing makes amends for that 
 defect, if indeed anything can make amends for it. I dread to 
 engage her : so I may write a general civil answer to her, and 
 leave the rest to an oral conference. Her way of solving the 
 difficulty about swearing to the Queen, is somewhat singular. 
 
 It was far from being the lady's only singularity. 
 Though the Dean prudently kept out of a disputation, 
 he maintained a friendly understanding with her. 
 Lord Stanhope banters his friend with having assisted 
 her in her literary labours, in December 17th of the 
 same year, in which there is the following reference 
 to one of the lady's productions, recently pub- 
 lished :* — 
 
 " I must now quarrel with you, Mr. Dean of 
 Carlisle, because I am informed this day that you 
 have put out in print a mighty ingenious pamphlet, 
 but that you have been pleased to father it upon one 
 Mrs. Astell, a female friend and witty companion of 
 your wife's."! 
 
 The work was the last of her compositions, and 
 certainly the most independent. It attacks Locke's 
 
 • The Christian Religion as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England, 
 t Nichols : Epistolary Correspondence, II., 33.
 
 swift's remarks on atterbury. 171 
 
 masterly " Eeasonableness of Cliristianit}^" as well 
 as Tillotson's Sermon upon the Eternity of Hell. 
 The authoress had previously made a similar assault 
 upon a discoui'se Dr. White Kennet had preached, 
 and a httle before had ventured upon a general attack 
 upon Nonconformists. In truth, as a controversialist, 
 she placed herself at the head of her sex.* 
 
 Dr. Smalridge was also expected to receive the 
 vacant deanery of Christ Church ; indeed, Swift in 
 his Journal avers that the College preferred him. 
 Subsequently Stella is told — "They stiU keep my 
 neighbour Atterbury in suspense about the deanery 
 of Christ Church, which has been above six months 
 vacant, and he is heartily angry." f There is not 
 better evidence of Atterbury's anger than of the 
 preference of the College for his competitor. It is 
 a mistake, probably a wilful one. There existed no 
 such preference. Both possessed strong recommen- 
 dations for the office. The bantering humour of Swift 
 is prominently displayed in another entry, 
 
 January 6th, 1710-11. — I was this moi*ning to visit the Dean, 
 or Mr. Prolocutor I think you call him — do not you ? Why 
 should I not go to the Dean's as well as you ? A little black 
 man of pretty near fifty? Ay, the same. A good pleasant man ? 
 Ay, the same. Cunning enough ? Yes. One that understands 
 his own interest, as well as anybody. How comes it M. D. and 
 I do not meet there sometimes ? A very good face and abundance 
 of wit. Do you know his lady ? Lord, whom do you mean ? 
 I mean Dr. Atterbury, Dean of Carlisle and Prolocutor. Pshaw, 
 Gresham,J you arc a fool ! I thought you had meant our Dean 
 of St. Patrick's. § 
 
 * In the last years of her life, Mrs. Astell suffered from cancer, for which she 
 suVunittcd to amputation without relief ; then, knowing her end was approacliing, 
 she caused her coffin to he jilaced in her hedrooiu, and would not see any of her 
 fricndw. She died at Chelsea, 11th of May, 1731. See Dallard, IJiograpliia 
 Britannica, &c. 
 
 t Scott's Swift, II., 138. t Swift. § Altei hury rajiers.
 
 172 ATTERBURY AT COURT. 
 
 The regard Dr. Atterbury felt for his friend Bishop 
 Trelawney he thus expressed : — 
 
 The Dean of Carlisle to the Bishop of Winchesteu. 
 
 Chelsea, Tuesday Morning, June 26, 1711. 
 
 I return my humble tlianks to your lordship for the venison, 
 but more for your lordship's kind intentions of seeing me at my 
 house. I beg your lordship to believe that I am, and ever will 
 be, while I live, the same faithful and grateful servant to your 
 lordship that I was at the time when you conferred the greatest 
 favours upon me. Those early obligations, my lord, can never 
 be forgotten by me ; and, if Providence shall dispose of me so 
 as to put it any ways in my power to return them to your lord- 
 ship or your fixmily, I shall look upon that as one of the most 
 pleasing circumstances of my preferment. 
 
 Thus I desire your lordship always to think of me ; for thus 
 you shall always find me disposed. Whatever misunderstand- 
 ings there may be between me and any of those who are about 
 your lordship, they shall not in the least affect the entire respect 
 and gratitu.de, with which I am, &c.* 
 
 Wlien Atterbury was assured of his election to 
 Christ Church, he wrote [Sep. 6, 1711] to his friend 
 the Bishop of Winchester for a brace of bucks, for 
 his installation banquet, stating that he was sure 
 such a present could not be so welcome to the 
 College coming from any one else, nor would any 
 subject's health be drunk with more respect on that 
 day.f 
 
 The Dean was now the acknowledged leader of the 
 High Church party, in Convocation and out of it. 
 At Court he had cultivated a close intimacy with 
 the Queen's new favourite, and the bestowal of the 
 deanery of Christ Church in September, 1711, indi- 
 cated the favour with which he was regarded by Her 
 Majesty. Controversy was still going on between 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. t Ibid.
 
 DISPUTE IN CONVOCATION. 173 
 
 the two parties in the Church ; what share he took in 
 one of the most important of them, he shall himself 
 state : — 
 
 Dean Atterburt to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 May 9, 1712. 
 
 I was assured by your lordship's servant that you did not stir 
 out all this morning, else I had come early enough to have 
 delivered this paper to your lordship myself. Your lordship was 
 just gone out when I came. I am heartily glad your lordship 
 will be away during this whole transaction,* which, I dare say, 
 will not end to the honour or advantage of those who so eagerly 
 pursue it. It will be looked upon by wise and good men as 
 a stroke levelled at the present constitution of the Church of 
 England, and as a cordial intended to keep up the Dissenters' 
 spirits under their late mortifications. This your lordship will 
 find to be the unanimous sense of the gentry and laity that are 
 firmly in the interest of the Church of England ; and therefore 
 I cannot but repeat what I have said, that it is a great satisfac- 
 tion to me to find that your lordship will be away while this 
 thing is in agitation. 
 
 I have sent to Christ Church to desire Mr. Alsop (as the 
 senior divine of the students now resident) to assist me at the 
 election, and expect him up accordingly the latter end of next 
 week.f 
 
 A competition for a college prize elicits from the 
 Dean the following curious particulars : — 
 
 Dean Atterburt to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, November 20, 1712. 
 These are the three copies of verses which carried the three 
 prizes of poetry. They are the best that Christ Church can 
 afibrd at present from the undergraduates. By Doctor Freind's 
 assistance, I hope we shall bo able every day to do better. Your 
 lordship's concern for us makes me think that the sight of them 
 may not be unacceptable to you. The three prizes fell upon a 
 
 * A dispute between the two Houses of Convocation, concerning the validity 
 of Lay I'aiiti.sin. 
 
 t Atttrbury Papers. Nichols : Epistolary Correspondence.
 
 174 THE BODLEIAN. 
 
 Westminster student, a canoner, and a commoner. But the 
 commoner, Le Hunt, was some time at Westminster, and was 
 there acquainted with Mr. Charles Trelawney, for which reason 
 I suppose he has made your lordship the subject of some part 
 of his verses. Prescott has done the same thing ; led to it 
 by an eager desire, which he has in common with the rest of 
 this body, to take all occasions of paying all ruanner of respect 
 to your lordship.* 
 
 In the communication here given, the writer fur- 
 nishes several interesting particulars respecting his 
 College : — 
 
 Dean Atterbury to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, December 30, 1712. 
 
 I am, as I have been all my life, extremely obliged to your 
 lordship for your repeated favours. This day your warrant for 
 a doe was obeyed in the chaces of Witney ; and on Thursday, 
 by God's blessing, I will treat the common room with it, and 
 remember the founder with that respect wliich is due to him 
 from me and from every member of this body. May the year, 
 which begins with your bounty, be happy, not to us only who 
 partake of it, but to your lordship and to all your family. 
 
 Doctor Radcliffe's noble design for enlarging the Bodley 
 library goes on. The intended scheme is, to build out from the 
 middle window of the Selden part, a room of ninety feet long, 
 and as high as the Selden part is ; and under it to build a 
 library for Exeter College, upon whose ground it must stand. 
 Exeter College has consented upon condition that not only a 
 library be built for them, but some lodgings also, which must be 
 pulled down to make room for this new design to be rebuilt. 
 The University thinks of furnishing that part of the charge, and 
 Doctor Radcliffe has readily proffered to furnish the rest ; and 
 withal, after he has perfected the building, to give £100 for 
 ever to furnish it with books. 
 
 Here, at Christ Church, I have built an handsome repository 
 for Dean Aldrich's books ; having set up a new gallery for that 
 purpose at the farther end of our library, which runs across it, 
 
 • Atterbury Papers.
 
 LAY BAPTISM. 175 
 
 and returns about twenty-five feet on each side, and will com- 
 pletely hold the noble legacj' he left us, and show it to the 
 greatest advantage. 
 
 I cannot help giving your lordship these accounts, because I 
 know your lordship takes part in every instance of good fortune 
 which befals either the University or Christ Church. 
 
 I had some intimation from Mr. Alsop of what your lordship 
 was pleased to desire in relation to Mr. Charles Trelawney.* 
 Tour lordship may depend upon it that he shall be accommo- 
 dated to all manner of advantage when he comes hither ; and 
 that there is nothing in my power to give him, or to procure for 
 him, but your lordship shall command it as readily as if it were 
 in your own disposal. 
 
 I leave this place on ^Monday next in order to attend the con- 
 vocation, where, I hear, we shall set out warmly ; the attack 
 being to be renewed about the validity of lay baptism at our 
 first sitting down, and the archbishop's friends being ordered to 
 appear there in full numbers. The credit that Mr. Bingham 
 has done the cause, by appearing in it, gives them hopes of 
 success.t 
 
 The profound interest the Dean took in opposing 
 the lax clerical literature of his time may be seen in 
 the following note : — 
 
 Dean A.tteebijry to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Chelsea, February 10, 1712-13. 
 I have received two letters, for which I am to thank your 
 lordship, and will thank your lordship as long as I live. For 
 though I have received many kind ones from your lordship, and 
 particularly two (never by me to be forgotten), wherein your 
 lordship was pleased to bestow the Archdeaconry of Totness and 
 the Canonry of Exeter upon me, yet permit me to say, my lord, 
 that even those were not more welcome than the two last which 
 you were pleased to send me, and in which your lordshi]) has 
 drawn a lively picture of that zeal for the true faith of Christ, 
 and for the dignity and honour of the priesthood, which arc, 
 and ever have been, a distinguishing part of your lordship's 
 character. 
 
 * Second son of the Bishop. t Atterbury Papers.
 
 170 HETERODOX OPINIONS. 
 
 I entii'ely agree to all your lordship says in tlic former part 
 of your letter, with respect to the blasphemies of Mr. Whiston 
 and Dr. Clarke (for I cannot give the tenets even of the latter 
 a softer name) ; and wish with all my soul it were as much in 
 my power, as it is in my inclination, to procure anything to be 
 done (either in or out of convocation) that might effectually 
 check and discourage them. 
 
 But your lordship well knows the present sad situation of 
 things. In convocation we are told that we have no jurisdiction, 
 nor can we be j^ersuaded, by the opinions of eight of the twelve 
 judges, and of the Attorney and Solicitor-General, that we have 
 any. The Upper House look upon themselves to have taken a 
 large step in censuring Mr. Whiston' s opinions, and will not 
 be induced to go further — to be sure not to bring Dr. Clarke's 
 book under the same condemnation. 
 
 Out of convocation the thoughts of those who alone can 
 restore the usefulness and dignity of such assemblies, are so 
 much taken up with schemes of peace as not to be at liberty to 
 mind our concerns ; so that, for aught I can see, we must be 
 contented to wait for another opportunity ; and in the mean- 
 time, the free-thinkers must go on to do their pleasure. And 
 indeed, my lord, they see their opportunity ; and, not knowing 
 how long it may last, are resolved to make use of it to the 
 utmost. Your lordship has, I suppose, seen the book in defence 
 of free- thinking ;* one of the boldest attempts that was ever suf- 
 fered in a Christian nation. There is now in the' press another 
 book, which, if I might guess right of it from the title, is still 
 of more pernicious consequence. It runs in these words : "A 
 New Gospel Discovered, or Jewish and Mahometan Christianity ; 
 being an Account of the Ancient Gospel of Barnabas and the 
 Modem Gospel of the Mahometans, which last is now first 
 made known among Christians," &c. The book is written by 
 Toland ; and I now transcribe these words out of the MS. title- 
 page of it, which he sent in his own hand to the press, and 
 which I have at this moment in mine. 
 
 Your lordship seems thoroughly sensible of the ill conse- 
 quences that would attend our determination of the point re- 
 lating to the validity or invalidity of lay baptism. Either way 
 
 * By Anthony Collins.
 
 FALSE TEACHING. 177 
 
 ■we should do great mischief ; and therefore my utmost endea- 
 vours were bent last year towards preventing any decision ; and 
 I hope 1 have prevented it this year also. For though I am 
 very well assured that there was about six weeks ago a design 
 to bring on that point at the very entrance of onr session, yet 
 the alarm that has been given on this head to the distant clergy, 
 and the appearance there will probably be when we meet, has, I 
 am told, dashed the design, so that we shall hear no more of it, 
 as I pray God we may not. 
 
 I have an hearty regard for Mr. Bingham, and (you may 
 remember, my lord) was the first man who recommended him to 
 your lordship. But he is certainly in the wrong to suggest that 
 there was ever any design in the Lower House of Convocation 
 to declare the invalidity of lay baptism. All our aim (I am sure 
 all my aim) was to declare nothing at all concerning it ; and in 
 that opinion I am still fixed, and pleased to find that I have 
 your lordship's concurrence. But I forbear to trouble your 
 lordship any farther on these heads, and live in hopes of waiting 
 upon you here in a Kttle time at Chelsea. Mr. Charles Trclawney 
 came out hither on Saturday last with the Dean of Exeter, 
 and spent his time at the great house (where I saw him) till 
 Monday. Your lordship will find him grown very much ; and 
 I am told by good hands that he is grown as much in his inside 
 as his outside. He acted a part last week in the play of " Igno- 
 ramus " extremely well, as those who were eye-witnesses of it 
 assure me. I had the ill luck not to know of the thing tiU the 
 day afterwards, and so was not myself one of his spectators 
 and auditors, but five hundred others were, and many of them 
 people of very good quality. 
 
 I long to hear that the Colonel has begged your lordship's 
 blessing in England.* 
 
 The evil of false teaching continued, but the Dean's 
 ecclesiastical zeal increased. 
 
 Dean Atterburt to thi: Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Chelsea, February 24, 1712-13. 
 On Saturday, the moment after I received your lordship's, I 
 
 • Atterbury Papers. 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 178 NEGLECT OF CONVOCATION. 
 
 wrote to Mr. Whalley in the most pressing manner I could, 
 about tlie affixir your lordship mentioned, without giving him 
 the least hint from whence I received the accoiint of it. Your 
 lordship may depend upon it that I will give no manner of 
 countenance to any such discourses as those, nor to the men 
 that use them. They are perfectly opposite to my principles, 
 to my practice, and to my very inclinations, and therefore I 
 will not suffer any one who acts under me to draw infamy 
 upon me by language of that kind, to which I shall be 
 thought consenting if I do not resent it. Nor can I say the 
 reflection would be at all unjust ; and therefore return your 
 lordship my humble thanks for giving me an opportunity of 
 doing myself right on this head. As to the other part of your 
 lordship's letter, nobody can be more sensible than I am of the 
 blasi^hemous liberties now taken by profligate writers without 
 fear, because without controul, and of the contempt which by 
 that means the convocation is brought under, while they sit still 
 and do nothing to oppose this torrent of irreligion ; though that 
 be theii* proper business and the peculiar reason for which their 
 assemblies now are kept up in time of Parliament. I dread the 
 consequences of such open attacks made on the Christian reli- 
 gion, which are indeed somewhat more daring than they have 
 been ; but that is no wonder, since nothing has been in good 
 earnest done to repi'ess them for four-and-twenty years past, 
 which is the true era of their birth ; and men, who have had 
 the experience of so long an impunity, will be sure (as they 
 visibly do) to grow every day bolder and bolder. And what 
 remedy, my lord, can be hoped for? The two prelates yoiu' 
 lordship mentions, who shoiild stand in the gap, are both of 
 them much decayed in their understandings, and have lost all 
 spirit and firmness of mind ; so that the friends even of the 
 youngest of the two think it by all means necessary that he 
 should not appear in town this session, and though he is pressed 
 in the most earnest manner by his superiors, yet it is questioned 
 whether he will come ; and if he does come, it is to me no question 
 but that his being here will be insignificant to those excellent 
 purposes your lordship mentions ; so that the clergy, my lord, 
 are headless and heartless — "sheep without a shepherd." But 
 of this I would I had an opportunity of discoursing your lord- 
 ship more largely, which yet I am told I shall not have till the 
 end of March, if so soon.
 
 BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL. 179 
 
 The Bishop of Bath and Wells * has excused himself from 
 coming up, even though he be appointed to preach one of the 
 Lent Sermons. It is said that the Parliament will not sit, even 
 on "the 3rd of March, but that there will still be another short 
 adjournment. 
 
 I had written to your lordship on Saturday, but that I spent 
 the evening in seeing " Phormio " acted at the College Cham- 
 ber ; where in good truth, my lord, Mr. Charles Trelawney 
 played Antipho extremely well, and some parts of the character 
 he performed admirably. Your lordship may depend upon it 
 that, in what place soever he stands, he shall go first of the 
 election to Oxford, and shall have all the assistances and advan- 
 tages there that is possible for a Dean of Christ Church to give 
 him.f 
 
 The estimation in wliicli the accomplished preacher 
 was held by the governors of the charities he so 
 ably served, was shown after he had been appointed 
 preacher of the Eolls Chapel ; for it was ordered by 
 a minute dated as far back as the 9th of December, 
 1098, that he find a substitute for the morning and 
 preach only at the afternoon service. Dr. Atterbury 
 remained on the most friendly terms with all the 
 officers connected with these noble institutions. He 
 drew up a new charge to be presented to each of the 
 governors on his election, as well as a form of instruc- 
 tions for the apprentices, which they acknowledged 
 with a vote of thanks. Mutually with great regret, 
 the engagement that had connected them so long 
 they permitted to terminate. The following letter 
 they read at a court liolden on the 19tli of June, 
 1713, under the presidency of Alderman Sir William 
 Withers, who subsequently testified his regard by 
 
 Dr. George Hooper. f Atterbui7 Papers. 
 
 18 *
 
 180 LORD CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 placing Dr. Atterbnvy and his friend Dr. Swift on 
 the list of governors : — 
 
 Dr. Atterburt to Str William Withers, Kt.* 
 
 Chelsea, June 15, ]713. 
 Sir, 
 
 I have kept my station at Bridewell thus long with 
 
 an intention to take leave of the governors when assembled in 
 
 a body ; being very desirous of paying that respect to them 
 
 after the civilities I had received from them for twenty years 
 
 together. But it has so happened that I am obliged to quit the 
 
 place a month or six weeks sooner than I thought to have done, 
 
 and without being certain that I shall have a proper opportunity 
 
 of addressing myself to them from the pulpit on this occasion ; 
 
 I beg you therefore, sir, to intimate my resignation to them at 
 
 the next court, and to assure them that I have a very grateful 
 
 sense of the kindness with which I have been all along treated 
 
 by them ; and that I shall, to the best of my power, always 
 
 show myself a friend to the Hospital, and am, &c.t 
 
 Lord Stanhope, before he succeeded to the earldom, 
 1713, as an old Westminster was sure to be on 
 friendly terms with " Mister Dean," to whom he for- 
 warded venison and wrote assurances of affection. 
 He expressed admiration of his correspondent's poet- 
 ical and epistolary talent, but to his proposal to 
 advance the education of his heir, replied, "I am 
 very much obliged to you for the service you offer 
 to do me at St. James's, but in that undertaking I 
 do really think you will only lose your time to no 
 purpose ; for I expect nothing from the gentleman 
 that is there, but to see him bred up an ignorant 
 worthless amorous fop." 
 
 This refers to the celebrated Lord Chesterfield of 
 
 * President of Bridewell and Bethlehem, London. f Atterbury Papers.
 
 SWIFT, DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S. 181 
 
 a later generation, diplomatist, statesman, man of 
 letters, and oracle of the graces. 
 
 Chelsea had become a favourite rural retreat. 
 Swift writes in his Journal to Stella, " We dined at 
 a country house near Chelsea, where Mr. Addison 
 often retires." Many other distinguished characters 
 did the same thins:. Swift left his residence there, 
 wdiere much of his Journal to Stella was written, 
 on the 5th of Juty, 1711 ; but the place had attrac- 
 tions which made him frequently walk the wdiole 
 distance from towT^i. Arbuthnot resided there as 
 well as Atterbury. So also did Walpole, who proved 
 anything but a desirable neighbour. 
 
 Swift at last contrived to obtain an acknowledg- 
 ment of his merits from the Government, and was 
 preferred to the Deanery of St. Patrick's Cathedral, 
 Dublin, where the smallness of his congregation 
 induced him to risk a well-known change in the 
 service. His brother dean promptly forwarded his 
 congratulations. 
 
 Dean Atterbury to Dean Swift. 
 
 Chelsea, Tuesday Morning, April 21, 1713. 
 Mr. Dean, 
 
 Give me leave to tell you that there is no man in 
 
 England more pleased with your being preferred than I anj. 
 
 I would have told you so myself at your lodgings, but that my 
 
 waiting* confines nic. I had heard a flymg report of it before ; 
 
 but Lord Bolingbroke yesterday confirmed the welcome news to 
 
 me. I could not excuse myself without saying thus much ; and 
 
 I have not time to say more, but that I am, &c. 
 
 The Dean of Christ Church was selected to succeed 
 Dr. Sprat as Dean of Westminster and Bishop ol' 
 
 * As Chaplain to tlie Queen. Atterbury Pajjers.
 
 182 DEAN OP WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Eocliester. On the lOtli of June, 1713, he was 
 installed as the Dean, and consecrated Bishop on 
 the 5th of the following month, to the great gratifi- 
 cation of his numerous friends at Court, among whom 
 the Queen was not the least cordial. The new dean 
 went into residence at Westminster, where he devoted 
 himself to the duties of his office as head of the 
 Chapter — a body that was not always easy to govern. 
 His interest with Lord Oxford, as well as with Queen 
 Anne, made him look for higher elevation. 
 
 What the Irish dean's real position was he pre- 
 sently permitted his friend to know. 
 
 Dean Swift to the Bishop of Rochester. 
 
 Dublin, March 24, 1715-16. 
 My Lord, 
 
 As mucli as your lordship's tliouglits and time are 
 employed at present, you must give me leave to interrupt them, 
 and, wliich is worse, for a trifle ; though, by the accidents of 
 time and party, of some consequence and great vexation to me. 
 I am here at the head of three-and-twenty dignitaries and 
 prebendaries ; whereof the major part, differing from me in 
 principles, have taken a fancy to oppose me upon all occasions 
 in the Chapter-house, and a ringleader among them hath pre- 
 sumed to debate my power of proposing, and my negative ; 
 though it is what the Deans of this Cathedral have possessed 
 for time immemorial, and what hath never been once disputed. 
 Our constitution was taken from that of Sarum, and the know- 
 ledge of what is practised there in the like case would be of 
 great use to me. I have written this post to Doctor Younger,* 
 to desire he would inform me in this matter ; but, having only a 
 slender acquaintance with him, I would beg your lordship to 
 second my request that the Dean would please to let me know 
 the practice of his Cathedral, and his power in this point. I 
 would likewise desire your lordship to let me know how it is at 
 Westminster and the two other Deaneries you had, and in any 
 other Cathedrals with whose customs you may be acquainted. 
 
 * Dean of Salisbury.
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 183 
 
 Pray, my lord, pardon this idle request froni one that loves 
 and esteems you, as you know I do. I once thought it would 
 never be my misfortune to entei'tain you at so scurvy a rate — at 
 least not at so great a distance, or with so much constraint : — 
 
 "Sis felLs, nostrumque leves (I do not like 5«i'cunque) laborem : 
 Et quo sub ccelo tandem, quibus oibis in oris 
 Jactemur, doceas." 
 
 The greatest felicity I now have is, that I am utterly ignorant 
 of the most public events that happen in the world ; but 
 " Multa gemens ignominiam, plagasque," etc. 
 I am, &c.* 
 
 To the appeal of his brother dean he repKed : — 
 
 April 6, 1716. 
 
 His [Dr. Tounger's] deanery is of the old foundation, and 
 in all such foundations the deans have no extraordinary power 
 or privilege, and are nothing more than residentiaries, with a 
 peculiar corps belonging to thera as deans — the first of the 
 chapter, but such whose presence is not necessary towards the 
 despatch of one capitular act, the senior residentiary supplying 
 their absence in every case, with full authority. Thus, I say, 
 the case generally is in the old deaneries, unless where the local 
 statutes may have expressly reserved some peculiar power or 
 privilege to the deans of those churches. But none of them, I 
 dare say, have a negative, either by common law, custom, or 
 local statute. Thus much to show you that a nice search into 
 the peculiar rights of the Dean of Sarum will be needless, if not 
 mischievous to you. 
 
 The three deaneries which I have had are all of the new 
 foundation by Henry VIII. or Queen Elizabeth. In the charters 
 of all there is a clause, empowering the dean to make, punish, 
 and unmake all the officers. In the statutes of one of them 
 (Carlisle), the dean's consent in all the graviores caused is made 
 expressly necessary ; and in the other two [Christ Church 
 College, Oxford, and Westminster] nothing from the foundation 
 of tliose churches ever passed the seal without the dean's 
 sifjilletur first written on the lease, patent presentation, &c., 
 which is a manifest and uncontested proof of his negative. As 
 
 * Attcrbury Papers. Scott's Swift.
 
 184 DEANS AND CHAPTERS. 
 
 to the power of proposing, that I apprehend not to be exclu- 
 sive to the otlior members of chapters. It is a point cliiefly 
 of decency and convenience, the dean being the principal 
 person, and supposed best to be acquainted with the affairs of 
 tlic clmrch, and in what order they are fittest to be transacted. 
 But if any one else of the body will propose anything, and the 
 rest of the chapter will debate it, I see not how the dean can 
 hinder them, unless it be by leaving the chapter ; and that 
 itself will be of no moment in churches where his absence doth 
 not break up and dissolve the chapter : as it does where his 
 consent to anything there ti-eatcd of is expressly required before 
 it can pass into an act. Where indeed he is allowed such a 
 negative, he is generally allowed to make all proposals ; because 
 it would be to no purpose for any one to make a proposition 
 which he can quash by a dissent : but this is not, I say, a matter 
 of right, but prudence. 
 
 Upon the whole, the best advice I can give you is, whatever 
 your powers are by statute or usage, not to insist on them too 
 strictly in either of the cases mentioned by you, unless you are 
 very sure of the favour and countenance of your visitor. The 
 lawyers you will find, whenever such points come before them 
 for a decision, are very apt to disrespect statutes and custom in 
 such cases, and to say that their books make the act of the 
 majority of the corporation the legal act of the body, without 
 considering whether the dean be among the minority or no. 
 And therefore your utmost dexterity and address will be neces- 
 sary in order to prevent such a trial of youi' right at common 
 law, which, it is ten to one (especially as things now stand) will 
 go against you. 
 
 If the refractory part of your chapter are stout, and men of 
 any sense, or supported underhand (the last of these is highly 
 probable), you had better make use of expedients to decline the 
 diflBculty, than bring it at present to a decision. These are the 
 best lights and this the best advice I can give you, after a long 
 experience of the several consequences of such struggles, and a 
 careful search into the foundation of the powers and privileges 
 claimed and disputed on the one side and the other. I wish I could 
 say anything more to your satisfaction, but I cannot ; and I think 
 in all cases the best instance I can give you of my friendship, is 
 not to deceive you. 
 
 There is a statute in the latter year of King Henry VIII. 's
 
 MISREPRESENTATION. 185 
 
 reign [XXXIII. c. 27] worthy of your perusal. The title of 
 it relates to the leases of hospitals, &c., and the tenour of it 
 did, in my apprehension, seem always to imply, that without the 
 dean, master, &c., nothing could be legally done by the corpora- 
 tion. But the lawyers will not allow this to be good doctrine, 
 and say that statute (notwithstanding a constant phrase of it) 
 determines nothing of this kind, and at the most implies it only 
 as to such deaneries, &c., where the dean, master, &c., have a 
 right of a negative by statute or usage. And few lawyers there 
 are who will allow even this much. I cannot explain myself 
 further on that head, but when you peruse the statute, you will 
 see what I mean ; though after all it does not, I believe, include 
 Ireland. However, I look upon it as a declaration of the com- 
 mon law here in England. 
 
 I am sorry you have any occasion to write to me on these 
 heads, and much sorrier that I am not able to give you any 
 tolei-able account of them. God forgive those who have fur- 
 nished me loith this Icnoioledge, by involving me designedly into 
 those squabbles. I thank Grod I have forgiven them. 
 
 I will enter into nothing but the inquii'ies of your letter ; and 
 therefore add not a single word, either in English or liatin, but 
 that I am, &c.* 
 
 Tliat Atterbury had an uneasy time of it, with 
 certain troublesome members of the corporations of 
 which he was the chief, there can be no doubt ; and 
 it is not at all improbable that some quarrelsome 
 subordinates were secretly favoured, as he intimates, 
 by his ecclesiastical superior ; but there is no autho- 
 rity for the statement put forward respecting his 
 "impetuous and despotic manner." f 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. Nichols. Epistolary Correspoiulence, I., 30. 
 
 t These opinions clearly emanate from prejudiced or ignorant sources, but 
 neither Stackhouse nor Warton are trustworthy when referring to Atterbury, for 
 nothing is more evident than their eagerness to seize upon any hearsay that could 
 be made to tell against his well-established reputation tor amiability. About as 
 reliable is the anecdote that Dr. Smalridge is said to have lamented his hard fate 
 in being forced to carry water after him, to extinguish tliu llames which his 
 litigiousness had everywhere occasioned.
 
 18G Rir.nTS of deans. 
 
 Tlie spirit of moderation breathes in every lino of 
 his counsel to his brother dean, whose government 
 had been vexed in a similar manner ; and that of 
 Christian charity is evident in the pardon he asks 
 for the offenders. 
 
 Swift acknowledged the Bishoj)'s communication 
 in the following terms : — 
 
 Dean Swift to the Bishop of Rochester. 
 
 DubHn, April 18, 1716. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am extremely obliged to your lordship for the trouble 
 you have given youi^self in answering at length a very insignih- 
 cant letter. I shall entirely follow your lordship's advice to the 
 best of my skill. Your conjecture from whence my difficulties 
 take their rise is perfectly true. It is all 'party. But the right 
 is certainly on my side, if there be anything in constant imme- 
 morial custom. Besides, though the first scheme of this cathe- 
 di'al was brought from Sarum, yet by several subsequent gTants 
 from popes, kings, archbishops, and Acts of Parliament, the 
 dean has great prerogatives. He visits the chapter as ordinary, 
 and the archbishop only visits by the dean. The dean can sus- 
 pend and sequester any member, and punishes all crimes except 
 heresy, and one or two more reserved for the archbishop. No 
 lease can be let without him. He holds a court-leet in his dis- 
 trict, and is exempt from the Lord Mayor, &c. No chapter can be 
 called but by him, and he dissolves them at pleasure. He dis- 
 poses absolutely of the petty canons and vicars choral's places. 
 All the dignitaries, &c., swear canonical obedience to him. 
 These circumstances, put together, I presume may alter the 
 case in your lordship's judgment. However, I shall, as your 
 lordship directs me, do my utmost to divert this controversy as 
 much as I can. I must add one thing, that no dignitaiy can 
 preside without a power from the dean, who, in his absence, 
 makes a sub-dean, and limits him as he pleases. And so much 
 for deaneries, which I hope I shall never trouble your lordship 
 with again. 
 
 I send this enclosed, and without superscription, to be sent
 
 CONDITION OF IRELAND. 187 
 
 or delivered to you by a famous friend of mine and devoted 
 servant of your lordsliip's. 
 
 I congratulate with England for joining with us here in the 
 fellowship of slavery. It is not so terrible a thing as you ima- 
 gine — we have long lived under it ; and, whenever you are dis- 
 posed to know how you ought to behave yom'selves in your new 
 condition, you need go no further than me for a dii-ector. But, 
 because we are resolved to go beyond you, we have trans- 
 mitted a bill to England, to be retui'ned here, giving the Govern- 
 ment and six of the Council power for three years to imprison 
 whom they please for three months without any trial or examina- 
 tion ; and I expect to be among the first of those upon whom 
 this law will be executed. We have also outdone you in the 
 business of Ben. Hoadly, and have recommended to a bishopric 
 one whom you would not allow to be a curate in the smallest of 
 your parishes. Does your lordship know that, as much as I have 
 been used to lies in England, I am under a thousand uneasinesses 
 about some reports relating to a person that you and I love 
 very well? I have written to a lady upon that subject, and am 
 imjiatient for an answer. I am gathering up a thousand pounds, 
 and intend to finish my life upon the interest of it in Wales. 
 
 God Almighty preserve your lordship miseris succurrere 
 rebus ! — whether you understand or relish Latin, or no. But it 
 is a great deal your fault if you suffer us all to be undone ; for 
 God never gave such talents without expecting they should be 
 used to preserve a nation. There is a Doctor in your neigh- 
 bourhood to whom I am a very humble servant. I am, &c. 
 
 Some persons go this summer for England ; and, if Dr. 
 Younger * be talked with, I hope you will so order it that it 
 may not be to my disadvantage. t 
 
 There is a remarkable passage towards the close of 
 the foregoing that indicates a knowledge of his cor- 
 respondent's political projects, and expresses entire 
 concurrence. Notwithstanding all this apparent 
 friendliness, nothing is more clear than that it lasted 
 only with the Bishop's prosperity. 
 
 • Dean of SaliBbury. ' t Atterbury I'aiiers.
 
 188 iiEcoRDs or THE abbey. 
 
 The Prebendaries of Westminster in ITU) were 
 Drs. South, Only, Dent, Linford, Gee, Bradford, 
 Broderick, Kimberley, Canon, and Watson ; and 
 Messrs. Evans, Sub-Deacon, and Sprat, Archdeacon 
 of Eochester.* 
 
 There were some intractable spirits amongst them, 
 but the Dean was able to maintain his authority till 
 they were tamf)ered with to forward a political object. 
 
 He had to search the records of the Abbey, which 
 interested him greatly. It was to this fact that his 
 distinguished contemporary, Addison, thus refers : — 
 
 I have heard one of the greatest geniuses this age has pro- 
 duced, who had been trained up in all the polite studies of 
 antiquity, assure me, upon his being obliged to search into 
 several rolls and records, that, notwithstanding such an employ- 
 ment was at first very dry and irksome to him, he at last took 
 an incredible pleasure in it, and preferred it even to the reading 
 of Virgil or Cicero, t 
 
 To the literary productions of Atterbury's already 
 named must now be added a volume of Sermons, 
 dedicated to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 * Chamberlayne, 658. f Spectator, No. 447.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE, 
 
 Swift's Liberality to Poor Authors — His Self-denial, Exaggera- 
 tions, and Self-laudation — Atterbury's reported Attempts 
 to convert Pope to Protestantism — Congreve's First Novel 
 and Play — Jeremy Collier — Atterbury discourages Attacks 
 upon the Theatre — Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough — 
 Her Devotion to Congi'eve — Atterbury consulted by Pope — 
 His Letter respecting the Preface to Pope's Poems, and a 
 Juvenile Epic — The Death of the Poet's Father, and on 
 Milton — Pope's Reply — Appeal from Prior declined — His 
 Epigram on Atterbury's Preaching — Pope's Account to 
 Atterbury of the Lovers destroyed by Lightning — Atter- 
 bury's Reply. 
 
 Swift's good feeling towards his brother litterateurs is 
 evident in the entries in his Journal to Stella of his 
 efforts to assist them. February 12, 1712 : — " I was 
 at Jack Hill's, the Governor of Dunkirk. I gave an 
 account of sixty guineas I had collected, and am to 
 give them away to two authors to-morrow ; and Lord 
 Treasurer has promised me one hundred pounds to 
 reward some others." He anticipated that admirable 
 institution, "The Literary Fund." On the 19th he 
 writes : — " I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Diaper, 
 in a nasty garret, very sick. I gave him twenty 
 guineas from Lord Bolingbroke, and. disposed the 
 otlier sixty to two other authors."
 
 190 swift's benevolence : 
 
 Again, at the close of the following month, he 
 adds : — 
 
 I was naming some time ago to a certain person, another 
 certain person that was very deserving and poor and sickly ; 
 and the other, that first certain person, gave me one hundred 
 pounds to give the other. The person who is to have it never 
 saw the giver, nor expects one farthing, nor has the least know- 
 ledge nor imagination of it ; so I believe it will be a very agree- 
 able surprise — for I think a handsome present enough, I paid 
 the J6100 this evening, and it was a great surprise to the 
 receiver. 
 
 Swift may have been worthy of being a bishop on 
 other accounts ; but his practical benevolence was 
 perhaps his best claim to the dignity. He seems at 
 this time always striving to do good offices to his 
 literary friends without reference either to their reli- 
 gious or political principles. He warmly recom- 
 mended Congreve to Harley, and, in noting down 
 the act, says, " I have made a worthy man easy, and 
 that's a good day's work." He did the same service 
 for Parnell, with the same happy effect. He exerted 
 his influence with such zeal in behalf of Pope, that 
 he made the latter's great enterprise, the transla- 
 tion of Homer, certain of success by a preliminary 
 subscription. * 
 
 In truth, he was constantly exercising his social 
 influence, which was considerable, in behalf of poor 
 clergymen and unfortunate men of letters ; neglecting 
 those opportunities for advancing his own interest 
 which his status in the best society of the time gave 
 him. Pope's genial mind thus couples him with the 
 minister, Harley : — 
 
 * "The author," he told Lord Orrery, "shall not begin to print till I have a 
 thousand guineas for him. "
 
 HIS SENSIBILITY. 19] 
 
 For Swift and him [be ?] despised the farce of state, 
 The sober follies of the wise and great ; 
 Dext'rous the craving fawning crowd to quit, 
 And pleased to 'scape from flattery to wit. 
 
 Having done his best for Congreve, Parnell, and 
 Pope, lie was scarcely less active for Eowe and 
 Pliilips, and even interceded for Steele, when that 
 reckless journalist had provoked the Grovernment to 
 reprisals ; he also befriended Gray, Berkeley, and Prior. 
 A man of his impulsive temperament could not appre- 
 ciate the cold and stately reserve of Addison. Poli- 
 tical partisanship subsequently helped to produce the 
 estrangement. Yet Swift had originally entertained 
 a very warm affection for him, and, at his recommen- 
 dation, had obtained a handsome sum of monev to 
 relieve the necessities of a young man of talent in 
 a deplorable state of health. How tender was the 
 Dean's heart is shown in the following entry in his 
 Journal : — 
 
 I took Parnell this morning, and we walked to see poor 
 Harrison.* I had the hundred pounds in my pocket. I told 
 Parnell I was afraid to knock at the door — my mind misgave 
 me. I did knock, and liis man, in tears, told me his master was 
 dead an hour before. Think what grief this is to me ! I could 
 not dine with the Lord Treasurer — nor anywhere else, but got 
 a bit of meat towards the evening. No loss ever grieved me so 
 much — poor creature ! 
 
 ^Vlien the self-denying mood was on Swift, no one 
 more cordially did justice to his contemporaries : — 
 
 In Pope I cannot read a line, 
 But, with a sigh, I wish it mine : 
 When he can in one couplet fix 
 More sense than I can do in six. 
 
 • He had been Secretary to Lord Raby (Earl Staflford), ambassador at Utrecht, 
 and was a journalist and poet.
 
 192 swift's rORTllAlT RY HIMSELF. 
 
 It gives jne such a jealous fit, 
 I cry, "P — take him and his wit." 
 I grieve to be outdone by (jay 
 In my own humorous biting way. 
 Arbuthnot is no more my friend, 
 Wlio dares to irony pretend, 
 Which I was born to introduce, 
 Refined it first, and show'd its use. 
 St. John, as well as Pulteney, knows 
 That I had some repute for prose. 
 And, till they drove me out of date. 
 Could maul a Minister of State. 
 
 Swift was never tired of exaggerating tlie easy 
 terms on wliicli lie lived with the great, and his 
 indifference to the claims of rank and station. In a 
 free imitation of the seventh epistle of the first book 
 of Horace, he thus portrays his association with the 
 Minister : — 
 
 Harley, the nation's great support. 
 Returning home one day from Court 
 (His mind with public cares possess'd, 
 All Europe's business in his breast), 
 Observed a parson near Whitehall, 
 Cheapening old authors on a stall. 
 The priest was pretty well in case. 
 And show'd some humour in his face, 
 Look'd with an easy careless mien, 
 A perfect stranger to the spleen; 
 Of size that might a pulpit fill, 
 But more inclining to sit still. 
 My Lord (who, if a man may say't, 
 Loves mischief better than his meat) 
 Was now disposed to crack a jest, 
 And bid friend Lewis go in quest — 
 (This Lewis is a cunning shaver. 
 And very much in Harley's favour) — 
 In quest who might this parson be — 
 What was his name — of what degree ; 
 If possible to learn his story. 
 And whether he be Whig or Tory. 
 
 Lewis his patron's humour knows. 
 Away upon his errand goes, 
 And quickly did the matter sift — 
 Found out that it was — Doctor Swift —
 
 SELF-PRAISE. 193 
 
 A clergyman of special note 
 For shunning those of his own coat, 
 Which made his brethren of the gown 
 Take care betimes to run him down. 
 
 Swift had not slimmed one of his own coat when 
 he dwelt opposite a certain Dean's suburban dwelling, 
 in Chelsea, nor is there any evidence that Atterbury 
 or any other clerical friend depreciated him in the 
 manner intimated in his rhymes ; but one of his 
 weaknesses was to consider other members of the 
 Establishment jealous of his superior attainments. 
 He must be permitted to paint his own portrait, 
 after the fashion desired by Queen Ehzabeth — with- 
 out shadows : — 
 
 No libertine— nor over-nice ; 
 
 Addicted to no sort of vice ; 
 
 Went where he pleased, said what he thought ; 
 
 Not rich, but owed no man a groat : 
 
 In State opinions a la mode, 
 
 He hated Wharton like a toad, 
 
 Had giv'n the faction many a wound. 
 
 And libell'd all the junto round. 
 
 The artist is tolerably true to nature here, as the 
 columns of the Examiner and other publications can 
 still testify : — 
 
 Kept company with men of wit. 
 Who often father'd what he writ. 
 
 This assertion must be taken cum grano saJis — the 
 larger the grain the better. If the self-eulogist had 
 contented himself with boasting- that men who 
 wanted wit had been supplied by him, the saline 
 ingredient need not be added ; but the very evident 
 compliment to his own superiority would have been 
 very much less i)rominent. 
 
 The poet goes on to state that the minister having 
 
 VOL. 1. 14
 
 194 SWIFT AND IIARLEY. 
 
 honoured Jiim witli an ' invitation, he neglected it, 
 and is presently sent for more pressing-ly. 
 
 The Doctor now obeys the summons, 
 Likes both his company and commons, 
 Displays his talents — sits till ten ; 
 Next day invited, comes again — 
 Soon grows domestic — seldom fails, 
 Either at morning or at meals ; 
 Came early and departed late — 
 In short — the gudgeon took the bait. 
 
 The poet suggests that the minister angled for the 
 clever parson by offering him a deanery, v^ith 
 
 Two dozen canons round your stall. 
 And you the tyrant o'er them all. 
 
 The gudgeon took the bait as soon as he heard — 
 
 You need but cross the Irish seas. 
 To live in plenty, power, and ease. 
 
 Transported with the prospect he had envied when 
 it was enjoyed by his friend Atterbury, he borrowed 
 a considerable sum to meet travelling and other ex- 
 penses, and started to take possession of his welcome 
 preferment. But a disagreeable journey and a still 
 more disagreeable voyage so disturbed his feelings, 
 that his new dignity appeared to bring him nothing 
 but annoyance and expense. At last, overwhelmed 
 with debt, and worn out with trouble, he sailed and 
 travelled back the road he came, till he arrived at 
 his patron's mansion in town : — 
 
 Said Harley, "Welcome, reverend Dean, 
 What makes your worship look so lean ? 
 Why, sure you won't appear in town. 
 In that old wig and rusty gown ! 
 I doubt your heart is set on pelf. 
 So much that you neglect yourself."
 
 LORD oxford's i.evees, 195 
 
 The minister continued this hanter till the patience 
 of the disappointed gudgeon broke down, and after 
 reproaching his patron for havmg made him " not 
 worth a groat," he requested to be restored to his 
 former position. This poem was written in the 
 year 1718 ; but Swift continued in his deanery many 
 years, apparently content with his income, though 
 groA\ang more and more dissatisfied with his exile. 
 Indeed, in the following year he acknowledges, in a 
 similar composition, that he 
 
 should be pei'fectly content, 
 Could I but live on this side Trent, 
 Nor cross the channel twice a year, 
 To spend six montlis with statesmen here. 
 
 This contingency, however, the Dean could easily 
 liave avoided had he not preferred reminding his 
 patron of his disappointment, in the hope of secur- 
 ing a more desirable appointment. He attended Lord 
 Oxford's levees, where, as he himself acknowledges, 
 he is much gratified by the court there paid to him 
 by other applicants for favour, under the impression 
 that he possessed extraordinary interest with the 
 minister : — 
 
 I get a whisper and withdraw, 
 When twenty fools I never saw 
 Come with petitions fairly penn'd, 
 Desiring I would stand their friend. 
 This humbly offers me his case, 
 That begs my interest for a place ; 
 A hundred other men's affairs, 
 Like bees, are humming in my ears. 
 "To-morrow my appeal comes on, 
 Without your help the cause is gone." 
 "The Duke expects my Lord and you. 
 About some great affair at two." 
 "Put my Lord 15olingl)roke in mind 
 To get my warrant quickly sign'd. " 
 
 14 *
 
 196 A TRAVELLING COMPANION. 
 
 How much of this is imaginary there are no means 
 of ascertaining, hut, like the preceding representa- 
 tion, it had hetter he taken cum (jrano. . 
 
 In another passage Swift dilates on his intimacy 
 with the minister : — 
 
 'Tis, let me see, three years and more 
 
 (October next it will be four) 
 
 Since Ilarley bid me first attend, 
 
 And chose me for an humble friend ; 
 
 Would tate me in his coach to chat, 
 
 And question me of this and that ; 
 
 As "What's o'clock? " and " How's the wind ?" 
 
 "Whose chariot's that we left behind f" 
 
 Or gravely try to read the lines 
 
 Writ underneath the country signs ; 
 
 Or, ' ' Have you nothing new to-day, 
 
 From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay ? " 
 
 He lets the reader know that these small sio'ns of 
 sociality were exhibited by the great statesman while 
 travelling with him in his carriage, once a week, to 
 and from Windsor. The only profit it brought, ac- 
 cording to his own testimony, was increased consi- 
 deration from the lookers-on, to whom he was an 
 object of as much curiosity as malevolence : — 
 
 Yet some I know with envy swell, 
 Because they see me used so well. 
 
 It is doubtful whether Lord Oxford was more cor- 
 dial in his attentions to Swift, than in his civilities 
 to other literary men by whose services he wished to 
 profit. The Dean could make himself an amusing 
 companion, and was therefore acceptable as a means 
 of lessening the tedium of a journey that could afford 
 no better entertainment than the prospect of being 
 plundered by highwaymen or overturned in a ditch. 
 
 Atterbury had not long enjoyed the friendship of
 
 POPE AND ATTERBURY. 197 
 
 Pope, when his attention was directed to the hitter's 
 religions principles, or rather to his apparent want of 
 any decided religious faith. Ostensibly the poet was a 
 Eomaii Catholic, and had so been educated ; but his 
 intimacy with Bolingbroke, and the absence of any 
 profession of piety, made some persons imagine that 
 he was an infidel. Atterbury was desirous that a 
 mind so accomplished should not swell the ranks of 
 the free-thinkers, and devoted himself to the task of 
 making him a convert to the Eeformed Church ; but 
 his friend determined to cling to the form of Chris- 
 tianity he had adopted from his father and mother, 
 and the attempt was unsuccessful. 
 
 A story has been told of his having endeavoured 
 to turn Pope from Popery by reading Tillotson's 
 Sermons* to him. The poet's obduracy, however, 
 was so great, he affirmed, that " if it were possible for 
 any man to raise the dead in proof of any other reli- 
 gion than that acknowledged by the Roman Church, 
 it could not shake his creed." 
 
 The anecdote is apocryphal. Atterbury had a 
 very high opinion of Tillotson, but had he set him- 
 self the task of converting Pope, he was more 
 likely to have drawn upon his own arguments and 
 trusted to liis own learning. There is no doubt that 
 they had conversations on the subject, and it is pos- 
 sible that this zealous Protestant would have gladly 
 seen so distinguished a character a member of his own 
 communion ; but the other could not reconcile him- 
 self to a change of faith that would bring no slight 
 
 • Ayre, "Life of Pi.i.i'," I., 15(i.
 
 198 CONGREVE. 
 
 odium upon him from liis family and co-relic^ionists. 
 Atterbury may have entertained hopes of converting 
 his fi'iend, especially when harmony in their political 
 views brought them very closely together. 
 
 William Congreve had been alternating his Temple 
 studies with attempts at novel writing. Prose fiction 
 was in the hands of a few ; Defoe's " Eobinson Crusoe" 
 and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress " were sharing the 
 popular favour with stories of social life more or less 
 artificial by Aphara Behn, Mrs. Manley, and some 
 writers of the other sex whose works are now equally 
 forgotten. With the latter " Incognita ; or, Love 
 and Duty Eeconciled," might be compared with advan- 
 tage. Its success emboldened the youthful author to 
 attempt comedy, and the year 1G93 saw at Drury 
 Lane the first representation of " The Old Bachelor," 
 with a prologue by Lord Falkland. Society was 
 charmed by its vivacity, and thronged the theatre 
 during its run. At once the author took high rank 
 among contemporary wits, and that eminent patron 
 of merit, Charles Montague, who contrived to find 
 employment for so many rising geniuses, made the 
 popular dramatist a Commissioner of Hackney 
 Coaches, gave him a place in the Pipe Office, as 
 well as another in the Custom House — in all a very 
 handsome provision. 
 
 Such recompense caused him to bring out " The 
 Plain Dealer " the following year, which he dedicated 
 to his liberal patron. It became equally fashionable 
 with its predecessor, while both plays were hailed by 
 the critics as unrivalled examples of EngHsh comedy. 
 Dryden, Mainwaring, and Southern, subsequently
 
 THE PRAISE OF THE GREAT. 199 
 
 Addison and Steele, were cordial in their apprecia- 
 tion. Increased success was achieved in "Love for 
 Love," and in the tragedy of " The Mourning Bride," 
 dedicated to Lord Dorset, and Congreve was now one 
 of the great attractions of refined society. It was then 
 that the attention of Atterbury was more particularly 
 cUrected to his works by the attacks of Jeremy 
 Collier, and the author's defence. In a controversial 
 age, a religious assault upon the theatre was sure 
 of exciting sufficient observation ; but if the rigid 
 censor had thought of reviving the prejudices that 
 had supported Prynne in his crusade against the 
 drama, he must have been disappointed. The Court 
 chaplain discouraged cant in every shape. The 
 play-house was scarcely at this period a school of 
 morality, but it was a mirror of social life, and 
 ought not to have been condemned for the fidelity 
 of its reflections, Congreve defended himself ably, 
 and found so much encouraging support that he 
 brought out " The Way of the World "—the last, 
 probably tlie best, of his dramas, though it met with 
 an uidifferent reception. 
 
 He followed the example of his contemporaries in 
 cultivating his poetical powers for the purpose of 
 honouring the dispensers of patronage. The Duke 
 of Marlborough had been propitiated by a pastoral 
 on the death of his heir, the Marquis of Blandford, 
 dedicated to Lord Godolphin ; and an Ode on the 
 late Queen Anne gave Congreve occasion to return to 
 the great commander. A Pindaric ode on Godolphin 
 jiiid Ill's Birtli of the Muse, as well as his dedication 
 of a \oluiiii' <»r liis poems to Halifax, proved how
 
 200 HENRIETTA, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 zealoiis lie was in favour of those who had secured 
 him an income of at least £1,200 a year. It is but 
 justice to say that he produced many finer poems, 
 that warranted the dedication to him by Steele of 
 his " Miscellanies," the affection of Pope, and the 
 admiration he excited among the best judges of 
 poetry as long as he survived.* 
 
 Henrietta, known as the " young Duchess of Marl- 
 borough," had such an intense regard for Congreve, 
 that, not content at his death with raising a hand- 
 some monument, in Westminster Abbey, to his 
 memory, she is said to have caused a wax figure of 
 him to be modelled, which, having been suitably 
 dressed, she placed in her apartment, talked to it, and 
 had meals regularly served, her grace pretending to 
 perform the duties of hostess. Moreover, she is 
 reported to have called in physicians and consulted 
 them upon the puppet's health, with special reference 
 to a bad leg, which the doting duchess dressed every 
 day. 
 
 Congreve, with his official income added to what his 
 writings brought him in, must have enjoyed a state 
 of comparative affluence. Nevertheless, Swift thus 
 
 * The favour with whicli he was regarded in the highest circles, particularly 
 by the noble families he had eulogized, was demonstrated at his death, which 
 occurred January 19, 1728-9. His body was permitted to lie in state in the 
 Jerusalem Chamber, and his place of sepulture was the beautiful chapel of 
 Henry VII., his pall-bearers being the Duke of Bridgewater, Lords Godolphin, 
 Cobham, and Wilmington, the Hon. George Berkeley, and Brigadier General 
 Churchill. His monument possesses this inscription, after the name and date: 
 "to whose most valuable memory this monument is set up by Henrietta, Duchess 
 of Marlborough, as a mark how dearly she remembers the happiness and honour 
 she enjoyed in the sincere friendship of so worthy and honest a man, whose 
 virtue, candour, and wit gained him the love and esteem of the present age, and 
 whose writin;'s will be the admiration of the future."
 
 SWIFT ON CONGREVE. 201 
 
 misrepresents his position, contrasted with that of his 
 patron : — 
 
 Thus CoDgreve spent in writing plays, 
 
 And one poor ofEce, half his days ; 
 
 While Montague, who claim'd the station 
 
 To be Miecenus of the nation, 
 
 For poets open table kept, 
 
 But ne'er consider'd where they slept. 
 
 Himself as rich as fifty Jews, 
 
 Was easy though they wanted shoes ; 
 
 And crazy Congreve scarce could spare 
 
 A shilling to discharge his chair. 
 
 Till prudence taught him to appeal 
 
 From Pffian's fire to party zeal. 
 
 Not owing to his happy vein. 
 
 The foi-tunes of his latter scene 
 
 Took proper principles to thrive — 
 
 And so might every dunce alive. 
 
 Pope was preparing for the press a collection of 
 his poems, the edition of 1717; and as one of the 
 many proofs he gave of his respect for Atterbury's 
 judgment, forwarded the preface he had written for 
 it. In reply, his friend expresses some opinions on 
 poetical composition, on perusing which, the reader, 
 if acquainted with his early productions and studies, 
 will feel much surprise. In his next communication, 
 he refers to the poet's juvenile epic, which had also 
 been submitted to him ; the opinion he gave produced 
 its destruction. 
 
 Bishop AxTERBURy'TO Alexander Pope. 
 
 December, 1716. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I return your preface, "vvhich I have read twice with 
 pleasure. The modesty and good sense there is in it must please 
 every one who reads it ; and since there is nothing that can 
 ofJend, I see not why you should balance a moment about print- 
 ing it, ill ways j)i'ovided that tlicro is nothing said there which 
 y(ju may have occasion to unsay hereal'ter — of which you your-
 
 202 ATTERBURY TO POPE. 
 
 self are the best and the only judge. This is my sincere opinion, 
 which I give because you ask it — and which I would not give, 
 though asked, but to a man I value as much as I do you — being 
 sensible how impropci" it is, on many accounts, for me to inter- 
 pose in things of this nature, which I never understood well, 
 and now understand somewhat less than ever I did. But I can 
 deny you nothing; especially since you have had the goodness 
 often and patiently to hear what I have said against rhyme, and 
 in behalf of blank verse, with little discretion, perhaps, but I am 
 sure without the least prejudice ; being myself equally incapable 
 of writing well in either of those ways, and leaning, therefore, 
 to neither side of the question, but as the appearance of reason 
 inclines me. Forgive me this error, if it be one ; an error of above 
 thirty years standing, and which, therefore, I shall be very loth 
 to part with. In other matters, which relate to polite writing, 
 I shall seldom differ from you ; or, if I do, shall, I hope, have 
 the prudence to conceal my opinion. — I am, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Westminster, February 18th, 1716-17. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I hoped to find you last night at Lord Bathurst's,t and 
 came but a few minutes after you had left him. I brought 
 " Gorboduc"! with me, and Dr. Arbuthnot telling me he should 
 see you, I deposited the book in his hands, out of which, I think, 
 my Lord Bathurst took it before we parted, and from him, there- 
 fore, you are to claim it. If " Gorboduc " should still miss his 
 way to you, others are to answer for it ; I have delivered up my 
 trust. I am not sorry youi' " Alcander " is burnt : had I known 
 your intentions, I would have interceded for the first page, and 
 put it, with your leave, among my curiosities. In truth, it is 
 the only instance of that kind I ever met with from a person 
 good for anything else — nay, for everything else — to which he 
 is pleased to turn himself. 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 t Allen Batburst, first Baron Bathurst ; so created by Queen Anne, in 1711. 
 — W. M. 
 
 t A tragedy written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Sackville, afterwards 
 Earl of Dorset, Lord Hitrh Treasurer to Her Majesty, and Thomas Norton, one of 
 the translators of the Psalms. — W. M.
 
 DEATH OF pope's FATHER. 203 
 
 « 
 
 Depend upon it, I shall see you with great pleasure at Brom- 
 ley ; and there is no request you can make to me that I shall 
 not most readily comply with. I wish you health and happiness 
 of all sorts, and would be glad to be instrumental in any degree 
 towards helping you to the least share of either. — I am, &c.* 
 
 The good understanding that continued to be cul- 
 tivated by Pope and Atterbury is observable in their 
 correspondence. It is clear that the latter was 
 anxious for his friend's spiritual welfare, and had 
 endeavoured to direct his attention towards religion. 
 If Pope's statement of his readings in divinity is to 
 be accepted, the arguments on either side the contro- 
 versy could have made very little impression upon 
 Liia ; but the poet did not read for conviction, and, 
 probably, would have perused the orations of Demos- 
 thenes and the discourses of Cicero with about as 
 lively a faith. 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, November 8, 1717. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have nothing to say to you on that melancholy sub- 
 ject, with an account of which the public papers have furnished 
 me, but what you have already said to yourself. 
 
 When you have paid the debt of tenderness you owe to the 
 memory of a father, I doubt not but you will turn your thoughts 
 towards improving that incident to your own ease and happi- 
 ness. You have it now in your power to pursue that method of 
 thinking and living which you like best. Give me leave (if I 
 am not a little too early in my applications of this kind) to con- 
 gratulate you upon it, and to assure you that there is no man 
 living who wishes you better, or would be more pleased to 
 contribute any way to your satisfaction or service. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 * Atterbury Paiiers.
 
 204 atterbury's opinion of milton, 
 
 9 
 
 I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be 
 revised and augmented in several places, as the title-page of my 
 third edition pretends it to be. When I see you next, 1 will 
 show you the several passages altered and added by the author, 
 beside what you mentioned to me. 
 
 I protest to you this last perusal of him has given me such 
 new degrees, I will not say of pleasure, but of admiration and 
 astonishment, that I look upon the sublimity of Homer and the 
 majesty of Virgil with somewhat less reverence than I used to do. 
 I challenge you, with all your partiality, to show me in the first 
 of these anything equal to the Allegory of Sin and Death, either 
 as to the greatness and justness of the invention, or the height 
 and beauty of the colouring. What I looked upon as a rant of 
 Barrow's, I now begin to think a serious truth, and could almost 
 venture to set my hand to it : — 
 
 Hoic quicunque leget, tantum cecinisse putabit 
 McEonidem ranas, Virgilium culices.* 
 
 But more of this when we meet. When I left the town, the 
 Duke of Buckinghamt contirmed so ill that he received no mes- 
 sages. Oblige me so far as to let me know how he does ; at the 
 same time I shall know how you do, and that will be a double 
 satisfaction to your, &c.J 
 
 A once celebrated critic wrote : — 
 
 Atterbury's delight in Milton's poetry arose from a conge- 
 niality of taste, and had he not so professedly regarded Pope as 
 unrivalled, he would himself, I think, from the extracts here 
 given, have been a pathetic poet. In genius, in deep learning, 
 in comprehensive talents, Atterbury, no doubt, must appear far 
 inferior to Milton ; but there was something approacliing to 
 Milton in particular features of his character ; and the firmness 
 which appears in his writings under sickness, exile, and domestic 
 
 * The concluding lines of the commendatory verses of Samuel Barrow, M. D. , 
 prefixed to the poem. — W. M. 
 
 t John Sheffield, the first Duke of that family ; so created by Queen Anne. 
 In his "Election of a Poet Laureate, 1719," a portraiture is given of Bishop 
 Atterbury. — W. M. 
 
