UC-NRLF
*c E3o ait,
'' MLlMM W- #-^f Ad^l %
UBKARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOKIB&
DAVIS
ISAAC FOOT COLLECT:
'- ■ 4 ; ■ - - - •
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/anecdotesoflifeoOOwatsrich
ANECDOTES OF THE LIFE
OF
RICHARD WATSON,
BISHOP OF LANDAFF.
a
Ricmarb Watson C
JWifriW December 8*1817 ir T. Guldl lc WDavies. StnOU. London.
ANECDOTES
OF
THE LIFE
OF
RICHARD WATSON,
BISHOP OF LANDAFF;
WRITTEN
BY HIMSELF AT DIFFERENT INTERVALS,
AND
REVISED IN 1814
PUBLISHED BY HIS SON,
RICHARD WATSON, LL.B.
PREBENDARY OF LANDAFF AND WELLS.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DA VIES, STRAND j
BY J. M'CREERY, BLACK-HORSE-COURT. 1817.
LIBRARY
ANECDOTES OF THE LIFE
OF
RICHARD WATSON.
BISHOP OF LANDAFF.
IT has been a custom with me, from a very early age, to put down in writing the most important events of my life, with an account of the motives which, on any occasion of moment, in- fluenced my conduct. This habit has been both pleasant and useful to me ; I have had great pleasure in preserving, as it were, my identity, by reviewing the circumstances which, under the good Providence of God, have contributed to place me in my present situation ; and a frequent examination of my principles of action has contributed to establish in me a consistency of conduct, and to confirm me, I trust, in that probity of manners in my seventy -fifth year with which I entered into the world at the age of seventeen. My health has been for several years precarious ; and the faculty have long ago left my constitution to struggle with a disorder which first seized me in 1781. The body and mind, I begin to perceive, are both of them losing their activity ; the evil days are coming on in which men usually •
B
say, there is no pleasure in them ; may I not be allowed, then, without incurring the imputation of vanity, to live, in a man- ner, an happy life (for which I am most thankful to its Au- thor) over again, by collecting and arranging some of the de- tached papers which I have written at different periods? By this means my children, when I am in my grave, may be grati- fied with knowing the character of their father; and the world, if it has any curiosity concerning him, will have an opportunity of perusing authentic, if not interesting, Memoirs of the Bishop of Landaff.
All families being of equal antiquity, and time and chance so happening to all, that kings become beggars, and beggars become kings; no solid reason, I think, can be given, why any man should derive honour or infamy from the station which his ances- tors filled in civil society ; yet the contrary opinion is so preva- lent, that no words need be employed in proving that it is so. — German and Welch pedigrees are subjects of ridicule to most Englishmen ; yet those amongst ourselves who cannot inscribe on the trunk of their genealogical tree the name of a peer, bishop, judge, general, of any person elevated above the rank of ordi- nary citizens, are still desirous of showing that they are not sprung from the dregs of the people. Without entering into a disquisition concerning the rise of this general prejudice, I freely own that I am, on this occasion, a slave to it myself. I feel a satisfaction in knowing that my ancestors, as far as I can trace them, have neither been hewers of wood, or drawers of water, but ut prisca gens mortalium — tillers of their own ground, in the idiom of the country, Statesmen.
3
1 was born at Heversham, in Westmoreland, in August, 1737. and always retained a strong partiality for the place of my nativity. My father was born at Hardendale, near Shap, in the same county, in the year 1672. His father, grandfather, great grandfather, &c. were natives of the same place ; and, according to the then sim- plicity of the times, they preserved their innocence, and main- tained their independence, by cultivating a small estate of their own. It appears from Grose's Antiquities, that, when the Mo- nastery of Shap was dissolved by Henry the Eighth, of the thir- teen monks who were in it, two had the name of Watson. These ecclesiastics were probably dedicated to the church by some of my progenitors, and I can give no further account of any of them, except I mention the tradition, that the first of the family, who settled near Shap, came from Scotland.
My grandfather's little patrimony was inherited by my father's elder brother, who died, leaving only daughters: and it is, I believe, without having suffered alienation, still in the possession of their descendants. In 1698, my father was appointed head- master of Heversham School, which he taught with great repu- tation for nearly forty years. If schoolmasters may properly be allowed to participate in the honours of those whom they have educated, the greatest honour of my father's life will be the education of Ephraim Chambers. In Heversham Church, ad- joining to the chancel, there is an inscription " In memory of " Mary, the wife of Richard Chambers, who died in the year 1684, " which Richard was father of Ephraim Chambers, author of the " celebrated Dictionary of Arts and Sciences."— I have seen among my father's papers two school-exercises, the one in Latin,
b2
the other in Greek, signed Chambers. These circumstance* render it probable that the author of the dictionary was not, as has been said of him, merely educated to qualify him for trade and commerce. There are two exhibitions (now of 50/. a year each) belonging to this school, one to Trinity College in Cam- bridge, and the other to Queen's College, Oxford. I succeeded my school-fellow Mr. Preston in the enjoyment of that to Trinity College, and when we were both of us Bishops in 1788, we agreed, at a joint expense, to repair the school-house, which was much dilapidated. I then drew up the following inscription, to be kept as a token of our regard for the place of our education, and as a tribute of respect to the memory of its pious founder, and to that of my father, under whom Mr. Preston had received his first rudiments : —
Hanc Scholam fundavit
Araplisque Reditibus annuis dotavit
Edvardus Wilson
De Heversham-Hall Armiger
MDCXIII
Elapsis centum et amplius annis
Sepe et vallo conclusit
Et circumcirca Arboribus consitis condecoravit
Thomas Watson
Ab anno 1698™ usque ad annum 1737™
OYK O TYXJ2N AIAAEKAAOZ
Vetustate tandem fere collapsam
Suis Sumptibus refici curaverunt
Ejusdem olim simul alumni
Ricardus Watson Episcopus Landavensi^
et
Gulielmus Preston Episcopus Fernen£&!
MDCCLXXXVIII
5
The success of every school depends upon the ability and industry of the master, and the reputation of this soon sunk with my father's resignation of it, which took place before I was born. I was never at any other, and have had cause, through life, to regret my not having had a better classical found- ation. It has fallen to my lot, not only to be obliged to write, but to speak Latin, and having never been taught to make Latin or Greek verses, it cost me more pains to remember whether a syllable was long or short, than it would have done to comprehend a whole section of Newton 's Principia. My mind indeed recoiled from such enquiries ; what imports it, I used to say to myself, whether Cicero would have said fortuito or fortmto — Areopagus or Areopagus? and yet I was forced to attend to such things; for a Westminster or an Eton schoolmaster would properly have thought meanly of a man who did not know them. My hands have shaken with impatience and indignation, when I have been consulting Ainsworth or Labbe about a point, which I was certain of forgetting in a month's time. But as I never could remember the face or name of a man or woman Avhose character did not strike me, so I found it difficult to impress on my memory rules of prosody which I had acquired a contempt for ; nor did this contempt arise so much from my ignorance of the subject (for I had, after leaving school, taken great pains not to be ignorant of it), as from the undue import- ance which was given to it. I was confirmed in this sentiment by observing, that the greatest adepts in syllables were not exempt from mistakes. I remember two of the best scholars in the university, Rutherforth and Sumner, in the course of a few weeks, pronouncing in the senate-house the penultimam of
paxugirqg long and short. On another occasion my friend Mr. Wilson, of Peterhouse, (afterwards one of the best black-letter judges in England,) having kept under me a very good act in the divinity schools, was censured by two great classics, Bishop of Peterborough and Dr. Symonds, for having read abolita instead of, as they thought, abotita. Even the very learned Mr. Bryant, with whom I was conversing in 1802, on the subject of man's redemption, spoke of Jesas as the fiurfriK of the new covenant ; on my expressing a doubt as to the quantity of the middle syllable, he said no more ; but on his going to Eton (that noble mart of metre) he sent me word that it ought to be pronounced pwlrm from its analogy to odTrqg, for which he had found authority. Had my father's faculties remained unimpaired till I had been sent to the University, it is probable that I should have had no occasion to lament a defective education in pro- sody, for he was esteemed an excellent grammarian, and in his time boys were prepared for the University, by being taught at school to converse in Latin. I once overheard an old man who had been his scholar say in a passion, to his
fellow-labourer, Frangam tibi caput but enough of such things :
from not being used to them in my youth, I may think of them with less respect than I ought. My father died in November, 1753, and had been afflicted much with a palsy for several years before. I have heard him ask twenty times in a day, what is the name of the lad that is at College ? (my elder brother ;) and yet he was able to repeat, without a blunder, hundreds of lines out of classic authors. This reminiscence of ideas, formerly impressed on the brain, and forgetfulness of recent ones, is no unusual cir- cumstance attending a paralysis, though our physiology is not yet
enough advanced, to enable us to account for it. Soon after the death of my father, I was sent to the University, and admitted a Sizar of Trinity College in Cambridge, on the 3d of November, 1754. I did not know a single person in the University, except my tutor, Mr. Backhouse, who had been my father's scholar, and Mr. Preston, who had been my own schoolfellow. I commenced my academic studies with great eagerness, from knowing that my future fortune was to be wholly of my own fabricating, being certain that the slender portion which my father had left to me (300/.) would be barely sufficient to carry me through my education. I had no expectations from relations ; indeed I had not a relation so near as a first cousin in the world, except my mother, and a brother and sister who were many years older than me. My mother's maiden name was Newton ; she was a very charitable and good woman, and I am indebted to her (I mention it with filial piety) for imbuing my young mind with principles of religion, which have never forsaken me. Erasmus, in his little treatise entitled Antibarbarorum, says that the safety of states depends upon three things — Upon a proper or improper edu- cation of the prince, upon public preachers, and upon school- masters ; and he might with equal reason have added, upon mothers ; for the care of the mother precedes that of the school- master, and may stamp upon the rasa tabula of the infant mind, characters of virtue and religion which no time can efface.
I had not been six months in college before a circumstance happened to me, trivial in itself and not fit to be noticed, except that it had some influence on my future life, inasmuch as it gave me a turn to metaphysical disquisition. It was then the custom
8
in Trinity College (I am sorry it is not the custom still) for all the undergraduates to attend immediately after morning prayers the college-lecturers at different tables in the hall, during term-time. The lecturers explained to their respective classes certain books, such as Puffendorf de Officio Hominis et Civis, Clarke on the At- tributes, Locke's Essay, Duncan's Logic, &c, and once a week the head-lecturer examined all the students. The question put to me by the head-lecturer was, Whether Clarke had demonstrated the absurdity of an infinite succession of changeable and dependent beings ? I answered, with blushing hesitation, Non. The head- lecturer, Brocket, with great good-nature, mingled with no small surprise, encouraged me to give my reasons for thinking so. I stammered out in barbarous Latin (for the examination was in that language), That Clarke had enquired into the origin of a series which, being from the supposition eternal, could have no origin ; and into the first term of a series which, being from the supposition infinite, could have no first. From this circumstance I was soon cried up, very undeservedly, as a great metaphysician. When four years afterwards, I took my bachelor's degree, Dr. Law, then master of Peterhouse, and one of the best metaphysicians of his time, sent for me, and desired that we might become ac- quainted. From my friendship with that excellent man, I de- rived much knowledge and liberality of sentiment in theology ; and I shall ever continue to think my early intimacy with him a fortunate event in my life.
Perceiving that the sizars were not so respectfully looked upon by the pensioners and scholars of the house, as they ought to have been, inasmuch as the most learned and leading men in the Uni-
9
versity have ever arisen from that order, (Magister artis, ingenique largitor venter) I offered myself for a scholarship a year before the usual time of the sizars sitting, and succeeded, on the 2d of May, 1757. This step increased my expenses in college, but it was attended with a great advantage. It was the occasion of my being particularly noticed by Dr. Smith, the then Master of the College. He was, from the examination he gave me, so well satisfied with the progress I had made in my studies, that out of the sixteen who were elected scholars, he appointed me to a particular scholarship (Lady Jermyn's) then vacant, and in his own disposal ; not, he said to me, as being better than other scholarships, but as a mark of his approbation ; he recommended Saundersons Fluxions, then just published, and some other mathematical books, to my perusal, and gave, in a word, a spur to my industry, and wings to my ambition.
I had, at the time of being elected a scholar, been resident in college for two years and seven months, without having gone out of it for a single day. During that period I had acquired some knowledge of Hebrew ; greatly improved myself in Greek and Latin ; made considerable proficiency in mathematics and natural philosophy ; and studied with much attention Locke's works, King's book on the Origin of Evil, Puffendorf's Treatise de Officio Hominis et Civis, and some other books on similar sub- jects ; I thought myself therefore entitled to a little relaxation : under this persuasion I set forward, May 30th, 1757, to pay my elder and only brother a visit at Kendal. He was the first curate of the new chapel there, to the structure of which he had sub- scribed liberally. He was a man of lively parts, but being
10
thrown into a situation where there was no great room for the display of his talents, and much temptation to convivial festivity, he spent his fortune, injured his constitution, and died when I was about the age of thirty-three ; leaving a considerable debt, all of which I paid immediately, though it took almost my all to do it.
My mind did not much relish the country, at least it did not relish the life I led in that country-town ; the constant reflection that I was idling away my time mixed itself with every amuse- ment, and poisoned all the pleasures I had promised myself from this visit ; I therefore took an hasty resolution of shortening it, and returned to College in the beginning of September, with a determined purpose to make my Alma Mater the mother of my fortunes. That, I well remember, was the expression I used to myself, as soon as I saw the turrets of King's College Chapel, as I was jogging on a jaded nag between Huntingdon and Cam- bridge.
I was then only a junior soph ; yet two of my acquaintance of the year below me, thought that I knew so much more of mathe- matics than they did, that they importuned me to become their private tutor. To one of them (Mr. Luther) it will be seen here- after how much I am indebted ; and with the other (Dr. Strachey) I have maintained through life an uninterrupted friendship. May I meet them both in Heaven ! I undoubtedly wished to have had my time to myself, especially till I had taken my degree ; but the narrowness of my circumstances, accompanied with a disposition to expense, or, more properly speaking, with a
11
desire to appear respectably, induced me to comply with their request. From that period, for above thirty years of my life, and as long as my health lasted, a considerable portion of my time was spent in instructing others without much instructing myself, or in presiding at disputations in philosophy or theology, from which, after a certain time, I derived little intellectual improvement.
Whilst I was an under-graduate, I kept a great deal of what is called the best company — that is of idle fellow-commoners, and other persons of fortune — but their manners never subdued my prudence ; I had strong ambition to be distinguished, and was sensible that, though wealth might plead some excuse for idleness, extravagance, and folly in others, the want of wealth could plead none for me.
When I used to be returning to my room at one or two in the morning, after spending a jolly evening, I often observed a light in the chamber of one of the same standing with myself; this never failed to excite my jealousy, and the next day was always a day of hard study. I have gone without my dinner a hundred times on such occasions. I thought I never entirely understood a proposition in any part of mathematics or natural philosophy, till I was able in a solitary walk, obstipo capite atque eocporrecto labello, to draw the scheme in my head, and go through every step of the demonstration without book or pen and paper. I found this was a very difficult task, especially in some of the perplexed schemes, and long demonstrations of the Twelfth Book of Euclid, and in UHopitaVs Conic Sections, and u\.Newtons Prin- cipia. My walks for this purpose were so frequent, that my tutor,
c 2
12
not knowing what I was about, once reproached me for being a lounger. I never gave up a difficult point in a demonstration till I had made it out proprio Marte ; I have been stopped at a single step for three days. This perseverance in accomplishing what- ever I undertook, was, during the whole of my active life, a striking feature in my character, so much so that Dr. Powell, the Master of St. John's College, said to a young man, a pupil of mine, for whom I was prosecuting an appeal which I had lodged with the visiter against the College, — " Take my advice, " sir, and go back to your curacy, for your tutor is a man " of perseverance, not to say obstinacy." After a perseverance however of nearly three years, the appeal was determined against the College ; the young man (Mr. Russel) was put in possession of the Furness Fell Fellowship, which I had claimed for him, as a propriety-fellowship ; and the college was fined 50/. for having elected another into it. It would be for the public good if all propriety-fellowships, in both Universities, were laid open ; and Dr. Powell (for whose memory I have great veneration) was, I doubt not, influenced by the same opinion, when he attempted to set aside this propriety ; Dr. Kipling, whom he had elected into it, being in ability far superior to Mr. Russel : but the legislature alone is competent to make such a change, and till it is made by proper authority, the will of every founder ought to be attended to.
But though I stuck closely to abstract studies, I did not neglect other things. I every week imposed upon myself a task of composing a theme or a declamation in Latin or English. I had great pleasure in lately finding among my papers, two of
13
these declamations, one in English, the other Latin ; there is nothing excellent in either of them, yet I cannot help valuing them, as they are not only the first of my compositions of which I have any memorial remaining, but as they show that a long commerce in the public world has only tended to confirm that political bent of my mind in favour of civil liberty, which was formed in it before I knew of what selfish and low-minded ma- terials the public world was made.
The subject of the English declamation is, " Let tribunes be granted to the Roman people ;" that of the Latin, " Sociis Italicis detur civitas ." both of them were suggested to my mind from the perusal of Vertofs Roman Revolutions, a book which accidentally fell into my hands. Were such kind of books put into the hands of kings during their boy-hood, and Tory trash at no age recommended to them, kings in their manhood would scorn to aim at arbitrary power through corrupted parliaments.
I generally studied mathematics in the morning, and classics in the afternoon ; and used to get by heart such parts of orations either in Greek or Latin as particularly pleased me. Demos- thenes was the orator, Tacitus the historian, and Perseus the satirist, whom I most admired.
I have mentioned this mode of study, not as thinking that there was any thing extraordinary in it, since there were many under-graduates then, and have always been many in the Uni- versity of Cambridge, and for aught I know, in Oxford too, who have taken greater pains. But I mention it, because I feel a
14
complacence in the recollection of days long since happily spent ; hoc est vivere bis vita posse priori frui, and indulge an hope, that the perusal of what I have written may chance to drive away the spirit of indolence and dissipation from young men ; especially from those who enter into the world with as slender a provision as I did. I will mention another circumstance, which happened to me before I took my first degree, that I may put young men upon their guard against self-sufficiency of opinion, and induce them to make, at a more mature age, a cool examination into the origin of their principles and belief.
