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ANECDOTES OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD WATSON, 
 
 BISHOP OF LANDAFF. 
 
a 
 

 Ricmarb Watson 
 C 
 
 JWifriW December 8*1817 ir T. Guldl lc WDavies. StnOU. London. 
 
ANECDOTES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD WATSON, 
 
 BISHOP OF LANDAFF; 
 
 WRITTEN 
 
 BY HIMSELF AT DIFFERENT INTERVALS, 
 
 AND 
 
 REVISED IN 1814 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HIS SON, 
 
 RICHARD WATSON, LL.B. 
 
 PREBENDARY OF LANDAFF AND WELLS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DA VIES, STRAND j 
 
 BY J. M'CREERY, BLACK-HORSE-COURT. 
 1817. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
ANECDOTES OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD WATSON. 
 
 BISHOP OF LANDAFF. 
 
 IT has been a custom with me, from a very early age, to put 
 down in writing the most important events of my life, with an 
 account of the motives which, on any occasion of moment, in- 
 fluenced my conduct. This habit has been both pleasant and 
 useful to me ; I have had great pleasure in preserving, as it were, 
 my identity, by reviewing the circumstances which, under the 
 good Providence of God, have contributed to place me in my 
 present situation ; and a frequent examination of my principles 
 of action has contributed to establish in me a consistency of 
 conduct, and to confirm me, I trust, in that probity of manners 
 in my seventy -fifth year with which I entered into the world at 
 the age of seventeen. My health has been for several years 
 precarious ; and the faculty have long ago left my constitution 
 to struggle with a disorder which first seized me in 1781. The 
 body and mind, I begin to perceive, are both of them losing 
 their activity ; the evil days are coming on in which men usually • 
 
 B 
 
say, there is no pleasure in them ; may I not be allowed, then, 
 without incurring the imputation of vanity, to live, in a man- 
 ner, an happy life (for which I am most thankful to its Au- 
 thor) over again, by collecting and arranging some of the de- 
 tached papers which I have written at different periods? By 
 this means my children, when I am in my grave, may be grati- 
 fied with knowing the character of their father; and the world, if 
 it has any curiosity concerning him, will have an opportunity of 
 perusing authentic, if not interesting, Memoirs of the Bishop of 
 Landaff. 
 
 All families being of equal antiquity, and time and chance so 
 happening to all, that kings become beggars, and beggars become 
 kings; no solid reason, I think, can be given, why any man 
 should derive honour or infamy from the station which his ances- 
 tors filled in civil society ; yet the contrary opinion is so preva- 
 lent, that no words need be employed in proving that it is so. — 
 German and Welch pedigrees are subjects of ridicule to most 
 Englishmen ; yet those amongst ourselves who cannot inscribe on 
 the trunk of their genealogical tree the name of a peer, bishop, 
 judge, general, of any person elevated above the rank of ordi- 
 nary citizens, are still desirous of showing that they are not 
 sprung from the dregs of the people. Without entering into a 
 disquisition concerning the rise of this general prejudice, I freely 
 own that I am, on this occasion, a slave to it myself. I feel 
 a satisfaction in knowing that my ancestors, as far as I can trace 
 them, have neither been hewers of wood, or drawers of water, but 
 ut prisca gens mortalium — tillers of their own ground, in the idiom 
 of the country, Statesmen. 
 
3 
 
 1 was born at Heversham, in Westmoreland, in August, 1737. 
 and always retained a strong partiality for the place of my nativity. 
 My father was born at Hardendale, near Shap, in the same county, 
 in the year 1672. His father, grandfather, great grandfather, &c. 
 were natives of the same place ; and, according to the then sim- 
 plicity of the times, they preserved their innocence, and main- 
 tained their independence, by cultivating a small estate of their 
 own. It appears from Grose's Antiquities, that, when the Mo- 
 nastery of Shap was dissolved by Henry the Eighth, of the thir- 
 teen monks who were in it, two had the name of Watson. These 
 ecclesiastics were probably dedicated to the church by some of my 
 progenitors, and I can give no further account of any of them, 
 except I mention the tradition, that the first of the family, who 
 settled near Shap, came from Scotland. 
 
 My grandfather's little patrimony was inherited by my father's 
 elder brother, who died, leaving only daughters: and it is, I 
 believe, without having suffered alienation, still in the possession 
 of their descendants. In 1698, my father was appointed head- 
 master of Heversham School, which he taught with great repu- 
 tation for nearly forty years. If schoolmasters may properly be 
 allowed to participate in the honours of those whom they have 
 educated, the greatest honour of my father's life will be the 
 education of Ephraim Chambers. In Heversham Church, ad- 
 joining to the chancel, there is an inscription " In memory of 
 " Mary, the wife of Richard Chambers, who died in the year 1684, 
 " which Richard was father of Ephraim Chambers, author of the 
 " celebrated Dictionary of Arts and Sciences."— I have seen 
 among my father's papers two school-exercises, the one in Latin, 
 
 b2 
 
the other in Greek, signed Chambers. These circumstance* 
 render it probable that the author of the dictionary was not, as 
 has been said of him, merely educated to qualify him for trade 
 and commerce. There are two exhibitions (now of 50/. a year 
 each) belonging to this school, one to Trinity College in Cam- 
 bridge, and the other to Queen's College, Oxford. I succeeded 
 my school-fellow Mr. Preston in the enjoyment of that to Trinity 
 College, and when we were both of us Bishops in 1788, we 
 agreed, at a joint expense, to repair the school-house, which was 
 much dilapidated. I then drew up the following inscription, to 
 be kept as a token of our regard for the place of our education, 
 and as a tribute of respect to the memory of its pious founder, 
 and to that of my father, under whom Mr. Preston had received 
 his first rudiments : — 
 
 Hanc Scholam fundavit 
 
 Araplisque Reditibus annuis dotavit 
 
 Edvardus Wilson 
 
 De Heversham-Hall Armiger 
 
 MDCXIII 
 
 Elapsis centum et amplius annis 
 
 Sepe et vallo conclusit 
 
 Et circumcirca Arboribus consitis condecoravit 
 
 Thomas Watson 
 
 Ab anno 1698™ usque ad annum 1737™ 
 
 OYK O TYXJ2N AIAAEKAAOZ 
 
 Vetustate tandem fere collapsam 
 
 Suis Sumptibus refici curaverunt 
 
 Ejusdem olim simul alumni 
 
 Ricardus Watson Episcopus Landavensi^ 
 
 et 
 
 Gulielmus Preston Episcopus Fernen£& ! 
 
 MDCCLXXXVIII 
 
5 
 
 The success of every school depends upon the ability and 
 industry of the master, and the reputation of this soon sunk 
 with my father's resignation of it, which took place before I 
 was born. I was never at any other, and have had cause, 
 through life, to regret my not having had a better classical found- 
 ation. It has fallen to my lot, not only to be obliged to write, 
 but to speak Latin, and having never been taught to make Latin 
 or Greek verses, it cost me more pains to remember whether a 
 syllable was long or short, than it would have done to comprehend 
 a whole section of Newton 's Principia. My mind indeed recoiled 
 from such enquiries ; what imports it, I used to say to myself, 
 whether Cicero would have said fortuito or fortmto — Areopagus 
 or Areopagus? and yet I was forced to attend to such things; 
 for a Westminster or an Eton schoolmaster would properly 
 have thought meanly of a man who did not know them. My 
 hands have shaken with impatience and indignation, when 
 I have been consulting Ainsworth or Labbe about a point, 
 which I was certain of forgetting in a month's time. But 
 as I never could remember the face or name of a man or 
 woman Avhose character did not strike me, so I found it difficult 
 to impress on my memory rules of prosody which I had acquired 
 a contempt for ; nor did this contempt arise so much from my 
 ignorance of the subject (for I had, after leaving school, taken 
 great pains not to be ignorant of it), as from the undue import- 
 ance which was given to it. I was confirmed in this sentiment 
 by observing, that the greatest adepts in syllables were not 
 exempt from mistakes. I remember two of the best scholars in 
 the university, Rutherforth and Sumner, in the course of a few 
 weeks, pronouncing in the senate-house the penultimam of 
 
paxugirqg long and short. On another occasion my friend Mr. 
 Wilson, of Peterhouse, (afterwards one of the best black-letter 
 judges in England,) having kept under me a very good act 
 in the divinity schools, was censured by two great classics, 
 Bishop of Peterborough and Dr. Symonds, for having read 
 abolita instead of, as they thought, abotita. Even the very 
 learned Mr. Bryant, with whom I was conversing in 1802, on the 
 subject of man's redemption, spoke of Jesas as the fiurfriK of the 
 new covenant ; on my expressing a doubt as to the quantity of 
 the middle syllable, he said no more ; but on his going to Eton 
 (that noble mart of metre) he sent me word that it ought to be 
 pronounced pwlrm from its analogy to odTrqg, for which he had 
 found authority. Had my father's faculties remained unimpaired 
 till I had been sent to the University, it is probable that I should 
 have had no occasion to lament a defective education in pro- 
 sody, for he was esteemed an excellent grammarian, and in 
 his time boys were prepared for the University, by being 
 taught at school to converse in Latin. I once overheard an 
 old man who had been his scholar say in a passion, to his 
 
 fellow-labourer, Frangam tibi caput but enough of such things : 
 
 from not being used to them in my youth, I may think of them 
 with less respect than I ought. My father died in November, 
 1753, and had been afflicted much with a palsy for several years 
 before. I have heard him ask twenty times in a day, what is the 
 name of the lad that is at College ? (my elder brother ;) and yet 
 he was able to repeat, without a blunder, hundreds of lines out 
 of classic authors. This reminiscence of ideas, formerly impressed 
 on the brain, and forgetfulness of recent ones, is no unusual cir- 
 cumstance attending a paralysis, though our physiology is not yet 
 
enough advanced, to enable us to account for it. Soon after the 
 death of my father, I was sent to the University, and admitted a 
 Sizar of Trinity College in Cambridge, on the 3d of November, 
 1754. I did not know a single person in the University, except 
 my tutor, Mr. Backhouse, who had been my father's scholar, and 
 Mr. Preston, who had been my own schoolfellow. I commenced 
 my academic studies with great eagerness, from knowing that 
 my future fortune was to be wholly of my own fabricating, 
 being certain that the slender portion which my father had left 
 to me (300/.) would be barely sufficient to carry me through my 
 education. I had no expectations from relations ; indeed I had 
 not a relation so near as a first cousin in the world, except my 
 mother, and a brother and sister who were many years older than 
 me. My mother's maiden name was Newton ; she was a very 
 charitable and good woman, and I am indebted to her (I mention 
 it with filial piety) for imbuing my young mind with principles 
 of religion, which have never forsaken me. Erasmus, in his little 
 treatise entitled Antibarbarorum, says that the safety of states 
 depends upon three things — Upon a proper or improper edu- 
 cation of the prince, upon public preachers, and upon school- 
 masters ; and he might with equal reason have added, upon 
 mothers ; for the care of the mother precedes that of the school- 
 master, and may stamp upon the rasa tabula of the infant mind, 
 characters of virtue and religion which no time can efface. 
 
 I had not been six months in college before a circumstance 
 happened to me, trivial in itself and not fit to be noticed, except 
 that it had some influence on my future life, inasmuch as it gave 
 me a turn to metaphysical disquisition. It was then the custom 
 
8 
 
 in Trinity College (I am sorry it is not the custom still) for all the 
 undergraduates to attend immediately after morning prayers the 
 college-lecturers at different tables in the hall, during term-time. 
 The lecturers explained to their respective classes certain books, 
 such as Puffendorf de Officio Hominis et Civis, Clarke on the At- 
 tributes, Locke's Essay, Duncan's Logic, &c, and once a week 
 the head-lecturer examined all the students. The question put to 
 me by the head-lecturer was, Whether Clarke had demonstrated 
 the absurdity of an infinite succession of changeable and dependent 
 beings ? I answered, with blushing hesitation, Non. The head- 
 lecturer, Brocket, with great good-nature, mingled with no small 
 surprise, encouraged me to give my reasons for thinking so. I 
 stammered out in barbarous Latin (for the examination was in 
 that language), That Clarke had enquired into the origin of a 
 series which, being from the supposition eternal, could have no 
 origin ; and into the first term of a series which, being from the 
 supposition infinite, could have no first. From this circumstance 
 I was soon cried up, very undeservedly, as a great metaphysician. 
 When four years afterwards, I took my bachelor's degree, Dr. Law, 
 then master of Peterhouse, and one of the best metaphysicians of 
 his time, sent for me, and desired that we might become ac- 
 quainted. From my friendship with that excellent man, I de- 
 rived much knowledge and liberality of sentiment in theology ; 
 and I shall ever continue to think my early intimacy with him a 
 fortunate event in my life. 
 
 Perceiving that the sizars were not so respectfully looked upon 
 by the pensioners and scholars of the house, as they ought to have 
 been, inasmuch as the most learned and leading men in the Uni- 
 
9 
 
 versity have ever arisen from that order, (Magister artis, ingenique 
 largitor venter) I offered myself for a scholarship a year before 
 the usual time of the sizars sitting, and succeeded, on the 2d 
 of May, 1757. This step increased my expenses in college, but 
 it was attended with a great advantage. It was the occasion of 
 my being particularly noticed by Dr. Smith, the then Master of 
 the College. He was, from the examination he gave me, so well 
 satisfied with the progress I had made in my studies, that out of 
 the sixteen who were elected scholars, he appointed me to a 
 particular scholarship (Lady Jermyn's) then vacant, and in his 
 own disposal ; not, he said to me, as being better than other 
 scholarships, but as a mark of his approbation ; he recommended 
 Saundersons Fluxions, then just published, and some other 
 mathematical books, to my perusal, and gave, in a word, a spur 
 to my industry, and wings to my ambition. 
 
 I had, at the time of being elected a scholar, been resident in 
 college for two years and seven months, without having gone 
 out of it for a single day. During that period I had acquired 
 some knowledge of Hebrew ; greatly improved myself in Greek 
 and Latin ; made considerable proficiency in mathematics and 
 natural philosophy ; and studied with much attention Locke's 
 works, King's book on the Origin of Evil, Puffendorf's Treatise 
 de Officio Hominis et Civis, and some other books on similar sub- 
 jects ; I thought myself therefore entitled to a little relaxation : 
 under this persuasion I set forward, May 30th, 1757, to pay my 
 elder and only brother a visit at Kendal. He was the first curate 
 of the new chapel there, to the structure of which he had sub- 
 scribed liberally. He was a man of lively parts, but being 
 
10 
 
 thrown into a situation where there was no great room for the 
 display of his talents, and much temptation to convivial festivity, 
 he spent his fortune, injured his constitution, and died when I 
 was about the age of thirty-three ; leaving a considerable debt, 
 all of which I paid immediately, though it took almost my all to 
 do it. 
 
 My mind did not much relish the country, at least it did not 
 relish the life I led in that country-town ; the constant reflection 
 that I was idling away my time mixed itself with every amuse- 
 ment, and poisoned all the pleasures I had promised myself from 
 this visit ; I therefore took an hasty resolution of shortening it, 
 and returned to College in the beginning of September, with a 
 determined purpose to make my Alma Mater the mother of my 
 fortunes. That, I well remember, was the expression I used to 
 myself, as soon as I saw the turrets of King's College Chapel, as 
 I was jogging on a jaded nag between Huntingdon and Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 I was then only a junior soph ; yet two of my acquaintance of 
 the year below me, thought that I knew so much more of mathe- 
 matics than they did, that they importuned me to become their 
 private tutor. To one of them (Mr. Luther) it will be seen here- 
 after how much I am indebted ; and with the other (Dr. Strachey) 
 I have maintained through life an uninterrupted friendship. 
 May I meet them both in Heaven ! I undoubtedly wished to 
 have had my time to myself, especially till I had taken my 
 degree ; but the narrowness of my circumstances, accompanied 
 with a disposition to expense, or, more properly speaking, with a 
 
11 
 
 desire to appear respectably, induced me to comply with their 
 request. From that period, for above thirty years of my life, and 
 as long as my health lasted, a considerable portion of my time was 
 spent in instructing others without much instructing myself, or in 
 presiding at disputations in philosophy or theology, from which, 
 after a certain time, I derived little intellectual improvement. 
 
 Whilst I was an under-graduate, I kept a great deal of what is 
 called the best company — that is of idle fellow-commoners, and 
 other persons of fortune — but their manners never subdued my 
 prudence ; I had strong ambition to be distinguished, and was 
 sensible that, though wealth might plead some excuse for idleness, 
 extravagance, and folly in others, the want of wealth could plead 
 none for me. 
 
 When I used to be returning to my room at one or two in the 
 morning, after spending a jolly evening, I often observed a light 
 in the chamber of one of the same standing with myself; this 
 never failed to excite my jealousy, and the next day was always 
 a day of hard study. I have gone without my dinner a hundred 
 times on such occasions. I thought I never entirely understood a 
 proposition in any part of mathematics or natural philosophy, 
 till I was able in a solitary walk, obstipo capite atque eocporrecto 
 labello, to draw the scheme in my head, and go through every 
 step of the demonstration without book or pen and paper. I 
 found this was a very difficult task, especially in some of the 
 perplexed schemes, and long demonstrations of the Twelfth Book 
 of Euclid, and in UHopitaVs Conic Sections, and u\.Newtons Prin- 
 cipia. My walks for this purpose were so frequent, that my tutor, 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 not knowing what I was about, once reproached me for being a 
 lounger. I never gave up a difficult point in a demonstration till 
 I had made it out proprio Marte ; I have been stopped at a single 
 step for three days. This perseverance in accomplishing what- 
 ever I undertook, was, during the whole of my active life, a 
 striking feature in my character, so much so that Dr. Powell, the 
 Master of St. John's College, said to a young man, a pupil of 
 mine, for whom I was prosecuting an appeal which I had 
 lodged with the visiter against the College, — " Take my advice, 
 " sir, and go back to your curacy, for your tutor is a man 
 " of perseverance, not to say obstinacy." After a perseverance 
 however of nearly three years, the appeal was determined against 
 the College ; the young man (Mr. Russel) was put in possession of 
 the Furness Fell Fellowship, which I had claimed for him, as a 
 propriety-fellowship ; and the college was fined 50/. for having 
 elected another into it. It would be for the public good if all 
 propriety-fellowships, in both Universities, were laid open ; and 
 Dr. Powell (for whose memory I have great veneration) was, I 
 doubt not, influenced by the same opinion, when he attempted to 
 set aside this propriety ; Dr. Kipling, whom he had elected into 
 it, being in ability far superior to Mr. Russel : but the legislature 
 alone is competent to make such a change, and till it is made 
 by proper authority, the will of every founder ought to be 
 attended to. 
 
 But though I stuck closely to abstract studies, I did not 
 neglect other things. I every week imposed upon myself a task 
 of composing a theme or a declamation in Latin or English. I 
 had great pleasure in lately finding among my papers, two of 
 
13 
 
 these declamations, one in English, the other Latin ; there is 
 nothing excellent in either of them, yet I cannot help valuing 
 them, as they are not only the first of my compositions of which 
 I have any memorial remaining, but as they show that a long 
 commerce in the public world has only tended to confirm that 
 political bent of my mind in favour of civil liberty, which was 
 formed in it before I knew of what selfish and low-minded ma- 
 terials the public world was made. 
 
 The subject of the English declamation is, " Let tribunes be 
 granted to the Roman people ;" that of the Latin, " Sociis 
 Italicis detur civitas ." both of them were suggested to my mind 
 from the perusal of Vertofs Roman Revolutions, a book which 
 accidentally fell into my hands. Were such kind of books put 
 into the hands of kings during their boy-hood, and Tory trash at 
 no age recommended to them, kings in their manhood would scorn 
 to aim at arbitrary power through corrupted parliaments. 
 
 I generally studied mathematics in the morning, and classics 
 in the afternoon ; and used to get by heart such parts of orations 
 either in Greek or Latin as particularly pleased me. Demos- 
 thenes was the orator, Tacitus the historian, and Perseus the 
 satirist, whom I most admired. 
 
 I have mentioned this mode of study, not as thinking that 
 there was any thing extraordinary in it, since there were many 
 under-graduates then, and have always been many in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, and for aught I know, in Oxford too, who 
 have taken greater pains. But I mention it, because I feel a 
 
14 
 
 complacence in the recollection of days long since happily spent ; 
 hoc est vivere bis vita posse priori frui, and indulge an hope, 
 that the perusal of what I have written may chance to drive 
 away the spirit of indolence and dissipation from young men ; 
 especially from those who enter into the world with as slender a 
 provision as I did. I will mention another circumstance, which 
 happened to me before I took my first degree, that I may 
 put young men upon their guard against self-sufficiency of 
 opinion, and induce them to make, at a more mature age, a cool 
 examination into the origin of their principles and belief. 
 
 Our opinions on many important subjects are formed as much 
 on prejudice as on reason ; and when an opinion is once taken 
 up, it is seldom changed, especially in matters not admitting any 
 criterion of certainty. When I went to the University, I was of 
 opinion, as most school-boys are, that the soul was a substance 
 distinct from the body, and that when a man died, he, in classical 
 phrase, breathed out his soul, animam expiravit * that it then 
 went I knew not whither, as it had come into the body, from I 
 knew not where, nor when; and had dwelt in the body 
 during life, but in what part of the body it had dwelt I knew 
 not. So deep-rooted was this notion of the flight of the soul 
 somewhither after death, as well as of its having existed some- 
 where before birth, that I perfectly well remember having much 
 puzzled my childish apprehension, before I was twelve years old, 
 with asking myself this question, — Had I not been the son of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Watson, whose son should I have been ? The 
 question itself was suggested in consequence of my being out 
 of humour, at some slight correction which I had received from 
 
15 
 
 my mother. This notion of the soul was, without doubt, the 
 offspring of prejudice and ignorance, and I must own that my 
 knowledge of the nature of the soul is much the same now that 
 it was then. I have read volumes on the subject, but I have no 
 scruple in saying, that I know nothing about it. 
 
 Believing as I do in the truth of the Christian religion, which 
 teaches that men are accountable for their actions, I trouble not 
 myself with dark disquisitions concerning necessity and liberty, 
 matter and spirit ; hoping as I do for eternal life through Jesus 
 Christ, I am not disturbed at my inability clearly to convince 
 myself that the soul is, or is not, a substance distinct from the 
 body. The truth of the Christian religion depends upon testi- 
 mony ; now man is competent to judge of the weight of testi- 
 mony, though he is not able I think fully to investigate the 
 nature of the soul ; and I consider the testimony concerning the 
 resurrection of Jesus (and that fact is the corner-stone of the 
 Christian church) to be worthy of entire credit. I probably 
 should never have fallen into this scepticism on so great a point, 
 but should have lived and died with my school-boy's faith, had I 
 not been obliged as an opponent, in the philosophical schools at 
 Cambridge in 1758, to find arguments against the question ; 
 Anima est sua naturd immortalis — in turning over a great majiy 
 books in search of arguments against this natural immortality of 
 the soul, I met with an account (I do not know in what author, 
 but there is the same, or a similar one mentioned in the French 
 Encyclopedie not then published, art. Mort 9 ) of a man who came 
 to life after having been for six weeks under water. This account, 
 whether true or false, suggested to me a doubt concerning the 
 
16 
 
 soul's being, as I had till then without the least hesitation con- 
 ceived it to be, not a mere quality of the body, but a substance 
 different in kind from it. I thought one might in some measure 
 account for the restitution of motion and life, to a body considered 
 as a machine, whose motions had been stopped without its fabric 
 being destroyed ; but I could not apprehend the possibility of 
 recalling a soul which had left the body, with its last expiration, 
 for the space of six weeks. I mention not this with a view of 
 supporting the materiality of the soul, or the contrary, but merely 
 to show upon what trifling circumstances our opinions are fre- 
 quently formed; — a consideration this, which should teach us all 
 to speak with candour of those who happen to differ from us, and 
 to abate in ourselves that dogmatising spirit, which often impels 
 learned men to impose on others their own inveterate prejudices 
 as incontrovertible truths. 
 
 I argued with myself at that time, when I was fond of such 
 speculations, in the following manner : — A table is matter, and 
 a tree is matter ; but the matter of the table is different from that 
 of the tree which furnished the wood from which the table was 
 made. A tree is living matter, and a table is dead matter ; life 
 then, in whatever it may be supposed to consist, is that which 
 constitutes an essential difference between a table and a tree. 
 Again, a tree is matter, and an oyster is matter, and both of them 
 are living matter ; yet the matter of the tree is different from that 
 of the oyster : the matter of the tree being only (as is generally 
 supposed) living matter, whilst that of the oyster is not only liv- 
 ing but percipient matter ; percepticity then, however it may be 
 produced, is that which constitutes an essential difference between 
 
17 
 
 an oyster and a tree. Again, an oyster is matter, and a man 
 is matter, and both of them are percipient matter; yet the 
 matter of the oyster is different from the matter of the man, 
 the matter of the oyster being only (as is generally supposed) 
 percipient matter, whilst that of a man is not only per- 
 cipient but thinking matter; the faculty of thinking, then, 
 however it may be produced, is that which constitutes an 
 essential difference between a man and an oyster. The essential 
 properties of extension, solidity, mobility, divisibility, and inac- 
 tivity, are common properties belonging equally to the table, the 
 tree, the oyster, and the man ; but to these common properties 
 are added to the matter of the tree, life ; to that of the oyster, 
 life and perceptivity ; to that of the man, life, perceptivity, and 
 thought. Whether life can exist without perceptivity, or per- 
 ceptivity without thought, are subtle questions, not admitting, 
 perhaps, in our present state, a positive and clear decision either 
 way. Physical and metaphysical difficulties present themselves 
 on every subject, and ultimately baffle all our attempts to pene- 
 trate the darkness in which the Divine Mind envelopes his 
 operations of nature and grace. " Hardly do we guess aright at 
 things that are upon earth, and with labour do we find out the 
 things that are before us, but the things that are in Heaven who hath 
 searched out ?" (Wisd. of Sol. ix. 16.) 
 
 In January, 1759, I took my Bachelor of Arts' degree. The 
 taking of this first degree is a great asra in academic life ; it is 
 that to which all the under-graduates of talents and diligence 
 direct their attention. There is no seminary of learning in 
 
 D 
 
t» 
 
 18 
 
 Europe in which youth are more zealous to excel during the first 
 years of their education than in the University of Cambridge. 
 This observation, however, is true only concerning those who are 
 obliged to take their Bachelor of Arts' degree, and at the usual 
 time ; the rest being stimulated by no prospect of honour, may 
 chance, indeed, to excel ; but by a foolish custom of the Uni- 
 versity their genius is neglected ; they are neither impelled by the 
 fear of shame, nor the hope of glory, resulting from scholastic 
 exertion. 
 
 I was the second wrangler of my year, the leading moderator 
 having made a person of his own College, and one of his private 
 pupils, the "first, in direct opposition to the general sense of the 
 examiners in the Senate House, who declared in my favour. The 
 injustice which was then done me was remembered as long as I 
 lived in the University ; and the talk about it at the time did me 
 more service than if I had been made senior wrangler. Our old 
 master sent for me, and told me not to be discouraged, for that 
 when the Johnians had the disposal of the honours, the second 
 wrangler was always looked upon as the first. 
 
 There was more room for partiality in the distribution of 
 honours, not only with respect to St. John's, but other Colleges, 
 then, than there is now ; and I attribute the change, in a great 
 degree, to an alteration which I introduced the first year I was 
 moderator, and which has been persevered in ever since. 
 
 At the time of taking their Bachelor of Arts' degree, the young 
 
19 
 
 men are examined in classes, and the classes are now formed 
 according to the abilities shown by individuals in the schools. 
 By this arrangement, persons of nearly equal merits are examined 
 in the presence of each other, and flagrant acts of partiality 
 cannot take place. Before I made this alteration, they were 
 examined in classes, but the classes consisted of members of 
 the same College, and the best and the worst were often examined 
 together. 
 
 
 The first year I was moderator, Mr. Paley (afterwards known 
 to the world by many excellent productions, though there are 
 some ethical and some political principles in his philosophy which 
 I by no means approve,) and Mr. Frere, a gentleman of Norfolk, 
 were examined together. A report prevailed, that Mr. Frere's 
 grandfather would give him a thousand pounds, if he were senior 
 wrangler : the other moderator agreed with me in thinking, that 
 Mr. Paley was his superior, and we made him senior wrangler. 
 Mr. Frere, much to his honour, on an imputation of partiality 
 being thrown on my colleague and myself, publicly acknow- 
 ledged, that he deserved only the second place ; a declaration 
 which could never have been made, had they not been examined 
 in the presence of each other. 
 
 . 
 
 Paley, I remember, had brought me for one of the questions 
 he meant for his act, JEternitas pcenarum contradicit Divinis attri- 
 butis. I had accepted it ; and indeed I never refused a question 
 either as moderator or as professor of divinity. A few days 
 afterwards, he came to me in a great fright, saying, that the 
 
 d 2 
 
20 
 
 master of his College (Dr. Thomas, Dean of Ely,) had sent to 
 him, and insisted on his not keeping on such a question. I rea- 
 dily permitted him to change it, and told him, that if it would 
 lessen his master's apprehensions, he might put in non 9 before 
 contradicit, and he did so. Dr. Thomas, I had little doubt, was 
 afraid of being looked upon as an heretic at Lambeth, for suffer- 
 ing a member of his college to dispute on such a question, 
 notwithstanding what Tillotson had published on the subject many 
 years before. 
 
 It is, however, a subject of great difficulty. It is allowed on all 
 hands that the happiness of the righteous will be, strictly speak- 
 ing, everlasting ; and I cannot see the justness of that criticism 
 which would interpret the same word in the same verse in diffe- 
 rent senses. " And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment, but the righteous into everlasting life." Mat. xxv. 46. 
 On the other hand, reason is shocked at the idea of God being 
 considered as a relentless tyrant, inflicting everlasting punish- 
 ment, which answers no benevolent end. But how is it proved 
 that the everlasting punishment of the wicked may not answer 
 a benevolent end, may not be the mean of keeping the righteous 
 in everlasting holiness and obedience? How is it proved that 
 it may not answer, in some other way unknown to us, a 
 benevolent end in promoting God's moral government of the 
 universe f 
 
 In September, 1759, I sat for a fellowship: at that time there 
 never had been an instance of a Fellow being elected from among 
 
21 
 
 the Junior Bachelors. The master told me this as an apology for 
 my not being then elected, and bade me be contented till the 
 next year. On the first of October, 1760, I was elected a Fellow of 
 Trinity College, and put over the head of two of my seniors of 
 the same year, who were however elected the next year. The 
 old master, whose memory I have ever revered, when he had 
 done examining me, paid me this compliment, which was from 
 him a great one, — " You have done your duty to the College, it 
 remains for the College to do theirs to you." I was elected the 
 next day, and became assistant tutor to Mr. Backhouse in the 
 following November. 
 ■ 
 
 About the same time I was offered by the Vice-Chancellor the 
 curacy of Clermont, and advised to accept it, as it would give me 
 an opportunity of recommending myself to the Duke of New- 
 castle, then Chancellor of the University : but then and always 
 prizing my independence above all prospects, I declined accepting 
 the offer. I might also soon after have gone chaplain to the 
 Factory at Bencoolen, and I would have gone, but that I wanted 
 several months of being able to take priest's orders. The master 
 of the College hearing of my intention sent for me, and insisted 
 on my abandoning my design, adding, in the most obliging 
 manner, " You are far too good to die of drinking punch in the 
 torrid zone." I had then great spirits, and by learning, as I 
 purposed, the Persian and Arabic languages, should probably 
 have continued but a short time chaplain to the Factory. I have 
 thanked God for being disappointed of an opportunity of becom- 
 ing an Asiatic plunderer. I might not have been able to resist 
 
22 
 
 the temptation of wealth and power to which so many of my 
 countrymen have unhappily yielded in India. 
 
 I took my Master of Arts' degree at the commencement in 
 1762, and was made Moderator for Trinity College in the 
 following October. I look upon the office of Moderator to be 
 the most difficult to execute, and the most important to the 
 interests of the University, when well executed, of any that 
 there is, not excepting the Professorship of Divinity itself. If 
 in any thing we are superior to Oxford, it is in this, that our. 
 scholastic disputations in philosophy and theology are supported 
 with seriousness and solemnity. An evil custom has, within 
 these few years, been introduced into the University, which will 
 in its consequences destroy our superiority over Oxford, and 
 leave our scholastic exercises in as miserable a state as theirs 
 have long been. It is the custom of dining late. When I was 
 admitted, and for many years after, every College dined at 
 twelve o'clock, and the students after dinner flocked to the philo- 
 sophical disputations, which began at two. If the schools either 
 of philosophy or divinity shall ever be generally destitute of an 
 audience, there will be an end of all scholastic exertion. I re- 
 member having seen the divinity-schools (when the best act (by 
 Coulthurst and Milner — Arcades atnbo) was keeping that I ever 
 presided at, and which might justly be called a real academic 
 entertainment,) filled with auditors from the top to the bottom ; 
 but as soon as the clock struck three, a number of masters of arts 
 belonging to colleges which dined at three slunk away from this 
 intellectual feast ; and they were followed, as might have been 
 expected, by many under-graduates, — I say as might have been 
 
23 
 
 expected, for in all seminaries of education, relaxation of disci- 
 pline begins with the seniors of the society. 
 
 Some persons may contend that scholastic exercises are of no 
 use ; I think very differently ; but without entering into any dis- 
 cussion on the subject, I will content myself with putting down 
 some of the questions which were subjects of disputation in the 
 Sophs school, in 1762. There is no one, I believe, who has a 
 proper knowledge of these questions, but must be sensible of the 
 utility of having young men's minds occupied in the study of such 
 subjects. I have transcribed the questions from the Moderator's 
 book for 1762, which I happen to have in my possession. 
 . 
 
 Objectiones in Algorithmum fluxionum quales ab analysta propo* 
 nuntur falsis innituntur principiis f 
 
 Methodus primarum ac ultimarum rationum a Newtono adhibita 
 est sana methodus ratiocinandi, et a methodo indivisibilium prorsus 
 distincta? 
 
 Recte statuit Newtonus de motu corporum, in orbibus mobilibus 
 versus antrum immotum attractorum f 
 
 Si corpus urgeatur motu projectili, et vi centripeta variante in 
 reciproca duplicata ratione distantice, movebitur in aliqua sectionum 
 conicarum, umbilicum habente in centro viriumf 
 
 Motus planetarum omnium solvi possint ex theoria gravitatis ? 
 
 Recte statuit Newtonus de motuum Lunarium incequalibus ? 
 
 Generalia cestuum phenomena solvi possint ex theoria gravi- 
 tatis ? 
 
 Theoria Newtoniana de caudis cometicis est admittenda f 
 
24 
 
 Moius aquce e foramine quant minimo in fundo vasts cylindrici 
 
 uniformiter prosilientis, recte definivit Newtonus t 
 
 Pulsibus per Jluidum propagatis singulas Jluidi particulas motu 
 
 reciproco brevissimo euntes ac redeuntes, accelerari semper et retar- 
 
 dari pro lege penduli in cycloide moventis non demonstravit 
 
 Newtonus f 
 
 Pulsibus, SfC. ut in antecedente propositione recte demonstravit 
 
 Newtonus f 
 
 Aberrationes stellarum fixarum solvi possint ex motu lucis progres- 
 
 sivo et motu telluris in orbitu sua ? 
 
 Momenta corporum sunt ut velocitates et quantitates materice 
 
 conjunctim f 
 
 Perforata tellure corpus intra earn movens, eadem lege acceleratur 
 
 et retardatur, qua pendulum vibrans in cycloide f 
 
 Phcenomina ventorum tropicorum solvi possint ex rotatione telluris 
 
 circa proprium axem, et motu puncti maxime rarefacti P 
 
 Cursus ventorum inter tropicos spirantium solvitur ab Hadleio f 
 
 Prqjectilia, amota medii resistentia, describunt parabolas f 
 
 Phcenomina terrce motuum solvi possint ab ignibus subterraneis f 
 
 Vibrationes ejusdem penduli in cycloide sunt IsochroncB f 
 
 Lunce horizontalis phenomenon nondum solvitur f 
 
 Lunce horizontalis phenomenon solvitur a Smithio f 
 
 Systema Copernicanum est verum mundi systema ? 
 
 Recte statuit Halleius de origine fontium f 
 
 Motus solis circa proprium axem ex motu ejus macularum colligi 
 
 potest ? 
 
 Recte statuit Jurinus de tubis capilaribus simplicibus f 
 Phenomenon mercurii in barometro solvi potest ex gravitate et 
 
 elasticitate aeris ? 
 
25 
 
 Datur in rerum natura necessaria connexio inter judicia nostra de 
 variis distantiis ejusdem visibilis objecti, et distantias ipsas ? 
 
 Non datur in rerum, fyc. ut in anteced. 
 
 Dei existentia probari potest ex eo quod est motus f 
 
 JDeus ultimus est et auctor et conservator motus ? 
 
 Ordo mundi probat Deum ? 
 
 Dei existentia non admittit demonstrationem a priori f 
 
 Absurditatem in/initce seriei entium dependentium non satis demon- 
 stravit Clarkius f 
 
 Omnia Dei moralia attributa ad unam ejus sapientiam rede 
 possint referri f 
 
 Jus Dei in creaturas non solum fundatur in irresistibili ejus 
 potentia ? 
 
 Origo mali moralis solvi potest salvis Dei attributis f 
 
 JEternitas paenarum non contradicit Divinis attributis t 
 
 Prcescientia Divina non tollit libertatem agendi f 
 
 Status futurus colligi potest ex lumine naturce P 
 
 Status futurus non, $-c. ut in anteced. 
 
 Recte statuit Humius statum futurum non colligi posse ex Dei 
 justitia f 
 
 Sublato statu futuro, nulla manet ad virtutem obligatio f 
 
 Sublato statu futuro, manet ad virtutem obligatio f 
 
 Datur sensus innatus moralis ? 
 
 Non datur sensus innatus moralis ? 
 
 Recte statuit Lockius de humana libertate f 
 
 Non recte statuit Lockius de humana libertate ? 
 
 Voluntas non determinatur ab extra f 
 
 Moralis scientia demonstrationis est capax ? 
 
 Recte statuit Berkleius de principiis humance scientice f 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 Spatium non est aliqmd reale ? 
 
 Non dantur abstracts idete ? 
 
 Reales essentia rerum, re vera exist entium nobis ignota sunt f 
 
 Imperium civile oritur ex pactis f 
 
 Omnes homines sunt natura equates f 
 
 Jus servitutis nonfundatur in rerum natura f 
 
 Homines a muneribus publicis non recte excluduntur ob religiosas 
 opmiones f 
 
 Homines qui dissentiunt a religione lege stabilita muneribus 
 publicis jure repelluntur f 
 
 Rationi consentaneum est et reipublicce prodest, ut nemini pcena 
 mfligatur ob religiosas opiniones f 
 
 Supremo magistratui resistere licet, si respublica aliter servari 
 nequit f 
 
 Jus non competit civitati in vitas subditorum ? 
 
 Juri gentium repugnat ut medii bellicosas apparatus gentibus 
 bellum gerentibus suppeditent f 
 
 Licet principi subditos alienos contra gravem et manifestam 
 injuriam defendere f 
 
 Contra crescentem potentiam quce minimum aucta nocere possit non 
 licet arma sumere ? 
 
 Leges in civitate quce monomachiam prohibent recte instituuntur ? 
 
 Clamores populi libertatem stabiliorem reddunt f 
 
 Libertas imprimendi in Anglicano imperio est admittenda ? 
 
 Recte statuit Lockius de distinctis jidei et rationis provinciis ? 
 
 Privata f elicit as est uUimus moralium actionum Jinis f 
 
 Formalis ratio virtutis consistit in conformitate ad Dei voluntatem ? 
 
 In res quce singulorum sunt propria jus omnibus competit extremce 
 necessitatis ? 
 
27 
 
 Ex prcesenti rerum statu, morale Dei imperium colligi potest ? 
 Idece immediata voluntatis actione excitari non possunt ? 
 Phcenomena somniorum explicari nequeunt ex materia et motu 9 
 Phcenomena somniorum solvuntur ab ideis nuper receptis a statu 
 corporis, et ab idearum associatione f 
 Anima est immaterialis f 
 
 These specimens of the questions which engaged the attention 
 of our young men above half a century ago, may be sufficient to 
 give a proper idea of the importance of scholastic exercises, as one 
 mean of a good education. The depths of science, and the 
 liberality of principles in which the University of Cambridge 
 initiates her sons, would, had he been acquainted with them, have 
 extorted praise from Mr. Gibbon himself. 
 
 In the end of the year 1763, I was again appointed Moderator, 
 in the room of a person of St. John's College, who, after a trial of 
 presiding in the schools for the first term, had resigned through 
 infirmity. 
 
 On the 12th of February, 1764, I received a letter informing 
 me that a separation had taken place between my friend Mr. Luther, 
 then one of the Members for Essex, and his wife, and that he was 
 gone hastily abroad. My heart was ever warm in friendship, and 
 it ordered me, on this occasion, to follow my friend. I saw he 
 was deserted and unhappy, and I flew to give him, if possible, 
 some consolation. I set off from Cambridge on the same day I 
 had received the account. I could read, but I could not speak a 
 word of French ; I had no servant nor any money ; I presently 
 
 e 2 
 
28 
 
 borrowed fifty pounds, and bought a French and English Dictionary, 
 and thus equipped, I went post to Dover, without so much as 
 knowing whether my friend was gone to France, and from thence, 
 almost without sleeping, I got to Paris and enquired him out. — 
 The meeting was such as might have been expected. I did not 
 stay above twelve hours in Paris, but immediately returned to 
 England, and, after a variety of accidents and great fatigue, for I 
 crossed the Channel four times, and travelled twelve hundred 
 miles in very bad weather in a fortnight, I brought my friend back 
 to his country and his family. His appearance in the House of 
 Commons instantly quashed all the injurious reports which, from 
 his hasty manner of leaving the country, scandal had raised to his 
 disadvantage. He was a thorough honest man, and one of the 
 friends I ever loved with the greatest affection. His temper was 
 warm, and his wife (a very deserving woman) had been over-per- 
 suaded to marry him, — had she loved him as he loved her, she 
 would have borne with his infirmity of temper. Great are the 
 public evils, and little the private comforts attending interested 
 marriages ; when they become general, they not only portend but 
 bring on a nation's ruin. 
 
 In October, 1764, I was made Moderator for Christ's College. 
 On the 19th of the following November, on the death of Dr. 
 Hadley, I was unanimously elected by the Senate, assembled in 
 full congregation, Professor of Chemistry. An eminent physician 
 in London had expressed a wish to succeed Dr. Hadley, but on 
 my signifying to him that it was my intention to read chemical 
 lectures in the University, he declined the contest. At the time 
 this honour was conferred upon me, I knew nothing at all of 
 
29 
 
 Chemistry, had never read a syllable on the subject ; nor seen a 
 single experiment in it; but I was tired with mathematics and 
 natural philosophy, and the vehementissima gloria cupido stimulated 
 me to try my strength in a new pursuit, and the kindness of the 
 University (it was always kind to me) animated me to very extra- 
 ordinary exertions. I sent immediately after my election for an 
 operator to Paris ; I buried myself as it were in my laboratory, 
 at least as much as my other avocations would permit ; and in 
 fourteen months from my election, I read a course of chemical 
 lectures to a very full audience, consisting of persons of all ages 
 and degrees, in the University. I read another course in November, 
 1766, and was made Moderator, for the fourth time, in October, 
 1765. 
 
 In January every year, when the Bachelors of Arts take their 
 degrees, one of the two Moderators makes a sort of speech in 
 Latin to the Senate ; I made this speech three times : the last was 
 in 1766. I had, in a former speech, taken the liberty to mention, 
 with great freedom, some defects in the University education, 
 especially with respect to Noblemen and Fellow-Commoners ; and 
 without hinting the abolition of the orders, strongly insisted on 
 the propriety of obliging them to keep exercises in the schools, as 
 the other candidates for degrees did. In this last speech I re- 
 commended the instituting public annual examinations, in pre- 
 scribed books, of all the orders of students in the University. I 
 mentioned also the necessity of allowing more time for the ex- 
 amination, and of appointing more examiners, and of particularly 
 distinguishing, by separate honours, the best proficients in the 
 several branches of science ; that those who could not excel in the 
 
30 
 
 abstract sciences, or natural philosophy, might have some chance 
 for distinction in ethics and metaphysics. 
 
 In the year 1774, the subject of annual examinations of all the 
 students was brought forward by a very honest and intelligent, but 
 unpopular man, Mr. Jebb, who had been Moderator with me some 
 years before. A Syndicate (Committee) was appointed by the 
 Senate to draw up a system of regulations for the introduction of 
 annual examinations. The Duke of Grafton, as Chancellor of the 
 University, was consulted, and gave an unequivocal approbation 
 of the design. The Syndicate met several times at the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor's, where the subject was discussed with great diligence and 
 good temper. In a few weeks the regulations which had been 
 drawn up by the Syndics were proposed to the Senate, and were 
 rejected by the Non Regent House, 47 against 43. From what I 
 personally knew of the tempers of the principal opposers of the 
 measure, I had the greatest reason to suspect, that they were 
 actuated by littlenesses of mind, respecting their dislike of any 
 thing brought forward by Mr. Jebb, respecting their not having 
 been previously consulted, not having been included in the Syn- 
 dicate, &c, more than by any solid ground of disapprobation to the 
 measure itself. An account of the regulations, and of the principal 
 persons who supported them, may be seen in Dr. Jebb's works* 
 and in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1774. 
 
 There was no stipend annexed to the Professorship of Chemistry, 
 nor anything furnished to the Professor by the University, except a 
 room to read lectures in. I was told that the Professors of Chemistry 
 in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Stockholm, &c, were supported by their 
 
31 
 
 respective monarchs ; and I knew that the reading a course of 
 lectures would every year be attended with a great expense ; and 
 being very hearty in the design of recommending chemistry to the 
 attention of the youth of the University and of the country, I 
 thought myself justified in applying to the minister for a stipend 
 from the Crown. Lord Rockingham was then Minister (1766), 
 and Mr. Luther, who had lately spent above twenty thousand 
 pounds in establishing the Whig interest in Essex, undertook to 
 ask for it. Though an hundred a year, given for the encourage- 
 ment of science, is but as a drop in the ocean, when compared 
 with the enormous sums lavished in unmerited pensions, lucrative 
 sinecure places, and scandalous jobs? by every Minister on his 
 flatterers and dependants, in order to secure his majorities in 
 Parliament, yet I obtained this drop with difficulty, and, unless, 
 the voice of a member of Parliament had seconded my petition, X 
 doubt whether I should have succeeded. I sent up to the Duke 
 of Newcastle, Chancellor of the University, a testimonial from 
 the Vice-Chancellor, that I had read with credit a course of che- 
 mical lectures ; and that a chemical establishment would be highly 
 useful to the University ; together with this testimonial, I sent 
 my petition to Lord Rockingham, requesting the Duke to pres6nt 
 it to him. 
 
 The petition was presented in March, but I heard nothing 
 about it till the July following ; when, waiting upon the Duke of 
 Newcastle, he asked if my business was done ? I answered, iVb, 
 and that I thought it never would be done. I own I had been so 
 much vexed at the delay, that I was very indifferent whether it ever 
 was done or not, and therefore answered with more firmness than 
 
32 
 
 the old man had been used to. He then asked why it had 
 not been done. My answer was, " Because Lord Rockingham 
 says Your Grace ought to speak to the King, as Chancellor of the 
 University ; and Your Grace says, that Lord Rockingham ought 
 to speak to the King, as Minister." He stared at me with asto- 
 nishment ; and, calling for paper, he instantly wrote a letter, and 
 sealing it with his own seal, ordered me to go with it imme- 
 diately to Lord Rockingham, who had a levee that day. I did 
 so, (and it was the only time in my life that I ever attended a 
 minister's levee,) and sent in my letter, before the levee began. 
 I understood it was whispered, that Lord Rockingham and the 
 Whigs were to go out of administration ; and it was so : for their 
 dismission was settled that day. Lord Rockingham, however, 
 undertook to ask the King ; and, apologizing for not having done 
 it sooner, offered in a very polite manner to have the stipend 
 (I asked only for 100/. a year,) settled upon me for life. This I 
 refused, and desired to have it only whilst I continued Professor 
 of Chemistry, and discharged the duty of the office. 
 
 The ice being thus broken by me, similar stipends have been 
 since procured from the Crown, for the Professors of Anatomy 
 and Botany, and for the recently established Professor of Com- 
 mon Law. The University is now much richer than it was in 
 1766 ; and it would become its dignity, I think, to thank the 
 King for his indulgence, and to pay in future its unendowed Pro- 
 fessors without having recourse to the public purse ; not that I 
 feel the least reluctance to dipping into the public purse for such 
 a purpose, but I feel something for the independence of the 
 University. 
 
S3 
 
 In October, 1767, I became one of the Head Tutors in Tri- 
 nity College, in the room of Mr. Backhouse, who resigned his 
 pupils to me. I thought this an high trust, and was conscien- 
 tiously diligent in the discharge of it, during the short time I 
 held this important office. 
 
 In this, and the two following years, I read Chemical Lectures 
 to very crowded audiences, in the month of November. I now 
 look back with a kind of terror at the application I used in the 
 younger part of my life. For months and years together I fre- 
 quently read three public lectures in Trinity College, beginning 
 at eight o'clock in the morning; spent four or five hours with 
 private pupils, and five or six more in my laboratory, every day, 
 besides the incidental business of presiding in the Sophs schools. 
 Had so much pains and time been dedicated to Greek and He- 
 brew, and to what are called learned subjects, what tiresome 
 collations of manuscripts, what argute emendations of text, what 
 jejune criticisms, what dull dissertations, what ponderous logo- 
 machies might have been produced, and left to sleep on the 
 same shelves with bulky systems of German divinity in the libra- 
 ries of Universities ! ! 1 
 
 In 1768, I composed and printed my Institutiones Metallur- 
 gicce, and designed to have given a scientific form to chemistry, 
 by digesting into a connected series of propositions, (after the 
 manner of Rutherforth's Propositions, a book then held deserv- 
 edly in high estimation in the University, though now scarcely 
 heard of,) what was then certainly established by experiment in 
 every branch of it. 
 
34 
 
 Much about the same time, 1 sent a paper to the Royal 
 Society, respecting various phenomena attending the solutions of 
 salts, and was unanimously elected a Fellow of that illustrious 
 body. 
 
 In 1769, I preached an Assize Sermon at Cambridge, and was 
 desired by the Judge to publish it. This being the first of my 
 publications, (for my Metallurgic Institutes were not published,) 
 I dedicated it to the only person to whom I owed any obligation, 
 Mr. Luther. I made it a rule never to dedicate to those from 
 whom I expected favours, but to those only from whom I had 
 received them. The dedication of my Collection of Theological 
 Tracts to the Queen did not come under either of these descrip- 
 tions ; it proceeded from the opinion I then entertained of her 
 merit, as a wife and a mother. At the time this sermon was 
 preached, government was greatly relaxed ; and mobs, which I 
 ever detested, thinking senseless popularity beneath the notice of 
 genuine Whiggism, were very rife in favour of Mr. Wilkes. But 
 though I disliked Mr. Wilkes's mobs, I did not dislike his cause, 
 judging that the constitution was violated in the treatment he 
 received both from the King's ministers, and the House of Com- 
 mons. His case not only made a great noise at home, but was 
 much bruited abroad ; in cloisters, as well as in courts ; amongst 
 monks, as well as politicians. I happened to be at Paris about 
 that time ; and the only question which I was asked by a Carthu- 
 sian monk, who showed me his monastery, was, whether Mon- 
 sieur Vilkes, or the King, had got the better. 
 
 In October, 1771, when I was preparing for another course of 
 
35 
 
 chemistry, and printing a new chemical syllabus, Dr. Rutherforth, 
 Regius Professor of Divinity, died. This Professorship, as being 
 one of the most arduous and honourable offices in the University, 
 had long been the secret object of my ambition ; I had for years 
 determined in my own mind to endeavour to succeed Dr. Ruther- 
 forth, provided he lived till I was of a proper age, and fully qua- 
 lified for the undertaking. His premature and unexpected death 
 quite disheartened me. I knew as much of divinity as could rea- 
 sonably be expected from a man whose course of studies had been 
 directed to, and whose time had been fully occupied in other 
 pursuits ; but with this curta supellex in theology to take possession 
 of the first professional chair in Europe, seemed too daring an at- 
 tempt even for my intrepidity. 
 
 However, not being of a temper to be discouraged by diffi- 
 culties, and not observing that any men of distinguished talents 
 stood forth as candidates for the professorship, except Dr. Gor- 
 don, and thinking that I would labour night and day till I was 
 qualified for the office, if I were appointed to it, and knowing 
 that 1 was sufficiently versed in dialectics, from having presided 
 many years in the philosophical schools, I determined to sound 
 the University, and if I found the general sense of the body 
 favourable to my pretensions, to become a candidate. I soon 
 was informed from many different quarters, that the University 
 expected I should come forward ; so far was it from being dis- 
 pleased at what I myself considered as a bold proceeding. Even 
 Dr. Powell, (who was not very partial to me from my having 
 carried an appeal against his College,) on my apologizing to 
 him for offering myself as a candidate at so early an age, said, 
 
 F 2 
 
36 
 
 " that it would indeed have been great presumption in any other 
 person of my age in the University, but that it was none in me." 
 Before 1 publickly declared my intention of becoming a candidate, I 
 waited upon Dr. Ogden, with whom I was well acquainted, and 
 whom I considered as the fittest person in the University to suc- 
 ceed to the vacant office, and pressed him to come forward, as- 
 suring him that if he would do so, he should not have me for a 
 competitor ; he gave me no decisive answer at that time, but on 
 the morning of the day before that appointed for the examination 
 of the candidates, I received from him the following note : 
 
 i 
 " After so much civility and even kindness on the side of Dr. 
 
 " Watson, and so much delay on mine, I am both sorry and 
 
 " ashamed not to send him yet a decisive answer. It is not that 
 
 " I conceal my resolution from him, but that I have not taken 
 
 " any. I intend to send him another note either to night or to- 
 
 " morrow-morning, and hope, but dare not say that I shall be 
 
 " more explicit. 
 
 " S. O." 
 
 I returned by the messenger the annexed answer : 
 
 " Mr. Watson can only repeat his wishes to see the Divinity- 
 " chair filled by Dr. Ogden, and begs that he would in every 
 " thing consult his own interest and inclination. Mr. Watson 
 " will thank Dr. Ogden, if he comes to any resolution, for the 
 " favour of a note, for he does not mean to present himself to the 
 ?' electors to-morrow if Dr. Ogden is a candidate." 
 
37 
 
 About ten o'clock in the evening of the same day I received 
 from him the following very characteristic note : — 
 
 " I have behaved to you like a scoundrel by my indecision, but 
 " I will not appear in the schools to-morrow." 
 
 I afterwards was informed that Dr. Ogden hoped the electors 
 would have offered him the professorship, and that he waited to 
 the last moment in expectation of their doing so. This trans- 
 action occasioned no coolness between him and me, for I had a 
 great regard for him, and when I sent him, a week or two after, 
 the chemical syllabus which I was then printing, he favoured me 
 with another of his pithy laconisms : Provinciam quam nactus es 
 sic orna. 
 
 I was not, when Dr. Rutherforth died, either Bachelor or Doc- 
 tor in Divinity, and without being one of them I could not be- 
 come a candidate for the professorship. This puzzled me for a 
 moment ; I had only seven days to transact the business in ; but 
 by hard travelling and some adroitness I accomplished my pur- 
 pose, obtained the King's mandate for a Doctor's degree, and was 
 created a Doctor on the day previous to that appointed for the 
 examination of the candidates. On that day I appeared before 
 the electors assembled in the law-schools, and had two subjects 
 given to write upon. The reconciliation of the genealogies in 
 Matthew and Luke, and the interpretation of the passage, « What 
 " shall they do which are baptized for the dead ?" 1 Cor. xv. 29. 
 
 Dr. Gordon also appeared, made some objection to the forma- 
 
38 
 
 lity of the proceedings, and on that account refused being exa- 
 mined. I delivered to the electors, at three o'clock on the same 
 day, what I had written in Latin on the two subjects. They then 
 appointed me another subject : — " These are the families of the 
 " sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations : and by 
 " these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood," 
 Gen. x. 32; on which I was to read a Latin dissertation of an 
 hour in length, in the divinity-schools, on that day fortnight. 
 
 I read my dissertation at the appointed time and place, and 
 was unanimously elected the day following. On the 14th of the 
 ensuing November I took the chair, made a long inauguration 
 speech, and presided at my first act in the presence of a numerous 
 audience. 
 
 Thus did I, by hard and incessant labour for seventeen years, 
 attain, at the age of thirty-four, the first office for honour in the 
 University; and, exclusive of the Mastership of Trinity College, 
 I have made it the first for profit. I found the Professorship not 
 worth quite 330/. a-year, and it is now worth 1000/. at the least. 
 
 On being raised to this distinguished office, I immediately 
 applied myself with great eagerness to the study of divinity. 
 Eagerness, indeed, in the pursuit of knowledge was a part of my 
 temper, till the acquisition of knowledge was attended with 
 nothing but the neglect of the King and his ministers ; and I feel 
 by a broken constitution at this hour, the effects of that literary 
 diligence with which I laboured for a great many years. 
 
39 
 
 I reduced the study of divinity into as narrow a compass as I 
 could, for I determined to study nothing but my Bible, being 
 much unconcerned about the opinions of councils, fathers, 
 churches, bishops, and other men, as little inspired as myself. 
 This mode of proceeding being opposite to the general one, and 
 especially to that of the Master of Peterhouse, who was a great 
 reader, he used to call me uvrohduxrog, the self-taught divine. — 
 The Professor of Divinity had been nick-named Malleus Hcereti- 
 corum ; it was thought to be his duty to demolish every opinion 
 which militated against what is called the orthodoxy of the 
 Church of England. Now my mind was wholly unbiassed; I had 
 no prejudice against, no predilection for the Church of England; 
 but a sincere regard for the Church of Christ, and an insuperable 
 objection to every degree of dogmatical intolerance. I never 
 troubled myself with answering any arguments which the oppo- 
 nents in the divinity schools brought against the articles of the 
 church, nor ever admitted their authority as decisive of a diffi- 
 culty ; but 1 used on such occasions to say to them, holding the 
 New Testament in my hand, En sacrum codicem! Here is the 
 fountain of truth, why do you follow the streams derived from it 
 by the sophistry, or polluted by the passions of man ? If you can 
 bring proofs against any thing delivered in this book, I shall 
 think it my duty to reply to you ; articles of churches are not of 
 divine authority ; have done with them ; for they may be true, 
 they may be false ; and appeal to the book itself. This mode of 
 disputing gained me no credit with the hierarchy, but I thought 
 it an honest one, and it produced a liberal spirit in the University. 
 — In the course of this year (1771) I had printed an essay on the 
 subject of chemistry, and given it to a few of myfriends; by 
 
40 
 
 some means or other it fell into the hands of the authors of the 
 Journal Encyclope'dique ; who, in giving an account of it said, that 
 I had followed the author of the Systbne de la Nature. I wrote but 
 indifferent French ; I ventured, however, to send them the follow- 
 ing letter : — 
 
 " Messieurs, 
 " Je suis tres flatte par la critique que vous avez faite sur mon 
 Essai de Chymie. II auroit ete suivi de plusieurs autres plus 
 interessans peut-etre, et plus dignes de votre attention, si mon 
 elevation a la Chaire Theologique n'avoit pas interrompue mes 
 speculations sur la Chymie et la Physique. Mais permettez, je 
 vous en prie, a ce petit enfant d'appartenir a moi seul, comme a 
 son pere. Je l'estimerois indigne de mes soins, et je l'abandonne- 
 rois sans regret, s'il n'etoit, vraisemblablement, le dernier gage de 
 mon amour pour la Physique qui verra la lumiere. Sur l'honneur 
 d'un amateur des sciences, je n'ai jamais lu ni vu le Systeme de la 
 Nature, ni quelque autre livre sur le sujet de mon essai. 
 
 ? J'ai l'honneur d'etre, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 In a following journal this letter was published, and an apology 
 was made for the mistake they had fallen into in their criticism. 
 Before I ventured to publish this piece, I submitted it for his 
 advice to the perusal of my friend Dr. Law, and he returned it to 
 me with this note : " Publish, Meo Periculo (pmavra (rvnromv." 
 
 In 1772, I published two short letters to the Members of the 
 House of Commons, under the feigned name of a Christian 
 
41 
 
 Whig, and put myself to the expense of giving a copy of the 
 first to every member of the House, the day before the clerical 
 petition was taken into their consideration. I was then, and at 
 all times a great admirer of the integrity and ability of Sir George 
 Saville ; and without acquainting him with my purpose, I took 
 the liberty of inscribing to him the second letter in the follow- 
 ing terms : — "A stranger to the person of Sir George Saville 
 inscribes this tract to his character." In 1773, upon maturely 
 weighing the question concerning the abstract right which a 
 national church may claim of requiring subscription to human 
 articles of faith from its public ministers, I published a small 
 tract entitled, " A brief State of the Principles of Church Autho- 
 rity." When I visited my diocese in June, 1813, I read it ver- 
 batim to my clergy as my charge to them, and was requested by 
 them to publish it, with the following preface: 
 
 " A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Llandaff. 
 " Reverend Brethren, 
 
 " It is not unknown, I presume, to many amongst you, that I 
 have been your Bishop for above thirty years ; but it cannot 
 be known by any of you that nine years before I became 
 Bishop of Llandaff, I published in London a short anonymous 
 tract entitled, ' A brief State of the Principles of Church Au- 
 thority.' 
 
 " A desire of settling my own opinions on some important 
 points, was my sole motive for then making that publication ; 
 few of you, I believe, have ever met with it, and fewer pro- 
 bably of those who have formerly met with it, have ever 
 perused it, and not one perhaps of those who may formerly 
 
42 
 
 have perused it, now recollects its contents. Under such cir- 
 cumstances I do not deem it necessary to make any apology 
 for introducing it at present to your consideration. The sub- 
 ject of it demands the most dispassionate discussion at all times, 
 and especially at this time, when such subjects are much agi- 
 tated, and I trust always agitated with candour and liberality 
 by both Churchmen and Dissenters of different denominations." 
 
 f! Appendix to the ' Brief State. 9 — In this tract it is said that 
 every church has a right of explaining to its ministers what 
 doctrines it holds, and of permitting none to minister in it who 
 do not profess the same belief with itself. This conclusion has 
 been thought by some whose judgment I greatly esteem to be 
 erroneous, and I have been advised by them many years ago to 
 reconsider the reasoning from which it is deduced. I have re- 
 considered the whole pamphlet, and must own that I cannot 
 perceive any false reasoning in any part of it. I am sensible, 
 however, that the mind of man, when it has once come to a con- 
 clusion on any subject is apt, in every subsequent examination of 
 it, to give too much weight to the arguments by which the con- 
 clusion is established, and too little to those by which it is 
 opposed, and I am far from being confident that my mind, in 
 reviewing this subject, is free from the general infirmity. I may 
 still be in an error ; and if I am, I earnestly request you, my 
 Reverend Brethren, to believe that it is an error perfectly invo- 
 luntary : I have not been betrayed into it from a design or a 
 desire of saying any thing in support of the Established Church 
 beyond or beside what I thought true with respect to every other 
 voluntary assembly of Christians associated for divine worship. 
 
43 
 
 Whether the majority of the members of any civil community 
 have a right to compel all the members of it to pay towards the 
 maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by the majority, to 
 preach a particular system of doctrines, is a question which 
 might admit a serious discussion. I was once of opinion, that 
 the majority had this right in all cases, and I am still of opinion 
 that they have it in many. But I am staggered when I consider 
 that a case may happen, in which the established religion may 
 be the religion of a minority of the people, that minority, at the 
 same time, possessing a majority of the property, out of which 
 the ministers of the establishment are to be paid." 
 
 My sentiments as to the expediency of requiring from the 
 ministers of the Established Church a subscription to the present 
 articles of religion, or to any human confession of faith, further 
 than a declaration of belief in the Scriptures, as containing a 
 revelation of the will of God, may be collected from what I have 
 said in the two pamphlets subscribed " A Christian Whig," and 
 " A consistent Protestant." These tracts were well received by 
 the world; but detesting controversy, I never owned them. 
 They were composed more from my own reflections on the 
 subject, than from adverting to what others had said upon it. 
 I have since had satisfaction in finding, that my thoughts on 
 many points, both religious and civil, were in perfect coincidence 
 with those of Bishop Hoadley ; and I glory in this, notwith- 
 standing the abuse that eminent prelate experienced in his own 
 time, and notwithstanding he has been in our time sarcastically 
 called, and what is worse, injuriously called by Bishop Horseley, 
 a republican bishop. 
 
 g 2 
 
44 
 
 My constitution was ill fitted for celibacy, and as soon, 
 therefore, as I had any means of maintaining a family I married. 
 My wife was the eldest daughter of Edward Wilson, Esq. of 
 Dallum Tower, in Westmoreland. We were married at Lancaster 
 on the 21st of December, 1773. During a cohabitation of above 
 forty years, she has been every thing I wished her to be ; and I 
 trust I have lived with her, and provided for her, as a man not 
 unconscious of her worth, ought to have done. 
 
 The day after my marriage I set forward to take possession 
 of a sinecure rectory in North Wales, procured for me, from the 
 Bishop of St. Asaph, by the Duke of Grafton, out of a kind 
 consideration of my being ill provided for ; as I had no prefer- 
 ment but the professorship of divinity. This sinecure, on . my 
 return to Cambridge, I exchanged for a prebend in the church of 
 Ely : the exchange was wholly owing to the unsolicited attention 
 of the Duke. At the time he did me this favour, we thought 
 differently on politics. I had made no scruple of every where 
 declaring, that I looked upon the American war as unjust in its 
 commencement, and that its conclusion would be unfavourable to 
 this kingdom, and His Grace did not abandon the administration 
 till October, 1775. — As I had then the good fortune to see a 
 person to whom I was so much obliged come over to my opinion, 
 I could not forbear giving a proof of my gratitude, by printing 
 the following letter in the Public Advertiser, though the Duke 
 never, I believe, knew that I wrote it. 
 
45 
 
 " To His Grace the Duke of Grafton. 
 " My Lord Duke, November 27. 1775. 
 
 " Your Grace owes not this letter to the prostituted pen of an 
 hireling, nor to the forward zeal of a dependant, nor to the 
 partial warmth of personal attachment ; but to a love for truth 
 and a reverence for justice. And who that has a regard for 
 either, can hear without abhorrence Your Grace's separation from 
 the ministry branded as an apostasy from honour, and the most 
 illustrious action of your life stigmatised as a desertion of the 
 interests of your country ? — I mean not to become Your Grace's 
 panegyrist, further than my conscience tells me you deserve 
 praise. I have no talent for adulation ; it suits not my temper, 
 and my situation sets me above the temptation of using it ; but if 
 the heart of Junius be not obstructed by private pique, if malig- 
 nant habitudes have not rendered him callous to the honourable 
 feelings of a man, he will blush with shame and remorse for 
 having mistaken and traduced your character : he will embrace 
 with eagerness this fair opportunity of retracting his abuse, and 
 candidly portray Your Grace to the world in such striking colours 
 of truth and honour as may obliterate from the memory of every 
 ingenuous man the base aspersions of his calumny. Your loyalty 
 to the King has ever been above suspicion ; your adherence to 
 the liberties of the people has been represented by your enemies 
 as precarious and problematical ; but your breaking a bond of 
 union with those whom personal regards and the intercourse of 
 social life had rendered dear to you, your voluntarily incurring 
 the displeasure of a Sovereign whom you loved, your resigning 
 an honourable and lucrative post so soon as you were persuaded 
 that the measures of administration tended to the oppression of 
 
46 
 
 the people and the ruin of the empire, — these sacrifices of 
 interest and affection (the greatest surely a man can make) to 
 conscience, will ever be remembered, by impartial men, to yOur 
 credit, and cannot fail to exalt your character as a man of 
 integrity, as a supporter of the indefeasible rights of mankind, 
 far beyond the temporary reach of ministerial invective or 
 personal malevolence. 
 
 " Lord Effingham stands deservedly high in the estimation of 
 the public, and Your Grace's conduct is not less eminently great. 
 
 " Party may say that you are mistaken, but it cannot say that 
 you are not honest. Such instances of disinterested patriotism 
 are uncommon in any history, and would have done credit to 
 the early periods of Roman history. — In these times, and in this 
 nation, when an attention to the public good is apt to be considered 
 by wise men as folly ; when individuals in every class of life, I had 
 almost said in every department of the state, are more ashamed of 
 poverty than of dishonour, and when luxury makes almost every in- 
 dividual poor ; they demand the hearty approbation of every lover 
 of his country. 
 
 " I am, &c." 
 
 Such were my sentiments of the defect of public principle, and 
 of the progress of general luxury in 1775; and in 1813 they are 
 not altered. At the time I published this letter, I knew very little 
 Of the Duke of Grafton, as an acquaintance ; I had afterwards more 
 intimacy with him, and I was for many years, indeed as long as 
 he lived, happy in his friendship. It appears from some hundreds 
 of his letters which he had ordered at his death to be returned 
 unread to me, that we had not always agreed either in our political 
 
47 
 
 or religious opinions ; but we had both of us too much sense to 
 suffer a diversity of sentiment to deaden the activity of personal 
 attachment. I never attempted either to encourage or to dis- 
 courage his profession of Unitarian principles, for I was happy to 
 see a person of his rank, professing with intelligence and with 
 sincerity Christian principles. If any one thinks that an Unita- 
 rian is not a Christian, I plainly say, without being myself an 
 Unitarian, that I think otherwise. 
 
 I never printed any thing else in a newspaper except a letter 
 in defence of the Bishop of Peterborough, who had followed the 
 Duke of Grafton in quitting the ministry ; and the subsequent one 
 in support of what I conceived to have been neglected by our 
 Chancellor, when he recommended to us for one of our members 
 of Parliament an obscure country-gentleman : — ■ 
 
 " My Lord Duke, 
 
 " Learned bodies have ever been studious of acquiring the pro- 
 tection of men distinguished either by eminency of rank or 
 excellency of talents. Your Grace became our Chancellor from 
 the united influence of these motives. We were happy in thinking 
 that we had attached to our interest a nobleman, whose high birth 
 would add honour to his abilities, and whose abilities, upon any 
 emergency, would explain to the House of Lords our ancient 
 principles, or solicit for us such new indulgences from the legis- 
 lature as the change of times might render suitable to the par- 
 ticularities of our situation, and conducive to the good of the 
 public. 
 
 We doubt not Your Grace's disposition to exert yourself in our 
 
48 
 
 favour, when an occasion offers; but we are sorry that in the 
 recommendation of a candidate to succeed Mr. De Grey, as our 
 representative in Parliament, Your Grace had forgotten, as it were, 
 both the dignity of your own character and the respect due to 
 ours. We received your recommendation of Mr. De Grey without 
 reluctance ; we knew him to be a man of merit, and, upon that 
 account, were cordially disposed to give him every mark of our 
 respect, and to confide in his ability to serve us. But we are dis- 
 satisfied with the gentleman designed for his successor : we have 
 no particular objections to him as a private man ; nay, we believe 
 him equal to the transacting the business of the Borough of 
 Downton, but we by no means think him of consequence enough 
 in life to be the representative, or of ability sufficient to support 
 the interest of the University of Cambridge. Your Grace has 
 added lustre to our University, by giving us two resident Bishops. 
 You have rendered services to some other individuals ; they are 
 men of integrity; doubtless you will receive from them the tribute 
 of private gratitude. As a body we thank you for this attention to 
 individuals ; but we call upon you also for an attention to our 
 general good, which, in the present instance, we think you have 
 much neglected. In one word, My Lord, you must not consider 
 us as a venal borough. You have secured to yourself the heads of 
 some colleges : they have, in their respective societies, some little 
 influence; but I plainly tell Your Grace, that there is a large body 
 of independent members of the Senate who are well affected to 
 Your Grace's interest, but who cannot be brought to give it an 
 indiscriminate support. 
 
 « I am, &c." 
 
49 
 
 I had taken singular pains in the education of Lord Granby, 
 both before my marriage and after it ; I was therefore highly 
 gratified in receiving from him a letter, at Lancaster, dated the 
 17th of August, 1775, in which was the following paragraph: — 
 
 " If the Whigs will not now unite themselves in opposition to 
 " such a Tory principle, which has established the present un- 
 " constitutional system, this country will be plunged into perdition 
 " beyond redemption. I never can thank you too much for 
 " making me study Locke ; while I exist, those tenets, which are 
 " so attentive to the natural rights of mankind, shall ever be the 
 " guide and direction of my actions. — I live at Chevley; I hope 
 " often to see you ; you may, and I am sure you will, still assist 
 " me in my studies. Though I have formed a Tory connexion, 
 " Whig principles are too firmly rivetted in me ever to be re- 
 " moved. Best compliments to Mrs. Watson, and reserve to 
 " yourself the assurance of my being most affectionately and sin- 
 " cerely yours, 
 
 " Granby." 
 
 Answer, 
 
 " My Dear Lord. Trumpington, August 15th, 1775. 
 
 " I got home the day before yesterday, and employ my first leisure 
 in answering your letter, which I received at Lancaster. Nothing 
 can give me greater pleasure than the finding you so well satisfied 
 with the part I have taken in your education ; and that you may, 
 some time or other, become a great and an honest minister is the 
 warm wish of my heart. 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 " As to your studies, you may ever command my best assistance 
 in the furtherance of them ; you certainly ought not to think 
 yourself at liberty to lay them aside at your age ; books, indeed, 
 never made a great statesman, and business has made many; yet 
 books and business, combined together, are the most likely to 
 enlarge your understanding, and to complete the character you 
 aim at 
 
 " Persevere, I beg of you, in the resolution of doing something 
 for yourself ; your ancestors have left you rank and fortune ; these 
 will procure you that respect from the world, which other men 
 with difficulty obtain, by personal merit. But if to these you add 
 your own endeavours to become good, and wise, and great, then 
 will you deserve the approbation of men of sense. 
 
 " General reading is the most useful for men of the world, but 
 few men of the world have leisure for it ; and those who have 
 courage to abridge their pleasures for the improvement of their 
 minds* would do well to consider that different books ought to be 
 read with very different degrees of attention ; or, as Lord Bacon 
 quaintly enough expresses it, some books are to be tasted or 
 read in part only ; some to be swallowed or read wholly, but not 
 cursorily ; and some to be digested, or read with great diligence, 
 and well considered. Of this last kind are the works of Lord 
 Bacon himself. Nature has been very sparing in the production 
 of such men as Bacon ; they are a kind of superior beings ; and 
 the rest of mankind are usefully employed for whole centuries in 
 picking up what they poured forth at once. Lord Bacon opened 
 the avenues of all science, and had such a comprehensive way of 
 thinking upon every subject, that a familiarity with his writings 
 cannot fail of being extensively useful to you as an orator ; and 
 
51 
 
 there are so many shrewd observations concerning human nature 
 dispersed through his works, that you will be much the wiser for 
 them as a private man. 
 
 " I would observe the same of Mr. Locke's writings, all of 
 which, without exception (even his letters to the Bishop of Wor- 
 cester will teach you acuteness in detecting sophistry in debate), 
 may be read over and over again with infinite advantage. His rea- 
 soning is every where profound, and his language masculine. I hate 
 the flimsy womanish eloquence of novel readers, I mean of such as 
 read nothing else, and wish you, therefore, to acquire both just- 
 ness of sentiment and strength of expression, from the perusal of 
 the works of great men. Make Bacon, then, and Locke, and why 
 should I not add that sweet child of nature, Shakspeare, your chief 
 companions through life, let them be ever upon your table, and 
 when you have an hour to spare from business or pleasure, spend 
 it with them, and I will answer for their giving you entertainment 
 and instruction as long as you live. 
 
 " You can no more have an intimacy with all books than with 
 all men, and one should take the best of both kinds for one's 
 peculiar friends ; for the human mind is ductile to a degree, and 
 insensibly conforms itself to what it is most accustomed to. Thus 
 with books as with men, a few friends stand us in better stead than 
 a multitude of folks we know little of. I do not think that you 
 will ever become a great reader, I hope your time will be better 
 employed ; and yet, considering the worthless way in which the 
 generality of men of fashion weary out their existence, the odds 
 are against my hopes ; yet I do hope it, and therefore will not 
 burden you with the recommendation of a learned catalogue of 
 ancient authors. One of them, however, I must mention to you ; 
 
 h 2 
 
52 
 
 all the works of Plutarch are excellent, whether read in the ori- 
 ginal or in a good translation, and his Lives in particular will fur- 
 nish you not only with the knowledge of the greatest characters 
 in antiquity, but will give you no mean insight into the most 
 interesting parts of the Greek and Roman histories. Eloquence 
 was never learned by rule, and Tully, and Quintilian, and Lon- 
 ginus themselves could not have made a Chatham ; but a frequent 
 reading of the best compositions, ancient and modern, will be of 
 service to you. 
 
 " Locke has laid in you a good foundation, or rather has finished 
 the work of civil government, so that other authors upon that 
 subject are less necessary for you; from him you are become 
 acquainted with some of the principal questions of natural Law ; 
 however, I think it would be very serviceable for you, and tend 
 greatly to the furnishing your mind with a species of knowledge 
 which you will have frequent occasion for, though you may not 
 at present, perhaps, be aware of the want of it, if you would take 
 the trouble to peruse with attention some good author upon the 
 Laws of Nature. Among the great number who have treated 
 that subject with success, I am of opinion that Rutherforth's 
 Institutes (a kind of commentary upon Grotius De Jure Belli et 
 Pads), will, upon the whole, be the best book for you to employ 
 your time upon. I am no stranger to what is urged in favour of 
 Puffendorf, Cumberland, Hutchinson, Burlamaqui, and other 
 more modern productions ; but trust me for once, and you will 
 not have any reason, I hope, to think your confidence in this 
 matter misplaced. I take it for granted that one author will be 
 as much as you will have patience for upon that subject ; and, 
 indeed, I think one will be as much as you will have occasion for. 
 
53 
 
 From the knowledge I have of the course of your former studies, 
 and the apprehension of what, from your present situation as a 
 young nobleman just entering into life, you will have the most 
 immediate concern for, I should wish you to begin with Ruther- 
 forth immediately ; and when you have read him leisurely and 
 carefully quite through, as soon as you have finished him, and 
 not before, if you would read Blackstone's Commentaries with an 
 equal degree of attention, I should think you very well grounded ; 
 and depend upon it no superstructure can be raised where there 
 is no foundation. Sapere is as truly the principium et fons of 
 good speaking as of good writing. I will not trouble you with 
 any thing more upon this subject at present, for the books I have 
 mentioned to you will require more time than you will be able 
 shortly to give them. I have had no regard in what I have 
 written to a fine plan, which it is much easier for me to form 
 than for any one to execute, but barely to what I think will be 
 most useful to you at present, and most conducive to the one 
 great end of your becoming a distinguished character in the ma- 
 nagement of national affairs, at some more distant period of your 
 life. Different books may be proper for you as you increase in 
 knowledge, and the best modern publications will fall in your 
 way of course. As to mathematics and natural philosophy, though 
 much of my own time has been spent in the cultivation of them, 
 I do not think that they ought to be a principal pursuit with you. 
 Euclid would have done much towards fixing your attention ; but 
 Locke has well supplied his place, and I will, at any time when 
 you have leisure and inclination for such an undertaking, make 
 you acquainted with any one or with all the branches of natural 
 philosophy. Not that you will have much time upon your hands 
 
54 
 
 soon, for marriage enlarges the sphere of a man's engagements, 
 and a woman who has sense and goodness enough to relish 
 domestic pleasures (and few other pleasures are either satisfactory 
 or durable, to say no worse of them), has a right to break in upon 
 a man's hours of study, and to every attention in his power to 
 shew her. 
 
 " I heartily wish you well in the new mode of life you are en- 
 tering into ; much depends upon your setting out properly ; be a 
 Whig in domestic as well as political life, and the best part of 
 Whiggism is, that it will neither suffer nor exact domination. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Lord Granby ! I feel myself concerned in 
 your happiness and success in life, and in this concern your rank 
 in civil society has no share. It is the man I look at, and the 
 connexion I have had with him, which makes me wish you well, 
 and bids me assure you that you may command every act of 
 friendship in my power. 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " Richard Watson." 
 
 In November, 1775, the University of Cambridge, following 
 the example of Oxford, thought fit to address the King, exhorting 
 him to the continuance of the American war. The address was 
 proposed to the senate by Dr. Farmer, the most determined of 
 Tories. On that occasion I received the following letter from the 
 Marquis of Rockingham, which I am induced to leave behind 
 me, not only as one proof amongst a thousand of his true pa- 
 triotism and good sense, but because I conceive it to be an honour 
 to myself to have been well thought of by him. 
 
55 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " Allow me to express the very real pleasure and satisfaction 
 which I felt at receiving your letter on Monday night ; I had 
 heard several days ago that there was an intention to try to pro- 
 cure an address from the University of Cambridge, and though 
 my information was not very clear and decisive, yet I thought it 
 sufficiently well founded to communicate it to the Duke of 
 Grafton and Lord Granby. They at that time doubted the pro- 
 bability of the attempt, but in the middle of the last week I 
 again received, from the Duke of Manchester, so much more 
 confirmation, that I immediately got it again communicated to 
 the Duke of Grafton and Lord Granby. I imagine the Bishop 
 of Peterborough's going to Cambridge at the time he did might 
 be occasioned by it. 
 
 " Lord Granby, as member for the University, feels a doubt on 
 the propriety of his being active in this business ; and yet I confess 
 I wished much, from the first, that not only the Duke of Grafton 
 and Lord Granby, but that also the friends of Whig principles 
 would bestir themselves to prevent what I really think will be a 
 great disgrace to the University. I am still not without hopes 
 that the address will be stopped; I have much reliance that 
 although Whig principles may lie as it were dormant, yet the 
 occasion will bring them out ; and I think the Whig University 
 of Cambridge being called upon to play tl?3 second fiddle to the 
 Tory University of Oxford, will even alarm that sort of pride, 
 which is sometimes not an useless guardian to virtue. Lord 
 Richard Cavendish was with me late last night; I find there are 
 a few who would incline to set out on the shortest notice. 
 
56 
 
 " Mr. Thomas Townsend was with me this morning, and I saw 
 Mr. Montague yesterday. 1 find both of them hesitate on the 
 propriety of a few considerable persons going down, as it were 
 by surprise, to prevent what may be the sense of the resident 
 persons in the University. 
 
 " I will try to see Sir G. Saville to-morrow morning ; I saw 
 him yesterday on various matters, and totally omitted asking his 
 opinion in respect to this affair at Cambridge. I enclose you a 
 list, as Lord Richard Cavendish and I made it out ; you will see 
 we know of but few who are in London, and those few are 
 chiefly persons in the University. 
 
 " It is no small satisfaction to me to find, that the only two 
 persons with whom I have the honour to have any intercourse at 
 Cambridge, namely, yourself and Dr. Ellison, are always to be 
 found acting on those principles whereon our first acquaintance 
 was grounded. No event, I trust, can ever operate on any of us 
 to shake that cement, I hope you will receive this letter early 
 in the morning, and that I may have an answer from you before 
 four o'clock in the evening ; that in case, upon full consideration, 
 you think that even a few should set out, I may get it communi- 
 cated to them early in the morning. I imagine the business 
 cannot come on till Friday, at the soonest. 
 
 " I am, dear Sir, with very great truth and regard, 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, and sincere friend, 
 
 " Rockingham. 
 
 " Grosvenor-Square, Wednesday night, 
 past 12 o'clock, Nov. 22. 1775." 
 
57 
 
 * r 
 
 Answer. 
 • 
 
 " My Lord, Trumpington, Nov. 25. 1775. 
 
 " I did not get out of the Senate House soon enough for the 
 post on Friday last. The Tories beat us by eight votes in the 
 Whitehood House ; they owe their victory to the ministerial 
 troops, which were poured in from the Admiralty, Treasury, &c. 
 beyond expectation. I am quite sorry for this event, not only as 
 it is derogatory to our" former character, but as the sense of the 
 two Universities, thus publicly declared, may have an undue 
 weight with many individuals ; for the bulk of mankind is ever 
 more the creature of prejudice than of reason. 
 
 " Surely the clergy have a professional bias to support the powers 
 that are, be they what they may. But I will not say all I think 
 on this subject ; especially as this bias, if it exists, may proceed 
 as much from the moderation and forbearance inculcated by the 
 general tendency of their studies, as from the more obvious impu- 
 tation of interested motives. As I seldom come to London, I 
 have no opportunity of paying my respects to your Lordship, and 
 soliciting the honour of a nearer acquaintance ; but I am not on 
 that account less attached to one whom I have ever considered as 
 the head of the Whig interest in this kingdom ; and let the pen- 
 sioners and place-men say what they will, Whig and Tory are as 
 opposite to each other, as Mr. Locke and Sir Robert Filmer ; as 
 the soundest sense, and the profoundest nonsense ; and I must 
 always conclude, that a man has lost his honesty, or his intellect, 
 when he attempts to confound the ideas. 
 
 " Lord Richard Cavendish left me yesterday : he bids me hope 
 for an accession of strength to the minority after Christmas. 
 
58 
 
 Would to God, it may tend to effectuate a change of men and 
 measures, before we have blundered on beyond a possibility of 
 rectifying our mistake. 
 
 " It is an infatuation in the minister, next to a crime, to suppose 
 that the House of Bourbon, however quiescent and indifferent it may 
 appear at present, will not avail itself of our dissensions in every 
 possible way, and to every possible extent ; and the moment America 
 is compelled to open her ports, and to refuge her distress under 
 foreign protection, there will be an end of our history as a great 
 people. 
 
 ** I am, &c. 
 
 " Richard Watson." 
 
 How fully this prediction respecting the conduct of the House 
 of Bourbon, was verified by the event, every one knows ; and our 
 children will know, whether the other part of it was a groundless 
 prediction. 
 
 In 1776, it came to my turn to preach the Restoration and 
 Accession Sermons before the University : I published them 
 both, calling the first, " The Principles of the Revolution Vin- 
 dicated." 
 
 This Sermon was written with great caution, and at the same 
 time, with great boldness and respect for truth. In London it 
 was reported, at its first coming out, to be treasonable ; and 
 a friend of mine, Mr. Wilson, (the late Judge,) who was anxi- 
 ous for my safety, asked Mr. Dunning (afterzvards Lord Ash- 
 burton,) what he thought of it ; who told him, " that it contained 
 
59 
 
 just such treason as ought to be preached once a month at St. 
 James's." It gave great offence to the Court; and was at the 
 time, and has continued to be, an obstacle to my promotion. 
 
 I knew nothing of either Lord George Germaine, or the Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh ; but Mr. Cumberland, Lord George's secre- 
 tary, told Mr. Higgs, one of the Fellows of Trinity College, with 
 a view of what he said being repeated to me, that these two 
 personages had intended to propose me to the King, for the 
 Provostship of Dublin University. I asked what had made them 
 abandon their intention ? It was answered, your Sermon on the 
 Principles of the Revolution. I hastily replied, Bid Mr. Cum- 
 berland inform his principal, that I will neither ask or accept 
 preferment from Lord George Germaine, or from any other 
 person to whom these principles have rendered me obnoxious. 
 The loss of so great a piece of preferment would have broken 
 the spirit of many an academic ; and the desire of regaining 
 lost favour would have made him a suppliant to the Court for 
 life. It had no such effect on me. The firmness of this reply 
 was too much for Mr. Cumberland's political virtue ; for he after- 
 wards, in two sorry pamphlets, showed himself mine enemy. I 
 call them sorry pamphlets ; because, though there was some 
 humour, there was no argument in them. 
 
 On the first publication of this Sermon, I was much abused by 
 ministerial writers, as a man of republican principles. I did not 
 deign to give any answer to the calumny, except by printing on a 
 blank page, in subsequent editions of it, the following interpre- 
 
 i 2f- }' 
 
60 
 
 tation of the terms, from Bishop Hoadly's Works : — " Men of 
 Republican Principles — a sort of dangerous Men who have of 
 late taken heart, and defended the Revolution that saved us." 
 
 Mr. Fox, in debating the Sedition Bill, in December, 1795, 
 said, " that the measures of the united branches of the legislature 
 might be so bad, as to justify the people in resisting the govern- 
 ment. This doctrine he had been taught, not only by Sydney 
 and Locke, but by Sir G. Saville, and the late Earl of Chatham ; 
 and if these authorities would not suffice, he would refer the 
 House to a Sermon preached by Dr. Watson, the present Bishop 
 of LandafT, which in his opinion, was replete with manly sense 
 and accurate reasoning, upon that delicate but important subject." 
 
 I had always looked upon Mr. Fox to be one of the most con- 
 stitutional reasoners, and one of the most argumentative orators 
 in either House of Parliament. I was, at the time this compli- 
 ment was paid me, and am still, much gratified by it. The 
 approbation of such men ever has been, and ever will be, dearer 
 to me than the most dignified and lucrative stations in the 
 church. 
 
 In the summer of 1776, I published my Apology for Chris- 
 tianity. I was induced to look into Mr. Gibbon's History, by a 
 friend, (Sir Robert Graham,) who told me, that the attack upon 
 Christianity, contained in two of his chapters, could not be 
 repelled. My answer had a great run, and is still sought after, 
 though it was only a month's work in the long vacation. But if 
 I had been longer about it, though I might have stuffed it with 
 
61 
 
 more learning, and made it more bulky, I am not certain that I 
 should have made it better. The manner in which I had treated 
 Mr. Gibbon displeased some of the doughty polemics of the 
 time ; they were angry with me for not having bespattered him 
 with a portion of that theological dirt, which Warburton had so 
 liberally thrown at his antagonists. One of that gentleman's 
 greatest admirers, (Bishop Hurd,) was even so uncandid, as to 
 entertain, from the gentleness of my language, a suspicion of 
 my sincerity ; saying of the Apology, " it was well enough, if I 
 was in earnest." 
 
 I sent a copy before it was published to Mr. Gibbon, from 
 whom I received the following note. 
 
 " Mr. Gibbon takes the earliest opportunity of presenting his 
 compliments and thanks to Dr. Watson ; and of expressing his 
 sense of the liberal treatment which he has received from so can- 
 did an adversary. Mr. Gibbon entirely coincides in opinion with 
 Dr. Watson, that as their different sentiments on a very impor- 
 tant point of history are now submitted to the public, they both 
 may employ their time in a manner much more useful, as well as 
 agreeable, than they can possibly do by exhibiting a single com- 
 bat in the amphitheatre of controversy. Mr. Gibbon is there- 
 fore determined to resist the temptation of justifying in a 
 professed reply any passages of his history, which it might per- 
 haps be easy to clear from censure and misapprehension. But 
 he still reserves to himself the privilege of inserting, in a future 
 edition, some occasional remarks and explanations of his meaning. 
 If any calls of pleasure or business should bring Dr. Watson to 
 
62 
 
 town, Mr. Gibbon would think himself fortunate in being per- 
 mitted to solicit the honour of his acquaintance. 
 " Bentinck Street, Nov. 2d, 1776." 
 
 Answer to Mr. Gibbons Note. 
 " Dr. Watson accepts with pleasure Mr. Gibbon's polite invit- 
 ation to a personal acquaintance, and, if he comes to town this 
 winter, will certainly have the honour of waiting upon him; begs at 
 the same time to assure Mr. Gibbon, that he will be very happy to 
 have an opportunity of shewing him every civility, if curiosity or 
 other motives should bring him to Cambridge. Dr. Watson can 
 have some faint idea of Mr. Gibbon's difficulty, in resisting the 
 temptation he speaks of, from having of late been in a situation 
 somewhat similar himself. It would be very extraordinary if 
 Mr. Gibbon did not feel a parent's partiality, for an offspring 
 which has justly excited the admiration of all who have seen 
 it, and Dr. Watson would be the last person in the world, to 
 wish him to conceal any explanation which might tend to exalt 
 its beauties. 
 
 " Cambridge, Nov. 4th, 1776." 
 
 From a variety of complimentary letters I received on the first 
 publication of the Apology for Christianity, I have selected the 
 following, and that, not for the sake of the too flattering com- 
 pliment it contains, but because I am desirous that my name 
 should go down to posterity, as the friend of Dr. John Jebb. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 " Though I have a great idea of my own insignificance, and am 
 conscious that my approbation ought not to afford you any other 
 
63 
 
 satisfaction, than what may arise from the consideration of its 
 being the approbation of an hearty friend, yet I cannot prevail 
 with myself to be silent after the reading of your invaluable book. 
 I am delighted with it beyond measure. Various parts suggest 
 to me new lights which have quieted my mind, with respect to 
 some difficulties which I never expected to have seen so com- 
 pletely removed. It will no doubt encrease your already high 
 reputation, but it will do more, it will I trust remove the preju- 
 dices of many well disposed Deists, and be the happy mean of 
 converting them to the truth. The liberal sentiments that every 
 where prevail in it, do you the highest honour. I have heard of 
 a bishop who declares himself highly pleased with your perform- 
 ance. My wife who has a veneration for you is also prodigiously 
 satisfied, she is only a little alarmed lest you have found out a 
 greater mathematician than her friend Waring. But, I will 
 trouble you no more, except to mention that when you come to a 
 second edition, I will, if you excuse the presumption and approve, 
 point out two or three places, which possibly you would apply 
 your correcting hand to. The elegance, simplicity, and accuracy 
 of style, gives myself and all I converse with great pleasure. 
 May every happiness attend you. 
 
 " I am, with great esteem, 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " John Jebb." 
 
 Mr. Maseres, Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, and well known 
 to the world by his treatise on the negative sign, and other mathe- 
 matical works, had examined me for my degree, and twenty years 
 afterwards he did me the honour of recollecting that circumstance, 
 
64 
 
 and made me a present of his Canadian Freeholder. I returned 
 him thanks in the following letter. 
 
 « Sir, Cambridge, Oct. 11. 1777. 
 
 " Before I had read the third volume of your Dialogues, which 
 you were so kind as to send me, I lent it to the Bishop of Carlisle, 
 and he did not return it till last Thursday. I have now perused 
 it with great care, and find your arguments on every point so sin- 
 gularly clear and concise, that I heartily wish there was sense and 
 virtue enough in the kingdom to consider them with attention. 
 The two brochures, (The Christian Whig, and a Brief State of the 
 Principles of Church Authority,) which accompany this, were pub- 
 lished some years ago, without my name, and I mean not to own 
 them at present, lest I should be involved in theological contro- 
 versy, which generally ends in undue animosity ; but you will 
 perceive from them, that I am wedded to no system except that 
 of universal toleration and christian good will. Your distinctions 
 relative to the different degrees of toleration are undoubtedly just. 
 The government of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay have set 
 an example, I had almost said of justice in the disposal of the 
 public wealth for the maintenance of the ministers of religion, 
 well worthy the imitation of all Christian states ; and their mode- 
 ration ought to cover the sticklers amongst ourselves for American 
 episcopacy, with contrition and confusion. 
 
 " By virtue of my office in the university, I am a minister of the 
 Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts; but ever since 
 my appointment to the Professorship of Divinity, I have reso- 
 lutely refused contributing any thing towards the support of the 
 
65 
 
 society, because I always believed that its missionaries were more 
 zealous in proselyting Dissenters to episcopacy, than in converting 
 Heathens to Christianity. This conduct of mine has been con- 
 sidered as exceeding strange, and has given great offence ; but 
 I had rather offend all the dignitaries of the church for ever, 
 than act contrary to my decided judgment for an hour, and 
 your book will now inform them, that my reasons for not sub- 
 scribing were well founded. Whenever I consider how much 
 the Church of Christ has been polluted by the ambition of its 
 ministers, how much the great ends of civil society have been 
 perverted by a lust of domination in its rulers, it makes me 
 regret the low condition of humanity, and excites a longing 
 for some other existence where the petty passions incident 
 to ouv nature will be done away ; where truth, and honesty, 
 and charity, and all the virtues which either a philosopher or 
 a Christian can set any value upon, shall be practised with less 
 disadvantage. 
 
 " I am a man of no kind of ceremony, and shall be happy in 
 cultivating your acquaintance whenever I have an opportunity. 
 This short scene of life is too important to be wrangled away in 
 endless disputes, on subjects of politics, or religion, with men who 
 are ignorant of every useful object of knowledge, or with those 
 whose judgments are warped by interest or misguided by passion. 
 I look upon the improvement of the understanding, by a free 
 communication of sentiments with a candid and intelligent friend, 
 as one of the greatest blessings on this side the grave. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson/' 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 In the beginning of the year (1779), Mr. Gibbon published an 
 answer to his various antagonists, who had animadverted on his 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This 
 answer was distinguished by great severity towards other men, 
 but by great courtesy towards myself. I thought myself called 
 upon to write to Mr. Gibbon, and sent him the subjoined letter. 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " It will give me the greatest pleasure to have an opportunity of 
 becoming better acquainted with Mr. Gibbon ; I beg he would 
 accept my sincere thanks for the too favourable manner in which 
 he has spoken of a performance which derives its chief merit from 
 the elegance and importance of the work it attempts to oppose. 
 
 " I have no hope of a future existence except that which is grounded 
 on the truth of Christianity ; / wish not to be deprived of this hope : 
 but I should be an apostate from the mild principles of the religion 
 I profess, if I could be actuated with the least animosity against 
 those who do not think with me, upon this, of all other the most 
 important subject. I beg your pardon, for this declaration of my 
 belief, but my temper is naturally open, and it ought, assuredly, 
 to be without disguise to a man whom I wish no longer to look 
 upon as an antagonist, but a friend. — 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 This letter was published in Mr. Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works 
 and Life in 1796, and no sooner published than noticed by the 
 King, who spoke to me of it at his Levee, calling it an odd letter. 
 I did not immediately recollect the purport of it ; but on His 
 
67 
 
 Majesty's repeating his observation, it occurred to me, and I in- 
 stantly said to him, that I had frequently met with respectable 
 men, who cherished an expectation of a future state, though they 
 rejected Christianity as an imposture, and that I thought my 
 publicly declaring that I was of a contrary opinion might perhaps 
 induce Mr. Gibbon, and other such men, to make a deeper inves- 
 tigation into the truth of religion than they had hitherto done. 
 His Majesty expressed himself perfectly satisfied, both with my 
 opinion and with my motive for mentioning it to Mr. Gibbon. 
 
 In February, 1780, 1 preached, at the request of the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor, the Fast Sermon before the University. A little before 
 this time several counties had begun to follow the example of 
 Yorkshire, in petitioning Parliament against the undue influence 
 of the Crown ; amongst the rest an ambiguous advertisement had 
 been published by the Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, which gave 
 occasion to the following letter to the Duke of Manchester, then 
 Lord-Lieutenant of the county. 
 
 " My Lord Duke, Cambridge, Jan. 9th, 1780. 
 
 " As Regius Professor of Divinity, I have no inconsiderable pro- 
 perty at Somersham. I observe a meeting of the county is adver- 
 tised for an address to Parliament. If the address be designed to 
 convey the most distant approbation of the public measures which 
 have been carrying on for several years, I should be glad to have 
 an opportunity of giving it an hearty negative. I take the liberty 
 of signifying this to Your Grace, because indispensable business in 
 the University, on the day appointed for the meeting, will prevent 
 my attendance at Huntingdon ; and, if the opinion of an absent 
 
 k 2 
 
68 
 
 man can be of any weight, I should be happy to have mine ex- 
 pressed by Your Grace. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 « R. Watson." 
 
 In answer to a letter from the Duke of Manchester, informing 
 me that a petition was intended, and pressing me to attend the 
 county meeting, I sent the following reply. 
 
 " My Lord Duke, Cambridge, Jan. 13th, 1780. 
 
 « I T gives me real concern that public business, which cannot be 
 put off, requires my presence at Cambridge on the day fixed for 
 the county meeting at Huntingdon. Would to God there may 
 be virtue and good sense enough in the kingdom to second 
 the endeavours of those who are doing all they can to save their 
 country ; but the influence of the Crown (which has acquired its 
 present strength more, perhaps, from the additional increase of 
 empire, commerce, and national wealth, than from any criminal 
 desire to subvert the constitution,) has pervaded, I fear, the whole 
 mass of the people. Every man of consequence almost in the 
 kingdom, has a son, relation, friend, or dependant, whom he wishes to 
 provide for ; and, unfortunately for the liberty of this country, the 
 Crown has the means of gratifying the expectation of them all. 
 