 + Atterbury Papers.
 
 rorE TO ATTERBURY. 205 
 
 calamity, draws the resemblance nearer, wlien we tliink on them 
 both— 
 
 On evil tongues though fallen, and evil days, 
 
 still wooing the consolations of the Muse.* 
 
 Atterbury's distinguished correspondent replied: — 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 November 20, 1717. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am truly obliged by your kind condolence on my 
 father's death, and the desire you express that I should improve 
 this incident to my advantage. I know your lordship's friend- 
 ship to me is so extensive, that you include in that wish both 
 my spiritual and my temporal advantage ; and it is what I owe 
 to that friendship to open my mind unreservedly to you on this 
 head. It is true, I have lost a parent for whom no gains I could 
 make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tie : 
 I thank God, another still remains (and long may it remain !) of 
 the same tender nature — Genitrix est miJii — and excuse me if I 
 say, with Euryalus, — 
 
 nequeam lacrymas perferre parentis. 
 
 A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but surely it is a virtuous 
 one : at least I am more certain that it is a duty of nature to 
 preserve a good parent's life and happiness than I am of any 
 speculative point whatever : — 
 
 Ignaram hujus quodcunque perlcli 
 
 Hanc ego, nunc, linquam ? 
 
 For she, my lord, would think this separation more grievous than 
 myself ; and I, for my part, know as little as poor Euryalus did 
 of the success of such an adventure ; for an adventure it is, and 
 no small one, in spite of the most positive divinity. Wlicthcr 
 the change would be to my spiritual advantage, God only knows. 
 This I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profess 
 as I can possibly ever do in any other. Can a man, who thinks 
 so, justify a change, even if he thought both equally good ? To 
 such an one, the part of joining with any one body of Christians 
 
 * The Rev. Lisle Bowles.
 
 206 POPE S RELIGION. 
 
 might perhaps be easy; but I think it would not be so to 
 renounce the other. 
 
 Your h:)rdship has formerly advised me to read the best books 
 of controversies between the Churches. Shall I tell you a 
 secret? I did so at fourteen years old; for I loved reading, 
 and my father had no other books. There was a collection of 
 all that had been written on both sides in the reign of King 
 James the Second. I warmed my head with them, and the con- 
 sequence was that I found myself a Papist and a Protestant by 
 turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid most 
 seekers are in the same case, and, when they stop, they are not 
 so properly converted as outwitted. You see how little glory 
 you would gain by my conversion. And, after all, I verily 
 believe your lordship and I are both of the same religion, if we 
 were thoroughly understood by one another ; and that all honest 
 and reasonable Christians would be so if they did but talk enough 
 together every day, and had nothing to do together but to serve 
 God and live in peace with their neighbour. 
 
 As to the temporal side of the question, I can have no dispute 
 with you. It is certain all the beneficial circumstances of life, 
 and all the shining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. 
 But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but 
 fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for 
 it ; and, besides, it is a real truth, I have less inclination (if 
 possible) than ability. Contemplative life is not only my scene, 
 but it is my habit too. I began my life, where most people end 
 theirs, with a disrelish of all that the world calls ambition. I 
 do not know why it is called so, for to me it always seemed to 
 be rather stooping than climbing. I will tell you my politic and 
 religious sentiments in a few words. In my politics I think no 
 further than how to preserve the peace of my life in any govern- 
 ment under which I live, nor in my religion than to preserve the 
 peace of my conscience in any church with which I communi- 
 cate. I hope all churches and all governments are so far of God 
 as they are rightly understood and rightly administered ; and 
 where they are or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to 
 mend or reform them, which, whenever He does, it must be 
 by greater instruments than I am. I am not a Papist ; for 
 I renounce the temporal invasions of the Papal power, and 
 detest their arrogated authority over princes or states. I am
 
 PRIOR TO ATTERBURY. 207 
 
 a Catholic in tlie strictest sense of the word. If I was born 
 under an absolute prince, I would be a quiet subject ; but I 
 thank God I was not : I have a due sense of the excellence 
 of the British constitution. In a word, the things I have 
 always wished to see are not a Roman Catholic, or a French 
 Catholic, or a Spanish Catholic, but a true Catholic ; and not a 
 King of Whigs, or a King of Tories, but a King of England, 
 which God of his mercy grant his present Majesty may be, and 
 all future majesties ! You see, my lord, I end like a preacher ; 
 but this is Sermo ad Clenwi, not ad Populum. — Believe me, &c.* 
 
 Two " old Westmiusters " were now closely asso- 
 ciated in pui'suits, literary and political. The elevation 
 of one caused his patronage to be appealed to by the 
 other. The conscientious bishop could not comply ; 
 nevertheless he could entertain the ex-ambassador 
 with recollections of their mutual studies in familiar 
 quotations conned beneath " the shell " under the 
 auspices of the awful Busby, the effect of which 
 was that the disappointed applicant was as much 
 charmed as if he had succeeded. Nevertheless, he 
 never forgot the refusal. 
 
 Matthew Prior to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 Westminster, August 2.5, 1718. 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 Mr. Clough (my godson), whom, according to my 
 promise made for him at the font, I have not only bred a 
 Christian but a clergyman, tells me that the vicarage of Dart- 
 ford is vacant, by the death of Mr. Price, and that he has a 
 mind to succeed him in a place which may give him an oppor- 
 tunity of doing good, and learning more so to do by being 
 under your lordship's jurisdiction and government. If your 
 lordship is of the same opinion, I hope he will obtain what ho 
 desires, and I believe deserves; and I am sure my writing in his 
 
 * Atterbury Papera. Pope's Letters.
 
 208 ATTERBUUY TO PRIOR. 
 
 behalf will do him no dis-service. I would add more, but by a 
 
 confounded distemper (which we physicians call CoUccb Morbus, 
 
 and which you divines would heretofore have been addicted to 
 
 think the possession of devils), I can hold my pen no longer 
 
 than to say, — 
 
 Dum spiritua hos reget artus. 
 
 I am, &c.* 
 Bishop Atterbury to Matthew Prior. 
 
 Bromley, August 26, 1718. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 The first news I heard of your being ill was under 
 your own hand. It was a pleasure to me to find that the worst 
 of youi' illness was over. I am well acquainted with that dis- 
 temper, having smarted severely under it myself; and, depend 
 upon it, it is an acquaintance that will not easily be shaken ofi". 
 You will hear more of it if you give it the least encouragement 
 to renew its visits ; but temperance, good hoars, and a little 
 exercise (to all which you are well inclined) will keep it at a 
 distance. 
 
 Mr. Clough, as early as he was, came too late. I had already 
 disposed of the living. However, I frankly said to him what I 
 now say to you, that if I had not been engaged, I should not 
 have been willing to give it him. It is a vicarage in a great 
 market town, which requires perpetual residence, and he has 
 another vicarage, which, with his minor canonry of Rochester, 
 is of a value equal to that of Dartford, and which he had no 
 thoughts of quitting, but hoped to have made both consistent. 
 That is a scheme which I can no way approve, especially in a 
 young single man, who does not want a tolerable support, for he 
 has a good one hundred per annum now coming in. So much for 
 his affair, upon which I can fully justify myself when I see you ; 
 but when will that be ? Do you remember the solemn promise 
 you made me of coming hither this summer ? Ton have but a 
 little time left to keep your word in. I have expected you with 
 impatience. My peaches and nectarines hung on the trees for 
 you till they rotted, and one of my poetical neighbom-s, who 
 observed my uneasiness, and thought I liked your company 
 better than his, applied these verses of Virgil to me : — 
 
 * Atterbury Pajiers.
 
 VIRGIL AND HOMER. 209 
 
 Mirabar quid mceste Deos, Francisce, vocares ; 
 Cui pendere su^ patereris in arbore poma : 
 Tityrus hinc aberat ; ipsre te, Tityre, pinus, 
 Ipsi te fontes, ipsa ha3C arbusta vocabant. 
 
 Wliat excuse sliall I make for Titjrus ? That he neglected 
 his little friends for the sake of his gi'eat ones ; that he was 
 paying his court and getting the colic. You know what Tityrus 
 says for himself in the lines that follow : — 
 
 Quid facerem ? neque servitis me ex ire licebat, 
 Nee tarn prsesentes alibi cognoscere divos. 
 
 Would I could say of any one of those divi in your name, as he 
 does in his own, — 
 
 Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum 
 Ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti. 
 
 Those two words qucs vellem touch me to the very heart ; they 
 are worth the whole Eclogue. 
 
 You see what a deluge of Latin poetry you have drawn on 
 yourself by that half line of Virgil at the end of your letter. 
 I cannot end mine without observing to you upon it the 
 advantage which the copy in this case has over the original. 
 Virgil, in those five little words, " Dum spiritus hos reget 
 artus," has expressed the whole force of a line and a half in 
 Homer, — 
 
 " Reget artus " takes in all that Homer means, and leaves out 
 nothing but the particular mention of (Pi>^tx. ^avaTa, which adds 
 not to the beauty or strength of the image, and is, therefore, 
 better omitted than expressed. 
 
 The rise of this reflection is from the gout, which has at 
 present laid hold of me ; should it take away the use of my (pixa. 
 ya'jara, I should be nevertheless yours, because I am so while I 
 breathe. 
 
 To-day, to-morrow, always; at Bromley, at Westminster, 
 everywhere ; in Greek, in Latin, in English ; and (which is 
 more) in good earnest, I am, etc.* 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 VOL. 1.
 
 -10 prior's epigram. 
 
 Matthew Prior to Bishop Atteubdrt. 
 
 Richings Lodge,* September 3, 1718. 
 My Lord, 
 
 You have done, as you do commonly, very right in 
 Cloug-li's affair; or, if you had not, I forgive you all for the 
 kindness of your letter, and will tell you so on Saturday. The 
 word Francisee was worth ten of your master's qucc vellems, and 
 gave me more delight than a whole epistle from any hand else. 
 Why do not I write more to you ? Because you write too well 
 for me or anybody else ; and, though I cannot rightly express it, 
 I mean to say something by which you would understand that 
 I doubt whether I more admire or love you. Pray turn that 
 thought in your own way, and then let me say I wrote it. You 
 cannot oblige me more, except by continuing to me the honour 
 of your friendship. I am well again, but have left London for 
 a day or two, that, with my dear Lord Bathurst, I may get 
 something better than the colic. 
 ' Adieu, my lord. I am, &c.t 
 
 Prior's resentment for the refusal of his application 
 was shown in two or three biting epigrams, such as: — 
 
 DOCTORS DIFFER. 
 When Willis of Ephraim heard Rochester preach, 
 
 Thus Bentley said to him, " I prythee, dear brother, 
 How likest thou this sermon — 'tis out of my reach ;" 
 
 " His is one way," said Willis, "and ours is another. 
 I care not for carping, but this I can tell, 
 We preach very sadly if he preaches well." J 
 
 Gay constantly associated with persons of distinc- 
 tion of both sexes. In the year 1717, Lord Bui-hng- 
 ton took him into Devonshire ; in the following year 
 Mr. Pulteney insisted on his accompanying him to 
 Aix, in France ; and the year after he was residing at 
 Stanton Harcourt with the Earl when the tragic inci- 
 dent happened that Pope describes in the following 
 
 * At Iver, in Buckinghamshire ; a villa at that time the residence of Allen, 
 the first Lord Bathurst. 
 
 t Atterbury Papers. t Prior's Miscellaneous Works, 106. 1740.
 
 LOVERS DESTROYED. 211 
 
 letter. The rustic lovers who were destroyed by the 
 electric fluid were to have been married the next week. 
 Lord Harcourt caused a monument to be erected in 
 the churchyard to perpetuate their fate. It bore the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire, 
 On the same pile the faithful pair expire ; 
 Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found, 
 And blasted both that it might neither wound ; 
 Hearts so sincere the Almighty saw well pleased, 
 Sent his own lightning and the victims seized. 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 September 8, 1718. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have long had a desii'e to write to youi- lordship, though 
 
 I cannot imagine to what end ; since it is not anything I can 
 
 say upon paper that can give you any title to me, which you have 
 
 not already, or hope to tell you any part of my respect and 
 
 esteem which you know not ah'eady. But I have gotten a 
 
 sort of a subject for blotting this by means of an accident 
 
 which has happened here :* a young man and woman were 
 
 destroyed by one stroke of lightning, who were contracted 
 
 in marriage some days before. They were people of a very good 
 
 character ; yet the country here are ready to rise against their 
 
 minister for allowing them Christian burial. They cannot put it 
 
 out of their heads but so remarkable a death was a judgment from 
 
 God. It is pleasant enough to consider that people, who fancy 
 
 themselves good Christians, should be so absurd as to think the 
 
 same misfortunes, when they befal others, a punishment of vice ; 
 
 and, when they happen to themselves, an exercise of virtue. I 
 
 would try to do some service in procuring the following epitaph 
 
 to be set over them, or something to this pui'pose. I send it to 
 
 your lordship for your opinion, both as to the doctrine and the 
 
 poetry ; as I am very certain nothing is either fit for the Church 
 
 or the public, which is not agreeable to your sentiments : — 
 
 Tliink not by rigorous judgment seized, 
 
 A pair so faitlifiil could expire ; 
 Victims so pure Heaven saw well pleased, 
 
 And snatch'd them in celestial fire. 
 
 * Stanton Harcourt. 
 
 15*
 
 212 ATTERBURY TO POPK. 
 
 Live well, and fear no sudden fate ; 
 
 When God calls Virtue to the grave, 
 Alike 'tis justice soon or late, 
 
 Mercy alike to kill or save ! 
 Virtue unmov'd can hear the call. 
 And face the flash that melts the ball ! 
 
 I beg you, my lord, not to spare me one word that is put in for 
 the sake of rhyme. I know you will be so gentle to the modei-n 
 Goths and Vandals as to allow them to put a few rhymes upon 
 tombs or over doors, where they have not room to write much, 
 and may have hopes to make rhyme live by the material it is 
 graved upon. In return, I promise your lordship, as soon as 
 Homer* is translated, to allow it unfit for long works; but to 
 say so at present would be what your second thoughts could 
 never approve of, because it would be a profession of repentance 
 and con\T.ction, and yet a perseverance in the sin. 
 
 I have lived where I have done nothing but sinned, that is 
 rhymed, these six weeks.']- I dare not approach you till the fit 
 is over. I thank God, I find the symptoms almost gone ; and 
 may therefore soon expect to pass my time much more agreeably 
 in London or at Bromley. I beg you to think me what I am, &c.+ 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, September 12, 1718. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I received here this morning a letter from you, without 
 
 * On the first blank leaf of a fine copy of the Iliad of Homer (Tumebus, 
 1554), in the Editor's possession, the following elegant compliment to Pope 
 appears in the handwriting of Atterbury : — 
 
 F. Roflfen. 
 
 Homeri Iliadem, 
 
 Typistiis nitidissimis Greece editam, 
 
 Dono mihi dedit. 
 
 Qui eandera Carmine Anglicano, 
 
 Musis Gratiisque faventibus, expressam 
 
 Genti nostra3 prius donaverat, 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 
 quantum Instar in ipso est ! 
 
 Haud fuerit quanquam, quem Tu sequereris, Homere ; 
 Est tamen, est qui Te posset, Homere, sequi. — W. M. 
 + In the Tower at Stanton Harcourt, on a pane of glass, was inscribed : — 
 " In the year 1718, Alexander Pope finished here the 
 Fifth Volume of Homer."— W. M. 
 + Atterbury Papers.
 
 TRUE CHRISTIANITY. 213 
 
 any account of the place from whence it was wintten. I suppose 
 you thought this a notable contrivance to escape an answer. I 
 have ill-natui'e enough to take a pleasure in defeating that 
 design ; and will therefore guess, as well as I can, where you 
 are, and venture a letter at random ; but I hope, through my 
 Lord Harcourt's cover, it may reach you. If it does, I have my 
 revenge ; a principle which, on this particular occasion, I am 
 not ashamed to own. 
 
 In good earnest, sir, I was pleased to see a letter from you ; 
 and pleased with the subject of that letter. Clu'istianity is the 
 best-natured institution in the world, and is so far from allowing 
 such harsh censures that it hath directly forbidden them, and 
 expressly decided against them. You know the passage— 
 " Suppose ye that these GalilEeans were sinners above all other 
 GaliliEans, because they suffered such things ? I tell you nay ; 
 but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." What think 
 you of letting the minister of the parish contribute this as his 
 share towards an inscription on the grave- stone, and as a proper 
 rebuke to his censui-ing neighbours ; worthy of being inscribed, 
 not on such a monument only, but on the heart of every one that 
 owns himself a Cliristian ? How far this prose and your poetry, 
 a verse of Scripture and the stanzas you sent me, are fit to keep 
 company with each other, I pretend not to say ; but sure I am 
 that the words are weighty. 
 
 You are too good to me to think that my relish of such per- 
 formances is suflB.cient to make me capable of advising you ; or 
 if I were, yet my partiality, in behalf of whatever you wi-ite, 
 would steal away my judgment. However, since you are so 
 civil and seem so sincere, I will try for once to divest myself of 
 such prejudices, and will venture to tell you my mind of what 
 you know so much better than I do. If I show my unskilfulness, 
 I shall yet give you a proof of my friendship and an instance of 
 the power you have over me. Perhaps there is nobody, but you, 
 that could so easily have led me into so great a mistake. Use 
 your influence gently if you intend to preserve it. 
 
 I like the lines well : they are yours, and they are good ; and 
 on both these accounts are very welcome to me. You know my 
 opinion that poetry, without a moral, is a body without a soul. 
 Let the lines be ever so liiiely turned, if they do not point to 
 some useful truth — if there is not instruction at the bottom of
 
 214 SCHOLASTIC CRITICISM. 
 
 them, thoy can give no true delight to a reasonable mind. They 
 are " versus inopes rerum, nugseque canora) ; " and as such they 
 may tinkle prettily in the ears, but will never reach the heart, 
 or leave a dui'able impression behind them. 
 
 Nobody, that reads what you have written, will blame you in 
 this respect, for it is all over morality from the beginning to the 
 end of it ; and it pleases me the better because I fancy it di'awn 
 from the sources of Horace, for I cannot help thinking that 
 
 his — 
 
 Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
 Impavidum ferient ruinse — 
 
 was (whether you attended to it or no) the original from which 
 your two last verses were copied. I wish you had prepared the 
 way for the latter of them, as he has done, for the idea given us 
 by " fractus illabatur orbis," which is strong enough to support 
 that which follows, " impavidum ferient ruinaa ; " whereas you 
 melt the ball at once without giving us any warning, and are led 
 on the sudden fi^om a particular account to the general conflagra- 
 tion ; and that too is to be effected by a flash, a word not equal 
 to the work on which it is employed. 
 
 Pardon this freedom. But my old Master Roscommon has an 
 expression which I always looked upon as very happy and 
 significant — 
 
 He who proportioned numbers can disclose ; 
 
 and without that just proportion nothing is truly admirable. 
 
 Will you forgive me if I add that melting the hall, without 
 the prepai'ation I mentioned, is too apt to lead us into the image 
 of a snow-ball? Waller, I am persuaded, for the sake of the F 
 and the B (of which he was remarkably fond), would have 
 chosen to say — 
 
 And face the flash that hums the ball. 
 
 I am far from proposing this as an improvement. I do not 
 think it such : or, if it were, I would not offer it ; for where the 
 images themselves are not well suited, it is in vain to alter a 
 particular expression. 
 
 I know not whither I am going in this track of criticism, to 
 which I have been long a stranger ; but since I am in for it — 
 " Pergite, Pierides ! "
 
 VIRGIL. 215 
 
 In the first stanza, I must take the liberty to object against so 
 faitliful and so 'pure ; because tliey are so near to one another, and 
 yet belong to difierent sentences. Nor can I approve that con- 
 fusion of ideas which seems to be in the two last lines. Elijah 
 indeed was snatched up in a chai'iot of fire ; but pure victims, 
 consumed by fire from heaven, cannot be said to be snatched up 
 in it. Has the word celestial, in the fourth line, any force ? If 
 heaven snatches them up in fire, that fire must needs be celestial, 
 i.e. heavenly. 
 
 Your second stanza is full of good sense, shortly expressed ; 
 but metliinks there is some obscurity in it, " quo vitio minimo 
 teneri soles," as Suetonius says of Horace. For when Grod calls 
 the virtuous to the grave, though he be alike just whether he 
 calls him soon or late, yet it should not be said that he is alike 
 merciful whether he kills or saves him ; because if he saves him, 
 the very supposition of his being called to the grave is destroyed. 
 Nor am I perfectly satisfied with the phi'ase — 
 
 When God calls Virtue to the grave ; 
 
 though, if the connection of it with the fourth line were exact in 
 point of sense, the expression itself would not shock me. 
 
 Virtue unmoved. Should you not rather say Goodness than 
 I'epeat the word Virtue, which you had used three lines before ? 
 So you had call also ; but that repetition is graceful, the verb 
 being changed into a substantive, and becoming by that means 
 a new word which echoes to the former, and yet difiers from it. 
 
 aliusque et idem 
 
 Nasceris 
 
 says he who says everything better than anybody else, but 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 Hsec ego dictabam, sylvas saltusque peragrans 
 Bromleios, urbes ixrbanaque gaudia vitans, 
 Excepto, qudd non simul esses, cajtera la;tus : 
 Hai latebrse dulces, etiam (si credis) atna>na3, 
 Incolumem tibi me priEstant Septembribus horis ! 
 
 Tou see, sir, I have obeyed your commands, because they are 
 yours, with a frankness which I should like in another ; and 
 therefore hope you will not dislike in me. I have ventured to 
 object to what T could not have written, and cannot jnend. T 
 was pleased with the thought of writing to you, though upon a
 
 216 RHYME. 
 
 subject whicli did not altogether please me ; for experience has 
 taught nio that it is a wiser and better pleasure to taste the 
 beauties of good writers than to find out their faults, especially 
 since it is great odds that, when we are playing the critic, we 
 commit more real mistakes than wc pretend to find. That, I 
 doubt not, is my case : however, jacta est alea ! 
 
 I say nothing to you about rliyme, because it is a subject on 
 which I have so much to say. Why should you forego an advan- 
 tage which you enjoy in perfection, and own that way of writing 
 not to be the best in which you write better than any man ? I 
 am not so unreasonable as to expect it. But I know I have the 
 testimony of your poetical conscience on my side, though you 
 are wise enough not to own so unpopular and unprofitable a 
 truth. 
 
 When I see you here, as you seem to promise, more of these 
 matters. In the mean time, I am, &c.* 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 POLITICIANS. 
 
 Harley and the Tory Government of Queen Anne — Walpole 
 goes into Opposition — Expelled the House of Commons for 
 Corruption ; and committed to the Tower — The Examiner 
 and the Medley — Addison and Steele attack the Adminis- 
 tration — Garth V. Prior — Addison's Compliment to Atter- 
 bury's Poetical Talent — Panegyrists and Satirists — Dedica- 
 tions — The Medley — Dr. William King — Lord Lansdowne 
 — His Eulogium on James II. — Steele and "Walpole — Main- 
 waring — Robert Molesworth — Archdeacon Coxe's Suppres- 
 sions of the Influence of Atterbury, and Misrepresentation 
 of his Conduct — Lord Halifax impeached. 
 
 Harley, when at the head of the Queen's government, 
 strove to strengthen his forces by means of recruits 
 from the ranks of his defeated adversaries. He made 
 a proposal to Walpole, but that shrewd calculator had 
 no faith in the duration of Toryism. The constitu- 
 tion of the country might last for ages, but that of 
 the Queen could not be relied upon for more than a 
 brief interval. With a Tory government, high church 
 and high state principles were matters of course ; and 
 these could not in the present state of things be 
 reconciled with the popular idea of the Protestant 
 succession and "No Popery." He was content to 
 bide his time, watching his opportunity to aid in the 
 restoration of his own party and his own political
 
 218 WALPOLE IN OPPOSITION. 
 
 principles. He therefore went into opposition with 
 a zeal that made him defend his late colleaa'ues when- 
 ever attacked, and attack those statesmen who had 
 superseded them whenever a chance presented itself 
 of doing so with effect. 
 
 This conduct of course made him obnoxious to the 
 existing Government. They saw that their tenure of 
 office must be short if such tactics were permitted. 
 The game played by the Wliigs to displace Harley 
 was now played by the Tories to get rid of Walpole. 
 Very few public men of that age could come out of 
 the ordeal of an inquiry unscathed. Walpole's ad- 
 ministration, as Secretary at War, was looked into, 
 and, as usual, enormous corruption discovered. The 
 ministerial majority of the House of Commons were 
 indignant, and in the session of 1711 went to the 
 extreme course of expulsion, and then committed him 
 close prisoner to the Tower. 
 
 It was the making of his political fortune. With 
 the plea of injured innocence he raised the shout of 
 party persecution, and presently became more popular 
 in the prison than ever he had been in the Senate. 
 He held levees, which were attended by the most 
 distinguished Whigs : even the dreadfully indignant 
 Duchess of Marlborough, the more plainly to show 
 her defiant spirit, condescended to pay a visit to the 
 captive. He became the object not only of pamphlet 
 but of ballad popularity. Estcourt came forward on 
 the occasion with verses on "The Jewel in the 
 Tower." 
 
 As an interesting victim, Walpole had changed 
 places with Sacheverell ; not so quickly with the
 
 Addison's "campaign." 219 
 
 result that had attended the Doctor's prosecution, but 
 to expedite it the dismissed Secretary employed all 
 his energies and all his resources. The press was his 
 chief rehance, and he lavished his gains of office in 
 recompensing writers capable of doing justice to his 
 case. Richard Steele was so employed, but the most 
 energetic of his pamphleteers was himself 
 
 Neither Addison's "Campaign," nor John Philips's 
 " Blenheim," realized the grand suggestiveness of 
 the subject. They were good enough as specimens 
 of the pompous panegyric then in vogue. They 
 were executed by their authors as a sort of poetical 
 duel — in which Godolphin and Halifax were the 
 seconds of one, and Harley and St. John those of 
 the other. Marlborough was the hero both parties 
 were desirous of elevating on the highest possible 
 pedestal, but neither the Whig nor the Tory poet was 
 able to raise his production much above the level of 
 mediocrity. There is, however, a passage in "The 
 Campaign " which Ph^ips could not have equalled ; 
 indeed, his merit did not lie in this direction : — 
 
 'Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved, 
 
 That in the shock of charging hosts unmoved, 
 
 Amidst confusion, hoiTor, and despair, 
 
 Examined all the dreadful scenes of war ; 
 
 In peaceful thought the scenes of death sur\'ey'd. 
 
 To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid, 
 
 Inspired repulsed battalions to engage. 
 
 And taught the doul>tful battle where to rage : 
 
 So when an angel, by Divine command, 
 
 With rising tempest shakes a guilty land, 
 
 Such as of late o'er pale Britannia pass'd, 
 
 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast. 
 
 And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform. 
 
 Bides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm. 
 
 Steele, eager to do justice to his IVicud, (quoted this
 
 220 garth's verses 
 
 passage as an example of the true sublime ;* but the 
 English commander, in full wig, cocked hat, and wide- 
 skirted uniform, presiding over a field of carnage, can 
 scarcely be described as fulfilling the commands of 
 the Deity in angelic guise. 
 
 Some of the early literary friends of Dr. Atterbury 
 were not disposed to sit still and see their patrons 
 abused. Steele and Addison, in particular, proved 
 restless under the provocation given to them in the 
 new journal. 
 
 Dr. Garth was still more impatient of the discom- 
 fiture of his patrons, and sung their praises with 
 increased zeal. One example attracted considerable 
 attention, and created a ]*emarkable controversy. It 
 represents the current coin of compliment which con- 
 temporary poets put out to interest : — 
 
 TO THE EARL OF GODOLPHIN. 
 
 Whilst weeping Europe bends beneath her ills, 
 And where the sword destroys, not famine kills, 
 Our Isle enjoys, by your successful care. 
 The pomp of peace amidst the. woes of war. 
 So much the public to your prudence owes, 
 You think no labours long for our repose ; 
 Such conduct, such integrity are shown, 
 TJiere are no coffers empty but your own ! 
 From mean dependence, merit you retrieve, 
 UnasFd you offer, and unseen you give. 
 Your favours, like the Nile, increase bestows, 
 And yet conceals the source from whence it flows. 
 So poised your passions are, we find no frown. 
 If Funds oppress'd not, and if Commerce run, 
 Taxes diminish' d. Liberty entire. 
 These are the grants your services require. 
 Thus far the State machine wants no repair. 
 But moves in matchless order by your care, 
 Free from confusion, settled and serene. 
 And, like the Universe, by springs unseen. 
 
 * Tatler, No. 43.
 
 ON LORD GODOLPHIN. 221 
 
 But now some star sinister to our prayers, 
 Contrives new schemes, and calls you from affairs, 
 No anguish in your looks nor cares appear, 
 But how to teach OC unpractised crew to steer. 
 Thus, like some victim, no constraint you need. 
 To expiate their offence by whom you bleed I 
 Ingratitude's a weed in every clime ; 
 It thrives too fast at first, but fades in time ; 
 The God of Bay and your own lot 's the same, 
 The vapours you have raised obscure your flame, 
 But though you faster and awhile retreat. 
 Your globe of light looks larger as you set. 
 
 There could be no doubt about tlie poem being 
 a "Whig manifesto, written to elevate the discarded 
 minister at the expense of his successors in office. 
 Atterbury must have laughed over the extravagance 
 of the eulogium and the absurdity of the diction ; 
 but the spirit of depreciation, which, while the 
 versifier represented the Whig statesman as a bleed- 
 ing victim, misrepresented the Tory statesmen as 
 an unpractised crew, as well as mere vapours of 
 their sun-like predecessor's raising, he and his poli- 
 tical friends were of opinion that the public ought 
 to look closely into it. 
 
 The Examiner had only been in existence a few 
 weeks. Prior took up the verses to Lord Godolphin, 
 and criticized their production much more with the 
 animus of an angry politician than the judgment of 
 a true poet. In the sixth number of the new Tory 
 periodical the Whig verses, were turned the seamy 
 side without. The provocation was great, and the 
 punishment proportionate. The loungers at Button's, 
 the gossips at Will's, the fine gentlemen at Wliite's, 
 and the lovers of humour everywhere, were reading 
 and laughing over Trior's summary : — 
 
 In thirty lines liis patron is a river, ihcprhnum viobile, a pilot,
 
 222 "the medley, 
 
 >5 
 
 a victim, tho sun — anything and nothing. Ho bestows increase, 
 conceals his source, makes the machine move, teaches to steer, 
 expiates oui* oifences, i-aises vapoui's, and looks larger as he sets. 
 
 The ridicule aimed at the physician annoyed his 
 friends and patrons. " The world's dread laugh " was 
 not to be desired by the Whigs in their present posi- 
 tion, and the aid of the ablest of their literary sup- 
 porters was sought to silence the audacious critic. 
 A rival periodical, called "The Medley, or Whig 
 Examiner," was selected as the channel of publicity, 
 and to Addison was deputed the task of demolishing 
 Prior. The scorn with which he affected to treat the 
 remarks of so esteemed a poet, was not more remark- 
 able than the use he made of his knowledge of the 
 ablest of his colleagues. The sincerity of his praise 
 of the latter may be as open to question as that of 
 his contempt for the former : there is no question 
 that he forgot the author of much good poetry in his 
 desire to avenge the laugh he had raised against his 
 friends. 
 
 He quoted certain verses, " On a Lady's Fan," with 
 the remark that, " without flattery to the author, the 
 composition is, I think, as beautiful in its kind as any 
 one in the English tongue." 
 
 Flavia the least and slightest toy 
 Can with resistless force emisloy ; 
 This fan in meaner hands would prove 
 An engine of small force in love ; 
 But she with such an air and mien, 
 Not to be told or rarely seen, 
 Diverts its wanton motions so 
 That it wounds more than Cupid's bow, 
 Gives coolness to the matchless dame, 
 To every other breast a flame ! 
 
 The essayist adds, " When the coxcomb had done
 
 HYPERCRITICISM. 223 
 
 reading them, ' Hey-day ! ' says he, ' what instrument 
 is this that Flavia employs in such a manner as is 
 not to be told nor safely seen ? In ten lines it is a 
 toy, a Cupid's bow, a fan, and an engine in love. 
 It has wanton motions, it wounds, it cools, and 
 inflames.' " 
 
 Addison supplements this with, " Such criticisms 
 make a man of sense sick, and a fool merry."* 
 
 The verses had been written many years before 
 by Atterbury, in compliment to the young lady he 
 married ; and the critic thus retorted on Prior, who 
 had written the offensive critique on the poem of a 
 friend, while paying a suggestive mark of respect to 
 Lis talented colleague. 
 
 Addison made another happy hit at the hyper- 
 criticism of his day in the Spectator, No. 470, August 
 29, 1712, in which, after giving the verses beginning 
 
 My love was fickle once and changing, 
 
 he adds pretended variations from a Vatican MS., 
 Scioppius, Salmasius, the Cotton Library, Aldus, the 
 elder -^Eneas, and the German MS. He say-s : — 
 
 I have often fancied with myself how enraged an old Latin 
 author would be should he see the several absurdities in sense 
 and grammar which are imputed to him by some or other of 
 these various readings. In one he speaks nonsense, in another 
 makes use of a word that was never heard of ; .and indeed there 
 is scarce a solecism in writing which the best author is not guilty 
 of, if we may be at liberty to read him in the words of some 
 MS. which the laborious editor has thought fit to examine in the 
 prosecution of his work. 
 
 • TaAlcr, No. 239 ; October 19, 1710. In some editions of these Essays it is 
 incorrectly stated that the celebrated actress, Mrs. Ohlfield, was the Flavia of this 
 charming iioeni.
 
 224 DEDICATIONS. 
 
 Addison and Steele dealt largely in dedications, 
 complimentary verses, and prose eulogies to people in 
 power. Eacli republished volume of the Spectator 
 was inscribed to a patron. The first volume was 
 dedicated to John Lord Somers, who, in consequence 
 of his able advocac}'- of the Protestant prelates, had 
 been elevated to the highest posts in his profession. 
 He had been impeached when Lord Chancellor, but 
 Queen Anne appointed him Lord President of the 
 Privy Council. Addison did justice to the merits of 
 this distinguished man in a paper in another of his 
 periodicals, the Freeholder. * 
 
 The second volume of the Spectator is dedicated to 
 Charles Lord HaUfax, to whom the editor professes a 
 passionate veneration at the commencement, and at 
 the close asks forgiveness for telling the world " how 
 ardently I love and honour you." His lordship had 
 the good fortune to be eulogized by the same pen in 
 the Tatler. Addison added his liberal commendation, 
 and was extremely touchy when any attack was made 
 upon the minister by his political opponents. 
 
 The third volume was inscribed to the Hon. Henry 
 Boyle, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 and Secretary of State. He introduced Addison to 
 Lord Grodolphin. The fourth volume, in much more 
 extravagant terms, is dedicated to the Duke of Marl- 
 borough. The last sentence, however, seems to be of 
 somewhat doubtful significance.! The fifth volume 
 
 * Published on the clay of his Lordshiji's funeral. He died April 26, 1716, 
 worn out by infirmities. He was born in 1652. 
 
 + We may congiutulate your Grrace not only upon your high achievements, but 
 likewise upon the happy expiration of your command, by which your glory is put 
 out of the power of Fortune ; and when your person shall be so too, that the
 
 PATRONS. 225 
 
 bore the name of Thomas Earl, afterwards Marquis, 
 of Whai-ton,* to whom Addison was secretary when 
 his lordship was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It is 
 intensely flattering. The sixth volume is inscribed to 
 the Earl of Sunderland, another cabinet minister. It 
 is of the same character as its predecessor, and con- 
 cludes by "desiring your lordship would continue your 
 favour and patronage to me, as you are a gentleman of 
 the most jjollte literature!' The seventh volume is 
 inscribed to Mr. Methuen, subsequently Sir Paul. 
 
 The recommendations of this public servant are 
 stated to be " the most graceful address in horseman- 
 ship, in the use of the sword, and in dancing," and 
 " the frank entertainment we have at yom* table, your 
 easy condescension in little incidents of mirth and 
 diversion, and general complacency of manners." 
 "Richard Steele" is the signature at the bottom of 
 this ; the others are anonymous, being signed, " The 
 Spectator." 
 
 As if the editor had exhausted his patrons, or that 
 there was a new order of things established, which 
 made patronage uncertain, the eighth volume 
 is dedicated to the imaginary character, "Will 
 Honeycombe," supposed to have been a portrait 
 of Colonel Cleland. It is much the most amusing 
 of the series, but has been attributed to Eustace 
 Budgell. 
 
 The persons to whom Addison and Steele paid 
 
 Author and Disposer of all things may plane you in that higher mansion of bliss 
 and immortality, which is prepared for good princes, lawgivers, and heroes, when 
 He in His due time removes them from the envy of mankind, is the hearty 
 prayer of," &c., &o. 
 * He died in 1715. 
 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 226 Addison's irritation. 
 
 court, and from wliom tliey had received favours, 
 were the leaders of the party assailed by Swift and 
 his colleagues in the Examiner. The former loses 
 his temper at this hostility, and throws names on all 
 and sundry engaged in it ; but these comments con- 
 tain only indirect references to Atterbury — the most 
 evident being a passage in No. G04, 
 
 Wliilc I was employing myself for the good of mankind, 
 I was surprised to meet with very unsuitable returns from my 
 fellow-creati^res. Never was poor author so beset with pam- 
 phleteers, who sometimes marched directly against me, but 
 oftener shot at me from strong bulwarks, or rose up suddenly 
 in ambush. They were of all characters and capacities — some 
 with ensigns of dignity, and others in liveries ; but what most 
 surprised me was to see two or three in hlach goions among my 
 enemies. 
 
 The success of these periodicals suggested an 
 additional source of revenue, so the Grovernraent 
 put on a halfpenny stamp, 1st of August, 1712. 
 Addison dilates on this in the Spectator, No. 445, 
 not without considerable irritation. He refers 
 to his enemies, " the insignificant party zealots 
 on both sides, men of such poor narrow souls 
 that they are not capable of thinking on any- 
 thing but with an eye to Whig or Tory." He 
 continues : " During the course of this paper I 
 have been accused by these despicable ivretches of 
 ' trimming, time-serving, personal reflections, secret 
 satire, and the like ;" and presently, adds : " several 
 paltry scribblers and declaimers have done me the 
 honour to be dull upon me in reflections of this 
 nature, but notwithstanding my name has been 
 sometimes traduced by this contemptiljle tribe of men,
 
 Steele's character of him. 227 
 
 I have hitherto avoided all animadversions upon 
 them." * 
 
 Steele has acquired a reputation for attacking 
 public characters, but he was equally ready at 
 compliments, as for instance, when he commends 
 the principal members of the Administration in 
 Februaiy, 1709-10, the Commander-in-Chief, the 
 Lord High Treasurer, the President of the Council, 
 the Lord Chancellor, the First Lord of the Admiralty, 
 and the Lord Lieutenant of L'eland. The force 
 of panegyric could no further go, nor much broader. 
 Addison confined his praise to one minister at a time ; 
 Steele favoured a batch. f But he never compli- 
 mented with more felicity than when he praised 
 Addison after he had left the country {Tatler, May 
 25, 1710): it is a genial portrait that ought to be 
 framed side by side with the more familiar one 
 executed by Pope. 
 
 Aristeus is in my opinion a perfect master of himself in all 
 circumstances. He has all the spirit that men can have, and 
 yet is as regular in his behaviour as a mere macliine. He is 
 sensible of every passion, but ruffled by none. In conversation 
 he frequently seems less knowing, to be more obliging, and 
 chooses to be on a level with others, rather than oppress with 
 the superiority of his genius. In friendship he is kind without 
 profession, in business expeditious without ostentation. With 
 the greatest softness and benevolence imaginable, he is impartial 
 in spite of all importunity — even that of his own good nature. 
 He is ever clear in his judgment, but in complaisance to his 
 company speaks with doubt, and never shows confidence in 
 argument but to support the sense of another. 
 
 * The writer appears to have forgotten his attack on Swift, in No. 23. 
 
 t The Duke of Marlborough, Sidney Lord Godolphin, Lord Somers, Lord 
 Cowper, Edward Russell, K.nl <,f Oxford, and Thomas Earl of Wharton. Tathr, 
 No. 130. 
 
 10 *-
 
 228 THE " ENGLISHMAN. 
 
 >> 
 
 In several papers in the Spectator Addison dwells 
 with marked irritation on the excesses of party 
 writers ; he refers to their calnmny and defamation, 
 denounces them as a race of vermin that are a 
 scandal to government, and a reproach to human 
 nature. He adds : " Every one who has in him the 
 sentiments either of a Christian or a gentleman, 
 cannot but be highly offended at this wicked and 
 ungenerous practice ; " then classes them with " mur- 
 derers and assassins."* 
 
 The Englishman, another enterprise of the zealous 
 partisan Steele, was commenced October 18, 1713 ; 
 which included a series of communications entitled 
 " The Crisis ; or, a Discourse Representing from the 
 most Aucient Records the Just Causes of the late 
 Revolution, and the Several Settlements of the Crown 
 of England, with some Seasonable Remarks on the 
 Danger of a Popish Successor." The object of it 
 was the advocacy of the Hanoverian succession, to 
 which many persons in England were averse. Robert 
 Walpole appears to have been the instigator, and as 
 he had just been expelled the House of Commons, 
 Steele, who was eager to distinguish himself as his 
 subordinate, when the House assembled, put himself 
 forward as his champion, as early as the opening 
 debate on the choice of a Speaker. As he spoke, 
 excitement was manifested by both parties, till the 
 confusion broke out into an uproar. 
 
 It was on the 10th November, 1713, that a mem- 
 ber rose and directed the attention of the House to 
 
 * No. 451 ; Thursday, August 7, 1712.
 
 STEELE EXPELLED THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 229 
 
 three passages in the Englishman, signed Richard 
 Steele, manifestly seditious, highly' reflecting on Her 
 Majesty, and arraigning her administration and 
 government. The member for Stockbridge was 
 ordered to attend on the 13th, when he was permitted 
 five days to make his defence. He at first treated 
 the afi'air with mockery, but subsequently had to 
 appear at the bar, where, with the assistance of his 
 friend Addison, the member for Malmesbury, he 
 attempted a sort of justification, which he rendered 
 as insulting as he could to his political opponents. 
 
 When he had been ordered to withdraw, there was 
 a debate, in which he was defended by the two Wal- 
 poles, and Lords Finch, Lumley, and Hinchinbroke ; 
 but on a division this motion was carried b}^ 245 
 against 152 : — 
 
 That a printed pamplilet called the ILnglialiman, being the 
 close of the paper so called, and one other pamphlet entitled 
 the Crisis, wi-itten by Richard Steele, Esq., a member of this 
 House, are scandalous and seditious libels, containing many ex- 
 pressions highly reflecting upon Her Majesty, upon the nobility, 
 gentry, clergy, and universities of tliis kingdom, maliciously 
 insinuating tliat the Protestant succession in the House of 
 Hanover is in danger under Her Majesty's administration, and 
 tending to alienate the affections of Her Majesty's good sub- 
 jects, and to create jealousies and divisions among them. It 
 was resolved, likewise, for his offence in writing and publishing 
 the said scandalous and seditious libels, that he be expelled the 
 Souse. 
 
 Steele, therefore, ceased to be a member of the 
 House of Commons ; but his importance among the 
 Whig leaders was so increased, that the Duke of Marl- 
 borougli l'uniisli( (1 him willi liis iamlly papers with a 
 view to prepare a biogra])liy, wliich St-eele announced.
 
 230 MAINWAllING. 
 
 He also started two new publications, the Spinster 
 and the Reader, and remained a thorn in the side of 
 the Tory government till the Queen's death. 
 
 Steele and AValpole were jointly concerned in several 
 political publications ; indeed their intense hostility 
 to the friends of Atterbury was notorious. 
 
 Some idea of "the animosity with which the conflict 
 was carried on may be gathered from Steele's " Apo- 
 logy."* 
 
 Mainwaring, the pupil of Dr. Smalridge, gained 
 the favour of Charles Montagu, who got him the 
 lucrative appointment of Commissioner of Customs, 
 which presently procured him commendation in 
 some verses entitled " The Petition of the Distressed 
 Merchants to the Lord High Treasurer against the 
 Commissioners of the Customs : " — 
 
 From GodolpLin, that wasp whose talent is notion, 
 
 From snarling tool Clarke, at the other's devotion. 
 
 From republican Ben, the old clergy-teaser, 
 
 Whose true Christian name you must know 's Ebenezer, 
 
 From the flatt'ring false Henley, who sneaks to Church party, 
 
 And for but half salary vows to be hearty. 
 
 From fearful proud Newport, who spits out his curses, 
 
 From the bully Culliford, and the rogues that he nurses — 
 
 From so motley a crew, so imperious a board, 
 
 Deliver this labouring country, good Lord ! 
 
 And thy staff shall like Hercules' club be adored. 
 
 But that no grain of merit fall by this petition, 
 
 Leave Mainwaring only to grace the commission. 
 
 With the Whig leaders his qualifications, social 
 and intellectual, must have very strongly recom- 
 mended him. In an age when corruption was general, 
 his refusal of a bribe of fifty guineas to secure a 
 
 * Steele's "Apology for Himself and His Writings," occasioned by his expul- 
 sion from the House of Commons.
 
 THE " MEDLEY." 231 
 
 waiter's place for a petitioner was considered super- 
 human. Lord Godolpliin not only secured his entry 
 into Parliament for Preston in 1705, but at a con- 
 siderable expense to himself secured for him the 
 employment of " Auditor of the Imprests," reputed 
 to be worth two thousand a year. In consequence of 
 these liberal retaining fees, the voice and pen of 
 Mainwaring were entirely at his friend's disposal. 
 After 1710, liis patron's opponents were attacked 
 unceasingly in verse and prose ; he joined Steele in 
 the Medley, and in pamphlets, songs, burlesques, 
 translations, and letters, abused Dr. Sacheverell, the 
 Tory administration, the High Church party, every- 
 body who was not a Whig, His unscrupulousness 
 was seen in his denunciation of his tutor as a 
 Jacobite, and his gallantry in his intimacy with Mrs. 
 Oldfield, the actress, of whom he was passionately 
 fond. He had a son by her.* 
 
 The Medley, or Whig Examiner, was started as a 
 more direct source of counter-attack, and in No. 1, 
 September 14, 1710, Addison again assailed Prior for 
 his severe criticism on Dr. Garth. The opponents 
 had become too angry to do justice to each other's 
 ability. The AVhig essayist says : — "I allow he has 
 a happy talent at doggerel, when he writes upon a 
 known subject;" and then maliciously refers to sub- 
 jects that wherever a purer taste prevails cannot be 
 referred to. He concludes : — " We are now in an 
 age where impudent assertions must pass for argu- 
 
 * He wa« one of the most convivial intnilier.s of the Kit Kat, and much prized 
 by Walpole, who wrote a spirited defence of him in the Medley, when lie had 
 been commented on with severity after his death, November 13, 1712.
 
 232 THE " WHIG EXAMINER." 
 
 ments : and I don't question but the same critic who 
 has endeavoured here to prove that he who wrote 
 ' The Dispensar}'- ' was no poet, will very suddenly 
 undertake to show that he who gained the battle of 
 Blenheim was no general." 
 
 The Wliig Examwer came to an untimely end after 
 a short reign of five numbers, two of which were de- 
 voted to Secretary St. John's letter. In August, 
 1711, the writers opened fire from another battery 
 — a new enterprise ; but that was silenced the next 
 week, and the Kxaminer continued to pour its fire 
 upon the Whigs without intermission. The latter 
 were, however, husbanding their means of oftence for 
 a favourable opening, and this came much too soon 
 for the Tories. Literary and political ministers had 
 not time to prepare for a change, which should in 
 their turn throw them out of the chariot. They had 
 sent Prior to Paris to negotiate a peace, and he so far 
 succeeded, that plenipotentiaries had been appointed 
 to meet at Utrecht in January, 1711-12. Prior 
 remained at the French court, where he was joined 
 by Secretary St. John (Bolingbroke), and the treaty 
 went on in a great measure under his management, 
 till, in 1712, it was left entirely to his arrangement, 
 with the authority of ambassador. 
 
 Dr. William King is said to have helped Dr. 
 Atterbury in projecting the Examiner, and became a 
 political coadjutor of the most thorough-going cha- 
 racter, his satirical talent coming out very strong 
 when attacking Dr. White Kennet for preaching a 
 laudatory sermon at the funeral of the Duke of 
 Devonshire. He hated the Whigs most cordially,
 
 GEORGE GRANVILLE. 233 
 
 wliich feeling he displayed in 1711 in a poem directed 
 against tlie Duke of Marlborough, and his principal col- 
 leac^ues. His irreo-ularities and eccentricities defeated 
 the intentions of his best friends to serve him. He 
 was appointed editor of the Gazette, but shortly after- 
 wards threw it up, though it might have been a com- 
 petency for life. He never missed an opportunity^ of 
 annoying the opponents of Dr. Atterbury, and having 
 sufficiently revenged himself on Dr. Kennet, he mor- 
 tified the Primate, Dr. Tenison, by causing popular 
 rejoicings to be made at Lambeth for the surrender 
 of Dunkirk, wliich the Archbishop chose to regard 
 as " an untoward event." This demonstration must 
 have been his last in favour of his friend, or for 
 any political object whatever, for, after a brief ill- 
 ness, he died on Christmas-day, 1712, in a particu- 
 larly exemplary manner.* 
 
 George Granville had commenced his career, as 
 almost all men of good family and superior intelligence 
 began theirs, as an aspirant for poetical distinction. 
 The path was clear and not much up hill, the first step 
 being in the direction of a patron. As a friend of 
 Waller and of Dryden, he secured the best examples, 
 and as he chose to direct his appeal to the legitimate 
 fountain of honour, it might be imagined that he had 
 secured also the highest patronage. He addressed 
 the fountain of honour in these eighteen lines of 
 intense panegyric: — 
 
 • That his political writings were far less amusing than liis quizzes upon 
 antiquarians, or what were styled " Virtuosi," for whom he wrote such treatises 
 as " The Dentiscalpc, or Toothpick of the Ancients ;" " The Plays of the (ircci.m 
 Boys and Girls," "A .Method to Teach Learned Men huw tn Write ruinteiligibiy ;" 
 "Jasper Hans Van Sloenburg's Voyage to Cajamai," &c., &c., &c.
 
 234 FLATTERY. 
 
 TO THE KING. 
 Heroes of old by rapine and by spoil, 
 In search of fame did all the world embroil ; 
 This to their Gods each then allied his name, 
 This sprung from Jove, and that from Titan came. 
 With equal valour and the same success, 
 Dread King, might'st thou the Universe oppress; 
 But Christian laws constrain thy martial pride, 
 Peace is thy choice, and piety thy guide. 
 By thy example Kings are taught to sway, 
 Heroes to fighl, and saints may learn to pray. 
 From Gods descended and of race divine, 
 Nestor in council and Ulysses shine ; 
 But in a day of battle all would yield 
 To the fierce master of the seven-fold shield. 
 Their very Deities were graced no more, ' . 
 
 Mars had the courage, Jove the thunder bore ; 
 But all p)crfections meet in James alone. 
 And Britain's King is all the Gods in one. 
 
 Svirely the force of flattery could no further go 
 applied to most kings ; but the poem was addressed to 
 so very ordinary a monarch as James II., whose pro- 
 fessions of justice and moderation on ascending the 
 throne had elicited this extravagant acknowledgment. 
 Exaggerated as it was, it was immediately endorsed by 
 Waller in these lines : — 
 
 An early plant which such a blossom bears, 
 And shows a genius far beyond his years, 
 A judgment that could make so fair a choice. 
 So high a subject to employ his voice : 
 Still as it grows, how sweetly will he sing 
 The groiving greatness of our matcldess King. 
 
 The commendation of the Court poet of the Stuarts 
 appears to have transported his youthful pupil, and, 
 in an answer to the foregoing, he acknowledges the 
 gratification they had afforded him, adding : — 
 
 Ages to come shall scorn the powers of old. 
 When in thy verse of greater Gods they're told ; 
 Our beauteous Queen and Royal James's name. 
 For Jove and Juno shall be placed by Fame !
 
 .SACCHARISSA AND MIRA. 235 
 
 Thy Cliarles for Keptune shall the seas commaml, 
 And Saecharissa shall for Venus stand ; 
 Greece shall no longer boast, nor lianghty Rome, 
 But think from Britain all the Gods did come. 
 
 The Saccliarissa was, as the reader has ah*eady 
 been informed, the novi dc Jy/^(;w^e of Lady Dorothy 
 Sidne}", wliom the poet immortalized in verses as 
 sweet as the fanciful appellation. Here also he was 
 an example to Mr. Granville, who thought proper 
 similarly to distinguish the Countess of Newhurgh, 
 under the name of "Mira." This, however, is a 
 much more natural proceeding than the future 
 friend of Atterbury and advocate of High Church 
 principles commencing his public career as the 
 most extravagant eulogist of the greatest enemy of 
 Protestantism. He addressed three poems to King 
 James, and was, in consequence, favourably received 
 at Court, particularly by Mary of Modena, whom, 
 several years before, when Duchess of York, he had 
 Hattered in a similar style. 
 
 Mr. Granville's tragedy, " Heroic Love," was per- 
 formed in 10 DO, with a Prologue, written by his 
 friend Henry St. John : it had the further distinction 
 of being warmly eulogized in a poem by John 
 Dry den, that commenced — 
 
 Auspicious poet, wert thou not my friend, 
 
 How could I envy what I must commend ! 
 
 But since 'tis Nature's law, in love and wit, 
 
 That Youth should reign, and with'ring Age submit, 
 
 With less regret those laurels I resign. 
 
 Which, dying on my brow, revive on thine. 
 
 This, and several other plays and poems, met with 
 a fair share of publir favour; but ]\Ir. Granville 
 aspired to move in a larger theatre than the mimic
 
 236 LORD LANSDOWNE. 
 
 stage, and entered Parliament in the first 3'ear of the 
 reign of Queen Anne. "All the Gods m one" had 
 long since been disposed of; and that opinion of him 
 would not have been listened to in the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 His position as the younger son of a younger 
 brother became improved by bequests from kinsmen 
 and the death of his elder brother, Sir Bevil Gran- 
 ville. He, having entered Parliament, joined the 
 Opposition, and in 1710, on the memorable change 
 of ministry, succeeded Robert Walpole as Secretary 
 at War. He was called to the Upper House the 
 following year, as Lord Lansdowne. In 1712 he was 
 appointed Comptroller to the Royal Household; 
 and the same year Pope dedicated to him his 
 " Windsor Porest." He was acknowledged not only 
 as a poet, but as the friend of poets ; in truth, was 
 the cordial patron of literary merit, and was much 
 esteemed by Atterbury and all his friends. 
 
 In 1713 Lord Lansdowne was appointed Treasurer 
 to the Household, the last office he held during the 
 reign of Queen Anne. To what extent he was com- 
 promised in the negotiations that were carried on at 
 the Queen's death, with the view of bringing her 
 half-brother to England, has never been ascertained ; 
 but there can be no question that he was opposed to 
 the succession of the Elector of Hanover, and this 
 being well known, caused him to be superseded in 
 the Treasurership by Lord Cholmondely, apparently 
 by the minister whom he had superseded as Secretary 
 at War. 
 
 Lord Lansdowne was reputed to possess liighei
 
 MOLESWORTH. 237 
 
 poetical powers than those he chose to exhibit in 
 his poems and plays, but was too idle to develop 
 them. The Duke of Buckingham, in some negligent 
 verses, thus alludes to this — 
 
 yet Lansdowne was named, 
 
 But Apollo with kindness his indolence blamed, 
 
 And siiid he would choose him, but that he should fear 
 
 An employment of trouble he never could bear. 
 
 Much to his credit, his lordship does not appear 
 to have feared trouble for other poets, and gains 
 more honour as the early patron of Pope than he 
 could have lost fame by neglecting his own poetical 
 interests. 
 
 For the present the reader must be content to lose 
 sight of his lordship as a literary friend of Atter- 
 bury ; they were far more closely connected in 
 politics — Lord Lansdowne being both a Tory and 
 a Jacobite. 
 
 Much violent opposition to the ^party with which 
 Atterbury was now closely connected was shown by 
 Eobert IMolesworth, who had been Envoy Extra- 
 ordinary to the Court of Denmark in the preceding 
 reign, and had published an account of that country, 
 which gained him the friendship of Lord Shaftesbury 
 and other public men of the same politics, by whose 
 influence he got into Parliament, and was made a 
 member of the Privy Council. His partisanship 
 manifested itself so offensively, that in January, 1713, 
 he was removed from the Council, on a complaint 
 made by the Lower House of Convocation, that he 
 had affronted the clergy by asserting that they had 
 turned the world upside down. He was an active 
 colleague of Walpole, in whose support he so distin-
 
 238 LORD HALIFAX. 
 
 guislicd himself as to establish a strong claim on his 
 gratitude. 
 
 Lord Halifax was impeached by the House of 
 Commons for having advised the King to sign the 
 Partition Treaty, but the Upper House dismissed the 
 articles. When Queen Anne succeeded to the throne, 
 he was dismissed from his post, again impeached by 
 the Commons, and again protected by the Lords. 
 He affected a profound interest in the Church of 
 England, and directed an inquiry into its alleged 
 danger : he also sat as one of the judges on the trial 
 of Dr. Sacheverell, and voted in favour of a mild 
 sentence ; but his political views were made suffi- 
 ciently clear by his moving, in the Upper House, for 
 a writ to summon the Elector to take his place 
 among the Peers, as Duke of Cambridge — a service 
 that did not go unrewarded.* 
 
 During his season of power, Lord Halifax was the 
 object of constant dedication in verse and prose, 
 Addison leading the way by styling him 
 
 The noble Montagu, 
 For wit, for honour, and for judgment famed. 
 
 There were two exceptions. Swift and Pope : the 
 latter went to the other extreme, but waited till his 
 career was over. The character of Bufo more than 
 sufficiently expresses the poet's contempt ; the Dean 
 was not quite so bitter in his post mortem notice. 
 He was in no favour with Atterbury, who regarded 
 him as an active ally of Walpole's. Dr. Johnson, 
 
 * George I. created him Earl of Halifax, and made him a Knight of the 
 Garter, and First Commissioner of the Treasury — honours he retained a very 
 short time, as he died March 19, ITl.*).
 
 ARCHDEACON COXE. 239 
 
 * 
 
 tliougli lie includes liim in the English poets, 
 describes him as "an artful and active statesman, 
 employed in balancing parties, contriving expedients, 
 and combating opposition." 
 
 In two of the elaborate works of Archdeacon Coxe, 
 the historical student might expect to find frequent 
 references to a distinguished political opponent of 
 the great historical characters, whose careers he has 
 there described. Atterbury was prominent among 
 the adversaries of Marlborough and of Walpole, but 
 the biographer scarcely notices him in his life of the 
 general, and misrepresents him egregiously in his 
 history of the statesman. It appears as if, in under- 
 taking the advocating these causes celcbres, he was 
 bound to suppress all evidence against his clients. 
 He therefore to a great extent ignores the action of 
 Atterbury in the important events that affected the 
 fortunes of the Whig leaders. Walpole had much 
 to do with him — too much for his fame, as will be 
 shown — and the powerful Churchills will be found 
 to be more than once succumbing to, or acting 
 against, liis influence. 
 
 The partisan biographer does make one admission 
 of Atterbury 's power with the Tory cabinet at the 
 close of the reign of Queen Anne, when he forms an 
 imaginary ministry to carry on the government in 
 the name of James III., in which Sir William Wind- 
 ham is placed as First Lord of the Treasury; Ijoling- 
 broke and Bromley as Secretaries of State, with the 
 Earl of Mar Secretary of State for Scotland ; the 
 Duke of Ormonde Commander-in-Chief; Lord Har- 
 court Lord High Chancellor ; the Huke of Lucking-
 
 240 A LITERARY PARTISAN. 
 
 ham Lord President of the Council; the Earl of 
 Strafford First Lord of the Admiralty ; and the 
 Bishop of Eochester Privy Seal.* The latter was 
 not likely to have been contented with a post of such 
 little importance. 
 
 A story has been put forth that so determined was 
 he to produce a demonstration in favour of the royal 
 exile, that he proposed putting himself at the head 
 of a party of influential Jacobites, and marching to 
 Charing Cross to proclaim their legitimate sovereign. 
 The imaginary Commander-in-Chief may have sug- 
 gested something of the kind, and the imaginary 
 Privy Seal offered to join the procession ; but no 
 trustworthy evidence exists of Atterbury having 
 acted in this manner. 
 