Our opinions on many important subjects are formed as much on prejudice as on reason ; and when an opinion is once taken up, it is seldom changed, especially in matters not admitting any criterion of certainty. When I went to the University, I was of opinion, as most school-boys are, that the soul was a substance distinct from the body, and that when a man died, he, in classical phrase, breathed out his soul, animam expiravit * that it then went I knew not whither, as it had come into the body, from I knew not where, nor when; and had dwelt in the body during life, but in what part of the body it had dwelt I knew not. So deep-rooted was this notion of the flight of the soul somewhither after death, as well as of its having existed some- where before birth, that I perfectly well remember having much puzzled my childish apprehension, before I was twelve years old, with asking myself this question, — Had I not been the son of Mr. and Mrs. Watson, whose son should I have been ? The question itself was suggested in consequence of my being out of humour, at some slight correction which I had received from
15
my mother. This notion of the soul was, without doubt, the offspring of prejudice and ignorance, and I must own that my knowledge of the nature of the soul is much the same now that it was then. I have read volumes on the subject, but I have no scruple in saying, that I know nothing about it.
Believing as I do in the truth of the Christian religion, which teaches that men are accountable for their actions, I trouble not myself with dark disquisitions concerning necessity and liberty, matter and spirit ; hoping as I do for eternal life through Jesus Christ, I am not disturbed at my inability clearly to convince myself that the soul is, or is not, a substance distinct from the body. The truth of the Christian religion depends upon testi- mony ; now man is competent to judge of the weight of testi- mony, though he is not able I think fully to investigate the nature of the soul ; and I consider the testimony concerning the resurrection of Jesus (and that fact is the corner-stone of the Christian church) to be worthy of entire credit. I probably should never have fallen into this scepticism on so great a point, but should have lived and died with my school-boy's faith, had I not been obliged as an opponent, in the philosophical schools at Cambridge in 1758, to find arguments against the question ; Anima est sua naturd immortalis — in turning over a great majiy books in search of arguments against this natural immortality of the soul, I met with an account (I do not know in what author, but there is the same, or a similar one mentioned in the French Encyclopedie not then published, art. Mort9) of a man who came to life after having been for six weeks under water. This account, whether true or false, suggested to me a doubt concerning the
16
soul's being, as I had till then without the least hesitation con- ceived it to be, not a mere quality of the body, but a substance different in kind from it. I thought one might in some measure account for the restitution of motion and life, to a body considered as a machine, whose motions had been stopped without its fabric being destroyed ; but I could not apprehend the possibility of recalling a soul which had left the body, with its last expiration, for the space of six weeks. I mention not this with a view of supporting the materiality of the soul, or the contrary, but merely to show upon what trifling circumstances our opinions are fre- quently formed; — a consideration this, which should teach us all to speak with candour of those who happen to differ from us, and to abate in ourselves that dogmatising spirit, which often impels learned men to impose on others their own inveterate prejudices as incontrovertible truths.
I argued with myself at that time, when I was fond of such speculations, in the following manner : — A table is matter, and a tree is matter ; but the matter of the table is different from that of the tree which furnished the wood from which the table was made. A tree is living matter, and a table is dead matter ; life then, in whatever it may be supposed to consist, is that which constitutes an essential difference between a table and a tree. Again, a tree is matter, and an oyster is matter, and both of them are living matter ; yet the matter of the tree is different from that of the oyster : the matter of the tree being only (as is generally supposed) living matter, whilst that of the oyster is not only liv- ing but percipient matter ; percepticity then, however it may be produced, is that which constitutes an essential difference between
17
an oyster and a tree. Again, an oyster is matter, and a man is matter, and both of them are percipient matter; yet the matter of the oyster is different from the matter of the man, the matter of the oyster being only (as is generally supposed) percipient matter, whilst that of a man is not only per- cipient but thinking matter; the faculty of thinking, then, however it may be produced, is that which constitutes an essential difference between a man and an oyster. The essential properties of extension, solidity, mobility, divisibility, and inac- tivity, are common properties belonging equally to the table, the tree, the oyster, and the man ; but to these common properties are added to the matter of the tree, life ; to that of the oyster, life and perceptivity ; to that of the man, life, perceptivity, and thought. Whether life can exist without perceptivity, or per- ceptivity without thought, are subtle questions, not admitting, perhaps, in our present state, a positive and clear decision either way. Physical and metaphysical difficulties present themselves on every subject, and ultimately baffle all our attempts to pene- trate the darkness in which the Divine Mind envelopes his operations of nature and grace. " Hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labour do we find out the things that are before us, but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out ?" (Wisd. of Sol. ix. 16.)
In January, 1759, I took my Bachelor of Arts' degree. The taking of this first degree is a great asra in academic life ; it is that to which all the under-graduates of talents and diligence direct their attention. There is no seminary of learning in
D
t»
18
Europe in which youth are more zealous to excel during the first years of their education than in the University of Cambridge. This observation, however, is true only concerning those who are obliged to take their Bachelor of Arts' degree, and at the usual time ; the rest being stimulated by no prospect of honour, may chance, indeed, to excel ; but by a foolish custom of the Uni- versity their genius is neglected ; they are neither impelled by the fear of shame, nor the hope of glory, resulting from scholastic exertion.
I was the second wrangler of my year, the leading moderator having made a person of his own College, and one of his private pupils, the "first, in direct opposition to the general sense of the examiners in the Senate House, who declared in my favour. The injustice which was then done me was remembered as long as I lived in the University ; and the talk about it at the time did me more service than if I had been made senior wrangler. Our old master sent for me, and told me not to be discouraged, for that when the Johnians had the disposal of the honours, the second wrangler was always looked upon as the first.
There was more room for partiality in the distribution of honours, not only with respect to St. John's, but other Colleges, then, than there is now ; and I attribute the change, in a great degree, to an alteration which I introduced the first year I was moderator, and which has been persevered in ever since.
At the time of taking their Bachelor of Arts' degree, the young
19
men are examined in classes, and the classes are now formed according to the abilities shown by individuals in the schools. By this arrangement, persons of nearly equal merits are examined in the presence of each other, and flagrant acts of partiality cannot take place. Before I made this alteration, they were examined in classes, but the classes consisted of members of the same College, and the best and the worst were often examined together.
The first year I was moderator, Mr. Paley (afterwards known to the world by many excellent productions, though there are some ethical and some political principles in his philosophy which I by no means approve,) and Mr. Frere, a gentleman of Norfolk, were examined together. A report prevailed, that Mr. Frere's grandfather would give him a thousand pounds, if he were senior wrangler : the other moderator agreed with me in thinking, that Mr. Paley was his superior, and we made him senior wrangler. Mr. Frere, much to his honour, on an imputation of partiality being thrown on my colleague and myself, publicly acknow- ledged, that he deserved only the second place ; a declaration which could never have been made, had they not been examined in the presence of each other.
.
Paley, I remember, had brought me for one of the questions he meant for his act, JEternitas pcenarum contradicit Divinis attri- butis. I had accepted it ; and indeed I never refused a question either as moderator or as professor of divinity. A few days afterwards, he came to me in a great fright, saying, that the
d 2
20
master of his College (Dr. Thomas, Dean of Ely,) had sent to him, and insisted on his not keeping on such a question. I rea- dily permitted him to change it, and told him, that if it would lessen his master's apprehensions, he might put in non9 before contradicit, and he did so. Dr. Thomas, I had little doubt, was afraid of being looked upon as an heretic at Lambeth, for suffer- ing a member of his college to dispute on such a question, notwithstanding what Tillotson had published on the subject many years before.
It is, however, a subject of great difficulty. It is allowed on all hands that the happiness of the righteous will be, strictly speak- ing, everlasting ; and I cannot see the justness of that criticism which would interpret the same word in the same verse in diffe- rent senses. " And these shall go away into everlasting punish- ment, but the righteous into everlasting life." Mat. xxv. 46. On the other hand, reason is shocked at the idea of God being considered as a relentless tyrant, inflicting everlasting punish- ment, which answers no benevolent end. But how is it proved that the everlasting punishment of the wicked may not answer a benevolent end, may not be the mean of keeping the righteous in everlasting holiness and obedience? How is it proved that it may not answer, in some other way unknown to us, a benevolent end in promoting God's moral government of the universe f
In September, 1759, I sat for a fellowship: at that time there never had been an instance of a Fellow being elected from among
21
the Junior Bachelors. The master told me this as an apology for my not being then elected, and bade me be contented till the next year. On the first of October, 1760, I was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, and put over the head of two of my seniors of the same year, who were however elected the next year. The old master, whose memory I have ever revered, when he had done examining me, paid me this compliment, which was from him a great one, — " You have done your duty to the College, it remains for the College to do theirs to you." I was elected the next day, and became assistant tutor to Mr. Backhouse in the following November. ■
About the same time I was offered by the Vice-Chancellor the curacy of Clermont, and advised to accept it, as it would give me an opportunity of recommending myself to the Duke of New- castle, then Chancellor of the University : but then and always prizing my independence above all prospects, I declined accepting the offer. I might also soon after have gone chaplain to the Factory at Bencoolen, and I would have gone, but that I wanted several months of being able to take priest's orders. The master of the College hearing of my intention sent for me, and insisted on my abandoning my design, adding, in the most obliging manner, " You are far too good to die of drinking punch in the torrid zone." I had then great spirits, and by learning, as I purposed, the Persian and Arabic languages, should probably have continued but a short time chaplain to the Factory. I have thanked God for being disappointed of an opportunity of becom- ing an Asiatic plunderer. I might not have been able to resist
22
the temptation of wealth and power to which so many of my countrymen have unhappily yielded in India.
I took my Master of Arts' degree at the commencement in 1762, and was made Moderator for Trinity College in the following October. I look upon the office of Moderator to be the most difficult to execute, and the most important to the interests of the University, when well executed, of any that there is, not excepting the Professorship of Divinity itself. If in any thing we are superior to Oxford, it is in this, that our. scholastic disputations in philosophy and theology are supported with seriousness and solemnity. An evil custom has, within these few years, been introduced into the University, which will in its consequences destroy our superiority over Oxford, and leave our scholastic exercises in as miserable a state as theirs have long been. It is the custom of dining late. When I was admitted, and for many years after, every College dined at twelve o'clock, and the students after dinner flocked to the philo- sophical disputations, which began at two. If the schools either of philosophy or divinity shall ever be generally destitute of an audience, there will be an end of all scholastic exertion. I re- member having seen the divinity-schools (when the best act (by Coulthurst and Milner — Arcades atnbo) was keeping that I ever presided at, and which might justly be called a real academic entertainment,) filled with auditors from the top to the bottom ; but as soon as the clock struck three, a number of masters of arts belonging to colleges which dined at three slunk away from this intellectual feast ; and they were followed, as might have been expected, by many under-graduates, — I say as might have been
23
expected, for in all seminaries of education, relaxation of disci- pline begins with the seniors of the society.
Some persons may contend that scholastic exercises are of no use ; I think very differently ; but without entering into any dis- cussion on the subject, I will content myself with putting down some of the questions which were subjects of disputation in the Sophs school, in 1762. There is no one, I believe, who has a proper knowledge of these questions, but must be sensible of the utility of having young men's minds occupied in the study of such subjects. I have transcribed the questions from the Moderator's book for 1762, which I happen to have in my possession. .
Objectiones in Algorithmum fluxionum quales ab analysta propo* nuntur falsis innituntur principiis f
Methodus primarum ac ultimarum rationum a Newtono adhibita est sana methodus ratiocinandi, et a methodo indivisibilium prorsus distincta?
Recte statuit Newtonus de motu corporum, in orbibus mobilibus versus antrum immotum attractorum f
Si corpus urgeatur motu projectili, et vi centripeta variante in reciproca duplicata ratione distantice, movebitur in aliqua sectionum conicarum, umbilicum habente in centro viriumf
Motus planetarum omnium solvi possint ex theoria gravitatis ?
Recte statuit Newtonus de motuum Lunarium incequalibus ?
Generalia cestuum phenomena solvi possint ex theoria gravi- tatis ?
Theoria Newtoniana de caudis cometicis est admittenda f
24
Moius aquce e foramine quant minimo in fundo vasts cylindrici
uniformiter prosilientis, recte definivit Newtonus t
Pulsibus per Jluidum propagatis singulas Jluidi particulas motu
reciproco brevissimo euntes ac redeuntes, accelerari semper et retar-
dari pro lege penduli in cycloide moventis non demonstravit
Newtonus f
Pulsibus, SfC. ut in antecedente propositione recte demonstravit
Newtonus f
Aberrationes stellarum fixarum solvi possint ex motu lucis progres-
sivo et motu telluris in orbitu sua ?
Momenta corporum sunt ut velocitates et quantitates materice
conjunctim f
Perforata tellure corpus intra earn movens, eadem lege acceleratur
et retardatur, qua pendulum vibrans in cycloide f
Phcenomina ventorum tropicorum solvi possint ex rotatione telluris
circa proprium axem, et motu puncti maxime rarefacti P
Cursus ventorum inter tropicos spirantium solvitur ab Hadleio f
Prqjectilia, amota medii resistentia, describunt parabolas f
Phcenomina terrce motuum solvi possint ab ignibus subterraneis f
Vibrationes ejusdem penduli in cycloide sunt IsochroncB f
Lunce horizontalis phenomenon nondum solvitur f
Lunce horizontalis phenomenon solvitur a Smithio f
Systema Copernicanum est verum mundi systema ?
Recte statuit Halleius de origine fontium f
Motus solis circa proprium axem ex motu ejus macularum colligi
potest ?
Recte statuit Jurinus de tubis capilaribus simplicibus f Phenomenon mercurii in barometro solvi potest ex gravitate et
elasticitate aeris ?
25
Datur in rerum natura necessaria connexio inter judicia nostra de variis distantiis ejusdem visibilis objecti, et distantias ipsas ?
Non datur in rerum, fyc. ut in anteced.
Dei existentia probari potest ex eo quod est motus f
JDeus ultimus est et auctor et conservator motus ?
Ordo mundi probat Deum ?
Dei existentia non admittit demonstrationem a priori f
Absurditatem in/initce seriei entium dependentium non satis demon- stravit Clarkius f
Omnia Dei moralia attributa ad unam ejus sapientiam rede possint referri f
Jus Dei in creaturas non solum fundatur in irresistibili ejus potentia ?
Origo mali moralis solvi potest salvis Dei attributis f
JEternitas paenarum non contradicit Divinis attributis t
Prcescientia Divina non tollit libertatem agendi f
Status futurus colligi potest ex lumine naturce P
Status futurus non, $-c. ut in anteced.
Recte statuit Humius statum futurum non colligi posse ex Dei justitia f
Sublato statu futuro, nulla manet ad virtutem obligatio f
Sublato statu futuro, manet ad virtutem obligatio f
Datur sensus innatus moralis ?
Non datur sensus innatus moralis ?
Recte statuit Lockius de humana libertate f
Non recte statuit Lockius de humana libertate ?
Voluntas non determinatur ab extra f
Moralis scientia demonstrationis est capax ?
Recte statuit Berkleius de principiis humance scientice f
E
26
Spatium non est aliqmd reale ?
Non dantur abstracts idete ?
Reales essentia rerum, re vera exist entium nobis ignota sunt f
Imperium civile oritur ex pactis f
Omnes homines sunt natura equates f
Jus servitutis nonfundatur in rerum natura f
Homines a muneribus publicis non recte excluduntur ob religiosas opmiones f
Homines qui dissentiunt a religione lege stabilita muneribus publicis jure repelluntur f
Rationi consentaneum est et reipublicce prodest, ut nemini pcena mfligatur ob religiosas opiniones f
Supremo magistratui resistere licet, si respublica aliter servari nequit f
Jus non competit civitati in vitas subditorum ?
Juri gentium repugnat ut medii bellicosas apparatus gentibus bellum gerentibus suppeditent f
Licet principi subditos alienos contra gravem et manifestam injuriam defendere f
Contra crescentem potentiam quce minimum aucta nocere possit non licet arma sumere ?
Leges in civitate quce monomachiam prohibent recte instituuntur ?
Clamores populi libertatem stabiliorem reddunt f
Libertas imprimendi in Anglicano imperio est admittenda ?
Recte statuit Lockius de distinctis jidei et rationis provinciis ?
Privata f elicit as est uUimus moralium actionum Jinis f
Formalis ratio virtutis consistit in conformitate ad Dei voluntatem ?
In res quce singulorum sunt propria jus omnibus competit extremce necessitatis ?
27
Ex prcesenti rerum statu, morale Dei imperium colligi potest ? Idece immediata voluntatis actione excitari non possunt ? Phcenomena somniorum explicari nequeunt ex materia et motu 9 Phcenomena somniorum solvuntur ab ideis nuper receptis a statu corporis, et ab idearum associatione f Anima est immaterialis f
These specimens of the questions which engaged the attention of our young men above half a century ago, may be sufficient to give a proper idea of the importance of scholastic exercises, as one mean of a good education. The depths of science, and the liberality of principles in which the University of Cambridge initiates her sons, would, had he been acquainted with them, have extorted praise from Mr. Gibbon himself.
In the end of the year 1763, I was again appointed Moderator, in the room of a person of St. John's College, who, after a trial of presiding in the schools for the first term, had resigned through infirmity.
On the 12th of February, 1764, I received a letter informing me that a separation had taken place between my friend Mr. Luther, then one of the Members for Essex, and his wife, and that he was gone hastily abroad. My heart was ever warm in friendship, and it ordered me, on this occasion, to follow my friend. I saw he was deserted and unhappy, and I flew to give him, if possible, some consolation. I set off from Cambridge on the same day I had received the account. I could read, but I could not speak a word of French ; I had no servant nor any money ; I presently
e 2
28
borrowed fifty pounds, and bought a French and English Dictionary, and thus equipped, I went post to Dover, without so much as knowing whether my friend was gone to France, and from thence, almost without sleeping, I got to Paris and enquired him out. — The meeting was such as might have been expected. I did not stay above twelve hours in Paris, but immediately returned to England, and, after a variety of accidents and great fatigue, for I crossed the Channel four times, and travelled twelve hundred miles in very bad weather in a fortnight, I brought my friend back to his country and his family. His appearance in the House of Commons instantly quashed all the injurious reports which, from his hasty manner of leaving the country, scandal had raised to his disadvantage. He was a thorough honest man, and one of the friends I ever loved with the greatest affection. His temper was warm, and his wife (a very deserving woman) had been over-per- suaded to marry him, — had she loved him as he loved her, she would have borne with his infirmity of temper. Great are the public evils, and little the private comforts attending interested marriages ; when they become general, they not only portend but bring on a nation's ruin.