 "I do not think so ill of mankind, but that some men of integrity 
 may be found who, in their public conduct, prefer the conscious- 
 ness of acting right to every prospect of advantage ; but their 
 number is comparatively small, and is decreasing every day. The 
 proposed petition to parliament is so true in its principles, so di- 
 vested of party prejudices, so temperate in its expressions, and every 
 
69 
 
 way so adapted to do good, that 1 cannot question but it will meet 
 with the approbation of the honest, the sensible, and the disin- 
 terested of all sides. For my part, I beg leave to give it, with all 
 possible truth and good conscience, my most hearty concurrence. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 The Duke of Manchester published these two letters without 
 my privity ; he ought certainly to have had my permission to 
 have done it, but the publication gave me no concern ; the letters 
 contained my real sentiments, and I had no fear of having my 
 sentiments known. I had not the usual prudence, shall I call it, 
 or selfish caution, of my profession at any time of life, — Ortu$ a 
 quercu non a salice, I knew not how to bend my principles to the 
 circumstances of the times. I could not adopt that versatility of 
 sentiment which Lord Bacon, with his wonted sagacity, but with 
 more of worldly wisdom than of honour, recommends in his 
 eighth book De Augmentis Scientiarum, as necessary to a man 
 occupied in the fabrication of his own fortune : Ingenia, he says, 
 gravia et solennia, et mutare nescia, plus plerumque habeant dignitatis 
 quam felicitatis. Hoc vero vitium (I cannot esteem it a vitium) in 
 aliquibus a natura penitus insitum est, qui suopte ingenio sunt viscosi, 
 et nodosi, et ad versandum ineptL. Were this viscosity, this nodo- 
 sity of temper somewhat more common amongst us, (especially 
 amongst the members of both Houses of Parliament,) I cannot 
 think that either the public interest or private respectability 
 of character would be lessened thereby. My Fast Sermon was 
 eagerly bought up ; the city of London purchased a whole edition 
 of one thousand copies, which they distributed gratis. The 
 
70 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury (Cornwallis) had expressed himself 
 rather petulantly, in the presence of Lord Camden, against my 
 sermon, " The Principles of the Revolution vindicated," and was 
 reproved for it by His Lordship, who told him, that it contained 
 the principles in which His Grace, as well as himself, had been 
 educated. I sent a copy of my Fast Sermon to him with the 
 following letter : 
 
 " My Lord Archbishop, Cambridge, Feb. 7. 1780. 
 
 " One of my sermons has, I have been informed, met with 
 Your Grace's disapprobation ; and this may have a similar fate. 
 I have no wish but to speak what appears to me to be the truth 
 upon every occasion, and never yet thought of pleasing any 
 person or party when I spoke from the pulpit ; so that, if I am 
 in an error, it is at least both involuntary and disinterested. I never 
 come to London ; but my situation in this place, sufficiently 
 difficult and laborious, gives me, in the opinion of many, a right 
 not to be overlooked, and it certainly gives me a right not to be 
 misunderstood by the head of the Church. 
 
 "I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 This letter was not at all calculated to promote a good under- 
 standing between the Archbishop and myself: but I was very 
 indifferent about it, and I never afterwards troubled myself with 
 him ; for I had no opinion of his abilities, and he was so wife- 
 ridden I had no opinion of his politics. My predecessor had 
 been fifteen, and I had been nine years Professor of Divinity, 
 without either of us having been noticed, as to preferment, by 
 
71 
 
 either the Archbishop or the ministers of the Crown ; and I had 
 more pleasure in letting the Archbishop see that I was not to be 
 intimidated, than I should have had in receiving from him the 
 best thing in his gift, after a long servile attention. 
 
 My temper could never brook submission to the ordinary 
 means of ingratiating myself with great men j and hence Dr. 
 Hallifax, (afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph,) whose temper was 
 different, called me one of the Biugou; and he was right enough 
 in the denomination. I was determined to be advanced in my 
 profession by force of desert, or not at all. It has been said, 
 (I believe by D'Alembert,) that the highest offices in church and 
 state resemble a pyramid whose top is accessible to only two 
 sorts of animals, eagles and reptiles. My pinions were not strong 
 enough to pounce upon its top, and I scorned by creeping to 
 ascend its summit. Not that a bishoprick was then or ever an 
 object of my ambition ; for I considered the acquisition of it as 
 no proof of personal merit, inasmuch as bishopricks are as often 
 given to the flattering dependants, or to the unlearned younger 
 branches of noble families, as to men of the greatest erudition ; 
 and I considered the profession of it as a frequent occasion of 
 personal demerit ; for I saw the generality of the Bishops barter- 
 ing their independence and the dignity of their order for the 
 chance of a translation, and polluting Gospel-humility by the 
 pride of prelacy. I used then to say, and I say so still, render the 
 office of a bishop respectable by giving some civil distinction to 
 its possessor, in order that his example may have more weight 
 with both the laity and clergy. Annex to each bishoprick some 
 portion of the royal ecclesiastical patronage which is now pros- 
 
72 
 
 tituted by the Chancellor and the minister of the day to the purpose 
 of parliamentary corruption, that every Bishop may have means 
 sufficient to reward all the deserving clergy of his diocese. 
 
 Give every Bishop income enough, not for display of worldly 
 pomp and fashionable luxury, but to enable him to maintain 
 works of charity, and to make a decent provision for his family : 
 but having done these things for him, take from him all hopes of 
 a translation by equalizing the bishopricks. Oblige him to a 
 longer residence in his diocese than is usually practised, that he 
 may do the proper work of a Bishop ; that he may direct and 
 inspect the flock of Christ ; that by his exhortations he may confirm 
 the unstable, by his admonitions reclaim the reprobate, and by the 
 purity of his life render religion amiable and interesting to all. 
 
 About this time my friend General Honeywood offered to give 
 me for my life, and for the life of my wife, a neat house at the 
 end of his park at Markshall in Essex. The situation was suf- 
 ficiently attractive, and I wanted a place to retire to occasionally 
 from my engagements at Cambridge ; but I thought as Marmontel 
 had done on a similar present being offered him by M. de Marigny, 
 ce don etoit une chaine, etje nen voulois point porter. 
 
 In a little time after the publication of my Fast Sermon, a 
 printed Letter was addressed to me by an anonymous correspond- 
 ent. The Letter was written with some spirit, but with little 
 argument. Not being of a resentful temper, I sent the following 
 letter to the publisher of the pamphlet, and desired him to com- 
 municate it to the author. 
 
73 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " You have thought me worthy of your public correspondence. 
 Whether you are really the old friend you pretend to be or not, 
 permit me to assure you that I could wish you would come and 
 spend a few days with me ; my mind is open to conviction ; your 
 conversation might convert me, or mine might have the same 
 effect on you. I never can have the least resentment against any 
 one who differs from me on principle, and you and I do not, 
 probably, differ so much as you suppose ; for my wishes to heal 
 what I apprehend to be a dangerous wound in our civil consti- 
 tution, will ever, I trust, be regulated by a regard for peace and 
 Christian charity. 
 
 . " Would to God the King of England had men of magnanimity 
 enough in his councils, to advise him to meet, at this juncture, 
 the wishes of his people ; he would thereby become the idol of 
 the nation, and the most admired monarch in Europe. 
 
 " You mistake me 9 Sir, if you suppose that I have the most distant 
 desire to make the democratic scale of the constitution outweigh the 
 monarchical. Not one jot of the legal prerogative of the crown do 
 I wish to see abolished ; not one tittle of the King's influence in the 
 state to be destroyed, except so far as it is extended over the repre- 
 sentatives of the people. 
 
 " There are a few mistakes in your publication, relative to the 
 motives of my conduct. They may be involuntary mistakes, and 
 as such I forgive them : they may be voluntary ones, and in that 
 case, I wish you may forgive yourself. As to any asperities in 
 sentiment or expression into which you may have been betrayed, 
 from thinking me a sad political criminal, who deserved chastise- 
 
74 
 
 ment, I heartily forgive them all, because I am conscious that 
 they are all unmerited. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 I presently received a flimsy answer, to which I returned the 
 following reply : — 
 
 " Sir, " Cambridge, April 14th, 1780. 
 
 " Though an hour's conversation would bring us better ac- 
 quainted with each other's sentiments, than a month's corres- 
 pondence can do, yet I should think myself deficient in the 
 common intercourses of social life, if I did not return you my 
 acknowledgements for the regard you have expressed for my 
 private character: the compliments you have paid me must be 
 attributed to your partiality more than to my desert. 
 
 " You must excuse me if I think that the principles which you 
 admit to be true in theory cannot be applied in practice. I am 
 not very sanguine in my expectations of reform, but much may 
 be done by honest men, and without blood ; and whether any 
 thing can be done or not, still must I hold it to be the duty of 
 each individual firmly to profess what appears to him to be right, 
 though all the world should be on the other side of the question. 
 By a contrary conduct, many a moral and political evil has been 
 established, and many a virtue banished from amongst mankind ; 
 just as many a battle has been lost, from each man saying, why 
 should not I run away as well as the rest ? which might have been 
 won, if each man had said, I will stand and do my duty, let 
 others do what they will. 
 
15 
 
 " I am not the Satan you esteem me ; for I do not think with 
 Satan, that it is " better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven." 
 But / do think, that it is better to bask in the sun, and suck a for- 
 tuitous sustenance from the scanty drippings of the most barren rock 
 in Switzerland, with freedom for my friend, than to batten as a 
 slave, at the most luxurious table of the greatest despot on the globe, 
 
 " The King, notwithstanding, has not a more loyal subject, nor 
 the constitution a warmer friend. 
 
 " I most readily submit to laws made by men exercising their 
 free powers of deliberation for the good of the whole ; but when 
 the legislative assembly is actuated by an extrinsic spirit, then 
 submission becomes irksome to me ; then I begin to be alarmed ; 
 knowing with Hooker, that to live by one maris will, becomes the 
 cause of all meris misery. I dread despotism worse than death ; 
 and the despotism of a Parliament worse than that of a King ; 
 but I hope the time will never come, when it will be necessary 
 for me to declare that I will submit to neither. I shall probably 
 be rotten in my grave, before I see what you speak of, the tyranny 
 of a George the Sixth, or of a Cromwell ; and it may be that I 
 want philosophy in interesting myself in political disquisitions, in 
 apprehending what may never happen ; but I conceive that I am 
 to live in society in another state, and a sober attachment to theo- 
 retic principles of political truth cannot be an improper ingre- 
 dient in a social character, either in this world or in the next. 
 
 " You think the county-members as obnoxious to influence as 
 the borough-members. This theory is not confirmed by observ- 
 ation ; for in the great division on the 6th of April, the boroughs 
 of Cornwall alone furnished twenty-seven voters, and the Cinque 
 Ports thirteen, in support of the influence of the crown, and all 
 
 L 2 
 
76 
 
 the counties in England and Wales did not furnish twelve. But 
 I forbear entering into the argument of either your public or 
 private letter. I am persuaded you mean as well as myself, and 
 I leave the matter in dispute between us to the judgment of the 
 public. 
 
 " I really have no fair ground of suspecting to whom it is that I 
 am writing, nor have I any curiosity on the subject ; it is enough 
 for me to know that I am writing to a gentleman of genius and 
 ability who wishes me no ill, and to one who is philosopher 
 enough to excuse the diversities of men's opinions on most intel- 
 lectual subjects, knowing that they are to be explained upon much 
 the same principles by which he would explain the differences 
 observable in their statures and complexions. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 I received another letter from my anonymous correspondent, 
 in which he confessed that his pamphlet did not sell, and that my 
 sermon was much read. He requested me at the same time not 
 to publish his letters. Several years afterwards I understood that 
 I was indebted to a man I had no acquaintance with (Mr. Cum- 
 berland) for this notice. Upon another occasion he published 
 what he thought an answer to my letter to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. I had too great contempt for his powers of argumen- 
 tation to answer any thing he published against me : he had merit 
 as a versifier and a writer of essays, but his head was not made 
 for close reasoning. There are, says Locke, " some men of one, 
 " some of two syllogisms and no more, and others that can 
 " advance but one step further. These cannot always discern 
 
•77 
 
 w that side on which the strongest proofs lie." Mr. Cumberland 
 was at most a two syllogism man. 
 
 I had some time before this applied to the Duke of Rutland to 
 forward a petition in Cambridgeshire upon the plan of the York- 
 shire petition : but I soon found that even His Grace's concur- 
 rence could not conciliate to such a measure some of the leading 
 gentlemen in the county. Many respectable families in Cam- 
 bridgeshire had, during the preceding reign, been avowed Jacobites, 
 and in this they were professed supporters of the Tory system. 
 Passing, therefore, over the gentlemen, we got an hundred prin- 
 cipal yeomen to sign a requisition to the sheriff to call 'a county- 
 meeting. This requisition the sheriff refused to comply with: 
 upon his refusal the meeting was called by the yeomen who had 
 signed the requisition to the sheriff, and it was very well attended 
 by persons of all ranks. The meeting was holden in the Senate- 
 house-yard, as the county-hall could not contain the numbers, on 
 the 25th of March, 1780. Lord Duncannon was appointed 
 chairman of the meeting; and the following petition, which I had 
 previously prepared, was read, and almost unanimously approved 
 of; for, on a show of hands, only one or two were held up 
 against it. 
 
 " To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Par- 
 liament assembled : the Petition of the Gentlemen, 
 Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of Cambridge, 
 Sheweth, 
 " That your petitioners do thus publicly declare their entire and 
 zealous approbation of the legislature of this country, as placed 
 
78 
 
 in the free and independent concurrence of King, Lords, and 
 Commons, in preference to every other mode of civil government. 
 That they anxiously wish the blessing of this form of legislation 
 to be continued to their latest posterity, in its constitutional 
 purity. That they seriously apprehend this form of legislation 
 will be essentially vitiated, if not virtually changed, whenever the 
 treasure and offices of the community shall be successfully em- 
 ployed to bring the representatives of the people under the undue 
 influence of the executive government. That they conceive a 
 strong tendency to the change is at present, and has formerly 
 been too notorious to admit of doubt or to require proof. That 
 they conceive every system of public administration carried on by 
 means of parliamentary corruption, however sanctioned by time, pre- 
 cedent, or authority, to be absolutely unjustifiable upon every principle 
 of good sense, and sound policy ; to be as dishonourable to the up- 
 right intentions of the Crown, as it is burdensome to the property and 
 dangerous to the liberty of the people. 
 
 " Your petitioners do therefore most solemnly apply themselves 
 to the honour, the justice, the integrity of this honourable House, 
 praying that effectual measures may be taken by this House, to 
 enquire into and correct any gross abuses in the expenditure of 
 public money, to reduce all exorbitant emoluments of office, to 
 rescind and abolish all sinecure places and unmerited pensions, 
 and to use all such other constitutional means, as may tend to 
 establish the independence of Parliament on the most lasting 
 foundations. 
 
 " And your petitioners are the more earnest in their prayer, 
 because they are of opinion that no other expedient can 
 
79 
 
 equally tend to heal our domestic divisions, to unite the whole 
 nation in the warmest support of His Majesty's person and go- 
 vernment, against the unprovoked hostilities of the house of 
 Bourbon, and to put a final period to that primary source of 
 national distress, the American war." 
 
 After the petition was agreed to by the county-meeting, a com- 
 mittee was established for promoting the object of the petition, 
 and the meeting was adjourned to the 10th of the following 
 April. The Duke of Rutland was made chairman of the com- 
 mittee, which consisted of fifty-one members. He requested 
 that I would be a delegate from the county of Cambridge, to 
 meet the delegates, which were to be sent from other counties, 
 in London ; but this office I refused to accept. He imagining 
 that my refusal proceeded from an apprehension of being ill 
 thought of at court, jocularly said, You must be forced down the 
 King's throat as well as the rest of us, I assured him that my 
 refusal proceeded from a regard to my situation ; that I did not 
 think it suitable to my station as a clergyman, and especially as 
 a Professor of Divinity, to enter so deeply into political con- 
 tentions. 
 
 On the 6th of April, four days before our second county- 
 meeting, the House of Commons took the petitions of the people 
 into consideration, and authenticated the grievances therein com- 
 plained of. The minister was beat upon the main question, by a 
 majority of 233 to 215. The three following resolutions were 
 passed by the House on that ever memorable day. 
 
80 
 
 "1. That it is necessary to declare, that the influence of the 
 Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. 
 
 " 2. That it is competent to the House of Commons to examine 
 into, and to correct abuses in the expenditure of the civil list 
 revenues, as well as in every other branch of the public revenue, 
 whenever it shall seem expedient to the wisdom of the House 
 so to do. 
 
 " 3. That it is the duty of the House of Commons to provide, as 
 far as may be, an immediate and effectual redress of the abuses 
 complained of in the petitions presented to the House from the 
 different counties, cities, and towns of this kingdom." 
 
 Glorious resolutions these ! fit to be inscribed on tablets of 
 gold, and hung up in both Houses of Parliament, to inform suc- 
 ceeding ages, that the principles of the Revolution stimulated, in 
 1 780, a majority of the House of Commons to struggle against the 
 danger impending over the constitution from the increased and 
 increasing influence of the Crown ! ! ! 
 
 Before these resolutions were passed in the House of Commons, 
 I had prepared a plan of association for the county of Cambridge, 
 in which the main things insisted on were, the not suffering any 
 candidate for the county to be at any expense, on account of the 
 votes and interest of the associates, — and the not supporting any 
 candidate at the next general election who would not engage to 
 vote for triennial Parliaments. Despairing of rendering the 
 electors honest, or the elected incorruptible at once, I thought 
 that an election without expense, and a triennial Parliament, were 
 the first means towards accomplishing a thorough reformation of 
 the constitution. I differed in this opinion from some of those 
 
81 
 
 whom I considered as the first Whigs of the country ; but 
 their arguments appeared to me to bear a temporising cast, and 
 as I had no sinister end in view, I could not bring myself to give 
 up my own opinion to theirs. Mr. Burke had much influence 
 with them ; I admired, as every body did, the talents, but I did not 
 admire the principles, of that gentleman. His opposition to the 
 clerical petition first excited my suspicion of his being an high 
 churchman in religion, and his virulent abuse of Doctor Price 
 persuaded me that he was a Tory, perhaps, indeed, an aristocratic 
 Tory, in the state. Our petition had been signed by near a thou- 
 sand freeholders in less than a week ; there was a great dislike in 
 the county to an association, and thinking that no good could be 
 derived from an association, that was not generally approved of, I 
 drew up the following paper, as a more conciliatory measure to the 
 county, and a more respectful one to the House of Commons. 
 The Duke of Rutland, as Chairman of the Committee, read both 
 the plan of association, and the following paper, to the Committee 
 before we went to the County Hall, on the day appointed for the 
 meeting ; and a majority of the Committee being of opinion, that 
 an association should not then take place, the following paper was 
 delivered to Lord Duncannon, Chairman of the meeting, and read 
 by him to the freeholders assembled in the County Hall on the 
 16th of April, 1780: — 
 
 " Whereas the Committee, appointed at the last county meeting, 
 for effectually promoting the object of the petition to Parliament 
 then agreed to ; and for preparing a plan of association on legal 
 and constitutional grounds, to support the laudable reform therein 
 recommended; and for adopting such other measures as may 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 conduce to restore the independence of Parliament, have received 
 authentic information, that the general allegation of the said 
 petition, and of many other petitions from various counties, cities, 
 and boroughs, respecting the influence of the executive govern- 
 ment over the representatives of the people, hath been taken into 
 consideration, and admitted by the Honourable the Commons of 
 Great Britain in Parliament assembled to be just and well founded; 
 and whereas the said Commons have resolved, that the increased 
 and increasing influence of the Crown (or in words to that effect) 
 ought to be diminished ; and whereas this very important resolu- 
 tion was followed by other resolutions, tending to a laudable 
 reform in the expenditure of public money, and to the establishing 
 the independence of Parliament on the most lasting foundations: 
 the Committee, taking these and other circumstances into their 
 most serious consideration, and being desirous of showing all proper 
 respect to the deliberations, and of placing a due reliance on the 
 discretion and integrity of the representatives of the people, do 
 for these reasons decline, for the present, proposing any plan of 
 association, sincerely trusting that the House of Commons, having 
 made so noble a beginning, will be animated with a proper zeal to 
 persevere in deserving the highest confidence, and the warmest 
 thanks, of their constituents and fellow-subjects. The Committee 
 are thoroughly sensible that from the vicissitudes incident to all 
 human establishments, the civil constitution of this country hath 
 suffered in the course of less than a century some change, and 
 that it doth at present stand in need of some reform ; but whether 
 that reform may be best accomplished by recurring to triennial 
 Parliaments ; by disfranchising the lesser boroughs ; by increasing 
 the number of the Knights of the Shires ; by regulating the ex- 
 

 83 
 
 pencliture of public money ; or by other means, they do not at 
 present think proper to declare their opinions ; being persuaded 
 that the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, 
 having signified their inclination to make a reform, do not stand 
 in need of being instructed in the mode of doing it. The Com- 
 mittee, being actuated by the most unfeigned regard for the con- 
 stitution of their country, feel a satisfaction which cannot be 
 expressed, in hoping that the representatives of the people, called 
 upon, as they are, by the voice of the people, will unite in healing 
 our internal divisions, by confirming our - confidence in their 
 integrity ; will conspire as zealously in protecting the prerogative of 
 the Crown from all attempts to lessen it, as in protecting the repre- 
 sentatives of the people from that corrupting influence, which fore- 
 bodes the ruin of the constitution, and which they in their wisdom 
 have already resolved ought to he diminished." 
 
 This paper was agreed to by the meeting, which was then ad- 
 journed sine die, subject to the call of the Committee; and the Com- 
 mittee was adjourned sine die, subject to the call of the Chairman. 
 
 Upon subsequent questions in the House of Commons, which 
 tended to realise the general proposition concerning the reduction 
 of the influence of the Crown, the Minister so successfully exerted 
 that influence, that nothing effectual was done, and he continued 
 in office, contrary to the sense of the people, shewn not only by 
 the petitions of the people out of Parliament, but by their repre- 
 sentatives in Parliament, who had, on more occasions than one, 
 out-voted him on important questions. In preceding reigns 
 ministers were dismissed when they lost the confidence of the 
 
 M 2 
 
84 
 
 people, but there was no Pretender to the throne of George the 
 Third!!! 
 
 An insurrection, on the score of religion, soon after happened 
 iu London ; and this circumstance, though wholly unconnected 
 with the petitioning interest of the kingdom, very much disheart- 
 ened the friends of reform, and imboldened the Tories to circulate 
 the basest calumnies against the principal Lords and Commons 
 then in opposition to the ministry. I myself saw a letter from 
 the then Archbishop of York (Markham) accusing them of being 
 the fomentors of the riots. I mention this, not with a desire of 
 stigmatising a man, in many respects estimable, but to guard 
 other zealots from supporting their party by uncharitable judg- 
 ments — an " evil tongue," is censurable in any man, but is 
 past bearing in an Archbishop. I from this time clearly saw 
 that the Crown, through the instrumentality of influenced Par- 
 liaments, could do any thing. The mischief of the American war 
 was carried on under the sanction of Parliament, and everv other 
 mischief will be carried on in the same way ; for a minister would 
 want common sense to run any risk in taking upon himself re- 
 sponsibility for obnoxious measures, when he could secure the 
 consent of Parliament to almost any measure he might propose. 
 I see not, in the nature of our government, any remedy for this 
 evil. You cannot take from the Crown the means of influencing 
 Parliament, by lodging these means in any other hands, without 
 destroying the constitution, and you cannot (such is the largeness 
 of your debt, your commerce, your army, your navy, and the extent 
 of your empire) extinguish those means. A few real patriots may 
 sigh over this tendency of our constitution to despotism, and it 
 may, from time to time, meet with some obstruction, not only 
 
85 
 
 from the virtue of individuals in and out of Parliament, but from 
 the moderation and the wisdom of the Crown itself, but it will 
 ultimately prevail. Such were my sentiments above thirty years 
 ago ; and nothing has since happened to make me change them, 
 but many, many things to confirm them. 
 
 In May, 1780, I published a Charge to the Clergy of the Arch- 
 deaconry of Ely, at my Primary Visitation. This Charge was 
 principally intended to recommend an establishment at Cam- 
 bridge, for the express purpose of translating and publishing 
 Oriental Manuscripts wherever found. And I hinted, that the 
 then litigated estate of Sir Jacob Downing might, when adjudged 
 to the University, be properly employed in supporting an Oriental 
 College. This Discourse was republished, without my consent 
 being asked, at Calcutta in 1785, and made the first article of the 
 first volume of the Asiatic Miscellany. Among other compli- 
 mentary letters sent me on this occasion, I received one from 
 Dr. Keene, Bishop of Ely, in which he expressed his wishes, that 
 I had formed my character solely upon the learning and ability 
 (he was pleased to say) I possessed, and not on politics. This 
 bishop of Ely had been made a bishop by the Duke of New- 
 castle, for supporting the Whig interest in the University of 
 Cambridge in the late reign ; I therefore instantly returned him 
 the following answer, which was no more than his apostasy from 
 Whiggism deserved : — 
 
 " My Lord, Cambridge, May 28. 1786. 
 
 " I am much flattered by Your Lordship's approbation of my 
 
 Charge. My politics may hurt my interest, but they will not 
 
86 
 
 hurt my honour. They are the politics of Locke, of Somers, and 
 of Hooker, and in the reign of George the Second they were the 
 politics of this University. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Watson." 
 
 Seeing the readiness with which the petition had been signed 
 by the freeholders in the county of Cambridge, I persuaded the 
 Duke of Rutland to offer his brother (Lord Robert Manners) for 
 the county, at the general election in 1780. The two other can- 
 didates were Mr. Yorke (the present Lord Hardwicke), and Sir 
 Sampson Gideon (now Lord Eardley). The whole planning and 
 conducting of this business fell upon me. My tolerating princi- 
 ples had gained me the esteem of the Presbyterian Dissenters, 
 and their support contributed essentially to the carrying the 
 election on the 14th of September, 1780. The poll was finished, 
 by my contrivance, as to the manner of taking the votes in a few 
 hours, by which a very great expense was saved to all the candi- 
 dates, and all tumult was avoided. With the transactions by 
 which the borough of Cambridge was afterwards thrown into the 
 power of the Rutland family I had no concern : I would not be- 
 come an instrument in ministerial traffic for a rotten borough. 
 
 In February, 1781, I received a letter from the Du^e of Rut- 
 land, informing me that the rectory of Knaptoft in Leicestershire, 
 in his patronage, was vacant, and offering me the presentation to 
 it. This favour was given me without any solicitation on my 
 part, and it was given me I believe not so much as a reward for 
 the service I had rendered him in the Cambridgeshire election, 
 
87 
 
 as for the extraordinary attention I had paid to him during the 
 course of his education at Cambridge. I was just then printing 
 the first two volumes of my Chemical Essays, and I had great 
 pleasure in dedicating them to His Grace. 
 
 On the 26th of July, 1781, I was seized with a dangerous fever, 
 the peccant matter of which being probably locked up by an im- 
 proper use of large doses of bark, reduced me in a few weeks 
 to the lowest state. When the faculty had given me over, and I 
 was in a state of insensibility, my wife saved my life by boldly 
 giving me at once a whole paper of James's Powder ; it operated 
 as an emetic, I discharged a vast quantity of putrid bile, &c and 
 slept soundly for seven hours after the operation. I continued, 
 however, still very weak, and went in October into Westmore- 
 land, to try if my native air would re-establish my health : but 
 neither air nor diet, nor the art of healing, nor a much better 
 thing than the art of healing, a good constitution, have enabled 
 me to get the better of the original disorder, which Sir Richard 
 Jebb called a paralysis of the stomach. Our two principal phy- 
 sicians at Cambridge showed the sagacity of their judgment, for 
 Professor Plumptree said, that I should take a great deal of pull- 
 ing down ; and Dr. Glynne said, that I should never get the 
 better of the disorder. I am not yet quite pulled down, nor have 
 I any prospect of getting well. It has been a great happiness 
 to me during this long illness, that my spirits have never failed 
 me. I have considered, during every period of my life, pain as 
 a positive evil which every percipient being must be desirous of 
 escaping ; but death is a door of entrance into a better life, which 
 may, by a sincere Christian, be considered as a blessing — ■ Thanks 
 
88 
 
 be to God for the inestimable gift of eternal life, through Jesus 
 Christ! 
 
 In March, 1782, Soame Jenyns published his Disquisitions on 
 Various Subjects. The seventh disquisition was wholly opposite 
 to the principles of government which I had maintained in the 
 sermon intitled, The Principles of the Revolution Vindicated; 
 and that sermon was evidently glanced at in some parts of the 
 Disquisition. This Toryism vexed me, and though I was very ill 
 at the time, I instantly wrote an answer to it. I did not get 
 Mr. Jenyns's book till Thursday in the afternoon, and I sent off 
 the answer to it, to be printed in London, on the evening of the 
 next day, under the title of, An Answer to the Disquisition on 
 Government, in a letter to the author of Disquisitions on Several 
 Subjects. 
 
 I had severity enough in my disposition, had I indulged it, to 
 have written bitter replies to whatever was published against me ; 
 but partly from the pride of conscious political innocence, and 
 partly from a principle of Christian forbearance, I took no notice 
 of the senseless malignity of any of them. 
 
 On the 25th of March, 1782, a total change of ministry took 
 place. I happened then to be in London, and had the honour of 
 dining with Lord Rockingham on that day. When we were alone 
 after dinner, he gave me an account of the manner in which the 
 change of administration had been effected ; and he read to me 
 the several propositions to which he required the King's explicit 
 consent, before he would accept the office of First Lord of the 
 
89 
 
 Treasury. The propositions were of the utmost public import- 
 ance; such as, — There being no veto put on the acknowledging the 
 independence of America — The suffering the Contractors and 
 Custom-House Officers' Bill to pass — The reduction of the in- 
 fluence of the Crown, by the abolition of useless offices — The 
 introduction of a system of general economy in every depart- 
 ment of the state. 
 
 In the course of the conversation on public matters, which I 
 then had with the Minister, I took occasion to say, that among 
 other subjects of reform I hoped he would think of reforming the 
 bench of Bishops. He asked, by what means ? — I answered, the 
 best means might not be practicable without exciting too great a 
 ferment in the country, but that the rendering the Bishops inde- 
 pendent in the House of Lords by taking away translations, would, 
 I thought, be a measure exceedingly useful in a political light ; 
 this, I added, might be done without injuring any individual, by 
 annexing, as the sees became vacant, part of the property of the 
 rich bishoprics to the poorer ones, so as to bring the whole as 
 near as possible to an equality. The revenues of the bishoprics, 
 when thus equalised, would, I apprehended, be a sufficient main- 
 tenance for all the bishops, without suffering any of them to hold 
 commendams. His Lordship thanked me for the hint, and said, 
 that he should be happy to have an opportunity of serving the 
 public in serving me. I answered, that I would never be trouble- 
 some to him in asking for any thing. 
 
 Several counties presented addresses to the King on the change 
 of the ministry ; and I drew up the following for the County of 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 Cambridge, which was unanimously approved of at a County 
 meeting on the 8th of June, 1782. 
 
 " Most gracious Sovereign, 
 
 " We Your Majesty's loyal subjects, freeholders and other 
 inhabitants of the county of Cambridge, beg leave to approach 
 your throne; and we approach it with, we presume, a well- 
 grounded confidence that you will be graciously pleased to accept 
 our thanks, which we now tender to Your Majesty, for your 
 paternal goodness to your people, shown in your confiding your 
 councils and the administration of public measures to men of 
 approved integrity, consummate ability, intelligent activity, un- 
 doubted loyalty, and firm attachment to the genuine constitution 
 of their country. 
 
 " Under the auspices of such an administration, we trust that 
 our enemies of the house of Bourbon will yet be humbled ; that 
 our ancient Allies will see cause to regret their (Holland leagued 
 with France) new connections, and that our brethren in America 
 will not be averse from peace. — We sincerely congratulate 
 Your Majesty on the success of your arms in the East and West 
 Indies as a probable mean of effectuating these ends. 
 
 " Persuaded that by such ministers our money will not be 
 misapplied, we will with cheerfulness submit to any burden, 
 which may enable Your Majesty to convince the Powers of 
 Europe, that you have the singular felicity of reigning over a 
 free and magnanimous people, impatient of the most distant tendency 
 to despotism, but above all others affectionate to their Prince, and 
 zealous for his glory. 
 
91 
 
 " Convinced that a system of parliamentary corruption is dero- 
 gatory from the wisdom and equity of Your Majesty's govern- 
 ment ; expensive to the state, and ruinous to the constitution ; 
 we beg leave to express our hearty approbation of the measures 
 which Your Majesty's ministers have taken in parliament to 
 destroy it ; and at the same time to testify our most cordial 
 thanks to Your Majesty for the greatness of mind displayed in 
 your concurring with such salutary councils. What more remains 
 to be done, we doubt not will be done, with as just a regard to the 
 monarchical as to the democratical part of the constitution; for we 
 are not of those who wish the constitution were altered, but restored 
 to its original purity." 
 
 In composing this address, and indeed in all my other political 
 writings and speeches, I seem to have forgotten that I lived in 
 Romuli fiece, and not in Platonis UoXijeia. 
 
 On coming home (July 2. 1782) from creating the doctors in 
 the Senate-House, I was informed that Lord Rockingham had 
 died the day before. This would have been a dreadful blow to a 
 man of ambition, but it gave me no concern on my own account ; 
 for though he had flatteringly told me, that he was so perfectly 
 satisfied with my public conduct, that he should be glad of an 
 opportunity of serving the country in serving me, yet I had no 
 expectation that he had then an intention (as I was afterwards 
 told by Lord John Cavendish he had) of promoting me to a 
 bishopric. I sincerely regretted the great loss which the public 
 sustained by his death; for he was a minister of greater ability 
 than was generally believed, and he possessed that integrity of 
 
 n 2 
 
92 
 
 constitutional principle, without which the greatest ability is 
 calculated only to do great mischief. 
 
 When Lord John Cavendish informed me of Lord Rocking- 
 ham's intention towards me, he informed me also, that I might 
 apply with probable effect either to the Duke of Grafton or the 
 Duke of Rutland ; but I made no application to either of them ; 
 I called however at Euston on the following Monday, in my way 
 to Yarmouth. 
 
 The Duke of Grafton then told me that the Bishop of Landaff 
 (Barrington) would probably be translated to the See of Salisbury, 
 which had become vacant a few days before the death of Lord 
 Rockingham, and that he had asked Lord Shelburne, who had 
 been appointed First Lord of the Treasury, to permit me to suc- 
 ceed to the bishopric of Landaff. This unsolicited kindness of 
 the Duke of Grafton gratified my feelings very much, for my 
 spirit of independence was ever too high for my circumstances. — 
 Lord Shelburne, the Duke informed me, seemed very well dis- 
 posed towards me, but would not suffer him to write to me ; and 
 he had asked the Duke whether he thought the appointment 
 would be agreeable to the Duke of Rutland. Notwithstanding 
 this hint, I could not bring myself to write to the Duke of Rutland, 
 who had not at that time forsaken the friends of Lord Rocking- 
 ham. I knew his great regard for me, but I abhorred the idea of 
 pressing a young nobleman to ask a favour of the new minister, 
 which might in its consequences sully the purity of his political 
 principles, and be the means of attaching him without due con- 
 sideration to Lord Shelburne' s administration. Not that I had 
 
any reason to think ill of the new minister: I was personally 
 unacquainted with him, but I was no stranger to the talents he 
 had shown in opposing Lord North's American war ; and Lord 
 Rockingham had told me, that Lord Shelburne had behaved very 
 honourably to him in not accepting the Treasury, which the King 
 had offered to him in preference to Lord Rockingham. I 
 mention this circumstance in mere justice to Lord Shelburne ; 
 whose constitutional principles and enlarged views of public 
 policy rendered him peculiarly fitted to sustain the character of 
 a great statesman in the highest office. 
 
 On the 12th of the same month, the Duke of Rutland wrote 
 to me at Yarmouth — that he had determined to support Lord 
 Shelburne s administration, as he had received the most positive 
 assurances, that the independency of America was to be acknow- 
 ledged, and the wishes of the people relative to a parliamentary 
 reform granted. He further told me, that the bishopric of 
 Landaff, he had reason to believe, would be disposed of in my 
 favour if he asked it ; and desired to know, whether, if the offer 
 should be made, I would accept it. I returned for answer that I 
 conceived there could be no dishonour in my accepting a bishopric 
 from an administration which he had previously determined to 
 support ; and that I had expected Lord Shelburne would have 
 given me the bishopric without application, but that if I must 
 owe it to the interposition of some great man, I had rather owe 
 it to that of His Grace than to any other. 
 
 On Sunday, July 21st, I received an express from the Duke of 
 Rutland, informing me that he had seen Lord Shelburne, who 
 
94 
 
 had anticipated his wishes, by mentioning me for the vacant 
 bishopric before he had asked it. I kissed hands on the 26th of 
 that month, and was received, as the phrase is, very graciously ; 
 this was the first time that I had ever been at St. James's. 
 
 In this manner did I acquire a bishopric. But I have no 
 great reason to be proud of the promotion ; for I think I owed 
 it not to any regard which he who gave it me had to the zeal and 
 industry with which I had for many years discharged the func- 
 tions, and fulfilled the duties, of an academic life ; but to the 
 opinion which, from my Sermon, he had erroneously entertained, 
 that I was a warm, and might become an useful partisan. Lord 
 Shelburne, indeed, had expressed to the Duke of Grafton his 
 expectation, that I would occasionally write a pamphlet for 
 their administration. The Duke did me justice in assuring him, 
 that he had perfectly mistaken my character ; that though I 
 might write on an abstract question, concerning government or 
 the principles of legislation, it would not be with a view of 
 assisting any administration. 
 
 I had written in support of the principles of the Revolution, 
 because I thought those principles useful to the state, and I saw 
 them vilified and neglected ; I had taken part with the people 
 in their petitions against the influence of the Crown, because I 
 thought that influence would destroy the constitution, and I saw 
 that it was increasing ; I had opposed the supporters of the 
 American war, because I thought that war not only to be inexpe^- 
 dient, but unjust. But all this was done from my own sense of 
 things, and without the least view of pleasing any party : I did, 
 however, happen to please a party, and they made me a bishop. 
 
95 
 
 I have hitherto followed, and shall continue to follow, my own 
 judgment in all public transactions ; all parties now understand 
 this, and it is probable that I may continue to be Bishop of Lan- 
 daff as long as I live. Be it so. Wealth and power are but 
 secondary objects of pursuit to a thinking man, especially to a 
 thinking Christian. 
 
 At my first interview with Lord Shelbume, he expressed a 
 desire that we might become well acquainted ; and said, that as 
 he had Dunning to assist him in law points, and Barry in army 
 concerns, he should be happy to consult me in church matters. 
 I determined to make use of this overture as a mean of doing, as 
 I hoped, some service to religion, and to the Established Church ; 
 which, from a most serious and unprejudiced consideration, I had 
 long thought stood in great need of a fundamental reform. 
 
 A few days after this first interview, the Minister told me, that 
 he had from the first fixed upon me for the bishopric of Lan- 
 daff. I firmly asked him, why he had not then given it to me, 
 without waiting for the interference of any person ? He said, he 
 had given it without being asked by the Duke of Rutland ; but 
 he acknowledged that he wanted to please the Duke in the busi- 
 ness. I replied, that I supposed every minister was desirous of 
 making a piece of preferment go as far as possible in creating 
 obligations ; but that I should have been better pleased had he 
 given me the bishopric at once. I then informed him, that I 
 had something to say to him which required a little leisure to 
 discuss. He appointed a day on which I was to dine with him ; 
 and on that day (September 5th, 1782,) I delivered into his 
 
96 
 
 hands the following paper, the subjects of which had much 
 engaged my attention before I was a bishop, and I did not think, 
 that by becoming a bishop I ought to change the principles 
 which I had imbibed from the works of Mr. Locke : — 
 
 " There are several circumstances respecting the Doctrine, the 
 Jurisdiction, and the Revenue of the Church of England, which 
 would probably admit a temperate reform. If it should be 
 thought right to attempt making a change in any of them, it 
 seems most expedient to begin with the revenue. 
 
 " The two following hints on that subject may not be unde- 
 serving Your Lordship's consideration : — First, a bill to render 
 the bishoprics more equal to each other, both with respect to 
 income and patronage ; by annexing, as the richer bishoprics 
 become vacant, a part of their revenues, and a part of their 
 patronage, to the poorer. By a bill of this kind, the bishops 
 would be freed from the necessity of holding ecclesiastical prefer- 
 ments, in commendam, — a practice which bears hard on the rights 
 of the inferior clergy. Another probable consequence of such a 
 bill would be, a longer residence of the bishops in their several 
 dioceses ; from which the best consequences, both to religion, 
 the morality of the people, and to the true credit of the church, 
 might be expected ; for the two great inducements, to wish for 
 translations, and consequently to reside in London, namely, 
 superiority of income, and excellency of patronage, would in a 
 great measure be removed. 
 
 " Second, a bill for appropriating, as they become vacant, an 
 half, or a third part, of the income of every deanery, prebend, 
 or canonry, of the churches of Westminster, Windsor, Canterbury, 
 
97 
 
 Christ Church, Worcester, Durham, Ely, Norwich, &c. to the 
 same purposes, mutatis mutandis, as the first fruits and tenths 
 were appropriated by Queen Anne. By a bill of this kind, a 
 decent provision would be made for the inferior clergy, in a third 
 or fourth part of the time which Queen Anne's bounty alone will 
 require to effect. A decent provision being once made for every 
 officiating minister in the church, the residence of the clergy on 
 their cures might more reasonably be required, than it can be at 
 present, and the licence of holding more livings than one, be 
 restricted." 
 
 When I delivered this paper to Lord Shelburne, I told him 
 that I had long weighed the subject, but that I was not disposed 
 to introduce it into Parliament, if it met with his disapprobation, 
 as I neither wanted to embarrass his administration, nor wished 
 to risk the loss of the plan, by having it brought forward in oppo- 
 sition to the ministry. Lord Shelburne having, at a former 
 interview with him, asked, en passant, if nothing could be gotten 
 from the church, towards alleviating the burdens of the state, I 
 observed to him on this occasion, that the whole revenue of the 
 church would not yield, if it were equally divided, which could 
 not be thought of, above 150/. a year to each clergyman, a provi- 
 sion which, I presumed, he would not think too ample ; so that 
 any diminution of the church revenue seemed to me highly inex- 
 pedient in a political light, unless government would be contented 
 to have a beggarly and illiterate clergy, an event which no wise 
 minister would ever wish to see. Thus, at the very outset of my 
 episcopal life, did I endeavour to protect the church, though my 
 enemies have constantly represented me as desirous to injure it. 
 
98 
 
 Being strongly persuaded of the utility of my plan, I thought 
 the best way of accomplishing it would be to state it clearly, and 
 to submit it to the perusal of those who might be most instru- 
 mental in forwarding or obstructing it. In pursuit of this idea, I 
 drew up a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and privately 
 printed four copies. I sent one copy to Lord Shelburne, one to 
 the Duke of Grafton, one to the Duke of Rutland, and one to 
 Lord John Cavendish, with a letter to each of them. 
 
 Letter to Lord Shelburne, with a printed copy of one to the 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 ,. . 
 
 " My Lord, " Cambridge, Nov. 10. 1782. 
 
 " When Your Lordship first acquainted me with His Majesty's 
 intention to promote me to the See of Landaff, you not only 
 informed me of the sincere dispositions of both Their Majesties to 
 serve the cause of Christianity, but you wished me to turn my 
 thoughts that way : I herewith send Your Lordship some observa- 
 tions on a Reform in the Church, which I am firmly convinced, 
 might be very quietly made, and which would be exceedingly 
 useful in a religious view. I wish Your Lordship to let me know 
 whether you see any reason against submitting this matter to the 
 judgment of the public. If, after it has been thoroughly sifted, 
 it should be found reasonable to adopt the change proposed, Your 
 Lordship will derive no discredit from supporting it, nor will the 
 support of it create any disturbance to your administration. 
 
 " I flatter myself, that I am writing to a minister who does not 
 come under Grotius's description ; and indeed, unless I could 
 disbelieve the testimony of all who know him, I may be sure 
 
99 
 
 that he does not : Politici qui scepe dogmata vera a falsis, salubria 
 a noxiis, non norunt distinguere, omnia nova suspecta habent. 
 
 " Perhaps there would be no impropriety in laying the proposed 
 change in the establishment of the church, before His Majesty, 
 as being, under Christ, its chief head. I am so far from having 
 any objection to this, that I could wish, were it proper, it might 
 be done ; and whether it be proper or not, I beg leave to crave 
 Your Lordship's good offices, in assuring His Majesty of my sin- 
 cere respect and duty in this, and every other matter civil and 
 religious. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 My political principles, I knew, were not of a courtly cast, 
 and I had expressed myself so unequivocally on that subject in 
 my sermon on " The Principles of the Revolution vindicated," that 
 I wanted to prevent the King's being prejudiced on that account 
 against my plan ; and I thought if he read the letter calmly, he 
 could not disapprove of any part of it. 
 
 Lord Shelburne's Answer to my Letter. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " I have read your letter to the Archbishop attentively, though 
 hastily. I own to you that I am satisfied that it is impossible to 
 effect either of the propositions contained in it in the present 
 moment, and therefore only, improper to attempt either at this 
 moment. I trust as you do me so much justice in other respects 
 you will in this, by supposing me penetrated with the horrid 
 
 o 2 
 
100 
 
 situation of the lower clergy, and thoroughly sensible of the 
 advantages which would result to society and the public from 
 making it more comfortable and more respectable whenever a 
 favourable opportunity presents itself. I have not time to tell 
 Your Lordship all that occurs to me on this subject by letter. 
 I hope we shall meet on the 26th, and to have frequent op- 
 portunities of conversing with Your Lordship on these and other 
 matters. In the mean time, if I might take the liberty, I would 
 earnestly dissuade any immediate publication. ■» 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " Shelburne." 
 
 To this letter of Lord Shelburne' s I sent the following answer, 
 though I was sensible that non-acquiescerice in a minister's opi- 
 nions, was not the way to conciliate his regard. 
 
 " My Lord, Cambridge, Nov. 15. 1782. 
 
 " The impossibility of effecting either of the propositions in the 
 present moment (supposing it in deference to Your Lordship's 
 judgment, rather than admitting it to exist) is certainly a good 
 reason for not bringing the matter at the present moment before 
 Parliament ; but it is no reason, I humbly think, against doing all 
 that was intended by the letter, submitting it to public discus- 
 sion. I have this business so much at heart, that in order' to 
 effect it I will readily abandon the great prospects which my time 
 of life, connections, and situation Open to me, in as probable a 
 manner as they are opened to most other bishops on the bench. 
 I anxiously wish for Your Lordship's concurrence. It is a good 
 work, it will give all those who forward it outward credit and in- 
 
101 
 
 ward content. I pray you think of it at your leisure. I will 
 certainly postpone the publication till I have seen Your Lord- 
 ship. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In my letter to Lord John Cavendish, who was then in oppo- 
 sition, (and whom I did not acquaint with my correspondence 
 with Lord Shelburne, hoping by that means to have secured the 
 concurrence of both parties,) I requested him simply to tell me, 
 whether he thought that the intended publication would do me 
 any discredit, or the public any service. I had a good opinion of 
 Lord John's ability and integrity, and weight with the House of 
 Commons, and I shall neither hurt the cause nor his character by 
 publishing the answer which he sent me. 
 
 " My Lord, Billing, Nov. 21. 1782. 
 
 " I was absent from home all last week, so that I did not get 
 your letter till my return. You do me too much honour in think- 
 ing my opinion on such a subject worthy any notice. I have read 
 the letter to the Archbishop with my best attention, and am per- 
 fectly satisfied that it ought not to be the cause of discredit to 
 any man, but on the contrary do him the highest honour. The 
 objects of it are not only rational, but such as seem to me a great 
 improvement both in a religious and political light ; and are 
 stated with great clearness and temper. As to the chance of doing 
 good I cannot be so sanguine, as I should think it had not at 
 present much chance of success. Corrections of this sort are not 
 often brought to bear at the first trial. You are a much better 
 
102 
 
 judge than I am how far such a proposal will be agreeable to the 
 cautious disposition of your brethren. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " J. Cavendish." 
 
 Upon my going to London at the meeting of parliament, I saw 
 the Duke of Grafton, and had a long conversation with him upon 
 the subject of my letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He 
 approved of the plans, and expressed his approbation of them in 
 the most open and sincere manner, but told me that Lord Shel- 
 burne was against the immediate publication of the letter, for 
 reasons which did not at all satisfy him. The Duke informed me 
 that he had communicated the matter to Lord Camden. I soon 
 after saw Lord Camden, when he was pleased to say, " that every 
 line in the letter was right, but that it would take me twenty 
 years to overcome men's prejudices." When he was afterwards 
 President of the Council for many years, he never gave me the 
 least intimation of his being disposed to assist in promoting a 
 measure which he had so much approved. 
 
 On the 29th of the same month I dined with Lord Shelburne. 
 In a conversation after dinner he requested me not to publish the 
 letter to the Archbishop. I asked him why ? He replied, it was 
 not the time ! That, I rejoined, was always the answer of a states- 
 man when he disliked a proposition, and that I wished he would 
 plainly say, that he disliked it. He observed, that was not the 
 case, but that he wished it to be put off a year or two. Having 
 had reason to suspect that he had a disposition to be nibbling at 
 the revenues of the Church, and being certain that they only 
 
103 
 
 wanted to be generally understood in order to their being secured, 
 I boldly told him, that I would not put off the publication if there 
 was any intention of taking any thing from the Church for the 
 benefit of the State. He assured me that he had no such in- 
 tention, and that the Universities, too, should remain untouched, 
 I then said to him, that I did not see how I could answer to my 
 conscience deferring the publication of the plan which appeared 
 to me so very useful. He replied, that he would answer it to me 
 with his existence, that the business should at another time be 
 done much more effectually. I was unwilling that this solemn 
 asseveration should be retracted or explained away. I did not 
 therefore open my lips in reply, but bowing took my leave. — 
 Thus did I, before I had been six months on the bench, attempt 
 in the most prudent way I could think of, to make a beginning of 
 that reform in the Church, which I sincerely thought would be 
 for the good of mankind, the stability of the Church establish- 
 ment, and the advancement of genuine Christianity ; a review of 
 the doctrine and of the discipline of our Church, and a complete 
 purgation of it from the dregs of Popery, and the impiety of 
 Calvinism, would have properly followed a wise distribution of its 
 revenue ; and the liberation of its Bishops from ministerial in- 
 fluence would have destroyed that secularity, to the attacks of 
 which they are exposed, and rendered them more Christian. I 
 have never lost sight of this object, and when in the year 1800, 
 a kind of opening was given me to be of service in this matter, it 
 will appear that I did not neglect it. 
 
 Towards the end of the following February (1783) Lord Shel- 
 burne resigned the office of First Lord of the Treasury, and in 
 
104 
 
 April following a new ministry, usually called the Coalition Mi- 
 nistry, was formed ; a great cry was every where raised against 
 Lord Shelburne, whether justly or not may be doubted ; I will 
 mention, however, one anecdote to his honour as a man of in- 
 tegrity ; his ability was never questioned : — On the day in which 
 the peace was to be debated in the two Houses of Parliament, I 
 happened to stand next him in the House of Lords, and asked 
 him, whether he was to be turned out by the disapprobation of 
 the Commons ; he replied, that he could not certainly tell what 
 would be the temper of that House, but he could say that he 
 had not expended a shilling of the public money to procure its 
 approbation, though he well knew that above sixty thousand 
 pounds had been expended in procuring an approbation of the 
 peace in 1763. 
 
 After the death of Lord Rockingham, the King had appointed 
 Lord Shelburne to the Treasury, without the knowledge, at least 
 without waiting for the recommendation of the Cabinet. This 
 exertion of the prerogative being contrary to the manner in which 
 government had been carried on during the reigns of George the 
 First and Second by the great Whig families of the country, 
 and differences also having happened between Lord Shelburne 
 and some of the principal members of the Cabinet, even during 
 the life-time of Lord Rockingham, many of them resigned their 
 situations on his being made Prime Minister, and united with 
 Lord North and his friends to force him from his office. From 
 the moment this coalition was formed between Lord North and 
 the men who had for many years reprobated, in the strongest 
 terms, his political principles, I lost all confidence in public men. 
 
105 
 
 1 had, through life, been a strenuous supporter of the principles 
 of the Revolution, and had attached myself, in some degree, to 
 that party which professed to act upon them : but in their co- 
 alescing with the Tories to turn out Lord Shelburne, they de- 
 stroyed my opinion of their disinterestedness and integrity. I 
 clearly saw that they sacrificed their public principles to pri- 
 vate pique, and their honour to their ambition. The badness 
 of the peace, and the supposed danger of trusting power in the 
 hands of Lord Shelburne, were the reasons publicly given for the 
 necessity of forming the coalition : personal dislike of him, and a 
 desire to be in power themselves, were, in my judgment, the 
 real ones. This dissension of the Whigs has done more injury 
 to the constitution, than all the violent attacks on the liberty of 
 the subject which were subsequently made during Mr. Pitt's 
 administration. The restriction of the liberty of the press, the 
 long-continued suspension of the habeas corpus act, the sedition- 
 bills, and other infringements of the Bill of Rights, were, from the 
 turbulent circumstances of the times, esteemed by many quite 
 salutary and necessary measures : but the apostasy from prin- 
 ciple in the coalition-ministry ruined the confidence of the 
 country, and left it without hope of soon seeing another respectable 
 opposition on constitutional grounds ; and it stamped on the 
 hearts of millions an impression which will never be effaced, that 
 Patriotism is a scandalous game played by public men for private 
 ends, and frequently little better than a selfish struggle for power. 
 This unfortunate, may it not be called unprincipled, junction 
 with Lord North, gave great " offence to many of the warmest 
 friends of the late Lord Rockingham, and, amongst others, to 
 myself; and I made no scruple of expressing my opinion of it 
 
 p 
 
106 
 
 This, as I expected, was taken very ill by my former friends. It 
 is a principle with all parties to require from their adherents an 
 implicit approbation of all their measures; my spirit was ever 
 too high to submit to such a disgraceful bond of political con- 
 nection. I thought it, moreover, a duty which every man, 
 capable of forming a judgment, owed to himself and to his 
 country, to divest himself of all party attachment in public trans- 
 actions : the best partisans are men of great talents, without 
 principle ; or men of no talents, with a principle of implicit at- 
 tachment to particular men. To forget all benefits, and to conceal 
 the remembrance of all injuries, are maxims by which political 
 men lose their honour, but make their fortunes. 
 
 - 
 The Whig part of the coalition ministry which was formed in 
 April, 1783, forced themselves into the King's service. His 
 Majesty had shown the greatest reluctance to treating with them. 
 Their enemies said, and their adherents suspected, that if poverty 
 had not pressed hard upon some of them, they would not, for the 
 good of their country, have overlooked the indignities which had 
 been shown them by the court ; they would have declined ac- 
 cepting places, when they perfectly knew that their services were 
 unacceptable to the King. 
 
 They did, however, accept ; and on the day they kissed hands I 
 told Lord John Cavendish (who had reluctantly joined the co- 
 alition) that they had two things against them, the Closet and the 
 Country; that the King hated them, and would take the first 
 opportunity of turning them out ; and that the coalition would 
 make the country hate them. Lord John was aware of the op- 
 
107 
 
 position they would have from the closet, but he entertained no 
 suspicion of the country being disgusted at the coalition. The 
 event, however, of the general election, in which the Whig in- 
 terest was almost every where unsuccessful, and Lord John him- 
 self turned out at York, proved that my foresight was well 
 founded. It is a great happiness in our constitntion, that when 
 the aristocratic parties in the Houses of Parliament flagrantly 
 deviate from principles of honour, in order to support their re- 
 spective interests, there is integrity enough still remaining in the 
 mass of the people, to counteract the mischief of such selfishness 
 or ambition. 
 
 During the interval between Lord Shelburne's resignation and 
 the appointment of the Duke of Portland to the head of the 
 Treasury, I published my Letter to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. I sent a copy to every Bishop, and of them all the Bishop 
 of Chester alone (Porteus) had the good manners so much as to 
 acknowledge the receipt of it. I had foreseen this timidity of 
 the bench, and I had foreseen also that he must be a great- 
 minded minister indeed, who would bring forward a measure de- 
 priving him of his parliamentary influence over the spiritual 
 lords : but I believed that what was right would take place at last, 
 and I thought that by publishing the plan it would stand a 
 chance of being thoroughly discussed. Men's prejudices, I was 
 sensible, could only be lessened by degrees; and I was firmly 
 of opinion that no change ought ever to be made in quiet titnes, 
 till the utility of the change was generally acknowledged. 
 
 Mr. Cumberland published a pamphlet against me on this 
 
 p 2 
 
108 
 
 occasion ; but he knew nothing of the subject, and misrepresented 
 my design. He laid himself so open in every page of his per- 
 formance, that, could 1 have condescended to answer him, I 
 should have made him sick of writing pamphlets for the rest of 
 his life. Some other things were published by silly people, who 
 would needs suppose that I was in heart a republican, and meant 
 harm to the Church establishment. Dr. Cooke, Piovost of King's 
 College, was one of those few who saw the business in its proper 
 light ; he thanked me for having strengthened the Church for at 
 least, he said, an hundred years by my proposal. 
 
 I received many complimentary letters ; the author of the fol- 
 lowing has been long dead, but it does such honour to his me- 
 mory that his surviving friends cannot but be gratified with a 
 sight of it. 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " I have been content hitherto to observe your progress . in 
 reputation and honours with a silent satisfaction. I was pleased 
 with your answer to Mr. Gibbon, and entertained by your Che- 
 mical Essays, which brought an abstract subject nearer to the 
 level of such understandings as mine; and I sincerely rejoiced to 
 hear of your advancement to the purple. Yet on these occasions 
 I did not think myself warranted to break in upon you, either 
 with my acknowledgments or felicitations. You owe the present 
 trouble I give you to the recent publication of your Letter to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. I cannot resist the impulse which I 
 feel to return you my thanks for this letter, especially for your 
 defence of the second consequence (the independence of the 
 
109 
 
 Bishops in the House of Lords) of your plan, which, in my 
 opinion, entitles you to the thanks of every honest man in 
 England. It is the privilege of your situation, my Lord, to 
 speak words that will be heard in high places, and it cannot 
 be indifferent to the community whether they be words of truth 
 and soberness, or of self-interest and adulation. I have my fears, 
 indeed, — my fears not for you, my Lord, but for my country, — 
 that you will reap no other fruit from your proposal than the 
 applause of the public and the approbation of your own heart. 
 A contrary doctrine prevails, and is disseminated, with some 
 caution indeed, but with much industry, even among the lower 
 ranks of courtly politicians, so far as to reaching my ears, — the 
 doctrine of the necessity of corruption to our welfare. I remember 
 two or three years ago to have seen a well-written Letter to 
 Dr. Watson, under the character of a Country Curate, (it pro- 
 ceeded from the pensioned pen of Cumberland,) in which the 
 writer pleasantly enough contends for some influence of the 
 crown to counteract the effect of republican principles, pride, 
 envy, disappointment, and revenge. Unluckily, in a postscript to 
 this letter, the cloven foot peeps out from under the cassock, 
 and the writer has added to his opponents two others, wisdom 
 and virtue. Suppose, says he, for a moment, (some, perhaps, 
 may think it a violent supposition,) the members of the House of 
 Commons to be all honest, intelligent, and uncorrupt ; that no 
 minister could prevail upon them by place, pension, or artifice : 
 What is the consequence ? Why the constitution is overturned : 
 that constitution which the wisdom and blood of our ancestors 
 was exhausted in establishing ; .that is, which wisely established 
 a balance to counterpoise the effects of wisdom and honesty, and 
 
110 
 
 provided an antidote against the poison of virtue. The writer 
 may quibble, but I defy him to get fairly off from this consequence 
 of his own words. 
 
 " A true description of the present system might, perhaps, be 
 given in the words of an old Briton, which, though immediately 
 applied to Roman tyranny, might in a secondary sense be con- 
 sidered as prophetic of a modern British House of Commons : — 
 Natu servituti mancipia semel veneunt, atque ultro a dominis 
 aluntur Britannia servitatem mam quolidie emit, quotidie pascit. 
 Galgacus in Tacit. But I have rambled too far, and must only 
 add, that I am, with great truth and regard, 
 
 " Your Lordship's much obliged 
 
 " and most obedient servant, 
 
 Ipswich, April 9th, 1783. " S. Darby." 
 
 Mr. Darby was a most respectable character, highly esteemed 
 by all who knew him for his integrity and ability, and had for- 
 merly been an eminent tutor in Jesus College, Cambridge. I 
 sent him immediately the following answer : 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 " 1 return you a thousand thanks for your kind letter. The ap- 
 probation of one good and liberal-minded man, is dearer to me than 
 the highest honours of the church ; the puff of lawn was never any 
 object of my ambition ; but I ever have been ambitious of being 
 thought well of by men of virtue and understanding, and you must 
 allow me to say that in that light I am proud of your letter. I 
 have great hopes that my plan will be effectuated, but I mean not 
 to bring it forward till men's minds, the minds especially of the 
 
Ill 
 
 church dignitaries, are recovered from their idle apprehensions of 
 danger from innovation. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the 30th of May, 1783, I made the following (my first) 
 speech in parliament. The case was between the Bishop of Lon- 
 don and Disney Fytche, Esq., on a writ of error from His Majesty's 
 Court of King's Bench, brought by the bishop as plaintiff, who had 
 refused to institute a clerk presented by the said Fytche, on 
 account of the clerk having given a general bond of resignation. 
 My speaking was unexpected by the bench, as I had not signified 
 my intention either to the Bishop of London, or any other 
 person : — 
 
 " My Lords, 
 " Though I am extremely sensible, how much it would become 
 me to endeavour to bespeak your indulgence for the liberty which 
 I am now taking, of delivering my sentiments on a subject that 
 has already received so able and so ample a discussion from the 
 learned judges, yet I hold Your Lordships' time to be much too 
 precious to be consumed in listening to any preface or apology 
 which 1 could make. I am the more imboldened to deliver my 
 opinion on this subject, from observing that the learned judges 
 are not unanimous in theirs. Had they been perfectly united 
 in sentiment, I should have had much greater scruple and hesi- 
 tation in speaking than I now feel ; yet, even in that case, I 
 could not have suffered myself to remain altogether silent on such 
 an occasion as this, when a question of great importance, both 
 
112 
 
 with respect to the interest of the Established Church, and the 
 general interest of the Christian religion, is to receive the solemn 
 and final adjudication of this house. 
 
 " The importance of this question, with respect to the Esta- 
 blished Church, is evident enough from the effect which its deci- 
 sion may eventually have on its revenues : they may be very 
 materially injured thereby. There is not, I am persuaded, one of 
 Your Lordships who has duly weighed the civil and religious 
 utility of an Established Church, and made himself sufficiently 
 acquainted with the extent of the revenue appropriated to the 
 support of our own, that can ever entertain a wish to see that 
 revenue lessened. 
 
 " The proportion indeed, My Lords, in which the revenue of 
 the church is distributed amongst the clergy, might, in my humble 
 opinion, admit great improvement both in a religious and political 
 light ; but of whatever sentiments you may be on that head, I am 
 certain that you will concur with me in thinking that the whole 
 revenue when taken in the gross is not more than sufficient, if 
 sufficient, for the maintenance of the establishment ; it cannot with- 
 out danger to the community admit of any diminution. But the 
 legality of general bonds of resignation, if Your Lordships should 
 adjudge them to be legal, will have a direct tendency to diminish 
 the church revenue in a great degree. For no sooner shall the 
 legality be generally known than pettifoggers of the law, money- 
 scriveners, land-surveyors, arid all the simoniacal jobbers in eccle- 
 siastical property, will conspire with needy patrons, and with more 
 needy clerks, to invent and execute a thousand collusive plans 
 to rob the church of a portion of that patrimony, which the 
 pious wisdom of our ancestors annexed to it, and which your 
 
113 
 
 piety and your wisdom, I trust, will never suffer to be dissevered 
 from it. 
 
 • " But the importance of this question may be considered, in 
 another and more momentous point of view, as it respects the 
 purity of our religion. It is not for the security of the church 
 revenue that we are in any degree solicitous, except so far as that 
 security tends to render the clergy more fitted to discharge with 
 fidelity the high duties of their sacred function. 
 
 " General bonds of resignation put the clergy who submit to 
 them, into a state of dependence, awe, and apprehension, incon- 
 sistent with their stations as preachers of the Gospel. The pope 
 in former times was a great encourager of resignations among the 
 clergy of this country, because he obtained a year's income of the 
 benefice upon every voidance ; but neither were the Catholic 
 clergy of this country at that time, nor are they I believe in any 
 country at this time, fettered by general bonds of resignation. 
 In the Church of Scotland, (I speak under the correction of many 
 noble Lords in this House, who certainly know the matter much 
 better than I do,) but, I believe that I am right in saying, that 
 this unholy traffick in holy things has not yet polluted the minds 
 of either! patrons or ministers in the church of Scotland; nor is 
 it practised in any Protestant church in Christendom, at least not 
 in the same degree in which it is practised in our own. 
 
 " This traffick, My Lords, is a sore scandal to us; we are much 
 grieved at it ; and we hope from the high sense of religion' and 
 honour which this House has ever entertained, that it will be 
 no longer endured. Even in the primitive ages of the Christian 
 church, when it was not only unprotected hy the civil power 
 but persecuted by it; when kings, instead of being its nursing 
 
 Q 
 
114 
 
 fathers, were its bitterest enemies, even then, when the clergy 
 were maintained out of the elemosynary collections which were 
 made by every congregation of Christians every Lord's day, a 
 minister of the Gospel was not in so precarious, dependent, and 
 every way improper situation as the legality of general bonds of 
 resignation will place him in ; because his support did not then 
 depend upon the caprice of some one flagitious individual, who 
 might be offended by the evangelical freedom of his preaching, 
 but on the good sense of hundreds of well-disposed Christians, 
 who felt themselves edified thereby. 
 
 " This, My Lords, is a very serious consideration. I do not wish, 
 nor, I will take the liberty to say, is there a bishop on the bench 
 who wishes to see the clergy rendered insolent by an accumulation 
 of wealth and power ; but we must all wish ; for in this matter I 
 am sure that I speak the sense of all my brethren ; we must all 
 of us ever wish to see them rendered so independent of all men, 
 that they need not be afraid to tell any man of his sins ; that they 
 may reprove, rebuke, exhort, and preach the word of God with 
 sincerity and truth, without shrinking from this part of their duty 
 from an apprehension of being turned out of their benefices. 
 
 u The alienation of the church revenue, and the introduction of 
 an accommodating, timid, temporising priesthood, are too great 
 inconveniences, to call them by no harsher appellation, which will 
 attend the legality of general bonds of resignation. 
 
 ". Here I shall probably be told, that I am guilty of a great 
 solecism, in adducing the inconvenience attending general bonds 
 of resignation as a proof of their illegality. — I am not, My 
 Lords, so wholly ignorant of the first principles of reasoning as 
 to make such a conclusion ; I do not say that the inconvenience 
 
115 
 
 * 
 
 I have stated is a proof of the illegality of such bonds, but I do 
 humbly think that when the illegality is wholly questionable 
 (as it confessedly is in the present case) the inconvenience may 
 have, and will have, some weight in determining Your Lordships' 
 judgment on the subject. Nay I go further, and think that 
 though the inconvenience be not a direct proof of the illegality 
 of these bonds, it is a presumption of it — for this presumption 
 appears to me to be well founded, that, whatever is repugnant 
 to the common interest, cannot be conformable to the common 
 law of the land. But that general bonds of resignation are 
 repugnant to the common interest of the kingdom is what some 
 of the judges have strongly intimated in delivering their opinions, 
 and what few of Your Lordships I believe, were the matter a 
 res Integra, would scruple to affirm. 
 
 " I have heard but four reasons mentioned in proof of the utility 
 of even specific bonds of resignation. One respects the binding 
 the incumbent to a longer residence on his cure than the law 
 requires ; the second relates to the restraining him from the enjoy- 
 ment of pluralities in cases allowed by the law. The third and 
 fourth have reference to the convenience of private families in 
 preventing a cession of livings by the acceptance of a bishopric, 
 and in providing for sons or other connections when they came 
 of age to hold livings. 
 
 " The first two reasons appear to be well founded in law ; for it 
 is lawful for a man to give a bond restrictive of his natural or 
 civil liberty, provided that restriction be for a good purpose, for 
 a purpose of public utility. But the legal validity of the other 
 two reasons is not so obvious to my apprehension, for the purpose 
 of the bond in either of the cases is not good ; it is good for a 
 
 q 2 
 
116 
 
 particular family, but it is hot good for the community at large ; 
 and it is better that a particular family should sustain a little 
 injury than that the community should suffer a great incon- 
 venience. My Lords, I must correct this expression ; I am 
 incorreet, I think, in saying that private families would sustain an 
 injury in having even special bonds of resignation adjudged to be 
 illegal. There might according to our present notions of these 
 things be some hardship, but there would be no injustice in the 
 case ; for it ought to be remembered that the jus patronatus is a 
 spiritual trust, and should not be considered as a source of tem- 
 poral benefit. When it was first granted to lords of manors 
 and other laymen who at their own expense built churches, there 
 can be no doubt that they presented their clerks to the bishops 
 not conditionally but absolutely, not for a term of years, or to 
 resign at the request of the patron, but for life. 
 
 " But with respect to general bonds of resignation, the case 
 now before the House, the matter, it is argued, is not now a res 
 integra ; since there have been in the course of two hundred 
 years many adjudged cases, and we must, it is contended, of 
 necessity adhere to the precedents. 
 
 i( My Lords, the stare decisis, the stare super antiquas vias 9 are 
 maxims of law sanctioned by such length of usage, and such an 
 accumulation of authority, and so pressed upon our consideration 
 at this time, that I dare not produce any of the arguments in 
 opposition to them, which now suggest themselves to my mind, 
 though some of them would go to question the utility, and some 
 of them the justice of such maxims ; they are maxims which 
 my hitherto course of studies have not brought me much ac- 
 quainted with. • We do not admit them in philosophy, we' do not 
 
117 
 
 admit them in theology, for we do not allow that there are any 
 infallible interpreters of the Bible, which is our statute-book: 
 on the contrary, we maintain that fathers, churches, and councils 
 have erred in their interpretation of this book, in their decisions 
 concerning particular points of faith. This we must as Protes- 
 tants ever maintain, or we cannot justify our having emancipated 
 ourselves from the bondage of the church of Rome. 
 
 " But, be it so — let these maxims as applied to the law be 
 admitted in their full extent, what follows ? Nothing, My Lords, 
 in this case ; for the plaintiff asserts, and one of the judges has 
 this day been pointed in proving, that the present case is not 
 similar to any of the cases which Have been adjudged in the 
 courts below. Now a slight variation of circumstance vitiates the 
 validity of a precedent, and it vitiates it upon good ground. 
 The ground is this — that we cannot tell whether this variation 
 of circumstance, had it been contemplated by the judge or the 
 court which first established the precedent, would not have so 
 operated as to have produced a different judgment. We are all 
 sensible, when the mind is suspended as it were in equilibrio by' 
 an equal prevalence of opposite reasons, what a little matter 
 will cause it to preponderate; and this little matter, by which any 
 case differs from an adjudged case, lessens, if it does not over- 
 throw the weight of a precedent. 
 
 " But let us suppose, though we do not grant it, that the cause 
 of the plaintiff is similar in all its circumstances to some one or 
 more of the cases, which have been adjudged in the courts below, 
 still it will not follow, that we are to be bound by these courts ; if 
 we are, the right of appeal is a nugatory business. Precedents 
 may be obligatory in the courts in which they are established i 
 
> 
 
 118 
 
 and they may there be useful in expediting processes, and in re- 
 lieving the shoulders of the subject from that great but unavoid- 
 able burthen, the uncertainty of the law ; but their operation 
 should not be extended beyond the walls of those courts, it 
 ought not at least to be extended to this House. 
 
 "If there were any precedents of Your Lordships having 
 ever given judgment on the legality or illegality of general bonds 
 of resignation, they would have great and proper weight in the 
 case before Us ; but there are no such precedents. Whatever 
 may be thought as to the novelty of the case in the courts below, 
 it is undoubtedly new here, free and unshackled by precedent. 
 Your Lordships' decision this day will establish a precedent which 
 your posterity will revere and follow ; I am persuaded, therefore, 
 that you will give judgment on the legal merits of the question, 
 as if it had never been agitated and decided in the courts below. 
 
 " And here, My Lords, I am conscious of my inability, and 
 acknowledge it with humility ; I am not equal to the full legal 
 investigation of the merits of this question. But as it is some- 
 times of use to know how the perusal of a statute strikes a plain 
 unprofessional man, I will briefly state how the statute in ques- 
 tion, I mean that passed in the twelfth of Queen Anne, and that 
 in the thirty-first of Elizabeth, to prevent corrupt presentations 
 to benefices, have struck me. 
 
 " I am sensible that the words general bonds of resignation are 
 not to be found in either of these statutes ; and if every thing that 
 is not totidem verbis prohibited in an act of parliament, is to be con- 
 sidered as allowed in that act, then unquestionably general bonds 
 of resignation must be legal; but let us consider the subject more 
 generally. 
 
119 
 
 " During the short time, My Lords, that I have had the honour 
 of a seat in this House, I have heard many diffuse and elegant ora- 
 tions on different sides of the same question, which have so bewil- 
 dered my understanding, and perplexed my judgment, that I have 
 not been able to come to any conclusion, till I divested the whole 
 debate of all its ornament, and examined the matter by the dry 
 rules of scholastic reasoning. Will Your Lordships allow me, 
 instead of dilating on these statutes, to sum up what I would 
 observe upon them in this dry way ? 
 
 * A syllogism, I grant, is not a figure of rhetoric much used in 
 this House, nor much calculated to conciliate your Lordships' 
 attention ; but it is a species of reasoning, which serves to com- 
 press much matter into a little compass, and helps to investigate 
 truth with certainty. 
 
 " The syllogism which I would propound to the serious consi- 
 deration of the House is this : — That practice cannot be con- 
 formable to the spirit and meaning of an act of parliament, which 
 entirely frustrates the very end and purpose for the attainment of 
 which the act was originally made. 
 
 " But general bonds of resignation entirely frustrate the very 
 end and purpose for the attainment of which both the acts in 
 question were originally made. Therefore, general bonds of 
 resignation cannot be conformable to the spirit and meaning of 
 these statutes. 
 
 " How the practice of general bonds of resignation entirely 
 frustrates the ends of these acts, will appear by a single instance. 
 Suppose a living to be now vacant ; the value of the next pre- 
 sentation to be 5000/. ; the patron, by the thirty-first of Elizabeth, 
 cannot sell this living ; the clerk, by the twelfth of Queen Anne, 
 
120 
 
 cannot buy it ; but by the magic of a general bond of resignation, 
 both the patron and the clerk are freed from restraint The 
 clerk, in consequence of his bond, gets possession of the living 
 which he could not purchase; and the patron, by suing the 
 bond, gets possession of his money. Thus, in fact, the vacant 
 benefice is virtually sold by the patron, and purchased by the 
 clerk, and the legal end and purpose of both statutes is legally, if 
 general bonds be legal, eluded and defeated. This is the manner 
 in which the matter strikes me ; yet I have some doubt, whether 
 I am not out of my depth ; sometimes I think that I touch the 
 ground, at other times I seem to myself to be afloat. The reason 
 of my uncertainty is simply this : — I do not know in what degree 
 we are in this House to be guided by the letter, and in what by 
 the meaning and spirit of an act of parliament. 
 , " I am not sufficiently acquainted with the doctrine concerning 
 the legal latitude of the interpretation of statutes : leaving that 
 point to be discussed by more able judges, I will proceed to 
 trouble Your Lordships with an observation or two on the oath 
 against simony, and on the form of resignation of benefices. ( I 
 mean not, in what I shall say on these heads, to cast the slightest 
 imputation on the character of the clerk in question. I know 
 nothing of him, further than this transaction teaches ; and I can 
 conceive, that it was very possible for him to have thought, and 
 I question not that he did think, that he was not engaged in an 
 improper transaction. 
 
 " In the first place, My Lords, every clerk, before institution, 
 swears that he has not made any simoniacal contract for or con- 
 cerning the procuring his benefice. The force of this oath 
 depends on the construction of the two terms, simoniacal contract. 
 
121 
 
 The term simony is a very complex term: it extends to more 
 cases than have been enumerated in any law book ; but thus 
 much, I think, will be allowed on all hands, to be included in 
 the idea of simony : Every pecuniary contract entered into by 
 a clerk, by means of which he procures presentation to a vacant 
 benefice, and without which he would not have procured pre- 
 sentation to it at all, is a simoniacal contract. A general bond 
 of resignation is a pecuniary contract, by means of which the 
 clerk procures presentation to a vacant benefice; and without 
 which, he would not have procured presentation to it at all. 
 Therefore, a general bond of resignation is a simoniacal contract. 
 I protest I have not acuteness enough to see the fallacy of this 
 conclusion. 
 
 " Here it may be remarked, with great apparent subtilty, that 
 a bond to resign a benefice, is not a bond to procure a benefice ; 
 and the idea may afford matter of ridicule to those who are dis- 
 posed to perplex the argument. But ridicule is not the test of 
 truth ; it is a mere cobweb spread to entangle weak understand- 
 ings ; and I now do maintain, that though a bond to procure a 
 benefice, and a bond to resign a benefice, be not in words the 
 same, they are the same in purpose and effect. The cause of any 
 effect is that, which being taken away, the effect itself would not 
 take place. But the general bond of resignation is the causa sine 
 qua non, the very efficient cause of the presentation ; for take 
 away the bond, and there will be no presentation ; therefore, the 
 bond is a contract for procuring the benefice ; it is the essential 
 mean of procuring it, f<\r the benefice could not have been pro- 
 cured without it. 
 
 R 
 
122 
 
 " In the second place, I would beg for a moment Your Lord- 
 ships' attention to the form of resignation of a benefice. In the 
 old Latin form, (and the modern English is, or ought to be, a 
 translation of it,) the clerk who tenders his resignation to the 
 bishop, uses these words : — Non vel metu coactus, vel sinistra 
 aliqua machinatione motus, sed ex spontanea voluntate pure ac sim- 
 pliciter resigno et renuntio. Now, if there is any meaning in 
 language, a clerk who has given a general bond of resignation 
 cannot use this form. How is it possible that he can say, he is 
 not metu coactus, when he is compelled by the terms of his bond ; 
 that he is not sinistra aliqua machinatione motus, when he is 
 impelled to the resignation by all the cogent machinery of the 
 law ; that he does it ex spontanea voluntate pure ac simpliciter. 
 My Lords, there is no purity, no simplicity, no spontaneity in 
 the case ; or, if any, it is that kind of spontaneity which a man 
 feels when he delivers his purse to a robber. No, the resignation 
 does not proceed from the spontaneous, intrinsic movement of his 
 mind, but from the compulsory extrinsic energy of his bond. 
 
 " I have detained Your Lordships too long. I have risen 
 thus early in the debate, not from any expectation of my opinion 
 having weight with any person but myself, but from a wish to form 
 a right judgment ; for I hope that some noble Lord will condescend 
 to inform me of the mistakes I may have committed in my rea- 
 soning, for on so novel a subject, it is but too probable that 
 I have committed many." 
 
 On my sitting down, Lord Sandwich said to me, you will 
 carry your point. The judgment was reversed. Pro : Canter- 
 bury, York, Winchester, Chichester, Bath and Wells, Salisbury, 
 
123 
 
 Peterborough, Rochester, Worcester, Bangor, Lincoln, Gloucester, 
 Llandaff, Sandwich, Radnor, Hillsborough, Thurlow, Bayot, 
 Howe, — in all nineteen. Con,: Portland, Fitzwilliam, Mansfield, 
 Loughborough, Stormont, Bathurst, King, Sandys, Abercom, 
 Sydney, Brownlow, Buckinghamshire, Ferrers, Walsinghara, 
 Richmond, Ched worth, Rawden, Derby, — in all eighteen. Present 
 in the House, but did not vote, Clarendon, Oxford, Willoughby, 
 Harrowby. 
 
 • 
 If the legislature should ever think fit to pass an act of parlia- 
 ment making special bonds of resignation legal, which might 
 perhaps be done with propriety, the oath of simony and the 
 form of resignation must be altered. 
 
 I purposely alluded in this speech to what I had written re- 
 specting a better distribution of the Church revenue, to show the 
 House that I persevered in my opinion, notwithstanding what 
 had been published against it; and in the ensuing November, 
 I sent a note to Lord John Cavendish, to the following purport : — 
 
 " I shall come to town at the meeting of parliament, and will 
 take my chance some morning of obtaining an audience of ten 
 minutes from Your Lordship, on the subject of the Ecclesiastical 
 Reform. I am convinced of its utility, but I know how to rest 
 contented with having fairly stated my sentiments, if the matter 
 cannot be brought forward to advantage." 
 
 
 
 I called at Lord John's house several times, but never got admit- 
 tance, nor did I ever receive a message from him, signifying his 
 
 r 2 
 
124 
 
 wish to see me on the subject ; he was probably of Lord 
 Shelburne's mind, that the time was not then, for he was then, 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. Notwithstanding this, I always 
 entertained a great respect for the honour and integrity of Lord 
 John, and indeed for every branch of his illustrious house. 
 
 On the 4th of November (1783) I received a letter from the 
 minister (Duke of Portland), desiring me to come up to town 
 and to support Mr. Fox's East India Bill, which vested the 
 patronage, &c. of that country in seven directors, to be nominated 
 by the House of Commons. Though this measure was brought 
 forward by a party which considered me as attached to them, and 
 though I was a sincere enemy to the increasing influence of the 
 Crown, yet, thinking that it was a great violation of the consti- 
 tution to transfer influence from the Crown to the friends of a 
 minister in the House of Commons, I immediately sent the fol- 
 lowing answer ; an answer, I knew, but ill calculated to promote 
 my interest with the then administration : — 
 
 " My Lord Duke, Cambridge, Nov. 4. 1783. 
 
 u It is impossible for me who have, on all occasions, opposed 
 the corrupting influence of the Crown, to support the measure 
 which is pregnant with more seeds of corruption than any one 
 which has taken place since the revolution. This at least is the 
 light in which it appears to me ; I may have formed an erroneous 
 judgment, but I cannot act in opposition to it. I had intended 
 to have come to town and spoken against the bill, but I will not 
 do that ; I will for once so far distrust the solidity of my own 
 reasoning on the subject as not to oppose a measure which has 
 
125 
 
 the approbation of Your Grace, and of that part of the adminis- 
 tration of whose regard for the public good I can entertain no 
 doubt. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Fox had such enlarged views of constitutional politics, that 
 at the time I sent this answer to the Duke of Portland, I hesitated 
 on its propriety. But the preservation of the King's prerogative 
 from the encroachment of the House of Commons, even under a 
 Whig minister, determined me. 
 
 On the 14th of the same month I received an express from the 
 Duke of Rutland, stating to me the King's opposition to the 
 India Bill, the great probability of a change of administration, 
 and many other motives for my going to town; and ending with 
 au earnest entreaty to see me next day in the House of Lords. 
 I instantly returned the following answer : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 " The inclosed will show you that you have not been mistaken 
 in your opinion of my principles ; it is an answer to a pressing 
 letter from the Duke of Portland; I send it to you in confidence; 
 you will perceive from it that my word is gone to take no part in 
 this business. I am sick of party. You are a young man and 
 zeal may become you, but I have lost my political zeal for ever ; 
 the coalition has destroyed it. If a new administration is formed, 
 it will be but a new coalition. Your political character is yet, in 
 my opinion, unsullied ; you are said, indeed, to be a deserter, but 
 
126 
 
 let it be remembered that the Whigs first deserted their own 
 honour when they joined Lord North. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Fox's bill was thrown out by the Lords, and Mr. Pitt was 
 soon after made First Lord of the Treasury. The King's inter- 
 ference in throwing out the bill could not be excused on consti- 
 tutional principles, except by the attack which the Commons had 
 made on the prerogative by passing the bill. If you will not 
 admit the true principle of the constitution, which is the exer- 
 cise of the King's negative, you in a manner compel him to the 
 use of his influence over parliament, when he conceives either 
 his prerogative to be attacked, or the safety of the country en- 
 dangered, or even his caprices restrained by their proceedings. 
 This mode of governing by influence, is a dangerous and dis- 
 graceful mode ; disgraceful to those over whom it is exerted, and 
 dangerous to the common weal ; inasmuch as it takes away all 
 responsibility. When a minister can sanction every obnoxious 
 measure by a vote of the House of Commons, he screens himself 
 from all future censure, by making those who ought to be his 
 accusers partakers of his misdemeanors. 
 
 Soon after this I went to London, and on calling on the Duke 
 of Rutland I thought there was an unusual distance in his man- 
 ner, not great enough to found a direct quarrel on, and yet too 
 great for me to submit to, without assuming an equal distance on 
 my part ; this soon brought him to a little better temper. Lord 
 Shelburne told me at the time, that he was afraid somebody had 
 
127 
 
 been endeavouring to make mischief between the Duke of Rut- 
 land and myself, on account of my not coming to oppose the 
 India Bill. He did not tell me who the person was who had 
 done me this injury, nor did my suspicion, till several years after- 
 wards, fall on Mr. Pitt ; nor do I know whether it has fallen 
 rightly at last. I hope it has not ; for though I must ever con- 
 sider it as a bad trait in Mr. Pitt's character that I never expe- 
 rienced from him the slightest return of gratitude for the services 
 which I had rendered him, when he stood most in need of them 
 at Cambridge; yet I am unwilling to think of him as having 
 possessed a little and revengeful mind, stooping to injure those 
 who would not become the blind instruments of his ambition. I 
 gave Lord Shelburne to understand, that the Duke of Rutland 
 might digest his displeasure as he could, for I would never utter 
 a syllable in explanation or in excuse for my conduct on the oc- 
 casion ; that His Grace had experienced from me many and 
 important instances of my regard, and that I was ready to give 
 him more with respect to his private concerns; but as to my 
 public conduct, I would ever assert to myself the right of private 
 judgment, independent of all parties. This doctrine I could per- 
 ceive was quite new to Lord Shelburne, and, in truth, few great 
 men can relish it ; they want adherents, and they esteem no man 
 who will not be their instrument. This plain dealing with men 
 in power made many persons say that I knew not the world ; 
 they were mistaken ; I knew it, but I despised it ; I knew well 
 enough that it was not the way to procure preferment ; I remem- 
 bered what I had learnt as a boy, the different effects of obsequi- 
 ousness and of truth ; 
 
 " Obsequium amicos, Veritas odium parit;" 
 
128 
 
 and I preferred, as a man, the latter. My friend the Bishop of 
 Peterborough once said to me, " You are the most straight-for- 
 ward man I ever met with." I was not displeased at his remark, 
 for the rule of rectitude is but one, whilst the deviations from it 
 may be infinite. 
 
 The parliament was dissolved on the 25th of March, 1784. 
 Mr. Pitt had, for several weeks previous to its dissolution, conti- 
 nued in office in direct opposition to the majority of the House of 
 Commons. I looked upon this proceeding as establishing a dan- 
 gerous precedent ; for though the House could not be justified in 
 censuring a minister who had done no act that was censurable, 
 yet it is to be dreaded that the precedent thus set, of continuing 
 a minister in his place in opposition to a majority of the House 
 of Commons, may hereafter be resorted to by the crown on occa- 
 sions less justifiable. The numberless addresses, however, which 
 were presented to the King against the coalition ministry, suffi- 
 ciently showed the sense of the nation to be with Mr. Pitt. 
 
 - Now I consider the clear and decided voice of the people to be 
 superior, not only to the House of Commons, but to the whole 
 legislature ; I hope, therefore, that no mischief will come to the 
 constitution from this example. It was not so much the prero- 
 gative of the crown which kept Mr. Pitt in his place, and set the 
 House of Commons at defiance, as it was the sense of the nation, 
 which, on this occasion, was in direct contradiction to the sense 
 of the House of Commons. I was at that time very well ac- 
 quainted with Mr. Pitt, and took the liberty to make known to 
 him my sentiments in the following letter : — 
 
129 
 
 " Dear Sir, Cambridge, 12th May, 1784. 
 
 " Will you allow me to say, that I think you cannot continue 
 minister with that high sense of honour which I wish you to do, 
 whilst the resolutions of the last House of Commons respecting 
 you stand unblotted from the Journals. You have now an op- 
 portunity of healing the wound which many think you inflicted 
 on the constitution by remaining in power in opposition to 
 the sense of the Commons, if you profess your readiness to 
 retire, provided the new House of Representatives, which (from 
 its being so recently elected) must be supposed to speak the 
 voice of the people, should be of the same opinion relative to 
 you that the last was. For it is a part of my political creed, that 
 the voice of the people, whenever it can be clearly known, and I 
 think it is clearly known to be with you, is and ought to be su- 
 preme in the state. I beg your pardon for the freedom with which 
 I deliver my sentiments ; you are indebted to the regard I have 
 for your disinterestedness and integrity, and to the hope I have 
 that you may do real service to the country, that I trouble you 
 with any opinion at all. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I had mentioned to Mr. Pitt, a little time before, when he 
 called upon me at Cambridge, on account of the election, this 
 rescinding of the resolutions of the House of Commons, as the 
 first business which ought to be brought forward in the new 
 parliament ; and he seemed at that time wholly to agree with me 
 in the propriety of the measure ; but he changed his mind, or 
 was over-ruled by men more inclined to exalt the prerogative of 
 
130 
 
 the Crown, than to listen to the voice of the people, for nothing 
 of the kind was ever mentioned in the House of Commons. 
 
 In a letter which I wrote to Mr. Pitt, in July, 1784, amongst 
 other political considerations was the following observation : — "I 
 tremble for Ireland; it will be lost to this country, unless you give 
 way to the popular disposition ; it was what is called firmness 
 which despoiled us of America : it would immortalise your name, 
 and the name of our friend, the Duke of Rutland, if you could ac- 
 complish on an equal and liberal footing, an union of the two kingdoms. 
 Then would Britain and Ireland have but one interest ; and it is 
 rank absurdity in politics to expect any cordiality between them, 
 whilst their interests are separate." Sixteen years after this, Mr. 
 Pitt accomplished the union here recommended to his attention ; 
 but it was not attempted till a rebellion in Ireland, supported by 
 a French invasion, had well nigh realised the fears I had enter- 
 tained, of its being lost to this country : nor was it at last accom- 
 plished in the liberal way it ought to have been done. 
 
 Much about the same time I wrote to the Duke of Rutland, 
 who was then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; the following extract 
 from the letter I then sent him will show how strongly the 
 necessity of an union had ocupied my mind, and how much I 
 wished to see it effected: — "Ireland, and every other distant part of 
 our empire, has for many years been impoliticly considered, and 
 oppressively treated, merely as a source of wealth to this country. 
 My very heart is grieved at the idea of one nation being oppressed 
 that another may be rendered rich and luxurious. The govern- 
 ment ought to pay an equal attention to the interests of all its com- 
 
131 
 
 ponent parts, and whether the lands and manufactures of Great 
 Britain or Ireland are likely to be in the most flourishing condition, 
 should never be a question, but how we may render them in both 
 countries as flourishing as possible. I told Mr. Pitt, some time ago, 
 that both your name and his would be immortalised, if an union 
 between the two kingdoms on an equal and liberal footing could be 
 established. Scotland has felt the advantages of an union ; Ireland 
 would feel the same in her turn, and instead of grinding the faces 
 of the poor Asiatics, to make them pay the debts of Great Britain, 
 we should become the most powerful nation in Europe, by relying 
 on nothing but the free commerce and the full cultivation of the 
 lands of the two islands." 
 
 Had the measure, recommended in my above letter to the Duke 
 of Rutland, been at that time adopted, the state of the continent 
 of Europe would either not have been what it now is, or we should 
 have been better able to resist the storm which threatens us, than 
 we now are. In twenty-two years Great Britain and Ireland would 
 have become solidly united, and been so mutually strengthened by 
 their cordial coalescence, that France, and all her tributary kings, 
 might have excited our surprise, but not our apprehension. 
 
 The following is an extract of another letter to the Duke, in 
 November, 1784, in answer to one of his, respecting the state of 
 Ireland : — "I have nothing to object to any part of your reason- 
 ing respecting Ireland ; it is all judicious and convincing ; and I 
 particularly agree with you, with relation to the Catholics. No 
 man upon earth, I trust, can have more enlarged sentiments of 
 toleration than I have, but the Church of Rome is a persecuting 
 
 s 2 
 
132 
 
 church, and it is our interest and our duty, on every principle of 
 religion and common sense, to guard ourselves against her 
 machinations. There is far less danger to be apprehended by 
 Protestants, in the present enlightened state of Europe, from the 
 effects of Popery in those countries where it is the established 
 religion, than in those where it is simply tolerated. The cabinets 
 of Paris and Madrid would execrate the enormities which an in- 
 fatuated populace in Ireland would perpetuate on the score of 
 religion without remorse. Every indulgence, and even a partici- 
 pation of all civil rights might be granted with safety to the 
 Catholics in England, because they are so far from being the ma- 
 . jority, that they do not constitute one-seventieth part of the in- 
 habitants. But in Ireland, the proportion between Catholics and 
 Protestants being widely different, the whole conduct of govern- 
 ment should be different also. It is for want of seeing distinctions 
 of this kind that the patriots, some of whom are certainly well- 
 meaning men, give you so much trouble. With respect to the 
 commerce of Ireland, it ought to be as much encouraged as our 
 own ; and Ireland, in return, ought to contribute her full quota 
 towards the maintenance of the fleets and armies, and the expenses 
 of the civil list, by which government is supported, and the freedom 
 and trade of both countries is protected. This is the only liberal 
 maxim of government, by which a cordiality between the two 
 kingdoms, can be secured on a permanent foundation." Though 
 the union, and other circumstances, have somewhat changed the 
 situation and the disposition of the bulk of the Irish Catholics, 
 yet, till they are more emancipated from the power of their 
 priests, or till the priests themselves have more enlarged notions of 
 Christian charity, government must not be inattentive to them. 
 
133 
 
 Mr. Wakefield published, in 1784, an octavo volume, entitled, 
 An Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian Writers of the three 
 first Centuries, concerning the Person of Christ, and thought 
 fit to inscribe, in a very handsome manner, the publication to me. 
 On the 25th of July, 1784, I sent him the subjoined reply : — 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " A variety of business has prevented me for some time from 
 reading your book, or I would sooner have thanked you for the 
 honour you have done me, by inscribing your Enquiry to me. 
 I admire and approve the spirit and erudition with which it is 
 written ; and though I think the pre-existence of Christ to be the 
 doctrine of the New Testament, yet I am far from wishing the 
 contrary opinion to be stifled, or the supporters of it to be 
 branded as enemies to the Christian system. 
 
 " Whoever is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, 
 to the test of free discussion, seems to me to be more in love 
 with his own opinion, than with truth. I shall be glad to see 
 you either in Cambridge or in London, that I may become per- 
 sonally known to you. That the Spirit of God may guide you in 
 all your researches, is the sincere prayer of 
 
 " Your much obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In December, 1784, I received a letter from Mr. Wyvil, (to 
 whom I was not personally known,) informing me that Mr. Pitt 
 had promised him to exert his whole power as a man and a 
 minister, to bring about a reform in the representation of the 
 people, and requesting me to use my influence in Cambridgeshire 
 
134 
 
 for the same end. I sent him by the return of post the following 
 reply : — 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " I think myself indebted to you for the honour of your letter 
 yesterday, and take the earliest opportunity of expressing to you 
 without reserve, my sentiments on the subject of it. Mr. Pitt's 
 agreeing to support the measure of a parliamentary reform as a 
 man pleases me very well, and I believe him to be honourable 
 and sincere in the declaration which he has made. But I am not 
 pleased with his design of supporting it as a minister, for I am so 
 great an enemy to influence over parliament, that I detest its 
 exertion even in a cause which I approve ; and in a cause of this 
 consequence, if its success be not derived from the full conviction 
 of those who are to decide on its merits, I think it ought not to 
 be carried at all. 
 
 " The general question of parliamentary reform has my warmest 
 wishes for a favourable issue to its discussion ; but I am not san- 
 guine in my hopes of seeing much good resulting to the constitution 
 from any mode of representation which I have yet heard of: nor 
 am I able, though I have often speculated upon the subject, to devise 
 any plan which I myself durst venture to propose, as likely to answer 
 the end in view. 
 
 " Nothing is wanting but a parliament in which every individual 
 would decide in the House of Commons, on the concerns of the 
 nation, with the same impartiality that a juror decides in a court 
 of justice on the concerns of his fellow-citizens. But this impar- 
 tiality can never be expected to take place, whilst there are such 
 powerful weights as avarice and ambition to draw men's judge- 
 
135 
 
 merits to one side. The mode of corruption may be changed, but 
 corruption itself will remain, as long as there is so much public 
 wealth to be distributed, and so many public honours to be dis- 
 posed of, among the members of the House of Commons and 
 their connections. 
 
 " The manner of electing the members of the House of Com- 
 mons, and the time for which they are to be elected, are subjects 
 on which men's minds are much divided ; I consider them as 
 matters of importance, only so far as they contribute to the intro- 
 duction of honest and independent members into the House, and 
 to the keeping them so whilst they sit there. And hence I am 
 not one of those who stickle for the abstract right of every indi- 
 vidual having a vote in the election, nor for the ancient practice 
 of having a new parliament elected every year, provided the in- 
 tegrity of parliament could be obtained by other means. I freely 
 own to you, that I fear this end will never be obtained to any 
 salutary extent by any means. Other means however of doing 
 all that is possible, may perhaps be thought of, less obnoxious to 
 cavil and misconstruction, than either the extension of the right 
 of voting to every individual, or the restriction of the duration of 
 parliament to a single year. 
 
 " With respect to any influence, which I may be supposed to 
 have, either in the university or county, it is too small to be men- 
 tioned, even if my situation would allow me to exert it with pro- 
 priety, in the manner I did on a former occasion, when the cala- 
 mity of the American war gave it an energy which it could not 
 have now. I shall not, however, be backward in embracing any 
 opportunity of signifying my intention to concur with those who, 
 
136 
 
 in a legal and peaceable way, shall on this or any other future 
 occasion attempt to procure a reform of parliament. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Since the writing of this letter, some unsuccessful attempts have 
 been made in the House of Commons for procuring a better 
 representation of the people, and there are many wise men who 
 ardently wish for it> being fully aware, that without some effectual 
 stop being put to the increasing influence of the executive over 
 the legislative part of the constitution, the liberty of Britain must 
 expire as that of Rome did ; the forms of the constitution will 
 remain, its substance will exist no more. And what hope can 
 we have that a public body will reform itself? Since the 
 miserable event of the French revolution, it may be said to every 
 man in England and in Europe, who attempts to reform abuses 
 either in Church or State — Desine, jam conclamatum est. 
 
 In March, 1785, I published a collection of Theological Tracts, 
 in six volumes, closely printed on a large paper, principally 
 intended for the benefit of young men who had not money to 
 purchase books in divinity. This book was very well received 
 by the world, near a thousand copies having been sold in less 
 than three months ; and very ill received by the bishops, on 
 account of my having printed some tracts originally written by 
 Dissenters. Till I was told of it, I did not conceive that such 
 bigotry could have been then found on the bench, and I trust it 
 can be found there no longer. The Archbishop of Canterbury, to 
 
137 
 
 whom I sent a set, had never the good manners to acknowledge 
 the receipt of the present, and the Archbishop of York objected 
 to the collection being given by the associates of Dean Bray to 
 a young divine who was going out as chaplain to a nobleman in 
 Canada. I was not at all mortified by this conduct of the two 
 Archbishops, for I had but a poor opinion of the theological 
 knowledge of either of Their Graces. I lived on good terms 
 with them both; for I did not consider diversity of opinion, as 
 any ground for disrespect towards men in their stations, which 
 they filled not eminently but inculpably. 
 
 But though this collection seems not to have been in the 
 taste of the Archbishops, yet it went speedily through two large 
 editions, and was held in such estimation, that Doctor Kippis, in 
 his Life of Lardner (p. 44.) says, " For the noble, manly, and 
 truly evangelical preface by which it is preceded, its author is 
 entitled to the gratitude of the Christian world." It is with 
 peculiar pleasure that I mention the following anecdote : — 
 Mr. Lambe was an eminent attorney in Cambridge, and in the 
 latter part of his life, when I knew him, of a serious turn. His 
 successor in March, 1801, sent me the following account: — - 
 " Perhaps Your Lordship may not have heard that the late 
 Mr. Lambe bequeathed a great part of his property to a grandson 
 of the author of " A Scheme of Scripture Divinity," which Your 
 Lordship thought worthy of the first place in your collection of 
 theological tracts." 
 
 The impartiality which I had used in putting into the catalogue 
 of books in divinity, printed at the end of the collection of 
 
138 
 
 tracts, the works of dissenters as well as of churchmen, procured 
 me the following letter from Dr. Harwood, to whom I was not 
 personally known : 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " Yesterday I happened to take up in a gentleman's house 
 Your Lordship's collection of Theological Tracts. Your selection 
 does Your Lordship's candour and judgment great honour. I, 
 who am an old man trembling on the brink of the grave with 
 the palsy, could not but rejoice in my melancholy condition with 
 Your Lordship's recommendation of my introduction to the study 
 and knowledge of the New Testament, which I hope will be useful 
 to young students in sacred literature when I am no more. 
 
