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    dral , aud was , present at the singing Te £ > eum , after which his declaration was publicly read to the people ; but I must observe that the ministers rushed out of the Church by a very surprising piece of policy . "

    Thus " hero William" opened the campaign of 1688 , by routing " the priest and vicars" of the cathedral of Exeter , " white , black and grey , with all their trumpery , " Bishop and the Dean having fled , as " the hireling fleeth , " the day before . Yet

    whatever might be the judgment of a priest , a prince and a soldier , here was surely a gross instance of persecution , according to the common opinions and feelings of mankind , and such a man as Burnet appears poorly employed on such a mission . He well knew

    that James , though now trembling on a precarious throne , was still as legally king as any of his predecessors ; and that all " priests and vicars , " including himself , yet owed him , according to their most solemn engagements , an

    unreserved obedience , as Supreme Head of the Church of England ; and were bound " to pray , according to the Liturgy , that God would be the defender and keeper of King James , and give him victory over all his

    enemies / ' He knew too , that these " priests and vicars" were under peremptory orders to pray for the Prince of Wales , without being allowed to interpose a question as to his legitimacy .

    The legitimacy of James III . has , indeed , long ceased to be a question with any impartial inquirer ; yet it should be allowed to Burnety that he implicitly believed the revolution tales which he has collected in his

    History . I observe , also , in a " Memorial to the Princess Sophia , " printed in 1815 , from , his MS . in 1703 , that he expresses the same confidence in the now exploded political fable . Thus having related the imprisonment of the seven Bishops , he adds , ( p . 57 , ) " The Queen in the mean time was ,

    as was pretended , delivered of a son at St . James ' s , the Princess Ann being sent industriously out of the way , to bathe . We had , I remember , a song u « pon it . at th ^ e time , that . . , The Bishops were sent to the Tow ' r , The Princess went down to the bath , Aud thfc Queen she cried out in an hour "

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    Such then was my excellent fr iend cc great prince , " and Dr . Watts ' s " man of wondrous soul j" , rather , the grateful Nonconformist poet ' s auspicious numen ; or , at least , the Monarch" that could tc be shewn

    Under no shape but angels' or his own , Gabriel , or William , on the British throne ;" a bathos , which reminds me of " Dalhousie , the great God of War , "Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Marr

    It might almost be suspected , that our orthodox Protestant grandsires were disposed to restore the hero-worship of Paganism , in honour of an y king who would persecute only Papists and heretical Nonconformists . Thus they appear to have been " lost

    in wonder , love and praise , " whenever they contemplated the condescension of a Dutch Stadtholder , in accepting a British crown . Their descendants , under the tuition of passing events , and the advantages of a more liberal political education , have learned to

    distinguish between the real merits of the man , and the national advantages acquired , though by no means cheaply , from the successful enterprise of the petty prince and valiant soldier , in whom the ambition would be easily excited , to possess the splendid

    regalities and to wield the military energies of a powerful kingdom . And , indeed , whatever constitutional policy may dictate towards the living , it is no part of historical justice to the dead , to incur the charge of folly , brought even by a courtly poet , against those who

    " drop the man in their account , And vote the mantle into Majesty . " Mr . Lindsey , in the passage which produced these observations , has referred to Mr . Emlyn ' s fJTorks ( II . 374 ) . There , in Remarks on " The four London Ministers , " authors of

    " The Doctrine of the blessed Trinity stated and defended , " they are reminded that « ' King William was not willin g to be made a persecutor , though the Dissenters lay hard at him , in their address by Dr . Bates , to stop the press , anno 1697- " ^ * probabl y to this attempt , which Calamy , I perceive , in his additions to

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    72 Kin * William no Friend to Religious Liberty ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 72, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/8/