 What he did do at the meeting convened by 
 Bolingbroke shortly after the Queen's death, must be 
 left to conjecture. The Jacobites appear to have 
 been unprepared, and before they could agree, the 
 opportunity for effective action had passed, f 
 
 * Coxe's Marlborough, III. 
 
 f In Jesse's "Memoirs of the Pretenders and their Adherents," this doubt- 
 ful anecdote of Bishop Atterbury is all the information respecting him the work 
 contains.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 Dr. Sprat — Queen Anne makes Atterbury a Bishop — His Visit 
 to Pope's Villa— Dr. Wake— The Bishop of Winchester- 
 Dean Swift's Congratulations — Bishop Atterbury's Letters to 
 Bishop Trelawney — Prior solicits Preferment for a Friend — 
 Bishop Atterbury recommends a Clergyman — Queen Anne's 
 Death — George I. prejudiced against the Bishop of Roches- 
 ter — He and the Bishop of Bristol refuse to sign the Decla- 
 ration of some of the Protestant Prelates in 1715 — Dr. 
 Wake Archbishop of Canterbury— Ballad on Drs. Soutli and 
 Sherlock — The Bangorean Controversy— Dean Swift to 
 Bishop Atterbury — The Bishop to Sir Jonathan Trelawney 
 — His Letter to Pope respecting Prior — Infant Baptism — 
 Peerage Bill — Dr. Lewis Atterbury's Correspondence with 
 his Brother — The New Dormitory in Westminster School 
 projected by the Bishop. 
 
 The career of Thomas Sprat was a remarkable one. 
 Like several of his contemporaries, lay and clerical, 
 his earliest declaration of opinion took the shape of 
 a poem addressed while a student at Oxford to the 
 Lord Protector,* in which the young versifier ven^ 
 tured to declare — 
 
 TLou sought' st not out of envy, hope, or hate, 
 But to refine the Church and State. 
 
 * 
 
 "Poems upon the Death of his latu JIi,;^liiics.sL- Oliver, Lord Protector of 
 England, ScotlamJ, and Ireland ; written by Mr. Edw. Waller, Mr. John Dryden, 
 and Mr. Sprat, of Oxford," 1658. 
 
 VOL. I. 17 '
 
 242 DR. SPRAT. 
 
 He did not enter into holy orders until after the 
 Restoration, when, to prove how completely he had 
 embraced the new order of things, he became chap- 
 lain to Charles TI., as well as to George Villiers, Duke 
 of Buckingham, whose poetical compositions he re- 
 vised. He had taken the degree of Doctor of 
 Divinity, and having been elected a fellow of the 
 Royal Society, wrote a history of that learned body. 
 Court patronage flowed in upon him. He was a pre- 
 bendary in Westminster in 1668, five years later 
 succeeding to the deanery. In 1683 he had also 
 received a canonry at Windsor. 
 
 He gained favour from the King and his brother 
 by drawing up an account of what was styled " The 
 Protestant Plot." James II. rewarded him with the 
 bishopric of Rochester, 1685; then appointed him 
 clerk of the closet, and a member of the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commission. His subserviency was notorious ; 
 nevertheless, after the flight of the King he wrote a 
 letter to the Earl of Dorset, vindicating his pro- 
 ceedings while connected with the Commission, from 
 which, when its tyranny became most mischievous, 
 he withdrew. 
 
 He had helped Dr. Thomas White, Bishop of 
 Peterborough, and Dr. Nathaniel Crew, of Durham, 
 in drawing up a public thanksgiving for the Queen's 
 being pregnant, for which he was irreverently chro- 
 nicled in a ballad. 
 
 Two Toms and a Nat 
 
 In council sat, 
 To rig out a thanksgiving ; 
 
 And make a pray'r 
 
 For a thing in the air, 
 That's neither dead nor living.
 
 DR. warton's calumnies. 243 
 
 Dr. Sprat did not withdraw his assistance from the 
 King till after the trial of his brother prelates had 
 showm him the temper of the nation. There is 
 nothing surprising in his now joining the stronger 
 party, and assisting them in getting rid of his patron, 
 nor in his being regarded with anything bnt favour 
 by the new government. In the year 1G92 he was 
 taken into custody on suspicion of being concerned 
 in a plot for restoring the abdicated monarch. It 
 was an era of sham conspiracies, and this proved one 
 of them. The Bishop of Eochester having undergone 
 three searcliing examinations by the Privy Council, 
 the villany of the transaction was revealed, and the 
 prelate liberated ; a narrow escape which he annually 
 kept in remembrance as a day of thanksgiving. He 
 professed a warm zeal for the Church of England, and 
 supported Dr. Atterbuiy in the active demonstrations 
 tlie latter made in its behalf, but took no prominent 
 part in politics. He was much admired as a preacher, 
 and his sermons frequently reprinted. He died May 
 20, 1713. 
 
 Dr. Warton, who has earned special eminence 
 among the slanderers of Atterbury, avers that " It 
 was with difficulty Queen Anne was persuaded to 
 make Atterbury a bishop, which she did at last on 
 the repeated importunities of Lord Harcourt, who 
 pressed the Queen to do so, because she had before 
 disappointed him in not placing Sacheverell on the 
 bencli." There is not a word of truth in the state- 
 ment. So far from the Queen requiring either 
 pressure or ])crsuasion, there existed the most per- 
 fect understanding between the Dean and his royal 
 
 17*
 
 244 DR. ATTERBURY. 
 
 mistress, who had seized every available opportunity 
 of showing the high sense Her Majesty entertained of 
 her chaplain's services. 
 
 His elevation to the episcopal bench was con- 
 temporary with his appointment as Dean of 
 Westminster, and was a source of intense grati- 
 fication to his numerous friends, literary, clerical, 
 and political. 
 
 The new Bishop of Rochester was more than once 
 an honoured visitor at the Twickenham villa. To the 
 mother of Pope he was even more welcome than he 
 was to her son, and seems to have attracted several 
 guests of about his own age, who made the society 
 there extremely agreeable to both. Respecting these 
 the poet wrote : — 
 
 There are certain old people who take up all my time, and 
 will hardly allow me to keep any other company. They were intro- 
 duced here by a man of their own sort, who has made me per- 
 fectly rude to all my contemporaries, and will not so much as 
 suffer me to look upon them. The person I complain of is the 
 Bishop of Rochester.* 
 
 Sir Jonathan Trelawney was applied to by the new- 
 made bishop for the benefit of his episcopal experi- 
 ence. Dr. Atterbury appears to have been in such a 
 hurry, that he forgot to alter his signature. It was 
 his old friend who pointed this out. The request, 
 contained in the first of the following notes, was 
 promptly complied with. The Bishop of Rochester 
 was introduced by the Bishop of Winchester on the 
 following day. 
 
 * Pope, to Mr. Digby.
 
 BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 245 
 
 The Bishop of Rochester to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Monday, July 6, 1713. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I just now received the enclosed,* and beg to know of 
 jour lordship in what habit I am to be introduced, and in what 
 habit we are to go to St. Paul's afterwards, since the Queen does 
 not go thither. I hope your lordship will do me the honour of 
 introducing me, and add that to the manj^ favours you have already 
 conferred upon, my lord, your ever faithful, obliged, and most 
 humble servant, 
 
 FrA. ATTEEBURT.t 
 
 Bishop Atteeburt to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Monday, 4 o'clock, July 6, 1713. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I write this only to thank your lordship for putting me 
 •in mind of my title, which else in my conscience I should scarce 
 have thought on this day or two. Tour lordship may depend, 
 upon it that the Queen does not go to St. Paul's to-morrow. J 
 However, I will be ready with the scarlet robe at Mr. Battely's, 
 in the cloisters, Westminster, at half an hour before nine to- 
 morrow, and beg your lordship when you come to the bishops' 
 room in the lobby to send for me to you. 
 
 I would not have troubled your lordship with a second letter, 
 but that I was willing to acknowledge my old obligations to your 
 lordship under a new name, and upon this occasion Jlrst to sub- 
 scribe myself, my lord, your ever faithful and most humble 
 servant, 
 
 Fr. Roffen.§ 
 
 * The usual summons to Parliament. Dr. Francis Atterbury had been conse- 
 crated in the Archiepiscopal Chapel at Lambeth, ou the preceding day. — W. M. 
 
 t Atterbury Papers. 
 
 t The following message was delivered to each House of Parliament, July 6, 
 1713:— 
 
 " That her Majesty, not having entirely recovered her strength since her last 
 fit of the gout, and being apprehensive that the fatigue of going to St. Paul's 
 Church may be too great, chuses rather to return her thanks to Almighty God for 
 the blessings of peace in her Chajjel at St. James's; but desires that this House 
 will proceed to St. Paul's Church, with as much solemnity as if her Majesty was 
 to be in person there." l>oth Houses of Parliament accordingly attended, and 
 Bishop Hooper preached before them. — W. M. 
 
 § Atterbury Papers.
 
 24G DR. WAKE. 
 
 Among the friends who congratulated him on his 
 preferment was his former neighbour over the way in 
 Church Lane, Chelsea. It is evident that he had not 
 yet got reconciled to his Irish deanery, to which he 
 makes something like a savage reference. He longed 
 to come back and join the pleasant circle from which 
 he had been banished, not probably without ulterior 
 views of profiting by the influence of his exalted friend. 
 
 Dr. Tenison and Dr. Wake had been the obedient 
 agents of the Whig government, invariably acting 
 together in the desired direction. The Primate had 
 no higher reward to receive, but his subordinate had 
 every possible inducement to distinguish himself in 
 the eyes of his superiors. He maintained a position 
 of opposition to the party in the Church directed by 
 Dr. Atterbury, and when he had obtained a canonry in 
 Christ Church College, with the living of St. James's, 
 Westminster, as well as held the office of Deputy 
 Clerk of the Closet to King William and Queen 
 Mary, there existed a probability of their being 
 brought into unpleasant relationship. The candi- 
 date for honours published, in 1697, his "Defence of 
 the Power of Christian Princes over their Ecclesias- 
 tical Synods, with particular respect to the Convoca- 
 tion of the Clergy and Church of England," and was 
 recompensed with the deanery of Exeter. Dean 
 Wake then wrote his " Vindication of the King's 
 Supremacy against both Popish and Fanatical Oj^po- 
 sers of it," which he followed with " The State of the 
 Church and Clergy of England ;" and his deanery was 
 supplemented with the bishopric of Lincoln. Both 
 prelates were Whigs in politics.
 
 DR. ROBERT FREIND. 247 
 
 Dean Swift to the Bishop of Rochester. 
 
 The Country in Ireland, Aug. 3, 1713. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 It was viith the greatest pleasure I heard of your lord- 
 ship's promotion — I mean that particular promotion * which I 
 beheve is agreeable to you, though it does not mend your for- 
 tune. There is but one other change I could wish you, because 
 I have heard you prefer it before all the rest, and that likewise 
 is now ready ; -f unless it be thought too soon, and that you ai-e 
 made to wait till another person has used it for a step to cross 
 the water. J 
 
 Though I am here in a way of sinking into utter oblivion, for 
 
 Hse latebrse nee dulces, nee (si mihi credis) amsente ; 
 
 yet I shall challenge the continuance of your lordship's favour; 
 and, whenever I come to London, shall with great assurance 
 «ross the Park to your lordship's house, at Westminster, as if it 
 were no more than crossing the street at Chelsea. I talked at 
 this threatening rate so often to you above two years past, that 
 you are not now to forget it. 
 
 Pray, my lord, do not let your being made a bishop hinder you 
 from cultivating the politer studies, which your heart was set 
 upon when you went to govern Christ Church. Providence has 
 made you successor to a person§ who, though of a much inferior 
 genius, turned all his thoughts that way ; and I have been told 
 with great success, by his countenance to those who deserved. 
 I envy Dr. Freind that he has you for his inspector, || and I 
 envy you for having such a person in your district, and whom 
 you love so well. Shall not / have liberty to be sometimes a third 
 amongst you, though I am an Irish dean ? 
 
 Vervecum in patriA, crassoque sub aere natus. 
 
 A very disordered head hindered me from writing earlier to 
 your lord.ship when I first heard of your preferment, and I have 
 
 * To the See of Rochester, the revenue of which was small. 
 
 + It -was not the See of London (thea vacant by tlie demise of Dr. Henry 
 Compton), but that of Winchester, which Atterbury preferred to any other. — 
 W. M. Winchester wa« not then vacant. 
 
 X To Lambeth Palace. § Bishop Sprat. 
 
 II As Dean of Westminster.
 
 248 BISHOP TRELAWNEY. 
 
 reproached myself of ingratitude, when I remembered your 
 kindness in sending me a letter upon the deanery tliey thonglit 
 fit to throw me into, to which I am yet a stranger ; being forced 
 into the country in one of my old parishes to I'ide about for a 
 little health. I hope to have the honour of asking your lordship's 
 blessing some time in October. In the mean while, I desire 
 your lordship to beUeve me to be, &c.* 
 
 The feelings inspired by the liberality of tlie Bisliop 
 of Winchester, made Bishop Atterbury anxious to 
 fulfil his slightest request. A pupil, in whom the 
 former felt an interest, appears to have been treated 
 harshly by the second master at Westminster, and 
 had quitted the school, or committed some other 
 breach of discipline. As Dean of Westminster, but 
 more as friend of the Head Master, Atterbury used his 
 interest to expedite the lad's return. The Bishop 
 had, according to Bui'ke, four sons — John, the fourth 
 baronet ; Charles, subsequently a prebendary of 
 Westminster ; Edward, who lived to be Governor of 
 Jamaica ; and Hele, who became a doctor of divi- 
 nity and rector of Southill and Landreath, Cornwall. 
 " The General," mentioned in the letter, was not 
 the Bishop's brother, Brigadier-General Trelawney, 
 but his son. The writer's subsequent appeal in 
 favour of Mr. Alsop is highly characteristic: — 
 
 Bishop of Rochester to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Chelsea, September 11, 1713. 
 
 I have done my part toward obeying your commands, and, 
 upon an epistle from Wigan, only chid him a little, and then 
 forgave him, and sent him to make his peace with Dr. Freind, 
 who had agreed to receive him upon very easy terms, but 
 thought something was to be done to hinder the example from 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 1 
 
 A TRUANT. 249 
 
 spreading ; especially since Mr. Tollett's* near approaching 
 death -will prevent all farther examination into this matter. 
 He is ill of an incurable ulcer, and will probably be dead ere 
 this letter reaches your hands ; however, he will not be alive 
 long afterwards. "When he is gone, I will take care to supply 
 his place with one who shall discharge it with less severity, and 
 be every way better qualified for it, and in whose care of your 
 children (as far as it belongs to him) and kindness for them, 
 your lordship may safely confide. 
 
 I will own to your lordship that I intended to have observed 
 a little more formality with Wigan before I admitted him 
 again, but I found by the seal of your letter that it came open to 
 Dr. Henchman, and was not willing he should think that your 
 lordship's desires were in. any degree without efiect ; and there- 
 fore immediately and effectually complied with them, 
 
 "Whenever your lordship returns the General to us, you will 
 juiid all of us, and me in particular, ready to do our best to serve 
 him. I hope to be at the deanery, "W^estminster, in three weeks 
 time ; and, when I am there, he and his brother shall be as 
 welcome to it and me as my own son. And I protest to your 
 lordship that I value my station so much the more, as it gives 
 me an opportunity of being still in some degree serviceable to 
 your family. I am with all my heart sorry to find by the public 
 prints that Mr. Trela'v\Tiey is not in at Looe, and still more sorry 
 for the occasion of it. God send that your lordship may meet 
 with a better account of him than you expected. 
 
 As soon as I can decently, I will show "Wigan, by my usage 
 of him, how much he is beholden to your lordship's interpo- 
 sition. 
 
 I need not mention Mr. Alsop to your lordship, because I 
 know your lordship cannot be unmindful of him. However, 
 since I have mentioned him, give me leave to repeat what I 
 have, I think, already said to your lordship, that no man ever 
 came under your roof of more worth or a better nature, or more 
 likely to be every way acceptable to your lordship, if I know 
 anything either of your lordship or him. It is the first and 
 last request of this kind I shall ever make to j'^our lordship, and 
 therefore I urge it the more freely.f 
 
 • Second Master of Westminster School. t Alterbury Papers.
 
 250 ANTHONY ALSOP. 
 
 The gentleman for whom Atterbury pleaded so 
 earnestly to the Bishop of Winchester, was Anthony 
 Alsop, an old Westminster, and one of the Christ 
 Church wits, a wi'iter of much humorous Latin 
 verse, M.A. in 1696, B.D. in 1706. Sir Jonathan 
 Trelawney responded to the appeal by making him a 
 prebendary in Winchester Cathedral, and presenting 
 him to the rectory of Brightwell, Berks. He is 
 referred to by Pope in the lines : — 
 
 Nor wert thou, Isis, wanting to the day, 
 The' Christ Church long kept prudently away. 
 
 The poet also makes Bentley say, with reference to 
 him : — 
 
 Let Freind aifect to speak as Terence spoke, 
 And Horace never but like Horace joke. 
 
 He was an excellent scholar, as well as a most 
 amusing humorist.* 
 
 The warrant mentioned in the next communica- 
 tion, was an authority to supply the person in whose 
 favour it was granted, with one or more bucks from 
 Farnham Park, where there was a fine herd of deer. 
 Whenever the Bishop of Rochester wanted venison 
 to feast his ecclesiastical or other friends, he had 
 only to apply to his right reverend brother of Win- 
 chester, and an ample supply was provided. As 
 Atterbury was now a member of the Upper House 
 of Convocation, he was no longer engaged in active 
 controversy. It is evident that he is familiar with the 
 proceedings of the principal ministers of the Queen, 
 Oxford, and Bolingbroke, and Harcourt; indeed it 
 
 * His fate resembled that of Atterbury's father, for he was accidentally 
 drowned in a ditch close to his own garden, June 10, 1726.
 
 WHISTON. 251 
 
 ^ began to be rumoured that he had powerful interest 
 wdth them, and that the Queen's esteem for him was 
 so high he might look for the Primacy as soon as it 
 should become vacant. 
 
 The Bishop of Rochester to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Westminster, December 19, 1713. 
 
 I take this opportunity of returning my hearty thanks to your 
 lordship for the warrant, when I am going to make use of it in 
 order to entertain my brethren of this church, and have for 
 that end enclosed it in this post in a letter to Mr. Alsop. The 
 founder is never forgotten by me on other occasions, and will 
 therefore be very particularly remembered on this. I wish your 
 lordship many happy Chi'istmases and New Years, and all 
 manner of prosperity to your family. 
 
 Wliiston * is going to print the proceedings in his cause as 
 far as they have hitherto gone, and impudently wrote to Dr. 
 Henchman t for a copy of his pleadings in order to print them. 
 They do not talk of the Queen's coming from Windsor yet 
 awhile. The Lord Ti-easurerJ went down thither this day with 
 Lord Bolingbroke in his coach, and they are likely to make the 
 same journey together for three Saturdays more. 
 
 The Lord Chancellor desires me particularly to assure your 
 lordship how uneasy he is at his not being at home when your 
 lordship did him the favour more than once of calling upon 
 him. I am to let him know when your lordship returns hither, 
 that he may immediately wait upon you, which he is extremely 
 desirous of doing. § 
 
 * William Whiston, whose peculiar opinions on the Trinity had, in 1711, drawn 
 upon him the censure of Convocation, followed by a prosecution in the spiritual 
 court, where the Bishop of Winchester pressed the judges to determine what was 
 legal heresy. He was supported by many persons of distinction, and, no sentence 
 having been passed upon him, continued nominally in communion with the 
 Church of England. He set up a form of worship of his own. His abilities 
 were of a very high order, but his heterodox ideas stood in the way of their being 
 properly appreciated. lie joined the Baptists in 1747, and survived till 1752. 
 Mr. Whiston published numerous works, scientific a.s well as theological. 
 
 t An able civilian. — W. M. 
 
 + Robert llarley, Earl of Oxford. 
 
 § Atterbury Papers.
 
 252 PRIOR AS AMBASSADOR. 
 
 Bishop of Rochester to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Westminster, February 13, 1713-14. 
 My Lord, 
 
 The return* which accompanies this should have been 
 made to your lordship earlier, but we were at a loss for a pre- 
 cedent ; and should have made no return, had not the Arch- 
 bishopt told me yesterday that he insisted upon it. I send this 
 messenger over therefore express to your lordship, that your 
 lordship may have time to notify the persons (mentioned in 
 the return) to his grace before the meeting on Tuesday. I shall 
 not be there, being obliged, as junior bishop, to attend the 
 House of Lords that morning. 
 
 Matthew Prior, tlie poet, was now head of the 
 British Embassy in Paris. It is worthy of remark, 
 that while expressing his felicitations, he takes the 
 opportunity of attempting a little patronage, relying 
 on the good nature of his " dear schoolfellow." 
 
 Matthew Prior to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 Paris, March H, 1713-14. 
 My Lord, 
 
 At the same time that I congratulate your accession to 
 
 the House of Lords, and your being in power to continue your 
 
 zeal for the chui-ch and your services to the nation, I take leave 
 
 to recommend a private charity to you, that you would take 
 
 Henry Geast (of whose parts and learning Dr. Freind will 
 
 give your lordship an account) to our well-beloved college of 
 
 Chi'ist Church. This is mortification enough for a Cambridge 
 
 man to ask ; but I persuade myself Dr. Atterbury will not deny 
 
 my request. 
 
 I am, with great respect, my good lord and dear schoolfellow, 
 
 &c. 
 
 To deserving members of his profession. Bishop 
 Atterbury was ever ready to use his influence with 
 those who possessed patronage. To the benevolent 
 
 * Of members for tlie CojiTocation. t Tenison.
 
 CLERICAL PATRONAGE. 253 
 
 Trelawne}' he had never appealed in vain, and the 
 result of his application in this instance showed that 
 his recommendation was all sufficient ; the Head 
 Master of Westminster was as anxious as himself for 
 his success, and their protege, as may readily be 
 imao'ined, was an " old Westminster." 
 
 The Bishop of Rochester to the Bishop op Winchester. 
 
 Westminster, January 29, 1714-15. 
 
 My lionoured Lord, 
 
 Almost ever since I received your lordship's obliging 
 letter I have been afflicted with the gout, which confines me 
 still ; but I am now well enough to acknowledge youi- lordship's 
 favour, and to return my thanks for it, as I do very heartily. 
 However, I have not done troubling your lordship with my 
 requests. A clergyman, whose name is Lloyd, and whom I 
 know to be a worthy good man, has a presentation to a living 
 in your lordship's diocese, the name of which I think is Chaw- 
 ton, and the place about eight or ten miles from Farnham. He 
 tells me your lordship has left no commission for institution 
 behind you, that it is to the utmost degree inconvenient to him 
 to attend your lordship at Trelawn, and that he fears the six 
 months may run out before your loi-dship's return. He humbly 
 hopes that your lordship will take no advantage of the lapse ; 
 and I must confess I thought his request so reasonable that I 
 promised him to convey it to your lordship, and to add mine 
 to it if there was any occasion for such an addition towards 
 making it effectual. 
 
 I wish your lordship and your family health and all manner 
 of happiness, and am, &c* 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to the Bishop op Winchester. 
 
 Westminster, February 13, 1714-15. 
 My honoured Lord, 
 
 I committed a mistake in my last, and made but half 
 my request to your lordship in behalf of the good man who will 
 have the honour of delivering this letter to your lordship at 
 
 • Atterbury Papers.
 
 254 DR. MEAD. 
 
 "Winchester. He wants not only leave from your lordsliip to 
 defer his institution for awhile, but your lordship's letter also, 
 intimating to the Ai'chbishop your consent to his holding Chaw- 
 ton in your lordship's diocese, together with another living 
 within three-and-twenty miles of it, in Berkshire, of about an 
 hundred pounds a year. Kidbury is the name of it. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd is really a pious and deserving man, and one 
 whose character will not disgrace your lordship if you please 
 to signify to the Archbishop your consent in his behalf, which 
 I earnestly beg of your lordship to do, and by that means to 
 complete the favour which your lordship intends me in this 
 whole matter. He has a wife and many children, and both 
 these livings will yield but a bare comfortable support to his 
 numerous family. 
 
 I communicated to Doctor Freind that part of your lordship's 
 letter which related to liim, who will take the same opportunity 
 that I do of returning his thanks to your lordship, and of adding 
 his request to mine in behalf of Mr, Lloyd, being equally with 
 me concerned for his success. The General and Hele are now 
 with me, and send their duty to your lordship. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 I am still confined to my chamber,* 
 
 Queen Aune lay in so critical a state that tlie Court 
 physicians sent for Dr. Mead. He was introduced to 
 the royal patient, and at the consultation that fol- 
 lowed declared her case to be hopeless, and that her 
 dissolution might be daily expected. In this opinion 
 the doctors in attendance did not coincide, but finding 
 his friend Dr. Eadcliffe was absent from indisposition, 
 Mead hurried from the palace to his house in Blooms- 
 bury Square, and warned him of the Queen's danger. 
 It has been stated that he recommended that a de- 
 scription of Her Majesty's symptoms should be imme- 
 diately forwarded to Hanover, under the conviction 
 
 • Atterbury Papers.
 
 DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. 255 
 
 that the medical men there would be able to satisfy 
 the Elector that death must have taken place before 
 the arrival of the communication. 
 
 All prospect of further elevation in the Church 
 faded on the demise of Bishop Atterbury's royal 
 patroness. His friends in office disappeared, several 
 fled the country, and St. James's became filled with 
 his personal enemies. In the performance of his 
 episcopal duty the Bishop of Rochester had to assist 
 in the coronation of the German prince whom the 
 intrigues of a powerful party at once established as 
 Queen Anne's successor. The prelate was entitled 
 to the throne and canopy as his perquisites, but indi- 
 cated his loyalty by placing them at the disposal 
 of the new sovereign. The royal mind had been 
 carefully prejudiced against him, and the courtesy 
 was rudely rejected. Wliatever may have been his 
 feelings towards George I. before this, they were 
 not likely to have been rendered more cordial by 
 so obvious an affront. It was only the supporters 
 of the Protestant succession who were considered 
 worthy of royal favour. 
 
 In the year 1711 ]3r. Garth had brought out an 
 edition of "Lucretius," with a dedication to George the 
 Elector of Hanover. On the accession of the Elector 
 to the throne of Great Britain, the Doctor had the 
 honour of being knighted with the Duke of Marl- 
 borough's sword, as well as appointed physician to 
 the King and physician-general to the forces. Though 
 these duties must have greatly increased his profes- 
 sional labours, Sir Samuel found time for the Muses 
 as well as for the classics.
 
 256 A WHIG DEMONSTRATION. 
 
 The Bishop displayed his political feeling about 
 the critical year 1715, in a manner that was far from 
 improving his relations with the Court. There was 
 a contested election in "Westminster for the post of 
 high steward, in the room of the expatriated Duke 
 of Ormonde. The votes were equal for the Duke's 
 brother. Lord Arran, and the Duke of Newcastle. 
 The Dean made a powerful speech in favour of the 
 near relative of the distinguished Jacobite leader, 
 and voted against the Court candidate. 
 
 At the breaking out of the rebellion in this year, 
 a declaration of confidence in the Grovernment was 
 drawn up and signed by the Primate and a few other 
 prelates then residing in or near the metropolis. 
 Bishop Atterbury objected to it, apparently on the 
 same principle that had led the seven bishops to de- 
 cline signing an approval of the measures of James II. 
 It contained a passage that cast improper reflections 
 on the political party with which Dr. Atterbury was 
 connected, and in other respects bore the aspect of 
 a Whig demonstration. The article most objected 
 to was — 
 
 We are the more concerned that both the clergy and people of 
 our communion should show themselves hearty friends to the 
 Government on this occasion, to vindicate the lionour of the 
 Church of England, because the chief hopes of our enemies seem 
 to arise from discontents art if daily raised amongst us, and because 
 some who have valued themselves and been too much valued by 
 others for a pretended zeal, have joined with Papists in these 
 wicked attempts, which, as they must ruin the Church if they 
 succeed, so they cannot well end without great reproach to it, if 
 the rest do not clearly and heartily declare our detestation of 
 such practices. 
 
 This passage looked very much like a trap in which
 
 ARCHBISHOP WAKE. 257 
 
 the High Churchmen were to be caught. If they gave 
 their signatures to it, they signed their own condem- 
 nation ; if they withhekl them, they might be accused 
 of dislo^-alty to the Crown. The Bishop of Eochester 
 took counsel with the Bishop of Bristol (Dr. Smal- 
 ridge), and both refused to stigmatize their friends 
 as concealed enemies of the Church ; excitinsr the 
 intense indignation of the promoters of the declara- 
 tion, as well as the anger of the Whig ministers. 
 
 Dr. Smalridge was the first who was made to 
 sufier for this act of independence, his post of 
 King's Almoner being immediately taken away ; but 
 the Princess of Wales continued the reo-ard Her 
 Royal Highness had shown him, and he retired to 
 Christ Church College, of which, two years before, 
 he had become Dean since the resignation of Dr. 
 Atterbury, for whom his afi'ection continued unabated 
 till his death, 27th September, 1719. 
 
 In the House of Peers, Bishop Wake was equally 
 active in a service he had found so profitable, advanc- 
 ing as far as he was able all the Grovernment mea- 
 sures that affected reliction. His labours received the 
 recompense he had looked for : on the demise of the 
 Primate, in January, 1715-lG, Dr. Wake became 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. Walpole and liis col- 
 leagues knew that it was impossible for tliem to 
 place at the head of the Anglican establishment a 
 prelate on whom they could so well rely as a sup- 
 porter of their policy. 
 
 Dr. Robert South had preceded Atterbury at West- 
 minster School and Christ Clmrcb by about tliirty 
 years, nevertheless his junior, for wliom lie entcr- 
 
 \()i.. I. IS
 
 258 DR. SOUTH. 
 
 tained a sincere esteem, was appointed to a l)isliopric 
 he had declined, on the plea "that such a chair would 
 be too uneasy for an infirm old man to sit in, and 
 he held himself much better satisfied with livinir 
 on the eavesdroppings of the Church than to fare 
 sumptuously by being placed at the pinnacle of it." 
 Their friendship continued to the close of Dr. South's 
 useful and honourable ministry. He also had com- 
 menced his career by writing Latin verses in honour 
 of Cromwell ; he also subsequently became chaplain 
 to Charles II., as well as to James Duke of York. 
 Dr. South had refused to sign the invitation to the 
 Prince of Orange, but did not support James II. 
 He subsequently distinguished himself in the great 
 controversy with Dr. Sherlock on the Trinity. 
 
 These distinguished divines are described as the 
 Prebendary and Dean, in a ballad much quoted at 
 the time, though obnoxious for its improper treat- 
 ment of a subject that ought to have been too sacred 
 for ridicule. It should be remembered that Dr. 
 Burnet, Master of the Charter House, during the con- 
 troversy had published a paper called " Archaeologia," 
 &c., something in the spirit of Bishop Colenso. This 
 appears to have provoked the ballad — 
 
 A Dean and a Prebendary, 
 Had once a new vagary, 
 And were at doubtful strife, sir, 
 Who led the better life, sir, 
 And was the better man, 
 And was the better man. 
 The Dean he said that truly, 
 Since Bluff was so unruly, 
 He'd prove it to his face, sir. 
 That he had the most grace, sir, 
 And so the fight began, 
 And so the fight began.
 
 DR. SHERLOCK. 259 
 
 When Preb. replied like thunder, 
 And roar'd out — 'Twas no wonder, 
 Since Gods the Dean had three, sir, 
 And more by two than he, sir. 
 For he had got but one. 
 For he had got but one. 
 Now while these two were raging, 
 And in dispute engaging. 
 The Master of the Charter 
 • Said both had caught a Tartar, 
 For Gods, sir, there was none. 
 For Gods, sir, there was none. 
 That all the books of Moses 
 Were nothing but supposes ; 
 That he deserved rebuke, sir. 
 Who wrote the Pentateuch, sir ; 
 'Twas nothing but a sham, 
 'Twas nothing but a sham. 
 That, as for Father Adam, 
 With Mrs. Eve, his madam, 
 And what the serpent spoke, sir, 
 'Twas nothing but a joke, sir. 
 And well-invented flam, 
 And well-invented flam ! 
 Thus in this battle royal. 
 As none would take denial. 
 The dame for which they strove, sir, 
 Could neither of them love, sir. 
 Since all had given offence, 
 Since all had given offence. 
 She, therefore, slyly waiting, 
 Left all three fools a-prating ; 
 And, being in a fright, sir. 
 Religion took her flight, sir, 
 And ne'er was heard of more, 
 And ne'er was heard of more ! 
 
 As South and Sherlock are still deservedly held in 
 estimation as writers on An^^lican Divinity, the con- 
 clusion of tlie indecorous versifier must i^-o for what 
 it is worth. Tlio former, as Prebendary of West- 
 minster, was in Irequent communication with the 
 Dean; and when he died, July 8, 1710, the entire 
 Chapter, witli the school and its masters, attended 
 
 18 *
 
 260 BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 his funeral, Bishop Atterbury preaching the funeral 
 sermon, and Dr. Freind* writing the epitaph. 
 
 The year 1717 was made memorable in the annals 
 of the Church of England, as that of a long and 
 fierce dispute, which originated in a sermon preached 
 before Greorge I. by the Bishop of Bangor, on 
 the Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ 
 (St. John, xviii. 36) upon which Dr. Snape, Bishop 
 Nicolson, and Dr. White Kennet published certain 
 angry commentaries. The various pamphlets, letters, 
 and advertisements which this sermon called forth, 
 made it the subject of general conversation, and the 
 Bangorian controversy was carried on in the clubs 
 and coffee-houses with quite as much animation as in 
 the press. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury, though not indifferent to the 
 argument, it may be presumed had had enough of 
 Dr. Hoadly. More congenial employment was 
 absorbing his attention, and he never wanted for 
 pleasant society or agreeable correspondents. Dean 
 Swift had returned to his " dearly beloved Eoger," 
 and his sometimes empty cathedral ; but his heart was 
 in the scene of his social pleasures and his political 
 
 * Dr. Robert Freind was six years at Westminster School, under Dr. Busby 
 (1680-6), and then proceeded to Christ Church College. At Oxford he dis- 
 tinguished himself by the composition of complimentary verses to King William 
 and Queen Mary — a sure passport to fjwour. He also joined the Christ Church 
 wits in their attacks upon Dr. Bentley. He prepared himself for the Church, but 
 having much success as a tutor, returned to his old school, where he accepted the 
 place of Second Master, in the year 1699, and in 1711 succeeded as Head 
 Master. His intimacy with Dr. Atterbury continued to be very close as long as 
 the latter remained in a position of influence, but, like his brother, he accom- 
 modated his opinions to tlie ruling powers after the Bishop's downfall, and 
 received his reward in valuable preferments. He gave up his position in the 
 school in 1733 ; he had previously been appointed a prebendary in the Minster 
 in 1731, and a Canon of Windsor in 1729.
 
 ARCHBISHOP KING. 2G1 
 
 importance. He addi-essed tlie Bishop of Eocliester 
 respecting a rumour of liis haWng abandoned his old 
 principles — this is by way of introduction to a com- 
 plaint of his unhappy position with his Chapter, and 
 the injustice he is obliged to endure from those who 
 are not sufficiently acquainted with his merit : — 
 
 Dean Swift to Bishop Atterburt. 
 
 DubUn, July 18, 1717. 
 My Lord, 
 
 Some persons of distinction, lately come from England 
 and not unknown to your lordsliip, have made me extremely 
 pleased and proud by tellling me that your lordship was so 
 generous as to defend me against an idle story that passed in 
 relation to a letter of mine to the Archbishop of Dublin.* I have 
 corresponded for many years with his Grrace, though we generally 
 diifered in pohtics ; and therefore our letters had often a good 
 mixture of controversy. I confess likewise that I have been 
 his Grace's advocate wdien he had not many others. About 
 nine months ago I wrote a letter to him in London (for in my 
 little station it is convenient there should be some commerce 
 between us), and, in a short time after, I had notice from several 
 friends that a passage in my letter was sho"wn to several persons, 
 and a consequence drawn from thence that I was wholly gone 
 over to other principles more in fashion, and wherein I might 
 better find my account. I neglected this report as thinking 
 it might soon die, but found it gathered strength, and spread 
 to Oxford and this kingdom ; and some gentlemen, who lately 
 arrived here, assured me they had met it an hundred times with 
 all the circumstances of disadvantage that are usually tacked to 
 such stories by the great candour of mankind. It should seem 
 as if I were somebody of importance ; and, if so, I should 
 think the wishes not only of my friends, but of my party, 
 might dispose them rather to believe me innocent than condemn 
 me unheard. Upon the first intelb'gence I had of this ali'air, I 
 made a shift to recollect the only passage in that letter which 
 could be any way liable to misinterpretation. I told the Arch- 
 
 * Dr. William Kiii" — not tlie f;ioctious Dr. WiHIiuii King.
 
 262 SWIFT IN HIS DEANERY. 
 
 bishop " that we had an account of a sot of people in London 
 who were erecting a new church upon the maxim that everything 
 was void since the Revokition in the Church as well as the 
 State — that all priests must be re-ordained, bishops again con- 
 secrated, and in like manner of the rest — that I knew not 
 what there was in it of truth — that it was impossible such a 
 scheme should ever pass — and that I believed if the Court 
 upon this occasion would show some goodwill to the Church, 
 discourage those who ill-treated the clergy, &c., it would be the 
 most popular thing they could think of." I keep no copies of 
 letters ; but this, I am confident, was the substance of what I 
 wrote, and that every other line in the letter, which mentioned 
 public affairs, would have atoned for this if it had been a crime, 
 as I think it Avas not in that juncture, whatever raay be my 
 opinion at present ; for I confess my thoughts change every 
 Aveek, like those of a man in an incurable consumption, who 
 daily finds himself more and more decay. 
 
 The trouble I now give your lordship is an ill return to 
 your goodness in defending me, but it is the usual reward of 
 goodness, and therefore you must be content. In the meantime, 
 I am in an hopeful situation, torn to pieces by pamphleteers and 
 libellers on that side the water, and by the whole body of the 
 ruling party on this, against which all the obscurity I live in 
 will not defend me. Since I came last to this kingdom, it 
 hath been the constant advice of all my Church friends that I 
 should be more cautious. To oppose me in everything relating 
 to my station is made a merit in my Chapter ; and I shall pro- 
 bably live to make some bishops as poor as Luther made many 
 rich. 
 
 I profess to your lordship that what I have been writing is 
 only with regard to the good opinion of your lordship and of a 
 very few others, with whom you will think it of any consequence 
 to an honest man that he should be set right. I am sorry that 
 those who call themselves Churchmen should be industrious to 
 have it thought that their number is lessened, even by so incon- 
 siderable an one as myself. But I am sufficiently recompensed 
 that your lordship knows me best, to whom I am so ambitious to 
 be best known. God be thanked ! I have but a few to satisfy. 
 The bulk of my censurers are strangers, or ill judges, or worse 
 than either ; and, if they will not obey your orders to correct
 
 BISHOP TRELAWNEY. 263 
 
 their sentiments of me, they will meet their punishment in your 
 lordship's disapprobation, which I Avould not incui* for all their 
 good words put together and printed in twelve volumes folio. — 
 I am, &c.* 
 
 Sir Jonathan Trelawney was liad recourse to again 
 
 in obedience to an appeal that had been made to 
 
 Bishop Atterbury by a connection of one of his 
 
 subordinates. The Bishop's second letter details the 
 
 tactics of Archbishop Wake to silence Convocation. 
 
 The Primate evident!}^ designed carrying ecclesiastical 
 
 affairs with a very high hand : — 
 
 Bishop Attekbury to the Bishop of "Winchester. 
 
 My honoured Lord, Westminster, November 2, 1717. 
 
 I am going to do what I never before did, and I hope 
 never shall do again, to write to yoiar lordship about something 
 that I have nothing to do with, and that your lordship perhaps 
 will have nothing to do with ; or, if you think fit to concern 
 yourself, are probably already engaged. And yet the application 
 to me is by such hands that, as great an absurdity as I am going 
 to commit, I know not how to refuse it. 
 
 I am desired, my lord, to recommend to your lordship Mr. 
 Sprat (the son of my Dean of E,ochester,t but no ways like 
 his father) for the Stewardship of the Courts of the Dean and 
 Chapter of Winchester, Since I am pressed to say something 
 and cannot avoid it, I must do him so much justice as to assure 
 your lordship that he is a man of a very fair character and of 
 repute in his profession, and in my conscience every way worthy 
 of the place he desires. If my saying this to your lordship can 
 be of any service to him, I shall be glad of it ; if it cannot, 
 permit me to beg your lordshi[)'s pardon for this impertinence, 
 and under my hand to declare that I will never be guilty of the 
 like again. — 1 am, &c.J 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to luii Bisiiup of Winchester. 
 
 Ti, , 1 T 1 Uromley, Nnvcmbcr S, 1717. 
 
 My honoured Lord, •" 
 
 It was worth my venturing to interjjose in Mr. Pratt's 
 * Atterbury Paperw. f Ihe Rev. Tlioiuas Sprat. t Atterbury Papers.
 
 2G4 nuoii's poems. 
 
 affaii*, siuce it has given me a proof that my requests, even 
 when they are impertinent and improper, yet are not unwelcome 
 to your lordship. 
 
 The Archbishop was of opinion that he should be permitted 
 to hold the Convocation, and told the Prolocutor* (from whom 
 I heard it) that he would adjourn it to-morrow till the 22nd, 
 and from thence by like intermissions till Christmas ; after 
 which the clergy should meet and act. But, when I was last in 
 town, I found from good hands that he was as much mistaken 
 on this occasion as he has been on many others ; it being resolved 
 in a great council last week at Hampton Court to prorogue 
 the Convocation by a new Royal writ till February next.f 
 That step, and the turning Sherlock and Snape]; out of the 
 Chaplainship, will enable your lordship to guess how far the 
 Bishop of Bangor § is likely to be countenanced and supported. 
 Indeed, my lord, these are very extraordinary steps, the effects 
 of wisdom, no doubt ; but of so deep a wisdom that I, for my 
 part, am not able to fathom it. 
 
 The Pai^liament will certainly sit at or about the time prefixed; 
 and then I suppose I shall have an opportunity of waiting upon 
 your lordship at Chelsea. — I am, &c.|| 
 
 Bishop Atterbury's admiration of the best works of 
 his old schoolfellow, Matthew Prior, has already been 
 noticed. The following ofiers a pleasing evidence 
 of his Hterary judgment : — 
 
 Bishop Attekbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Deanery, New Year's Day, 1717-18. 
 
 I make you a better present than any man in England 
 receives this day, two poems, ^ composed by a friend of mine, 
 
 * Dr. George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury. Vicar of the parishes of Lewis- 
 ham and Deptford, in the diocese of Rochester. 
 
 + It was prorogued to the 24th of that month. — W. M. 
 
 + Dr. Sherlock was at that time Dean of Chichester, and Dr. Snape the Head 
 Master of Eton School ; they had been dismissed by the Lord Chamberlain from 
 being Chaplains in Ordinary to the King. — W. M. 
 
 § Dr. Benjamin Hoadly. — W. M. ll Atterbury Papers. 
 
 TI The "Solomon" and "Alma" of Prior?
 
 BAPTISM. 2G5 
 
 with that extraordinaiy genius and spirit which attend him 
 equally in whatever he says, does, or writes. I do not ask your 
 approbation of them. Deny it if you can, or if you dare. The 
 whole world will be against you ; and should you, therefore, be 
 so unfortunate in your judgment, you will, I dare say, be so wise 
 and modest as to conceal it. For, though it be a very good 
 character, and what belongs to the first pen in the world — to 
 write like nobody — yet to judge like nobody has never yet been 
 esteemed a perfection. 
 
 When you have read them, let me see you at my house, or else 
 you are in danger, lame as I am, of seeing me at yours. And 
 the difierence in that case is, that whenever you have me there 
 in my present condition you cannot easily get rid of me ; 
 whereas, if you come liither, you may leave me as soon as you 
 please ; and I have no way to help myself, being confined to my 
 chair, just as I was when you saw me last. If this advantage 
 will not tempt you rather to make than receive the visit, nothing 
 else will. 
 
 "Whether I see you or not, let me at least see something under 
 your hand that may tell me how you do, and whether your deaf- 
 ness continues. And, if you will flatter me agreeably, let some- 
 thing be said, at the end of your letter, which may make me for 
 two minutes believe you are half as much mine as I am, &c.* 
 
 At this period, and long afterwards, certain services 
 of the Anglican Church were performed in a manner 
 and under circumstances that shocked the feelings of 
 earnest Christians. The most flagrant abuse was that 
 of infant baptism, which was generally administered in 
 private houses, with very little appearance of a sacred 
 rite. Bishop Atterbury, like a good Churchman, set 
 his face against tlie practice, as may be seen in the 
 following note. The reference to J)r. Sherlock, in 
 connection with this important subject, increases the 
 interest of the communication : — 
 
 Atterbury Papei'S.
 
 2()G I'RIVATE BAPTISM. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Dean Stanhope. 
 
 Bromley, Sunday Noon, January 1, 1718-19. 
 Mr. Dean, 
 
 It is high time that Mr. Archer should be licensed ; 
 and I wish I had an opportunity of discoursing him and Mr. 
 Sherlock for half an hour about the methods of restoring the 
 use of public baptisms in all cases but tliat mentioned in the 
 rubric. My mind is much bent upon it, and I wish also I had 
 your opinion and assistance in the matter. 
 
 I shall be here till Wednesday morning, and should be glad to 
 see them any afternoon ; or, if they had rather come to West- 
 minster, let me know some time beforehand, and I will be free 
 from other company. I wrote to you on this head to Canter- 
 bury, I think, about three months ago. I desire you will quicken 
 them that there may be no further delay; and am, &c.* 
 
 Dean Stanhope to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 Lewisham, January 13, 1718-19. 
 My Lord, 
 
 Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Archer had waited on you sooner, 
 
 but that the former was confined for two or three weeks with a 
 
 complaint in one of his eyes. They both desired to wait on you 
 
 at Bromley, hoping to find you more at leisure there ; and I will 
 
 contrive, if possible, to send them to-morrow or Tuesday. I can 
 
 very truly say that I am in no degree the occasion of this 
 
 delay, and would now wait on your lordship with them, were 
 
 it not my misfortune to be confined by illness. The private 
 
 baptisms I have long discouraged, and, by Mr. Shei^ock's help, 
 
 brought so many to church, that for several years past I may 
 
 venture to say, the number of those at liome in my time bear no 
 
 proportion to what used to be in that of my predecessor at 
 
 Deptford. Those at Lewisham, I believe, are scarce one in 
 
 three months, nor have been a long time ; and of them the 
 
 great distance from the church is generally the inducement for 
 
 allowing it. But I shall be highly content with your lordship's 
 
 express prohibition to indulge the liberty, which creates much 
 
 trouble, and turns to little advantage. And, had I not at first 
 
 been countenanced by my superiors, I had resisted this practice 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 DEAN STANHOPE. 207 
 
 from the beginning, and am perfectly willing to do it now. 
 But I will trouble your lordship no longer than to profess 
 myself, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Attekbury to Dean Stanhope. 
 
 Westminster, January 18, 1718-19. 
 Good Mr. Dean, 
 
 I am perfectly satisfied by your letter, and by what ]\Ir. 
 Sherlock has said to me, that all care will be taken (as I find a 
 great deal has been already) to bring all the children to be 
 baptized at chui-ch who are not really in danger of death. 
 
 I thank you heai-tily for what you have done, and shall do 
 further, in this matter ; and having your kind assistance towards 
 making things perfectly regular at Deptford, doubt not but, by 
 God's blessing, I shall be able to effect what I purpose in all 
 other parts of my diocese, as I have done it in several already. 
 
 Mr. Sherlock desired something under my hand that he might 
 show to those who pressed him to give private baptism to their 
 children. I told him if the addition of the particular clause to 
 that purpose, which I now insert in every licence, were not 
 sufficient, I would do in that kind whatever he should desire. 
 Should you happen to come to town before I return to Bromley, 
 I will adjust that matter with you. 
 
 I know your bringing things to bear at Deptford will be of 
 gTcat influence towards my succeeding in the attempt every- 
 where else, and therefore I press this point so earnestly upon 
 you. You have always had worthy good men for your curates, 
 and, in my opinion, never had better than now ; and their zeal 
 and firmness in the case will make everything easy, both to you 
 and me. — I am, &c.t 
 
 Sir Jonathan Trelawney acted in all political and 
 ecclesiastical matters in union with his able brotlier 
 on the episcopal bench, who continued to forward in- 
 formation for his guidance. The measures to which 
 Bishop Atterbury now directs his friend's attention 
 were of paramount importance. 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. t Ibid.
 
 2C8 DR. LEWIS ATTEUBURY. 
 
 Bishop Atteebury to the Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Bromley, December 2, 1719. 
 
 My honoured Lord, 
 
 This will meet you perhaps by the time you arrive at 
 Farnham ; and you may, probably before that, have heard that 
 the Peerage Bill has already received a check in the House of 
 Commons. The Court laboured to have it read a second time 
 on Friday next ; but, upon a division, 203 carried it against 158 
 for Tuesday, which will give the country gentlemen who are 
 against the bill, and who are now remarkably absent, an oppor- 
 tunity of attending and opposing it ; so that the fate of that 
 bill, I take it, is doubtful. 
 
 Till it is over, no other bill of consequence will, I suppose, be 
 moved ; but after that there are expectations of a bill to regulate 
 the Universities, which, I need not say, will deserve youi- lord- 
 ship's attendance, though perhaps it may not come in before the 
 holydays. If it does, or anything else of immediate importance 
 appears, your lordship shall be advertised of it. 
 
 I am afraid your lordship has no ground to stand upon in 
 relation to the Archdeaconry of Surrey ;* as, unkind as the usage 
 may be, it is legal. — I am, &c.t 
 
 The Rector of Middleton Keynes had occasionally 
 made journeys to London ; sometimes to publish a 
 sermon, sometimes to institute a lawsuit. On one 
 occasion, as he was returning home, he imprudently 
 attempted to pass a flood that had inundated 
 part of the village, was swept into deep water, and 
 drowned near his own house. This had occurred 
 on the 7th of December, 1093. Hi's eldest son, 
 Dr. Lewis Atterbury, in the year 1719, had been 
 collated by the Bishop of London (Dr. E-obinson) to 
 the rectory of the united parishes of Hornsey and 
 
 * Then vacant by the promotion of Dr. Hugh Boulter to the see of Bristol. — 
 W. M. 
 
 f Atterbury Pa|iers.
 
 THE bishop's brother. 209 
 
 Slieperton (that includes Highgate), in which he had 
 so Ions: been officiatinsr. He had commenced lesral 
 
 Oct o 
 
 proceedings against his brother, with the object of 
 setting aside his father's testamentary disposition of 
 his property; nevertheless he now sought prefer- 
 ment in the Bishop's gift. The latter was, however, 
 not disposed to have his elder brother, with whose 
 intractable disposition he was familiar, subordinate to 
 him. It will be seen that Dr. Lewis Atterbury 
 could not appreciate the objections to so desirable 
 an appointment. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to his Brother.* 
 
 Bromley, Wednesday, April, 1710. 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 Your letter, directed to Westrainster, found me here 
 this morning. I hope to be at Westminster to-morrow. In the 
 meantime you may assure yourself of anything that is in my 
 disposal. At present the gentlemanf you mention is well, and 
 likely to continue so. His distemper is the same as mine, 
 though he has it in a worse degree. However, he is sixteen or 
 seventeen years younger than I am, and may probably therefore 
 outlive me. When he was in danger of late, the first person I 
 thought of was you. But there are objections against that, in 
 point of decency, which I own stick with me ; and which, after 
 
 • Lewis Atterbury, D.C.L., rector of the parishes of Hornsey and Sheperton, 
 in the county of Middlesex. lie was the elder and only brother of tlie Bisliop. 
 There was never any jierfect concord between the two brothei-s, the elder 
 having endeavoured to set aside their father's will (under which sonic immediate 
 landed provision was made for the younger son, and a contingent interest in the 
 whole), on a cavil that it was not signed and sealed in the presence of the three 
 subscribing witnesses, although declared l)y the testjitor to be hh signature and 
 seal at Ike time of their attcntalion. It was, however, after some delay and legal 
 process, ultimately established. — W. M. 
 
 t The Ilevercnd Thomas Sprat, M.A., Archdeacon of Rochester. He was the 
 only son of Bishop Sprat, the immediate predecessor of Atterbury in the see of 
 Rochester. lie 'lied May 10, 1720.— W. M.
 
 270 FRANCIS AND LEWIS ATTERBURY. 
 
 I have laid them before you, you sliall allow, or overrule as 
 you think fit. It had been a much properer post for my 
 nephew,* if God had pleased to spare his life. You need not 
 mention anything of this kind to me ; for, you may depend 
 upon it, you are never out of the thoughts of your ever affec- 
 tionate brother, 
 
 FrA. ROFFEN.t 
 
 Bishop Atterbuey to the Same. 
 
 Deanery, Tuesday Night, May, 1720. 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 I hope you have considered the matter of the Arch- 
 deaconry, and do at last see it in the same light that I do. I 
 protest to you I cannot help thinking it the most unseemly 
 thing in the world, and I am very sure the generality of those 
 whose opinions I regard will be of that opinion. I was so far 
 from apprehending that such a station under me would be in 
 the least welcome to you that I discoursed of it, and proposed 
 it, to another person some time ago ; and am entered very far 
 into engagements on that head ; and, had you not written to 
 me, I do frankly own that I should never have spoken a word to 
 you about it. Believe me when I tell you that this is a plain 
 state of the fact ; and, should you at last come to be of my 
 opinion, I dare say you will not at long run think yourself 
 mistaken. I am sure I shall not be at ease till you are in some 
 good dignity in the Church ; such as you and I and all the 
 world shall agree is every way proper for you. 
 
 I am, &C.J 
 
 Dr. Lewis Atterbdry to the Bishop. 
 
 May, 1720. 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 It is reported that the Archdeacon of Rochester is 
 dead, and I have sent my servant to inform me whether it is 
 so or not. I have since considered all that you said to me 
 yesterday ; and, both from reason and matter of fact, still am of 
 opinion that there can be no just matter of exception taken. I 
 
 * The Rev. Bedingfiekl Atterbury, M.A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford, 
 who died December 27, 1718.— W. M. 
 
 t Atterbury Papers. J Ihkl.
 
 ARCHDEACONRY OF ROCHESTER. 271 
 
 shall only lay down two or three instances wliicli lie uppermost 
 in niv tliousfhts. Tonr lordship very well knows that Lanfranc, 
 Ai'chbishop of Cauterbmy, had a brother for his archdeacon ; 
 and that Sir Thomas More's father was a Puisne Judge when he 
 was Lord Chancellor. And thus, in the Sacred Histoiy, did 
 God himself appoint that the safety and advancement of the 
 patriarchs should be procured by their younger brother ; and 
 that the}-, with their father, should live under the protection 
 and government of Joseph. I instance those obvious examples 
 only to let your lordship see that I have canvassed these 
 matters in my own thoughts ; and I see no reason but to 
 depend on your kind intentions, intimated in your former letter 
 to your most affectionate brother and humble servant.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to his Brother. 
 
 May 20, 1720. 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 The person, to whom I told you I had gone very far 
 towards engaging myself for the archdeaconry, was Dr. Brydges,t 
 the Duke of Chandos's brother, and him I am this day going to 
 collate to it. I hope you are convinced, by what I have said and 
 written, that nothing could have been more improper than the 
 placing you in that post, immediately under myself. Could I 
 have been easy under that thought, you may be sure no man 
 living should liave had the preference to you. — I am, &c. J 
 
 Dk. Lewis Attkrrury to the Bishop. 
 
 May, 1720. 
 
 I am obliged to you for the favour of your last, and more 
 particularly for giving me a reason for your disposal of the 
 archdeacomy and prebend annexed, when you was not obliged to 
 give any reason at all. I cannot yet imagine what indecency 
 there can be to have raised your elder brother in place under 
 
 • Atterbury Papers. 
 
 t The Hon. Henry Brydges, D.D. , Rector of Amereham, in Buckinghamshire; 
 a man of great piety and amiableness of disposition. He was second son of James 
 Brydges eighth Baron Chiindos, and only lirol)ior of tlie first Duke of that 
 family.— W. M. 
 
 X Atterljury Papers.
 
 272 WESTMINSTER SCHOOI,. 
 
 you, wliicli doth not bear more hard supposing the person to be 
 the brother of a Duke. There is some show of reason, I think, 
 for the non-acceptance, but none for the not giving it. And 
 since your lordship was pleased to signify to me that I shoukl 
 overrule you in this matter, I confess it was some disappoint- 
 ment to me ; though, since you did not think fit to bestow it on 
 me, I think you have given it to one of the most deserving per- 
 sons I know of, who will add more to the honour of the place 
 than I could have received from it. I hope I shall be content 
 Avith that meaner post in which I am ; my time, at longest, being 
 but short in this world,* and my health not suffering me to make 
 those necessary applications others do. Nor do I understand 
 the language of the present times ; for I find I begin to grow 
 an old-fashioned gentleman, and am ignorant of the weight and 
 value of words which in our times rise and fall like stock. I did 
 not think that Dr. Brydges would have taken up with an arch- 
 deaconry, when his brother can make him a bishop when he 
 pleases ; though, had your lordship put me into that post, I 
 should not have endeavoured to have overruled you a second 
 time. — I am, &c.t 
 
 As Dean of Westminster, Dr. Atterbury was still 
 in a manner connected with the neighbouring educa- 
 tional establishment, and ready to employ all his 
 inflvience in its favour. The building was ancient, 
 and the accommodation it afforded its numerous 
 pupils restricted. Modern schoolboys would shudder 
 at the comfortless style in which the sons of the first 
 men in the kingdom were forced to live. Dr. Busby 
 was famed for anything rather than indulgence to his 
 pupils, and those of Dr. Freind had to rough it much 
 in the same manner. The sleeping accommodation 
 was scarcely that of an ordinary barrack, all the 
 boys having their beds arranged in a large ruinous 
 chamber, the granary of the good Benedictines of 
 
 * He was alive eleven years afterv/ards. — W. M. 
 + Attcrhury Papers.
 
 THE DORMITORY. 273 
 
 St. Peter. A grateful old Westminster, one of Queen 
 Anne's physicians, Sir Edward Hannes, liad borne in 
 mind the miserable manner in which he and his 
 scholastic contemporaries had had to pass the night, 
 and by A\dll, dated 1703, left the munificent sum of a 
 thousand pounds for the erection of a proper dormi- 
 tory for the school. This intention does not appear 
 to have been acted upon, as it was found that the 
 expense of the necessary alterations would far exceed 
 the sum pro^^ded by the testator. 
 
 The Dean and the Head Master were frequently in 
 consultation on the subject with other old West- 
 minsters who maintained an interest in the place, 
 but the times were unpropitious for advancing local 
 objects. A foreigner was on the throne, who was 
 said to be monopolized by Hanoverian mistresses and 
 Hanoverian counsellors; and his English ministers, in 
 their intense hostility to Atterbury and Freind, were 
 likely to thwart an3^ scheme for the improvement of 
 the great public school in which they might be actively 
 concerned. Nevertheless, after due deliberation, it 
 was thought advisable to appeal to the Eoyal Family 
 and to the Court, to Parliament, and to the public 
 generally, for a subscription ; and on the bth of 
 December, 1718, the Dean drew up a petition in his 
 own name and that of the Chapter, addressed in the 
 first instance to George I. 
 
 The Bishop of Rochester, Dean of Westminster, and the 
 Chapter of the Church humbly represent to your Majesty that 
 Queen Elizabeth, of glorious memory, founded the College of 
 Westminster, which has in all times since been highly favoured 
 by your Majesty's Royal ancestors, and has bred up great num- 
 bers of men useful Ijoth in Church and State, among whom are 
 V(JL. 1. 19
 
 274 rUBLIC SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 several who liave the honoui* to serve your Majesty in high sta- 
 tions : that the dormitory of the said College is in so ruinous a 
 condition that it must of necessity be forthwith rebuilt ; the 
 expense of which building (besides other charges that may 
 thereby be occasioned) will, according to the plan now humbly 
 presented to your Majesty, amount to upwards of five thousand 
 pounds. As a foundation for raising this sum, a legacy has been 
 left by one who was a member of the College ; and there is good 
 reason to believe that divers persons of quality, who owe their 
 education to this place, may be disposed to favour the design, if 
 they shall be incited by your Majesty's Royal example. The 
 said Bishop and Chapter, therefore, humbly hope that your 
 Majesty will, as an encouragement to learning, be pleased to 
 bestow your Royal bounty on this occasion in such measure as 
 to your Majesty's high wisdom shall seem proper. 
 
 The idea was taken up so cordially by zealous old 
 Westminsters at Court, and by the connections of 
 zealous young Westminsters, there and elsewhere, that 
 the King and the Prince of Wales found themselves 
 constrained to contribute, as "an encouragement to 
 learning." His Majesty forwarded a thousand 
 pounds, the Prince five hundred. Parliament, where 
 there were many warm friends of the school, voted 
 a gift of twelve hundred pounds ; and such a stir was 
 made throughout the country on the subject, that 
 funds came in plentifully. Moreover, the Earl of 
 Burlington, then in the zenith of his fame as an 
 amateur architect, contributed a design for the 
 required structure. This was accepted, but years 
 elapsed before the new dormitory was completed. 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to the Bishop op Winchester. 
 
 Monday Evening [May, 1720].* 
 My honoured Lord, 
 
 The cause of the dormitory comes on early, very early, 
 
 * So endorsed by Bishop Trelawney.
 
 A NEW DORMITORY. 275 
 
 I believe, on Wednesday morning.* My solicitor apprehends by 
 eight o'clock ; by nine, however, the Council will, I think, be 
 gotten some way into it. Tour lordship has been pleased to 
 promise that you will countenance it with your presence. I 
 hope you will, and am, &c. 
 