In October, 1764, I was made Moderator for Christ's College. On the 19th of the following November, on the death of Dr. Hadley, I was unanimously elected by the Senate, assembled in full congregation, Professor of Chemistry. An eminent physician in London had expressed a wish to succeed Dr. Hadley, but on my signifying to him that it was my intention to read chemical lectures in the University, he declined the contest. At the time this honour was conferred upon me, I knew nothing at all of
29
Chemistry, had never read a syllable on the subject ; nor seen a single experiment in it; but I was tired with mathematics and natural philosophy, and the vehementissima gloria cupido stimulated me to try my strength in a new pursuit, and the kindness of the University (it was always kind to me) animated me to very extra- ordinary exertions. I sent immediately after my election for an operator to Paris ; I buried myself as it were in my laboratory, at least as much as my other avocations would permit ; and in fourteen months from my election, I read a course of chemical lectures to a very full audience, consisting of persons of all ages and degrees, in the University. I read another course in November, 1766, and was made Moderator, for the fourth time, in October, 1765.
In January every year, when the Bachelors of Arts take their degrees, one of the two Moderators makes a sort of speech in Latin to the Senate ; I made this speech three times : the last was in 1766. I had, in a former speech, taken the liberty to mention, with great freedom, some defects in the University education, especially with respect to Noblemen and Fellow-Commoners ; and without hinting the abolition of the orders, strongly insisted on the propriety of obliging them to keep exercises in the schools, as the other candidates for degrees did. In this last speech I re- commended the instituting public annual examinations, in pre- scribed books, of all the orders of students in the University. I mentioned also the necessity of allowing more time for the ex- amination, and of appointing more examiners, and of particularly distinguishing, by separate honours, the best proficients in the several branches of science ; that those who could not excel in the
30
abstract sciences, or natural philosophy, might have some chance for distinction in ethics and metaphysics.
In the year 1774, the subject of annual examinations of all the students was brought forward by a very honest and intelligent, but unpopular man, Mr. Jebb, who had been Moderator with me some years before. A Syndicate (Committee) was appointed by the Senate to draw up a system of regulations for the introduction of annual examinations. The Duke of Grafton, as Chancellor of the University, was consulted, and gave an unequivocal approbation of the design. The Syndicate met several times at the Vice-Chan- cellor's, where the subject was discussed with great diligence and good temper. In a few weeks the regulations which had been drawn up by the Syndics were proposed to the Senate, and were rejected by the Non Regent House, 47 against 43. From what I personally knew of the tempers of the principal opposers of the measure, I had the greatest reason to suspect, that they were actuated by littlenesses of mind, respecting their dislike of any thing brought forward by Mr. Jebb, respecting their not having been previously consulted, not having been included in the Syn- dicate, &c, more than by any solid ground of disapprobation to the measure itself. An account of the regulations, and of the principal persons who supported them, may be seen in Dr. Jebb's works* and in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1774.
There was no stipend annexed to the Professorship of Chemistry, nor anything furnished to the Professor by the University, except a room to read lectures in. I was told that the Professors of Chemistry in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Stockholm, &c, were supported by their
31
respective monarchs ; and I knew that the reading a course of lectures would every year be attended with a great expense ; and being very hearty in the design of recommending chemistry to the attention of the youth of the University and of the country, I thought myself justified in applying to the minister for a stipend from the Crown. Lord Rockingham was then Minister (1766), and Mr. Luther, who had lately spent above twenty thousand pounds in establishing the Whig interest in Essex, undertook to ask for it. Though an hundred a year, given for the encourage- ment of science, is but as a drop in the ocean, when compared with the enormous sums lavished in unmerited pensions, lucrative sinecure places, and scandalous jobs? by every Minister on his flatterers and dependants, in order to secure his majorities in Parliament, yet I obtained this drop with difficulty, and, unless, the voice of a member of Parliament had seconded my petition, X doubt whether I should have succeeded. I sent up to the Duke of Newcastle, Chancellor of the University, a testimonial from the Vice-Chancellor, that I had read with credit a course of che- mical lectures ; and that a chemical establishment would be highly useful to the University ; together with this testimonial, I sent my petition to Lord Rockingham, requesting the Duke to pres6nt it to him.
The petition was presented in March, but I heard nothing about it till the July following ; when, waiting upon the Duke of Newcastle, he asked if my business was done ? I answered, iVb, and that I thought it never would be done. I own I had been so much vexed at the delay, that I was very indifferent whether it ever was done or not, and therefore answered with more firmness than
32
the old man had been used to. He then asked why it had not been done. My answer was, " Because Lord Rockingham says Your Grace ought to speak to the King, as Chancellor of the University ; and Your Grace says, that Lord Rockingham ought to speak to the King, as Minister." He stared at me with asto- nishment ; and, calling for paper, he instantly wrote a letter, and sealing it with his own seal, ordered me to go with it imme- diately to Lord Rockingham, who had a levee that day. I did so, (and it was the only time in my life that I ever attended a minister's levee,) and sent in my letter, before the levee began. I understood it was whispered, that Lord Rockingham and the Whigs were to go out of administration ; and it was so : for their dismission was settled that day. Lord Rockingham, however, undertook to ask the King ; and, apologizing for not having done it sooner, offered in a very polite manner to have the stipend (I asked only for 100/. a year,) settled upon me for life. This I refused, and desired to have it only whilst I continued Professor of Chemistry, and discharged the duty of the office.
The ice being thus broken by me, similar stipends have been since procured from the Crown, for the Professors of Anatomy and Botany, and for the recently established Professor of Com- mon Law. The University is now much richer than it was in 1766 ; and it would become its dignity, I think, to thank the King for his indulgence, and to pay in future its unendowed Pro- fessors without having recourse to the public purse ; not that I feel the least reluctance to dipping into the public purse for such a purpose, but I feel something for the independence of the University.
S3
In October, 1767, I became one of the Head Tutors in Tri- nity College, in the room of Mr. Backhouse, who resigned his pupils to me. I thought this an high trust, and was conscien- tiously diligent in the discharge of it, during the short time I held this important office.
In this, and the two following years, I read Chemical Lectures to very crowded audiences, in the month of November. I now look back with a kind of terror at the application I used in the younger part of my life. For months and years together I fre- quently read three public lectures in Trinity College, beginning at eight o'clock in the morning; spent four or five hours with private pupils, and five or six more in my laboratory, every day, besides the incidental business of presiding in the Sophs schools. Had so much pains and time been dedicated to Greek and He- brew, and to what are called learned subjects, what tiresome collations of manuscripts, what argute emendations of text, what jejune criticisms, what dull dissertations, what ponderous logo- machies might have been produced, and left to sleep on the same shelves with bulky systems of German divinity in the libra- ries of Universities ! ! 1
In 1768, I composed and printed my Institutiones Metallur- gicce, and designed to have given a scientific form to chemistry, by digesting into a connected series of propositions, (after the manner of Rutherforth's Propositions, a book then held deserv- edly in high estimation in the University, though now scarcely heard of,) what was then certainly established by experiment in every branch of it.
34
Much about the same time, 1 sent a paper to the Royal Society, respecting various phenomena attending the solutions of salts, and was unanimously elected a Fellow of that illustrious body.
In 1769, I preached an Assize Sermon at Cambridge, and was desired by the Judge to publish it. This being the first of my publications, (for my Metallurgic Institutes were not published,) I dedicated it to the only person to whom I owed any obligation, Mr. Luther. I made it a rule never to dedicate to those from whom I expected favours, but to those only from whom I had received them. The dedication of my Collection of Theological Tracts to the Queen did not come under either of these descrip- tions ; it proceeded from the opinion I then entertained of her merit, as a wife and a mother. At the time this sermon was preached, government was greatly relaxed ; and mobs, which I ever detested, thinking senseless popularity beneath the notice of genuine Whiggism, were very rife in favour of Mr. Wilkes. But though I disliked Mr. Wilkes's mobs, I did not dislike his cause, judging that the constitution was violated in the treatment he received both from the King's ministers, and the House of Com- mons. His case not only made a great noise at home, but was much bruited abroad ; in cloisters, as well as in courts ; amongst monks, as well as politicians. I happened to be at Paris about that time ; and the only question which I was asked by a Carthu- sian monk, who showed me his monastery, was, whether Mon- sieur Vilkes, or the King, had got the better.
In October, 1771, when I was preparing for another course of
35
chemistry, and printing a new chemical syllabus, Dr. Rutherforth, Regius Professor of Divinity, died. This Professorship, as being one of the most arduous and honourable offices in the University, had long been the secret object of my ambition ; I had for years determined in my own mind to endeavour to succeed Dr. Ruther- forth, provided he lived till I was of a proper age, and fully qua- lified for the undertaking. His premature and unexpected death quite disheartened me. I knew as much of divinity as could rea- sonably be expected from a man whose course of studies had been directed to, and whose time had been fully occupied in other pursuits ; but with this curta supellex in theology to take possession of the first professional chair in Europe, seemed too daring an at- tempt even for my intrepidity.
However, not being of a temper to be discouraged by diffi- culties, and not observing that any men of distinguished talents stood forth as candidates for the professorship, except Dr. Gor- don, and thinking that I would labour night and day till I was qualified for the office, if I were appointed to it, and knowing that 1 was sufficiently versed in dialectics, from having presided many years in the philosophical schools, I determined to sound the University, and if I found the general sense of the body favourable to my pretensions, to become a candidate. I soon was informed from many different quarters, that the University expected I should come forward ; so far was it from being dis- pleased at what I myself considered as a bold proceeding. Even Dr. Powell, (who was not very partial to me from my having carried an appeal against his College,) on my apologizing to him for offering myself as a candidate at so early an age, said,
F 2
36
" that it would indeed have been great presumption in any other person of my age in the University, but that it was none in me." Before 1 publickly declared my intention of becoming a candidate, I waited upon Dr. Ogden, with whom I was well acquainted, and whom I considered as the fittest person in the University to suc- ceed to the vacant office, and pressed him to come forward, as- suring him that if he would do so, he should not have me for a competitor ; he gave me no decisive answer at that time, but on the morning of the day before that appointed for the examination of the candidates, I received from him the following note :
i " After so much civility and even kindness on the side of Dr.
" Watson, and so much delay on mine, I am both sorry and
" ashamed not to send him yet a decisive answer. It is not that
" I conceal my resolution from him, but that I have not taken
" any. I intend to send him another note either to night or to-
" morrow-morning, and hope, but dare not say that I shall be
" more explicit.
" S. O."
I returned by the messenger the annexed answer :
" Mr. Watson can only repeat his wishes to see the Divinity- " chair filled by Dr. Ogden, and begs that he would in every " thing consult his own interest and inclination. Mr. Watson " will thank Dr. Ogden, if he comes to any resolution, for the " favour of a note, for he does not mean to present himself to the ?' electors to-morrow if Dr. Ogden is a candidate."
37
About ten o'clock in the evening of the same day I received from him the following very characteristic note : —
" I have behaved to you like a scoundrel by my indecision, but " I will not appear in the schools to-morrow."
I afterwards was informed that Dr. Ogden hoped the electors would have offered him the professorship, and that he waited to the last moment in expectation of their doing so. This trans- action occasioned no coolness between him and me, for I had a great regard for him, and when I sent him, a week or two after, the chemical syllabus which I was then printing, he favoured me with another of his pithy laconisms : Provinciam quam nactus es sic orna.
I was not, when Dr. Rutherforth died, either Bachelor or Doc- tor in Divinity, and without being one of them I could not be- come a candidate for the professorship. This puzzled me for a moment ; I had only seven days to transact the business in ; but by hard travelling and some adroitness I accomplished my pur- pose, obtained the King's mandate for a Doctor's degree, and was created a Doctor on the day previous to that appointed for the examination of the candidates. On that day I appeared before the electors assembled in the law-schools, and had two subjects given to write upon. The reconciliation of the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, and the interpretation of the passage, « What " shall they do which are baptized for the dead ?" 1 Cor. xv. 29.
Dr. Gordon also appeared, made some objection to the forma-
38
lity of the proceedings, and on that account refused being exa- mined. I delivered to the electors, at three o'clock on the same day, what I had written in Latin on the two subjects. They then appointed me another subject : — " These are the families of the " sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations : and by " these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood," Gen. x. 32; on which I was to read a Latin dissertation of an hour in length, in the divinity-schools, on that day fortnight.
I read my dissertation at the appointed time and place, and was unanimously elected the day following. On the 14th of the ensuing November I took the chair, made a long inauguration speech, and presided at my first act in the presence of a numerous audience.
Thus did I, by hard and incessant labour for seventeen years, attain, at the age of thirty-four, the first office for honour in the University; and, exclusive of the Mastership of Trinity College, I have made it the first for profit. I found the Professorship not worth quite 330/. a-year, and it is now worth 1000/. at the least.
On being raised to this distinguished office, I immediately applied myself with great eagerness to the study of divinity. Eagerness, indeed, in the pursuit of knowledge was a part of my temper, till the acquisition of knowledge was attended with nothing but the neglect of the King and his ministers ; and I feel by a broken constitution at this hour, the effects of that literary diligence with which I laboured for a great many years.
39
I reduced the study of divinity into as narrow a compass as I could, for I determined to study nothing but my Bible, being much unconcerned about the opinions of councils, fathers, churches, bishops, and other men, as little inspired as myself. This mode of proceeding being opposite to the general one, and especially to that of the Master of Peterhouse, who was a great reader, he used to call me uvrohduxrog, the self-taught divine. — The Professor of Divinity had been nick-named Malleus Hcereti- corum ; it was thought to be his duty to demolish every opinion which militated against what is called the orthodoxy of the Church of England. Now my mind was wholly unbiassed; I had no prejudice against, no predilection for the Church of England; but a sincere regard for the Church of Christ, and an insuperable objection to every degree of dogmatical intolerance. I never troubled myself with answering any arguments which the oppo- nents in the divinity schools brought against the articles of the church, nor ever admitted their authority as decisive of a diffi- culty ; but 1 used on such occasions to say to them, holding the New Testament in my hand, En sacrum codicem! Here is the fountain of truth, why do you follow the streams derived from it by the sophistry, or polluted by the passions of man ? If you can bring proofs against any thing delivered in this book, I shall think it my duty to reply to you ; articles of churches are not of divine authority ; have done with them ; for they may be true, they may be false ; and appeal to the book itself. This mode of disputing gained me no credit with the hierarchy, but I thought it an honest one, and it produced a liberal spirit in the University. — In the course of this year (1771) I had printed an essay on the subject of chemistry, and given it to a few of myfriends; by
40
some means or other it fell into the hands of the authors of the Journal Encyclope'dique ; who, in giving an account of it said, that I had followed the author of the Systbne de la Nature. I wrote but indifferent French ; I ventured, however, to send them the follow- ing letter : —
" Messieurs, " Je suis tres flatte par la critique que vous avez faite sur mon Essai de Chymie. II auroit ete suivi de plusieurs autres plus interessans peut-etre, et plus dignes de votre attention, si mon elevation a la Chaire Theologique n'avoit pas interrompue mes speculations sur la Chymie et la Physique. Mais permettez, je vous en prie, a ce petit enfant d'appartenir a moi seul, comme a son pere. Je l'estimerois indigne de mes soins, et je l'abandonne- rois sans regret, s'il n'etoit, vraisemblablement, le dernier gage de mon amour pour la Physique qui verra la lumiere. Sur l'honneur d'un amateur des sciences, je n'ai jamais lu ni vu le Systeme de la Nature, ni quelque autre livre sur le sujet de mon essai.
? J'ai l'honneur d'etre, &c.
" R. Watson."
In a following journal this letter was published, and an apology was made for the mistake they had fallen into in their criticism. Before I ventured to publish this piece, I submitted it for his advice to the perusal of my friend Dr. Law, and he returned it to me with this note : " Publish, Meo Periculo (pmavra (rvnromv."
In 1772, I published two short letters to the Members of the House of Commons, under the feigned name of a Christian
41
Whig, and put myself to the expense of giving a copy of the first to every member of the House, the day before the clerical petition was taken into their consideration. I was then, and at all times a great admirer of the integrity and ability of Sir George Saville ; and without acquainting him with my purpose, I took the liberty of inscribing to him the second letter in the follow- ing terms : — "A stranger to the person of Sir George Saville inscribes this tract to his character." In 1773, upon maturely weighing the question concerning the abstract right which a national church may claim of requiring subscription to human articles of faith from its public ministers, I published a small tract entitled, " A brief State of the Principles of Church Autho- rity." When I visited my diocese in June, 1813, I read it ver- batim to my clergy as my charge to them, and was requested by them to publish it, with the following preface:
" A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Llandaff. " Reverend Brethren,
" It is not unknown, I presume, to many amongst you, that I have been your Bishop for above thirty years ; but it cannot be known by any of you that nine years before I became Bishop of Llandaff, I published in London a short anonymous tract entitled, ' A brief State of the Principles of Church Au- thority.'
" A desire of settling my own opinions on some important points, was my sole motive for then making that publication ; few of you, I believe, have ever met with it, and fewer pro- bably of those who have formerly met with it, have ever perused it, and not one perhaps of those who may formerly
42
have perused it, now recollects its contents. Under such cir- cumstances I do not deem it necessary to make any apology for introducing it at present to your consideration. The sub- ject of it demands the most dispassionate discussion at all times, and especially at this time, when such subjects are much agi- tated, and I trust always agitated with candour and liberality by both Churchmen and Dissenters of different denominations."
f! Appendix to the ' Brief State.9 — In this tract it is said that every church has a right of explaining to its ministers what doctrines it holds, and of permitting none to minister in it who do not profess the same belief with itself. This conclusion has been thought by some whose judgment I greatly esteem to be erroneous, and I have been advised by them many years ago to reconsider the reasoning from which it is deduced. I have re- considered the whole pamphlet, and must own that I cannot perceive any false reasoning in any part of it. I am sensible, however, that the mind of man, when it has once come to a con- clusion on any subject is apt, in every subsequent examination of it, to give too much weight to the arguments by which the con- clusion is established, and too little to those by which it is opposed, and I am far from being confident that my mind, in reviewing this subject, is free from the general infirmity. I may still be in an error ; and if I am, I earnestly request you, my Reverend Brethren, to believe that it is an error perfectly invo- luntary : I have not been betrayed into it from a design or a desire of saying any thing in support of the Established Church beyond or beside what I thought true with respect to every other voluntary assembly of Christians associated for divine worship.
43
Whether the majority of the members of any civil community have a right to compel all the members of it to pay towards the maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by the majority, to preach a particular system of doctrines, is a question which might admit a serious discussion. I was once of opinion, that the majority had this right in all cases, and I am still of opinion that they have it in many. But I am staggered when I consider that a case may happen, in which the established religion may be the religion of a minority of the people, that minority, at the same time, possessing a majority of the property, out of which the ministers of the establishment are to be paid."