 " It pours the greatest distinction on the moderation of the 
 University of Cambridge, that this illustrious seminary hath 
 deigned to recommend the reading of a book written by a poor 
 dissenter, which had nothing for its object but displaying the 
 truth and excellency of our common religion. But I was asto- 
 nished to see in that useful catalogue of books which Your Lord- 
 ship hath annexed to the last volume, my jive dissertations, 
 which completed my downfal among the bigots at Bristol. The 
 second dissertation indeed of the Socinian scheme has some merit, 
 which I republished, after it had pleased God in some measure to 
 recover me from a dreadful stroke of the palsy, with which he 
 was pleased to afflict me. Formerly Your Lordship's answer to 
 Gibbon, and one of your sermons, gave me the highest idea of 
 your abilities and judgment, and this collection of useful tracts 
 hath confirmed it. The inferior clergy will peculiarly have great 
 reason to bless Your Lordship, for whose use and improvement 
 
139 
 
 this publication is extremely well calculated. Permit me, My 
 Lord, to thank you for the honourable and friendly mention you 
 have made of my books. 
 
 " Your Lordship is correct in attributing " Plain Reasons for 
 being a Christian" originally to my late father-in-law. It was 
 written in conjunction with Dr. Hunt, who among the dissenters, 
 on account of his skill in Hebrew, went by the name of Rabbi 
 Hunt. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " Edward Harwood. 
 "Hyde-street, Bloomsbury, March 27. 1785." 
 
 Doctor Harwood was a learned and a respectable man ; he died 
 in 1794, and about a year before his death he published a letter 
 in a valuable miscellany (Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1793, 
 p. 994.) which he concludes in the following very remarkable 
 manner : — " After expending a great deal of time in discussing, 
 I am neither an Athanasian, Arian, or a Socinian, but die fully 
 confirmed in the great doctrine of the New Testament, a resur- 
 rection, and a future state of eternal blessedness to all sincere 
 penitents and good Christians." 
 
 The most undecided men on doubtful points are those often 
 who have bestowed most time in the investigation of them, 
 whether the points respect divinity, jurisprudence, or policy. 
 He who examines only one side of a question, and gives his 
 judgment, gives it improperly, though he may be on the right 
 side. But he who examines both sides, and after examination 
 gives his assent to neither, may surely be pardoned this suspen- 
 
 t 2 
 
140 
 
 sion of judgment, for it is safer to continue in doubt than to 
 decide amiss. To such men may well be applied what that most 
 learned man Peter Daniel Huett says of himself, in his Philo- 
 sophical Treatise concerning the Weakness of Human Under- 
 standing : — " If any man ask me what I am, since I will be 
 " neither academic, nor sceptic, nor eclectic, nor of any other 
 if sect ; I answer that I am of my own opinion, that is to say 
 " free, neither submitting my mind to any authority, nor approv- 
 " ing of any thing but what seems to me to come nearest the 
 " truth ; and if any man should, either ironically or flatteringly, 
 " call us iftctyvuftovatc ; that is, men who stick only to their own 
 " sentiments, we shall never go about to hinder it." 
 
 In the following July, I received a letter from the Duke of 
 Rutland, in which he said, that though party in England had ably 
 enough contrived to engender jealousies on constitutional points 
 which were never intended to be affected, yet he was sure of 
 carrying the commercial propositions which were then in agita- 
 tion. I immediately wrote to him to the following purport : — I 
 admire the liberal commercial system which you have adopted 
 relative to Ireland, but unless the Irish think it beneficial to them 
 I should be very sorry to see it carried into execution. I speak 
 not of the sentiments of a few interested men, or of a few dis- 
 interested but well-meaning men (for opposition of sentiments 
 must ever be expected in great and complicated transactions), but 
 of the bulk of the Irish nation. If they are clearly, however un- 
 advisedly, against the measure, it would be bad and oppressive 
 policy to force them, by your influence over parliament, to sub- 
 mit to it. My own opinion is, that this commercial union will be 
 
141 
 
 greatly advantageous to both countries, inasmuch as it will have, 
 in some degree, the effect of a legislative union, and tend to do 
 away the impolitic principle of considering their interests as 
 diverse and incompatible. The language of some men in Ireland 
 is proud and unwise. They contend for an absolute independ- 
 ence on Great Britain ; let them have it ; but let them not 
 expect that the lands of Great Britain should be mortgaged to 
 maintain a fleet for the protection of the coasts and commerce of 
 Ireland ; let them not expect, when they shall refuse to take our 
 goods, that the trade of Great Britain into Germany and Russia, 
 should still continue shackled in compliment to the linen-manu- 
 factory of Ireland." 
 
 On the 12th of August, 1785, the Irish government carried the 
 question for leave to bring in a bill conformable to the propo- 
 sitions which had been sent from England by a majority of nine- 
 teen, and three days afterwards they wisely abandoned the bill, 
 declaring in the House, by Secretary Orde, that they would never 
 again agitate the bill in the House of Commons, unless it was 
 called for by the people and parliament of Ireland. Whilst this 
 business was going forward in Ireland, I was at Harrowgate, 
 making experiment on the sulphur-wells; I returned to Cam- 
 bridge on the 27th of August, and the day after wrote to Mr. 
 Pitt ; the following is an extract of my letter : — " If I durst pre- 
 sume to hint an opinion in the present circumstances, I would 
 say with respect to Ireland, Do nothing. It was necessary a year 
 ago that something should be attempted, but it is not necessary 
 now that any thing more should be attempted at present. What 
 has been done will convince a large party in Ireland of the good 
 
142 
 
 intentions of our government towards them, and on any emerg- 
 ency hostile to the connection which ought to subsist between the 
 two kingdoms, this party will show itself and increase in numbers 
 and in strength. 
 
 " Ireland may, perhaps, proceed to advance her consequence 
 by regulations in trade. These must be watched ; and every one 
 which has a direct tendency to injure the trade of Great Britain 
 must be opposed ; not directly by endeavouring to stem the 
 popular current of the Parliament of Ireland, but by counter 
 regulations of our own trade, by our own Parliament. 
 
 " Ireland has refused to become a great people in conjunction 
 with us ; let her try to rise superior to her present difficulties ; I 
 do not say without our good wishes, but without our rendering her 
 any assistance which may interfere with our own security. It is 
 but common sense in us, to use this precaution. If the Irish will 
 not form a constituent part of the same empire with ourselves ; 
 (for the having the same King does not put them in that predi- 
 cament,) if they will not have the same enemies, the same friends, 
 the same commercial arrangements, and a common purse for the 
 support of a common government, it is our business not to aban- 
 don, in any one circumstance, for their emolument, the advan- 
 tages which we are in possession of — from our capital, as a 
 trading, and from our industry and ingenuity, as a manufacturing 
 nation. 
 
 " Let us bear the Irish no ill will ; but let us take care of our- 
 selves, till they show a disposition more favourable to a legislative, 
 at least to a commercial union with us, than they have done in 
 the haughtiness and suspicion of their present politics. 
 
143 
 
 " I wish there was justice and moderation enough among the 
 leading powers of Europe, to let Ireland lift up her head as an 
 absolutely independent state ; but she will soon find, that she is 
 more indebted for her liberty to the jealousies of other states, 
 than to the vigour of her own exertions. 
 
 " Were I an Irishman of the greatest property in the country, 
 I should think that property to be better secured, and more likely 
 to be augmented, by a real and solid union with Great Britain, 
 than by any other mean whatever ; and the time will come, 
 (would to God it may come without previous confusion and calamity!) 
 when Ireland will be of the same opinion." 
 
 The prediction here expressed, has been verified, but not 
 without previous calamity. 
 
 On the 11th of January, 1786, I was sent for by express, to 
 my friend Mr. Luther, in Essex. I found him, as was thought by 
 Sir Richard Jebb and his other physician, so much out of danger, 
 that they both left him the next morning. In the course of a few 
 hours after they were gone, a stoppage of urine came on; I 
 immediately sent to town for Mr. Pott ; who not being at home, 
 his son-in-law, Mr. Earle, came down to Myles's, and on using 
 the catheter, he found that a mortification had taken place in the 
 neck of the bladder, and that there were no hopes: my poor 
 friend died on the 13th, in the morning. On opening the will, 
 I was found to be sole executor. His Essex estate was left to his 
 younger nephew, Francis Fane, Esq., *in strict entail to some 
 other of his relations, with the remainder to me. His Sussex 
 estate was left to me and my heirs," charged with a legacy 
 
144 
 
 of three thousand pounds. I ,sold this estate in the following 
 July, to Lord Egremont, for twenty-three thousand five hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 The expense and manner of the funeral was ordered by the 
 will to be at my discretion ; his two nephews, Lord Howard, and 
 some of the principal gentry of the country, with his tenantry, 
 attended the funeral, and I read the service as well as I could 
 myself — as well as I could, for I was more than once obliged to 
 stop : we had lived as brothers for thirty years. I had ever a 
 strong affection for him ; and his for me was fully manifested bv 
 his will, which was made many years before he died. When he 
 was at the point of death, my heart was overpowered. I knelt 
 down in a corner of his bedchamber, and with as much humility 
 and as much sincerity as I ever used in prayer for myself, I inter- 
 ceded with the Father of Mercies for pardon of my friend's trans- 
 gressions. I knew perfectly well all the philosophical arguments 
 which could be used against the efficacy of all human interces- 
 sion ; and I was fully conscious of my own unworthiness and 
 unfitness, with so many sins of my own to answer for, to inter- 
 cede for others ; but the most distant hope of being of use to my 
 expiring friend overcame all my scruples. If we meet in another 
 world, he will thank me for this instance of my love for him, 
 when he was insensible to every earthly concern, and when I was 
 wholly ignorant of the purport of his will. 
 
 I have managed as I pught to have done this legacy. It has 
 enabled me to preserve my independence, and to provide for my 
 family. I have a thousand times thought, that had I been a 
 
145 
 
 mean spirited, time-serving bishop, I might perhaps have escaped 
 that marked and unmerited neglect of the Court, which I have 
 for so many years experienced, but that I should certainly have 
 forfeited the affection of my friend ; his upright and honourable 
 principles would never have suffered him to distinguish such a 
 character with that eminent token of his regard which he 
 bequeathed to me. 
 
 On the 1st of July, 1804, I was surprised by the receipt of 
 the following letter from a gentleman I had no acquaintance 
 with. 
 
 « My Lord, 
 " Presuming from Your Lordship's attachment to chemistry 
 that the enquiry contained in the accompanying volume, may 
 obtain a cursory examination from Your Lordship, I have pre- 
 sumed to present it as a tribute due to the author of those 
 essays which first attracted my attention earnestly to chemistry. 
 " I am, My Lord, with sincere respect, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 r i "J. Parkinson." 
 
 " Hoxton Square, July 1st, 1804. 
 
 . . < . .. . - 
 
 On the 28th of July, 1804, I sent the subjoined answer: 
 
 C - 
 
 " Sir, . , 
 
 * I received the day before yesterday your most acceptable 
 present of your interesting work on' the organic remains of a 
 former world. 
 
 u 
 
146 
 
 " I have read with peculiar satisfaction one half of it, having 
 never met with so large an assemblage of facts, nor such probable 
 conjectures on such a dark subject. Accept my best thanks for 
 this instance of your attention to me ; but I must not permit you, 
 as you proceed in your work, to make me any future present, as 
 I shall eagerly purchase the future volumes. 
 
 " I hope, before I get to the end of your work, to meet 
 with some animadversions on a position of Linnaeus which, if 
 established, subverts your whole system. It occurs in Systeme 
 Naturel, torn. iii. p. 5. Cataclysmi universalis certa rudera ego 
 nondum attigi quousque penetravu 
 
 " I am, &c 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I had published a third volume of Chemical Essays in 1782, 
 and in February, 1786, I published a fourth, and then burned a 
 great many chemical manuscripts which I had written at sundry 
 times whilst I was Professor of Chemistry. They consisted of 
 many interesting dissertations, which only wanted a careful 
 revision to have been produced with credit to the world, such 
 as those concerning Blood, Milk, Urine, Fermentation, Wine, Ale, 
 Vinegar, Putrefaction, Sugar, Balsams, Resins, Glass, precious 
 Stones, Metallic substances, &c, in all of which I had united 
 the natural and commercial history with the chemical analysis of 
 the substances, and had introduced what the ancients knew on 
 these subjects. I cultivated chemistry from 1764 to 1771, with 
 laborious and unceasing assiduity, and derived more pleasure and 
 knowledge from the pursuit of that, than of any other branch of 
 philosophy in which I was ever engaged. 
 
147 
 
 Whilst I was Professor of Chemistry, I dissected a subject 
 which I had procured from London, in order to perfect myself 
 in Anatomy; my laboratory was my theatre, and Professor 
 Waring, known to Europe by his mathematical publications, and 
 my old friend Preston (afterwards Bishop of Ferns), were my 
 assistants. When we had finished the business we put what re- 
 mained of the body into a box, and commissioned an old soldier to 
 bury it in the fields. The man thought the box was worth some- 
 thing, and instead of burying it he opened it and poured the 
 contents into the Cam, and as there happened then to be a great 
 flood, some of them were drifted on shore and excited a great 
 suspicion of murder having been committed ; but as no person 
 was either taken up or suspected of it, we carefully kept our 
 secret, and thus probably escaped being stoned, like anatomists 
 of old, by a superstitious populace. 
 
 On the 2d of August, 1786, an insane woman, named Margaret 
 Nicholson, attempted to stab the King as he alighted from his 
 carriage. Upon an 'intimation from the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, addresses were presented from the several Dioceses. I drew 
 up the following for mine. 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 " We, the Bishop, the Archdeacon, and Chapter, and the 
 clergy of the diocese of Landaff, Your Majesty's loyal and duti- 
 ful subjects, humbly entreat Your Majesty graciously to accept 
 our faithful congratulations on the protection which the good 
 providence of God has lately vouchsafed to Your Majesty, from 
 the attack of an insane assassin. 
 
 u 2 
 
148 
 
 " The mildness of Your Majesty's government, united with 
 the exemplary probity and condescension of your private life, 
 have left Your Majesty no deliberate enemies, no apprehension 
 of any danger from the malice of any of your subjects. In the 
 late calamitous event, Your Majesty will feel a comfort which is 
 fully felt by all your people, from knowing that the hand of 
 violence was not aimed against Your Majesty's life by the spirit 
 of public faction, or private discontent. The worst of kings, in 
 every age and country, have been encouraged by adulatory ad- 
 dresses of flagitious men, to persevere in modes of government 
 destructive of the freedom and felicity of mankind. Sincerity and 
 truth have been in this way so often sacrificed on the altar of 
 private interest, as almost to render suspicious the professions of 
 honest men, on the fairest occasions ; yet on this occasion we 
 fear not the being accused of flattery and insincerity, when we 
 avow in the face of the world, that we believe there is not a 
 single person in Your Majesty's dominions, who will not join 
 with us in thanking God for this instance of his goodness towards 
 you, and in praying that he will long continue to us the happiness, 
 and the liberty, civil and religious, which we enjoy under Your 
 Majesty's government." 
 
 I saw Lord Lansdown soon after the presenting this address, 
 and he thanked me for it, saying that it had done him credit; 
 but that Bishop Shipley's address had done him disservice 4n a 
 certain place. His Lordship looked upon himself as connected 
 with the Bishop of St. Asaph and myself, and indeed he had a 
 right to do so ; for he had made me a bishop, and he had asked 
 for the Archbishoprick of Canterbury for Shipley, on the death 
 
of Cornwallis ; but I do not believe that we either of us thought' 
 of him when we drew up our respective addresses. 
 
 About this time application was made to me by government, 
 to know whether I could give any advice relative to the improve- 
 ment of the strength of gunpowder ; and I suggested to them the 
 making charcoal by distilling the wood in close vessels. The 
 suggestion was put in execution at Hythe, in 1787, and the im- 
 provement has exceeded my utmost expectation. Major-Gerieral 
 Congreve delivered to me a paper, containing an account of the 
 experiments which had been made with the cylinder powder, (so 
 called from the wood being distilled in iron cylinders,) in all of 
 which its superiority over every other species of powder was suf- 
 ficiently established.' In particular, a given quantity of gunpowder, 
 made with this kind of charcoal, threw a ball of sixty-eight pounds 
 weight two hundred and seventy- three feet; whilst the same 
 mortar, at an equal elevation, and charged with an equal weight 
 of gunpowder made with charcoal prepared in the best of the 
 ordinary ways, threw an equal ball only one hundred and seventy- 
 two feet. In this experiment, the strength of the cylinder, esti- 
 mated by the horizontal range, is to that of the best sort of other 
 powder, as 100 to 63. By experiments with the Eprouvette, the 
 proportion of the strength of the cylinder to other powder was 
 that of 100 : 54. In round numbers, it may perhaps be near 
 enough to the truth to say, that the strength of the cylinder pow- 
 der is to that of other powder, as 100 : 60, or 5 : 3. One of the 
 clerks in the laboratory at Woolwich desired a gentleman, in. 
 1803, to inform me, (as he suspected I did not know it,) that I 
 
150 
 
 had for several years saved to the government one hundred thou- 
 sand pounds a year. I have never inquired whether this infor- 
 mation is correct ; nor if it should turn out to be so, have I any 
 intention of applying for a reward. My country is welcome to 
 my services in every way ; but if in the vicissitudes incident to all 
 families, my posterity should be by misfortune, not occasioned by 
 vice or indiscretion, reduced to beggary, I would advise them to 
 petition the House of Commons for a remuneration ; they may do 
 it with a just confidence of being listened to. At a levee, soon 
 after the experiments on gunpowder had been made, I happened 
 to be standing next to the Duke of Richmond, then Master 
 General of the Ordnance, and the duke informed His Majesty, 
 that they were indebted to me for a great improvement in its 
 fabrication. On my saying that I ought to be ashamed of myself, 
 inasmuch as it was a scandal in a Christian Bishop to instruct 
 men in the mode of destroying mankind, the King answered, " Let 
 not that afflict your conscience, for the quicker the conflict, 
 the less the slaughter," or in words to that effect. I mention 
 this to do justice to the King, whose understanding it was the 
 fashion to decry. In all the conversations I had with him, he 
 appeared to me not to be at all deficient in quickness or intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 In September, 1786, I wrote to the Duke of Rutland to the 
 following effect : 
 
 " The White Boys, I understand, give you trouble about tithes. 
 I know nothing concerning the nature of their claims, but I will 
 
151 
 
 state to you my abstract notion of the subject. It is of use to 
 bear in mind the true principles of legislation, though it may 
 not be always expedient to practise them. The clergy are hired 
 by the state, and they are paid by tithes. When these tithes 
 were first granted, there was but one sect of Christians, the 
 Catholics. Whether the mode of paying the clergy which was 
 then established was the best which could have been thought of, 
 has been doubted by many. I think there was none preferable 
 to it at that time ; when all men were of the same religion, and 
 when that religion had some hold on men's minds. The case is 
 now much changed in both these points ; a variety of sects have 
 sprung up in England and Ireland, and religion itself is not so 
 highly esteemed as it was formerly. Most men of fortune care 
 little about religion, and they grudge the clergy what is due to 
 them, by laws which were made long before they or any of their 
 ancestors possessed the estates, which are now saddled with the 
 incumbrance of tithes. 
 
 " It does not become any legislature to give way, on principles 
 of equity, to the demands of these men : they are as evidently 
 founded on avarice and injustice as if all the copyholders in the 
 kingdom were to demand an exemption from the payment of the 
 lords' rents, to which their estates have for many centuries been 
 subject. But, on principles of utility, it may be expedient to 
 soothe their prejudices, if their combination is a powerful one, by 
 listening to any change which they may propose in the mode of 
 paying the clergy ; provided the change be grounded on a prin- 
 ciple, which they will not readily admit, that the clergy be not 
 plundered, and that the gentlemen who propose the change be 
 not benefited by the plunder. 
 
152 
 
 " The other point, which respects the payment made by sectaries, 
 has more difficulty in it; and it becomes perplexed, indeed, 
 when a great majority of a country is not of that sect which is 
 established by government. The just principle is this : every 
 man should contribute his due proportion to the maintenance of 
 the ministers of religion, (for no state can subsist without some 
 religion,) and a Christian state should allow a co-establishment of 
 the different sects of Christians ; that each individual might have 
 an opportunity of frequenting his own place of worship, without 
 being burdened by any additional payment to hfs own minister, 
 exclusive of what he paid to the minister established by the state. 
 
 " This co-establishment cannot, probably, take place in coun- 
 tries which have been long accustomed to patronise one particular 
 mode of worship, with a simple toleration of others ; nor is there 
 any injustice in its not taking place, whilst the majority of the per- 
 sons of property in the country are of opinion that it is more for the 
 interests of the state to support one sect exclusively, than to sup- 
 port all sects promiscuously. The dissenters in England consti- 
 tute, it has been said, a fourth part of the whole community, but 
 they do not possess, I think, a fiftieth part of the property of the 
 whole kingdom. Whether it would be advantageous to the state 
 that their ministers should be paid by the state, is a question on 
 which I have had no occasion to form an opinion ; but I am 
 clear in this, that they suffer no injustice in paying tithes, because 
 the lands, out of which the tithes issue, were subject to that pay- 
 ment ages before the name of a dissenter was heard of. They 
 may as justly be compelled (not to frequent a place of worship 
 which they dislike, that is quite another thing) to pay towards a 
 religious establishment which they dislike, as Your Grace and I, 
 
153 
 
 and many other good Whigs, were compelled to contribute to the 
 support of the American war, which we reprobated from the 
 first as impolitic and unjust. The minority in all such cases is 
 rightly concluded by the majority. 
 
 " I do not believe that the next session of Parliament will pass 
 as easily as the last has done. The country gentlemen think that 
 they are not treated with sufficient respect, and I wish there be no 
 mischief brewing from other quarters. I neither am nor desire to 
 be in the secret, but I can see a little into futurity as well as other 
 men ; and, without looking into futurity, I see some things which 
 I do not like. I told you when I would not come up to vote 
 against Mr. Fox's India Bill, out of regard to a part of the then 
 administration, that a new ministry would be but a new coalition, 
 I think I then said nothing amiss, for Charles Jenkinson is become 
 Lord Hawkesbury 1 1 ! — In my attachment to yourself, 
 
 " I am your unalterably affectionate friend, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I will put down the Duke's answer to this letter ; not because 
 it contains a compliment to myself, but because it shows how 
 earnest he was in whatever he thought respected the public good, 
 and how forcibly he both thought and wrote, far beyond the con- 
 ceptions of those who knew him not. 
 
 " My dear Lord, Phoenix Park, Oct. 7. 1786. 
 
 " I have to return you my best thanks for the trouble you 
 
 have given yourself to go into the question of the disturbances 
 
 which have for some time agitated the province of Munster, but 
 
 which appear now to be nearly, if not in toto, happily subsided. 
 
 x 
 
154 
 
 I do not, however, think you place the subject in dispute on the 
 precise point of ground on which it should stand, because you 
 have not the exact premises to argue upon. But as, without 
 flattery, no man's opinions on all subjects is more weighty with 
 me than yours, and especially in a matter of this nature, I will 
 have the whole cause of dispute accurately drawn up for your 
 consideration, where you will see the grievances complained of, 
 which, in a degree, are founded, but which it is difficult to redress 
 without endangering what must be supported ; and at the same 
 time it is impossible to suffer the country from time to time to 
 be involved in a state little short of war. I have this other con- 
 sideration in sending you the papers I allude to; it will afford 
 matter for our future correspondence. I have no apprehension 
 about the strength of government in either country; and I trust 
 you will find the daily increase of the funds, which I verily be- 
 lieve to be permanent, and without art, together with a solid 
 extension of commerce, and the opening new channels for our 
 manufactures, to be weapons in the hand of the minister by which 
 he will beat down all before him. As for the accession of Jen- 
 kinson, I do not consider it in the odious light of a coalition ; he 
 is brought forward into a particular line of office, to preside over 
 the commerce of the country, for which he is the best qualified 
 of any man in the kingdom. His price was a peerage, and, as I 
 said on the India Bill, when he gave salaries to Lord Fitzwilliam, 
 &c, " Men will serve better if they be paid according to their 
 wishes ;" so whether his object be honour, emolument, or both, 
 it matters but little, if you obtain the best man for the particular 
 line in which you wish to employ him. I am persuaded you will 
 never find Tory principles pervading the system pursued by the 
 
155. 
 
 present administration. At all events the coalition, if such it be, 
 is a very different one from that which was the caput horum et 
 causa malorum. 
 
 " Believe me to be ever 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Rutland." 
 
 I did not receive any further information from His Grace 
 relative to the disturbances in Ireland, till the month of January, 
 1787, and then he sent me two pamphlets, and I immediately 
 wrote to him the following letter in reply. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " I thank Your Grace for the two Pamphlets. I have read 
 them twice over ; and the main thing I have learned from them is, 
 that your disturbances are occasioned by the Catholic Farmers. 
 The only matter which excites my surprise is the short-sighted- 
 ness of the Protestant possessors of land. They are infatuated 
 by avaricious expectations, or they would to a man have insisted 
 on their tenants paying punctually the fair amount of their 
 tithes to the clergy. They are desirous to pay no tithes for 
 their lands; the event may be, that they will have no lands to 
 pay for. 
 
 " That the Catholics should be unwilling to pay the tithe of 
 their labour, or other property, for the maintenance of a Pro- 
 testant clergy is, in the nature of things, to be expected j and, as 
 Popery is the religion of a great majority of the state, in strict 
 justice it ought to be the established religion of the country. In 
 other words, the revenue raised by the authority of the state 
 
 x 2 
 
156 
 
 from all its subjects, for the express purpose of instructing all in 
 religion, is unjustly expended in the instruction of a small part 
 of the whole. 
 
 " This observation cannot be obviated by saying that every 
 man ought to be of the religion of the state, for every man 
 ought to obey, not government, but his conscience in his mode 
 of worshipping God. This would be the plain truth of the case, 
 and government would be guilty of evident injustice towards the 
 Catholics, provided the religious tenets of the Catholics were 
 unmixed with political principles adverse to the civil constitution 
 of the state. But as there have been since the Reformation 
 many proofs, both in England and Ireland, of a contrary dispo- 
 sition in the Catholics, it may be thought proper that the abstract 
 right of the Catholics should, in this instance, give way in 
 Ireland to the public safety. And yet I own I do not like the 
 doctrine of any government compelling its members to submit to 
 injustice ; for this is the very doctrine which lost us America. 
 
 " But on the supposition, that no relief can be safely granted 
 to the Catholics, the hand of government should be extended 
 with decided force to the protection of the Protestants in all their 
 rights ; the insurgents should be speedily and effectually subdued. 
 No man will suspect me of a want of toleration in religious 
 matters ; yet I own I have looked upon the concessions which 
 have been made to the Catholics, both here and in Ireland, with a 
 jealous eye ; and I shall ever continue to think that Protestant 
 government is unwise which trusts power to the Catholics, till it 
 shall be clearly proved, that if they had the opportunity they 
 would not use it to the oppression of the Protestants. There 
 are some enlightened gentlemen among the Catholics; but the 
 
157 
 
 persecuting spirit of the Roman Church remains in the hearts of 
 the generality of its members, and whilst it does remain, Popery 
 must be watched, intimidated, restrained. Is it an impossible 
 stroke of policy to attach the bishops and clergy of the Papists to 
 the state, by making it their interest to be faithful and peaceable 
 subjects ? A Regium Dorum of forty or fifty thousand a year 
 would have a great effect. 
 
 " I will not enlarge on this hint, because at this distance I 
 cannot judge of its practicability. 
 
 " I am told that in many parts of Ireland there are no Par- 
 sonage houses : (this is true also of England, and the same remedy 
 might be applied :) in such places the livings, when they become 
 vacant, should be sequestered for two or three years, and the 
 monies thence arising should be applied to the erection of houses 
 in which the ministers might reside ; or some other plan should 
 be thought of for building them fit habitations, and residence 
 should then be enforced; for nothing tends more to civilise a 
 country than a resident clergy. 
 
 " You have a difficult part to act. The Catholics, were they 
 faithful subjects, would have a clear right to complain of oppres- 
 sion ; and they will not admit that they are not faithful subjects ; 
 nor will it be the interest of government to irritate them, by 
 showing a suspicion of their fidelity. The best mode of conduct 
 is, in my judgment, to punish with rigour all breaches of the 
 peace, and, if the civil power is insufficient for the execution of 
 the civil laws,- to use the military ; for there is an end of govern- 
 ment when the laws cannot be executed. I abhor the use of the 
 military in all cases where a due deference is paid to the laws ; 
 but when numbers of men obstruct the regular course of law, 
 
158 
 
 and overpower the ordinary officers of justice, it is right to intro- 
 duce and to use, as long as the necessity of the case requires it, 
 extraordinary ones. 
 
 * All this however goes on the supposition, that no redress 
 can be granted to the Catholics, consistently with the safety of 
 the state. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 A day or two after I had sent to him the preceding letter, I 
 wrote to him the following, which finished the political advice I 
 gave to the Duke of Rutland, whilst he was in Ireland ; at least, 
 if there were any other letters, I kept no copies of them : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " In my last, I said nothing to Your Grace on the commutation 
 of tithes, and yet it is probable that the subject may be agitated 
 in your Parliament ; I will therefore, in as few words as I can, 
 state what I think just, and perhaps expedient, on that head. 
 
 " I am a friend to a commutation, because I am a friend to 
 charity and good neighbourhood ; I wish the commutation to be 
 in land, because I would have the means of the clergy certain, 
 and not dependent on the fluctuation in the value of money. 
 The cry against tithes has not arisen from any extortion of the 
 clergy, either in this kingdom or in Ireland; but it does now 
 subsist in both countries, and it obstructs in both the Christian 
 utility of the ministry, and on that account I wish to see the 
 occasion of such obstruction removed. 
 
159 
 
 The quantity of land which should be given in exchange I 
 pretend not to ascertain. The clergy must be contented, in the 
 present temper of the Irish, with what they can get ; yet it ought 
 to be so liberal a commutation, as will enable every parson to live 
 creditably and hospitably in the midst of his parishioners. A 
 proper provision being made for every minister, his residence 
 should be made an absolute condition of his receiving it. 
 
 " Pluralities and non-residence are scandals in the Christian 
 church, as a church, and injurious to those interests of the state, 
 for the promotion of which it is at the expense of maintaining a 
 clergy. 
 
 " One thing I beg to recommend to you, and it is an act of 
 only pure justice — that none of the present clergy be compelled 
 to accept the commutation. If an act is passed, let it take place, 
 either in such cases as the present incumbents shall of them- 
 selves desire, or as they shall severally die. There is no injustice 
 in altering either the value of the benefice, or the mode of 
 raising that value, when the property of the benefice reverts as it 
 were to the state on the death of an incumbent ; but there would 
 be injustice in compelling the present incumbent of any church 
 to accede to a change of property which he disliked. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 . " R. Landaff." 
 
 The disorder which had attacked me in 1781, still continued 
 with great violence, and rendered the discharge of my duty, as 
 Professor of Divinity, to the last degree irksome to my feelings, 
 and dangerous to my existence. Three years before this time, I 
 had intimated to Mr. Pitt my wishes for any piece of preferment 
 which would enable me to resign my professorship ; for even 
 
160 
 
 with it I was worse provided for than any of my brethren, and 
 without it I should have had a church income of only about 
 twelve hundred a-year. It went very much against me to renew 
 my application to Mr. Pitt ; but I was concerned not only for myself, 
 but for the honour of the University, which ought never to have 
 a deputy in the theological chair, and I foresaw that I could not 
 long continue to do the duty of it. On the death, therefore, of 
 the Bishop of Durham, I wrote to Mr. Pitt, not for that bishopric, 
 but merely expressing a general hope, that some management 
 might take place which would permit me, without ruining my 
 family, to resign my professorship. In a few days Mr. Pitt sent 
 the following answer to my application. 
 
 " My dear Lord, Downing-street, Jan. 23. 1787. 
 
 " I was honoured with Your Lordship's letter, which the 
 engagements of the time prevented me from being sooner able 
 to answer. I should on many accounts have been happy if I 
 could have been instrumental in promoting Your Lordship's 
 wishes, but various circumstances on the present occasion put it 
 out of my power. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Your most obedient and faithful servant, 
 
 « W. Pitt." 
 
 I sent an answer to this letter in the following words : — 
 
 " My dear Sir, Great George- Street, Jan. 24. 1787. 
 
 " It is not for me to enquire what circumstances prevented 
 
 you from promoting my wishes ; I am desirous of believing that 
 
161 
 
 they were of a weighty nature, for I am more hurt at my not 
 having an occasion of considering Mr. Pitt as my private friend, 
 than I am at his neglect of me as a minister. I must call it, in 
 my present ignorance of circumstances, neglect ; for there were 
 various ways in which my wishes might have been gratified. 
 They were not founded in avarice; they extended not so much to 
 an increase of income as to a change of situation ; and that I 
 consider as a favour, which a life spent, and a constitution im= 
 paired, in the discharge of the most difficult offices of an Univer- 
 sity, entitled me to expect from any minister. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. L." 
 
 I knew that this letter would offend the high spirit of Mr. 
 Pitt, but mine was as high as his own ; and I disdained conceal- 
 ing my chagrin at being passed by without notice, when extreme 
 bad health, which I had long laboured under, joined to the con- 
 sideration of my having, on many occasions, been serviceable to 
 Mr. Pitt ; of my having been fifteen years Professor of Divinity, 
 seven years Professor of Chemistry, four years Moderator in the 
 University, and I know not how many years Private Tutor, As- 
 sistant Tutor, Head Tutor, in Trinity College, gave me a reason- 
 able confidence, that the wishes which I had so long before 
 expressed to Mr. Pitt, would, on this occasion, have been attended 
 to. Whether they ought to have been attended to or not, let 
 posterity judge. 
 
 On the 10th. of February following, a meeting of the Bishops 
 was convened at the Bounty-Office, on a summons from the 
 
162 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and at the instance, as we were given 
 to understand, of Mr. Pitt, who wanted to know the sentiments 
 of the Bench relative to the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts. The question proposed at the meeting was put thus : — 
 " Ought the Test and Corporation Acts to be maintained?" I 
 was the junior bishop, and as such, was called upon to deliver 
 my opinion first, which I did in the negative. The only bishop 
 who voted with me was Bishop Shipley. The then Archbishops 
 of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Worcester, Lincoln, 
 Ely, Peterborough, Norwich, Exeter, Bangor, Bath anxi Wells, 
 Rochester, and Lichfield, voted that the Acts ought to be main- 
 tained. When the question was thus decided, that my brethren 
 might see I was not sorry to be known to have voted as I had 
 done, I moved, that not only the result of the meeting, but that 
 the names of those who had voted for and against the mainte- 
 nance of the Acts, should be sent to Mr. Pitt ; and the motion 
 was passed unanimously. 
 
 The question for the Repeal of the Acts was then lost in the 
 Commons, by a majority of 78 — 178 : 100. It was again brought 
 forward in 1789, and was again lost by a majority of 20 — 
 122 : 102. This small majority encouraged the Dissenters to 
 bring it forward again in 1790 ; but the cry of the Church's danger 
 began to be raised, and meetings were held by some alarmed 
 clergymen, principally in the dioceses of York and Chester, and 
 the question was lost by a majority of 194 — 299:105. In a 
 conversation I then had with Lord Camden, President of the 
 Council, I plainly asked him if he foresaw any danger likely to 
 result to the church establishment, from the repeal of the Test 
 
163 
 
 Act : he answered at once, none whatever. On my urging the 
 policy of conciliating the Dissenters by granting their petition, 
 his answer made a great impression on my mind, as it showed 
 the principle on which great statesmen sometimes condescend to 
 act. It was this : — Pitt was wrong in refusing the former applica- 
 tion of the Dissenters, but he must be now supported, 
 ■ 
 
 The cause of the Dissenters was much injured, by some indis- 
 creet expressions of Dr. Priestley, relative to the approaching 
 fall of all civil and ecclesiastical establishments ; though, justly 
 speaking, Dr. Hartley, I think, was more answerable for such 
 an opinion than Dr. Priestley, who had probably adopted it 
 from the writings of the former. Dr. Hartley's famous book, 
 entitled, " Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his 
 Expectations," was first published in 1749. The eighty-first pro- 
 position of that book, says, " It is probable, that all the civil 
 governments will be overturned;" and the eighty-second says, 
 " It is probable, that the present forms of church government will 
 be dissolved." Both these propositions are grounded on the 
 interpretation of certain prophecies ; but these prophecies are 
 neither so distinctly set forth, nor so indubitably explained by 
 Dr. Hartley, as to induce a cool-headed man implicitly to 
 adopt them ; though the fall of the French monarchy and church 
 drew some men's attention towards them about that time. I have 
 an anecdote concerning these two propositions worth mentioning; 
 it was told me by Lady Charlotte Wentworth. She happened to 
 be attending her father at Bath when this book was first pub- 
 lished, and being much alarmed at what she had read in it, rela- 
 
 y 2 
 
164 
 
 tive to the fall of governments and of churches, she asked Dr. 
 Hartley, on his next visit to her father, whom he attended as his 
 physician, when these terrible things would happen. He an- 
 swered, " I am an old man, and shall not live to see them ; but 
 you are a young woman, and probably will see them :" and 
 more persons than Her Ladyship thought, that the French revo- 
 lution was the beginning of the completion of Dr. Hartley's 
 prediction. 
 
 In a few weeks after the failure of the motion for the repeal of 
 the Test Act, in 1787, Mr. Pitt's Commercial Treaty with France 
 was brought forward. I had expressed my disapprobation of it 
 publicly, for several months before, to all my friends ; but the 
 part I took against it was attributed, by the ministerial writers, to 
 the resentment I had conceived against the minister, for his 
 neglect of me. That would not have been (in the present state 
 of public principle amongst us) an improbable reason ; but the 
 real fact was, that long before it was brought into the House of 
 Commons, I had expressed my dislike of the treaty, principally 
 from an apprehension, that a free commercial intercourse between 
 the two nations would give the French an opportunity of adopt- 
 ing all our machinery, and of discovering our manufacturing 
 secrets, on which I knew that much of our success in trade 
 depended. To give a single instance of this : hundreds of waggon 
 loads of Birmingham goods have been sold in Germany, and in 
 other parts of the Continent, from stirring a pot of melted brass 
 with an hedge-stake, which would not have been saleable at all 
 had the pot been stirred with an iron instrument. I spoke twice 
 
165 
 
 against the treaty ; one of the speeches is reported in Debrett's 
 Parliamentary Register, but I have no memorial of the other, 
 except a general kind of recollection, that it was employed in 
 proving, that in our trade with all the world, there had been, on 
 an average of the last fifty years, a balance in our favour of two 
 millions a year, and that I thought it impolitic to risk the per- 
 manence of such prosperity, by entering into a commercial treaty 
 with France, which might aggrandise our enemy, and ruin our 
 ally in Holland. I then added, as a kind of prophecy, If France 
 shall ever, by force or by fraud, unite the marine of Holland to her 
 own, there will be an end of our history as a great people ! Falsus 
 sim vates ! 
 
 The opposition, on this occasion, paid me great attention, till 
 I told them that they must not consider me as joining their 
 party ; that I approved of and should support Mr. Pitt, but that 
 on questions of great importance, I never would be attached to 
 any party. 
 
 I saw the Chancellor, (Thurlow,) a day or two after I had 
 spoken ; he told me that he liked very much all I had said, 
 though he could not agree with me in my conclusion against 
 entering into the treaty. I said there was one point which I had 
 but just touched, for fear of saying too much upon it, which, if it 
 were likely to take place, would reconcile me in a great measure 
 to the treaty, and that I hoped it had been thoroughly discussed 
 in the cabinet. He asked what it was ; I answered it was the 
 chance of our becoming, in a great degree, the carriers of the pro- 
 
166 
 
 duce and manufactures of both France and Great Britain, by 
 which our marine would be greatly increased. He replied, that 
 he expected what I alluded to would take place, and that I had 
 conducted myself as a real statesman, in not dwelling on that 
 subject. So much for the Chancellor's flattery. 
 
 The Bishop of Landaff's speech in the House of Lords, against 
 entering into a commercial treaty with France, as reported in 
 Debretfs Parliamentary Register, 
 
 " The Bishop of LandafF said, he had yesterday expatiated a 
 little beyond the immediate subject of the then debate ; he had 
 done it with design, and his design was, that he might on that 
 day, (one of the most important that the nation had ever seen,) 
 take up less of that time which Their Lordships could employ so 
 much more to their satisfaction, in listening to others than to 
 him : with the same view he would not recur to what he had 
 yesterday advanced, though he must take the liberty of differing 
 from the noble Marquis, with respect to the importance of our 
 trade with France, in iron and other articles in the time of 
 Charles the Second ; and he thought it by no means proved, that 
 France had made so little improvement in her manufactures, 
 whilst we had made so much in ours, as to render the trade now 
 decidedly safe, which was then clearly dangerous ; but he would 
 not dwell on this point ; though it would admit an ample discus- 
 sion, he would take new ground ; he would proceed to examine 
 the motives which had induced His Majesty's ministers to nego- 
 tiate a treaty with France, and to abandon the policy of their 
 
167 
 
 ancestors. But when he spoke of examining the motives* he 
 must be understood to mean only the open and avowed motives ; 
 there might be secret ones of more weight and authority than any 
 which he had heard spoken of; and when he considered the en- 
 larged views, the profound policy, the retrospective wisdom, and 
 the prospective sagacity which always ought, and usually did per- 
 vade the conduct of princes, and which, he trusted, had on this 
 occasion actuated the cabinet of His Majesty, he was persuaded 
 that there were such ; he was disposed to think that the framers 
 of this treaty had a moral certainty, that the French in consider- 
 ation of it would never more, either directly or indirectly, disturb 
 us in our possessions in Asia ; that they would not by underhand 
 negotiation, attempt to rob us of every commercial advantage, 
 every political alliance we had in Europe ; that they would not, 
 either secretly or openly, foment dissensions in Ireland. He 
 trusted that His Majesty's ministers had a clear foresight, that in 
 consequence of this treaty our navy would not only not be dimi- 
 nished, that was not enough, but that it would be increased ; nor 
 was that enough, but that it would be increased in an higher pro- 
 portion than the navy of France would be increased by our 
 becoming the carriers, in a great measure, of the produce and 
 manufactures of both countries ; could this point be proved to his 
 satisfaction, it would go a great way towards lessening his appre- 
 hensions of the treaty. He trusted that the persons concerned 
 in forming the treaty, had the strongest expectations, that the 
 introduction of our manufactures into France at this critical 
 period, would be so far from becoming an incentive to French 
 industry, that it would immediately check, and in a short time 
 annihilate their rising manufactures of cotton, cutlery, hardware, 
 
168 
 
 and pottery, in which they were so ambitious to rival us. These, 
 and motives such as these, may, have been amongst the primary 
 ones, which incited His Majesty's ministers to negotiate a treaty 
 with France; but as to the ostensible ones, he could see but two 
 of any consequence ; one was, a prospect of continuing the peace 
 by opening a commercial intercourse between the two kingdoms ; 
 another was, a prospect of augmenting our revenue by extending 
 our trade. 
 
 "Would to God, My Lords, he said, that the spirit of the 
 Christian religion would exert its influence over the hearts of 
 individuals in their public capacity, as much as, we trust, it does 
 over their conduct in 'private life; then would revenge, avarice, 
 and ambition, which have fattened the earth with the blood of 
 her children, be banished from the councils of princes, and there 
 would be no more war. The time will come, the prophet hath 
 said it, and I believe it, the time will assuredly come, when nation, 
 literally speaking, shall no longer lift up hand against nation. No 
 man will rejoice, My Lords, more than I shall, to see the time 
 when peace shall depend on an obedience to the benevolent 
 principles of the. Gospel; but whilst it is simply made to depend 
 on the selfish prospects of commercial policy, I can have no con- 
 fidence in its continuance ; it will not last a moment longer than 
 till it is the interest, real or apparent, of France to break it. 
 
 " Had we forgotten ; no length of time would ever obliterate 
 the circumstance from his memory, it even yet rankled in his 
 recollection; had we not heard during the progress of the Ameri- 
 can war, every annual Speech from the Throne, every monthly 
 dispatch from our Minister at Paris, (of whose ability to detect 
 hypocrisy, had it been possible to detect it, no one coidd doubt,) 
 
169 
 
 announced to this honest ; unsuspecting nation, the peaceable dis- 
 position of the cabinet at Versailles ; and yet, when the long 
 wished for auspicious moment arrived, in which she could most 
 distress us, most benefit herself, with what bold and barefaced 
 perfidy did she break the peace ? And shall we even now, whilst 
 we are yet smarting from the consequences of her treachery, be- 
 come a second time the good easy dupes of her duplicity ; it was 
 not a trifling lustration that would in his mind expiate the perfidy 
 of French councils. He admired the French as an intelligent 
 and an ingenious people ; he loved them as an agreeable and 
 polite people ; but he dreaded them as a great, he suspected them 
 as a negotiating, and he detested them as an ambitious people. 
 Let no man, he said, talk to me of exchanging ancient prejudices 
 for liberal sentiments. He hoped he did not want more than 
 others did, liberality of sentiment in private life ; but liberality 
 of sentiment was a complex idea, the component parts of which, 
 when applied to great nations, he could not unfold; before he 
 could begin to think liberally of France, he must learn to forget 
 America. He would not part with his prejudices against France ; 
 they were prejudices which had for ages preserved the indepen- 
 dence and liberty of his country, and he would carry them to his 
 grave with him ; he did not say that France was the natural 
 enemy of Great Britain; but he said more, he believed her to be 
 the political enemy of the liberties of every state in Europe ; in a 
 word, he could not trust her. He was sorry to have occasion to 
 use such plain language ; but not to suspect where you had been 
 deceived, was to act with the credulity of a child ; not to take 
 warning from experience, was to act with an audacious temerity, 
 which no prospect of advantage could justify. He meant to say 
 
170 
 
 on this point, that how zealously soever he wished, as a man and 
 a Christian, for the peace of the world, the prospect of a con- 
 tinuance of the peace with France did not operate on his mind 
 with any force whatever as a reason for approving the commercial 
 treaty. There might, or there might not be other reasons for ap- 
 proving it, but this was none. We are at peace; both nations are 
 sick of war ; there wants not a commercial treaty to preserve the 
 peace, or if there did, it would be inefficacious to the end ; since 
 every interest of France, her landed, manufacturing, and com- 
 mercial interest would be made to stoop to her ambition. This 
 commercial regulation was an opiate by which she wished to lull 
 this nation into a torpid state of confidential security until she 
 acquired strength by cajoling some, by intimidating other powers 
 in Europe, to strike the blow she had never ceased aiming at this 
 country. 
 
 " He came, he said, to the consideration of the other osten- 
 sible motive for this treaty ; the prospect of increasing the 
 revenue, by extending the trade of the country There was an 
 argument in favour of this point, which in the opinion of many 
 would be conclusive ; it was the approbation of the manufactur- 
 ing interest of this country ; he said approbation, for when the 
 manufacturers were silent, we might be sure they were pleased — 
 tacent satis laudant ; this argument he doubted not, would be used 
 with great force by the favourers of this treaty ; the silence of 
 the manufacturers would on this occasion have a more prevail- 
 ing eloquence than attended their speech on a former occasion. 
 It had been remarked, that in theological controversy, the opi- 
 nions of the ancient fathers of the church were treated with 
 respect or contempt, according as they happened to make for or 
 
171 
 
 against the party ; and the opinions of manufacturers on political 
 subjects, seemed to meet with a similar fate ; for when they made 
 for us, they were highly extolled ; when they made against us, 
 they were treated with ridicule and neglect. 
 
 " No man could have a greater respect for our manufacturers, 
 many of whom he had long personally known, than he had ; he 
 made no question, they were able to explain the consistency of 
 their conduct on this occasion, compared with the line they fol- 
 lowed when the Irish propositions were before Parliament ; but 
 to his apprehension there was scarcely a single objection to the 
 Irish propositions which did not apply with equal or greater force 
 to this treaty. He would not enter into the detail, but he had read 
 the evidence with great attention which the manufacturers deli- 
 vered at their Lordships' bar, a\id he was convinced, that all that 
 was said concerning cheapness of labour, price of raw materials, 
 lightness of taxation, exemption from duties, inefficacy of counter- 
 vailing duties, facility of smuggling, and other points, was as 
 applicable to the commercial treaty as it was to the Irish propo- 
 sitions ; and every one must acknowledge, that the industry, 
 ingenuity, and capital of France was more dangerous to the 
 manufactures of this country, than the ingenuity, industry, and 
 capital of Ireland could have been. There was one difference, 
 he owned, between the two countries ; our manufacturers were in 
 possession of the Irish market ; they could derive no benefit from 
 the Irish propositions, and that was a good reason why they 
 should run no risk ; they are not in possession of the French 
 market, and that is a reason why they should run a risk to obtain 
 it. The speculation of pouring at first a large quantity of goods 
 into France, was a bewitching speculation of profit j but it did in 
 
 z 2 
 
172 
 
 no degree whatever invalidate the danger of future competition, 
 as established by their own evidence. 
 
 " But leaving the consistency of the manufacturers to be ex- 
 plained by themselves, it was necessary that he should explain 
 his own. He was a friend to the Irish propositions, and he was 
 an enemy to the commercial treaty. Where was the consistency 
 of conduct ? clearly in this, that France and Ireland stand in 
 very different relations to this country. He was a friend to the 
 Irish propositions, not from a full persuasion that the arrange- 
 ments which they held out would not in many instances have 
 interfered with the manufacturing interest of Great Britain ; but 
 from a conviction that the wealth, strength, dignity, and conse- 
 quence of Ireland would primarily or ultimately be the wealth, 
 strength, dignity, and consequence of Great Britain. He was an 
 enemy to this treaty, from a full persuasion that it would in 
 many instances interfere with the manufacturing interests of Great 
 Britain, and from a conviction that the wealth of France was the 
 poverty of Britain, its strength our weakness, its dignity our dis- 
 grace. Aggrandize Ireland even at your own risk, still it is the 
 empire which is made rich and powerful ; aggrandize France at 
 the risk of your disadvantage, and you accelerate the ruin of the 
 empire. 
 
 " The most favourable argument for the treaty (though it was 
 an argument of little force when compared with the unfavour- 
 able political tendency of the treaty) was the probability of our 
 trade being greatly extended, and this probability was thought to 
 be converted into a certainty by the acquiescence of the manu- 
 facturers. He did not mean to question the judgment of the 
 manufacturers ; it was far superior to his own. He did not mean 
 
173 
 
 to say that they were actuated by present prospects of gain, and 
 were unsolicitous about future contingent dangers to the state, 
 though, if that was the principle of their conduct, he thought, 
 as manufacturers, they would be justified ; for it was out of their 
 province to become guardians of the nation's welfare ; but, waving 
 all this, he would submit one argument to the judgment of the 
 House, and he trusted it would be considered as an argument of 
 great weight, inasmuch as it was derived from the information of 
 the manufacturers themselves. 
 
 " One of the most intelligent, and every way most respectable, 
 manufacturers in, this kingdom, delivered it as his decided opinion 
 at their Lordships' bar, that it was by our machines, presses, 
 dies, and tools, that the British manufacturers were enabled to 
 baffle all competition with foreign markets, notwithstanding every 
 disadvantage of high price of labour, high taxes, and the other 
 contingent burdens, under which our manufactures laboured ; and 
 that in proportion as these tools were exported or copied into 
 foreign countries, our exports of manufactures to those countries 
 would decrease. The legislature, in conformity to this opinion, 
 enacted a law prohibiting the exportation of tools : now he had 
 it on the very best authority, that, notwithstanding this law, every 
 tool used at Sheffield, at Birmingham, and at Manchester, might 
 be seen in a public building at Paris, where they were deposited 
 for the inspection of their workmen. The person from whom he 
 had this intelligence was one of the most expert manufacturers at 
 Birmingham, and one of the best judges of tools in the world; 
 and he acknowledged with regret, that the intention of the act 
 he had mentioned was wholly frustrated. Thus then stands the 
 argument, in proportion as our tools are copied into foreign 
 
174 
 
 countries, our exports to those countries must decrease. France 
 had our tools ; the conclusion is, she will not take our manufac- 
 tures. The premises were derived from undoubted testimony, 
 and the conclusion was not illogical. 
 
 " The value of our iron exports was, according to one calcu- 
 lation, a tenth, according to another, a ninth part of the value of 
 all the other exports of the country; and, it was with concern he 
 mentioned it, in this manufactory of iron the French were at that 
 moment making the greatest exertions. They cast pig-iron in 
 Burgundy ; and one of our own countrymen, who was related to 
 one of the most distinguished iron masters in England, was said to 
 be associated with the French in that business. They know how 
 to cast cylinders, and to bore them for steam-engines, to the full 
 as well as we did. Their cutlery at Mouslins was brought to so 
 great perfection, that it equalled the Sheffield cutlery in neatness 
 and taste, and excelled it in cheapness ; they had large cutlery 
 manufactories, in which they had several patterns not known at 
 Birmingham, and some of them more elegant than any there. 
 The importation of our hardware into France, which was looked 
 upon as one of the most favourite features of the treaty, would 
 not, he apprehended, be at present to any great extent ; it would 
 soon be nothing ; and ere long France, it was to be feared, would 
 import more into this country. 
 
 " But, it may be thought, (he had heard it observed,) that our 
 great plenty of pit-coal is of itself a circumstance so much in our 
 favour, that though the French might have our tools, and be de- 
 sirous of emulating us in all our manufactures, they would not be 
 able to stand a competition with us, notwithstanding the cheap- 
 
175 
 
 ness of their labour. This 5 he said, was an unsafe foundation to 
 build on. No nation ever began to look for fuel under ground 
 till their woods were gone ; and whoever had compared the strata 
 of earth in France with those where coal was found in England, 
 (for it was not found every where with us ; he did not know 
 whether it had ever been found under chalk,) Could entertain no 
 doubt of coal existing as plentifully in France as in England. But 
 if this should be thought the mere reverie of a philosopher, he 
 would substantiate the conjecture by an authority which none of 
 their Lordships, who happened to be acquainted with the works of 
 Mr. Hellot, would think fit to deny. This gentleman published, 
 in the year 1750, two volumes in 4to. on mining; and in the 
 preface to the first volume he had this observation, which he would 
 give their Lordships in English, for he had not kept commerce 
 enough with France to speak their language as a Parisian. — " We 
 " find, in almost all the provinces of this kingdom, mines of pit- 
 " coal, the coal of which is at least as good as that of England 
 " and Scotland, in favour of which men were so much pre- 
 " possessed." — Here is a testimony of the most unexceptionable 
 kind, and it is confirmed by fact ; the French use coal in the 
 various fabrics which are established in Normandy, in Burgundy, 
 in Languedoc, and in other places ; he believed they had lately 
 begun to char it, and to use it in that state in the fabrics at Paris. 
 He had been told, that their coal was pyritous and slaty ; it was 
 not all so, and that was a fault which would probably mend as 
 they dug deeper. They imported from this country about 12,000 
 chaldrons a year, and the importation would increase till their 
 coal-pits got established. 
 
176 
 
 " He had touched upon the exertions of the French in the iron- 
 manufactory, and as to the glass-manufactory, that, it was allowed 
 on all hands, must be given up, or the excise taken ofT. Germany, 
 France, and Ireland, already undersold us in glass at foreign 
 markets. He did not agree with the noble Marquis in thinking, 
 that our plate-glass would alone be in danger. They would im- 
 port common glass. He would give their Lordships an instance 
 which had come to his knowledge, of the great activity of the 
 French, in the most difficult part of this manufacture, in cutting 
 glass. They had but very lately, within these two or three years, 
 made any serious attempts in this business ; and he had seen a 
 cut-glass cup, bought at a retail shop in Paris, last summer, for 
 2s. lid., in which the workmanship was exceedingly good. One 
 of our best London workmen was ordered, by one of the first cut- 
 glass manufacturers in the kingdom, to cut a similar cup ; he did 
 so ; and he charged five shillings for the workmanship alone. 
 What the low price of labour will do in other instances, may be 
 gathered from what it has done in this. It was quite a mistake to 
 suppose that the French either wanted ingenuity or industry. It 
 was not many years ago since the Swiss printed linens became so 
 fashionable in Paris, that no duties or prohibition could keep them 
 out of that city ; the manufacturers of printed linens in Paris 
 foresaw the ruin of their fabric, unless they exerted themselves ; 
 they did exert themselves, and they now employ the poor people 
 in that branch, and make as beautiful printed linens as any in the 
 world. He could give many other instances of French enterprise 
 and activity ; but it would be needless ; no one considered 
 liberally and intelligently, how manufacturing skill is transferred 
 by various accidents from one country to another, but must be 
 
177 
 
 alarmed with a serious apprehension even for our home-market, 
 Our coarse woollens would be secure, till the French learnt how 
 to manage their sheep properly ; but our superfines would be beat 
 out of our home-market, or our manufacturers, instead of a mixture 
 of Spanish and English wool, would be obliged to use nothing but 
 Spanish. He had seen Spanish wool manufactured in England to 
 the amount of four guineas a yard, but when our cloths should be 
 made as fine as the French cloths are, they would be sold dearer. 
 He thought not much of their dyes ; he had seen as good black 
 and as good scarlet dyed in England as were ever dyed in France; 
 but it was the hardness of our cloths, compared with the French 
 cloths, which hindered them from taking so good a dye. Great 
 quantities of woollens were smuggled into both countries at 14/. 
 per cent. : the duty of 12/. per cent, would prevent smuggling ; 
 but he had no great expectation that France would be a much 
 greater market than it was at present for our woollens. At the 
 treaty of Utrecht, our woollens were prohibited : the French 
 woollen manufactory was then in its infancy ; since the year 1760, 
 it has been in very high perfection ; it feared not now a competi- 
 tion with the English manufactory ; and if there had been the 
 least apprehension for its safety, the French ministry would never 
 have suffered the importation of our woollens upon such an easy 
 duty ; they would sedulously have protected a manufacto^ which 
 had been raised at an immense expense, by government, for above 
 a century. We had nothing to hope from the extension of our 
 woollen trade ; they might take a few more coarse goods from us, 
 in order to mix them with their own for the American market, 
 and this, he thought, would be a practice they would follow, and 
 much to our detriment in other articles besides our woollens. 
 
 A A 
 
178 
 
 " But it would be endless, he said, to enter into a detail of all 
 the probable disadvantages of this treaty, and he rather wished to 
 avoid it, from knowing that we could come to no certainty on the 
 subject; for though it was a fair mode of arguing to oppose con- 
 jecture to conjecture, speculative disadvantages to speculative ad- 
 vantages ; though it might be the most satisfactory mode that the 
 subject would admit, yet it was not a mode he was fond of. It 
 was the misfortune of this treaty that we could know nothing of 
 it but from experiment, and in making the experiment we may 
 be undone. 
 
 " But there was a disadvantage in it which he wished he could 
 call speculative ; the loss which the revenue would sustain by a 
 diminution of the duties on wines, &c. He would not enter into 
 any calculation on the subject; it had, however, been calculated, 
 he thought properly, to amount to 300,000/. a year. There was 
 but one article in which, from the operation of the treaty, this sum 
 could be made up, and, as he had not heard it insisted on, His 
 Majesty's ministers were welcome to the observation, for he had 
 nothing in view but truth. The calculation had proceeded on the 
 suposition that no more wine would be drunk when the duties 
 were lowered, than was drunk at present. This supposition he 
 thought erroneous. He was convinced that for every two pipes 
 of Port which should not be imported, three pipes at least of 
 Claret would be imported, and the additional duty on that ad- 
 ditional pipe would compensate the loss arising from the diminu- 
 tion of duty on the quantity now imported. This was proved by 
 wat had happened within these few years in Ireland. When the 
 Irish drank little wine except Claret, they consumed near a third 
 more wine than when their Portugal importation was equal to 
 
179 
 
 their French one. He thought this country consumed nearer 
 thirty than twenty thousand tons of wine in a year, home-brewed 
 and foreign-brewed ; and if but half of what was consumed should 
 be brought from France, half a million of our money, or of our 
 manufactures, must be sent to pay for that article ; and he thought 
 they were more likely to take our money than our manufactures ; 
 and he had rather our money was lent to any nation in Europe 
 than to France. 
 
 " Before he sat down he would take notice of two arguments 
 which were generally adduced in favour of the treaty. 
 
 " It was said then, that as France is supposed to contain twenty- 
 four millions of people, and Britain not above eight millions, we 
 shall open to ourselves a market three times as great as the French 
 will open to themselves ; and that this was a solid advantage in 
 our favour. He had been told that this was the very argument 
 by which the French ministry endeavoured to prove to us, simple 
 Englishmen, the great favour that France was about to do us, and 
 Their Lordships had just heard it adopted by a noble Marquis ; 
 but let it be adopted by whom it might, he could not adopt it ; it 
 had a specious appearance, but no foundation; to give it any 
 weight, it should be shown, which had never yet been done, that 
 these twenty-four millions of people had as much occasion for our 
 commodities as we had for theirs, and as much money to lay out 
 in purchasing them as we had to lay out in purchasing theirs. It 
 should be shown that they would as certainly clothe themselves 
 with our woollens and cottons as we should drink their wines and 
 brandies ; it was not the number of people, but the number of 
 purchasers that constituted a good market. 
 
 a a 2 
 
180 
 
 " Another argument in favour of the treaty was built on a found- 
 ation still more unsafe. 
 
 " It was said that our resources will be increased by an extension 
 of our commerce in so high a degree, that, in case of a future 
 rupture, we shall be more able than ever we were to contend with 
 France. 
 
 " This argument was of no possible importance, unless it could 
 be shown that the resources of France will not be increased in so 
 high a rate as ours will be ; and this has not, and perhaps cannot, 
 be shown ; but without enquiring how, from the operation of the 
 treaty, the 300,000/., which he before mentioned as a defalcation 
 in the customs, could be restored, without examining whether, 
 after this sum was made up, the additional increase of our customs 
 would be greater than the additional increase of the French 
 customs, without discussing the probability of the balance of 
 our trade with France being in our favour now, which the last 
 time it was open between the two countries was so prodigiously 
 against us. 
 
 " Waving all the minutiae of speculative calculation, which no- 
 thing but the event could justify on either side, he thought there 
 was an argument, by which it might be shown, that this treaty 
 would contribute to increase the resources of France in a far higher 
 ratio than it would increase our own ; and the argument was this : 
 ■ — England, out of her eight millions of inhabitants, employs five 
 millions in her manufactures (it was of no consequence to his 
 conclusion whether it was four or five millions). By the industry 
 and ingenuity of these manufacturers, she had not only supplied 
 her own markets, but had constantly drawn from the other parts 
 of the world those sums by which she had acquired her present 
 
181 
 
 wealth and strength. When France became a manufacturing 
 country, of her twenty-four millions of inhabitants she would 
 employ fifteen millions in manufactures, and thus, by applying the 
 same means to acquire wealth and strength that we had done, 
 she would acquire three times as much ; and, therefore, he looked 
 upon this treaty which incited the French nation to become a 
 manufacturing nation, as contributing to increase her resources in 
 a far higher proportion than it would increase our own, and on that 
 account he thought it was founded on a very short-sighted policy. 
 But, it might be urged, how does the present treaty second the 
 commercial intention of France ? Many ways ; it seconded the in- 
 tentions of France in opening to her our home-market, which was 
 the richest market in Europe ; it seconded her intentions in ex- 
 citing her own people to a degree of industry and ingenuity, in 
 order to support their present fabrics ; and thus was she spurred to 
 her purpose, both by the fear of loss, and the prospect of advan- 
 tage ; but, above all, it seconded her intentions, by giving her 
 every opportunity she could wish for, of acquiring that manufac- 
 turing skill, by which we at present surpassed her and all the 
 world. 
 
 " This, he said, was an injury which we should certainly sustain ; 
 and it was an injury of such an immense magnitude, that it was 
 not a few hundred thousand pounds a year, it was not half a 
 million, or a whole million, or any sum which the most sanguine 
 financier could expect from the treaty, in addition to our customs, 
 which could in a ly degree compensate it. If France shall ever 
 cultivate manufactures and commerce in the same degree that we 
 have done, and that we do, our ruin will be inevitable. There 
 was no policy so good as that which would prevent her from doing 
 
182 
 
 so, none so pernicious as that which facilitated her endeavours, 
 and stimulated her exertions in that way ; and this treaty did both 
 in a very alarming degree. 
 
 " He had fatigued, he said, the patience of the House; he would 
 trespass no farther than to say, that he was not conscious of having 
 endeavoured to give an undue weight to any thing he had ad- 
 vanced ; many, many topics he had, for the sake of brevity, entirely 
 omitted ; he had spoken his real opinion as an honest man. His 
 spirit had ever been too high to enlist himself under the banners 
 of administration, or of any opposition ; he would always follow 
 the dictates of his own judgment, and, in cases where his abi- 
 lities would not enable him to form a judgment, he would not vote. 
 Any other conduct, he thought, would be a profanation of the holy 
 habit which he then wore. On the present occasion, his judgment 
 was full, clear, decided, positive, against the treaty. If the event 
 of things should prove this judgment to have been erroneous, he 
 would be the first to rejoice at his mistake ; the first to ridicule, 
 in the future prosperity of his country, the present imbecillity of 
 his reasoning." 
 
 Soon after this I was reduced to the last extremity by a dysen- 
 tery. The doctors were in despair, but my spirits were uniformly 
 good, and they saved me. After a month's confinement to my 
 bed, I was sent to Bath, the waters of which place did me no good. 
 On my leaving Bath, the man who attended at the pump congra- 
 tulated me on my having received no benefit : I asked him what he 
 meant. " Because," said he, " I never knew any one who got a fit 
 of the gout by drinking the waters, who ever got rid of it again." 
 
183 
 
 I leave it to the Bath physicians to refute this calumny against 
 King Bladud. 
 
 On my return from Bath to Cambridge, my physicians abso- 
 lutely insisted on my never more presiding in the Divinity schools. 
 I offered a grace to the Senate, appointing Doctor Kipling my 
 deputy ; this grace was passed, nem. diss., May 26th, 1787, with 
 many expressions, of the most flattering kind, from all the leading 
 members of the Senate, regretting the occasion of its being ne- 
 cessary. Doctor Kipling had offered his services to me as a deputy 
 when I was made a bishop ; but having determined never to 
 appoint a deputy, whilst my health would permit me to perform 
 the duty of my office, I had at that time declined his courtesy ; 
 I now accepted it, and gave him a stipend of 200/. at first, 
 and soon after of 250/. a year, and latterly of more than two- 
 thirds of what the Professorship was worth, when it came into my 
 hands. 
 
 I concluded my speech at the following Commencement with 
 a kind of farewell address to the University, which then had, and 
 still has, my warmest wishes for its prosperity : — 
 
 " Habetis, auditores spectatisswni, quod in hac temporis brevitate et 
 angustia de gravissima qucestione proferre potui ; pauca de meipso 
 dicenda restant. Oratorem prqfecto rex, tfsgi <rsavrov balbutientem Atticce 
 fastidiunt aures ; me tamen de meis rebus breviter loquentem benignt 
 emudiatis rogo ; atque hoc humanitatis vestra indicium eo jidentius 
 expecto, quod vestra negotia nostris quodammodo implicata arbi- 
 trabamini. 
 
184 
 
 " Adversa per sex fere integros annos valetudine laboravi ; per hoc 
 spatium Scholce me Prcesidem scepius habuerunt, quum ni vis animi 
 corporis vim superdsset in lectulo queritantem habuissent medici. 
 Privatum hoc incommodum non queror, nee idem diutius tulisse 
 recusdssem, modo summo hoc vestro munere rite defungi diutius 
 potuissem. Medicis extrema mihi in scholarum pistrino diutius sudanti 
 prcedicantibus aurem animumve non antea pr&bui, quam Academics 
 commoditatem, scholarum disciplinam, munerisque honestissimi digni- 
 tatem, nostro infortunio potius quam culpa in discrimen adduci vide- 
 bam : verum fateor, morbi sanationem meam multum diuque flagi- 
 tantis, maximum malum habui quod negotia vestra scholastica me quo- 
 dammodo negligere coegit. 
 
 " Qualem, academici, me habuistis prqfessorem non est ut ipse dicam 
 at de modo, atque animo quibus res vestras curavi verbum audire hand 
 vos pigebit. 
 
 " In disputationibus theologicis ab usu vocabulorum qua in sacro 
 codice non reperiuntur, qualia sunt, ovtria, o^ostria, oftoiv<rict, rgiug, 
 peccatum originale, sacramentum, satisf actio, quantum potui abstinere 
 religio mihi fuit. Pleraque ex his similibusque vocabulis excogitavit 
 scholasticorum acumen, quo adversariorum convellant et sua tueantur 
 judicia. Verum enimvero quam maxime verendum est, ne dum mo- 
 dorum mixtorum ideas, ac verba nova ad eas designendas ex ar- 
 bitrio Jingamus, potius quam ex sacris codicibus hauriamus, a ve- 
 ritate aberramus ; ne verbis uygtt,(po($ ad dogmata etiam aygccQu, 
 propaganda utamur. Si quid in verbo Dei occultum nobis ac invo- 
 lutum sit, humano id aperire judicio, novis verbis exponere, frustra 
 conabimur. 
 
 " Articulos ecclesice Anglicance ad doctrinam aliquam conjirmandam 
 in spholis theologicis citari nunquam permisi; id autem prohibui non 
 
185 
 
 quod istos articulos tenmo, sed quod Scripta evangelica et apostolica, 
 Cranmeri ac Ridleii scriptis, imo ecclesiarum omnium ac conciliorum 
 decretis antepono. Cum purum veritatis fontem mihi limit adire, 
 rivulos inde hominum studiis deductos, ligni, fceni, stipularum sor- 
 dibus inquinatos, sectari, totis viribus recusavi. Hanc in disputando 
 Itctg'p}<riav, ipsa commendat vel certa non improbat ecclesia nostra cum 
 nihil pro articulo fidei habendum statuit, nisi quod ex sacra Scriptura 
 probari possit. Utrum vero dogma aliquod ex sacra Scriptura probari 
 possit necne, nullibi honestius quam in scholis academicis disquirendum 
 videtur. 
 
 " Nonnulla in ecclesia Anglicana tarn doctrinam ejus quam discipli- 
 nam et reditus distributionem respicientia magno cum religionis Chris- 
 tiana commodo, magno cum ecclesice ac reipublicce emolumento posse no- 
 vari, me olim censuisse, et in eadem adhuc perstare sententia lubens 
 fateor. Hcec autem omnia atque singula in scholis theologicis dispu- 
 tare, de industria vitavi. Hominis quidem non est honesti quce privatus 
 improbat publice defender e ; neque tamen regii in theologia professoris 
 unquam esse arbitrabor, nova, quce privatus probat, publica sua defen- 
 sione aliis commendare, out de antiquis, legum auctoritate munitis et 
 sancitis robur ac dignitatem suam scholastica disputatione derogari. 
 Hcec quidem mea placita aliis obtruderi non co?wr. Zelum proselytos 
 opinionibus de re quacunque nostris adjiciendi nullum omnino sentio ; 
 hcec tamen in mente mea radices altius egerunt quam ut ineptis frivolo- 
 rum hominum ratiunculis aut insulsis malevolorum dicteriis inde evel- 
 lantur. Miseris quidem hisce insipientium obtrectationibus responsum 
 afferre, licet nullo id fiat negotio hactenus non sum dignatus neque in 
 posterum dignabor. 
 
 " Qucestiones a respondentibus in scholis discutiendas, propositas. 
 nullas rejecL Nolui enim pro auctoritate papali aliis os occludere 
 
 BB 
 
186 
 
 quasi id cogitans me solum ad veritatem esse ascensum, aut id metuens 
 ne evangelium Christi sicut evangelium Papa sanorum indagi/ie labe- 
 factatum corruat. Sacros codices in scholis vestris humili summisso- 
 que in Deum animo tractavi, qua dare docent docere, quce silent, de 
 iisdem ipse silui, quce captum humanum super antia credenda tr admit, 
 sine ulla dubitatione ipse credens, aliis amplectenda commendavi. Exi- 
 mium ilium virum quern, vobis benigne consent ientib us, in locum meum 
 suffeci, laudari nolo, ne adulari videar. Id tantum de eo dicam, quod 
 mei in scholis regiminis nullum sub ejus prczsidio restabit desiderium, 
 nostri in hoc theatro laboris, eo perorante, brevi apud vos omnis peribit 
 memoria. 
 
 " Summce autem vestrce in me benevolentm gratam recordationem, 
 dum per quatuor olim annos moderatoris officio functus fuerim, dum 
 per septem fere annos chemiam colui, dum per sedecim hosce annos 
 scholis theologicis prcefui, quum tandem me non senio attritum, sed 
 morbo inveterato fere confectum, rude donastis, nulla unquam delebit 
 dies nulla conditionis, (si qua fat) imminuet mutatio. 
 
 " Academiam Cantabridgiensem patronam mihi semper concupivi, 
 
 honestissimam enim semper judicavi. Gloriam enim qua est con- 
 
 sentiens laus bonorum, lucro semper anteposui ac antepono. Mallem 
 
 proinde vestram comprobationem promereri, quam summis in ecclesice 
 
 opibus frui aut dignitatibus. Ecclesia enim bona sua cum indignis 
 
 et indoctis, cum Us qui nihil sciunt nisi quo potissimum modo divitum 
 
 sedentur mensas, aut principes in republica adulentur viros, hand 
 
 raro participat : vestrce autem comprobationi non patet aditus, nisi 
 
 qua ducunt morum probitas, erudita industria, doctrina solida. Hcec, 
 
 auditores optimi, de Alma nostra matre semper diri, h&c dum vixero 
 
 dicam,'* 
 
187 
 
 With this speech I took my leave of University-business, in 
 which I had been incessantly engaged for near thirty-three j^ears. 
 My application had injured my health, and I was under a necessity 
 of forbearing it for the future. In truth, had my health been better, 
 1 should have felt little inclination to persevere in my studies in 
 the manner I had done. I could not bring myself to vote as a 
 minister bade me on all occasions, and I perceived that, such was 
 the temper of the times, or such was the temper of the man, no- 
 thing less than that would secure his attention. I saw this to be 
 the case, then, and I then and at all times disdained complying 
 with principles of government so abominably corrupt. I once 
 talked a little to the first Lord Camden on this subject; and he 
 plainly told me, that I had better go to Cambridge and employ 
 myself in writing books, than pretend to follow my own judg- 
 ment in political matters ; that he never knew any man who had 
 attempted to do it, except one very honest man, who was little 
 valued by any party, — Sir Joseph Jekyll. 
 
 After the Commencement, I went, for the re-establishment of 
 mv health into Westmoreland, and, when there, I received the 
 following letter from the Duke of Norfolk, to whom I was then 
 but little known : — 
 
 " My Lord, Greystoke, Aug. 4, 1787. 
 
 " I cannot refrain from giving Your Lordship the information 
 
 of the death of the Bishop of Carlisle, which happened this day. 
 
 My friends, no more than myself, have any thing to say to the 
 
 disposition of the bishoprick, so can only add, that I should be 
 
 bb2 
 
188 
 
 glad to know Your Lordship's wishes and power could lead you 
 thither, which (I speak with confidence) would give great satis- 
 faction to this county, and to none more than to, My Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
 
 " Norfolk." 
 
 Answer. 
 
 " My Lord Duke, Dallam Tower, Aug. 24th, 1787. 
 
 " Your Grace's very obliging letter, which I received yesterday 
 at this place, demands my sincerest thanks ; I beg your Grace to 
 believe that I am incapable of ever forgetting this instance of your 
 attention. The assurances you have been pleased to give me, of 
 my being not unacceptable to the county of Cumberland, have 
 afforded me more pleasure than the possession of the See of Car- 
 lisle would have done ; for the approbation of good men is both a 
 proof and a proper reward of a good conduct. 
 
 " I have no wish whatever respecting the See of Carlisle, nor 
 have made any, the most distant, application for it ; and if I had 
 wished for it ever so much, the determination I have formed, of 
 conducting myself independently in parliament, would have been 
 little likely to have promoted my pretensions. 
 
 " I sincerely hope, for the credit of the Church and of religion, 
 that neither the bishoprick of Carlisle, nor any other bishoprick, 
 will be prostituted in promoting the purposes of parliamentary 
 policy. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
189 
 
 About a month before the death of the Bishop of Carlisle, a 
 relation of Sir James Lowther had preached the Commencement- 
 sermon, at Cambridge. Mr. Pitt happened to sit next to me at 
 church, and asked me the name of the preacher, not much approv- 
 ing his performance. I told him report said that he was to be the 
 future bishop of Carlisle ; and I begged him to have some respect 
 to the dignity of the Bench whenever a vacancy happened. He as- 
 sured me that he knew nothing of any such arrangement. Within 
 two months after this, Sir James Lowther applied to Mr. Pitt 
 for the bishonrick of Carlisle for the gentleman whom he had 
 heard preach, and Mr. Pitt, without the least hesitation, promised 
 it. This was one of the many transactions that gave me an un- 
 favourable opinion of Mr. Pitt; I saw that he was ready to sacrifice 
 things the most sacred to the furtherance of his ambition. The 
 gentleman, much to his honour, declined the acceptance of the 
 bishoprick, which Mr. Pitt, with true ministerial policy, had 
 offered him. 
 
 The medical faculty having represented to me, in the most 
 serious terms, the necessity of abandoning all literary pursuits, if 
 I wished to preserve my health and life ; and knowing that, if I 
 lived in Cambridge, the genius loci would not suffer me to aban- 
 don them ; and having no place of residence in my diocese, nor 
 a desire to procure a change of situation by a prostitution of 
 principle ; and being conscious, moreover, that the activity of my 
 mind would not suffer me to dream away life without employment, 
 I turned my attention to the improvement of land. I thought 
 that the improvement of a man's fortune by cultivating the earth 
 was the most useful and honourable mode of providing for a 
 family ; and I believed also that it would be the most likely mode 
 
190 
 
 of restoring my constitution. I have now been several years oc- 
 cupied as an improver of land and a planter of trees. My health 
 is better now (1809) than it was, but the original disorder has 
 never left me ; and I have been so successful in these pursuits, 
 that I now am under no uneasiness as to the provision which I 
 thought it my duty to make for my children ; my wishes on that 
 point having been always moderate ; and I feel such satisfaction 
 at this moment in having, by my own exertions, wholly counter- 
 acted the effects which might otherwise have followed the neglect 
 I have experienced from the court, or from its ministers, or from 
 both, that I sincerely pity, and cordially forgive the littleness of 
 mind which, in some one or other, has occasioned it. 
 
 In October, 1787, the public sustained a great and I an irrepar- 
 able loss by the death of the Duke of Rutland in Ireland. I call 
 it an irreparable loss, not so much from any service which he 
 might and assuredly would have rendered me in the line of my 
 profession, as from his being a man for whom I had a very great 
 regard. I was not, at any time of life, studious of having a great 
 many friends, nor ever stepped a yard out of my way to court the 
 acquaintance of any man of rank ; but I had, about that period, 
 lost many of those who had been long and warmly attached to 
 me, and I knew not how to form new connections, being very 
 fastidious in the choice of those whom I took into my confidence, 
 I was very much affected by this immature and unexpected death 
 of the Duke ; and on the 27th of the following November, on the 
 opening of the session of parliament, I concluded a speech which 
 I then made in praise of the measure which administration had 
 taken with respect to Holland, in the following terms : — 
 
191 
 
 " Will the House permit me to indulge my private feelings, 
 for a single moment, on a different subject? It is a subject 
 which none of Your Lordships will ever hear of without regret, 
 which I shall never think of without sorrow, — the death of the 
 Duke of Rutland! The dead listen not to the commendations 
 of the living, or, dearly as I loved him, I would not now have 
 praised him ! 
 
 " The world, My Lords, was not aware of his ability, was not 
 conscious of half his worth; I had long and just experience of 
 them both. 
 
 " In the conduct of public affairs, his judgment was equalled, 
 I verily believe, by few men of his years ; his probity and disin- 
 terestedness were, I am confident, exceeded by none. All the 
 letters which I received from him respecting the public state of 
 Ireland, and they were not a few, were written with strong good 
 sense, and in nervous language. They all breathed the same 
 liberal spirit, had all the same noble tendency — not that of ag- 
 grandizing Great Britain by the ruin of Ireland, not that of 
 building up Ireland, at the expense of Great Britain — but that 
 of promoting the united interests of both countries, as essential 
 parts of one common empire. 
 
 " In private life, My Lords, I know that he had a strong sense 
 of religion on his mind, and he showed it by imitating his illus- 
 trious father in the practice of one of its most characteristic prin- 
 ciples — in being alive to every impulse of compassion. His family, 
 his friends, his dependants, all his connections can witness for 
 me the warmth and the sincerity of his personal attachments. 
 
 *f. From the time this young nobleman was admitted under me 
 at Cambridge, I have loved him with the affection of a brother, 
 
192 
 
 and I have through life, on every occasion of difficulty, spoken to 
 him (and I now thank God that I have done so) with the firm- 
 ness and sincerity of a father. Your Lordships will judge, then, 
 all private interest totally out of the question, how inexpressibly 
 I have been, and am afflicted by his death. 
 
 " His memory, I trust, will be long, long revered by the 
 people of this country, long held dear by the people of Ireland, 
 and by myself, I feel, that it will continue to be held most dear 
 as long as I live." 
 
 This tribute of my respect for the poor Duke, then unburied, 
 (whose name was not so much as mentioned in the King's 
 speech,) was very well received by the House; and a month 
 afterwards the Prince of Wales, who had heard it, but to whom 
 I had never been presented, came up to me in the House of 
 Lords and thanked me for it, in a manner highly flattering to me, 
 and honourable to his own feelings, as a friend to the Duke 
 of Rutland. 
 
 The day after I had spoken this short eulogy, the Duchess of 
 Rutland requested to see me; I had a melancholy interview 
 with Her Grace, and at her desire sent her a copy of what I 
 had said in the House of Lords. On the 30th of November she 
 sent me the following note: — 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " I return you many thanks for the paper containing, in so 
 feeling a manner, your sentiments for the dear, dear person who 
 is the subject of it. 
 
193 
 
 " Such an eulogium, from such a respectable character as 
 yours, is most pleasing and satisfactory to me, especially as it 
 is most true, and as I am sure he deserved all you so eloquently 
 express, which appears to flow from your heart, and which will 
 ever be engraven on mine with gratitude, as well as your kindness 
 and friendship for his sake to, 
 
 " My dear Lord Bishop, 
 " Your faithful friend and affectionate humble servant, 
 
 " M. T. Rutland." 
 
 This was the beginning of a correspondence which I carried on 
 with Her Grace for some months. I had always a good opinion 
 of her understanding, and felt myself much interested in every 
 thing respecting her happiness, and that of her children. When 
 she reads this, I shall be no more : but she may know how much 
 I respected her interest in another world as well as in this, by 
 recollecting the substance of the letters which I wrote to her from 
 Bath in March, 1788. 
 
 Though levee-conversations are but silly things in themselves, 
 and the silliest of all possible things when repeated, yet I must 
 mention what happened to myself at the King's levee, in No- 
 vember, 1787. I was standing next to a Venetian nobleman ; the 
 King was conversing with him about the republic of Venice, and 
 hastily turning to me said, " There, now, you hear what he says 
 of a republic." My answer was, " Sir, I look upon a republic 
 to be one of the worst forms of government." The King gave 
 me, as he thought, another blow about a republic. I answered, 
 that I could not live under a republic. His Majesty still pursued 
 
 c c 
 
194 
 
 the subject ; I thought myself insulted, and firmly said, " Sir, I look 
 upon the tyranny of any one man to be an intolerable evil, and 
 upon the tyranny of an hundred to be an hundred times as bad." 
 The King went off. His Majesty, I doubt not, had given credit 
 to the calumnies which the court-insects had buzzed into his ears, 
 of my being a favourer of republican principles, because I was 
 known to be a supporter of revolution principles, and had a plea- 
 sure in letting me see what he thought of me. This was not 
 quite fair in the King, especially as there is not a word in any of 
 my writings in favour of a republic, and as I had desired Lord 
 Shelburne, before I accepted the bishopric, to assure His Majesty 
 of my supreme veneration for the constitution. If he thought 
 that in giving such assurance I stooped to tell a lie for the sake 
 of a bishopric, His Majesty formed an erroneous opinion of my 
 principles. But the reign of George the Third was the triumph 
 of Toryism. The Whigs had power for a moment, they quar- 
 relled amongst themselves, and thereby lost the King's confi- 
 dence, lost the people's confidence, and lost their power for ever ; 
 or, to speak more philosophically, there was neither Whiggism 
 nor Twyism left ; excess of riches, and excess of taxes, combined 
 with excess of luxury, had introduced universal Se/Jjsm. 
 
 In April, 1788, 1 received the following letter from Calcutta : — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " A design is now on foot for establishing a Protestant mis- 
 sion in Bengal and Bahar, and we take the liberty to inclose a 
 copy of a proposal, which will briefly explain to Your Lordship 
 
195 
 
 the principal matters requisite to make a mission in this country 
 successful. 
 
 " It cannot but affect with grief every good man, to see whole 
 nations sitting in the darkness of Paganism which ''are sub- 
 ject to Protestant rulers. If the real miseries of such a state 
 were known in England, it is not to be doubted but Christian 
 zeal would soon devise a remedy in communicating the pure 
 principles of the Gospel, which would reform both the disorders 
 of society, and the most horrid depravity of manners that can be 
 imagined. The work proposed is indeed difficult, and will re- 
 quire no small exertion to carry it into effect, but it is doubtless 
 practicable. Should the Government and Company afford it a 
 slender support, and shelter it from persecution, it would certainly 
 flourish. The access to the country-languages grows easier every 
 day. The invention of types gives the nation, in their own cha- 
 racters and languages, whatever intelligence the Government 
 here finds necessary to communicate to the people at large. 
 Missionaries would have many other advantages now, which 
 have not been in former times, and there is great probability that 
 they would be able to surmount the remaining obstacles, and to 
 disseminate among the Heathen the principles of Christianity. 
 
 " We are conscious, we need not urge this matter with Your 
 Lordship, who appears to be so well disposed to encourage the 
 propagation of the Gospel in the East. Your Lordship's senti- 
 ments are before the public, (in the sermon before the Lords 
 January 30th, 1784,) and what is therein so nobly proposed, 
 will no doubt be ably defended and zealously supported. A 
 copy of the inclosed is sent to His Grace the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, who, as the first minister of the Established Church, 
 
 c c 2 
 
196 
 
 will have it greatly in his power to procure for it the countenance 
 of Majesty. We are certain Your Lordship will be happy to con- 
 cur in any measure His Grace may propose for carrying the 
 proposal; into effect, and we humbly hope Your Lordship's fer- 
 vent wishes in this and other ecclesiastical concerns will meet with 
 the success they merit. 
 
 " We are, My Lord, 
 " Your Lordship's most faithful and devoted Servants, 
 
 D. Brown, Minister of the Orphan House. 
 
 W. Chambers," 
 
 Cha. Grant, >Of the Company's Civil Service." 
 
 Geo. Study. 
 
 I had been for many years, as Professor of Divinity, a chartered 
 member of the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign 
 Parts, but I had never subscribed to it, nor attended its 
 meetings, from at first suspecting, and afterwards from know- 
 ing, (see Baron Masere's Canadian Freeholder, vol. iii. p. 424.) 
 that its missionaries had been more busy in bringing over dis- 
 senters to episcopacy, than in converting Heathens to Christi- 
 anity ; but the establishment of a mission in the East Indies had 
 my approbation, and I had ordained Mr. Brown a deacon, when 
 the Bishop of London would not ordain him for want of a title. 
 The Orphan School was just then established, by the subscrip- 
 tion of the British Officers, for the education of the children of 
 the soldiers by the women of the country, and I thought a 
 clergyman might be as usefully engaged in such a school, (though 
 it was not a legal title,) as in a village-curacy in England, and 
 that such a school would be instrumental in extending the Eng- 
 
197 
 
 lish language among the natives. On the receipt of this letter, 
 I considered how I might best promote its object, and I was soon 
 persuaded that any efforts of mine would be unsuccessful, unless 
 supported by administration ; and, thinking that the most pro- 
 bable means of obtaining that support would be to let it originate 
 with the minister, I sent both the letter and the proposal to 
 Mr. Pitt with the following note : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, Great George- Street, April 9th, 1788. 
 
 " Allow me to put into your hands a packet which I received 
 last week from India. I know not whether the subject men- 
 tioned in it has ever engaged the attention of Government or of 
 the East-India Company ; I think it highly worthy the attention 
 of them both. But I presume not to say, whether it would be 
 practicable to introduce a knowledge of the Christian religion 
 amongst the natives of Indostan, nor whether the present is the 
 fittest time for making the attempt. All I mean by troubling you 
 on this occasion is to apprize you of what is in agitation, that, if 
 you think the matter proper to be taken into consideration, 
 you may have the credit of submitting it to the Council, or of 
 supporting it in any other way which you may think more 
 expedient. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Pitt took no notice of this communication ; nor did the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury ever speak to me on the subject, so 
 that I never had an opportunity of concurring, which I should 
 
198 
 
 have been happy to have done, with His Grace in the prosecution 
 of the design. 
 
 I do not, indeed, expect much success in propagating Christi- 
 anity by missionaries from any part of Christendom, but I expect 
 much from the extension of science and of commerce. The 
 empire of Russia is emerging from its barbarism, and when it 
 has acquired a stability and strength answering to its extent, it 
 will enlarge its borders ; and, casting an ambitious eye on Thibet, 
 Japan, and China, may introduce, with its commerce, Christi- 
 anity into those countries. India will be christianised by the 
 government of Great Britain. Thus Christian monarchs, who 
 aim at nothing but an increase of their temporal kingdoms, may 
 become, by the providence of God, unconscious instruments in 
 propagating the spiritual kingdom of his Son. It will not be easy 
 for missionaries of any nation to make much impression on the 
 Pagans of any country, because missionaries in general, instead 
 of teaching a simple system of Christianity, have perplexed their 
 hearers with unintelligible doctrines not expressly delivered in 
 Scripture, but fabricated from the conceits and passions and pre- 
 judices of men. Christianity is a rational religion ; the Romans, 
 the Athenians, the Corinthians and others, were highly civilised, 
 far advanced in the rational use of their intellectual faculties, and 
 they all, at length, exchanged Paganism for Christianity ; the 
 same change will take place in other countries, as they become 
 enlightened by the progress of European literature, and become 
 capable of justly estimating the weight of historical evidence, 
 on which the truth of Christianity must, as to them, depend. 
 
199 
 
 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, established by 
 a law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1780, trans- 
 mitted to me a certificate of my being elected a Fellow of their 
 Society on the 30th April, 1788. I have never had an oppor- 
 tunity of thanking the Academy for this unexpected honour, but 
 I hereby assure them of my gratitude, and of my ardent wishes 
 that (in comformity to the motto of their seal), Sub libertate in 
 ceternum floi^eat Academia. 
 
 I this year (1788) published a Charge on visiting my diocese ; 
 and composed, printed, and gave away to above a thousand per- 
 sons whom I then confirmed, a small tract intitled, " An Address 
 to young Persons after Confirmation." I was sensible, that I 
 might have found a more valuable present than that which I 
 then gave to the young persons of my diocese ; but I flattered 
 myself, that the circumstance of its being composed purposely for 
 their benefit, by the bishop who confirmed them, would give it, 
 in their estimation, a degree of merit it might not otherwise be 
 intitled to. 
 ' 
 
 During the latter end of the year 1788, and the beginning of 
 the next, the understanding of the King was so much deranged, 
 that both Houses of Parliament came to a resolution, That he 
 was incapable of conducting the affairs of Government, and 
 measures were taken to form a Regency. Mr. Fox, in the course 
 of debate, had said — that the Prince of Wales had a right to 
 assume the Regency ; and Mr. Pitt had said - — that the Prince of 
 Wales had no more right to assume the Regency than any other man 
 in the kingdom had. These opposite sentiments were supported by 
 
200 
 
 the partisans of each side with great heat and animosity. I cared 
 nothing about the parties, but considered the subject at Cam- 
 bridge as calmly as I could ; and when the business was so far 
 advanced, that a Bill for appointing the Prince of Wales Regent, 
 with certain limitations in the exercise of his power, was brought 
 into Parliament, I went to London, and made the following 
 speech in the House of Lords. The beginning of the speech is 
 here omitted, as it was merely a defence, (or rather an attempt 
 at a defence,) of the independency of the bishops, and of the 
 Scots Peers, which had been glanced at by the preceding speaker. 
 I had not written down the speech, but I had arranged it in my 
 thoughts, and am so confident of the principles maintained in it 
 being perfectly constitutional, that I am desirous of giving it 
 this chance of going down to posterity. 
 
 The Bishop of Landqff's Speech in the House of Lords on the 
 Regency Bill, January 22. 1789. 
 
 " My Lords, 
 " I will not trouble Your Lordships with a long speech, and 
 I know not, indeed, whether I ought to trouble you with any, 
 for I have not the presumption to think that it will be in my 
 power much to illustrate a subject, which, as to a main part of it, 
 has already received so ample a discussion on a former day. But 
 I trust the House will forgive me, if I say, that I feel a singular 
 satisfaction in being allowed an opportunity of delivering my 
 sentiments, plainly and publicly, on as great a constitutional ques- 
 tion as has ever been agitated in this House since the Revolution. 
 
201 
 
 I will endeavour to do this with as much perspicuity, with as much 
 brevity, and with as much impartiality as possible. 
 
 " I will mispend no portion of Your Lordships' time, in de- 
 ploring the sad necessity for this day's debate. The calamity with 
 which the nation is afflicted would have been a great one, had the 
 monarch been a bad one ; what it is now, may far more easily be 
 conceived by you than expressed by me ; for you would listen to 
 me with impatience and disdain, if I undertook by reasoning to 
 prove, what is felt by all, that it is one of the greatest which 
 could have befallen us as a people. All ranks, all k parties, all 
 individuals, who have any knowledge of, any value for our consti- 
 tution, agree in thinking that it is so ; and all, 1 hope, unite in 
 praying to Almighty God to relieve us from it, by restoring our 
 afflicted Sovereign to perfect sanity of body and mind. 
 
 " But, My Lords, till it shall please God to do this, my opinion 
 is — I humbly submit it to the house, with that firmness which 
 becomes an impartial enquirer after truth ; but with that diffi- 
 dence also which becomes a man frequently conscious of his ina- 
 bility to attain it ; and who on every difficult question, whether 
 of policy, of philosophy, or of religion, is by nature and habit 
 more disposed to doubt than to dogmatize — my clear opinion 
 is, that in the very outset of this business, as soon as ever the 
 two Houses of Parliament had, by solemn investigation, ascer- 
 tained the single fact of the King's incapacity to govern the land, 
 they ought to have empowered, (I beg, My Lords, it maybe 
 observed that I question not the competency of the two houses 
 to empower,) His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the next 
 in blood to the throne, by a commission under the great seal or 
 otherwise, to take upon him, not, I think, the whole regal power, 
 
 D D 
 
202 
 
 (though that would have been a more legal and constitutional 
 mode than what has been followed,) but the whole legislative 
 authority of the King. The legislature being, by this one act of 
 necessity, completed, and the constitution restored to its vigour, 
 by the Prince of Wales presiding in parliament as his father's 
 commissioner, the next step should have been for the parliament, 
 I mean the complete parliament, to have appointed a Regent 
 whom they thought fit, and with or without limitations as they 
 thought fit : for though I think it would have been highly im- 
 proper for the legislature to have appointed any other person 
 Regent, except the Prince of Wales, or to have appointed him 
 Regent with any other check or control, except such as the con- 
 stitution has thrown round the King himself in the exercise of 
 his power, yet I admit in the fullest extent, that the legislature 
 would have had both the power and the right to have done 
 otherwise. < 
 
 " A Regency being settled, not by the authority of the two 
 Houses of Parliament, but by the whole legislature, the next step 
 should have been to have made the best possible provision for the 
 guardianship of the King's person, for the security of his private 
 property, and for his re-assumption of all his public rights of 
 sovereignty, as soon as ever it shall please God to put him in a 
 condition to enjoy them. 
 
 " This mode of proceeding would, I humbly think, have been 
 the least perplexed, and the most constitutional which could have 
 been followed. Another mode has been adopted, and limitations 
 of the Regent's power have been proposed, and as I can neither 
 approve of the mode in which the limitations are proposed to be 
 
203 
 
 established, nor of the limitations themselves, I think it incum- 
 bent on me to state the reasons of my dissent. 
 
 " I begin, My Lords, with advancing a proposition which 
 will be denied by none ; the proposition is this, — that the 
 monarchical power of a King of Great Britain is not an arbi- 
 trary but a fiduciary power ; a trust committed by the commu- 
 nity at large to one individual, to be exercised by him in 
 obedience to the law of the land, and in certain cases accord- 
 ing to his own discretion, but in subserviency to the public 
 good. This proposition is one of the most fundamental princi- 
 ples of our constitution, and of every free constitution in the 
 world. Its truth cannot be questioned, and, its truth being 
 admitted, it seems to follow as a legitimate consequence, That 
 whenever the individual to whom the community has committed 
 this trust, shall become incapable of executing it, the trust itself 
 ought to revert to the community at large, to be by them dele- 
 gated, pro tempore, to some other person for the same common 
 end, the promotion of the common welfare. It might otherwise 
 happen that one man's misfortune might become the occasion of 
 all men's ruin. But if, during the present incapacity of the King, 
 the trust which has been given to him, not for his benefit, but for 
 the benefit of those who gave it to him, does in fact revert to the 
 community, then may the community delegate, till the King's 
 recovery, the whole or any part of that trust to whomsoever they 
 think fit. 
 
 " Upon this or some such general ground of reasoning, I pre- 
 sume the proposition has been founded which maintains, that 
 the Prince of Wales has no more right to the Regency previous 
 to the designation of the two Houses of Parliament, (which may 
 
 dd 2 
 
204 
 
 be supposed to represent the community at large,) than any other 
 person. 
 
 " My Lords, I conceive this reasoning is not true ; it would 
 have been true had the law been absolutely silent as to what was 
 to become of the trust, when he to whom it had been given became 
 incapable of executing it : but the law is not silent on this point. 
 In one case in which the King becomes incapable of executing 
 the trust committed to him, the law has clearly and positively 
 said, No, the trust shall not revert to the community at large ; 
 the community perfectly understand the mischief which would 
 attend such a reversion ; they will have nothing to do with it ; it 
 shall go according to an established order of succession, and it 
 shall go entire to the heir. This is the express declaration of law, 
 when the King becomes, by death, incapable of exercising the 
 trust committed to him ; and the analogy of law speaks precisely 
 the same language in the present case ; it says, No, the trust shall 
 not revert to the community, it shall go pro tempore, and it shall 
 go entire, to the next in succession to the Crown ; it shall go 
 to the Prince of Wales, who is of an age to receive, and of a 
 capacity to execute the trust for the public good. 
 
 " I say not, My Lords, that the Prince of Wales has a legal 
 right to the trust ; but I do most firmly contend that he has such 
 a title to it, as cannot be set aside without violating the strongest 
 and most irrefragable analogy of law : and in what such ana- 
 logy differs from law itself, I submit to Your Lordships' mature 
 deliberation. 
 
 " We have heard much on this occasion of the word right, 
 but no one has condescended to define it. Now if, with Grotius, 
 we define Right, as applied to things, to be a moral power of pos- 
 
205 
 
 sessing a thing in conformity to law, it is certain that the Prince 
 of Wales can have no right to the regency ; for the case has never 
 occurred in our history, of a King being incapable of governing 
 when an heir-apparent was of full age to govern, therefore there 
 can be no unwritten law ; and every body knows that there is no 
 statute-law respecting the point ; therefore there is no law, and 
 where there is no law there can be no conformity to law, and 
 where there is no conformity to law there can be no right. But 
 if we define Right to be, a moral power of possessing a thing con- 
 sistently with law ; and if we admit that what is not forbidden by 
 law is consistent with law, where is the law, written or unwritten, 
 which forbids the Prince of Wales from exercising the executive 
 government of the country during the incapacity of his father ? 
 It might, I think, be shown that the law forbids every other 
 person in the kingdom from doing this, but I doubt whether it 
 could be shown that it forbids the Prince of Wales. I beg pardon 
 for troubling Your Lordships with these logical distinctions ; yet 
 on such distinctions depends clearness of ideas, on clearness of 
 ideas depends closeness of argumentation, and on closeness of 
 argumentation depends the investigation of truth. I will proceed 
 to another argument. 
 
 " An old and venerable expositor of the common law instructs 
 us to consider the King as composed of two bodies ; one natural, 
 subject to passions, and mortal ; the other politic, subject to no 
 passions, and immortal : an union of these two bodies constitutes 
 a King ; and he defines a demise of the crown to be a disunion 
 or separation of the body politic of the King from his body 
 natural. Admitting this definition of a demise to be a just one, 
 and it is of too high authority for me at least to question it, I would 
 
206 
 
 argue thus : — Whenever there is a separation of the body politic 
 of the King, from the body natural of the King, there is a demise 
 of the crown. But during the present indisposition of the 
 King, there is a separation of the body politic of the King, from 
 the body natural of the King; therefore during the present 
 indisposition of the King there is a demise of the crown. 
 