 * It was ordered by the Court of Chancery, June 20, 1720, that the intended 
 new dormitory at the College, Westminster, should be erected on the site of the 
 old one. This decree (on an appeal from the Dean and four of the Prebendaries 
 of Westminster) was reversed by the House of Lords, May 16, 1721 ; whereby it 
 was finally determined that the new building should be placed (as it is) in the 
 College garden. 
 
 19
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE GEOllGIAN ERA. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Harcourt consults Atterbury respecting Hs 
 first Communication to George I. — His Reply — Letter from 
 Lord Boliugbroke — Prior in Custody — The Duchess of 
 Marlborough appeals to the Bishop — The Duke of" Ormonde, 
 Atterbury, and Sir William Wyndham — Addison's Mar- 
 riage — Eustace Budgell — Gay and " The What d'ye Call 
 It " — Is offered the Post of Gentleman Usher to one of the 
 Princesses — Jacobite Pamphlet attributed to Atterbury — 
 The Duchess of Buckingham — Steele rewarded — Death of 
 Prior — Lord Bathurst — The Bishop writes to Pope — Lord 
 Lansdowne in the Tower — Honest Shippen — Pope to 
 Atterbury on the South Sea Bubble — Atterbury to Pope on 
 the Arabian Tales — Atterbury to Bishop Trelawney — His 
 Letters to Pope — Pope's Estimate of Addison in his Epistle 
 to Arbuthnot— Scm'rilous Pamphlet — Pope's Villa — "On 
 the Bishop of Rochester's Preaching," by the Duke of 
 Wharton. 
 
 As a lawyer and as a statesman Simon Harcourt had 
 won liis way to the highest estimation. He had 
 filled with honour the posts of Solicitor and Attor- 
 ney-Greneral, and Keeper of the Great Seal ; and on 
 the 3rd of September, 1711, had been ennobled, with 
 the title of Baron Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, 
 Oxfordshire. In April of the following year he 
 became Lord High Chancellor. While a leading 
 member in the last administration of Queen Anne, his 
 lordship and Bishop Atterbury were brought into 
 frequent communication ; but their intimacy was of
 
 LORD HARCOURT. 277 
 
 mucli longer standing, and had been founded on 
 Lord Harcourt's attachment to the Chm-ch, of which 
 he gave one proof in his marriage with the daughter 
 of a clergyman (the Eev. Thomas Clarke, M.A.), 
 whose son married Elizabeth, the daughter of that 
 estimable member of the Anglican Establishment, 
 John Evelyn. 
 
 The Lord Chancellor seems to have permitted his 
 mind to be influenced by indecision with respect to 
 his conduct towards his new sovereign. His lord- 
 ship had not hitherto, it is evident, quite reconciled 
 himself to the Elector of Hanover, and writes to 
 the Bishop of Rochester for his advice as to how 
 he ought to address him, having at last made up 
 his mind to w^'ite. The shortness of his sentences 
 indicates a hurried manner. 
 
 LoED Chancellor Harcodrt to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 Tuesday Even, August 10, 1714. 
 My Lord, 
 
 i\Iy neglect of writing* is inexcusable. I doubt it may 
 
 be justly taken as an aiFront. I am determined now to do it, 
 
 late as it is. An ill excuse is worse than none. My station will 
 
 excuse the presumption." I wish I had your thoughts to-morrow 
 
 morning in wTiting : pray send me two lines it' I must see you 
 
 no more. To excuse the neglect, to justify the presumption, 
 
 and not appear mean, under the ajiprchensious I ought to have 
 
 of being removed, are matters to be nicely considered. 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 Harcoukt. 
 Whatever I write will be certainly shown. f 
 
 Wliether the Bishop regarded the Lord Chan- 
 cellor's note as an experiment on his loyalty does not 
 appear; but the frankness of the reply, with its 
 
 * To King George I. t Atterbury Papers.
 
 278 ADVICE TO LORD IIARCOURT. 
 
 suggestive conclusion, left no room for doubt on this 
 point. The writer allows nothing to escape him that 
 betrays disinclination to George I. The Protestant 
 succession is admitted as an established fact ; all that 
 the politician ventures to state is the propriety of 
 his correspondent writing as the leader of a party, 
 a course his lordship did not follow. He preferred 
 joining the Whigs, who were likely to have the 
 entire direction of the Government : and liavino- 
 done this, he shared their hostility to his present 
 adviser. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Lord Chancellor Harcourt. 
 
 Westminster, August 11, 1714. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Had I any reason to tliink your lordsliip could want my 
 assistance in anytliing, I would not stir from the town. But 
 I am far from that vanity. In the present case, I am sure there 
 is no need of me ; for my poor opinion is that the more plainly 
 and nakedly, and without reserve, your lordship expresses your 
 mind in that letter, the more welcome it will be. 
 
 There is no art requisite towards giving the K[ing] proper 
 assurances that he has not a more faithful subject within liis 
 dominions, nor one that desires more to .approve himself such by 
 real services ; that you thought the best service you could do, 
 at this important juncture, was to make use of any advantage 
 your station might give you toAvards uniting the hands and 
 hearts of all his subjects, and securing the quiet of his king- 
 doms. 
 
 There is one way of addressing him, indeed, which Avould 
 require more skill ; that is, if your lordship thought fit to write, 
 not merely as a single person, but in some measure as the head 
 of an interest. This I could wish your lordship would do, and 
 would take the steps proper to enable you to do it ; but I do not 
 find your lordship so disposed, and therefore am silent on that 
 subject. — I am, &c. * 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 LORD BOLINGBROKE. 270 
 
 The writer of the next letter had been removed 
 from his post of Secretary of State on the hist day of 
 the preceding month, in a fashion intended to mark 
 the Eoyal displeasure ; but Greorg-e I. was not yet in 
 England. His Majesty landed at Greenmch on the 
 IStli, and the deposed and insulted minister had 
 time to consult with his faithl'ul friend and colleague. 
 Bolino-broke shows that his disgrace affected him less 
 than the collapse of that political influence which 
 had maintained his authority. The change in the 
 current of patronage had drawn off those among 
 his supporters who made it a rule to go with the 
 stream. 
 
 Viscount Bolingbroke to Bishop Atteeburt. 
 
 September, 1714. 
 My Lord, 
 
 To be removed was neither matter of surprise uor 
 
 of concern to me ; but the manner of my removal shocked me 
 
 for at least two minutes. It is not fit that I should be in town 
 
 without waiting upon the King when he arrives ; and it is less 
 
 proper that I should wait upon him after what has passed till 
 
 by my friends some eclaircissement has been had with him. I 
 
 have written to the King, and I have spoken with Monsieur 
 
 Bothmar, and both I hope in a way becoming me. On Sunday 
 
 morning I go home, from whence I shall return as I receive 
 
 advices from hence. 
 
 The satisfaction and the advantage of conversing with your 
 lordship are so great, that I shall certainly make use of the 
 opportunity of seeing you which you arc so kind as to afford 
 me. About eight to-morrow in llie evening I will not fail to be 
 at the Deanery. 
 
 I cannot conclude this letter without assuring you that I 
 am not in the least intimidated from any consideration of the 
 "Whig malice and power ; but the grief of iny soul is this : I 
 see plainly that the Toiy party is gone. Those who broke from 
 us formerly, continue still to act and speak on the same prin-
 
 280 WALPOLE AI^D riilOR. 
 
 ciplcs and witli the same passions. Numbers are still left, and 
 tlioso numbers will be encreased by such as bave not their ex- 
 pectations answered. But where are the men of business that 
 will live and draw together ? You, my lord, know my thoughts 
 as well as you know your own. Nothing shall tempt or fright 
 me from the pursuit of what I know is right for the Church and 
 nation ; but the measures of the pursuit must I fear be altered. 
 Till to-morrow, my lord, adieu. — I am, &c.* 
 
 On tlie 1st of December, 1714, Lord Stair super- 
 seded Prior in Paris, and lie returned to England 
 the following Marcli, only to find that the day of 
 retribution had arrived, and the Whigs were again 
 in the ascendant. On the 25th he was committed 
 to the custody of a messenger, and brought up for 
 examination before a Secret Committee of the Privy 
 Council on the 1st of April. Of this "wild exami- 
 nation," as he terms it, he has left a report ; and he 
 seems to have been badly used. The object of his 
 examination, it presently appeared, was to establish 
 a charge of high treason against the late minister as 
 well as himself. On the 10th of June, 1715, the 
 chairman, Robert Walpole, moved in the House of 
 Commons an impeachment of Matthew Prior, and he 
 was ordered into close custody. So he remained, no 
 person being permitted to see him without leave from 
 the Speaker. Even in 1717, when an Act of Grace 
 was passed, he was one of the persons excepted. He 
 was at last liberated, there being not the slightest 
 charge against him. The whole transaction reflects 
 disgrace upon Walpole and his abettors : it was 
 unquestionably an exhibition of political spite. 
 
 * Atterbury Papers,
 
 DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. 2S1 
 
 But tliere were otlier opponents to punish when 
 Prior had retired into the security of private hfe ; 
 and the principal minister of the successor of Queen 
 Anne was intent upon crushing every one of them. 
 
 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, had long ceased 
 to be the dominant power in Church and State, which 
 the humble Court chaplain was obhged to regard with 
 awe and reverence. He had played no inconsiderable 
 part in jDutting an end to this influence ; but times 
 had very much altered since then. Having quar- 
 relled w^th the Government, Her Grace made her 
 approaches to the acknowledged leader of the Oppo- 
 sition in the House of Lords, with the object of 
 enlisting- him in her service. His communications 
 must have been anything but satisfactory. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to the Duchess of Marlborough. 
 
 Deanery, Friday [April 14, 1721]. 
 Madam, 
 
 I liave been very ill ever since I had the honour of 
 receiving your Grace's letter with the papers, so as to be in no 
 condition till this day to peruse and return them. I am still in 
 •so much pain and weakness that I doubt whether I shall be 
 able to attend in the House on my own cause* on Tuesday next. 
 However, if my lord Duke's appeal f comes not on till some 
 days afterwards, I will be sure to attend that, provided I have 
 strength enough to be carried to the House in a chair ; and in 
 the meantime I should be glad of any further light which your 
 Grace may direct your agent in the cause to impart to me, 
 particularly in relation to the evidence and reasonings on the 
 other side upon which the decree was founded. It is too great 
 an honour to me to be thought capable in any degree of 
 procuring justice to the Duke in this cause. I know well that 
 I am not of the least moment on sucli an occasion ; and, had I 
 
 * Eespjecting the dormitory. 
 
 f Against a decree of the Court of Excliuquer, respecting tlie jjayuient of the 
 workmen at Blenheim.
 
 282 SHEFFIELD DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 the uso of my legs, would have waited upon your Grace and told 
 you so myself. At present I can take only this way of thanking 
 your Grace for any undeserved opinion you may have entertained 
 of me, and of assuring your Grace that I am, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Attbrbury to the Duchess of Marlborough. 
 
 Deanery, Monday, May 1, 1721. 
 Madam, 
 
 It is with a great deal of concern that I now tell your 
 
 Grace (which is as soon as I have been able to do it) that I 
 
 apprehend it will be impossible for me to attend my lord Duke's 
 
 cause, although I hear it is put forward to Friday next.f My 
 
 illness has continued longer upon me, and been much sharper, 
 
 than I imagined it would be, and I have as yet no manner of 
 
 use of my limbs ; nor can I hope to appear in the House of 
 
 Lords till a fortnight hence, although my own cause is to come 
 
 on next Thursday. I assure your Grace that I have a particular 
 
 uneasiness in being rendered incapable of doing the little (very 
 
 little) which is in my power towards procuring justice to my lord 
 
 Duke ; for I should have been glad of this occasion of showing 
 
 your Grace with how entire a respect I am, &c.J 
 
 John Sheffield, Lord Mulgrave, did not assist in . 
 the Eevokition. He received honours from King 
 William, yet opposed the Grovernment ; but on the 
 accession of Queen Anne he accepted office, as well 
 as distinctions ; became Privy Seal, as well as Duke 
 of Buckinghamshire and Normanby. He, however, 
 could not reconcile himself to the dominant influence 
 of the Marlborough s, retired from office, and drew 
 towards the High Church party. He also married 
 the natural daughter of James II. by Katherine 
 Sedley, and employed his leisure in building Buck- 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 + The Duke's appeal was not finally adjudged till Tuesday, May 24, 1721, 
 •when the decree of the Court of Exchequer was affirmed. Bishop Atterbury did 
 not appear in the House of Lords on that day, but attended on the preceding one, 
 when counsel were heard on the cause. — W. M. 
 
 t Atterbury Papers.
 
 DUKE OF ORMONDE. 283 
 
 ingliam House in St. James's Park, in gaming, in 
 writing poetiy, and in secret communications with 
 St. Germains — employments enough for a man close 
 upon sixty. At the tm-n-out of the Whigs, the Duke 
 became first Lord Steward of the Household, then 
 President of the Council. They were the last duties 
 of the kind he performed, except when appointed 
 to be one of the Lords Justices at the demise of 
 the Queen.* 
 
 Atterbury entertained a particular regard for the 
 Duke of Ormonde, with whom he lived in habits 
 of easy communication. In the year 1715, when 
 Atterbury was dining with his Grace (whose party 
 consisted of fourteen), it happened that the sub- 
 ject of short prayers was introduced. Sir William 
 Wyndham observed that the shortest prayer he had 
 ever heard was one of a common soldier, just before 
 the battle of Blenheim, " God, if there be a God, 
 save my soul, if I have a soul ! " Upon which 
 Atterbury, addressing himself to Sir WiUiam, said, 
 " Your praj'er, Sir William, is indeed very short ; 
 but I remember another as short, and much better, 
 offered up likewise by a poor soldier in the same 
 circumstances, ' God, if in the day of battle I forget 
 thee, do thou not forget me ! ' " This, as Atterbury 
 pronounced it with his usual grace and dignity, was a 
 very gentle and polite reproof, and was immediately 
 felt by the whole company. And the Duke of 
 Ormonde, who was the best bred man of his age, 
 suddenly turned the conversation to another subject. f 
 
 * The Duke died Feb. 24, 1720-21. 
 
 t Dr. William King wa.s one of the company. Sec "Anecdotes of Lis Own
 
 284 prior's verses. 
 
 It was of tliis gallant Duke Prior wrote his heroic 
 verses, on beholding his portrait, painted by Sir 
 Godfrey Kneller. He commenced with telling the 
 artist to strike the figure from " the injured canvas," 
 because of its not being like the sitter — a criticism 
 which Sir Grodfrey would have resented. Then the 
 poet advises the latter to paint the hero as he 
 appeared on the field of Landen ; but this must 
 have caused him to enlarge his canvas considerably, 
 for he was asked to " draw routed squadrons," and 
 then the equestrian with his keen sabre, comet-like, 
 is to denounce death, when — 
 
 The Gallic chiefs their troops around him call, 
 Fear to approach him though they see him fall. 
 
 Sir Godfrey is apostrophized to execute this noble 
 design : — 
 
 Kneller ! could thy shades and lights express 
 The perfect hero in that glorious dress, 
 Ages to come might Ormonde's jjicture know. 
 And palms for thee beneath his laurels grow : 
 In spite of Time thy work might ever shine, 
 Nor Homer's colours last so long as thine. 
 
 Addison had long moved in the most fashionable 
 society of the age, and his plays and poems were 
 much admired by the ladies of the Court of George I. 
 In the year 1716 he was married to the Countess of 
 Warwick, and thenceforward his residence was her 
 ladyship's mansion, Holland House ; but this distinc- 
 tion did not secure him domestic comfort, and he 
 
 Times," pp. 8, 9. — W. M. There were three contemporary Divinity Doctors of 
 exactly the same name ; one was Archbishop of Dublin ; another the Christ Church 
 wit, frequently referred to ; the third filled the post of Principal of St. Mary 
 Hall, Oxford, who relates the anecdote in the text.
 
 BUDGELL AND GAY. 285 
 
 only survived it three years. His last political enter- 
 prise was a periodical, called The Old Whig, started 
 early in the year 1719, in opposition to a recent 
 publication of his old friend Steele, to which he 
 had given the defiant title of The Plebeian. There 
 was an interchange of uncomplimentary remarks 
 between the two once cordial friends in the few 
 numbers of each publication that were printed. 
 Addison died in the summer of the same year, 
 June 17. 
 
 Eustace Budgell was also a Christ Church student. 
 He was a kinsman of Addison, which occasioned his 
 close connection with him, political and literary. He 
 contributed to the Taller, Speclalor, and Guardian : 
 indeed, the eighth and concluding volume of the 
 spectator was made up of their contributions, without 
 any assistance from Steele. He was an accomplished 
 scholar, and an easy and graceful writer; but he owed 
 his advancement, in a great measure, to the influence 
 of his celebrated relative, whose prosperity under 
 Walpole's patronage he shared, till heavy losses in the 
 South Sea speculation, and the determined opposition 
 of the Duke of Bolton, made his affairs desperate.* 
 
 Gay joined his friends in essay writing. To the 
 Guardian, IMarch 24, 1713. he wrote (No. 11), on 
 " Reproof," an amusing account of a pretended spe- 
 cific (flattery), with a list of cures. Equally clever 
 and amusing is his comparison of criticism and dress, 
 
 • He then as-sisted tlie writers of "The Craftsmen" in abusing Walpole. He 
 started a periodical called the Bee, forged a will, endeavoured to get into Parlia- 
 ment, with the assi.stance of the Duchess of Marlborough, and, being disgusted 
 with his failiiii's, in the year ITOI jumped into the ThaiiK'S and was drowned.
 
 286 GAY S " WHAT d'yE CALL IT." 
 
 in the 149th number. Though his fellow-labourers 
 were Addison, Steele, Berkeley, Pope, rarnell, 
 Hughes, Wotton, Tickell, Budgcll, Martin, Carey, 
 Eusden, and Ince, these compositions will bear com- 
 parison with their best efforts. 
 
 Gray, after the Hanoverian succession, followed the 
 prudent advice of his friend Pope, and became as much 
 a courtier as he could be. The fine clothes in which 
 he delighted, and the silver he so prodigally expended 
 " in buttons and loops for his coat," could only be 
 secured by a sufficient revenue. Then he wanted fit 
 company to admire him and his apparel, so he made 
 his way to the ladies in attendance on the Princess of 
 Wales, and under their auspices paid assiduous court 
 to Her Royal Highness. He did not, however, neg- 
 lect the general public, and the beaux and wits of 
 the town were appealed to in the spring of 1714-15, 
 in a play called " The What d'ye Call It," but with 
 equivocal success ; both Court and town, who thronged 
 to witness its first representation, being mystified as 
 to the purport of the author. Pope wrote an amusing 
 letter to Congreve, describing its reception. Soon 
 after, a facetious attack upon it was published by 
 Grriffin and Theobald, entitled " A Complete Key to 
 'The What d'ye Call It;'" and a more severe one 
 appeared in a periodical known as The Griimhler. 
 
 Gay would not give up the idea that he could 
 follow where Parquhar and Congreve had led, and 
 once more his anxious friends rushed to the theatre, 
 to endeavour to ensure the success of his " Three 
 Hours after Marriage." In one of the scenes two 
 gallants of the wife of a virtuoso (a burlesque on
 
 COURT PATRONAGE. 287 
 
 Dr. AVoodward) gain access to the house, disguised as 
 a mummy and a crocodile. This absurdity damned 
 the play, though Arbuthnot and Pope had helped in 
 its composition. But the spirits of the author were 
 but little aflected by his failure. In a letter written 
 to Pope, he informs his friend that he is going to 
 Hampton Court "to mix with quality," where the 
 company of the maids of honour made him forget 
 his disappointment. As SA\'ift wrote to him a few 
 years later, " You are too volatile, and m}^ lady with 
 a coach and six horses would carry you to Japan." 
 
 Gay was one of the victims of the South Sea 
 Bubble. He had been frequently advised to sell the 
 stock he possessed (of which he owned to the nomi- 
 nal amount of ten thousand pounds) to secure "a 
 shoulder of mutton and a clean shirt every day." 
 
 Pope, Arbuthnot, and Swift added their cautions 
 and entreaties ; but the natural carelessness of his 
 nature prevailed. His loss had a serious affect upon 
 his health, and he lived for some time at Hampstead, 
 in a very desponding state, till he brought out his 
 tragedy of "The Captives," under the auspices of the 
 Princess of Wales, and a volume of Fables in verse, 
 written at the request of Her Eoyal Highness, for 
 the entertainment of her younger son, the Duke of 
 Cumberland. He entertained the most sano-uine 
 expectations in consequence of these manifestations 
 of Com-t favours. They proved a repetition of the 
 South Sea stock. 
 
 Gay had been cautioned by his zealous friend 
 against putting trust in princes or princesses. " God 
 is a better friend than a court," wrote Pope to liim ;
 
 288 DISLOYAL PAMPHLET. 
 
 but wlien the mountain of Royal favour broup^ht forth 
 that mouse of performance in the offer of the insig- 
 nificant post of Gentleman Usher to the youngest of 
 the Princesses, he must have wished that he had relied 
 on the better friend. He now indignantly and ungal- 
 lantly turned his back upon the ladies of the Court, 
 to the intense satisfaction of his most cordial sup- 
 porters. Pope wrote to him, "While I have a shilling 
 you shall have a sixpence — nay, eightpence, if I can 
 contrive to live upon a groat." Swift wrote of 
 him, — 
 
 Thus Gay, the hare, with many friends, 
 Twice seven long years at Court attends; 
 Who, under tales conveying truth, 
 To virtue form'd a princely youth ; 
 Who paid his courtship with the crowd, 
 As far as modish pride allow'd ; 
 Rejects a servile usher's place, 
 And leaves St. James's in disgrace. * 
 
 Atterbury, whose contempt for the tribe who 
 flourished at St. James's was unequivocal, must have 
 thoroughly appreciated this Eoyal patronage of a 
 man of genius. 
 
 The coronation had taken place on the 10th of 
 October, 1714, and before the year terminated a pam- 
 phlet was secretly circulated, entitled "English Advice 
 to the Freeholders of England," which the Grovern- 
 ment denounced to be " a malicious and traitorous 
 libel." They offered £1,000 for the discovery of the 
 author, and £500 for that of the printer. 
 
 There were two answers to it, written by Walpole's 
 pamphleteers, one apparently by Steele, in which it is 
 asserted : — 
 
 * Verses to Dr. Delaney.
 
 ATTACK ON THE GOVERN oMENT. 289 
 
 If we may judge of the men by their styles in writing as 
 well as painting, I shonld determine that this traitorous libel is 
 the joint work of a triumvirate, a hisliop, a quondam Secretary, 
 and an Examiner. There is an impudence in it that could come 
 from nobody's pen but the latter's ; a pertness which is the cha- 
 racteristic of the Secretary, with an affectation of reading ; and 
 the sopliistry and declamation in many parts of it show it to have 
 also passed under the pen of the first of them.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury, Lord Bolingbroke, and Dean 
 Swift are here alleged to have been co-partners in 
 this composition.! Boling'broke was then making up 
 his mind to enter the service of James III. The 
 Dean was equally zealous in opposition to the Whigs, 
 but had limited his exertions to Dublin ; the Bishop 
 could have written the work without the assistance 
 of either : nevertheless, a barrister of tlie name of 
 Hornby was taken into custody as the author. 
 There can be no doubt that Bishop Atterbury 
 resented the slight that had been put upon him, and 
 was disposed to give the Government, who were 
 responsible for it, as much trouble as possible. With 
 this object he attacked them with his pen through 
 the press ; while in the House of Lords he opposed 
 their measures with no less boldness and ability. 
 
 The Duchess of Buckingham was intimate with 
 the Bishop of Eochester, but notwithstanding the 
 latter's regard for the deceased Duke, he would not 
 permit the Latin epitaph written by his Grrace to be 
 
 * " Remarks on a Libel privately dispersed by the Tories, entitled ' English 
 Advice,' &c., showing the traitorous designs of the faction in putting out that 
 villanous Pamphlet, on occasion of the ensuing Elections." 
 
 t Mr. Nichols, V., 32, considers it the production of Bishop Atterbury; 
 but having had it printed, to be included in his Miscellanies, left it out in his 
 volume published in 1798 — a dangerous time. 
 
 \OI,. I. 20
 
 290 Steele's fish pool. 
 
 inscribed on his monnment, unless a particular pas- 
 sage, of doubtful meaning, were omitted.* The 
 widow consulted him on her affairs, as will presently 
 be shown, and in this direction it is evident that he 
 was drawn closer into a knowledge of the designs 
 of the exiled family. 
 
 When the Elector of Hanover became King of 
 England, Steele was recompensed for his services with 
 various employments, such as Surveyor to the Royal 
 Stables at Hampton Court, Commissioner for Inquir- 
 ing into the Forfeited Estates in Scotland, Manager or 
 Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians, and 
 member for Boroughbridge. He was also knighted, 
 and paid £500 in cash by Walpole. Sir Richard 
 continued writing pamphlets and projecting periodi- 
 cals. He brought out the Toimi Talk, The Lover, and 
 The Tea Table ; and his thoughtless way of life having 
 reduced his finances, projected a scheme known as 
 " The Fish Pool," an invention for bringing salmon 
 to market alive from the coast of Ireland. The fish 
 resisted, by dashing themselves against their prison, 
 till they were unfit for sale, and the scheme proved a 
 failure. 
 
 His was a spirit that could not long remain under 
 control, and in 1 7 1 9 he went into opposition upon the 
 Peerage Bill, which caused his patent as manager to 
 be taken from him. About this time he started The 
 
 * Dubius sed non improbus vixi, 
 Incertus morior sed inturbatus ; 
 Humanum est nescire et errare. 
 Christum adveneror, Deo confido 
 Omnipotenti, Benevolissimo, 
 Ens entium miserere mihi.
 
 prior's prejudice. 291 
 
 Theatre, and contrived to get into a violent dispute 
 with Dennis, the critic. 
 
 Then the indefatigable pamphleteer issued a decla- 
 ration against the South Sea scheme ; but nothing 
 proved of such service as the representation of a 
 new comedy written by him, called " The Conscious 
 Lovers," in the year 1722, after he had been restored 
 to his office in the theatre. The King presented him 
 with £500 for the dedication. It was not long, how- 
 ever, before he had exhausted these supplies and 
 quarrelled with the managers, against whom he com- 
 menced a law suit, which he lost.* 
 
 Prior had chosen to be profoundly prejudiced 
 against his old schoolfellow, and betrayed this in 
 his writings in verse and prose. In a letter to Swift 
 dated April 25, 1721, he most unfairly and untruly 
 wi'ites : — 
 
 jRoffin is more than suspected to have given up his party as 
 Sancho did his subjects, for so much a head, Vun portant 
 Vautres. His cause, therefore, which is something originally like 
 that of Lutrin, is opposed or neglected by his ancient fi'iends, 
 and openly sustained by the Ministry. He cannot be lower in 
 the opinion of most men than he is.f 
 
 No fact can be more easily proved than Atterbury's 
 unselfish devotion to his party. A few persons who 
 chose to fancy themselves more than ordinarily iar- 
 seeing, aware that Lord Sunderland, on becoming 
 head of the Government, liad endeavoured to con- 
 
 * At last Sir Richard came to the conclusion that liis political, literary, and 
 dramatic career wa.s over. He quitted the gay deliglitful town, when in a condi- 
 tion that had left him insensible to its enjoyments, and retired to an estate he had 
 in Wales (Langmanor, near Carnarvon), where he died, September 21, 1729. 
 
 t "Swift's Works," by Scott. 
 
 20*
 
 292 LORD BATHURST. 
 
 ciliate the leader of the Opposition in tlie House of 
 Peers, came to the very erroneous conclusion that the 
 Bishop was going over to the Whigs. 
 
 The Earl of Oxford had provided Prior with a 
 comfortable residence, Down Hall, in Essex, where 
 the poet, after escaping from his enemies, continued 
 to write, and having finished his " Solomon on the 
 Vanity of tlie World," he published, by subscription, 
 a collection of his poems in one volume, dedicated to 
 the son of his former patron, Dorset.'* 
 
 The nobleman mentioned by Bishop Atterbury in 
 the next letter as Pope's host was one of the Tory 
 peers created by Queen Anne, in the year 1711, 
 when the Whig Government and the Marlborough 
 domination were brought to a summary close. Lord 
 Bathurst was now and had been an active coadjutor 
 of the Bishop in the House of Peers, and unremitting 
 in his opposition to Walpole. His patronage of 
 literature had been as decided as his politics ; and 
 this made his house the resort of the most dis- 
 tinguished men of letters. The Bishop seems to 
 intimate that his lordship would return to active 
 political life. In this he was quite correct ; but many 
 years elapsed before he accepted office. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, October 15, 1721. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Notwithstanding I write this on Sunday evening, to 
 
 * He was staying at Wimple, near Cambridge, tlie seat of the second Lord 
 Oxford, when be succumbed to an attack of fever, September 18, 1721. His old 
 friend, Dr. Robert Freind, wrote bis epitapb ; bis place of sepulture was in the 
 familiar Abbey ; and his old schoolfellow and fellow political labourer, Atterbury, 
 would have performed the last rites had he not been prevented by illness.
 
 FEIENDS IN THE COUNTRY. 293 
 
 acknowledge the receipt of jours this moruing, yet I foresee 
 it will not reach you till Wednesday morning ; and before set of 
 sun that day I hope to reach my winter quarters at the Deanery. 
 I hojje, did I say ? I recal that word, for it implies desire ; and 
 God knows that this is far from being the case. For I never 
 part from this place but with regret, though I generally keep 
 here what Mr. Cowley calls tlie loorst of company in the world, 
 my own ; and see either none beside, or, what is worse than none, 
 some of the Arrii or Sehosi of my neighbourhood — characters 
 which Tully paints so well in one of his Epistles, and complains 
 of the too civil but impertinent interruption they gave him in 
 his retirement. Since I have named those gentlemen, and the 
 book is not far from me, I will turn to the place ; and, by point- 
 ing it out to you, give you the pleasure of perusing the Epistle,* 
 which is a veiy agreeable one, if my memory does not fail me. 
 
 I am surprised to find that my Lord Bathurst and you are 
 parted so soon. He has been sick, I know, of some late trans- 
 actions ; but, should that sickness continue still in some measure, 
 I prophesy it will be quite off by the beginning of November : 
 a letter or two from his London friends, and a surfeit of solitude, 
 will soon make him change his resolution and his quarters. I 
 vow to you, I could live here with pleasure all the winter, and 
 be contented with hearing no more news than the London Journal, 
 or some such trifling paper, affords me, did not the duty of my 
 place require, absolutely require, my attendance at Westminster; 
 where I hope the Prophet will now and then remember he has 
 " a bed and a candlestick." In short, I long to see you, and hope 
 you will come, if not a day, yet at least an hour sooner to town 
 than you intended, in order to afford me that satisfaction. I am 
 now, I thank God, as well as ever I was in my life, except that 
 I can walk scarce at all without crutches ; and I would willingly 
 compound the matter with the gout to be no better, could 1 hope 
 to be no worse ; but that is a vain thought, for I expect a new 
 attack long before Christmas. Let me see you, therefore, Avhile I 
 am in a condition to relish you, before the days (and the nights) 
 come, when I shall and must say that " I have no pleasure in 
 them." 
 
 I will bring your small volume of Pastorals along with me, 
 
 * It is the fourteenth Letter of the Second Book of the Epistles to Atticus. — 
 W. M.
 
 294 LORD LANSDOWNE IN THE TOWER. 
 
 that you may not be discouraged from lenduig me books when 
 you find me so punctual in returning them. Shakespeare 
 shall bear it company, and be put into your hands as clear and 
 as fair as it came out of them ; though you, I think, have been 
 dabbling here and there with the text. I have had more 
 reverence for the writer and the printer, and left everything 
 standing just as I found it. However, I thank you for the 
 pleasure you have given me in putting me upon reading him 
 once more before I die. 
 
 I believe I shall scarce repeat that pleasure any more ; having 
 other work to do, and other things to think of, but none that 
 will interfere with the offices of friendship, in the exchange of 
 which with you, sir, I hope to live and die. 
 
 P.S. — Mr. Addison's works came to my hands yesterday. I 
 cannot but think it a very odd set of incidents that the book 
 should be dedicated by a dead man to a dead man [Secretary 
 Craggs] ; and even that the new patron [Lord Warwick], to whom 
 Mr. Tickell chose to inscribe his Verses, should be dead also 
 before they wei-e published. Had I been in the editor's place, I 
 should have been a little apprehensive for myself under a thought 
 that every one who had any hand in that work was to die before 
 the publication of it. You see when I am conversing with you, 
 I know not how to give over till the very bottom of the paper 
 admonishes me once more to bid you adieu I * 
 
 Lord Lansdowne continued to act with the party 
 of the Bishop of Rochester, and protested in the 
 House of Peers against the attainder of the Duke 
 of Ormonde and Lord Bolingbroke — a proceeding 
 that so increased the wrath of Walpole that, after the 
 suppression of the rebellion of 1715, the now all- 
 powerful minister caused Lord Lansdowne to be sent 
 to the Tower as a suspected traitor ; and he remained 
 a prisoner in that fortress from September 26 of this 
 year till February 8, 1719. He does not appear 
 to have ceased his opposition when he returned to 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 " HONEST SHIPPEN." 295 
 
 his place in tlie Upper House: indeed, in 1719 lie 
 particularly distintruislied himself by a speech he 
 made against the repeal of the Bill to Prevent Occa- 
 sional Conformity. He prudently quitted England 
 in 1722, and remained abroad ten years — ostensibly 
 to economize.* 
 
 Among the warm friends of Bishop Atterbury in the 
 House of Commons was " Honest Shippen," member 
 for Saltash, a zealous Jacobite, fearless and outspoken. 
 He was committed to the Tower on the 4th of De- 
 cember, 1718, for having, during a debate in the House 
 on the King's speech, asserted that the second para- 
 gi-aph of it was " rather calculated for the meridian 
 of Germany than Great Britain ; and that it was a 
 great misfortune that the King was a stranger to our 
 lano-uaore and constitution." This was one of num- 
 berless manifestations of despotic power .with which 
 the Vfino: Government contrived to maintain and 
 spread disaffection. Englishmen could not help feel- 
 ing degraded by seeing their coimtry treated as an 
 appanage to a petty continental State, and a desire 
 for a change of rulers gathered strength every day. 
 
 In the following correspondence between Pope 
 and the Bishop, the " Arabian Tales " referred to do 
 not appear to have been the immortal stories of the 
 Thousand-and-One Nights, a translation of which 
 was not publislied till 1724. The interest Atterbury 
 took in the fame of Dryden here is again seen. 
 
 * On his return, Lord Lansdowne pulilislied a collected edition of his Poems, 
 presenting copies to Queen Caroline and the Princess Anne, with complimentary 
 verses, which were favourably received. Pope called him "the polite," but his 
 lordship possessed other qualities; he was consistent and sincere. His character 
 as a politician has survived his fame as a poet. He died .laniiary 30, 1735.
 
 296 SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 Alexandee Pope to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 September 23, 1720. 
 
 I hope you liavo some time ago received the sulphur and the 
 two volumes of Mr. Gay, as instances (how small ones soever) 
 that I wish you both health and diversion. What I now send 
 for your perusal I shall say nothing of; not to forestal by a 
 single word what you promised to say upon that subject. Your 
 lordship may criticise from Virgil to these Tales,* as Solomon 
 wrote of everything from the cedar to the hyssop. I have some 
 cause, since I last waited on you at Bromley, to look upon 
 you as a prophet in that retreat, from whom oracles are to 
 be had, were mankind wise enough to go thither to consult 
 you. The fate of the South Sea scheme has, sooner than I 
 expected, verified what you told me. Most people thought the 
 time would come, but no man prepared for it ; no man con- 
 sidered it would come "like a thief in the night," exactly as it 
 happens in the case of our death. Methinks Grod has punished 
 the avaricious, as he often punishes sinners, in their own way — 
 in the very sin itself: the thirst of gain was their crime ; that 
 thirst continued became their punishment and ruin. As for the 
 few who have the good fortune to remain with half of what they 
 imagined they had (among whom is your humble servant), I 
 would have them sensible of their felicity ; and convinced of the 
 truth of old Hesiod's maxim, who, after half his estate was 
 swallowed up by the directors of those days, resolved that half 
 to he more than the -whole. 
 
 Does not the fate of these people put you in mind of two 
 passages, one in Job, the other from the Psalmist ? 
 
 " Men shall groan out of the city, and hiss them out of their 
 place." 
 
 " They have dreamed out their dream, and awaking have 
 found nothing in their hands." 
 
 Indeed the universal poverty, which is the consequence of 
 universal avarice, and which will fall hardest upon the guiltless 
 and industrious part of mankind, is truly lamentable. The 
 universal deluge of the South Sea, contrary to the old deluge, 
 has drowned all except a few unrighteous men ; but it is some 
 comfort to me that I am not one of them, even though I were 
 
 * Arabian Tales.
 
 POPE AND ATTERBURY. 297 
 
 to survive and rule the world by it. I am much pleased with 
 a thought of Dr. Arbuthnot's : he says the Grovernment and 
 South Sea Company have only locked up the money of the 
 people upon conviction of their lunacy (as is usual in the case 
 of lunatics), and intend to restore them as much as may be fit 
 for such people as fast as they shall see them return to their 
 senses. 
 
 The latter part of your letter does me so much honour, and 
 shows me so much kindness, that I must both be proud and 
 pleased in a great degree ; but I assure you, my lord, much 
 more the last than the first. For I certainly know and feel in 
 my own heart, which truly respects you, that there may be a 
 ground for your partiality one way ; but I find not the least 
 symptoms in my head of any foundation for the other. In a 
 word, the best reason I know for my being pleased is that you 
 continue your favour toward me : the best I know for being 
 proud would be that you might cure me of it ; for I have 
 found you ,to be such a physician as does not only repair but 
 improve. — I am, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, September, 1720. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 The Arabian Tales, and Mr. Gay's books, I received 
 not till ^londay night, together with your letter, for which I 
 thank you. I have had a fit of the gout upon me ever since I 
 returned hither from Westminster on Saturday night last : it 
 has found its way into my hands as well as legs ; so that I have 
 been utterly incapable of writing. This is the first letter that I 
 have ventured upon, which Avill be written, I fear, vacillantihus 
 Uteris., as Tully says Tyro's letters were after his recovery from 
 an illness. What I said to you in mine about the monument 
 was intended only to quicken, not to alarm you : it is not worth 
 your while to know what I meant by it ; but when I see you, 
 you .shall. I hope you may be at the Deanery towards the end 
 of October, by which time I think of settling there for tho 
 winter. What do you think of some such short inscription as 
 this in Latin, which may in a few words say all that is to be 
 said of Drydcii, and yet nothing more than he deserves? — 
 
 • Atterbury Papers.
 
 298 dryuen's epitaph. 
 
 JOHANNI DllYDENO, 
 
 Cui Poesis Anglicana 
 Vim suam, ac Veneres debet ; 
 Et si qua in posterum augebitur laude, 
 Est adliuc debitura : 
 Honoris ergo P. &c. 
 
 To sliow you tliat I am as much in earnest in the affair as you 
 yourself, something I will send you too of this kind in English. 
 If your design holds of fixing Dryden's name only below and 
 his busto above, may not lines like these be graved just under 
 the name ? — 
 
 This Sheffield rais'd, to Dryden's ashes just, 
 Here fix'd his name, and there his laurell'd bust: 
 What else the Muse in marble might express 
 Is known already ; praise would make him less. 
 
 Or thus, — 
 
 More needs not ; where acknowledg'd merits reign, 
 Praise is impertinent and censure vain. 
 
 This you will take as a proof of my zeal at least, though it 
 be none of my talent in poetry. When you have read it over, I 
 vsdll forgive you if you should not once in your lifetime again 
 think of it. 
 
 And now, sir, for your "Arabian Tales." Ill as I have been 
 almost ever since they came to hand, I have read as much of 
 them as ever I shall read while I live. Indeed they do not 
 please my taste : they are written with so romantic an air, and, 
 allowing for the difference of Eastern manners, are yet, upon 
 any supposition that can be made, of so wild and absurd a con- 
 trivance (at least to my northern understanding), that I have 
 not only no pleasure, but no patience, in perusing them. They 
 are to me like the odd paintings on Indian screens, which at 
 first glance may surprise and please a little ; but, when you fix 
 your eye intently upon them, they appear so extravagant, dis- 
 proportioned, and monstrous, that they give a judicious eye 
 pain, and make him seek for relief from some other object. 
 They may furnish the mind with some new images, but I think 
 the purchase is made at too great an expence ; for to read those 
 two volumes through, liking them as little as I do, would be a 
 terrible penance, and to read them with pleasure would be dan- 
 gerous, on the other side, because of the infection. I will never 
 believe that you have any keen relish of them till I find you
 
 THE BUBBLE BURST. 299 
 
 Avrite worse than you do, wHch I dare say I never shall. Who 
 that Petit de la Croise* is, the pretended author of them, I cannot 
 tell; but, observing how full they are in the descriptions of 
 dress, fui'niture, &c., I cannot help thinking them the product 
 of some woman's imagination, and believe me I would do any- 
 thing but break with you rather than be bound to read them 
 over with attention. 
 
 I am sorry that I was so true a prophet in respect of the 
 South Sea — sorry, I mean, as far as your loss is concerned ; for 
 in the general I ever was, and still am, of opinion that, had the 
 project taken root and flourished, it would by degrees have over- 
 turned our constitution. Three or four hundred millions was 
 such a weight that, whichsoever way it had leaned, must have 
 borne down all before it. But of the dead we must speak 
 gently ; and, therefore, as Mr. Dryden says somewhere — " Peace 
 be to its manes ! " 
 
 Let me add one reflection to make you easy in your ill luck. 
 Had you gotten all that you have lost, beyond what you ven- 
 tured, consider that your superfluous gains would have sprung 
 from the ruin of several families that now want necessaries ; a 
 thought under which a good man, that grew rich by such means, 
 could not (I persuade myself) be perfectly easy. Adieu, and 
 believe me, &c.t 
 
 Bishop Atterbuey to the Bishop of Winchester.! 
 
 Westminster, February 26, 1720-21. 
 My Lord, 
 
 Lord Coningsby's complaint against the Lord Chan- 
 
 * He was the author of " Persian Tales." 
 
 f Atterbury Papers. 
 
 t Bishop Trelawney died within five months of the date of this letter to him, 
 viz. .July 19, 1721, at the age of 71. Of tliis accomplished prelate Mr. Granger, 
 in his "Biographical History," gives the following portraiture : "He was a man 
 of polite manners, competent learning, and uncommon knowledge of the world. 
 He wa.s a true son and friend of the Church ; and e.xerted himself with courage 
 and alacrity, with magnanimity and address, in defence of her just rights and 
 privileges. He was friendly and open, generous and charitable — was a good com- 
 panion and a good man. He was successively Bishop of Bristol, Exeter, and 
 Winchester. He had as much personal intrepidity as his predecessor, Bishop 
 MewB, in the last of these Sees, and was in all other respects much his su])erior. 
 The masterly dedication before Atterbury's Sermons is addressed to this prelate. 
 The reader may see in it some traits of his character without the exaggerations
 
 300 DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. 
 
 cellor* is put off till to-morrow, and is a matter of such liigli 
 expectation that Lord Nottingham cannot refuse himself the 
 pleasure of being there ; and I believe there is scarcely a lord 
 that is in health who will be absent, except your lordship. f 
 Tuesday, likewise, is set apart for the complaint about Lord 
 Coningsby's privilege, so that the trustees cannot meet till 
 Wednesday ; of which I have undertaken to give your lordship an 
 account. The cause went against the Duchess of Hamilton J last 
 night, nemine contradicente. Nine of the eleven judges (present), 
 in elaborate speeches, declared for Mr. Fleetwood ; two only 
 who had been counsel for the Duchess in the cause before they 
 were judges (Pratt and Fortescue), stuck to her. — I am, &c.§ 
 
 The Bishop is again placed in the position of a 
 critic ; and it will be seen how regardful he is while 
 so employed of his friend's fame. In the same 
 honest spirit he addresses himself to the productions 
 of another member of the distinguished literary- 
 circle in which his lordship had long been regarded 
 as an ornament. The works of the Court physician 
 were of too purposeless a character to satisfy his 
 judgment. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Westminster, March 26, ]721. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 You are not yourself gladder you are well than I am ; 
 
 which are too often found in compositions of this kind, and which bring the sin- 
 cerity of authors in question before we have read the hrst page of their works." — 
 W. M. 
 
 * Lord Parker: "That he had put disaffected persons into the Commission of 
 the Peace." This charge (conveyed in a pamphlet which was distributed at the 
 door of the House of Peers) not being substantiated. Lord Coningsby was com- 
 mitted to the Tower. — W. M. 
 
 + Bishop Trelawney did, however, attend the House on this occasion. The whole 
 number of peers then present was 112.- — W. M. 
 
 J An appeal to the House of Lords against a judgment of the Court of King's 
 Bench, in favour of Mr. Fleetwood, respecting a large estate in Staffordshire. — 
 W. M. 
 
 § Atterbury Papers.
 
 DR. ARBUTHNOT. 301 
 
 especially since I can please myself with the thought that, 
 when you had lost your health elsewhere, you recovered it here. 
 May these lodgings never treat you worse, nor you at any time 
 have less reason to be fond of them. 
 
 I thank you for the sight of your verses;* and, with the freedom 
 of an honest, though perhaps injudicious friend, must tell you 
 that, though I could like some of them if they were anybody's 
 but yours, yet as they arc yours, and to be owned as such, I 
 can scarce like any of them. Not but that the four first lines 
 are good, especially the second couplet, and might, if followed 
 by four others as good, give reputation to a writer of a less esta- 
 blished fame ; but from you I expect something of a more 
 perfect kind, and which the oftener it is read the more it will 
 be admired. When you barely exceed other writers, you fall 
 much beneath yourself; it is youi' misfortune now to write 
 without a rival, and you may be tempted by that means to be 
 more careless than you would otherwise be in your compo- 
 sitions. 
 
 Thus much I could not forbear saying, though I have a 
 motion of consequence in the House of Lordsf to-day, and must 
 prepare for it. I am even with you for your ill paper, for I 
 write upon worse, having no other at hand. I wish you the 
 continuance of your health most heartily, and am, &c. 
 
 P.S. — I have sent Dr. Arbuthnot the Latin manuscript,^ 
 which I could not find when you left me ; and am so angry at 
 the writer for his design and manner of executing it, that I 
 could hardly forbear sending him a line of Virgil along with it. 
 The chief reasoner of that philosophic farce is a Gallo-Ligur, as 
 he is called : what that means in English or French I cannot 
 say ; but all he says is in so loose and slippery and trickish a 
 way of reasoning, that I cannot forbear applying this passage of 
 Virgil to him : — 
 
 Vane Ligur, frustraque animis elate superbis, 
 Nequicquam patriae tentasti lubricus artes ! 
 
 To be serious, I hate to see a book gravely written, and in all 
 the forms of argumentation, which proves nothing and which 
 
 • Epitaph on the Hon. Simon Harcourt. 
 
 t An apiteal respectinf; the .lormitory at the College, Westminster.— W. M. 
 
 X Of Iluctiu;-', IJi.shop of Avraucbcw, left after his death.— W. M.
 
 302 THE bishop's IIKAT;TII. 
 
 says nothing, and endeavours only to put us into a way of 
 distrusting our own faculties, and doubting whether the marks of 
 trutli and falsehood can in any case be distinguished from each 
 other. Could that blessed point be made out (as it is a contra- 
 diction in terms to say it can) we should then be in the most 
 \incomfortable and wretched state in the world ; and I would in 
 that case be glad to exchange my reason with a dog for his 
 instinct to-morrow.* 
 
 In the autumn of 1721 the Bishop's health, which 
 had suffered much during the summer, confined him 
 to his chamber. He remained in retirement at the 
 episcopal manor-house, only going to the Deanery 
 when residence was imperative. His chief gratifica- 
 tion was correspondence with his friends, with Pope 
 especially, with whom he discussed literary subjects 
 with his customary ardour. Waller was still one of his 
 favourite poets. The recent death of his old school- 
 fellow is referred to. They had, from causes already 
 hinted at, become estranged. Prior had resented the 
 Bishop's conscientious refusal of his appeal in behalf 
 of liis godson, and had perpetrated some indifierent 
 epigrammatic attempts at his expense. 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, September 27, 1721. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I am now confined to my bedchamber and to the 
 matted room wherein I am writing, seldom venturing to be 
 carried down even into the parlour to dinner, unless when com- 
 pany, to whom I cannot excuse myself, comes ; which I am not 
 ill pleased to find is now very seldom. This being my case in 
 the sunny part of the year, what must I expect when 
 
 inversum contristat Aquarius annum ? 
 
 " If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 WALLER AND PRIOR. 303 
 
 in the dry ? " Excuse me for employing a sentence of Scripture 
 on this occasion ; I appl}' it very seriously. One thing relieves 
 me a little, under the ill prospect I have of spending my time at 
 the Deanery in the winter, that I shall have the opportunity of 
 seeing you oftener ; though I am afraid you will have little 
 pleasure iu seeing me there. So much for my state of health, 
 which I should not have touched upon had not your friendly 
 letter been so full of it. One civil thing that you say in it 
 made me think you had been reading Mr. Waller, and possessed 
 of that image at the end of his copy a la malade, had you not 
 bestowed it upon one who has no right to the least part of the 
 character. If you have not read the verses lately, I am sure 
 you remember them, because you forget nothing : — 
 
 With such a gi'ace you entertain, 
 
 And look with such contempt on pain, &c. 
 
 I mention them not on the account of that, but one that 
 follows, which ends with the very same rhymes and words 
 [appear and clear] that the couplet but one after that does ; and 
 therefore in my Waller there is a various reading of the first 
 of these couplets, for there it runs thus, — 
 
 So lightnings in a stormy air 
 
 Scorch more than when the sky is fair. 
 
 Yon will say that I am not very much in pain, nor very busy, 
 when I can relish these amusements, and you will say true ; for 
 at present I am in both these respects very easy. 
 
 I had not strength enough to attend Mr. Prior to his grave, 
 else I would have done it to have shown his friends that I had 
 forgotten and forgiven what he wrote on me. He is buried, as 
 he desired, at the feet of Spenser ; and I will take care to make 
 good in every respect what I said to him when living, particu- 
 larly as to the triplet* he wrote for his own Epitaph, which, 
 while we were on good tei'ms, I promised him should never 
 appear on his tomb while I was Dean of Westminster. 
 
 I am pleased to find that you liave so much pleasure, and 
 (which is the foundation of it) so much health at Lord 
 
 * To me 'tifl given to die, to you 'tis given 
 To live : alas ! one moment sets us even. 
 M.irk how impartial is tlin will of Heaven ! — W. M.
 
 30L POPE ON ADDISON. 
 
 Batliurst's : may both continue till I see you ! May ray lord have 
 as much satisfaction in building the house in the wood, and 
 using it when built, as you have in designing it ! I cannot send 
 a wish after him that means him more liappiness ; and yet I am 
 sure I wish him as much as he wishes himself. — I am, &c.* 
 
 Of Addison Atterbuiy had been a warm admirer, 
 but was not unconscious of his faults, and did not 
 shrink from endorsing the graphic portrait his friend 
 Pope has left of the successful author, unsympathizing 
 and ungenerous towards his less fortunate competitors. 
 The ejDistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, in which the poet's 
 estimate of Addison was introduced, has never been 
 excelled for the force with which it portrays the 
 pettinesses that may characterize a fine nature spoilt 
 by success. It was at least seven years after the 
 death of the husband of Lady Warwick before Atter- 
 bury addressed Pope on the subject. 
 
 Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires 
 True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires ; 
 Blest with each talent and each art to please, 
 And born to write, converse, and live with ease — 
 Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 
 Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne ; 
 View him with scornful yet with jealous eyes, 
 And hate for arts that caused himself to rise ; 
 Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
 And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer ; 
 Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike ; 
 Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike ; 
 Alike resei"ved to blame or to commend, 
 A tim'rous foe and a suspicious friend ; 
 Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged ; 
 And so obliging that he ne'er obliged; 
 Like Cato, give his little senate laws. 
 And sit attentive to his own applause; 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 EPISTLE TO DR. AEBUTIINOT. 305 
 
 While wits and templars ev'ry sentence raise, 
 And wonder with a foolish face of praise. 
 Who but must laugh if such a man there be 1 
 Who would not weep if Atticus were he ? * 
 
 As a pendant to Pope's judgment on Addison, here 
 are inserted Aaron Hill's equally applicable verses 
 on Pope : — 
 
 Tuneful Alexis on the Thames' fair side, 
 
 The ladies' plaything and the Muses' pride; 
 
 With merit popular, with wit polite, 
 
 Easy though vain, and elegant though light, 
 
 Desiring and deserving others' praise, 
 
 Poorly accepts a fame he ne'er repays ; 
 
 Unborn to cherish, sneakingly approves. 
 
 And wants the soul to spread the worth he loves. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Februaiy 26, 1721-2. 
 Permit me, dear sir, to break into your retirement, and to 
 desire of you a complete copy of your verses on Mr. Addison. 
 Send me also your last resolution, which shall punctually be 
 observed in relation to my giving out any copy of it ; for I am 
 again solicited by another lord, to whom I have given the same 
 answer as formerly. No small piece of your writing has been 
 ever sought after so much: it has pleased every man, without 
 exception, to whom it has been read. Since you now therefore 
 know where your real strength lies, I hope you will not suffer 
 that talent to be unemployed. For my part I should be so glad 
 to see you finish something of that kind, that I could be content 
 to be a little sneered at, in a line or so, for the sake of the plea- 
 sure I should have in reading the rest. I have talked my sense 
 of this matter to you once or twice ; and now I put it under my 
 hand, that you may see it is my deliberate opinion. What weight 
 that may have with you I cannot say ; but it pleases me to have 
 an opportunity of showing you how well I wish you, and how 
 true a friend I am to your fame, which I desire may grow every 
 day, and in every kind of writing to which you shall please to 
 turn your pen. Not but that I have some little inter-cst in the 
 proposal, as I shall be known to have been acquainted with a 
 
 * Pope's Work.s, II., 86. 
 vol,. I. 21
 
 30G BISHOr WHITE KENNET. 
 
 •man tliat was capable of excelling in such different manners, 
 and did sucli honour to his country and language ; and yet was 
 not displeased sometimes to read what was written by his 
 humble servant.* 
 
 In the following notes from tlie Bishop to the 
 Dean of Ely, he takes notice of one of those multi- 
 tudinous attacks upon him which the prospect of 
 patronage created. It came from a member of his 
 own order, his old opponent. Dr. White Kennet. 
 Bishop Atterbury opposed the bill of which the 
 Bishop of Peterborough was the advocate, while it 
 was passing through the House of Peers, and sub- 
 sequently drew up a protest against it, which he and 
 his friends signed. This opposition induced Dr. 
 White Kennet to pay his court to the Minister by a 
 virulent pamj^hlet. The Dean, who had volunteered 
 a reply, became Bishop of Ely. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Dean Moss, f 
 
 Bromley, Monday Morn. [April, 1722.] 
 Good Mr. Dean, 
 
 I have made a shift (notwithstanding my mind at 
 
 present is far otherwise employed) to run over the vile pamphlet 
 
 you sent me, which I had not seen before, having been here now 
 
 for eleven days, and out of the way of all such papers. 
 
 Your guess as to the hands from whence it came may be 
 
 right ; however, I cannot but suspect a little that some of my own 
 
 bench had the direction of it. You know which of them it was 
 
 declared in the debate " that heathens themselves ought to be 
 
 encouraged by laws made in their favour, if they were useful to 
 
 the Government;" and that is the darling notion of the book 
 
 from one end to the other. Let it come from whence it will, it 
 
 is a detestable piece, written with so much insincerity, and such 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 t Robert Moss, Dean of Ely, and preacher at Gray's Inn, London. His "Ser- 
 mons and Discourses on Practical Subjects" were published in eight volumes, 
 commencing in 1732.
 
 DEATH OF MRS. ATTERBURY, 307 
 
 contempt of religion, as cannot but give every good man that 
 reads it grief and indisfnation. But this is the hour of dark- 
 ness and of the power thereof. 
 
 It is certain the Avriter deserves to be chastised ; and I am 
 glad you think of undertaking that work. For myself, the 
 melancholy circumstances I am in (and how long I shall con- 
 tinue in them God knows) will not suffer me to turn my thoughts 
 that way to any purpose. However, I will be as useful to you 
 in the attempt as I am able to be; especially if it pleases God 
 to remove the cloud that at present hangs over my mind. I 
 have no guess at the time when I shall be able to stir from hence, 
 that depending altogether on an event, the issue of which I must 
 attend, but can no ways foresee. But should I be able to come 
 to the Deanery, or see you here, and discourse you on that sub- 
 ject, I will do it most gladly ; being from the bottom of my 
 heart concerned to see such notions countenanced in a Christian 
 State, and the abettors of them preferred and applauded. 
 
 Good Mr. Dean, I can say no more to you now, but that I 
 will, as I have opportunity, consider the book a little, and give 
 you my tlioughts of it (such as they are) when I see you. 
 
 In the meantime, I pray God to prosper yonr good intentions, 
 and to raise up from among the clergy men of the like ability, 
 zeal, and courage, who may stand in the gap, and resist that 
 spirit of irreligion which is breaking (or rather has broken) in 
 upon us. — I am &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Dean Moss. 
 
 Bromley, May 4, 1722. 
 Good Mr. Dean, 
 
 You have heard in how melancholy a way my time has 
 been taken up,t and do not wonder at my not answering yours. 
 I am not yet recovered from my double indisposition of body 
 and mind. However, I intend to be at the Deanery some part 
 of the approaching week, and should be glad to see you there at 
 any time after four o'clock on Monday next, or before ten on 
 Wednesday. I do not judge as you do as to the time being past 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 f By the long illness of his wife, whioli had terminated in her death eight 
 days before the date of this letter. — W. M. 
 
 '21 *•
 
 308 VISIT TO pope's villa. 
 
 for answering that piece. I should think it were better to defer 
 it still longer, and not (as I before said) to trace him xara TroSa., 
 for he does not deserve it ; but to single out the places most 
 exceptionable ; and, after exposing them, take an occasion from 
 the whole to advance somewhat that is new and affecting on the 
 subject ; and carry on the charge still further against that per- 
 nicious, however countenanced, sect. But of this you are the 
 best judge. — I am, &c.* 
 
 The affection existing between Atterbury and Pope 
 brought them to be inmates of each other's homes, 
 on the most confidential footing. Pope, as he has 
 related, had been " a lodger" at the Deanery, and had 
 been solicitous that the Bishop should be his guest at 
 Twickenham. The latter complied, and was evidently 
 highly gratified with all that he saw and heard there. 
 " Pope's Villa " has become a thing of the past, but 
 at the date of Atterbury's visit its attractions were 
 quite new. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, May 25, 1722. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I had much ado to get hither last night, the water 
 being so rough that the ferrymen were unwilling to venture. 
 The first thing I saw this morning, after my eyes were open, 
 was your letter ; for the freedom and kindness of which I 
 thank you. Let all compliments be laid aside between us for 
 the future, and depend upon me as your faithful friend in all 
 things within my power — as one that truly values you, and 
 wishes you all manner of happiness. I thank you and Mrs. 
 Pope t for my kind reception, which has left a pleasing impres- 
 sion upon me that will not soon be effaced. 
 
 Lord [Bathurst ?] has pressed me terribly to see him at [Iver, 
 Bucks ?], and told me, in a manner betwixt kindness and 
 resentment, that it is but a few miles beyond Twitenham. 
 
 I have but a little time left, and a great deal to do in it, 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. t The poet's mother.
 
 FUTURE EMPLOYMENT. 309 
 
 and must expect that ill health will i-ender a good share of it 
 useless ; and therefore, what is likely to be left at the foot of 
 the account ought by me to be cherished, and not thrown 
 away in compliments. You know the motto * of my sun-dial, 
 "ViAate, ait, fugio." I will, as far as I am able, follow its 
 advice, and cut off all unnecessary avocations and amusements. 
 There are those that intend to employ me in a way I do not 
 like : if they persist in their intentions I must apply myself to 
 the work they cut out for me as well as I can. But withal 
 that shall not hinder me from employing myself also in a way 
 which they do not like. The givers of trouble one way shall 
 have their share of it another ; that at last they may be induced 
 to let me be quiet, and Hve to myself with the few (the very 
 few) friends I like : for that is the point, the single point, I now 
 aim at ; though I know the generality of the world, who are 
 unacquainted with my intentions and views, think the very 
 reverse of this character belongs to me. I do not know how I 
 have rambled into this account of myself: when I sat down to 
 write I had no thought of making that any part of my letter. 
 
 You might have been sure, without my telling you, that my 
 right hand is at ease, else I should not have overflowed at this 
 rate. And yet I have not done ; for there is a kind intimation 
 at the end of yours, which I understood because it seems to tend 
 towards employing me in something that is agreeable to you. 
 Pray explain yourself, and believe that you have not an acquaint- 
 ance in the world that would be more in earnest on such an 
 occasion than I ; for I love you as well as esteem you. 
 
 All the while I have been writing, pain and a fine thrush have 
 been severally endeavouring to call off my attention, but both in 
 vain ; nor should I yet part witli you but that the turning over 
 a new leaf frights me a little, and makes me resolve to break 
 through a new temptation before it has taken too fast hold on 
 me. I am, &c.t 
 
 * The following epigram was found among the Bishop's papers : — 
 
 Vivite, ait, fugio ! 
 Labentem tacilo quisquis pede conspicis umbram, 
 
 Si sapis, ha;c audis — Vivite, nam fugio ! 
 Utilis est oculis, nee inutilis auribus umbra, 
 Dum tacet, exclanuit — Vivite, nam fugio ! 
 t Atterbury Pajjurs.
 