My sentiments as to the expediency of requiring from the ministers of the Established Church a subscription to the present articles of religion, or to any human confession of faith, further than a declaration of belief in the Scriptures, as containing a revelation of the will of God, may be collected from what I have said in the two pamphlets subscribed " A Christian Whig," and " A consistent Protestant." These tracts were well received by the world; but detesting controversy, I never owned them. They were composed more from my own reflections on the subject, than from adverting to what others had said upon it. I have since had satisfaction in finding, that my thoughts on many points, both religious and civil, were in perfect coincidence with those of Bishop Hoadley ; and I glory in this, notwith- standing the abuse that eminent prelate experienced in his own time, and notwithstanding he has been in our time sarcastically called, and what is worse, injuriously called by Bishop Horseley, a republican bishop.
g 2
44
My constitution was ill fitted for celibacy, and as soon, therefore, as I had any means of maintaining a family I married. My wife was the eldest daughter of Edward Wilson, Esq. of Dallum Tower, in Westmoreland. We were married at Lancaster on the 21st of December, 1773. During a cohabitation of above forty years, she has been every thing I wished her to be ; and I trust I have lived with her, and provided for her, as a man not unconscious of her worth, ought to have done.
The day after my marriage I set forward to take possession of a sinecure rectory in North Wales, procured for me, from the Bishop of St. Asaph, by the Duke of Grafton, out of a kind consideration of my being ill provided for ; as I had no prefer- ment but the professorship of divinity. This sinecure, on . my return to Cambridge, I exchanged for a prebend in the church of Ely : the exchange was wholly owing to the unsolicited attention of the Duke. At the time he did me this favour, we thought differently on politics. I had made no scruple of every where declaring, that I looked upon the American war as unjust in its commencement, and that its conclusion would be unfavourable to this kingdom, and His Grace did not abandon the administration till October, 1775. — As I had then the good fortune to see a person to whom I was so much obliged come over to my opinion, I could not forbear giving a proof of my gratitude, by printing the following letter in the Public Advertiser, though the Duke never, I believe, knew that I wrote it.
45
" To His Grace the Duke of Grafton. " My Lord Duke, November 27. 1775.
" Your Grace owes not this letter to the prostituted pen of an hireling, nor to the forward zeal of a dependant, nor to the partial warmth of personal attachment ; but to a love for truth and a reverence for justice. And who that has a regard for either, can hear without abhorrence Your Grace's separation from the ministry branded as an apostasy from honour, and the most illustrious action of your life stigmatised as a desertion of the interests of your country ? — I mean not to become Your Grace's panegyrist, further than my conscience tells me you deserve praise. I have no talent for adulation ; it suits not my temper, and my situation sets me above the temptation of using it ; but if the heart of Junius be not obstructed by private pique, if malig- nant habitudes have not rendered him callous to the honourable feelings of a man, he will blush with shame and remorse for having mistaken and traduced your character : he will embrace with eagerness this fair opportunity of retracting his abuse, and candidly portray Your Grace to the world in such striking colours of truth and honour as may obliterate from the memory of every ingenuous man the base aspersions of his calumny. Your loyalty to the King has ever been above suspicion ; your adherence to the liberties of the people has been represented by your enemies as precarious and problematical ; but your breaking a bond of union with those whom personal regards and the intercourse of social life had rendered dear to you, your voluntarily incurring the displeasure of a Sovereign whom you loved, your resigning an honourable and lucrative post so soon as you were persuaded that the measures of administration tended to the oppression of
46
the people and the ruin of the empire, — these sacrifices of interest and affection (the greatest surely a man can make) to conscience, will ever be remembered, by impartial men, to yOur credit, and cannot fail to exalt your character as a man of integrity, as a supporter of the indefeasible rights of mankind, far beyond the temporary reach of ministerial invective or personal malevolence.
" Lord Effingham stands deservedly high in the estimation of the public, and Your Grace's conduct is not less eminently great.
" Party may say that you are mistaken, but it cannot say that you are not honest. Such instances of disinterested patriotism are uncommon in any history, and would have done credit to the early periods of Roman history. — In these times, and in this nation, when an attention to the public good is apt to be considered by wise men as folly ; when individuals in every class of life, I had almost said in every department of the state, are more ashamed of poverty than of dishonour, and when luxury makes almost every in- dividual poor ; they demand the hearty approbation of every lover of his country.
" I am, &c."
Such were my sentiments of the defect of public principle, and of the progress of general luxury in 1775; and in 1813 they are not altered. At the time I published this letter, I knew very little Of the Duke of Grafton, as an acquaintance ; I had afterwards more intimacy with him, and I was for many years, indeed as long as he lived, happy in his friendship. It appears from some hundreds of his letters which he had ordered at his death to be returned unread to me, that we had not always agreed either in our political
47
or religious opinions ; but we had both of us too much sense to suffer a diversity of sentiment to deaden the activity of personal attachment. I never attempted either to encourage or to dis- courage his profession of Unitarian principles, for I was happy to see a person of his rank, professing with intelligence and with sincerity Christian principles. If any one thinks that an Unita- rian is not a Christian, I plainly say, without being myself an Unitarian, that I think otherwise.
I never printed any thing else in a newspaper except a letter in defence of the Bishop of Peterborough, who had followed the Duke of Grafton in quitting the ministry ; and the subsequent one in support of what I conceived to have been neglected by our Chancellor, when he recommended to us for one of our members of Parliament an obscure country-gentleman : — ■
" My Lord Duke,
" Learned bodies have ever been studious of acquiring the pro- tection of men distinguished either by eminency of rank or excellency of talents. Your Grace became our Chancellor from the united influence of these motives. We were happy in thinking that we had attached to our interest a nobleman, whose high birth would add honour to his abilities, and whose abilities, upon any emergency, would explain to the House of Lords our ancient principles, or solicit for us such new indulgences from the legis- lature as the change of times might render suitable to the par- ticularities of our situation, and conducive to the good of the public.
We doubt not Your Grace's disposition to exert yourself in our
48
favour, when an occasion offers; but we are sorry that in the recommendation of a candidate to succeed Mr. De Grey, as our representative in Parliament, Your Grace had forgotten, as it were, both the dignity of your own character and the respect due to ours. We received your recommendation of Mr. De Grey without reluctance ; we knew him to be a man of merit, and, upon that account, were cordially disposed to give him every mark of our respect, and to confide in his ability to serve us. But we are dis- satisfied with the gentleman designed for his successor : we have no particular objections to him as a private man ; nay, we believe him equal to the transacting the business of the Borough of Downton, but we by no means think him of consequence enough in life to be the representative, or of ability sufficient to support the interest of the University of Cambridge. Your Grace has added lustre to our University, by giving us two resident Bishops. You have rendered services to some other individuals ; they are men of integrity; doubtless you will receive from them the tribute of private gratitude. As a body we thank you for this attention to individuals ; but we call upon you also for an attention to our general good, which, in the present instance, we think you have much neglected. In one word, My Lord, you must not consider us as a venal borough. You have secured to yourself the heads of some colleges : they have, in their respective societies, some little influence; but I plainly tell Your Grace, that there is a large body of independent members of the Senate who are well affected to Your Grace's interest, but who cannot be brought to give it an indiscriminate support.
« I am, &c."
49
I had taken singular pains in the education of Lord Granby, both before my marriage and after it ; I was therefore highly gratified in receiving from him a letter, at Lancaster, dated the 17th of August, 1775, in which was the following paragraph: —
" If the Whigs will not now unite themselves in opposition to " such a Tory principle, which has established the present un- " constitutional system, this country will be plunged into perdition " beyond redemption. I never can thank you too much for " making me study Locke ; while I exist, those tenets, which are " so attentive to the natural rights of mankind, shall ever be the " guide and direction of my actions. — I live at Chevley; I hope " often to see you ; you may, and I am sure you will, still assist " me in my studies. Though I have formed a Tory connexion, " Whig principles are too firmly rivetted in me ever to be re- " moved. Best compliments to Mrs. Watson, and reserve to " yourself the assurance of my being most affectionately and sin- " cerely yours,
" Granby."
Answer,
" My Dear Lord. Trumpington, August 15th, 1775.
" I got home the day before yesterday, and employ my first leisure in answering your letter, which I received at Lancaster. Nothing can give me greater pleasure than the finding you so well satisfied with the part I have taken in your education ; and that you may, some time or other, become a great and an honest minister is the warm wish of my heart.
H
50
" As to your studies, you may ever command my best assistance in the furtherance of them ; you certainly ought not to think yourself at liberty to lay them aside at your age ; books, indeed, never made a great statesman, and business has made many; yet books and business, combined together, are the most likely to enlarge your understanding, and to complete the character you aim at
" Persevere, I beg of you, in the resolution of doing something for yourself ; your ancestors have left you rank and fortune ; these will procure you that respect from the world, which other men with difficulty obtain, by personal merit. But if to these you add your own endeavours to become good, and wise, and great, then will you deserve the approbation of men of sense.
" General reading is the most useful for men of the world, but few men of the world have leisure for it ; and those who have courage to abridge their pleasures for the improvement of their minds* would do well to consider that different books ought to be read with very different degrees of attention ; or, as Lord Bacon quaintly enough expresses it, some books are to be tasted or read in part only ; some to be swallowed or read wholly, but not cursorily ; and some to be digested, or read with great diligence, and well considered. Of this last kind are the works of Lord Bacon himself. Nature has been very sparing in the production of such men as Bacon ; they are a kind of superior beings ; and the rest of mankind are usefully employed for whole centuries in picking up what they poured forth at once. Lord Bacon opened the avenues of all science, and had such a comprehensive way of thinking upon every subject, that a familiarity with his writings cannot fail of being extensively useful to you as an orator ; and
51
there are so many shrewd observations concerning human nature dispersed through his works, that you will be much the wiser for them as a private man.
" I would observe the same of Mr. Locke's writings, all of which, without exception (even his letters to the Bishop of Wor- cester will teach you acuteness in detecting sophistry in debate), may be read over and over again with infinite advantage. His rea- soning is every where profound, and his language masculine. I hate the flimsy womanish eloquence of novel readers, I mean of such as read nothing else, and wish you, therefore, to acquire both just- ness of sentiment and strength of expression, from the perusal of the works of great men. Make Bacon, then, and Locke, and why should I not add that sweet child of nature, Shakspeare, your chief companions through life, let them be ever upon your table, and when you have an hour to spare from business or pleasure, spend it with them, and I will answer for their giving you entertainment and instruction as long as you live.
" You can no more have an intimacy with all books than with all men, and one should take the best of both kinds for one's peculiar friends ; for the human mind is ductile to a degree, and insensibly conforms itself to what it is most accustomed to. Thus with books as with men, a few friends stand us in better stead than a multitude of folks we know little of. I do not think that you will ever become a great reader, I hope your time will be better employed ; and yet, considering the worthless way in which the generality of men of fashion weary out their existence, the odds are against my hopes ; yet I do hope it, and therefore will not burden you with the recommendation of a learned catalogue of ancient authors. One of them, however, I must mention to you ;
h 2
52
all the works of Plutarch are excellent, whether read in the ori- ginal or in a good translation, and his Lives in particular will fur- nish you not only with the knowledge of the greatest characters in antiquity, but will give you no mean insight into the most interesting parts of the Greek and Roman histories. Eloquence was never learned by rule, and Tully, and Quintilian, and Lon- ginus themselves could not have made a Chatham ; but a frequent reading of the best compositions, ancient and modern, will be of service to you.
" Locke has laid in you a good foundation, or rather has finished the work of civil government, so that other authors upon that subject are less necessary for you; from him you are become acquainted with some of the principal questions of natural Law ; however, I think it would be very serviceable for you, and tend greatly to the furnishing your mind with a species of knowledge which you will have frequent occasion for, though you may not at present, perhaps, be aware of the want of it, if you would take the trouble to peruse with attention some good author upon the Laws of Nature. Among the great number who have treated that subject with success, I am of opinion that Rutherforth's Institutes (a kind of commentary upon Grotius De Jure Belli et Pads), will, upon the whole, be the best book for you to employ your time upon. I am no stranger to what is urged in favour of Puffendorf, Cumberland, Hutchinson, Burlamaqui, and other more modern productions ; but trust me for once, and you will not have any reason, I hope, to think your confidence in this matter misplaced. I take it for granted that one author will be as much as you will have patience for upon that subject ; and, indeed, I think one will be as much as you will have occasion for.
53
From the knowledge I have of the course of your former studies, and the apprehension of what, from your present situation as a young nobleman just entering into life, you will have the most immediate concern for, I should wish you to begin with Ruther- forth immediately ; and when you have read him leisurely and carefully quite through, as soon as you have finished him, and not before, if you would read Blackstone's Commentaries with an equal degree of attention, I should think you very well grounded ; and depend upon it no superstructure can be raised where there is no foundation. Sapere is as truly the principium et fons of good speaking as of good writing. I will not trouble you with any thing more upon this subject at present, for the books I have mentioned to you will require more time than you will be able shortly to give them. I have had no regard in what I have written to a fine plan, which it is much easier for me to form than for any one to execute, but barely to what I think will be most useful to you at present, and most conducive to the one great end of your becoming a distinguished character in the ma- nagement of national affairs, at some more distant period of your life. Different books may be proper for you as you increase in knowledge, and the best modern publications will fall in your way of course. As to mathematics and natural philosophy, though much of my own time has been spent in the cultivation of them, I do not think that they ought to be a principal pursuit with you. Euclid would have done much towards fixing your attention ; but Locke has well supplied his place, and I will, at any time when you have leisure and inclination for such an undertaking, make you acquainted with any one or with all the branches of natural philosophy. Not that you will have much time upon your hands
54
soon, for marriage enlarges the sphere of a man's engagements, and a woman who has sense and goodness enough to relish domestic pleasures (and few other pleasures are either satisfactory or durable, to say no worse of them), has a right to break in upon a man's hours of study, and to every attention in his power to shew her.
" I heartily wish you well in the new mode of life you are en- tering into ; much depends upon your setting out properly ; be a Whig in domestic as well as political life, and the best part of Whiggism is, that it will neither suffer nor exact domination.
" Adieu, my dear Lord Granby ! I feel myself concerned in your happiness and success in life, and in this concern your rank in civil society has no share. It is the man I look at, and the connexion I have had with him, which makes me wish you well, and bids me assure you that you may command every act of friendship in my power.
" Yours most truly,
" Richard Watson."
In November, 1775, the University of Cambridge, following the example of Oxford, thought fit to address the King, exhorting him to the continuance of the American war. The address was proposed to the senate by Dr. Farmer, the most determined of Tories. On that occasion I received the following letter from the Marquis of Rockingham, which I am induced to leave behind me, not only as one proof amongst a thousand of his true pa- triotism and good sense, but because I conceive it to be an honour to myself to have been well thought of by him.
55
" Dear Sir,
" Allow me to express the very real pleasure and satisfaction which I felt at receiving your letter on Monday night ; I had heard several days ago that there was an intention to try to pro- cure an address from the University of Cambridge, and though my information was not very clear and decisive, yet I thought it sufficiently well founded to communicate it to the Duke of Grafton and Lord Granby. They at that time doubted the pro- bability of the attempt, but in the middle of the last week I again received, from the Duke of Manchester, so much more confirmation, that I immediately got it again communicated to the Duke of Grafton and Lord Granby. I imagine the Bishop of Peterborough's going to Cambridge at the time he did might be occasioned by it.
" Lord Granby, as member for the University, feels a doubt on the propriety of his being active in this business ; and yet I confess I wished much, from the first, that not only the Duke of Grafton and Lord Granby, but that also the friends of Whig principles would bestir themselves to prevent what I really think will be a great disgrace to the University. I am still not without hopes that the address will be stopped; I have much reliance that although Whig principles may lie as it were dormant, yet the occasion will bring them out ; and I think the Whig University of Cambridge being called upon to play tl?3 second fiddle to the Tory University of Oxford, will even alarm that sort of pride, which is sometimes not an useless guardian to virtue. Lord Richard Cavendish was with me late last night; I find there are a few who would incline to set out on the shortest notice.
56
" Mr. Thomas Townsend was with me this morning, and I saw Mr. Montague yesterday. 1 find both of them hesitate on the propriety of a few considerable persons going down, as it were by surprise, to prevent what may be the sense of the resident persons in the University.
" I will try to see Sir G. Saville to-morrow morning ; I saw him yesterday on various matters, and totally omitted asking his opinion in respect to this affair at Cambridge. I enclose you a list, as Lord Richard Cavendish and I made it out ; you will see we know of but few who are in London, and those few are chiefly persons in the University.
" It is no small satisfaction to me to find, that the only two persons with whom I have the honour to have any intercourse at Cambridge, namely, yourself and Dr. Ellison, are always to be found acting on those principles whereon our first acquaintance was grounded. No event, I trust, can ever operate on any of us to shake that cement, I hope you will receive this letter early in the morning, and that I may have an answer from you before four o'clock in the evening ; that in case, upon full consideration, you think that even a few should set out, I may get it communi- cated to them early in the morning. I imagine the business cannot come on till Friday, at the soonest.
" I am, dear Sir, with very great truth and regard,
" Your most obedient servant, and sincere friend,
" Rockingham.
" Grosvenor-Square, Wednesday night, past 12 o'clock, Nov. 22. 1775."
57
* r
Answer. •
" My Lord, Trumpington, Nov. 25. 1775.
" I did not get out of the Senate House soon enough for the post on Friday last. The Tories beat us by eight votes in the Whitehood House ; they owe their victory to the ministerial troops, which were poured in from the Admiralty, Treasury, &c. beyond expectation. I am quite sorry for this event, not only as it is derogatory to our" former character, but as the sense of the two Universities, thus publicly declared, may have an undue weight with many individuals ; for the bulk of mankind is ever more the creature of prejudice than of reason.
" Surely the clergy have a professional bias to support the powers that are, be they what they may. But I will not say all I think on this subject ; especially as this bias, if it exists, may proceed as much from the moderation and forbearance inculcated by the general tendency of their studies, as from the more obvious impu- tation of interested motives. As I seldom come to London, I have no opportunity of paying my respects to your Lordship, and soliciting the honour of a nearer acquaintance ; but I am not on that account less attached to one whom I have ever considered as the head of the Whig interest in this kingdom ; and let the pen- sioners and place-men say what they will, Whig and Tory are as opposite to each other, as Mr. Locke and Sir Robert Filmer ; as the soundest sense, and the profoundest nonsense ; and I must always conclude, that a man has lost his honesty, or his intellect, when he attempts to confound the ideas.
" Lord Richard Cavendish left me yesterday : he bids me hope for an accession of strength to the minority after Christmas.
58
Would to God, it may tend to effectuate a change of men and measures, before we have blundered on beyond a possibility of rectifying our mistake.
" It is an infatuation in the minister, next to a crime, to suppose that the House of Bourbon, however quiescent and indifferent it may appear at present, will not avail itself of our dissensions in every possible way, and to every possible extent ; and the moment America is compelled to open her ports, and to refuge her distress under foreign protection, there will be an end of our history as a great people.
** I am, &c.
" Richard Watson."