 " My Lords, I should be ashamed in this place or in any 
 place, on this occasion or on any occasion, to produce an argu- 
 ment which I did not think was founded in truth, and I do think 
 that this argument is founded in truth ; but that I may deal, as I 
 ought to do, candidly and ingenuously with Your Lordships, I 
 will state to the House wherein the weakness of this argument 
 (if weakness it has any) consists ; its weakness then, if it has any, 
 consists in this, — That the great common lawyer to whom I have 
 alluded had not probably, I say probably, for I cannot speak with 
 certainty, when he gave the definition of a demise of the crown 
 which I have mentioned, any other cause of the separation of 
 the King's body politic from his body natural in contemplation, 
 except that which is occasioned by death. It rests with Your 
 Lordships to determine whether the definition does not in 
 principle extend further ; I think it does. 
 
 " Thus if a King should become incapable of exercising the 
 functions of a King, by being driven, for a time, from his 
 throne, as happened to Edward IV. ; or if he should become 
 incapable by voluntarily abandoning the throne, as happened to 
 James II. ; or if he should be rendered incapable by the hand of 
 God, as has happened to George IIL 9 — in all these cases, and in 
 cases such as these, there would be a civil demise of the crown. 
 I know not whether the law-books acknowledge the terms civil 
 
207 
 
 demise, but I do know, that the ideas comprehended under these 
 terms are as perfectly intelligible as those which are comprehended 
 under the terms natural demise. 
 
 " I am not, My Lords, here to be told that the throne is not 
 vacant ; I know that it is full, and that the powers of him who 
 fills it are not dead but dormant, not extinguished but suspended; 
 and therefore it is that the demise I am contending for is not 
 natural but civil, not absolute but conditional, not permanent but 
 temporary. 
 
 " It is a maxim, we are told, in law — That the King never 
 can become incompetent to the exercise of the kingly office. It 
 is not my intention to question law-maxims, which are generally 
 founded in great wisdom ; but I must be allowed to say, that we 
 are at this very moment denying in fact that integrity of kingship 
 which we are establishing in words. For what is this politic 
 capacity of the King which always remains entire, what but the 
 capacity of executing the office of a King ? It is that body politic 
 of the King which is styled immortal. But in appointing a 
 Regent, we certainly disunite the body politic of the King from 
 his body natural, and we annex it for the time to the body 
 natural of the Prince of Wales. Thus we in fact subvert the 
 maxim of the law on which so much verbal stress has been 
 laid. This civil demise of the Crown, which I am firmly of 
 opinion has now unhappily taken place, differs not, I think, 
 from a natural demise as to the quantum of power which ought 
 to be transferred to the successor ; but it differs from it as to 
 the mode by which it is acquired, and as to the tenure by which 
 it is held. 
 
208 
 
 " Let us look at this matter in another, but not in a less 
 interesting point of view. Was the kingdom a private estate, 
 (I am far, My Lords, from considering kingdoms as private 
 estates, which Kings may use or misuse, as each man may his 
 private property, but it may for the present argument be con- 
 sidered as such,) — was, then, the kingdom a private estate, into 
 whose hands could you so properly commit the management of 
 the estate, during an incapacitating indisposition of the father, as 
 into the hands of his eldest son, who had attained his full majo- 
 rity, and on whom the estate with all its appurtenances was 
 strictly entailed? You might irritate and provoke the temper 
 of such a son, and drive him to a wild and giddy negligence of 
 his concerns, by showing a distrust of him, in not suffering him 
 to have the sole and full management of that, which he of all 
 others was most interested in the managing well. You might 
 degrade him in the estimation of the world, and debase him in 
 his own opinion; but you would not do justice, believe me, 
 My Lords, you would not do justice to those abilities which 
 great occasions call forth, and exercise confirms ; you would 
 not cherish and invigorate those talents, which arduous situ- 
 ations and proper confidence never fail to produce in young and 
 ingenuous minds. 
 
 " In a word, and to apply this, — Either the Prince of Wales is 
 fit to be Regent of the kingdom with full regal power, during 
 the present incapacity of the King, or he would not be fit to 
 rule the land, were the King no more. But the law suffers us 
 not to quibble and to dispute, and to introduce our partial dis- 
 tinctions, concerning the fitness or the unfitness of a Prince of 
 Wales to rule the land when a King is no more ; it tells us that 
 
209 
 
 he is fit. And the analogy of law tells us that he is fit to be 
 Regent of the land with regal power, whilst the King continues 
 to be incapable of exercising the functions of a King. 
 
 " In what I have hitherto advanced, Your Lordships will 
 observe that I have paid no attention to the precedents which 
 have been so studiously collected, and in the application of which 
 we have been told, by the highest authority of the law, that 
 the whole matter consists. I have omitted the consideration of 
 precedents, not only from being persuaded that their importance 
 was sufficiently weighed in a former debate, but from a per- 
 suasion also, that, though there are some shades of resemblance 
 between the present situation of the country, and its situation 
 during the infancy of its kings, yet there are such strong lines 
 f of discrimination as sufficiently distinguish the two cases. But 
 that I may not appear to assert this without proving it, I will 
 advert for a moment to the precedent of Henry VI. during the 
 infancy of that monarch, inasmuch as a peculiar degree of im- 
 portance has been given to that precedent. But before I point 
 out the difference of the two cases, I cannot help observing, and 
 I make the observation with a degree of astonishment, that this 
 boasted precedent has not been followed in the only two points 
 which were of consequence. 
 
 " What was done, My Lords, on the accession of Henry VI. ? 
 A commission was issued, by order of the privy council, under 
 the Great Seal, appointing not any person, not any number of 
 persons, but the next in blood to the King to convene a parlia- 
 ment, and to preside in the parliament when convened, in the 
 name of and with the authority of the King. Has this been 
 done now? No such thing. The parliament, when our King 
 
 E E 
 
210 
 
 became incapable of governing, was convened ; and, had the 
 precedent of Henry VI. been followed, by order of the Council, 
 or by order of the two Houses of Parliament, the Prince of 
 Wales should have had a commission given him under the Great 
 Seal, to preside in the parliament in the name of, and with the 
 authority of the King. 
 
 " What was the next step which was taken in the reign of 
 Henry VI. ? A Regent was appointed by the authority of the 
 legislature; that Regent was the Duke of Gloucester, the 
 person next in blood to the King, except the Duke of Bedford, 
 who was not then in the kingdom ; and he was controlled in the 
 exercise of his power by a permanent Council. Has this been 
 done now ? No such thing. The Prince of Wales, the person 
 next in blood to the King, is to be appointed Regent, but he is, 
 not to be appointed by the legislature, and he is not to be 
 controlled by a Council. 
 
 " Could I have been of opinion, My Lords, that the proceedings 
 during the infancy of Henry VI. ought to have been followed by 
 the nation in the reign of George III., I would have placed my 
 foot on the precedent I have been considering, as on a firm basis ; 
 I would have looked my country in the face, and boldly said, — 
 The Prince of Wales is now restrained by a Council, because our 
 ancestors restrained by such a Council, the Regent, in the reign 
 of Henry VI. This would have been a manly proceeding ; and 
 a strict conformity to the precedent might have been a degree of 
 justification for having followed it. But to follow precedents, 
 without a reference to the times and circumstances under which 
 they were made, is to follow blind guides, which will frequently 
 lead us. into error ; and I have no difficulty in saying, that we 
 
211 
 
 ought not now to follow the precedent established in the reign of 
 Henry VI. 
 
 " I admit that there is a similarity, or rather an identity, as to 
 the fact of the incapacity for government in the two Kings, but 
 in nothing else is there the least similitude. Henry VI. was an 
 infant unknown to his subjects ; — George III. is a monarch 
 endeared to his subjects by a long reign. Henry VI. was born in 
 a barbarous age ; so far at least barbarous, that the constitution 
 was unknown, and the succession unsettled ; — George III. lives 
 in an enlightened age, when our constitution is understood by 
 almost every man we meet, and when no doubt remains respect- 
 ing the succession to the Crown. Henry VI. was surrounded by 
 ambitious nobles, whose adherents were so numerous, as to ena- 
 ble them to grapple with the King himself for the possession of 
 the Crown ; — George III. is surrounded by nobles, whose adhe- 
 rents are not so numerous as to render them dangerous, not one 
 of whom has the slightest pretensions to the Crown, and all of 
 whom (My Lords, I know I speak truth) would sacrifice their 
 lives and fortunes to keep the Crown on the head of him who 
 wears it. 
 
 " But vet there is another distinction between the two cases, 
 and it is a distinction of the utmost moment. I speak on this 
 point with great diffidence. I oppose the avowed and declared 
 sentiments of two noble Lords now in my eye, (Camden and 
 Thurlow,) whose legal abilities are above my praise, and of whose 
 discriminating faculties, on all subjects, I have a good opinion. 
 I beg pardon of these great luminaries of the law beforehand. I 
 am almost certain that I must be in an error, though I cannot 
 see it. 
 
 ee 2 
 
212 
 
 " They have contended, then, that there is no difference as to 
 the present argument between an Heir Presumptive to Henry VI. 
 and an Heir Apparent to George III, ; and I take the liberty to 
 contend, that the difference in this case, and I consider no other, 
 between an Heir Presumptive and an Heir Apparent, is obvious 
 and immense. Henry VI., an infant of nine months or of nine 
 years old, for it makes no difference as to the argument, (inas- 
 much as what was done respecting a Regency in the first year of 
 his reign, was done for several years afterwards,) and the Heir 
 Presumptive of Henry VI. stand on one part : — On the other, we 
 are to consider George III., a King beyond the middle age, and 
 the Heir Apparent, a man of twenty-seven. Now, My Lords, I 
 will assume but this one postulatum, which, in all fairness of 
 logical argumentation, cannot be denied me — that each of these 
 four personages lives to the ordinary period of human life ; then it 
 is evident that the Heir Presumptive of Henry VI. never can, by 
 fair means, obtain the Crown ; and that the Heir Apparent of 
 George III. never can, by fair means, miss the Crown ; and the 
 difference between a certainty of never possessing, and a certainty 
 of never failing to possess the Crown, is, in my humble opinion, 
 obvious and immense. It is a difference, too, so important in its 
 nature and consequences, as to render the restrictions of the Re- 
 gent's power, in the person of the Heir Presumptive of Henry VI., 
 perfectly inapplicable to the Regency of the Heir Apparent of 
 George III. I have done with the precedents, and will pro- 
 ceed to the consideration of the restrictions which are proposed. 
 
 " It is said, then, that in the establishment of a Regency, no 
 more power ought to be given to the Regent, than what is suffi- 
 cient to enable him to carry on the executive government of the 
 
213 
 
 country with effect, for the public good. My Lords, I admit 
 this proposition in its full extent ; and it is on the truth of this 
 proposition that I ground my argument for there being no restric- 
 tions put upon the Regent. All the regal power is necessary 
 to enable him to carry on the government for the public good. 
 What ! is it asserted or insinuated, that the King himself has an 
 atom more of regal power belonging to him by the constitution 
 of the country, than what is sufficient to enable him to carry on 
 the government of the country with effect, for the public good ? 
 I contend that he has no such power ; such a power would be a 
 power to do wrong, and the King has no moral power to do 
 wrong ; it would be that injuria licentia, which is the basis of 
 tyranny in every kingdom of the world ; it is that which the 
 despots of the continent claim and exercise ; which our Monarch, 
 thank God ! we are certain, would not exercise, could he claim 
 it, but which our constitution, thank God! does not suffer him to 
 claim. 
 
 " But it is objected — if you give the whole regal power to the 
 Regent, you make him not a Regent, but a King ; you dethrone 
 the Monarch, and place the crown of George III. on the head of 
 George IV. These, My Lords, are high-sounding words ; but I 
 have not been accustomed to pay attention to words, beyond the 
 sense they contain, and I do not see that these contain any. The 
 whole regal power is requisite for the Regent, because it is 
 requisite for the common good, that the whole regal power 
 should have an existence somewhere. But though you give the 
 Regent the whole regal power, you will not make him a King ; 
 he will differ essentially from a King in this, — that he exercises 
 his power in the name of another. Every public instrument 
 
214 
 
 which he sets his hand to, announces to every man in the king- 
 dom, that the Crown still rests on the head of his father. He 
 will differ, too, from a King in another point, in what is the 
 most essential point of royalty, — in permanency of possession. 
 
 " But it is contended in particular, that the power of creating 
 Peers should not be given to the Regent. What ! is this high 
 prerogative, then, useless or pernicious to the state ? No, it will 
 be said, it is a prerogative productive of public good, when exer- 
 cised by a King ; but productive of public mischief, when exer- 
 cised by a Regent. My Lords, there is no manner of foundation 
 for this reasoning, when the Regent is the Heir Apparent. 
 There might be some foundation for it, was the Queen the 
 Regent ; was the Duke of York the Regent ; and much more, 
 was any other person the Regent ; because every other person in 
 the kingdom, except the Heir Apparent, might be supposed to 
 have a private interest, diverse from, and opposite to the public 
 good. Peers might be made in attention to this private interest, 
 but this cannot be supposed concerning a Prince of Wales. To 
 say that a Prince of Wales can have any interest in view distinct 
 from the public interest, is to say that he is absolutely unfit for 
 the government of the country, — an assertion not more reprobated 
 by the law, than, without meaning any flattery to His Royal 
 Highness, I believe it to be false in fact. 
 
 " But, it has been said, if the Prince of Wales is allowed the 
 power of making peers, he may infringe the rights of the reign- 
 ing monarch, and the King, on his return to his parliament, may 
 find this House filled with the friends of the Prince of Wales, and 
 with the enemies of the reigning Sovereign. Good God ! My 
 Lords, is it possible that so uncandid and illiberal a suspicion — 
 
215 
 
 I wish to avoid asperity of language — a suspicion so ill founded 
 and so injurious to the characters of both the high personages 
 alluded to, should ever have entered into the heart of any man in 
 Great Britain ? The virtues of the reigning Monarch have left 
 him no enemies in any part of his dominions, and it is but com- 
 mon justice to the Prince of Wales, that justice which every one 
 of Your Lordships would wish in similar circumstances to be 
 done to his own son, to place this confidence in the Prince of 
 Wales, that he will have no friends but the friends of his family 
 and of the constitution. And is it not to fix an opprobrious, and, 
 we all know, an undeserved stigma on the character of the King, 
 to say, that on his recovery he will be sorry to meet in this 
 House, or in any place, the friends of his family and of the con- 
 stitution ? 
 
 " A distinction, My Lords, has of late years arisen in this 
 kingdom which I much dislike ; it is a distinction not founded in 
 nature, it is pregnant with mischief, and may bring forth civil 
 discord ; a distinction into Kings friends, and Prince s friends. 
 I learned at school that friendship subsists not nisi inter pares ; 
 and my station in society is far too humble to permit me to affect 
 a parity with kings and princes. I have no ambition to be 
 ranked among the King's friends, none to be ranked among the 
 Prince of Wales's friends : but I have an ambition, I have had it 
 through life, and I shall carry it to my grave with me, — it is an 
 ambition to be ranked among the friends of the whole house of 
 Brunswick : and why, My Lords ? not from any private regard, 
 but because the house of Brunswick is a friend to the civil and 
 religious liberties of mankind ; because, if we may augur con- 
 cerning the future from an experience of the past, the house of 
 
216 
 
 Brunswick will ever continue to be friends to the constitution of 
 the country, as defined and established at the Revolution. 
 
 " It is proposed to confide to the Prince of Wales the high 
 prerogative of declaring war and making peace ; of entering into 
 foreign treaties which bind the nation, and must bind the King 
 himself on his recovery ; of directing the operations of the stand- 
 ing army ; of appointing to all offices, (the household excepted,) 
 civil and military. These and other prerogatives of a similar 
 nature, on a due and discreet use of which every thing that is 
 dear to us as men and citizens depends, are to be intrusted (and 
 the trust we have no reason to think will be misplaced) to the 
 Prince of Wales. Having given so much, where is the wisdom 
 of retaining the rest? where is the wisdom of depriving the 
 Regent of the ability of rewarding merit, and of enabling his mi- 
 nisters to strengthen themselves in administration, by exactly the 
 same means whereby their political competitors will have 
 strengthened themselves in opposition f My Lords, there may be 
 public grounds for this restriction ; and, considering the characters 
 of those who have been concerned in framing it, it would be 
 uncandid in me to say there are none, but I must profess that I 
 see none. 
 
 " But were the public grounds for this limitation more obvious 
 and more extensive than any person will assert them to be, still 
 I would not vote either for the limitation itself, or for the mode 
 of establishing it. No, My Lords, never shall it be said of me 
 that I concurred in violating the constitution of my country, by 
 allowing to the two Houses of Parliament, either the right of 
 legislating, or of suspending, though but for an hour, any portion 
 of the royal prerogative. The established prerogative of the 
 
217 
 
 Crown is a part of the common law of the land, and I think that 
 the two Houses of Parliament have no more right to suspend the 
 law than the King nas. The constitution is violated, let the 
 suspension be made by any power short of that which made the 
 law. If the two Houses can suspend indefinitely, they may 
 abolish perpetually. If they can abolish, as useless to the com- 
 mon safety, one prerogative, why not another ; why not all ? — 
 Why may they not come to a resolution, that all the prerogatives 
 of the Crown, and that the King himself, are as useless to the 
 public good, as this House was formerly declared to be by the 
 other ! 
 
 " I know, My Lords, it has been said by my enemies, that I 
 am a friend to republican principles, and I question not they 
 will be greedy in embracing this opportunity of saying, that I 
 am a friend to prerogative principles. / have hitherto disdained, 
 and I shall continue to disdain, giving a reply to my calumnia- 
 tors of any kind; but I feel it an happiness, and I think it an 
 honour to declare to this numerous assembly of Your Lordships, 
 that I am no friend to republican principles, none to prerogative 
 principles, none to aristocratic principles, but a warm, zealous, and 
 determined friend to that equilibrium of the three powers, on the 
 preservation of which depends the conservation of the finest con- 
 stitution (not perfect, perhaps, either with respect to its civil or 
 ecclesiastical part, for what human thing is perfect ? ), but yet the 
 finest civil constitution that ever blessed mankind on the surface of 
 the globe. For the preservation of this constitution 1 would lay 
 down my life : the expression is a strong one, but the occasion 
 justifies it ; for in doing so, I should think that I fulfilled the 
 most important duty of a man and of a citizen, that I per- 
 
 F F 
 
218 
 
 formed a service acceptable to the Supreme Being, in contri- 
 buting to continue to millions yet unborn the blessing of the 
 British constitution. With these sentiments concerning the ex- 
 cellence, and with the apprehensions which I now entertain of the 
 violation of the constitution, Your Lordships will, I trust, forgive 
 the warmth and the firmness with which I speak. 
 
 " I cannot sit down without adverting to an important point, 
 the arrangement of the household. If we were to follow the cool 
 conclusions of dispassionate reasoning, the most proper mode of 
 proceeding, whether we respect the circumstances of the country 
 or the state of the civil list itself, would be to extinguish that part 
 of the household which is useless to the King in his present un- 
 happy circumstances, and to save the expense of its establish- 
 ment. But as it often happens in private life, that our feelings 
 are in opposition to our judgment, so has it happened to myself 
 on this occasion. I do feel a reluctance to the abolishing any 
 part of the royal household whilst there remains any hope of the 
 King's recovery. I wish His Majesty on his recovery to feel, not 
 the shadowy comfort of seeing the same faces about his person, 
 but the solid comfort of knowing, that his subjects had not, out of 
 a selfish regard for themselves, seized the opportunity of his mis- 
 fortune to tarnish the splendor, and to diminish the dignity of 
 royalty. 
 
 " But though I wish not the household to be diminished, and 
 though it is useless, as to the greatest part of it, to the King, 
 I would not have it continue useless to the public ; it ought to be 
 transferred to the Regent. The phalerce of royalty are calculated, 
 not merely to captivate the vulgar, but to render the person of 
 the King venerable in the eyes of all, that his office may thereby 
 
219 
 
 be executed with greater advantage to the public. Subordination 
 is necessary to the very existence of civil society, and whatever 
 has a tendency to preserve it, in a due degree, is a public good. 
 For the same reason that the state is at the expense of adorning 
 the person and situation of the Monarch by a splendid house- 
 hold, it ought to adorn the person and situation of the Regent. 
 It is not to swell the vanity of either the King or the Regent 
 that this is done, but to render the chief magistrate respectable in 
 the contemplation of those over whom his magistracy extends. 
 
 " As to the influence which attends the household, it ought 
 not, perhaps, to be permitted to exist at all ; but whilst it does in 
 fact exist, it certainly ought not to be dissevered from the execu- 
 tive government. It is a great doubt with me whether the influ- 
 ence of the Crown be not too great; but I have no doubt in 
 saying, that the influence ought not to subsist any where but in 
 the Crown, But I will not dwell upon this, for I agree with the 
 noble Lord who opened the debate, that we ought not to refer to 
 the characters of the great personages to whom we have occasion 
 to allude ; if this were allowable I would say, that I think so well 
 of the Queen, as to be under no manner of apprehension that she 
 will ever put herself at the head of a party in opposition to the 
 government of her son. 
 
 " My Lords, I have delivered the real sentiments of my 
 heart, without any respect to party ; I am not a party man ; this 
 is not a question of party, nor ought it to be considered as such. 
 The question is not whether this or that man shall be the mi- 
 nister of the country. If that had been the question, I would 
 have said to every independent member of this House, (and there- 
 fore, for the credit of human nature, and for the dignity of the 
 
 f f 2 
 
220 
 
 peerage, I would have supposed that I addressed myself to 
 every individual ii it,) in the language of ancient Rome, — Non 
 agitur de publico commodo, sed utrum Ccesar an Pompeius possideat 
 rempublicam. Quid tibi M. Cato cum ista contentione ? 
 
 " No, My Lords, the question is, in what manner shall we 
 maintain unviolated the principles of the constitution, protect the 
 dormant rights of the reigning Monarch, do justice to the legal 
 claims, to the reasonable expectations at least of the Heir Appa- 
 rent, provide for the domestic tranquillity, confirm and extend 
 the foreign importance of the kingdom. This is the complex 
 and important question which solicits your decision : I, for one, 
 as a member of this House, and as a bishop of this realm, lay my 
 hand upon my heart, and say in the most solemn manner, That, 
 in my judgment, we shall best promote these great ends by 
 appointing His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Heir 
 Apparent to the Crown, Regent, with full regal power. 
 
 " However different many of Your Lordships may be from me 
 in this sentiment, I will conclude with a wish, in which I am 
 certain of being joined by all who hear me, and was the Heir 
 Apparent himself in the House, I am confident that his piety as 
 a son, that his duty as a subject, (of both of which he has on this 
 trying occasion given such exemplary proof,) would make him 
 the first to unite with me in a wish, an hope, a prayer, that a 
 speedy and perfect restoration of the King's health may put an 
 early period to the Regency of his son." 
 
 I had great confidence in the justness of the reasoning of 
 this speech, from observing that the Chancellor, in his reply, 
 paid me, in his coarse way, a reluctant compliment in saying, 
 
221 
 
 " The Bishop has given us his advice, and I know not but that 
 something may be made on't." And from being told by the 
 Duke of Portland, on the same night in which I spoke, " that it 
 was looked upon, by at least one side of the House, as the best 
 which had been produced in either House of Parliament." 
 
 The Chancellor, in his reply, boldly asserted that he per- 
 fectly well remembered the passage I had quoted from Grotius, 
 and that it solely respected natural, but was inapplicable to civil 
 rights. Lord Loughborough, the first time I saw him after the 
 debate, assured me, that before he went to sleep that night he 
 had looked into Grotius, and was astonished to find that the 
 Chancellor, in contradicting me, had presumed on the ignorance 
 of the House, and that my quotation was perfectly correct. — 
 What miserable shifts do great men submit to in supporting their 
 parties ! The Chancellor Thurlow was an able and upright judge, 
 but as the Speaker of the House of Lords he was domineering 
 and insincere. It was said of him, that in the Cabinet he op- 
 posed every thing, proposed nothing, and was ready to support 
 any thing. I remember Lord Camden's saying to me one night, 
 when the Chancellor was speaking contrary, as I thought, to his 
 own conviction, " There now, I could not do that ; he is support- 
 ing what he does not believe a word of." 
 
 Lord Cathcart had attempted to answer my speech, on the 
 day after I had spoken it, and he thought fit to send me the 
 following letter : — 
 
222 
 
 " My Lord, Clifford-street, January 27. 1789. 
 
 " In the course of what I endeavoured to state to the House 
 last night, I wished to take some notice of parts of Your Lord- 
 ship's speech. I conceived that the debate was adjourned from 
 the preceding day, and that therefore, in point of order, 1 had 
 a right so to do. The arrangement and perspicuity of Your 
 Lordship's argument tempted me to wish to follow it as far as 
 I was able, and by the boldness of that attempt to attract the 
 attention of the Lords to what I had to offer to the House on 
 those subjects. 
 
 " To one not in the habit of speaking in public, it requires a 
 considerable exertion to address the House of Lords ; the Lords 
 were coming in and taking their places, and not having had any 
 previous design of speaking at that particular period of the de- 
 bate, I confess I soon found myself under the influence of the 
 most overcoming embarrassment, to which I hope Your Lord- 
 ship will have the goodness to attribute the clumsy manner in 
 which, I fear, I made over frequent allusions to Your Lord- 
 ship's speech, without being able sufficiently to mark the respect 
 with which I wished these allusions to be accompanied. This 
 apprehension has induced me to trouble Your Lordship with this 
 letter. 
 
 " I beg leave to assure you, My Lord, that I have not forgot 
 the obligation which the Peers of Scotland owe to Your Lord- 
 ship, for the part you had the goodness to take in our behalf, on 
 a very interesting question which materially affected the rights 
 of the Peers of Scotland ; but I beg leave also to assure Your 
 Lordship, that that support is by no means the sole foundation 
 
223 
 
 t 
 
 of that respect and regard, with which I have the honour to 
 be, My Lord, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Cathcart." 
 
 I had not the least acquaintance with Lord Cathcart, and re- 
 turned by his messenger the following answer : — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " I am sorry Your Lordship has had the trouble of writing 
 to me on the subject of what passed yesterday in the House of 
 Lords. The arguments I used on a former day are entirely at 
 Your Lordship's service, and at that of every other noble Lord, 
 to be commented upon at any time, and in any manner which 
 may be thought fit ; if they will not bear the test of every exami- 
 nation, so far from wishing them to influence the judgment of 
 other men, they shall not continue to influence my own. As to 
 what Your Lordship seemed to apprehend, my having spoken 
 disrespectfully of the Peers of Scotland, I do beg leave to assure 
 Your Lordship, that you had totally misconceived my meaning 
 on the occasion ; there is not a man in England who thinks 
 more respectfully of the talents and spirit of the Scots Peers 
 than I do. 
 
 " Permit me the liberty of saying, that I take nothing amiss 
 that fell from Your Lordship yesterday; my temper is neither 
 irascible nor revengeful; in my own mind I honourably acquitted 
 Your Lordship, even at the time you were speaking, of any 
 design to misrepresent me, and I am convinced that, in doing 
 
224 
 
 so, I did no more than justice to Your Lordship's honour and 
 
 character. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The following is a letter to the Duke of Grafton, in answer to 
 one in which he had politely hinted at my having voted in oppo- 
 sition to the minister. I was then happy, and have since then 
 continued to be so, in the Duke of Grafton's friendship ; I thought 
 it therefore proper to let him know at once the nature of our 
 connection as to public matters. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, Great George-st. Jan. 12. 1789, 
 
 " Your Grace's kind invitation to Euston followed me to this 
 place. Mrs. Watson and my family will be in town on Thurs- 
 day, so that it will be impossible for me to have the pleasure 
 of waiting upon you at Euston. 
 
 " As to politics, I have but one rule for my public conduct ; 
 to vote according to the best of my judgment upon every occa- 
 sion, and, when I cannot form a judgment, not to vote at all. 
 It will always be a sensible mortification to me to differ from 
 Your Grace, but I trust we neither of us are of a temper to let a 
 difference on public questions break in upon the comforts of 
 private attachments. 
 
 " I think I have been miserably neglected by Mr. Pitt, and I 
 feel the indignity as I ought ; but this feeling would not have 
 hindered me from supporting him on the present occasion, had I 
 approved his measures. 
 
•225 
 
 " I know perfectly well the personal indiscretion of pretending 
 to think for myself on political subjects, and how much a man 
 who does so is traduced, ridiculed, and contemned by all parties ; 
 but I cannot do otherwise. 
 
 V To be overlooked by Mr. Pitt, or by any other minister, for 
 want of character or ability in my profession, would cover me 
 with shame ; it would be a silly affectation in me to say, that I 
 feel any uneasiness on that account, when I compare myself with 
 the rest of my brethren ; but to be overlooked for want of poli- 
 tical pliancy, is a circumstance I need not blush to own, and let 
 the consequence be what it may, I shall never lament it, 
 
 t* I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The restoration of the King's health soon followed. It was the 
 artifice of the ministe. to represent all those who had opposed his 
 measures, as enemies to the King; and the Queen lost, in the 
 opinion of many, the character which she had hitherto maintained 
 in the country, by falling in with the designs of the minister. She 
 imprudently distinguished by different degrees of courtesy on the 
 one hand, and by meditated affronts on the other, those who had 
 voted with, and those who had voted against the minister, insomuch 
 that the Duke of Northumberland one day said to me, " So, My 
 Lord, you and I also are become traitors." 
 
 She received me at the drawing-room, which was held on the 
 King's recovery, with a degree of coldness, which would have 
 appeared to herself ridiculous and ill placed could she have 
 imagined how little a mind such as mine regarded, in its honour- 
 
 G G 
 
226 
 
 able proceedings, the displeasure of a woman, though that woman 
 happened to be a Queen. 
 
 The Prince of Wales, who was standing near her, then asked 
 me to dine with him, and on my making some objection to dining 
 at Carlton House, he turned to Sir Thomas Dundas, and desired 
 him to give us a dinner, at his house, on the following Saturday. 
 Before we sat down to dinner on that day, the Prince took me 
 aside, explained to me the principle on which he had acted during 
 the whole of the King's illness, and spoke to me, with an afflicted 
 feeling, of the manner in which the Queen had treated himself. 
 I must do him the justice to say, that he spoke, in this conference, 
 in as sensible a manner as could possibly have been expected 
 from an heir apparent to the throne, and from a son of the best 
 principles towards both his parents. 1 advised him to persevere 
 in dutifully bearing with his mother's ill humour, till time and 
 her own good sense should disentangle her from the web which 
 ministerial cunning had thrown around her. 
 
 Having thought well of the Queen, I was willing to attribute 
 her conduct, during the agitation of the Regency question, to her 
 apprehensions of the King's safety, to the misrepresentations of 
 the King's minister, to any thing rather than to a fondness for 
 power. 
 
 Before we rose from table at Sir Thomas Dundas's, where the 
 Duke of York and a large company were assembled, the conversa- 
 tion turning on parties, I happened to say that I was sick of 
 parties, and should retire from all public concerns — " No," said 
 
227 
 
 the Prince, " and mind who it is that tells you so, you shall never 
 retire ; a man of your talents shall never be lost to the public." — 
 I have now lived many years in retirement, and, in my seventy- 
 fifth year, I feel no wish to live otherwise. 
 
 On occasion of the duel between the Duke of York and Colonel 
 Lenox, I find that I wrote the following note to Lord Rawdon, 
 who had been the Duke's second, and of whose high honour and 
 eminent talents I always entertained the best opinion : — 
 
 " My dear Lc *d, Cambridge, May 28. 1789. 
 
 " I know you will forgive the liberty I take in requesting you 
 to present, in the most respectful manner, to the Duke of York 
 my warmest congratulations on a late event. 
 
 " As a Christian bishop I cannot approve of any man's exposing 
 his life on such an occasion. As a citizen I must think that the 
 life of one so near to the Crown ought not to be hazarded like the 
 life of an ordinary man ; but as a friend to the House of Brunswick, 
 I cannot but rejoice in the personal safety, and in the personal 
 gallantry too, of so distinguished a branch of it. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The dismission of the Duke of Queensberry and Lord Lothian 
 from their offices, and the treatment which Lord Rodney and 
 others received on account of their having voted in the business 
 of the Regency against the minister, finished Mr. Pitt's character, 
 for public consistency, with me. I had believed him to have 
 been as sincere as I was in wishing for the independency of par- 
 
 g g 2 
 
228 
 
 liament, but I now perceived that he wished to have it as sub- 
 servient to his own views as possible, and cared little for the 
 constitution of the country, whilst he preserved his own power, 
 verifying the observation of Helvetius, — " L 1 amour de Vhommepour 
 le pouvoir est tel quen Angleterre meme il nest presque point de 
 ministre qui ne voulut revetir son Prince du pouvoir arbitraire. 
 Uivresse oVune grand place fait oublier au ministre qu accable lui 
 meme sous le poids du pouvoir quil edifie, lui et saposterite en seront 
 peutetre les premieres victimes" 
 
 Numberless addresses were presented to the King and Queen, 
 on the recovery of His Majesty; I drew up the two following, and 
 sent them to be signed by the clergy of my diocese, before they 
 were presented : — 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 " We, the Bishop, Archdeacon and Chapter, and Clergy, of the 
 diocese of Landaff, Your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, humbly, 
 and with hearty thanksgivings to Almighty God, beg leave to 
 congratulate Your Majesty on the recovery which He, in his 
 mercy, hath vouchsafed to you from a long and singularly afflict- 
 ing indisposition. We are persuaded, that no congratulations, on 
 any occasion, were ever offered to any of Your Majesty's pre- 
 decessors with more cordial sincerity and more perfect unanimity 
 than those will be which a free, a loyal, and an affectionate people 
 will present to Your Majesty, on this event. It is an event highly 
 interesting to every branch of Your Majesty's family, and to every 
 friend of the House of Brunswick. The happiness of men, who 
 have the misfortune to live under despotic governments, depends 
 
229 
 
 more on the good disposition of their ruler, than on the nature of 
 their civil constitution ; whilst that of men, who live under free 
 governments, is more dependent on the principles of their con- 
 stitution, than on the virtues of their Prince. How happy, then, 
 may our situation justly be esteemed ! We certainly live under 
 the best form of civil government that was ever established in the 
 world; and we have the comfort of knowing, that it is ad- 
 ministered by a King whose virtues, public and private, would 
 render even despotism itself not destructive of the happiness of 
 human kind. 
 
 " May God, in his good providence, long continue to us the 
 blessing of Your Majesty's life and health, and preserve, to our 
 latest posterity, the blessing of the British constitution." 
 
 I am so little conversant with the manners of a court, that I 
 know not whether to refer the following letter to the order of the 
 King, or to the spontaneous courtesy of the Secretary of State 
 from whom I received it. 
 
 « My Lord, Whitehall, 13th April, 1789. 
 
 " I have this day had the honour of presenting to the King the 
 Address of the Archdeacon and Chapter, and Clergy of the 
 diocese of LandafT, which Your Lordship transmitted to me, 
 congratulating His Majesty on the happy re-establishment of his 
 health ; and I have the satisfaction of informing you that His 
 Majesty was pleased to receive the same in the most gracious 
 manner. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, My Lord, 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Sydney." 
 
230 
 
 Address to the Queen. 
 
 " Most Gracious Queen, 
 
 " We the Bishop, Archdeacon and Chapter, and Clergy of the 
 diocese of LandafF, entreat Your Majesty graciously to accept 
 our congratulations on the King's recovery from his late in- 
 disposition ; they are tendered to Your Majesty with the utmost 
 truth. 
 
 " The comforts of domestic life are natural and sincere ; all 
 persons in all ranks equally feel the importance of possessing 
 them, are equally affected by their interruption or loss. We 
 firmly believe that every family in the kingdom sympathized 
 with Your Majesty in your late distress, and that they all 
 participate in your present felicity. 
 
 " Sensible of the influence of Royal example, we have always 
 thought that Your Majesty was entitled to the thanks of the 
 kingdom for the proofs you have uniformly given, during a 
 long residence amongst us, of the sincerity of your piety, of the 
 amiableness and purity of your manners as a Queen, as a wife, 
 and as a mother. But if Your Majesty could have claimed our 
 regard on no other account, the tenderness and concern you 
 have shown for a beloved Monarch during his late unhappy 
 situation, would have secured to you the grateful attachment of 
 a loyal people. 
 
 " We observed, in the deliberations of parliament, a great 
 diversity of opinion as to the most constitutional mode of protect- 
 ing the Rights of the Sovereign during the continuance of his 
 indisposition ; but we observed no diversity whatever as to the 
 necessity of protecting them in the most effectual manner. This 
 
231 
 
 circumstance cannot fail of giving solid satisfaction to Your 
 Majesty; for next to the consolation of believing that, in his 
 recovery, he has been the especial object of God's mercy, must 
 be that of knowing that, during his illness, he was the peculiar 
 object of his people's love ; that he reigns over a free, a great, 
 and an enlightened nation, not more by the laws of the land 
 than by the wishes of his people." 
 
 The first part of this last paragraph, I knew, would be dis- 
 agreeable to the Queen, as it contradicted the principle she wished 
 to be generally believed, and the truth of which could alone 
 justify her conduct — that the opposition to the minister was an 
 opposition to the King. Now as there was not a word of 
 disaffection to the King, in any of the debates in either House 
 of Parliament, during the transaction of the Regency, and (as I 
 verily believe) the hearts of the opposition were as warm with 
 the King, and warmer with the constitution, than those of their 
 competitors, I thought fit to say what was, in my judgment, the 
 plain truth. 
 
 About this time, hearing that my old friend (Preston), then 
 Bishop of Femes, was dangerously ill in Ireland, I felt my 
 regard for him (which had been lessened by his acceptance of 
 a bishoprick) returning with all its force, and I wrote the 
 following letter to him : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, . Cambridge, April 6. 1789. 
 
 " You have never written to me since you went to Ireland ; I 
 
 know nothing of you except by report. I cannot however 
 
232 
 
 suffer an ardent friendship, of many years standing, to cool so 
 suddenly, as not to be greatly interested in what I hear of you, 
 and they tell me that you are ill, and dangerously ill. If the fact 
 is so, and you think that my consolation can be of use to you, 
 command me in any way and to any extent you judge fit. Some 
 twenty years ago you were then, I believe, at Vienna ; I preferred 
 your interest to my own, in soliciting for you the Professorship of 
 Modern History, and you wrote me word, that you should die 
 contented in having met with a true friend ; that friend is still 
 what he was then, and though both our situations are mended, 
 yet the principle of regard remains the same. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " I ought not to give you advice, for you have not consulted 
 me ; and if you had, our feelings may be different, but nothing 
 should induce me to imbitter the rest of my life in the squabbles 
 of a college." 
 
 It was then reported that Preston was to have been translated 
 to an English bishopric, and to have been made Master of Trinity 
 College. 
 
 The tract which I had last year given to the young persons 
 of my diocese was this year published, and a large edition was 
 soon sold. I have been told that the Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge, if I would have given them the tract, intended 
 to have printed an edition of ten thousand copies, and to have 
 distributed it gratis ; and my information was probably correct, 
 for Bishop Barrington had before asked me to let the Society 
 
233 
 
 have the tract, but it was then sold to my bookseller. If I had, 
 in due time, known the intention of the Society respecting this 
 little publication, no price should have purchased it; but I did not 
 think so highly of it, as to suppose it merited the distinction in- 
 tended for it. A year or two afterwards the Society applied to 
 m? for leave to print a part of it ; this I refused, (though I gave 
 them leave to print the whole, having settled the matter with my 
 bookseller,) not believing that there was a word wrong in any part 
 of it. I understood that Bishop Horseley objected to some ex- 
 pressions in it, and, after a great deal of absurd violence on his 
 part, prevailed upon the Society not to agree to the printing of 
 the whole of it. What it was that the Bishop objected to I 
 thought it beneath me to enquire, either directly or indirectly. 
 His political principles were to me detestable, and his theology 
 too dogmatical, though he was certainly a man of talents. 
 
 About ten years after the publication of this tract, the follow- 
 ing passage in it was animadverted upon by a person wholly un- 
 known to me (Mr. Ashdown of Canterbury), in two short letters, 
 addressed to the Bishop of LandarT: — "The Holy Spirit we 
 know gave his assistance in an extraordinary manner to the first 
 preachers of the Gospel, and they were sure of his dwelling in 
 them, by the power of speaking with new tongues, and by the 
 other gifts which he distributed to them. We think we have 
 the authority of Scripture for saying that God still continues to 
 work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure ; to give his 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask him; but the manner in which the 
 Holy Spirit gives his assistance to faithful and pious persons is 
 not attended with any certain signs of its being given ; it is secret 
 
 H H 
 
234 
 
 and unknown ; you cannot distinguish the working, by which he 
 helpeth your infirmities, from the ordinary operations of your own 
 minds." Mr. Ashdown contends that the distinction of ordinary 
 and extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit is not founded in 
 Scripture; and that, if it should be admitted to be founded in 
 Scripture, yet that both operations ceased with the apostolic age. 
 I made no reply to Mr. Ashdown's pamphlet, for my judgment 
 was not decided on the point. An attentive reader might have 
 inferred my indecision from adverting to the different import of 
 the words we know, and we think. I am not ashamed to own, 
 that I give a greater degree of assent to the doctrine of the ex- 
 traordinary operation of the Spirit in the age of the Apostles, 
 than I do to that of his immediate influence, either by illumi- 
 nation or sanctification, in succeeding ages. Notwithstanding this 
 confession, I am not prepared to say, that the latter is an unscrip- 
 tural doctrine ; future investigation may clear up this point, and 
 God, I trust, will pardon me an indecision of judgment proceeding 
 from an inability of comprehension. If it shall ever be shown 
 that the doctrine of the ordinary operation of the Holy Ghost is 
 not a Scripture doctrine, Methodism, Quakerism, and every de- 
 gree of enthusiasm will be radically extinguished in the Christian 
 church ; men, no longer believing that God does that by more 
 means which may be done by fewer, will wholly rely for religious 
 instruction, consequent conversion, and subsequent salvation, on his 
 Word. — Cum audiamus, Deum omnem ut convcrtendi homines ita 
 sanctificandi rationem sic adstrinxisse verbo suo, ut per id solum, 
 tanquam per instrumentum et medium opus, utrumque perageretur ; 
 hdc lege et institutions divina omnis de immediata spiritus operatione 
 
235 
 
 cogitatio plane prosternitur. — Doederlein, Institut. Theol. vol. ii. 
 p. 646. 
 
 Before I left town this year, I called upon the Duchess of Rut- 
 land; we had some conversation on politics; she was warm in 
 support of a party, and that party was Mr. Pitt's ; I told her that 
 I would not attach myself to any party; she replied, with pro- 
 phetic verity, you will then die a martyr to both parties. I sent 
 Her Grace the subjoined letter, the day I went out of London : — 
 
 " Dear Lady Duchess, London, April 3. 1789. 
 
 " I will not leave town without saying a word to you on the 
 subject of our last conversation ; for there is no person for whom 
 I have a greater regard, or whose good opinion I more esteem. 
 I am vexed when I see you forming an improper judgment on 
 any occasion, and especially if my conduct is the object of your 
 consideration. I referred you to my publications for an expli- 
 cation of my principles, but I will spare you the trouble of looking 
 into the book I had the honour to send you last year, by making 
 a few extracts from it. 
 
 " P. 120. — * He who from apprehension or expectation, from 
 gratitude or resentment, from any worldly motive, speaks or acts 
 contrary to his decided judgment, in supporting or in opposing 
 any particular system of politics, is guilty of a great sin, the sad 
 consequences of which no worldly interest can compensate. 
 
 " P. 121. — - 4 Probity is an uniform principle ; it cannot be put 
 on in our private closet and put off in the Council Chamber or 
 the Senate ; and it is no inconsiderable part of probity, to speak 
 
 h h 2 
 
236 
 
 with boldness, and to act with firmness according to the dictates 
 of conscience. 
 
 " P. 410. — ' If there be any one measure more likely than an- 
 other to preserve pure and unblemished the honour of the Crown, 
 I verily believe it to be the establishing, as much as possible, the 
 independency of the several members of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. ' 
 
 " My conduct has been correspondent to these principles. I 
 told the Duke of Rutland, I told Mr. Pitt, and I have told every 
 other great man with whom I have had connexions, that I would 
 do so ; that in great political questions I would not follow the 
 lead of any party, but the dictates of my own judgment. Four 
 great questions have been agitated during Mr. Pitt's adminis- 
 tration ; in two I have supported him, and in two I have opposed 
 him. I supported Mr. Pitt's Irish Propositions, because I thought 
 them useful both to England and Ireland : I opposed his Com- 
 mercial Treaty with France, because I thought the French were 
 not sincere, and that the treaty would do us no good. I gave in 
 parliament the most explicit approbation to his Treaty with Hol- 
 land, and said that he deserved the thanks of his country for 
 having made it, because I thought it, and still think it, the best 
 measure of his administration : I opposed him on the present 
 occasion, because I thought he was injuring the principles of the 
 constitution. I perfectly knew that it would have been for my 
 interest to have given an insincere approbation of the measures 
 I opposed ; but my spirit disdained the duplicity, and my princi- 
 ples abhorred it. 
 
 " I have followed a similar conduct in private life, and I beg 
 you to consider, whether you have not had an instance of it in 
 
237 
 
 your own family. You are sensible that I never paid your poor 
 Duke any particular attention, except when I could serve him ; 
 and yet I know the effect of such attentions in conciliating a great 
 man's patronage and regard. I often thwarted his propensities, 
 by giving him advice, which I knew would disgust him ; and yet 
 I was well aware of the consequences of such disgust. Lord 
 Mansfield requested me to do what I could to stop him in his 
 career of play, because, he said, he would soon become a beggar ; 
 disregarding the displeasure I might incur, I did what I could: 
 and I remember concluding a letter I wrote to him on his ap- 
 pointment to Ireland, with saying, « Let me beseech you, as you 
 respect your future character and consequence in life, as you love 
 your Duchess and your children, not to suffer the castle at Dublin 
 to become another Brookes' s to you.' 
 
 " Such have been my principles, and such my conduct, both in 
 public and private life ; and if for these I am to be abandoned by 
 my friends, and proscribed the emoluments of my profession (to 
 the highest of which there are who think that the Bishop of Lan- 
 ' daff has as honourable and as professional a claim as any of his 
 brethren), the misfortune may fall on me and my family, but the 
 dishonour must rest with others. 
 
 " I write this to you, because I wish you not to be ignorant of 
 the motives of my conduct ; but I will never condescend to give 
 a word of explanation to Mr. Pitt. I have rendered him some 
 services and many civilities, and at times when both were of 
 importance to him ; but I never experienced from him the least 
 return of either. The cause of this neglect is quite unknown 
 to me. If my parliamentary independence is the cause, I can 
 only say that it must remain for ever j and that Mr. Pitt is desti- 
 
238 
 
 tute of that magnanimity, and, considering his professions re- 
 specting the reform of parliament, of that political integrity too, 
 of which I once thought him possessed. 
 
 " You will blame me for this loftiness of spirit, and your friend- 
 ship for me will make you regret that I cannot subdue it ; but I 
 feel that it springs from a root of honour, and I will not attempt 
 to subdue it. 
 
 " You need not have the trouble of answering this ; I have no 
 doubt of the continuance of your regard for me ; and I trust we 
 both of us have too elevated sentiments to suffer the madness of 
 politics to deaden on either side the activity of friendship. I stay 
 at Cambridge till the middle of June, and then go into West- 
 moreland for four or five months ; there, in all places, you may 
 rest assured of my warmest attachment to yourself and your 
 children. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 i 
 
 Towards the latter end of the same month, Mr. Stewart, a son 
 of Lord Cardiff, and a very amiable young man, waited upon me 
 at Cambridge to ask my opinion relative to his becoming a candi- 
 date to represent the University of Cambridge at the next general 
 election. Had I been of that little and revengeful mind which 
 disgraced Mr. Pitt, by whom I had been so repeatedly neglected, 
 I should certainly have embraced the opportunity which was now 
 presented to me, of raising an opposition to him ; for my en- 
 couragement of Mr. Stewart would quickly have produced one. 
 On the contrary, I assured Mr. Stewart that I thought Mr. Pitt 
 (notwithstanding I had no private reason to be pleased with him) 
 a very proper person to represent the University ; and that as to 
 
239 
 
 his colleague, Lord Euston, I would not suffer his accidental dif- 
 ference in politics from me, to lessen, for a moment, my private 
 friendship for him : in a word, I informed Mr. Stewart, that he 
 must not entertain any hopes of my assistance. He asked me if 
 he might tell the Duke of Portland so. I told him that he cer- 
 tainly might, for that, though I had a great regard for the Duke of 
 Portland's Whig principles, and had taken part with the opposition 
 in the Regency transaction, I would not unite myself to any party 
 beyond the direct influence of my own judgment in public mea- 
 sures ; and that private friendship was too sacred a thing to be 
 abandoned for the purposes of changeable policy. Mr. Stewart 
 behaved perfectly well on hearing this declaration, and the in- 
 tended opposition was given up. 
 
 In 1789, Mr. Howard published, in a large quarto volume, an 
 account of the principal Lazarettos in Europe, and honoured me 
 (though personally unknown to him) with a copy of it, in which 
 he had written, with his own hand, — 8 Mr. Howard presents his 
 best respects to the Lord Bishop of Landaff, and requests his ac- 
 ceptance of this book, as a small testimony of his esteem." I am 
 not ashamed to own that such an encomium from such a man was 
 highly acceptable to me, having always considered the esteem of 
 good men as the strongest incentive to virtuous exertion and its 
 fittest reward. 
 
 I pursued my intention of retiring, in a great measure, from 
 public life, and laid, in the summer of 1789, the foundation of my 
 house on the banks of the Winandermere. I have now spent 
 above twenty years in this delightful country ; but my time has not 
 
240 
 
 been spent in field-diversions, in idle visitings, in county bickerings, 
 in indolence or intemperance : no, it has been spent, partly in 
 supporting the religion and constitution of the country by season- 
 able publications ; and principally in building farm-houses, blast- 
 ing rocks, enclosing wastes, in making bad land good, in planting 
 larches, and in planting in the hearts of my children principles of 
 piety, of benevolence, and of self-government. By such occupa- 
 tions I have much recovered my health, entirely preserved my 
 independence, set an example of a spirited husbandry to the 
 county, and honourably provided for my family. 
 
 The Duke of Grafton published in the course of the spring 
 (1789) a pamphlet entitled, " Hints to the New Association," and 
 recommending a revisal of our Liturgy, &c. Notwithstanding 
 the intimacy with which I then lived with His Grace, I knew no- 
 thing of this pamphlet, nor who was the author of it, for his name 
 was not put to it till several months after it had been published. 
 When I did know who was the author, I greatly rejoiced that a 
 person of his rank had ventured to propose a reform in one of 
 the points respecting the Church, which I had long ago recom- 
 mended. 
 
 In February, 1790, two pamphlets were published in opposition 
 to the Duke's Hints. I wrote an hasty reply to these attacks 
 upon a nobleman whose zeal for Christianity, instead of censure 
 and obloquy, deserved the praise of all good men. I took a large 
 and liberal view of the subject, thinking it better to do that, than 
 to give a printed answer to every petulant remark of the two 
 pamphleteers, though one of them, I have no doubt, was the pro- 
 
241 
 
 duction of a bishop, if not both. In this tract I had said, that 
 the French government, in order to secure its stability, might, per- 
 haps, think it expedient to pay from the public purse, not only 
 Catholic but Protestant teachers of Christianity. This wise and 
 equitable measure was adopted by Buonaparte, when he re-esta- 
 blished the Gallican church in 1802, and it ought long ago to 
 have been adopted in Ireland. 
 
 When I had nearly finished my reply, the Duke of Grafton, to 
 whom I sent each sheet as I composed it, wrote to me in the 
 kindest manner, begging me to consider whether I would venture 
 to publish it : every Christian, he said, ought to think himself 
 obliged to me for it; but he was certain I never should be for- 
 given it. I thanked His Grace for his kind attention, but told 
 him, at the same time, that no interested consideration should 
 hold me back. How, said I to him in my letter, how shall I an- 
 swer this at the tribunal of Christ — You saw the corruption of my 
 Church, you had some ability to attempt a reform, but secular 
 considerations choked your integrity — if I should now undo what 
 I have done ? I accordingly published the pamphlet under the 
 title of, " Considerations on the Expediency of revising the 
 Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England, by a consistent 
 Protestant." Though my name was not affixed to this publi- 
 cation, and every precaution was taken to conceal its author, 
 yet it was very soon generally attributed to me. 
 
 I had, at the time, some conversation with the Duke of Grafton 
 on the propriety of commencing a reform, by the introduction of 
 a Bill into the House of Lords, for expunging the Athanasian 
 
 i i 
 
242 
 
 Creed from our Liturgy ; and we had, in a manner, settled to do 
 it : but the strange turn which the French Revolution took about 
 that period, and the general abhorrence of all innovations, which 
 its atrocities excited, induced us to postpone our design, and no 
 fit opportunity has yet offered for resuming it, nor probably will 
 offer itself, in my time. In answer to a letter from the Duke of 
 Grafton, in which, among other things, he informed me that 
 Dr. Priestley had publicly said that he knew the pamphlet here 
 mentioned was written by the Bishop of Landaff, I sent the fol- 
 lowing note: — 
 
 " Dr. Priestley cannot know the author ; on the day I dined 
 at Lord Lansdownes, there were present Kippis and Price, and 
 many Dissenters : the conversation once turned on the subject 
 of the pamphlet, and it is possible that my mode of expression, 
 which no doubt was particularly marked, might give an hint to 
 those gentlemen. But I really am little concerned about the matter ; 
 and, if I thought that owning it, in the present state of the 
 business, would not impede, rather than promote, the progress of 
 the good cause we have in hand, I would not, from any private 
 consideration, shrink from putting my name to it. The reasoning 
 of the pamphlet you sent me is perfectly just, but prejudice 
 cannot be subdued by reason. I remember a Lambeth chaplain 
 once maintaining, in the Divinity- Schools, the necessity of ex- 
 cluding Dissenters from public offices ; I pressed him with proper 
 arguments ; at length he was forced to acknowledge, that the 
 greater the integrity, and the greater the ability, any man had, 
 the more unfit was he for a public office, if he did not think in 
 every point with the Established Church. There I let the dispute 
 
243 
 
 end : it was impossible to rise higher in the scale of absurdity. I 
 concur with Your Grace in wishing the motion (respecting the 
 expunction of the Athanasian Creed from the Liturgy) to be made, 
 and notice of making it to be given in the way you mention. No 
 distance or business shall hinder me from appearing in my place 
 in the House of Lords, on the day the point shall be debated, and 
 standing up with my best ability in support of your motion. You 
 thought of mentioning the subject to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury; I consider that as a candid proceeding, suited to the import- 
 ance of the subject ; and I suggest to Your Grace's consideration 
 a circumstance, of which you can form a much better judgment 
 than I can, — Whether it would not be proper to mention it to the 
 King; in the first instance. The Windsor anecdote would induce 
 me to think that the King would have no objection, and his con- 
 currence would facilitate the measure. But if he should object, it 
 may then admit a deliberation, whether, in foro conscientics, Your 
 Grace should proceed. I cannot flatter myself that any little 
 publications of mine can have been instrumental in turning Your 
 Grace's attention to religious studies, but I am happy in the 
 event of your application. A future state is the most important 
 consideration that can affect a human mind, and if the Gospel is 
 not true, of that state I can have no expectation. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The Windsor anecdote, here alluded to, was told me by the late 
 Doctor Heberden : — The clergyman there, on a day when the 
 Athanasian Creed was to be read, began with Whosoever will be 
 saved, &c. ; the King, who usually responded with a loud voice, 
 
 n 2 
 
244 
 
 was silent ; the minister repeated, in an higher tone, his Who- 
 soever ; the King continued silent ; at length the Apostle's 
 Creed was repeated by the minister, and the King followed him 
 throughout with a distinct and audible voice. 
 
 I certainly dislike the imposition of all creeds formed by human 
 authority ; though I do not dislike them, as useful summaries of 
 what their compilers believe to be true, either in natural or revealed 
 religion. 
 
 As to natural religion, the creeds of the most distinguished 
 philosophers, from Plato and Cicero to Leibnitz and Clarke, are 
 extremely various, with respect to the origin of things — the 
 existence and attributes, natural and moral, of the Supreme Being 
 — the natural mortality or immortality of the human soul — the 
 liberty and necessity of human actions — the principle of virtue, 
 and other important points. And, as to revealed religion, though 
 all its doctrines are expressed in one book, yet such a diversity of 
 interpretations has been given to the same passages of Scripture, 
 that not only individuals, but whole churches, have formed to 
 themselves different creeds, and introduced them into their forms 
 of worship. The Greek church admits not into its ritual either 
 the Apostle's Creed, or the Athanasian, but merely the Nicene. 
 The Episcopal church in America admits the Nicene and the 
 Apostle's Creed, but rejects the Athanasian. The church of 
 England admits the whole three into its Liturgy ; and some of 
 the foreign Protestant churches admit none but the Apostle's. 
 These, and other creeds which might be mentioned, are all of 
 human fabrication ; they oblige conscience, as far as they are 
 
245 
 
 conformable to Scripture, and of that conformity every man must 
 judge for himself. This liberty of private judgment is recognised 
 by our church (notwithstanding subscription to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles) when, in the service for the ordering of priests, it proposes 
 this question : — " Are you determined, out of the said Scriptures, 
 to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach 
 nothing, as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that 
 which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the 
 Scriptures ?" 
 
 In March, 1791, 1 wrote to Mr. Pitt, that, as I was then going into 
 Westmoreland, I should have no opportunity of delivering, in the 
 House of Lords, my sentiments on the Catholic Bill, which was then 
 pending in the Commons, and that, on that account, I took the liberty 
 of sending him the following hint : — " Might it not be proper to 
 introduce into the Oath of Protestation, a declaration of this kind? 
 — And that we believe salvation is not restricted to the members of 
 the Church of Rome. — Whilst the doctrine of there being no 
 salvation out of the Romish pale is maintained, the Catholics have 
 such a motive for making proselytes as belongs not to Protestants, 
 and it is a motive which must operate with great force on the 
 mind of every sincere Papist. I am apprehensive that Catholic 
 schools will become numerous ; the glare of ceremonies will fas- 
 cinate the minds of the common people ; and the doctrine of 
 absolution, and of praying souls out of purgatory, will be palatable 
 to many. I am afraid of Popery, because, where it has the power, 
 it assumes the right of persecution, and whilst it believes that in 
 afflicting the body, it saves the soul of a convert, I do not see 
 how it can abandon the idea of the utility of persecution. If 
 
246 
 
 schools are allowed for the Catholics at home, what is to become of 
 the sums, which have been appropriated by the English Catholics, 
 to the maintenance of foreign seminaries ? I am, &c." 
 
 My detestation of the intolerance of the church of Rome, and 
 of the uncharitableness of its doctrine, respecting the final dam- 
 nation of those whom it calls heretics, occasioned my writing the 
 above note to Mr. Pitt. The indulgence, however, which was 
 then granted to the Protesting Catholics met with my hearty ap- 
 probation ; for though I disliked some of their religious principles, 
 I entertained no doubt of the sincerity of their political protest- 
 ation. Whether many converts will be made to Popery in this 
 country, is a question not capable of immediate decision ; but that 
 the apprehension of its influence over vulgar minds is not wholly 
 chimerical, may appear from what Forster has said in his travels : 
 — "I have heard Mr. Schwartz, the Christian missionary on the 
 coast of Coromandel, as pious a priest as ever preached the Gospel, 
 and as good a man as ever adorned society, complain, that many 
 of his Indian proselytes, disgusted at his church's want of glitter 
 and bustle, take an early opportunity of going over to the Popish 
 communion, where they are congenially gratified by the painted 
 scenery, by relics, charms, and the blaze of fire- works." 
 
 About this time I received the two following letters, one of 
 them from a gentleman unknown to me, in Ireland : — 
 
 « My Lord, 
 " Unknown as I am to Your Lordship, and without the honour 
 of an introduction, permit me, in this method, to express my ob- 
 
247 
 
 ligations for your labours in the cause of Christianity, and the 
 benefit which I in particular have derived from them . — inesti- 
 mable indeed ! 
 
 " Young and inexperienced, by the impious jests and conta- 
 gious example of profligate associates, I at length abandoned the 
 religious principles in which I had been early instructed, and 
 with sorrow confess imbibed those of infidelity. In this deplorable 
 situation I met with Your Lordship's Theological Tracts, and 
 Apology for Christianity. By a careful perusal of both, I am 
 overpowered with evidence and conviction ; so that with me the 
 truth of our most holy religion stands on a foundation infinitely 
 firmer than that of any remote fact whatever — it is the power of 
 God unto salvation. 
 
 " In consequence of this happy change, I hope I am solicit- 
 ous to conform my practice to the divine precepts of the Gospel, 
 for I have lately complied with our blessed Saviour's dying 
 command. 
 
 " Under omnipotent influence, your writings have been power- 
 fully efficacious in dissipating the gloom of scepticism in which I 
 once was so involved. But plain and unlettered as I am, gratitude 
 must supersede encomium. I however sincerely pray, that you 
 may at least receive an approbation the most significant, — Well 
 done, enter into the joy of your Lord — when, in the noble language 
 of Scripture, — They who have turned many to righteousness shall 
 shine as the stars for ever and ever. 
 
 " I have the honour to be Your Lordship's much obliged 
 " And most obedient servant, 
 Irvine, " ***." 
 
 Nov. 17. 1792. 
 
248 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " Having perused with great pleasure Your Lordship's Apology 
 for Christianity, addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esquire, author of 
 the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I am 
 proud to acknowledge, that I have received much satisfaction and 
 information on certain points in it, which I had not before ob- 
 served in any writer on the subject. 
 
 " I confess I was particularly struck with your force of reason- 
 ing and conclusive arguments in opposition to a very common 
 objection brought by Free-thinkers of the age against the Mosaic 
 account of the world's age, especially since the publication of 
 Monsieur Bridon's Travels through Sicily and Malta, wherein 
 arguments are made use of by the Canon Recupero, to prove the 
 world to be, I think, eight thousand years older than the Mosaic 
 account ; but which Your Lordship has entirely overturned, by a 
 comparison of Mount Vesuvius, which proves that a stratum of 
 natural earth is not so long forming on a surface of lava as the 
 Canon supposes. 
 
 " Although I have not the honour of being known to Your 
 Lordship, yet I hope the well-known candour and liberality of 
 sentiment you possess, will pardon the freedom I take in this 
 address, for Your Lordship's solution of a difficulty which has been 
 frequently urged in debate against the truth of Scripture-history, 
 and which, unfortunately for myself, my poor abilities have never 
 been able to defend. 
 
 " I must inform Your Lordship it has been my misfortune to 
 have been in habits of intimacy with unbelievers, who, knowing 
 my attachment to the religious principles in which I was edu- 
 cated, never fail to insult my way of thinking by scoffs and sneers 
 
249 
 
 at some of the mysterious doctrines of the Christian religion, 
 which they exultingly defy me to prove. No later ago than yes- 
 terday (being Sunday) a discourse of this kind took place, in 
 which I bore a part, I will even own an unworthy part, not being 
 able to convince the adversaries, for though a layman I exert 
 myself in defence of what I hold sacred. The subject was, the 
 peopling the earth after the Deluge, which, it was contended, 
 must prove the Mosaic account to be false, as could be demon- 
 strated by the discoveries of celebrated navigators, who have 
 found islands inhabited in the South Seas, which from the igno- 
 rance of navigation in ancient times could never have had com- 
 munication with any of the continents ; consequently, say they, 
 the earth must have been peopled in some other way than by 
 those preserved in the ark. 
 
 " Now, My Lord, though I will freely acknowledge I might 
 obtain the sentiments of some very worthy and sensible men in 
 this kingdom on the subject, yet I must own 1 am so partial to 
 your works, especially standing so high as Your Lordship does in 
 the republic of letters, as leaves me no doubt of a most satis- 
 factory elucidation. It would confer a lasting obligation if Your 
 Lordship will condescend to favour me with your sentiments on 
 the above subject. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with the highest esteem, 
 
 " Your Lordship's obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 I forbear giving the name and address of the author of the 
 above letter ; but as it seemed to be written with a serious inten- 
 
 K K 
 
250 
 
 tion, I thought it became me not to overlook it, and I imme- 
 diately sent him the following answer : — 
 
 " Sir, Calgarth Park, Sept. 30. 1791. 
 
 " Bad health has obliged me to abandon all literary pursuits, 
 and to endeavour to restore, by the indolence of a country-life, 
 a broken constitution. In this retirement I have, at present, no 
 books of any kind ; yet I will not decline answering, in the best 
 manner I can without them, the main subject of your letter ; 
 entreating you not to suffer your mind to be diverted from the 
 rectitude of its persuasion, though I should not be able to reply 
 satisfactorily to your enquiry. 
 
 " The tenth chapter of Genesis is one of the most ancient, one 
 of the most authentic, and one of the most valuable records in 
 the world. Its antiquity cannot be denied by any one in the least 
 skilled in chronology. No person has ever questioned its authen- 
 ticity ; it is universally allowed to have been written by the author 
 of the Pentateuch ; and as to its value, it is inestimable ; for it 
 explains to us the origins of nations, Medes, Assyrians, Persians, 
 Grecians, Egyptians, Lydians, Syrians, all the mighty nations of 
 antiquity, concerning the origin of whom the poets told senseless 
 tales, and the historians gave but uncertain conjectures (as may be 
 seen by consulting Herodotus and other writers of profane his- 
 tory); these are all clearly described in Sacred History, as distinct 
 scions springing from one common stock — Noah. 
 
 " Bochart, Huetius, Goguet, Le Clerc, Bryant, and innumerable 
 other authors have treated this subject with such perspicuity, that 
 it is a shame for any unbeliever to be ignorant of what they have 
 said ; and it will be impossible for him to deny the truth of their 
 
251 
 
 argumentation. They differ somewhat from each other as to the 
 particular regions in which some of the grandsons of Noah were 
 settled ; but this general conclusion is established by them all, — 
 that all the nations of which history has given any account have 
 originated from Shem, Ham, or Japhet. Now this conclusion, as 
 to the source from which all the continents were peopled, being 
 established, (and I think it is fully established even if we take into 
 the account the Chinese, Japanese, and other eastern nations,) 
 why should we surfer a little difficulty, as to the manner in 
 which the islands were peopled, to stagger our faith in Scripture- 
 history ? 
 
 " If my memory does not fail me, it is related by Hornius, in 
 his book " De Originibus Americanist that is was proposed by 
 some superstitious people, as a question which none but a man 
 possessed by the devil could answer, How was America peopled? 
 yet the question can now be answered without the aid of super- 
 natural assistance. In like manner future discoveries of navigators 
 may enable us to answer the question concerning the peopling 
 of the islands in the South Sea, though it should be deemed un- 
 answerable at present. 
 
 " I am far from believing that question to be unanswerable at 
 present, and think it probable that Forster, the most philosophical 
 of our late circumnavigators, has written something on the sub- 
 ject ; but I cannot say with certainty whether he has or not ; it 
 may be worth your while to consult his work. 
 
 " To me there appear to be two ways, by which the present 
 islands may have been peopled : there may be other ways, but 
 two strike me as obvious ones ; by navigation, and by inunda- 
 tions of the sea. 
 
 k k 2 
 
252 
 
 " Though the compass, and other improvements in the art of 
 sailing, have enabled the moderns to go from any one point to 
 another on the surface of the ocean, with as much certainty as 
 they travel from city to city on the surface of the earth ; yet we 
 must not suppose that the ancients were so wholly unskilled in 
 that art, as never to have ventured by design out of the sight of 
 land. The trade of the Phenicians, Syrians, and Carthaginians, is 
 a proof to the contrary. Tempests and trade-winds might have 
 carried merchant vessels beyond their designed limits ; and thus 
 it appears not unreasonable to suppose, that it was accidental or 
 designed sailing which peopled England from Gaul, Ireland from 
 the northern continent, Japan from Eastern Tartary or China ; 
 similar causes might have peopled the islands from the nearest 
 continents. 
 
 " Voltaire, I think, in some part of his writings, says — that God 
 planted men in different regions of the earth as he planted trees ; 
 insinuating that the doctrine of a common origin of mankind is 
 an incredible story. A similar extravagance of assertion is not 
 uncommon in the mouths of other unbelievers. I call it extra- 
 vagance of assertion, because (putting all professional bias out of 
 the question) I am firmly convinced, that the account given by 
 Moses of the manner in which the earth became inhabited after 
 the Deluge, is confirmed by the profane history of the remotest 
 periods, and by the present circumstances of mankind on the sur- 
 face of the earth. 
 
 " Another manner in which islands may have become peopled, 
 respects the manner in which they may have been formed ; they 
 may, in remote ages, have been connected with continents, and 
 separated therefrom' by inundations of the ocean ; and having 
 
253 
 
 « 
 
 been peopled before they were separated, we are under no neces- 
 sity of having recourse even to navigation, as a mean of stocking 
 them with inhabitants. 
 
 " Had Great Britain been connected with France where the 
 Straits of Dover now are, or with Ireland at the Mull of Galloway, 
 we should have no difficulty in accounting for the peopling of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. A junction of the Red Sea with the 
 Mediterranean would make Africa an island ; and if the Isthmus 
 of Darien should sink into the bowels of the earth, America 
 would be separated into two islands, or into more than two, ac- 
 cording to the height and extent of the inundation which would 
 take place, on the junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I 
 mention these circumstances, because it is probable that changes 
 as great as these have taken place, and are now taking place on 
 different parts of the surface of the globe. Naturalists are agreed 
 that Iceland, which is as large as Ireland, is entirely a volcanic 
 production ; it has been raised from the bottom of the ocean ; can 
 we think it improbable then (to say nothing of Plato's testimony 
 concerning a continent being swallowed up by the ocean) that 
 the sea may have inundated various parts of the earth, and that 
 the higher lands, constituting the present islands, may have been 
 peopled by the inhabitants who escaped the inundation. 
 
 " But in whatever way the islands of the South Sea may have 
 become inhabited, the similarity (I do not say the identity) of the 
 languages spoken in them all, leads us to believe that they have 
 all had one common origin j and the time I conjecture will come, 
 when the mother-language of all the various dialects spoken in 
 these islands will be discovered in some part of Asia. 
 
254 
 
 " There is another argument which, with me, has great weight 
 in establishing the fact, that these inhabitants have had conti- 
 nental progenitors, and the argument is this, — Their drums, spears, 
 bows, helmets ; their nets, hooks, hatchets ; most of their instru- 
 ments, warlike and domestic, as well as many of their customs, 
 civil, military, and religious, have a strong resemblance to what 
 we read concerning the instruments and customs of other nations. 
 I forbear dilating on this subject, the mention of it will be suffi- 
 cient to show you its importance. 
 
 " As to the mysteries of the Christian religion, it is neither 
 your concern nor mine to explain them ; for if they are mysteries, 
 they cannot be explained. But our time may be properly em- 
 ployed in enquiring whether there are so many mysteries in Chris- 
 tianity as the Deists say there are. Many doctrines have been 
 imposed on the Christian world as doctrines of the Gospel, which 
 have no foundation whatever in Scripture. Instead of defending 
 these doctrines, it is the duty of a real disciple of Jesus Christ to 
 reprobate them as gangrenous excrescences, corrupting the fair 
 form of genuine Christianity. 
 
 " That Jesus Christ lived, died, rose from the dead, and as- 
 cended into heaven, are facts established by better historical testi- 
 mony, than that Alexander fought Darius, conquered Persia, and 
 passed into India. But on the resurrection of Christ all our hopes 
 as men, and our obligations as Christians, are founded. And if 
 we have as great or greater reason to believe that fact, than we 
 have to believe almost any fact recorded in history, we shall act 
 irrationally, and, in a matter of such high concern, foolishly and 
 culpably, if we withhold our assent to it; and if we do assent to it, 
 our duty is obvious. 
 
255 
 
 " With much good will towards you, and with a request that 
 you will excuse this hasty performance, 
 
 " I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I sent my correspondent's letter and the answer to the Duke of 
 Grafton on the 12th October, 1791, with the subjoined note: 4i 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " With very little knowledge of the subject I am become a 
 farmer ; but that Your Grace may not think me a mere farmer, I 
 send for your perusal a letter, and my answer to it ; there is no- 
 thing in either of them worthy your attention, but I know your 
 mind has taken a turn for such speculations ; and I flatter myself 
 that you will be glad to hear that I am in tolerable health, though 
 not free from the malady which has so long oppressed me. 
 
 " I have not heard from you since the Birmingham riots ; at 
 the time they happened I sat down to write to Your Grace, and 
 to say, that even my littleness would stretch itself to an hundred 
 pounds subscription, if the friends of Dr. Priestley should think of 
 consoling him, in that way, for the loss he had sustained, and the 
 chagrin any mind less elevated than his own must have experi- 
 enced from such harsh and unmerited treatment. On second 
 thoughts I put the letter I had written into the fire, lest such a 
 proposal, coming from a bishop, should have tended to inflame 
 matters, by increasing the unchristian choler of high-churchmen, 
 which has already produced much mischief. 
 
 " We live in singular times. No history, ancient or modern, 
 furnishes an example similar to what has happened in France ; an 
 
256 
 
 example of a whole people (the exceptions are not worthy of no- 
 tice) divesting themselves of the prejudices of birth and education, 
 in civil and religious concerns, and adopting the principles of phi- 
 losophy and good sense. 
 
 " I speak only of the general outline of their constitution ; pid- 
 dling objections may be made to particular parts, and experience 
 will point out the necessity of reconsidering many things. But 
 notwithstanding all the ridicule which apostate Whigs have at- 
 tempted to throw on the rights of man, such rights are founded 
 in nature; they exist antecedent to and independent of civil so- 
 ciety ; and the French constitution is the only one in the world 
 which has deliberately asserted these rights, and supported them 
 in their full extent. 
 
 " In England we want not a fundamental revolution, but we 
 certainly want a reform both in the civil and ecclesiastical part of 
 our constitution ; men's minds, however, I think, are not yet gene- 
 rally prepared for admitting its necessity. A reformer of Luther's 
 temper and talents would, in five years, persuade the people to 
 compel the parliament to abolish tithes, to extinguish pluralities, 
 to enforce residence, to confine episcopacy to the overseeing of 
 dioceses, to expunge the Athanasian Creed from our Liturgy, to 
 free Dissenters from test acts, and the ministers of the Establish- 
 ment from subscription to human articles of faith. — These, and 
 other matters respecting the Church, ought to be done. I want 
 not courage to attempt doing what I think ought to be done, and 
 I am not held back by considerations of personal interest ; but my 
 temper is peaceable, I dislike contention, and trust that the still 
 voice of reason will at length be heard. 
 
257 
 
 " As to the civil state, it cannot continue long as it is. One 
 minister, in subserviency to the will of his master, doubles the 
 national debt and dismembers the empire, and is instantly taken 
 into the confidence of those who threatened to take his head. 
 Another expends millions on measures grounded on his own am- 
 bition, insolence, or temerity, and finds means of inducing a great 
 majority in both Houses of Parliament to place confidence in his 
 wisdom. 
 
 " The people will in time see that they have no reason to place 
 confidence in any party ; that every party, in its turn, ennobles its 
 opulent friends, and enriches its poorer supporters, at the public 
 expense. But I will forbear politics; I love my country, and can- 
 not see its decline in principle, and the increase of that corruption 
 which must undo it, without regret. 
 
 "I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In the beginning of 1792, I published a Charge which I had 
 delivered to my clergy in the preceding June ; in this Charge 
 I had touched upon unpopular subjects — the advantages which 
 would probably result to human society from the French Revo- 
 lution ; which was not at that time dishonoured by the events 
 which soon followed, and which have hitherto continued to dis- 
 grace it — and the injustice and impolicy of our Test and Corpo- 
 ration Acts. The Charge had been wholly misrepresented, and 
 copies of the misrepresentation had been handed about at the tables 
 of bishops and of judges. I thought fit to publish the Charge, with 
 the following advertisement prefixed to it : — " After I had delivered 
 the following Charge to the clergy of my diocese, I was requested 
 
 L L 
 
258 
 
 by many of them, as well as by several of the laity who heard it, 
 to publish it. I had no reason for declining a compliance with 
 their request, except the opinion I entertained of there being no- 
 thing in the Charge meriting the public notice. I have lately 
 heard that a written paper, purporting to contain the substance 
 of my Charge, has been circulated with, perhaps, unbecoming if 
 not uncharitable industry. The circulators of that paper will now 
 have an opportunity of knowing (what a little candour might have 
 taught them to expect), how defective memory is in giving a just 
 account of a discourse of some length. Few men are less moved 
 by unmerited censure or less solicitous in repelling groundless 
 calumny than myself; but I conceive it to be a Christian duty to 
 suffer no man to continue in an error when it is in my power to 
 remove it. Under the influence of that opinion I am obliged to 
 trouble the world with this publication." 
 
 This proceeding had a proper effect ; it quashed the reports 
 which had been spread, and it made some persons of high dis- 
 tinction ashamed of their credulity, in giving ear to them, and of 
 their conduct in propagating them. I was compelled, as it were, 
 to publish this Charge, but I was not sorry that an occasion was 
 given me of delivering my sentiments on a matter of great im- 
 portance. 
 
 I will just state to the reader how I argued myself into the 
 adoption of the opinion advanced in this Charge relative to the 
 Dissenters. Had I consulted my interest, I should certainly have 
 been silent on this point ; for who knows not how little a bishop's 
 interest is connected with his opposition to the avowed sentiments 
 
of a minister ? and Mr. Pitt had repeatedly avowed his — that the 
 Test-Act ought not to be repealed. Whether this avowal was 
 made by Mr. Pitt in conformity to his own opinion, or in sub- 
 servience to the opinion of another, was then and has still been 
 with me a matter of doubt. There have been ministers in all 
 ages who have carried on measures contrary to their judgment 
 If such pliancy proceeds from a diffidence of their own ability, it 
 is to be commended ; but if it proceeds, as it generally does, from 
 a reluctance to relinquish their places, it is highly dishonourable 
 to themselves and ruinous to their country. 
 
 There appear to me but two reasons for excluding any honest 
 man from eligibility to public office, — want of capacity to serve 
 the office, and want of attachment to the civil constitution of the 
 country. That the Dissenters want capacity, will not be asserted j 
 that they want attachment to the civil constitution of the country, 
 is asserted by many but proved by none. On this point the 
 whole question turns. If the Dissenters have secret views of 
 undermining the civil constitution, of introducing a republican 
 form of government in the place of that which, notwithstanding 
 its defects, we at present so happily enjoy, the Test- Act ought 
 not to be repealed ; and if they have no such views, its continu- 
 ance is an oppression. Whether they have or have not such 
 views cannot be known from the affirmation of their enemies on 
 the one hand, or from the denial of their friends on the other : 
 on both sides it may be said, Quiescat lingua, interroga vitam. 
 Now the history of the conduct of the Dissenters since the Revor 
 lution, nay at and since the Restoration, proves (to me at least it 
 proves) that they have no such views. 
 
 ll 2 
 
 / 
 
260 
 
 The Dissenters are neither Tories nor Republicans, but friends to 
 the principles of the Revolution. Notwithstanding the virulence 
 of Mr. Burke's invective against him, I give entire credit to what 
 Dr. Price has said of himself and of the Dissenters, in the fol- 
 lowing extract from his Sermon preached, April, 1787, before the 
 supporters of a new academical institution among Protestant Dis- 
 senters : — "I cannot help taking this opportunity to remove a 
 " very groundless suspicion with respect to myself, by adding, 
 " that so far am I from preferring a government purely repub- 
 " lican, that I look upon our own constitution of government as 
 " better adapted than any other to this country, and in theory 
 " excellent. I have said in theory, for in consequence of the in- 
 " crease of corruption and the miserable inadequateness of our 
 " representation, it is chiefly the theory and form of our consti- 
 * tution that we possess ; and this I reckon our first, and worst, 
 " and greatest grievance. What I say of myself I believe to be 
 " true of the whole body of British subjects among Protestant 
 " Dissenters. I know not one among them who would not trem- 
 " ble at the thought of changing into a democracy our mixed form 
 " of government, or who has any other wish with respect to it 
 " than to restore it to purity and vigour, by removing the defects 
 " in our representation, and establishing that independence of the 
 " three states on one another, in which its essence consists." 
 
 But it may be said that I have not stated the whole question, 
 inasmuch as the Dissenters are enemies to the Church-establish- 
 ment, and that the State is so allied to the Church that he who is 
 unfriendly to the one must wish the subversion of both. I think 
 this reasoning is not just : a man may certainly wish for a change 
 
261 
 
 in an ecclesiastical establishment, without wishing for a change in 
 the civil constitution of a country. An Episcopalian, for instance, 
 may wish to see bishops established in all Scotland, without wish- 
 ing Scotland to become a republic ; and he may wish that epis- 
 copacy may be established in all the American states, without 
 wishing that monarchy may be established in any of them. The 
 protection of life, liberty, and property is not inseparably or ex- 
 clusively connected with any particular form of church-govern- 
 ment. The blessings of civil society depend upon the proper 
 execution of good laws, and upon the good morals of the people ; 
 but no one will attempt to prove, that the laws and morals of the 
 people may not be as good in Germany, Swisserland, Scotland* 
 under a Presbyterian, as in England or France under an episcopal 
 form of church-government. 
 
 But it is thought that, were the Test and Corporation Acts re- 
 pealed, the Dissenters would get a footing in some of the boroughs 
 returning members to parliament. The Dissenters have, at 
 present, a considerable influence in many boroughs ; but there is 
 little probability that, were all legal obstacles to their eligibility to 
 public offices removed, they would ever be able to overcome the 
 influence of government, the influence of the aristocracy, and the 
 influence of the Church, in the majority of the boroughs in this 
 kingdom. But, admitting so very improbable an occurrence to 
 take place, what then ? Why then a majority of boroughs would 
 return Dissenters to sit in parliament. Dissenters are allowed to 
 sit in parliament at present; the danger, then, such as it is, arises 
 not from Dissenters having seats in parliament, but from the 
 number of dissenting members being increased. But that the 
 
262 
 
 number of dissenting members should ever be so far increased as 
 to constitute a majority of the House of Commons is to me quite 
 an improbable circumstance ; I think it a far more likely event 
 that, all restraints being removed, the Dissenters will insensibly 
 become Churchmen. Suppose, however, even that improbable 
 circumstance to take place, and that a majority of the House of 
 Commons has ceased to be Churchmen — what then ? Why then 
 the House of Commons may present to the House of Lords a Bill 
 for changing the constitution of the Church of England into that 
 of the Church of Scotland. Be it so — what then ? Why then 
 the House of Commons will compel the House of Lords to agree 
 to such a Bill ; this does not follow; I know not any legal or pro- 
 bable means of effecting such a compulsion ; but for the sake of 
 coming to a conclusion, let it be admitted that, at some distant 
 period of which no man can form a reasonable conjecture, the 
 House of Lords would, by compulsion or choice, agree with the 
 House of Commons, and that the King would agree with them 
 both in establishing Presbytery in the room of Episcopacy-^ 
 what then ? Why then the present form of the Church of England 
 would be changed into another ! And is this all ? — this the ca- 
 tastrophe of so many tragical forebodings — this the issue of so 
 many improbable contingencies — this the result of so much un- 
 christian contention — this a caus^ for continuing distinctions by 
 which the persons and properties of peaceful citizens are exposed 
 to the fiery zeal of a senseless rabble? — A great Protestant nation 
 does not return to Popery — a great Christian nation does not apos- 
 tatise to Paganism or Mahometanism ; it simply adopts an eccle- 
 siastical constitution different from what it had before. What is 
 there in this to alarm any man who liberally thinks with the late 
 
263 
 
 Dr. Powell, that there is nothing in the regimen of the Church of 
 England, or in that of the Church of Scotland, repugnant either 
 to the natural rights of man, or to the word of God: — Ecclesiastic? 
 regiminis in Anglia et in Scotia constitute neutra forma, aut juri 
 hominum naturali aut verbo Dei repugnat. 
 
 This improbable change in the Church-establishment, and a 
 change at the same time not to be lamented, if brought about by 
 a change in the sentiments of the nation, appeared to me to be 
 an uncertain and distant evil of far less magnitude, than what 
 might be expected from a continuance of the Test- Act. I was 
 afraid that the Dissenters, believing themselves to be ill-treated at 
 home, might be induced gradually to carry their wealth, industry, 
 and manufacturing skill into some other country ; or, if motives 
 of prudence hindered them from adopting such a measure, that 
 they would retain a grudge against the government, and be ready 
 to show their displeasure whenever an opportunity of doing it 
 with effect might present itself. 
 
 About this time I wrote the letter, from which the subjoined 
 extract is made, to an intimate friend, in answer to one I had re- 
 ceived from him : — 
 
 " My religion is not founded, I hope, in presumption, but in 
 piety. I cannot look upon the Author of my existence in any 
 other light than as the most commiserating parent ; not extreme 
 to mark what is done amiss, not implacable, not revengeful, not 
 disposed to punish past offences when the heart abhors them, but 
 
264 
 
 ready, with the utmost benignity, to receive into his favour every 
 repentant sinner. 
 
 " By the constitution of nature, which may properly be con- 
 sidered as indicating the will of God, all excess in sensual indul- 
 gences tends to the depravation of the mind, and to the debilita- 
 tion of the body, and may, on that account, be esteemed repugnant 
 to the will of God. This repugnancy is made more apparent by 
 the Gospel. Now all our happiness in this world and in the next 
 depending ultimately on the will of God, every one may see a 
 moral necessity of conforming his actions to that will. But, as 
 the will of God has no degree of selfishness in it, is not excited 
 on any occasion to gratify the resentment or any other passion of 
 the Supreme Being (as often happens in the will of man), I cannot 
 but. believe, that a change of temper, accompanied by a change of 
 conduct, is all that God requires of us in order to be restored, 
 after our greatest transgressions, to his perfect acceptance. 
 
 " We know not in what the felicity of the next world will con- 
 sist, but we do know that it will not consist in the gratification of 
 our present senses ; yet God is not an harsh Master, for he hath 
 furnished us with abundant means of present enjoyment; and had 
 every enjoyment of sense been sinful, he certainly would neither 
 have given us senses nor objects adapted to them ; he hath done 
 both ; and he requires from us such a moderation in the use of 
 them, as may preserve our minds from being so addicted to them, 
 as to prevent us from having any relish for the duties of benevo- 
 lence and holiness, in the exercise of which it is not improbable 
 that our future happiness may consist. 
 
 " Every denunciation of God against intemperance in the plea- 
 sures of sense, against injustice in our intercourse with mankind, 
 
265 
 
 against impiety towards himself seems to proceed from his ex- 
 treme affection for us, by which he warns us from a course of 
 conduct, the final issue of which we cannot, in this state, com- 
 prehend. 
 
 " The love of God casteth out fear ; let us once bottom our 
 principle of action on the desire of obeying Him, and though we 
 may be impelled by our passions to occasional deviations from 
 what is right, yet this obliquity of conduct will not continue long ; 
 the hope of living under His fatherly kindness and protection will 
 bring us to a rational sense of duty, to a just confidence of accept- 
 ance with Him. 
 
 " There is much mechanism in our constitution ; our thoughts 
 are influenced by the state of the body to a degree, and in a 
 manner, which no philosophy can explain. A bodily infirmity 
 produces in the minds of some men a dejection of spirits, a de- 
 spondency of sentiment, which other men, with equal or superior 
 cause for dejection and despondency, and under apparently equal 
 bodily infirmities, feel not at all. It is difficult, perhaps impos- 
 sible, for beings such as we are, to account for this difference, but 
 we may be persuaded of this, that God who made us knows this 
 diversity of temper, and will make a kind and fatherly allowance 
 for it, and not impute more than is just to him whose mind is 
 oppressed by unreasonable apprehensions, originating in corporal 
 imbecility. 
 
 " I have read the ' Vindicise,' and have reason to rejoice that so 
 little can be said agairst a Charge, written with no intention of 
 being printed. My opponents are indebted to the pride or the 
 placability of my temper for their security ; I could chastise them, 
 but I partly disdain the task as thinking it beneath me, and I 
 
 M M 
 
266 
 
 partly decline it from not wishing to cherish an unchristian dispo- 
 sition in myself, or to excite it in others." 
 
 In April, this year (1792), an hundred gentlemen formed them- 
 selves into a society, under the title of " The Friends of the People," 
 for the express purpose of procuring a parliamentary reform. The 
 minister at the outset of his political life had been as zealous as 
 any one for this reform, but he had either really changed his 
 opinion respecting it, or now yielded to the apprehensions or 
 designs of the closet, for he took an early opportunity of damping 
 the exertions of the Friends of the People, by endeavouring to 
 make them participate in the odium which had, not unjustly, 
 fallen upon some other societies connected with the promoters of 
 the French Revolution. On the 21st of May, a Proclamation was 
 issued by His Majesty against seditious meetings and criminal 
 correspondencies ; the Friends of the People were too respectable 
 to be mentioned, by name, in the Proclamation ; but it was gene- 
 rally understood to have been principally levelled against them. 
 The two Houses of Parliament, and the city of London, set the 
 example of addressing the King on the occasion, and it was in- 
 timated, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Bishops of his 
 province, that addresses were expected from them. I drew up the 
 following for my diocese. I could not bring myself to praise the 
 Proclamation, because it opposed what I have ever thought abso- 
 lutely necessary for the preservation of the constitution : — 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 " We the Bishop, Archdeacon and Chapter, and the Clergy 
 of the diocese of Landaff, humbly tender to Your Majesty our 
 
strongest assurances of loyalty to Your Majesty's person, of at- 
 tachment to your family, of zeal for the principles of the Revolu- 
 tion, and of our utter abhorrence of every attempt to subvert tbe 
 constitution in church and state then established, and since then 
 improved. 
 
 " The improvements which the constitution has received — in 
 the judges being rendered more independent, in the mode of 
 determining contested elections, in the repeal of certain penal 
 statutes respecting Protestant and Catholic dissenters, in ascer- 
 taining the rights of juries, and in other ways — - have been more 
 numerous and important during Your Majesty's reign than during 
 the reigns of all your predecessors since the Revolution. 
 
 " We are thankful for what has been done ; and, without en- 
 couraging improper modes of innovation in other matters, still, 
 perhaps, requiring an amendment, we trust, that what is wanting 
 to render our constitution perfect and permanent will be accom- 
 plished by the deliberate wisdom of the legislature, rather than by 
 the rash violence of democratic faction. 
 
 " When we compare our situation as citizens of a free state, 
 with that of those who are either struggling for that liberty which 
 we . enjoy, or groaning under that slavery which we are in no 
 danger of, we cannot but set the highest value on that form of 
 civil government from which our happiness is derived ; and we 
 beg leave, in the most serious and solemn manner, to declare to 
 Your Majesty, that in proportion to this our estimation of its 
 worth, will be our zeal for the preservation of the constitution." 
 
 Soon after the dissolution of the Constituent, or first National 
 Assembly of France, I dined at Earl Stanhope's (it was the only 
 
 m m 2 
 
268 
 
 time I ever had that honour), in company with the Bishop of 
 Autun, and several other principal Frenchmen, who had been 
 members of that Assembly. Having witnessed the respect with 
 which Lord Stanhope treated these gentlemen, and with which His 
 Lordship was treated by them, I was induced to write the follow- 
 ing letter to him in the autumn of 1792, after the King of France 
 had been committed to the Temple on the 13th of August. I had 
 no great expectation of success attending the application of an 
 individual, buried in the wilds of Westmoreland, yet, knowing 
 that the greatest events had often sprung from the slightest causes, 
 1 was determined to make an effort — feeble, but sincere ! — to 
 prevent that horrid butchery of the Royal Family, which afterwards 
 took place, to the eternal disgrace of France. It has excited the 
 detestation of the present, and will be followed by the execration 
 of all succeeding ages. 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " Your opinion will have great weight with the National As- 
 sembly. I wish you could persuade them to do an act which 
 would throw a veil over the late brutality of their populace ; esta- 
 blish their new Republic on a solid foundation ; and transmit their 
 names with immortal honour to posterity. 
 
 " Instead of bringing their King to a trial, let them give him 
 his liberty ; assign him one of his palaces for his residence ; settle 
 upon himself and his posterity an hundred thousand pounds a- 
 year, with a permission to spend it in France, or in any other 
 country, subject to forfeiture on any act of treason against the 
 Republic. 
 
269 
 
 " I will not trouble Your Lordship with describing how such 
 an act of magnanimity and (may I not call it ?) of justice and 
 humanity, would conciliate the minds of all men to what appears 
 to me an axiom — That the majority of every nation in the world 
 has, at all times, a right to change their civil government. The 
 French, by such a proceeding, would do more nobly by the Capets 
 than the Romans did by the Tarquins, or than the English did 
 by the Stuarts. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Whether Lord Stanhope ever troubled himself to suggest this 
 hint to any of the National Assembly, I know not. His answer to 
 me (Oct. 29. 1792,) was that — " New-made discoveries of the 
 treachery, perfidy, and duplicity, of Louis XVI. had, within these 
 few days, rendered the resentment against him more violent." 
 Of the truth of this charge against the unfortunate Monarch, I 
 am an incompetent judge ; I remember, I thought at the time, 
 that the constitution to which he had sworn was not first broken 
 by himself in using his veto, but by the Jacobins in exciting an 
 insurrection against him for having used it. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that has happened in France, I cannot but 
 adhere to the political axiom mentioned in my letter to Lord 
 Stanhope, and which Marmontel in his posthumous works, pub- 
 lished in 1805, has adopted (vol. iii. p. 256.) — La Revolution 
 Franfaise auroit en, dans Vancienne Rome, un exemple honorable a 
 suivre. Louis XVI. navoit aucun des vices des Tarquins, et Von 
 riavoit a V accuser ni oVorgueil ni de violence; sans autre raison 
 
270 
 
 que d'etre lasse de ses Rois, la France pouvoit les expatrier avec 
 toute leur race, — I do not agree with this author that the example 
 of Rome .was honourable ; it would have been so, had an ample 
 provision been made for Tarquin and his family. 
 
 In January, 1793, 1 published a Sermon entitled, "The Wisdom 
 and Goodness of God in having made both Rich and Poor ; with 
 an Appendix respecting the then circumstances of Great Britain 
 and France." A strong spirit of insubordination and discontent 
 was, at that time, prevalent in Great Britain ; the common people 
 were, in every village, talking about liberty and equality without 
 understanding the terms. I thought it not improper to endeavour 
 to abate this revolutionary ferment, by informing the understand- 
 ings of those who excited it. 
 ■ 
 
 The King (at his levee) complimented me in the warmest 
 terms, in the hearing of the then Lord Dartmouth, on (he was 
 pleased to say) the conciseness, clearness, and utility of this little 
 publication ; and the then Archbishop of Canterbury afterwards 
 informed me, that His Majesty had spoken to him of the publi- 
 cation in the same terms, two months before. 
 
 On this occasion, when the King was praising what I had writ- 
 ten, I said to him, — " I love to come forward in a moment of 
 danger." His reply was so quick and proper that I will put it 
 down, — " I see you do, and it is a mark of a man of high spirit" 
 His Majesty's reception of me at his levee, to which I went once, 
 or at the most twice a year, was always so complimentary, that 
 notwithstanding the pestilent prevalence of court-duplicity, I can- 
 
271 
 
 not bring myself to believe that he was my enemy ; though he has 
 suffered me to remain, through life, worse provided for than any 
 bishop on the bench. I owe nothing to the Crown but the 
 bishopric of Landaff, and that has never paid the increase of ex- 
 pense incident to my change of station. 
 
 An hatred of the Whigs has, I think, shown itself during the 
 whole of the reign, and I probably have come in for my share of 
 it ; for I have never made any secret of my opinion — that the 
 same principles which placed the House of Brunswick on the 
 throne of these kingdoms, are necessary to keep it there ; and that 
 all attempts to introduce into this great country the miserable 
 despotism of the petty principalities of Germany, from whence 
 our kings generally take their wives, would end in the deserved 
 disgrace and ruin of those who make them. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1795, the Duke of Bedford made a 
 motion in the House of Lords, " That no form of government 
 which may prevail in France should preclude a negotiation with 
 that country, or prevent a peace whenever it could be made con- 
 sistently with the honour, interest, and security of this nation." 
 Though I had been told by one of my brethren, that the King 
 had expressed his dislike of bishops interfering in political mat- 
 ters, I was not deterred by the fear of His Majesty's displeasure 
 from making a speech in the House of Lords in support of the 
 Duke of Bedford's motion. I was the only bishop who did, either 
 by vote or speech, support this motion, and I do not repent of 
 my singularity ; for it was a motion at an early period of the war, 
 for peace. 
 
272 
 
 Speech in the House of Lords, on the Duke of Bedford's Motion, 
 
 January 27, 1795. 
 
 ft My Lords, 
 
 " I seldom trouble Your Lordships, and I never do it without 
 apprehension. I am fearful lest the public opinions of so retired 
 and unconnected an individual as myself should be thought un- 
 worthy the attention of the House ; and I am fearful also lest any 
 interference in politics should, by some, be construed into a step- 
 ping out beyond the line of my profession. Occasions, however, 
 of great national importance will sometimes occur ; on these I 
 shall always think it my duty to come forward, and I consider the 
 present as one of them; I consider the junction of the marine of 
 Holland to that of France as a danger of the greatest magnitude. 
 
 " We are unfortunately, My Lords, engaged in a war, which 
 has frequently, and with great confidence, been called a just and 
 necessary war ; it is called so by the noble Secretary (Lord Gren- 
 ville) in the amendment which he has this day made to the 
 motion of the noble Duke. Men will differ greatly in their no- 
 tions of the justice of war, according to the different views of the 
 extent of moral and religious obligation. For my part, I consider 
 the justifiable occasions of going to war to be few, very few 
 indeed. I admit that war is not absolutely forbidden by the letter 
 of the Christian religion ; but I am persuaded, that when the 
 spirit of Christianity shall exert its proper influence over the 
 minds of individuals, and especially over the minds of public men, 
 in their public capacities — over the minds of men constituting the 
 councils of Princes, from whence are the issues of peace and war — 
 when this happy period shall arrive, war will cease throughout the 
 whole Christian world. And of this, My Lords, I am confident, 
 
273 
 
 that no war can be justified on any principle, either of revealed or 
 of natural religion, till indemnity for past injury, and security 
 against future aggression, have been demanded and refused ; till 
 every means of accommodation have been tried — tried with a 
 sincere disposition for preserving peace, and tried in vain. Whe- 
 ther this principle was or was not properly attended to in the 
 beginning of our differences with France, is better known to the 
 King's ministers than to me. I am happy to hear from the noble 
 Secretary, that it was. I have no wish to impeach any man's 
 character ; but I am not so ignorant of the law of nations, as 
 not to know, that on the proper or improper attention which 
 was paid to this principle, depends the justice or injustice of 
 the war. 
 
 " I perceive, My Lords, that if I were fully to state to Your 
 Lordships all my scruples concerning the justice and concerning 
 the necessity of the war, — for they are distinct questions, since a 
 war may be just without being necessary, though it cannot be ne- 
 cessary without being just, — I should trespass more than I ought 
 to do on the patience of the House, especially as Your Lordships 
 have long ago come to a determination on the question. To that 
 determination I bow with respect, and quit the subject. I may 
 be suffered, however, to remark, that in my opinion Great Bri- 
 tain, after the unsuccessful efforts of Prussia and Austria in the 
 first campaign, nay, at any period before we had actually broken 
 our neutrality,. that Great Britain might have interposed her good 
 offices between the contending parties, with great propriety, and 
 with great probability of effect. She might have said to France, 
 " Your fraternizing system must be given up, it disturbs the tran- 
 quillity of the world, it breaks asunder the bonds of all civil 
 
 N N 
 
274 
 
 society ; your ambition must be restrained, and your schemes of 
 aggrandisement abandoned ; neither Savoy, nor Brabant, nor 
 Holland, not an acre of territory must you possess beyond what 
 you possessed during the monarchy." This, My Lords, we in 
 fact said by our deeds to France ; but there we stopped : we 
 did not add, as we ought to have done — France shall be at 
 liberty to exercise the sacred right which belongs to her, and to 
 every other independent state — the right of determining for her- 
 self the form of government by which she shall be ruled. Great 
 Britain will not only respect this right, but she will endeavour to 
 prevail on other nations to respect it also ; she will endeavour to 
 prevail on Prussia and Austria to withdraw their troops. This, 
 My Lords, would have been a conduct worthy the magnanimity 
 of a free nation. I may be told, that had the attempt been 
 made, it would not have succeeded. But I have not that opinion 
 of the political wisdom of any individual, to believe him on his 
 bare assertion. I think it would, and for this reason — it would 
 have been for the interest of all parties to have acceded to such 
 an honourable mediation. 
 