 310 CRITICISM. 
 
 Dr. Moss employed himself in the task he had 
 proposed, with what effect the Bishop's critique will 
 sufficiently inform the reader. It will be seen, even 
 in treating an adversary, how imperative he thought 
 it for a clergyman to use decorous expressions. 
 Throughout his review of the Dean's labours in his 
 behalf, he displays the same sound judgment and 
 good principles. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Dean Moss. 
 
 Bromley, June 9, 1722. 
 
 Good Mr. Dean, 
 
 I tliank you for your letter, and will trouble you no 
 further on that head. Tou shall know my meaning in that 
 enquiry if I live to meet you upon your return from Ely. 
 
 As to your papers, I have read them thrice, and with some 
 attention ; such as my present indisposition and want of books 
 at this place would permit me to use. And I began to set 
 down in writing some small remarks on particular places ; but 
 I found them to be of so little moment in themselves, and yet 
 likely to be so numerous, that as I could not well go through 
 with the trouble of putting them down on paper, so I was glad, 
 upon a review of them, to find that that labour seemed needless ; 
 for they related chiefly to the manner of expression, which, 
 though it be not such, here and there, as perhaps I should 
 have pitched upon (for every man has his particular cast of 
 words and turn of style), yet may for all that be better than 
 what I should have substituted, as being more suitable to the 
 way of writing you have proposed to yourself and which you 
 have all along uniformly pursued, and in my judgment to very 
 good purpose. However, as the gravity and weight of your 
 expression is the distinguishing character of it, I could wish 
 that some passages (they are very few) which seem to carry the 
 least air of levity in them, might be altered or omitted — such as 
 that of "paying compliments to a mask" — that of "spinning 
 glass " — and one or two more I think of the like kind, which, 
 when you read them over again for the press, you cannot miss. 
 In other respects I almost everywhere perfectly approve your 
 manner of writing as well as reasoning. Only I cannot but wish
 
 QUAKERS. 311 
 
 (as I said to you at first) that you had paid less respect to the 
 performance, and considered it in a much slighter and more 
 contemptuous manner ; and only taken occasion from thence to 
 say what you thought proper to be offered to the public, without 
 pursuing him pedetentim tlu'ough all his cavils and evasions. 
 But since you have thought fit to take that way (which will 
 also have its use) I see not how what you have written in the 
 whole can be shortened in the parts, so as to answer your pro- 
 fessed design in writing ; and this I say after endeavouring here 
 and there to contract what you had said, and finding that it 
 would not be of a piece with the rest, nor answer your purposes, 
 if I did so. 
 
 Therefore, though I am sorry the piece is so large, yet I see 
 not how it can be conveniently abridged ; and am sure that, 
 long as it may be, whoever reads it attentively will find in every 
 part of it what will make him good amends for his trouble. 
 
 The matter of fact about the petition* itself is of importance, 
 and absolutely necessary to be told ; and I doubt not but the 
 bishops concerned will be easy on that head. I am sure they 
 ought to be : and if they are not, that itself is a new reason 
 why they should be put upon publicly owning what was trans- 
 acted in secret ; if that point can be gained and made con- 
 sistent with the decency and duty that is to be paid them. 
 
 Your defending a rejected petition and an expunged protest f 
 can surely be attended with no just objection, since you pre- 
 tended to know nothing of the debates and proceedings within 
 doors beyond what JoshuaJ himself has printed ; nor to con- 
 sider any arguments but his against that petition and those 
 reasons. The Lords might have such as induced them to reject 
 and expunge ; and yet this pretended Quaker may not have hit 
 upon them. 
 
 As to the statutes supposed to give the Quakers the name of 
 Christians, you allow too much in what you say on that head ; 
 
 • That of the London clergy against the Quaker's Bill. Dean Moss was the 
 first who put his name to it. — W. M. 
 
 + Thi.s protest was drawn up by Bishop Atterbury, and subscribed by Arch- 
 bishop Dawes and Bishop Gastrell, and eight temporal peers. Archbishop Wake 
 and Bishop Potter likewise dissented, but without stating upon what grounds they 
 did so.- W. M. 
 
 + The pamphleteer.
 
 312 atterbury's ua. health. 
 
 for there is not a single passage in any Aet of Parliament, but 
 that you have cited, where the word Christian is used concern- 
 ing them ; and that only says they shall subscribe a profession 
 of their Christian belief, which they may do, nay, and even be 
 orthodox in that belief; and yet, if they either hold opinions 
 directly destructive of those articles of laith they profess, or 
 renounce the known institutions of Clu-ist, be for all that no 
 Christians, nor does any Act of Parliament ever style them so. 
 
 I shall say nothing to you about the instances of the Lord 
 Advocate's petitioning in 1688, but this — that Gibson observed 
 there was no mention of its being presented even in the larger 
 entries of Sir Simonds D'Ewes's printed account of that session ; 
 which assertion, whether it be true or no, I have not inquired, 
 as not thinking it very material. 
 
 That part of your book which relates to the divine institution 
 of an oath, and that other which concerns the duty of the 
 magisti'ate with respect to religion, are what need not have been 
 ofiered in answer to that shutHing writer ; but, since you have 
 been at the pains of drawing them up, they ought not, 1 am 
 sure, to be lost ; for those points are treated by you with great 
 solidity and prudence, and your way of stating them will be of 
 good use. 
 
 I had some trouble in marshalling your separate papers, 
 which, either by me or you, or both of us, were put much out of 
 order. I suppose I have, as 1 now send them back, restored 
 them to the order in which you designed them. If, after all, 
 you accuse me for not having done what you had hopes I would 
 have done in relation to your MS., I have two things to say for 
 myself, and can say both of them very sincerely. The first 
 is, that ill health has been for these two months past my per- 
 petual portion ; and that, mixed with some melancholy and 
 shocking accidents of life, has hindered me from employing my 
 mind in earnest on any subject of consequence ; though, I thank 
 God, I am now going to be more at ease than I was in those 
 particulars. 
 
 Another thing that hindered me putting down my thoughts at 
 large was a resolution to see you again and discourse over all 
 matters verbally ; and I had appointed in my mind yesterday for 
 that purpose, and had disposed all my matters and ordered my 
 coach for that little journey. But I was prevented by incidents
 
 HIS SERMONS. 313 
 
 that it is not now wortla while to trouble you with ; and must 
 still be necessarily confined here for a few days longer. 
 
 I wish you a good journey to Ely ; and hope for your return 
 about the beginning or middle of August. Whenever it is, you 
 will let me know of it ; and then, if I am in a condition of 
 doing further service (fm-ther, do I say ? I have done none 
 hitherto) I will not decline it. In the meantime, and always, 
 look upon me as your, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury published, in the year 1723, his 
 Sermons, in two volumes. They were dedicated to 
 his cordial and constant friend Sir Jonathan Tre- 
 lawney. Bishop of Winchester. These discourses were 
 held in the highest estimation by every Christian 
 reader capable of appreciating- sound Divinity argu- 
 mentatively expressed. In his social character he was 
 as eminently popular as in his clerical. Alluding to 
 a gesture which indicated approval of what had 
 been said, Gay, in his ejnstle to Pope, wrote, — 
 
 See Rochester approving nod the head. 
 
 And ranks one modern with the mighty dead. 
 
 Pope, in his epistle to Arbuthnot, almost repeats the 
 first Hue, — 
 
 Ev'n mitred Rochester could nod the head. 
 
 But the greatest compliment, oi' the many addressed 
 to this gifted and estimable prelate, will be found 
 among the poems of the Duke of Wharton, and is 
 entitled : — 
 
 ON THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER'S PREACHING. 
 
 At EmmauH, when Christ our Lord appeared, 
 
 Expounding proplieries and truths revered ; 
 
 When, too, lie vanished from his hearers' eyes, 
 
 And with transcendent brightness sought the skies ; » 
 
 Atterljury Papers.
 
 314 COMPLIMENTARY POEM 
 
 How were their hearts, when sudden light appeared, 
 
 With rapture seized and grace seraphic fired ! 
 
 Pleased, and convinced of ev'ry truth, they stood. 
 
 Admired, confessed— adored the mighty God ! 
 
 Scarce fainter transports all my powers control, 
 
 Glow in my breast, and triumph in my soul ! 
 
 So sweetly Roohester attracts the sense. 
 
 So great the magic of his eloquence. 
 
 How shall I speak the fulness of my heart ? 
 
 Or half the pleasure that I feel impart? 
 
 How can these ecstasies in verse be shown 1 
 
 This asks the tongue of angels— or his own ! 
 
 Let Nature's rival. Art, her force apply ; 
 
 The silent poetry of painting try. 
 
 To the stretched canvas graceful vigour give, 
 
 And teach the animated forms to live : 
 
 So may succeeding times her merit raise, 
 
 And, as upon the breathing piece they gaze, 
 
 At once the prelate and the painter praise. 
 
 Here, Artist, here the godlike teacher show. 
 
 While list'ning crowds attentive stand below ; 
 
 Each moving part, each gesture touch with skill. 
 
 And strike out all the bishop with thy quill. 
 
 In venerable robes let him arise. 
 
 With solemn air and lively piercing eyes ; 
 
 His eyes the type of his discerning mind, 
 
 And lively wit with solemn judgment joined. 
 
 Let beams of glory shine around his head, 
 
 And graceful majesty his face o'erspread ; 
 
 His face how comely ! how polite his mien ! 
 
 Though stem, yet sweet— though awful, yet serene. 
 
 Oh, could'st thou, echo-like, his speech renew. 
 
 As honey sweet, as soft as heav'nly dew ; 
 
 Repeat the doctrine that all vice disarms, 
 
 The winning rhet'ric that our senses charms ; 
 
 Severest truth so forcibly expressed. 
 
 And manly sense in easy language dressed! 
 
 Oh, could'st thou ever vocal accents join, 
 
 A sharp melodious voice, like his, design. 
 
 As sweet, as clear, as pow'rful, as divine ! 
 
 As when Jove speaks, the winds no longer roar. 
 
 Nor foaming waves are dashed against the shore, 
 
 Dififusive Peace and Silence reign around, 
 
 And all's attention to the heav'nly sound ; 
 
 So here attention draw with eager eyes 
 
 And uplift hands which testify surprise : 
 
 Touch ev'ry form — no pleasing arts conceal. 
 
 And let each hearer's face his mind reveal.
 
 BY THE DUKE OF WHARTON. 315 
 
 Here let the young with kindling rapture glow, 
 And riper years by their emotions show ; 
 Let virgins cease to roll a wanton eye, 
 And -ndth his moving sentiments comply : 
 Let sinners bear their former sins away ; 
 The good, the old, become divinely gay, 
 And seem to enter on Eternal Day. 
 So Athens once upon her preacher hung. 
 Transported by the precepts of his tongue ; 
 So stood great Paul — so skilful Raphael drew : 
 And as in him another Paul we view, 
 Another Raphael may we find in you. 
 
 Except Pope, and an equally warm friend, Samnel 
 Wesley,* none of the Bishop's contemporaries have 
 left so agreeable and so vivid a recollection of him. 
 Unfortunately for Atterbury, the high estimation in 
 W'hich he was held by such persons as were most 
 competent to do him justice aggravated the ill-will 
 which his controversial talents had created among 
 Low Churchmen — more particularly such as possessed 
 ecclesiastical honoui's by favour of the Whig govern- 
 ment, and had become the most subservient of their 
 supporters. 
 
 * He was many years one of the Masters of Westminster School, and was elder 
 brother of the founder of the great body of Dissenters still distinguished by his 
 name.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CONSPIRATOR. 
 
 The " Pretender" and the Jacobites — His Claim to the Throne — 
 Bolingbroke his Secretary of State — Movement in 1715 — 
 Bolingloroke dismissed — Bishop Atterbury receives Secret 
 Communications — Execution of Clergymen — James Murray 
 an Agent of the Pretender — Atterbury writes to James — 
 The Stuart Papers — Reply of James — His significant Allu- 
 sion to a Cardinal's Hat — Opinions respecting Atterbury — 
 Desu'e of the Pretender to stand well with English Pro- 
 testants — The Bishop collects Funds for him — Marriage of 
 James — Atterbury to Lord Mar, on the Pretender's Affairs 
 — Mystification — Quarrels of King George and the Prince of 
 Wales — Atterbury writes to Lord Mar, referring to an 
 intended Jacobite Enterprise, and the Cardinal's Hat. 
 
 In June, 1713, "James III." having retired to Lor- 
 raine, the two Houses of Parhament agreed on an 
 address to the Queen to demand his expulsion. In 
 the opening of the session of 1714, Her Majesty had 
 tried by assurances to remove the fears that had been 
 artfully excited by the Whigs respecting the succes- 
 sion. In the House of Peers Lord Wharton, on the 
 5th of April, carried a resolution that the Protestant 
 succession was not endangered by the existing 
 Grovernment ; the Commons, on the 18th, expressed 
 the same opinion. The Jacobites were extremely 
 active ; and much attention was drawn to two pub- 
 lications in favour of James — one being Edward
 
 THE PRETENDER. 317 
 
 Lloyd's "Memoirs of the Clievalier cle St. Greorge," 
 the other Bedford's " Hereditary Rights/' &c. The 
 authors were prosecuted. 
 
 On hearing of Queen Anne's death, James hurried 
 to Versailles, but Louis XIV. refusing to see him, he 
 returned to Lorraine. 
 
 As the son of Charles I., after his father's death, 
 assumed the title of Charles II., there seemed to the 
 Jacobites no sufficient reason why the son of James 
 II., at his death, should hesitate about following that 
 precedent. Tlie Parliament and a majority of the 
 nation were not more against one assumption than 
 the other — moreover, they had sanctioned the suc- 
 cession of the daughters of tlie monarch they had 
 dethroned ; the son had committed no crime, and the 
 injustice of his exclusion for his father's faults was 
 impressively insisted upon. Every credible historian 
 has rejected the doubts thrown upon the birth of 
 the child of Mary of Modena ; and though he may 
 have been a "pretender" to the Crown of England, 
 it is but fair to acknowledge that, according to all 
 received ideas of right and justice on the subject, he 
 possessed legitimate claims that sanctioned the exer- 
 tions of his supporters. 
 
 It is not conclusive to assert that the legislature 
 had settled otherwise. The Houses of Parliament 
 had sanctioned the usurpation of Boling1)rokc, the 
 various changes in the lines of York and Lancaster, 
 the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, as well as the 
 monarchy of Charles the Second. AVhat they had 
 done at one time they had reversed at another. 
 The Elector of Hanover was the choice of tlie
 
 318 THE CHEVALIER. 
 
 strongest political party in the State ; tlie entire 
 body of Eoman Catholics, as well as the Tory or 
 High Chui'ch party in Church and State, were 
 secretly the acknowledged subjects of James III. 
 The partizans of the exile who had died remained 
 faithful to the survivor ; those abroad keeping up, 
 as well as they were able, the semblance of a Court 
 as well as a Cabinet ; those at home, in constant peril 
 and self-denial, contributing to his support, and com- 
 bining for his restoration. 
 
 Where the recognition of the royal title was sought 
 to be avoided that of the " Chevalier de St. George " 
 was adopted. The principal European Courts treated 
 him with respect or neglect in accordance with their 
 relations with the existing Government in England ; 
 but by more than one he appears to have received 
 such encouragement as afforded him hopes of a 
 powerful demonstration in his favour. 
 
 Under these circumstances the Prince grew up to 
 manhood, and then the chief object of his friends 
 was a desirable matrimonial alliance. His choice 
 was a source of great anxiety to his adherents, but 
 particularly to English Protestants, whose confidence 
 he had long been endeavouring to gain. His prin- 
 cipal object in marrying was to gain material support 
 in advancing his pretensions ; but the royal families 
 on the Continent with whom he desired to be con- 
 nected, did not reciprocate the feeling. They required 
 him to be in a position that might render him an 
 acceptable suitor, and it was to gain this that he 
 stirred up his zealous partisans to make a demon- 
 stration.
 
 HIS SUPPORTERS. 319 
 
 To wliat extent Queen Anne's principal Ministers 
 favoured legitimacy we have no means of judging ; 
 how thoroughly they destroyed what chance it had of 
 success is well known. 
 
 The rivalry of Bolingbroke and Oxford had reached 
 its climax, when the latter, on the 8th of June, 1714, 
 presented a memorial to the Queen, complaining of 
 the vexations proceedings of his colleague : the residt 
 of which was that Oxford was suddenly dismissed 
 fi'om office on the 27th of the following month, and 
 on the 30th the Earl of Shrewsbury was appointed 
 his successor. Two days later the Queen, who had 
 been for some days in a dangerous condition, breathed 
 her last. The Privy Council were promptly made 
 acquainted with certain documents by which George, 
 the Elector of Hanover — his mother, the Electress, 
 had died on the 8th of June — had appointed a 
 Regency of Lords Justices. Lord Oxford was one of 
 the number, but Lord Bolingbroke was excluded, and 
 at the end of August was dismissed from all his 
 posts. He shortly afterwards quitted the kingdom to 
 escape imprisonment, and entered the service of 
 James, as Secretary of State. A reward of £100,000 
 was offered for the apprehension of " the Pretender " 
 should he land in Engkmd ; to which he replied by 
 forwarding to the principal Minister of George I. a 
 declaration of his right to the kingdom. Tliis docu- 
 ment appears to have exasperated the new Govern- 
 ment into taking severe measures against " Papists, 
 Nonjurors, and disaffected persons," as well as clergy- 
 men who introduced politics into their sermons. 
 Nevertheless, a feeling in favour of the exiled prince
 
 320 THE MOVEMENT OF 1715. 
 
 became evident, and it was soon manifest that it 
 was shared by persons high in authority. 
 
 The Earl of Strafford's papers were seized in 
 January, 1715, in which month a reward of £1,000 
 was offered for the discovery of the author of a pam- 
 phlet entitled "English Advice to the Freeholders 
 of England." New displays of Jacobite zeal were 
 attempted to be suppressed by increasing severities. 
 Impeachments were levelled against the leading 
 Tories. The Duke of Ormonde also quitted the 
 kingdom, but Lords Oxford, Powis, and Scarsdale 
 were committed to the Tower. The Earl of Mar 
 left London for the North, and shortly afterwards 
 raised a rebellion in Scotland. Lords Lansdowne 
 and Duplin were arrested, as well as several dis- 
 tinguished members of the House of Commons. 
 The country was now in a ferment ; James III. 
 openly proclaimed ; and armed forces appeared in 
 his name in Scotland, as well as in the North and 
 West of England. They were a miscellaneous bod}^ 
 consisting of Eoman Catholics, of Nonjurors, and 
 High Churchmen, and their leaders evinced no 
 military talent. The English army in favour of 
 James, was easily overpowered by General Carpenter.. 
 
 Lord Mar had for a time better success against 
 the Duke of Arp-vll. James arrived in Scotland on 
 the 25th of December, and took up his residence at 
 Scone. Here he made arrangements for a Court and 
 Cabinet, and announced his coronation ; but reinforce- 
 ments having joined Argyll, the Chevalier, Lord 
 Mar, and several of the confederates escaped in a 
 vessel that sailed from Montrose, and returned to
 
 DESrOTISM. 321 
 
 France. His first act was to dismiss Lord Boling- 
 broke for neglect of duty. 
 
 Many of Bishop Atterbnry's friends were deeply 
 implicated in tliis movement. After it had been 
 suppressed, the prisons were filled, and the most 
 merciless severity employed against all concerned in 
 it. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the san- 
 guinary reprisals that were made by the Govern- 
 ment. A tyranny more brutal than anything that 
 had existed under the Stuarts was exercised in the 
 name of Greorge I. upon all who dared to speak, to 
 -write, or to think a doubt of the legality of his title 
 to the crown. The Bishop saw clergymen punished 
 with a ferocity worthy of the worst days of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission, while the press was being 
 crushed under persecutions as despotic as ever dis- 
 graced the Star Chamber. That this cruel tyranny 
 defeated its purpose was seen in the number of 
 escapes from the overcrowded gaols, and still more 
 impressively in the vast additions made to the cause 
 from amonff the more intellectual and more moral 
 members of society. Wherever the Bishop looked 
 he must have seen signs that filled his mind with 
 apprehension for the future of his country, and 
 caught at the prospect of a restoration of the royal 
 exile — with securities the Prince was well known to 
 be ready to give — as the only means of averting 
 national ruin and social disorganization. 
 
 Secret communications had reached him, and he 
 had several private conferences with confidential 
 agents, as well as with influential adherents with 
 whom lie liad lon^- been intimate. The high 
 
 VOL. T. 22 ^
 
 322 PUNISHMENT OF CJ.ERGYMEN. 
 
 ^ character, and tlie political as well as intellectual 
 i eminence of the Bishop of Eochester, made his 
 ' accession to the cause of the exiled Prince an object 
 of paramount importance, and nothing appears to 
 have been left unsaid to induce him to aid in a 
 new effort to effect James's restoration; yet at least 
 two years were suffered to elapse after the dis- 
 couraging result of the last insurrection, before he 
 ventured to send any written reply to such over- 
 tures. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1717, Mr. Paul, a clergyman, 
 and Mr. Hall, a magistrate, were executed at Tyburn, 
 for having joined in the late rising. The former was 
 Vicar of Orton, in Leicestershire, and before he joined 
 Forsten's demonstration he preached to his congrega- 
 tion a sermon on a text from Ezekiel, chap, xxi., verses 
 26 and 27 : " Thus saith the Lord God. Eemove 
 the diadem and take off the crown. Exalt him that 
 is low above him that i^ high. I will overturn, and 
 it shall be no more until he come whose right it is, 
 and I will give it unto him." They suffered death, 
 as did hundreds of other Jacobites, in the conviction 
 that they were martyrs to a holy cause. 
 
 Another clergyman, the Pev. John St. Quintin, was 
 fined and imprisoned for having drunk the health of 
 James III. — a very common offence at the time ; the 
 Pev. Lawrence Howel was heavily fined for writing 
 " The Case of Schism : " but the strongest manifesta- 
 tion of repugnance to the reigning family was ex- 
 hibited at Oxford, where a riot took place on the 
 Prince of Wales's birthday, September 30th. 
 I A deep sense of indignation was excited by the
 
 ATTERBURY TO THE PRETENDER. 323 
 
 cruelties that came under tlie Bisliop's observation, 
 and the discreditable proceedings of the Hanoverian 
 Coui"t ; and, no doubt much influenced by the extent 
 to which his pai-ty were committed to the cauge of 
 hereditary right, he at last wrote dii-ect to the exiled 
 Prince. 
 
 James Murray, who is represented as in confidential 
 communication with the Bishop, under the assumed 
 name " Morpeth," was the second son of David, 
 fifth Viscount Stormont. He had sat in Parliament 
 for Elgin, and in Queen Anne's reign was appointed 
 one of the Commissioners for settling the English 
 trade with France. Through, him, probably, came 
 earlier communications, but his services in this 
 respect were not continued long, as he quitted 
 England in the following year, to attach himself 
 more closely to James. 
 
 Bishop Atterbukt to James III. 
 
 August 15, 1717. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I have often reproaclied myself for my silence after so 
 many encouragements to write, but I depended upon it that the 
 best construction Avould be put upon that silence by one who 
 was well acquainted with the manner in which I was employed. 
 My heart is better known to you, sir, than my hand ; and my 
 actions I hope have spoken for me better than any letters could 
 do ; and to those actions I shall always appeal, which I intend, 
 by God's blessing, shall be uniform and entirely of a piece to 
 the last moment of my life. 
 
 I have for many years past neglected no opportunity (and 
 particularly no advantage my station afforded me) towards pro- 
 moting the service. Whatever happens I shall go on in that 
 way, unalterably and firmly, without suflcring hopes or fears of 
 another kind to make the least impression upon me. 
 
 My daily prayer to God is that you may have success in the 
 
 09 *
 
 324 THE JACOBITE CAUSE. 
 
 just cause wherein you are engaged. I doubt not hut He will 
 at last grant it ; and in such a manner as to make it a blessing 
 not only to your fast friends and faithful servants, but even to 
 those who have been and are still most averse to the thoughts of it. 
 God be thanked ! their numbers lessen daily. As their divisions 
 increase, their prejudices abate and your cause gathers strength ; 
 and what gives me encouragement to believe that God hath 
 undertaken it is, that it is most promoted by their measures 
 who seem most heartily to oppose it. They are either infatuated, 
 or mean differently from what they pretend ; and in either case 
 will so prepare and dispose things here at home, that the 
 measures concerted abroad, when they come to take place, will 
 have an easy and certain effect. May I live to see that day ! 
 and live no longer than I do whatever is in my power to 
 forward it. 
 
 I have written largely to Mr. Morris * upon the present state 
 of affairs here ; and shall not fail to obey the directions I have 
 received, and to give all the assistance of which I am capable to 
 those who are engaged in the same service. 
 
 I am, sir, 
 
 Tour most humble servant, 
 
 Robert Young. 
 
 Endorsed by Lord Mar : " Mr. Young [Atterbury] 
 to the King, August 15, O.S., 1717 ; delivered to the 
 K. by Lord M., November 23, N.S., 1717." f 
 
 If this document be entitled to any credit — and it 
 
 jis represented to be the Bishop's holograph — the 
 
 I writer had been many years employed in his corre- 
 
 ' spondent's service. To the latter he asserts that 
 
 James was better acquainted with his heart than 
 
 with his writing. Moreover, two years after the 
 
 complete crushing of a formidable demonstration to 
 
 produce a change in the Government, he states 
 
 that the friends of the cause are increasing, and even 
 
 insinuates that it is being promoted by its greatest 
 
 * Duke of Mar. f Stuart Papers. Edited by Glover. 1847.
 
 A ZEALOUS PROTESTANT. 325 
 
 opponents. Towards the conclusion he acknow- 
 ledges having received instructions, to which he 
 promises obedience. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that Bishop Atterbury 
 was one of the most sagacious prelates in the 
 Anglican Church, as well as a most zealous oppo- 
 nent of Popery ; yet here he is found praying for 
 the success of a cause, as well as binding himself to 
 support it, when its success must apparently be the 
 destruction of the Estabhshment of which he was so 
 disting-uished an ornament; and there cannot be a 
 question that his devotion to the faith in which he 
 was educated remained unimpaired to the close of 
 his life. 
 
 There exist sufficient reasons for looking closely 
 into the political correspondence attributed to Bishop 
 Atterbury. The endorsement of this letter shows 
 that it had been preserved by a person who, it will 
 presently be proved, was a pensioner of Walpole, and 
 was hired by the Minister to obtain documentary 
 evidence of the Bishop's complicity in the designs 
 of the Pretender. We are told that the Bishop 
 entered into a secret correspondence with the Pre- 
 tender, as well as with his principal adherents, 
 under all sorts of mystifications, and in a variety of 
 feigned names. He was Young, he was Jones, he 
 was Illington, he was Flint, he was Pigg ; in short, 
 there appears to have been no end of his aliases ; but 
 the most remarkable thing in those treasonable com- 
 munications is the aljsence of any inducement to run 
 the risk of sending them. There were the strongest 
 possible arguments for avoiding it — the loss of posi-
 
 326 CAUSE or jacobitism. 
 
 tion and of cliaracter, the certainty of his family 
 being compromised, and his losing the society of his 
 friends. The individual to whose cause he was so 
 rashly devoting himself was in no condition to 
 recompense his services ; his resources were at the 
 lowest ebb, and his influence at foreign Courts very 
 trifling. Nevertheless, under these extremely unpro- 
 mising circumstances, not only the wise and prudent 
 Protestant Bishop, but several temporal peers of the 
 highest reputation as statesmen — Lansdowne, Ox- 
 ford, Bolingbroke, Ormonde, Shrewsbury, and many 
 others — were engaged in schemes for superseding the 
 well-supported Government of Gleorge I. in favour of 
 the son of James II. Political animosity excited the 
 hostilities which drove the Whigs in Queen Anne's 
 reign out of office, and the present proceedings 
 against that party by its opponents may have had 
 the same origin ; but there must have been some 
 very powerful exciting cause to make so many public 
 men, gifted with not less prudence than intelligence, 
 combine in this hazardous and apparently hopeless 
 enterprise. 
 
 The exile was native born, and though he had 
 embraced the religion of his father, was believed to 
 be of a disposition totally different. His Protestant 
 subjects felt assured he had seen the error of bigotry, 
 and would pursue a contrary course. That a conviction 
 of this nature was impressed upon Bishop Atterbury 
 there is every reason to believe. He was not the 
 man to go blindfold into a dangerous correspondence, 
 however strong may have been his political feelings. 
 
 Another curious feature in the affair is, that the
 
 THE cardinal's HAT. 327 
 
 letter attributed to him was more tlian tliree months 
 before it reached its destination, and his correspon- 
 dent took nearly another month before he ventured 
 to answer it. 
 
 " James III." wrote a confidential reply to " Eobert 
 Young," dated December 15. It concludes with, — 
 
 My lieai'tiest thanks for your indefatigable zeal in my service. 
 I can only ask the continuance of it, and that when convenient 
 you will let me hear from you ; in making your correspondence 
 as useful as it is agreeable, by imparting to me your advice and 
 opinion with great freedom and frankness: for I can say with 
 truth, that you will never offend me by telling it to me, and 
 that I should not look on you as my friend if you hid it from 
 me. My heartiest good wishes, and all my kindness attend you 
 now by writing, and will, I hope, one day by actions.* 
 
 An understanding was thus established between 
 them ; but beyond a desire to receive advice, and a 
 vague promise of recompense, there is no inducement 
 to undertake any enterprise, unless it is to be looked 
 for in a preceding passage. 
 
 Francis t writes to you in relation to a certain case, about 
 which I should be glad to have your advice. I should think 
 Henry would not much regard such a trifle, and that it could 
 not be of any ill consequence, it being a thing in course, and 
 what would be looked on as a slight by others in my station, if 
 they exercised not tliat privilege.J 
 
 This alludes to a recommendation James was per- 
 mitted to exercise by the Pontiff for a cardinal's hat, 
 and apparently was meant to be suggestive to his 
 correspondent ; but tlie Protestant Bishop chose to 
 
 * Stuart Papers. Eilited by Glover. 
 
 •j- The Duke of Mar, Secretary of State to James, aud at the same time secrdlji 
 the paid wjent of Watpo/e. 
 X Stuart I'aperH.
 
 328 FALSE REPORTS. 
 
 consider it only as a request for advice as to the 
 expediency of not exercising the privilege. The 
 Prince was so desirous of standing well with Englisli 
 Protestants, that he had recently dismissed a Eomish 
 priest, Father Inese, from St Grermains, for an indis- 
 cretion, in erroneously translating a document James 
 had addressed to them, giving meanings to some 
 passages with which they had been offended. 
 
 Bishop Atterbmy, according to authorities that 
 have been deemed trustworthy, was in confidential 
 communication with the leading Jacobites abroad and 
 at home. It has even been asserted that he had 
 scarcely been recognized as a counsellor of the exiled 
 Prince when he began to betray a jealousy of James's 
 ablest supporters. Lord Oxford (Harley) and the 
 Duke of Mar just mentioned. In a letter imputed to 
 him, he denied entertaining such feelings, and it is 
 probable that the reports of disagreements were only 
 gossip. He must have been looked up to with con- 
 fidence by the friends of the cause in both Houses of 
 Parliament, as well as elsewhere. The member for 
 Saltash, " honest Shippen," one of Walpole's most 
 resolute opponents in the Commons, induced him to 
 become a medium of communication with James. 
 j The letters attributed to Atterbury in the Stuart 
 Papers, if genuine, show that he was in the habit 
 of writing full reports to such active Jacobites as the 
 Duke of Mar, General Dillon, James Murray, &c. ; 
 while a Conjuring clergyman, known as Kelly, alias 
 Johnson, was constantly employed between England 
 and the Continent as a bearer of secret communi- 
 cations. The reported divisions between the Bishop
 
 LORD MAR. 329 
 
 and Lord Oxford seem to rest upon a passage in one 
 of Lord Mar's letters to the ex-Minister, which refers 
 to another communication from James Murray, who 
 is evidentl}^ the source of the report. Mar, who had 
 been raised to a Dukedom by James, writing to 
 Murray, having sufficiently stated his aversion to 
 disputes among the friends of the cause, expresses 
 this opinion : " I have wrote to Mr. Young, for whom 
 I have all the value and regard that can be, as 
 Fatricia* has. He had formerly had reason to see 
 that I preferred nobody's opinion and advice to his, 
 and I can assure him that I am not changed." f 
 There are other passages in the correspondence 
 equally creditable to the Bishop, while Lord Oxford's 
 notorious quarrels with Bolingbroke suggest the more 
 probable originator of the jealousy. There had been 
 similar rumours respecting Mar and the Duke of 
 Ormonde, but they are disposed of in a letter from 
 the former to the Bishop. 
 
 " I cannot help telling you how glad I am to 
 know that friends with you are now satisfied that all 
 the stories they had heard of differences betwixt 
 their friends Osborn and Morris\ are false." § 
 
 Early in the year 1717 the exiled Prince drew up 
 a paper for circulation in England, intended to calm 
 the apprehensions of the Protestants for their reli- 
 gion. It appears to have been transmitted to Atter- 
 bury before publication, with a letter from James, 
 dated February 15, 1717, in which this important 
 declaration is referred to under a mystification. " Mr. 
 
 * The Pretender. .1: Mar and Ormonde. 
 
 + Stuart Papers. § Stuart Papers.
 
 330 JAMES FAVOURS THE PROTESTANTS. 
 
 Dryden " and Lord Mar wrote to him about tlie 
 same time upon the same subject. 
 
 The Bishop's advice and revision of the paper is 
 sohcited. The Prince writes : " I desire that you 
 will, without loss of time, let me know your thoughts 
 of Mm, and what you would advise him to say on 
 this occasion." Lord Mar writes : " You will be 
 so good to make what alterations and additions to it 
 you think needi'ul, to please those it is designed 
 for. You are the fittest person for this, and it is 
 what Sir Jonathan * entrusts to you."f 
 
 Nothing can be more clearly established than the 
 anxiety of " the Chevalier " to undo the mischief his 
 father's bigotry had excited. It was not merely by 
 the selection of the inost zealous Protestant prelate 
 ill England as his chief adviser that he wished to 
 show his desire to maintain the Anglican Church in 
 its integrity ; he was extremely cautious in his pro- 
 ceedings with the Eoman Catholics. Both James and 
 Mar constantly assure the Bishop that they are 
 strongly against permitting them to raise expecta- 
 tions of their religion being advanced by the success 
 of the Jacobite cause. The High Churchman was 
 made to understand that the Establishment would 
 not only be safe if another revolution were effected, 
 but would, as in connection with the State, exercise 
 paramount authority. It was well known that the 
 Prince was about entering into a contract of marriage, 
 and it will be seen in Atterbury's first written refer- 
 ence to this affair as " Sir John's taking a partner," 
 
 * The Chevalier. t Stuart Papers.
 
 James's marriage. 331 
 
 how strongly he enforces the necessity of the Pro- 
 testants (" Cowley's friends ") being conciliated, and 
 the Catholics ("the indiscretions of some") being 
 prevented doing mischief by " nnbecoming talk." 
 
 The great obstacle in the way of the Chevalier's 
 success was his want of funds. The English Jaco- 
 bites were liberal in their contributions, and the 
 Duke of Ormonde, on March 13, 1715, had been 
 authorized to borrow for the King's use all that his 
 "loyal subjects" were disposed to give. Subsequently 
 Atterbury had been entrusted with this office, and 
 had recently been urged by the exile, with the custo- 
 mary mystification, to use his most strenuous exer- 
 tions. "For God's sake take care the muslin trade 
 goes on, for without that nothing can be done, and 
 that alone can set all hands to work." * 
 
 The Bishop seems to have responded to the appeal 
 by entrusting to one of the confidential agents, for 
 transmission, a large sum he had collected ; but John 
 Menzies could not be got to forward the money, or 
 give any account of it, which was a source of great 
 disappointment to the exile. 
 
 The marriage of their " King over the water " con- 
 tinued to be a subject of the deepest interest to the 
 Jacobites in the three kingdoms, and their interest 
 deepened into anxiety as they heard of failure after 
 failure of his proposals. He tried the Eegent Duke 
 of Orleans, the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Modena, 
 the Czar of Itussia, and the King of Sweden, but 
 these highly desirable fathers-in-law declined the 
 
 * Stuart Papers.
 
 332 MYSTIFICATION. 
 
 honour. The English Protestants were in raptures 
 when it became known that he was a suitor for the 
 liand of the Princess of Hesse ; but the Landsrrave 
 proved as obdurate as the preceding fathers. Another 
 dehcate neji^otiation was ruraoured'to be ffoins- on, 
 and it will be seen how earnest was the attention it 
 excited at home. Had James succeeded in forming a 
 union with a Protestant Princess, his chance of success 
 in a new enterprise would have largely increased. 
 
 The communication mentioned in the last para- 
 graph of llohert Young's letter (the original is in a dif- 
 ferent handwriting) must here be added, as equally 
 expressing Atterbury's opinions. It betrays at the 
 commencement a very natural reluctance to commit 
 himself by writing. 
 
 Bishop Atterbqey to the Earl of Mar. 
 ; Sir, 
 
 No man is, or has been, more heartily concerned for the 
 interest of the company than myself ; but the promoting it by a 
 correspondence with the factors abroad is a matter which I am 
 not much acquainted with, and which I thought would be more 
 properly transacted by those who are ; to whom, therefore, I have, 
 as occasion offered, imparted my sense of things freely, and will 
 continue so to do, particularly with Morpeth* Nor shall I be 
 averse towards concerting measures with the other person men- 
 tionedt — especially since I find that you so earnestly desire it, 
 whose commands shall always have the utmost weight with me ; 
 and I have therefore already taken such measures in that respect 
 as will show that I can overlook all private matters, where the 
 public interest of the trade is at stake ; and therefore, without 
 troubling you with accounts of what has passed, will apply 
 myself to do what service I can for the future. 
 
 Mr. DryderCs paper shall be forthwith reviewed, and the 
 
 * James Murray, who appears to have written the letter at the Bishop's 
 dictation. 
 
 t The Chevalier.
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICS. 333 
 
 alterations or additions that may be tliouglit advisable made ; 
 and if the person who carries this goes not too soon, that draught 
 may probably bear it company, together with a clause which I 
 have long thought proper to be inserted in Sir John's* friend's 
 paper, in order to ease the minds of those friends of the companif 
 here, who are apt to see things in the worst light, and to dis- 
 courage themselves by such prospects. 
 
 No news can be more welcome here than that of Sir John's 
 intentions to take a partner, especially if it be such a person 
 as Cowley's friends can apprehend no inconvenience from. That 
 would be a lucky step indeed, and fruitfal of good consequences. 
 A proper use shall be made of what you mention concerning 
 Lamh ; and indeed there is need of all the light of that kind 
 you can give us, to obviate the indiscretion of some who are 
 joined in the same bottom with us, and who (if I am not much 
 ■misinfoiTQed) talk of their separate interest in the joint trade in 
 a manner no ways becoming them. 
 
 Your accounts of what has been said here concerning some 
 imaginary differences t abroad have not so much foundation as 
 you may suppose — at least if they have I am a stranger to it. 
 Something of that kind has been whispered, but it has made no 
 noise, nor had any ill effects, and will die away of itself, without 
 you giving yourselves the trouble to confute it. I am afraid 
 that matter has been over-represented to you from hence, for 
 reasons which it is easy to guess at, and therefore needless to 
 explain. But if you take the alarm from anything that indis- 
 creet persons may have said or done on your side, you may 
 assure yourself that they have had little success here ; nor have 
 they been able to spread the infection if they intended it. How- 
 ever, it must be owned that the expectations of the Roman 
 Catholics are raised, after an unaccountable manner, and if not 
 checked may be of mischievous consequence. Not that their 
 indiscretion can hinder or retard the event, but it will breed so 
 much jealousy and uneasiness, and infuse such prejudices in 
 men's minds, as cannot afterwards be rooted out, and wiU put a 
 backgame into the hands of those who will neither want malice 
 nor skill enough to play it. J 
 
 * Sometimes Sir Jonathan. t With Lord Oxford. 
 
 * In his anxiety to impress upon his correspondent the necessity of maintaining 
 n Protestant policy, the writer here nljatvloiis his assumiji] character.
 
 334 DISCOURAGEMENT. 
 
 It were well if the account of tlie muslins (those I mean whicla 
 were brought up and transmitted by otie pai'ticular person) were 
 so far stated that the traders might see they have been honorably 
 deali with by him who was employed in that affair, and who, as 
 yet, is not able to assure them positively that what he sent 
 arrived safe, much less to what purposes it was employed, which 
 is not only a matter of some uneasiness to him, but will make 
 any further attempt of that kind less practicable. Indeed, that 
 former small quantity of the commodity was procured with so 
 much difficulty, that I doubt no further step can be taken on 
 that head with any probability of success till the persons here 
 embarked in the trade can say with assurance that all things are 
 actually agreed upon abroad, and that the muslins when got 
 shall remain in the warehouses here at home till they are 
 delivered out on a proper occasion.* And whether even such 
 assurance may produce what may be expected I cannot say. I 
 am rather apt to think they will not. This is necessary to be 
 said that there may be no dependence upon us here for what we 
 are not likely to perform. This you may depend on — that the 
 inclinations of people here are not altered of late, unless it be for 
 the better ; but their hopes are sunk for want of proper encou- 
 ragements, which has indisposed some of them to think that 
 they ought to make the best of what they do not like ; and there 
 are those who will rertainly pursue that thought next winter, if 
 nothing intervenes to hinder them.f 
 
 What is doing cannot be kept with too much secrecy, here or 
 elsewhere, till it is done, and when done need not be concealed ; 
 for as soon as it is known it will give such discouragements on 
 one side, and raise such hopes on the other, as will make more 
 than an amends for any ill consequences that may happen upon 
 such discovery — provided execution be not too long delayed. 
 The great point is so to order matters as to make men judge that 
 the thing will succeed, and that it is their interest it should 
 succeed. Whatever contributes to give them these views facUi- 
 
 * The writer suggests that all funds collected in England shall remain in the 
 country till an enterprise can be attempted, for which it could be employed to 
 advantage. There had evidently been an intention of repeating that of 1715. 
 
 ■|" The dissatisfaction created by the Hanoverian prepossessions of George I. 
 had become so intense as to excite a desire among the most enterprising Jacobites 
 to express their nationality in some particularly decided manner.
 
 GOOD COUNSEL. 335 
 
 tates the end, and therefore I cannot forbear saying on this head 
 that the seeming enemies of the cause have done it more service 
 than the real friends of it. Indeed, the friends of it can be of 
 h'ttle service but in two particulai's — the giving you true and fall 
 accounts of facts relating to persons and things here, and the 
 doing what in them lies to prevent those conjunctions of different 
 interests which may retard the event. 
 
 In the first of these I hope you have been well informed ; and 
 as to the latter, we have not been idle ; but without the assist- 
 ance of those who would be thought to mean nothing less than 
 the interest they have really served, we could scarcely have 
 compassed it. As for gaining particular men by particular 
 applications, I think no industry or skill that may be employed 
 in that matter can be of any great use. The business is so to 
 order things as that men shall convince themselves, and see 
 where their own and the public interest lies ; and when that 
 comes to pass (and I think it is not now very far from coming 
 to pass) they will soon find out fit persons to open their minds 
 to, and lay hold of proper occasions to declare themselves. And 
 this effect (to return to my point) must chiefly be owing (as it 
 hath already chiefly sprung) fi'om the cause I mentioned ; and 
 your sincere friends would over- value their own merit too much 
 if they pretended to any great share in it. 
 
 I saw not E. at his return, nor, it may be, was it proper I 
 should. To prevent mistakes for the future, I will employ 
 nobody but who comes directly from myself, and impart nothing 
 but in my own hand, or Mr. M.orpetli's. The result of any dis- 
 course I shall have with Houghton* will be sure to reach you 
 by his means. You will, I suppose, have a full account of affairs 
 here from his and other hands. 
 
 What I have written is not out of the vain hope of being 
 useful, but merely to express my readiness to comply with what 
 you, sir, judge proper; and to acknowledge the honour of your 
 several letters ; and to assure you (as I do very sincerely) that 
 there is not a man in the world who values your good opinion, 
 or is with more respect, sir, 
 
 Your faithful humble servant, 
 
 K. Young. 
 
 * Lord Oxford.
 
 330 REALITY AND FICTION. 
 
 One particular deserves a postscript. I have for some time 
 had accounts from a sure hand that the D. of R.* is riglitly 
 disposed, and that nothing hinders his joining himself to our 
 friends but an apprehension that two persons, declared bastards 
 by an Act in King Charles the Second's time (especially one of 
 them now with Sir John), may have such an interest in him as 
 may be to his prejudice hereafter. Remove this jealousy and he 
 is yours entirely. 
 
 You will please to let me have that letter from Sir John 
 which lies in your hands, as soon as a proper opportunity offers, 
 and to procure the other three which were written for, and 
 which I will undertake to deliver, f 
 
 This communication was endorsed by Lord Mar : 
 " 3fr. Young to Mr. Morris, L.M. ; brought by Mr. 
 iSioift in a packet to Mr. Button, \ and delivered to 
 Morris at Bourget, September 29, N.S., 1717." 
 
 What should strike the careful reader in the 
 perusal of the foregoing, is the incautious mingling 
 of the real and the fictitious. A shrewd statesman 
 would find no difficulty in penetrating the thin veil 
 of mystery thrown over the epistle. In the post- 
 script, the " D. of R." is obviously John, created Mar- 
 quis of Grranby and Duke of Rutland, March 29, 
 1703, and the two persons stigmatized as illegi- 
 timate the sons of his divorced wife, Lady Anne 
 Pierrepoint. This reference to the Duke, however, 
 shows that disaffection had reached the most distin- 
 guished personages at Court, so as to make it appear 
 that the son of James II. was likely to repeat the 
 experiment of James's son-in-law. There were, how- 
 ever, marked differences in the characters as well as 
 
 * Rutland. f Stuart Papers. 
 
 X The names in italics stand for Bishop Atterbury, Lord Mar, Ogilvie, and 
 General Dillon.
 
 PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS. 337 
 
 in the positions of the two adventurers — one pos- 
 sessing the qualities and the resources to insure 
 success, the other beino; so deficient in both as to 
 render failure almost a certainty. 
 
 The Bnjden paper was well considered by the 
 Bishop, and having received his improvements was 
 copied by the Nonjuror who frequently acted as his 
 secretary, and forwarded by Murray to Lord Mar. 
 It is mentioned in the following letter, and bears the 
 same date with the title, " Memorial, containing an 
 Account of the present State of Affairs in E." It 
 will be seen how the sanguine politician built on the 
 disorders that disgraced the family of the reigning 
 sovereign. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to the Duke of Mar. 
 
 December 14, 1717. 
 Sir, 
 
 'Tis with a particular satisfaction that I now write to 
 yon, the state of affairs here at home being much altered for the 
 better since my last, and the alterations produced being of such 
 a nature as cannot fail of improving themselves into further 
 consequences for the advantage of the cause. You have a 
 general representation of them in the Memorial now trans- 
 mitted, and will receive, at the same time, other accounts, how 
 this new scene operates upon particular persons, and disposes 
 them to receive such impressions for Mr. KnigJifs* service, as 
 they could not before be brought to entertain. And, without 
 pretending to any deep skill in men or things, I will venture to 
 say that every day will produce more and more instances of this 
 kind, and that men's eyes will open gradually towards seeing 
 their own and the public interest ; and this will be brought 
 in them chiefly by their own reflections on what has passed, 
 witliout their needing to be much solicited by others towards a 
 change of their conduct or opinions, so that you may look on 
 
 * The Chevalier. 
 
 VOL, I. 23
 
 33S QUARREL OF KING AND PRINCE. 
 
 and stand still, and let causes here at home produce their effects, 
 whilst j^ou are ripening the great scheme which is to fall in 
 with these dispositions, and which (after all) can alone render 
 them significant, while we continue under the power of a 
 standing army. 
 
 I have always thought that Mr. Knighfs enemies here at 
 home were the only friends that could in our present circum- 
 stances effectually serve him. Every day has persuaded me 
 more and more of this truth, and I am astonished when I look 
 back on the several steps successively taken by them, than 
 which the wit of man could not have found out better towards 
 promoting the common end we aim at ; particularly this last step, 
 whereby the breach has been made between K. G. and the P.,* 
 has been so happily conducted, that if you, sir, had had the 
 direction of affairs here, you could not have thought of anything 
 more useful, or managed it more skilfully, than they have done. 
 From my heart I cannot help thinking that they desire this 
 step should be understood abroad as a plain instance of their 
 good intentions to the cause, by the impossibility they have jjut 
 themselves under of being well with the successor, and by the 
 plain tendency of what they have done towards defeating his 
 succession ; and this I am rather induced to believe because he 
 among them who has the chief sway in the present councils is a 
 man of great penetration and reach, and of admirable dexterity, 
 and very far from that character of rashness and madness that 
 some people have given him.f 
 
 I wish I may be in the right in this opinion, for then every- 
 thing will go on smoothly and easily ; but whether this be their 
 immediate view or not, I am persuaded that they may be so 
 pressed and distressed as to be forced by the end of this session 
 to take shelter under a scheme which will appear to be the only 
 one that can save them from the resentments of their enemies. 
 For it is certain that upon the foot that things at present stand 
 the present Ministry cannot stand long ; and, therefore, our busi- 
 ness here is to procure either an union or opposition of 
 interests — so far as is necessary to facilitate this end, if the 
 Ministry design it, or to force them to it, if they do not — and 
 in order to it, to leave nothing unattempted towards keeping 
 
 * King George and the Prince of Wales, 
 t This probably refers to Lord Sundeiland.
 
 MINISTERS OF GEORGE I. 339 
 
 every single Tory that may liave Lis eye on a place at Court 
 fi'oni closing -witli any motion of that kind : and in this, if we 
 succeed, it is the greatest service that in our present circum- 
 stances we can possibly do. 
 
 In the meantime I have good reason to say to you, that 
 Bernsdorf,* who has taken upon him the office of mediating in 
 this quarrel and procuring a reconciliation, has owned that he 
 saw the English Ministry were averse to it, and seemed to have 
 other views, but, nevertheless, he would endeavour to go 
 through with it. I can assure you also that the Germans are 
 by no means pleased with Stanhope, who, though rash in the 
 field, has acted with a very remai'kable wariness in the Treasury ; 
 and showed gi'eat unwillingness to part with a shilling of the 
 public money in any way but what he could justify, which is 
 the very worst fault he could be guilty of towards those who 
 Lave no other way beside the misapplication of the public 
 money, to make themselves amends for their exclusion from 
 places. Let me add one thing more, which I have good reason 
 to believe, that many of the Whigs who voted for the standing 
 army, and Lelped tLe Court to carry it by fourteen. Lave since 
 told the Ministers that it was a very hard service, and that they 
 will not be put upon such things for the future ; and that this 
 declaration has so far aflFected the men in power as to incline 
 tLem to drop their favourite Bill for repealing the Test Act, 
 together with the Schism Act and that against Occasional Con- 
 formity. At present they are under irresolution in that point ; 
 whether they will gain strength and spirit enough to renew 
 that attempt after the holidays we shall see — but I rather 
 think they will not. 
 
 These things put together convince me that Stanhope and 
 Sunderland cannot tide it out longer than this session, though 
 Cadogan possibly may ; and if so there is but one thing in the 
 world that they can wisely resolve upon. They see at this pre- 
 sent, after they have taken all the odium upon themselves of 
 inflaming this quaiTcl, a foreign Minister interposing, without 
 their consent, to heal it, and to undo all they have been doing. 
 And what can they expect from hence but a further opposition 
 to their schemes ? And what way is there but one of their 
 
 One of George I.'s Hanoverian favourites.
 
 340 THE pretender's marriage. 
 
 screening themselves from the effect of such measures ? At 
 this moment Bernsdorf is looking out for new men to come in to 
 the aid of the Court, and do the foreigners, as well as their 
 master's business ; and he thinks he shall find such in a few 
 months' time, and make u^p a motley number of men for that 
 purpose. This the English Ministers who have now the chief 
 direction cannot miss seeing, and seeing it one would think they 
 should in some measure prepare for it. 
 
 I trouble you with no more reflections of this kind, but apply 
 myself to consider the several particulars in your letter of 
 October 9 which require my answer. Sir John's marriage is a 
 subject to which his friends have applied their thoughts with the 
 utmost attention and concern. 'Tis their unanimous opinion (as 
 far as I have been able to collect it) that no time should be lost 
 towards accomplishing it, if the person be such as will be wel- 
 come to his friends here ; but if such a match cannot imme- 
 diately be provided, and there be a probability of an attempt 
 this spring, they think it much more for his service to postpone 
 the marriage till that attempt is over, than to finish it now in 
 such a manner as may administer jealousy and uneasiness to any 
 of those whose best wishes and endeavours are united in his 
 service. And this, sir, is particularly the opinion of one to 
 whom Sir John has lately written (Mr. B.) and whom I have 
 freely discoursed on that occasion. I cannot stop here without 
 explaining my own sentiments further on this head, and begging 
 you to make the most favourable construction of them. Sm-e I 
 am there is not a word I shall say on this head but what pro- 
 ceeds from, an heart entirely devoted to Sir John's interest. 
 
 I cannot vsdthout the deepest concern reflect on the ill conse- 
 quences that will attend Sir J.'s engaging in a match that will 
 not be welcome to his friends. I am satisfied that, should it lay 
 no efiectual bar in his way to his pretensions, yet, after he is 
 possessed of them it would fill the rest of his life with per- 
 petual uneasiness, and give his enemies such an handle as they 
 will not fail to make use of towards perplexing every step of 
 his affairs. I see methinks how, and how successfully they will 
 work in this case ; and how impossible it will be for the wisest 
 and honestest men living to prevent the influence of their mali- 
 cious endeavours. I could say more, but choose rather to excuse 
 myself for saying so much on this head, and pass on to the 
 other particulars of your letter.
 
 LORD PETERBOROUGH. 341 
 
 The accounts sent to jou of Lord P.* gave me the greatest 
 surprise and uneasiness, because I was so far from having any- 
 hand in transmitting that report that I did all I could towards 
 discountenancing it when it first arose, and everywhere de- 
 clared my opinion of it as an idle groundless tale ; nor did one 
 of my friends that I know of give any credit to it. 'Tis impos- 
 sible to advise at this distance what should properly be done to 
 retrieve that mistake, but surely good words and good usage are 
 the best after-games that can be played. And this, together 
 with the ridiculous account of the quarrels bere, which by this 
 time have reached that lord, may perhaps dispose him at last to 
 pursue his interests rather than his resentments. 
 
 What I said of the R. C.'sf expectations being unaccountably 
 raised was true at that time when I wrote, and they were very 
 liberal in their declarations that somewhat of importance was 
 doino- " for our relief," which srave a needless alarm and did 
 no real service. But all that has died away since, and at pre- 
 sent there is no ground for complaints of this kind, everybody 
 sitting silent and quiet, and pleasing themselves with the odd 
 management here at home without raising any expectations 
 from abroad. And in the present situation of affairs I am glad 
 they do not, for our domestic divisions and folly are sufficient 
 for the present to keep up men's spirits without being told that 
 certain relief is near at hand. There was indeed a time when 
 one would have been glad to have encouraged people by some 
 particular accounts of what was agitating abroad, and when they 
 were so dispirited as to seem to want such a cordial, and that 
 was what I meant in my last. But now what they sec here 
 pleases them so much tliat they can wait with a little patience for 
 what they do not see or hear. 
 
 As to the affair of the muslins in relation to what is past, 'tis 
 my earnest desire that no more may be said of it. I am now 
 pretty well acquainted with the whole of it, and not willing to 
 .give you, sir, or anybody further trouble on that head. In 
 respect to what you desire may be done, the gentleman 
 
 * Peterljoroiij.'}]. It wok given out tliiit liis lonlship had gone abroad with the 
 Intention of killing the Pretender, wliirli had induced some of James's zealous 
 adherents to waylay him, and take hiin i)riHoner. 
 
 t Roman Catholics.
 
 342 DUKE or RUTLAND. 
 
 intrusted* -will by my word of mouth open the state of that 
 matter fully to you, or to some one that shall fully explain it 
 to you ; nor can you reasonably hope for any farther steps to be 
 taken by the hand you wish to be employed in that affair. 
 
 A proper use has been made of what you wrote about the 
 
 D of R- , and I doubt not but, in concurrence with what 
 
 has happened here at home of late, it will have its due weight. 
 I join implicitly in all besides that Mr. M.f writes to you, and 
 am, with that entire respect that becomes me, sir, your ever 
 faithful and obedient servant, &c. 
 
 The three letters were received with all possible respect, and 
 will have their use, though they do not as yet produce their 
 answers. Indeed one of the persons is at a distance, and 
 another of them in a place where it is not easy for him to begin 
 such a correspondence. The third has beforehand given such 
 effectual proofs of his zeal as may excuse a little delay in making 
 a compliment. J 
 
 The original of this paper is endorsed by John 
 Paterson : " Mr. Eigg to Lord Mar. Eeceived at 
 Urbino, February 3, N.S., 1718." 
 
 It is sufficiently evident that some enterprise was 
 in contemplation, and was to be attempted while 
 Parliament was sitting. In other communications of 
 this period it is referred to as "the mantle affair;" 
 but the Bishop appears to have declined any open 
 participation, though he is said to have influenced 
 Lord Arran, Foley, Mansell, Bingley, Dartmouth, 
 the Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Gastrell), and Mr. 
 Shippen to lend their aid. 
 
 Atterbury did not write to the Pretender again, 
 though often written to, till the summer of the follow- 
 ing year ; nevertheless, he is represented to have been 
 in active correspondence with his principal partisans, 
 
 * This was the Nonjuror Kelly. t Stuart Papers. 
 
 J James Murray.
 
 JEALOUSIES. 843 
 
 Mar and Murray — both subsequently, be it remem- 
 bered, his bitter enemies. 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to James III. 
 
 June 14, 1718. 
 Sir, 
 
 I refer myself to Mr. Morpetli* for an account of the 
 delay I have been guilty of in answering those letters which I 
 have at different times received, and about which I have always 
 freely communicated my thoughts to him who wrote more con- 
 stantly. At the same time I beg to lay hold of a passage in 
 one of them, wherein the writer is pleased, in the most obliging 
 manner, to say, that " where the heart and actions speak plainly 
 and effectually, even a long silence needs no apology." I 
 humbly thank him for that, and a hundred other instances of 
 his goodness, which have made impressions upon me too deep to 
 be ever effaced. I can truly add that I was so afflicted by a 
 reflection on one of the chief subjects of these letters (relating 
 to some supposed differences, and, as far as I am concerned, real 
 mistakes), that I had not heart to take up ray pen for some 
 time, and chose rather to stay till that matter had cleared up 
 itself a little, than to make any attempt on my side to clear it, 
 being entirely in the dark as to the occasion of it. Permit me, 
 sir, to say, with the greatest truth and earnestness, that as I 
 have nothing at heart but the service of the cause, so I will 
 never give in to any measures that may weaken it. I will do all 
 in my power to hinder or extinguish jealousies, but will never 
 do anything to raise or inflame them. I have but one point in 
 view, and whatever tends to that shall be embraced by me ; and 
 whoever promotes it shall be sure of my approving his conduct, 
 and endeavouring to make all others approve it, as far as I am 
 able. And should any contrary report ever reach your ear, from 
 whatever hand soever it may come, do me the justice, sir, to 
 believe that it is impossible to be true. Were I nearer the scene 
 of these little differences, and the persons who have their share 
 in them, I would give more convincing proofs of what I say ; 
 at present I can go no farther than professions— time and 
 opportunity must clear the ti-uth of tliem. 
 
 • James Murray.
 
 344 DEATH or James's mother. 
 
 Mr. Morpeth has removed my fears in relation to the state of 
 yom* health. I pray God for the continuance of it, and say 
 nothing to yon, sir, on another melancholy subject,* because 
 your experience of such repeated misfortunes has, I am sure, 
 perfectly taught you to bear them. And yet having thoroughly 
 persuaded myself of this principle, that everything that happens 
 to us is for the best, I doubt not but it will be verified in the 
 event, even as to this particular. 
 
 Your resolutions as to Steele,! which you were pleased some 
 time ago to communicate, had my entire approbation, if it be 
 fit for me to use that word ; for I could not but see that the 
 indiscretion of some well raeaning persons from that quarter 
 had been attended with ill consequences. 
 
 Of the afiair of the cap, I freely delivered my opinion to 
 Morpeth as soon as I had notice of it. My wishes in that case 
 sprang from a peculiar tenderness I have as to everything that 
 may give a check to the zeal of any of those that wish well, or 
 an handle to those that wish otherwise. Whatever has been or 
 shall be done in this matter will, I hope, make but little noise, 
 and if so, can do but little mischief. In itself it seems a point 
 of great indiiference ; but there are those who may lay hold of 
 it, and improve it to ill purposes. 
 
 It is in vain for us here to express our desires or opinions in 
 relation to Marsfield.| We are too much at a distance from the 
 circumstances of things to be able to form an exact judgment 
 upon them ; but we are sure that nothing would give us greater 
 prospect of lasting happiness than to see that matter completed 
 in such a way as might remove all jealousies and objections 
 present and future. The blessings of that great event we hope 
 for can, as we conceive, be no ways so well facilitated at first, 
 or secui'ed to us afterwards. 
 