How fully this prediction respecting the conduct of the House of Bourbon, was verified by the event, every one knows ; and our children will know, whether the other part of it was a groundless prediction.
In 1776, it came to my turn to preach the Restoration and Accession Sermons before the University : I published them both, calling the first, " The Principles of the Revolution Vin- dicated."
This Sermon was written with great caution, and at the same time, with great boldness and respect for truth. In London it was reported, at its first coming out, to be treasonable ; and a friend of mine, Mr. Wilson, (the late Judge,) who was anxi- ous for my safety, asked Mr. Dunning (afterzvards Lord Ash- burton,) what he thought of it ; who told him, " that it contained
59
just such treason as ought to be preached once a month at St. James's." It gave great offence to the Court; and was at the time, and has continued to be, an obstacle to my promotion.
I knew nothing of either Lord George Germaine, or the Arch- bishop of Armagh ; but Mr. Cumberland, Lord George's secre- tary, told Mr. Higgs, one of the Fellows of Trinity College, with a view of what he said being repeated to me, that these two personages had intended to propose me to the King, for the Provostship of Dublin University. I asked what had made them abandon their intention ? It was answered, your Sermon on the Principles of the Revolution. I hastily replied, Bid Mr. Cum- berland inform his principal, that I will neither ask or accept preferment from Lord George Germaine, or from any other person to whom these principles have rendered me obnoxious. The loss of so great a piece of preferment would have broken the spirit of many an academic ; and the desire of regaining lost favour would have made him a suppliant to the Court for life. It had no such effect on me. The firmness of this reply was too much for Mr. Cumberland's political virtue ; for he after- wards, in two sorry pamphlets, showed himself mine enemy. I call them sorry pamphlets ; because, though there was some humour, there was no argument in them.
On the first publication of this Sermon, I was much abused by ministerial writers, as a man of republican principles. I did not deign to give any answer to the calumny, except by printing on a blank page, in subsequent editions of it, the following interpre-
i 2f- }'
60
tation of the terms, from Bishop Hoadly's Works : — " Men of Republican Principles — a sort of dangerous Men who have of late taken heart, and defended the Revolution that saved us."
Mr. Fox, in debating the Sedition Bill, in December, 1795, said, " that the measures of the united branches of the legislature might be so bad, as to justify the people in resisting the govern- ment. This doctrine he had been taught, not only by Sydney and Locke, but by Sir G. Saville, and the late Earl of Chatham ; and if these authorities would not suffice, he would refer the House to a Sermon preached by Dr. Watson, the present Bishop of LandafT, which in his opinion, was replete with manly sense and accurate reasoning, upon that delicate but important subject."
I had always looked upon Mr. Fox to be one of the most con- stitutional reasoners, and one of the most argumentative orators in either House of Parliament. I was, at the time this compli- ment was paid me, and am still, much gratified by it. The approbation of such men ever has been, and ever will be, dearer to me than the most dignified and lucrative stations in the church.
In the summer of 1776, I published my Apology for Chris- tianity. I was induced to look into Mr. Gibbon's History, by a friend, (Sir Robert Graham,) who told me, that the attack upon Christianity, contained in two of his chapters, could not be repelled. My answer had a great run, and is still sought after, though it was only a month's work in the long vacation. But if I had been longer about it, though I might have stuffed it with
61
more learning, and made it more bulky, I am not certain that I should have made it better. The manner in which I had treated Mr. Gibbon displeased some of the doughty polemics of the time ; they were angry with me for not having bespattered him with a portion of that theological dirt, which Warburton had so liberally thrown at his antagonists. One of that gentleman's greatest admirers, (Bishop Hurd,) was even so uncandid, as to entertain, from the gentleness of my language, a suspicion of my sincerity ; saying of the Apology, " it was well enough, if I was in earnest."
I sent a copy before it was published to Mr. Gibbon, from whom I received the following note.
" Mr. Gibbon takes the earliest opportunity of presenting his compliments and thanks to Dr. Watson ; and of expressing his sense of the liberal treatment which he has received from so can- did an adversary. Mr. Gibbon entirely coincides in opinion with Dr. Watson, that as their different sentiments on a very impor- tant point of history are now submitted to the public, they both may employ their time in a manner much more useful, as well as agreeable, than they can possibly do by exhibiting a single com- bat in the amphitheatre of controversy. Mr. Gibbon is there- fore determined to resist the temptation of justifying in a professed reply any passages of his history, which it might per- haps be easy to clear from censure and misapprehension. But he still reserves to himself the privilege of inserting, in a future edition, some occasional remarks and explanations of his meaning. If any calls of pleasure or business should bring Dr. Watson to
62
town, Mr. Gibbon would think himself fortunate in being per- mitted to solicit the honour of his acquaintance. " Bentinck Street, Nov. 2d, 1776."
Answer to Mr. Gibbons Note. " Dr. Watson accepts with pleasure Mr. Gibbon's polite invit- ation to a personal acquaintance, and, if he comes to town this winter, will certainly have the honour of waiting upon him; begs at the same time to assure Mr. Gibbon, that he will be very happy to have an opportunity of shewing him every civility, if curiosity or other motives should bring him to Cambridge. Dr. Watson can have some faint idea of Mr. Gibbon's difficulty, in resisting the temptation he speaks of, from having of late been in a situation somewhat similar himself. It would be very extraordinary if Mr. Gibbon did not feel a parent's partiality, for an offspring which has justly excited the admiration of all who have seen it, and Dr. Watson would be the last person in the world, to wish him to conceal any explanation which might tend to exalt its beauties.
" Cambridge, Nov. 4th, 1776."
From a variety of complimentary letters I received on the first publication of the Apology for Christianity, I have selected the following, and that, not for the sake of the too flattering com- pliment it contains, but because I am desirous that my name should go down to posterity, as the friend of Dr. John Jebb.
" Dear Sir, " Though I have a great idea of my own insignificance, and am conscious that my approbation ought not to afford you any other
63
satisfaction, than what may arise from the consideration of its being the approbation of an hearty friend, yet I cannot prevail with myself to be silent after the reading of your invaluable book. I am delighted with it beyond measure. Various parts suggest to me new lights which have quieted my mind, with respect to some difficulties which I never expected to have seen so com- pletely removed. It will no doubt encrease your already high reputation, but it will do more, it will I trust remove the preju- dices of many well disposed Deists, and be the happy mean of converting them to the truth. The liberal sentiments that every where prevail in it, do you the highest honour. I have heard of a bishop who declares himself highly pleased with your perform- ance. My wife who has a veneration for you is also prodigiously satisfied, she is only a little alarmed lest you have found out a greater mathematician than her friend Waring. But, I will trouble you no more, except to mention that when you come to a second edition, I will, if you excuse the presumption and approve, point out two or three places, which possibly you would apply your correcting hand to. The elegance, simplicity, and accuracy of style, gives myself and all I converse with great pleasure. May every happiness attend you.
" I am, with great esteem,
" Your affectionate friend,
" John Jebb."
Mr. Maseres, Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, and well known to the world by his treatise on the negative sign, and other mathe- matical works, had examined me for my degree, and twenty years afterwards he did me the honour of recollecting that circumstance,
64
and made me a present of his Canadian Freeholder. I returned him thanks in the following letter.
« Sir, Cambridge, Oct. 11. 1777.
" Before I had read the third volume of your Dialogues, which you were so kind as to send me, I lent it to the Bishop of Carlisle, and he did not return it till last Thursday. I have now perused it with great care, and find your arguments on every point so sin- gularly clear and concise, that I heartily wish there was sense and virtue enough in the kingdom to consider them with attention. The two brochures, (The Christian Whig, and a Brief State of the Principles of Church Authority,) which accompany this, were pub- lished some years ago, without my name, and I mean not to own them at present, lest I should be involved in theological contro- versy, which generally ends in undue animosity ; but you will perceive from them, that I am wedded to no system except that of universal toleration and christian good will. Your distinctions relative to the different degrees of toleration are undoubtedly just. The government of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay have set an example, I had almost said of justice in the disposal of the public wealth for the maintenance of the ministers of religion, well worthy the imitation of all Christian states ; and their mode- ration ought to cover the sticklers amongst ourselves for American episcopacy, with contrition and confusion.
" By virtue of my office in the university, I am a minister of the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts; but ever since my appointment to the Professorship of Divinity, I have reso- lutely refused contributing any thing towards the support of the
65
society, because I always believed that its missionaries were more zealous in proselyting Dissenters to episcopacy, than in converting Heathens to Christianity. This conduct of mine has been con- sidered as exceeding strange, and has given great offence ; but I had rather offend all the dignitaries of the church for ever, than act contrary to my decided judgment for an hour, and your book will now inform them, that my reasons for not sub- scribing were well founded. Whenever I consider how much the Church of Christ has been polluted by the ambition of its ministers, how much the great ends of civil society have been perverted by a lust of domination in its rulers, it makes me regret the low condition of humanity, and excites a longing for some other existence where the petty passions incident to ouv nature will be done away ; where truth, and honesty, and charity, and all the virtues which either a philosopher or a Christian can set any value upon, shall be practised with less disadvantage.
" I am a man of no kind of ceremony, and shall be happy in cultivating your acquaintance whenever I have an opportunity. This short scene of life is too important to be wrangled away in endless disputes, on subjects of politics, or religion, with men who are ignorant of every useful object of knowledge, or with those whose judgments are warped by interest or misguided by passion. I look upon the improvement of the understanding, by a free communication of sentiments with a candid and intelligent friend, as one of the greatest blessings on this side the grave.
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson/'
K
66
In the beginning of the year (1779), Mr. Gibbon published an answer to his various antagonists, who had animadverted on his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This answer was distinguished by great severity towards other men, but by great courtesy towards myself. I thought myself called upon to write to Mr. Gibbon, and sent him the subjoined letter.
« Sir,
" It will give me the greatest pleasure to have an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with Mr. Gibbon ; I beg he would accept my sincere thanks for the too favourable manner in which he has spoken of a performance which derives its chief merit from the elegance and importance of the work it attempts to oppose.
" I have no hope of a future existence except that which is grounded on the truth of Christianity ; / wish not to be deprived of this hope : but I should be an apostate from the mild principles of the religion I profess, if I could be actuated with the least animosity against those who do not think with me, upon this, of all other the most important subject. I beg your pardon, for this declaration of my belief, but my temper is naturally open, and it ought, assuredly, to be without disguise to a man whom I wish no longer to look upon as an antagonist, but a friend. —
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
This letter was published in Mr. Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works and Life in 1796, and no sooner published than noticed by the King, who spoke to me of it at his Levee, calling it an odd letter. I did not immediately recollect the purport of it ; but on His
67
Majesty's repeating his observation, it occurred to me, and I in- stantly said to him, that I had frequently met with respectable men, who cherished an expectation of a future state, though they rejected Christianity as an imposture, and that I thought my publicly declaring that I was of a contrary opinion might perhaps induce Mr. Gibbon, and other such men, to make a deeper inves- tigation into the truth of religion than they had hitherto done. His Majesty expressed himself perfectly satisfied, both with my opinion and with my motive for mentioning it to Mr. Gibbon.
In February, 1780, 1 preached, at the request of the Vice-Chan- cellor, the Fast Sermon before the University. A little before this time several counties had begun to follow the example of Yorkshire, in petitioning Parliament against the undue influence of the Crown ; amongst the rest an ambiguous advertisement had been published by the Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, which gave occasion to the following letter to the Duke of Manchester, then Lord-Lieutenant of the county.
" My Lord Duke, Cambridge, Jan. 9th, 1780.
" As Regius Professor of Divinity, I have no inconsiderable pro- perty at Somersham. I observe a meeting of the county is adver- tised for an address to Parliament. If the address be designed to convey the most distant approbation of the public measures which have been carrying on for several years, I should be glad to have an opportunity of giving it an hearty negative. I take the liberty of signifying this to Your Grace, because indispensable business in the University, on the day appointed for the meeting, will prevent my attendance at Huntingdon ; and, if the opinion of an absent
k 2
68
man can be of any weight, I should be happy to have mine ex- pressed by Your Grace.
" I am, &c.
« R. Watson."
In answer to a letter from the Duke of Manchester, informing me that a petition was intended, and pressing me to attend the county meeting, I sent the following reply.
" My Lord Duke, Cambridge, Jan. 13th, 1780.
« IT gives me real concern that public business, which cannot be put off, requires my presence at Cambridge on the day fixed for the county meeting at Huntingdon. Would to God there may be virtue and good sense enough in the kingdom to second the endeavours of those who are doing all they can to save their country ; but the influence of the Crown (which has acquired its present strength more, perhaps, from the additional increase of empire, commerce, and national wealth, than from any criminal desire to subvert the constitution,) has pervaded, I fear, the whole mass of the people. Every man of consequence almost in the kingdom, has a son, relation, friend, or dependant, whom he wishes to provide for ; and, unfortunately for the liberty of this country, the Crown has the means of gratifying the expectation of them all.
"I do not think so ill of mankind, but that some men of integrity may be found who, in their public conduct, prefer the conscious- ness of acting right to every prospect of advantage ; but their number is comparatively small, and is decreasing every day. The proposed petition to parliament is so true in its principles, so di- vested of party prejudices, so temperate in its expressions, and every
69
way so adapted to do good, that 1 cannot question but it will meet with the approbation of the honest, the sensible, and the disin- terested of all sides. For my part, I beg leave to give it, with all possible truth and good conscience, my most hearty concurrence.
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
The Duke of Manchester published these two letters without my privity ; he ought certainly to have had my permission to have done it, but the publication gave me no concern ; the letters contained my real sentiments, and I had no fear of having my sentiments known. I had not the usual prudence, shall I call it, or selfish caution, of my profession at any time of life, — Ortu$ a quercu non a salice, I knew not how to bend my principles to the circumstances of the times. I could not adopt that versatility of sentiment which Lord Bacon, with his wonted sagacity, but with more of worldly wisdom than of honour, recommends in his eighth book De Augmentis Scientiarum, as necessary to a man occupied in the fabrication of his own fortune : Ingenia, he says, gravia et solennia, et mutare nescia, plus plerumque habeant dignitatis quam felicitatis. Hoc vero vitium (I cannot esteem it a vitium) in aliquibus a natura penitus insitum est, qui suopte ingenio sunt viscosi, et nodosi, et ad versandum ineptL. Were this viscosity, this nodo- sity of temper somewhat more common amongst us, (especially amongst the members of both Houses of Parliament,) I cannot think that either the public interest or private respectability of character would be lessened thereby. My Fast Sermon was eagerly bought up ; the city of London purchased a whole edition of one thousand copies, which they distributed gratis. The
70
Archbishop of Canterbury (Cornwallis) had expressed himself rather petulantly, in the presence of Lord Camden, against my sermon, " The Principles of the Revolution vindicated," and was reproved for it by His Lordship, who told him, that it contained the principles in which His Grace, as well as himself, had been educated. I sent a copy of my Fast Sermon to him with the following letter :
" My Lord Archbishop, Cambridge, Feb. 7. 1780.
" One of my sermons has, I have been informed, met with Your Grace's disapprobation ; and this may have a similar fate. I have no wish but to speak what appears to me to be the truth upon every occasion, and never yet thought of pleasing any person or party when I spoke from the pulpit ; so that, if I am in an error, it is at least both involuntary and disinterested. I never come to London ; but my situation in this place, sufficiently difficult and laborious, gives me, in the opinion of many, a right not to be overlooked, and it certainly gives me a right not to be misunderstood by the head of the Church.
"I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
This letter was not at all calculated to promote a good under- standing between the Archbishop and myself: but I was very indifferent about it, and I never afterwards troubled myself with him ; for I had no opinion of his abilities, and he was so wife- ridden I had no opinion of his politics. My predecessor had been fifteen, and I had been nine years Professor of Divinity, without either of us having been noticed, as to preferment, by
71
either the Archbishop or the ministers of the Crown ; and I had more pleasure in letting the Archbishop see that I was not to be intimidated, than I should have had in receiving from him the best thing in his gift, after a long servile attention.
My temper could never brook submission to the ordinary means of ingratiating myself with great men j and hence Dr. Hallifax, (afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph,) whose temper was different, called me one of the Biugou; and he was right enough in the denomination. I was determined to be advanced in my profession by force of desert, or not at all. It has been said, (I believe by D'Alembert,) that the highest offices in church and state resemble a pyramid whose top is accessible to only two sorts of animals, eagles and reptiles. My pinions were not strong enough to pounce upon its top, and I scorned by creeping to ascend its summit. Not that a bishoprick was then or ever an object of my ambition ; for I considered the acquisition of it as no proof of personal merit, inasmuch as bishopricks are as often given to the flattering dependants, or to the unlearned younger branches of noble families, as to men of the greatest erudition ; and I considered the profession of it as a frequent occasion of personal demerit ; for I saw the generality of the Bishops barter- ing their independence and the dignity of their order for the chance of a translation, and polluting Gospel-humility by the pride of prelacy. I used then to say, and I say so still, render the office of a bishop respectable by giving some civil distinction to its possessor, in order that his example may have more weight with both the laity and clergy. Annex to each bishoprick some portion of the royal ecclesiastical patronage which is now pros-
72
tituted by the Chancellor and the minister of the day to the purpose of parliamentary corruption, that every Bishop may have means sufficient to reward all the deserving clergy of his diocese.
Give every Bishop income enough, not for display of worldly pomp and fashionable luxury, but to enable him to maintain works of charity, and to make a decent provision for his family : but having done these things for him, take from him all hopes of a translation by equalizing the bishopricks. Oblige him to a longer residence in his diocese than is usually practised, that he may do the proper work of a Bishop ; that he may direct and inspect the flock of Christ ; that by his exhortations he may confirm the unstable, by his admonitions reclaim the reprobate, and by the purity of his life render religion amiable and interesting to all.
About this time my friend General Honeywood offered to give me for my life, and for the life of my wife, a neat house at the end of his park at Markshall in Essex. The situation was suf- ficiently attractive, and I wanted a place to retire to occasionally from my engagements at Cambridge ; but I thought as Marmontel had done on a similar present being offered him by M. de Marigny, ce don etoit une chaine, etje nen voulois point porter.
In a little time after the publication of my Fast Sermon, a printed Letter was addressed to me by an anonymous correspond- ent. The Letter was written with some spirit, but with little argument. Not being of a resentful temper, I sent the following letter to the publisher of the pamphlet, and desired him to com- municate it to the author.
73
« Sir,
" You have thought me worthy of your public correspondence. Whether you are really the old friend you pretend to be or not, permit me to assure you that I could wish you would come and spend a few days with me ; my mind is open to conviction ; your conversation might convert me, or mine might have the same effect on you. I never can have the least resentment against any one who differs from me on principle, and you and I do not, probably, differ so much as you suppose ; for my wishes to heal what I apprehend to be a dangerous wound in our civil consti- tution, will ever, I trust, be regulated by a regard for peace and Christian charity.
