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Shelburne to understand , that the Duke of Rutland inigbt digest his displeasure as he could , for I would never utter a syllable in explanation or in excuse for my conduct on the occasion ; that bis Grace had experienced from me many and important
instances of my regard , and that I was ready to give him more wilh 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 perceive , was quite new to Lord Shelburne ,
and , in truth , few great intn can relish it 5 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 3 I knew well enough that it was not the way to procure preferment I remembered what I had leavned as a boy , the different effects of obsequiousness and of truth .
' Obsequium amicos , veritas odium parity and I preferred , as a man , the latter . My friend the Bishop of Peterborough once said tome , " * 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 . " Pp . 126—128 . Mr . Pitt established himself in power in the teeth of a majority of the House
of Commons ; " a dangerous precedent / ' as the Bishop remarks , and one of the innumerable proofs of the ascendancy of the prerogative of the Crown over the voice of the Commons
during the present reign . On tins subject , Dr « Watson wrote and spoke to the Premier , and was , we dare say , and as the event proved , regarded as a patriotic intruder . He was not more-successful in a suggestion which he made to Mr , Pitt and to the Duke
of Rutland , who had obtained the Lord-I ^ eutenancy of Ireland as the reward of his political flexibility , that the maladies of Ireland could be healed only by an union of the two kingdoms , on an equal and liberal footing . He takes credit to himself for having
advised a measure , which sixteen years afterwards Mr . Pitt accomplished , though not on the terms of his proposal . The Bishop has republished the letter which he wrote to Mr . Wakefield , on his Inquiry concerning the Person of Christ , in 1784 , and which is to be found in Wakefield ' s Life . He has also interwoven with his nar-
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rative one which , in the same year , he addressed to the venerable Mr . Wyvil , \ Wyvilli ] who informed him 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 requested that he would use his influence in Cambridgeshire , to the same end . The Doctor ' s letter in
reply is cautious and desponding : so much public wealth and so many pubfre honours , he thinks , insure the continuance of corruption . " What hope , " he asks in a paragraph following the letter on the same subject , ** can we have that a public body will reform itself ? " " Since the miserable
event of the French Revolution , it may be said , " he concludes , "to every man in England and in Europe , who attempts to reform abuses either in church or state- ?—Desine , jam concla * matum est , " This is a paralyzing sentiment , but too much justified by the course of events .
The Bishop gives the follQwing account of the publication of his Tracts : " In March , 1785 ^ L published a collect tioh 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 s near a thousand copies having been sold in less than three rnoiiths ; 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 then have been found on the
bench , and , I trust , it can be found there no longer . The Archbishop of Canterbury , to whom I sent a set , had never the good manners to acknowledge the receipt oj present , and the Archbishop of York objected to the collect ion being given by the associates of Dean Dray to a young divine who ivas 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 . ' Pp . 136 , 137 . To counterbalance the disapprobation of these official judges of theology ,
the biographer relates that the work speedily went through ixyo large editions ; that Dr . Kipj £ > is , in the tife of Lardner , extolled the Preface ; that Mr . Lamfee , an eminent attorney in Cambridge ^ beqiieatKed a g&at part of his property to a giatidfcdii of the
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134 Review . ~ -hife of the Bishop of L&ndaff *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/54/
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