 And thus, sir, I have, with that freedom which becomes me 
 (because you commanded it), delivered my thoughts upon a 
 subject of the greatest importance, and on which I otherwise 
 should not have ventured to have touched. 
 
 The enclosed letter from Stowe § has been some time in my 
 
 * TLe death of James's mother, Mary of Modena. 
 + The dismissal of Father Inese. 
 t The marriage of the Pretender. 
 § William Shippen, M.P. for Saltash.
 
 MR. SHIPrEN. 345 
 
 hands, acd should have had an earlier passage. None has better 
 affections or greater coui'ag-e, or has done more effectual service 
 than he. For what relates to the present state of affairs I refer 
 myself to Mr. Martel*, to whom I have written largely about 
 them, and will no further interrupt you, sir, than by adding, 
 that I am, with an unalterable zeal, &c.t 
 
 Endorsed by Lord Mar : " Mr. Eigg to tlie King, 
 June 14, 171S." Eeceived at Urbino, August 20.t 
 
 * Duke of Mar. + Stuart Papers.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 BISHOP ATTERBURY S PLOT. 
 
 The Pretender writes to Lord Cadogan — The Bishop to Lord 
 Mar, respecting the Whig Government — Dismissal of 
 Lord Townsend — Trial of Lord Oxford — Bishop Atterbury 
 describes to Lord Mar the State of Parties — Duke of 
 Ormonde sent by James to Russia — Atterbury writes a 
 Secret Letter to General Dillon — Marriage of the Pretender 
 with the Princess Clementina Sobieski — Another treason- 
 able Communication from the Bishop — Cardinal Alberoni 
 and Spain — Bishop Atterbury to James III. and General 
 Dillon on the State of the Jacobite Cause — Mismanage- 
 ment of the Leaders — Atterbury desired to take the 
 Direction — Correspondence between Pope and Atterbury — 
 Fatal Illness of Mrs. Atterbury — Publications against the 
 Parliament and Hanoverian Succession — Atterbury to Lord 
 Oxford — His Liberality to Dr. Fiddes — Walpole's Proposals 
 to Atterbury rejected — Death of Marlborough — Letters of 
 Pope and Atterbury. 
 
 As " James III." was stij^matised as " the Pretender " 
 by the Government, the Jacobites mentioned Greorge I. 
 only as " the Duke of Hanover/' or in their secret 
 communications designate him as " Heme." He is so 
 named in the Bishoj^'s letters. It may be observed 
 that details of the Court figure in his expositions 
 as prominently as political intelligence. 
 
 He was as well informed as to what was going on 
 in the Palace as he was respecting the proceedings of
 
 KELLY THE NONJUROR. 347 
 
 the principal Ministers. In the next communication 
 there is a reference to Lord Cadogan, to whom James 
 had addressed a secret letter, which his lordship 
 thought proper to make public. It is evident that 
 the Bishop was not considered sufficiently active as 
 a correspondent, his counsel being required about the 
 marriage {Marsfleld) and the Cardinal's hat — " the 
 cap ; " but his explanation ought to have been 
 deemed satisfactory. The notice the writer gives of 
 the iS^onjuring clergyman " Johnson " (Kelly) is not 
 without interest. 
 
 Bishop Attbebury to the Duke of Mab. 
 
 q- June 15, 1718. 
 
 I ask youi' pardon for my dilatoriness in writing, but my 
 sense of tilings (such as it was) being always frankly and 
 immediately given to Mr. Morpeth, who constantly corresponded 
 with you, I thought my repeating it under my own hand might 
 well be spared, particularly in relation to JSLarsfield and the cap, 
 in both Avhich cases I declare my sense of things to agree 
 entirely with youi's, and doubt not but you received early notice 
 of it. I have also waited for Mr. Johnson's* going a good while, 
 intending always to make use of that opportunity ; and he is 
 but this moment parting from us. My fault is universal in this 
 respect. I do not remember since his being here last that I 
 have written a syllable to anyhody out of JUnyland.f I know not 
 why he stayed so long, for it was not at my instance ; but I must 
 do him the justice to say that in the little conversation I have 
 had with him (and it has been in all this time but very little) I 
 have observed him to behave with a good deal of reserve tand 
 prudence, more than I think usually belongs to his age and 
 degrees of experience. He has been far from meddling here, 
 or venturing to enter with me into matters foreign to what I 
 apprehend to have been the design of sending him. If lie 
 
 • Kelly. 
 
 t This is clear evidence that his communications had not been so frequent as 
 wa.s subsequently alleged.
 
 348 LORD CADOGAN. 
 
 mistook my tliouglits upon a certain occasion (as lie must have 
 mistaken them under that construction which is put upon his 
 words), I will^take effectual care that he shall mistake them no 
 more, and perhaps I am not likely to see him here again on the 
 like occasion. 
 
 My distance from you, and my natural indisposition towards 
 correspondence of this Icind'^ (especially at a juncture when so 
 many and such malicious eyes are upon me), have made me 
 seem wanting in the expressions of my respect, but my hea,rt has 
 never wanted nor shall ever want it, nor shall anybody outgo 
 me in a real and disinterested regard for your character and 
 eminent services. I have been desirous to know what expecta- 
 tions Peter ^ might have from any of Herne^s servants, because 
 I thought if any light of that kind could be gained I might 
 possibly find a way to make a right use of it ; but M. % has told 
 me, from too good authority, that there are no particular reasons 
 to expect any good from that quarter. I had other hopes when 
 I heard it affirmed to me by a person of consequence that you, 
 sir, had written to Cadogan, and that he had seen the letter ; for 
 though he told me at the same time that Cadogan had showed it 
 to George, I was not much shocked with that account, because 
 whatever disposition he was in yet thus he would probably have 
 acted : but since what M. has related to me, my hopes of this 
 kind have little or no ground to stand upon ; and therefore our 
 business must be when Perry § comes to make that a matter of 
 necessity to them, which they will not it seems make a matter 
 of choice. And I believe the present ill situation and worse 
 prospect of affairs, together with a junction of certain interests 
 that may be made, will probably facilitate this event. It might 
 be so I am sure, were we who wish it as wise and as united as 
 we ought to be. The only danger is lest matters by such a 
 junction should be pushed too far and too hastily so as not to 
 leave them room to run in ; for should they be utterly overrun 
 and make room again for Townshend and his people, or any 
 other set of men whatsoever, our condition would be much worse 
 than it is even at present. But these are thoughts of some 
 distance. God grant that our deliverance may not be so far off! 
 
 * This is noteworthy. J Hon. James Murray. 
 
 t James. § The meeting of Parliament.
 
 LOUD OXFORD. 349 
 
 We have been revived witliin some few days with a glimpse of 
 hope from France. Two or three expresses from thence have 
 given the Court great uneasiness, so as to dispatch Lord Stan- 
 hope by post yesterday morning ; but of this you will hear other 
 ways sooner than my letter can reach you ; and referring you, 
 therefore, to what I have further to say in the enclosed paper, I 
 forbear to add more, but my resolution ever to be, sir, your 
 most obedient and faithful servant, &c. 
 
 This is endorsed by Paterson " Mr. Rigg to Lord 
 Mar, June 15, 1718." Received at Urbino, August 
 20th.* 
 
 Walpole had taken an active share in forwarding 
 the repressive measures of the Whigs, nevertheless 
 when Lord Townshend was dismissed from his em- 
 ployment as Lord-Lieutenant of L'eland in April, 
 1717, he resigned with the Duke of Devonshire, 
 Pulteney, and Methuen. This is said to have been 
 an intrigue of Sunderland and Stanhope, who followed 
 the King to Hanover, and prejudiced His Majesty's 
 easily prejudiced mind against his able and useful 
 ministers Townshend and Walpole. As a matter of 
 course the ill-used statesmen went into Opposition. 
 Their being out of office was taken advantage of by 
 the friends of Lord Oxford to bring his case forward. 
 He was brought to trial on the 1st of July, and the 
 Commons not appearing to press the charges against 
 him, he was acquitted, and resumed his place in the 
 House of Peers on the 3rd. 
 
 The following despatch is remarkable for its expo- 
 sure of the state of political parties in England. It 
 particularly refers to a section of the Opposition that 
 
 • Stuart Papers.
 
 350 STATE OF THE FUNDS. 
 
 had gone over to tlie Grovernment, contemptuously 
 designated " the Heme Tories." The condition of the 
 Court and the administration is depicted with sin- 
 gular force and fidelity. 
 
 Bishop Atterbdry to the Duke of Mar. 
 
 Since Morpetli's departure from hence it may perhaps be 
 proper to give some account of the present state of affairs, and 
 to add some reflections upon it, which may be made use of as 
 those to whom they are sent may see occasion. 
 
 The open ferment and struggle of parties, and the outward 
 marks of aversion to Heme and his managers, are not, for 
 obvious reasons, so great as formerly. It is certain, however, 
 that the spirit of the disafiection is so far from dying away that 
 it rather increases every day, and gets ground even among those 
 who are the avowed friends of Heme, and who begin to see and 
 say that in the way which we at present are in our ruin is 
 unavoidable. The monied men of Walls * are not without their 
 apprehensions for the credit of the funds, which, though kept 
 up hitherto by the art and zeal of some particular men, yet are 
 certainly in an nureputable condition, sinking or falling with 
 every rumour from abroad, of which we have now a very 
 remarkable instance ; for upon Selinger'sf sudden journey, and 
 the speculations it naturally occasioned, the funds fell two per 
 cent, immediately. Certain it is, that as soon as it plainly 
 appears that we must take om' share in the present war, they 
 will fall much faster ; and when they do so paper credit will 
 begin to receive a blemish, everybody endeavouring to turn 
 bills into specie, and throwing them in upon the bankers for 
 that purpose, who are in no condition to answer the demands 
 which will then be made, or even to dissemble the true reason 
 of their inability to answer them. The consequence of this 
 will be an universal stop to all payments and to all dealings 
 that require to be carried on by sums of money. This is the 
 certain consequence, I say, of our being manifestly involved in 
 this war, and the only thing that prevents it at present is the 
 art and industry used to persuade people that notwithstanding 
 
 * The speculators. f Lord Stanhope.
 
 THE HERNE TORIES. 351 
 
 all appearances to the contrary, we shall in that event get clear 
 of it. The moment there is six dilFerence between a bank bill 
 of £100 and so much in specie we are undone ; and that will be 
 the case in a very little time after we have plainly dipped our- 
 selves in this war, and have made new extraordinary expenses 
 necessary, at a time when we are altogether unable to support 
 the old ones. How the funds are kept up is a mystery, for 
 certain it is that even some courtiers and nionied Whigs have 
 silently withdrawn great part of their effects from thence, as the 
 Tories of note have almost universally ; and there are few con- 
 cerned in them who do not think of retreating, and would do it 
 if they knew how otherwise to invest their money ; but they 
 defer it in hopes of having time enough, for that pm^pose before 
 the stroke comes, whei'eas, when it comes, it wiU, in all proba- 
 bility be a thunder- clap that gives no warning. 
 
 It is a certain sign of the firmness of the Tories that they sit 
 quiet, without making any step towards the men in power, and 
 live upon the hopes of schemes which have no gTeat colour of 
 probability in them, but which, however, they rather choose to 
 build upon than depart a jot from their known principles and 
 expectations. The most despicable party in England now are 
 the Heme Tories, an handful of men without dependence or 
 credit, and whom both sides equally agree in exposing. There 
 has been a meeting of them lately in Yorkshire at the Arch- 
 bishop's. Hill and Hickxip* were there, and have laid some new 
 scheme for the winter campaign ; and one branch of it is 
 adhering immovably to the Court at Richmond. The breach 
 between K. and P.f continues as it was, and will still continue. 
 There is not the least disposition on the King's side towards 
 making it up. He would Avillingly make up, if he knew how, 
 the disputes among his Whig Ministers ; but when a scheme of 
 that kind was offered to him lately, and he seemed inclinable to 
 come into it ; and at last it was proposed, at the finishing point, 
 that he and the Prince should be friends, ho broke through 
 the whole, and would not listen to anything that was built on 
 that bottom. There is a scheme to get Perry\ at the next meet- 
 ing to interpose between K. and P., and in an open manner to 
 
 * The Rev. Ezekiel Hamilton and Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. 
 
 t George I. ;in'l tln^ I'lin'^f of Wales. t Parliament.
 
 352 GEORGE I. AND HIS MINISTEUS. 
 
 recommend an union : but that tlionglit shows only their despair 
 of efibcting the thing any otherwise ; for that way it will never 
 be done, since he who is at the head of affairs subsists by that 
 quarrel, and must be ruined as soon as it is made up ; and will 
 take care, therefore, by his friends and dependants, to blast 
 such a scheme, and will be sure of all the Tories' assistance 
 towards it. 
 
 The differences between Selenger and C* increase. Should 
 M. drop they would come to a point and flame out with vio- 
 lence ; and they would be to one another then what T. and S.f 
 are now. At present their uneasiness towards each other is very 
 great, and on Selenger's side is undissembled. But M.J is likely 
 to live, whatever accounts you may have heard to the contrary ; 
 and while he lives that quarrel will be in some measure sus- 
 pended. However, without that accident this triumvirate is so 
 little of a piece that it cannot, I think, possibly stand firm for 
 another session, even though no shock should be from abroad. 
 The inconveniences here at home which they labour under, and 
 their private misunderstandings, are of themselves sufficient to 
 sink them. In the meantime, either these differences among 
 themselves, or some other secret causes, hinder them from in- 
 quiring strictly into what is doing to the prejudice of Heme 
 both at home and abroad. Never did messengers pass to and 
 fro more freely — never was the port to appearance less watched. 
 Nobody is hurt that does not throw himself in the way impru- 
 dently. Informations are sometimes officiously given concern- 
 ing transactions on foot, but no effectual care is taken to dis- 
 cover the men or the measures by which they are carried on ; 
 nor do those whose peculiar business it is to search into these 
 things seem at all to concern themselves in them, though they 
 are forced now and then to commit and examine a person upon 
 particular information given, and then dismiss him without any 
 hurt done or light gained by that means. Heme, in the mean- 
 time, is soothed up with new pleasures and new mistresses ; 
 English ladies and a garden take up all his time, and his indo- 
 lence and ignorance of his affairs are both more remarkable 
 than ever ; and this scene of life is not casual, but plainly con- 
 trived for him. 
 
 * Stanhope and Cadogan. f Lords Townshend and Sunderland. 
 
 + Duke of Mai-lboroiigli.
 
 ARCHBISHOP WAKE. 
 
 353 
 
 Sliould any accident happen, they who manage under him 
 have no refuge : their heads must answer for what they have 
 contrived and done ; and perhaps, without even any formal 
 process of Liw, vengeance would be taken of them. Nor would 
 they have any method of saving themselves but by a voluntary 
 exile, should they have time enough to get away upon such an 
 occasion. This, doubtless, they are aware of, for the chief of 
 them, S., wants no sagacity and foresight, but is a man of unques- 
 tionably great abilities ; and yet they seem to take no single step 
 towards avoiding this storm — none at least that we know of. 
 As the fastest friends of the present settlement have been all 
 along gradually removed and disgraced, so are some of them 
 even now that still continue in the service far from receiving the 
 encouragements they have promised themselves. Witness the 
 instance of the Bishop of Bangor,* who has not been considered 
 in the late promotion, nor allowed to succeed even to the Deanery 
 of the Chapel, which the Lord S. moved G. two years ago to 
 make void in order to bestow it upon him ; but has moved and 
 effected that point now that he is in fall power, though without 
 considering him. All hands are at work to worry him ; even the 
 refugees are let loose upon him ; and Pillonniere, against whom 
 Dubourdieu, of the Savoy, has written a long and scurrilous 
 book, certainly not without secret encouragement. And I have 
 some reason to believe that Creanet will be permitted to hold 
 next winter that assembly which was dismissed purely to hinder 
 any proceedings against that favourite. What all these things 
 mean I pretend not to say, and wish you on your side could 
 unriddle them better than we can here. However, facts they are, 
 and true ones ; and it is fit they should be laid before you for 
 your observation. 
 
 I should have told you before that the loans of public money 
 lately attempted come in with a very remarkable slowness ; even 
 the land and the malt tax have not been able to tempt men to 
 venture any farther, which has brought upon the borrowers some 
 inconveniences and much disreputation. 
 
 This being the true representation of things, it may be 
 expected that the inference from thence should be, that such a 
 scene of general satisfaction must of itself produce the event, 
 
 ' Dr. Iloadly. t Archbishop Wake. 
 
 \o\.. J. 24
 
 354 MISSION OF THE DUKE OP ORMONDE. 
 
 and will need no other aid wlicn duly ripened and put in motion 
 by a proper occasion. But tliat is far from being the case ; nor 
 will all these fair appearances signify anything if left to woi^k 
 by themselves. That one word Adamson * is a charm that lays 
 all of them to sleep ; and without another opposite Adamson 
 nothing can or will be done. We may change hands among oiir- 
 selves, and shift from bad to worse, but shall never get the bridle 
 out of our mouths, or throw the rider, unless Ker and SJiaio, or 
 Otway,\ do some or all of them contribute to bring about the 
 event, and then indeed, with a little of their help, it will become 
 easy. 
 
 I forgot to tell you that Adamson is very quiet, and we hear 
 of no complaints from any part of the country concerning him. 
 He lives more inoffensively with his neighbours than he has ever 
 hitherto done. J 
 
 After this lucid and statesmanlike report on the 
 finance, King, Government, Church, and army, the 
 writer concludes by expressing an opinion that with- 
 out a military force from France, Spain, or Sicily, 
 there was no prospect of making a change in England, 
 bad as the condition of the country undoubtedly was. 
 It was this opinion that induced James to exert him- 
 self to obtain such support. With that object an 
 embassy was sent to the Czar Peter of Eussia, con- 
 sisting of the Duke of Ormonde, Sir Henry Stirling, 
 Daniel O'Brien, and Messrs. Jerningham and Wi- 
 gan, to negotiate an amicable arrangement between 
 Charles XII., King of Sweden, and the Czar Peter, 
 for a combination in favour of James, as well as a 
 marriage of James with a daughter of the Russian 
 monarch. The Duke failed in his mission ; the two 
 northern powers could not at this period be brought 
 
 The army. f The Kings of Spain and Sicily and the Regent Orleans. 
 
 + Stuart Papers.
 
 GENERAL DILLON. 355 
 
 into union for that purpose, or any other, and the 
 Czar would not bestow his daus^hter on a king" with- 
 out a kingdom. A combination, however, between 
 the Czar and the Kings of Prussia and Sweden 
 seemed so near accomplishment, that a special envoy 
 was despatched from St. James's to the Eegent of 
 France for the arrangement of measures to oppose 
 any enterprise in favour of the Pretender. 
 
 Bishop Atteeburt to General Dillon.* 
 
 June 16 [O.S.], 1718. 
 feir, 
 
 I have a thousand thanks to give you for frequent 
 favours, but I have expected for some time to hear that Mr. 
 Johnson had his orders to return, and have waited that oppor- 
 tunity, and therefore Ihave not till this moment icritten a line any 
 icliither since his second cominrj. Excuse me, sir, and believe that 
 this negligence has sprung from no other cause but a willingness 
 to make use of a proper method of conveyance, and a backward- 
 ness towards employing the post on such occasions, which I 
 have never yet made use of, nor ever intend. By this time I 
 hope you have seen Mr. Onsloiv,f and discoursed him concerning 
 the various adventures of his long unsuccessful journey, which. 
 have given his friends here a great deal of concern, and to none 
 of them, I can truly affirm, more than to myself; for my appre- 
 hensions were early of the improbability of the attempt, and 
 under that view I saw how uneasy his situation and long absence 
 must be, on an hundred accounts. But his supporting himself 
 under this last trial with his usual evenness of mind and firm- 
 ness, has added — if anything can add — to the honour of his 
 character. 
 
 UganX will in person give you full accounts of the state of 
 affairs hei*e, and I shall add some reflections of my own in a 
 separate papei", which you will please to communicate to Mr. 
 Onslow, and to nobody else. A duplicate of it goes by this 
 
 Lieutenant-General in the French service, and confidentially employed by 
 James. 
 
 t Duke of Ormonde. X Sir Redman Everard. 
 
 24 *
 
 356 GEORGE KELLY. 
 
 packet to Mr. Knight* so that you need not give yourself tlie 
 trouble of copying it for him. "We are surprised at the sudden 
 resolution here taken to send Lord Stanhope, and judge that the 
 expresses upon expresses which have of late been received liere, 
 must contain matter of great uneasiness to Heme's people, and 
 are willing to hope from thence that Otway may have enter- 
 tained resolutions of altering his conduct, and taking his part 
 in good earnest in the concerted scheme, which though it may 
 distress us extremely, yet will scarce produce the event desired 
 without his particular concurrence and assistance. 
 
 However, as it is possible it may do without him ; methinks 
 he judges ill of his own interests if he does not resolve to have 
 an hand in it. We are at a gaze in these matters, and hope the 
 mist will soon clear up to our advantage ; and shall impatiently 
 expect some account of the steps taken, or likely to be taken, in 
 this matter, especially since we apprehend that if Otway ^ in good 
 earnest, mixes in this affair, the old scheme of your going towards 
 Jassen (Italy) may take place, and put us upon new methods 
 of correspondence ; but of this we shall soon hear from you. In 
 the meantime referring you as to what I have further to say of 
 public affairs, to the memorial enclosed, I will add only, in rela- 
 tion to M.rs. Johnson^\ that her behaviour here has been very 
 prudent, and much to my satisfaction, and such as I think no just 
 exception can be made against. And thus much I have thought 
 myself obliged to say in those packets which accompany these, 
 and which you are desired to forward, for I declare to you I 
 never met a person of her age that conducted herself with more 
 wariness and prudence. 
 
 The great subject of your former obliging letters being, since 
 Onslow's return, no longer a matter of great concern to us, I 
 forbear to trouble you with my reflections upon them. Our 
 thoughts and eyes at present are turned another way. Pray God 
 it may be to more purpose. 
 
 Please to forward the enclosed to Mr. "White, and to believe 
 me, with sincere and great respect, to be, sir, your most obedient 
 and faithful servant, 
 
 Young. 
 
 • James III. 
 
 t Georste Kelly. His integrity appears to liave been doubted.
 
 PRINCESS CLEMENTINA. 357 
 
 John O'Brien endorsed this : " Mr. Higgs letter to 
 Dutton, of the 14th of Jnne, O.S., 1718." * The sig- 
 nature, however, is the same as that Atterhnry nsed 
 in his first letter. The endorser was another of the 
 adventurers in the service of James who subsequently 
 showed their hostility to the Bishop. 
 
 James had not been discomfited by the number of 
 his rejected addresses. He discovered that there was 
 still a Princess to whose hand he might aspire, and sent 
 the Hon. James Murray on a mission to arrange a 
 contract of marriage. The afl'air was kept a profound 
 secret, even from Bishop Atterbury; nevertheless it 
 became known where there existed the strongest 
 motives to prevent its accomplishment, and measures 
 were speedily taken with that object. The fiancee 
 w^as Clementina, the third daughter of Prince Greorge 
 Sobieski. Everything was satisfactorily arranged be- 
 tween the high contracting parties, and the Princess 
 started to meet her bridegroom, but herself and suite 
 were stopped, by orders of the Emperor, at Innspruck;t 
 but this did not occur till about three months after 
 the date of the Bishop's next communication, from 
 which it is quite clear that he had made up his mind 
 to foreign intervention. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to General Dillon. 
 
 July 13, O'.S., 1718. 
 Sir, 
 
 Yours of July 13 and 16, N.S., were brought rue hither 
 
 • Stuart Pajjers. 
 
 t She contrived, however, to resume her journey, joined James in Italy, and 
 they were married, the French Court, notwithstanding its assurances to tiie 
 English Government, guaranteeing a curtain provision with the hridc.
 
 358 THE REGENT d'oRLEANS. 
 
 by the person uudcr whose cover they came yesterday. I 
 wonder you had not mine before the writing of yours, for I 
 wrote this day month, and it went away, as Allen assured me, on 
 Friday was three weeks ; and it is above a week ago that he 
 received an account of its being arrived on the other side of the 
 Avater. Long before this time it has reached you I suppose. 
 There is nothing in it that will give you any new lights as to 
 matters here, but all tends still to assure you of what I have 
 always said, that you can have no reasonable expectations from 
 hence, and that though nine in ten of the kingdom do most 
 certainly wish well, they will wish only, withoiit stirring a step 
 towards what they wish, unless a body of foreign troops comes 
 to our relief,* of which I find now there is no reasonable hope, 
 for I fear Spain should there be an open rupture between us ; 
 and should they have a reserve of troops at the Groyne, as our 
 papers tell us they have, will scarce venture then upon so 
 hazardous a service ; though in my conscience if Evans and 
 Sorrellf must quarrel, and those troops could be sent over before 
 Frazer J interposed, they would do the work. It is not easy to 
 persuade Sorrell of this, especially if Frazer has engaged to act 
 offensively, who has opportunities of soon crushing such an 
 enterprise ; but if he could be wrought upon not to make an 
 early use of them, I am satisfied the design would succeed. 
 However, since Oticay has gone so far he will certainly go 
 farther, till a new situation of affairs, or a different view he 
 shall take of them, convinces him it is his interest to change 
 his measures. What I have to say in this case, and I say it 
 very sincerely, and wish it could be effectually said to him, is, 
 that if ever our great turn be effected without him, he is 
 undone, for the enmity of Evans, which he will in that case 
 deserve and have added to the other prejudices and disadvan- 
 tages he lies under, will certainly turn the scale against him ; 
 nor can he support himself any ways against the weight of the 
 opposition which will then press upon him. But it is in vain 
 to talk this language. Cracked titles will look upon each other 
 as their most natural support, and will act accordingly ; still on, 
 till they are both dashed against each other, and broken in 
 
 * The Jacobites in the three kingdoms were equally solicitous on this point, 
 f England and Sjiain. + France.
 
 FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 359 
 
 pieces ; and that sooner or later will be the case, liowever Otway 
 may please himself with short-lived expedients, that have no 
 true solid wisdom at the bottom of them. 
 
 Should Peter * gain his point, the case is plain against Otway ; 
 should he not, the plain consequence is that B.\ would be secure ; 
 and the moment he is so, or thinks himself so, a rupture between 
 JEvans and Frazer will ensue. The spirit of the people and 
 Evans's interest will conspire to bring on that event, which 
 Otway probably will endeavour to hinder by so managing the 
 support of B. as not to render him too secure, but still under a 
 necessity of courting Otivays alliance. Experience tells us that 
 these fine-spun policies often end in a sudden and iiretrievable 
 mistake; but of this they whose interest is concerned will 
 think they judge best, and will act accordingly. I depend upon 
 it that they will do so, and therefore crave pardon for these idle 
 Ihouo-h well meant sug-grestions. What I have to add is, that if 
 SorreJl and Shaicel are so far engaged that they cannot retreat, 
 so that there must be an open rupture between them and Eoans, 
 that rupture is the next thing we have to Avish to Otway' s not 
 having entered into new engagements with Knight § for even that 
 rupture will distress Evans so as to produce in the event great 
 consequences ; especially if the northern powers, now said to 
 be agreed, should join their strength to make any impression on 
 B.'s territories on the Continent, and by that means hinder 
 Elmore,\\ though he should be released from his present war 
 with the Porte, from directing all his force towards Jassen. 
 But I suppose the scheme is, by force or persuasions, to stop the 
 course of Ker*\ and to assure him still of safe and honourable 
 terms by the intervention of Evans, notwithstanding the push 
 he may have made and the lengths lie may have gone towards 
 making an open and lasting quarrel unavoidable ; and for aught 
 I know such a scheme may succeed, and then we are, for a time 
 at least, without all hopes of remedy. However, in that case 
 we must firmly and quietly persevere, and wait for new oppor- 
 tunities when it shall please God to send them. 
 
 Egan has ^written two or three times hither ; and I have had 
 
 * James III. § James III. 
 
 t George I. II The Emperor. 
 
 X Spain and Sicily. II The King of Spuin.
 
 360 DOUBTFUL FRIENDS. 
 
 an account of his letters from those to whom he sent them ; and 
 so I have had of a late one from Morpeth, wherein he says, he 
 has gone upon a journey of business for six weeks, but is not at 
 liberty to tell us the design of it. 
 
 As to domestic affairs, I cannot forbear saying to you what 
 you may if you think fit transmit an account of farther, that 
 there are now great endeavours using here to cement a number 
 of men in the House of Lords, who, being out of place, may be 
 willing to join together in opposing the Court at the approach- 
 ing Sessions, and unite the interest of the Tories and outed 
 Whigs in that opposition. I scarce think they will succeed, 
 though great hands and heads are employed in forwarding this 
 scheme ; but should it take effect, I see not that it will tend 
 towards Kniglifs interest, which a change of hands here will no 
 ways serve, especially if those who are his friends should find a 
 way into profit and power, and cover themselves under the 
 pretence of serving by that means, which they would most 
 assuredly afterwards neglect. And, therefore, still my wishes 
 are, and endeavours shall be, that those who are now in the 
 saddle may not be dismounted. Probably such a scheme will 
 not easily take place now when the affairs of the Ministry have 
 succeeded so prosperously with Otway, and given them credit 
 enough to live upon perhaps for another session ; and credit 
 enough for that purpose they certainly will have, if by the means 
 of this quadruple alliance they are able to deter Sorrell and 
 Shaive from proceeding any further. 
 
 I write this in great haste, the gentleman who brought 
 yours being to go from me to-morrow morning very early. I 
 could not part with him without making my acknowledgments 
 for your last, and for all your favours, and assuring you that I 
 am, with great truth and a very particular esteem, your obedient 
 faithful servant, 
 
 TOUNG. 
 
 John O'Brien has endorsed this : " Eiggs to Dutton, 
 of the 13th of July, O.S."* 
 
 The position of the cause of the exiled Prince in 
 England, as described in these reports, accounts for 
 
 * Stuart Papers.
 
 A.LBERONI. 361 
 
 the long interval that passed before AtterLury wrote 
 again. He had urged the necessity of seeking 
 foreign aid, without which William of Orange would 
 have failed in overthrowing a much more unpopular 
 monarch than George I. ; and to obtain it, James's 
 influential adlierents abroad now employed all their 
 energies. 
 
 He found a Avarm friend in Cardinal Alberoni,* 
 and at his suggestion started early in the year 1719 
 for the capital of Spain, where he remained till the 
 autumn, urging the King and his Ministers to afford 
 him the help he needed. At the same time, with 
 the assistance of Law, the great schemer, then on 
 very confidential terms with the Eegent Orleans, 
 Lord Strafford endeavoured to obtain support from 
 France ; but it is evident that Atterbuiy entertained 
 a distrust of the Duke of Orleans, and subsequent 
 events proved its correctness. There was a confe- 
 rence on the subject between the Eegent and Lord 
 Strafford; and the French Minister Du Boist was 
 also made acquainted with the desires and intentions 
 of James. These negotiations made the latter very 
 sanguine when he returned to Italy about the end 
 of August. He wrote to the Bishop, who had been 
 
 * The al)le Minister of Philip V., King of Spain, seemed desirous of revenging 
 the Spanish failures against England. The pretensions of James III. were re- 
 garded as affording almost as good an excuse for attacking England as had those 
 of Mary Stuart; and when Sir George Byng made havoc among their fleet at 
 Syracuse, on the Slst of July, 171 S, James and the Duke of Ormonde were 
 sent for, and the Duke entrusted with the command of a squadron of ships, with 
 a military force ; but the elements were again opposed to the enterprise, and 
 Philip soon afterwards dismissed the Cardinal, and entered into a treaty of peace 
 with England. 
 
 t The Abbe, subsequently a Cardinal.
 
 3G2 RECONCILIATIONS AT COURT. 
 
 suffering from severe indisposition, on the 17tli of 
 the following October, expressing his wish to hear 
 from him. This produced a renewal of the corre- 
 spondence about seven months subsequently, when he 
 forwarded with the following a lengthened despatch, 
 referred to as a general letter, and another to Lord 
 Mar. 
 
 Bishop Atteebury to James III. 
 
 May 6, 1720. 
 Sir, 
 
 I have little to add to what is contained in tlie General 
 Letter besides particular professions of duty and zeal for the 
 service, which I hope are needless, and am sure will be made 
 good by all the actions of my life as often as any proper occasion 
 offers. My long illness and great distance, and the few oppor- 
 tunities I had of such a conveyance as I could depend on, have 
 been the reasons of my silence. I must add also, that I did, upon 
 grounds not altogether slight, entertain hopes that hands of 
 greater consequence were, either of choice or through necessity, 
 employed in such measures as would be of most effectual service 
 to the cause, and while these measures were duly pursued, 
 thought it my part to lie still and expect the event. But these 
 hopes, since the great quarrel has been made up,* are in a 
 good degree vanished ; for whatever wishes and inclinations any 
 person in power may still preserve, he will be — if he is not 
 already — forced to act in such a manner as will certainly defeat 
 them. Indeed, the reconciliation, whether of the principals or 
 those who listed under them, is not as yet hearty and sincere ; 
 but I apprehend it will by degrees become so ; at least the 
 appearances and consequences of it here will be the same as if 
 it really were. The union — how imperfect soever now — will 
 naturally cement more and more, as accidents and occasions 
 arise that may make it the mutual interest of the newly recon- 
 ciled to act more closely together. 
 
 The Tories have now lost their balancing power in the House 
 of Commons, and must either, by continuing wholly inactive, 
 
 * Between George I. and the Prince of Wales.
 
 CAPITALISTS. 363 
 
 sink in tbeii- spirits and nvxmbers, or by making attacks hazard a 
 stricter conjunction between tlieii" enemies. On either hand 
 their situation is nice and hazardous, and great prudence as 
 well as resolution is requisite so to conduct them through these 
 difficulties as neither to forfeit their reputation nor draw upon 
 themselves the united resentment of the now powerful party, 
 who, if ever they agree in good earnest, will be more irresistible 
 than they were before the breach. 'Tis true there is but little 
 time for such experiments before the Session will close, and the 
 less there is, in my humble opinion, the better. Ere another is 
 opened, new distastes may arise and new parties be formed, 
 which may give the Tories matter to work out a foundation to 
 stand upon. The last of these they now evidently want, and for 
 want of it dare hardly, and scarce can prudently, make use of the 
 other. I think myself obhged to represent the melancholy truth 
 +hiis plainly, that there may be no expectation of anything from 
 hence which will certainly not happen. Disaffection and un- 
 easiness will continue ever}^where, and probably increase ; the 
 bulk of the nation will be still in the true interest and on the 
 side of justice ; and the present settlement will, perhaps, be 
 detested every day more than it is already, and yet no effectual 
 step will or can be taken to shake it. 
 
 .Care is taken from hence to make our condition well under- 
 stood in France. Whether we shall be believed, or, if we are, 
 whether the Regent will think it his interest at this juncture to 
 assert your righteous cause, or will choose rather to temporize 
 till he has brought all the great projects he has now on the 
 anvil to bear, you, sir, are best able to judge, and time only 
 will convincingly show. It is certain that unless help come 
 speedily it may come too late ; for that body of men who have 
 newly increased their capital to above forty millions sterling 
 j begin to look formidable, and if time be given them to fix 
 , themselves, and to unite the Court and the majority of the 
 Members of Parliament thoroughly in tlieir interest, the weight 
 of their influence, whatever they undertake, must bear down 
 all opposition ; and they cannot but be the Government of this 
 kingdom. But it is hoped this great event is not at such a 
 distance as to give this monstrous prospect time to settle. An 
 attempt from abroad — if not too long dehiyed — will dash it all 
 to pieces, and make it instrumental towards defeating those evils
 
 364 THE pretender's marriage. 
 
 ■wliich it now seems calculated to serve. At all events the 
 direction and management of this great machine will, for some 
 time, be in the hands of the Ministiy, who best know what use 
 they intend to make of it. 
 
 Upon the whole, we are here at present in a violent con- 
 vulsion, from which great good or evil may arise, according as 
 the juncture is laid out by France, and employed to one or other 
 of these purposes. We are entirely in their power. They have 
 great sums of money in our stocks, which they can draw out 
 at once, and sink them if they please. If they insist on the 
 surrendering of Gibraltar it must be surrendered ; and that step 
 will shake our credit, and show how easily we may be insulted 
 if anybody has the courage to venture upon us. Could the 
 Duke of Ormonde — if nothing is to be headed by him from 
 Spain — be allowed shelter anywhere in France ? Even that is 
 allowed to disorder our finances, and throw us into a great deal 
 of confusion. But I will not trouble you, sir, with more reflec- 
 tions of this kind, being persuaded that you are thoroughly 
 acquainted with the advantages which your present situation 
 gives you, and want nothing but such an assistance as may 
 render them effectual, which I pray God soon to afford you ! 
 
 I cannot send my letter without my particular congratulations 
 on the affair of your Majesty's partner, which you have pleas.ed 
 to communicate to all of us. 'Tis the most acceptable news that 
 can reach the ear of a good Englishman. May it be followed 
 every day with such other accounts as may convince the world 
 that Heaven has at last undertaken your cause, and is resolved 
 to put an end to your sufferings ! 
 
 I beg leave to add that your letter of October 17, 1719, 
 reached me not here till March 19, 1719-20, N.S. By what 
 accident it was so long delayed I know not, but had I received 
 it in time, even the great indisposition I was then under, and am 
 not yet free from, would not have hindered me from acknow- 
 ledging the honour of it, and returning my most humble thanks 
 for it. 1376. 
 
 Jolin Hay has endorsed this : " B. of E. to the 
 King, May 6, 1720."* 
 
 * Stuart Papers.
 
 STATE OF AFFAIRS. 365 
 
 It is remarkable tliat this document contains no 
 attempt at disguise except the signature ; and the 
 endorsement differs, in the same manner, from those 
 of preceding letters. In the accompanying com- 
 munication to Lord Mar, which expresses similar 
 sentiments, the same absence of reserve and pre- 
 cautions is evident. The general letter, which was 
 a joint production, does not appear to have been 
 preserved. The other despatch from the Bishop sent 
 this year is in the handwriting of Kelly. It betrays 
 the same opinion of the condition of affairs. 
 
 " The printed paper " was the production of Lord 
 Lansdowne, and entitled " The King's most gracious 
 Declaration to all his Loving Subjects, of what rank 
 or degree soever." 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to General Dillon. 
 
 October 22 (O.S), 1720. 
 
 " Mr. Sta?}hope "* lias long been confined to tlie country by 
 his illness, and has no opportunity of advising with friends till 
 he erets to town, which will be before the end of next week ; in 
 the meantime he highly approves the printed paper, and hopes 
 some way or other it will be made public. As to what is 
 proposed, he dares not of himself advise anything, but is afraid 
 that the time is lost for any attempt that shall not be of force 
 sufficient to encourage people to come into it. The losers in 
 this game are under expectations of having their losses made up 
 to them in the approaching Session, and will not plunge hastily 
 into any new hazardous scheme at this juncture, nor perhaps 
 till they begin to despair. Relief cannot possibly come till 
 some time after the Parliament has met, and then tlie hopes of 
 the disaffected will be kept for some time in suspense ; and the 
 while they have any such hopes they will not run any great 
 
 • In the original this name is underlined, and " lUington " written over it by 
 O'Brien.
 
 360 PROJECTED ENTERPRISE. 
 
 risks : and an unsuccessful attempt ruins the game for many 
 years, and certainly ends in the union of the Father and Son, 
 and of the whole Whig interest to support them. The S. S. 
 project,* which friends have unwarily run into as, if it stood and 
 flourished, it would certainly have produced a Commonwealth, 
 so, now it has failed, has not wrought up the disaffection of the 
 people to such a pitch, but that they have still some hopes left 
 of retrieving their affairs ; and while they have so, will not be 
 ripe for any great venture. Nor can it be yet seen whether the 
 Grand Affair can wisely be pushed till the time of new choosing 
 a Parliament next year, unless the forces to be sent were in 
 much greater quantities than is proposed, or could come hither 
 sooner than 'tis apprehended they possibly can. But of this more 
 after advising with others : at present this is the private senti- 
 ment only of a single person, who if he alters his opinion upon 
 comparing it with that of others, will not fail to give you speedy 
 notice of it. 
 
 Endorsed by John Hay. " B. of E — r to Mr. Dillon, 
 Oct. 22, 1720."t 
 
 It was in contemplation at this time for the Duke 
 of Ormonde, with a force of 2,000 men from Spain, 
 assisted by General Dillon with two hundred officers, 
 to attempt an enterprise in favour of James. This, 
 not only was not a proposition of the Bishop's, but 
 was plainly discouraged by him as an insufficient 
 force. In the course of a few months, however, he 
 seems to have changed his opinion — if the following 
 can be accepted as genuine : — 
 
 Bishop Atterbuey to James III. 
 
 Sir, April 22, 1721. 
 
 My long indisposition and the little hopes I saw of being 
 in any particular degree serviceable, have for some time in- 
 terrupted the course of my writing, though my thoughts and 
 
 * The South Sea. f Stuart Papers.
 
 INACTION. 3G7 
 
 designs liave been all ever pointed the same way, and shall be 
 I so pointed while I live. Sir, the time is now come when, with a 
 very little assistance from your friends abroad, your way to your 
 friends at home is become safe and easy. The present juncture 
 is so favorable, and will probably continue for so many months 
 to be so, that I cannot think it will pass over without a proper 
 use being made of it. Tom- friends are in good earnest interesting 
 themselves for that purpose, and under a full expectation that 
 an opportunity may some time this summer be given them to 
 show their zeal for your service. They will never despair, but 
 must always think this the most promising juncture that ever 
 yet oSered itself. 
 
 The worthy Mr. Samnore * will be able to explain thmgs so 
 fully to your friends on the other side, who can with the most 
 despatch and secrecy convey the accounts of them to you, that 
 I think it is unnecessary as it is unsafe to enter into particulars ; 
 and therefore end my letter as I shall end my life, with vows and 
 prayers for your felicity. 
 
 This is endorsed, " B. of Eochester to the King,"t 
 and dated. Such an invitation naturally was likely 
 to expedite the arrangements the friends of the 
 exiled Prince had been making in his behalf. 
 
 On January 3, 1722, James wrote to Atterbury, 
 not only thanking him for his services, but liolding 
 out a prospect of " a rank superior to all the rest." 
 Letters were also addressed by him to tlie Duke 
 of Ormonde, Lords North, Arran, Lansdowne, and 
 Strafford, acquainting them with his intention to 
 attempt a demonstration. He only waited for their 
 collecting the sinews of war — but waited in vain. 
 Months of inaction were suffered to pass by, which 
 the English leaders passed in disputing about trilles. 
 They drew persons into their designs without the 
 knowledge of Bishop Atterbury. On learning this 
 
 * Sir H. Goring. + Stuart Papers.
 
 368 LORD OXFORD. 
 
 Lord Mar wrote to James, — " God have mercy on an 
 undertaking of this kind with Dr. John Treind* on 
 the head of it ; " adding, " When the Bishop of 
 Eochester comes to discover their dealings with Dr. 
 John Freind, he will never forgive them ; and it is 
 scarce possible that he can get notice of it soon, 
 which will put an end to the concert between them ; 
 so a new concert is absolutely necessary." 
 
 The cause in which Bishop Atterbury had em- 
 barked had elements of ruin in it, the development 
 of which was merely a question of time ; the chief 
 of these were jealousy, incapacity, and insincerity. 
 In truth, the " five," as they were designated, acted 
 so unwisely that the project had to be abandoned; 
 and Atterbury was appealed to, to join with Lord 
 Oxford in the entire management of the King's 
 affairs. The indefatigable Nonjuror was sent to 
 England with communications for the Bishop, with 
 whom he presently became domiciled, and for whom 
 he again wrote by dictation. 
 
 Bishop Attebburt to the Duke op Mae. 
 
 Distances and other accidents have for some years interrupted 
 my correspondence with Mr. Ilacket,'\ buti am willing to renew 
 it, and to enter into it upon a better foot than it has ever yet 
 stood, being convinced that my doing so may be of no small 
 consequence to the service. I have already taken the first step 
 towards it that is proper in our situation, and vdll pursue that by 
 others as fast as I can have opportunity ; hoping that the secret 
 will be as inviolably kept on your side as it shall be on this, so 
 far as the nature of such a transaction between two persons who 
 must see one another sometimes can pass unobserved. This is 
 what I propose, and it shall not be my fault, if it does not take 
 
 * The Physician. -|- Lord Oxford.
 
 atterbury's position. 369 
 
 effect. I hope it will not be expected that I should -write by 
 post, haying many reasons to think it not advisable for me to 
 do so.* 
 
 The Bishop, in his reply to the next communication, 
 betrays the dissatisfaction with which he regarded 
 his position. The reader should, however, bear in 
 mind that the wife Dr. Atterbury so tenderly loved — 
 the inspiration of his youth, and the solace of his 
 mature manhood — the mother of his children — was 
 passing away from the life she had endeavoured to 
 brighten, and that to him all around must naturally 
 have looked gloomy. The scene in which he moved 
 became distasteful, and he felt himself out of place. 
 His friend's sympathy was as earnest as his admira- 
 tion. Pope was one of the very few of his intellec- 
 tual contemporaries capable of doing justice to his 
 character as a statesman and a divine. 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atterbuey. 
 
 March 14, 1721-2. 
 
 I was disappointed (much more than those who commonly 
 use that phrase on such occasions) in missing you at the 
 deanery, where I lay solitary two nights. Indeed I truly par- 
 take in any degree of concern that affects you ; and I wish 
 everything may succeed as you desire in your own family, and 
 in that which I think you no less account your own, and is no 
 less your family, the whole world : for I take you to be one of 
 the true friends of it, and to your power its protector. Though 
 the noise and daily bustle for the public be now over,t I dare 
 say a good man is still tendering its welfare ; as the sun in the 
 
 • Stuart Papers. The person to whom this letter is addressed, was, as will be 
 proved presently, in the receipt of a large pension from the English Government, 
 for the purjjose of betraying the correspondents of "the Pretender," with the 
 object of ruining such as were most active in political opposition to the minister. 
 
 f By a recent dissolution of Parliament. 
 
 VOL. I-. 25
 
 370 pope's regard for atterrury. 
 
 winter, when seeming to retire from the world, is preparing 
 benedictions and warmth for a better season. No man wishes 
 your lordship more quiet, more tranquillity, than I, who know 
 you should understand the value of it ; but I do not wish you a 
 jot less concerned or less active than you are in all sincere, and 
 therefore warm, desires of public good. 
 
 I beg the kindness (and it is for that chiefly I trouble you 
 with this letter) to favour me with notice as soon as you return 
 to London, that I may come and make you a proper visit of a 
 day or two ; for hitherto I have not been your visitor but your 
 lodger, and I accuse myself of it. I have now no earthly thing 
 to oblige my being in town (a point of no small satisfaction to 
 me) but the best reason, the seeing a friend. As long, my lord, 
 as you will let me call you so (and I dare say you will till 
 I forfeit, what I think I never shall, my veracity and integrity) 
 I shall esteem myself fortunate, in spite of the South Sea, 
 poetry, Popery, and poverty. 
 
 I cannot tell you how sorry I am you should be troubled anew 
 by any sort of people. I heartily wish — Quod super est ut tibi 
 vivas — that you may teach me how to do the same, who, with- 
 out any real impediment to acting and living rightly, do act 
 and live as foolishly as if I were a great man. I am, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, March 16, 1721-2. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 As a visitant, a lodger, a friend (or under what other deno- 
 mination soever), you are always welcome to me, and will be more 
 so, I hope, every day that we live : for to tell you the truth I like 
 you, as I like myself, best, when we have both of us least busi- 
 ness. It has been my fate to be engaged in it much and often by 
 the stations in which I was placed : but God, that knows my 
 heart, knows I never loved it, and am still less in love with it 
 than ever, as I find less temptation to act with any hope of suc- 
 cess. If I am good for anything, it is in angulo cum lihello ; and 
 yet a good part of my time has been spent, and perhaps must 
 still be spent, far otherwise. For I will never, while I have 
 health, be wanting to my duty in any post or in any respect, how 
 
 • Atterbury Papers.
 
 pope's villa. 371 
 
 little soever I may like my employment, and how hopeless soever 
 I may be in the dischjxrge of it. 
 
 In the meantime, the judicious world is pleased to think that 
 I delight in work which I am obliged to undergo, and aim at 
 things which I from my heart despise. Let them think as they 
 will, so I might be at libei'ty to act as I will, and spend my 
 time in such a manner as is most agreeable to me. I cannot 
 say I do so now, for I am here without any books ; and, if I had 
 them, could not use them to my satisfaction while my mind is 
 taken up in a more melancholy manner : * and how long, or how 
 little a whUe, it may be so taken up God only knows ; and to 
 his will I implicitly resign myself in everything. I am, &c.t 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 March 19, 1721-2. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am extremely sensible of the repeated favour of your 
 kind letters, and your thoughts of me in absence, even among 
 thoughts of much nearer concern to yourself on the one hand, 
 and of much more importance to the world on the other, which 
 cannot but engage you at this juncture. I am very certain of 
 your good will, and of the warmth which is in you inseparable 
 from it. 
 
 Your remembrance of Twatenham is a fresh instance of par- 
 tiality. I hope the advance of the fine season will set you upon 
 your legs, enough to enable you to get into my garden, where I 
 will carry you up a mount to show you, in a point of view, the 
 glory of my little kingdom. If you approve it, I shall be in 
 danger to boast like Nebuchadnezzar of the things I have made, 
 and to be turned to converse, not with the beasts of the field, 
 but with the birds of the grove, which I shall take to be no 
 great punishment. For indeed I heartily despise the ways of 
 the world, and most of the great ones of it — 
 
 Oh, keep me innocent, make others great ! 
 
 And you may judge how comfortably I am strengthened in this 
 opinion when such as your lordship bear testimony to its vanity 
 and emptiness. Tinnit, inane est, with the picture of one ring- 
 
 * By Mrs. Atterbury's fatal illness. 
 f Atterbury Papers. 
 
 25*
 
 372 HOMER IN A NUT-SHELL. 
 
 ing on the globe witli his finger, is the best thing I have the 
 luck to remember in that great poet Quarles — not that I forget 
 the devil at bowls, which I know to be yonr lordship's favourite 
 cut, as well as favourite diversion. 
 
 The situation here is pleasant, and the view rural enough to 
 humour the most retii^ed and agree with the most contempla- 
 tive. Grood air, solitary groves, and sparing diet, sufficient to 
 make you fancy yourself (what you are in temperance, though 
 elevated into a greater figure by your station) one of the fathers 
 of the desert. Here you may think (to use an author's words, 
 whom you so justly prefer to all his followers, that you will 
 receive them kindly, though taken from his worst work) : — 
 
 That in Elijah's banquet you partake, 
 Or sit a guest with Daniel at his pulse. 
 
 I am sincerely free with you, as you desire I should, and 
 approve of your not having your coach here ; for if you would 
 
 see Lord or anybody else, I have another chariot besides 
 
 that little one you laughed at when you compared me to 
 Homer in a nut- shell. But if you would be entirely private, 
 nobody shall know anything of the matter. Believe me, my 
 lord, no man is with more perfect acquiescence, nay, with more 
 willing acquiescence (not even any of your own sons of the 
 Church), your obedient, &c.* 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, April 6, 1722. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Under all the leisure in the world, I have no leisure, 
 no stomach to write to you ; the gradual approaches of deathf 
 are before my eyes. I am convinced that it must be so ; and 
 yet make a shift to flatter myself sometimes with the thought 
 that it may possibly be otherwise; and that very thought, 
 though it is directly contrary to my reason, does for a few 
 moments make me easy ; however, not easy enough in good 
 earnest to think of anything but the melancholy object that 
 employs them. Therefore wonder not that I do not answer 
 your kind letter. I shall answer it too soon, I fear, by accepting 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. f That of his wife.
 
 INDIFFERENCE TO RANK. 373 
 
 your friendly invitation. When I do so, no conveniences will 
 be wanting ; for I will see nobody but you and your mother, and 
 the servants. Visits to statesmen always were to me (and are 
 now more than ever) insipid things. Let the men that expect, 
 that wish to thrive by them, pay them that homage : I am free. 
 "When I want them, they shall hear of me at their doors ; and 
 Avhen they want me, I shall be sure to hear of them at mine. 
 But probably they will despise me so much, and I shall court 
 them so little, that we shall both of us keep our distance. 
 
 When I come to you, it is in order to be with you only ; a 
 President of the Council, or a Star and Grarter, will make no 
 more impression upon my mind at such a time than the hearing 
 of a bagpipe, or the sight of a puppet-show. I have said to 
 greatness some time ago, Tuas tihi res liabeto, egomet curaho 
 meas. The time is not far off when we shall all be upon the 
 level ; and I am resolved for my part to anticipate that time, 
 and be upon the level with them now ; for he is so that neither 
 seeks nor wants them. Let them have more virtue and less 
 pride, and then I will court them as much as any body ; but till 
 they resolve to distinguish themselves some way else than by 
 their outward trappings, I am determined (and I think I have 
 a right) to be as proud as they are ; though, I trust in God, my 
 pride is neither of so odious a nature as theirs, nor of so 
 mischievous a consequence. 
 
 I know not how I have fallen into this train of thinking: 
 when I sat down to write, I intended only to excuse myself for 
 not writing, and to tell you that the time drew nearer and 
 nearer when I must dislodge. I am preparing for it ; for I am 
 at this moment building a vault in the Abbey for me and mine. 
 It was to be in the Abbey, because of my relation to the place ; 
 but it is at the west door of it, as far from Kings and Cajsars 
 as the space will admit of. 
 
 I know not but I may step to town to-morrow to see how the 
 work goes forward ; but if I do, I shall return hither in the 
 evening. I would not have given you the trouble of this letter, 
 but that they tell me it will cost you nothing ; our privilege of 
 franking being again allowed us.* 
 
 French men-of-war having been permitted by the 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 374 ATTERBURY TO LORD OXFORD. 
 
 Government to be built in our dockyards, to cnga^^e 
 the Eegent Orleans against the plans of the exiled 
 family, lively debates on the subject took place in 
 the House of Lords. The judges (except Baron 
 Montagu), whose salaries had been lately increased, 
 gave an opinion that such a practice was legal, when 
 Lord Cowper moved a resolution to render it illegal. 
 There was also much discussion upon the Quakers' 
 Bill, which was rejected by 60 to 24. On the 10th 
 of March, Parliament was dissolved by proclamation, 
 apparently with general satisfaction, the nation being 
 tired of its notorious subserviency, which was suffi- 
 ciently dwelt upon in a pamphlet entitled, " The Last 
 Will and Testament of an Old Deceased Parliament." 
 Another publication, that made its appearance about 
 the same time, exasperated the Grovernment into 
 offering a reward of £500 for the apprehension of 
 the author. It was called, " The Second Part of the 
 Advantages accruing by the Hanover Succession." 
 
 The Bishop, in accordance with his promise, wrote 
 the following : — 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Lord Oxford. 
 
 April 14, 1722. 
 
 If you have not heard sooner or oftener from me, it hath not, 
 I can assure you, been my fault ; neither do I attribute it to 
 yours — the long silence you have kept on your side ; but to a 
 chain of disappointments and difficulties which hath been also 
 the only reason of my not finding all this while a method of con- 
 veying my thoughts to you, and receiving your advice, which I 
 shall ever value as I ought, because I look upon you not only as 
 an able lawyer, but a sincere friend. This will, I hope, come soon 
 to your hands ; and the worthy friend by whose canal I send it, 
 will accompany it by my directions, with all the lights and 
 informations he or I can give, and which it is therefore useless
 
 atterbury's liberality. 375 
 
 to repeat here. I shall expect with impatience your return to 
 that message ; and as by it you will be convinced of the great 
 and entire confidence I have in you, I hope you will be as 
 much persuaded that there is nobody wishes you honor, happi- 
 ness, and health more than I do, nor hath for you a more real 
 esteem and friendship. 
 
 Atterbury, it is averred, sent communications 
 to his correspondents abroad; but the originals are 
 not to he found. The following month Lord Mar* 
 wrote to him, sending his letter through the post 
 office, which he had been expressly cautioned against, 
 and in so doing left himself open to a charge of 
 treachery — which, however, he must share equally 
 with the Eegent Orleans, and his minister Du Bois. 
 
 Among the many acts of kindness Bishop Atter- 
 bury exhibited towards men of letters, must not be 
 forgotten his behaviour to Dr. Fiddes, when engaged 
 upon his " Life of Cardinal Wolsey." Independently 
 of the Bishop's interest in a work that promised to 
 do justice to so distinguished a Churchman, as the 
 founder of the noble college in which Atterbury had 
 studied, and over which he had presided, the subject 
 must have had unusual attractions. He therefore 
 placed his house and library at the service of Dr. 
 Fiddes. This liberality the latter thus acknow- 
 ledges : — 
 
 I should under such a direction not only have had the benefit 
 of many curious and deep researches into ecclesiastical antiquity, 
 but of the best and most useful instruction, both in respect to 
 the matter and the conduct of my work. I shall not incur any 
 censure for paying a debt of gratitude to a learned prelate under 
 
 * It will presently be shown Low this hii-ed traitor and spy effected the object 
 of his employer.
 
 376 TREACHERY OF MAR. 
 
 his present circumstances, or for celebrating those great talents 
 wherein, as a person of capacity and letters, his most inveterate 
 enemies must allow him to excel. It is ignoble and unjust, 
 because men are charged with high crimes, either to refuse them 
 those grateful acknowledgments which are due to their beneficial 
 actions, or to deny their extraordinary and distinguished abili- 
 ties on other accounts.* 
 
 There is reason for believing that the Bishop had 
 become impressed with the idea that, however much 
 the country suffered from the rule of the foreigner, 
 there was no prospect of its benefiting by any attempt 
 that might at present be made for getting rid of it. 
 His prudence was not approved of in the little Court 
 at Rome, where the favour with which he was re- 
 garded by James had already excited jealousy. This 
 feeling was presently taken advantage of. and the 
 Pretender's minister, who saw himself likely to be 
 superseded, was soon quite ready to help the minister 
 of George I. in effecting his destruction. 
 
 During the early portion of the year 1722, the 
 Bishop's mind was much occupied, partly by the severe 
 indisposition of Mrs. Atterbury, partly by a learned 
 correspondence with Dr. Potter, Bishop of Bristol, 
 subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury, and an 
 excellent Biblical scholar. Dr. Wall. On the 1st of 
 April Walpole returned to power, as First Lord of 
 
 • This candid avowal could not be permitted to pass. After attacking Dr. 
 Fiddes for favouring Popery, Dr. Knight ventured to assert that his Life of the 
 Cardinal was written at the suggestion of Atterbury, when engaged in his con- 
 troversy with Archbishop Wake ; and "that Bishop Atterbury supplied our author 
 with his own collections ; directed him to the stock of others ; procured him the 
 whole party of subscribers ; entertained him at his house in Westminster ; sug- 
 gested matter and method ; turned him to authorities and conjectures, and laid 
 the whole plan for forming such a life as might blacken the Reformation, cast 
 lighter colours upon Popery, and even make a way for a Popish Pretender. " — Life 
 of Erasmus.
 
 A SECRET NEGOTIATION. 377 
 
 the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. The 
 Bishop was still leader of the Opposition in the House 
 of Lords, and the premier had not only a thorough 
 knowledge of his opponent's influence with his party, 
 but of all that he had done in the cause of the Pre- 
 tender. In the following month the deanery received 
 a visit from the new Prime Minister, who asked for 
 a private interview. It was granted. He had but 
 one method of dealing with those whose support he 
 required; he opened himself to the Bishop, offering 
 a pension of £5,000 till the rich bishopric of Win- 
 chester should fall vacant, and the valuable post of 
 Tellership of the Exchequer for a near relation, if 
 he would cease opposing the Government measures. 
 Walpole suggested how easily he might plead the 
 gout as an excuse for keeping away from the House. 
 
 " Alas ! " exclaimed the prelate, " there is no room 
 for excuses on that score ; I am already too frequently 
 incapacitated by that disorder." Nor would the 
 Bishop throw over his party, though the bribe, as 
 the briber well knew — the See, having so lately been 
 possessed by his true and liberal friend Sir Jonathan 
 Trelawney — was the peculiar object of his ambition. 
 At last the baffled minister took his leave, passing 
 on the stairs the person he had named for the Teller- 
 ship of the Exchequer, to whom the Bishop imme- 
 diately communicated the negotiation.* 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough, the idol of Whig poets 
 and politicians, wlio had long been maintained on an 
 uneasy pedestal, paid the common debt of mortality 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 378 DEATH OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 in the summer of 1722. His reputation, exaggerated 
 by versifiers wanting both a hero and a paymaster, 
 had collapsed into the fame of a fortunate commander, 
 when death gave a final opportunity for his exaltation. 
 No one more strongly insisted on his superiority than 
 his widow ; and if the world did not look upon his 
 dissolution as an irreparable loss, it was no fault of 
 hers. She determined that his obsequies should 
 testify his pre-eminence, and kept society in an intense 
 state of curious excitement with the grandeur of her 
 preparations. Among the least concerned lookers-on 
 were Atterbury and Pope ; the first had to play a 
 prominent part in the ceremony, and the latter desired 
 merely to be a spectator of the pageant. The Bishop 
 thought more about the sublimity of Milton than the 
 glories of Marlborough. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Dear Sir, ^''"^^'^' -^"^^ ^^' ^'2^' 
 
 You have generally written first after our parting. I 
 will now be beforeliand with you in my inquiries, how you got 
 
 home, and how you do ; and whether you met with Lord , 
 
 and delivered my civil reproach to him in the manner I desired ? 
 I suppose you did not, because I have heard nothing either from 
 you or from him on that head, as I suppose I might have done 
 if you had found him. 
 