. " Would to God the King of England had men of magnanimity enough in his councils, to advise him to meet, at this juncture, the wishes of his people ; he would thereby become the idol of the nation, and the most admired monarch in Europe.
" You mistake me9 Sir, if you suppose that I have the most distant desire to make the democratic scale of the constitution outweigh the monarchical. Not one jot of the legal prerogative of the crown do I wish to see abolished ; not one tittle of the King's influence in the state to be destroyed, except so far as it is extended over the repre- sentatives of the people.
" There are a few mistakes in your publication, relative to the motives of my conduct. They may be involuntary mistakes, and as such I forgive them : they may be voluntary ones, and in that case, I wish you may forgive yourself. As to any asperities in sentiment or expression into which you may have been betrayed, from thinking me a sad political criminal, who deserved chastise-
74
ment, I heartily forgive them all, because I am conscious that they are all unmerited.
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
I presently received a flimsy answer, to which I returned the following reply : —
" Sir, " Cambridge, April 14th, 1780.
" Though an hour's conversation would bring us better ac- quainted with each other's sentiments, than a month's corres- pondence can do, yet I should think myself deficient in the common intercourses of social life, if I did not return you my acknowledgements for the regard you have expressed for my private character: the compliments you have paid me must be attributed to your partiality more than to my desert.
" You must excuse me if I think that the principles which you admit to be true in theory cannot be applied in practice. I am not very sanguine in my expectations of reform, but much may be done by honest men, and without blood ; and whether any thing can be done or not, still must I hold it to be the duty of each individual firmly to profess what appears to him to be right, though all the world should be on the other side of the question. By a contrary conduct, many a moral and political evil has been established, and many a virtue banished from amongst mankind ; just as many a battle has been lost, from each man saying, why should not I run away as well as the rest ? which might have been won, if each man had said, I will stand and do my duty, let others do what they will.
15
" I am not the Satan you esteem me ; for I do not think with Satan, that it is " better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven." But / do think, that it is better to bask in the sun, and suck a for- tuitous sustenance from the scanty drippings of the most barren rock in Switzerland, with freedom for my friend, than to batten as a slave, at the most luxurious table of the greatest despot on the globe,
" The King, notwithstanding, has not a more loyal subject, nor the constitution a warmer friend.
" I most readily submit to laws made by men exercising their free powers of deliberation for the good of the whole ; but when the legislative assembly is actuated by an extrinsic spirit, then submission becomes irksome to me ; then I begin to be alarmed ; knowing with Hooker, that to live by one maris will, becomes the cause of all meris misery. I dread despotism worse than death ; and the despotism of a Parliament worse than that of a King ; but I hope the time will never come, when it will be necessary for me to declare that I will submit to neither. I shall probably be rotten in my grave, before I see what you speak of, the tyranny of a George the Sixth, or of a Cromwell ; and it may be that I want philosophy in interesting myself in political disquisitions, in apprehending what may never happen ; but I conceive that I am to live in society in another state, and a sober attachment to theo- retic principles of political truth cannot be an improper ingre- dient in a social character, either in this world or in the next.
" You think the county-members as obnoxious to influence as the borough-members. This theory is not confirmed by observ- ation ; for in the great division on the 6th of April, the boroughs of Cornwall alone furnished twenty-seven voters, and the Cinque Ports thirteen, in support of the influence of the crown, and all
L 2
76
the counties in England and Wales did not furnish twelve. But I forbear entering into the argument of either your public or private letter. I am persuaded you mean as well as myself, and I leave the matter in dispute between us to the judgment of the public.
" I really have no fair ground of suspecting to whom it is that I am writing, nor have I any curiosity on the subject ; it is enough for me to know that I am writing to a gentleman of genius and ability who wishes me no ill, and to one who is philosopher enough to excuse the diversities of men's opinions on most intel- lectual subjects, knowing that they are to be explained upon much the same principles by which he would explain the differences observable in their statures and complexions.
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
I received another letter from my anonymous correspondent, in which he confessed that his pamphlet did not sell, and that my sermon was much read. He requested me at the same time not to publish his letters. Several years afterwards I understood that I was indebted to a man I had no acquaintance with (Mr. Cum- berland) for this notice. Upon another occasion he published what he thought an answer to my letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. I had too great contempt for his powers of argumen- tation to answer any thing he published against me : he had merit as a versifier and a writer of essays, but his head was not made for close reasoning. There are, says Locke, " some men of one, " some of two syllogisms and no more, and others that can " advance but one step further. These cannot always discern
•77
w that side on which the strongest proofs lie." Mr. Cumberland was at most a two syllogism man.
I had some time before this applied to the Duke of Rutland to forward a petition in Cambridgeshire upon the plan of the York- shire petition : but I soon found that even His Grace's concur- rence could not conciliate to such a measure some of the leading gentlemen in the county. Many respectable families in Cam- bridgeshire had, during the preceding reign, been avowed Jacobites, and in this they were professed supporters of the Tory system. Passing, therefore, over the gentlemen, we got an hundred prin- cipal yeomen to sign a requisition to the sheriff to call 'a county- meeting. This requisition the sheriff refused to comply with: upon his refusal the meeting was called by the yeomen who had signed the requisition to the sheriff, and it was very well attended by persons of all ranks. The meeting was holden in the Senate- house-yard, as the county-hall could not contain the numbers, on the 25th of March, 1780. Lord Duncannon was appointed chairman of the meeting; and the following petition, which I had previously prepared, was read, and almost unanimously approved of; for, on a show of hands, only one or two were held up against it.
" To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Par- liament assembled : the Petition of the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of Cambridge, Sheweth, " That your petitioners do thus publicly declare their entire and zealous approbation of the legislature of this country, as placed
78
in the free and independent concurrence of King, Lords, and Commons, in preference to every other mode of civil government. That they anxiously wish the blessing of this form of legislation to be continued to their latest posterity, in its constitutional purity. That they seriously apprehend this form of legislation will be essentially vitiated, if not virtually changed, whenever the treasure and offices of the community shall be successfully em- ployed to bring the representatives of the people under the undue influence of the executive government. That they conceive a strong tendency to the change is at present, and has formerly been too notorious to admit of doubt or to require proof. That they conceive every system of public administration carried on by means of parliamentary corruption, however sanctioned by time, pre- cedent, or authority, to be absolutely unjustifiable upon every principle of good sense, and sound policy ; to be as dishonourable to the up- right intentions of the Crown, as it is burdensome to the property and dangerous to the liberty of the people.
" Your petitioners do therefore most solemnly apply themselves to the honour, the justice, the integrity of this honourable House, praying that effectual measures may be taken by this House, to enquire into and correct any gross abuses in the expenditure of public money, to reduce all exorbitant emoluments of office, to rescind and abolish all sinecure places and unmerited pensions, and to use all such other constitutional means, as may tend to establish the independence of Parliament on the most lasting foundations.
" And your petitioners are the more earnest in their prayer, because they are of opinion that no other expedient can
79
equally tend to heal our domestic divisions, to unite the whole nation in the warmest support of His Majesty's person and go- vernment, against the unprovoked hostilities of the house of Bourbon, and to put a final period to that primary source of national distress, the American war."
After the petition was agreed to by the county-meeting, a com- mittee was established for promoting the object of the petition, and the meeting was adjourned to the 10th of the following April. The Duke of Rutland was made chairman of the com- mittee, which consisted of fifty-one members. He requested that I would be a delegate from the county of Cambridge, to meet the delegates, which were to be sent from other counties, in London ; but this office I refused to accept. He imagining that my refusal proceeded from an apprehension of being ill thought of at court, jocularly said, You must be forced down the King's throat as well as the rest of us, I assured him that my refusal proceeded from a regard to my situation ; that I did not think it suitable to my station as a clergyman, and especially as a Professor of Divinity, to enter so deeply into political con- tentions.
On the 6th of April, four days before our second county- meeting, the House of Commons took the petitions of the people into consideration, and authenticated the grievances therein com- plained of. The minister was beat upon the main question, by a majority of 233 to 215. The three following resolutions were passed by the House on that ever memorable day.
80
"1. That it is necessary to declare, that the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.
" 2. That it is competent to the House of Commons to examine into, and to correct abuses in the expenditure of the civil list revenues, as well as in every other branch of the public revenue, whenever it shall seem expedient to the wisdom of the House so to do.
" 3. That it is the duty of the House of Commons to provide, as far as may be, an immediate and effectual redress of the abuses complained of in the petitions presented to the House from the different counties, cities, and towns of this kingdom."
Glorious resolutions these ! fit to be inscribed on tablets of gold, and hung up in both Houses of Parliament, to inform suc- ceeding ages, that the principles of the Revolution stimulated, in 1 780, a majority of the House of Commons to struggle against the danger impending over the constitution from the increased and increasing influence of the Crown ! ! !
Before these resolutions were passed in the House of Commons, I had prepared a plan of association for the county of Cambridge, in which the main things insisted on were, the not suffering any candidate for the county to be at any expense, on account of the votes and interest of the associates, — and the not supporting any candidate at the next general election who would not engage to vote for triennial Parliaments. Despairing of rendering the electors honest, or the elected incorruptible at once, I thought that an election without expense, and a triennial Parliament, were the first means towards accomplishing a thorough reformation of the constitution. I differed in this opinion from some of those
81
whom I considered as the first Whigs of the country ; but their arguments appeared to me to bear a temporising cast, and as I had no sinister end in view, I could not bring myself to give up my own opinion to theirs. Mr. Burke had much influence with them ; I admired, as every body did, the talents, but I did not admire the principles, of that gentleman. His opposition to the clerical petition first excited my suspicion of his being an high churchman in religion, and his virulent abuse of Doctor Price persuaded me that he was a Tory, perhaps, indeed, an aristocratic Tory, in the state. Our petition had been signed by near a thou- sand freeholders in less than a week ; there was a great dislike in the county to an association, and thinking that no good could be derived from an association, that was not generally approved of, I drew up the following paper, as a more conciliatory measure to the county, and a more respectful one to the House of Commons. The Duke of Rutland, as Chairman of the Committee, read both the plan of association, and the following paper, to the Committee before we went to the County Hall, on the day appointed for the meeting ; and a majority of the Committee being of opinion, that an association should not then take place, the following paper was delivered to Lord Duncannon, Chairman of the meeting, and read by him to the freeholders assembled in the County Hall on the 16th of April, 1780: —
" Whereas the Committee, appointed at the last county meeting, for effectually promoting the object of the petition to Parliament then agreed to ; and for preparing a plan of association on legal and constitutional grounds, to support the laudable reform therein recommended; and for adopting such other measures as may
M
82
conduce to restore the independence of Parliament, have received authentic information, that the general allegation of the said petition, and of many other petitions from various counties, cities, and boroughs, respecting the influence of the executive govern- ment over the representatives of the people, hath been taken into consideration, and admitted by the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled to be just and well founded; and whereas the said Commons have resolved, that the increased and increasing influence of the Crown (or in words to that effect) ought to be diminished ; and whereas this very important resolu- tion was followed by other resolutions, tending to a laudable reform in the expenditure of public money, and to the establishing the independence of Parliament on the most lasting foundations: the Committee, taking these and other circumstances into their most serious consideration, and being desirous of showing all proper respect to the deliberations, and of placing a due reliance on the discretion and integrity of the representatives of the people, do for these reasons decline, for the present, proposing any plan of association, sincerely trusting that the House of Commons, having made so noble a beginning, will be animated with a proper zeal to persevere in deserving the highest confidence, and the warmest thanks, of their constituents and fellow-subjects. The Committee are thoroughly sensible that from the vicissitudes incident to all human establishments, the civil constitution of this country hath suffered in the course of less than a century some change, and that it doth at present stand in need of some reform ; but whether that reform may be best accomplished by recurring to triennial Parliaments ; by disfranchising the lesser boroughs ; by increasing the number of the Knights of the Shires ; by regulating the ex-
83
pencliture of public money ; or by other means, they do not at present think proper to declare their opinions ; being persuaded that the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, having signified their inclination to make a reform, do not stand in need of being instructed in the mode of doing it. The Com- mittee, being actuated by the most unfeigned regard for the con- stitution of their country, feel a satisfaction which cannot be expressed, in hoping that the representatives of the people, called upon, as they are, by the voice of the people, will unite in healing our internal divisions, by confirming our - confidence in their integrity ; will conspire as zealously in protecting the prerogative of the Crown from all attempts to lessen it, as in protecting the repre- sentatives of the people from that corrupting influence, which fore- bodes the ruin of the constitution, and which they in their wisdom have already resolved ought to he diminished."
This paper was agreed to by the meeting, which was then ad- journed sine die, subject to the call of the Committee; and the Com- mittee was adjourned sine die, subject to the call of the Chairman.
Upon subsequent questions in the House of Commons, which tended to realise the general proposition concerning the reduction of the influence of the Crown, the Minister so successfully exerted that influence, that nothing effectual was done, and he continued in office, contrary to the sense of the people, shewn not only by the petitions of the people out of Parliament, but by their repre- sentatives in Parliament, who had, on more occasions than one, out-voted him on important questions. In preceding reigns ministers were dismissed when they lost the confidence of the
M 2
84
people, but there was no Pretender to the throne of George the Third!!!
An insurrection, on the score of religion, soon after happened iu London ; and this circumstance, though wholly unconnected with the petitioning interest of the kingdom, very much disheart- ened the friends of reform, and imboldened the Tories to circulate the basest calumnies against the principal Lords and Commons then in opposition to the ministry. I myself saw a letter from the then Archbishop of York (Markham) accusing them of being the fomentors of the riots. I mention this, not with a desire of stigmatising a man, in many respects estimable, but to guard other zealots from supporting their party by uncharitable judg- ments— an " evil tongue," is censurable in any man, but is past bearing in an Archbishop. I from this time clearly saw that the Crown, through the instrumentality of influenced Par- liaments, could do any thing. The mischief of the American war was carried on under the sanction of Parliament, and everv other mischief will be carried on in the same way ; for a minister would want common sense to run any risk in taking upon himself re- sponsibility for obnoxious measures, when he could secure the consent of Parliament to almost any measure he might propose. I see not, in the nature of our government, any remedy for this evil. You cannot take from the Crown the means of influencing Parliament, by lodging these means in any other hands, without destroying the constitution, and you cannot (such is the largeness of your debt, your commerce, your army, your navy, and the extent of your empire) extinguish those means. A few real patriots may sigh over this tendency of our constitution to despotism, and it may, from time to time, meet with some obstruction, not only
85
from the virtue of individuals in and out of Parliament, but from the moderation and the wisdom of the Crown itself, but it will ultimately prevail. Such were my sentiments above thirty years ago ; and nothing has since happened to make me change them, but many, many things to confirm them.
In May, 1780, I published a Charge to the Clergy of the Arch- deaconry of Ely, at my Primary Visitation. This Charge was principally intended to recommend an establishment at Cam- bridge, for the express purpose of translating and publishing Oriental Manuscripts wherever found. And I hinted, that the then litigated estate of Sir Jacob Downing might, when adjudged to the University, be properly employed in supporting an Oriental College. This Discourse was republished, without my consent being asked, at Calcutta in 1785, and made the first article of the first volume of the Asiatic Miscellany. Among other compli- mentary letters sent me on this occasion, I received one from Dr. Keene, Bishop of Ely, in which he expressed his wishes, that I had formed my character solely upon the learning and ability (he was pleased to say) I possessed, and not on politics. This bishop of Ely had been made a bishop by the Duke of New- castle, for supporting the Whig interest in the University of Cambridge in the late reign ; I therefore instantly returned him the following answer, which was no more than his apostasy from Whiggism deserved : —
" My Lord, Cambridge, May 28. 1786.
" I am much flattered by Your Lordship's approbation of my
Charge. My politics may hurt my interest, but they will not
86
hurt my honour. They are the politics of Locke, of Somers, and of Hooker, and in the reign of George the Second they were the politics of this University.
" I am, &c.
" R. Watson."
Seeing the readiness with which the petition had been signed by the freeholders in the county of Cambridge, I persuaded the Duke of Rutland to offer his brother (Lord Robert Manners) for the county, at the general election in 1780. The two other can- didates were Mr. Yorke (the present Lord Hardwicke), and Sir Sampson Gideon (now Lord Eardley). The whole planning and conducting of this business fell upon me. My tolerating princi- ples had gained me the esteem of the Presbyterian Dissenters, and their support contributed essentially to the carrying the election on the 14th of September, 1780. The poll was finished, by my contrivance, as to the manner of taking the votes in a few hours, by which a very great expense was saved to all the candi- dates, and all tumult was avoided. With the transactions by which the borough of Cambridge was afterwards thrown into the power of the Rutland family I had no concern : I would not be- come an instrument in ministerial traffic for a rotten borough.
In February, 1781, I received a letter from the Du^e of Rut- land, informing me that the rectory of Knaptoft in Leicestershire, in his patronage, was vacant, and offering me the presentation to it. This favour was given me without any solicitation on my part, and it was given me I believe not so much as a reward for the service I had rendered him in the Cambridgeshire election,
87
as for the extraordinary attention I had paid to him during the course of his education at Cambridge. I was just then printing the first two volumes of my Chemical Essays, and I had great pleasure in dedicating them to His Grace.
On the 26th of July, 1781, I was seized with a dangerous fever, the peccant matter of which being probably locked up by an im- proper use of large doses of bark, reduced me in a few weeks to the lowest state. When the faculty had given me over, and I was in a state of insensibility, my wife saved my life by boldly giving me at once a whole paper of James's Powder ; it operated as an emetic, I discharged a vast quantity of putrid bile, &c and slept soundly for seven hours after the operation. I continued, however, still very weak, and went in October into Westmore- land, to try if my native air would re-establish my health : but neither air nor diet, nor the art of healing, nor a much better thing than the art of healing, a good constitution, have enabled me to get the better of the original disorder, which Sir Richard Jebb called a paralysis of the stomach. Our two principal phy- sicians at Cambridge showed the sagacity of their judgment, for Professor Plumptree said, that I should take a great deal of pull- ing down ; and Dr. Glynne said, that I should never get the better of the disorder. I am not yet quite pulled down, nor have I any prospect of getting well. It has been a great happiness to me during this long illness, that my spirits have never failed me. I have considered, during every period of my life, pain as a positive evil which every percipient being must be desirous of escaping ; but death is a door of entrance into a better life, which may, by a sincere Christian, be considered as a blessing — ■ Thanks
88
be to God for the inestimable gift of eternal life, through Jesus Christ!