 " With respect to the origin of the war, it is said to have arisen 
 from a concert of Princes, confederated to dismember France, 
 and to annihilate the liberty of Europe. Without farther proof 
 than has yet come to light, I cannot believe this : I cannot, at 
 least, admit for a moment, that the King of Great Britain would, 
 either directly or indirectly, have given his consent to so nefarious 
 a project ; nay, I will do the minister of the country the justice to 
 say, that I believe him to be wholly incapable of either proposing 
 or patronising such a scheme. 
 
275 
 
 " That the war was begun by the Princes of the continent, and 
 entered into by ourselves, with a view of stopping the propagation 
 of democratic principles, is a proposition which I believe to be 
 true. There may have been some other causes (to say nothing of 
 pretences) for the war, but I take this to be the chief; nor do I 
 see any dishonour in avowing it. Every government has within 
 itself an inherent principle of self-preservation : from this prin- 
 ciple springs a right of resisting every attempt which evidently 
 tends to the subversion of established governments. But that 
 war is either the only or the best means of impeding the pro- 
 gress of democratic principles, is certainly not a self-evident 
 proposition ; and, how assured soever some men may be of its 
 truth, to me it is not a probable one ; an unsuccessful war is more 
 likely to accelerate than to impede the progress of democratic 
 principles, and a successful war will not stop them. The history 
 of the world informs us, that opinions are not subdued but con- 
 firmed by persecution ; they are seated in the mind, and the 
 mind is not susceptible of change from that coarse instrument of 
 government — force. They yield to lenity, to reason, to experi- 
 ence ; and in this enlightened state of Europe, the thrones ot 
 despotic monarchs will be better protected by a seasonable atten- 
 tion to popular requisition, by a relaxation of the reins of des- 
 potism, than by all the standing armies which they can collect 
 around them. 
 
 " But let the ministers of the continental powers reason on the 
 subject as they think fit, the minister of the King of Great Britain, 
 or any other man who had access to him, might, with the greatest 
 truth and honour, have said to him, and might still say to him, — 
 " Sire, Your Majesty's situation is essentially different from that 
 
 N N 2 
 
276 
 
 of the Princes of Germany, and from every other monarch in the 
 world ; you, and you alone, reign over a free people ; you reign 
 in the hearts of a loyal people by your personal virtues ; and you 
 reign in their hearts by a still stronger title to their regard. 
 You are an essential constituent part of that constitution which 
 they admire, for the establishment of which their ancestors shed 
 their blood, and for the preservation of which they are ready to 
 pour out their own. There may be a discontented body of men, 
 but the cause of their discontent may be removed with perfect 
 safety ; there may be a few seditious incendiaries in your king- 
 dom, for no kingdom is without them ; but they are too incon- 
 siderable in number, property, character, and connection, to afford 
 any reasonable ground of alarm. The weighty arm of the law 
 will crush the disturbers of the public peace ; and the prodigious 
 majority of the people, who detest a republic, will abash the pro- 
 pagators of opinions subversive of the constitution." 
 
 " I know not, My Lords, that the Royal mind was ever dis- 
 turbed for a moment with personal apprehensions. I hope it was 
 not ; but if it was, I think, in my conscience, that it might have 
 been tranquillised by a just representation of the superior situation 
 in which His Majesty stands, when compared with that of every 
 other monarch in the world. Arbitrary monarchs may tremble 
 at the subversion of tyranny : the King of Great Britain has no- 
 thing to fear but from an attempt which, on my honour, I believe 
 him perfectly incapable of making — from an attempt to subvert 
 the liberty of his people. 
 
 " What, My Lords, is our Magna Charta and the Bill of 
 Rights ; is our Trial by Jury, which no constitutional man will 
 vilify even in thought ; is the Habeas Corpus Act, which no con- 
 
277 
 
 stitutional man will agree to suspend even for an hour, except in 
 cases of extreme necessity ; is the integrity of our courts of justice, 
 a circumstance unparalleled in the annals of nations ; is the 
 equality of law, which unites in the same bond the peasant and 
 the peer ; is the freedom of the press, the liberty of religion, the 
 provision for the poor, — are these, and innumerable other blessings, 
 so little known, so ill appreciated by the people of Great Britain, 
 as to render a foreign war necessary for the preservation of that 
 constitution from which they are derived ? No ; I do not believe 
 it ; I will not say it, for in saying it I should calumniate the cha- 
 racter of an enlightened people. There is no body of men, 
 aristocratical or democratical, churchmen or dissenters, in this 
 kingdom, which would wish to exchange our assizes and our ses- 
 sions for revolutionary tribunals ; our houses of parliament for 
 committees of legislation and general safety ; our beloved Monarch 
 for a Robespierre ! This nation has enjoyed, for near a century, 
 much prosperity, much tranquillity, much civil, much religious 
 liberty, under the mild and equitable government of the Princes 
 of the House of Brunswick. Who but a madman would wish to 
 risk the exchange of these blessings for he knows not what? 
 would wish to exchange this illustrious family for the upstart pro- 
 geny of some flagitious demagogue? Alarms of this kind are 
 fit stuff to constitute the dreams of old women and children ; they 
 do not affect my mind. There are other causes of alarm, less 
 obvious, but more portentous, which penetrate my heart. If any 
 thing has happened in the course of this century which has less- 
 ened, or which tends to lessen, in the minds of the people, their 
 confidence in the House of Commons, as uncorrupt and careful 
 guardians of the public purse ; if any thing has happened which 
 
278 
 
 has lessened, or which tends to lessen, in the mind of the people, 
 their confidence in the House of Lords, as a wise and independent 
 aristocracy, well calculated to protect the constitution from the en- 
 croachments of monarchy on the one hand and of democracy on the 
 other ; if any thing has happened which has lessened, or tends to 
 lessen, in the minds of persons of all ranks, their veneration for 
 religion — religion, My Lords, is the only sure basis of every 
 government ; for you may as well attempt to build a city without 
 a foundation, as to preserve a state without religion — if any thing 
 of this kind has happened, surely it becomes the legislature to 
 advert to these things speedily, seriously, and dispassionately. I 
 know there are many wise men who look upon our national vices, 
 and constitutional defects, as irremediable evils, which will in- 
 crease, till some dreadful catastrophe shall burst the impost- 
 hume, and cleanse the corruptions of the body politic. I am not 
 of that desponding opinion ; we are not yet arrived at that state 
 of political profligacy which the Romans had reached, when their 
 historian describes liberty and public probity succumbing under 
 the corrupting influence of wealth and power ; it cannot yet be 
 truly said of us, as it was said of them — Ad id perventum est ut nee 
 vitia nee remedia pati possumus. 
 
 " The wisdom of this and the other House, co-operating with 
 the wisdom of the King, may find remedies for all our evils. We 
 are still a wealthy, a brave, and a free people. Let us keep our 
 wealth at home for our own occasions ; let us exert our bravery 
 at home in our own defence ; and let us be watchful of our own 
 liberties, and sincerely willing to participate our freedom with 
 every nation under heaven, and we shall have nothing to fear from 
 all the republics in the world. 
 
279 
 
 " What is there so enchanting in republics, that we should be 
 apprehensive lest the people of this country should be seduced 
 from their attachment to the constitution, by contemplating 
 the republic of France ! In its present state it is an object of 
 terror and abhorrence to every man, however exalted, however 
 abject his condition. In the present aristocratical republics of 
 Europe, every one who knows any thing of the subject, knows 
 that the freedom we enjoy is not enjoyed in them. In the demo- 
 cratical republics of ancient times, and especially in that of Athens, 
 we may see something like a prototype of the French republic : it 
 was a dreadful tyranny exercised by pestilent men, through the 
 instrumentality of the multitude, — exercised over valour, learning, 
 justice, (for even Aristides fell,) over every thing that was great 
 and excellent among mankind. 
 
 " But I shall be told, that the representative republics of Ame- 
 rica and France are essentially different from all republics of either 
 ancient or modern times ; that they are machines of government 
 built upon a new construction. Be it so ; I cannot now stop to 
 examine either their excellencies or defects ; it is enough for my 
 argument, it is enough for the people of England to know, that 
 they are new ; their novelty renders them suspicious ; when these 
 machines shall have gone on for a century, as well as their most 
 sanguine admirers can expect, it may be soon enough then for 
 our posterity to examine, whether the people enjoy under them 
 more solid blessings than they themselves will then, I trust, enjoy 
 under the present constitution of Great Britain. 
 
 " My Lords, we are all agreed ; I do not by all, mean every 
 individual in the kingdom ; but I do mean all the individuals, 
 without exception, in both Houses of Parliament j and a vast 
 
280 
 
 majority of the people out of parliament are agreed in the pursuit 
 of the same object ; and that object is, the preservation of the 
 constitution. I give equal credit to all parties on this head, and 
 I should think myself destitute of candour and of justice, if I did 
 not. I know, My Lords, that the connections (I speak not of 
 the leaders of both parties) transgress all bounds of moderation 
 in their judgments of each other. The adherents of administra- 
 tion endeavour to exhibit the opposers of public measures, as men 
 hostile to the peace and tranquillity of the country ; as men of 
 republican principles; as secret subverters of the constitution. The 
 adherents of opposition endeavour to represent the ministers of 
 the Crown, and the majorities in parliament, as men destitute of 
 public probity, careless of the public safety, and anxious for no- 
 thing but the preservation of their places and the accumulation 
 of riches and titles. This, My Lords, is not a time — indeed, there 
 is no time for it — but this especially is not a time to struggle for 
 the retention, or for the acquisition of power by calumny and 
 misrepresentation. We are all agreed that the constitution ought 
 to be preserved ; we differ as to the means of preserving it. Some 
 are of opinion, that the republic of France must, at every risk, be 
 destroyed, lest its establishment should be followed by the sub- 
 version of every monarchy in Europe, and of our own amongst 
 the rest. Others see no probability of such a consequence ; can 
 discover no connection of cause and effect between the establish- 
 ment of a republic in France, and the subversion of the subsisting 
 governments in other countries. On the contrary, they are of 
 opinion, that the miseries which the French have hitherto expe- 
 rienced, and which, if left to themselves, they probably would con- 
 tinue to experience under a republican government, would, in a 
 
281 
 
 few years, make them, as similar evils made our ancestors, revert 
 to some species of monarchy, and would effectually deter every 
 other people from following their example. 
 
 " It would be an indication of great boldness in the most con- 
 summate statesman ; it would be arrogance and presumption in 
 me, peremptorily to determine which of these two opinions was 
 most founded in truth. I am inclined, after considering the 
 matter with perfect impartiality, and with the best ability which 
 God has given me, to adopt the latter. 
 
 " I find fault with no man for differing in opinion from me on 
 any subject ; and, I trust those noble personages (Duke of Port- 
 land, &c.) whose political principles I have been through life 
 accustomed to revere, and of whose political as well as private 
 probity I entertain the highest opinion, will find no fault with 
 me for differing from them on this important occasion. If my 
 opinion had been wavering, I would have suppressed it ; — it is 
 decided, and I think it my duty to declare it. My decided 
 judgment is, that the establishment of a Republic in France 
 will not endanger the constitution of Great Britain ; and I am 
 further of opinion, that a perseverance in shutting the door of 
 negotiation, in prosecuting an expensive war, will shake the sta- 
 bility of the throne, and endanger the independence of the nation, 
 
 * But it will be urged, — a declaration of our disposition for 
 peace will be a degrading and an humiliating measure. I look 
 upon it in another light. I consider it as a Christian effort of an 
 humane people to put a stop to the effusion of human blood. — 
 But it will be a fruitless overture ; — r- no man can tell what fruit 
 it will produce ; it may not produce peace, but it will be attended 
 by two consequences, either of which is of sufficient importance 
 
 o o 
 
282 
 
 to induce us to make the trial ; it will diminish animosity abroad, 
 and it will lessen discontent at home. 
 
 The French are animated to madness against this nation. I 
 enquire not into the cause ; the fact is certain : but when they 
 hear that we are ready to treat with them, they will know that 
 the calamities which they suffer are not of our creating, and if 
 the overture is rejected, the people of Great Britain will know 
 that the burdens which they sustain are unavoidable. But 
 there will be a want of firmness in changing our system. A 
 perseverance, My Lords, in measures originally wrong, is not 
 magnanimity, but obstinacy ; a perseverance in measures ori- 
 ginally right, but which circumstances have rendered probably 
 unattainable, is not a mark of wisdom but of folly. It was a 
 mistaken idea of the dignity of firmness which lost America to 
 this country ; it was the same mistaken idea of the dignity of 
 firmness, in not attending to the just complaints of the people, 
 which has broken the golden pillars of the church, and tumbled 
 into ruins the throne of France. Let us grow wise from our 
 own experience, and from observing the misfortunes of others. 
 
 " But shall we suffer the bloody tyrants of the Convention, 
 and their no less bloody associates in every province, town, and 
 village of France, to escape unpunished ? I like not harsh lan- 
 guage on any occasion ; it tends only to widen differences : but 
 those men are not answerable for their conduct to us ; their 
 own nation are their judges ; nor will they escape unpunished, 
 though they fall not by the axe of the executioner ; to the 
 justice of God we commit them; or rather, as becomes pec- 
 cable men to say, to his infinite mercy we commend them; 
 
283 
 
 may He grant them repentance, and forgive the enormity of 
 their sin ! 
 
 " But the resources of France are exhausted, ours are still 
 great, and one campaign more will finish the business with 
 success. All this is assertion, without proof; it is an improbable 
 prophecy : but admit it to be true in all its parts, let us see what 
 will follow ; for it is a main part of deliberative wisdom to re- 
 spect the end of measures. 
 
 " Suppose, then, the unfortunate Louis to be placed, by our 
 efforts, on the throne of his ancestors, surrounded by his nobles 
 in the plentitude of their ancient privilege ; the bastile re- 
 erected, and the people of France, — (Heaven avert that part 
 of the event ! ) — once more crouching under the rod of de- 
 spotic power, what advantage will Great Britain derive from this 
 change? The King of France cannot restore to us thousands 
 and tens of thousands of gallant men, who have perished in the 
 contest ; nor will he send us a colony of his subjects to replace 
 the numbers which the state has lost. Will he repay into the 
 Exchequer of Great Britain the millions, and tens of millions, 
 which have been expended, or tax his own people, in order to 
 ease our shoulders from the burdens we must sustain on his 
 account? — No; whatever may be his gratitude, he will not 
 have the ability to do this. Will he give up his West-India 
 islands to indemnify us for our losses ? No, he will not rob his 
 crown of so bright a jewel ; his people will not suffer it ; Spain 
 will not permit it ; Holland, if she is allowed a voice, will 
 exclaim against it ; all the powers of Europe, already too 
 envious of our prosperity, too jealous of our greatness, (I verily 
 believe we have not one cordial friend in Europe,) they will all 
 
 o o 2 
 
284 
 
 conspire to prevent our receiving such an additional source of 
 naval and commercial strength. I profess I do not see any 
 probability of our ever regaining a single guinea of what we 
 have spent, though the re-establishment of the ancient mon- 
 archy, or of a limited monarchy, should by our means be effected 
 to-morrow. But, I may be told, that the war was begun, and is 
 continued, not so much for the re-establishment of the French 
 monarchy, as for the security of our own. 
 
 " I have already delivered my opinion so explicitly on the little 
 connection there is between the establishment of a republic 
 in France, and the subversion of the English constitution, that I 
 will not dwell on this point any longer. 
 
 " But this is a war of religion against atheism and infidelity. 
 Gracious God ! how great is the presumption of us, miserable 
 mortals ! The Almighty Creator and Conservator of the Universe 
 wanteth not the arm of flesh to secure the reality of his ex- 
 istence, or the honour of his laws. He gave a commission to the 
 Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites for their wickedness and 
 idolatry ; but he hath given none to us, or to the Princes of 
 Europe, to exterminate the French for their cruelty and in- 
 fidelity. Vengeance, as a noble Duke rightly observed, and with 
 a sense of religion which adds honour to his rank, vengeance 
 belongeth not to man ; or, in the words of scripture, " Venge- 
 ance is mine, I will repay," saith the Lord. 
 
 " Allow me, My Lords, for a moment, a word on the subject 
 of French infidelity ; it certainly will not be a word of excuse or 
 extenuation ; it will be a word of comfort and consolation to 
 every sincere believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am then, 
 My Lords, full of hope, full of expectation, grounded on some 
 
285 
 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, that this abandonment of all religion 
 in France will be followed in due time, in the time known only 
 to the Ancient of Days, by the establishment of a purer system of 
 Christianity than has ever taken place in that country, or perhaps 
 in any other country, since the age of the Apostles. Voltaire, 
 Rousseau, Helvetius, Diderot, and the rest of the philosophers in 
 France, and perhaps I may say many in our own country, have 
 mistaken the corruptions of Christianity for Christianity itself, 
 and in spurning the yoke of superstition have overthrown religion. 
 They are in the condition of men described by Plutarch ; they 
 have fled from superstition, have leapt over religion, and sunk 
 into atheism. They will be followed by future Newtons and by 
 future Lockes who will rebuild, with more than mortal strength 
 and beauty, the altars which the others have polluted and thrown 
 down ; for they will found them on the pure and unadorned rock 
 of Christian verity, and the attacks of infidels shall no more 
 prevail against them. 
 
 " I beg pardon for this digression, (and I am sure I shall be 
 forgiven it, when I consider the attention with which the House, 
 participating in his feelings, listened to the noble Secretary of 
 State, when he described, with so much truth, the present irre- 
 ligion of France,) and return to the subject of debate. My 
 opinion is, that we should make the most vigorous preparations for 
 war by land and sea, and especially by sea; that these preparations 
 should be accompanied with a real disposition for peace. Thus 
 prepared, and thus disposed, we may boldly say to France, 
 " Peace or war ; take your choice." Let not our enemies 
 triumph at this declaration, or mistake our meaning. We wish 
 for peace, but we wish for it on their account, on the account of 
 
286 
 
 general humanity, as much as on our own. We wish for peace, 
 but we are prepared for war ; we are neither disheartened by 
 their successes, nor intimidated by their menaces ; our resources 
 are not exhausted, our courage is not subdued. They build 
 much upon our divisions ; they will find us not divided in resist- 
 ing them. Would to God that my voice could reach the Con- 
 vention, when I say, that the people is with the crown, and that 
 the crown is with the people, and that both are with the consti- 
 tution. All parties are united, all good men are combined, — to 
 do what ? To support the throne. — What else ? To maintain 
 the aristocracy. — What else ? To protect the people themselves 
 from the insidious machinations of their own demagogues, from 
 the bloody tyranny of French fraternities. 
 
 " My Lords, I have done. I have delivered a plain and ho- 
 nest opinion ; I am not attached to any party, though I find no 
 fault with those who are. Parties, I acknowledge, may be formed, 
 maintained, and broken on honourable terms ; but I know not 
 how it has happened, except from the narrow views of a collegiate 
 life, it has never suited my notions of public probity to become a 
 party-man. I beg on this head to be clearly understood ; I have 
 no wish to see the present pilots driven from the helm ; I simply 
 wish them to change their course. It is a matter of perfect indif- 
 ference to me who steers the vessel of the state, provided it is 
 steered with ability. The storm with which it is threatened is 
 new in kind, and unparalleled in degree ; hitherto we have only 
 heard its whistling from afar ; it may soon approach our coasts, 
 and scatter tremendous and undistinguished ruin over the whole 
 land. May blessing from God, reward from the King, gratitude 
 from the country, fall upon the head of that man, of whatever 
 
287 
 
 party he may be, who shall conduct us into port with safety and 
 with honour ! My Lords, I have trespassed too long on your 
 time. I conclude with giving my hearty concurrence to the 
 motion of the noble Duke." 
 
 Previously to this speech, the Duke of Portland and some 
 others, whose political principles I had, through life, been accustomed 
 to revere, became supporters of Mr. Pitt's measures, and it was 
 generally expected that I should have joined this second (un- 
 principled I thought it) great coalition. I had always protested 
 against being a party-man, and this speech effectually silenced 
 those who, measuring other men by their own standard, had 
 questioned the sincerity of my avowal of parliamentary inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 In the following summer I published a Charge and two Ser- 
 mons, one of them entitled " Atheism and Infidelity refuted 
 from Reason and Scripture ;" the other, " The Christian Religion 
 no Imposture." These sermons were at their first publication of 
 some use in confirming the faith of the wavering, and they may 
 always be serviceable for that purpose, as they appear to me, on 
 a re-examination, to be solidly written. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1796, I published " An Apology 
 for the Bible," being a defence of that Holy Book against the 
 scurrilous abuse of Thomas Paine. This little book, I have rea- 
 son to believe, was of singular service in stopping that torrent of 
 irreligion which had been excited by his writings. David Dale of 
 Paisley, (I mention hn name to his honour, his person I never 
 
288 
 
 saw,) asked my permission, which was most readily granted, to 
 print three thousand copies, to be distributed amongst his own 
 workmen ; many thousands were printed also at Dundee, and in 
 other places of Scotland and England at a small price, without 
 any profit or wish of profit to myself. 
 
 I received many pleasing letters from individuals acknowledg- 
 ing the benefit they had derived from the perusal of the Apology ; 
 nor was its utility confined to Great Britain, as may appear from 
 the following letters from America and from Ireland : — 
 
 « My Lord, 
 
 " Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the blessings de- 
 rived to the Christian world, by your eminent abilities being so 
 frequently employed in defending its cause against the virulent 
 attacks from its enemies, particularly in your excellent defence 
 of Christianity against the writings of Thomas Paine, the Con- 
 vention of the Episcopal Church of Connecticut, at their meeting 
 in October last, directed me to address you in a letter of thanks 
 for the same. 
 
 " The reputation which that writer had obtained in this country 
 by his political pieces during the American Revolution, and the 
 great lukewarmness and indifferency towards the Christian Reve- 
 lation visible among too many of our citizens, were very alarming 
 circumstances, and led us to apprehend some ill effects from his 
 writings : but happily for us, and we trust for the world at large, 
 that so able a champion for Christianity has again taken the field, 
 and so successfully combated its enemies. Happy we are to find 
 that your excellent defence has (in this country), in a good 
 
289 
 
 degree, strengthened the faithful, confirmed the doubtful, roused 
 the indifferent, and silenced the gainsay er. And we have reason 
 to believe that it will, by the blessing of God, be a means of 
 checking that spirit of infidelity among us, which has produced 
 such horrid scenes of distress in a powerful nation of Europe. 
 
 " Be pleased, My Lord, to accept the thanks of the Convention, 
 with their earnest prayers that God of his goodness and love for 
 the church may direct you in all things for the good of the same ; 
 that his name may be glorified, and the number of the people 
 daily increased, and rejoice in the salvation of Jesus. — In behalf 
 of the Convention, I am, My Lord, with sentiments of regard and 
 esteem, and with wishes for your temporal and eternal happiness, 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient and humble servant, 
 
 " Astobed Baldwin, 
 " Rector of Christ's Church, Stratford, 
 and Secretary to the Convention. 
 
 " Done by order of the Convention, 
 
 " Richard Mansfield, President. 
 
 " Stratford in Connecticut, Nov. 18. 1796." 
 
 " My Lord, Dublin, Sept. 1796. 
 
 " We are directed, by an association in this city, formed for 
 
 the express purpose of discountenancing vice, and promoting the 
 
 knowledge and practice of religion and virtue, to transmit to Your 
 
 Lordship a copy of the following resolution : — 
 
 " ' At a meeting of the Association for discountenancing Vice, 
 ' and promoting the Knowledge and Practice of Religion and 
 1 Virtue, on Wednesday the first of September, 1796, — 
 
 p f 
 
290 
 
 " ' Resolved unanimously, That the Association, deeply sensible 
 1 of the zeal and ability with which the Lord Bishop of Landaff 
 6 has so frequently stood forth the powerful defender of the 
 4 Christian cause, in opposition to the attacks of infidel authors, 
 ( and particularly those of Thomas Paine, request His Lordship's 
 ( acceptance of their unanimous thanks.' 
 
 " We are • also directed to transmit to Your Lordship a copy 
 of three sermons which have been preached before the Associ- 
 ation since its commencement, from whence Your Lordship will 
 be able to form a general idea of their views, and the modes by 
 which they have endeavoured to carry them into effect. 
 
 " We have the honour to be, 
 " Your Lordship's ooedient, very humble servants, 
 
 J. Maxwell, l 
 
 , Secretaries. 
 
 Kichard Wynne, 
 
 In February, 1796, I sent to Mr. Pitt the following note : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 " I was much pleased with what I read of your speech 
 the other night respecting the poor-laws, and hearing acci- 
 dentally to-day that you mean to bring forward something on 
 the general subject, I hope you will forgive my troubling you 
 with a thought which has long been in my mind, but which I 
 have never attempted to form into a system, as I was doubtful 
 whether any thing could be made of it, and certain that, however 
 feasible the project might be, it was not in my power to give it 
 effect. 
 
 'i H 
 
291 
 
 " Let the average of the poor-rates in every parish in the 
 kingdom be taken for the last seven years ; let each parish be 
 saddled for ever with the payment of that average ; let the poor 
 be considered as the poor of the public at large, and be every 
 where maintained out of the fund thus arising : if the fund should 
 be more than sufficient for this purpose, let the surplus go 
 towards the reduction of the national debt ; if it should be less, 
 let the deficiency be made up from the public grants. 
 
 " By these means the expenses attending litigations concern- 
 ing settlements and removals of the poor would be at an end : 
 vagrancy also would be at an end ; for wherever an idle fellow 
 appeared, he might be set to work either in an house of correction 
 or in a school of industry. 
 
 " I need not dilate on this subject, your, penetration will see at 
 once whether the thought can be of service. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Pitt, soon after this, introduced a Bill into the House of 
 Commons, relative to the maintenance and the management of 
 the poor ; he sent me a copy of the bill, which I returned to him, 
 with observations upon it ; but it came to nothing, and, indeed, it 
 did not appear to me to have been well considered. Humanity 
 impels us as men, and our religion lays an additional obligation 
 on us as Christians, to relieve the wants of the poor ; but they 
 oblige us to do this in such a way as to afford no encouragement 
 to idleness, no temptation to profligacy, no excuse for inconsider- 
 ation. The present state of our poor is a disgrace to our polity. 
 He would be a statesman, really worthy of a statue, who could 
 
 pp 2 
 
292 
 
 devise the means of bettering the morals, augmenting the com- 
 forts, and lessening the expense of maintaining the poor. 
 
 I sent to the Duke of Grafton the following letter, on his having 
 desired my opinion concerning a project, then in agitation, re- 
 specting a number of Peers going in a body to the King to 
 counsel His Majesty to open a negotiation with France : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth Park, June 6. 1796. 
 
 " Since the receipt of Your Grace's letter on Friday last, I 
 have done nothing but think of the subject of it ; and I feel still 
 some hesitation of judgment as to the propriety or impropriety of 
 the measure mentioned in it. 
 
 " That Mr. Fox ought not to be consulted, or made acquainted 
 with the plan, is evident to me, not only out of regard to himself, 
 but lest his interference might render the measure more ex- 
 ceptionable in the estimation of the court and of the people than 
 it otherwise would be. For though Mr. Fox ought to be esteemed 
 by both as highly as any man in the country, yet it is certain that 
 he is not, at present, so esteemed by either. 
 
 " With respect to the measure itself, the first thing to be con- 
 sidered is — What precedents there are of a small number of 
 Peers going in a body to ofFer their advice to the King : — ad- 
 mitting that precedents may be found, are the precedents in good 
 times and fully in point ? Admitting the precedental propriety 
 of the measure, may not the King make a reply to the following 
 purport : — 'I take in good part this interposition of your advice, 
 believing that it proceeds from loyalty to me, and zeal for the 
 public good. All such acts of my government, as have originated 
 
293 
 
 in the constitutional exercise of my prerogative, have been sanc- 
 tioned by the authority of my parliament. All such measures as 
 have originated in parliament, and been recommended to me by 
 its wisdom, have received my approbation. These acts and these 
 measures have excited your apprehensions for the general safety, 
 and you counsel me to change the plan of my government : 
 now I recommend this question to your dispassionate deliberation, 
 — Whether a King of Great Britain will best discharge his duty 
 to his people, in listening to the secret advice of a few individuals, 
 or in following the public wisdom of the great council of the 
 nation ? You may tell me that the parliament is venal, and gives 
 me corrupt advice. This crimination cannot be admitted without 
 proof; if proved, it is such a defect of principle as must end in 
 the ruin of the constitution ; you may rely on my concurrence 
 with you to remove it.' 
 
 " Something of this kind might properly be said by the King, 
 and, whether said or not, it will be thought by many, and not 
 only by many, but by a great majority of the people ; for the 
 nation has been so completely alarmed, that it is not yet adverse 
 to the present system of government. 
 
 " Your Grace will perceive that my opinion is not for the 
 measure. At first view, I approved it : but, on weighing every 
 thing, I lean to the other side. Had the country been brought 
 into its present state by the cabals of a junto, in opposition to the 
 sense of the people, either within the doors of the House of 
 Commons or without them, the measure would have had a pro- 
 priety belonging to it which it has not now. My judgment, 
 however, in things of this sort, is as nothing : I daily wish more and 
 more to relinquish all interference in politics ; the malady which 
 
294 
 
 attacks the constitution (influence of the crown) is without re- 
 medy ; violent applications might be used ; their success would 
 be doubtful, and I for one never wish to see them tried. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In the course of this year Sir John Dalrymple sent me a letter, 
 dated Addiscombe Place, 25th April, 1797, from the Earl of Li- 
 verpool to him, from which I subjoin the following extract : " As 
 " this letter will find you at the Bishop of Landaff's, pray ask 
 " him if he has yet read the ' Memoire pour servir a l'Histoire de 
 " Jacobinism,' by the Abbe Barruel ; it is a book which contains 
 " excellent information, and discloses more of the wicked pro- 
 " jects of the French philosophers, and of those who were called 
 " economists, than was ever known before. The Abbe Barruel 
 " is to publish a third volume, which will disclose the secret his- 
 f tory of the German illumines ; this book has very considerable 
 " merit, though it savours, in some parts of it, of the prejudices 
 " of a French ecclesiastic ; for the author (as I am informed) 
 " was educated to be a Jesuit, but the order having been de- 
 " stroyed before he was admitted into it, he became a regular 
 " priest, and at the beginning of the revolution emigrated into 
 " England, and has ever since resided in London. He writes, 
 " however, with more liberality than one should have expected 
 " from a person of this description. I sincerely wish, that some 
 " Protestant writer would take the trouble of clothing the in- 
 " formation and the arguments contained in the book in a Pro- 
 " testant dress, adding to them such of his own as may occur to 
 " him. No one could perform a service of this kind so well as the 
 
295 
 
 " Bishop of Landaff ; and he would render thereby an essential ser- 
 " vice, not only to his countrymen, but to the world in general." 
 
 I was far from thinking this hint from Lord Liverpool un- 
 worthy of my notice ; but on considering the subject attentively, 
 I found I could not heartily undertake it, for I could not clothe 
 some of either the political principles or the religious tenets of 
 the Abbe Barruel in any Protestant dress which would not dis- 
 please myself, and every other disciple of Mr. Locke. I was not, 
 moreover, disposed to give full credit to what had been asserted, 
 the existence of a conspiracy among the philosophers of France 
 and the illumines of Germany to pull down altars and thrones. 
 I saw, indeed, and I had long seen, that the progress of literature 
 and the cultivation of science had, in every country, roused into 
 activity the human intellect, and spurred it to shake off the 
 shackles of superstition and the chains of arbitrary power. I saw, 
 too, that (as might have been expected) some precipitate and 
 self-sufficient spirits would outrage common sense, and, in over- 
 stepping the bounds of sober investigation, would cease to dis- 
 tinguish the Christian religion from its corruptions, and equitable 
 government from continental despotism. 
 
 I sent the following letter to Mr. Pitt on the 7th of April, 
 1797, and it probably suggested to him the principle of a new 
 system of finance, — the raising the supplies within the year: — 
 
 •/' Dear Sir, Great George- Street, 7th April, 1797. 
 
 'V Notwithstanding the stoppage of the Bank, my indecision 
 
 as to the expediency of relinquishing Holland and Belgium to 
 
296 
 
 France, or continuing the war, remains unaltered. As a perse- 
 verance, however, in the war seems to be determined on, I beg 
 you would allow me the liberty of an old acquaintance, to inter- 
 rupt your speculations for a moment, whilst I state to you my 
 serious and sincere sentiments on our present situation. 
 
 " I consider Great Britain, acting on the defensive, as a match 
 in number of men to France acting on the offensive. For though 
 the population of France may be three times as great as that of 
 Great Britain, yet our insular situation will compensate the 
 excess. 
 
 " France can bring into the field, by requisition, all her men 
 capable of bearing arms, and she can pay them by a requisition 
 of any part, or of the whole of the capital of the country. Great 
 Britain cannot be a match for France in this respect, unless she 
 adopts similar modes of exerting her strength. All her men 
 must become soldiers, and all her property must be pledged for 
 the maintenance of her forces. Unless this is done, though our 
 numbers may be equivalent to those of France, yet we must at 
 last become her inferiors. 
 
 " Whether a greater number of men can, with safety, be taken 
 from the agriculture and the manufactures of the country, I pre- 
 tend not to determine, but I fear it cannot. Men, however, may 
 be had from other countries, if money can be procured here, and 
 that money may be procured here I have no doubt j but I do not 
 wish it to be procured by the ordinary way of loan, or by the more 
 exceptionable way of voluntary contribution. 
 
 " I am, in the present situation of the country, an enemy to 
 palliatives and half-measures ; the nation knows its distress, and 
 is both able, and, I think, willing to meet it with fortitude. Let 
 
297 
 
 an act of parliament be passed calling for a twentieth, or any 
 other requisite part of every man's property, whether it consists 
 in land, or houses, or money vested in the funds, or lent on 
 mortgage or bond, in stock in trade, in cattle, goods, chattels of 
 every kind. Paupers alone should be exempted from this contri- 
 bution, which, being just in its principle, and general in its ope- 
 ration, would be abundantly productiva 
 
 " This, or a measure such as this, is not unsuited to the enter- 
 prise of your spirit ; the circumstances of the nation require 
 extraordinary exertion, and, in the present temper of the people, 
 I am of opinion that it would not be an unpopular measure. 
 But if you should even unsuccessfully risk your situation by 
 trying it, you would retire with honour, with having made a noble 
 effort to restore the energy, the credit, and the consequence of the 
 country. 
 
 " I think something of this kind, properly digested by your 
 wisdom, would be attended with public security, and with private 
 advantage ; for the public debt is an heavy and vexatious load 
 on each man's property, from which both his interest and Jiis 
 comfort must prompt him to disencumber himself and his 
 posterity. 
 
 " The whole, or (if it should be thought expedient to retain 
 a part), the greatest portion of the national debt would by this 
 mean be discharged ; a great part of the most oppressive taxes 
 would be done away, the expense attending the collection of 
 them would be saved, the corrupting influence of the Crown would 
 be diminished, the poor-rates would be reduced. France, asto- 
 nished at our magnanimity, would accede to proper conditions of 
 peace, and every nation in Europe would tremble in future at the 
 
 Q Q 
 
298 
 
 idea of involving itself in a war with so high-spirited a nation 
 and which, in addition to their patriotism, had a fresh credit for 
 three or four hundred millions at the commencement of hosti- 
 lities. 
 
 «I know well in how little estimation the sentiments of indi- 
 viduals are held in your judgment ; but I wish, in this day of 
 danger, to discharge my own particular duty, and I think I do it 
 better by this private suggestion, than by a public declaration of 
 my opinion in parliament, being sensible that, if the hint is a 
 good one, it may through your influence have its proper effect, 
 and that it can have no effect without it. 
 
 " This sacrifice, which I recommend, of individual property 
 to public exigency, is, unquestionably, a great one ; but if paid by 
 instalments in two or three years, it would not be much felt. 
 Considering the number of my children, it would fall as heavily, 
 in proportion to my fortune, on myself as on any other man, yet 
 I would make it with thanks to the minister who should compel 
 me and all others to submit to it ; being convinced that the 
 country cannot be economically, equitably, and permanently 
 saved without it. I go into Westmoreland in ten days, but I can- 
 not leave town without giving you this trouble, for which I beg 
 your pardon, and am with great respect, 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In the following November, Mr. Pitt avoided having recourse 
 to a loan, by what were called Assessed taxes ; and soon after by 
 having recourse to a partial tax on income. Both these schemes 
 of finance were ineffective even for the little end for which he 
 
299 
 
 designed them, — the raising supplies for the war. Their ineffi- 
 ciency proceeded principally from their falling wholly on the higher 
 classes, which are never numerous in any country. The income 
 tax was not levied on persons possessing sixty pounds a-year or 
 under, nor did the assessed taxes reach such persons, so that by 
 much the largest part of the community, whether we judge from 
 their number or their property, paid nothing by these schemes of 
 the minister. As to the difficulty of coming at every man's pro- 
 perty, a mathematical precision cannot be expected in such a busi- 
 ness, nor is it obtained at present, in the mode of assessing income, 
 though the inquisition into it is sufficiently oppressive and dis- 
 gusting, and such as a free nation tolerates from no principle but 
 from a regard still remaining for the constitution. I hope that 
 the increasing pressure of taxation may never alienate that regard. 
 A wise government should think of this in time, and, by one 
 great effort of finance, combined with subsequent economy, 
 remove the cause of increasing discontent, and retard the approach 
 of final ruin. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton, 
 
 « My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth Park, Oct. 10th, 1797. 
 
 " The nation is not yet sick of the war. The country-gentle- 
 men have been alarmed for their property, and they still think it 
 better to part with an half, than to be plundered of the whole. I 
 should certainly agree with them, could I see the necessity of 
 admitting the existence of the alternative ; but as I never saw the 
 least notion of danger to this country from the Revolution in 
 France, I cannot now think it a prudent system to spend the last 
 
 Q Q 2 
 
300 
 
 guinea in prosecution of a project which ought never to have 
 been commenced. 
 
 * We ought to have peace even upon the condition of relin- 
 quishing our conquests, because if we continue the war, we shall 
 run a great risk of adding a British republic to those of Italy and 
 Germany. Peace almost at any rate is my wish ; for if once the 
 fever of republicanism subsides, it will never more be excited in 
 France, or propagated through the rest of Europe; at least its sub- 
 sidence will give time to all established governments to remedy 
 their defects, without having recourse to revolutions. 
 
 " In thus speaking for peace, I rather attend to my judgment 
 than to the proud impulses of my heart, which prompt me to bid 
 defiance to France, and to fight stoutly in restraining her ambi- 
 tion. Indecision and temerity of judgment are equally beneath 
 the character of a statesman ; I pretend not to such a character, 
 but I am puzzled how to act. Did I know that during the late 
 negotiation we were plotting against France, I should in the most 
 unequivocal terms condemn the conduct of administration ; did 
 I know that we were innocent as to that charge, and that France 
 aimed at destroying our consequence as a nation, all I have should 
 be willingly given up to the disposal of the executive government. 
 I might think that wiser measures might have been adopted than 
 what are at present followed ; but I would acquiesce, and give my 
 feeble assistance to administration, lest in withdrawing it I should, 
 in some degree, contribute to the ruin of the country. 
 
 " As to the seceders attending or not attending the meeting 
 of parliament, they should certainly act in concert, whatever deter* 
 mination they come to. I am not capable of giving advice in so 
 great a question ; but as I am always ready, when called upon, 
 
301 
 
 to say what I think, I will own to Your Grace that my opinion 
 is, they ought to attend in a body, and to move on the same 
 day, (on the first day of meeting if possible,) in both Houses, for 
 all papers relative to the negotiation to be laid before parliament, 
 and, if the papers are refused, to attend no more. This I think 
 would be a conduct consistent with their dignity, and more likely 
 than a total absence to rouse all thinking men into an apprehen^ 
 sion for the general safety. 
 
 " Your kind invitation is highly acceptable to Mrs. Watson, 
 and all my family, but I have no thoughts of quitting this place 
 till after Christmas. We are now in the middle of our harvest, 
 but all the hay is not yet gotten in. We have a more determined 
 season of rainy and of fair weather in this county than in most 
 parts of England ; at least I know not that the following observa- 
 tion has ever been made in any other county, and I myself only 
 made it the other day, from some tables of the quantity of rain 
 which had fallen in every month for seven years on an average : 
 the accuracy of the tables is unquestionable, and the inference I 
 made from them is this: — That if the whole year be resolved into 
 three parts, June, July, August, September, — October, November, 
 December, January, — February, March, April, May, — the pro- 
 portions of the quantities which fall in these respective parts will 
 be as 11, 9, 5 ; so that we have more than twice as much rain in 
 the summer as in the spring months. 
 
 " I am Your Grace's most faithful and ever obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the 20th of January, 1798, I published an address to the 
 people of Great Britain. It was generally thought to be of great 
 
302 
 
 service in raising the spirit of the nation. It went through four- 
 teen editions in London, as speedily as they could be published, 
 and many pirated editions were published in other parts of Great 
 Britain. Government here, as I was informed, (for they had not 
 the good manners to ask my consent,) printed and dispersed it 
 gratis. From Lord Camden, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land, I received the following letter : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " You must allow a very old friend and acquaintance to express 
 the very great satisfaction he has received, from the perusal of 
 your address to the people of Great Britain. It has been sent to 
 me, and I think it is calculated to do more good than any publi- 
 cation which has appeared. I have therefore ordered it to be 
 printed and distributed in the kingdom ; and I heartily wish that 
 there were men within it, who could so address a people that are 
 not so misguided that they may not be reformed by good advice 
 addressed to them and high national spirit being infused into 
 them. 
 
 " I beg you to believe me, My dear Lord, 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 
 " Camden. 
 " Dublin Castle, Jan. 31. 1798." 
 
 I was induced to write this address, from reflecting on the 
 miserable situation in which the finance of the country then was ; 
 from observing the preparations of the French to execute their 
 menace of destroying Carthage; and from an anxious desire to 
 oppose the progress of a spurious philosophy, producing irreli- 
 
303 
 
 gion and sedition among the lowest orders. On this and on 
 other occasions some violent men, whose views of political and 
 ecclesiastical reform extended far beyond mine, were filled with 
 resentment against me, reproaching me with having changed my 
 principles, and deserted the cause. This accusation was whollv 
 without foundation ; for my principles were not republican prin- 
 ciples, nor was my cause their cause. 
 
 I paid no attention to this malevolence ; for in the following 
 June, having heard that there were discontents and seditious ten- 
 dencies in my own diocese, I pursued the subject of my address, 
 in a Charge, which the clergy requested me to publish ; and in 
 August, I received, from Sir Robert Salusbury, the subjoined copy 
 of an order of the court of quarter-sessions for the county of 
 Monmouth : — 
 
 " At a general quarter-sessions of the peace, held at Usk, in 
 the county of Monmouth, before Sir Robert Salusbury, Baronet, 
 Thomas Evans, William Jenkins, William Harrison, Samuel 
 Rosser, Thomas Hooper, John Kemys, Gardner Kemys, Fowler 
 Walker, Richard Lewis, William Phillips, Esquires, and Francis 
 Davies, and John Williams, Clerks. r 
 
 " Ordered, 
 
 " That application be made by the Chairman, to the Lord 
 Bishop of Landaff, requesting His Lordship to publish his excel- 
 lent Charge to the Clergy, on his last visitation, that the Magis- 
 trates may have an opportunity of distributing it in their respective 
 neighbourhoods, as the best lesson against imbibing the delusive 
 
304 
 
 principles of French Liberty ; convinced as they are, that this 
 publication, at this particular conjuncture, will have a good effect 
 in every county as well as in this." 
 
 I thought it my duty to comply with a request so handsomely 
 made to me, and published two editions of the Charge, in the 
 latter end of the year 1798. Five years afterwards, an attention 
 to this Charge was revived, by a bookseller (without my know- 
 ledge) having published the whole, or the greatest part of it, 
 printed on a single sheet, and sold at a trifling price. On this 
 occasion, I received from a Nobleman I had very little acquaint- 
 ance with, the following letter : — 
 
 " My Lord, Piccadilly, Aug. 16. 1803. 
 
 " Though I have very little the honour of Your Lordship's 
 acquaintance, I hope that you will excuse the trouble of this 
 letter, to beg you will receive with indulgence my thanks and 
 high approbation of your most excellent Address to your Clergy. 
 My thanks and approbation would be of little value to Your 
 Lordship, but from their sincerity, if I was not sure, that I am 
 at the same time expressing the feeling and sentiments of every 
 honest and loyal person in the kingdom. I hope that your 
 Address will be universally read by all people, and every where, 
 as I am firmly persuaded it will have the greatest effect, and do 
 more good than any thing that has been said in parliament or 
 any where else, on this subject 
 
 " I am, My Lord, with the highest respect, 
 
 " Your most faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " QuEENSBERRY," 
 
305 
 
 These publications of mine had excited the displeasure of Mr. 
 Wakefield, (one of the first scholars of the age,) and, unfortu- 
 nately for himself, he published a pamphlet against them. The 
 administration prosecuted him for some expressions in his pam- 
 phlet, which they thought were seditious, and he was fined and 
 imprisoned. I took some pains to prevent this prosecution, 
 thinking the liberty of the press to be the palladium of the con- 
 stitution ; but I did not succeed in my endeavours ; nor did the 
 ministry acquire any credit from their overwatchfulness. I re- 
 ceived from Mr. Wakefield the following letter : — 
 
 « My Lord, 
 " As my trial will take place some time from the 12th to the 
 20th of next month, and Mr. Fox's Libel Bill makes these causes 
 almost wholly a question of character and veracity, it might be 
 materially serviceable to me, if, from your knowledge of me 
 through Mr. Tyrwhitt and otherwise, you were able to give a 
 favourable opinion with respect to the sincerity and conscien- 
 tiousness of my conduct in general, without any reference to 
 political and religious sentiments. Your Lordship's answer will 
 much oblige 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " Hackney, Jan. 29. 1799. " Gilbert Wakefield." 
 
 My Answer. 
 
 « Sir, Great George- Street, Jan. 31. 1799. 
 
 " I cannot think that it will be in my power, how much 
 
 soever it will be in my inclination, to serve you on your trial, 
 
 R R 
 
306 
 
 since, to the best of my knowledge, I never either saw or spoke 
 
 to you in my life. That Mr. Tyrwhitt did esteem you I know, 
 
 and I have no reason to believe that he does not continue to 
 
 esteem you ; but on this point I cannot speak with certainty, not 
 
 having seen Mr. Tyrwhitt for several years. Of one thing I am 
 
 well persuaded, that Mr. Tyrwhitt is incapable of esteeming any 
 
 man whose moral character will not bear the strictest scrutiny. I 
 
 join with the world in admiring your talents : I have not the 
 
 shadow of ill-will to you on account of your attack on my 
 
 pamphlet, and shall sincerely rejoice at your being extricated 
 
 from your present difficulty. 
 
 " I am your obedient servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In January, 1799, I received from the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury a paper which had been sent to him by Mr. Pitt, and was 
 desired to deliver my opinion on the subject. The paper con- 
 tained a plan for the sale of the tithe of the country, on the same 
 principle that the land-tax had been offered for sale in the pre- 
 ceding session of parliament. It was proposed, that the money 
 arising from the sale of the tithe should be vested in the funds 
 in aid of public credit, and the clergy were to receive their 
 income from the funds ; the income, however, was not to be a 
 fixed income which could never be augmented, but was to be so 
 adjusted as, at different periods, to admit an increase according 
 to the advance in the price of grain. This plan was not intro- 
 duced into parliament : it met, I believe, with private opposition 
 from the bishops, though I own it had my approbation ; but that 
 approbation was founded on very different principles from that of 
 
307 
 
 aiding public credit ; I did not indeed clearly see how, if the full 
 value was given for the tithe, that credit would be assisted thereby. 
 I remember having said to Mr. Arthur Young on the occasion, 
 that I for one never would give my consent, and that I thought 
 the houses of parliament never would give theirs to the sale of 
 the tithe, unless its full value was paid for it. " Then," said he, 
 " there is an end of the whole business ; for unless the people in 
 the west, who are now most clamorous against tithe, are allowed 
 to purchase at the price they now pay by composition, they will 
 on their knees beg Mr. Pitt to let things continue as they are." 
 I sent to the Archbishop the following observations on the pro- 
 posed plan, to be communicated to Mr. Pitt : — 
 
 " The Bishop of Landaff is of opinion, that an income arising 
 from the funds will neither be so permanently secure, nor so inde~ 
 pendent, as one arising from tithe. 
 
 " He is further of opinion, that the proposed change will much 
 augment the influence of the Crown ; which augmentation, he 
 conceives, will be ultimately ruinous alike to the just prerogative 
 of the Crown, and the liberty of the subject. 
 
 " Notwithstanding these distant and contingent dangers, he 
 approves of the plan, on the ground of its tendency to amend 
 the morals of the people, by extinguishing the discontents often 
 subsisting between the clergy and their parishioners, on account of 
 tithes, and on the principle of its promoting the agriculture of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 " He considers the particulars of the plan as well arranged in 
 general ; but he thinks that a fair valuation of the great and 
 small tithes of each living should be made by proper commis- 
 
 r r 2 
 
308 
 
 sioners ; apprehending that the mode adopted, when enclosures 
 are made, is not applicable to lands now in tillage, and destitute 
 of commons. 
 
 " He does not see that the abolition of tithes, on the enclosures 
 of commons, [in futuro,) is taken into consideration. 
 
 " He wishes that some provision might be made for the reco- 
 very of tithes which are now due by law, though the right to 
 them may not, for various reasons, have yet been prosecuted. 
 
 " He is desirous that the following points may be ascertained, 
 before the measure is submitted to parliament : — 
 
 " 1st, What number of parishes in the kingdom are now en- 
 tirely exempted from the tithe of corn and hay ? 
 
 " 2d, In what number of parishes, subject to the afore-men- 
 tioned tithes, are the tithes in the possession of the parochial 
 clergy f 
 
 " 3d, In what number of parishes, subject to the afore-men- 
 tioned tithes, are the tithes in the possession of spiritual or lay 
 corporations ?" 
 
 I heard no more of this matter. If ever it is resumed, it will 
 be proper to obtain accurate answers to the three questions here 
 proposed, that it may appear how small a part of the grievance of 
 tithes is attributable to the parochial clergy. In the answer to 
 the petitions which were exhibited to parliament and Cromwell, 
 for the taking away of tithes in 1652, it is said — " There are in 
 England and Wales 9,725 parishes ; and, though the one half of 
 these rectories were not appropriated as to the number, yet cer- 
 tainly as to the yearly values, the ministers at this day have not 
 one half of the profits of the tithes of corn and grain." 
 
309 
 
 If acts of parliament for enclosing commons and open fields 
 go on for twenty years more, as they have done for twenty years 
 past, the grievance of tithe will be almost wholly done away ; as 
 in these acts the lay and spiritual owners of tithes generally 
 acquiesce in receiving a portion of land in lieu of their right 
 of tithe. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth, Aug. 25. 1798. 
 
 " It made me happy to hear that your Bath expedition was 
 become unnecessary for you at present, and I hope it will be 
 many years before it will be requisite for you to have recourse to 
 the waters there. You know what a sad infidel I am with respect 
 to medicine in general, and cannot therefore suppose that I place 
 any more confidence in mineral than in elementary water, though 
 I do place a little more in both than in half the drugs of the 
 Materia Medica. 
 
 " I can have no backwardness in submitting to Your Grace's 
 consideration my sentiments on the state of Ireland, or on any 
 other subject ; but I really think so little of politics, that I am 
 quite unfit to give a judgment on what ought to be done ; I will 
 throw out, however, what occurs to me on the subject. 
 
 " The government, in my opinion, has acted wisely in adopt- 
 ing vigorous and speedy measures for quelling the rebellion, 
 which their own impolitic conduct towards that kingdom had 
 principally occasioned. The amnesty has my entire approbation, 
 and it ought to be followed by an extensive lenity towards those 
 who may be tried and found guilty. But this is not all which 
 
310 
 
 ought to be done; the real grievances of the Irish should be 
 liberally redressed. 
 
 "If the tithes of that country must still remain with the Pro- 
 testant clergy, the Catholic clergy should be paid from the public 
 treasure, that their maintenance may not be a burden to indivi- 
 duals of that religious persuasion. The Catholic clergy being 
 thus rendered respectable, both they and the Protestant clergy 
 should be compelled to residence, as a mean of civilising the 
 inhabitants of the country. Neither of these two persuasions 
 should be permitted to tyrannise over the other, nor be encou- 
 raged in making proselytes, except by their examples of piety, 
 courtesy, and benevolence. 
 
 " As to granting the elective franchise to Catholics, and per- 
 mitting persons of that religion to sit in parliament, I should 
 have no hesitation on that subject, could I be convinced that the 
 Catholic church would not, if it were the dominant church, be a 
 persecuting church. This apprehension affects my mind ; yet I 
 am often inclined to think that, whatever foundation there may 
 be for it in the history of former times, it is at present a ground- 
 less apprehension with respect to the enlightened part of the 
 Irish Catholics. It would be a long time, moreover, before the 
 Catholics would acquire a majority in either House of Parliament; 
 so long indeed, that Popery itself will, according to my ex- 
 pectation, be extinguished before that period should arrive. I 
 would therefore, every thing considered, grant at the present 
 conjuncture a complete emancipation to the Irish Catholics, and 
 restore them to all the rights of citizenship. This is as much 
 perhaps as the times will bear, but it is not all that I wish to be 
 done. Our connection with Ireland must, at all events, be pre- 
 
311 
 
 served, lest she should become connected with some other power. 
 
 There are three ways in which that connection may be imagined 
 
 to be formed. Our present connection is better known to Your 
 
 Grace than to me ; you know better than I do, whether the 
 
 cabinet of Great Britain does or does not guide the cabinet of 
 
 Ireland in every measure of importance ; if it does not, Ireland 
 
 is, as to us, an independent country, and our connection with it 
 
 is similar to our connection with Hanover. Another mode of 
 
 connection might be the treating Ireland as a conquered country ; 
 
 this, notwithstanding the provocation we have received, will not 
 
 I hope be thought of. A third, and what I esteem the most 
 
 beneficial mode of connection for both countries, would be a 
 
 legislative union. I remember the having suggested this to the 
 
 Duke of Rutland, when he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; in 
 
 his answer he agreed with me in the principle, but said that 
 
 whoever should attempt such a thing in Ireland would be tarred 
 
 and feathered. The temper of the Irish may since that time be 
 
 changed, and their late calamities may have convinced them, that 
 
 an union with Great Britain, on liberal political terms, would 
 
 do more to tranquillise and to aggrandise their country, than all 
 
 the systems of corruption which a few rapacious individuals may 
 
 have formed for them. " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to the Earl of Galloway. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " Your Lordship's letter gave me great satisfaction, for I feel 
 peculiar pleasure when I see men of distinction in the state in 
 
312 
 
 earnest in their religion. Mr. Colquhoun's book exhibits a sad 
 picture of human depravity; a little, I think, in some parts 
 overcharged, but though it may be softened, it will still remain 
 hideous. 
 
 " The manners of a people have an intimate connection with 
 their riches ; where these abound, it is not in the power of penal 
 laws, how well soever they may be administered, to stop the 
 torrent of sensuality and debauchery. The bad example set by 
 those who possess great wealth, induces every man to wish for 
 similar indulgences ; these cannot be honestly procured ; and, 
 being earnestly sought after, recourse is had to rapine and fraud 
 in a thousand shapes. 
 
 " I wish it were in my power to suggest the proper means of 
 mending mankind, and Your Lordship deserves great praise for 
 having thought of a plan for that purpose. You are aware, I 
 presume, that a society for the reformation of manners was 
 established in the beginning of this century, which came to 
 nothing. Another society of the same kind was established 
 about ten or twelve years ago, and is still subsisting in London. 
 An account of their proceedings has been published, but I am a 
 stranger to its success, though I was a member of it for some 
 time, and only withdrew my name from an opinion (perhaps an 
 ill-formed one) of its inefficacy. 
 
 " I hope and believe that there are more men of piety and 
 benevolence in this country than in any other equal part of 
 Europe, but this excellence of character is found more abund- 
 antly in the middle class of life than in either the very rich or 
 the very poor. 
 
313 
 
 " I hope to reach London before the end of next month, 
 and shall be happy to converse with you on the subject of your 
 letter, being with the greatest esteem, 
 
 " Your faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Richard Landaff. 
 « December 10th, 1799." 
 
 On the 11th of April, 1799, I made the following speech in the 
 House of Lords, respecting an union with Ireland, — a subject 
 which I had many years before warmly recommended to the 
 consideration of the minister: — 
 
 « My Lords, 
 " In rising to deliver my opinion on a subject which has 
 already been illustrated by the eloquence and exhausted by the 
 wisdom of some of the ablest speakers in this and in the other 
 House of Parliament, in this and in another kingdom, I cannot 
 but feel an apprehension lest I should be considered by Your 
 Lordships in the unfavourable light of a man unnecessarily vex- 
 ing the reluctant ear with a dull repetition, as it were, of a thrice- 
 told tale. But my heart is so much in this business, and my 
 mind has been so long accustomed to contemplate it, as an object 
 of the first political importance, that I must entreat Your Lord- 
 ships' indulgence whilst I explain my sentiments upon it. I will 
 do this as briefly and as clearly as I can. When the late Duke 
 of Rutland, whose memory will be ever dear to me, was Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, he honoured me with his confidence, and 
 conversed with me on many subjects, of political importance. 
 
 s s 
 
314 
 
 The Irish propositions, as they were called, were then under dis- 
 cussion. I own they had my approbation, though they were, pro- 
 perly enough, ultimately abandoned, on the ground of their not 
 being acceptable to the Irish nation. In writing to him about that 
 time, I perfectly well remember having said, 6 You and your 
 friend the minister of England would immortalise your characters, 
 if, instead of a mere commercial arrangement, you could accom- 
 plish, by honourable means and on equitable terms, a legislative 
 union between the two kingdoms.' His answer to this suggestion 
 was so singular that I shall never forget it ; it was to this effect : i — 
 He wholly approved of the measure; but added, the man who 
 should attempt to carry the measure into execution would be 
 tarred and feathered. Whether this repugnance to an union was, 
 at that time, the general sentiment of the Irish nation, or, which 
 I suspect, of a few leading individuals in that country, I have no 
 means of ascertaining, nor is it now of any use to enquire. I 
 have mentioned this circumstance to show to Your Lordships, 
 that the opinion which I mean this day to deliver on this great 
 subject is not an opinion rashly or recently taken . up, in conse- 
 quence of the late occurrences in Ireland, (though I am ready to. 
 own that those occurrences have very much strengthened me in 
 the propriety of the opinion,) but it is an opinion deliberately 
 formed many years ago, when the mind was neither heated by 
 resentment against rebellion, nor disturbed by the apprehension 
 of danger, and when I was much more in the habit of consider-, 
 ing such subjects than I have been of late years. 
 
 " My life, My Lords, from seventeen to sixty-one, has been 
 pleasantly, and, I hope, not unprofitably, spent in the pursuit of 
 knowledge, and in abstract reasoning on a variety of topics. I 
 
315 
 
 have occasionally and incidentally reasoned on political subjects ; 
 but this, I presume, may be forgiven to a churchman, who, at 
 this advanced period of his age, can boldly and honestly declare, 
 in the hearing of Your Lordships and in the face of his country, 
 that all his political speculations were ever founded on what 
 appeared to him the broad basis of public utility, and ever pro- 
 ceeded from an unbiassed mind ; and, on the present occasion, I 
 feel that my mind is as unbiassed as that of any gentleman either 
 in Great Britain or Ireland. 
 
 " There are many, I am sensible, in both countries, who 
 understand this subject, in all its relations and dependencies, 
 better than I do : but I am not ignorant of it ; I have not thought 
 of it slightly ; I at least understand enough of it to enable me to 
 form for my own guidance, (which is all I aim at,) not an ob- 
 scure, not an hesitating, but a clear and determined judgment ; 
 and, having formed such a judgment, I will not be deterred from 
 declaring it on account of its unpopularity in a country, for 
 whose interests I have always cherished a serious and sincere 
 concern. My opinion then is this, — that a cordial union will be 
 much more advantageous to Ireland than it will be to Great 
 Britain, but that it will be eminently useful to both countries. 
 If I were to express my sentiments of the utility of an union 
 in few words, I would say, that an union will enrich Ireland; that 
 it will not impoverish Great Britain : that it will render the empire, 
 as to defence, the strongest empire in Europe. 
 
 " The strength of every state principally depends on the num- 
 ber of its people. The lands of Great Britain and Ireland, if 
 cultivated to their full extent — to the extent, if this measure takes 
 place, they will be in half a century — would support a population 
 
 s s 2 
 
316 
 
 of thirty millions at least. Thirty millions of people would afford 
 five or six millions of men able to bear arms ; and either five or 
 six millions of men able to bear arms would afford, when occasion 
 should require, one million of men in arms, without distressing 
 either the agriculture, the manufactures, or the commerce of the 
 -country : but with a million of men in arms, with insular situ- 
 ations, with a free constitution, with united hearts, what could 
 <jJreat Britain or Ireland have to fear from the combined aggres- 
 sion of all Europe ? We might then be more indifferent than we 
 could hitherto prudently have been to continental politics ; we 
 might then suffer the princes of the continent to settle their own 
 disputes, without our throwing our men or money into any scale, 
 to preserve that equilibrium of despotic power which, as free and 
 happy subjects of a limited monarchy, we cannot but wish, for 
 the interests of humanity, had no existence any where. 
 
 " Having expressed my general approbation of the general 
 measure, I might proceed to a regular discussion of several ques- 
 tions connected with it : but I will not do this ; they are ques- 
 tions of too delicate a nature, and of too difficult investigation, 
 to have any justice done to them within the compass of a short 
 debate. I will mention two or three of them. 
 
 "It is certainly a question of magnitude, on which wise and 
 good men may differ, Whether the present parliament of Ireland 
 has or has not a right to vote its own extinction ? and if this be 
 a question with respect to Ireland, a similar one applies to Great 
 Britain, Whether the present parliament of Great Britain has or 
 has not a right to accede to an union? A volume might be 
 written on this subject, and the question would still remain unde- 
 cided, unless the principle on which it must be argued was pre- 
 
317 
 
 viously settled, unless a previous question was determined ; and 
 the previous question appears to me to be this, What is the 
 quantum of power, what the quality of trust confided consti- 
 tutionally by the constituents to their representatives in parlia- 
 ment ? On this previous point men are not likely to come to 
 any unanimity of opinion : but on an agreement on this point 
 depends the decision of parliamentary rights and parliamentary 
 competency. Some men dislike all discussion of competency 
 and rights : I cannot agree with them ; right and obligation are 
 correlative terms ; and unless we understand what is right, how 
 can we understand our obligation not to do wrong ? 
 
 " There is another question of high importance, Whether the 
 Roman Catholics in Ireland, being a great majority of the people, 
 have or have not a right to some ecclesiastical establishment, 
 and to the removal of all civil disabilities ? This question be- 
 comes more perplexed, as to both parts of it, but especially as to 
 the former part of it, than at the first view it may appear to any 
 one to be, when it is considered that the property, by which such 
 an establishment must be maintained, is principally in the hands 
 of a small minority of the people, who will not receive any direct 
 and immediate benefit from such an establishment. Whenever 
 this question is agitated, and the sooner perhaps it is agitated 
 and settled the better, I hope it will be remembered, that nothing 
 can be expedient to be done which it is not just and lawful to do ; 
 but that many things may be right, just, and lawful to be done, 
 which may not, politically speaking, be expedient to be done. 
 And to Protestants and Catholics I would recommend the advice 
 pf an ancient father of the church, who, in composing the ani- 
 mosities of contending religious parties, counselled each side to 
 
318 
 
 give up little things, that both sides might obtain great things, — 
 peace, tranquillity, and concord. 
 
 " There is a third question more important, if possible, than 
 either of the other two ; and of so difficult a nature, that the 
 most prospective wisdom of the most consummate statesman 
 cannot decide upon it with any degree of certainty ; Whether the 
 British constitution will or will not undergo some change ; and, 
 if any, what change, from the introduction of Irish members into 
 our two Houses of Parliament ? On these and similar questions, 
 as well as on commercial advantages and disadvantages attend- 
 ing an union, . I could speak at some length ; but I purposely 
 decline entering into detail on any of them ; and I do this, partly 
 from thinking that this is not the proper time for such discussion, 
 partly from a persuasion that those to whom this great matter 
 will be intrusted do not stand in need of my advice on any point, 
 and principally from my dislike to appearing forward in obtruding 
 my political speculations on the attention of the House, having 
 no ambition whatever to affect the character of a statesman, — a 
 character, indeed, when wisely and honourably sustained, of the 
 highest importance to human happiness, but which does not befit 
 a retired and unconnected churchman, who wishes to spend the 
 remainder of his days in contemplations of quite a different 
 tendency. 
 
 " On the subject of the union, as far as it respects Ireland, 
 three different opinions have been adopted in that country. The 
 first is the opinion of those who think that an union with Great 
 Britain is the most probable and effectual means of securing, of 
 enlarging, and rendering permanent the prosperity of Ireland. 
 Whatever may be the numbers, character, or situation of the 
 
319 
 
 persons who entertain this opinion, I have no scruple in saying 
 that I concur in sentiment with them. A second opinion is, 
 that British connection is, indeed, essential to Irish prosperity, 
 but that British union will be destructive of that prosperity. 
 This opinion has been supported by men of such approved inte- 
 grity, and of such acknowledged ability, by men every way so 
 respectable, that I suspect my own faculties of reasoning when I 
 presume to differ from them. In an ordinary mode of reasoning, 
 one would say that if British connection is essential to Irish 
 prosperity, then the closer that connection is, the greater will be 
 that prosperity ; this I say, My Lords, would be an ordinary in- 
 ference, unless it could be shown that the connection, when it has 
 approached to a certain degree of proximity, changes at once its 
 nature; like some physical powers which are attractive to a cer- 
 tain distance, and then become repulsive. The present bond of 
 connection between the two kingdoms is that of their having the 
 same King ; the proposed bond is that of their having the same 
 legislature. How slight the former bond is, has been so fully 
 shown by a noble Secretary, in a former debate on this subject, 
 that I will not say one word upon it : but surely it requires no 
 depth of argumentation to apprehend that if a connection with a 
 third part of a legislature be useful, one with the whole legislature 
 will be abundantly more useful ; for the first is liable to be ob- 
 structed in its efficiency, or wholly destroyed, by many foreseen 
 and many unforeseen circumstances : but the last can meet with 
 no impediment in its operation, and can only be destroyed by, 
 what can never be taken into deliberation, a dissolution of the 
 government itself. 
 
• 
 
 320 
 
 " But it is probable that I do not perfectly understand what is 
 meant by the terms British Connection ; and there is no greater 
 source of error in reasoning, than the using terms without annex- 
 ing to them definite ideas. 
 
 " Is it then meant by British connection, on which Irish pros- 
 perity is said to depend, that the trade and manufactures of Great 
 Britain are to be crippled in operation, and limited in extent, in 
 order that those of Ireland may be invigorated and enlarged ? — 
 No ; the Irish are too liberal a people, to have formed so selfish 
 an expectation. Is it meant by British connection, that the lands 
 and property of Great Britain are to be mortgaged to the last 
 guinea in building, equipping, and maintaining fleets for the pro- 
 tection of the coasts and the commerce of Ireland ? No ; the 
 Irish are too just a people to desire that Great Britain should 
 make so dear a sacrifice. Is it meant by British connection, that 
 when Ireland shall have become rich and powerful, and shall 
 have established a beneficial commerce with Holland, Spain, 
 France, or any other country, and Great Britain having declared 
 war against any of those countries, is it meant that Ireland shall 
 be at liberty to remain at peace, and to prosecute her commercial 
 advantages, leaving Great Britain to fight her own battles ? No ; 
 Ireland is too wise a nation not to see, that this conduct would be 
 a direct separation. What then can be meant by British con- 
 nection, except this ; — that Great Britain and Ireland shall for 
 ever have the same friends and the same foes ; that they shall 
 have a common strength ; that this common strength shall be 
 supported by a common purse, to which each shall contribute 
 according to its ability; that this common strength shall be 
 directed by a coincidence, or rather by an identity of councils ; 
 
321 
 
 that Great Britain shall make no laws injurious to Ireland, nor 
 Ireland any injurious to Great Britain ; that there shall be no 
 commercial jealousies, but a constant reciprocation of benefits; 
 in a word, that Great Britain and Ireland shall be like the two 
 arms of the body, never disposed to quarrel with and beat each 
 other, but always ready to unite their efforts in defence of that 
 common body from which both derive their strength and vigour. 
 If all this is meant by British connection, I see not that it differs, 
 except in name and efficiency, from British union ; and if less 
 than this is meant, British connection will be destitute of that 
 stability which is necessary to secure the permanency of Irish 
 prosperity. 
 
 " The third opinion which prevails in Ireland on this subject, 
 says, that British connection and British union are equally and 
 irreconcileably hostile to the interests of Ireland. This opinion 
 may, for aught I know, have been privately entertained by some 
 individuals for many years ; but it has not, till lately, been pub- 
 licly avowed. I am not disposed to call every man a rebel and a 
 traitor, who maintains this opinion as a speculative opinion ; but 
 let who will maintain it, I must say that it is a preposterous opi- 
 nion, that it is not supported by any experience derived from 
 the history of nations, that it is not bottomed on any know- 
 ledge of human nature, and that it is wholly devoid of that 
 first feature of political wisdom — foresight. 
 
 " I will speak my whole mind on this point. Ireland, as a 
 graft inserted into the stock of the British empire, may throw out 
 branches in every direction, and bear fruit on every twig ; but if 
 you separate it from this connection, and plant it in a soil by 
 itself, it will neither strike root downwards, nor bear fruit upwards, 
 
 T T 
 
322 
 
 for an hundred years, though it should be left to itself, free from 
 the annoyance of its neighbours. But this Irish graft cannot be 
 left to itself; it will either be stunted and overshadowed by the 
 mighty branching of the British oak, or it will be poisoned by the 
 pestilential exhalations of the trees of liberty which France will 
 plant around it, — trees which have hitherto produced no fruit in 
 Europe or in the world, except the apples of Sodom, alluring 
 to the eye, but bitter and poisonous to the palate. Ireland 
 cannot stand alone. Would to God that there was moderation 
 and justice enough in great states, to permit lesser states to 
 enjoy their independence, and to prosecute their interests in a 
 state of separation from them : but this is a system of politics 
 more to be wished than expected in the present condition of 
 Christian morality. Ireland cannot stand alone ; she must of 
 necessity be connected ; nay, she must for her own safety, in the 
 present convulsed state of European politics, in the present pro- 
 gress of strange political opinions, be united either to Great 
 Britain or France. She is not, indeed, at liberty to make her 
 choice, without withdrawing that allegiance, which the wisest and 
 best men in Ireland have not, I am convinced, any disposition to 
 withdraw ; but if she were unfettered by any bond of connection, 
 at full liberty to make a choice, is there a man in all Ireland, of 
 a good heart and a cool head, who could hesitate in preferring an 
 union with Great Britain to one with France ? United with 
 Great Britain, Ireland will soon become a lusty, well-looking, 
 well-fed limb of the British body politic ; united with France, she 
 would be a withered, shrivelled, palsied, starved excrescence, 
 which might be cut off and thrown aside, whenever interest or 
 caprice should render a separation necessary. 
 
323 
 
 " I foresee, with great satisfaction, the time when, if this 
 union takes place, the whole state of Ireland will be changed. 
 The overflowing of British capital will, on a peace, instead of 
 finding its way into France or America, settle in Ireland. It 
 will, in time, convert the bogs of that country into corn-fields ; 
 it will cover its barren mountains with forests ; it will dig its 
 mines, cut its canals, erect its fabrics, explore new channels of 
 commerce, and improve the old ones ; in a word, by supplying 
 labour, it will render the people industrious, enlightened, con- 
 tented, and happy. I, My Lords, shall not live to see the effects 
 of this measure, for great objects do not attain their full perfec- 
 tion at once ; but our posterity will see them, and will have cause 
 to bless the enlarged policy of two legislatures, which, rising 
 superior to petty jealousies ; which, sacrificing partial interests on 
 the altar of general safety, have coalesced into one, for the 
 benefit of both. 
 
 . " But though I am, on the most dispassionate grounds, a sin- 
 cere friend to an union, I am no friend to its being accomplished, 
 except by the most just and honourable means. An union parti- 
 cipates in the nature of a contract ; or, to speak more properly, 
 it is a contract of the highest kind. Now, it is of the essence of 
 every contract, that there should be the free consent of the con- 
 tracting parties, founded on a cool and comprehensive view of the 
 subject, and on a persuasion of the utility to be derived there- 
 from. Ireland does not yet seem to be persuaded of the utility 
 which she will derive from this union ; nor has Ireland (if I may 
 be allowed to say so without giving offence, and I certainly do 
 not mean to give any,) yet, I think, taken a cool and compre- 
 hensive view of the subject : at all events, she does not yet seem 
 
 t t 2 
 
324 
 
 disposed to become a party to the contract. Under such circum- 
 stances, the contract cannot, in my opinion, be fairly entered 
 into. What, then, is to be done ? Precisely that which Great 
 Britain is doing ; and is, I trust, prepared to do. Great Britain 
 is giving time to Ireland to consider this subject in all its bear- 
 ings ; and Great Britain is, I trust, prepared to say, if not by 
 words, to say by actions, to her sister-kingdom, — Be persuaded, 
 that, in proposing this measure, I have not been actuated by any 
 selfish, insidious, or oppressive views ; be assured, that in 
 prosecuting what has been proposed, I have no point to carry 
 but what will be full as useful to Ireland as to Great Britain : 
 conscious of the integrity of my intention, and convinced of the 
 utility of the measure, had I the means of influencing the parlia- 
 ment of Ireland to a corrupt approbation of it, I would, on this 
 occasion, disdain to use them. I will not tamper with the con- 
 science ; I will not attempt to undermine the public probity, or 
 to assail the personal independence of any individual in Ireland. 
 I do not wish any man, on either side of the water, to support 
 this measure from a principle of gratitude for favours received, 
 much less from a principle of expectation of favours to be con- 
 ferred ; but, on the other hand, I must deprecate all opposition 
 to it, originating in local prejudices, partial consideration, indi- 
 vidual interest ; or, in what is least deserving the attention of a 
 wise man, a desire of popular applause. All I wish is, that the 
 subject may be fully and intelligently examined, deliberately dis- 
 cussed, and decided freely. Great Britain may not, perhaps, be 
 able to approve the wisdom of the decision, but she knows how 
 to respect the independence of the sister-kingdom, and will acqui- 
 esce in the decision, be it what it may. Such, My Lords, I 
 
325 
 
 humbly think, is the language, such the conduct which Great 
 Britain should use; and which, if we may judge from what has 
 been said in this House concerning free consent, she is disposed 
 to use towards Ireland. It is a conduct conformable to the eternal 
 rules of immutable justice ; it is suited to the magnanimity of this 
 great nation ; it is calculated to conciliate the affections, and to 
 rivet the regard of the high-spirited indeed, but at the same time 
 of the warm-hearted people of Ireland. 
 
 " I have detained Your Lordships too long, and in doing so, 
 I have probably done as much violence to my own feelings as to 
 your patience ; for I do^ feel a daily increasing reluctance to the 
 mingling in public political debate. But this great subject has 
 compelled me to come forward. I perceive that every thing 
 which is dear to us as individuals, as fathers of families, as 
 members of civil society, is at stake. The wild ambition of 
 France supported on the right hand by the annihilating doctrines 
 of Epicurus, supported on the left by the wicked hopes of the 
 idle and the profligate, to rise to distinction by public confusion, 
 and every where assisted, except in this happy country, by forms 
 of government more or less arbitrary and oppressive, to which 
 the mass of the people can feel little attachment ; this ambition, 
 thus supported, thus assisted, is stalking like a desolating fiend 
 throughout the earth, and wherever it puts its iron foot it 
 crushes, with undistinguished ruin, all orders of men, and levels 
 with the ground every civil, every ecclesiastical constitution. 
 
 . " When I view this monster at a distance, I contemplate it 
 with abhorrence ; its nearer approach, if it must approach nearer, 
 I shall view, not without anxiety, but without despondency. The 
 good providence of God may, and I trust it will, and unless the 
 
326 
 
 sins of the nation obstruct its influence, we may be certain that it 
 will defend us from the enemy ; but no human means (I speak 
 in the sincerity of my heart), no human means can be devised 
 more suited to this end than a liberal, cordial, legislative union 
 between Great Britain and Ireland." 
 
 When I sat down, the Bishop of Rochester (Horseley) com- 
 plimented me with saying, that he had never heard such a 
 speech in the House of Lords, and should never hear such 
 another. I could not but be pleased with having extorted, as it 
 were, this praise from a man who did not like me; but the 
 satisfaction which I received from the Bishop's commendation 
 was far inferior to that, which the following note from Dr. Joseph 
 Warton gave me, to whom I was very little known : — 
 
 " My Lord, Nerot's Hotel, April 13. 1799. 
 
 ' " Though I feel very strongly the impertinence and impro- 
 priety I am guilty of, yet I cannot restrain myself from expres- 
 sing the great satisfaction and pleasure I have received from 
 reading Your Lordship's most eloquent, nervous, convincing, and 
 unaswerable speech on the Union with Ireland. Happy it would 
 be for us if Your Lordship's counsels and opinions were always 
 followed and put in execution. I must entreat you to forgive the 
 freedom of these few lines, 
 
 " And am, with the greatest respect and regard, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 " Jos. Warton." 
 
327 
 
 Though the colouring of this compliment is, I am sensible, 
 overcharged, yet, I should belie my feelings if I did not own that 
 it gave me great pleasure ; for Dr. Joseph Warton was a scholar, 
 and not only a scholar but a man of taste, and not only a scholar 
 and a man of taste, but what, at that time, was a rare character, 
 indeed, a genuine whig. 
 
 In a few days after I had made this speech, I set forward into 
 Westmoreland. Whilst I was on the road Lord Grenville brought 
 to the Bar of the House of Lords, one Flower of Cambridge, 
 for having been guilty of a breach of privilege, in publishing 
 something against my speech ; what that something was I never 
 deigned to enquire. The punishment inflicted by the House 
 was, as I remember, imprisonment for six months, and a fine of 
 100/. I sent the following letter to Lord Grenville on the occa- 
 sion ; for I thought myself the more obliged to him as I had no 
 acquaintance with His Lordship, and was wholly ignorant that I 
 had been the object of Mr. Flower's abuse : — 
 
 " My Lord, Calgarth Park, Kendal, May 10th, 1799. 
 
 " I yesterday learned from the newspapers what has passed in 
 the House of Lords relative to Mr. Flower. I am sensible that 
 Your Lordship has taken up this matter from your great atten- 
 tion to the public service ; yet I must beg you to allow me the 
 liberty of returning you my thanks for the protection which you 
 have thereby afforded to myself. 
 
 (e I am an utter stranger to the person and character of 
 Mr. Flower, and wholly ignorant of the magnitude of his of- 
 fence ; I cannot therefore, with propriety, interfere in soliciting 
 
328 
 
 a mitigation of punishment ; but if any application should be 
 made to the House for that purpose, I will trouble Your Lord- 
 ship to say, that the Bishop of LandafF, as an individual, will 
 feel much more satisfaction in forgiving the man's malignity than 
 in avenging it. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Lord Grenvilles Answer, dated Dropmore, May 14. 1799. 
 
 « My Lord, 
 " I was this morning honoured with Your Lordship's obliging 
 letter. In the instance to which it relates, I have only discharged 
 a public duty, but it was with pleasure that I availed myself of 
 the occasion to express my respect for the character of a person, 
 whose exertions in the defence of religion are, I am persuaded, 
 the real cause of the scandalous and unprovoked calumnies 
 against him. If any application is made to the House in behalf 
 of Mr. Flower, I will not fail to obey Your Lordship's com- 
 mands. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " Grenville." 
 
 The union with Ireland took place in the following year, but I 
 spoke no more in parliament on that subject. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury had asked my opinion relative to the church of Ire- 
 land, and I sent to him the following letter, dated Great George- 
 Street, 5th March, 1800 : — 
 
329 
 
 <c My Lord Archbishop, 
 
 " 1 think the act of parliament proposed by the Archbishop 
 of Cashell and Dr. Duigenan to be wholly unnecessary ; but I 
 approve of the addition to the fifth article suggested by the 
 Lord Lieutenant. I approve, however, of this addition merely 
 as it may tend to conciliate those who seem to entertain appre- 
 hensions for the security of the Irish Church, and not as thinking 
 it in any degree requisite for that end, which is in no degree en- 
 dangered by the union. 
 
 " An united convocation will sufficiently unite the churches 
 of England and Ireland, both at present, and as to all future 
 changes, if it should ever be thought expedient to make any ; 
 and as to identification, the churches are at present identified, 
 not only in the leading principles of Protestantism and Episco- 
 pacy, but in doctrine, discipline, and worship ; or if in any of 
 these points there should be a little difference, I see not the 
 utility of aiming at a perfect coincidence in them ; and I dread 
 the discussion of matters, in themselves, probably, not essential 
 to Christianity, and likely to produce religious dissensions be- 
 tween the two kingdoms. 
 
 " Above all things, I wish the Church of England to forbear 
 affecting a superiority over that of Ireland, by attempting to ob- 
 tain an appellant jurisdiction for the See of Canterbury. 
 
 " Your Grace, I hope, will pardon the freedom of these re- 
 marks, on account of the sincerity with which they are made. 
 I am very anxious that no obstacles should be thrown in the way 
 of the union from any quarter ; and I fear some dissatisfaction 
 may arise in the hearts of the bishops and clergy of Ireland, if 
 we do not leave their church entirely to their own management, 
 
 u u 
 
330 
 
 and as much as possible in the precise state in which it now 
 stands. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Extract of a letter to the Duke of Grafton, to whom I had shoivn 
 
 an Essay on Original Sin. 
 
 " Your Grace puts me in mind of the Essay on Original Sin, 
 I certainly have it some-where, but know not where to look for 
 it. I will endeavour to find it, and to make it less unworthy 
 Your Grace's inspection. I have said that I will endeavour to 
 find it, but this endeavour will depend on my mind again re- 
 ceiving a bent towards such enquiries. I once had determined 
 to write some essays on theological subjects ; but I detest con- 
 tention, and I soon perceived that the freedom of my researches 
 would expose me to much censure, and involve me in most un- 
 charitable altercation with the ignorant, the intolerant, and the 
 orthodox. At an earlier period of life I should not have re- 
 gretted these consequences ; but as we grow old, we grow fond 
 of peace, and unwillingly engage in pursuits likely to disturb 
 our tranquillity. I am moreover so entirely occupied in pro- 
 viding for my family, by improving the few estates I have 
 bought, that I have not leisure to become learned ; and to write 
 on any subject without going to the bottom of it, would be dis- 
 honourable to myself, and useless to the public. 
 
 " I have explained clearly enough what sort of union with Ire- 
 land it is that I wish for, and have no doubt of such an union 
 being in the highest degree useful to both countries. I may be 
 
331 
 
 mistaken in this judgment, but I have yet heard no reasons which 
 induce me to change it. There occur, however, so many contin- 
 gencies in all political concerns, that I am apt to suspect my own 
 speculation on such points, and am not very eager in giving credit 
 to the foresight of other men. As to reform, I wish it may be 
 accomplished, but I am not authorised, either by the history of 
 this country, or of any other that I ever read of, to expect that 
 a rich and corrupted state will ever be reformed without being 
 revolutionised, and a revolution is not, I believe, the wish of the 
 best friends of a reform. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In May, 1800, when there was a Bill before the House of Lords, 
 to prevent persons convicted of the crime of adultery from inter- 
 marrying with each other, I received a very serious and sensible 
 letter, from a gentleman, with whom I had no acquaintance, re- 
 commending it to me to write a tract, investigating the cause of 
 the prevalence of the crime of adultery in the present age, and 
 requesting me to inform him whether I would think of adopting 
 the hint he had given. 1 thought the subject too important to 
 be superficially treated, and had no inclination to enter deeply 
 into it, and therefore merely sent him the subjoined note: — 
 
 « Sir, Calgarth Park, May 17. 1800. 
 
 " I return you thanks for the flattering manner in which you 
 
 are pleased to express yourself concerning my feeble endeavours 
 
 in the service of religion and morality, and at the same time 
 
 u u 2 - . >j 
 
332 
 
 inform you that 1 have no thoughts of writing on the subject you 
 mention. « 
 
 " The morals of all nations have been ruined by their riches, 
 and Great Britain will not escape the usual catastrophe. Luxury 
 makes men poor ; poverty combined with luxury induces men, and 
 women too, to marry, not from mutual liking and an approbation 
 of a virtuous character, but from interest. Where there is no 
 liking, there will soon be great indifference ; disgust follows indif- 
 ference ; and the silly principle that there can be nothing wrong 
 in doing what so many people do, finishes the business of matri- 
 monial felicity, and paves the way to adultery. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In 1793, I wrote the preliminary observations which are pre- 
 fixed to the agricultural report of the county of Westmore- 
 land, and intended to have written the whole report. But on 
 Mr. Pringle's being employed by the Board of Agriculture to sur- 
 vey the county, I gave up my own design, and lent him what assist- 
 ance I could. The country is indebted to Sir John Sinclair, for 
 the establishment of the Board of Agriculture ; his patriotism sug-^ 
 gested the plan, and his perseverance surmounted all the diffi- 
 culties which attended the obtaining a charter, and setting the 
 scheme afloat by becoming the first president. I was one of the 
 thirty ordinary members of the Board, and was constant in my 
 attendance at its meetings, whenever I was in London. Towards 
 the end of 1799, I received from the president a plan for estab- 
 lishing (by a company of subscribers) experimental farms in the 
 different counties, to which I sent the following answer : — 
 
333 
 
 " Dear Sir John, 
 
 " I admire the activity of your mind, which is incessantly 
 prompting you to exertions for the public good, and feel a great 
 mortification when my ideas do not perfectly coincide with yours. 
 
 " I cannot form a clear judgment as to the utility of experi- 
 mental farms, unless I knew more of the detail of conducting 
 them. But I own, in the present view I have of them, I do not 
 think they will be attended with much utility, and they certainly 
 will be attended with an enormous expense, even if managed with 
 the greatest attention and honesty ; and, if carelessly and fraudu- 
 lently managed, with much vexation and anxiety to those con- 
 cerned in their success. 
 
 " Most of the great improvements which have taken place in 
 British agriculture, within the last fifty years, have been intro- 
 duced by the nobility, gentry, and clergy of the country, under 
 their own superintendence, or that of their immediate agents. I 
 am of opinion that such men as the Duke of Bedford, Lord 
 Egremont, and others of similar dispositions and abilities, (if such 
 can be found,) in the different counties, will do more towards 
 perfecting the agriculture of the kingdom, by trying experiments 
 on their own estates, than by any experimental farms, however 
 numerous, under the direction of any Society, however enlightened. 
 [To the above names may now justly be added, those of Cook and 
 Curwen.] 
 
 " There is a great mass (to use a phrase of which you are fond) 
 of agricultural knowledge already collected in Young's works, in 
 the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and 
 Commerce, in the Bath letters and papers, in your agricultural 
 surveys, (for I must give, not the Board of Agriculture, but you, 
 
334 
 
 the merit of having formed them,) and in a great variety of 
 publications in bur own and in other languages ; but this mass is 
 an indigesta moles, it must be resolved into distinct parts, and 
 arranged under proper heads, before it can be of much use to 
 practical farmers. Till this is done, till what is certainly known 
 is distinguished from what is doubtfully conjectured, I profess I 
 do not expect much information from experimental farms, nor 
 see the possibility of conducting them with intelligence. 
 
 " There are many problems respecting the cultivation of land, 
 which do not admit a solution, because the success or the failure 
 of the experiments, which should be made in order to solve the 
 problem, depend more upon the nature of the weather, which 
 cannot be foreseen, than upon the quality of the soil or mode of 
 management. Thus from one experiment, it may appear that 
 drilling wheat is the most profitable mode of culture ; from ano- 
 ther* that dibbling it is preferable ; and from a third, that sowing 
 it broad-cast is the best, according as the season happens to be hot 
 or cold, wet or dry. 
 
 " But I perceive that I am entering into a long discussion, and 
 raising objections instead of removing them : the conclusion is, 
 that, though I do not expect much advantage from your plan, I 
 will take a share in it. As to the great men in the city supporting 
 it, if you do but exhibit the shadow of a guinea to be caught 
 an hundred years hence, they will engage in the pursuit of it ; 
 but the old proberb, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, should teach them 
 not to range beyond the field of Change- Alley. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
335 
 
 Sir John Sinclair was the first president of the Board of Agricul- 
 ture, and he was turned out of that office in a very unhandsome 
 manner. On some occasion or other he had opposed Mr. Pitt in 
 the House of Commons ; and that gentleman, on the day fixed 
 for the annual election of a president, suddenly excited a very 
 unexpected opposition ; and by sending a great many official 
 members to vote, none of whom had ever attended a single 
 meeting of the Board, Lord Somerville was elected president. I 
 know not whose disgrace was the greatest, — that of the minister 
 who planned such a miserable manoeuvre, or that of the men 
 who degraded their high stations by assisting him in the execu- 
 tion of it. A year or two after this, Lord Carrington was made 
 president ; and I was asked by him, but declined, to become a 
 vice-president. In 1800, His Lordship sent me an account of 
 the premiums which the Board offered for essays, On the best 
 means of converting certain portions of grass-land into tillage 
 without exhausting the soil, and of returning the same to grass, 
 after a certain period, in an improved state, or at least without 
 injury. This subject had been recommended to the consideration 
 of the Board by a committee of the House of Lords, who were 
 then employed in examining into the causes of the then scarcity 
 of bread-corn. I sent the following answer to this communication, 
 in hopes that His Lordship might suggest something really use- 
 ful to Mr. Pitt, with whom he was very intimate : — 
 
 " My Lord, Calgarth Park, 26th Dec. 1800. 
 
 " I will not fail to circulate the advertisements which you 
 
 have sent me, though I have no expectation of there arising in 
 
 this district any candidate for the premium which the Board of 
 
336 
 
 Agriculture has offered. The plough is seldom put into the 
 ground in Westmoreland, till moss has destroyed the herbage. 
 Artificial grasses have begun to be sown in some parts, but the 
 example is not yet generally followed. 
 
 " The Board will probably receive many essays [it did actually 
 receive above 300], and your secretary might compile from his 
 Own works, and from numerous other agricultural publications, 
 as good a one as any you will receive. Almost every point, on 
 which the Board desires information, has been repeatedly dis- 
 cussed, and experimentally decided. But I do not expect much 
 advantage to result from the publication of such essays as the 
 Board requires, however excellent they may be. They will never 
 come into the hands of the generality of farmers; they will be 
 hastily perused by a few, be soon laid on the shelf by them, and 
 be forgotten in a twelvemonth by all. 
 
 " I am glad that the Board has reserved to itself the power of 
 withholding any premium ; in my opinion it will have great 
 occasion for the discreet exercise of that power, if it would escape 
 the imputation of having (though with the most honourable 
 intention) misapplied the public money. 
 
 " Neither this, or any other country which is capable of pro- 
 ducing a sufficiency of bread-corn for its inhabitants, ought ever 
 to rely on the importation of that commodity. This reliance, 
 however, will, even in a country naturally fertile, become abso- 
 lutely necessary, when the zvages of manufacturers exceed those of 
 husbandmen ; and this is at present the case in Great Britain. 
 The high wages moreover of farming-servants, and the high 
 price of farming-utensils, are a great obstruction to tillage ; and 
 
 :{'-.■- 
 
337 
 
 have, in fact, induced thousands of farmers to turn their lands 
 from tillage to pasturage. 
 
 " That the lands of this kingdom, if they were all cultivated as 
 they might be, would maintain one third or one half more inha- 
 bitants than they do at present, is a proposition of which I have 
 no doubt; but I do doubt extremely whether, in the present 
 circumstances of the country, they will ever attain that desirable 
 degree of cultivation. 
 
 " I have heard much, and I have read much about the pro- 
 priety of passing a general enclosure bill ; but if it were passed 
 to-morrow, the present high price of labour would almost wholly 
 obstruct the bringing waste land into cultivation, and unless 
 waste lands are brought into cultivation, the enclosure of com- 
 mon fields will, as to the production of grain, do more harm 
 than good. 
 
 " Whilst we continue masters of the ocean, and whilst our 
 commerce supplies us > with foreign wealth to purchase corn in 
 foreign markets, it may seem to be a matter of indifference 
 whether we grow corn or buy corn, whether our people are 
 manufacturers or peasants. There is some truth in this position; 
 yet our security as a nation, (as far as that security is connected 
 with the feeding of the people,) ought, I think, to be bottomed 
 on a more solid foundation. 
 
 " The government, in my opinion, would well employ ten 
 millions of money, or a much larger sum, if a larger should be 
 found necessary, in bringing into cultivation every acre of waste 
 land in this kingdom and in Ireland. By cultivation I mean, 
 Tillage, Pasturage, and Plantation, I consider this as an object 
 of the very first political importance, and most deserving the 
 
 x x 
 
338 
 
 attention of the minister, and of every other enlightened states- 
 man. When our barren mountains shall be covered with firs 
 and larches, and the barrenest will grow larches, we shall have 
 deal, pitch, tar, rosin, turpentine, within ourselves, instead of 
 importing them at an enormous expense from other countries ; 
 and where food for an increased population shall be produced 
 from an increased tillage and pasturage, we may be less anxious 
 about expensive continental alliances, than either we or our ancestors 
 have been. 
 
 " The improvement here mentioned I have always had much 
 at heart ; it certainly might be made, and well and profitably 
 made ; but as I have no expectation of seeing any thing attempted 
 on a great scale, I forbear troubling either Your Lordship or 
 myself with entering into any detail on the subject. — A matter 
 of less importance than the cultivation of the waste land, yet 
 sufficiently worthy of attention, has often been the subject of my 
 consideration — the taking off the tax on coals carried coast-wise, 
 and used in burning lime. 
 
 " I do not know the exact amount of the tax, but I do know 
 that it is a great obstruction to the agriculture of the country. 
 Lime is an useful manure for most lands, but especially for waste 
 lands which are covered with heath, furze, ferns, &c If laid, in 
 proper quantities, on such lands, it changes them, without farther 
 trouble or expense, into valuable pastures ; and, if the improve- 
 ment is carried farther, these pastures become good arable land. 
 On account of the dearness of coal, many millions of tons of 
 limestone remain unburned, which, if converted into lime, would 
 be spread, with the most beneficial effect, both on productive and 
 on unproductive lands. 
 
339 
 
 " I am writing at a greater length than I intended, having no 
 wish to trouble the Board with nry speculations, but merely a 
 desire to give yourself a testimony of that esteem with which 
 I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I afterwards obtained from the Custom-House the following 
 account of the amount of the coal duties. Total amount of the 
 duties on coals exported in the year 1801, 92,552/. 18s. 2d. — 
 Total amount of the duties on coals carried coastwise, distinguish- 
 ing, 1st, the coals imported into London, and, 2d, the Out-Ports: 
 London, 387,609/. 13s. 10|d — Out-Ports, 134,404/. 9s. \d. — 
 Now if the duty should be taken off from coal used in the burning 
 of lime, supposing that duty, even with the frauds which might 
 be committed, to amount to ten or twenty thousand pounds 
 a year, the loss to the revenue would be trifling ; and much more 
 lime would be burned than is now burned, and in less than fifty 
 years some millions of acres would be brought into cultivation 
 which must, without lime, remain in the unproductive state they 
 have hitherto been ; to say nothing of the increase to the revenue 
 from the increase of barley, &c. 
 
 There has been much more conjecture and less certainty con- 
 cerning the quantity of waste land in the country, than there 
 ought to have been concerning a matter of such importance, and 
 capable of ascertainment. It is to be regretted that government 
 suffers itself to remain in ignorance on such a subject, at a time 
 when, from the state of Europe, we are peculiarly called upon 
 to rely on our own resources. Why not order every county in 
 
 x x 2 
 
340 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland to be parochially surveyed ; the survey 
 to contain the number of acres of wheat, barley, oats, beans, &c, 
 the quantity of hay ground, and of enclosed pasture, and of 
 wastes and commons, and other particulars which might be 
 mentioned. The expense might either be paid out of the public 
 grants, or defrayed in each county by a rate ; and the survey be 
 made under the direction of the justices of the peace, and when 
 made, delivered to parliament. This idea might be enlarged into 
 another Domesday Book, comprehending a description of every 
 estate in every parish in the kingdom ; government would then 
 have a clear view of the land of the country ; and well cultivated 
 land is not only the surest support of the population and strength 
 of a country, but the fittest object of taxation. But whilst the 
 time and talents of the greatest men in the nation are miserably 
 consumed in securing, or in acquiring, parliamentary majorities, 
 what can be expected even from them ? And as to minor 
 statesmen (who are most prone to condemn what they cannot 
 understand), you may as reasonably expect to thrust a cannon 
 ball into the muzzle of a musket, as to make a little-minded 
 man comprehend either the practicability or the utility of a great 
 political object. 
 
 Letter to Mr, Wilberforce. 
 
 " My dear Sir, April 1st, 1800. 
 
 " Your great and unceasing endeavours to promote the cause 
 
 of virtue and religion, deserve and have obtained the applause and 
 
 good will of all serious men ; and I know not any person to- 
 
 whom I can communicate my notions on two points, respecting 
 
341 
 
 the improvement of the morals of the people, with greater pro- 
 bability of having them well considered, and, if thought useful 
 and practicable, brought into effect. 
 
 " The parish-churches of this metropolis are greatly too few to 
 afford an opportunity of attending divine service to the increasing 
 numbers of its inhabitants, and this inconvenience is much aug- 
 mented by the pews which have been erected in them. What 
 I would propose is — the building an additional number of new 
 churches, each on a large scale, in proper situations, which should 
 have no appropriated seats, but, being furnished merely with 
 benches, should be open alike to the poor and rich of all parishes 
 and of all countries. 
 
 " The structure of these edifices should be as simple and of 
 as comprehensive a figure as possible, that no public money 
 might be unnecessarily expended, and a clergyman of great cha- 
 racter and ability should be appointed to officiate twice every 
 Sunday in each of them, and to explain the Catechism on Wed- 
 nesdays and Fridays in Lent, without interfering with the emolu- 
 ments or the duties of the parochial ministers, within whose 
 parishes the new churches should be built. 
 
 " The salary of each clergyman should be, I think, about 400/. 
 a year, but no curates should be allowed except in cases of 
 extreme necessity. 
 
 " I forbear dilating on this scheme ; many advantages and 
 probably some objections will occur to a man of your penetration ; 
 but it is needless for me to enter into the consideration of either, 
 till there is some prospect of the idea being adopted by govern- 
 ment ; and if the notion meets your own approbation, I can have 
 no objection to your hinting the matter to Mr. Pitt. 
 
342 
 
 " Twenty churches might be erected for an hundred thousand 
 pounds, and the salaries of all the clergymen, clerks, and door- 
 keepers would not amount to ten thousand a year. These sums, 
 or sums larger than these appear to me to be trifles, when ex- 
 pended for so beneficial a purpose. 
 
 " It might be of use to have a charity-box at each door of 
 each church, the produce of which might be applied to some 
 charitable purpose, (such as the reformation of prostitutes, the 
 relief of prisoners for small debts, &c.) and the annual produce, 
 I think, would not be inconsiderable; for many country-families, 
 which come to town for a few months, would frequent these 
 churches, and they would frequent them with more readiness if 
 they had an opportunity of distinguishing themselves from the 
 lower classes by voluntary donations to the charity-box. 
 
 " Another thing which deserves, in my humble judgment, the 
 attention of government, is an evil which has increased very 
 much, if it has not entirely sprung up in many places within 
 the last thirty years — the travelling of waggons and stage coaches 
 on Sundays. There are laws, I believe, to prevent this being 
 done during the hours of divine service, but the difficulty of 
 putting them in execution renders them, in a manner, useless. 
 This evil might be remedied by an act of parliament of ten lines, 
 enacting the payment of a great additional toll at each turnpike- 
 gate which should be passed by such carriages, between the hours 
 of six and six on every Sabbath day. 
 
 " The avarice of commerce, I fear, would oppose the ex- 
 tension of such a law to mail-coaches ; and the indifference of 
 the opulent to religious duties, together with their fondness for 
 travelling on a day when they experience the least obstruction on 
 
343 
 
 the road, would raise a cry against it, if it were proposed to 
 extend it to all coaches and chaises. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " It. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce, in his answer to my letter, promised to em- 
 brace any opportunity of giving effect to the object of it. He then 
 added the following paragraph, which I put down merely to show 
 the sense which Mr. Pitt's warmest friends entertained of the 
 treatment I had met with. The bishopric of Bangor had been 
 just then given to the Bishop of Chester. " I was in hopes of ere 
 " now being able to congratulate Your Lordship on a change of 
 " situation, which in public justice ought to have taken place. It 
 " is a subject of painful reflection to me, and I will say no more 
 " on it, but as I am writing to Your Lordship you will excuse my 
 " saying thus much. I will only add, that the event at once sur- 
 " prised and vexed me." Now I am upon this subject of self 
 (which cannot well be avoided by a man writing anecdotes of his 
 life), I will transcribe extracts from two other letters ; the first 
 is from Mr. Hayley in 1797 : — 
 
 " You have nobly acquired a right to lay aside your pen, and 
 " amuse yourself in whatever field you choose, by the pre-eminence 
 " of your literary achievements, since your writings (pray observe 
 " that I am now imparting to you the expression of Lord Thur- 
 " low, which I promised to communicate), since your writings have 
 " done more for Christianity than all the bench of Bishops together." 
 