 I am sick of these men of quality, and the more so the offcener 
 I have any business to transact with them. They look upon it 
 as one of their distinguishing privileges not to be punctual in 
 any business, of how great importance soever ; nor to set other 
 people at ease with the loss of the least part of their own. 
 This conduct of his vexes me ; but to what purpose ? or how 
 can I alter it ? 
 
 I long to see the original MS. of Milton, but do not know 
 how to come at it without your repeated assistance.
 
 DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM. 379 
 
 I hope you will not utterly forget what passed in the coach 
 about " Sampson Agonistes." I shall not press you as to time ; 
 but some time or other I wish you would review and pohsh that 
 piece. If, upon a new perusal of it (which I desire you to 
 make), you think as I do, that it is written in the very spirit of 
 the ancients, it deserves your care, and is capable of being 
 improved with little trouble iuto a perfect model and standard of 
 tragic poetry, always allowing for its being a story taken out 
 of the Bible ; which is an objection that, at this time of day, I 
 know is not to be gotten over. — I am, &c.* 
 
 Alexaiider Pope to Bishop Atteebuey. 
 
 July 27, 1722. 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 I have been as constantly at Twitenham as your lord- 
 ship has at Bromley, ever since you saw Lord Bathurst. At 
 the time of the Duke of Marlborough's funeral I intend to lie at 
 the deanery, and moralize one evening with you on the vanity 
 of human glory. 
 
 The Duchess of Buckingham's letter concerns me nearly, and 
 you know it, who know all my thoughts without disguise. I 
 must keep clear of flattery. I will ; and, as this is an honest 
 resolution, I dare hope your lordship will not be so unconcerned 
 for my keeping it, as not to assist me in so doing. I beg, there- 
 fore, you would represent thus much, at least to her Grace, that 
 as to the fear she seems touched with, " that the Duke's memory 
 should have no advantage but what he must give himself, with- 
 out being beholden to any one friend," joxvr lordship may cer- 
 tainly, and agreeably to your character both of rigid honour and 
 Christian plainness, tell her that no man can have any other 
 advantage, and that all offerings of friends in such a case pass 
 for nothing. Be but so good as to confirm what I have repre- 
 sented to her, that an inscription in the ancient way, plain, 
 pompous, and yet modest, will be the most uncommon, and 
 therefore the most distinguishing manner of doing it. And so I 
 hope she will be satisfied, the Duke's lionour be preserved, and 
 my integrity also, which is too sacred a tliiug to be ibrfeited in 
 consideration of any little (or what people of quality may call 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 380 pope's btble. 
 
 great) honour or distinction whatever, which those of their rank 
 can bestow on one of naine ; and which indeed they are apt to 
 over-rate, but never so much as when they imagine us under 
 any obligation to say one untrue word in their favour. 
 
 I can only thank you, my lord, for the kind transition you 
 make from common business to that which is the only real 
 business of every reasonable creature. Indeed I think more of 
 it than you imagine, though not so much as I ought. I am 
 pleased with those Latin verses extremely, which are so very 
 good that I thought them yours, until you called them an Hora- 
 tian Cento ; and then I recollected the " disjecti membra poetse." 
 I will not pretend I am so totally in those sentiments, which you 
 compliment me with, as I yet hope to be. You tell me I have 
 them, as the civilest method to put me in mind how much it fits 
 me to have them. I ought first to prepare my mind by a better 
 knowledge even of good profane writers, especially the moralists, 
 &c., before I can be worthy of tasting that supreme of Books 
 and sublime of all writings ; in which, as in all the intermediate 
 ones, you may (if your friendship and charity toward me con- 
 tinue so far) be the best guide * to your, &c. 
 
 Bishop Atteeburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 Bromley, July 30, 1722. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have written to the Duchess [of Buckingham] just as 
 you desired, and referred her to our meeting in town for a 
 further account of it. I have done it the rather because your 
 opinion in the case is sincerely mine : if it had not been so, you 
 yourself should not have induced me to give it. Whether and 
 how far she will acquiesce in it I cannot say ; especially in a case 
 where she thinks the Duke's honour concerned ; but should she 
 seem to persist a little at present, her good sense (which I depend 
 upon) will afterwards satisfy her that Ave are in the right. 
 
 * In the first blank leaf of this bible, Mr. Pope subsequently made the following 
 record : — 
 
 Franciscus, Episcopus RofFensis, 
 
 Vir admodum venerandus et amieissimus, 
 
 Alexandre Pope dono dedit, 
 
 Jun. 17, 1723, Anno Exilii I. 
 
 Cape dona extrema tuorum !
 
 DUKE OF Marlborough's funeral. 381 
 
 I go to-morrow to the deanery, and I believe I shall stay 
 there till I have said " Dust to dust," and shut up that last 
 scene * of pompous vanity. It is a great while for me to stay 
 there at tliis time of the year ; and I know I shall often say to 
 myself while I am expecting the funeral — 
 
 Rus, quanto ego te aspicium ! quandoque licebit 
 Ihicere soUicitse jucanda oblivia vitse. 
 
 In that case, I shall fancy I hear the ghost of the dead thus 
 entreating me — 
 
 At tu sacrataa ne parce malignus arenas 
 
 Ossihus et capiti intumato 
 Particulam dare — 
 
 Quanquam festinas, non est mora longa ; licebit 
 Injecto ter pulvere, cxirras. 
 
 There is an answer for me somewhere in " Hamlet " to this 
 request, which you remember though I do not — " Poor ghost, 
 thou shalt be satisfied," or something like it. However that be, 
 take care you do not fail in your appointment, that the company 
 of the living may make me some amends for my attendance on 
 the dead. 
 
 I know you wiU be glad to hear that I am well: I should 
 always could I always be here — 
 
 Sed me 
 
 Imperiosa trabit Proserpina : vive, valeque. 
 
 You are the first man I sent to this morning, and the last man 
 I desire to converse with this evening, though at twenty miles 
 distance from you — 
 
 Te veniente die. Te decedente requiro.t 
 
 * This was the funeral of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, at 
 which the Bishop officiated, a.s Dean of Westminster, on Thursday, August 9, 
 1722. 
 
 t Atterbury Papers.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 BISHOP ATTERBURY IN THE TOWER. 
 
 Sources of Treachery open to Walpole — Correspondence Inter- 
 cepted — Bishop Atterbury, Lord Boyle, and others com- 
 mitted to the Tower — Letters of Pope and Atterbury — 
 A Treasonable Communication from the Bishop read to the 
 House of Commons — Dr. Yalden's Thorough-paced Doc- 
 trine — " The Bill of Pains and Penalties " — Public Sym- 
 pathy with the Bishop — The Subservient Parliament — The 
 Prisoner Assaulted and Deprived of his Property — Severity 
 of his Imprisonment — Sympathy of Pope and Swift — The 
 Bishop's Letter to the Speaker — Vindictive Ai'ticles of his 
 Impeachment — The Intercepted Correspondence — The Dog 
 Harlequin — The Defence — Pope a Witness in his Favour — 
 Bishops Grastrell and Hoadly — Noble Conduct of Pope — 
 His Correspondence with Atterbury in Prison — Apocryphal 
 Anecdote — " The Black Bird " — The Westminster Scholars 
 visit Atterbury in the Tower — His Departure — The Duke 
 of Wharton's Poem " On the Banishment of Cicero." 
 
 There existed several sources through which Walpole 
 was aware that he might procure the evidence he 
 wanted. There was Lord Mar, who having first 
 written to ingratiate himself with the Elector of 
 Hanover, had subsequently raised a rebellion in Scot- 
 land ; he was known to be deep in the secrets of the 
 Pretender, nevertheless would be glad to earn his 
 pardon by any act of special service to the Govern- 
 ment of George I. There was Lord Bolingbroke,
 
 TREACHERY. 383 
 
 whose vanity had been hurt by his summary dismissal 
 from the service of James, was tired of exile and 
 inactivity, and far from indisposed to inform against 
 a former friend known to be associated with his 
 detested rival Lord Oxford; and there was the 
 Eegent of France, who was quite ready to' assist in 
 defeating the designs of the claimant to the English 
 crown, if he thought he could secure by it a sufficient 
 advantage for himself. 
 
 It is suspected that all these probable sources of 
 treachery were experimented upon with a satisfactory 
 result. With such assistance the unscrupulous minis- 
 ter was able to secure a packet of letters apparently 
 from the Bishop, and obtain the cypher to enable 
 them to be thoroughly understood. It is, however, 
 singular that, having had them copied, he permitted 
 the originals to proceed to their destination; and 
 that though they are said to have arrived safe, no 
 trace of them can be found.* The notorious venality 
 of some of the principal Jacobite agents suggests 
 that there would be no difficulty in procuring proofs 
 of Atterbury's coiTCspondence with the Pretender, if 
 such were wanted. A deep-laid scheme of treachery 
 might therefore easily be arranged for securing evi- 
 dence sufficient to convict the obnoxious prelate. 
 
 It was in the month of May that King George 
 received the first intimation that a formidable con- 
 spiracy had been formed against him. At once the 
 greatest activity prevailed in every department of the 
 Government — there was a camp established in Hyde 
 
 * They are not among the Stuart Papers.
 
 384 ATTERBURY SENT TO THE TOWER. 
 
 Park ; communications were forwarded to all parts of 
 the kingdom, and a message sent to the States of Hol- 
 land, asking for troops. Except such preparations to 
 resist attack, nothing was done against the Jacobites 
 till the 30th of July, when a Captain Kelly was 
 committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. 
 Another arrest was made, but the accused very 
 cleverly escaped from his captors, and £1,000 was 
 offered for his apprehension. A similar sum was 
 offered for the apprehension of that distinguished 
 nonjuring clergyman, Mr. Carte.* 
 ^ Dr. Atterbury had been much occupied with the 
 fanerals of the Dukes of Marlborough and Bucking- 
 ham, as well as with a correspondence with Walpole, 
 respecting the payment of his workmen engaged in 
 completing the repairs of the Abbey. He did not 
 anticipate danger : nevertheless, on the 24th of 
 August, he was brought before a committee of the 
 Privy Council, and there accused of being engaged 
 in a plot to overthrow the existing Government and 
 bring in the Pretender. 
 
 He went through a preliminary examination, which 
 ended in his being committed to the Tower on a 
 charge of high treason. The excitement in the 
 public mind, particularly among the Bishop's nume- 
 rous friends, became very great. It presently got 
 known that his confinement was unusually strict : the 
 excitement increased when a student of the Temple, 
 Christopher Layer, was sent a prisoner to the same 
 fortress, for enlisting men in the service of the Pre- 
 
 * The historian.
 
 LOkl) BOYLE. 385 
 
 tender ; and Lords North and Gre}^ and the Duke 
 of Norfolk, were also seized and committed to the 
 Tower. 
 
 .T)r. Atterbury's pupil, at the death of his elder 
 brother, the fourth Earl of Orrery, of the Irish 
 peerage, succeeded to the title; a little later he 
 received the command of a regiment, with subse- 
 quently the rank of Major-General. He was then 
 employed as a diplomatist, and negotiated with the 
 States of Flanders and Brabant, during the arrange- 
 ment of the treaty of Utrecht, with sucli spirit that 
 the Government elevated him to the English peerage 
 as Baron Boyle, of Marston, in Somersetshire. Lord 
 Orrery and Bishop Atterbury came again into cordial 
 intimacy — indeed, became closely connected in poli- 
 tical affairs. 
 
 His manifest understanding with the political 
 party of which the Bishop was recognized as the 
 head, excited first the suspicion and then the hostil- 
 ity of the Whig Government. On the accession of 
 George I., his lordship had been appointed a Lord 
 of the Bedchamber, as well as Lord-Lieutenant of 
 Somersetshire ; but his votes and his speeches in the 
 House of Peers, like those of his old tutor at Oxford, 
 were regarded by Walpole as declarations of hostility, 
 and a report of his disgrace was speedily in circulation. 
 This, so far from intimidating Lord Orrery, induced 
 ]iim to write a letter to the King offering to resign 
 his employments, if not permitted to act and speak 
 conscientiously. The minister then deprived him of 
 his regiment. Immediately after being superseded, he 
 resigned his post in the royal houseliold. 
 
 VOL. F. 2G
 
 886 LORD ORRERY IMPRISONED. 
 
 There is little doubt that, having disconnected 
 himself with the Court, Lord Orrery drew closer to 
 Opposition. The Walpole spies and the Walpole 
 scribblers were actively employed to ascertain what 
 the Tories were about, and to increase the public 
 odium against them as supposed plotters of treason- 
 able designs. The scheme known as Layer's Plot 
 excited so much rancour as well as alarm among the 
 Lords of the Privy Council, that on the 22nd of 
 September, 1722, they issued a warrant committing 
 his lordship to the Tower, on suspicion of being con- 
 cerned in it. This severity had so unfavourable an 
 effect on Lord Orrery's delicate constitution that Dr. 
 Mead remonstrated with the Privy Council, assuring 
 them that the prisoner's life was in imminent danger. 
 After an incarceration of six months his lordship was 
 liberated on bail. 
 
 It has been alleged that the earliest intima- 
 tion of a conspiracy to dethrone George I. came 
 from the Duke of Orleans, who had been made 
 acquainted with it by the friends of James in Paris ; 
 nevertheless, it was the letter sent by Lord Mar 
 through the post that ostensibly first gave a clue to 
 the channel of communication. The messenger was 
 stopped and the treasonable correspondence found 
 upon him. There was the greatest art employed by 
 the Whig Grovernment to conceal the assistance they 
 had obtained. 
 
 The imprisonment of a Protestant bishop produced 
 little excitement in the public mind, because the 
 greatest possible pains were taken to represent him as 
 a Papist in disguise, whose object was to destroy the
 
 DR. ARBUTHNOT. 387 
 
 Protestant reKgion. The manner in which rehgious 
 prejudices were excited may be understood by the way 
 three highly obnoxious personages in popular estima- 
 tion were joined together. " The Pope, the Devil, and 
 the Pretender," were insisted on as firm allies, and 
 the prisoner in the Tower denounced as their zealous 
 friend and supporter. But such arts could have no 
 efiect on those who knew him ; and no one knew him 
 better than Alexander Pope. His affection found its 
 way tlu'ough the thick walls of the fortress, and much 
 cheered the captive. The following interchange of 
 communications is highly honorable to both : — 
 
 Bishop Atteeburt to Alexander Pope. 
 
 The Tower, April 10, 1723. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I thank you for all the instances of your friendship, both 
 before and since my misfortunes. A little time will complete 
 them, and separate you and me for ever. But, in what part of 
 the world soever I am, I will live mindful of your sincere kind- 
 ness to me ; and will please myself with the thought that I still 
 live in your esteem and affection as much as ever I did : and 
 that no accidents of life- — no distance of time or place — will 
 alter you in that respect. It never can me, who have loved and 
 valued you ever since I knew you ; and shall not fail to do it 
 when I am not allowed to tell you so, as the case will soon be. 
 
 Give my faithfal services to Dr. Arbuthnot, and thanks for 
 what he sent me ; which was much to the purpose, if anything 
 can be said to be to the purpose in a case that is already 
 determined. Let him know my defence will be such that neither 
 my friends need blush for me, nor will my enemies have great 
 occasion of triumph, though sure of the victory. I shall want 
 his advice before I go abroad in many things. But I question 
 whether I shall be pennitted to see him, or anybody but such as 
 are absolutely necessary towards the despatch of my private 
 affairs. If so, God VjIcss you lx)th ! and may no part of the ill 
 fortune that attends me ever pursue either of you ! I know not 
 
 20 *
 
 388 pope's devotion 
 
 but I may call upon you at my hearing to say somewhat about 
 my way of employing my time at the deanery, which did not 
 seem calculated towards managing plots and conspiracies. But 
 of that I shall consider. You and I have spent many hours 
 together upon much pleasanter subjects ; and, that I may 
 preserve the old custom, I shall not part with you now till I 
 have closed this letter with three lines of Milton ; which you 
 will I know readily, and not without some degree of concern, 
 apply to your ever, &c. — 
 
 Some natural tears he dropt, but wip'd them soon : 
 The world was all before him, where to choose 
 Ilis place of rest, and Providence his Guide* 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Attbrbuet. 
 
 April 20, 1723. 
 My Dear Lord, 
 
 It is not possible to express what I think, and what I 
 feel ; only this, that I have thought and felt for nothing but you 
 for some time past, and shall think of nothing so long for the 
 time to come. The greatest comfort I had was an intention 
 (which I would have made practicable) to have attended you in 
 your journey; to which I had brought that personf to consent 
 who only could have hindered me by a tie which, though it may 
 be more tender, I do not think more strong than that of friend- 
 ship. But I fear there will be no way left me to tell you this 
 great truth, that I remember you — that I love you — that I am 
 grateful to you — that I entirely esteem and value you ; no way 
 but that one which needs no open warrant to authorize it, or 
 secret conveyance to secure it — which no bills can preclude, and 
 no kings prevent ; a way that can reach to any part of the world 
 where you may be, where the very whisper or even the wish of 
 a friend must not be heard, or even suspected : by this way, I 
 dare tell my esteen and affection for you to your enemies in 
 the gates ; and you, and they, and their sons, may hear of it. 
 
 You prove yourself, my lord, to know me for the friend I am, 
 in judging that the manner of your defence, and your reputation 
 by it, is a point of the highest concern to me ; and assuring me 
 it will be such that none of your friends need blnsh for you. Let 
 me further prompt you to do yom'self the best and most lasting 
 
 • Atterbury Papers. f His mother.
 
 TO ATTERBUllY. 3S9 
 
 justice. The instraTnents of your fame to posterity will be in 
 your oTvu hands. IMay it not be that Providence has appointed 
 you to some great and useful Avork, and calls you to it this 
 severe way ? You may more eminently and more eifectually 
 serve the public even now, than in the stations you have so 
 honourably filled. Think of Tully, Bacon, and Clarendon. Is 
 it not the latter, the disgraced part of their lives, which you 
 most envy, and which you would choose to have lived ? 
 
 I am tenderly sensible of the wish you express that no part of 
 your misfortune may pursue me. But God knows I am every 
 day less and less fond of my native country (so torn as it is 
 by party rage), and begin to consider a friend in exile as a 
 friend in death ; one gone before, where I am not unwilling 
 nor unprepared to follow after; and where (however various 
 or uncertain the roads and voyages of another world may 
 be) I cannot but entertain a pleasing hope that we may meet 
 again. 
 
 I faithfully assure you that in the mean time there is no one, 
 living or dead, of whom I shall think oftener or better than of 
 you. I shall look upon you as in a state between both ; in 
 which you will have from me all the passions and warm, wishes 
 that can attend the living, and all the respect and tender sense 
 of loss that we feel for the dead. And I shall ever depend upon 
 your constant friendship, kind memory, and good ofl&ces ; though 
 I were never to see or hear the eflTects of them : like the trust we 
 have in benevolent spirits who, though we never see or hear 
 them, we think, are continually serving us and praying for us. 
 
 Whenever I am wishing to write to you, I shall conclude you 
 are intentionally doing so to me ; and every time that I think of 
 you, I will believe you are thinking of me. I never shall sufier 
 to be forgotten (nay, to be but faintly remembered) the honour, 
 the pleasure, the pride, I must ever have in reflecting how 
 frequently you have delighted me, how kindly you have distin- 
 guished me, how cordially you have advised me ! In conver- 
 sation, in study, I shall always want you and wish for you. In 
 my most lively and in my most thoughtful hours, I shall equally 
 bear about me the impressions of you ; and perhaps it will not 
 be in this life only that I shall have cause to remember and 
 acknowledge the fricndshij) of the Bishop of Rochester. I am, 
 &c.
 
 390 INTERCEPTED LETTER. 
 
 P.S. — Be assured that I wish for an occasion of publicly 
 beariug testimony to the truth in your behalf, and shall be glad 
 to be called upon ; and so would the other friend * you mention. 
 Would to God we could act for you ; but, if not that, at least 
 let us appear for you.f 
 
 On the 8tli of Marcli, 1722-3, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer informed the House of Commons that 
 since the Eeport from the Committee, appointed to 
 examine Christopher Layer and others respecting the 
 conspiracy, a letter from the Bishop of Eochester, in 
 his handwriting, had heen seized upon the servant 
 who attended him, and that his Majesty had com- 
 manded him to lay it before tlie House. It was 
 read : — 
 
 Monday Niglit. 
 
 I have the gout in my right hand, and it is grown more 
 troublesome than it was. Should it continue to do so, I shall in 
 a day or two be incapable of writing, and must, therefore, be 
 contented with receiving what you shall send without returning 
 any answer, unless by the hand of a servant. 
 
 I take K.'s| account to be the truest — that they are resolved 
 to push me — but I cannot yet believe that it will be by Bill, but 
 by an iijapeachment — the consequence of which will be a Bill 
 empowering the Chapter, &c., as I have said, while that im- 
 peachment depends. In that case, the particular advice of 
 friends what steps I am to take, and how I am in every case to 
 behave, would be very welcome. J. T. surely should be spoken 
 to, to inform himself as well as he can in every respect, and to 
 send me by T. the best advice he can himself propose or collect 
 from others. If I judge right of what K. says, there are those 
 who would be glad the arrow should be drawn to the very head, 
 not caring though they venture my ruin in hopes of ruining 
 others. If there be any caution and wariness used in the case, it 
 will, I apprehend, be on the side of the Ministry, for fear of their 
 
 * Dr. Arbuthnot — of him some account presently. + Atterbury Papers. 
 
 + Kelly. He was also sent to prison.
 
 walpole's spy. 391 
 
 losing their point by overstraining the matter. I shall expect a 
 further account of your conference at two o'clock to-day with K. 
 
 Since the attack is certain, is any method taken, to bring up 
 the absent Lords, particularly tlie Bisliops ? Abingdon, I think, 
 has been away all the Session ; Anglesey can bring him up with 
 him if he pleases. But it is to no pui'pose for me to enter into 
 particulars ;' this is the part of those who are concerned for me 
 and the cause, and their management in the case will show to 
 what degree their concern rises, and to them, therefore, I leave it. 
 
 If the narrative relates chiefly to Neynoe's, Sample's, and 
 Layer's afiairs,* so far it cannot affect me — for I never heard of 
 the names of either of the three till after this plot hrolce out. 
 
 If I cannot ward the blow, i. e. if the impeachment cannot be 
 stopped, I am a prisoner for some years without remedy. In 
 order to stop it in the House of Commons, methinks it will be 
 of moment to observe, that it is the first impeachment that ever 
 was avowedly brought upon conjectural evidence. In other cases 
 the facts and circumstances upon which the impeachment was 
 brought, being not previously declared, it could not be known 
 whether the impeachers had not sufiicient grounds to go upon. 
 But here they ante manirnv produce their evidence, and all their 
 evidence ; and if that shall appear not sufficient to found an 
 impeachment, methinks the very lodging it may be stemmed. 
 
 If any of the Committee or the Ministry will aver that there 
 is any oath made against me of treasonable practices by any 
 living witness, or that they have any such witness who has 
 undertaken to prove any crime against me, when it shall be 
 thought fit to proceed upon the impeachment, such assertions 
 may induce the House to impeach. But, in such case, let the 
 Ministry or members of the Committee be obliged to deliver in 
 the name of such person, in a note to be sealed and left with the 
 Speaker, and opened when the discovery of such evidence will 
 be attended with no inconvenience, and let him then undertake 
 to justify the truth of his assertion. Otherwise to impeach a 
 man, when there is confessedly no living evidence whatsoever 
 against him, will be barbarous ; especially after waiting six 
 
 * Jacobite agents, implicated in tlie recent attempt at an insurrection ; the 
 second was in the pay of the Walpoles. In the State Trials he is described as 
 being under the direction of the Sempills. He was suffered to escape from prison.
 
 392 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 months to got some such evidence, and confining a prisoner all 
 that while after the closest and most rigorous manner, to the 
 evident hazard of his health and life. Such punishment, and the 
 farther confinement, which the late law allows, is sufficient for 
 hare suspicion of treason. 
 
 And if in eight months more any evidence can, after all, he 
 produced, the prisoner will be forthcoming then to answer his 
 accusation ; but to impeach him in hopes of finding evidence 
 afterwards, and acknowledging there is none at present, is un- 
 reasonable in itself, altogether unparliamentary and unpre- 
 cedented. And such a precedent, once set, may be attended 
 with terrible consequences, which others may feel in their turn. 
 For whose liberty is safe, if the H. of C. may accuse any one, 
 even when they own they have no legal froof against him ? 
 They are the Grand Inquest of the nation, and should find 
 their Bill "as Grand Juries do, upon some positive evidence — 
 they cannot, they ought not to proceed solely upon conjectures 
 and probabilities. This is the advantage I would make of their 
 previous declaration in the narrative ; and it is, in my of)inion, 
 a very great advantage towards quashing any attempt that may 
 be made towards an impeachment. I have not time to explain 
 myself further on this head : but should not be unwilling that 
 what I have said should be shown to some knowing friend in 
 the H. of C, upon whose strict secrecy, as well as good judg- 
 ment, I may depend — particularly Mr. Bromley. 
 
 If there be no impeachment, I shall certainly be at more 
 liberty here when the Parliament is up ; and being so, can put 
 all capitular affairs into an easy method of being legally trans- 
 acted, even when I myself am not present among them. Should 
 there be an impeachment, a capacitating Bill will, as I have said, 
 probably follow ; but even then I can show that it is unneces- 
 sary, and nothing but necessity (and the unreasonableness of 
 punishing twelve other men for my faults) can ever justify it. 
 Bishop Williams, Dean of Westminster,* was confined to his 
 diocese for two or three years, and yet a method was found to 
 renew leases and do business at Westminster, necessary for the 
 support of the body during his absence. And when he was 
 
 * Archbishop of York, ntid confidential minister to Charles I. He died in 
 1G50.
 
 DEAN OF WESTMINSTER. 393 
 
 afterwards imprisoned in the Tower for two or three years more, 
 and a Commission under the Great Seal issued, empowering the 
 Sub-Dean and Chapter to proceed without him, this was looked 
 upon as an unjustifiable strain upon the prerogative, and one of 
 the great blemishes of that reign. And when Bishop Williams 
 came out of prison he reversed all they had done without his 
 consent, in prejudice to his rights as Dean ; and particularly 
 voided ten patents of ten offices they had gi'anted, the nomina- 
 tion of which was vested in him by charter and consequent 
 usage. 
 
 In truth the Dean, by charter and usage, has separate rights 
 from the Chapter ; these are personal, and can be exercised by 
 him, wherever he is, or by the Sub-Dean, whom he always and 
 solely appoints. And for the exercise of these rights, therefore, 
 no Bill can be necessary. The Bishop of Bristol * at this time 
 disposes of offices in his gift, chambers, &c., even when he is 
 attending the Parliament for six or seven months, and his Sub- 
 Dean governs the Collegef in his stead ; and by a proxy lodged 
 with him, is enabled, in the Dean's name, to transact all capitular 
 business whatever, together with the canons. But my hand is 
 weary, and I am come to the end of my paper. 
 
 What I have written on four sides, may, I think, upon a 
 review of it, be showed by you, in confidence, to Mr. Bromley ; 
 though there are other things mixed with what I would have him 
 see. You must not tell him what K., T., &c., means, and then 
 there is no harm. You should write a short note to him as soon 
 as you receive this, and desire to know when you may wait 
 upon him alone, and then show him the paper, part of which you 
 thought of transcribing ; but it was too long, and you chose 
 rather to leave the original with him for his perusal. If he seems 
 inclinable to return any answer, tell him you will transcribe it, 
 and give him his paper back immediately ; but I fear he will 
 scarcely venture to make any but a verbal return. If so, do not 
 take that verbal answer from him immediately, but desire him 
 to appoint another time when you may wait on him and receive 
 it, after he has, if he thinks fit, advised with fi'iends. The 
 intermixture of other business will make him see that the paper 
 was not intended for him, and will be an excuse for the haste 
 
 * His friend, Dr. Smalridge. f Christ Church, Oxford.
 
 394 THE bishop's resources. 
 
 with which it was written ; and the confidence you in that case 
 place in him will probably produce a mutual return. 
 
 There is one more must know of the secret of the conveyance, 
 and that is the person employed in making it, and procuring its 
 being made, if it was not Sam himself — soft Sam — and know 
 from him certainly who is privy to it, and enjoin him the utmost 
 secrecy. Frank, I hope, knows nothing of it. I expect the 
 event of the dialogue with William and the other accounts from 
 I. to-morrow. You may, when you see Bromley, impart the 
 story of that villany to him, and desire his advice upon it, at 
 what time and in what manner it may be proper for me to bring 
 that matter upon the stage, and show what extraordinary 
 methods are made to get at me, and beg the Lords' protection in 
 the case against such vile practices. I hope William has not given 
 into it, and then my way will some time or other be clearer 
 towards a complaint. Whenever it is proper, I think the rascal, 
 my neighbour, may be summoned before the Lords, and made to 
 tell who employed him to profier such sums, and be punished by 
 them for such practices. 
 
 If the butter you send me on Wednesday be exceedingly good, 
 it will be as good a reason for my having it from Westminster 
 as my having water from thence daily. 
 
 If there be any proceedings against me, early care must be 
 taken of money. I will not press you on that head ; but the 
 bond of £500 which the Chapter owes me in your name, being 
 upon so good security, may easily be turned into money by Z., 
 perhaps Z. destroying the declaration of trust to me, and Y. 
 giving another to Z. And he may have the interest on that 
 bond, when paid, from the time of his furnishing the money. 
 But this I mention upon a supposition only that there may be 
 pressing occasion for money. I have still by me between £200 
 and £300, and I suppose Z. has collected some small sums from 
 the tenants. I shall be furnished with none from the Chapter, 
 though a great deal is due to me. 
 
 Since I know not what may happen to me, I am determined, 
 while I am possessed of all my rights as Dean, to fill up the 
 two vacant places, that are without controversy in my sole gift ; 
 and to that end shall enclose a paper, dated at some distance of 
 time, which you may put into the Sub-Dean's hand, and desire 
 him to produce when there is proper occasion. You need not
 
 DEFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE. 395 
 
 let liim know it was not wi'itten wlien dated, nor how long you 
 have had it in your custody. Before it is delivered to the Sub- 
 Dean, Sam must sign a paper, declaring that he will allow 
 Joseph half the profit of the Sacrist's stipend and board wages, 
 and perquisites of all kinds, as well of his perquisites as Deputy 
 to Law, and of those that belong to the Sacrist's place, to which 
 Sam is nominated. And in that case Joseph shall give another 
 paper under his hand to allow him the half of his two little places 
 when he can come into possession of them and get to be paid 
 for them. For I would have them equal in their advantages. 
 Sam, indeed, is the elder servant ; but Joseph has suffered, and 
 is like to suffer most, by a long and close confinement with me; 
 and they are both veiy honest and very trusty servants, and I hope 
 still to live to be able to do better for them. I doubt not but 
 these nominations will hold good in law, unless the Bill to be 
 brought in shall go backwards and void everything I have done 
 as Dean from the time of m.y commitment, which will be the 
 most extravagant and uni'easonable thing that ever was done. 
 On the contrary, I hope, when my friends understand my case, 
 if they will give themselves the trouble of understanding it, 
 they will be able to prevent any Bill whatsoever to qualify the 
 Chapter to act without me ; especially such a one as may vest 
 in the Sub-Dean and Chapter the rights personally, separately, 
 and solely belonging to the Dean. 
 
 Upon reconsidering matters — if Z.'s account of the narrative 
 be just, I cannot conceive how it is possible to impeach after it 
 has been read, i. e. after an open confession made by them that 
 they have nothing under my hand : no oath, no living evidence 
 against mc, but inferences only, and conjecture and probability. 
 They may impeach me, indeed, before it, because the H. not being 
 then acquainted with what they have to produce, may suppose it 
 to be much stronger than it is ; but to impeach after a declara- 
 tion made that they had no positive proof, is so absurd, that I 
 could almost flatter myself with the thought that they mean it 
 as a cliecJc against any attempt that may be made in the H. of 
 Lords towards backing, and not designing it in good earnest. 
 And yet, if that be so, K. is either deceived, or in the secret of 
 deceiving me, thinking he makes a good bargain for me if I am 
 neither impeached nor bailed, but escaping a Parliamentary 
 prosecution, and left to the mercy of those who committed mc
 
 390 HOUSE OF COMMONS MYSTIFIED. 
 
 Thus you see I turn things every way, having no solid founda- 
 tion on which to build my reasonings, for want of the intelli- 
 gence requisite. Pray desire Z. to get me further and more 
 particular accounts of the narrative if it be possible, and ask 
 Bromley, also — who from henceforward is I. — to get you some 
 account of it beforehand. Nothing is more instructive to me, 
 or enables me better to pass some sort of judgment on my own 
 state, and to guess at what will follow. That short account I. 
 sent has furnished me with more remarks of that kind than all I 
 heard before from all quarters. Once again, adieu. 
 
 This communication was found in a cover tliat, 
 instead of a direction, contained these sentences : — 
 
 Desire Z., if he can possibly, to get a particular account 
 whether Jack be mentioned in the report, much, or at all, and in 
 what manner. As^ Y. is to discourse L. about the late villany 
 of my neighbour, so I could wish I. would discourse V. and take 
 his advice upon it, ivhether anything is to be done upon it, and 
 what, and when. 
 
 The House do not appear to have been able to 
 make anything either of the intercepted letter or the 
 postscript. They referred it to the Committee who 
 were examining Christopher Layer. The mystifica- 
 tion of the initials doubtless suggested that there 
 existed a secret understanding of the prisoner with 
 various persons at large : but nothing could be laid 
 hold of by the prosecutors to further their purpose. 
 
 Yalden, who obtained his Doctor of Divinity degree 
 in 1707, and was in the enjoyment of two comfortable 
 rectories in Hampshire, lived in the closest intimacy 
 with the Bishop of Eochester. Walpole's spies, who 
 had dogged his steps and watched his correspondence, 
 denounced him as an active agent in the tremendous 
 plot. He was seized, and brought before the Secret 
 Committee. Among his papers a pocket-book had
 
 THOROUGH-PACED DOCTRINE. 397 
 
 been found, in a page of wliich were discovered the 
 words "thorough-paced doctrine." It was in vain 
 that Dr. Yalden denied any knowledge of any uncon- 
 stitutional proceeding. He was known to be a confi- 
 dential friend of the accused Bishop, and the myste- 
 rious words in the pocket-book appeared to suggest 
 the blackest treason. 
 
 The Doctor volunteered an explanation, by which 
 it appeared that many years before he had ventured 
 among the congregation of the then famous Noncon- 
 formist, Daniel Burgess, and heard him explain his 
 ideas respecting rehgious opinions that ought to be 
 eschewed. " But above all other pernicious doctrines, 
 my brethren," exclaimed the preacher, " take heed 
 and beware, my beloved, of the tIioroi((jh-paced doc- 
 trine — that doctrine, I mean, that coming in at one ear, 
 passes straight through the head, and out at the oppo- 
 site ear." Dr. Yalden took out his pocket-book and 
 made a note of this novelty in his professional studies, 
 and there it had remained till the discovery of " the 
 Atterbury Plot " brought it forward as damning evi- 
 dence of guilt. The members of the Secret Com- 
 mittee, of whom Pulteney was one, were very much 
 discomfited by this simple explanation ; and, as if 
 fearing that the " thorough-paced doctrine " might 
 be made to bear a close relation to Whiggery, per- 
 mitted Dr. Yalden to go at large. 
 
 Then, to make an exhibition of activity, on the 
 11th they voted Bishop Atterbury and George Kelly 
 guilty of the alleged conspiracy. On the 15th Dr. 
 John Freind, the physician, was committed to the 
 Tower on a charge ol" high treason. They now put
 
 398 BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. 
 
 their design against the Bishop into the shape of a 
 " Bill of Pains and Penalties " — a regular legislative 
 measure to pass each branch of the Legislature, when 
 its provisions had been discussed and approved by 
 majorities in the ordinary way. A trial in the law- 
 courts must have failed for want of legal evidence, 
 but as the Government commanded a majority in 
 both Houses, they knew they could dispense with the 
 principles and precedents that would influence pro- 
 perly constituted juries. It was not till the 23rd of 
 the month that the Bishop wrote to the Speaker, 
 requesting permission to employ as his counsel Sir 
 Constantino Phipps and William Wynne, Esq., and 
 for his solicitors, Messrs. Joseph Taylor and William 
 Morice, and that they might have free access to him 
 to enable him to prepare his defence, and to receive 
 his instructions respecting the Bill. It was granted. 
 
 Among the indications of sympathy was the pub- 
 lication of an engraved portrait of the Bishop behind 
 an iron grating. Underneath were verses expressing 
 commiseration for his position. Bowes, the print- 
 seller, and Edward Ward, the writer of the verses, 
 were sent to prison. That some of the clergy were 
 not indifferent to this persecution was shown on the 
 16tli of September, when in several churches and 
 chapels in the metropolis prayers were ofiered up for 
 Bishop Atterbury, on account of his being grievously 
 afflicted with the gout. Some members of the 
 Government would have incarcerated the preachers, 
 but they contented themselves with securing the co- 
 operation of their ecclesiastical superiors. 
 
 Parliament assembled on the 8th of October. The
 
 walpole's persecution. 399 
 
 King, in his speech, apprized them of the discovery 
 of a formidable conspiracy, and the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act for a year was resolved upon. 
 This was followed by a Bill for exacting £100,000 
 from Eoman Catholics. A few months before, a 
 proclamation had been issued banishing them from 
 London and Westminster, and confining them to their 
 homes. The fact was, both Houses of the Legislature 
 had been carefully packed, the Peers with new creations 
 or increased dignities — the Commons with placemen 
 and expectants, completely at the service of the Minis- 
 try. Their religious prejudices were as powerfully 
 worked upon as their aspu-ations for rank or wealth, 
 and the result was that they were quite willing to 
 believe in the danger of the Protestant religion, and 
 quite ready to punish all those accused of endeavour- 
 ing to destroy it. 
 
 The arbitrary manner in which this venerable pre- 
 late, though known to be suffering from ill health, 
 was treated during his imprisonment, reflects disgrace 
 upon Walpole, who vindictively directed his prosecu- 
 tion as a retaliation for his own incarceration. All 
 the winter the Bishop was forced to endure the seve- 
 rity of this confinement, without the slightest miti- 
 gation, prevented from engaging in any employment 
 that might divert his mind, and the most vexatious 
 restraints placed upon his communicating with the 
 members of his own family. At last — a confession of 
 the weakness of their case against him — his enemies 
 proceeded to actual violence, of which he made a 
 complaint, in a petition to the House of Lords, pre- 
 sented on the 5th of April. It stated : —
 
 400 OUTRAGE ON THE BISHOP. 
 
 That on Thursday, the 4th inst., about three o'clock in the 
 afternoon, Colonel Williamson, Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, 
 attended by Mr. Serjeant the Gentleman Porter, and two warders, 
 came up to the petitioner's room, whilst he was at dinner, and 
 having put his two servants under the custody of wardens below, 
 told the petitioner he must search him. The petitioner asked 
 him for his warrant ; he answered, " I have authority from the 
 Ministry," afl&rming it upon his salvation: but the petitioner 
 refused to be searched till he showed it. He then said he had a 
 verbal order, but refused to say fi-om whom. The petitioner told 
 him if it were verbal only, it did not appear to him, and he 
 refused to be searched. He endeavoured, nevertheless, to search 
 the petitioner's pockets himself by force, but the petitioner 
 wrapped his morning gown aboat him, and would not suffer him 
 till he showed his warrant, which the petitioner demanded five 
 or six times, to no purpose. He then ordered the two wardens 
 attending to come to the petitioner and do their duty, and one 
 of them laid hands upon him, and began to use violence ; and 
 then the petitioner knocked and called often for his servants. 
 Colonel Williamson said they should not (nor were they per- 
 mitted) come near him. Upon this the petitioner submitted, and 
 they took everything out of his pockets, and searched his bureau 
 and desk, and carried away with them two seals. They seized 
 also a paper in the petitioner's pocket, but this being a letter to 
 his solicitor, abotit the managing of his caxise, which the peti- 
 tioner thought they could have no pretence to seize while he was 
 under the protection of Parliament, he took it again from them 
 and tore it, but they carried a part of it along with them. They 
 searched also his two servants below, and took away a seal from 
 one of them ; and those servants likewise demanded their war- 
 rant, but they had none to produce. The petitioner, therefore, 
 as a lord of Parliament, though under confinement, humbly 
 prays that their lordships would be pleased to take these matters 
 into their serious consideration, and grant him such relief and 
 protection as their lordships shall judge proper against such 
 unprecedented, illegal, and insolent usage. 
 
 There is reason to believe that Williamson had 
 been instructed by Walpole to commit this outrage 
 on his prisoner, in the hope to obtain by surprise con-
 
 POPE AND SWIFT. 401 
 
 firmatory eWdence of his charges. To disturb an old 
 man at his meals for the pm-pose of rifling his pockets, 
 was surely unnecessary to promote the ends of justice. 
 This, however, was not exactly what the minister 
 wanted ; the accused must be condemned, and in his 
 eagerness to hunt him down he lost sight of justice 
 as wtII as of manliness. 
 
 The strictness with which the Bishop's incarcera- 
 tion was maintained is thus referred to in a letter 
 from Pope to Gray : — 
 
 Tell Dr. Arbuthnot that even pigeon-pies and hogs' puddings 
 are thought dangerous by our governors ; for those that have been 
 sent to the Bishop of Rochester are opened, and profanely pried 
 into at the Tower. It is the first time that dead pigeons have 
 been suspected of carrying intelligence. To be serious, you and 
 Mr. Congreve and the Doctor will be sensible of my concern and 
 surprise at his commitment, whose welfare is as much my con- 
 cern as any friend I have. I think myself a most unfortunate 
 wretch. I no sooner love, and, upon knowledge, fix my esteem 
 to any man, but he either dies, like Mr. Craggs, or is sent to 
 imprisonment, like the Bishop. God send him as well as I wish 
 him, manifest him to be as innocent as I believe, and make all 
 his enemies know him as well as I do, that they may think of 
 him as well.* 
 
 Other literary friends were scarcely less disturbed 
 by the dangerous position of one for whom they had 
 cultivated a very warm regard. The Dean of St. 
 Patrick's was well aware of tlie infamous resources the 
 Government had at its command, and the little 
 scruple they were likely to have in employing them 
 to get rid of a formidable opponent. Swift's 
 animosity to the Whigs was quite as strong as that 
 of the Bishop. In a very little time he contrived to 
 
 * Pope's Letters. 
 VOL. 1. :27
 
 402 DEAN SWIFT. 
 
 give them no slight trouble in Dublin by the public 
 opposition he created there respecting Wood's Half- 
 pence.* The Dean wrote a letter containing the 
 following passages : — 
 
 Strange revolutions since I left you — a bishop of my old 
 acquaintance in the Tower for treason, and a doctor of my new 
 acquaintance made a bishop. I escaped hanging very narrowly 
 a month ago, for a letter from Preston, directed to me, was 
 opened in the post office, and sealed again in a very slovenly 
 manner, when Manby found it only contained a request from a 
 poor curate. This hath determined me against writing treason. 
 
 It is admitted that Kelly the parson is admitted to Kelly the 
 squire,t and that they are cooking up a discovery between them, 
 for the improvement of the hempen manufacture. It is reckoned 
 that the best trade in London this winter will be that of an 
 evidence. As much as I hate the Tories, I cannot but pity them 
 as fools. Some think likewise that the Pretender ought to have 
 his choice of two caps — a red cap or a fool's cap. It is a 
 wonderful thing to see the Tories provoking his present Majesty, 
 whose clemency, mercy, and forgiving temper have been so 
 signal, so extraordinary, so more than humane, during the whole 
 course of this reign ; which plainly appears not only from his 
 own speeches and declarations, but also from a most ingenious 
 pamphlet just come over relating to the wicked Bishop of 
 Rochester. J 
 
 The writer's declaration of hating the Tories, with 
 whom and for whom he had unscrupulously acted for 
 many years, may be regarded as equally sincere as his 
 estimate of the Kino-'s character. His letter had to 
 go through the post office. 
 
 ■ The proceedings of the House of Commons were 
 virtually a prejudging of the case. In every instance 
 in which a political cause has been left to the decision 
 
 * Scott's " Swift." 
 
 + The Nonjuror who had been sent to" Bishop Atterbury, and the Captain of 
 the same name. Both were in prison, but the last was suffered to escape. 
 
 i Scott's "Swift."
 
 LETTER TO THE SPEAKER. 403 
 
 of a part}^ majority, the result may always be antici- 
 pated ; but the present is so glaringly prejudicial, that 
 no wonder the accused felt reluctant to be tried by 
 such an assembly. Atterbury therefore came to the 
 determination of not attempting a defence before such 
 a tribunal, and this he expressed in the following 
 communication to the Speaker: — 
 
 Bishop Atterbttrt to the Right Honorable Spencer 
 CoMPTON, Speaker of the House of Commons. 
 
 The Tower, April 4, 1723. 
 Sir, 
 
 By tlie votes of the House of Commons of Marcli 11, 
 1722-3, I find it was " Resolved,— 
 
 " That it appears to this House that Francis, Lord Bishop of 
 Rochester, Avas principally concerned in forming, directing, and 
 carrying on a wicked and detestable conspiracy for invading 
 these kingdoms with a foreign force, and for raising insurrections 
 and a rebellion at home, in oi"der to subvert our present happy 
 establishment in Church and State by placing a Popish Pretender 
 on the throne." 
 
 Upon duly weighing which Resoliitioii, I have been in some 
 doubt how far it might be fit for me (though conscious of my 
 own innocence) to attempt to clear it before that Honorable 
 House in contradiction to so solemn a declaration already made 
 by it ; especially since nothing else is charged upon me in the 
 Bill, against which my counsel were to plead, but what is con- 
 tained in that vote. 
 
 It has also happened that one of my counsel,* on whose 
 assistance I greatly relied, has been so much employed in the 
 defence of another person as not to have had time fully to 
 instruct himself for mine. 
 
 Upon these accounts, I shall decline giving the House of 
 Commons any trouble to-day, and be content with the oppor- 
 tunity (if the Bill goes on) of making my defence before another 
 House of which I have the honour to be a member. 
 
 Be pleased to communicate this to the House. — I am, &c.t 
 
 Sir Constaniine Phipps. f Atterbury Papers. 
 
 27 *
 
 404 BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. 
 
 The Bishop's enemies were not inactive : having 
 kept him in rigorous imprisonment for seven months, 
 they now determined to employ their parliamentary 
 majority to crush him. On the 23rd of March the 
 ministers hrought forward " the Bill of Pains and 
 Penalties," in the House of Commons, for the purpose 
 of punishing " Francis, Lord Bishop of Eochester," 
 a copy of which they forwarded to him at the Tower. 
 He addressed a petition to the House of Lords re- 
 questing their counsel, and reminding them of a 
 standing order of the House prohibiting any peer 
 appearing before the House of Commons, either in 
 person or by counsel, to answer charges there preferred 
 against him. There was much discussion, the accused 
 having a few zealous friends in that assembly, and 
 the Commons had for some time been encroaching 
 on their privileges ; nevertheless, the supporters of 
 the Government were in an overwhelming majority ; 
 seventy-eight to thirty-two, decided that the Bishop, 
 being only a lord in Parliament, and no Peer/^' might 
 without affecting the power of the House make his 
 defence in the House of Commons. The reverend 
 bench, his bitter opponents since his proceedings in 
 Convocation, readily coincided in this self-denying 
 ordinance ; but he was far too good a Churchman 
 to accept it. 
 
 On the 9th of April "the Bill of Pains and 
 Penalties " passed its third reading in the Commons, 
 and was sent to the Lords. It was to the effect : — 
 
 That after the 1st of June, 1723, Francis, Lord Bishop of 
 * Prelates had been spiritual peers since Parliaments had been established.
 
 VINDICTIVENESS. 405 
 
 Rocliester, shall be deprived of all his offices, dignities, pro- 
 motions, and benefices ecclesiastical whatsoever ; and that from 
 thenceforth the same shall be actually void, as if he were 
 naturally dead ; that he shall for ever be disabled and rendered 
 incapable from holding or enjoying any office, dignity, or emolu- 
 ment, within this realm, or any other His Majesty's dominions ; 
 as also from exercising any office, ecclesiastical or spiritual, 
 whatever ; that he shall suffer perpetual exile and be for ever 
 banished this realm, and all other His Majesty's dominions; that 
 he shall depart out of the same by the 25th of June next, and if 
 he return into or be found within this realm, or any other His 
 Majesty's dominions, after the said 25th of June, he, being thereof 
 lawfully convicted, shall suffer as a felon without benefit of 
 clergy, and shall be ntterli/ incapalle of any jmrdon from His 
 Majesty his heirs or successors. That all persons who shall be 
 aiding and assisting to his return into this realm, or any other 
 His Majesty's dominions, or shall conceal him within the same, 
 being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be adjudged guilty of 
 felony without benefit of clergy. That if any of His Majesty's 
 subjects (except such persons as shall be licensed for that pur- 
 pose under the sign manual) shall after the 25th of June hold 
 any correspondence in person with him, within this realm, or 
 without, or by letters, messages, or otherwise, or with any 
 person emploj'ed by him, knowing such person to be so employed, 
 they shall on conviction be adjudged felons without benefit of 
 clergy. Lastly, that offences against this act committed out of 
 this realm may be tried in any county within Great Britain. 
 
 Tliese were pains and penalties with a vengeance. 
 The leader of the Opposition in the House of Peers 
 was to be got rid of eiTectually without leaving so 
 much as the shadow of a chance of his troubling the 
 Ministry again. The vindictiveness of the persecu- 
 tion is equally apparent in the provisions of this 
 monstrous Bill to prevent his enjoying the comfort 
 of unrestrained communication witli his Aimily and 
 dearest friends. His affectionate daughter, his zealous 
 son-in-law, would render themselves liable to the axe
 
 406 ALLEGED INTERCEPTED LETTERS. 
 
 of the executioner if they assured him of their love 
 and duty without permission ; while the pens of the 
 kind-hearted Pope and the earnest-minded Wesley 
 were equally held in check by the rope of the hang- 
 man. 
 
 On the Gtli of May came on the first reading of 
 the Bill in the House of Lords. Bishop Atterbury 
 was brought from the Tower to be present. He was 
 attended by his counsel, Sir Constantine Phipps and 
 William Wynne, Esq. The counsel for the Crown 
 were Mr. Reeve and Mr. Wearg. Notwithstanding 
 all the art that had been employed to create a preju- 
 dice against the accused, the proceedings excited con- 
 siderable interest. It is necessary to inform the 
 reader that one of the witnesses for the prosecution, 
 Neynoe, a clergyman, had recently been drowned. 
 Walpole acknowledged in the House of Commons 
 that he had paid this fellow liberally for informa- 
 tion. This information, notwithstanding his death, 
 was employed in the trial; but there was assistance 
 that his enemies relied on still more for a conviction, 
 the source of which they carefully concealed. Both 
 Neynoe and Sempill were Walpole's agents. 
 
 Copies of the letters alleged to have been inter- 
 cepted were produced, and their contents deciphered. 
 One was dated April 20, 1722, addressed to " Mars- 
 grave " (Lord Mar), and signed " T. Illington," a 
 signature that does not appear to any of the BishojD's 
 previous communications. There is nothing in it 
 that might not have been written by any one having 
 acquired a knowledge of his secret correspondence. 
 It merely accepts proposals that had been made to
 
 HARLEQUIN. 407 
 
 the writer, and professes a willingness to forward 
 communications, and act in conjunction witli a 
 person who, it is suggested, should be directed to 
 come to town. This indicates Lord Oxford, and a 
 reference to existing indisposition — the Bishop's state 
 of health and recent domestic loss were well known — 
 was relied on as fixing the authorship. Another docu- 
 ment of the same date, addressed to " Mr. Chivers " 
 (General Dillon), was signed " T. Jones," a signature 
 also not to be found among the Bishop's previous 
 letters. It merely expresses the writer's opinion that 
 no active exertions in the cause could be made by 
 him at present, and repeats what is already known of 
 his having accepted the direction of afiairs in place 
 of certain parties by whom they had been mis- 
 manasred. A third letter of this same date, addressed 
 to " Jackson " (James III.), bears as a signature the 
 number " 1378," which it must be confessed is in 
 sequence with the cipher last employed. It contains 
 statements and allusions similar to the other two, but 
 nothing that might not have been artfully constructed 
 to fix suspicion on the supposed writer. As Mr. 
 Glover has shown,* the manner in which they were 
 deciphered betrays the influence of some one who 
 had been behind the scenes — to whom their composi- 
 tion, I would add, was as easy as their explanation. 
 
 AVitnesses were called to connect Bishop Attcr- 
 bury with these documents, and the counsel for the 
 Crown managed to elicit from a Mrs. Barnes that a 
 little dog, called Harlequin, had been entrusted to 
 
 • Stuart Papers. Appendix.
 
 408 ATTERBUR\'S DEFENCE. 
 
 her from certain implicated parties still abroad, as a 
 present to the Bishop of Rochester. The witness 
 was not disposed to criminate the accused, but, as 
 witnesses not unfrequently do when bothered by a 
 " Buzfuz," she said exactly what she ought not, 
 perfectly unconscious that she was doing any harm. 
 This inadvertence was promptly taken advantage 
 of; and the gratification of his enemies — who had 
 hitherto with difficulty concealed their chagrin at the 
 deficiency of legal evidence to support the charge — 
 was excessive. The little dog was hailed as a god- 
 send, and with renewed hopes of being able to hunt 
 down their prey with his assistance, they watched 
 the further proceedings.* 
 
 Five days elapsed before the case for the Crown 
 was brous^ht to a conclusion. On the 11th the 
 friends of the accused, who had contrived to gain 
 admission to the House, with anxious hearts waited 
 to hear his defence. They may have entertained 
 hopes that the accomplished orator would have 
 been able to demolish the incoherent fabric of sus- 
 picions and hearsays that had been raised against 
 him. If so, they were not disappointed ; never was a 
 weak cause more skilfully picked to pieces. He com- 
 menced by dwelling on the cruel severity of his 
 treatment since his incarceration, then noticed the 
 unfair spirit with which the trial had been conducted, 
 particularly bringing forward examinations, neither 
 dated, signed, nor sworn to ; the reading letters 
 said to be criminal, written in another man's hand, 
 
 • Swift made some fun out of this incident, making the Jacobite lap-dog the 
 subject of a humorous poem.
 
 THE PRINCIPAL CHARGE. 409 
 
 and supposed to be dictated by tlie accused, without 
 offering any proof, though called upon, that he either 
 dictated them, or was privy to them ; the not allowing 
 him copies of the deciphered letters (tliough peti- 
 tioned for) till the trial was so far advanced that 
 he had not sufficient time to consider them. 
 
 "And all this," as he impressively added, "in a proceeding 
 where the counsel for the Bill professed they had no legal 
 evidence, nor were to be confined to the rules of any court of 
 law or equity, though when it was for their service, they con- 
 stantly sheltered themselves under them." 
 
 The Bishop then directs attention to the principal 
 charge. It accuses him of having been deeply con- 
 cerned in forming, directing, and carrying on a 
 wicked and detestable conspiracy, and being a prin- 
 cipal actor therein, by traitorously consulting and 
 corresponding with divers persons to raise an insur- 
 rection against His Majesty within this kingdom, 
 and to procure a foreign force to invade the same, in 
 order to depose His Majesty and place the Pretender 
 on his throne ; moreover, that he traitorously corre- 
 sponded with the said Pretender, and persons em- 
 ployed by him, knowing them to be so employed. 
 
 There is no doubt of the culpability of the 
 accused, though he did no more than many dis- 
 tinguished men had done wlien they wanted to get 
 rid of the Pretender's father ; but of this there was 
 no evidence before the court. Atterbury demanded: — 
 
 Has either part of this charge been made good by the counsel 
 for the Bill ? Have they proved me guilty of any one consulta- 
 tion with any one person whatsoever for the purpose alleged ? 
 Is there anything in the reports or appondirns thnt tends 
 towards such a proof, except the idle story of the Burford Club,
 
 410 CONFEDERATES. 
 
 too much exploded already to be worth, confuting, and two or three 
 loose passages in Nejnoe's and Fancier's hearsay informations, 
 where I am mentioned by the one or the other, together with 
 the Lords Orrery, North, Straifbrd, Kinnoul, and Sir H. Goring, 
 as concerned in the management of this affair ?. Neynoe's pre- 
 tended intelligence is from Kelly, Fancier's from Skeen ; both 
 Kelly and Skeen have at your bar denied that they ever said 
 any such thing. 
 
 The Bishop then enters into an account of the state 
 of his intimacy with these pretended confederates. 
 
 The Earl of Strafford has visited me now and then, and I 
 him, when I had health ; and I have dined with him 07ice at his 
 house, and but once that I remember. At my Lord North's 
 table I have not eat so much as once, and though I have a great 
 honour for that noble lord, yet I never had any intimacy with 
 him ; especially since the affair of the Dormitory, wherein he 
 appeared against me with so much zeal and earnestness, that ] 
 had certainly lost the cause if his affairs had not called him into 
 Holland while it was depending. Lawson, indeed, has sworn 
 from Farnden, who denies it, that this lord often visited me at 
 Bromley — but in truth he never was there above thrice in all 
 his life ; and if he had been there oftener, a good account might 
 have been given of such an intercourse, for he is a tenant of the 
 £ishopric. 
 
 With my Lord Kinnoul, I verily believe I have not been once 
 these two years ; nor met my Lord Orrery with company upon 
 any business whatever but that of Parliament, during the 
 same time ; and once I think we dined together at the house 
 of a great person, whose name, if I should mention, your lord- 
 ships would not think any harm done or intended at such a 
 meeting. I am thus particular as to my Lord Orrery, because 
 he is said to have been the chairman of that club, of which I 
 was so ill a member as not to know — no, not even to this day — 
 of whom it consisted, or where it was held. But when the chair- 
 man was bailed, this groundless and senseless piece of scandal 
 vanished. 
 
 I scarce ever visited Sir Henry Goring in my life. He has 
 seen me, indeed, several times at the Deanery, but not once at 
 Bromley ; and the occasion of such visits was his placing four
 
 THE MILITARY CHEST. 411 
 
 of his sons at Westminster School, where I think they still are, 
 and his intentions to breed some of them up for the College. 
 But Mr. Caryl's information, upon liearsay, as all the rest 
 against me are, about a rupture between us, is so far from being 
 true, that the last time Sir Henry saw me (above a twelvemonth 
 ^?o) I promised him to bring one of his sons in upon the 
 foundation, and wish I may be able to be as good as my word. 
 
 He next deals with the statement that he had 
 
 been entrusted with the Pretender's military chest, 
 
 containing £200,000, resjDCcting which he gave his 
 
 solemn assurance, — 
 
 That I never had in my possession or power, of my own or 
 other man's money lodged in my hands, or in the hands of 
 others, with my consent and privity, in either specie, bills, bonds, 
 or securities of any kind, full £1,200 at any one time of my life, 
 since I married my daughter about eight years ago, except the 
 money I collected for the Dormitory, and which, as soon as I 
 had it, I deposited in other hands that I judged responsible. 
 
 He adds, with as much good humour as truth : — 
 
 It would be well for me, if I must be ruined by the present 
 Bill, that this article were in some measure true; for as no great 
 sum appears to have been disbursed on this plot, I suppose 
 the gentlemen concerned would not envy me my share of it, 
 and then the thoughts of perpetual exile would be more toler- 
 able, when I am sure of some support. 
 
 In the same spirit he suggests an advertisement, 
 with a promise of a pardon, calling upon the depo- 
 sitors to claim their money ; then passes on to the 
 treasonable correspondence, dated 20tli April. The 
 charge of authorship he proceeds to disprove : — 
 
 My being confined, April 20, 1722, to my bed or chair, and 
 attended every minute, day and night, before, at, and after that 
 time, by some of my servants, and receiving frequent messages 
 by others about my wife's illness and approaching death ; the 
 agreeing testimony of the whole family that no stranger came 
 near me about this time ; and the coincidence of the election for 
 the School of Westminster, which made my several servants
 
 412 PRETENDED LETTERS. 
 
 capable of recollecting the times at which they were either with 
 me or from me, have concurred towards furnishing me with 
 such a proof of my innocence in this matter, as I hope is not to 
 be withstood. 
 
 The Bisliop makes a masterly analysis of the evi- 
 dence bronght to fix on him the writing the three 
 letters. Having disjDOsed of this charge, he adds : — 
 
 If it be said, " Who, then, wrote these three letters, and with 
 what view were they written ? " the answer to the latter of these 
 questibns is pretty obvious — my being here at your bar sujfficierdly 
 explains it. 
 
 They were concocted for the express purpose of 
 bringing the obnoxious prelate within the toils. 
 There was another letter brought forward, as one 
 he had written to the Abbe Dubois. This also 
 was a forgery. He avers, — 
 
 But, in truth, it is not in my handwriting. I appeal securely 
 to every one that knows it. Had I wi^itten it, it is absurd to 
 think that I should use a feigned name only for my correspon- 
 dent, and mention Mr. Kelly without disguise by the name of 
 Johnson, which, as the Committee observe on this very occasion, 
 was the name by which he constantly went. 
 