In March, 1782, Soame Jenyns published his Disquisitions on Various Subjects. The seventh disquisition was wholly opposite to the principles of government which I had maintained in the sermon intitled, The Principles of the Revolution Vindicated; and that sermon was evidently glanced at in some parts of the Disquisition. This Toryism vexed me, and though I was very ill at the time, I instantly wrote an answer to it. I did not get Mr. Jenyns's book till Thursday in the afternoon, and I sent off the answer to it, to be printed in London, on the evening of the next day, under the title of, An Answer to the Disquisition on Government, in a letter to the author of Disquisitions on Several Subjects.
I had severity enough in my disposition, had I indulged it, to have written bitter replies to whatever was published against me ; but partly from the pride of conscious political innocence, and partly from a principle of Christian forbearance, I took no notice of the senseless malignity of any of them.
On the 25th of March, 1782, a total change of ministry took place. I happened then to be in London, and had the honour of dining with Lord Rockingham on that day. When we were alone after dinner, he gave me an account of the manner in which the change of administration had been effected ; and he read to me the several propositions to which he required the King's explicit consent, before he would accept the office of First Lord of the
89
Treasury. The propositions were of the utmost public import- ance; such as, — There being no veto put on the acknowledging the independence of America — The suffering the Contractors and Custom-House Officers' Bill to pass — The reduction of the in- fluence of the Crown, by the abolition of useless offices — The introduction of a system of general economy in every depart- ment of the state.
In the course of the conversation on public matters, which I then had with the Minister, I took occasion to say, that among other subjects of reform I hoped he would think of reforming the bench of Bishops. He asked, by what means ? — I answered, the best means might not be practicable without exciting too great a ferment in the country, but that the rendering the Bishops inde- pendent in the House of Lords by taking away translations, would, I thought, be a measure exceedingly useful in a political light ; this, I added, might be done without injuring any individual, by annexing, as the sees became vacant, part of the property of the rich bishoprics to the poorer ones, so as to bring the whole as near as possible to an equality. The revenues of the bishoprics, when thus equalised, would, I apprehended, be a sufficient main- tenance for all the bishops, without suffering any of them to hold commendams. His Lordship thanked me for the hint, and said, that he should be happy to have an opportunity of serving the public in serving me. I answered, that I would never be trouble- some to him in asking for any thing.
Several counties presented addresses to the King on the change of the ministry ; and I drew up the following for the County of
N
90
Cambridge, which was unanimously approved of at a County meeting on the 8th of June, 1782.
" Most gracious Sovereign,
" We Your Majesty's loyal subjects, freeholders and other inhabitants of the county of Cambridge, beg leave to approach your throne; and we approach it with, we presume, a well- grounded confidence that you will be graciously pleased to accept our thanks, which we now tender to Your Majesty, for your paternal goodness to your people, shown in your confiding your councils and the administration of public measures to men of approved integrity, consummate ability, intelligent activity, un- doubted loyalty, and firm attachment to the genuine constitution of their country.
" Under the auspices of such an administration, we trust that our enemies of the house of Bourbon will yet be humbled ; that our ancient Allies will see cause to regret their (Holland leagued with France) new connections, and that our brethren in America will not be averse from peace. — We sincerely congratulate Your Majesty on the success of your arms in the East and West Indies as a probable mean of effectuating these ends.
" Persuaded that by such ministers our money will not be misapplied, we will with cheerfulness submit to any burden, which may enable Your Majesty to convince the Powers of Europe, that you have the singular felicity of reigning over a free and magnanimous people, impatient of the most distant tendency to despotism, but above all others affectionate to their Prince, and zealous for his glory.
91
" Convinced that a system of parliamentary corruption is dero- gatory from the wisdom and equity of Your Majesty's govern- ment ; expensive to the state, and ruinous to the constitution ; we beg leave to express our hearty approbation of the measures which Your Majesty's ministers have taken in parliament to destroy it ; and at the same time to testify our most cordial thanks to Your Majesty for the greatness of mind displayed in your concurring with such salutary councils. What more remains to be done, we doubt not will be done, with as just a regard to the monarchical as to the democratical part of the constitution; for we are not of those who wish the constitution were altered, but restored to its original purity."
In composing this address, and indeed in all my other political writings and speeches, I seem to have forgotten that I lived in Romuli fiece, and not in Platonis UoXijeia.
On coming home (July 2. 1782) from creating the doctors in the Senate-House, I was informed that Lord Rockingham had died the day before. This would have been a dreadful blow to a man of ambition, but it gave me no concern on my own account ; for though he had flatteringly told me, that he was so perfectly satisfied with my public conduct, that he should be glad of an opportunity of serving the country in serving me, yet I had no expectation that he had then an intention (as I was afterwards told by Lord John Cavendish he had) of promoting me to a bishopric. I sincerely regretted the great loss which the public sustained by his death; for he was a minister of greater ability than was generally believed, and he possessed that integrity of
n 2
92
constitutional principle, without which the greatest ability is calculated only to do great mischief.
When Lord John Cavendish informed me of Lord Rocking- ham's intention towards me, he informed me also, that I might apply with probable effect either to the Duke of Grafton or the Duke of Rutland ; but I made no application to either of them ; I called however at Euston on the following Monday, in my way to Yarmouth.
The Duke of Grafton then told me that the Bishop of Landaff (Barrington) would probably be translated to the See of Salisbury, which had become vacant a few days before the death of Lord Rockingham, and that he had asked Lord Shelburne, who had been appointed First Lord of the Treasury, to permit me to suc- ceed to the bishopric of Landaff. This unsolicited kindness of the Duke of Grafton gratified my feelings very much, for my spirit of independence was ever too high for my circumstances. — Lord Shelburne, the Duke informed me, seemed very well dis- posed towards me, but would not suffer him to write to me ; and he had asked the Duke whether he thought the appointment would be agreeable to the Duke of Rutland. Notwithstanding this hint, I could not bring myself to write to the Duke of Rutland, who had not at that time forsaken the friends of Lord Rocking- ham. I knew his great regard for me, but I abhorred the idea of pressing a young nobleman to ask a favour of the new minister, which might in its consequences sully the purity of his political principles, and be the means of attaching him without due con- sideration to Lord Shelburne' s administration. Not that I had
any reason to think ill of the new minister: I was personally unacquainted with him, but I was no stranger to the talents he had shown in opposing Lord North's American war ; and Lord Rockingham had told me, that Lord Shelburne had behaved very honourably to him in not accepting the Treasury, which the King had offered to him in preference to Lord Rockingham. I mention this circumstance in mere justice to Lord Shelburne ; whose constitutional principles and enlarged views of public policy rendered him peculiarly fitted to sustain the character of a great statesman in the highest office.
On the 12th of the same month, the Duke of Rutland wrote to me at Yarmouth — that he had determined to support Lord Shelburne s administration, as he had received the most positive assurances, that the independency of America was to be acknow- ledged, and the wishes of the people relative to a parliamentary reform granted. He further told me, that the bishopric of Landaff, he had reason to believe, would be disposed of in my favour if he asked it ; and desired to know, whether, if the offer should be made, I would accept it. I returned for answer that I conceived there could be no dishonour in my accepting a bishopric from an administration which he had previously determined to support ; and that I had expected Lord Shelburne would have given me the bishopric without application, but that if I must owe it to the interposition of some great man, I had rather owe it to that of His Grace than to any other.
On Sunday, July 21st, I received an express from the Duke of Rutland, informing me that he had seen Lord Shelburne, who
94
had anticipated his wishes, by mentioning me for the vacant bishopric before he had asked it. I kissed hands on the 26th of that month, and was received, as the phrase is, very graciously ; this was the first time that I had ever been at St. James's.
In this manner did I acquire a bishopric. But I have no great reason to be proud of the promotion ; for I think I owed it not to any regard which he who gave it me had to the zeal and industry with which I had for many years discharged the func- tions, and fulfilled the duties, of an academic life ; but to the opinion which, from my Sermon, he had erroneously entertained, that I was a warm, and might become an useful partisan. Lord Shelburne, indeed, had expressed to the Duke of Grafton his expectation, that I would occasionally write a pamphlet for their administration. The Duke did me justice in assuring him, that he had perfectly mistaken my character ; that though I might write on an abstract question, concerning government or the principles of legislation, it would not be with a view of assisting any administration.
I had written in support of the principles of the Revolution, because I thought those principles useful to the state, and I saw them vilified and neglected ; I had taken part with the people in their petitions against the influence of the Crown, because I thought that influence would destroy the constitution, and I saw that it was increasing ; I had opposed the supporters of the American war, because I thought that war not only to be inexpe^- dient, but unjust. But all this was done from my own sense of things, and without the least view of pleasing any party : I did, however, happen to please a party, and they made me a bishop.
95
I have hitherto followed, and shall continue to follow, my own judgment in all public transactions ; all parties now understand this, and it is probable that I may continue to be Bishop of Lan- daff as long as I live. Be it so. Wealth and power are but secondary objects of pursuit to a thinking man, especially to a thinking Christian.
At my first interview with Lord Shelbume, he expressed a desire that we might become well acquainted ; and said, that as he had Dunning to assist him in law points, and Barry in army concerns, he should be happy to consult me in church matters. I determined to make use of this overture as a mean of doing, as I hoped, some service to religion, and to the Established Church ; which, from a most serious and unprejudiced consideration, I had long thought stood in great need of a fundamental reform.
A few days after this first interview, the Minister told me, that he had from the first fixed upon me for the bishopric of Lan- daff. I firmly asked him, why he had not then given it to me, without waiting for the interference of any person ? He said, he had given it without being asked by the Duke of Rutland ; but he acknowledged that he wanted to please the Duke in the busi- ness. I replied, that I supposed every minister was desirous of making a piece of preferment go as far as possible in creating obligations ; but that I should have been better pleased had he given me the bishopric at once. I then informed him, that I had something to say to him which required a little leisure to discuss. He appointed a day on which I was to dine with him ; and on that day (September 5th, 1782,) I delivered into his
96
hands the following paper, the subjects of which had much engaged my attention before I was a bishop, and I did not think, that by becoming a bishop I ought to change the principles which I had imbibed from the works of Mr. Locke : —
" There are several circumstances respecting the Doctrine, the Jurisdiction, and the Revenue of the Church of England, which would probably admit a temperate reform. If it should be thought right to attempt making a change in any of them, it seems most expedient to begin with the revenue.
" The two following hints on that subject may not be unde- serving Your Lordship's consideration : — First, a bill to render the bishoprics more equal to each other, both with respect to income and patronage ; by annexing, as the richer bishoprics become vacant, a part of their revenues, and a part of their patronage, to the poorer. By a bill of this kind, the bishops would be freed from the necessity of holding ecclesiastical prefer- ments, in commendam, — a practice which bears hard on the rights of the inferior clergy. Another probable consequence of such a bill would be, a longer residence of the bishops in their several dioceses ; from which the best consequences, both to religion, the morality of the people, and to the true credit of the church, might be expected ; for the two great inducements, to wish for translations, and consequently to reside in London, namely, superiority of income, and excellency of patronage, would in a great measure be removed.
" Second, a bill for appropriating, as they become vacant, an half, or a third part, of the income of every deanery, prebend, or canonry, of the churches of Westminster, Windsor, Canterbury,
97
Christ Church, Worcester, Durham, Ely, Norwich, &c. to the same purposes, mutatis mutandis, as the first fruits and tenths were appropriated by Queen Anne. By a bill of this kind, a decent provision would be made for the inferior clergy, in a third or fourth part of the time which Queen Anne's bounty alone will require to effect. A decent provision being once made for every officiating minister in the church, the residence of the clergy on their cures might more reasonably be required, than it can be at present, and the licence of holding more livings than one, be restricted."
When I delivered this paper to Lord Shelburne, I told him that I had long weighed the subject, but that I was not disposed to introduce it into Parliament, if it met with his disapprobation, as I neither wanted to embarrass his administration, nor wished to risk the loss of the plan, by having it brought forward in oppo- sition to the ministry. Lord Shelburne having, at a former interview with him, asked, en passant, if nothing could be gotten from the church, towards alleviating the burdens of the state, I observed to him on this occasion, that the whole revenue of the church would not yield, if it were equally divided, which could not be thought of, above 150/. a year to each clergyman, a provi- sion which, I presumed, he would not think too ample ; so that any diminution of the church revenue seemed to me highly inex- pedient in a political light, unless government would be contented to have a beggarly and illiterate clergy, an event which no wise minister would ever wish to see. Thus, at the very outset of my episcopal life, did I endeavour to protect the church, though my enemies have constantly represented me as desirous to injure it.
98
Being strongly persuaded of the utility of my plan, I thought the best way of accomplishing it would be to state it clearly, and to submit it to the perusal of those who might be most instru- mental in forwarding or obstructing it. In pursuit of this idea, I drew up a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and privately printed four copies. I sent one copy to Lord Shelburne, one to the Duke of Grafton, one to the Duke of Rutland, and one to Lord John Cavendish, with a letter to each of them.
Letter to Lord Shelburne, with a printed copy of one to the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
,. .
" My Lord, " Cambridge, Nov. 10. 1782.
" When Your Lordship first acquainted me with His Majesty's intention to promote me to the See of Landaff, you not only informed me of the sincere dispositions of both Their Majesties to serve the cause of Christianity, but you wished me to turn my thoughts that way : I herewith send Your Lordship some observa- tions on a Reform in the Church, which I am firmly convinced, might be very quietly made, and which would be exceedingly useful in a religious view. I wish Your Lordship to let me know whether you see any reason against submitting this matter to the judgment of the public. If, after it has been thoroughly sifted, it should be found reasonable to adopt the change proposed, Your Lordship will derive no discredit from supporting it, nor will the support of it create any disturbance to your administration.
" I flatter myself, that I am writing to a minister who does not come under Grotius's description ; and indeed, unless I could disbelieve the testimony of all who know him, I may be sure
99
that he does not : Politici qui scepe dogmata vera a falsis, salubria a noxiis, non norunt distinguere, omnia nova suspecta habent.
" Perhaps there would be no impropriety in laying the proposed change in the establishment of the church, before His Majesty, as being, under Christ, its chief head. I am so far from having any objection to this, that I could wish, were it proper, it might be done ; and whether it be proper or not, I beg leave to crave Your Lordship's good offices, in assuring His Majesty of my sin- cere respect and duty in this, and every other matter civil and religious.
" I am, &c.
" R. Landaff."
My political principles, I knew, were not of a courtly cast, and I had expressed myself so unequivocally on that subject in my sermon on " The Principles of the Revolution vindicated," that I wanted to prevent the King's being prejudiced on that account against my plan ; and I thought if he read the letter calmly, he could not disapprove of any part of it.
Lord Shelburne's Answer to my Letter.
" My dear Lord, " I have read your letter to the Archbishop attentively, though hastily. I own to you that I am satisfied that it is impossible to effect either of the propositions contained in it in the present moment, and therefore only, improper to attempt either at this moment. I trust as you do me so much justice in other respects you will in this, by supposing me penetrated with the horrid
o 2
100
situation of the lower clergy, and thoroughly sensible of the advantages which would result to society and the public from making it more comfortable and more respectable whenever a favourable opportunity presents itself. I have not time to tell Your Lordship all that occurs to me on this subject by letter. I hope we shall meet on the 26th, and to have frequent op- portunities of conversing with Your Lordship on these and other matters. In the mean time, if I might take the liberty, I would earnestly dissuade any immediate publication. ■»
" I am, &c.
" Shelburne."
To this letter of Lord Shelburne' s I sent the following answer, though I was sensible that non-acquiescerice in a minister's opi- nions, was not the way to conciliate his regard.
" My Lord, Cambridge, Nov. 15. 1782.
" The impossibility of effecting either of the propositions in the present moment (supposing it in deference to Your Lordship's judgment, rather than admitting it to exist) is certainly a good reason for not bringing the matter at the present moment before Parliament ; but it is no reason, I humbly think, against doing all that was intended by the letter, submitting it to public discus- sion. I have this business so much at heart, that in order' to effect it I will readily abandon the great prospects which my time of life, connections, and situation Open to me, in as probable a manner as they are opened to most other bishops on the bench. I anxiously wish for Your Lordship's concurrence. It is a good work, it will give all those who forward it outward credit and in-
101
ward content. I pray you think of it at your leisure. I will certainly postpone the publication till I have seen Your Lord- ship.
" I am, &c.
" R. Landaff."
In my letter to Lord John Cavendish, who was then in oppo- sition, (and whom I did not acquaint with my correspondence with Lord Shelburne, hoping by that means to have secured the concurrence of both parties,) I requested him simply to tell me, whether he thought that the intended publication would do me any discredit, or the public any service. I had a good opinion of Lord John's ability and integrity, and weight with the House of Commons, and I shall neither hurt the cause nor his character by publishing the answer which he sent me.
" My Lord, Billing, Nov. 21. 1782.
" I was absent from home all last week, so that I did not get your letter till my return. You do me too much honour in think- ing my opinion on such a subject worthy any notice. I have read the letter to the Archbishop with my best attention, and am per- fectly satisfied that it ought not to be the cause of discredit to any man, but on the contrary do him the highest honour. The objects of it are not only rational, but such as seem to me a great improvement both in a religious and political light ; and are stated with great clearness and temper. As to the chance of doing good I cannot be so sanguine, as I should think it had not at present much chance of success. Corrections of this sort are not often brought to bear at the first trial. You are a much better
102
judge than I am how far such a proposal will be agreeable to the cautious disposition of your brethren.
" I am, &c.
" J. Cavendish."
Upon my going to London at the meeting of parliament, I saw the Duke of Grafton, and had a long conversation with him upon the subject of my letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He approved of the plans, and expressed his approbation of them in the most open and sincere manner, but told me that Lord Shel- burne was against the immediate publication of the letter, for reasons which did not at all satisfy him. The Duke informed me that he had communicated the matter to Lord Camden. I soon after saw Lord Camden, when he was pleased to say, " that every line in the letter was right, but that it would take me twenty years to overcome men's prejudices." When he was afterwards President of the Council for many years, he never gave me the least intimation of his being disposed to assist in promoting a measure which he had so much approved.