 The second is from a near relation of the late Lord Camden, in 
 1801: — 
 
344 
 
 " What I think of your public merits can be of no consequence 
 " to you, but what Lord Camden thought (in which I perfectly 
 " coincided with him) would perhaps gratify you to know. He 
 " never changed, but always told Pitt, that it was a shame for him 
 " and the Church that you had not the most exalted station upon 
 " the bench, as due to the unrivalled superiority of your talents 
 " and services." 
 
 Reader ! when this meets your eye, the author of it will be 
 rotting in his grave, insensible alike to censure and to praise ; but 
 he begs to be forgiven this apparently self-commendation ; it has 
 not sprung from vanity, but from anxiety for his reputation, lest 
 the disfavour of a Court should, by some, be considered as an 
 indication of general disesteem, or a proof of professional de- 
 merit. 
 
 When my friends, seeing my juniors on the Bench repeatedly 
 translated, enquired why no translation had been ever offered to 
 me, I made no other reply, than that I knew of no reasonable 
 cause. This neglect never gave me the least uneasiness, for I felt 
 my heart glow with a spark of that spirit which inflamed the elder 
 Cato, when on observing that statues were erected to many but 
 none to himself, he said, Malim ut de me qucerant homines^ quam 
 ob rem Catoni non sit posita statua, quam quare sit posita ; declar- 
 ing, as Erasmus interprets his meaning, Se malle res prceclaras 
 gerere, ut olim scientes ilium promeruisse statuam> mirentur non esse 
 positam. 
 
 The promise alluded to by Mr. Hayley was given in conse- 
 quence of my having complied with his request that I would 
 
345 
 
 write a letter to his friend Mr. Cowper to whom I was not per- 
 sonally known. Mr. Hayley had benevolently hoped that a letter 
 from me would raise the spirits and tranquillise the mind of Mr. 
 Cowper, which was at that time much depressed. 
 
 Letter to Mr, Hayley. 
 
 « Dear Sir, October 18. 1797. 
 
 " By this post I have obeyed your commands in writing to Mr. 
 Cowper ; I cannot but admire your humanity which prompted 
 you to think of lessening the load of your friend's sufferings by 
 such a remedy for his mental infirmity ; it may have its effect for 
 a moment, but disorders of the mind generally though not uni- 
 versally originate in a disordered body. Your benevolence is 
 active and extensive. Romney owes much to your kindness. As 
 to the young artist, it was enough for me that you wished me to 
 sit to him ; but if I had paid no regard to your wishes, I should 
 have been ashamed to decline following the example of Lord 
 Thurlow, a man of whom I think highly, though he is not so good 
 a Whig as he might be. 
 
 " I am in this retirement a stranger to books and all literary 
 ambition, and wholly occupied in improving an estate for the 
 benefit of my family. It is not my fault that some of the best 
 years of my life have been thus employed ; had I met with the 
 encouragement of my profession, which would have enabled me 
 to make a moderate provision for eight children, I never should 
 have commenced an agriculturist. I am, however, from experi- 
 ence, entirely of Lord Bacon's opinion, when he says, that to 
 
 YY 
 
346 
 
 cultivate our mother Earth is the most honourable mode of im- 
 proving our fortune. You say nothing of your own health, and 
 therefore I hope it is good ; but it will give real pleasure to me to 
 know that it is so. I beg to be always kindly esteemed by you, 
 
 and am 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to Mr, Cowper. 
 
 " Sir, Calgarth Park, Kendal, Oct. 18. 1797. 
 
 " I know not how many years are passed since I first read and 
 admired your delightful Poems ; I yesterday finished my re- 
 perusal of them, and you must allow me the singular liberty of 
 testifying to you the great esteem in which I hold their author. 
 
 " In an age when religion is rejected, morality outraged, and 
 the concerns of futurity lost in dissipation and sensual indulgence, 
 it must give every serious mind sincere satisfaction to see the 
 impressive manner in which you support the cause of piety and 
 virtue. You must not consider this testimony of my respect as 
 an officious compliment ; I pay it as a debt due to the manly zeal, 
 for what is good and praiseworthy shown in all your writings. 
 
 " I will own to you that the consciousness of having laboured 
 in the same cause with sincerity (with what: success God, only 
 knows) gives a degree of comfort to me, in this retirement, where 
 I spend eight months in the year, which nothing else could give. 
 
 " Your mind, I see, from various parts of your work, is elevated 
 to the contemplation of the First Cause, and filled with veneration 
 for his inscrutable perfections ; this is a disposition of all others 
 
347 
 
 most to be coveted ; it generates no melancholy, it frees the soul 
 from superstitious apprehensions, it warms the heart, it enlivens 
 hope, it teaches resignation, it deadens our affections for this 
 world, and it thereby fits us for another. A man of this temper 
 1 knows that God demands his heart entire,' and in offering such 
 a sacrifice to his Maker, he has the strongest confidence that it 
 will be graciously accepted by him. 
 
 *' It gives me pleasure, it must give pleasure to every man who 
 has any love for genius and virtue, to perceive that these qualities, 
 though unnoticed by the many, are held in due estimation by the 
 most enlightened part of mankind ; hence I could not read with- 
 out delight the Eulogy bestowed on you by the author of the 
 " Pursuits of Literature ;" (I am under obligations to that gentle- 
 man, whoever- he may be, for what he has said of me;) and though 
 I do not agree with him in some of his censures, and have no 
 pleasure in reading lampoons, I perfectly unite with him in opi- 
 nion concerning yourself. 
 
 " I beg pardon for this intrusion, but presuming that my cha- 
 racter is not wholly unknown to you, I have the vanity to think 
 that you will excuse this liberty. 
 
 " The lakes are visited by all the world: if an excursion into 
 these parts should; ever be made by yourself, I beg you would try 
 the hospitality of Calgarth Park. 
 
 « I am, Sir, 
 " With the greatest esteem, your obedient servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 About this time Mr. Pitt, on the question of the Abolition of 
 the Slave Trade being lost in the House of Commons, had "ated 
 
 y y 2 
 
348 
 
 his intention of bringing the matter again before the House be- 
 fore the termination of the session. I had never had an oppor- 
 tunity of speaking in the House of Lords on the subject, I sent, 
 therefore, with an hope of doing some good, the following Letter 
 to Mr. Pitt, and I here insert it as a testimony of my utter abhor- 
 rence of a trade, perhaps expressly forbidden by the word men- 
 stealers (earfyctfo&rmf, 1 Tim. i. 10.), and certainly virtually pro- 
 hibited by that divine precept, — " As ye would that men should 
 do to you, do ye also to them likewise." 
 
 " Dear Sir, Calgarth Park, May 14. 1800. 
 
 'f Abstract reasoning on the subject of the Slave Trade must 
 be so familiar to your mind, that it would be to abuse your time, 
 to enter into any discussion concerning a state of slavery, as 
 originating either in the crimes of individuals — or in the con- 
 sequences of national wars unjustly commenced — or in that ap- 
 propriation of the fruits of the earth which has in all countries, 
 civilised and savage, taken place in a greater or less degree, 
 whereby many of those who are born into the world have no 
 other means of supporting their existence in it, but by voluntarily 
 selling their labour, absolutely or conditionally, for a limited 
 season, or for life, to those who will, for their daily labour, engage 
 to afford them daily sustenance. I mean not to trouble you in 
 this way; but as I observe that you still, much to the credit of 
 your humanity, persevere in the measure of abolishing, or at least 
 restricting the abominable traffic in African slaves as now carried 
 on, I will state in a single sentence what has frequently occurred 
 to my mind on the subject. 
 
349 
 
 "Make it -cheaper for the planters to, rear slaves than ; to 
 buy slaves, and the trade will in a few years cease of itself: miorht 
 not this be brought about by imposing a duty on all imported 
 slaves, and assigning that duty, with some additional premium, to 
 those who reared them. I enter into no detail, well knowing that 
 if you like the suggestion you will readily reduce it to practice. 
 
 " But another thing should be attended to, if the plantations 
 are ever to be cultivated by negroes born in the colonies, — The 
 emancipation of the negroes thus born, at a certain age: this would 
 be a proceeding consonant to justice, and to the manner in which 
 the children of paupers are treated by ourselves : they are bound 
 apprentices for such a period as may enable their master to re- 
 imburse himself, by the labour of their riper years, the expense 
 incurred in supporting them during their infancy. 
 
 " The perpetuity of slavery in a man's posterity has always 
 appeared to me a greater evil than the sufferance of it in his 
 own person. If the children of slaves were to become free at 
 thirty years of age, the planters would have a sufficient compen- 
 sation for rearing them, and the present slave-parents would 
 have a motive for taking care of their progeny. This progeny 
 oecoming free at a certain time, would generate free children 
 after that time, and thus the colonies would be supplied with 
 a race of free and therefore, in general, of good and happy 
 labourers. 
 
 " It is falsely, I think, asserted, that an importation of slaves 
 into the West Indies is necessary to keep up the stock. If the 
 slaves were properly treated, the births would exceed the deaths 
 among them. I know a gentleman who has above three hundred 
 slaves on his plantation: he never bought a slave, and yet 
 
350 
 
 has more now than when he succeeded his father in the eatate, 
 above forty years ago. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " KLandaff." 
 
 I had, several years before this, mentioned to Lord Thurlow, 
 that I thought West India slavery might be quietly and gradually 
 abolished, by emancipating the children of negroes when they 
 attained a certain age ; but it was not till after the rejection of the 
 Slave Bill in 1804, that I found the Abbe Raynal had supported, 
 at some length, the same notion in the eleventh book of his 
 " History of European Settlements in India." Mammon is the 
 god of every commercial nation : its power is irresistible ; for it 
 either darkened the intellect, or blunted the sympathy of a 
 British Parliament, for a great many years. 
 
 I - ff£.M I 
 
 Before I left town this year, the following correspondence 
 toot place between Mr. Pitt and myself, on a subject of great 
 importance : — 
 
 Letter to Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " Dear Sir, Great George- Street, April 16th, 1800. 
 
 " On dining yesterday with the Archbishop of Canterbury, His 
 Grace informed me that a Bill for enforcing a better residence' of 
 the Clergy was now in contemplation. Ignorant as I am of the 
 provisions of the intended Bill, I may be giving you unneces- 
 sary trouble in communicating such sentiments as at present 
 occur to me on the subject. But I trust you will pardon this 
 
351 
 
 my presumption, proceeding from a sense of duty, especially as I 
 shall be in the country when the business will be brought for- 
 ward, and may have no other opportunity of suggesting any 
 thing on a matter which has always been an object of my sincere 
 and earnest wishes. 
 
 " The safety of every civil government is fundamentally de- 
 pendent on the hopes and fears of another world, which are en- 
 tertained by its members ; and the safety of every Christian civil 
 government is brought into the most imminent danger, when 
 infidelity is making a rapid progress in the minds of the people. 
 This I apprehend is the state of danger in which Great Britain 
 (to say nothing of Ireland) now stands. It may be difficult to 
 find a full remedy for this evil ; but the residence of a respect- 
 able clergyman in every parish and hamlet in which there is a 
 place of established worship, appears to me to be more fitted 
 than any other for that purpose. 
 
 " I do not wish a Bill respecting residence to have any violent 
 retrospect as to the present pluralists : they perhaps ought 
 to remain subject only to the existing laws ; for it would bring 
 ruin on many individuals, who are now married and happily 
 settled, if they were compelled to change their situations. But I 
 see no individual hardship and much public good which would 
 attend a new law suffering, after it had passed, no man to hold 
 two benefices of any kind. 
 
 " As, however, there are many benefices utterly inadequate to 
 the affording even a bare maintenance to an unmarried clergy- 
 man, a law abolishing in futuro all pluralities ought to be ac- 
 companied with another making a decent provision for every 
 resident minister. An hundred pounds a-year ought to be the 
 
352 
 
 very least stipend annexed to any benefice, and, such sum being 
 annexed, service twice every Sunday should be required in alL 
 Benefices above an hundred a-year should remain, I think, as 
 they are ; unless it should be judged expedient, on a vacancy, to 
 take the first fruits on a real valuation, constituting thereby a fund 
 towards augmenting benefices under an hundred to that sum. 
 
 " Houses of residence for the clergy should be bought or 
 built at the public expense, or by the Governors of Queen 
 Anne's bounty, for livings under an hundred pounds a-year. 
 
 " The number of livings under an hundred a-year, their re- 
 spective values, and the state of their parsonage-houses, should 
 be accurately ascertained, and laid before parliament, in order 
 that the additional public burden attending the giving a decent 
 maintenance to the clergy might be known : it would, I am per- 
 suaded, whatever its magnitude might be, meet with no oppo- 
 sition from the judicious part of the community. The bishops 
 would be able to make, if required, this return to parliament by 
 means of their officers. 
 
 " Livings held in commendam, or annexed without commendam 
 to bishoprics, to headships and professorships in the Universities, 
 to public schools, &c should be exempted from the operation 
 of this law, as the residence of their possessors cannot be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 " The greatest part of the benefices under an hundred pounds 
 a-year are in the patronage of Lay Impropriators. Many of 
 these Impropriators would, I doubt not, be moved by a sense of 
 piety, and a regard for public safety, to contribute largely to- 
 wards rendering the income of each place of worship in their 
 patronage not less than the sum I have mentioned. 
 
352 
 
 " 1 cannot at present ascertain the number of livings in the 
 patronage of the Universities and their respective colleges, in 
 that of deans and chapters, of hospitals, corporations, &c. ; per- 
 haps they may amount to above a thousand. But be the number 
 what it may, would it be an unreasonable thing to expect, that 
 these several bodies should make up from their own revenues 
 every living in their patronage to a stipend of an hundred pounds ? 
 The property of these corporations has been greatly increased 
 within the last forty years, whilst their poor vicarages, &c. have 
 remained nearly in statu quo. 
 
 " In Denmark, and I believe in Scotland and other Protest- 
 ants countries, (in Catholic countries non-residence is scarcely 
 heard of,) the stipends of their clergy are not paid in full, unless 
 they reside the whole year. What defalcation of income might 
 be proper to be exacted on a partial absence of a minister from 
 his living is a question for the wisdom of the legislature to deter- 
 mine ; but some deduction I think ought to be made, unless 
 in cases of sickness or other emergencies to be allowed of by the 
 bishop of the diocese. 
 
 " If any thing is attempted I wish the axe to be laid to the root 
 of the evil. Sectaries are every where increasing, and some of 
 them are thought to mingle political with religious opinions; and 
 though all men ought to be allowed the liberty of worshipping 
 God according to their conscience, yet serious persons would be 
 glad to see a stop put to the miserable effusions of enthusiastic 
 ignorance. The prudent zeal of a resident clergyman in watch- 
 ing over his flock would be more efficacious to this purpose 
 than a whole code of penal laws. 
 
 z z 
 
354 
 
 " I will not trespass on your time by entering into a longer 
 detail, well knowing the facility with which your mind is able to 
 fill up the outline of any plan which you may deem worthy of 
 consideration. 
 
 " I have the honour, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Pitts Answer to the preceding Letter. 
 
 " My dear Lord, Downing-Street, April 17th, 1800. 
 
 " I return Your Lordship many thanks for your letter of 
 yesterday, in which you have the goodness to communicate to 
 me many important suggestions on the subject of a plan for en- 
 forcing a better residence of the clergy. I will, with your per- 
 mission, send you a copy of the plan which has been prepared, 
 and I am happy to observe, that in many essential points it will 
 be found very conformable to the sentiments which you have 
 expressed. On the only points in which it differs, I should be 
 extremely glad to have an opportunity of conversing with you 
 before you leave town. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with great regard, 
 
 " Your Lordship's obedient and faithful servant, 
 
 " W. Pitt." 
 
 I replied to this note, that I would wait upon Mr. Pitt at any 
 time he would appoint before Tuesday next, when I purposed to 
 leave London. He was taken ill, and I did not see him ; but as 
 I came out of the House of Lords on Monday evening, Lord 
 Grenville spoke to me on the subject. The substance of my ad- 
 
355 
 
 vice to Lord Grenville is contained in the following letter to 
 Mr. Pitt : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, Great George- Street, April 22. 1800. 
 
 " Lord Grenville told me yesterday, as I was coming out of 
 the House of Lords, that you had communicated to him the 
 letter which I had the honour to address to you, relative to the 
 Bill for promoting the residence of the clergy. Apprehending that 
 I should not have an opportunity, from the pressure of the im- 
 portant business [Union with Ireland] in which you are engaged, 
 of seeing you before I left town, (and I am now stepping into 
 my coach for that purpose,) I desired him to communicate to you 
 a few things which occurred to me at the moment, and which I 
 now put on paper lest they should have escaped his recollection. 
 
 " Would it be improper to put off the matter to another 
 session ? Before that time every thing might be well considered, 
 and the requisite information obtained. It is a very ticklish busi- 
 ness to meddle with the church ; for setting aside the consider* 
 ation of the high and low church principles, which are dormant 
 but not dead in this kingdom, there are many jarring lay and 
 clerical interests to be reconciled, before any great public good 
 can be expected from an attempt to reform the church in any 
 degree. 
 
 " The bishops, I think, should be authorised, as was done in 
 the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, to issue a commission (I 
 may err as to the term, having no books here,) requiring, where 
 necessary, the testimony on oath of the clergy and others, as to 
 the values at present of all the livings which were then discharged 
 from the payment of first fruits and tenths, as being under fifty 
 
 z z 2 
 
356 
 
 pounds a-year, and also of all benefices which, being of small 
 value, never were in charge in their respective dioceses. Many 
 of these livings which were in the time of Queen Anne discharged 
 from the payment of first fruits and tenths, as being under fifty 
 pounds a-year, and some of those which never were charged with 
 that payment, are now worth one hundred pounds a-year or more. 
 
 " If a more complete knowledge is wished for, and I own I 
 think it would be desirable to have it, not only for the reason 
 hinted briefly in my former letter, but to correct the errors of 
 many, who over-estimate the church-endowment, a return to 
 parliament or to the King in council of the values of all benefices 
 with cure of souls might be ordered, and the reason assigned for 
 this, so as not to excite an alarm, might be, — that government 
 wished to know the actual value of all the small livings, previous 
 to the consideration of making a better provision for a resident 
 clergy. The enquiry, as to the livings above fifty pounds in Queen 
 Anne's time, is certainly not improper to be made now. Many 
 of these livings, being vicarages, are little increased since that 
 time, though the price of provisions is trebled at the least. 
 
 " There are in many dioceses contiguous livings, the values of 
 which, if united, would make a decent provision for a clergyman 
 residing strictly in one of them, and doing full duty (morning and 
 evening alternately) once every Sunday in each of them. An 
 union of this kind is not so good in some respects as a separate 
 provision for two resident clergymen, but it is better in other ; 
 for it would render the public burden, which must be imposed, if 
 any thing effectual is done, less considerable. 
 
 " I shall be happy to be of any use to you in this business : if 
 properly accomplished it will do you as much credit with posterity 
 
357 
 
 as the Irish union will do. They are both of them great mea- 
 sures ; they will both of them be of eminent use to the present 
 generation ; but a statesman looks far beyond the present moment, 
 and posterity is the best judge of his merit. 
 
 " I have given up my house in town, and I mention this cir- 
 cumstance, that if you have occasion to write to me, you may 
 direct your letter to me at Calgarth, Kendal. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I had no farther intercourse with Mr. Pitt or Lord Grenville on 
 the business of the clergy-residence. Their intended bill was then 
 laid aside, probably from their finding that they had not sufficiently 
 investigated the matter, and in March, 1801, they both went out 
 of office. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton. 
 
 « My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth, March 31. 1801. 
 
 " Unavoidable business has forced me to delay thanking Your 
 Grace for your last letter longer than I ought to have done, for 
 whether it may be in my power or not to relieve your anxiety, I 
 should never forgive myself if I appeared inattentive to it. 
 
 " Both reason and revelation instruct us to believe that the 
 Creator of the universe wills the happiness of his creatures, not 
 for his own sake but for theirs. It would be impious to suppose 
 that our vices could disturb His peace, or our virtues augment His 
 felicity ; this would be to make a God with the passions of a man, 
 to render the infinite perfection of the Creator dependent on the 
 
358 
 
 imperfection of the creature. When, therefore, we read of the 
 punishment denounced in the Gospel against all manner of wicked- 
 ness, we may properly consider the threatening as the gracious 
 warning of a wise and affectionate Father, rather than as the 
 tyrannical declaration of a cruel and vindictive God. Vice and 
 consequent misery arising from loss of health, of character, of 
 fortune, of self-government, and other sources, are generally, if 
 not universally, connected together in this world, and we may 
 from reason analogically infer that, if there is another world, they 
 will be so connected there also. Now it hath pleased God, 
 through Jesus Christ, to assure us that there is another world, and 
 to confirm this analogical inference by a positive declaration, that 
 the connection which we observe here between vice and misery 
 will remain hereafter. This declaration is made to us as if it were 
 the arbitrary appointment of God that punishment should follow 
 sin rather than a certain consequence springing from the nature 
 of things, that misery should follow vice ; but the conclusion rests 
 on the same foundation in whatever way we consider the matter ; 
 for what is the nature of things, what the constitution of this 
 world and of the next, but the positive appointment of God him- 
 self? Transgress and die is a positive law, be vicious and be 
 miserable is a natural law, they are equally the means of God's 
 moral government of free agents ; the latter is intimated to us by 
 reason, the former is promulgated in the Gospel, and they are, 
 like their Author, both of them immutable. But these are not 
 the only laws of God's moral government ; there is another inti- 
 mated to us by reason, and clearly made known to us by the 
 Gospel, and it is a law which mitigates the severity of the others, 
 which administers consolation to our fears, and strength to our 
 
359 
 
 inability, it is this, — Repent and be forgiven, — turn away from 
 wickedness, do that which is lawful and right, and though you 
 have sinned you shall save your soul alive ; this is the voice of 
 Revelation ; and reason says, Cease from vice, and you will lessen 
 if not wholly annihilate the misery attendant on it. 
 
 " Repentance is a change of mind accompanied by a change of 
 conduct ; this change of mind is then most perfect when it pro- 
 ceeds from the fear of God, from fear grounded on our love to 
 Him, and regulated by filial reverence and humble confidence in 
 His mercy ; and it is then most sincere and certain when it is 
 followed by a change of conduct, from viciousness to sobriety of 
 manners, from habitual sinfulness to habitual righteousness of life. 
 A man may be actuated by fear of punishment, and change his 
 conduct from vice to virtue, but this does not, strictly speaking, 
 imply such a change of mind as is essential to true repentance. 
 When a man abstains from murder, theft, robbery, merely 
 because he fears the gallows ; when he conceals his intemperance, 
 pride, envy, malignity, and evil propensities of any kind, merely 
 to preserve his character from censure, and to exhibit a fair out- 
 side to the world, his heart is not right, his mind is not changed, 
 his old man is not put off, his repentance is nothing. But when 
 a man might commit sin with secresy, and as to all human tri- 
 bunals with impunity; when he might indulge his sensuality, 
 gratify his revenge, satiate his envy, feed his malignity, without 
 danger to his health, fame, or fortune ; when he might do these 
 things and yet abstains from doing them, because God has for- 
 bidden him to do them, and because he is persuaded that God 
 loves him and forbids him nothing but with a gracious design to 
 preserve him from misery here and hereafter, then is his repent- 
 
360 
 
 ance sincere, his obedience is a reasonable service, his heart is in 
 a proper state of resignation, humility, love, trust, and gratitude, 
 toward the Author of all good. 
 
 " I give Mr. Pitt credit for his resignation, if it was occasioned 
 by a resistance from another quarter to his liberal sentiments 
 towards the Catholics in Ireland, and the Dissenters in this 
 country, though I shall never excuse him if, for the sake of 
 pleasing the Court, he either commenced or continued this war 
 in opposition to his own judgment. 
 
 " I have had no inclination to examine, on a broad basis, the 
 neutral code; this I know, that the law of nations (prior to 
 specific convention) is nothing but the law of nature extended 
 to communities, which, in discussions of this kind, are properly 
 considered as individual moral persons. If A. and B., in a state 
 of nature, quarrel, what right have either or both of them to in- 
 jure C. who has no enmity to either of them ? C. has commodi- 
 ties to sell, he is willing to sell them either to A. or B., or to 
 both of them without distinction or preference. No, says A., 
 you shall not sell them to B. — No, says B., you shall not sell 
 them to A. ; and thus the natural right of C. to dispose of what is 
 his own is unjustly abridged both by A. and B. 
 " I am ever, 
 
 " Your Grace's faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In 1802, Sir William Scot introduced a bill into the House of 
 Commons to enforce the residence of the clergy, and to protect 
 them from some illiberal and oppressive prosecutions to which 
 they were liable for non-residence. This bill never reached the 
 
361 
 
 House of Lords, it was stopped in its progress thither by Lord 
 Grenville's having stated, that a more effectual measure had been 
 in contemplation, and would be by him brought forward. 
 
 In the following June (1802) I visited my diocese, and pub- 
 lished my Charge, which I had written with a view to promote 
 the due consideration of one of those reforms in the church 
 which I had proposed twenty years before. I sent copies of this 
 Charge to Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt, to put them in mind of 
 what had passed between us on the subject two years before; 
 and to Mr. Addington, the then minister, that I might rouse his 
 attention to it. I foresaw that I should not be in town during 
 the winter, and I was, on that account, desirous of communicating- 
 my sentiments through the medium of the press. 
 
 Letter to George Hardinge, Esq., in Answer to one of his, mentioning 
 his Design of writing something of Importance, 
 
 « My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, Feb. 19th, 1803. 
 
 " I have read your letter with great pleasure : I like to listen 
 to a man of parts, multa et praeclara minantem. Of all your 
 various projects, I most approve of the life of your uncle. I 
 was not indeed pleased with what I thought a desertion of his 
 principles in the latter part of his life, yet as you assure me that 
 this change proceeded not from interested compliances with the 
 will of another, but from a real change of sentiment, I am re- 
 conciled to it. This life would afford you a great opportunity of 
 enlarging upon the injustice, and impolicy, of the American 
 war ; of delivering your sentiments on the causes and the occa- 
 
 3 A 
 
362 
 
 sions of the French Revolution ; and of divining the conse- 
 quences of these two great events to ourselves, to Europe, and to 
 mankind. Next to the life of your uncle, I like a disquisition 
 on Criminal Law. In writing on this subject, the matter 
 should be taken up ab ovo, from that only first origin of all 
 human governments — compact; and it should be pursued 
 through all its branches ; embracing the civil and religious re- 
 lations of men to the state, and to each other. The works of 
 PufFendorf and Grotius, the Frederician Code, as well as that 
 of Justinian, the Edict of the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the 
 reform of criminal law in his dominions, translated into 
 English, and printed at Warrington, but not sold, in 1789, and 
 a variety of other books better known to you than to me, would 
 be useful helps in such an undertaking. Before you begin it, 
 you will consider quid valeant humeri ; I do not mean whether 
 your talents are equal to such a task, I assume that as a point 
 admitted, but whether you can assure to yourself comfort in such 
 severe and continued application, as a work of that importance 
 would require. I have ordered a copy of my Sermons and Tracts 
 to be left for you at your house. You will accept it as a pledge 
 of my regard ; and in my letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and the appendix to it, you will see what I then thought of the 
 state of the church and still think. Your uncle saw this letter 
 some months before it was published, and returned it to me with 
 saying, " There was not a line in it which did not contain a great 
 " truth, but that it would take me twenty years to overcome 
 " men's prejudices." He went afterwards into administration, 
 but he never spoke to me a word on the subject ; what encou- 
 ragement had I to proceed ? One of the reforms proposed in 
 
363 
 
 that letter has at length been deemed worthy the consideration 
 of government, and I have communicated three years ago my 
 sentiments very fully to Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, who were 
 then engaged in framing a bill to enforce the residence of the 
 clergy : the bishops are at present destitute of the power of 
 doing it ; and there are thousands of cases in the present state 
 of the provision for the clergy in which it ought not to be done, 
 had they the power. I offered last year, first to the Arch- 
 bishop, and afterwards to the bishops in general, at a meeting 
 at Lambeth, to make, with their approbation, the following 
 motion in the House of Lords, and to support it : — That a com- 
 mittee, consisting of six temporal and six spiritual Peers, be 
 appointed, to take into consideration the laws respecting the 
 maintenance, and the residence of the clergy, and to make a report 
 to the House. I thought this was the most dignified and the 
 most intelligent mode of proceeding, in order to obtain a sure 
 basis for a future bill enforcing residence ; my opinion was not 
 adopted, but it was thought advisable that Sir W. Scot's bill 
 should be brought forward. Can you wonder that I decline 
 farther interference in this business ? What I think of the matter 
 is sufficiently known by my writings, and from my correspond* 
 ence will be known to those who have the power to effectuate 
 the purpose ; and it will be, probably, as well done in my 
 absence as if I were present ; for there will then be no obstruc- 
 tion, arising from envy and jealousy, little passions, no doubt ! 
 but such as sometimes appertain to men in high stations. 
 
 " I have an aversion to letter-writing, especially on subjects 
 of moment, because an hour's conversation would settle points 
 which a year's correspondence would leave undecided; but I 
 
 3 a 2 
 
364 
 
 have trespassed For this once on your time and my own, because 
 I wished to show my regard for the myrtle. 
 « Feb. 19. 1803." 
 
 Lord Sheffield had desired me to give him some information 
 relative to the growth and consumption of Oak-timber ; and on 
 the 17th of March, 1803, I sent him the following letter: — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " In my preliminary observations, prefixed to Mr. Pringle's 
 Agricultural Report of the County of Westmoreland, (8vo. edition,) 
 there are some calculations, respecting the growth of oak and of 
 larch wood, upon which, after a re^perusal, I am disposed to 
 rely, and to these I refer Your Lordship for the main part of 
 what I know on the subject of your intended publication : I could 
 furnish more particulars, but the general inferences would not be 
 altered thereby. 
 
 " In a book now before me, entitled, — Planting and Orna- 
 mental Gardening, published by Dodsley in 1785, it is said, 
 (p. 499.) that a seventy-four gun ship takes two thousand trees of 
 two tons each, and, supposing forty such trees growing on an 
 acre, clears fifty acres of woodland. This may be so, but the 
 observation does not extend far enough. Admitting, however, 
 this to be a fact, and supposing that the navy, for the construc- 
 tion of new ships, and the repair of old ones, would require ten 
 times that quantity annually, 500 acres would supply the annual 
 consumption, and fifty thousand acres would supply the demand 
 for ever, if trees of one hundred years' growth are large enough for 
 navy timber. 
 
365 
 
 " The way of ascertaining the real annual consumption of oak- 
 timber in ship-building, seems to be, first to ascertain (I sup- 
 pose from the Custom-House books) the number of tons of 
 British shipping of all kinds, annually employed in Great Britain ; 
 next to derive, from the information of different ship-builders, 
 the quantity of oak used per ton in ship-building, on an average 
 of all sorts of ships ; from these two sources of information a 
 proper inference may be drawn, ascertaining the quantity of oak 
 used in the construction of all the shipping now in Great Britain, 
 which being divided by the number of years which such shipping 
 will on an average last, we shall then know the quantity annually 
 wanted to keep us in statu quo for ever. 
 
 " An oak coppice is, with us, worth twenty pounds a statute 
 acre at fifteen years' growth ; supposing money to double itself in 
 fifteen years at compound interest of 51. per cent., and every suc- 
 ceeding fall to be of the same value as the first, then in seven falls, 
 or in 105 years, an acre would produce 2540/., a sum so exceed- 
 ingly surpassing the value of 40 trees of 105 years' growth, even 
 with taking into consideration the value of the underwood 
 whilst any remained, that the comparison need not be insti- 
 tuted, if profit is solely attended to in the management of woods. 
 
 " I this year sold a customary acre (6760 square yards) of 
 oak, of 29 years' growth, from an old stub, for 126/., and left 
 standing 260 of the best trees, the value of which I estimate at 
 40/., so that the clear value of this coppice may be put at 166/. 
 If we trace this sum, even supposing that the stub did not shoot 
 out again, and that the whole had been cut, it will appear that in 
 75 years, (that is in 104 years' growth,) it will at a compound 
 interest of 51. per cent amount to 6446/. 
 
36*6 
 
 " Evelyn gives some instances of the value of oak woods at 
 different periods of their growth, in order to show the advantage 
 of letting them stand till a great age, but he has forgotten to 
 take into consideration the increase of the money at compound 
 interest, which they were worth when first valued, compared 
 with what they were worth at the second valuation. 
 
 " Mr, South, in sixth volume of the Bath Agricultural Letters, 
 has bestowed much attention on the management of woods ; and, 
 though objections might properly be made to some parts of his 
 reasoning, it may be worth while to look into that book. 
 
 " Buffon and Du Hamel are accurate writers, and of great 
 estimation, respecting the growth and management of woods : I 
 have not their works at hand, but I remember that there is much 
 information to be met with, relative to your enquiries, in the first 
 volume of Du Hamel's treatise, — De & Exploitation des Bois, 
 
 i( If in any thing else I can promote your endeavours for the 
 public good, I beg you would command me without scruple. 
 
 "I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Sir William Scot introduced a new bill into the House of Com- 
 mons, in 1803; and on the 31st of March in that year, a debate 
 came on in the House of Lords, relative to suspending the act 
 of the 21st of Hen. VIIL, respecting the residence of the clergy, 
 till the 8th of the following July, when the Bishop of St. Asaph 
 proposed an amendment, by inserting instead of the 8th of July 
 the 13th of May. He withdrew his motion on the assurance of 
 the Chancellor, and of the Lords Alvanley and Ellenborough, 
 that they would not consent to any longer suspension than to the 
 
367 
 
 8th of July. Expecting no good from the violent and hasty man- 
 ner in which Sir W. Scot's new bill was called for in this debate, 
 I wrote the following letter to the Lord Chancellor Eldon : — 
 
 " Calgarth Park, Kendal, April 6. 1803. 
 « My Lord Chancellor, 
 
 " I have ordered a copy of my late Charge to the clergy of my 
 diocese to be left at your house, as it contains a few observations 
 respecting the residence of the clergy ; and I take the liberty of 
 troubling Your Lordship with this letter on the same subject, as 
 I do not foresee any probability of my attending parliament dur- 
 ing this session. 
 
 " When I was in London last year, I made the following pro- 
 posal to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the first place, and 
 afterwards to the bishops collectively assembled at Lambeth . — 
 That, thinking it consistent with the duty and the dignity of the 
 bishops to undertake the protection of the clergy, a motion 
 should be made in the House of Lords, for the appointment of a 
 committee, consisting of six spiritual and six temporal peers, to 
 take into consideration the laws respecting the residence and the 
 maintenance of the clergy, and to make a report to the House, as a 
 basis for a future bill. I added, that I was far from wishing to 
 appear forward in the business, but that if no other bishop would 
 do it, I was ready, with their concurrence, and with that of the 
 minister, to make and support the motion. 
 
 " This proposal was not adopted ; and whilst I staid in town 
 I gave what assistance I could, in revising your brother's bill. 
 This bill, for which the country and the clergy are highly indebted 
 to the author of it, was not brought into the House of Lords. 
 
368 
 
 That Sir William Scot should have again occupied his mind with 
 the affairs of the church is a great instance of his courtesy and 
 good disposition towards it, and I am astonished at seeing his 
 designs thwarted by the precipitancy of those who ought to have 
 known the difficulty of the undertaking. 
 
 " I dislike palliatives in curing great national evils. If the 
 non-residence of the clergy is so great an evil as to require the 
 interposition of the legislature to check it, I wish the check to be 
 effectual. But before any thing is done, it ought undoubtedly to 
 be proved, that the evil is of a magnitude to require such inter- 
 position. This may be effected by a short act of parliament, 
 requiring the bishops to make a return to the King in council or 
 otherwise, of all the resident, and of all the non-resident clergy, 
 (with the reasons of their non-residence, where they are known,) 
 in their respective dioceses. 
 
 " The magnitude of the evil being, by this or by any better 
 mode, sufficiently ascertained, its origin would then, with pro- 
 priety, come into consideration ; for the cause of the malady 
 should be distinctly investigated, before an adequate remedy can 
 be applied. 
 
 " This evil of non-residence, of whatever magnitude it may 
 be, appears to me to originate chiefly in the scanty provision 
 which is made for the greatest number of the parochial clergy, 
 by which they are compelled to accumulate as many benefices as 
 they can hold, in order to provide a proper maintenance for 
 themselves and their families. 
 
 " There may be instances of country clergymen who occasion- 
 ally live in towns ; but these instances are, comparatively speak- 
 ing, not numerous, nor are they in all cases to be blamed. A 
 
369 
 
 man of great talents, and good manners, may, by mingling with 
 the higher classes of society in great towns, as essentially promote 
 the belief and practice of Christianity, as if he were constantly 
 conversant with a dozen peasants, his parishioners, in a country 
 village. The want of medical assistance ; the desire of giving a 
 suitable education to his own children ; the hope of bettering his 
 situation, by educating the children of others ; the being engaged 
 in literary pursuits, where a variety of books is required ; these, 
 and such like causes, are the main ones which induce some of the 
 clergy to wish for a town-residence ; and if their place is supplied 
 in the country by a resident curate, I cannot think that much 
 mischief will follow from such an indulgence being granted to a 
 few, and it will never be desired by many of the body. Nay, if 
 a young man should be accidentally inspired with an ambition to 
 display his talents before a more respectable audience than his 
 country parish affords him, his ambition should be rather encou- 
 raged, than ridiculed and restrained ; for a desire of acquiring 
 professional fame is, next to poverty, the great source of profes- 
 sional excellence and industry. 
 
 " I am so far from thinking the following three months too 
 long a period for suspending the operation of the act of the 21st 
 Hen. VIII., that I heartily wish it were suspended for three 
 years, and that the intermediate time were employed by parlia- 
 ment in probing the sore so loudly complained of to the bottom, 
 and in preparing a lenient, but at the same time a radical remedy. 
 
 " The bishops, in my simple judgment, should, by an act 
 passed in the present session, be empowered and enjoined to 
 make a return, in the course of twelve months, of the real value 
 of every living in their several dioceses, not exceeding the yearly 
 
 3b 
 
370 
 
 value of 100/. after the manner which was prescribed by the dis- 
 charging act in the 5th of Queen Anne ; or, which would be still 
 better, commissioners, as in Henry VHIth's time, should be 
 appointed to make a new survey of all ecclesiastical property, in 
 whose patronage soever it is vested. Parliament would then, 
 having the whole matter clearly before them, be enabled to deli- 
 berate coolly and intelligently on the subject ; and would, I have 
 no doubt, finally pass such acts relative to the residence and support 
 of the parochial clergy, as would be of singular benefit to the 
 country in a political, as well as in a religious view. 
 
 " Your Lordship and the two other learned lords from whom 
 I so essentially differ in opinion, as to the period beyond which the 
 suspension ought not to be extended, will pardon me, I am per- 
 suaded, when I profess that this difference proceeds from no 
 principle whatever, except from a strong conviction of the import- 
 ance of the subject ; and from an anxious desire, that the evil of 
 non-residence may be done away, and the honour and utility of 
 the church establishment be thereby ascertained and secured. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 No attention was paid to this letter, and I interfered no farther 
 in the business. I neither thought so highly of the Chancellor's 
 talents on any subject, nor so meanly of my own on the subject of 
 an ecclesiastical reform, as to judge that it became me to overlook 
 his discourtesy in not answering my letter. The bill was passed 
 into an act, which has rather increased than lessened the evil of 
 clerical non-residence. 
 
371 
 
 Letter to Professor Findlay, at Glasgow, on his sending me his 
 Publication on the Divine Inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures* 
 
 " Reverend Sir, April 5th, 1803. 
 
 " I have at length received and read with attention your Essay 
 on the Divine Inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures. I observe in 
 it the same patient investigation of your subject which I so much 
 admired many years ago, when I first perused your book in 
 answer to Voltaire. 
 
 " I had not St. Augustiri's work at hand when I quoted him, nor 
 do I now recollect from whence I took the quotation ; but I per- 
 fectly well recollect, that my intention in making that, and the 
 quotation from Bishop Law, was to induce Mr. Paine and other 
 unbelievers to consider, whether the Bible might not be worthy 
 their attention, as containing true histories of various transactions* 
 though the writers of those histories might not be inspired in 
 every particular. 
 
 " Josephus, in his first book against Apion, says, — ' Such 
 things as passed in ancient times, quite beyond the memory of 
 man, were only written by the Prophets, who had the knowledge 
 thereof by inspiration from God ;' (Lodge's Translation, p. 766. 
 in this retirement I cannot have access to the original ;) and he 
 then enumerates the twenty-two books constituting the Jewish 
 Canon. 
 
 " Every Jew, I suppose, held the same opinion, as to the 
 inspiration of their sacred books, that Josephus did. The <epa 
 y^a.p\ux\ot. in which Timothy had been instructed were these books. 
 There was no occasion for St. Paul to tell him that these books 
 were inspired : he knew it. But there was occasion to inform a 
 
 3b 2 
 
372 
 
 young man, that, in becoming a minister of the Gospel, he would 
 find every inspired writing, all the i^u yqappeila, profitable for 
 doctrine, &c. This appears to me to be the sense of the passage ; 
 and, if it is, the kxi is an interpolation. 
 
 " But I may be wrong in this notion, and have no taste for 
 theological subtilties, though I highly value such candid criticism 
 as you have shown in your Essay. Wishing you health and hap- 
 piness, and the attainment of truth in all your studies, 
 
 " I am, with great esteem, &c 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 To an old friend of mine, who had expressed his surprise at 
 my suffering the Clergy Residence Bill to be agitated, without 
 my taking any part in it, I sent the following letter, as an expla- 
 nation of my conduct : — 
 
 " My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, 9th April, 1803. 
 
 " I enclose a copy of a letter which I sent to the Chancellor, 
 as soon as I had read the debate in the House of Lords, relative 
 to the Clergy Residence Bill. I know not how it will be received, 
 for all statesmen are terribly conceited things ; as if they wished 
 the world to believe, that a King's nomination to office gave 
 wisdom as well as power. 
 
 " I feel happy in having thus done my duty, and am per- 
 fectly indifferent what ministry may think of my interfering in 
 this way. 
 
 . " I stated to Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, about three years 
 ago, in a long detail, my opinion of what ought to be done. It 
 coincided pretty much with what they had intended ; and if Lord 
 
SIS 
 
 Grenville brings forward any measure, as he promised last year to 
 do, we shall see what use is made of my notions. The Bishop of 
 Durham is also acquainted with my sentiments ; as I sent him, 
 the last summer, a copy of my letter to Mr. Pitt, which he was 
 polite enough to approve, calling it a state paper. 
 
 " I am grown too old to think of figuring as a parliamentary 
 debater. Had I been treated with confidence and respect by 
 administration, twenty years ago, I could have taken a great lead 
 in the House of Lords, and rendered both to the church and 
 state some service, without being glued by the strongest of all 
 cements, — self-interest (a circumstance I have always abhorred,) 
 to any party. 
 
 " I have more of Melancihon than of Luther in my composition. 
 I wish reforms to take place, but I detest violence and contention. 
 I give my advice freely ; but if it is not followed, I content myself 
 with thinking that it ought to have been followed; and thus, 
 combining pride with humility, let the matter drop. 
 
 " I like all the objects you speak of in your letter, for the 
 materials of your relation's life. Methodise the whole before 
 you begin any part : imitate, at least read with attention, some of 
 the best Lives of Plutarch, and fear not producing an excellent 
 work ; not an ephemeral farrago of newspaper trash, but a KJrjfia 
 etc otst worthy of you and of him. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 « R. L." 
 
 In his answer to the above, my friend hinted, that robes and 
 furred gowns did not do me justice, and pressed me with much 
 
374 
 
 importunity to go to town. I sent him the following letter, 
 June 21. 1803: — 
 
 " Fidis offendar medicis irascar amicis 
 Cur me funesto properent arcere veterno ? 
 
 " This cannot be said of me ; I feel no symptoms of lethargy, 
 and am so far from being angry with such friends as wish to 
 rectify, by the standard of their wisdom, what they esteem an 
 obliquity in my conduct, that I think myself indebted to their 
 kindness for the attempt. This, my dear Sir, is meant for your- 
 self. To others who impertinently demand, why I do not come 
 to town ? I answer with the spirit of Caesar — Go tell them I will 
 not come. I also have my robes and furred gowns, and I know 
 that they have been as honourably obtained and as purely pre- 
 served as any of theirs ; and, detracta ista pelle on both sides, I 
 am ready to meet in argument, on the subject of the Church, the 
 wisest He in St. Stephen's Chapel. Have I not met him ? Was 
 my letter to the Chancellor a thing of no value, deserving of no 
 answer ? No answer has been given ; should I not be wanting in 
 the respect I owe to myself, if I condescended to take a part in a 
 business commenced and carried on in a way contrary to my 
 advice ? 
 
 " I affect not the reputation of a statesman or of a churchman ; 
 but when I compare myself with either the statesmen or with the 
 churchmen of the present day, I have not the meanness to think, 
 that my advice on any subject is not of weight enough to arrest 
 the attentions of the wisest of them both. 
 
 " I am not so silly as to expect that every man can think with 
 me, nor so farouche as to be displeased with any one who differs 
 
375 
 
 from me in opinion; but the — Reverence thyself — is ever too 
 much in my mind to suffer me to support measures which I dis- 
 approve, and I wholly disapprove the present mode of securing 
 the residence of the clergy. 
 
 " Read over again my letter to the Lord Chancellor, and my 
 last letter to yourself, and if they do not satisfy you that I am 
 right in looking forward to a more substantial ecclesiastical re- 
 form, and in not promoting this botchy business, you must for- 
 give me if I never say another word to you on the subject, 
 
 " To you, my friend, I will say, that my church-preferment will 
 not afford a journey to London every year ; and I do not feel my- 
 self bound by any principle of prudence, of honour, or of duty, to 
 waste my little private fortune, which by incessant exertion of 
 my own and the kindness of my friends, I have provided for my 
 children, in the public service. For eighteen years I attended 
 parliament ; my children during that period wanted education ; that 
 want being over, I gave up, three years ago, my house in town, 
 with a determination that till I was better provided for, I would 
 not go to London excepting every other year. As to those you 
 may meet with (plenty of them no doubt !) who, without know- 
 ing my present circumstances, without adverting to the labours of 
 my past life, presume to blurt out their cavils and their calumnies, 
 I wish them not to hear from my friends any other defence, for 
 they will never hear any other from me, except ygv-ygv, the full 
 meaning of which you will understand, though they will not. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 « R. L." 
 
376 
 
 My friend still continued to urge me to go to town : I put a 
 final stop to his well-intentioned importunity by the following 
 letter, dated June 31. 1803 : — 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Your exhortations or admonitions — be they what they may — 
 are considered by me as scions springing from a root of friend- 
 ship ; to pluck them off with indignation is not my intention, but 
 I must not suffer them to increase : they would rob the root of its 
 proper vigour, and I wish it to remain unimpaired. 
 
 " Parmenio and Alexander are the representatives of all men 
 who give and who reject advice. It is impossible for different 
 men to have the same feelings or to see objects in the same light; 
 all that can be done to preserve harmony, is either for the one 
 party not to give advice, or for the other not to be angry at its 
 being given, and with this observation, I, at least, will let the 
 subject of your three letters drop. Yet if I thought fit to follow 
 the impulse of my mind, it would be to examine all you have 
 urged or can urge on the interest, the fame, and the duty, and to 
 show the hollowness of the argument derived from the combi- 
 nation of those three powers, by which you in vain attempt to lift 
 up a Colossus. But I check myself, knowing the swiftness of 
 your currentem calamum, and knowing also that of epistolary alter- 
 cation there is no end, and that I have other employment more 
 interesting, though not more pleasing, than the perusal even of 
 your compositions. 
 
 " Your letters are so classical, and your verba ardentia so elec- 
 trical, that they almost fire my frozen age, and tempt me to 
 discharge upon you a sort of reciprocal lightning; and in this 
 
377 
 
 elegant communication of soul (for sentiment is the soul of man) 
 I could be content to evaporate the remaining breath of life ; but 
 I have other things in hand. 
 
 " There was a period in which the Greek and Roman classics 
 delighted me ; another, in which I sought for fame in mathe- 
 matical and philosophical knowledge ; a third, in which che- 
 mistry, for full seven years, occupied all my attention, — and I 
 arrogate to myself the honour, not only of recommending it to 
 the University of Cambridge, but to the notice of the kingdom in 
 general ; a fourth, in which theology demanded my care, — not 
 that theology which is degraded, disfigured, rendered hideous and 
 portentous, by the shreds of crude opinions, by the patches of 
 miserable superstitions, which the knavery and audacity of in- 
 tolerant and selfish men have fastened every where upon it, — 
 but that which the Father of the universe has written with the 
 hand of what is called Nature, for the information of all ; and 
 particularly that which He hath declared to a peculiar people, by 
 the mouth of his Son. 
 
 " To all these objects of various pursuit, has succeeded that of 
 agriculture. The cultivation of our mother earth is the noblest 
 way of providing for a family; so says Bacon, and I have found 
 it so ; and it is a sure way of rendering service to the country. 
 The county of Westmoreland will long have cause to thank the 
 Bishop of Landaff for the example he has set, not of chaffering 
 with peasants about the price of bullocks, but of making bad land 
 good, of introducing new modes of husbandry, and of planting 
 mountains. 
 
 " The parliamentary eloquence of a Cicero, unless exerted in 
 the support of a party, will not procure an honest man a morsel 
 
 3c 
 
378 
 
 of bread ; it may, perchance, enable a dishonest man to sell his 
 independence and his public probity at an high price. 
 
 " My laurels, you say, must be fed : my temples, alas ! are 
 withering with age, and it disturbs not me that the few laurels 
 which surround them are withering also ; they have been blighted 
 for above twenty years, by royal or ministerial neglect : disdaining 
 all further care about them, I leave them to be torn away by the 
 ignorant and the malignant who busy themselves in my concerns. 
 They are not his father's laurels, but his father's larches, which 
 will make Major Watson as independent in fortune as I hope he 
 will be in spirit. 
 
 " I was never fond of public life, though I have been com- 
 pelled, on many occasions, to take a share in it ; but my powers 
 are declining, and I will not wait for a Gil Bias to tell me so. — 
 Quis hoc non dederit nobis, ut cum opera nostra patria sive non possit 
 uti 9 sive nolit ; ad earn vitam revertamur, quam multi docti hominis, 
 fortasse non recte, sed tamen multi reipublicce prceponendam pu- 
 taverunt. 
 
 " The non possit respects the will of a minister being op- 
 posed by the will of the court, if that is the case ; the nolit 
 respects one or both of them ; and I have ever thought it beneath 
 me to enquire, which of them is to be blamed as my enemy. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the 21st of August, 1803, I received a letter from the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, informing me that the bishops would 
 send separate addresses. The prospect of an invasion had called 
 forth a great spirit of true patriotism, and addresses were gene- 
 
379 
 
 rally presented to the King: I drew up the following, and sent it, 
 August 22., to be signed in my diocese : — 
 
 To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, the humble Address of the 
 Bishop, the Archdeacon and Chapter, and the Clergy of the Dio- 
 cese of Landaff. 
 
 " Sire, 
 
 " As Ministers of the Gospel we pray for the peace of Christ- 
 endom, and of the world ; as subjects of Your Majesty, we call to 
 mind, and with the utmost sincerity of soul we renew the obli- 
 gation of the oath of allegiance, which we have heretofore indi- 
 vidually taken ; and as men jealous of their freedom, we, on this 
 occasion, solemnly pledge ourselves to maintain, with our best 
 ability, the independency of our country. 
 
 " Glorious and unexampled on the surface of the earth is 
 Your Majesty's situation ! Princes there are who reign over 
 more extensive regions. Princes there are who support their 
 thrones in times of peace by more numerous armies, and who 
 exercise over their subjects a more unlimited sway. But where 
 is the Prince, in Europe or in the world, who, in the day of 
 danger, sees himself protected, as Your Majesty is, by the united 
 efforts of all his people ? — by the persons of those who are able 
 to wield a weapon — by the prayers of the aged and of the sex 
 -^— by the purses of the rich — and by the hearts of all. 
 
 " We humbly implore Almighty God to bless these noble 
 efforts of a brave, a loyal, and an enlightened nation, struggling 
 for the safety of their King, and of his Royal house, and deter- 
 
 3 c 2 
 
380 
 
 mined to die in the just defence of their religion, their liberty, 
 and their country." 
 
 Did the treatment I had met with from the King deserve such 
 an address ? Did it not become me, at such a time, to write such 
 an address ? It certainly did ; for I should have been ashamed of 
 the littleness of my own mind, if I had suffered private discon- 
 tent to generate in me either indifference to the public safety, 
 or disaffection to the King. If kings form wrong judgments of 
 the characters of any of their subjects, they are rather to be 
 pitied than condemned for their error ; they can have no interest 
 in thinking of any man either better or worse than he deserves ; 
 but they are usually surrounded with men who may have both 
 interest and malignant pleasure in misleading them ; and it 
 would be an excess of candour to say, that neither churchmen 
 or laymen of that description surrounded the throne of George 
 the Third. 
 
 On the 30th August, I received from Lord William Gordon 
 copies of several letters, which had recently passed between the 
 King, the Prince of Wales, and Mr. Addington, with a permis- 
 sion to take copies of them. The letters had been sent to His 
 Lordship by the Duke of Queensberry, who thought that I might 
 wish to see them. Though I had no acquaintance with His 
 Grace, I acknowledged his civility in the following note, dated 
 Calgarth Park, Sept. 2. 1803 : — 
 
 " The Bishop of Landaff returns many thanks to the Duke of 
 Queensberry for the sight of the important letters which Lord 
 
381 
 
 William Gordon, by His Grace's permission, has had the good- 
 ness to show him. The Bishop has been particularly gratified by 
 the perusal of those of the Prince of Wales, as they confirm the 
 judgment which he had long ago formed, and always maintained, 
 of His Royal Highness' s public character, — That he was a man 
 occupied in trifles, because he had no opportunity of displaying his 
 talents in the conduct of great concerns. 
 
 " The Bishop of LandafT, being older than the King, can 
 entertain no reasonable expectation of seeing the Prince of 
 Wales upon the throne, but his filial piety, discretion, and 
 magnanimity shown in the business of the regency, as well as 
 on the present occasion, are to the Bishop strong omens, that 
 the Prince of Wales will support his future station in a manner 
 which will bring deserved credit to himself, and consequent hap- 
 piness to his people." 
 
 Continuing to be haunted with the idea of danger, not only 
 from knowing the power and inveteracy of France, but from ob- 
 serving the distraction of our councils, the apathy of Europe as 
 to the fate of Britain, and its improvidence as to its own ; I 
 wrote the following letter to Mr. Addington the then Minister, 
 with whom I had a slight acquaintance, Oct. 17. 1803 : — 
 
 " Sir, 
 " You will forgive me, I hope, if I trouble you with some 
 suggestions excited by my fears ; to you alone will I acknow- 
 ledge my apprehensions for the safety of the kingdom j to all 
 other men I shall continue to hold a bolder language than my 
 view of the circumstances of the country justifies. 
 
382 
 
 " Europe is improvidently blind to its own interest ; or she is 
 so weakened as not to be able to repel the danger she foresees ; 
 or she is so irritated against us, on account of the manner in 
 which we have used our naval superiority, as to contemplate, 
 with secret satisfaction, the probability of its diminution or 
 extinction. From some cause or other she stands aloof, and 
 leaves us to struggle singly with the storm, which threatens this 
 country in the first instance, and the civilised world in the 
 second. 
 
 " France and her allies (as she nicknames her conquered 
 countries) can bring into the field four men for our one ; yet our 
 insular situation, combined with the spirit of the country, may 
 enable us to bear up against this superiority of numbers, if this 
 spirit is aroused to its utmost energy, and directed to its best 
 advantage. I am not acquainted with your opinion relative to 
 two great measures, which (were I in His Majesty's councils) I 
 would earnestly press on the consideration of my colleagues at 
 this critical moment. If in these points I differ, which is most 
 probable, from yourself, as I am sensible I differ from some 
 others whose general judgments I much esteem, I request that you 
 would not think me actuated in mentioning them by any other 
 principle than the warmest attachment to the general safety. 
 The measures I allude to are, — the repeal of the Test- Act in Eng- 
 land, — and the making an adequate provision for the Catholic 
 bishops and clergy in Ireland. These are measures not merely 
 of expediency but of strict justice, and I dislike all political 
 measures which are not bottomed on that basis. 
 
 " It has been said, in print, that the Dissenters in England 
 constitute a fourth part of the whole community ; I do not be- 
 
383 
 
 lieve them to be so numerous, but they are too numerous to be 
 treated with harshness, especially as the Established Church would 
 not be injured, and the State would be greatly strengthened by 
 their being treated otherwise. 
 
 " The tithes in Ireland should remain in the possession of the 
 Protestant clergy ; but a kind of co-establishment of the Catholic 
 clergy should be admitted ; for it appears to me an act of great 
 oppression, that the Catholics, who constitute a great majority 
 of the nation, should be compelled to maintain not only their 
 own teachers, but the teachers also of a small minority of the 
 country. 
 
 " I forbear dilating on the beneficial policy of either of these 
 measures, and I should not have presumed to mention them at 
 all, had they not been long and impartially considered by me, 
 and finally adopted from a strong conviction of their justice and 
 utility. Permit me a word or two more on two other subjects. > 
 
 " Excess of taxation has ruined most countries, and it will 
 ruin this, by rendering the middle class of people indifferent to 
 its prosperity ; and they already begin every where to complain 
 that they have less comforts now than they had forty years ago. 
 Yet I think the whole country would willingly give up such a 
 portion of its property as would discharge the national debt, if it 
 could thereby be freed from those vexatious taxes of which a 
 considerable part is lost before it reaches the Exchequer. The 
 true principle of taxation is this, — That every man should pay for 
 the protection of his property by the state, in exact proportion 
 to the property protected, just as merchants who risk their goods 
 on board a vessel pay an insurance in proportion to the value of 
 the goods insured. If a man who has an estate of 200/. a-year, 
 
384 
 
 pays 10/. a-yearto Government, he pays a six-hundredth part of 
 his whole property, supposing the estate to be worth thirty years' 
 purchase. A man of 60/. a-year should on the same principle 
 pay 31, , and it is an arbitary proceeding to maintain that a man 
 of 60/. a-year is not as able (I mean with as little inconvenience 
 to himself) to pay 31. as one of 200/. a-year is to pay 10/. 
 
 " The attention of Government has been principally and 
 properly directed to the protection of the metropolis, whilst 
 other parts have been unavoidably left, in a manner, destitute of 
 the means of defence. Might it not be useful to commit to the 
 custody of the Lords-Lieutenants of counties large quantities of 
 pikes, to be distributed out to steady men as occasion might 
 require. Men armed with pikes might prove a strong subsidiary 
 force to the volunteers of the country. In these parts, at least, 
 I am confident that thousands of respectable yeomen and their 
 sons, who are averse from the volunteering system, would, when 
 armed with pikes, stand forth with promptitude and courage to 
 aid the regulars or volunteers armed with muskets, in attacking 
 an enemy who should attempt to pass through the country. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Addington sent a liberal and complimentary answer: 
 he concurred with me in most of the sentiments which I had 
 expressed, but differed in opinion respecting the repeal of the 
 Test- Act. This difference I had foreseen ; but it did not deter 
 me from maintaining my own, in a speech which I published 
 within a month after this correspondence had taken place, and 
 which I had intended to have delivered in the House of Lords. 
 
385 
 
 None of the four great objects recommended in that speech 
 have been adopted by Government; but I cannot esteem that 
 neglect to be a reason why I should change my opinion of the 
 utility and practicability of every one of them : each of them is 
 an important mean of public safety, and in the present circum- 
 stances they are all necessary. 
 
 There is an error in that speech respecting the question I 
 maintained when a soph at Cambridge, for instead of differing 
 from Grotius I agreed with him then: the three questions on 
 which I kept my first act were, I find, 
 
 Primarii planetce retinentur in orbitis suis vi gravitatis et motu 
 projectili. 
 
 Contra crescentem potentiam quce nimium aucta nocere possit non 
 licet arma sumere. 
 
 Paterna Romanorum potestas legi natures repugnat. 
 
 Amongst others who honoured me with letters expressive of 
 their opinions on various parts of my intended speech, Mr. Rose 
 sent me one from Cuffnells, dated December 5th, 1803, to which 
 I immediately sent the following answer : — 
 
 « Sir, 
 " I have received your letter of the 5th of this month, and desire 
 to return you my best thanks for it. You have stated some dif- 
 ficulties relative to the ascertaining the property of individuals 
 which did not occur to me ; but these and others which did 
 occur I am of opinion might be easily obviated by an intelligent 
 
 3 D 
 
386 
 
 committee of the House of Commons heartily disposed to the 
 business ; and, without flattery, I dare venture to say, that they 
 would vanish before your own investigation, if you were at leisure, 
 and had inclination to apply your whole mind to the subject. 
 If men, however, of your wisdom and experience think the 
 taxing of capital an impracticable measure, I am not so self-suffi- 
 cient, as to suppose that I may not, probably, be mistaken in 
 thinking otherwise. 
 
 " I do not mean to enter more at large into the consideration 
 of this or of any other political subject. I have on all occasions 
 conscientiously endeavoured to serve my country in my public 
 character; but I can employ my time more pleasantly, and, 
 perhaps, you may think more usefully, than in political discus- 
 sions. Trembling as I do for the fate of the country, I have 
 given this publication to the world as my last effort to serve the 
 public interest : I have great reason to hope that it will be of 
 use, and with it I shall probably close my political life. 
 
 " When in page 19. I mentioned an efficacious approximation 
 to the measure of paying off the national debt, I had distinctly in 
 view what has been done (and most wisely and providently, 
 yet not sufficiently, done,) towards the discharge of it. What I 
 principally want is to accelerate the means of doing this, being 
 fearful lest the discontent, which is yearly increasing among all 
 descriptions of persons, should break out into dangerous excess 
 in a short time, or should alienate the minds of the middle class 
 from a love to their country. 
 
 " The language every where is, (absurd no doubt in the ex- 
 treme,) what have we to fight for ? We have not a drop of beer 
 to drink, nor an horse to ride, nor a window to let in light, &c. 
 
387 
 
 &c. : what have we to fight for ? My opinion still is, that a large 
 demand at once, with a prospect of being thereby relieved from 
 certain galling taxes, would be more willingly submitted to than 
 the present mode of fluctuating and irritating taxation. 
 
 " In this retirement I had no access to Lord Bacon's works : I 
 made my quotation from Willymot's translation of the Essays in 
 1742, and it is probably not accurate. You are right in your 
 conjecture : Bacon wrote his essays in English, and translated 
 them into Latin, and Willymot's translation is from the Latin, 
 but with licence I suppose. 
 
 " In acquitting me of any design to mislead the public or to 
 give the shadow of obstruction at this time to the measures of 
 Government, you do me no more than justice ; for that justice, 
 however, I thank you, and am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 At the meeting of parliament in 1812, there prevailed a ru- 
 mour that the Chancellor of the Exchequer intended proposing a 
 tax on capital ; and, on the Chancellor's disclaiming such in- 
 tention, Mr. Rose declared that he had always thought such a 
 tax to be impossible and impracticable, and that he had informed 
 a right reverend prelate, with whom the idea of such a tax, he 
 believed, originated, of his opinion. Mr. Whitbread, in his reply, 
 said, that it was very hard to refer to a person who was some 
 hundreds of miles distant. I immediately wrote the following 
 note to Mr. Whitbread, enclosing a long extract from my letter to 
 Mr. Pitt in 1797: — 
 
 3d 2 
 
388 
 
 n Sir, Kendal, Calgarth Park, 7th Dec. 1812. 
 
 " I do not suspect Mr. Rose of any design to misrepresent 
 me ; but your reply deserves and has my best thanks. 
 
 " I trouble you with an extract of a letter to Mr. Pitt, dated 
 April 7th, 1797, soon after the stoppage of the Bank, as contain- 
 ing my first sentiments on a tax on capital ; and I refer you to 
 the second volume of Tooke's " View of the Russian Empire in 
 1799," (p. 515.) as a proof that such a tax is neither impossible 
 or impracticable. I am, with high esteem, 
 
 " Your obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 There may be some difficulty in taxing mercantile property ; 
 but great accuracy on such a business is not wanted : if a few 
 millions of property should escape untaxed, the loss to the 
 revenue would not be of material consequence. 
 
 I went to London in the following Spring, and seeing the 
 miserable state in which the country was placed, partly from want 
 of national confidence in the Minister, and partly from the perse- 
 vering hostile preparations of the enemy, I made the following 
 short speech in the House of Lords, March 27th, 1804: — 
 
 " My Lords, 
 " I have no intention of troubling Your Lordships at great 
 length : I have little, or to speak more properly, I have no mili- 
 tary knowledge; but I love my country, and I cannot see it 
 tottering on the extremest verge of destruction, without uttering 
 a cry, however faint, without stretching out an arm, however 
 
389 
 
 feeble, to prevent its fall. The die, My Lords, is in the air; 
 may God direct its fall in our favour ! The die is in the air which, 
 by its fall, will indicate the ruin of Bonaparte or of Britain ; 
 which will indicate the consequent reduction of France within its 
 ancient limits, or the consequent reduction of all the States of 
 Europe under the military yoke of France. To avert this catas- 
 trophe from ourselves requires not so much, I think, the co- 
 operation of certain individuals, however honourable in principle, 
 however eminent in ability, (and no one thinks of their honour 
 or of their ability more respectably than I do,) but this co- 
 operation is not so much required in the present circumstances 
 of the country, as an entire, cordial, disinterested concurrence of 
 all the talents in the empire. I am far from insinuating, My 
 Lords, that those who may thus co-operate are influenced by any 
 selfish views, by any ambitious prospects of place or power ; no, 
 on my conscience, I am of opinion, that their primary object is 
 the salvation of the country. Nor, on the other hand, do I take 
 upon me to impute to the administration, what has been so 
 abundantly laid to their charge, — inability. I at least have no 
 public document, no private knowledge of them, which enables 
 me to form a proper judgment. But if they have been guilty 
 of some mistakes, surely the novelty and unparalleled difficulty 
 of their situation will with many, at least it will with me, 
 plead their excuse. With respect to the Volunteer Bill now 
 before the House, this is not the time to enter into any dis- 
 cussion of its several provisions ; nor is it now a question to be 
 debated, whether the volunteer system is the best possible system 
 which could have been devised for tHe defence of the country : 
 it is the system which has been adopted, and it cannot now be 
 
390 
 
 abandoned with safety. I own I have always considered it as a 
 system most noble in its principle ; most difficult in its execution ; 
 and most successful, I trust it will be found, in its operation. 
 No country in the world has ever given a stronger proof of the 
 patriotism of its inhabitants, than the volunteers of Great Britain 
 have given. They consist not of an indebted, discontented, 
 miserable rabble of the country, but of men of rank, of men of 
 letters, of men of property, of respectable yeomen, tradesmen, 
 manufacturers, of all descriptions of reputable persons, from the 
 peer to the peasant, from the enlightened statesman to the poli- 
 tical peruser of a weekly newspaper or monthly magazine. 
 All are animated with an ardent zeal to defend their country. 
 And why, My Lords, are they all animated with this zeal? 
 because all know that there is not now, nor ever was a country 
 on the globe, in which all enjoy, in their several stations, the 
 various blessings of civilised society, so securely and so abund- 
 antly as every individual enjoys in this. This is the knowledge 
 which has excited and carried to an unexampled height the spirit 
 of volunteering. This spirit is not a vain, frivolous, holiday kind 
 of spirit delighted with military parade : it is not a sour, saucy, 
 capricious spirit, disdaining reproof, regulation, and restraint. 
 No, it is a manly spirit of enlightened patriotism, which is sensible 
 that to produce its proper effect it stands in need of, and ought 
 to submit to, instruction, discipline, and direction. But supposing 
 the volunteer system to be brought by the wisdom of Your Lord- 
 ships, and the other House of Parliament, united with that of 
 His Majesty's ministers, to the utmost degree of perfection of 
 which it is capable, another question presents itself, — Is it 
 sufficient for our protection? I am not able to answer this 
 
391 
 
 question, nor, so precarious are the events of war, is any man 
 able to answer it with certainty ; but supposing that it is not 
 sufficient, what need is there for our despair ? There are abund- 
 ant resources to supply the deficiency of the volunteer system. 
 Do you want arms? Why not put all the gunsmiths, sword- 
 cutlers, and blacksmiths in the empire into requisition, till you 
 have procured all the muskets, swords, and pikes, which are 
 wanted ? Do you want men ? Why not call out (for I am clearly 
 of opinion that the King has a right to call out) every man in the 
 country, not already enrolled in its defence, and capable of bear- 
 ing arms, putting into the hands of these men the arms which 
 you shall have prepared? Do you want horses? Why not put 
 in requisition every coach and saddle horse in the empire, to be 
 trained and fitted for the various purposes of war ? No man on 
 such an occasion will grudge to transact his business on foot ; 
 Your Lordships will be proud to set the example by walking 
 down to this House ; and the sex, I speak it to their honour, will 
 on such an occasion be content to stay at home. Do you want 
 ships? Why not hire all the merchantmen and small craft 
 which can be speedily fitted for your purpose? As to large 
 ships, let our enemies build them, and let us trust to our gallant 
 admirals, and the tars of old England, to conduct them into the 
 ports of Great Britain. Do you want money ? Scruple not the 
 imposition of taxes at this moment. Property is the creature of 
 civil society ; the state has a right to all individual property, if it 
 is wanted, for the general safety ; and as the money, thus raised, 
 will circulate amongst ourselves, wealth may chance to change 
 hands, but the nation will not be impoverished. These, or 
 measures such as these, if brought forward with promptitude, 
 
392 
 
 and executed with vigour, may, when modified by parliamentary 
 wisdom, save the country. I dread the genius, I dread the 
 power, I dread the intrigue of the enemy, and above all, I dread 
 the effect of that political paralysis, with which, by his arms and 
 by his intrigues, he has deadened the activity of every cabinet on 
 the Continent. Yet I firmly rely on the courage, and on the 
 unanimity of this country to repel an invasion. Of this country, 
 did I say ? I certainly meant to include Ireland in my idea : the 
 testimony which she yesterday gave us, in His Majesty's mes- 
 sage, of her attachment to us, warmed my heart : it put to flight 
 from my imagination the terrors excited by the apprehension of 
 an hundred thousand Frenchmen. No personal services, no pri- 
 vation of luxuries, no diminution of property ought to be com- 
 plained of, while we are struggling for our existence as a free 
 people. For my own part, I had rather live upon clap-bread and 
 water, and be shod with the wooden clogs of Westmoreland for 
 the rest of my life, as a free subject of this limited monarchy, than 
 be pampered with all the delicacies, cockered with all the luxuries 
 of this luxurious town, as a slave of the French Republic." 
 
 From this speech the ministry concluded that I meant to join 
 their party, and I was treated by them with good dinners and 
 great consideration, till I sent the following letter, in answer to 
 one from Lord Hawkesbury, earnestly requesting my attendance 
 in the House of Lords on the 30th of April : — 
 
 " My Lord, Grafton Street, April 28th, 1804. 
 
 " Though I have, on several occasions, and in various ways, 
 
 endeavoured to promote the best interests of my country, yet I 
 
393 
 
 have ever declined becoming a party-man. Your Lordship, I 
 hope, will forgive me if, when party unhappily runs so high, 
 I cannot assist you farther than by not appearing in the House 
 of Lords on Monday next. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Whilst I staid in town this year, I received a letter from Doctor 
 Falconar of Bath, and I sent him the following answer : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have always great pleasure in hearing either from or of 
 Dr. Falconer, and though I have not of late years indulged 
 myself in many correspondences, except on such as the duties 
 of my station required, yet I cannot leave your letter, which I 
 received yesterday, unnoticed. 
 
 " For the last fifty years I have not been an altogether incurious 
 spectator of the events which have taken place in this and in other 
 countries ; but I can make no estimate of the moral merit or de- 
 merit of my countrymen, compared with their predecessors during 
 the first half of the last century, for want of a juxta-position of 
 the parties : they had their vices and their virtues, and we have 
 ours, but, not being precisely of the same kind, their relative 
 excellences and defects cannot be ascertained. 
 
 " Classical literature has given place to philosophical know- 
 ledge ; and though w,2 have a few men eminently skilled in the 
 Greek and Latin languages, yet the knowledge of these languages 
 is neither general nor deep. 
 
 o E . 
 
394 
 
 " In the north of England there was, fifty years ago, a good 
 grammar-school almost under every crag: the schools remain, 
 but the spirit of trade has frightened away all the muses : Cocker's 
 Arithmetic has taken precedence of Lily's Grammar. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the virulence with which revealed religion has 
 been attacked on the Continent and in this kingdom, I am dis- 
 posed to believe, that intellgent men begin to consider Christianity 
 not merely as an useful political machine, but as a matter in the 
 truth of which every one is individually concerned. This consider- 
 ation will produce a degree of seriousness, and, perhaps, renovate a 
 zealous spirit ; but the good sense of the age will not suffer that 
 spirit to degenerate into a spirit of intolerance and bigotry. 
 
 " The inordinate love, however, of wealth, of distinction, of 
 personal indulgence, which prevails among all classes, and the 
 abominable abandonment of public probity, when it comes in 
 competition with private interest, which prevails among the 
 higher ranks, suggest no reasonable expectation of Christianity 
 soon becoming the rule of life to the generality of our country- 
 men ; and the enormous taxation under which we labour will, I 
 fear, extinguish all pure patriotism in the breasts of the middle class. 
 
 The death of a single prince in any part of Europe, remarkable 
 either for wisdom or folly, renders political conjectures of future 
 contingencies so extremely uncertain, that I seldom indulge my- 
 self in forming them; yet it seems to me probable, that Europe 
 will soon be divided among three powers, France, Austria, and 
 Russia; and in half a century between two, France and Russia; 
 and that America will become the greatest naval power on the 
 globe, and be replenished by migrations of oppressed and discon- 
 tented people from every part of Europe. 
 
395 
 
 " I have ever acted in public concerns from my own coiivic- 
 tion ; perfectly indifferent to the ambitious struggles of political 
 parties, except so far as they injured or assisted what I esteemed 
 the public good ; and I cannot but lament that at this moment 
 the violence of party-spirit, excited by private views, is embarras- 
 sing the measures of Government. The dignified mode of pro- 
 ceeding, and a mode the present crisis required, would have been 
 a concurrence of all men of talents to amend the blunders (if any), 
 and to assist the weakness (if weakness exists), of the present ad- 
 ministration ; instead of this I see a mere interested contention 
 for their places. 
 
 " My health is tolerable ; but the original disorder, which seized 
 me twenty-four years ago, is not removed, nor can I reasonably 
 expect that it ever will be removed. I have left my retreat in 
 Westmoreland for two months, to see if, at this time, I could be of 
 any use to the country ; but there is no probability of the voice 
 of independence being listened to by any of the factions. 
 
 " My spirits have never failed me ; for from an early age I 
 have looked upon life as a blessing, but not as a blessing of such 
 a magnitude as to generate, in a Christian, any great reluctance 
 to the parting with it ; because I have no expectation of a future 
 state, except what is founded on the truth of Christianity : I say 
 not in the truth of all the doctrines which men have deduced 
 from the Gospels, but I fix upon the truth of the resurrection 
 of Christ as that corner-stone oh which I build all hope of my 
 q$vn ; and that corner-stone is, I think, as surely posited as any 
 fact in ancient history. 
 
 * I am, &c 
 ! .*' R. Landaff." 
 
 3e 2 
 
396 
 
 An act of Parliament, introduced by Lord Ellenborougli, was 
 passed in this session, making it illegal to ordain any person a 
 deacon before he had obtained the full age of twenty-three years. 
 I had no objection to this act, as fixing a definite time before which 
 orders should not be conferred. Men, indeed, differ from each 
 other so much in genius, ability, and disposition, that it may fre- 
 quently happen that one man at the age of twenty may be as fit 
 to become a deacon as another at the age of twenty-three ; and 
 it might thence be argued, that the time of taking orders ought 
 to be left to the discretion of the bishop conferring them, rather 
 than be fixed to any particular period. Father Paul was ordained 
 a priest at twenty-two years of age ; and Archbishop Usher was 
 ordained both deacon and priest before the age prescribed by the 
 canons ; and other eminent men have met with similar indul- 
 gence : yet the leaving matters, which may be settled by law, to 
 men's discretion, (how properly soever that discretion may in 
 particular instances be exerted,) is in general a bad principle in 
 legislation. 
 
 But though I did not object to the act on account of its fixing 
 a time before which a man could not be legally ordained a deacon, 
 I thought it was highly objectionable on another account. 
 
 Between thirty and forty years ago, I had been much engaged 
 in the tuition of youth in the University of Cambridge ; and fre- 
 quently observed the great difficulty with which clergymen with 
 small incomes, farmers, tradesmen, and others, in slender circum- 
 stances, sustained the expense of their sons' education ; and I was 
 sensible that it was from such sort of families that the church was 
 
397 
 
 principally supplied with parochial ministers. Since that time 
 the expense of an University-education has been much increased, 
 and this increase must of natural consequence reduce the numbers 
 sent thither for the clerical profession, and render a supply of 
 ministers from some other quarter necessary. To prevent this, 
 many of the bishops have formed a resolution, not to ordain any 
 one who has not taken a degree in one of our Universities. I 
 cannot approve of this resolution for two reasons : — First, I think 
 it illiberal in the bishops to refuse conferring orders because a 
 man has not been educated at Cambridge or Oxford : their duty 
 in that matter consists in examining whether a man has a suffi- 
 cient portion of learning, rather than in asking where he acquired 
 it ; since Warburton, and many other eminent men, not being 
 graduates, would on their principle have never have been intro- 
 duced into the church. In the second place, it may be observed, 
 that if all the bishops acted on this principle, many churches in 
 several dioceses would be destitute of ministers. 
 
 Seeing the church in danger of becoming less respectable, as 
 to its ministers, from the increase of the expense of an University- 
 education, I thought it might be a relief to parents, and an in- 
 ducement to them to send their sons to the University, if young 
 men were permitted to go into deacon's orders at two, rather than 
 at three-and-twenty years of age. I mentioned this to several of 
 the bishops, and they all seemed to concur with me in opinion. 
 A few days afterwards I went down to the House of Lords, and 
 showed to Lord Ellenborough the following clause, which I 
 wished might be introduced into his bill : — That no person who 
 had taken a degree in arts or in law, in any of the Universities of 
 
398 
 
 Cambridge, Oxford, or Dublin, should be ordained a deacon before 
 he had attained the full age of twenty-two years ; and that no other 
 literate person should be ordained a deacon before he was twenty- 
 three years of age, I not only found Lord Ellenborough stiff in 
 his own opinion, that his bill should not be altered ; but that he 
 had changed the sentiments of some of the bishops ; so that, fore- 
 seeing the probable rejection of the clause, and dreading the inde- 
 corum of the bench being divided on such a point, I forbore 
 making the motion I had intended. 
 
 I retained, however, my opinion, that every encouragement 
 ought to be held out to parents to send their children, destined 
 for the ministry, to the Universities ; and that the distinction in 
 favour of the Universities, which I proposed in the clause, is 
 highly proper ; for, with all their defects, our Universities are the 
 best seminaries of education in Europe. We hear, indeed, in 
 every company, much blame thrown on the Universities, on 
 account of the increase of the expense of education in them ; but 
 the blame is not fairly imputable to them, since the expenses of 
 tuition, rooms, commons, college-servants, &c, are much the 
 same now that they were forty years ago. It is impossible for 
 the Universities effectually to oppose the torrent of luxury and 
 dissipation which, in spreading itself through all classes, has 
 every where broken down the ancient fences of frugality and 
 simplicity of manners, and which, unless it be checked, will indu- 
 bitably bring on the ruin of the country. How applicable to 
 ourselves (since our territorial acquisitions in India) is the ob- 
 servation of Livy, foreseeing and lamenting the fate of Rome, — 
 
399 
 
 " Nuper diviticB avaritiam, et abundantes voluptates desiderium, per 
 luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia, invexere /" 
 
 I this year preached and published a sermon for the Society 
 established for the Suppression of Vice. An hint given in that 
 sermon, the same which I had given before in 1791, in a sermon 
 preached for the Philanthropic Society, has been carried into 
 execution, by the establishment, in 1805, of a new institution, 
 called The Refuge for the Destitute, under the presidency of the 
 Duke of York. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans and his two brothers had honoured me 
 with a visit of a few days at my house in Westmoreland ; and I 
 was so much pleased with their conversation, and sympathised so 
 sincerely with them in the misfortunes which had befallen their 
 house, that I could not forbear sending the following letter to 
 the Duke of Orleans on the murder of his relation the Due 
 D'Enghien : — 
 
 " Sir, Calgarth Park, July 20. 1804. 
 
 " I have no wish to draw Your Highness into a correspondence 
 with an obscure bishop, but I have a wish to testify to you the 
 supreme satisfaction I have received from the perusal of the 
 Discours Funebre pronounced at the obsequies of the Due 
 D'Enghien, and to join my regrets to those of the civilised 
 world. It is a matchless piece of eloquence : the occasion makes 
 the heart of the reader feel, with poignant sympathy, the expres- 
 sions of the orator : I would not be possessed of that man's soul, 
 who can read it without tears. 
 
400 
 
 " God, in his inscrutable providence, rules the world : Catholics 
 and Protestants believe this ; and if they are wise they will believe 
 also that afflictions are designed for, and do in fact produce the 
 melioration of mankind. A prince may lose a throne, but if the 
 loss makes him submit with resignation to the Divine dispensa- 
 tion, he will gain something better than a throne, he will make 
 God his friend. 
 
 "If ever this usurpation should be overthrown, and regal go- 
 vernment be re-established in France, I please myself with the ex- 
 pectation that the noble conduct of England, shown in this day 
 of calamity, will be everlastingly remembered ; and that the two 
 greatest and most enlightened nations in Europe will, by the 
 union of their councils, preserve the peace of Christendom ; and 
 by their abhorrence of religious domination, extinguish the 
 bigotry which has, for so many ages, disfigured the fair form of 
 genuine Christianity. 
 
 " I met the Due de Montpensier in London, and desired him 
 to present to you my best respects ; that I did not do it in person 
 I beg you to attribute to my little knowledge of, and less regard 
 for etiquette ; and this defect you will have the goodness to ex- 
 cuse in an old man, who feels an activity on great, but none on 
 ceremonious occasions, and to allow me the honour of assuring 
 Your Highness of the sincerity with which I am 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The Duke of Orleans, if he ever reads this, will pardon my 
 printing his answer to my letter : I am certain th#t it will do him 
 honour wherever it is read ; and I beg him to consider the pub- 
 lication of it as a posthumous token of my respect and good will. 
 
401 
 
 Letter from the Duke of Orleans, dated Twickenham, July 28th, 
 
 1804. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 H I am extremely obliged to Your Lordship for your kind 
 letter. I regretted that I had not the pleasure of seeing you 
 whilst you were in town. The moment I heard you were there 
 I went to Great George- Street very early to be certain of finding 
 you at home, but I was informed you had removed, and I could 
 get no other direction but that it was somewhere in Albemarle- 
 street or Conduit- street, they knew not which, and as to a number, 
 that was not to be thought of. Still had I been a resident in 
 town I had certainly found you out : but I have been very little 
 in town last winter, and never had a house, or even apartments ; 
 I remained here in great retirement, of which I grow more fond 
 every day of my life. 
 
 " I was certain Your Lordship's elevated soul had resented, 
 with becoming indignation, the foul murder of my unfortunate 
 cousin. His mother being my aunt, he was, next to my brothers, 
 the nearest relation I had ; and, as he was only a year older than 
 me, we had been play-fellows during our younger years, you 
 must feel it was a sad blow to me. His fate is an awful warning 
 to every one of us, that the Corsican usurper will never rest until 
 he has erased the whole of our family from the list of the living. 
 It makes me feel still more forcibly than I did before (though it 
 is scarcely possible) the blessing of the generous protection and 
 support granted unto us by your magnanimous country. I have 
 left my native country at so early a period, that I have not much 
 of the habits of a Frenchman, and I may say with perfect candour 
 
 3f 
 
402 
 
 that I am attached to England, not only by gratitude but by in- 
 clination and habit. It is in the sincerity of my heart that I say, 
 May I never leave that hospitable land ! 
 
 " But it is not only on account of my own feelings that I am 
 so strongly interested in the welfare, prosperity, and successes of 
 England, it is also as a man. The safety of Europe, that of the 
 world, and the future happiness and independence of mankind, 
 rests upon the preservation and independence of England, and 
 this is the noble cause of Bonaparte's rage against you, and of 
 that of his gang. May God defeat his wicked plans, and main- 
 tain this country in its present glorious and happy situation, is the 
 true wish of my heart and of my most fervent prayer ! 
 
 " Your Lordship must be equally well acquainted with my 
 opinion respecting religious differences amongst Christians ; and 
 in other words, amongst men who profess the same religion. I 
 believe every man must remain true to the principles in which he 
 was brought up ; but I equally believe it is not, in such times 
 as these we live in, that such differences can be a real cause of 
 difference among Christians. The question is not, whether one 
 is a Christian of this or that sect, but whether he is a Christian 
 or not ? 
 
 " This, in my humble opinion, is the only question, at a time 
 when the vital parts of religion and morality are attacked with 
 such force ; and where the melancholy experience of the latter 
 years show, with what rapidity irreligion and immorality are 
 spreading their baneful dominion over mankind. 
 
 " From the knowledge I have acquired of Your Lordship's 
 great mind, I thought your opinion should be what I am very 
 glad to find it is. I hope you will allow me to say, that I con- 
 
403 
 
 gratulate you upon sentiments so worthy at once of an English 
 prelate, and a true Christian. 
 
 " Would you be so good as to remember me most kindly to 
 Mrs. and the Miss Watsons, and believe me, with the highest 
 and most sincere esteem and regard, 
 
 " My dear Lord, ever your affectionate 
 
 « L. P. P. Orleans." 
 
 " P. S. — I am particularly requested by both my brothers to 
 present you their compliments, as well as to all your family. 
 They went likewise in search of you in town ; and all of us will 
 ever retain, and myself most particularly, a most pleasant recol- 
 lection of the short but agreeable days we spent at Calgarth." 
 
 The fall of the French monarchy, the imprisonments, con- 
 fiscations, proscriptions, murders, butcheries, which attended its 
 overthrow, and the despicable tyranny which has succeeded it, 
 are important events for the consideration of princes and of their 
 subjects. They instruct princes to use despotic power with 
 moderation ; and indeed to reflect, whether despotism is at all 
 suited to the government of such an enlightened people as now 
 inhabit Europe ; they teach them also to beware of burdening 
 their subjects with excessive taxation, in support of unnecessary 
 wars, or of the luxury and prodigality of their courts. They 
 instruct subjects, (I do not say to submit to the extreme oppres- 
 sion of their rulers,) but to bear with long and patient endurance 
 small evils, lest in attempting to get rid of them, they should be 
 overwhelmed by greater. Seasonable reforms may be accom- 
 plished without danger; but a resistance to reformation usually 
 
 ends in a revolution. 
 
 3f2 
 
404 
 
 In October, 1804, a German treatise in Divinity, by Anastatius 
 Freylinghansen, was published in English, with great parade, by 
 order of Her Majesty, and supervised by the Bishop of London. 
 The Duke of Grafton offered to forward it to me: I sent the 
 following letter to His Grace : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth, 23d Oct. 1804. 
 
 " Though a letter from me passed, on the road, that which I 
 have had the honour to receive from Your Grace, dated Oct. 9th, 
 yet I think it right for me to trouble you with my acknowledge- 
 ments for your kind offer of sending me the German Theology ; 
 and to say, that I will not trouble you to do it, for I have already 
 seen it, and perused as much of it as I probably shall ever do ; 
 for at my time of life I have not my religion to learn from a 
 Lutheran divine. 
 
 " Mr. Freylinghansen was, I question not, a learned and ortho- 
 dox divine, but he appears to me to have been a very poor meta- 
 physician. He staggered me in his first page, by speaking of our 
 natural knowledge of God as being implanted in us, notwith- 
 standing all that Mr. Locke had said upon the subject in the first 
 book of his Essay on the Human Understanding ; and he hobbles, 
 in the second and several succeeding pages, in such a manner, as 
 no one who had distinct notions of metaphysical reasoning, con- 
 cerning the existence of God and his attributes, could, I think, 
 have possibly done. 
 
 " All that kind of discussion has been more clearly and more 
 deeply handled by Clarke, Locke, Whitby, Abernethy, Knight, &c. 
 than by this German. The book is systematical, and on that 
 account may be of use as an elementary book ; but I have not 
 
t 
 
 405 
 
 the same notion of the utility of elementary books in theology 
 which many persons entertain. Elementary books in geometry, 
 algebra, &c, exhibit to us an indissoluble concatenation of intuitive 
 or demonstrated truths ; but elementary books in theology give 
 us a concatenation, perhaps, but it is more frequently a concate- 
 nation of conjectures than of truths. 
 
 " Let any man fill his head with a persuasion, that he under- 
 stands what is meant by the Image of God; that Adam had 
 Original Righteousness ; that he was a Falderal Head, &c.> and it 
 will not be easy to enumerate the series of truths (conjectures 
 they ought to be called, and absolute errors they may be) which 
 will follow as legitimate corollaries, from such assumed principles. 
 
 " What are the catechisms of the Romish church, of the English 
 church, of the Scotch church, and of all other churches, but a set 
 of propositions which men of different natural capacities, educa- 
 tions, prejudices, have fabricated (sometimes on the anvil of sin- 
 cerity, oftener on that of ignorance, interest, or hypocrisy,) from 
 the divine materials furnished by the Bible ? And can any man 
 of an enlarged charity believe, that his salvation will ultimately 
 depend on a concurrence in opinion with any of these niceties, 
 which the several sects of Christians have assumed as essentially 
 necessary for a Christian man's belief? Oh, no ! Christianity is 
 not a speculative business. One good act performed from a prin- 
 ciple of obedience to the declared will of God, will be of more 
 service to every individual, than all the speculative theology of 
 St. Augustin, or Anastatius Freylinghansen. 
 
 " 1 do* not mean to speak disrespectfully of this book, though 
 it contains many positions which I do not approve, esteeming 
 them unfounded in Scripture ; yet it is possible enough that I, 
 
406 
 
 and not the author of it, may be in an error. Your Grace may 
 have more patience in perusing it than I have had. It is very 
 dogmatical ; and refers to texts of Scripture which, abstracted 
 from their context, often prove nothing. All the subjects it 
 treats of have been handled with great precision by Curcellaeus, 
 Turretin, Episcopius, Limborch, and a great many other foreign 
 divines ; and very distinctly, though not systematically, by our 
 own. This want of system in our writers may have given this 
 German book a great estimation in the judgment of Her Majesty, 
 in preference to those of our own country, which it cannot be 
 expected she should be much acquainted with. But enough of 
 this matter. " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 My old friend, Mr. Tyrwhitt, of Jesus College, Cambridge, 
 sent (for my perusal) a Sermon which he had preached in St. 
 Mary's Church, and which he afterwards published, designed to 
 prove that the baptismal form (Matt, xxviii. 19.) contained no 
 doctrine in support of the Trinity. I returned the subjoined 
 answer : — 
 
 " Calgarth Park, Aug. 29. 1804. 
 " I return you, my dear Sir, your most valuable manuscript, 
 with my best thanks for your having allowed me the perusal of it. 
 No person can be offended by the manner in which you have 
 handled an important passage of Scripture, and the minds of 
 many will be enlightened by your argumentation. Vitringa has 
 a learned Dissertation on what was understood by the Jews, by 
 the phrase of being baptized in the name of any one. The true 
 
407 
 
 meaning of that phrase in the baptismal form must, I think, be 
 determined by the import it had in the ears of our Lord's auditors, 
 yet I am not satisfied with Vitringa's observations. 
 
 " I am disposed to accede to your remark, that whatever doc- 
 trine is not contained in the form prescribed by Christ for receiv- 
 ing disciples by baptism into his church, cannot be necessary to 
 be believed by Christians ; and you have excited a reasonable 
 doubt, whether the doctrine of the Trinity be positively con- 
 tained in the baptismal form. Yet I must own, that it sticks 
 with me, that as the Father and the Son are persons, how the 
 Holy Ghost can be otherwise conceived than as a person, in that 
 form. 
 
 " Were I at Cambridge, I should be happy to discuss this, 
 and some other points of your judicious discourse, in charming 
 conference with yourself. I am certain, that whether we agreed 
 or not in opinion on every point, we should agree in thinking, 
 that free discussion was the best mean of investigating truth. 
 
 " I rejoice in your quotation from Locke. That great man 
 has done more for the enlargement of the human faculties, and 
 for the establishment of pure Christianity, than any author I am 
 acquainted with. Accept the thanks and best wishes of 
 
 " Your's sincerely, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 i , 
 
 Having heard that a controversy was carrying on between the 
 Bishop of Oxford and Mr. Marsh, of St. John's College, Cam- 
 bridge, I desired a friend to send me their several publications, 
 and wrote to him the following letter : — 
 
408 
 
 " Dear Sir, Calgarth Park, Oct. 17. 1804. 
 
 " I received from Cadell, the day before yesterday, the pam- 
 phlets which I had desired you to order for me, and I send you 
 my thanks for the trouble you have had. I had read some of 
 them when they were first published, and have now perused them 
 all with attention, and am thankful to both the gentlemen for the 
 information they have afforded me, without presuming to give any 
 opinion on the point in dispute between them, or on the relative 
 accuracy of their logic in argumentation. 
 
 " I rejoice that Cambridge can boast of having so great a 
 Biblical scholar, and so liberal a divine, as Mr. Marsh has long 
 shown himself to be, and have no doubt of the high estimation in 
 which he will be held by that enlightened body. 
 
 " I sincerely hope that the publishing his Hypothesis will be 
 in no place an impediment to him in the way of his preferment, 
 but I am not ignorant that all men will not see this hypothesis 
 in the same light in which it appears to me. I consider it as an 
 attempt to remove from the Gospels many difficulties. Those 
 who shall consider it as founded in fact (though the fact cannot 
 now be proved by testimony) will be thankful for it : those who 
 shall consider it as having no foundation in fact, will not be in- 
 jured by it, since it leaves them as they were. 
 
 " In the first rule of philosophising, laid down by Newton, it is 
 said, — More causes of natural things are not to be admitted than 
 are both true and sufficient for explaining their phenomena. 
 The Vortices of Des Cartes may, in the opinion of many, be suf- 
 ficient for explaining the planetary motions, and the pre-established 
 harmony of Leibnitz may \xz sufficient for explaining the phse- 
 
409 
 
 nomenaofwhat are called voluntary motions; but these causes 
 not being true, having no existence except in the imaginations 
 of their authors, are not to be admitted as the true causes of the 
 planetary and voluntary motions, though sufficient for explaining 
 their phenomena. If this rule of philosophising can be applied 
 to the case in point (which, perhaps, it cannot) does it not show, 
 that a sufficiency to explain the phaenomena of the verbal har- 
 mony in the Gospels does not absolutely prove the hypothesis, 
 or rather does not prove the fact of there ever having been the 
 public document in question. 
 
 " On the other hand it may be said, Dr. Long, in speaking of 
 the correspondence between the appearances of the heavenly 
 bodies and the position of them assumed by Copernicus, expresses 
 himself in the following terms : — " This exact correspondence of 
 the phenomena with the hypothesis, is alone so strong an argument 
 in favour of the truth of it, that we might very well acquiesce in 
 it." If this reasoning may be allowed to Dr. Long, why may it 
 not be allowed to Mr. Marsh ? His hypothesis has an exact 
 correspondence with certain phaenomena of verbal harmony dis- 
 covered by him in the Gospels ; is not this correspondence alone 
 so strong an argument in favour of the truth of the hypothesis 
 that we may well acquiesce in it? 
 
 " I make not these remarks with any intention of entering into 
 the discussion of the question, but merely to show you that I re- 
 spect Mr. Marsh's publications too highly to give them only a 
 slight consideration. 
 
 " I wish the controversy to rest where it does, though I ap- 
 plaud Mr. Marsh's courage in professing his readiness to continue 
 
 3 g . ; 
 
410 
 
 the combat, and am persuaded that, if he is obliged to strike a 
 
 last blow, it will be a clincher. 
 
 1 am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 • 
 When we want to open a lock, and after having tried, to no 
 purpose, a number of keys, we hit upon one which opens it with 
 facility, we conclude that we have met with the right key. In 
 like manner when any phsenomenon in nature is to be explained, 
 such, for instance, as the aberration of the fixed stars, and we 
 find that the hypothesis of the progressive motion of light, com- 
 bined with that of the annual motion of the earth in its orbit, 
 will completely solve that wonderful appearance, we rightly con- 
 clude that light is progressive ; or when we find that the colours, 
 figure, position, and all the other appearances of the primary and 
 secondary rainbows, can be solved from the different refrangibility 
 of the rays of light passing through globular drops of rain, we 
 rightly conclude that the rays of light are differently refrangible 
 and the drops of rain globular, why may we not argue in the same 
 manner on other subjects ? The verbal harmonies observable in 
 the Gospels may be solved, by admitting that the four Evangelists 
 transcribed some parts of the Gospels from a common docu- 
 ment; may not the solution of the phsenomena, as Mr. Marsh 
 calls them, of the verbal harmonies, by the hypothesis of such a 
 document, be admitted as a proof that such a document did once 
 exist? 
 
 In January, 1805, the Duke of Grafton informed me by letter, 
 that it was not expected the Archbishop of Canterbury could live 
 
411 
 
 many weeks. I had no expectation of an archbishopric, for the 
 Duke of Clarence had once said to me, (speaking in conversation, 
 no doubt, the language of the court,) "They will never make you 
 an archbishop : they are afraid of you." 
 
 I had no expectation, indeed, of any thing being offered me, 
 for I knew that I possessed none of the principles essential to the 
 success of candidates for promotion ecclesiastical or civil. Parti- 
 sans in parliament, Tories in government, bigots in religion, these 
 are the men who thrive in all corrupted states, and by thriving 
 accelerate the ruin of free constitutions. I wrote, on the occasion, 
 to the Duke of Grafton, the annexed letter. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, " Calgarth, Jan. 5. 1805. 
 
 " I am much obliged to Your Grace for your intelligence rela- 
 tive to the state of the Archbishop's health : it is of a piece with 
 your uniform kindness to me and attention to my interest. When- 
 ever the event takes place, some suitable opening may, probably, 
 be made for my application, but I am determined to make no 
 application. I have been insulted by the neglect of ministers, 
 and perhaps misrepresented by them to His Majesty, but I will 
 not disgrace myself by the servility of repeating my wishes, or 
 re-urging my pretensions ; though I should think it a duty I owe 
 to the University not to refuse any offer by which 1 should not 
 be a loser in resigning my professorship. 
 
 " If I know myself my mind has, through life, been free from 
 avarice and ambition ; except the avarice of making a moderate 
 provision for a large family ; except the ambition of being well 
 esteemed by the wise and virtuous part of mankind. 
 
 3o 2 
 
412 
 
 " The prospect of acquiring wealth and distinction is a proper 
 incentive to virtuous exertion ; and when these are bestowed as 
 jewards of personal desert, he must be more insensible than a 
 Stoic who does not rejoice in the possession of them ; but when 
 they cannot be procured except by intrigue, adulation, loss of cha- 
 racter, and prostitution of principle, to me they become not only 
 worthless, but abominable objects of pursuit. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 My daughter Elizabeth wrote to me in March, 1805, at the 
 request of Miss Dutton, who wished to consult me on a point of 
 some delicacy. The Russian Prince, Bariatinski, was paying his 
 addresses to her : she had some scruples, and her mother, Lady 
 Sherborne, had more, respecting the propriety of her entering 
 into a matrimonial connection with a person of the Greek church. 
 I had no knowledge of either Miss Dutton or of her parents ; but 
 being thus called upon, I sent the following letter to my daughter 
 to be communicated to the young lady. 
 
 . " My dear Elizabeth, Calgarth Park, March 27. 1805. 
 