 He next considers the intercepted letters written 
 to him, said to be by Lord Mar and General Dillon. 
 He says, — 
 
 That they reached me is not affirmed ; that I answered them 
 is not pretended, and is by me with great truth denied. 
 
 Of one he very rightly observes, that it — 
 
 Gannot reasonably be thought to have been written with any 
 other view than that of being intercepted, and of fixing on me 
 the letter of April 20, to Musgrave, the receipt of which is there 
 owned, and something is further added to point out my function 
 and circumstances, and prevent mistakes. This letter is com- 
 mitted to the common post, and sent upon its errand. One may 
 doubt who wrote it, but one cannot doubt with what design it 
 was written.
 
 CABINET MINUTE. 413 
 
 As the design and the designers of the plot to 
 ruin Atterbury will have to come nnder review again, 
 we pass them for the present, to refer to the part 
 played in this awful conspiracy by the lap-dog. The 
 following passage occurs in one of the letters : — " The 
 little dog was sent ten days ago, and ordered to be 
 delivered to you ;" and in another it is said, " Mr.^ 
 Illington is in great tribulation for poor Harlequin," 
 which, as the Bishop remarked, appearing in a letter 
 bearing a date " five days after the burial of my wife, 
 cannot mean her, and being but five days after it, can 
 as little mean me, considering the melancholy circum- 
 stances I was then under." Further on he adds : — 
 
 Mrs. Barnes has varied in her evidence, and has sometimes 
 affirmed and sometimes denied that the dog was for me. And 
 the most that she has ever said on that head is, that Mr. Kelly 
 once told her so. For myself, I can with truth and seriousness 
 say, that I never asked, received, or saw this present, nor know 
 anything of it, but from common fame ; nor have I to this day 
 had any letter or message whatever from any one concerning it. 
 
 The identification of the dog as a link in the 
 evidence was thought of vsufficient importance for a 
 Cabinet minute. While giving this, the reader is 
 directed to the hostile elements in the assembly that 
 accepted such evidence, and made the witness sign 
 what in another part of her examination she had 
 denied. The Council was presided over by the 
 Primate, a bitter theological opponent, and the last of 
 the members was an equally bitter political opponent. 
 
 At the Cabinet Council, May 23, 1723, present the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, President Privy Seal, and 
 Chamberlain, the Dukes of Grafton and Devonshire, Lords 
 Berkeley, Townsend, and Carteret, and the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer.
 
 414 HEARSAY. 
 
 Mrs. Barnes, being interrogated whether she knew of a little 
 dog tliat was brought from France, answered, that a little dog, 
 whose leg was broken, was left with her to be cured by Mr. 
 Kelly, and that the said little dog was not designed for her, but 
 for the Bishop of Rochester. That the dog was called Harle- 
 quin, a very fine spotted dog. That Kelly promised her, the 
 said Barnes, to get the dog for her from the Bishop of Rochester, 
 in case it did not recover its lameness. Jane Barnes. 
 
 Taken and signed in the Cabinet Council.* 
 
 Mrs. Barnes appears to have been flustered into 
 this admission. It is noteworthy that she does not 
 profess to have had any communication with the 
 Bishop, direct or indirect ; and tlie Cabinet Council, 
 who forced her to attest with her signature her very 
 shadowy testimony, have only shown by it the diffi- 
 culty they had in inculpating their intended victim. 
 
 The Bishop exposes the weakness of the evidence 
 against him, after this conclusive fashion: — , 
 
 Neynoe pretended not, for aught appears, to know anything 
 of me. He only quotes Mr. Kelly for his intelligence. Mr. 
 Kelly absolutely denies it, and there is nobody else to back it. 
 I think such a dead evidence cannot affect Mr. Kelly himself — 
 much less can it afiect me through him when he declares he 
 never said any such things. Were Neynoe now alive, and Mr. 
 Kelly dead, and incapable of contradicting him, what Neynoe 
 pretended to have by hearsay only from Kelly, would not sure 
 be of much weight. Shall what Neynoe, now dead, says against 
 a third person, and Kelly, now living, contradicts, be thought of 
 any moment ? 
 
 It was of moment to those who were eager to ruin 
 a political opponent, but to nobody else. A little 
 farther on he thus amusingly traces the chain of 
 proofs that had been made to bear against him : — 
 
 A right honorable person hears Neynoe say, that he heard 
 
 Nichols. Correspondence of Atterbiiry, I., 380.
 
 GROUNDLESSNESS OF THE CHARGES. 415 
 
 Kelly say, wliat lie must have heard persons of greater figure say, 
 that they had heard the Pretender say, concerning the Bishop 
 of Rochester. And by this chain of hearsays, thus deduced, 
 am I proved to be a sort of first minister to the Pretender. 
 
 After further showing the groundlessness of the 
 charges brought against him, Atterbury points out 
 the manner in which his time was engrossed when said 
 to be busy with these treasonable designs. 
 
 " Is it probable," he asks, " that when I was carrying on public 
 buildings of various kinds, at "Westminster and Bromley, when 
 I. was consulting all the books of the Church at Westminster, 
 from the foundation, and was engaged also in a correspondence 
 with two learned men about a subject of great use and equal 
 difficulty — the settling the times of writing the Four Gospels — 
 that I should at that very time be directing and carrying on a 
 conspiracy. 
 
 " Is it probable that I should hold meetings and consultations 
 to form and forward this conspiracy, and yet nobody living 
 known when, where, and with whom they were held ? — that I, who 
 lived always at home, and never when at my deanery stirred 
 out of one room, where I received all company promiscuously, 
 and denied not myself to any, should have opportunities of con- 
 certing such matters ? — or, if I had, yet that none of my domestics 
 or friends, with whom I most familiarly lived, should ever 
 observe any appearances of this kind ? — that, if I had been in 
 these measures, no evidence of it would be found in my papers, 
 which were all at once seized at both my houses, and sifted with 
 the utmost exactness ? That after above eight months' impri- 
 sonment, and above twelve months' diligent inquiry into my con- 
 duct and coiTCspondence, my friendships and acquaintances — after 
 confining all my men servants but one now for seven weeks, and 
 searching me twice in the Tower itself, in order to make new 
 discoveries — nothing of consequence should appear against me, 
 nor any one living witness charge me with anything really 
 criminal ? 
 
 Cleverly put together as these passages are, the 
 remainder of tlie defence is still more so. It is 
 impossible to peruse it without going with the
 
 416 BISHOP GASTRELL. 
 
 advocate in all liis telling arguments and forcible 
 declarations. We may, therefore, imagine what must 
 have been its effect upon delivery by " the old man 
 eloquent," thus pleading for everything that was 
 dear to him. Witnesses came forward to corroborate 
 the statements it contained, Pope being among the 
 most zealous. The more honorable Whigs could 
 not but regard with admiration an opponent who 
 had so signally distinguished himself, and it took 
 the legal ingenuity of the two counsel for the 
 Crown, and the ecclesiastical fury of several of his 
 Episcopal rivals, to calm down that creditable feeling 
 into political indifference. One of the Bishops 
 (Gastrell), who entered into the debate that followed, 
 deserves very honorable mention. He had been a 
 school-fellow and fellow-student of the accused, and 
 the defence impressed him so strongly in his favour 
 that he spoke warmly in his behalf. The Duke of 
 Wharton, who had been prejudiced against him, also 
 made a long and powerful speech in his favour. The 
 Government, however, was inexorable. On the 16th 
 of the month, the Bill of Pains and Penalties passed a 
 third reading by a majority of eighty- three to forty- 
 three, and on the 27th it received the Royal assent.* 
 
 • * The illegality of such trials has been shown by an able legist, when com- 
 menting on a similar party prosecution that occurred about a quarter of a century 
 before. " However clearly," observes Lord Macaulay, "political crime may have 
 been defined by ancient laws, a man accused of it ought not to be tried by a 
 crowd of five hundred and thirteen eager politicians — of whom he can challenge 
 none even with cause, who have no judge to guide them, who are allowed to come 
 in and go out as they choose, who hear as much or as little as they choose of the 
 accusation and of the defence, who are exposed during the investigation to every 
 kind of corrupting influence, who are inflamed by all the passions which animated 
 debates naturally, excite, who cheer one orator and cough dovra another, who are 
 roused from sleep to cry Ay or No, or who are hun-ied half drunk from their
 
 ANIMOSITY OF DR. HOADLY. 417 
 
 When Atterbury was Dean of Christ Church 
 College, Dr. Grastrell, a controversialist of almost 
 equal power, had been opposed to him ; but observing 
 the arbitrary manner in which the Grovernment were 
 proceeding, he now stood alone amongst his brethren 
 of the Episcopal bench — whom he severely censured 
 — in denouncing their conduct. Bishop Gastrell did 
 more than speak in his defence — he subsequently 
 contributed to his support. The Bishop of Chester 
 was in heart quite as earnest a Jacobite as the Bishop 
 of Eochester. The fact is, the ultra-loyal Bishops 
 were only too eager to sacrifice their right reverend 
 brother, and several gratified a long course of hos- 
 tility by helping to complete his ruin.* They 
 determined on being zealous Whigs as long as a 
 Whig Government was in ofiice. 
 
 Bishop Hoadly, one of his old opponents, came 
 forward to help, at the call of the minister, to con- 
 demn their High Church brother on the bench. 
 He was then Bishop of Hereford, but when he had 
 secured the removal of the Bishop of Bochester, 
 he was rewarded with the rich bishopric of Win- 
 chester. The animus with which he had conducted 
 his controversies with his opponent is far more 
 excusable than the relentless severity with which 
 he pressed for his destruction. A great controver- 
 sialist was Dr. Hoadly, though his efi'orts in that 
 
 suppers to divifle. For thi.s rea.son, and for no other, the attainder of Fenwick 
 is to be condemned. It was unjust and of evil example." — " History of England, 
 from the Accession of .James II.," Cliap. XXIII. 
 
 * The Bishop of Chester did not live to see bis good oUiees produce much beuo- 
 ficial effect. lie died November 24, 1725. 
 
 VOJ-. I. 28
 
 418 FICTITIOUS LETTERS. 
 
 direction are totally forgotten ; but, except from tlie 
 Walpole point of view, he was but an indifferent 
 divine, notwithstanding that Dr. Akenside made him 
 the theme of a duU Ode, containing these lines : — 
 
 Not monkish craft, the tyrant's claim divine, 
 Not regal zeal, the bigot's cruel shrine, 
 
 Could longer guard from Reason's warfare sage ; 
 Not the wild rabble to sedition wrought, 
 Nor synods by the papal genius taught. 
 
 Nor St. John's spirit loose, nor A Uerbury's rage. 
 
 There exists a remarkable confirmation of the 
 Bishop's denial of authorship in the pretended inter- 
 cepted letters, upon which he was condemned, in a 
 note at the end of Mr. Nichols' first volume of Bishop 
 Atterbury's Epistolary Correspondence, published in 
 1783. The Editor mentions the existence of a volume 
 of treasonable letters, formerly belonging to Lord 
 Macclesfield, and then in the possession of Mr. 
 Thomas Astle, as containing the Bishop's commu- 
 nications with the Pretender, the Duke of Ormonde, 
 Lord Lansdowne, the Earl of Mar, the Chevalier 
 Wogan, General Dillon, Jackson, Carte, Kelly, and 
 others ; apparently copies obtained by Sir Luke 
 Schaub, Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Crawford, and other of 
 our diplomatic agents at foreign courts. The amount 
 of treachery that must have been required to secure 
 copies of these secret communications, suggests the 
 easiness with which fictitious letters might have 
 been procured. 
 
 In no part of his life does Pope appear to so much 
 advantage as in his devotion to his friend when any 
 exhibition of regard in that quarter was sure of 
 being remembered to his prejudice. He appeared as
 
 DISINTERESTED DEVOTION. 419 
 
 a witness on his trial, he gave eloquent testimony 
 in his favour, he consoled him in his dungeon, and 
 wrote the most cheering and the most gratifying 
 communications when forced to bring his long and 
 friendly association with him to a conclusion. It is 
 impossible for human sympathy to have spoken out 
 more touchingly than in the two letters he addressed 
 to the prisoner in the month of May. It is not 
 improbable that the writer had some knowledge of 
 the secret transactions in which the Bishop had been 
 engaged, and wrote, as he had spoken, to neutralize 
 the obloquy that Atterbury's enemies had succeeded 
 in casting upon his name for his alleged partiality to 
 Papists. Be this as it may, these letters will ever 
 remain evidence of his disinterestedness and fidelity. 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atteebdry. 
 
 May 2, 1723. 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 Once more I write to you as I promised, and this once 
 
 I feel will be the last ! The curtain will soon be drawn between 
 
 my friend and me, and nothing left but to wish you a long good 
 
 night. May you enjoy a state of repose in this life, not unlike 
 
 that sleep of the soul which some have believed is to succeed 
 
 it ; where we lie utterly forgetful of that world from which 
 
 we are gone, and ripening for that to which we arc to go. If 
 
 you retain any memory of the past, let it only image to you 
 
 what has pleased you best — sometimes present a dream of an 
 
 absent friend, or bring you back an agreeable conversation. 
 
 Bat, upon the whole, I hope you will think less of the time past 
 
 than of the future ; as the former has been less kind to you than 
 
 the latter infallibly will be. Do I not envy the world j^our 
 
 studies : they will tend to the benefit of men against whom you 
 
 can have no complaint — I mean of all posterity ; and perhaps, at 
 
 your time of life, nothing else is worth your care. What is 
 
 every year of a wise man's life but a censure or critique on tho 
 
 past? Those, whose date is the shortest, live long enough to
 
 420 pope's affection 
 
 langli at one half of it : the boy despises the infant, the man tlie 
 boy, the philosopher both, and the Christian all. You may now 
 begin to think your manhood was too much a puerility ; and you 
 will never suffer your age to be but a second infancy. The toys 
 and baubles of your childhood are hardly now more below you, 
 than those toys of our riper and of our declining years — the 
 drums and rattles of ambition, and the dirt and bubbles of 
 avarice. At this time, when you are cut off from a little 
 society and made a citizen of the world at large, you should 
 bend your talents, not to serve a party, or a few, bu^t all 
 mankind. Your genius should mount above that mist in which 
 its participation and neighbourhood with earth long involved it. 
 To shine abroad and to Heaven, ought to be the business and 
 the glory of your present situation. Remember it was at such 
 a time that the greatest Lights of Antiquity dazzled and blazed 
 the most — in their retreat, in their exile, or in their death ; but 
 why do I talk of dazzling or blazing ? It was then that they 
 did good, that they gave light, and that they became guides to 
 mankind. 
 
 These aims alone are worthy of spirits truly great, and such 
 I, therefore, hope will be yours. Resentment, indeed, may 
 remain, perhaps cannot be quite extinguished in the noblest 
 minds ; but revenge never will harbour there : higher principles 
 than those of the first, and better principles than those of the 
 latter, will infallibly influence men whose thoughts and whose 
 hearts are enlarged, and cause them to prefer the whole to any 
 part of mankind, especially to so small a part as one's single 
 self. 
 
 Believe me, my lord, I look upon you as a spirit entered 
 into another life, as one just upon the edge of immortality ; 
 where the passions and affections must be much more exalted, 
 and where you ought to despise all little views and all mean 
 retrospects. Nothing is worth your looking back ; therefore 
 look forward, and make (as you can) the world look after you ; 
 but take care that it be not with pity, but with esteem and 
 admiration. 
 
 I am, with the greatest sincerity, and passion for your fame 
 as well as happiness, your, &c.* 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 FOU ATTERBURY. 421 
 
 Alexander Pope to Bishop Atterbury.* 
 
 May, 1723. 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 Wliile yet I can write to you, I must correspond with you 
 till the very moment it be felony ; and when I can no longer 
 write to you, I will write of you. To tell you that my heart is full 
 of your defencet is no more, I believe, than the worst enemy you 
 have must own of Ids. You have really, without a figure, had all 
 the triumph that ancient eloquence boasts of. You have met 
 with the fate, fi*equent to great and good men, to gain applause 
 where you are denied justice. 
 
 Let me take the only occasion I have had in the whole series 
 of your misfortunes to congratulate you, and not you alone, but 
 posterity, upon this nolle defence. I already see in what lustre 
 that innocency is to appear to other ages which this has over- 
 Dome and oppressed. I know perfectly well what a share of 
 credit it will be to have appeared on your side and been called 
 your friend. I am far prouder of that word you publicly spake 
 of me than of anything I have ever yet heard of myself during 
 my whole life. Thanks be to God ! that I, a private man, con- 
 cerned in no judicature and employed in no public cause, have 
 had the honour in this great and shining incident (which will 
 make the first figure in the history of this time) to enter, as it 
 were, my protest to your innocency and my declaration of your 
 friendship. 
 
 Be assured, my dear lord, no time shall ever efface the memory 
 of that friendship from my heart, should I be denied the power 
 of expressing it any more with my pen in this manner ; but 
 could the permission of corresponding with you be obtained 
 (which you had once the extreme goodness to think of asking 
 even of those from whom you would ask nothing, I believe, but 
 what lies very near your heart), I would leave off all other 
 writing and apply myself wholly to you (where it would please 
 me best) for the amusement, and I would hope comfort, of 
 
 * This letter was omitted by Mr. Pope in tlie collection i^ublished hy k'nmcJf in 
 1737. It has no date, but appears to have been written mmh aflcr May 15, 17'23, 
 when the bill to inflict pains and penalties upon Bishop Atterbury passed the 
 House of Peers. — W. M. 
 
 t Delivered at the bar of the House of Lords, on Saturday, May 11, 1723, in 
 the hearing of Mr. Pope. — W. M.
 
 422 A MALICIOUS SLANDER. 
 
 your exile, till God and your innocence, which will support you 
 under it, restore you from it ; than which there is not a sinccrer 
 or warmer prayer in the breast of, my lord, your ever obliged 
 and aifectionate.* 
 
 It has been asserted that Lord Chesterfield ventured 
 to state that he called upon Pope and found him with 
 a large copy of the Holy Scriptures open on the table, 
 when his lordship, knowing his way of thinking upon 
 that book, asked him jocosely if he was going to write 
 an' answer to it. Much too vulgar a joke for Lord 
 Chesterfield to have attempted. It is then represented 
 that the poet explained that the Bible was given him 
 by the Bishop of Rochester, who on presenting the 
 volume recommended him impressively to abide by it, 
 w^hereupon Pope, with an impertinence as natural as 
 the vulgarity imputed to the author of the Letters 
 to his Son, is made to ask how long it was since the 
 Bishop had abided by it, as he had never done so at the 
 early part of his career. To which he is said to have 
 replied, " We have not time to talk of these things — 
 but take home the book ; I will abide by it, and I 
 recommend you to do so too — and Grod bless you ! "f 
 The correspondence between Pope and Atterbury 
 furnishes a complete refutation to this malicious mis- 
 representation. The poet visited the prisoner in the 
 Tower, where he received that most precious of 
 memorials. The conversation that did pass between 
 them was of a nature that so exalted the high 
 estimate of the reverend prelate Pope had more than 
 once expressed, as to cause his subsequently writing 
 when it came to his remembrance : — 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. + Maty's "Life of Chesterfield."
 
 SAMUEL WESLEY. 423 
 
 How pleasing Atterbury's softer liour — 
 
 How sliined the soul unconquer'd in the Tower ! * 
 
 Concerning the prelates who combined to hunt 
 down their episcopal brother, Lord Bathurst re- 
 marked during the debate : — 
 
 He could hardly account for the inveterate hatred and malice 
 "which some persons bore to the ingenious Bishop of Rochestei', 
 unless it was that, infatuated like the wild Americans, they 
 fondly hoped to inherit not only the spoils, but even the abilities, 
 of the man they should destroy, t 
 
 The noble lord's regard for the Bishop was of long 
 standing ; doubtless the w^arm-hearted Pope had also 
 assisted in iuHuencing his mind in favour of the 
 victim of ecclesiastical animosity. It might have 
 been anticipated that After bury' s coadjutors in the 
 Anglican Church would have felt a desire to support 
 a pillar of the Establishment thus despotically re- 
 moved from it. But they volunteered to assist in the 
 despotism ; the Bishop of St. Asaph exhibiting quite 
 as rancorous feeling against him as the Primate. 
 
 Among the poetical sympathizers with Atterbury 
 was Samuel Wesley, who wrote some verses on his 
 imprisonment, entitled " The Black Bird," in which 
 liis political opponents are thus described : — 
 
 Say, shall recording verse disclose 
 The names and natures of his foes ? 
 The boding Screech-owl, prophet sad ; 
 The Vulture, feeder on the dead ; 
 The Uarpy, ravenous and impure ; 
 The Hawk, obsequious to the lure; 
 The noisy, senseless, chattering Pye, 
 The mere Lord William of the sky. 
 Nor shall the Bat unniention'd be — 
 A mongrel twilight trimmer he ; 
 
 Pope's Works. f State Trials.
 
 424 THE BLACK BIRD. 
 
 When Empire is to fowls transferr'd, 
 He clips his wiugs and is a bird ; 
 When stronger beasts the conquests get, 
 He lights, and walks upon four feet ; 
 With crafty flight or subtle pace, 
 Still safe without an act of grace. 
 The Kite, fit gaoler, must be named. 
 In prose and verse already famed ; 
 Bold to kill mice, and now and then 
 To steal a chicken from a hen. 
 None readier was, when seized, to slay. 
 And after to dissect the prey ; 
 With all the insolence can rise 
 From power, when join'd to cowardice. 
 
 The captive Black Bird kept his cheer, 
 The gaoler anxious shook with fear, 
 Lest roguish traitors should conspire 
 T'unbolt the door or break the wire. 
 Traitors if e'er they silence broke. 
 And disaffected if they look ; 
 For, by himself he judged his prey, 
 If once let loose, would fly away. 
 
 The author had been long attached to Bishop 
 Atterbury, and gave him many simihir proofs of his 
 regard. His detestation of his enemies was no less 
 heai-ty, particularly against Walpole, who appears to 
 have been the Kite of the preceding poem. 
 
 When the able leader of the Opposition had thus 
 been politically extinguished, the Whig Grovernment 
 considered it might be safe to exhibit a little 
 " clemency." Eestrictions were taken off his inter- 
 course with his friends ; the consequence was that they 
 flocked to his prison to express their respect, their 
 admiration, and their sorrow. Among his visitors 
 came the entire Westminster School. Who could be 
 immindful of an " Old Westminster," whose talents 
 conferred so much honour on the estabhshment, and 
 who had only a few years before accomplished so 
 much for its improvement ?
 
 LEGITIMACY. 425 
 
 The grossest misrepresentations have been published 
 of Bishop Atterbury's motives in embracing the 
 cause of the son of James II. ; there is very little 
 doubt, however, that it was the necessary result of his 
 position. By every consistent promoter of High 
 Chm-ch principles James III. must have been re- 
 garded as his legitimate monarch. It had been found 
 impossible to reconcile a large number of excellent 
 clergymen of the Church of England to a departure 
 from the recognized law of hereditary succession in 
 favour of William and Mary, notwithstanding the 
 evidence James II. had afforded them of his intention 
 to subvert the Establishment. The son of James 
 had given the strongest assurances of his respect for 
 their faith, and they could not deny his claim to the 
 throne of his ancestors. 
 
 Englishmen who enjoy the blessings of a tolerant 
 constitution, under the very popular successor of 
 Greorge I., cannot appreciate the conduct of the Tories, 
 who found the Hanoverian Elector and his heir so 
 obnoxious ; but a careful study of the conflict of reli- 
 gious and political opinion that had been carried on 
 for nearly a century, will prove that such conduct was 
 as much the result of circumstances as of principles. 
 The sufferings endured by the nonjurors when they 
 abandoned the comforts of a good social position, 
 rather than act against their convictions, entitle them 
 to our sympatliy ; and those of tlie Iligli Church 
 party, who loUowed in their footsteps and brouglit 
 ruin on themselves by their misguided zeal, are not 
 less worthy of tlie same feeHng. I'lottiiig seemed to 
 have become the normal state of the politician.
 
 426 atterbury's liberality. 
 
 Bishop Atterbury's entire disinterestedness lias 
 been as clearly established as his entire consistency. 
 Both Walpole and Sunderland would have given him 
 the highest ecclesiastical appointment had he deserted 
 his party. In his defence he asks : — 
 
 What could tempt me, m.y lords, thus to step out of my way ? 
 Was it ambition, and a desii'e of climbing into a higher station 
 in the Church ? There was not a man of my order farther 
 removed from views of this kind than I am. I have a hundred 
 times said, and sincerely resolved, that I would be nothing more 
 than I was — at a time when I little thought of being less — 
 whatever turns of state might happen ; and I could give an 
 instance of this kind — if it were proper — that would show I was 
 in earnest. 
 
 Sunderland had died in the preceding year, but 
 Walpole was most probably present, and ought to 
 have appreciated the Bishop's reserve. He asked : — 
 
 Was money my aim ? I always despised it ; too much, 
 perhaps, considering the occasion I may now have for it. Out 
 of a poor bishoprick of £500 a year — for it has been clearly 
 worth no more to me — I did in eight years time lay out £2,000 
 upon the house and the appurtenances ; and because I knew the 
 circumstances in which my predecessor left his family, I took 
 not one shilling for dilapidations from his executors. And the 
 rest of my income has all been spent as that of a bishop should 
 be spent — pardon, my lords, the freedom of the expression — in 
 hospitality and charity. Nor do I repine at that expense even 
 now, not questioning in the least but that God, who has pro- 
 vided for me hitherto, will provide for me still. And on this 
 Providence I securely depend. 
 
 Apparently in remembrance of the judicious reti- 
 cence of the accused respecting a certain confidential 
 negotiation, Walpole permitted him to raise money as 
 Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Eochester, by a 
 renewal of leases. The timely supply was increased
 
 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 427 
 
 by a sale of his furniture and effects at the deanery, 
 to which his friends flocked, competing for every 
 article till it realized a price much above its value. 
 Others forwarded liberal contributions — the Duchess 
 of Buckinghamshire £1,000. Symptoms of excite- 
 ment in tlie public mind had appeared in several 
 publications, printed about a month after the 
 Bishop's imprisonment. A circular letter to the 
 clergy, from Dr. Edmund Gibson, Bishop of Lin- 
 coln, written on the ISth of September, occasioned 
 his arrest on the 24th. The Bishop of Chester, with 
 Lord Trevor, visited Bishop Atterbury in the Tower 
 towards the end of May. The rest of the right 
 reverend bench awaited their reward from Walpole. 
 Pope has, in a contemporary letter, recorded the 
 feelings with which he regarded his parting with the 
 Bishop. On June 23, 1723, he writes : — 
 
 I am at present under tlie afflicting circumstance of taking 
 my last leave of one of the truest friends I ever had, and one of 
 the greatest men in all polite learning, as well as the most 
 agreeable companion this nation ever had.* 
 
 Before he went on his exile. Bishop Atterbury 
 desired permission to visit the Abbey where his 
 admirable improvements had just been completed, 
 including tlie noble north window that still retains 
 Ills name ; but his enemies seemed apprehensive of a 
 rising in Westminster, as there certainly would have 
 been at Oxford liad he made his appearance there, 
 and refused his request. They were anxious to get 
 rid of him quietly and expeditiously. He was not 
 
 * Pope's Letters.
 
 428 DUKE OF WHARTON. 
 
 to show himself in any part of the metropolis, or the 
 kingdom, except in the Thames, in the vessels, where 
 they might be certain of the security of his person. 
 Even with these precautions Walpole's fears were not 
 cpite allayed. 
 
 In a newspaper of the 24th of June will be found 
 an account of the departure of the exile. This is 
 attributed to the Duke of Wharton, then enjoying 
 the celebrity created by his brilliant speech in his 
 behalf in the House of Lords. We quote the fol- 
 lowing passages : — 
 
 The deprived Bishop of Rochester embarked on Tuesday last, 
 to execute the part of his sentence which condemns him to per- 
 petual banishment, and which obliges him, in his advanced age 
 and feeble situation of health, to change his country and climate, 
 and everything — but his religion. I could wish to have that 
 prelate's style, in order to paint a true character of so great and 
 learned a man ; but the qualifications that adorn him are so 
 conspicuous that no flowers of rhetoric are required to illustrate 
 them. * * * 
 
 His behaviour in every station of life has shown him to be a 
 person of the greatest wit, built upon the foundation of good 
 sense, and directed by the strictest rules of religion and morality. 
 He was always for maintaining the dignity and privileges of the 
 several offices he bore in the Church, and the just way of beha- 
 viour enforced by that steadiness which was natural to him, 
 created him many enemies among the Canons of Christ Church 
 and Prebendaries of Westminster, who naturally must, by their 
 own interest, be obliged to oppose any dean who should main- 
 tain the undoubted rights which he ought to enjoy ; but it is 
 hoped all those feuds will be at an end in this last-mentioned 
 chapter, by the prudent and just choice His Majesty has made of 
 Dr. Bradford to succeed him. His [Atterbury's] piety towards 
 his children, and his sincerity to his friends, made him justly 
 beloved and respected by both. No other crime can be laid to 
 his charge but that for which he now suffers, which overbalances 
 all his virtues.
 
 ADMIRATION OF ATTERBURY. 429 
 
 The malice of his eremies insinuated that he would change 
 his religion when he came into foreign countries, and be deluded 
 into the errors of the Church of Rome. But he declared in his 
 defence, before the House of Lords, with the strongest assevera- 
 tions, " that he would die at a stake rather than abandon the 
 principles of the Established Chui-ch of England." The cheer- 
 fulness with which he endured his fate showed him to be superior 
 to all the calamities of life, and would induce every man to 
 believe him innocent, had not so greats so independent, and so 
 uncorrupt a majority in both Houses of Parliament declared 
 him guilty.* 
 
 The Duke of Wharton's admiration of the illus- 
 trious exile was still more strikingly displayed in a 
 poem in which, while describing the banishment of 
 the great Roman orator, he refers to that of the 
 Bishop : — 
 
 ON THE BANISHMENT OF CICERO. 
 
 As o'er the swelling ocean's tide 
 
 An exile Tally rode, 
 The bulwark of the Roman state — 
 In act, in thought, a god ; 
 The sacred genius of majestic Rome 
 Descends, and thus laments her patriot's doom. 
 
 ' ' Farewell, renown'd in arts, farewell ! 
 
 Thus conquer' d by thy foe. 
 Of honours and of friends deprived. 
 
 In exile thou must go. 
 Yet go content^thy look, thy will, sedate. 
 Thy soul superior to the shocks of Fate. 
 
 " Thy wisdom was thy only guilt, 
 Thy virtue thy offence ; 
 With God-like zeal thou didst espouse 
 Thy country's just defence. 
 No sordid hopes could charm thy steady soul, 
 Nor feara nor guilty numbers could control. 
 
 "What though the noblest patriots stood 
 Firm to thy sacred cause? 
 
 * True BrUon, No. VIII.
 
 430 BANISHMENT OF CICERO. 
 
 What though thou couldst display the force 
 Of rhetoric and of laws ? 
 No eloquence, no reason, could repel 
 Th' united strength of Clodius* and of Hell ! 
 
 " Thy mighty ruin to effect, 
 
 What plots have been devised ! 
 What arts, what prejudice been used, 
 
 What laws and rights despised ! 
 How many fools and knaves by bribes allured, 
 And witnesses by hopes and threats secured ! 
 
 " And yet they act their dark deceit, 
 
 Veil'd with a nice disguise, 
 
 And form a specious show of right, 
 
 From treachery and lies — 
 
 With arbitrary power the people awe, 
 
 And coin unjust oppression into law. 
 
 *' Let Clodius now in grandeur reign, 
 Let him exert his i)0wer ; 
 A short-lived monster in the land. 
 The monarch of an hour. 
 Let pageant fools adore their wooden god. 
 And act against their senses at his nod. 
 
 "Soon, pierced by an untimely hand, 
 
 To earth shall he descend ; 
 Though now with gaudy honours clothed. 
 
 Inglorious is his end. 
 Blest be the man who does his power defy, 
 And dares or truly speak or bravely die ! " 
 
 Layer was executed at Tyburn on the 17th of 
 May. In the same month Plunkett and Kelly were 
 condemned to imprisonment during His Majesty's 
 pleasure. Squire Kelly, who had been permitted to 
 leave his cell, fled to France. The scoundrels em- 
 ployed by Walpole to swear informations against their 
 political opponents, did not aU escape so easily. The 
 infamous trade of one of them, John Middleton, was 
 shortly afterwards discovered. He was tried, found 
 guilty, and condemned to stand in the pillory at 
 
 * George I.
 
 AN INDIGNANT VERDICT. 431 
 
 Charing Cross, when the people took that opportunity 
 of exhibiting their detestation of Government prin- 
 ciples, by so severely pelting their witness that he was 
 taken down in a lifeless state ; and at the coroner's 
 inquest, which followed, the jury, equally indignant, 
 retui'ned a verdict of ''accidentally strangled!'
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE bishop's family. 
 
 Atterbury's Children — His Daughter Mary — Her Education and 
 Marriage — The High Bailiff of Westminster — A Mysterious 
 Advertisement — shorn Atterbury at Christ Church — His 
 Father's Letter to him — Alarm of the Bishop's Family on 
 learning his Arrest — His Daughter denied Access to him — 
 Her Petitions to the Lord Mayor, Lord Townshend, and 
 Lord Carteret — The Bishop writes to Lord Townshend — 
 Mrs. Morice permitted to see her Father — She insists on 
 accompanying him in his Banishment — Their Embarkation 
 — Land at Calais — Lord Bolingbroke — The Bishop goes to 
 Brussels. 
 
 Br. Atterbury had four children by his wife ; of the 
 two who survived, a daughter was baptized October 
 23, 1698. She was educated with great care and 
 tenderness, under the joint superintendence of 
 most affectionate parents, till Mary Atterbury 
 became one of the principal attractions of her 
 father's house. At this period the cultivation of 
 the feminine intellect was carried on under prin- 
 ciples totally different to those that seem to prevail 
 in the present age, and filial duty was regarded 
 as a sacred as well as a natural obligation. The 
 Bishop's daughter was not permitted to waste much 
 time in acquiring fasliionable accompKshments ; the 
 more superficial of social graces were neglected in 
 favour of the solid advantages of mental excellence
 
 SQUIRE MORICE. 433 
 
 and moral worth. Society still possessed a large 
 element of the vicious and the coarse, but it was 
 passing out of the gross licentiousness that had cha- 
 racterized it in the third quarter of the seventeenth 
 century : there were always women, however, whose 
 truly womanly virtues redeemed the profligacy of their 
 sex. Such were Mrs. Godolphin and Lady Russell, 
 such were Mrs. Hutchinson and Lady Mordaunt;* 
 and the daughter of John Evelyn was a worthy con- 
 temporary of the daughter of Francis Atterbury. 
 
 The Bishop's friends had scarcely time to notice 
 the domestic blessing he had secured, when it was 
 removed to fill another home with happiness. A 
 worthy man, of excellent social position, had seen the 
 treasure, and having won the regard of both parents 
 as well as the affections of their child, was permitted 
 to lead her to the altar. They were married by 
 license at Bromley in May, 1715. 
 
 William was the eldest son of Thomas Morice, Esq., 
 Paymaster of the British Forces in Portugal (where 
 he died in 1713), and of Alice, daughter of Sir 
 William Underhill, Knight, of Idlicote, in the county 
 of Warwick. 
 
 Among the few public notices of him is the 
 following, from a contemporary newspaper : — 
 
 On Sunday, November 1st, died George Wilcocks, Esq., High 
 Bailiff of Westminster, who bought his place about two years 
 ago of Mr. Miles for £3,000 ; and is succeeded by Squire Morice, 
 
 * Elizabeth, Viscountess Mordaunt, the exemplary mother of the Earl of Peter- 
 borough. Her diary was privately printed by her descendant, the Earl of Roden, 
 in 18.56. I am indebted for a copy of this highly interesting work to his lord- 
 ship's son-in-law, the Marquis of Londonderiy. 
 
 VOL. I. 29
 
 434 THE HIGH BAILIFF OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 who married tlie daughter of Dr. Atterbury, the present Bishop 
 of Rochester, 
 
 Mr. Wilcocks paid clearly for his distinction, but 
 his successor was more fortunate, retaining the 
 emoluments of the office, which Chamberlain de- 
 scribes as one " of honour and profit," in the gift of 
 the Dean. It was, therefore, a special help to the 
 young couple, and as it was held for life, must have 
 shielded the young wife from any anxieties about the 
 future. 
 
 The position of the Bishop was one of much peril, 
 even in the early married life of the High Bailiff. 
 
 Walpole was watching for an opportunity to 
 retaliate on his opponent. His innumerable agents 
 were about, exaggerating and inventing information. 
 Sham plots, which had produced lamentable mischiefs 
 a few years before, from one of which the last Bishop 
 of Eochester had narrowly escaped, might be repeated 
 with greater villany and more skill. That something 
 of this nature was apprehended by his anxious son- 
 in-law is clear from the following rej)ly. The Bishop 
 thought the affair barely worth looking into : — 
 
 Bishop Atteeburt to Mr. Morioe. 
 
 Bromley, Monday Morn, 1716. 
 Dear Mr. Morice, 
 
 I thank you kindly for your letter ; but see not how that 
 advertisement can possibly concern me. I have seen none of 
 my neighbours but Mr. Bagshaw* and Mr. Swift ; having sent 
 to none, and given it out that I desire to be private. So no 
 discourse of mine here can have given an occasion for any 
 information. Whatever it be, let it take its course : the less we 
 meddle in it, the better; and therefore I desire you by no means 
 
 * Minister of Bromley.
 
 OSBORN ATTERBURY. 435 
 
 to think of satisfying your curiosity by enquiring for Number 
 Ten. All I should think proper to do in that case, is, if there 
 were any public or other house over against the King's Arms in 
 the Pall Mall, I might make James (without his livery) take his 
 stand there to-morrow and Wednesday at the time appointed, 
 and observe wh.o of this place then goes into that tavern ; for 
 James knows them all. But perhaps this itself would be im- 
 proper, and turn to no account. However, I desire you to see 
 if there be such a place, where he can fix himself without 
 suspicion ; and, if there be, to give yourself the trouble of a 
 new messenger to me either to-night or to-morrow morning 
 before seven. If I hear nothing from you on this head, I shall 
 think no more of the matter, and perhaps the wisest thing I 
 could do would be not to think at all of it; for it is either 
 designed as an amusement if it relates to me, or else I am 
 altogether unconcerned in it. 
 
 My blessing to Mrs. Morice ; my wife sends hers to both of 
 you. I am your very affectionate father, &c.* 
 
 Atterbnry's only son, Osborn, having gone through 
 the usual course at Westminster School, in May, 1722, 
 had been elected to a studentship at Christ Church, 
 Oxford. A month later his father replied to a letter 
 he had addressed to him. There can be no doubt that 
 the young man's career had hitherto been satisfac- 
 tory, and the tenor of the Bishop's communication 
 speaks the desire of the parent to see him excel. He 
 had every possible inducement to do this, and at the 
 College must have been constantly reminded of a 
 career that ouglit to have been a source of as much 
 emulation as of pride : — 
 
 Bishop Atteebury to his Son Osborn. 
 
 Bromley, June 13, 1722. 
 Dear Obby, 
 
 I thank you for your letter; because there are manifest 
 
 * Atterbury Papers. 
 
 29 *
 
 436 ADVICE TO A SON. 
 
 signs in it of your endeavouring to excel yourself, and by con- 
 sequence to please me. You have succeeded in both respects ; 
 and will always succeed, if you think it worth your while to 
 consider what you write, and to whom ; and let nothing, though 
 of a trifling nature, pass through your pen negligently. Get 
 but the way of writing coiTCctly and justly, time and use will 
 teach you to write readily afterwards : not but that too much 
 care may give a stiffness to your style, which ought in letters by 
 all means to be avoided. The turn of them should be always 
 natural and easy ; for they are an image of private and familiar 
 conversation. I mention this with respect to the four or five 
 first lines of yours, which have an air of poetry, and do there- 
 fore naturally resolve themselves into blank verse. 
 
 I send you the letter again, that you yourself may now make 
 the same observation. But you took the hint of that thought 
 from a poem : and it is no wonder therefore if you heightened 
 your phrase a little when you were expressing it. 
 
 The rest is as it ought to be ; and particularly there is an air 
 of duty and sincerity in it that, if it comes from the heart, is the 
 most acceptable present you can make me. With these good 
 qualities an incorrect letter would please me ; and without them 
 the finest thoughts and language would make no lasting im- 
 pression upon me. The Great Being says — " My Son, give me 
 thy heart ; " implying that without it all other gifts signify 
 nothing. Let me conjure you therefore never to say anything, 
 either in a letter or in common conversation, that you do not 
 think ; but always to let your mind and your words go together, 
 even on the most slight and trivial occasions. Shelter not the 
 least degree of insincerity under the notion of a compliment; 
 which, as far as it deserves to be practised by a man of probity, 
 is only the most civil and obliging way of saying what you 
 really mean ; and whoever employs it otherwise throws away 
 truth for good breeding. I need not tell you how little his 
 character gains by such an exchange. 
 
 I say not this as if I suspected that in any paii; of your letter 
 you intended to write only what was proper, without any regard 
 to what was true ; for I am resolved to believe that you wei-e in 
 good earnest from the beginning to the end of it, as much even 
 as myself when I tell you that I am, &c.* 
 
 * Atterbury Papers.
 
 ATTERBURY IN THE TOWER. 437 
 
 Walpole had lived in times wlien men were to 
 be found capable of concocting tlie most elaborate 
 schemes for the destruction of their political or reli- 
 gious antagonists, and he had in his pay unscrupulous 
 scoundrels ready to follow their example. The 
 Bishop had long been a source of intolerable irri- 
 tation to the King's ministers, and the confidence 
 placed in him by the Tories made it probable that 
 his talent as a statesman and character as a Church- 
 man might so consolidate and strengthen his party, 
 as in time to threaten the dissolution of Whig power. 
 A sense of common danger induced the ministers 
 to join in an effort to effect his ruin. As we have 
 related, he was arrested and imprisoned. The 
 country was alarmed with rumours of a conspiracy 
 to bring Popery and the Pretender to destroy the 
 Protestant religion ; and to excite the utmost preju- 
 dice against their helpless captive, it was styled 
 " Bishop Atterbury's Plot." How this affected his 
 children may be imagined ; the intelligence that he 
 had been committed to the Tower filled their hearts 
 with dread. They lost little time in endeavouring 
 to communicate with him, 
 
 Mrs. Morice, on going to the Tower for the pur- 
 pose of seeing her father, was seized by Williamson, 
 forced into his house, and searched ; but nothing 
 having been discovered, she was suffered to go at 
 large. This outrage, and the further brutality of 
 refusing her access to the prisoner, had a serious 
 effect upon her health. Tlie Bishop's chamber had 
 a double guard placed outside ; and when Mr. Morice 
 at last obtained permission personally to communi-
 
 438 MRS. MORICE, 
 
 cate witli him, lie was forced to holloa his sympathy, 
 standing below in the yard, and to be content with 
 thanks shouted to him by the prisoner from an 
 upper window. Books sent to enable Dr. Atterbury 
 to beguile the tedious hours were stopped, and every 
 thing that vindictive malice could suggest was had 
 recourse to, to render confinement intolerable. 
 
 Mr. Moeice to Bishop Atterbury. 
 
 September 7, 1722. 
 My Lord, 
 
 Not being able to have access to your lordship by means 
 of your close confinement,* I thought it became my duty to you 
 to act, even without your directions, in what I thought might 
 be for your service. Accordingly, this day the following peti- 
 tion was prepared to be offered to the Court at the Old Bailey ; 
 and Sir Constautine Phipps, seconded by Mr. Wynne, made a 
 motion to have the prayer in your behalf recorded; but the 
 Court did not think they had sufficient authority to receive the 
 same. — I am, &c.t 
 
 Mrs. Morice's anxiety for her father's health 
 increased, and she addressed the Lord Mayor, Lord 
 Townshend, and Lord Carteret. 
 
 To the Right Honourable Sir William Stewart, Knight, 
 Lord Mayor of the City of London, and the rest of 
 His Majesty's Justices assig-ned to deliver the gaol of 
 Newgate of the prisoners therein, and also to His 
 Majesty's Justices of Oyer and Terminer for the City 
 of London and County of Middlesex. 
 The humble prayer or petition of Mary, the wife of 
 
 William Morice, Esquire, and only daughter of Francis, 
 
 Lord Bishop of Rochester, on behalf of the said Lord 
 
 Bishop. 
 
 * Bisliop Atterbury was committed to the Tower fourteen days before the date 
 of this letter. 
 
 + Atterbury Papers.
 
 THE bishop's daughter. 439 
 
 Slieweth : 
 
 That, by warrant under the hand and seal of Charles, 
 Lord Visconnt Townshend, Baron of Lynn, &c., bearing date 
 the 24th of August last, the said Lord Bishop was com- 
 mitted to His Majesty's Tower of London, being charged 
 therein with high treason, of which your petitioner believes 
 he is in no respect guilty ; and having been confined there 
 ever since. 
 
 Your petitioner therefore prays, on behalf of the said 
 Lord Bishop, that his lordship may be brought to his trial 
 according to law for the supposed crime with which he so 
 stands charged; or, in default thereof, that he may be 
 bailed or discharged fi-om his said imprisonment, pursuant 
 to the statute or statutes in that case made and provided : 
 and for that purpose that this Honourable Court will please 
 to award and grant a writ of habeas corpus to be directed 
 to the Lieutenant of His Majesty's Tower of London, or 
 his deputy, in whose custody the said Lord Bishop still 
 remains. 
 
 And your petitioner shall ever pray, &c. 
 September 7, 1722. Maet Morice. 
 
 To the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Townshend, 
 His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, &c. 
 
 The humble petition of Mary, the wife of "William 
 Morice, Esquire, and only daughter of Francis, Lord 
 Bishop of Rochester. 
 Sheweth : 
 
 That your petitioner's father has been under strict con- 
 finement in the Tower of London ever since the 24th day 
 of August last, and so closely kept that, notwithstanding 
 her near relation to him, she has not been indulged with 
 the liberty of seeing him. That he has long been under an 
 iU state of health, and has frequent relapses of his illness ; 
 and it is matter of the greatest uneasiness to your peti- 
 tioner that she is so entirely debarred the sight of her 
 father under such circumstances ; the concern whereof has 
 already much added to the ill health of your petitioner. 
 
 Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that your lord- 
 ship will take it into your favourable consideration, so that
 
 440 A daughter's affection. 
 
 she may have leave to visit her father under such restric- 
 tions as shall be thought proper. 
 
 And your petitioner shall ever pray, &c. 
 
 Mary Moeice. 
 
 Delivered 21st of September, 1722. 
 
 To Lord Carteret, &c. 
 Sheweth : 
 That your petitioner's said father is committed a prisoner to 
 the Tower, where he is so closely confined that no person is 
 suffered to speak to him, and is in a very ill state of health. 
 Your petitioner therefore humbly prays your lordship will be 
 pleased to give her leave to visit her father, under such restric- 
 tions as your lordship shall think proper. 
 
 But this was not more effective than the poor 
 creature's other appeals. Nothing was allowed that 
 could produce any gratification to the political victim. 
 Walpole sternly kept in remembrance his own con- 
 finement in the same fortress, and seemed determined 
 to retaliate with interest. The opponent he had 
 found incorruptible must be punished, because he 
 would not suffer himself to be bribed. 
 
 Month after month passed by in his dreary im- 
 prisonment, uncheered by the presence of the Relative 
 nearest and dearest to him. At last some sense of 
 shame at this needless isolation influenced the House 
 of Commons. His son-in-law was permitted free 
 access to him ; but this indulgence made the Bishop 
 only long the more for the society of his daughter. 
 His relentless enemies, however, seemed to think her 
 presence in the fortress so dangerous, that when they 
 conceded this favour, they made it impossible that it 
 should afford the prisoner the comfort of which he
 
 APPEAL TO LORD TOWNSHEND. 441 
 
 stood SO mucli in need. He longed for a daugliter's 
 affection, but she was only allowed to see him in the 
 presence of a warder. He could not bring himself 
 to appeal to the vindictive Walpole, but with more 
 prospect of sympathy addressed Lord Townshend. 
 
 Bishop Atterblet to the Lord Viscount Townshend, one of 
 His ]\Iajestt's Principal Secretaries of State. 
 
 The Tower, AprU 10, 1723. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am tliankful for the favour of seeing my daughter any 
 way, but was in hopes that the restraint of an officer's pre- 
 sence in respect of her might hare been judged needless at a 
 time when her husband is allowed to be as often and as long 
 with me as he pleases wdthout a witness ; * especially since we 
 have been parted now for near eight months, and may soon (if 
 the Bill takes place) be separated for ever. 
 
 My lord, I have many things to say to her in relation to her- 
 self, her brother, and my little family affairs, which cannot with 
 ease to her or me be said in the presence of others ; and I dare 
 say your lordship does not apprehend that the subject of our 
 conversation will be of such a nature as to deserve to be in any 
 degree watched or restrained. She has been the comfoi-t of my 
 life, and I shall leave her with more regret than I leave my 
 preferments ; though, when I am stripped of them, I shall have 
 little to support me ; nor is there any loss, beside that of my 
 country, which will touch me so nearly. 
 
 Your lordship, who is known to be a tender father, will feel 
 what I say, and consider how far it is fit to indulge me in so 
 innocent a request. It is a little thing I ask ; but nothing is 
 little that can give any relief to a man in my sad circumstances, 
 which deserve your lordship's compassion, and I hope will 
 obtain it. — I am, &c.t 
 
 All the comfort she could obtain during eip-ht 
 months of terrible anxiety, her husband administered 
 
 P>y a recent order of the House of Commons, for the purpose of assisting the 
 Bishop in preparing bis defence, 
 t Atterbury Papers.
 
 442 FATHER AND DAUGHTER. 
 
 in the affectionate messages he brought from the 
 equally unhajipy father. It was not in her nature 
 to remain inactive. The Bishop had powerful friends 
 at large, and she did her best to interest them in his 
 behalf. It was not till the 18th of May that Lord 
 Townshend issued the following warrant to Lord 
 Lincoln, Constable of the Tower: — 
 
 These are in His Majesty's name to authorize and require 
 you to permit and suffer the i-elations of the Bishop of Rochester, 
 a prisoner in your custody, to have access to his lordship at all 
 convenient hours, and also such other persons as may have 
 business with his lordship on account of his private affairs. 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the intense joy Mrs. 
 Morice experienced when made acquainted with Lord 
 Townshend' s warrant. Very little time was suffered 
 to elapse before she once more essayed to gain 
 entrance to her father's dungeon — not this time to 
 be rudely assaulted by an over-zealous subordinate, 
 but without delay to be ushered into the presence of 
 her parent. The mingling of passionate joy with 
 convulsive sorrow, excited by the joy of meeting 
 after so cruel a separation, and the knowledge that 
 this renewal of their love could only be for a brief 
 interval, rendered the interview memorable to both. 
 The Bishop felt that his enemies might deprive him 
 of rank and wealth, yet must still leave him in 
 possession of a treasure far more precious to him 
 than either. 
 
 When he had been condemned to banishment, the 
 next consideration was, how was he, with his infirmi- 
 ties and feeble state of health, to endure such a sen- 
 tence ? Mrs. Morice quickly made her determination.
 
 LETTER OF LICENSE. 443 
 
 She induced a young clerical friend to share her duty 
 of attending the exile. The next document will show 
 that the affair was soon arrancred. 
 
 On the 1st of June, Lord Townshend issued a 
 license, which, after the preamble, states that: — 
 
 William Morice, Esq., and Mary, his wife (the only daughter 
 of the said Francis, Lord Bishop of Rochester), being desirous not 
 only to travel with the said Bishop of Rochester, but also to re- 
 side with him for some time, have humbly besought us to grant 
 to them such our leave and license as is for that purpose reserved 
 for us to give and grant by the said Act of Parliament ; and the 
 Reverend Bartholomew Hughes, being also desirous to travel 
 with the said Francis, Lord Bishop of Rochester, and to abide 
 with him for some time, hath humbly requested us to grant him 
 our leave and license for that pui-pose ; all of which premises 
 we have taken into our royal consideration, and have been 
 graciously pleased to condescend thereto. We do by these 
 presents give and grant unto the said "William Morice and 
 Mary, his wife, and the said Bartholomew Hughes, full liberty, 
 leave, and license, during our pleasure, to travel with and 
 accompany him, the said Francis, Lord Bishop of Rochester, 
 into any parts beyond the seas, and, from time to time, during 
 the stay of the said William Morice and Mary, his wife, and 
 Bartholomew Hughes, in such parts beyond the seas, upon all 
 lawful occasions, freely to hold, entertain, and keep intelligence 
 and correspondence in person, or by letters, messages, or other- 
 wise, with the said Francis, Lord Bishop of Rochester, or with 
 any person or persons employed by him. 
 
 The instrument permitted the same parties to 
 correspond with the Bishop after their return to 
 England; moreover, licensed "all om* loving sub- 
 jects " to correspond with them, while they remained 
 abroad, and after their return home. Three servants 
 are also allowed to attend Mr. and Mrs. Morice; 
 and five servants — for whom a separate license was 
 granted — the Bishop.
 
 444 AN EXCHANGE. 
 
 Mary Morice had very little time to make her 
 final preparations. On the 5th of the same month, 
 a warrant was issued by the Commissioners of the 
 Navy, ordering a vessel to be ready in a fortnight to 
 take the Bishop, his retinue, and baggage from Tower 
 Wharf, and put them on board His Majesty's ship 
 Aldborough, in Long Reach, that had been appointed 
 to convey them to Calais. Everything that earnest 
 solicitude and forethought could suggest for the com- 
 fort of the exile had been got on board, when the 
 Bishop, leaning on his daughter's arm, quitted the 
 dreary fortress, and embarked with his fellow-voyagers 
 at the Wharf 
 
 The Aldhorovgli spread her sails to the breeze as 
 soon as Dr. Atterbury and the companions of his 
 exile got on board. They watched the receding shore, 
 that one of them was never to see again, till the 
 white cliffs faded from sight. Melancholy reflections 
 must have accompanied that last view. It could 
 not but have been disheartening to know that the 
 end of all he had toiled for so arduously as a student, 
 as a priest, as a prelate, and as a statesman, was to be 
 driven in disgrace out of the country. But Mary 
 Morice strove to divert his melancholy; his attention 
 was directed from one object to another, and then to 
 the less familiar features of the opposite shore. In 
 due time they landed at Calais, and here he ascer- 
 tained that Lord Bolingbroke had just arrived, and 
 was preparing to embark for England. 
 
 " Then I am exchanged ! " exclaimed the exile. 
 
 There was something singularly suggestive in 
 these two distinguished characters arriving at this
 
 AT BRUSSELS. 445 
 
 foreign port simultaneously — one pardoned after 
 having had the good fortune to quarrel with the 
 Pretender ; the other condemned to perpetual banish- 
 ment, after having had the ill fortune to accept the 
 advocacy of his cause. In referring to this, Pope 
 wrote that it was "a sign of the nation's being 
 cursedly afraid of being over-run with too much 
 pohteness, when it could not regain one great man, 
 but at the expense of another."* 
 
 Mrs. Morice and her husband took the tenderest care 
 of the exile during his tedious journey from Calais 
 to Brussels. He was in a shocking state of health ; 
 the painful disorders under which he suffered — gout 
 and the stone — had no doubt been aggravated by the 
 cruel usage he had received and the heavy anxieties 
 under which he had laboured all the time of his 
 rigorous imprisonment. The sense of the social ruin 
 thus imposed upon him was as intolerable as the con- 
 viction of the infamous means employed to effect it. 
 
 It was soon apparent that the climate did not 
 agree with him ; probably his forced inaction and 
 isolation agreed with him less. The Governor, the 
 Marquis de la Prie, was a staunch ally of the English 
 ministry, and would not sanction any visits from 
 sympathizing compatriots. The Bishop appeared to 
 be kept alive by an intense desire to penetrate the 
 mystery of his prosecution, and avenge his wrongs 
 on liis persecutors ; and presently came to the con- 
 clusion that he could not remain where he was. He 
 was now a citizen of the world, and could accept 
 service without reproach from any Power that chose 
 
 * Pope's Letters.
 
 446 THE JACOBITES. 
 
 to offer him employment. There was, however, in 
 his mind but one Power he on^^ht to serve. The son 
 of James II. had, by " the Grrace of Grod " — the only 
 title worthy the consideration of a High Churchman 
 — inherited his father's incontrovertible claims to the 
 English throne. 
 
 No one knew better the strength and resources of 
 the Jacobites in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The 
 Bishop knew also that a revolution had within his 
 memory been effected with less support. There was 
 but one doubtful point in his calculations — the marked 
 difference in the position of the two Pretenders. If 
 he could only give a Protestant bias to James, that ^ 
 
 doubt in his sanguine mind must vanish. The hope- 
 ful prospect seems to have stimulated his energies. 
 He laughed at the restrictions of the French Go- ^ 
 
 vernor, and set at defiance the intrigues of Walpole. • 
 
 Nothing could prevent him from endeavouring to ^; 
 
 further a cause he knew to be just. t 
 
 Mrs. Morice was too intent upon forwarding her F 
 
 father's convalescence, to attempt in the slightest 
 degree to thwart his inclinations, or throw a cloud 
 upon his hopes. She was sensible as well as kind, 
 and doubtless helped with womanly tact to give him 
 an interest in the futm^e. She owed the Whigr 
 Government no thanks for their treatment of the 
 Bishop ; and so warm a partisan might not be the 
 most prudent of counsellors. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 % 
 
 Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Milford Lane, Strand, London, W.C.
 
 INTERESTING HISTORICAL WORK. 
 
 Jitst Published, in two large volumes, demy 8vo, 
 price £1 12a\ 
 
 LIVES OF THE ENGLISH CARDINALS, 
 
 FROM KICHOLAS BREAKSPEAR (POPE ADRIAN IV.) TO THOMAS WOLSEY, 
 
 CARDINAi LEGATE, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 HISTOKICAL NOTICES OF THE PAPAL COURT. 
 
 BY 
 
 FOLKESTONE WILLIAMS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "memoirs AND CORRESPONDENCE OF BISHOP ATTERBURY," ETC., ETC. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE KEVIEWERS. 
 
 Saturday Review. — " It possesses a distinct interest of its own. Mr. TVilliarcs has 
 undei-taken to supply a real and important omission in our biograiihical literature, and 
 for this he deserves all praise." 
 
 Athenaeum. — " He is unwearied in collecting and arranging his materials, and builds 
 them up solidly. It is a good honest work. " 
 
 Morning Post. — " Mr. Folkestone Williams' views on the critical conjunctures of hi.story 
 are delivered in a temperate spirit and dispassionate tone. The ' Lives of the English 
 Cardinals ' is not only a meritorious addition to our biographical literature, but a useful 
 work in aid of the later history of the Mother Church in England. Especially the book 
 is historically valuable in tracing the early causes which converged towards the Refor- 
 mation. It is a work evincmg much erudition." 
 
 En<;lish Churchman. — "A valuable contribution. The author has displayed great 
 industry, and, we may add, fairness of judgment." 
 
 Literary Churchman.— " There is a good deal of very pleasant description in these 
 two volumes ; they are readable, pictorial, and often very amusing." 
 
 Exajiiner. — "Perhaps the most commend.able part of the work is the life of Cardinal 
 WoLsey, to which the greater part of the second volume is devoted. This is written in a 
 spirit of fairness, and of independence of popular prejudice against the Cardinal, as weU 
 as with a critical knowledge of the times in which he was cast. While fully sensible of 
 the weaker side of Wolsey's character, which, considering his position and power, was 
 wonderfully kept under, Mr. WUliams protects his memory from those common assaults 
 which a want of intimate comprehension of the age he lived in can alone excuse." 
 
 London Review. — " In following the lives of the English Cardinals, the author neces- 
 sarily discusses the whole condition of papal England during several centm-ics. The 
 book is full of matter and interest, and evinces gi-eat research." 
 
 Observer, — "A vei-y interesting group of characters. The English Cardinals from the 
 time of Breakspear to the great Wcjlsey have exercised a very important influence on 
 the affairs of this country. The author has taken great pains and devoted much time to 
 the subject, and has laboured studiously for the interests of his excellent work." 
 
 Messenger. — "The author has brouglit every record to light which can tell of what the 
 English Cardinals did to make their names famous. The work is wiitten with much 
 impartiality, and as the mformation it affords is derived from the most trustworthy 
 sources, it cannot fail to be botli timely and useful." 
 
 Freeman's Journal. —"In many respects valuable, and will be read with interest. Mr. 
 Williams does justice to the great Cardmal. lie is not unjust to many features in tho 
 Papal system. His style is animated." 
 
 Illustrated London News.—" Before the appearance of these two large volumes it is 
 doubtful if there existed in any language a work which could bo referred to by any ono 
 who desired to refresh bis mind with consecutive biograjiliical and historical sketches of 
 Buch Englishmen as have, from time to time, been admitted to the princely dignity of 
 the Sacred College. The author, therefore, may properly speak of having ' attempted 
 to fill an unoccupied niche in literature.' He seenis to have spared no pains to make his 
 book a mine both of information and entertainment ; ho has ransacked stores new and 
 old ; and ho is careful to .acknowledge authorities, and thank auxiliaries. An indus- 
 trious and impartial work." 
 
 W?? H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON, SW.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
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