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both to emancipate from their-fathers ' collators , aad mount to the Peerage * and ¦ by somewhat the same kind of
stqp * Lord King began the study of the law later in life than the late Master of the Roils , having served in his father ' s shop until nearly 18 years of age ; and inanv persons were living in his native
city of Exeter , after lie arrived at high legal rank , who remembered having the honour of receiving their groceries at the hands of young Mr . Peter , though they bad no idea that they then saw in him a future Lord Chancellor
of Great Britain . Being passionately fond of reading , both Lord King and Lord Gifford soon acquired thatinte 41 igence which induced their friends to think that they were born for something above tradesmen . The first nobleman owed his studying for the bar to the accident of his being distantly
related to Locke . That philosopher , on a visit to the family , becoming acquainted with the extent of his reading , and struck with the superiority of mind he displayed , persuaded his father to send him to Leyden to study ; and on his return , greatly improved , induced him to enter himself of the
Inner Temple , where he commenced his career of legal study . Lord Gifford , by as mere an accident , a difference with the solicitor to whom he was articled , was induced to quit a branch of the profession in which he could never have arisen to be higher than a respectable , or , perhaps , wealthy
solicitor , and to study also for the bar . " The parallel between these two noble peers might have been carried further : both were originally Dissenters , and Dissenters of one denomination , and that the most liberal : both set out in
life as Whigs : and both were reproached , with whatever justice , with putting off the character of reformers—Lord King with forsaking his religious principles , and Lord Gifford with forsaking both his religious and his political principles .
We merely state the fact ; we do not assert its truth . With regard to Lord Gifford , we doubted the fairness of the charge against him in our Review of < c A Letter of Remonstrance "
to him , Vol . XV . p . 177 . Lord King's attachment to civil and religious liberty was not , that we know , ever questioned ; and his change of feeling and conduct with regard to theological
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matters rast $ upon 4 he testimony , or rather judgment * of Whiston , who * though proverbially honest * was not
free from prejudice , and wlxo was too apt to judge all mankind by his own standard . His Lordship published early in life , ( 1691 , ) <( An Enquiry into the Constitution , &c . of the Pru
mitive Church , " 8 vo . ; and soon after , a Second Part . The design of this work was to promote the comprehension of the Dissenters within the pale of the Established Church ; a measure
contemplated by the leaders of the Revolution of 168 S . Pursuing his theological studies after he had entered upon public life , he published , in 1702 , au 8 vo . volume , entitled , " The History
of the Apostles' Creed , with Critical Observations on its several Articles / * Both this work and the "Enquiry " are standard books on the subjects to which they relate , and both are worthy of a relation , friend and disciple of Locke . It should we remembered to
Lord King ' s honour , especially by such as are influenced by Winston ' s censures , that in 1712 he appeared as gratuitous counsel for the honest " heretic" on his prosecution before the Court of Delegates . Winston says that on his application to his Lordship , " when he was first made Lord Chancellor and had so many
prebends in his gift , " for his patronage of Mr . Marshal , who was willing to undertake on proper encouragement to decipher " Bishop Lloyd ' s interlined Bible and his notes in shorthand , that vast treasure of sacred learning-. " "— " " he found so prodigious learning—he found so prodigious
, a change in him , such strange coldness in the matters that concerned religion , and such an earnest inclination to money and power , that he gave up his hopes quickly . Nay , indeed , lie soon perceived , that he disposed of his
preferments almost wholly at tbe request of such great men as could best support him in his high station , without regard to Christianity ; and I soon cast off all my former acquaintance with him . Now , by the way , " ( adds
the rigid censor , ) ' if such a person as the Lord King , who began with so much . sacred learning and zeal tor primitive Christianity as his first work , The Enquiry , <^ c , shewed , was so soon thoroughly perverted by the love ot power and money at court , whatgoo * Christians will not be hoxribiy ^
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7 If ) ^^ ditiQyi $ , Qb $ ervatimis 9 iJ <> rre € thn ^^ € *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/10/
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