 " In answering Miss Dutton's enquiry, I shall certainly do it 
 with sincerity, but my opinions on any subject though sincere are 
 not infallible : I must act in conformity to them myself, but I am 
 far from wishing any person to rely on them. • 
 
 " The Christian religion is wholly comprised in the New Tes- 
 tament, but men have interpreted that book in various ways, and 
 hence have sprung up a great variety of Christian churches. I 
 scruple not giving the name of Christian churches to assemblies 
 
413 
 
 of men uniting together for public worship, though they may 
 differ somewhat from each other in doctrine and in discipline, 
 whilst they all agree in the fundamental principle of the Christian 
 religion — that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. (j 
 
 " In this the Greek, the Latin, and all the reformed churches 
 have one and the same faith. They all believe, too, that Christ 
 rose from the dead — that there will be a resurrection of all men 
 — that there will be a future state, in which all men will be re- 
 warded or punished according to their works done in this. These 
 are some of the chief points in which all churches agree : they 
 disagree in matters of less importance ; and each church esteem- 
 ing itself the true church, is apt to impute not merely error, but 
 crime to every other. This imputation I think extremely wrong 
 ■ — it is judging another man's servant — it is assuming dominion 
 over another man's faith — it is having too high an opinion of 
 our own wisdom — it is presuming that we are rendering God 
 service, when it may be that we are merely supporting our own 
 prejudices, flattering our own self-sufficiency, and paying homage 
 to intellectual pride. 
 
 " I do not indeed agree with those who esteem it a matter of 
 indifference what religion a man adopts provided his life be good; 
 yet I must think that this indifference is less exceptionable than 
 that want of charity for those who dissent from our particular 
 faith, which too frequently occupies the minds of well-meaning 
 zealots in every church. 
 
 " The doctrines of every church are best known from its public 
 creed, because that is supposed to be a compendium of articles 
 of faith adapted to general use. 
 
414 
 
 " The Russian Greek church does not use in its public service 
 what is commonly called the Apostles Creed; nor what is im- 
 properly called the Atkanusian Creed; but simply that which we 
 use in our communion service, which is usually denominated the 
 Nicene Creed; though it is not, in every point, precisely that 
 which was composed at the Council of Nice, in Bithynia, in the 
 year 325. I do not presume to blame the Russian church for 
 the exclusive use of the Nicene Creed in its public service, espe- 
 cially as it does not prohibit the private use of the other two. 
 Nor do I blame it for differing from the Romish church in one 
 article of this creed, respecting the Holy Ghost proceeding from 
 the Father alone ; though all the reformed churches agree with 
 the church of Rome in maintaining the procession of the Holy 
 Ghost from the Father and the Son, notwithstanding its being 
 well known that the words — And the Son, were only added by 
 a pope in the tenth century, without the authority of a council. 
 The doctrine may be true, but not being a part of what was 
 established at the Council of Nice, it is not admitted by the Greek 
 church. 
 
 " The Russian church differs from the Romish church, in not 
 acknowledging a purgatory ; in not denying the sacramental cup 
 to the laity ; in allowing their priests to marry ; in explaining 
 transubstantiation in a mystical manner ; in not invocating saints 
 and the Virgin Mary as mediators ; acknowledging Jesus Christ 
 as the only Mediator ; and in many other points. In those, and 
 in other particulars, the Greek church seems to have a leaning 
 to the principles of Protestantism rather than of Popery. 
 
 " On no occasion ought we to act in opposition to our con- 
 science, but it does not follow, that in obeying the dictates of 
 
415 
 
 conscience we always act rightly ; for there is such a thing as an 
 erroneous conscience, and we may not be able to detect the 
 error. I knew a gentleman who had been brought up at Eton 
 and at Cambridge, who from being a Protestant became a Roman 
 Catholic. This gentleman examined the foundation of both 
 religions, and finally settled on that of the church of Rome. 
 He acted properly in following the impulse of his judgment. 
 I think he formed an erroneous judgment, but that is only 
 my opinion, in opposition to his opinion ; and even admit- 
 ting my opinion to be right, it would be uncharitable in me 
 to condemn him, for God only knows whether, with his talents 
 and constitutional turn of mind, he could have escaped the error 
 into which he had fallen. With a similar degree of moderation, 
 therefore, I think of the different sects of Christians. Every 
 sect believes itself to be right, but it does not become any of 
 them to say, — I am more righteous than my neighbour, or to 
 think that the gates of Heaven are shut against all others. 
 
 " Miss Dutton, I think, will easily collect, from what I have 
 written, my opinion ; that if, in every other respect, the match 
 meets with her approbation and that of her parents, it need not 
 be declined from any apprehension of the children's salvation 
 being risked by being educated in the Greek church ; especially 
 as, when they arrive at mature age, they will be at liberty to ex- 
 amine and judge for themselves which, of all the Christian 
 churches, is most suitable to the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 " I received your letter only yesterday evening, but as you 
 wished for a speedy answer, I have hastened to oblige you, 
 
 " And am ever, 
 
 " Your most affectionate father, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
416 
 
 Miss Dutton was soon after married to Prince Bariatinski, and 
 they enjoyed much happiness together, till the Princess died in 
 childbed at Altona, in March, 1807. 
 
 In May, 1805, the Petition of the Roman Catholics in Ireland 
 was taken into consideration by both Houses of Parliament, and 
 rejected by great majorities in them both. Being a sincere friend 
 to the general principle of the petition, I sent, six weeks before 
 its introduction into parliament, the following letter to the then 
 Minister, Mr. Pitt: — 
 
 « My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, 1st April, 1805. 
 
 " I approve of the purport of the Catholic Petition, and think 
 that there would be both justice and expediency in granting it, 
 but I do not approve of its being presented and pressed at this 
 time. 
 
 " I respect the conscience of the King, and lament that in his 
 state of health any thing should disturb his mind. My hu- 
 manity will not permit me to support a measure, not necessarily 
 called for, which may, probably, bring on him the greatest afflic- 
 tion to which human nature can be exposed. 
 
 " When I say, that I respect the conscience of the King, I do 
 not mean to say that I think it is rightly formed ; but I applaud his 
 integrity in adhering to it whilst he believes that it is so. I think 
 that it is not rightly formed, because I see no danger occurring to 
 the church of England from Catholic emancipation, either in 
 Great Britain or Ireland. 
 
 " As to His Majesty's scruple respecting his Coronation Oath, 
 (though it does him great honour to attend to it,) in my opinion 
 
417 
 
 it is not well founded. The Coronation Oath is the confirmation 
 of a promise made by the King to his people : the obligation of 
 the promise ceases, and the oath is relaxed, when the people by 
 the two Houses of Parliament declare, that they do not, in a cer- 
 tain point, require the performance of it. 
 
 " If it is the intention of Government absolutely to reject the 
 principle of the petition I will give no proxy ; but if it is their in- 
 tention to defer the consideration of it only till His Majesty's 
 health be better established, or his conscientious scruples re- 
 moved, I am ready to give you my little support. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. L." 
 
 About the same time I sent the subjoined letter to the Duke 
 of Grafton, in answer to one of his, expressing a wish to know 
 my sentiments on the Catholic Question : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " The Catholic Question is a subject on which I formerly be- 
 stowed some attention, but foreseeing that I might not have an 
 opportunity of publicly delivering an opinion, I was not anxious 
 to make up my mind upon it. I have however resumed the con- 
 sideration of it, and the result of my most serious thoughts is, — 
 that the purport of the petition ought to be granted, but that it 
 ought not at this time to be pressed upon the King. 
 
 " I am perfectly sensible that the suspicion of the King's 
 dislike of a measure is no constitutional reason why it ought not 
 to be submitted to the judgment of parliament ; but the state of 
 the King's health is, to me at least it is, a reason why no measure, 
 
 3 H 
 
418 
 
 not immediately necessary for the salvation of the country, should 
 be introduced, which may probably bring on an old man the 
 greatest calamity which can befall human kind. If I were in 
 town I would not vote against the petition, but I certainly would 
 vote to put off the consideration of it. 
 
 " It is certainly not unsuitable either to your age or rank to 
 take a part in the debate, if you find your spirits equal to the 
 task, and I will put down, according to your desire, though I think 
 it quite unnecessary to do it, a few heads on which you may pro- 
 perly enlarge. 
 
 " 1. The absolute justice of tolerating religious opinions, since 
 no civil government can justly possess more power over its sub- 
 jects than what individuals have consented to transfer to it when 
 they entered into society ; and no individual can give up the 
 right of worshipping God according to his conscience, and there- 
 fore no government can justly abridge that right. 
 
 " 2. No civil government has any right to take cognisance of 
 opinions either political or religious, but merely of men's actions. 
 This principle, however, is liable to exception with respect to the 
 public teachers of religion ; and the Belgic princes in 1730 availed 
 themselves of this distinction, when they decreed, that no Catho- 
 lic priest should enter on his office till he had abjured the opinion 
 of the Pope's right of absolving subjects from their allegiance to 
 the magistrate, and promised that he would teach a contrary 
 opinion to the people. 
 
 " 3. The established religion of every country ought to be the 
 religion of the majority of the people ; unless an exception be 
 admitted, when the minority of the inhabitants possesses a 
 majority of the property by which the establishment is main- 
 
419 
 
 tained ; and even in that case, humanity and policy, if not 
 strict justice, require a co-establishment of the religion of the 
 minority. 
 
 " 4. Great credit ought to be given to men of probity and 
 talents, disclaiming, in express terms, the most obnoxious prin- 
 ciples of the church of Rome : the odium of past transactions 
 ought not to be thrown upon those who had no concern in 
 them. 
 
 " 5. Constitutionally speaking, the Catholic Peers and Com- 
 moners have no more right to sit in parliament than a Catholic 
 king has to sit upon the throne ; and if the change of times is 
 not yet such that a Protestant would endure the thought of a 
 Catholic king upon the throne, it may be enquired, upon what 
 principle it is that a Protestant can endure the thought of a 
 Catholic legislator. The principle may be the little comparative 
 influence of a Catholic legislation, and his abjuration of tempo- 
 ral tenets formerly professed by Catholics. 
 
 " 6. The progress of science has subdued the bigotry formerly 
 too apparent not only in the church of Rome, but in all the 
 reformed churches j and it will never be able, till a state of igno- 
 rance and barbarism recurs, to rear up its head again. There is 
 no probability of intolerance and superstition ever more pervading 
 Europe ; and the Catholic religion will daily continue to derive 
 light from the labour of learning. The learned Catholics are 
 beginning every where to soften the asperities of their religious 
 tenets, and to apologise for what they cannot excuse. The Irish 
 gentry partake of the general illumination of the age ; and the 
 peasantry will imitate the example of their superiors. 
 
 3h 2 
 
420 
 
 » 7. It may be said that the church of Rome has not formally 
 renounced any of the doctrines maintained at the Council of 
 Trent, and that the court of Rome has not abandoned any of its 
 pretensions to temporal dominion ; yet Catholic, as well as Pro- 
 testant states, have every where spurned these pretensions ; and 
 something very like a formal renunciation of one of the most dan- 
 gerous tenets of that Church took place in Russia more than 
 twenty years ago. The Empress Catharine gave permission to 
 the Roman Catholics in her dominions openly to exercise their 
 religion, and to have bishops of their own persuasion for the 
 government of their Church. She was present at the consecration 
 of the first Catholic Archbishop. When the ceremony had pro- 
 ceeded to the administration of the oath usually taken by the 
 Bishops of that Church, the Archbishop (that was to be) refused 
 to repeat the clause, — Hcereticos schismaticos et rebelles Domino 
 nostro Papce pro posse persequar et impugnabo. 
 
 " On this refusal, the ceremony was ended, fresh instructions 
 were required from Rome, and the then Pope ordered the clause 
 to be omitted ; and it has since been omitted, by the authority of 
 the Pope, in the oath taken by the Irish bishops. 
 
 " I will not trouble Your Grace with further remarks : the 
 subject is infinite ; and I dare say you will have speeches of some 
 hours in length. My great objection to the church of Rome is 
 its uncharitable principle of the insalvability of persons out of 
 its pale ; for this principle produces a persecuting principle, and 
 I must ever detest every species of persecution. I cannot how- 
 ever believe, that Catholic emancipation will tend to the increase 
 of the number of Catholics, either in Ireland or England ; on 
 
421 
 
 the contrary, I think the number would, by such a measure, be 
 lessened. 
 
 " Nothing unites men so much as any degree of persecution. 
 Individuals, otherwise of no consequence, either from talents or 
 fortune, become conspicuous, and acquire a degree of weight 
 when connected with a party. Men claim merit from what they 
 call their sufferings, who would have no ground for claiming it on 
 any other species of desert. 
 
 * I am, &c. 
 
 " KLandaff." 
 
 Notwithstanding the decision of the two Houses of Parliament, 
 and notwithstanding there was not a single bishop who voted for 
 the Petition, I was willing that my opinion on the question 
 should be publicly known ; and on visiting my diocese, in June, 
 1805, I took a comprehensive view of the subject in a long 
 Charge, which was published in 1808, on a second rejection of 
 the Petition by both Houses of Parliament, with the following 
 Advertisement prefixed to it : — 
 
 " Advertisement. 
 " A numerous and respectable part of the clergy of my dio- 
 cese requested me, at the time it was delivered, to publish the 
 Charge which is now submitted to the world. I excused myself 
 from complying with their request, because I considered the 
 Catholic question to have been then settled, at least for a time ; 
 and I was unwilling to revive the discussion of a subject, on 
 which I had the misfortune to differ in opinion from a majority 
 in each House of Parliament. I have still had that misfortune ; 
 
422 
 
 but, looking upon the situation of the empire to be abundantly 
 more hazardous now than it was three years ago, I have thought 
 it a duty to declare publicly my approbation of a measure, calcu- 
 lated, I sincerely believe, above all other measures, to support 
 the independence of the country, to secure the stability of the 
 throne, to promote peace among fellow-subjects, and charity 
 among fellow-Christians, and in no probable degree dangerous to 
 the constitution, either in church or state. 
 
 « R. L." 
 
 " Calgarth Park, 1st June, 1808. 
 
 Mr. Davies, curate of Olveston in Gloucestershire, had pub- 
 lished, in 1804, a learned work, entitled " Celtic Researches :" I 
 had no personal knowledge of him, but on the 27th of April, 
 1805, I sent him the following letter : — 
 
 " Reverend Sir, 
 " The living of Bishopston, near Swansea, in the diocese of 
 St. David's, but in my patronage, is now vacant : I am told that 
 it is worth from 120/. to 140/. a-year. I think it my duty to fix 
 there a resident clergyman ; and if, under that condition, it be 
 worth the acceptance of the author of the Celtic Researches, I 
 shall be happy in thinking that my poor patronage has enabled 
 me to show the sense I entertain of his merits. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the marriage of my son, in August, 1805, I wrote to the 
 Duke of York, requesting His Royal Highness to give him his 
 
423 
 
 protection. I felt a consciousness of having, through life, che- 
 rished a warm attachment to the house of Brunswick, and to 
 those principles which had placed it on the throne, and of having 
 on all occasions acted an independent and honourable part towards 
 the government of the country, and I therefore thought myself 
 justified in concluding my letter in the following terms : — "I 
 know not in what estimation Your Royal Highness may hold my 
 repeated endeavours, in moments of danger, to support the reli- 
 gion and the constitution of the country ; but if I am fortunate 
 enough to have any merit with you on that score, I earnestly 
 request your protection for my son. I am a bad courtier, and 
 know little of the manner of soliciting favours through the inter- 
 vention of others, but I feel that I shall never know how to forget 
 them, when done to myself; and, under that consciousness, I 
 beg leave to subscribe myself 
 
 " Your Royal Highness' s most grateful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I received a very obliging answer by the return of the post, and 
 in about two months my son was promoted, without purchase, 
 from a Majority, to a Lieutenant- Colonelcy in the Third Dragoon 
 Guards. 
 
 After having experienced, for above twenty-four years, the 
 neglect of His Majesty's ministers, I received great satisfaction 
 from this attention of his son, and shall carry with me to my 
 grave a most grateful memory of his goodness. I could not at 
 the time forbear expressing my acknowledgement in the following 
 letter, nor can I now forbear inserting it in these anecdotes. The 
 
424 
 
 whole transaction will do His Royal Highness no discredit with 
 posterity, and I shall ever consider it as an honourable testimony 
 of his approbation of my public conduct. 
 
 " Calgarth Park, Nov. 9. 1805. 
 
 " Do My Lord of Canterbury 
 
 But one good turn, and he's your friend for ever." 
 
 " Thus Shakspeare makes Henry VIII. speak of Cranmer ; and, 
 from the bottom of my heart, I humbly intreat Your Royal 
 Highness to believe, that the sentiment is as applicable to the 
 Bishop of Landaff as it was to Cranmer. 
 
 " The bis dat qui cito dat has been most kindly thought of in 
 this promotion of my son ; and I know not which is most dear to 
 my feelings, the matter of the obligation, or the noble manner of 
 its being conferred. I sincerely hope Your Royal Highness will 
 pardon this my intrusion, in thus expressing my most grateful 
 acknowledgements for them both. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to Lord Euston, in Answer to one of his, consulting me on 
 the Education of his Son, Lord Ipswich, on his leaving Harrow, 
 and going to Dr. Maltby. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " Having taken sufficient time to consider your letter with my 
 best attention, I now sit down to answer it. I begin with con- 
 gratulating yourself on the proper sense you entertain of your 
 own duty respecting the education of your son. The virtuous 
 education of our offspring, and especially of an offspring which 
 
425 
 
 by its rank may influence the morals of a country, is one of the 
 most important duties of life. The happiness or misery, not 
 merely of an individual but of the world, depend upon the good 
 or bad morals of its inhabitants ; and the morals of men chiefly 
 depend on the principles of action which are impressed on the 
 minds of children. If your son should in future turn out ill, you 
 will have the comfort of knowing that you have not to reproach 
 yourself with having neglected his education ; if well, you may 
 justly attribute some merit to your own foresight, and assiduity 
 in the conduct of his education. 
 
 " By writing thus seriously you will perceive, that I look upon 
 religious instruction as the surest basis of future respectability of 
 character; and I am happy in knowing that Lady Euston, to whose 
 care your young man must, as to that point, have been hitherto 
 principally confided, is both from disposition and ability fully 
 adequate to the trust. By religious instruction, 1 do not mean 
 that he should at his time of life, or indeed at any time of life, 
 be occupied in theological controversy, or perplexed in estimating 
 the worth of the several systems of faith with which the Christian 
 world has unhappily been every where oppressed ; but that he 
 should be habituated to consider the Gospels as containing a rule 
 of life, which no propensities of sense, no fashion of the world, no 
 licentious conversation of infidel companions, should ever induce 
 him to disparage or neglect. It is a state which, if believed with 
 sincerity and followed with firmness, will lead him and us all in 
 every situation, and in every vicissitude of fortune, to tranquillity 
 of mind in this first scene of our existence, and to the perfec- 
 tion of our being in all succeeding scenes. I do not mean to 
 preach to you ; but I am so convinced of the truth and importance 
 
 3 i 
 
426 
 
 of what I have written, that I could not forbear touching on the 
 subject. 
 
 " You very properly wish your young man to write and to 
 speak good English. The best means of acquiring that qualifica- 
 tion is to converse with the best company, to read the best 
 written books, and to translate some of the fine passages of the 
 ancients. But as all this cannot be expected from a youth of his 
 age, I will mention only two books, with which if he becomes 
 familiar, his language will insensibly become elegant and strong. 
 " Middleton's Life of Cicero," and " Plutarch's Lives," by Lang- 
 horne. The language of both is good, and of the first excellent. 
 I mention these books, not in preference to Addison, Swift, &a 
 on account of language, but because the perusal of them will 
 carry on his classical education ; and inspire him with the noble 
 sentiments of some of the greatest men the world has ever seen. 
 There is another book most admirably fitted to form the taste of 
 a young man in classical literature, to instruct him in a great 
 variety of useful knowledge, to imbue his mind with proper prin- 
 ciples, and to give him a turn for such studies and acquirements, 
 as are peculiarly ornamental to every gentleman, and not un- 
 worthy the attention of a man of rank, — Rollin's "Belles Lettres." 
 I am strengthened in my good opinion of this work, by knowing 
 how greatly it was esteemed by Bishop Atterbury, one of the 
 politest scholars of his age. It may be proper to read this 
 book in the translation, (the third edition of which was pub- 
 lished in 1742,) rather than in the original French, because the 
 English is not deficient in correctness and perspicuity. As to 
 translating in order to form a copious and nervous style, nothing 
 can be more proper : the practice is recommended by Cicero 
 
427 
 
 and Quintilian, and I dare say is not unknown to your son. 
 The Etonian Greek and Latin Selecta have been probably put 
 into his hands at Harrow for that purpose. It will be of use 
 to him to compare his own performances in that way with 
 those of approved translations* and Pliny's Letters, translated by 
 Melmoth, is a book well fitted for that end ; especially as the 
 perusal of the Letters themselves will afford him pleasure and 
 instruction of various kinds : the 97th Letter of the tenth book 
 is a noble proof of the good morals of the Christians in the 
 first age. 
 
 " It would be easy for me to point out other books, as instru- 
 ments of an education suited to your future views for your son, 
 and to his future situation in this country, as a public man ; 
 and at a proper time I shall be happy to do it; but we had 
 better wait till his capacity is ascertained and the particular bent 
 of his mind is better developed than it can be at present. But 
 it will not be an easy matter for you to persuade him to use 
 such diligence and application, as will enable him to derive the 
 proper benefit from the plan which may be chalked out for 
 him. I, at least, have found it difficult to stimulate either of 
 my sons to great literary exertions ; one of them makes a good 
 soldier ; and the other may make a good clergyman ; but both 
 of them might have been eminent in learning. 
 
 " Nothing great can be done in classics, in science, in politics, 
 in any thing without incessant industry, and our manners are 
 against the use of it. Boys too soon cease to be boys, and for 
 that reason they continue boys in intellect all their days. This, 
 as Johnson would have called it, precocity of manners we have 
 imported with other mischiefs from France. I look upon Euclid 
 
 3i 2 
 
428 
 
 as the best possible logic, and I shall think two months of your 
 young man's time excellently spent in being able to demonstrate, 
 at sight of the scheme, every proposition in the first book ; and 
 if he never went further in mathematics, he would have ac- 
 quired the habit of clear reasoning and attentive reading. If 
 Dr. Maltby can do this for him, not in a superficial but in a 
 true fundamental manner, he will render him a great service ; for 
 in mathematics, and in every other literary pursuit, a little know- 
 ledge perfectly attained is preferable to a superficial knowledge of 
 a great deal. When he gets to Cambridge, I think it will be 
 useful to him in addition to his college lectures, to attend the 
 public courses of Botany, Anatomy, Chemistry, &c, not with a 
 view of making him deeply versed in these matters, but to open 
 his mind by general knowledge, and to keep him from falling 
 into idleness and dissipation. 
 
 It is very right to make your son an allowance: it will gratify 
 him with a notion of independence : it will teach him the use of 
 money ; and it will tighten the bonds of confidence and affection, 
 which ought always to subsist between a father and a son. I 
 must caution you, however, to let your allowance be short of what 
 you can afford to give him, that you may not be vexed or dis- 
 tressed by his exceeding it ; for most young men, from inexpe- 
 rience or indiscretion incident to their age, are apt to outrun their 
 income, be it ever so large. An occasional present of an hundred 
 pounds, though it may not exceed what you intended for him, 
 will excite his gratitude and regard infinitely more than if it came 
 as part of his allowance. 
 
 " I must have sufficiently tired you without exhausting the 
 subject, but I will relieve you for the present, begging you to 
 
429 
 
 have no scruple in writing to me on any subject, in which you 
 think that I can be of service to you or yours. Adieu, my dear 
 Lord, and be assured of the sincerity of the friendship with which 
 
 " I am ever yours, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 " P. S. — I am sorry to hear of Mr. Pitt's danger; I always had 
 a regard for him, and cannot without regret think of losing an 
 old acquaintance." 
 
 Mr. Pitt was actually dead at the date of the above letter. His 
 conduct to me had been uniformly unkind, I might justly say 
 ungrateful, but I never bore him any ill will on that account ; for 
 I thought it was very probable I had been slandered by persons 
 about him, and I knew that his talents and disinterestedness 
 merited my esteem, and that of every impartial man. Doctor 
 Price said of Lord North that " he doubled a national debt 
 <s before too heavy to be endured ; and let future generations rise 
 " up, and if possible call him — Blessed!" — What would he have 
 said had he lived to see the state of the debt at the death of 
 Mr. Pitt ? Lord North's American war rendered it difficult for 
 a man of five hundred pounds a-year to support the station of a 
 gentleman, and Mr. Pitt's French war has rendered it impossible. 
 In March, 1806, the following advertisement appeared in the 
 newspapers. 
 
 " Pembroke Lodge. 
 
 " The Reverend Charles Buchanan, Vice-president of the 
 
 College of Fort William, in Bengal, having proposed a prize of 
 
430 
 
 500/. to all graduates, who on the first day of March, 1807, 
 shall be Bachelors of Law or Physic, Inceptors, or Masters of 
 Arts, or persons of superior degrees in the University of Cam- 
 bridge, for the best work in English Prose, embracing the 
 following subjects : 
 
 " 1. The probable design of the Divine Providence in subject- 
 ing so large a portion of Asia to the British dominions. 
 
 " 2. The duty, the means, and the consequences of translating 
 
 the Scriptures into the Oriental tongues, and of promoting Chris- 
 tian knowledge in Asia. 
 
 " 3. A Brief Historic View of the Progress of the Gospel in 
 
 different Nations since its first Publication, illustrated by maps, 
 shewing its luminous tract throughout the world, with chronolo- 
 gical notice of its duration in particular places, the regions of 
 Mahomedanism to be marked with red, and those of Paganism 
 with a dark colour. — The candidates are requested to send their 
 compositions to the Vice-chancellor under a sealed cover, on or 
 before the first day of March, 1807, and to distinguish them by 
 any motto they please, sending at the same time their names 
 sealed up, under another cover, with the same motto inscribed 
 upon it." 
 
 Mr. Buchanan had sent me in 1805 his interesting memoir 
 on the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British 
 India ; and on reading the above advertisement I transmitted to 
 him the following letter : — 
 
431 
 
 " Reverend Sir, Calgarth Park, 15th May, 1806. 
 
 " Some weeks ago, I received from the author your memoir on 
 the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British 
 India, for which obliging attention I now return you my best 
 thanks. I hesitated for some time, whether I ought to interrupt 
 your speculations with my acknowledgements for so valuable a 
 present, but on being informed of the noble premium by which 
 you propose to exercise the talents of graduates in the University 
 of Cambridge, I determined to express to you my admiration of 
 your disinterestedness and zeal in the cause of Christianity. 
 
 " Twenty years and more have now elapsed, since in my ser- 
 mon before the House of Lords, I hinted to the then government 
 the propriety of paying regard to the propagation of Christianity 
 in India ; and I have since then, as fit occasions offered, privately 
 but unsuccessfully pressed the matter on the consideration of 
 those in power. If my voice or opinion can in future be of any 
 weight with the King's ministers, I shall be most ready to exert 
 myself in forwarding any prudent measure for promoting a liberal 
 Ecclesiastical Establishment in British India. It is not without 
 consideration that I say a liberal Establishment, because I heartily 
 wish that every Christian should be at liberty to worship God 
 according to his conscience, and be assisted therein by a teacher 
 of his own persuasion, at the public expense. 
 
 " The subjects which you have proposed for the work which 
 shall obtain your prize are all of them judiciously chosen, and, 
 if properly treated, (as my love for my Alma Mater persuades me 
 they will be,) may probably turn the thoughts of the legislature 
 towards the measure you recommend. The Salutaris Lux Evan- 
 gelii by Fabricius, published at Hamburgh in 1781, will be of 
 
432 
 
 great use to the candidates for your prize, and his India Geogra- 
 phicus Episcopatuum, Orbis Christiani, subjoined to that work, 
 might, if accompanied with proper notes, afford a very satisfactory 
 elucidation to your third head. 
 
 " God in his providence hath so ordered things, that America, 
 which three hundred years ago was wholly peopled by Pagans, 
 has now many millions of Christians in it ; and will not probably, 
 three hundred years hence, have a single Pagan in it ; but be in- 
 habited by more Christians, and by more enlightened Christians, 
 than now exist in Europe. 
 
 " Africa is not worse fitted for the reception of Christianity, 
 than America was when it was first visited by Europeans, and 
 Asia is much better fitted for it, inasmuch as Asia enjoys a 
 considerable degree of civilisation, and some degree of it is 
 necessary to the successful introduction of Christianity. The 
 commerce and the colonisation of Christian states have civilised 
 America, and they will in time civilise and christianise the 
 whole earth. 
 
 " Whether it be a Christian duty to attempt, by lenient methods, 
 to propagate the Christian religion among Pagans and Maho- 
 metans can be doubted I think by few ; but whether any attempt 
 will be attended with much success till Christianity is purified 
 from its corruptions, and the lives of Christians are rendered 
 correspondent to their Christian profession, may be doubted by 
 many; but there certainly never was a more promising oppor- 
 tunity for trying the experiment of subverting paganism in 
 British India, than what has for some years been offered to the 
 government of Great Britain. 
 
 " The morality of our holy religion is so salutary to civil 
 
433 
 
 society ; its promise of a future state so consolatory to indivi- 
 duals ; its precepts are so suited to the deductions of the most 
 enlightened reason, that it must finally prevail throughout the 
 world. Some have thought that Christianity is losing ground in 
 Christendom ; I am of a different opinion. Some ascetitious 
 doctrines of Christianity derived from Rome and Geneva are 
 losing ground ; some unchristian practices springing from bigotry, 
 intolerance, self-sufficiency of opinion, and uncharitableness of 
 judgment are losing ground; but a belief in Jesus Christ as 
 the Saviour of the world, as the author of eternal life to all who 
 obey his Gospel, is more and more confirmed every day in the 
 minds of men of eminence and condition, not only in this but in 
 every other Christian country. From this praise, I am not dis- 
 posed to exclude even France itself, notwithstanding the tempo- 
 rary apostacy of its philosophers from every degree of religious 
 faith. I cannot but hope well of that country, when I see its 
 National Institute proposing for public discussion the following 
 subject : — " What has been the influence of the Reformation 
 " of Luther on the political situation of the different states of 
 " Europe, and on the progress of knowledge ?" especially when 
 I see the subject treated by Mr. Villers, in a manner which would 
 have conferred honour on the most liberal Protestant in the freest 
 state in Europe. It cannot be denied that the morals of Chris- 
 tians in general fall far short of the standard of Christian per- 
 fection, and that they have always done so, scarcely excepting 
 the latter half of the first century ; but notwithstanding this con- 
 cession, it is a certain fact that the Christian religion has ever 
 operated to the production of piety, benevolence, self-govern- 
 ment, and a love of virtue amongst individuals in every place 
 
 3 k 
 
434 
 
 where it has been established ; and it will every where operate 
 more powerfully as it is received with a more firm assurance of 
 its truth; as it is better understood: for when it is properly 
 understood it will be freed from the pollutions of superstition 
 and fanaticism amongst the hearers, and from ambition, domi- 
 nation, and secularity amongst the teachers. 
 
 " Your publication has given us in England a great insight 
 into the state of Christianity in India, as well as into the general 
 state of learning amongst you; and it has excited in me the 
 warmest wishes for the prosperity of the college of Fort William, 
 It is an institution which would have done honour to the wisdom 
 of Solon and Lycurgus. I have no personal knowledge of the 
 Marquis Wellesley, but J shall think of him and his coadjutors in 
 this undertaking with the highest respect and admiration as long 
 as I live. 
 
 " I cannot enter into any particulars relative to an ecclesiasti- 
 cal establishment in India ; nor would it perhaps be proper to 
 press Government to take the matter into their consideration till 
 this country is freed from the danger which threatens it ; but I 
 have that opinion of His Majesty's present ministers that they will 
 not only from policy, but from a serious sense of religious duty, 
 be disposed to treat the subject, whenever it comes before them, 
 with great judgment and liberality. May God direct their 
 counsels ! 
 
 "Our empire in India, said Mr. Hastings, has been acquired 
 by the sword, and must be maintained by the sword. I cannot 
 agree with him in this sentiment. Most empires have originally 
 been acquired by violence, but they are best established by mo- 
 deration and justice. There was a time when we showed our- 
 
435 
 
 selves to the inhabitants of India in the character of tyrants and 
 robbers ; that time, I trust, is gone for ever. The wisdom of 
 British policy, the equity of its jurisprudence, the impartiality of 
 its laws, the humanity of its penal code, and, above all, the incor- 
 rupt administration of public justice, will, when they are well 
 understood, make the Indians our willing subjects, and induce 
 them to adopt a religion attended with such consequences to the 
 dearest interests of human kind. They will rejoice in having ex- 
 changed the tyranny of pagan superstition, and the despotism of 
 their native princes, for the mild mandates of Christianity, and 
 the stable authority of equitable laws. The difference between 
 such different states of civil society, as to the production of 
 human happiness, is infinite ; and the attainment of happiness is 
 the ultimate aim of all individuals in all nations. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Though I have said in the preceding letter that some degree of 
 civilisation is necessary to the successful introduction of Chris- 
 tianity among Pagans, I would not be thought wholly to discou- 
 rage the attempt of introducing it amongst the most barbarous ; 
 for Christianity, once introduced in any degree, would presently 
 become the most effectual means of humanising even cannibals, 
 and offerers of human sacrifices to the manes of their ancestors. 
 Civilisation, inasmuch as it inculcates moral distinctions, prepares 
 men's minds for the reception of Christianity ; and there is not 
 a precept in the Christian religion which does not tend to 
 strengthen the obligations, and to exalt the comforts of civilised 
 life. Hence it may be truly said that Christianity and civilisation 
 
 3 k 2 
 
436 
 
 are of reciprocal use to each other. Notwithstanding this, the 
 old saying, Quodcunque recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipients, 
 holds true in religion as well as in other things ; we may as rea- 
 sonably attempt to teach algebra to an infant as to inculcate into 
 an uncivilised man either the pure principles of Christian morality 
 or the sublime doctrines of our faith. 
 
 I made, in 1805 and 1806, a large plantation, consisting of three 
 hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred larches, on two 
 high and barren mountains, called Berkfell and Gomershow, situ- 
 ated near the foot of Winandermere. During the same period, I 
 improved above an hundred and fifty acres of land, which was 
 covered with heath, and not worth two shillings an acre, situated 
 at Kelleth, in the parish of Orton, in the county of Westmoreland. 
 I know of no means more honourable, more certain, or more 
 advantageous, of increasing a man's property, and promoting at 
 the same time the public good, than by planting larches on moun- 
 tainous districts, and improving low waste lands, (where lime is 
 reasonable and the soil tolerable,) by bringing them into tillage. 
 I drew up a paper on these subjects, and presented it to the 
 Board of Agriculture in 1807. The paper was ordered by the 
 Board to be printed among their communications, vol. viith, and 
 a gold medal was unanimously voted to the author of it, whose 
 motto prefixed to it was Private Wealth, and Public Strength. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Hayley, \^th June, 1806. 
 
 " Appearances, my dear Sir, are against me, accusing me of 
 great indolence, of great incivility, and I know not of what other 
 
437 
 
 unpardonable crimes towards yourself; yet all appearances, as 
 often is the case, are false. I waited with impatience for a long 
 time in expectation of receiving from Cadell the kind present of 
 your supplementary pages, and at length I wrote to have them 
 sent : I received them yesterday, and have this day read a great 
 part of them. 
 
 " You have cut up Cumberland with skill, without dirtying 
 yourself by the nasty operation. What he may have said of me 
 I have no curiosity to know, as 1 am certain that I shall never be 
 at the trouble of either correcting his misapprehensions, or of 
 refuting his malignity. I am aware that many years ago he 
 wrote two pamphlets against me, or rather against my political 
 principles ; for I had no personal acquaintance with him, and 
 therefore could not have offended him. On reading one of these 
 two productions, I sat down to answer it ; but I soon found that 
 I was heating myself with cudgelling a dwarf, and, disdaining 
 such a miserable occupation, I threw my weapons into the fire, 
 and left him to sleep in peace : — his head was never made for 
 close argumentation. 
 
 " You render every character you draw perfectly amiable : I 
 am charmed with that of Mr. Rose in the last scene of his life ; 
 and not at all surprised that Paley's book strengthened his faith. 
 Lawyers seldom read much theology ; and that book is well calcu- 
 lated to make a great and proper impression on those who are 
 little acquainted with the subject. Paley, in all his publications, 
 had the art of making use, in a very great degree, of other men's 
 labours, and of exhibiting them to the world as novelties of his 
 own. The perspicuity with which he has arranged, and the ele- 
 
438 
 
 gant language in which he has explained many abstruse points, 
 are his own ; and for these I give him great praise. 
 
 " I am sleeping here as to all literary pursuits, and have 
 nearly finished all my other pursuits. I have nearly done 
 with planting, building, draining, and improving bad land : 
 occupations these which I should probably never have thought 
 of, had I not been compelled to them by the duty of making a 
 moderate provision for a large family. If the world has lost any 
 thing by a long intermission of the means of improving my 
 faculties, and by a now absolute dereliction of all learned labour, 
 the Government is in fault: their neglect obliged me to raise 
 myself to exertions, useful no doubt, and necessary to my family, 
 but not agreeable to myself. Whether the present men will have 
 more consideration for me than I have hitherto experienced, I 
 neither know nor care. I speak like an honest man when I say, 
 that I care not about promotion. The seventieth year of any 
 man's life should induce him, and it does induce me, to think of 
 something better than either York or Worcester. If either of 
 these sees should be offered to my acceptance on a vacancy, I 
 shall endeavour to do my duty in a more important diocese than 
 that which has engaged my attention for twenty-four years. 
 
 " I wonder that you do not feel an inclination to rest on your 
 oars ; but while your labours instruct and delight others, I hope 
 they will be continued, and be of comfort to yourself. 
 
 " We are distressed by want of rain : we have plenty of it, 
 (nearly sixty inches in the course of the year,) but very little 
 comparatively speaking in the spring months. By dividing the 
 year into three equal parts, beginning with February, I find the 
 
439 
 
 proportionable quantities of rain which fall in February, March, 
 April, May ; in June, July, August, September ; in October, No- 
 vember, December, January, to be as 5, 11, 7, so that in the four 
 summer months we have more than twice as much rain as in the 
 four spring months. Whether these proportions extend to all 
 other districts of the country, I have no means of knowing accu- 
 rately, but I conjecture that they do. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I had an occasional correspondence with Mr. Hayley, but I had 
 neither time nor taste for letter-writing, and seldom kept copies 
 of letters about nothing : the subjoined to Mr. Hayley, though 
 here misplaced as to time, I met with since I finished the former 
 part of these anecdotes. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Hayley, Nov. 2. 1805. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 " I sit down to account to you for a long seeming neglect, and 
 to beg you to accept the narration as an excuse for it. When 
 your letter (I am ashamed to look at the date) of June the 23d 
 arrived at Calgarth Park, I was visiting my diocese ; after my re- 
 turn, a good deal of business and an incessant flux of Lakers, (such 
 is the denomination by which we distinguish those who come to 
 see our country, intimating thereby not only that they are persons 
 of taste, who wish to view our lakes, but idle persons who love 
 laking : the old Saxon word to lake, or play, being of common 
 use among school-boys in these parts,) left me for several weeks 
 
440 
 
 no time to think of any thing but hospitality ; and your letter lay 
 hidden among a mass of papers which overspread my table. 
 When I discovered it about a month ago, I was labouring with 
 hands and knees to get rid of the gout which had seized both — 
 another guest you will suppose of my hospitality. This is the 
 first fit that I have had ; it has not yet quite left me. I am not 
 conscious of having deserved it by any intemperance, yet I blush 
 for having introduced so great a malady into my family. 
 
 " I think Cowper's works are his best monument, and most of 
 the subscribers will probably be of the same opinion. But as you 
 desire me to speak frankly, I must say, that I think many of them 
 will not be pleased with your change of purpose. Your intention 
 of doing something for Mr. Rose's family is highly laudable, and 
 of a piece with your general philanthropy; but a subscriber may 
 justly say, If my subscription is to go in charity, I myself have 
 many objects as deserving, and more connected with me than any 
 godson of Mr. Cowper. As to my own subscription, I beg it may 
 go, should you print no part of Milton, to the orphans you so 
 kindly protect. 
 
 " I return my best thanks for the present of your Ballads ; the 
 subjects are well chosen, and the tales are sweetly told. On one 
 of our highest mountains (Helvellyn) a man was lost last year : 
 two months after his disappearance his body was found, and his 
 faithful dog sitting by it : a part of the body was eaten, but whe- 
 ther hunger had compelled the dog to the deed is not known. I 
 remember the late Duke of Northumberland having told me, that 
 a young antelope of his had by accident been killed by a fall 
 from the top of his house at Sion, to which it had ascended by a 
 trap-door being left open at the head of a staircase, and that its 
 
441 
 
 mother, which was feeding in the pasture, refusing to quit the 
 body, died of grief and hunger. 
 
 " A book concerning the habitudes of animals, by Mr. Bindley, 
 was lately advertised : I have not yet seen it. The subject is curi- 
 ous but difficult: it requires long and patient attention to come to 
 any certain conclusion respecting the manners and perhaps the 
 nascent morals of animals ; for a well-trained pointer, and other 
 domesticated and well-educated animals seem to have a know- 
 ledge of what may be called their duty to their master. I leave 
 this hint to your philosophy concerning the gradation of beings. 
 
 " I do not know of any book giving an account of institutions 
 for the support of orphans : you probably may meet with some- 
 thing to your purpose in Justinian's Institutes, or in some of the 
 Roman writers after the empire became | Christian ; for it is to 
 Christianity, principally, that the world is indebted for charitable 
 institutions. Widows indeed and orphans were at an early period 
 of the Roman history exempted from taxation, to which all other 
 persons were subjected : this curious fact is mentioned by Plutarch 
 in his life of Publicola. 
 
 " Persius (Sat. iv. lib. 3.) calls Alcibiades the pupil of Pericles, 
 but whether the term pupillus always means an orphan, I am not 
 certain : perhaps the time of the death of his father Clinius, 
 may be mentioned by Plutarch or Nepos. Coriolanus's father 
 died when he was an infant. Alcibiades and Coriolanus would 
 with Demosthenes make as noble a trio of orphans as all antiquity 
 could furnish. If you wish for a partie quarre, and have no ob- 
 jection to the man, Mahomet is at your service. 
 
 " The opthalmia, I hope, has left you. Without doubt this 
 complaint has been occasioned in y our self-' from the too great use 
 
 3l 
 
442 
 
 you have made of your eyes ; but a similar one, which afflicted 
 our troops in Egypt, proceeded, I think, from a too great glare of 
 light. My reason for this conjecture is founded on what hap- 
 pens to sheep: when our mountains continue for a long time 
 covered with snow, a great many sheep become blind, and gradu- 
 ally receive their sight on the melting of the snow. 
 
 " If what I recommended to be done two years ago had then 
 been adopted, we should now have had an hundred thousand 
 youths instructed in the use of arms, and no one who considers 
 our danger at present but must think that we have need of twice 
 this number. When shall we have peace on earth ? Never, till 
 the cabinets of Kings and Emperors are guided by the spirit of 
 Christianity. — Adieu. Permit me to hope that you continue 
 your regard to your affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The Bishop of London about this time sent me his tract on the 
 Beneficial Effects of Christianity, and I returned him my thanks 
 in the following letter : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, Calgarth Park, Aug. 5. 1806. 
 
 " I yesterday received, and have this day perused with great 
 pleasure, your very seasonable, elegant, and well-arranged publi- 
 cation. Every serious Christian will think himself indebted to 
 you for the judicious collection of facts by which you have con- 
 trasted Paganism with Christianity. What others had inadvert- 
 ently mentioned you have treated in detail, and so completely 
 decided the question — Whether Christianity has been of use to 
 mankind ? — that it will never be moved again. I am not dis- 
 
443 
 
 posed to think so ill of human nature as to conceive it to be a 
 mass of corruption incapable of any good actions, and destitute of 
 all benevolent feelings. Revealed religion does unquestionably, 
 by its superior sanctions, assist us more effectually than reason 
 can do, in restraining within due limits our passions, but neither 
 of them enables us on every occasion to subdue them entirely. 
 
 Metius was torn to pieces by horses ; Ravillac suffered a similar 
 punishment; but (notwithstanding the apparent insensibility of 
 Virgil) Livy's humane observation was, I am persuaded, as true 
 concerning the Heathens in Italy, as the Christians in France, 
 under similar circumstances — Avertere omnes a tanta fozditate 
 spectaculi oculos. 
 
 " Christian warfare is certainly far less truculent than Pagan 
 warfare either ever was or now is ; and Arnobius had, even in his 
 time, much reason on his side when he made the following re- 
 mark : — Non est difficile comprobare bella, post auditum Christum 
 in mundo, non tantum non aucta verumetiam, major e ex parte, furia- 
 rum compressionibus imminuta. Nam cum hominum vis tanta magis- 
 teriis ejus acceperimus ac legibus, malum malo rependi non oportere ; 
 injuriam perpeti quam irrogare esse prcestantius ; suum potius f under e 
 quam alieno polluere manus et conscientiam cruore habet in Christo 
 benefcium jam dudum orbis ingratus, per quum feritatis mollita est 
 rabies, atque hostiles manus cohibere a sanguine cognati animantis 
 occcepit. I like the ingratus, and give it to the philosophers whom 
 you have so justly reprehended. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 3l 2 
 
4-4-4. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Gordon on his having sent me a Paper of 
 
 Col. Imries. 
 
 « My Lord Duke, 
 
 " I am highly gratified by the perusal of Col. Imrie's paper : it 
 is by such efforts that the geology of any particular country can 
 be ascertained, or any sound conjecture formed concerning the 
 nature of the globe we inhabit. The surface of this globe con- 
 sists of three parts of water and of but one of earth, yet the accu- 
 rate delineation of the one part would occupy the labours of all 
 the philosophers in Europe for fifty years ; — nothing less than 
 such a delineation can ascertain the connections, interruptions, 
 and mutual dependencies of the several strata which compose its 
 surface. 
 
 " Some men are apt to enquire, What is the use of such investi- 
 gation ? I esteem these men to be as simple in their notions as 
 the academic youths are, who being puzzled in attempting to pass 
 the Asses' Bridge in Euclid, ask, Where is the use of going over 
 it? For my own part, I am so confident of the utility which 
 would attend an accurate knowledge of the stratification of this 
 island, that I think a work of this kind ought to be undertaken at 
 the public expense ; and that every great river issuing from Plin- 
 limmon, Skiddaw, Benevish, &c. should be examined through the 
 whole of its course, with as much accuracy as the North Eske 
 has been examined by Col. Imrie. The beds and veins of lime- 
 stone, marble, coal, slate, sulphur, and metallic ores, are in the 
 present state of society of such high importance, that every en- 
 couragement should be given to the discovery of them where they 
 are not at present known ; and nothing can more contribute to 
 
445 
 
 this end than an accurate knowledge of the manner in which these 
 strata appear to this day in mountainous countries : analogy would 
 then enable us to discover them where they are not known at 
 present. 
 
 " I beg Your Grace to accept my thanks, for your goodness in 
 sending me Col. Imrie's paper, and to take the trouble of assuring 
 him that it will give me real pleasure to receive him, on any oc- 
 casion, at Calgarth Park. 
 
 " Mrs. Watson and my young ladies regret that Your Grace 
 favoured us with so short a visit, and unite with me in hoping 
 for the future honour of your longer stay. Would it not be ad- 
 viseable in future investigations, to mention the altitude of the 
 mountains above the level of the sea ? 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The Bishop of St. Asaph died unexpectedly in October, 1806. 
 It was very generally imagined that I should have been translated 
 to that see; and that I might not furnish the minister (Lord 
 Grenville) with the excuse for passing me by — that I had not 
 asked for it, — I got a common friend to inform him, that on ac- 
 count of my northern connections the bishopric of St. Asaph 
 would be peculiarly acceptable to myself. It was given to the 
 Bishop of Bangor, and the bishopric of Bangor was given to the 
 Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 ■ 
 
 I cannot truly say, that I was wholly insensible to these and 
 to many similar arrangements by which I had been for so many 
 years neglected, and exhibited to the world as a marked man 
 
446 
 
 fallen under Royal displeasure ; but I can say, that neither was 
 the tranquillity of my mind disturbed, nor my adherence to the 
 principles of the Revolution shaken, nor my attachment to the 
 house of Brunswick, acting on these principles, lessened thereby. 
 
 I knew that I possessed not the talents of adulation, intrigue, 
 and versatility of principle, by which laymen as well as church- 
 men usually in courts ascend the ladder of ambition. I knew 
 this, and I remained without repining at the bottom of it. I 
 was sensible, at the same time, that His Majesty's favour was 
 properly esteemed a source of honour, and being fearful lest his 
 apparent disfavour (for I thought not on this occasion of mini- 
 sters) should be considered as a stigma of disgrace, I sent the 
 following letter to the Duke of Clarence, with whom I had cor- 
 responded on the slave trade : — 
 
 " Sir, " Calgarth Park, 25th Nov. 1806. 
 
 " To acquire the esteem of wise and good men, is one of the 
 few objects of ambition which we need not blush to own : this 
 kind of ambition has I confess on all occasions actuated my 
 mind, and I cannot but feel great uneasiness, that I have not 
 acquired the esteem of the King. This uneasiness does not pro- 
 ceed from any disappointment of my hopes of profit or promo- 
 tion, but from anxiety respecting my honour and character. 
 The world will think (whatever posterity may think) that I could 
 not have experienced the marked neglect in the line of my pro- 
 fession, which I have met with, unless I had merited His 
 Majesty's disregard by private misconduct or public delinquency. 
 
447 
 
 " At no period of my life have I used any means of obtaining 
 preferment except by endeavouring to deserve it ; and in my 
 seventieth year it would ill become me to be solicitous for a 
 translation on my own account ; but ever since bad health 
 (brought on by a too incessant application to literary pursuits) 
 rendered me unable to discharge in person the duties of my 
 office in the University of Cambridge, I have been very desirous 
 that the theological chair should not be rilled by a deputy. I 
 cannot resign the emolument of the office, for even with it, I 
 am worse provided for than any of my brethren, and without it, I 
 should not have a church income of fifteen hundred a-year at the 
 most. 
 
 " I was told many years ago, that I had enemies at court ; but 
 not knowing how I could have incurred the enmity of any man 
 alive, I did not credit the information ; and if I had given credit 
 to it, yet, being conscious of the strongest attachment to the 
 constitution in church and state, and of the warmest loyalty 
 to the King, I could never have stooped to the base business of 
 counteracting private calumny except by public exertion. 
 
 " I call it public exertion, that in the general decline of pub- 
 lic probity (a circumstance always attending and often causing the 
 declension of states) I have uniformly dared to do my duty 
 to my King and to my conscience, by preserving my parliamen- 
 tary independence, and voting, when I did vote, not according 
 to the suggestions of any party, but in compliance with the de- 
 liberate dictates of my own mind. 
 
 " It was in perfect conformity to this principle that on the 
 question of the regency (when I thought that the ambition of 
 the minister was injuring the right of the heir-apparent) I de- 
 
448 
 
 livered in the House of Lords a speech which I submit with a 
 degree of confidence to posterity, from one of the most enlight- 
 ened heads of the law (Sir James Aire) having assured me the 
 day after it was spoken, that he thought it by far the most con- 
 stitutional speech which had been delivered in either House of 
 Parliament on that occasion. 
 
 " I call it public exertion, that in moments of danger, foreign 
 and domestic, I have repeatedly endeavoured, by seasonable pub- 
 lications, to rouse the spirit of the country, to abate the fer- 
 ment of sedition, and to stop the progress of infidelity among 
 the mass of the people, being sensible that the subversion of 
 government must accompany the extinction of religion. 
 
 " I call it public exertion, that in having formerly suggested to 
 the Duke of Richmond, when Master-General of the Ordnance, a 
 change in the manner of preparing charcoal for the fabrication of 
 gunpowder, I have not only greatly improved the strength of the 
 powder, but have annually saved to the country for many years, 
 and am still saving to it (as I am credibly informed), above fifty 
 thousand pounds a year. I have not ever thought of soliciting 
 a reward from parliament for so great a service : the country is 
 welcome to whatever I can do for its safety and prosperity. 
 
 " I should be sorry to be considered as boasting of these mat- 
 ters. I mention them from a hope that they will induce your 
 Royal Highness not only to think favourably of me yourself, 
 which will give me great satisfaction, but to pardon the liberty of 
 my request, that you would have the condescension to show 
 this letter to the Prince of Wales, whose good opinion I have 
 reason to believe that I formerly possessed, and whom I by 
 
449 
 
 this means most earnestly entreat to take some opportunity of 
 doing me justice with the King. 
 
 " I am, with great deference and respect, 
 
 H Your Royal Highness' s most obedient servant, 
 
 « R. Landaff." 
 
 With the most gentleman-like attention, suited to his high 
 rank, the Duke of Clarence immediately informed me, that he 
 would transmit my letter to the Prince of Wales, then at 
 Brighton. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton, Dec. 10th, 1807. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " I have no personal knowledge of Doctor Buchanan, but I 
 cannot help admiring his zeal in the promotion of learning in 
 India. For two or three years successively I had an opportunity 
 of perusing the account of the Collegium Bengalense, established 
 at Fort William, under the auspices of the Marquis Wellesley ; 
 and I rejoiced very much at the prospect of the Christian reli- 
 gion, and of general science, being diffused throughout India, by 
 the instrumentality of the youths who should in future be edu- 
 cated in that seminary. The Pagans of India, I thought, would 
 in future story speak of Great Britain as the Egyptians spoke of 
 Chaldea, as Greece spoke of Egypt, as Rome spoke of Greece, — 
 as the parent of science and civilisation. 
 
 " I know nothing of the reasons which have induced either 
 the government of the country, or the directors of the East- 
 India Company, to ruin this College in its infancy : I suspect 
 
 3 M 
 
450 
 
 indeed that they are founded either on commercial avarice, which 
 would not afford the expense of its establishment ; or in religious 
 indifference, which esteems Paganism as useful in the world as 
 Christianity; or in irrational apprehension lest science and 
 Christianity should render the natives less loyal subjects, than 
 they are found to be under the influence of ignorance and su- 
 perstition. If these, or reasons such as these, have occasioned 
 the extinction of so noble an establishment, I may say that I do 
 not admire the capacity of those who have been influenced by 
 them. 
 
 " The Emperor of Russia in his declaration avows himself a 
 supporter of the principles of the armed neutrality. Am I an 
 enemy to my country, in doubting whether these principles are 
 just ; in doubting whether we have not, on the ocean, excercised 
 power without right f — a practice equally detestable to me in 
 public and in private life, between independent nations as between 
 independent individuals. 
 
 " But what is now to be done? — Justice. Let it be exa- 
 mined whether we have or have not the right over neutral 
 nations, which we contend for, and let the examination be 
 founded on the broad basis of natural justice, rather than an 
 ancient usage or compulsory conventions. If we have not, on 
 impartial examination, the right we esteem, let us tranquillise 
 Europe by not claiming it, and trust our cause to the providence 
 of God. Even heathen merchants could say, — Discite justitiam 
 moniti et non temnere Divos. 
 
 " The present crisis furnishes an admonition of the most alarm- 
 ing kind. But if we have right, let us die to a man rather than 
 abandon it ; for to abandon on great occasions the defence of 
 
451 
 
 right is to encourage the progress of wrong. Not but it may be a 
 subject of consideration, whether the defence of right may not, 
 in certain circumstances, cost more than it is worth. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 « R.LANDAFF." 
 
 Being appointed to preach at the Chapel-Royal on the 15th of 
 February, 1807, I went to London in the beginning of that month, 
 and published the sermon I then preached, together with another 
 which I had preached in the same place eight years before, under 
 the title of " A second Defence of revealed Religion." I had not 
 written either of these sermons with an intention of publishing 
 them, but being told that the Bishop of London had manifested his 
 disapprobation of some parts of the latter by a significant shake of 
 the head whilst I was preaching, I determined to let him see that 
 I had no fear of submitting my sentiments on abstruse theological 
 points to public animadversions, notwithstanding their not being 
 quite so orthodox as his own ; and I was the more disposed to do 
 this, from having been informed, on the very best authority, that 
 an imputed want of orthodoxy had been objected to me when the 
 archbishopric of Armagh was given to Stuart. 
 
 What is this thing called Orthodoxy, which mars the fortunes 
 of honest men, misleads the judgment of princes, and occasionally 
 endangers the stability of thrones ? In the true meaning of the 
 term, it is a sacred thing to which every denomination of Chris- 
 tians lays an arrogant and exclusive claim, but to which no man, 
 no assembly of men, since the apostolic age, can prove a title. 
 It is frequently amongst individuals of the same sect nothing 
 
 3 m 2 
 
452 
 
 better than self-sufficiency of opinion, and pharisaical pride, by 
 which each man esteems himself more righteous than his neigh- 
 bours. It may, perhaps, be useful in cementing what is called the 
 alliance between Church and State ; but if such an alliance ob- 
 structs candid discussions, if it invades the right of private judge- 
 ment, if it generates bigotry in churchmen or intolerance in 
 statesmen, it not only becomes inconsistent with the general prin- 
 ciples of Protestantism, but it impedes the progress of the kingdom 
 of Christ, which we all know is not of this world. 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1807, the abolition of the Slave Trade 
 was finally debated in the House of Lords ; and I made the follow- 
 ing speech : — 
 
 " My Lords, 
 
 " Though the question now before the House has occupied the 
 deliberations of parliament, and engaged the attention of the 
 public, for several years, yet it has so happened that I have never, 
 before this day, had an opportunity of delivering in my place, my 
 sentiments upon it. I now feel that I am standing in the situa- 
 tion of a zealous auxiliary, who, having been prevented from 
 sharing honourably in the danger of the battle, is ambitious of 
 participating in the triumph of victory. 
 
 " The origin of slavery, like the origin of most other civil in- 
 stitutions, is involved in great obscurity. There is good reason, 
 however, to believe that it existed in the antediluvian world. 
 Noah lived six hundred years in that world, and could not fail, in 
 that period, of becoming well acquainted with its manners and 
 institutions. In the course of a very few years after the Deluge, 
 
453 * 
 
 Noah pronounced a prophetic curse against one of the children of 
 his youngest son Ham, saying of Canaan, — A servant of servants, — 
 that is a slave of slaves, the vilest of all slaves, — shall he be to his 
 brethren. This denunciation, Your Lordships will please to ob- 
 serve, would have been an unintelligible menace, had not the 
 miserable state of slavery been well known to Noah and his sons. 
 
 " However this may be, it is clear from sacred history, the 
 most authentic of all histories, that not only a trade in slaves 
 subsisted in the age of Joseph, (when he himself was sold by his 
 brethren to the Ishmaelites, who were travelling with their cara- 
 vans into Egypt,) but that, two hundred years before that event, 
 Abraham is said to have been rich, not only in gold and 
 silver, in camels and asses, but in men slaves and women 
 slaves ; where the slaves are considered to be as much the pro- 
 perty of Abraham as the cattle were. It may hence, I think, be 
 inferred, that a state of slavery has been coeval with the origin of 
 civil society, and, in truth, it almost springs from it. I conceive 
 it to be the annexation of individual labour to things in common, 
 which gives rise to property, but that it is the institution of civil 
 society which gives security to it ; and, unless in cases of extreme 
 necessity, excludes every individual from the possession of it. 
 
 " When Meum and Tuum are once introduced among men, a 
 selling of human labour for the support of human life is a neces- 
 sary consequence ; for the right of extreme necessity cannot exist 
 till a man has offered, in vain, to give his labour for his subsistence. 
 
 " This bartering of labour for the support of life is a just origin 
 of slavery. For though we should define slavery to be compul- 
 sory labour for the benefit of another, yet this is voluntary 
 labour for a man's own benefit,— -it is the fulfilment of a voluntary 
 
454 
 
 compact. This compact may be various in its conditions with 
 regard to the nature and quantum of the labour to be performed, 
 and with respect to its duration : the agreement may be made for 
 a day, a month, a year, for many years, or for life ; but how long 
 soever it may last, I see no injustice in it, since it was voluntary 
 in its commencement. 
 
 " Captivity in an unjust war is generally considered as another 
 source of lawful slavery. I do not, on this occasion, mean to 
 argue that point ; though I must be allowed to think, that war 
 has practices and principles peculiar to itself, which but ill quadrate 
 with the rule of moral rectitude, and are quite abhorrent from the 
 benignity of Christianity ; and I do not clearly see the morality of 
 making slaves of ignorant and innocent peasants, who have been 
 compelled to fight .the unjust battles of ambitious princes. 
 
 " Other origins of slavery might be mentioned, but I need not 
 enter further into the discussion of them. A state of slavery has 
 not only been coeval with society, but co-extensive with it. I 
 know not whether a single city could be mentioned in any of the 
 four celebrated monarchies of former times in which it did not 
 exist, or any country, except a Christian country, in which it does 
 not even now subsist. 
 
 " But there is one short argument, if there were no other, 
 which proves that slavery is not as such opposite to justice. God 
 cannot authorise injustice ; but he did authorise slavery amongst 
 the Jews ; therefore slavery is not opposite to justice. Nor am I 
 certain that slavery is any where expressly forbidden by the letter 
 of the New Testament. Man-stealing is, indeed, expressly for- 
 bidden to Christians, as it was, under the penalty of death, for- 
 bidden to the Jews ; but the Greek word rendered men-stealers, 
 
455 
 
 in the New Testament, does not probably mean the same as men- 
 buyers, nor can we from thence infer, that a traffic in slaves is, 
 totidem verbis, prohibited to Christians. Think not, My Lords, from 
 what has been said, that I am becoming an advocate for slavery : 
 I abhor it under every denomination ; but I am not prepared to 
 say that every species of slavery is unjust, contrary to the law of 
 God, either natural or revealed. Notwithstanding this concession, 
 I consider the abolition of the African Slave Trade as a noble 
 triumph of Christian principle over the avarice of commerce; and 
 if there is a God governing the aifairs of men, (as doubtless there 
 is, though we may not be able on every occasion to say this is His 
 work,) this godlike act of the British legislature will never be 
 blotted from the register of Heaven. We may, perhaps, experi- 
 ence, and speedily experience, great calamity ; for what nation does 
 not deserve punishment? But in the day of our distress God will re- 
 member this national act of general philanthropy ; and the remem- 
 brance of it will arrest in its descent the rod of divine chastise- 
 ment, or it will mitigate the severity of its fall. 
 
 " Let no friend to this horrid traffic undertake to palliate its 
 atrocity by an appeal to the Mosaic code. The Jewish trade in 
 slaves was as remarkable for its humanity as the African for the 
 contrary. Were African slavery in all its circumstances similar to 
 Jewish slavery, its continuance might have been not commended 
 perhaps, but endured till a better state of society had taken place. 
 It is very material too to remark, that many things were allowed 
 to the Jews which are not allowed to Christians. The lex ta- 
 lionis was enjoined to the Jews, but Christians are forbidden to 
 demand an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Polygamy and a 
 frequency of divorce were indulged to the Jews : they are not 
 
 ' 
 
456 
 
 allowed to Christians. The Jewish dispensation was calculated 
 to render Jews a more moral people than the Heathens were, 
 and the Christian dispensation is calculated to render Christians a 
 peculiar people, more zealous of good works, than either the 
 Heathens or the Jews were. To Christians, My Lords, there 
 belongs a badge, by which they are or ought to be distinguished 
 from every other description of men : there is inscribed on this 
 badge a new commandment, — Love one another. — But in what 
 corner of an African ship is this badge to be found ? In what 
 West India slave-market is this badge exhibited ? To what whip 
 of a Negro gang-driver is this badge appended ? It is related of 
 the Emperor Alexander Severus, that he showed great kindness to 
 Christians on account of the benevolent maxims of their religion; 
 and that he ordered the precept, Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne 
 feceris, to be inscribed on the gates of his palace, and on other 
 public edifices in Rome. We, My Lords, are on this day emulat- 
 ing the magnanimity of this Emperor. We are writing on the 
 expanded sails of our African slave-ships, — " Whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." We are 
 writing this summary of what the law hath commanded, or the 
 prophets have taught, with a pen, plucked from a wing of the 
 cherubim, shadowing the mercy-seat of Heaven : the inscription 
 will be read with tears of gratitude throughout the continent of 
 Africa : it will be read, to our honour, by every nation in Chris- 
 tendom ; and it will sooner or later induce them all to follow our 
 example: in a word, it will tend to humanise, to civilise, and ulti- 
 mately to christianise the whole earth. 
 
 " But suppose that other nations should not immediately follow 
 our example, we shall have the solid satisfaction of having done 
 
457 
 
 our duty. Duties, Your Lordships well know, are divided by 
 moralists into duties of perfect and of imperfect obligation ; but 
 Christians scarcely allow this distinction, and even Heathens do 
 not approve it ; for they tell us, that to be innocent according to 
 law is but a narrow principle of virtue. Augusta est innocentia ad 
 legem bonum esse, says Seneca, when he observes that piety, pity, 
 humanity, persuade men to the performance of many actions, all 
 of which are extra publicas tabulas. The constable cannot seize a 
 man, the magistrate cannot commit him, the country will not try 
 him, and even Your Lordships will not question him at your bar, 
 for the total neglect of actions which at another bar the most 
 merciful of all judges will condemn him for not having performed; 
 when he will say to those on his left hand, — " Inasmuch as ye 
 did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, (a poor, despised, 
 abused African, will not be excluded from this brotherhood,) ye 
 did it not unto me." 
 
 " As to the political consequences which will attend our abo- 
 lition of the Slave Trade, no human eye can foresee them all : I 
 have a perfect persuasion that they will be beneficial to human 
 kind, for I am certain that they spring from a root of un dissem- 
 bled piety and humanity. 
 
 " I never asked a question concerning the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade except one, and that in the very beginning of the business. 
 The question was put to a witness at Your Lordships' bar, a very 
 respectable West-India planter of the name of Franklin. The 
 question was this, Is it cheaper to breed and rear a slave or to 
 buy a slave? The answer, after some hesitation, was, It is 
 cheaper to buy than to breed a slave. From that moment I 
 thought, and have continued to think, that if means could be 
 
 3 N 
 
458 
 
 devised by the wisdom of parliament, concurring with the expe- 
 rience of the colonial assemblies, of making it cheaper to rear 
 than to purchase slaves, the trade would cease of itself. 
 
 " That the labour of the man should recompense the master 
 of his parents for the maintenance of the child, is a just principle ; 
 and it is recognised as such by our own law, which permits the 
 children of paupers to be bound apprentices ; and I own I do not 
 see any objection to the children of the present West- India slaves 
 becoming free at the age of twenty-one, of twenty-five, or thirty 
 years, at any period when it may be reasonably calculated that by 
 their labour, as adults, they have repaid the masters of their 
 parents, for the risk and expense attending their rearing and 
 education. The maxim of the civil law, Partus sequitur ventrem, 
 has always appeared to me to be an harsh maxim, inasmuch as it 
 doomed the progeny of female slaves to be slaves through all 
 generations : a perpetuity of slavery in a man's family being a far 
 greater evil than the endurance of it in a man's person. 
 
 " It would be premature to say any thing further on this subject at 
 this time, and I have no wish to anticipate public wisdom by any 
 observation of mine; but it is not without thought that to the rear- 
 ing I joined the education of the children of slaves ; for if the West- 
 India planters are ever to enjoy the benefit of having their lands 
 cultivated by free Negroes born and brought up in their islands, 
 the great interests of society require that they should be educated 
 to a certain extent. 
 
 " I would conclude, My Lords, with paying my slender tribute 
 of just praise to one individual whose persevering humanity so 
 essentially contributed to the successful issue of this arduous 
 undertaking ; I would do this with sincere pleasure, were I not 
 
459 
 
 certain, that he feels in his heart a comfort which no praise of 
 man, at least which no praise of mine, can augment: — his reward 
 is in heaven." 
 
 Soon after this, the able administration, (greatly indeed weak- 
 ened by the loss of Mr. Fox,) which had been formed on the 
 death of Mr. Pitt, was dismissed. The ostensible reason of their 
 dismission was, the King's dislike of a measure which they had 
 brought forward in parliament respecting the Irish Catholic 
 officers. The ministers were wisely moved by a liberal and pro- 
 spective policy, to endeavour to consolidate as much as possible 
 the strength of the empire, by opening to Catholic officers in the 
 army and navy the same road to honour and emolument which 
 had always been open to Protestants. They were sensible that 
 almost every Gazette which announced the success of our enter- 
 prises, made distinguished mention of the gallantry of the infe- 
 rior Catholic officers ; and they wished to confirm the loyalty, and 
 to stimulate the ambition, of such men, by putting them on a 
 level with their fellows in arms. 
 
 Unfortunately the King did not see this measure in the same 
 light that his Whig ministers did, and he required them to give 
 him a pledge that they would never more bring forward the 
 question of granting further indulgence to the Irish Catholics. 
 This requisition was not only unprecedented in the annals of the 
 house of Brunswick since its accession to the throne of Great 
 Britain, but it was considered by many as of a tendency dan- 
 gerous to the constitution ; and to me it appeared to be not in 
 words but in fact a declaration of a — sic volo. Had His Majesty 
 
 3n2 
 
460 
 
 dismissed his ministers because he disliked their measures, no 
 one would have denied such an exertion of his prerogative to 
 have been perfectly constitutional, (how much soever he might 
 have individually questioned the discretion of using it in such a 
 crisis ;) but to require from privy counsellors, and much more to 
 require from confidential servants of the crown, that they would 
 at any time cease to advise His Majesty for what they esteemed 
 the public good, was to brand them as unprincipled slaves to the 
 royal will, and traitors to the country. The ministers refused 
 to cover themselves with the infamy which would justly have 
 attended their submission to such a demand : they refused, and 
 were dismissed : such sort of ministers would have lost their heads 
 at Constantinople ; at London, they, as yet, only lose their places. 
 Whilst there remained a competitor of the Stuart family to the 
 throne of Great Britain, the kings of the house of Brunswick 
 were perhaps afraid of the competition ; and were satisfied 
 with having been elevated, from an arbitrary dominion over a 
 petty principality in Germany, to the possession of a limited 
 monarchy, over the most enlightened and the most commer- 
 cial nation in the world. That competition being now extin- 
 guished, it could not be thought unnatural were they to indulge 
 a desire of emancipating themselves from the restraints of 
 parliament ; but there is no way of effecting this so secret, safe, 
 and obvious, as by corrupting it. When Rome possessed the 
 empire of the world, its emperor had ample means of cor- 
 rupting the integrity of the whole senate, and it soon became 
 subservient to his will : public liberty was swallowed up by 
 private profligacy. The first Lord Chatham was a Cato when 
 he declared that Hanover was a mill-stone about the neck of 
 
461 
 
 Great Britain ; but he became a supple courtier when he boasted 
 of having conquered America in Germany ; and he forfeited the 
 esteem of good men when he attempted to adorn the sepulchre 
 of his patriotism by a pension and a peerage. Since his time, 
 for one Cato, one Rockingham, one Saville, one Chatham, (in his 
 honourable days,) we have had, and have, and probably always 
 shall have, (as long as we remain an opulent and luxurious nation,) 
 hundreds resembling him in the decline of his political virtue. 
 
 I felt myself, as a Whig, interested in the mode of dis- 
 missing this third, half Whig half Tory administration, which 
 had taken place during the reign of George the Third ; and I sent 
 to Lord Grenville, with whom I had a slight acquaintance, on 
 the first of April, the following resolution, as fit to be intro- 
 duced into the House of Lords, whenever the subject should be 
 brought forward : — 
 
 " Resolved, That whoever has advised, or shall in future advise, 
 His Majesty to require from his confidential servants a pledge, 
 that they will, on any occasion, abstain from submitting to his 
 consideration any measure of government which they, in their 
 consciences, believe to be conducive to the public weal, is, and 
 ought by this House, to be declared to be an enemy to . the 
 constitution of the country." 
 
 Lord Grenville sent me word, that he adopted the resolution 
 in toto, thinking it better than any thing which had occurred 
 either to himself or his friends. 
 
 - 
 Houbting, however whether a less firm resolution might not 
 
462 
 
 be more acceptable to the then House of Lords, I got a friend, 
 (the Duke of Grafton,) to send in his own name to Lord Howick 
 the subjoined, on the seventh of April, informing, at the same 
 time, Lord Grenville that I had done so : — 
 
 " Resolved, That it is the opinion of this House, that His 
 Majesty's confidential servants cannot, consistently with their 
 duty to the King, enter on any occasion into any engagement 
 that they will refrain from submitting to His Majesty's consider- 
 ation any measure of government which they in their consciences 
 shall believe to be compatible with the honour and dignity of the 
 crown, and conducive to the safety and prosperity of the empire." 
 
 With either of these resolutions I would have let the matter 
 drop, without proceeding to enquire who had been the King's 
 advisers, or whether he had acted without advice. My opinion 
 then was, and still is, that His Majesty in the dismission of his 
 ministers acted without advice ; and if he did this in obedience to 
 the dictates of an ill informed, or even a scrupulous conscience, 
 respecting the obligation of his coronation-oath, he acted like an 
 honest man, as to the matter of the dismission ; though, as to the 
 mode of it, he seemed, to my apprehension, to have transgressed 
 the limit of a just prerogative. 
 
 Something different from, but not better than either of the 
 above resolutions, was moved by the Marquis of Stafford in the 
 House of Lords, on the thirteenth of April, and negatived by a 
 great majority, after a debate which lasted till seven o'clock the 
 next morning. I sat the whole night next to the Bishop of 
 Durham : I knew his sentiments, and intended to have answered 
 
463 
 
 him, had he taken any part in the debate. The House, it was 
 said, had never been so full, nor had ever sat so long. The par- 
 liament, which had only sat a few months, was soon after dis- 
 solved, but not before it had been menaced with a dissolution, if 
 it did not support the new ministers. It not only did support 
 the new ministers, but it did not impeach, as it ought to have 
 done, the Secretary of State, (Mr. Canning,) by whom it had been 
 menaced. 
 
 The new ministers, with the Duke of Portland at their head, 
 artfully for themselves, but improvidently for the country, raised 
 the cry of N& Popery, and The Church is in danger, without 
 bestowing a single thought on the danger of the state. The 
 church is in no danger from Popery ; but the state must ever be 
 in danger from discontent, whilst a large portion of its members is 
 looked upon by government with a jealous and a repulsive eye. To 
 suspect a Catholic or a Dissenter of disaffection, what is it but to 
 suggest to him a cause for it ; but to excite in him a wish for an 
 opportunity of showing it? Little does he know of human 
 nature, and less of Gospel charity, who expects to root out the 
 prejudices either of individuals or of societies by unkindness, to 
 extinguish animosity by violence, or a spirit of revenge by want 
 of confidence. 
 
 Whilst this miserable clamour against Popery and the Church's 
 danger lasted, I never hesitated to declare my opinion, that it 
 was both just, and in the state of Bonaparte's strength and 
 temper towards us, highly expedient, to receive both Catholics 
 and Dissenters into the bosom of the constitution; but that it 
 was improper to press any innovation till the people were pre- 
 
464 
 
 pared to receive it; and that I thought the time was not yet 
 come for the general adoption of such a politic and equitable 
 principle of government. Toleration was in every man's mouth ; 
 but dominion over the faith of other men, exclusion from pri- 
 vileges possessed by themselves, and a disposition to the exercise 
 of power without right, were in the hearts of a great part, pro- 
 bably of a majority, of the people of Great Britain. 
 
 In June of the same year, (1807.) Mr. Buckminster, a very 
 respectable clergyman, called at my house, in Westmoreland, and 
 delivered to me a letter from Dr. Elliot, Secretary to the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society, enquiring whether I would accept the 
 election which the Society had made of me, to become a member 
 of it. I immediately sent to Dr. Elliot the following letter, and 
 was much ashamed of my negligence, in not having sooner returned 
 thanks for the honour which I had long known had been sponta- 
 neously done me : — 
 
 " Reverend Sir, Calgarth Park, 18th June, 1807. 
 
 " The day before yesterday, I was honoured by your letter of 
 May 26th, 1806, delivered to me by Mr. Buckminster, whom I 
 could not prevail upon to favour me with more than an en passant 
 visit, though I am certain, from what I saw of him, that I have 
 cause to lament that his engagements would not suffer him to 
 make a longer stay. 
 
 " I accept with great pleasure and gratitude the distinction you 
 announce to me, of becoming a member of the Massachusetts 
 Historical Society. My studies have not, at any period, been 
 particularly directed to historical enquiry ; and, at the age of 
 seventy, I must despair of being able to render the Society any 
 
465 
 
 service as an associate, especially as I am ignorant of its general 
 design, as it respects either ancient or modern history. 
 
 " Nothing can be more interesting either to philosophers or 
 divines, than the history of the human species, considered in its 
 several parts, or as constituting one great whole. The first will 
 be gratified with tracing the progression and the retrogradation of 
 human intellect, according to the influence of physical and moral 
 causes ; and the second will be penetrated with the highest vene- 
 ration for the Bible, which commences, and as it were arranges* 
 the history of human kind, by referring all nations to one common 
 stock. In this view, the distinction between ancient and modern 
 history vanishes ; the two together constitute one whole, origi- 
 nating in Adam, and subjected to the moral government of one 
 Incomprehensible Being, from whom every thing is derived. 
 The real existence, and the quality and extent of this moral 
 government, which are best discerned by comparing together 
 the circumstances of the species with respect to happiness, virtue, 
 and intelligence, at different periods of its existence, present 
 themselves to my mind as fit objects of historical discussion. 
 
 " But I forbear, from not having any knowledge of the ends 
 for which your Society has been established, and I conclude with 
 expressing my most ardent wishes, that the offspring of Great 
 Britain may be as illustrious in the peaceful arts of life, as the 
 mother from whom she has sprung has long been ; and that she 
 may be more fortunate than her parent has been, in escaping the 
 calamity of frequent wars, principally occasioned by the avarice 
 of commerce, and the ambition of despotism ; and that she may 
 be more fortunate also in escaping that excess of wealth which, 
 by introducing luxury, undermines the probity of individuals, 
 
 3 o 
 
466 
 
 enervates the physical strength of nations, and subverts the freest 
 constitutions. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I afterwards learned, by a letter from Mr. Buckminster, dated 
 July 6th, 1807, that the Massachusetts Historical Society had 
 been instituted about twelve years ago, in consequence of the 
 exertions of some clergymen of Boston, especially of Dr. Belknuss, 
 author of two accurate and interesting volumes of American Bio- 
 graphy, of the History of New Hampshire, and of several His- 
 torical Tracts ; that the enquiries of the Society had been entirely 
 confined to American History, and peculiarly to that of the 
 American States ; that there were already published eleven 
 volumes of its collections, consisting of curious and scarce Tracts, 
 manuscript and printed ; Topographical Descriptions ; Letters 
 and Communications, relating to the Aborigines of the Country, 
 and illustrating its earlier annals ; and papers of various kinds, 
 which had much increased the stock of materials for the future 
 historian of the Western World. That this Society had undoubt- 
 edly been the most industrious, and perhaps not the least useful, 
 of the New England Literary Associations. 
 
 Extract of a Letter to the Duke of Grafton, dated Calgarth, July, 
 1807, who had sent me a despairing Account of himself 
 
 " On my return to this place, I met with your obliging letter, 
 and am sincerely sorry to find, that my apprehensions respecting 
 your health were not unfounded. 
 
467 
 
 " Your body cannot be in better hands than in those of your 
 physician, nor your mind in better than in your own. Were your 
 body in perfect health, your mind, I think, would not be dis- 
 turbed by anxiety; for which, I trust, there is no reasonable 
 ground. Divines, with the best intentions, have said more than 
 the Scriptures have said concerning repentance, and have thereby 
 precipitated men into despair, and consequent impenitence and 
 hardness of heart. The state of a man, who having left off sinful 
 habits returns to them again, is certainly dangerous, because 
 it shows the strength of habit to be superior to his resolution ; 
 but I do not know that it is any where represented in Scripture 
 as desperate, and a return to virtue as impossible ; for neither 
 Heb. x. 38., nor Second Peter, ii. 20, 21., though referred to by 
 Tillotson on this point, will bear out the conclusion. 
 
 " I dislike extremely that gloomy theology, which would make 
 the Supreme Being more inexorable than a man: the whole 
 ten our of Scripture speaks a contrary language ; and we know 
 nothing from reason of his divine attributes, except from their 
 bearing some analogy to our own. Now, what father of a family 
 would say to a repentant son, " Your repentance comes too late, 
 and I will never forgive you." The father may suspect the sin- 
 cerity of his son's repentance, and from that suspicion may with- 
 hold his forgiveness ; but God cannot suspect, for he knows our 
 repentance to be sincere, or otherwise ; and if sincere, I trust he 
 will, of his fatherly clemency, accept our repentance, though we 
 may have swerved from the rectitude of former resolutions. 
 
 " Repentance is a change of principle, accompanied by a 
 change of conduct ; we may be snatched away, and have no 
 opportunity of proving the sincerity of our principle by our 
 
 3o2 
 
468- 
 
 practice ; but God, who knows things that would be, as if they 
 were, will judge of the sincerity or insincerity of our principle, 
 by what would happen ; and if our ft$av,9ia be, at any time of 
 life, even after repeated lapses, in his judgment, sincere, I see 
 no ground in reason or Scripture for despairing of his forgiveness. 
 " In thinking of our Heavenly Father, we ought to bear in 
 mind the answer which our Saviour made to Peter's question : — 
 " Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive 
 him ?" The answer, though it gives no encouragement to pre- 
 sumptuous sinners, gives great comfort to such a creature as man, 
 whose life is spent in sinning, and in being sorry for his sin. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton, July ISth, 1807. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 " As to our prospects, nothing can be worse ; but since you 
 wish to know what I think ought to be done, I send Your Grace 
 my opinion, independent of all party. My opinion is, that 
 Catholics and Dissenters ought to have all civil privileges con- 
 ceded to them with a cordiality of sincere affection ; that the 
 Volunteers should be put in good humour, by being thanked by 
 both Houses of Parliament, and requested again to come forward 
 for the resistance of actual invasion ; that all the males in the 
 empire, from eighteen to forty-five years of age, not enrolled as 
 Volunteers or serving as Regulars, should be immediately called 
 forth, classed, and taught the use of arms, and incorporated as 
 they became fit, with the Regulars ; that, above all other things, 
 
469 
 
 an administration should be formed of men of military knowledge 
 and statesman-like knowledge, and not of men who, as Cicero has 
 it, — Ad honores adipiscendos et ad rempublicam gerendam nudi 
 veniunt, nulla cognitione rerum nulla scientia ornati. In my time, 
 I have known no lawyer (first Lord Camden excepted) deserving 
 the name of a statesman, and yet I have known lawyers more 
 deserving that appellation than either of those who now preside 
 in the cabinet. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to a Friend, on his asking my Opinion on the Death of his 
 Mother, whether we should know one another in a future State. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Our Saviour has said, that " We shall be like the angels of 
 God," immortal ; yet St. John has said, " It doth not yet appear 
 what we shall be :" there is no contradiction in this. We are sure 
 of immortal life ; but the connections, habits, relations, inter- 
 courses of that life, are not revealed to us. I dare not speak 
 with confidence on a subject whereon St. John professes his 
 ignorance. 
 
 " Had you asked me whether we should in a future state ex- 
 perience pain, and sorrow, and death, I should have answered, 
 No. Had you asked me whether we should retain a memory of 
 our good and bad deeds, I should have answered, Yes ; — because 
 I am certain that the righteous Judge will give such a righteous 
 judgment, that every individual will have a consciousness of its 
 rectitude. But when you ask me, whether we shall know one 
 
4*70 
 
 another in a future state, I hesitate in my reply ; and as we say 
 in the University when there are not arguments of sufficient 
 weight to make our judgment preponderate on either side, I say, 
 Non liquet To be serious, all that can be certainly known on 
 the subject is this, — That God will not withhold from those 
 whom he adopts as his sons any thing which can contribute to 
 their happiness ; and if the earthly attachments formed in this 
 first scene of existence will contribute to our happiness they will 
 be continued to us, and that continuance implies a future recog- 
 nition of beloved connections. Yet, on the other hand, it may be 
 said, if we know our friends, and retain sentiments of affection for 
 them, we must also know our enemies, and thus be again exposed 
 to emotions of fear, dislike, aversion ; but in a future state we 
 expect freedom from bad passions, and real tranquillity of mind; 
 and it is probable that human affections will be absorbed in the 
 love of God and of our Saviour. 
 
 " The strongest text for out mutual knowledge in a future state 
 occurs in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. ii. ver. 19., 
 where Paul says, that " They will be his hope, his joy, his crown 
 of glorying in the presence of Jesus Christ at his coming." 
 
 " There is a similar expression, 2 Cor. chap. i. ver. 14. 
 
 " From these passages it may, perhaps, be justly inferred that 
 
 Paul expected to know personally those whom he had converted 
 
 to Christianity, 
 
 " I am, &c 
 
 « R. L." 
 
471 
 
 Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated Dec, 8. 1807, who 
 in a circular Letter had desired me to send him some Account 
 of the Schools in my Diocese, 
 
 " My Lord Archbishop, 
 " According to my promise I now transmit to Your Grace the 
 best account which I can obtain of the schools in my diocese. In 
 eighty-five parishes there are public schools, and in fifteen of 
 these, more than one; — in eighty-seven parishes there are no 
 public schools ; and from thirty-six my Registrar has not procured 
 any answer to the enquiries which I directed him to make. There 
 are very few, if any, Catholics in the county of Glamorgan, but 
 many in Monmouthshire, though only one school for Catholics, 
 which is kept by a woman, who admits Protestant children, and 
 teaches them (as she says) our Catechism. There are very many 
 Methodists, Anabaptists, Independents, &c, but only few Presby- 
 terians, in Monmouthshire : there are, however, no schools wherein 
 the children of these various Dissenters are taught separately from 
 the children of the Established Church. 
 
 " In addition to the public schools, there are many private 
 schools in my diocese, not a few of them consisting of thirty 
 children or more. Many of these private schools are supported 
 by voluntary contribution ; and of these, where the parents are 
 obliged to pay for their children's schooling, the price is from 
 two-pence halfpenny to three-pence a-week ; and for this they are 
 taught reading, writing, the two or three first rules in arithmetic, 
 and in general the Church Catechism. 
 
 " If Your Grace will permit me to deliver my opinion on this 
 subject, I think that the education of the children of the poor 
 is a matter well deserving the consideration of Government, inas- 
 
472 
 
 much as a proper education of the lower classes is amongst them, 
 as amongst all others, the parent of piety and of good morals. 
 But 1 think, at the same time, that an education suited to the 
 circumstances and situation of the children of the poor is in very 
 few, if in any, parts of Great Britain so neglected as to require 
 the interposition of the legislature to compel a general amend- 
 ment of it. 
 
 " It is computed that there are nine births to two marriages ; 
 now there are very few parents, comparatively speaking, among 
 the peasants or manufacturers of the country, who cannot spare 
 from their earnings three-pence a-week, for two or three years, 
 to each of their four or five children for their education ; and 
 where they cannot afford even such a pittance, for such a pur- 
 pose, I think so well of mankind as to believe, that it would be 
 voluntarily supplied to them by their richer neighbours, if, from 
 their sobriety and industry, they appeared to be deserving objects 
 of benevolence and beneficence. ; 
 
 " Your Grace, without doubt, will have seen a printed letter, 
 addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Ire^ 
 land, respecting a recent re-publication of " Ward's Errata" of the 
 Protestant Bible. Doctor Ryan, the author of this letter, declares 
 that he is preparing an answer to Ward's book ; and this declar- 
 ation will prevent me from attempting to answer it, should I, on 
 perusing, judge it entitled to serious animadversion. In this 
 retirement, indeed, I am not, for want of books, well furnished for 
 such an undertaking ; yet here I wrote my answer to Paine ; and 
 here, had not the ground been pre-occupied, I would have entered 
 the lists with the Catholic champions of " Ward's Errata," in sup- 
 port of the Protestant Establishment, though I certainly do not (as 
 
473 
 
 Dr. Ryan somewhat illiberally intimates that we all do) owe the 
 little fortune I possess to the Church. 
 
 " In the answer which I sent, Nov. 28th, to the Doctor's letter, 
 is the following paragraph, which he may perhaps interpret as 
 proceeding from episcopal supineness, but which Your Grace will 
 more reasonably refer to my desire of abating the too violent 
 effervescence of his own zeal. 
 
 " ( I am extremely sorry that the Catholics are, at this time, 
 ( reviving a controversy which can have no favourable issue even 
 J to themselves ; but which, unless it be carried on by both par- 
 f ties with a zeal for nothing but truth, and in a spirit of sincere 
 f Christian charity, may have consequences dangerous to public 
 t tranquillity.' 
 
 " I am Your Grace's most obedient servant, 
 
 .' " R. Landaff." 
 
 The paper alluded to in this letter was directed to the Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops of England and Ireland, in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 " I think it my duty to acquaint the heads of our Church with a 
 book lately published in Dublin, entitled " Ward's Errata of the 
 Protestant Bible." This book was first published in England, in 
 the year 1688 ; but never was answered : its author possessed 
 such talents, that Archbishop Tenison attacked his "Monomactria," 
 though an anonymous tract ! But his chief work was his "Errata ;" 
 an infamous libel on the Protestant Bible, and now brought for- 
 ward as an unanswerable production. In this work the translators 
 of our Bible are charged with adding to the sacred text ; with 
 
 3 p 
 
474 
 
 altering or corrupting it in more than one hundred and thirty 
 places ; and with doing so not from negligence, ignorance, over- 
 sight, or mistake, but designedly, wilfully, and maliciously, to 
 impose on the weak by a corrupt, imperfect, and partial trans- 
 lation. This and other writings of Ward were so hostile to the 
 feelings of English Protestants, to the Protestant establishment, 
 and perhaps to the laws, that he fled from England to France, and 
 died there. Yet this work was re-published in Dublin last month, 
 under the patronage of several Romish clergymen : one hundred 
 and ten of whom are subscribers to it ! Two thousand copies of 
 this thin quarto were printed by Coyne, East Arran Street, Dublin : 
 Keating and Brown, booksellers, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, 
 London, subscribed for one thousand of them ; and the book is 
 sold in Cork, Limerick, and in every town of the smallest conse- 
 quence in Ireland. I am preparing an answer to this book ; but 
 much better answers may be expected from such of the bishops 
 and clergy as possess more leisure, more information, and better 
 talents than I. The most supine bishops will be roused to a 
 degree of zeal on seeing a libel on his Bible, by which he hopes 
 for salvation* and on his Church to which he owes his rank and 
 fortune. 
 
 " William Street, Dublin, Nov. 1807. Edward Ryan. 
 
 >*f 'My answer will be anonymous." 
 
 This was written but not printed. 
 
 Though the following letter from a clergyman near Bath, with 
 whom I had no acquaintance, is far too complimentary to myself, 
 
475 
 
 yet as the subject of it is of importance, I shall do .religion no 
 disservice in publishing it and my answer to it. I received it in 
 December, 1807. 
 
 « My Lord, 
 
 •' No writer of the present day has, in my opinion, done so 
 much credit to the cause of Christianity as Your Lordship. 
 Yours are the only writings I ever read which contain that dignified 
 liberality of mind, which is so peculiarly the characteristic of Chris- 
 tianity : they possess, likewise, a warmth and a zeal which might 
 be thought incompatible with that liberal temper of mind which 
 you possess ; for liberality is often thought to be another name 
 for indifference. I take the liberty of addressing Your Lordship, 
 because I am persuaded that you are zealous in the cause of 
 Christianity, and because I think that you are its ablest defender 
 now alive. I wish to call Your Lordship's attention to a book 
 which is now very generally read, and which Your Lordship may 
 have seen, " An Essay on Population," by Mr. Malthus. It is a 
 book which, in my opinion, endeavours to establish a code of 
 morality in opposition to the morality of the Gospel. To me it 
 appears the most insidious attack ever made on Christianity, 
 though the author pretends to be a Christian divine. As Your 
 Lordship has answered those writers who have endeavoured to 
 undermine the doctrines of Christianity, perhaps you will show 
 the same zeal in defending its moral precepts. The design of 
 the present letter is to prevail on Your Lordship to answer 
 Mr. Malthus. 
 
 " If my sentiments should not happen to meet with Your 
 Lordship's approbation ; if you should think favourably of 
 
 3p2 
 
476 
 
 Mr. Malthus ; it would give me infinite satisfaction to hear the 
 grounds on which Your Lordship thinks his Essay can be justi- 
 fied, and on which it can be reconciled to the spirit of Christi- 
 anity ; for to me they appear so much at variance that I am 
 compelled to give up either the one or the other. I speak not of 
 Mr. Malthus' s book merely as a theory which may do mischief in 
 the world, but as a theory which has already done incalculable mis- 
 chief within my own knowledge : it has brought benevolence into 
 contempt : in a country where this book is in high estimation, 
 the justices look upon it as an act of virtue to depress the poor : 
 to assist the poor in a time of scarcity is thought to be the ex- 
 treme of folly. A man who would think of doing so is said to 
 have " high-flying notions about benevolence." If a poor man 
 be ever so industrious, it matters not if he be found guilty of 
 having a large family, no other accusation is required. He ought 
 to suffer for his own imprudence, they say, lest a famine should 
 be the consequence. 
 
 " A very little eloquence is necessary in order to make us love 
 ourselves, and to keep what we have. Mr. Malthus has applied 
 to the weak side of human nature, and it is not wonderful that he 
 has so much prevailed. He tells the rich that the poor have no 
 right to live ; (or, as he would say, no right to subsistence when 
 they cannot obtain it by their labour ;) the rich are very ready to 
 believe his doctrine; and he is now so much read and so much 
 esteemed, that no man but a man of eminence and superior 
 talents can effectually counteract the notions which he has 
 disseminated. 
 
 " This book has, indeed, been answered, but merely by poli- 
 
477 
 
 ticians who seem ashamed of Christianity ; and, as a politician, 1 
 know not that Mr. Malthus can be completely answered. 
 
 " With the greatest respect, I am your most obedient servant, 
 
 a # * * 
 
 " I take the liberty of adding my direction." 
 
 . 
 
 I immediately returned the following answer, having no dispo- 
 sition to enter into a controversy with Mr. Malthus, and thinking 
 it impossible that there should be either justices or rich men 
 such as are described in the letter. 
 
 « Rev. Sir, Calgarth Park, Dec. 19. 1807. 
 
 " Your apprehensions that mischief may arise to religion and 
 morals from the circulation of Mr. Malthus' s book, (which I never 
 read,) are probably well founded, and your anxiety that a proper 
 answer should be given to it is certainly creditable to yourself, 
 and highly becoming your function. That you think so well of 
 me as to wish for my animadversions on this book, I consider as 
 a valuable compliment to myself, to which I sincerely wish I had 
 better pretensions. 
 
 " Though I have not read this book, I have looked into it : 
 but perceiving that the author was endeavouring to show the 
 utility of bringing down the population of the earth to the level 
 of the subsistence requisite for the support of man, (a proposition 
 wanting no proof, since where there is no food man must die,) 
 I thought his time and talents would have been better employed 
 in the investigation of the means of increasing the subsistence 
 to the level of the population ; and I laid the book aside. 
 
478 
 
 " I thought myself justified in thus neglecting to peruse a 
 book thwarting the strongest propensity of human nature, and 
 contradicting the most express command of God, " Increase and 
 multiply ;" especially as I was persuaded that the earth had not in 
 the course of six thousand years from the creation ever been re- 
 plenished with any thing like one half the number of inhabitants 
 it would sustain. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I had long suspected that I was, from I know not what just 
 cause, obnoxious to the court ; but I did not, till after the arch- 
 bishopric of York had been given to the Bishop of Carlisle, know 
 that I had been proscribed many years before. By a letter from 
 a noble friend, the Duke of Grafton, dated 10th December, 1807, 
 I was informed that one of the most respectable earls in the 
 kingdom, who had long known my manner of life, on a vacancy 
 of the mastership of Trinity College, had gone of his own accord 
 (and without his ever mentioning the circumstance to me) to 
 Mr. Pitt, stating what just pretensions I had to the offer of it ; 
 that Mr. Pitt concurred with him, but said that a certain person 
 would not hear of it. Ought I to question the veracity of Mr. 
 Pitt ? No, I cannot do it. What then ought I to say of a certain 
 person who had repeatedly signified to me his high approbation 
 of my publications, and had been repeatedly heard to say to 
 others, that the Bishop of Landaff had done more in support of 
 religion than any bishop on the bench ? I ought to say with 
 St. Paul, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. 
 
479 
 
 Notwithstanding this anecdote, I cannot bring myself to 
 believe that the King was either the first projector or the prin- 
 cipal actor in the sorry farce of neglecting a man whom they 
 could not dishonour, of distressing a man whom they could not 
 dispirit, which has been playing at court for near twenty-six 
 years. 
 
 But be the dramatis persona whom they may, the curtain 
 which will close the scene is fast falling both on them and me ; and 
 I hope so to attemper my feelings of the wrong they have not 
 wilfully, perhaps, but unadvisedly done me, as to be able at the 
 opening of the next act to embrace them with Christian charity 
 and unfeigned good will ; for the detestable maxim Qui nescit 
 dissimulare nescit regnare will not be heard of in heaven. The 
 knowledge that the neglect I had suffered was rather owing to 
 the will of the monarch than to the ill will of the minister gave 
 me pleasure. It removed in a degree from my mind a suspicion 
 which I had long reluctantly entertained, that Mr. Pitt had 
 always been my enemy. I did not expect, indeed, that any 
 minister would be very zealous in promoting a man who pro- 
 fessed and practised parliamentary and personal independence; 
 but Mr. Pitt had been under obligations to me, and he knew that 
 I had always been the warm friend of his warm friend the Duke 
 of Rutland : and I was unwilling to suppose him capable of for- 
 getting either obligations or connections in the pursuit of his 
 ambition. 
 
 As to the King's dislike of me, unless his education had made 
 him more of a Whig, it was natural enough. My declared oppo- 
 
480 
 
 sition to the increased and increasing influence of the crown had 
 made a great impression on His Majesty's mind ; for on the day 
 I did homage he asked the Duke of Rutland if his friend the 
 Bishop of Landaff was not a great enemy to the influence of the 
 crown ; saying, at the same time, that he wished he had not a 
 place of two hundred a-year to give away. 
 
 I presume not to question the truth of this declaration of His 
 Majesty, but I speak with some certainty of the truth of the Duke 
 of Rutland's reply, — " That the Bishop of Landaff was an enemy 
 to the increase of the influence of the crown, from an apprehension 
 that it would undermine the constitution." This apprehension 
 was not then unfounded, nor has it since then been lessened, but 
 greatly augmented, especially by the enormous augmentation of 
 the national debt. Though it was not convenient to me to take 
 a journey to London in order to attend my duty in parliament at 
 the opening of the session in 1808, yet I was so alarmed at the 
 danger in which the country then stood, that I wished to make 
 a little effort to assist it, and I wrote the following letter with an 
 intention of sending it to Lord Camden (then President of the 
 Council) as a private communication ; but fearing lest the design 
 of writing to a minister, though I was well acquainted with him, 
 should have been misinterpreted into a desire of courting his 
 favour, I changed the beginning of it, and sent it to a man whose 
 honour and talents I greatly respected, — Earl Moira. 
 
 " My dear Lord, Calgarth Park, Feb. 16. 1808. 
 
 " In sitting down to congratulate you (which I do with great 
 
 sincerity) on the birth of your son, I will take the opportunity of 
 
481 
 
 sending you my sentiments on the state of public affairs ; for 
 though I am buried in the mountains of Westmoreland, I am 
 not inattentive to what is passing in that part of the world with 
 which I am connected. 
 
 " It is now three years ago since I said in my place in the 
 House of Lords, 6 The die is in the air which, in its fall, will 
 indicate the ruin of Buonaparte or of Britain ; and the consequent 
 reduction of France within its ancient limits, or the reduction of 
 all Europe under the military yoke of France.' This prediction, 
 
 vain as it was then thought, is now in part fulfilled ; is in part 
 
 fallen ; — Europe, the whole continent of Europe, is enslaved, 
 and the ruin of Britain is, I fear, impending. There are many 
 causes from which I think this ruin is impending. 
 
 " 1st. From disunion amongst ourselves. A third part of the 
 people composing the empire think that in their civil rights they 
 are ill treated. I do not mean to enter into the question whether 
 the Catholics in Ireland and the Dissenters in England think on 
 this subject rightly or not ; the fact, I believe, cannot be doubted, 
 that they do think so : this thought has weakened, and will con- 
 tinue to weaken, and will at length destroy the means of our 
 defence against France. 
 
 " 2d. From the desertion of our allies. In all the wars which 
 we have waged with France, from the age of Lewis the Fourteenth 
 to the present time, we have had continental allies ; we now 
 have none, or next to none. The most powerful even of those we 
 formerly had not only has deserted us, but is gone over to our 
 enemy ; either compelled thereto by his fears, or, which is more 
 probable, seduced thereto by prospects of advantage held out to 
 him at Tilsit. This former ally now speaks to us in an imperious 
 
 3q 
 
482 
 
 language, sufficiently indicative of his secret engagements with 
 Buonaparte, and not to be endured by us as a great and inde- 
 pendent nation, only it may be found consistent with good policy to 
 dissemble our resentment, till we can show it in something more 
 effectual than in diplomatic disgust. He pre-engages, he pro- 
 claims, he demands, he declares, he expects, he will not be satisfied, 
 till all the points he so unequivocally mentions are granted. 
 This language he would not have used, had he longer respected 
 our friendship. 
 
