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author of " A Scheme of Scripture Divinity , " ( Dr , John Taylor , ) which occupies the first place in the collection ; and that it procured him a letter of acknowledgment from Dr . Edward Harwood , Few bishops , in the modern sense of the word , would choose to preserve Dissenting Testimonies .
Dr . \ Vatson \ s condition in life was much improved in 1786 , by the death of his friend Mr . Luther , who left him an estate in Sussex , which he sold for twenty-three thousand , five hundred pounds . The following narrative discovers more feeling than belongs to the anecdotes in general :
" The expense and manner of the funeral was ordered by the will to be at iny discretion 3 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 , —ras 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 5 and his for me was fully manifested by 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 bed-chamber , and with as much humility and as much
sincerity as I ever used in prayer for myself I interceded with the Father qf mercies for pardon of my friend ' s transgressions . I knew perfectly well all the philosophical arg-uments which could be used against the efficacy of all human intercession 5 and I was fully conscious of my own unworthiness and unfitness , with so many sins of my own to answer for to intercede , for others ; but the most distant liope of being "
of use to my expiring- friend overcame all my scruples . If we meet , in another world ? he mill thank me for this instance of my love for him ^ when he was insensible to every earthly concern , and when I toas wholly ignorant of the purport of his will . * P . 144 . The Bishop adds , connecting with this fine passage brie that turns upon t ^ he petty subject of the caprices of princes and the resentments of ministers , ,
" I have managed as I ought to have done this ieg-acy . 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 mean-spirited , time ^ sertfing fiidhop , I mjglify' 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 prin-
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ciples would never have suffered him to distinguish such a character with that eminent token of his regard which he bequeathed tome . " Pp . 144 , 145 . Dr . Watson had published a third volume of Chemical Essays in 1782 , arid in February , 1786 , he published
a fourth , and th < ki burned his chemical manuscripts . Me cultivated chemistry from 1764 to 1771 , with laborious and unceasing assiduity , and declares that he derived more pleasure and knowledge from the pursuit of that , than of any other branch of philosophy in which he was ever engaged .
The address to the king , upon the insane attempt of Margaret Nicholson , it ! 1786 , from the diocese of Landaff , was drawn up by the bishop , and is here given : it is a fine composition . He says ,
" I saw Lord Lansdown [ Lansdowne ^ soon after the presenting this address , and lie thanked me for it , saying that it had done him credit 5 but that Bishop Shipley ' s ; address had done him disservice in 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 archbishopric of Canterbury for Shipley , on the death of Cornwallis ; but 1 do not believe that we either of us thought of him when we drew up our respective addresses . " Pp . 148 , 149 .
It is said that an ecclesiastic invented gunpowder : application watf about this time made to the bishop by the government , relative to the improvement of the strength of this deadly ingredient of -the modern art of war . He applied his mind to the
subject and suggested a new mode of preparing the powder , by which its strength yVasu increased ; in , the proportion of 5 to 3 * and a » annual saving was made during the * late war of one hundred [ thousand pounds , a year . Translation : in the . church would have
been an ill-suited reward for such a service . The , prelates recommends that if his posterity shoiildi be impoverished > they should petition . the House of . Commons for remuneration . He iws preserved a repartee of the King ' s on , j the subject of this chemical improvement : ? .. ¦;?•• ¦¦ ; ¦ . -. ? . ¦ . <> io
u At h . Xeye&J sojon after t | ie experiments on g-unpowder had been made , 1 Happened to be ahtnding * ^ nextW ^ tne Duke of lUehmWdyaheii ' Matter General of the
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Review . —Life of the Bishop of Landaff . 1 S 5
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/55/
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