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little display of character in the following anecdote : " Though levee-conversations , are hut 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 November , 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 6 I could not live Under a republic / His
Majesty still pursued the subject ; I thought myself insulted , and firmly said , Sir , I look upon the tyranny of any one man to bean intolerable evil , and upon the tyranny of an hundred to he 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 pleasure of 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 Shelhurne , 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 quarrelled among themselves , and thereby
lost the King ' s confidence , lost the people ' s confidence , and lost their power for ever 5 or , to speak more philosophically ^ there was neither Whiggism nor Toryism left ; excess of riches , and excess of taxes , combined with the excess of luxury , liad introduced universal Selfarn" Pp , 193 ,
194 . In this year ( 1787 ) Dr . Watson sustained a great loss by the death of the Duke of Rutland , in Ireland 5 and expressed his feelings in a panegyric
on the deceased Viceroy in the House of Lords , for which he was personally thanked by the Prince of Wales , who heard it , and who took this occasion of inviting the Bishop of Landaff to his acquaintance .
In 1788 > Dr . Watson was elected a Fellow of the American ( Massachusetts ) Acattefti * of Arts and Sciences .
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He published this year a traetv entitled , " An Address to Young Persons after Confirmation . " A large edition was soon sold . The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge wished to have the tract , but it was
sold to the bookseller . An arrangement was afterwards made by the author , which allowed the Society to print the " Address , " but they had by this lime discovered , through the
sagacity of Bishop Horsley , that it contained heretical passages , and would therefore print only a part of it . This Dr . Watson refused to permit , and here the matter ended . He dismisses
the subject with saying of Horsley , " His political principles were to me detestable , and his theology too dog- * matical , though he was certainly a man of talents . P . 233 .
A passage in the tract concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit was animadverted on . by the late Mr . Asfidown , in two Letters to the Bishop , who took no notice of them at the time , but makes a remark or two in this volume , which suffice at least to
shew his candour , or rather indecision . One of these will arouse the Horsleys and humbler bigots of the day : " If it shall ever be shewn that the doctrine of the ordinary operation of the Holy Ghost is not a scripture doctrine , Methodism , Quakerism and
every degree 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" P . 234 .
A letter addressed from Calcutta to the Bishop , on the subject of a Protestant mission in Bengal , which he has inserted into these memoirs , leads him to make some reflections on the subject of missions to the Pagans , which we think worthy of being . extracted :
" I do not , indeed , expect much success in propagating- Christianity hy missionaries from any part of Christendom , hat 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 5 and casting * an ambitious eye oa Thibet , Japan anxl China , may introduce , with its commerce , Chmtiauity into these
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Kevietv . — -Life of the Hishop of Landaffl 199
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1818, page 199, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2474/page/47/
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