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known to the King , who freely gave leave for what I desired . He was . pleased to add , that if I would let him see my Dedication when it was finished , he would give me his free thoughts upon it . When I carried it to him he read it three times over . I offered to alter any thing his Lordship might judge not so proper ; but he told me he would not have me alter a word , aud he was satisfied it would be acceptable . I then asked his Lordship if he would be pleased to do me the farther honour of presenting a copy of my book to his Majesty , when it was finished and bound . He told me he would readily do it , if I desired it , but he would rather advise me to wait on the King , and
present it myself , and he would be my introducer . I humbly thanked him , and having some well bound , waited on his Lordship , who brought me to the King in his closet , between ten and eleven in the morning . " I humbly presented my book to his Majesty , who received me very graciously , took it into his hands , and looked on it ; and then was pleased to tell rne , he took us Dissenters for his hearty friends , and desired rne to let my brethren in the city know , that in the approaching election of members of
Parliament , he depended on them to use their utmost influence , wherever they had any interest , in favour of such as were hearty for him and his family . I freely told his Majesty , that he might upon good grounds be assured , that they were very much disposed that way ; but that I would not fail of letting my brethren know the honour his Majesty did them , to declare with so much frankness his dependence upon them in this case . Observing there were many waiting without , I took my leave , and went down the back stairs .
" Lord Townshend soon followed me , and asked me how I liked my reception . I told his Lordship he was so very good , and his Majesty so exceeding gracious , that I must be utterly stupid , if I was not very thankful . I addea , that I had ordered my servant to leave one of my books at his Lordship ' s , which he would find there on his return ; and that as to his Majesty ' s message by me to my brethren , his Lordship should hear from me about it in two or three days without fail . His Lordship told me , his Majesty designed me a present , and I should hear from his brother Walpole about it , whom he was ordered by his Majesty to speak to .
" Going the very next day into the city , I got some few of each of the Three Denominations together , and delivered the message from his Majesty . They , with unanimity , desired me to signify to Lord Townshend , that they were very thankful to his Majesty for the honour he did them , and should not disappoint his expectations , complying with which they took to be their interest and duty both . And I did it accordingly . " . ... " A few days after this , 1 had a message from the Treasury sent by Mr . Walpole , wath a bill for fifty pounds out of his Majesty ' s royal bounty , for which he brought a receipt in form , which I signed with humble thanks . "—Vol . II . p . 444 .
Perhaps , on the next Sabbath , the worthy divine preached with a serene conscience , from the text , " Of whose hand have 1 received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith ?" Did the Dissenters at this time know why they were courted by every political party in turn ? Were they pleased at it as an acknowledgment of their influence ? Or did tbey attribute it to some peculiar , inexplicable merit in their body ? However it was , they seemed little aware of the fair occasion they gave to the witticism , that " the Nonconformists were used like King David ' s heifers—first made to draw the cart , and tben burnt with the wood of it . "
Dr . Calamy is an excellent representative of the body . His descriptions of himself , and yet more , his revelations of himself in the book before us , serve as a pretty faithful picture of a Nonconformist in the ahstract , in those days . We find much honesty , and yet a certain tendency to timeserving : much simplicity , joined with a prodigious reverence for the great :
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98 Calamy * s Life .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 98, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/26/
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