 " 3d. From the detestation in which our treatment of neutral 
 nations is held by all the maritime states of Europe. About fifty 
 years ago Mr. Jenkinson (now Lord Liverpool) published an 
 ingenious pamphlet on this subject : I perused it at the time of its 
 first publication, and have often considered it since, but have 
 always had great difficulty in admitting its conclusion on the 
 broad basis of natural justice, rather than on that of ancient 
 usage, or compulsatory convention. It was in 1780, when this 
 country was distressed by the American war, that the Empress 
 Catherine, taking advantage of our situation, formed what has 
 been called the Armed Neutrality ; from the principles of which 
 the Emperor of Russia now declares that he will never depart. 
 The formation of this novel system under the auspices of Russia 
 twenty-eight years ago, and now avowedly adhered to, indubi- 
 tably shows in what detestation our maritime code is held by 
 other nations. 
 
 " I am far from saying that such detestation is a reason for our 
 changing the system under which we have so long prospered : 
 but I do say that it is a solid reason for reconsidering, with the 
 utmost impartiality, whether it is founded in justice, and if not 
 
483 
 
 founded in justice, for relinquishing it ; for prosperity founded in 
 injustice is never lasting. But should it, on reconsideration, be 
 deemed founded in justice, there would still be reason for solemn 
 deliberation, whether in the present state of Europe and of Ame- 
 rica it might not be more expedient for us to consent to some 
 modification of it, or even to give it up entirely, than to risk our 
 existence as a nation by maintaining it. Nations as well as indi- 
 viduals often promote their interests more fundamentally by abandon- 
 ing than by enforcing their rights. To persevere in a sameness of 
 conduct when a change of circumstances (such as the annihilation 
 of the balance of power in Europe ; such as a combination of all 
 the powers of Europe against us ; such as the rise of a new power 
 in America, which in less than a century will be superior to all 
 other powers,) renders a change of conduct expedient, is a great 
 political error. 
 
 " This error often proceeds from a want of discernment, in not 
 seasonably observing the change of circumstances, and foreseeing 
 the consequences likely to attend it ; and often also from an ill 
 judged notion of there being a degree of dishonour in a change of 
 conduct. The idem manebat, neque tamen idem decebat, is an un- 
 perceived rock on which the fortunes of kings, as well as of 
 private persons, have been often shipwrecked. It was the rock 
 on which Charles the First perished. He did not perceive that, 
 though he governed the same people nominally that his ancestors 
 had done, their understandings, manners, principles, were essen- 
 tially changed. It was the rock on which Britain split and lost 
 America : we did not advert to the difference between young colo- 
 nies which wanted our protection, and grown up colonies which 
 were able to protect themselves. 
 
 3 q 2 
 
484 
 
 " 4th. From the inveteracy of Buonaparte. Of this invete- 
 racy there are two causes : the hope of becoming popular in 
 France by adopting the ancient prejudices, and encouraging the 
 ancient rivalry of his nation against us. 
 
 " The fear lest the asylum which we have so honourably 
 afforded to the royal family of France should ultimately endanger 
 his usurpation. 
 
 " This sort of fear accompanies all usurpers. Buonaparte's 
 enmity to us is an exact counterpart of Cromwell's enmity to the 
 Dutch, with whom he would not make peace but upon the ex- 
 press conditions of their abandoning the interests of Charles the 
 Second, and stipulating to receive no exile from England into 
 their dominions. Justice, no doubt, does not oblige us to protect 
 others to our own ruin, especially as we neither are or ever have 
 been connected with them by ancient bonds of amity or by posi- 
 tive alliance ; but honour, and humanity, and Christian commi- 
 seration, do require us to assist the unfortunate princes who, being 
 rudely driven from all other countries, have sought a refuge in our 
 own. 
 
 " Peace, a permanent and an advantageous peace, might, I am 
 of opinion, be now made, did we honestly engage to acknowledge 
 his title, and to give no assistance to the exiled family, either 
 by fomenting internal dissensions in France, or forming external 
 alliances in their favour, and to expel them from the dominions 
 of the King. Though I wish for peace, my mind is not yet so 
 humbled by apprehensions, as to wish for it on such terms. 
 
 " We are accused of being disturbers of the Continent. If to 
 oppose the desolating progress of insatiable ambition and unprin- 
 cipled rapacity ; if to preserve ourselves and others, by making 
 
485 
 
 continental alliances, from being swallowed up in the gulf of 
 universal empire, be to become disturbers of the Continent, then 
 are we rightly accused. We are accused of being the tyrants of 
 the seas. If to preserve ourselves from invasion by blocking up 
 in their ports the fleets of our enemies, and fighting them when 
 they venture out, be to become tyrants of the seas, then do we merit 
 the appellation. In this kind of tyranny our national safety does 
 and ever must consist. I wish that we may always have a fleet 
 superior to the united fleets of Europe ; and I wish, too, that such 
 a fleet may never be used for any purpose beyond or beside the 
 purpose of self-defence. All irritating insolence towards neutral 
 nations, all unprovoked aggression of nations in alliance with us, 
 all jealousy of trade, all monopoly of commerce, all assumption 
 of questionable rights, all enforcement of disputable claims, should 
 even, with such a fleet, be utterly rejected by us. 
 
 " We are accused of having established a commercial despotism. 
 I hope the accusation is not just ; for I abhor from my heart every 
 species of despotism, civil, religious, and commercial. Despotism 
 consists in the physical exercise of power, without moral right; it 
 is an offence against natural justice ; it is a degradation of the dig- 
 nity of human nature, and ought not on any occasion to be either 
 practised or submitted to. But in what does this imputed com- 
 mercial despotism consist ? Does it consist in this, that our manu- 
 facturers are more ingenious and more industrious than the 
 manufacturers of any other country ? Is it a violation of the law 
 of nations in us, that our merchants can offer to the inhabitants 
 of Europe, of America, of every quarter of the globe, our woollens, 
 cottons, linens, hardware, pottery, a thousand necessaries, conve- 
 niences, and comforts of civil society, without compelling a 
 
486 
 
 single individual to purchase a single article? Is it commercial 
 despotism in us that we can furnish foreign countries with better 
 goods at a cheaper rate, and with a larger credit than they them- 
 selves can either make them or procure them elsewhere ? — If 
 this be commercial despotism, I cannot wish to see an end of it ; 
 for it excites the emulation, and calls forth the industry of other 
 nations, and thereby turns men's minds from the madness of ambi- 
 tion, and the devastation of warfare, to the cultivation of the arts 
 of peace. 
 
 " Our enemy says that he wants ships, colonies, and commerce. 
 Let him build his ships, plant his colonies, extend his commerce ; 
 but let him not envy us the possession of ours, nor stigma- 
 tise us as tyrants of the seas, because we defend what we pos- 
 sess. The earth is not half inhabited, the part which is inhabited 
 is not half civilised, the part which is civilised is not half culti- 
 vated ; there is room enough for the agricultural industry, scope 
 enough for the commercial enterprise, employment enough for 
 the manufacturing skill of France, and of all other nations as well 
 as of our own. I have no fear for the commerce of Great Bri- 
 tain, though we should suffer other nations to participate in the 
 wealth to be derived from commerce, though we should allow to 
 the utmost extent, which could in time of war be reasonably 
 demanded, free bottoms to make free goods. 
 
 " Buonaparte says in the face of Europe that he wishes for 
 peace, and I am disposed to credit his assertions ; for inordi- 
 nate as his ambition is, it is regulated by his interest, and his 
 interest clearly consists in the stability of his usurpation, — and 
 the only visible bar to that stability is the war with Great Britain. 
 
 " Ambition is the characteristic of a vigorous mind : it then 
 
487 
 
 only becomes a vice when the means it uses or the end it pursues 
 are unjust. 
 
 " Were I in the place of the Bishop of Autun, I should think 
 that I atoned for half my sins, did I at length point out to this 
 extraordinary man the road to real glory ; did I say to him, — Of 
 military achievement and martial glory, you have had enough to 
 enable you to sustain a proud comparison, if not with the Alex- 
 anders, the Caesars, the Tamerlanes, of ancient story, certainly 
 with the Peters, the Charles's, the Fredericks, of more modern 
 times : there is a species of glory now within your reach, by 
 which you would surpass them all ; it consists in the magnanimity 
 of moderation. Would you now restore the throne of France to 
 its lawful owner, under such limitations of regal power as would 
 secure the liberty and happiness of his people ; would you now 
 establish among the continental states you have conquered such 
 a civil constitution as might put an end to the recurrence of war, 
 by extinguishing as they arose the first sparks of dissension among 
 them ; would you now like Washington return to a private 
 station ; you would merit and you would obtain real glory, the 
 approbation of the good and wise. Instead of the execration, you 
 would be blessed with the applause of the present, and the admir- 
 ation of all future ages. May God touch your heart with this 
 sentiment, and, touching it, forgive all your transgressions ! 
 
 " I presume not to give advice in this crisis of our destiny, 
 and in fact I have none to give different from what I gave five 
 years ago, in a publication (intended speech) respecting four 
 important points ; if to these I could add a fifth, it would be, 
 to enter as speedily as possible into an alliance, cordial, sincere, 
 offensive, and defensive with America.' — Pardon, my dear Lord, 
 
488 
 
 the trouble I have given you, and accept the best wishes on all 
 occasions, of 
 
 " Your faithful and affectionate servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In the course of this session, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 moved thereto by a benevolent intention, but with little knowledge 
 of the subject, introduced into the House of Commons a Bill — 
 " For making more effectual provision for the maintenance of 
 stipendiary curates in England (including Wales), and for their 
 residence on their cures." Thinking this bill to be wholly inade- 
 quate to the purpose of effecting that reform in the church which 
 I had long judged necessary, I sent the two following letters. It 
 was not, in truth, without great reluctance that I interfered in this 
 business ; for I was not insensible that I had been injured by the 
 unmerited proscription of the court for six-and-twenty years. 
 
 Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, May 18. 1808. 
 
 " My Lord Archbishop, 
 
 " Understanding that a bill is now pending in parliament re- 
 specting a material change in the Church-Establishment, and not 
 finding it convenient to come to London this year, I will trouble 
 Your Grace with a short letter on the occasion. 
 
 " Long before I was a bishop I entertained a deliberate opinion 
 that some things respecting the discipline, some respecting the 
 doctrine, and some respecting the distribution of the revenues of 
 the church, might be innovated with great advantage to religion, 
 and with perfect safety to the establishment. I gave to the public 
 
489 
 
 my sentiments, on the last of these points, in a letter to the then 
 Archbishop of Canterbury ; and I have not, during the twenty-six 
 years that I have been Bishop of LandafF, seen any reason to alter 
 my opinion. 
 
 " I know that I have been represented as a dangerous man, and 
 eager for reform. This neither is, or ever was, any part of my 
 character. I scorn, indeed, to be held back by any prospects of 
 interest from declaring my real sentiments on any subject of policy 
 or religion ; but I am satisfied with having done that, and willingly 
 concede to others that liberty of judging which I claim for myself. 
 Having said this, I trust Your Grace will pardon my stating my 
 opinion on the present subject, though it should chance to be 
 different from your own. , 
 
 " I am not then of opinion that it is either for the honour of the 
 bench, or for the stability of the Church-Establishment, or the 
 good of the state, that the present bill, respecting stipendiary 
 curates, should pass into a law. I will not enlarge on any of these 
 heads, but mention what I think to be a great error, both in the 
 new Residence-Bill of Sir William Scott, and in this Bill. 
 
 " The two gentlemen who planned these bills have, I am per- 
 suaded, the best intentions towards the church, but they have 
 erred in having had recourse to palliatives in a case where a radical 
 cure was required. 
 
 " The logical maxim, sublata causa tollitur effectus, is applicable 
 to the non-residence of the clergy and to the poverty of stipendiary 
 curates. The principal cause of both these evils is the allowing 
 the clergy to hold more livings than one. Take away pluralities, 
 and there will be few stipendiary curates. Build at the public 
 expense parsonage-houses, and there will be few non-resident 
 
 3 it 
 
490 
 
 clergy. If it be not thought right to build parsonage-houses at 
 the public expense, let the livings, where houses are wanted, 
 be sequestered, both in this country and in Ireland, as they become 
 vacant ; and with the aid of Queen Anne's bounty, in addition to 
 the monies arising from the sequestrations, let parsonage-houses 
 be provided at the expense of the church itself. 
 
 " Pluralities are become necessary on account of the poverty of 
 the greatest part of the parish-churches and chapels. This poverty 
 arises from the appropriations and the impropriations which were 
 improvidently granted at the Reformation, but which ought not now 
 to be disturbed. What is wanted to make up the small benefices 
 to at least 100/. a-year, must be supplied from the public grants. 
 
 " A petition was exhibited to the parliament and Cromwell for 
 the taking away of tithes, in 1652: in the answer to this petition 
 it is said, — There are in England and Wales 9725 parishes, and 
 though one-half of those rectories were not appropriated as to the 
 number, yet certainly as to the yearly values, the ministers, at this 
 day, have not one-half of the profits of corn and grain. I could 
 produce many other proofs of the inadequacy of the maintenance 
 provided for the parochial clergy, and show how much the ancient 
 provision for them is now consumed in other ways, and as matters 
 stand, not improperly consumed ; and I cannot help thinking that 
 the provision of two thousand a-year, which I possess from the 
 church, is a case full in point. 
 
 " It arises from the tithes of two churches in Shropshire, of 
 two in Leicestershire, of two in my diocese, of three in Hunting- 
 donshire, on all of which I have resident curates ; of five more as 
 appropriations to the bishopric, and of two more in the Isle of 
 Ely, as appropriations to the archdeaconry of Ely. I mention not 
 
491 
 
 this as a matter of complaint, but as a proof how little palliations 
 will avail in amending the situation of the stipendiary curates. 
 
 " I have the honour, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I wrote also, June 21st, to Mr. Percival, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, who had introduced this Bill, the following note : — 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " The Stipendiary Curates' Bill is so far advanced that any ob- 
 servations which I could make respecting it could not now be of 
 use; and I know the value of your time too well to think of wasting 
 it in unserviceable discussions. 
 
 " You will pardon me, I hope, for saying that I do not expect 
 much beneficial consequence from what you have taken the most 
 laudable pains in bringing forward ; because the number of livings 
 above 400/. a-year, compared with the number below that sum, is 
 very small indeed; and the number of non-resident clergy on such 
 livings is still less than the number of the livings themselves. 
 
 " To Sir William Scott and yourself the country is much in- 
 debted for your endeavours to remedy a great evil ; but the evil I 
 think is too great to be remedied by palliatives. In an appendix 
 to my volumes of Sermons and Tracts, published byCadell in 1788, 
 there are some observations on this subject. 
 
 " I am ashamed to make this reference ; but a sincere wish to 
 give, in any shape, my poor assistance towards effecting an eccle- 
 siastical reform, must be my excuse. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 3r2 
 
492 
 
 This Bill was passed by the House of Commons; but on the 
 third reading (June 30.) was rejected, without a division, by the 
 Lords, notwithstanding its being then supported by the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Graf ton, June 28. 1808, on his having sent 
 
 me a very valuable Booh 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " I sit down to thank Your Grace for your kind attention in 
 sending me The improved Version of the New Testament. I have 
 looked into it with care, and have met with in it what I expected, 
 and what, indeed, must ever accompany all translations, many 
 places in which the sense of the original author still remains am- 
 biguous. Murphy's translation of Tacitus differs from Gordon's, 
 though both these writers were free from the bias of pre-conceived 
 opinions, which must almost necessarily occupy the minds of 
 translators of the New Testament. 
 
 " I will give only one instance of this in the present work, 
 though, strictly speaking, it is an instance rather of what some will 
 think a wrong interpretation than of a wrong translation : it 
 occurs in Matt. xi. 27. : — " No one knoweth the Son but the 
 Father, neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son." Wake- 
 field's translation is : — " No one can acknowledge the Son but 
 the Father, &c. ;" for which the text gives no authority. This 
 translation is rejected both by Newcome and by the authors of the 
 improved version ; but these latter have added an explanatory 
 note. The meaning is, that no one but the Father can fully 
 comprehend the subject and extent of the Son's commission ; 
 
49B 
 
 and no one but the Son comprehends the counsels and designs of 
 the Father, with respect to the instruction and reformation of 
 mankind. I do not take upon me to say, that this is a wrong 
 interpretation of our Saviour's meaning, when he spoke the 
 words, " No one knoweth, &c." Nor if any one should, instead 
 of the instruction and reformation, have said the salvation and 
 redemption of mankind, durst I have said that his interpretation 
 had been erroneous. The parallel place in Luke, x. 22. stands 
 thus : — " No one knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who 
 the Father is but the Son." If any one should contend from these 
 expressions, that no one but the Father and the Son is capable 
 of comprehending the nature of the sonship of the one, or the 
 paternity of the other, I durst not have said that his inter- 
 pretation of Luke had been a bad one. 
 
 " The fact is, that I was early in life accustomed to mathe- 
 matical discussion, and the certainty attending it ; and not meet- 
 ing with that certainty in the science of metaphysics, of natural 
 or revealed religion, I have an habitual tendency to an hesitation 
 of judgment, rather than to a peremptory decision on many 
 points. But I pray God to pardon this my wavering in less 
 essential points, since it proceeds not from any immoral propen- 
 sity, and is attended by a firm belief of a resurrection and a 
 future state of retribution, as described in the Gospels. 
 
 " I give due praise to the Committee for their introduction to 
 this work ; it is written with the sincerity becoming a Christian, 
 and with the erudition becoming a translator and a commentator 
 on so important a book. I am happy to find that the name of 
 the Duke of Grafton is mentioned as it ought to be in the intro- 
 
494 
 
 duction : His Grace's distinguished patronage of Griesbach is 
 properly estimated by the present age, and it will still be more 
 highly estimated by posterity. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to Dr. Falconer, on his sending me his Observations on the 
 Words which the Centurion uttered at the Crucifixion of Christ. 
 
 " My dear Sir, July 12. 1808. 
 
 " I thank you for your criticism, which is ingenious, and to 
 many will be convincing. The Roman soldiers who attended the 
 crucifixion had probably heard how tauntingly the great men of 
 the Jews had mocked Jesus as he hung upon the cross, for having 
 said 0g8 eipt vio; ; and being frightened by the earthquake, they 
 boldly, and perhaps in the hearing of the Jews, contradicted their 
 accusation of Jesus being a blasphemer, and declared that ctkyQuq 
 0s* viog y\v ifjoc, hoping it may be to atone, as it were, by this 
 declaration, for the insults which they themselves had offered 
 him. 
 
 " Whether the Roman Centurion and the Jewish High Priest 
 annexed the same ideas to the words 0s* vto; must ever remain, 
 I think, amongst the harmless dubia Evangelica which occur in 
 many parts of Scripture. Pilate indeed knew, that by mo; Gea 
 the Jews understood Xgi<f]og, and the Roman Centurion may have 
 known as much of Jewish theology as Pilate did ; for all Roman 
 centurions were not so ignorant and incurious as Persius describes 
 them generally to have been, when he says : — 
 
495 
 
 " Hie aliquis de gente hircosa centurionum 
 Dicat : quod satis est sapio raihi ; non ego euro 
 Esse quod Arcesilas aerumnosique Solones." 
 
 " Yet I am not disposed to give as much weight to the testi- 
 mony of the Centurion as Dr. Sherlock seems to have done. 
 
 " As to the word^waiog-, it is applied to Joseph ; $Muioq uv to Zacha- 
 rius and his wife, and to Simeon ; to Noah, tttd^uvog liy.ot.ioq reXetog 
 uv 9 to so many persons, and on such a variety of occasions, that I 
 cannot help thinking, that the Centurion, when he applied it to 
 Jesus, had no particular reference to his divine character or nature, 
 but merely to his being a good man, in testimony of whose good- 
 ness God had so miraculously interfered. 
 
 " To a mind less liberal than your own, I should not have ven- 
 tured to write so freely ; but I know you expect this from me, 
 who am with sincerity and real respect, 
 
 " Your obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The Duke of Grafton, to whom I had signified my intention 
 of not going to London, on account of the expense attending the 
 journey, kindly pressed me, on private and public grounds, to 
 reconsider the matter. In my letter to him, December 14th, 1808, 
 after thanking him for his attention, I added : — "I allow my 
 eldest son 700/. a-year, and I intend to make up to him the differ- 
 ence between his half-pay and his full pay. I trouble you with 
 these particulars, because I am anxious that you should approve 
 my conduct ; and I have no doubt of your thinking I discharge 
 a father's duty better, in supporting the spirits of a son depressed 
 
496 
 
 by declining health, and in administering to the comforts of him- 
 self and his family, by supplying to him the loss of income which 
 his misfortune has occasioned, than by indulging myself in a 
 journey to London. Notwithstanding this, I feel and adopt the 
 sentiment of Cicero, in preferring the love of my country to every 
 other connection ; and if there was any probability of my advice 
 being attended to in this crisis of our destiny, I would take my 
 seat ; but I five years ago publicly declared my opinion on four 
 measures essential, as appeared to me, to our safety as a nation. 
 Had any one of these measures been taken up by any adminis- 
 tration, we should have been in a less perilous situation than we 
 now are ; had all of them been brought forward, we might have 
 withstood the united attack of all Europe. We should now have 
 had an addition to the regular army of 250,000 young men, in- 
 structed in the use of arms ; our debt would have been discharged; 
 the Catholics in Ireland would have been cordially attached to us ; 
 the Dissenters in England would have had no just cause of com- 
 plaint. It is the part of an honest man, who meddles at all in 
 public concerns, openly and fearlessly to deliver his sentiments ; 
 but he becomes a self-sufficient man, if he does not patiently 
 acquiesce in their being overlooked." 
 
 Letter to Lord Hawkesbury, December 18. 1808. 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " Though I have for several years lived a retired rather than a 
 
 public life, indifferent to the coalitions of parties, rather than 
 
 attached to any of them, yet have I never been indifferent to the 
 
 public welfare, or inattentive (as occasion offered) to the means 
 
497 
 
 of promoting it either in church or state. An occasion now 
 prompts me to trouble Your Lordship with a suggestion or two 
 on a weighty subject. 
 
 " The account of the number of livings in England and Wales, 
 not exceeding in value 150/. a-year, which, at Your Lordship's 
 instance, the Bishops are now preparing to lay before the Gover- 
 nors of Queen Anne's Bounty, has excited a general expectation, 
 that it is in the contemplation of Government to augment such 
 livings to that sum. If this expectation is well-founded, I submit 
 to your consideration the utility and the practicability of making 
 such augmentation instrumental in improving, what some have 
 loudly called for, — the education of the children of the lower 
 classes. 
 
 " My opinion, indeed, on that subject, does not extend so far 
 as that of some other men, perhaps not so far as that of Your 
 Lordship. I venture, however, to give it, as extracted from a 
 letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, when about this time last 
 year I sent him an account of the schools in my diocese : — 'I 
 think that the education of the children of the poor is a matter, 
 well worthy the consideration of Government, inasmuch as a 
 proper education of the lower classes is amongst them, as amongst 
 all others, the parent of piety and of good morals. But I think, 
 at the same time, that an education suited to the circumstances 
 and situation of the poor, is in very few, if in any parts of Great 
 Britain, so neglected, as to require the interposition of the legis- 
 lature to compel a general amendment of it. It is computed, 
 that there are nine births to two marriages. Now, there are 
 very few parents, comparatively speaking, among the peasants or 
 manufacturers of the country, who cannot spare from their earn- 
 
 3s 
 
498 
 
 ings three-pence a week for two or three years, for each of their 
 four or five children, for their education ; and when they 'cannot 
 afford even such a pittance for such a purpose, I think so well of 
 mankind as to believe, that it would be voluntarily supplied to 
 therh by their richer neighbours, if from their sobriety and indus- 
 try they appeared to be deserving objects of such benevolence and 
 beneficence.' 
 
 " If the small livings were augmented to 100/. a-year, and no 
 man in future (for the arrangement should have no retrospect, so 
 as to injure any present possessor,) were permitted to hold two of 
 them, and an additional 50/. a-year were given as a stipend to 
 such incumbents as would teach schools, in such parishes and 
 chapelries where schools were wanted, I think few of them would 
 decline availing themselves of an opportunity of eking out a 
 scanty income by an occupation so correspondent to their pas- 
 toral function ; for surely there can be no impropriety in the 
 minister of a parish becoming the schoolmaster of his parishioners. 
 But if something of this kind should be thought of, would it not 
 admit a deliberation, whether the teaching should be above three 
 days in the week, the other three being left unengaged, not only 
 for the convenience of the clergyman, but for that of the parents 
 of the children, who often want their assistance, small as the 
 assistance of young children may seem, in their domestic con- 
 cerns, and agricultural operations ? 
 
 " If it is intended to augment all the small livings to 150/. 
 a-year, would it not be proper to begin with the small livings in the 
 patronage of the crown ? I consider this part (about one-tenth 
 part of the whole) as a kind of public patronage not liable to be 
 either bought or sold, and open to the expectation of every man 
 
499 
 
 brought up to the Church. Now as every man must contribute in 
 one way or other to the public purse, from which the augmen- 
 tation of small livings (if any is made) must be derived, it 
 seems to me reasonable that the augmentation of the crown 
 livings should be first thought of. 
 
 " Lay corporations, and lay individuals, possess the patronage 
 of above seven parts out of ten of all the livings in England and 
 Wales. I do not mention this proportion as mathematically ac- 
 curate, but it is sufficiently so for the inference which I want to 
 draw from the mention of it. Is there either injustice or hard- 
 ship in expecting that these lay patrons should lighten the public 
 burden by their contributions to the augmentation of their own 
 small livings? Some think that impropriators should be com- 
 pelled to make this contribution ; and the arguments which may 
 be used on this point are far from being without weight ; but I 
 do not like reviving the obsolete claims, or prosecuting the 
 doubtful rights of the Church ; but surely they may be induced to 
 come forward, from a sense of their own interest, as well as from 
 a sense of piety. The value of the lay patronage will, in some 
 thousands of instances, be doubled by the augmentation, and in- 
 dividuals may, by a sale of their patronage, immediately convert 
 the public munificence to their own private profit. 
 
 " I can form but an uncertain conjecture of the sum which will 
 be wanted for the augmentation of the small livings to 150/. 
 a-year; but whether it may exceed or fall short of half a million, it 
 will be so large a sum, that if it is given under the restriction of 
 being laid out in the purchase of land, a reasonable apprehension 
 may be raised, of too much land coming into mortmain. 
 
 " I heartily beg Your Lordship's pardon for this long intrusion 
 
 3s 2 
 
500 
 
 on your time : I have made it with reluctance, for I have no wish 
 to pry into the intentions of Government, no curiosity to gratify ; 
 and no one can be more sensible than I am, how incessantly your 
 time is and must be occupied in matters of state peculiarly critical 
 and important to the safety of the country. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 In May, 1809, I received a letter from Mr. Davies, to whom I 
 had given the living of Bishopston, informing me, that he had 
 dedicated his work, " The Mythology and Rites of the British 
 Druids," to me. 
 
 I sent the following answer : — 
 
 " Rev. Sir, Calgarth Park, May 24. 1809. 
 
 " I accept with pleasure the dedication, but I have not the 
 
 vanity to believe that the public will concur with you in the 
 
 encomium with which you have been pleased to adorn my 
 
 character. 
 
 % I received your book last night, and am persuaded that I 
 shall peruse it with singular satisfaction ; for though I make no 
 pretensions to much knowledge in the subjects of which it treats, 
 yet I have always been interested in Bochart's Phaleg, in Huett's 
 Demonstration, in Bryant's Mythology, and in such other books 
 as tend to establish a common origin of mankind, and the fact of an 
 universal deluge. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
501 
 
 Having been applied to for my subscription to the erection 
 of a statue to the memory of Mr. Locke, which had been pro- 
 jected by certain respectable individuals in London, I sent to 
 Mr. Harvey Mortimer, at the Literary Fund, Gerard Street, the 
 subjoined letter : — 
 
 « Sir, 
 " Mr. Locke has, by his works, erected to himself a monument 
 which will remain, whilst and wherever there shall remain a vene- 
 ration for revealed religion, or an attachment to the civil liberty 
 of mankind. Notwithstanding this cere perennius monumentum, I 
 will contribute my mite of five guineas, towards the erecting one 
 of more perishable materials ; because it will convey an inti- 
 mation to some amongst ourselves, and afford a proof to surround- 
 ing states, that amid all their corruptions true patriotism and 
 rational religion are still held in the highest estimation by the 
 liberal and enlightened inhabitants of Great Britain. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Before the end of the session (1809), Parliament voted 100,000/. 
 a-year in aid of Queen Anne's Bounty, and in June I concluded 
 my Charge to my clergy, in which I had stated what I had 
 written to Lord Hawkesbury, in the following manner: — "I 
 could not repress my anxiety to show you, that though I have 
 never had any place of residence amongst you, nor a church- 
 income sufficient to enable me to attend every year my parlia- 
 mentary duty, yet have I never slept on my post, or neglected 
 any foir opportunity of promoting that change in the church-esta- 
 
502 
 
 blishment which I had not recommended many years ago, without 
 due consideration, and which the legislature, I hope, will now 
 finally accomplish. It is a change essential to the comfort and 
 respectability of the greatest part of the parochial clergy, and their 
 respectability is essential to the best interests of religion ; and he 
 must be a narrow-minded, short-sighted statesman, who does not 
 see and acknowledge that national morality, proceeding from reli- 
 gious principle, is essential to the peace, the prosperity, the per- 
 manency of this and of every other Christian country. A good 
 beginning of this matter has been lately made in both Houses of 
 Pariiament ; but if the great expense of the unfortunate war in 
 which we have been so long engaged should hinder the legisla- 
 ture from at present fully, or in the best manner, accomplishing 
 the object under consideration, it will be our duty to rest con- 
 tented till a more favourable opportunity presents itself; and to 
 rely with confidence on this persuasion, that there is not, per- 
 haps, a single individual in either House of Parliament who is 
 not penetrated with a sincere concern for the hardships of the 
 inferior clergy, and heartily disposed to relieve them." 
 
 In the extensive visitation of my diocese, which I made this 
 year, I went over the mountains from Neath to a place where no 
 bishop had ever held a confirmation before, Merthyr Tidvil. In 
 my time, this place had become, from a small village, a great town, 
 containing ten or twelve thousand inhabitants, occupied in the 
 fabrication of iron ; and I thought it my duty not only to go to 
 confirm the young people there, but to preach to those who were 
 grown up, that I might, if possible, leave among the inhabitants 
 a good impression in favour of the teachers in the Established 
 
503 
 
 Church, when compared with those of many of the sectarian con- 
 gregations into which the people were divided. I was, whilst 
 there, most hospitably entertained and lodged by Mr. Crawshay, 
 one of the most intelligent and opulent iron-masters in Europe. 
 I was delighted with the knowledge I acquired from his conver- 
 sation, and, in my turn, took the liberty to suggest to him some 
 hints for further improvement in metallurgy, &c. This gentle- 
 man, in common with many others, not only of the clergy but of 
 the laity in my diocese, expressed his astonishment at the manner 
 in which I had been neglected by the court; and making an 
 apology for his frankness, told me, with evident concern, that 
 he was sure I should never be translated. With equal frankness 
 I assured him, that I would never ask for a translation ; desiring, 
 at the same time, to know the ground of his opinion, he said, 
 that he had been informed by the best authority (which he men- 
 tioned), that I was considered by the court as a man of far too 
 independent a spirit for them, and had long been put down in the 
 Queen's Black Book. A few days before this, another gentleman 
 who had dined with me at the visitation at Caerleon, acquainted 
 me, that the King had once made enquiry of him (at the levee) 
 concerning me, and had concluded his inquisition with declaring, 
 that I was an impracticable man. — Impracticable! ! ! I acknow- 
 ledge the justness of the imputation. I have never surrendered 
 the principles of government which I imbibed in my youth from 
 the works of Mr. Locke, though practised upon by the courtly 
 artifices under which the honour of political consistency usually 
 succumbs ; though assailed by the repeated flattery, and dis- 
 honoured, as some may think, by the uniform neglect of the 
 King. I have, through the whole course of my life, never scrupled 
 
504 
 
 avowing my Whig principles and parliamentary independence; and 
 as it is not unnatural for kings to suspect men of meaning more 
 than they are willing to avow, I was not surprised or chagrined 
 by His Majesty's neglect of me. Men in his high situation are 
 peculiarly liable to form wrong judgments of persons in every 
 situation, and more especially of the characters of those whom 
 they rarely meet with in the circles composing their courts ; but 
 I can with justice, in 1812, say to the King, what I said to 
 Mr. Cumberland in an unpublished letter, in 1780, before I was a 
 bishop : — " You mistake me, Sir, if you suppose that I have the 
 most distant desire to make the democratical scale of the consti- 
 tution outweigh the monarchical. Not one jot of the legal pre- 
 rogative of the crown do I wish to see abolished, not one tittle of 
 the King's influence in the state to be destroyed, except so far as 
 it is extended over the representatives of the people." I pray 
 God that neither of Their Majesties, or any of their posterity, may 
 ever know by experience, that those whom the adulators and in- 
 triguers of courts attempt to stigmatise as independent and 
 impracticable men, are the best supporters of a constitutional 
 throne, though the avowed enemies of an unconstitutional influ- 
 ence of the executive over the legislative part of the constitution. 
 
 Just before I left the diocese, my host at Merthyr came to bid 
 me farewell at LandafT; and when we parted he took me by the 
 hand, and said, " If ever you have occasion for five or ten thou- 
 sand pounds, it shall be wholly at your service." I was infinitely 
 surprised at this generous offer, and, returning my most grateful 
 thanks, assured him that I neither was then nor had any appre- 
 hension of ever being in want of such a sum. Those who in 
 
505 
 
 reading this anecdote shall be disposed to attribute Mr. Craw- 
 shay's offer to an ostentatious display of his wealth will, in my 
 judgment, do him great wrong : I am convinced, from the abrupt 
 earnestness of his manner, and the eager aspect of his eye, that 
 there was honour and sincerity in what he said to me. As to 
 myself, I was more delighted with this substantial proof of the 
 disinterested approbation of an iron-master, than I should have 
 been with the possession of an archbishoprick acquired by a selfish 
 subserviency to the despotic principles of a court. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Hayley, on his sending me the Life of Romney, and 
 informing me of his being married, 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 " I certainly shall peruse with great interest your Life of 
 Romney. I had but little acquaintance with him as a man, 
 and there were some traits in his character which had been re- 
 ported to me, that deterred me from cultivating an intimacy 
 with him. But these matters may probably have been mis- 
 represented to me, and I have always been anxious rather to 
 cover the imbecillities of human nature than to expose them, 
 being conscious of many of my own, which rather shun than 
 challenge the severity of public animadversion. I am rela- 
 tively, but not absolutely, idle ; for I am writing anecdotes of my 
 own life, which I am enabled to do by having, from an early age, 
 been accustomed to keep little memoranda of what I did and 
 thought at the time. These disjecta membra will not, when put 
 together, exhibit a poet, but a mere man of prose, whom the 
 court, after his death, will be ashamed to look at, for their unpa- 
 
 3t 
 
506 
 
 ralleled neglect of him. My larches thrive beyond my hopes ; and 
 the prospect of their rendering my family as independent in 
 fortune as their father has always been in spirit, lifts me far above 
 any repining at the loss of such honours and emoluments as are 
 in the power of courts to bestow. 
 
 " My father was a much older man than you are when I was 
 born : not knowing the age of Mrs. Hayley, I know not whether 
 to expect the blessed fruits of connubial life : but if your viridis 
 senectus throws out a sucker, that it may resemble in quality and 
 durability its parent stock, is the hearty wish of 
 
 " Your affectionate 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to Lord Carysfort, 29th September, 1809. 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 " I direct this to Elton, not knowing where you are ; and I 
 am desirous of understanding a little how matters are going on : 
 I have no private reason for making the enquiry, but I tremble 
 for the country, and anxiously wish for a change of measures. 
 
 " We are expending the last guinea of the country, and by 
 the ravages of war and disease wasting our population to no pur- 
 pose whatever. We are obstinately prosecuting the chimerical 
 project of restoring the balance of power in Europe, when every 
 child in politics sees that it is overthrown by the genius of Buo- 
 naparte. We are madly aiming at the glory of restoring the 
 equilibrium, without adverting to the probability that our pride 
 will be our ruin. 
 
 " Many will applaud the ministers for their activity in making 
 
507 
 
 a common cause with Spain. Eventus rerum stultorum est ?nagister. 
 I do not judge from the event ; but from the first I thought that 
 we had not sufficient assurance of the Spaniards being so united 
 among themselves as to wish for our assistance. We mistook 
 the solicitation of a few for the call of the whole ; without consi- 
 dering that an insurrection of the common people, unsupported 
 by persons of rank and wealth, seldom ends successfully. 
 
 " The expedition to Flushing in the way to Antwerp may, for 
 ought I know, have been well devised ; for the destruction of the 
 navy of France is a matter worthy of ministerial attention : why 
 it did not succeed we may know, perhaps, in the next session of 
 Parliament. I pretend not to judge of military arrangements, 
 but I do pretend to judge of the conduct of Government towards 
 America. What ! when we have not an ally, not a friend who 
 wishes us well in all Europe, are we so dementated, so fitted for 
 destruction, as to make an enemy of America also ? Supposing 
 (but not admitting) Mr. Erskine to have exceeded his commission, 
 what an opportunity would that circumstance have afforded us of 
 saying to America, — We wish to live on terms of amity with you, 
 and we will give you this pledge of our sincerity, we will ratify 
 the stipulations made by Mr. Erskine, notwithstanding his having, 
 in some particulars, exceeded his instructions. We are united by 
 nature, let us be united by good-will. America will, for the 
 mutual benefit of the two nations, receive the products of our 
 industry, and Great Britain will, for the mutual benefit of the 
 two nations, protect the commerce of America against the 
 aggression of France and of the world. 
 
 " When, my dear Lord, will the Christian world be at peace ? 
 I ever hated war, and the occasions of it, — the ambition of princes 
 
 3 t 2 
 
508 
 
 and the avarice of commerce ; and, as I grow older, and approach 
 nearer to the period when better principles than avarice or am- 
 bition must be every individual's passport to heaven, my aversion 
 for them is increased. 
 
 " It is reported of one of the Athenian orators, (of Isocrates, I 
 believe,) that, though he passionately loved his country, he 
 disliked public speaking, and communicated to his compatriots 
 his advice in speeches composed with care by himself, but recited 
 by others. I so far resemble this orator that I passionately love 
 my country, and have communicated to my countrymen, six 
 years ago, in an intended speech, my advice on four points : — 
 
 " The annually instructing all the youth of the country in the 
 use of arms. The payment of the national debt. The making a 
 provision for the support of the Catholic clergy in Ireland. The 
 repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in England, 
 
 " I have a perfect knowledge of the objections which have 
 been made to some of these measures, both by His Majesty and 
 by his ministers, some of whom I consider as wise and some as 
 foolish statesmen; (for though the King can give office, he cannot 
 give that wisdom and experience which constitute a great states- 
 man ;) but this knowledge has in no point changed my senti- 
 ments as to the expediency, I will say, as to the necessity, of 
 some such measures for our safety as an independent state. 
 
 " Let us make peace with Buonaparte : his own interest will 
 secure its permanency ; for he wants nothing but peace with us 
 to establish his usurpation. Let the maritime powers of the 
 Continent have no just cause of complaint against us for the use 
 we make of our naval strength ; and diminish that of our standing 
 army, by determining to enter no more into continental alliances 
 
509 
 
 with powers who secretly hate us, and will, in the hour of danger, 
 desert us. Let us depend upon ourselves, trusting, under God, to 
 the magnitude of our trading capital, to the skill and enterprise 
 of our merchants and manufacturers, to the ingenuity of our 
 mechanists, to the uprightness of our dealings with foreign nations ; 
 and our commerce will, I am confident, not only not be lessened 
 but augmented. In addition to these measures, let us strenuously 
 set about improving the lands of the united empire, by judiciously 
 expending in that undertaking a sum equal only to that, worse 
 than wasted annually in one year's warfare, and we shall soon be 
 able to raise within ourselves food sufficient for the sustenance 
 of thirty millions of people ; and with such a population we shall 
 be able to defend ourselves in our insular situations against the 
 combined attacks of all Europe. 
 
 " There have been and there are men in the country with minds 
 enlarged and enlightened enough to entertain and accomplish 
 such great purposes as I have here hinted at ; but unfortunately 
 such men are not sought for or confided in. 
 
 "1 have long ago said that the Continent would soon be divided 
 into three powers, France, Austria, and Russia ; but I had not 
 sagacity to foresee that Austria would be so speedily extinguished 
 as she seems to be. France and Russia will parcel between them 
 the Ottoman power : they will soon quarrel about the possession 
 of the spoil, and give opportunity thereby to the minor conquered 
 states to regain a portion of their power and independency. 
 
 " My eldest son is now with me. I see no probability of his 
 regaining such firm health as a military life requires, and have 
 advised him to retire from the profession. My other son is also 
 with me, and I mean to keep him at home till I have made him a 
 
510 
 
 good divine ; for I wish him, in going into the church, to be an 
 ornament to it: by that expression I do not mean a pedantic 
 theologue who shall think it for his honour to defend every im- 
 perfection of the Establishment, and much less a furious reformer 
 who shall think that every thing is wrong merely because it is 
 established, but a calm and intelligent reasoner, who distrusts the 
 extent of his own talents in all speculative points, and conscien- 
 tiously endeavours to practise the agenda of Christianity, without 
 wishing to compel others to what he esteems a proper profession 
 of its credenda. 
 
 " I hope to receive from you a good account of yourself and 
 your family, being ever, with sincere regard, 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to Lord Carysfort, 21th October, 1809. 
 
 " This, I trust, will find you all safely arrived at Elton. I am 
 so pleased with the good sense and good language expressed in 
 your letter from Arklow, that I cannot forbear returning you my 
 thanks for it, especially as you have intimated a wish to know my 
 reasons for thinking as I do on a particular point. You were 
 formerly my pupil : in political science, I am willing to believe 
 that you are now become my master ; but as long as I live, I 
 shall have a satisfaction in communicating to you my sentiments 
 on every subject, with the same freedom and sincerity which I 
 used towards you above forty years ago. 
 
 " I am not wholly ignorant of what are called Maritime Rights 
 of War ; but I have long been of opinion, that all wars, maritime 
 
511 
 
 and continental, have assumed rights which cannot be justified by 
 the law of nature. Every conqueror, from Brennus to Buona- 
 parte, silences the complaints of his enemy, and attempts to still 
 the upbraiding of his own conscience, with a code of rights which 
 admits of no contradiction, — Jus in armis fero. 
 
 " 1 have always accustomed myself to consider the law of 
 nations, regulating the conduct of independent states towards 
 each other, to be founded on the same principles [mutatis ?nutandis) 
 on which the law of nature, regulating the conduct of independent 
 individuals in a state of nature, is founded. 
 
 " Now let A, B, C, denote three men in a state of nature, of 
 whom A has more corn, B more yams, C more fish than he wants. 
 These three men, for their mutual advantage, barter their several 
 commodities among themselves, and live peaceably (for a state of 
 nature is a state of peace) and independently together. On some 
 occasion or other, A and B become enemies, whilst C observes 
 strict neutrality, and offers his fish to each of them. No, says A, 
 you shall not barter your fish with B. No, says B, you shall not 
 barter your fish with A. Thus, both A and B injure C, who, 
 having taken no part, has done no act of injustice, either as a 
 principal or as accessory, to either of them. 
 
 " The application of this reasoning to belligerent and neutral 
 states is obvious ; and I have some confidence in the justness of 
 it, from observing, that Gronovius, in his notes on Grotius, 
 admits, or rather makes Grotius admit, even a greater latitude of 
 commerce than is here contended for ; in explaining Grotius's 
 meaning of the two terms, commerciorum libertatem, Gronovius 
 says, in his note : — Jure gentium licere unicuique merces saas 
 portare ac vender e, ad quos libuerit. But if by jura gentium, we 
 
512 
 
 understand rights not derived from the principles of the law of 
 nature, but founded on the usages of ancient nations, — on the 
 conventions (seldom voluntary on both sides) of modern states, — 
 on the decisions of civilians, — or on the still more exceptionable 
 altercations of diplomatists, — we shall run a great risk of having no 
 law of nations at all : for admirable is the maxim, Ubi jus incer- 
 tum ibi jus nullum ; and what certainly can be expected, when 
 every nation is at liberty to change its usages, to modify its con- 
 vention, to enlarge the list of articles esteemed contraband of war, 
 till by prohibiting a commerce in corn and in Peruvian bark, it 
 suffers millions of innocent persons to perish by famine or by 
 pestilence. 
 
 " So far am I from wishing to see our naval force reduced, 
 that I wish it to become superior to the united naval force of the 
 whole world ; but at the same time I must ever wish this supe- 
 rior force to be solely employed for our self-defence, and not for 
 the purpose of enriching ourselves, by shackling the commerce, 
 and damping the industry of other nations. 
 
 " In my sermon before the Lords, at the end of the American 
 war, it is said : — " We can supply foreign markets with better 
 goods, at a cheaper rate, and with a longer credit, than our neigh- 
 bours can do ; and these being more just, will therefore be more 
 sure and permanent sources of profit to us, than an arbitrary and 
 precarious monopoly of the trade of half the globe." I am still 
 of opinion, that if the freedom of commerce were established by 
 every nation in the world, the genius, the skill, the industry, 
 the integrity, the capital of our merchants and manufacturers, 
 would secure to Great Britain and Ireland as much commerce as 
 could be carried on by our population. 
 
513 
 
 " But whether we could with safety open our ports to the com- 
 merce of other nations, whilst they kept theirs shut against us, is 
 a question on which I have not thought sufficiently to give an opi- 
 nion ; but were I from my present view of the subject compelled 
 to decide, I should say, No. 
 
 " The jubilee business has gone off in this part of the country 
 with no great eclat. The people are disposed to think well, and 
 to speak well of the King personally ; but they lament the loss of 
 America, the enormously increased weight of taxation, and the 
 inroads made on the constitution by his ministers. For my own 
 part, I will never suffer the neglect with which I have been 
 insulted, to shake for a moment, in any one particular, my alle- 
 giance to His Majesty, or my veneration for the constitution of 
 the country, as settled by the Revolution. 
 
 " I have had a slight stroke of paralysis about a month ago, 
 but am quite recovered. 
 
 " May every good attend you and yours in this world and the 
 next, is the hearty prayer of 
 
 " Your's affectionately, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. Hardinge having informed me that he had stimulated 
 Mr. Davies (author of Celtic Researches, &c.) to publish a few 
 pages on Prophecy, and requested that I would permit him to 
 State his opinion in the form of a letter to me, I sent him the 
 following answer : — 
 
 3u 
 
514 
 
 " My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, Nov. 26th, 1809. 
 
 " I am recovering from a slight paralytic stroke, which (though 
 it has not deprived me of any intellectual faculty) has, together 
 with an advanced age, rendered me more averse than I used to 
 be to difficult investigation of any kind ; and no subject requires 
 greater intellectual energy than the elucidation of prophecy. I 
 shall not, in perusing Mr. Davies's composition, do justice to it ; 
 nor have I it in my power to reward his literary exertions as they 
 deserve. I wish him a better patron, and he merits the best. 
 But if these considerations will not change his purpose or your 
 wishes, that he should address his letter to me, I consent at once 
 to a measure which cannot fail of being honourable to me, how 
 useless soever it may be to himself. If you will turn to the con- 
 tents of the fourth volume of my Collection of Theological Tracts, 
 you will perceive on what a boisterous sea of controversy you 
 have stimulated your friend to launch his bark. I have no doubt 
 that he will steer it with skill and caution to what all honest men 
 aim at — the port of truth. 
 
 " I am, &c 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 About this time, the Bishop of Durham gave to the clergy of 
 the diocese of Landaff 100/. a-year ; and I find that I sent him 
 the following note, which I will insert here, that so great a bene- 
 faction may never be forgotten : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 " I yesterday received the extract from the deed of trust, and 
 shall order it to be inserted in the book which I have prepared for 
 
515 
 
 the purpose of annually registering an account of the disposal of 
 your donation. 
 
 " The slight paralytic stroke which I had as I was riding in 
 October last, has not yet returned ; nor has it left me much cause 
 either in body or in intellect to be alarmed at having had it. 
 Had I been in London this winter, I flatter myself that I should 
 have had the pleasure of concurring with you in parliament ; for 
 though I am not afraid of Popery, I am afraid of Pope Buonaparte, 
 and can never consent that the Catholic bishops, when maintained 
 by the state, (as I wish them to be,) should either be recom- 
 mended, nominated, or confirmed, by any foreign power. I am 
 with constant and sincere esteem, 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 To Sir John Sinclair, on his having sent for my Perusal and Correc- 
 tion the First Chapter of his Husbandry of Scotland, 
 
 " My dear Sir John, Calgarth Park, 26th Jan. 1810. 
 
 " In a book entitled ' Practical Tracts on Agriculture and Gar- 
 dening,' there is a catalogue of above seven hundred English 
 authors who have written on husbandry and subjects relative to it, 
 from the year 1534, when Fitz-Herbert's Husbandry was first 
 published, to 1769, when the catalogue here mentioned was pub- 
 lished (1 believe) by Mr. Weston. 
 
 " Since that period, so numerous have been the publications 
 on agricultural subjects, by private persons and by public bodies, 
 not only in Great Britain, but in every country of the Continent, 
 that it may be said of agriculture, as a science, what was said of 
 
 3u2 
 
516 
 
 the Roman history as an empire, and what may be properly 
 (perhaps) said of our own, — Magnitudine labor at sua. 
 
 " The subject, however, must be still enlarged, and the publi- 
 cation of individual experiments encouraged, till agriculture, like 
 other branches of physical knowledge, shall, if possible, attain a 
 scientific form ; and abound in aphorisms, to be received by 
 practical farmers as established truths. It is not without design 
 that I have said, if possible ; because some of the main principles 
 of agriculture, such as seed, soil, manure, culture, climate, wea- 
 ther, &c, though going under the same name, are not so accu- 
 rately defined, nor so clearly understood, as to produce an iden- 
 tity of results, when similarly used. 
 
 " As contributing to this end, I have perused with attention 
 your Husbandry of Scotland, in which there are many things 
 which are new, some which were known before, and some liable 
 to contravention, or at least discussion, but nothing discreditable 
 to yourself, or unbecoming your situation as President of the 
 Board. I particularly admire the enlarged and benevolent views 
 described in your conclusion. 
 
 " The attempt which was made a few years ago for a general 
 enclosure of commons failed from a combination of prejudice and 
 ignorance ; of unwarrantable prejudice against the proposers of 
 it, and of unpardonable ignorance of the subject. I will not 
 therefore make any proposal, lest a similar fate should attend 
 mine, but I must mention that a peasant within two miles of my 
 house has lately built a cottage on a common, and walled in a small 
 portion of its ground, at an expense equal to ten times the value 
 of the fee-simple of the land. What if legal liberty was given to 
 every man in the kingdom to build a cottage and to enclose as 
 
517 
 
 far as five acres for a garden and the keeping of a cow, on any 
 common which should be set out for him, under such restrictions 
 and limitations as might be thought proper ? But enough of my 
 fancies, though it is no fancy to say, that the strength of a nation 
 depends on its population, and its population on the facility of 
 providing for a progeny. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R.LaNDAFF." 
 
 On the 28th of March, 1810, I received the following letter 
 from Mr. Harvey Mortimer, dated Literary Fund, Gerard- Street: — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " I am desired by the committee for erecting a statue to the 
 memory of Locke, to express to Your Lordship their high admi- 
 ration of, and grateful acknowledgements for, your letter, which 
 they hope Your Lordship will permit them to publish, as they are 
 satisfied it would contribute very much to the success of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 " I have the honour, &c. 
 
 " Harvey Mortimer." 
 
 Answer, 29th March, 1810. 
 
 « Sir, 
 " Allow me to request you to assure the committee, that I am 
 far from being insensible to the honour they have done me in 
 approving the letter which was hastily written, when I became a 
 
518 
 
 subscriber to the statue intended to be erected to the memory of 
 Locke. 
 
 " The principles, civil, and religious, of that great man have 
 hitherto influenced, and as long as I live they will continue to 
 influence, my public conduct ; but in the precarious state of my 
 health, and at my advanced age, I cannot consent to expose the 
 tranquillity of this retirement to be disturbed by the animadver- 
 sions which (in these irritable and distempered times) would pro- 
 bably attend the publication of my former letter. 
 
 I have no objection to my name appearing in the list of sub- 
 scribers, and instead of five I wish my subscription to be ten 
 guineas. 
 
 I am Sir, your most faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 I wrote in the same month the following note to Lord Gren- 
 ville, on having read his letter to Lord Fingall : — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " Allow me to express my high approbation of your letter 
 to Lord Fingall. I concur with you in every line of it. The 
 appointment of the Catholic bishops ought to be in the King, if 
 they are to be paid by the state ; and if they are to be paid by the 
 Catholics themselves, the appointment ought to be in them, but 
 exclusive of all foreign influence, recommendation, or confirmation. 
 If they do not accede to this, or to something similar to this, they 
 will act on a principle which I did not expect, nor can approve. 
 
 " You have in your letter clearly expressed your adherence to 
 the grounds on which you have supported the petition ; yet the 
 
519 
 
 No-Popery men begin to say that you have changed your mind, 
 because they either cannot or will not advert to the change which 
 has taken place in the question itself. I trust, however, to the 
 good sense of the Catholics, in not being hurried by the violence 
 of a few zealots, into decisions contrary to that line of conduct 
 which, with the solid wisdom of a real statesman, you have re- 
 commended to them. 
 
 " I have not taken my seat, so that I can give no proxy ; and 
 yet both on the Catholic question, and on that which Lord Sid- 
 mouth has announced his intention of introducing into parlia- 
 ment, I should not be unwilling to give my opinion. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The distinction I have here made with respect to the appoint- 
 ment of bishops being in the chief magistrate of the state, where 
 a church is established, or in those who, dissenting from the Esta- 
 blishment, pay their bishops or presbyter from their own private 
 property, appears to me to be just, though I am sensible that it 
 will not be admitted as such by all, either Catholics or Protestants. 
 
 About the 20th of April, I received from General Staveley a 
 letter from Mr. Whitcombe, accompanying a pamphlet with the 
 following title : a Considerations addressed to the Legislature, upon 
 the Expediency and Policy of authorising the Alienation of Estates 
 belonging to Corporate Bodies, particularly Bishops, and Deans, 
 and Chapters, for the Purpose of raising Money to purchase the 
 unredeemed Land-Tax ; and demonstrating the Advantages which 
 would result from such Alienation and Appropriation, both to the 
 
520 
 
 Church and State. By Samuel Whitcombe, Esq., Serjeants' Inn, 
 Temple." 
 
 I sent the subjoined answer to Mr. Whitcombe, whom I did not 
 know, either personally or by character : — 
 
 " Sir, Calgarth Park, April 29. 1810. 
 
 * I have received and perused with attention the pamphlet 
 which you have sent me through General Staveley, and beg you 
 to return to him and to accept yourself my thanks for the trouble 
 you have respectively taken. I do not see any reason for question- 
 ing the accuracy of your calculations ; and am fully persuaded 
 that your mind is too enlightened and enlarged for you to wish 
 to promote the benefit of the state at the expense of the church ; 
 yet I must own that I have never cordially approved the measure 
 of redeeming the land-tax ; nor can I now concur without some 
 reluctance in the scheme you propose of alienating the estates of 
 bishops, and deans, and chapters, (and if theirs, why not of all 
 other corporate bodies ?) for the purpose of raising money for the 
 purchasing the yet unredeemed land-tax. 
 
 " I do not, in truth, like any plan which has a tendency to 
 make the landholders responsible for the debts due to the stock- 
 holders, for such a principle enables ministers to raise money with 
 facility for carrying on of war, often unjust, (like the American 
 war,) and never necessary till negotiation, accompanied with a 
 peaceful disposition, has been tried, and tried in vain. 
 
 " You have candidly proposed and anticipated an objection 
 which, however, still sticks with me, of fee-farm rents being an 
 unimprovable property. I had rather give thirty years' purchase 
 
521 
 
 for an improvable landed property, (and what is called waste land 
 is not the only species capable of improvement,) than twenty-five 
 years' purchase for fee-farm rents. This looks like prejudice ; but 
 improvable estates may every where be met with which will pay 
 ten per cent, for the money expended in improvement, and make 
 the whole money laid out in the purchase and subsequent improve- 
 ment pay six or eight per cent. 
 
 " Above forty years ago, I was one of three appointed by the 
 University of Cambridge to go to London, and there to use our 
 best endeavours to oppose a bill, introduced by Mr. Wedderburn 
 into the House of Commons, and read a first time. The bill was 
 permissory, and not compulsory, — recommendatory, not impera- 
 tive : it allowed colleges to alienate their estates, and thereby to 
 augment their revenues. We waited upon Lord North (the 
 then minister), stating our objections, and though we were 
 calumniated at blowing the trumpet of sedition, the bill was 
 no more heard of. I was appointed by my colleagues to wait 
 upon Lord Rockingham : I did so ; and on stating to him that had 
 the estates of Trinity College been in the time of Queen Elizabeth 
 (who gave us our statutes) reduced to money-payments, the 
 present Fellows would have had no more than twenty-pence 
 a-week each for his maintenance, His Lordship gave up the plan 
 at once ; and I must be of opinion, that had not the estates of the 
 bishops, &c, which were sold during the usurpation of Cromwell, 
 been restored, the present possessors of those dignities would have 
 had only a scanty and precarious subsistence. 
 
 " In 1799, Mr. Pitt had a plan for selling the tithe of the 
 church, on the same principle (of assisting public credit) that the 
 land-tax had been offered for sale in the preceding session of Par- 
 
 3x 
 
522 
 
 liament. I was requested, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to 
 furnish Mr. Pitt with my remarks on the plan. I did as I was 
 desired to do ; and, as the plan was not a fixed money-payment, 
 but variable according to the price of grain, I gave it my appro- 
 bation, not on the principle of its aiding public credit, but on 
 that of its extinguishing animosity between the clergy and their 
 parishioners, and promoting agriculture ; at the same time I sug- 
 gested many considerations which had not been enough or at all 
 attended to, relative to the rights of the clergy on new enclosures, 
 &c. This plan came to nothing. You will permit me to remark 
 that the contingent advantages accruing to the estates of bishops, 
 and deans, and chapters, on the enclosure of waste lands, ought 
 by no means to be overlooked, should your plan be persevered in. 
 
 " You properly assume a year and an half rack-rent, being the 
 usual fine for a renewal of seven years in a lease of twenty-one : 
 less than a century ago, the usual fine was one year's rack-rent : 
 by degrees it became one year and a quarter, then one year and 
 an half; but it has not stopped there, for some colleges take two 
 years' full rack-rent for their fine, and they are justified in taking 
 that or even a much larger fine, according to the increase in the 
 quantity of money, or of the representative of money, in the 
 country. 
 
 " But I am insensibly sliding into political considerations of 
 great weight, when I only meant to give you a mark of my respect 
 in having not negligently adverted to the pamphlet which you 
 have so obligingly submitted to my perusal. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
523 
 
 Richard Reece, M. D., had dedicated to me the first edition of 
 his Medical Guide, and in April, 1810, he sent me the seventh 
 edition of it, and requested me to read a few pages (from the 15th 
 to the 19th) of the introduction to the first part, and to favour 
 him with my opinion of it. I sent him the subjoined letter, dated 
 May 12th, 1810: — 
 
 « Sir, 
 
 " After returning you my best thanks for the present of your 
 book, which I have just received, I must observe that it is not my 
 custom to give an opinion of any book lest I should usurp the 
 province of a reviewer. I have, however, read the pages with 
 pleasure, which you have recommended to my perusal. 
 
 " I am not wholly unacquainted with what has been written by 
 various authors on the vibrations of ether, on electrical muscular 
 motions, on animal spirits, on nervous fluids, on irritability, as 
 distinguished from sensibility, and on other theories, which have 
 been formed in different ages and countries, to explain animal 
 physiology ; but I own that I have looked upon them all with 
 the suspicion of their being ingenious hypotheses rather than 
 solid truths experimentally established ; and you must excuse me 
 if I do not consider your electrical fire excited by and emanated 
 from the brain in any other light. 
 
 "• I allow the whole of your system to be ingenious, and think 
 that it may be of practical utility in the art of healing ; but I 
 despair of ever seeing the question clearly decided, Whether the 
 brain is the efficient or the instrumental cause of sensation ? 
 
 " We can comprehend how light, entering the pupil of an eye, 
 
 3x2 
 
524 
 
 refracted by passing through its humours, and impinging on its 
 bottom, may form a perfect image of an external object, as we see 
 is mechanically done in the camera obscura. We can compre- 
 hend how the impulse of a wave of air on the tympanum of the 
 ear may there excite a vibratory motion, as we see is done by a 
 stick impinging the parchment of a drum ; but why the man has 
 a perception of sound which the drum has not, or an idea of 
 figure depicted on the choroides or retina of the eye, (which ever 
 of them be the seat of vision,) which the camera has not ; in other 
 words, how perception is excited from material impulse, must 
 ever, I think, exceed the apprehension of human intellect. The 
 difficulty is not removed by introducing an immaterial substance, 
 since, as such, we must conceive it to be incapable of either giving 
 or receiving material impulse ; but our inability of apprehension 
 ought never to be urged as an argument against the possibility of 
 existence, since we are certain that God is an immaterial sub- 
 stance, and the primary Author of all material impulse existing in 
 the universe. 
 
 " Wishing success to your lectures, 
 
 " I remain, your faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 R. Landaff." 
 
 The following is a Letter to. one of my oldest and most re- 
 spected friends, Mr. Harrison, who whilst in the House of Com- 
 mons acquired and deserved the esteem of all honest and inde- 
 pendent men, and who had written to me on the subject then in 
 agitation, the imprisonment of Sir Francis Burdett : — 
 
525 
 
 " My dear Harrison, Calgarth Park, June 1. 1810. 
 
 " I am very happy in receiving a good account of Frances and 
 yourself, and think you quite right in looking how the world 
 wears in London, though I do not follow your example, but am 
 content with a monkish apathy, to let the world vadere sicut vult 
 vadere. 
 
 " I, amongst others, have thought of what is going forwards in 
 the political world, but I despair of any plan being formed to 
 amend the maladies under which we labour. 
 
 " The power of acting for the public good in cases not provided 
 for by law is of the very essence of the royal prerogative ; and as 
 these cases cannot always be foreseen, the extent of the preroga- 
 tive cannot on all points be defined. 
 
 " The power of expelling a member from the House of Com- 
 mons is a privilege essential to the constitution of it as an House ; 
 but the committing a member, or not a member, to prison, and 
 by military force, for a speech or writing which has not been 
 found by a jury to be a libel, is a privilege which I cannot prove to 
 my own satisfaction to be either necessary to the constitution of 
 the House of Commons or useful to the state. What the de- 
 cision of the present question may be is wholly uncertain. Should 
 it be in support of the Speaker's warrant, I think it ought to be 
 followed by a law prohibiting such violence in future, and de- 
 fining, as far as can be done, the extent of privilege; for I must 
 ever adhere to the maxim, Ubijus incertum ibijus nullum. 
 
 " As to a reform in the representation, I have never seen any 
 plan calculated to do much good. It was said, I think, by the 
 old Duke of Newcastle, that it was cheaper to buy the elected 
 in the House of Commons than the electors in rotten boroughs. 
 
526 
 
 " About two months ago I wrote a letter to Lord Grenville ; a 
 short one, in truth, but comprehending my plain opinion on the 
 Catholic question. I send you an extract, from which you will 
 rightly infer, that though I am not afraid of Popery, I am afraid 
 of Pope Buonaparte ; and I heartily wish that Government were 
 as much afraid of him as I am. 
 
 " I have left off riding : walking fatigues me ; and I cannot yet 
 submit to an airing in a carriage. Whether it is by Her or by 
 His Majesty that I am laid on the shelf, I do not at all repine at 
 the position ; for I can truly say with the philosopher, 
 
 " Ici je trouve le bonheur, 
 Ici je vis sans spectateur ; 
 Dans le silence literaire, 
 Loin de tout importun jaseur ; 
 Loin des froids discours du vulgaire, 
 Et des hauts tous de la grandeur." 
 
 " But my literary retirement, though it improves my own mind, 
 
 will not improve the world ; for I shall never more attempt to do 
 
 that either in politics or religion. I have too much respect for 
 
 public opinion to expose to public animadversion the dregs 
 
 of life. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " B. Landaff." 
 
 This I believe was the last letter which I ever wrote to Mr. 
 Harrison : he died in February, 1811. I have inserted it in these 
 anecdotes, because I consider it as a circumstance honourable to 
 myself, that I maintained for above half a century a warm friend- 
 
527 
 
 ship with a man of much public and private worth ; and I wish 
 his two surviving daughters to look upon its publication as my 
 tribute of affection to the memory of their father. 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton, who thought himself dying. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, Calgarth Park, July 27. 1810. 
 
 " I had been meditating for several weeks to trouble you with 
 a letter of enquiry, but hearing occasionally of the amended state \/ 
 of your health I was unwilling to oppress you by a display of 
 unavailing solicitude; your own account, however, of yourself, will 
 not permit me to remain longer silent. 
 
 " Attachment to life is not peculiar to the human species ; it 
 belongs to all animals, and is necessary to keep them in exist- 
 ence ; and by the existence of animal life a large portion of in- 
 sensate matter becomes to such rational creatures as will consider 
 the subject an irrefragable proof of the goodness of God. I re- 
 member that this thought first struck me when (a boy at Cam- 
 bridge) I was gallopping to the Hills, and chanced to observe a 
 skylark singing and mounting in the air. Why, I said to myself, 
 did God animate the lump of earth composing the body of that 
 lark ? Doubtless to cause it to rejoice in its existence ; and 
 from the same principle he has animated the body of my horse, 
 and the body of myself; and while I have my being I will praise 
 him for this his goodness ! Now I see this goodness universally ex- 
 hibited and constituting one of the most interesting attributes of 
 God — most interesting to percipient beings ; for without it know- 
 ledge and power, nay omniscience and omnipotence are, as it 
 were, nothing to such beings. When I consider this, I cannot 
 
528 
 
 listen for a moment to the desponding doctrines of Calvin, of his 
 predecessors, or his successors, in the church of Christ. 
 
 " Before I took my Bachelor of Arts' degree, I had learned in- 
 deed my catechism, as other boys do ; but I had never thought 
 either of the truth of the Christian religion, or of the nature of 
 the doctrines contained in it. My mind being after my degree 
 liberated from the severity of mathematical studies, expanded itself 
 and ranged into other fields of knowledge without control : I 
 thought freely on religious subjects ; and I found nothing in re- 
 vealed religion which in any degree lessened the natural notion I 
 had formed respecting the Divine goodness, but many things to 
 confirm and enlarge it. I found, in truth, and lamented to find, 
 in all Christian churches, a tendency to become wise above what 
 was written, to require certain assent to doubtful propositions, to 
 explain modes of existence which cannot be explained to beings 
 with our faculties, and to mould the ineffable attributes of God 
 according to the model of human imperfection. The doing of 
 this I considered as (if the expression may be allowed) anthropo- 
 morphitising in the worst sense the incomprehensible Author of 
 Nature, and had always been averse from interpreting, in a strict 
 literal sense, such passages of Scripture as attribute to him the 
 parts and passions, the corporeal and intellectual properties and 
 imperfections of a man. 
 
 " Why should we be disturbed by gloomy apprehensions of 
 death, since he who made us can and will, even in death, pre- 
 serve us ? Unless we cease to love him, (which neither you nor 
 I can, I trust, ever do,) he will not cease to love us :. the human 
 race, in falling from their first estate, did not fall from the love of 
 God. Are we not assured, that * God so loved the world' (even 
 
529 
 
 in its fallen state — that world which some, even good men, re-* 
 
 present as a mass of corruption vitiated to the very core, and 
 
 doomed before its existence to everlasting, not merely perdition, 
 
 but punishment,) s that he gave his only begotten Son, that every 
 
 one who believeth in him may not perish but have everlasting 
 
 life?' John, hi. 16. 
 
 " It may be worth while to peruse a short book of Bishop Law's, 
 
 printed in his Theory of Religion, under the title of 6 The Nature 
 
 and End of Death under the Christian Covenant.' For though 
 
 the eye of reason cannot penetrate the recesses of the grave, 
 
 though the light of Revelation hath not, perhaps cannot, make it 
 
 appeal* what we shall be ; yet a due reflection on the necessity of 
 
 dying, accompanied with the blessed hope of being raised from 
 
 the dead, and of ascending a step in the gradation of intellectual 
 
 existence, may make us expect with composure and comfort the 
 
 inevitable change ; when we shall become like the angels of God, 
 
 immortal, placed, it may be, in the lowest rank of angelic beings, 
 
 but neither debarred the means nor deprived of the hope of rising 
 
 to the highest. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Letter to a Friend who had intimated to me his Expectation of 
 seeing me in London, on the Chance of a Regency taking place. 
 
 " My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, Dec. 17. 1810. 
 
 " I think very highly of Mr. Navies' s ability, and consider his 
 
 preface as containing sentiments founded in truth, in my opinion, 
 
 and honourable to himself, but not as new. Mr. Locke, the Re- 
 
 3 Y 
 
530 
 
 monstrants in Holland, and thousands in England, arguing for 
 the right of private judgment, in scriptural interpretation, have 
 frequently and forcibly maintained the same. The fact is, that 
 my mathematical education has quite spoiled my taste for doubt- 
 ful disputations in other sciences. The reciprocatio serrce contro- 
 versice in theology is always grating to my ears, and often leaves 
 me as diffident of having attained truth on any controverted sub- 
 ject, as if I had been in my youth a disciple of Carneades, or of 
 any other doctor of the old or new academy. 
 
 " Your expectations of seeing me in London, on the supposition 
 of a regency being formed, are not well founded. At my time 
 of life I will not debase the character which I have through life 
 endeavoured to establish, by soliciting promotion either from a 
 Regent or a King; nor am I certain (if I could stoop to such 
 meanness) that I should ever become acceptable at St. James's. 
 Courts were not made for me, nor am I made for courts ; but I 
 love my country, and could I assist in its councils, infirm as I am, 
 I would take my seat in the House of Lords, which I have not 
 yet done. 
 
 " It is now above seven years since I gave to the court my 
 advice (in an intended speech) on four points of the greatest im- 
 portance : had the first of these been then adopted, we should 
 have had at this moment 350,000 young men instructed in the 
 use of arms in addition to our regular troops ; had all of them 
 been brought forward, we should not only have put out of peril 
 our own independence, but secured that of the continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 " The time, I fear, is fast approaching when every man will say 
 to his neighbour, Cedo qui nostram rempublicam tantam amisi- 
 
531 
 
 mm tarn cito ? The proveniebant oratores novi, stulti, adolescentuli, 
 will constitute the principal part of the answer. 
 
 " Your faithful and affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 " R. Landaf*." 
 
 The ■ following is the last letter which I wrote to my friend 
 the Duke of Grafton, who died on the 14th of the following 
 March : — 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " Though I know not how to attempt to console you for the 
 loss of our common friends, Mr. Smyth and Mr. Harrison, yet I 
 cannot forbear troubling Your Grace, lest such an omission on 
 such an occasion should indicate an indifference which I am 
 incapable of feeling towards yourself. 
 
 " Lady Augusta, I hope, will have the goodness to gratify my 
 anxiety about your own health, as I have been informed that you 
 have not lately been so stout as you were some months ago. But 
 whence is it, my good friend, that I speak of anxiety, since I feel 
 a strong confidence, (an humble, I trust, and not a presumptuous 
 confidence,) that men like ourselves will be proper objects of God's 
 mercy, and obtain that eternal life which he hath promised through 
 Jesus Christ, to all who love and fear him. 
 
 " This is not the language of self-justifying sinners; it is the 
 language of men who believe the Gospel, and who in great self- 
 abasement venerate the adorable and inscrutable cause of every 
 thing. I am, with affectionate concern for Your Grace's health 
 and spirits, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 3 y 2 
 
532 
 
 Letter to the Duke of Grafton, April 1. 1810. 
 
 " My dear Lord Duke, 
 
 " A letter by this post from the executors of your late father 
 has afforded me a satisfaction which I thought it impossible for 
 me to have received from any circumstance attending the loss of 
 so excellent a friend. They have informed me that in a codicil to 
 his will, dated June 24th, 1807, in his own hand-writing, he has left 
 me, as a token of his friendship, his Complutensian Polyglott. 
 Tokens of a friendship of forty years standing are equally honour- 
 able to those who give and to those who receive them, and 
 to me they are invaluable ; for the great ambition of my life 
 has been to deserve well of those who have known me best. 
 
 " Be so good as to take an opportunity of thanking in my 
 name the excutors, for the very obliging manner in which they 
 have signified to me this intelligence ; and, that I may occasion 
 them no more trouble, I will tell Faulder to forward the books to 
 me, whenever they may be left at his shop. 
 
 " Lord Muncaster was formerly much acquainted with your 
 father. He sent me the other day a letter of condolence : you 
 will be pleased with reading the following extract from it : — ' In 
 6 former days I had the honour to have frequent communication 
 ' with the Duke of Grafton, and I owe it to his memory to say, 
 6 that a man of higher honour and more excellent principle and 
 i character I have never met with in my walks through life.' 
 
 " I could not neglect so fair an opportunity of establishing 
 and enlarging Lord Muncaster's good opinion of the character of 
 my departed friend, I therefore immediately wrote to him the 
 annexed letter : — 
 
5SS 
 
 a t 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 " * We have read of a philosopher or of an hero of antiquity, 
 I do not now remember which, who, on being informed that he 
 had lost both his sons in one battle, replied, " I knew that I 
 begat them mortal." I cannot but admire the stoical firmness 
 of this reply, yet I must believe that the glistening of the eye, 
 and the faltering of the voice of him who uttered it, showed, at 
 the moment, that the sympathetic affections of nature overcame 
 the misplaced efforts of vanity. 
 
 " 6 Sensibility, and the want of it, may both of them become 
 culpable by their excess. I feel, I hope, as I ought to do, the 
 recent loss of the Duke of Grafton, of Harrison, Crowle, 
 Smyth, and Maskelyne : above twenty years ago I lost almost 
 at once an equal number of my oldest and best friends. What 
 do all these sad losses teach us ? They ought to teach us so 
 to live that we may contemplate with tranquillity the time (fast 
 approaching to us all) when our few remaining friends will 
 embalm our memory with a transient sentiment of regret; 
 transient, because accompanied with an hope that we have con- 
 scientiously, however imperfectly, laboured to fight a good fight, 
 to obtain the high prize of Christian warfare which God hath 
 promised by his Son, — everlasting life. 
 
 " ' I most heartily concur with you in your honourable testi- 
 mony to the character of the Duke of Grafton, and I will tran- 
 scribe a letter now in my possession which I very unexpectedly 
 received from him thirteen years ago, in confirmation of the 
 correctness of the judgment we have severally formed of our 
 late friend's character : — 
 
534 
 
 " < My dear Lord, Piccadilly, March 15. 1798. 
 
 44 f It will appear extraordinary, and perhaps to many incre- 
 6 dible, that, considering the intimate friendship in which I am 
 4 so fortunate as to live with Your Lordship, I should have 
 6 printed any thing without your having previously seen it in any 
 4 way. 
 
 44 4 It is not meant for publication, but chiefly for the inspection 
 4 of my own family, and likewise for my own justification. When I 
 ' put it into your hands, I am sensible that you cannot agree with 
 4 or approve most of the essential parts of it, though you will 
 4 tolerate every person who, in the sincerity of his heart, ventures 
 4 to make use of private judgment in a conscientious search after 
 4 truth. 
 
 44 * I ever remain, my dear Lord, 
 44 ! Your Lordship's most faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " 4 Grafton. 
 
 " ' An 8vo pamphlet of eighty-two pages, entitled " The 
 4 serious Reflections of a rational Christian, written down at dif- 
 4 ferent times from 1788 to 1707," accompanied this letter. 
 4 If it should ever be published, Christians of every denomination 
 4 will admire, and, I hope, adopt in their own practice, the sin- 
 4 cerity, humility, and piety of the author of it, apparent in the 
 4 following extract from the 11th page : — 44 If I am in any error, 
 4 and under any mistake in these sentiments, I earnestly beg 
 4 of Almighty God that I may be convinced of it, and that he 
 4 will pardon in me my ignorance, and that he will enlighten 
 4 my understanding by his Holy Spirit, and lead me into the 
 
535 
 
 way of truth, establishing me in the same more and more every 
 day." 
 
 " < I am, &c 
 
 " < R. Landaff.' 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Lord Duke, and for the rest of my life, be 
 it long or short, I beg you to consider me as 
 
 " Your ever affectionate friend, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the 30th of the same month, a paralytic stroke deprived me 
 in a great measure of the use of my right hand ; but my under- 
 standing not being affected thereby, and the Bishop of Lincoln 
 having published about that time his " Refutation of Calvinism," 
 I sent him the following letter : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, Calgarth Park, 17th May, 1811. 
 
 " Being at present unable to write legibly, I make use of the 
 hand of my son to signify to Your Lordship the great satisfaction 
 which I have received from the perusal of your late work, and to 
 congratulate you on the general approbation which it so justly 
 merits, and will certainly meet with. 
 
 " In saying this, I do not mean to say that I agree with you on 
 every point ; but in what I differ from you I have rather a sus- 
 pended than a decided judgment, and am far from dogmatically 
 contending that I am right and you are wrong. 
 
 " I agree with you most cordially on the two main points ; 
 that the doctrines of Calvinism are not the doctrines of Scripture, 
 nor were maintained by the most ancient fathers of the church. 
 
536 
 
 In the stream of antiquity, (as Whitby has said in his preface to 
 his discourses concerning the " Five Points,") we see only one, 
 St. Austin, with his two boatswains. Prosper and Fulgentius, 
 tugging hard against it, and often driven back into it by the strong 
 current of Scripture, reason, and of common sense. 
 
 " I am, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Your faithful and obliged brother, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 . 
 
 In September I received a letter from Dr. Marsh, (Margaret 
 Professor of Divinity at Cambridge,) enclosing a prospectus of an 
 intended national society for the education of the poor in the 
 principles of the Established Church, and requesting to know 
 whether I would assist in the promotion and guidance of such 
 society. Though I was much afraid of reviving religious contro- 
 versy, and thought the Established Church in no danger, I sent 
 the following answer : — 
 
 " Mr. Professor, Calgarth Park, 27th Sept. 1811. 
 
 f I will not lose a post in returning an answer to your 
 obliging letter of the 21st instant. I therefore, without hesitation 
 signify to you my consent to assist in the promotion and guidance 
 of the intended society in every way which shall appear to me to 
 be consistent with a due regard to the rights of other men. 
 
 " Though I have through life been of opinion that some 
 changes (I think them improvements) in the doctrine and disci- 
 pline of our ecclesiastical establishment might be very safely and 
 very properly made, yet I hold it, with all its real or supposed 
 imperfections, to be wholly deserving of protection and support. 
 
531 
 
 " Knowing from what slender beginnings great mischiefs fre- 
 quently arise, and with what pertinacity men generally adhere to 
 parties and principles once adopted, I cannot refrain from ex- 
 pressing an hope that the names of Bell and Lancaster may never 
 become occasions of disunion and disesteem between Churchmen 
 and Dissenters, but that by a friendly concurrence they may unite 
 their great abilities in giving to the children of the poor a Chris- 
 tian education. I have purposely said a Christian education, be- 
 cause though I approve the professed liberality of Mr. Lancaster's 
 system, and esteem him to be perfectly sincere and well-meaning 
 in his undertaking, yet thinking it impossible that the human 
 mind can long remain a rasa tabula with respect to religion, I 
 wish it to be early impressed with the principles of the Christian 
 religion, as far superior to the philosophy of ancient or the 
 theism of modern times, as a rule of moral conduct. 
 
 " I am, with the greatest esteem and good wishes, 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The following is a letter to Lord Carysfort, who had informed 
 me that he had been writing what he called his creed. I had 
 desired him to send it to me, promising at the same time to consider 
 it with my most serious attention, 
 
 " My dear Lord, Calgarth Park, 30th Sept. 1811. 
 
 " When you mentioned to me your creed, I had no expectation 
 
 of your sending to me such lucubrations as I have received from 
 
 you. They are very honourable to the industry and ability of 
 
 their author, and I have known the time when I should with 
 
 3z 
 
538 
 
 pleasure, and perhaps with profit to us both, have returned you 
 my animadversions on every page, for in every page I have met 
 with matter not for censure but discussion. 
 
 " But neither will my failing eye-sight enable me to read with 
 accuracy your manuscript, nor will my failing intellect enable me 
 as I could wish to penetrate the marrow of the great subjects you 
 have handled. 
 
 u Many years ago I perused Bochart's Phaleg, the President de 
 Goguet's Origin of Laws, &c, Burnet's Archaeologia Philoso- 
 phica, and many other books on subjects greatly similar to those 
 on which you have so ably tried your strength ; but I dare not, 
 in my present condition, again venture to launch out on an ocean 
 replete with curious objects of research, but with little except 
 conjecture and assumption to direct our course. I may say, as 
 Burnet has said of himself in the conclusion of his preface to the 
 Archaeology, f Ingruit senectus appropinquat mors, et melioris 
 ( cevi dies cum hcec clarius elucebunt. Juvat interea tenue ali- 
 6 quod monumentum reliquisse, vitce non otiose per act w, et brevi 
 ' quasi functum militia deinceps a laboribus requiescere.' The 
 tenue monumentum of my theological labour, which the public 
 has so kindly noticed, would have been much enlarged had not 
 my mind been diverted from literary to agricultural pursuits, as 
 an honourable mean of providing moderately for a large family. 
 
 " On being compelled to seek health in the retirement of a 
 country life, I planned a series of Theological Essays on the most 
 important subjects ; not with a view of shoving up any tottering 
 edifice of Calvinistic or Arminian, of Episcopalian or Dissenting 
 Divinity, and much less with a view of emulating what I could 
 not reach, the industry and ingenuity of Frederic Spanheim, in 
 removing all Dubia Evangelica ; but with an humble hope of 
 
539 
 
 removing some of the hay, straw, stubble with which scholastic 
 subtlety, combined with dogmatical intolerance, had in every 
 country, and in every age, obstructed the road to Evangelical 
 truth and Christian charity. I had made some progress in the 
 execution of this plan ; but now despairing of being able to finish 
 it to my satisfaction, and being unwilling that the world should 
 say, the Theological Essays smell strong of the apoplexy, 1 have 
 treated my divinity as I twenty-five years ago treated my chemical 
 papers ; I have lighted my fire with the labour of a great portion 
 of my life. 
 
 " I write partly to apologise for my not giving to your work all 
 the attention which I wished to bestow upon it, and principally 
 to advertise you of the second part having come to hand. How 
 am I to return both the parts, when I have kept them a little 
 longer ? I can send them by Mr. Wilson when he comes to 
 town, if you do not wish them to be returned sooner. I shall 
 write again as soon as I have leisure ; but in the course of next 
 month, I have promised to make two maidens happy, by uniting 
 them to their respective mates, Lord Lindsay and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Smyth. 
 
 " Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 " R. Landabf." 
 
 Letter to Professor Vince, January 3d, 1812. 
 
 " Mr. Professor, 
 " When I made the late Astronomer Roval a Doctor of 
 Divinity, I remember having whispered in his ear the following 
 question : — 
 
 3z2 
 
540 
 
 a i 
 
 Abstracting from the loss of the sun's substance by the 
 emanation of light, is there any cause why the solar system may 
 not last for ever ?' 
 
 " Accidentally reading the other day a book entitled ' Obser- 
 vations on the Liturgy,' printed by Debret, 1789, I met with the 
 following note : — \ The late discovery of the Prussian astro- 
 ' nomer Euler, that the earth in everv revolution, narrows its 
 
 * orbit, and draws nearer to the sun, and consequently will, in a 
 
 * course of years, come within its vortex, and be consumed by it.' 
 You, I am sensible, have written so well on the disturbing forces 
 prevailing in the planetary system, that I can apply to no one so 
 likely to inform me to what it is that Euler attributes the diminu- 
 tion of the earth's orbit, and whether it is a constant diminution, or 
 contained within certain limits. I beg pardon for this intrusion 
 on your time, but I have not Euler' s works in this retirement. 
 
 " I should have been happy to have directed this letter to you 
 as Astronomer Royal. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Dr. Vince favoured me with an intelligent and complete answer 
 to my enquiry, by informing me, that he remembered Euler's 
 hypothesis of the planets moving in an etherial fluid, which gra- 
 dually retarding their motions, would at length carry them to the 
 sun, but that the existence of such a fluid was a mere conjecture ; 
 that there were no irregularities, (as they were called,) in the 
 system ; that nothing went on continually increasing or decreas- 
 ing, so as to bring on destruction to the system ; but that any 
 other law of gravitation than the inverse square of the distance, 
 
541 
 
 would have brought destruction to it ; that we are principally 
 indebted for these important discoveries to Le Grange and De La 
 Place ; and that Sir I. Newton himself did not see the extent to 
 which his theory of gravitation would carry him ; for he thought 
 the system would occasionally want a renovation. 1 returned 
 thanks in the following letter : — 
 
 * Mr. Professor, Calgarth Park, Jan. 27. 1812. 
 
 " I cannot forbear troubling you with my thanks for your 
 letter, which is perfectly satisfactory in all its parts. I remem- 
 ber having somewhere read a Dissertation, (when I was Professor 
 of Chemistry,) to prove, that the light emanated by the sun was 
 reabsorbed into his substance : however that may be, every 
 Christian philosopher ought to set the highest value upon your 
 confutation of Atheism from the laws of gravitation. I am, with 
 every good wish for your prosperity, 
 
 " Your obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 On the 26th February, 1812, Sir Henry Moncrief Wellwood 
 wrote to me from Edinburgh, saying, that he had lately preached 
 a sermon for the benefit of a Lancasterian school established in 
 that city, and requesting my permission to dedicate it to me. 
 
 Though I had determined to take no part in the controversy 
 then raging about the schools of Bell and Lancaster, thinking 
 them both useful, I sent him the following answer : — 
 
542 
 
 " My dear Sir, Calgarth Park, 28th Feb. 1812. 
 
 " I accept, with real satisfaction, the honour you intend me. 
 It is now near sixty years since I heard, in the Divinity Schools, 
 at Cambridge, a public disputation between Doctors Powell and 
 Rutherforth, on the following question, which had been proposed 
 by the former as an exercise for his Doctor's Degree : — Ecclesi- 
 astici regiminis in Anglia et in Scotia constituti neutra forma aut 
 juri hominum naturali aut verbo Dei repugnat f This question was 
 then so acutely and liberally discussed, that an impression was 
 then made on my young mind, which has produced in me, 
 through life, not only a great respect for the Church of Scotland, 
 but great moderation towards Dissenters of every denomination. 
 This uniform tenour of a long life has been injurious to my tem- 
 poral interests ; but if it has in any degree contributed to pro- 
 duce or to confirm a spirit of mutual forbearance and good-will 
 among Christians, I shall have reason to console myself with the 
 reflection, that I have not lived in vain. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 ... 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1812, I received a letter from Sir John 
 Cox Hippesley, together with a publication of his on the Catholic 
 Question, expressing his wishes that my health would permit me 
 to attend the discussion of that question in the House of Lords ; 
 and flattering me with saying, that I had done more than any 
 other person on that head, by having early given courage to those 
 who followed me, to declare manfully their sentiments. I sent him 
 the following answer : 
 
543 s 
 
 « Sir, March 29th, 1812. 
 
 " I think myself much honoured by your kind attention in 
 sending me your book, and acknowledge myself much instructed 
 by the perusal of its various contents. If it were possible for me 
 to be present at the discussion of the Catholic question in the 
 House of Lords, I could add nothing of essential importance to 
 the train of reasoning pursued in my Charge, which I published 
 in 1808 ; nay, I might be obliged, in some degree, to lessen its 
 force, from an unexpected circumstance which has occurred since 
 its publication. 
 
 " My opinion respecting the Veto is this : — ' The appoint- 
 
 * ment of the Irish Catholic bishops ought to be in the King, if 
 
 * they are to be paid by the state ; and if they are to be paid by 
 ' the Catholics themselves, it ought to be in them ; but exclusive 
 4 of all foreign influence, recommendation, or confirmation. If 
 6 they do not accede to this, or to something similar to this, they 
 ' will act on a principle which I did not expect, nor can approve.' 
 
 " The above is the opinion which I took the liberty to transmit 
 to Lord Grenville, in March, 1810, after I had read his letter to 
 Lord Fingall. It may not, probably, appear to many to be a just 
 opinion, and I myself think it not expedient to be acted upon at 
 this moment ; but I am happy in seeing it confirmed, in a post- 
 humous work of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, entitled 'Religion 
 and Policy,' printed at the Clarendon Press, in 1811. In this 
 work, the noble author comes to this conclusion : — That it is the 
 duty of Catholic subjects in a Protestant country, of priests as 
 well as of the laity, to abjure the Pope's supremacy, ecclesiastical 
 as well as temporal. 
 
544 
 
 " I am far from wishing to see this duty enforced by the enact- 
 ment of legal penalties ; but the time, I think, approaches, when 
 it will be admitted by enlightened Catholics themselves, to be a 
 duty ; and when that time is fully come, government will have 
 no suspicions, learned individuals no apprehensions, and Protest- 
 ant populace no prejudices against Catholic subjects. 
 
 " This time approaches ; and its motion will be accelerated, if 
 government permits every man to exercise, in the expected 
 debate, his uninfluenced judgment. I have no expectation of a 
 favourable issue at present, even on that supposition ; but the 
 Catholics, I trust, will be satisfied with the decision; though it 
 should be unfavourable to their wishes ; and wait till, by a conti- 
 nuance of their loyalty to the King, and of kindness towards their 
 fellow-subjects, every prejudice against them shall be removed. 
 " I have the honour to be, with great respect, 
 
 " Your faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 The day after I had sent the preceding answer to Sir John Cox 
 Hippesley, I had the honour to receive a long and interesting 
 letter on the Catholic question, from the Earl of Hardwicke, con- 
 veying an hope, that I would give my support to it either in 
 person or by proxy. I returned immediately the subjoined 
 answer : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, Calgarth Park, April 2d, 1812. 
 
 " My sentiments on the dangerous state of the empire so per- 
 fectly coincide with Your Lordship's, that I sincerely lament my 
 
545 
 
 inability to give assistance to the Catholic cause, either in person 
 or by proxy. Various infirmities render it impossible for me to 
 do it in person ; and not having taken my seat in this parliament, 
 my proxy would not be admitted. 
 
 " I beg leave to trouble your Lordship with the perusal of 
 the enclosed copy of a letter to Sir John Cox Hippesley, who 
 had written to me about a week ago, pressing me to go to town. 
 
 " I make no secret of my opinion : a cordial reception of 
 Catholics and Dissenters into the bosom of the constitution, 
 by the extinction of all disqualifications, is become necessary to 
 secure the independence of the empire, and the safety of the 
 country. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 « R. Landaff." 
 
 Soon after this, I received a letter from the Marquis of Bute, 
 informing me, that he had heard of there being a design of calling 
 a county meeting, for the purpose of establishing at Cardiff a 
 school on the plan of Dr. Bell, and expressing great anxiety to 
 know how far my sentiments accorded with his own, which 
 were in favour of universal toleration. I sent him the subjoined 
 answer : — 
 
 " My Lord Marquis, Calgarth Park, April 15, 1812. 
 
 " About six weeks ago, I received a letter from Sir H. Mon- 
 crief Wellwood, requesting my permission to dedicate to me a 
 Sermon which he had just then preached in Edinburgh, in sup- 
 port of the Lancasterian school established in that city. 1 trouble 
 Your Lordship with the annexed copy of the letter which I sent 
 
 4a 
 
546 
 
 by the return of the post, on the 28th of February last. From 
 the perusal of it, Your Lordship will properly infer the per- 
 fect coincidence of my principles with respect to universal 
 toleration, with your own. From what has lately taken place 
 in various parts of the empire, I cannot help being of opi- 
 nion, that certain zealous men in the Established Church have 
 suffered their apprehension for its safety to outstrip all probability 
 of danger arising to it, from the institution of either Lancasterian 
 schools or auxiliary Bible Societies. The church is in no danger 
 from Protestant or Catholic Dissenters ; but the state must ever be 
 in danger, from discontent breeding disaffection, whilst a large 
 portion of its members is looked upon by Government with a 
 jealous and repulsive eye. 
 
 " This is my opinion, and I have no hesitation in avowing it ; 
 but in this avowal, I would not be understood to claim any infal- 
 libility of judgment, or to impute to those who think differently, 
 either zeal without knowledge, political shortsightedness, or secularity 
 of principle. 
 
 " I have, &c. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 " My Lord, Carlton House, May 4th, 1812. 
 
 " It affords me the greatest satisfaction, to have it in command 
 from the Prince Regent, to make known to Your Lordship a cir- 
 cumstance, which he is sure will, on every account, afford Your 
 Lordship equal gratification to that which he has himself expe- 
 rienced from it. After dinner yesterday at Carlton House, the 
 conversation turned upon the general immorality and profligacy 
 of the present day, when principles and opinions subversive of all 
 
547 
 
 religion and morality, were not only held by many, but studiously 
 endeavoured to be instilled into the minds of others. One of the 
 most violent of these, a Sussex Baronet, was mentioned by a 
 Mr. Tyrwhitt, (who I believe is not unknown to Your Lordship,) 
 as having uttered opinions in his hearing so infamous and athe- 
 istical, as to force him to leave the company, first, however, 
 exacting from him a promise, that he would attentively peruse a 
 book he should the next morning send him. That book was 
 Your Lordship's Apology for the Bible ; and yesterday the Baro- 
 net's answer was produced and read, expressive of the greatest 
 thankfulness for having had it put into his hands, as it not only 
 had decidedly and clearly proved the error and fallacy of every 
 opinion he had before entertained, but had afforded him a degree 
 of secret comfort and tranquillity, that his mind had previously 
 been a stranger to. I have the honour to be, My Lord, 
 
 " Your Lordship's very much obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 " W. Braddyll." 
 
 Answer to Mr. BraddyWs Letter, May 8th, 1812. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 " The Prince Regent judges rightly of my character; for the 
 circumstance which he has had the kind condescension to com- 
 mand you to make known to me, does indeed fill my heart with 
 real joy. When the Apology for the Bible was first published, in 
 1796, I received many letters of thanks, not only from individuals, 
 acknowledging the benefit they had derived from the perusal of 
 it, but from public bodies in Ireland and America. I permitted 
 many thousand copies of it to be printed in Great Britain, without 
 
 4a2 
 
548 
 
 any profit or wish of profit to myself, and yet I cleared above a 
 thousand pounds by its publication ; which sum, accruing from 
 such a source, had my family been less, or my means of provid- 
 ing for it greater, I should have had the greatest satisfaction in 
 consecrating to some work of charity ; nay, I was so bent on 
 doing this, that I drew up the subjoined inscription for it : 
 
 Rerum Universitatis Conditori Conservatorique 
 
 Deo optimo, maxirao, unico; 
 
 Ob vitam mortalem sub ejus numine feliciter actam, 
 
 Ob spem vitae immortalis §» x^alu feliciter agendas, 
 
 Hoc quantulumcunque grati animi inonumentum, 
 
 Sacrum esse voluit 
 
 Ricardus Landavensis. 
 
 " For the very obliging manner in which you have signified to 
 me this instance of the Prince's remembrance of a retired bishop, 
 I beg you to accept my best thanks, and to esteem me 
 
 " Your faithful friend and servant, 
 
 u R. Landaff." 
 
 Extract of a Letter to Mr. Wyvill, October Zlst, 1813. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 " 1 have seen your address to the Freeholders of Yorkshire, 
 and perceive that it is written with such a distinct and enlarged view 
 of public policy, and with such moderation of temper towards 
 those who differ from you in sentiment, that 1 cannot resist the 
 impulse I feel, of expressing to you the concurrence of my opi- 
 nion to every part of it. 
 
549 
 
 " The struggle for the liberty of Europe, has been most nobly 
 sustained by Great Britain, and might it not at this period be 
 successfully terminated by our Government granting emancipation 
 to the Catholics, and a repeal of the test and corporation acts to 
 the Dissenters? These concessions would be more powerful 
 means of defence, than all the conscriptions of our enemy can 
 ever be to the contrary. 
 
 ?* Infirmities of various kinds have long obliged me to with- 
 draw myself from the active policy of the country ; but with life 
 only can end my attention to the constitution, which you have 
 the highest merit of having for many years so ably and honour- 
 ably supported. 
 
 " R. Landaff." 
 
 Mr. WyvilVs Answer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 " My Lord, Burton-Hall, Bedal, Oct. 31st, 1813. 
 
 " Yesterday I received the honour of Your Lordship's letter, 
 and I hasten to return my most grateful acknowledgements of 
 your kindness, in avowing with so much generosity your appro- 
 bation of my late address to the freeholders of Yorkshire. That 
 is a great and unexpected reward ; and disappointed as I am by 
 the dejected state of this country, I yet confidently anticipate the 
 best effects from the concurrence of your sentiments with those 
 which the address was calculated to promote. 
 
 " Mr. Fox proved the sincerity of his attachment to liberty, 
 civil and religious, by the long service of thirty years, almost 
 wholly spent in parliament, under the frowns of power; Your 
 Lordship I believe has given a similar proof of your attachment. 
 
550 
 
 to that best of causes. You have endured a similar proscription, 
 from men who acted on the same unworthy motives, and the 
 consequence has been almost the same; you have at LandafFbeen 
 as long shut out from the road to the higher honours of the 
 Church. But how much higher you have risen, by having ob- 
 tained the undisputed dignity of virtue, benevolence, patriotism, 
 and the true spirit of Christianity ! Accept, My Lord, the assur- 
 ance of my respect and regard, with my sincerest wishes that 
 you may long enjoy the evening of life with health, and the gene- 
 ral veneration of your country. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 
 " Your Lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 " C. Wyvill." 
 
 Mr. Wyvill I hope will pardon my vanity in publishing this 
 letter. I am really proud of his honourable testimony to that 
 political consistency of principle, which unites my name to that 
 of Mr. Fox. 
 
 R. Landaff. 
 
 From this period the health of the Bishop of Landaff rapidly 
 declined ; bodily exertion became extremely irksome to him ; and 
 though his mental faculties continued unimpaired, yet he cau- 
 tiously refrained from every species of literary composition. The 
 
551 
 
 example of the Archbishop of Toledo was often before him, and 
 the determination as frequently expressed, that his own prudence 
 should exempt him from the admonition of a Gil Bias. 
 
 He expired on the 4th of July, 1816, in the 79th year of his 
 age ; illustrating in death the truth of his favourite rule of conduct 
 through life : " Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that 
 is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 12 For visiter, read visitor. 
 
 23 For antrum, read centrum. 
 
 49 For Chevley, read Cheveley. 
 123 For Bayot and Rawden, read Bagot and Rawdon. 
 141 For experiment, read experiments. 
 157 For dorum, read donum. 
 221 For I thought, read he thought. 
 231 For Femes, read Ferns. 
 333 For Cook, read Coke. 
 353 For protestants, read protestant. 
 429 For Charles Buchanan, read Claudius Buchanan. 
 448 For Aire, read Eyre. 
 473 For Monomactria, read Mouomachia. 
 
 J. M'Creery, Printer, 
 Black-Horse-Court, London. 
 
NEW EDITIONS OF THE FOLLOWING WORKS. 
 BY RICHARD WATSON, 
 
 BISHOP OF LANDAFF, 
 
 ARE 
 
 LATELY PUBLISHED BY T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND. 
 
 1. MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS, on Religious, Political, 
 and Agricultural Subjects, in two vols. 8vo. price 1/. Is. in boards. 
 
 2. TWO APOLOGIES ; one for CHRISTIANITY, in a Series 
 of Letters addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esq. — the other for THE 
 BIBLE, in answer to Thomas Paine ; to which are added, TWO 
 SERMONS, and a CHARGE, in DEFENCE of REVEALED 
 RELIGION. 8vo. price 9s. in boards. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE 
 RECALL 
 
 LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS 
 
 Book Slip-50wi-8,'66(G5530s4)458 
 
 ' 
 
 
 -;-...■ ■ 
 
 
 "'-•"'■. .?;■:*'-,■','■?'" ■■ ' ■■■■'■■ 
 
N° 476131 
 
 Watson, R. 
 
 Anecdotes of the 
 of Richard Watson. 
 
 life 
 
 BX5199 
 
 W42 
 
 A4 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 DAVIS 
 
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