On the 29th of the same month I dined with Lord Shelburne. In a conversation after dinner he requested me not to publish the letter to the Archbishop. I asked him why ? He replied, it was not the time ! That, I rejoined, was always the answer of a states- man when he disliked a proposition, and that I wished he would plainly say, that he disliked it. He observed, that was not the case, but that he wished it to be put off a year or two. Having had reason to suspect that he had a disposition to be nibbling at the revenues of the Church, and being certain that they only
103
wanted to be generally understood in order to their being secured, I boldly told him, that I would not put off the publication if there was any intention of taking any thing from the Church for the benefit of the State. He assured me that he had no such in- tention, and that the Universities, too, should remain untouched, I then said to him, that I did not see how I could answer to my conscience deferring the publication of the plan which appeared to me so very useful. He replied, that he would answer it to me with his existence, that the business should at another time be done much more effectually. I was unwilling that this solemn asseveration should be retracted or explained away. I did not therefore open my lips in reply, but bowing took my leave. — Thus did I, before I had been six months on the bench, attempt in the most prudent way I could think of, to make a beginning of that reform in the Church, which I sincerely thought would be for the good of mankind, the stability of the Church establish- ment, and the advancement of genuine Christianity ; a review of the doctrine and of the discipline of our Church, and a complete purgation of it from the dregs of Popery, and the impiety of Calvinism, would have properly followed a wise distribution of its revenue ; and the liberation of its Bishops from ministerial in- fluence would have destroyed that secularity, to the attacks of which they are exposed, and rendered them more Christian. I have never lost sight of this object, and when in the year 1800, a kind of opening was given me to be of service in this matter, it will appear that I did not neglect it.
Towards the end of the following February (1783) Lord Shel- burne resigned the office of First Lord of the Treasury, and in
104
April following a new ministry, usually called the Coalition Mi- nistry, was formed ; a great cry was every where raised against Lord Shelburne, whether justly or not may be doubted ; I will mention, however, one anecdote to his honour as a man of in- tegrity ; his ability was never questioned : — On the day in which the peace was to be debated in the two Houses of Parliament, I happened to stand next him in the House of Lords, and asked him, whether he was to be turned out by the disapprobation of the Commons ; he replied, that he could not certainly tell what would be the temper of that House, but he could say that he had not expended a shilling of the public money to procure its approbation, though he well knew that above sixty thousand pounds had been expended in procuring an approbation of the peace in 1763.
After the death of Lord Rockingham, the King had appointed Lord Shelburne to the Treasury, without the knowledge, at least without waiting for the recommendation of the Cabinet. This exertion of the prerogative being contrary to the manner in which government had been carried on during the reigns of George the First and Second by the great Whig families of the country, and differences also having happened between Lord Shelburne and some of the principal members of the Cabinet, even during the life-time of Lord Rockingham, many of them resigned their situations on his being made Prime Minister, and united with Lord North and his friends to force him from his office. From the moment this coalition was formed between Lord North and the men who had for many years reprobated, in the strongest terms, his political principles, I lost all confidence in public men.
105
1 had, through life, been a strenuous supporter of the principles of the Revolution, and had attached myself, in some degree, to that party which professed to act upon them : but in their co- alescing with the Tories to turn out Lord Shelburne, they de- stroyed my opinion of their disinterestedness and integrity. I clearly saw that they sacrificed their public principles to pri- vate pique, and their honour to their ambition. The badness of the peace, and the supposed danger of trusting power in the hands of Lord Shelburne, were the reasons publicly given for the necessity of forming the coalition : personal dislike of him, and a desire to be in power themselves, were, in my judgment, the real ones. This dissension of the Whigs has done more injury to the constitution, than all the violent attacks on the liberty of the subject which were subsequently made during Mr. Pitt's administration. The restriction of the liberty of the press, the long-continued suspension of the habeas corpus act, the sedition- bills, and other infringements of the Bill of Rights, were, from the turbulent circumstances of the times, esteemed by many quite salutary and necessary measures : but the apostasy from prin- ciple in the coalition-ministry ruined the confidence of the country, and left it without hope of soon seeing another respectable opposition on constitutional grounds ; and it stamped on the hearts of millions an impression which will never be effaced, that Patriotism is a scandalous game played by public men for private ends, and frequently little better than a selfish struggle for power. This unfortunate, may it not be called unprincipled, junction with Lord North, gave great " offence to many of the warmest friends of the late Lord Rockingham, and, amongst others, to myself; and I made no scruple of expressing my opinion of it
p
106
This, as I expected, was taken very ill by my former friends. It is a principle with all parties to require from their adherents an implicit approbation of all their measures; my spirit was ever too high to submit to such a disgraceful bond of political con- nection. I thought it, moreover, a duty which every man, capable of forming a judgment, owed to himself and to his country, to divest himself of all party attachment in public trans- actions : the best partisans are men of great talents, without principle ; or men of no talents, with a principle of implicit at- tachment to particular men. To forget all benefits, and to conceal the remembrance of all injuries, are maxims by which political men lose their honour, but make their fortunes.
- The Whig part of the coalition ministry which was formed in April, 1783, forced themselves into the King's service. His Majesty had shown the greatest reluctance to treating with them. Their enemies said, and their adherents suspected, that if poverty had not pressed hard upon some of them, they would not, for the good of their country, have overlooked the indignities which had been shown them by the court ; they would have declined ac- cepting places, when they perfectly knew that their services were unacceptable to the King.
They did, however, accept ; and on the day they kissed hands I told Lord John Cavendish (who had reluctantly joined the co- alition) that they had two things against them, the Closet and the Country; that the King hated them, and would take the first opportunity of turning them out ; and that the coalition would make the country hate them. Lord John was aware of the op-
107
position they would have from the closet, but he entertained no suspicion of the country being disgusted at the coalition. The event, however, of the general election, in which the Whig in- terest was almost every where unsuccessful, and Lord John him- self turned out at York, proved that my foresight was well founded. It is a great happiness in our constitntion, that when the aristocratic parties in the Houses of Parliament flagrantly deviate from principles of honour, in order to support their re- spective interests, there is integrity enough still remaining in the mass of the people, to counteract the mischief of such selfishness or ambition.
During the interval between Lord Shelburne's resignation and the appointment of the Duke of Portland to the head of the Treasury, I published my Letter to the Archbishop of Canter- bury. I sent a copy to every Bishop, and of them all the Bishop of Chester alone (Porteus) had the good manners so much as to acknowledge the receipt of it. I had foreseen this timidity of the bench, and I had foreseen also that he must be a great- minded minister indeed, who would bring forward a measure de- priving him of his parliamentary influence over the spiritual lords : but I believed that what was right would take place at last, and I thought that by publishing the plan it would stand a chance of being thoroughly discussed. Men's prejudices, I was sensible, could only be lessened by degrees; and I was firmly of opinion that no change ought ever to be made in quiet titnes, till the utility of the change was generally acknowledged.
Mr. Cumberland published a pamphlet against me on this
p 2
108
occasion ; but he knew nothing of the subject, and misrepresented my design. He laid himself so open in every page of his per- formance, that, could 1 have condescended to answer him, I should have made him sick of writing pamphlets for the rest of his life. Some other things were published by silly people, who would needs suppose that I was in heart a republican, and meant harm to the Church establishment. Dr. Cooke, Piovost of King's College, was one of those few who saw the business in its proper light ; he thanked me for having strengthened the Church for at least, he said, an hundred years by my proposal.
I received many complimentary letters ; the author of the fol- lowing has been long dead, but it does such honour to his me- mory that his surviving friends cannot but be gratified with a sight of it.
" My Lord, " I have been content hitherto to observe your progress . in reputation and honours with a silent satisfaction. I was pleased with your answer to Mr. Gibbon, and entertained by your Che- mical Essays, which brought an abstract subject nearer to the level of such understandings as mine; and I sincerely rejoiced to hear of your advancement to the purple. Yet on these occasions I did not think myself warranted to break in upon you, either with my acknowledgments or felicitations. You owe the present trouble I give you to the recent publication of your Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. I cannot resist the impulse which I feel to return you my thanks for this letter, especially for your defence of the second consequence (the independence of the
109
Bishops in the House of Lords) of your plan, which, in my opinion, entitles you to the thanks of every honest man in England. It is the privilege of your situation, my Lord, to speak words that will be heard in high places, and it cannot be indifferent to the community whether they be words of truth and soberness, or of self-interest and adulation. I have my fears, indeed, — my fears not for you, my Lord, but for my country, — that you will reap no other fruit from your proposal than the applause of the public and the approbation of your own heart. A contrary doctrine prevails, and is disseminated, with some caution indeed, but with much industry, even among the lower ranks of courtly politicians, so far as to reaching my ears, — the doctrine of the necessity of corruption to our welfare. I remember two or three years ago to have seen a well-written Letter to Dr. Watson, under the character of a Country Curate, (it pro- ceeded from the pensioned pen of Cumberland,) in which the writer pleasantly enough contends for some influence of the crown to counteract the effect of republican principles, pride, envy, disappointment, and revenge. Unluckily, in a postscript to this letter, the cloven foot peeps out from under the cassock, and the writer has added to his opponents two others, wisdom and virtue. Suppose, says he, for a moment, (some, perhaps, may think it a violent supposition,) the members of the House of Commons to be all honest, intelligent, and uncorrupt ; that no minister could prevail upon them by place, pension, or artifice : What is the consequence ? Why the constitution is overturned : that constitution which the wisdom and blood of our ancestors was exhausted in establishing ; .that is, which wisely established a balance to counterpoise the effects of wisdom and honesty, and
110
provided an antidote against the poison of virtue. The writer may quibble, but I defy him to get fairly off from this consequence of his own words.
" A true description of the present system might, perhaps, be given in the words of an old Briton, which, though immediately applied to Roman tyranny, might in a secondary sense be con- sidered as prophetic of a modern British House of Commons : — Natu servituti mancipia semel veneunt, atque ultro a dominis aluntur Britannia servitatem mam quolidie emit, quotidie pascit. Galgacus in Tacit. But I have rambled too far, and must only add, that I am, with great truth and regard,
" Your Lordship's much obliged
" and most obedient servant,
Ipswich, April 9th, 1783. " S. Darby."
Mr. Darby was a most respectable character, highly esteemed by all who knew him for his integrity and ability, and had for- merly been an eminent tutor in Jesus College, Cambridge. I sent him immediately the following answer :
" Dear Sir, " 1 return you a thousand thanks for your kind letter. The ap- probation of one good and liberal-minded man, is dearer to me than the highest honours of the church ; the puff of lawn was never any object of my ambition ; but I ever have been ambitious of being thought well of by men of virtue and understanding, and you must allow me to say that in that light I am proud of your letter. I have great hopes that my plan will be effectuated, but I mean not to bring it forward till men's minds, the minds especially of the
Ill
church dignitaries, are recovered from their idle apprehensions of danger from innovation.
" I am, &c.
" R. Landaff."
On the 30th of May, 1783, I made the following (my first) speech in parliament. The case was between the Bishop of Lon- don and Disney Fytche, Esq., on a writ of error from His Majesty's Court of King's Bench, brought by the bishop as plaintiff, who had refused to institute a clerk presented by the said Fytche, on account of the clerk having given a general bond of resignation. My speaking was unexpected by the bench, as I had not signified my intention either to the Bishop of London, or any other person : —
" My Lords, " Though I am extremely sensible, how much it would become me to endeavour to bespeak your indulgence for the liberty which I am now taking, of delivering my sentiments on a subject that has already received so able and so ample a discussion from the learned judges, yet I hold Your Lordships' time to be much too precious to be consumed in listening to any preface or apology which 1 could make. I am the more imboldened to deliver my opinion on this subject, from observing that the learned judges are not unanimous in theirs. Had they been perfectly united in sentiment, I should have had much greater scruple and hesi- tation in speaking than I now feel ; yet, even in that case, I could not have suffered myself to remain altogether silent on such an occasion as this, when a question of great importance, both
112
with respect to the interest of the Established Church, and the general interest of the Christian religion, is to receive the solemn and final adjudication of this house.
" The importance of this question, with respect to the Esta- blished Church, is evident enough from the effect which its deci- sion may eventually have on its revenues : they may be very materially injured thereby. There is not, I am persuaded, one of Your Lordships who has duly weighed the civil and religious utility of an Established Church, and made himself sufficiently acquainted with the extent of the revenue appropriated to the support of our own, that can ever entertain a wish to see that revenue lessened.
" The proportion indeed, My Lords, in which the revenue of the church is distributed amongst the clergy, might, in my humble opinion, admit great improvement both in a religious and political light ; but of whatever sentiments you may be on that head, I am certain that you will concur with me in thinking that the whole revenue when taken in the gross is not more than sufficient, if sufficient, for the maintenance of the establishment ; it cannot with- out danger to the community admit of any diminution. But the legality of general bonds of resignation, if Your Lordships should adjudge them to be legal, will have a direct tendency to diminish the church revenue in a great degree. For no sooner shall the legality be generally known than pettifoggers of the law, money- scriveners, land-surveyors, arid all the simoniacal jobbers in eccle- siastical property, will conspire with needy patrons, and with more needy clerks, to invent and execute a thousand collusive plans to rob the church of a portion of that patrimony, which the pious wisdom of our ancestors annexed to it, and which your
113
piety and your wisdom, I trust, will never suffer to be dissevered from it.
• " But the importance of this question may be considered, in another and more momentous point of view, as it respects the purity of our religion. It is not for the security of the church revenue that we are in any degree solicitous, except so far as that security tends to render the clergy more fitted to discharge with fidelity the high duties of their sacred function.
" General bonds of resignation put the clergy who submit to them, into a state of dependence, awe, and apprehension, incon- sistent with their stations as preachers of the Gospel. The pope in former times was a great encourager of resignations among the clergy of this country, because he obtained a year's income of the benefice upon every voidance ; but neither were the Catholic clergy of this country at that time, nor are they I believe in any country at this time, fettered by general bonds of resignation. In the Church of Scotland, (I speak under the correction of many noble Lords in this House, who certainly know the matter much better than I do,) but, I believe that I am right in saying, that this unholy traffick in holy things has not yet polluted the minds of either! patrons or ministers in the church of Scotland; nor is it practised in any Protestant church in Christendom, at least not in the same degree in which it is practised in our own.
" This traffick, My Lords, is a sore scandal to us; we are much grieved at it ; and we hope from the high sense of religion' and honour which this House has ever entertained, that it will be no longer endured. Even in the primitive ages of the Christian church, when it was not only unprotected hy the civil power but persecuted by it; when kings, instead of being its nursing
Q
114
fathers, were its bitterest enemies, even then, when the clergy were maintained out of the elemosynary collections which were made by every congregation of Christians every Lord's day, a minister of the Gospel was not in so precarious, dependent, and every way improper situation as the legality of general bonds of resignation will place him in ; because his support did not then depend upon the caprice of some one flagitious individual, who might be offended by the evangelical freedom of his preaching, but on the good sense of hundreds of well-disposed Christians, who felt themselves edified thereby.
" This, My Lords, is a very serious consideration. I do not wish, nor, I will take the liberty to say, is there a bishop on the bench who wishes to see the clergy rendered insolent by an accumulation of wealth and power ; but we must all wish ; for in this matter I am sure that I speak the sense of all my brethren ; we must all of us ever wish to see them rendered so independent of all men, that they need not be afraid to tell any man of his sins ; that they may reprove, rebuke, exhort, and preach the word of God with sincerity and truth, without shrinking from this part of their duty from an apprehension of being turned out of their benefices.
u The alienation of the church revenue, and the introduction of an accommodating, timid, temporising priesthood, are too great inconveniences, to call them by no harsher appellation, which will attend the legality of general bonds of resignation.
". Here I shall probably be told, that I am guilty of a great solecism, in adducing the inconvenience attending general bonds of resignation as a proof of their illegality. — I am not, My Lords, so wholly ignorant of the first principles of reasoning as to make such a conclusion ; I do not say that the inconvenience
115
*
I have stated is a proof of the illegality of such bonds, but I do humbly think that when the illegality is wholly questionable (as it confessedly is in the present case) the inconvenience may have, and will have, some weight in determining Your Lordships' judgment on the subject. Nay I go further, and think that though the inconvenience be not a direct proof of the illegality of these bonds, it is a presumption of it — for this presumption appears to me to be well founded, that, whatever is repugnant to the common interest, cannot be conformable to the common law of the land. But that general bonds of resignation are repugnant to the common interest of the kingdom is what some of the judges have strongly intimated in delivering their opinions, and what few of Your Lordships I believe, were the matter a res Integra, would scruple to affirm.
" I have heard but four reasons mentioned in proof of the utility of even specific bonds of resignation. One respects the binding the incumbent to a longer residence on his cure than the law requires ; the second relates to the restraining him from the enjoy- ment of pluralities in cases allowed by the law. The third and fourth have reference to the convenience of private families in preventing a cession of livings by the acceptance of a bishopric, and in providing for sons or other connections when they came of age to hold livings.
" The first two reasons appear to be well founded in law ; for it is lawful for a man to give a bond restrictive of his natural or civil liberty, provided that restriction be for a good purpose, for a purpose of public utility. But the legal validity of the other two reasons is not so obvious to my apprehension, for the purpose of the bond in either of the cases is not good ; it is good for a
q 2
116
particular family, but it is hot good for the community at large ; and it is better that a particular family should sustain a little injury than that the community should suffer a great incon- venience. My Lords, I must correct this expression ; I am incorreet, I think, in saying that private families would sustain an injury in having even special bonds of resignation adjudged to be illegal. There might according to our present notions of these things be some hardship, but there would be no injustice in the case ; for it ought to be remembered that the jus patronatus is a spiritual trust, and should not be considered as a source of tem- poral benefit. When it was first granted to lords of manors and other laymen who at their own expense built churches, there can be no doubt that they presented their clerks to the bishops not conditionally but absolutely, not for a term of years, or to resign at the request of the patron, but for life.
" But with respect to general bonds of resignation, the case now before the House, the matter, it is argued, is not now a res integra ; since there have been in the course of two hundred years many adjudged cases, and we must, it is contended, of necessity adhere to the precedents.
i( My Lords, the stare decisis, the stare super antiquas vias9 are maxims of law sanctioned by such length of usage, and such an accumulation of authority, and so pressed upon our consideration at this time, that I dare not produce any of the arguments in opposition to them, which now suggest themselves to my mind, though some of them would go to question the utility, and some of them the justice of such maxims ; they are maxims which my hitherto course of studies have not brought me much ac- quainted with. • We do not admit them in philosophy, we' do not
117
admit them in theology, for we do not allow that there are any infallible interpreters of the Bible, which is our statute-book: on the contrary, we maintain that fathers, churches, and councils have erred in their interpretation of this book, in their decisions concerning particular points of faith. This we must as Protes- tants ever maintain, or we cannot justify our having emancipated ourselves from the bondage of the church of Rome.
" But, be it so — let these maxims as applied to the law be admitted in their full extent, what follows ? Nothing, My Lords, in this case ; for the plaintiff asserts, and one of the judges has this day been pointed in proving, that the present case is not similar to any of the cases which Have been adjudged in the courts below. Now a slight variation of circumstance vitiates the validity of a precedent, and it vitiates it upon good ground. The ground is this — that we cannot tell whether this variation of circumstance, had it been contemplated by the judge or the court which first established the precedent, would not have so operated as to have produced a different judgment. We are all sensible, when the mind is suspended as it were in equilibrio by' an equal prevalence of opposite reasons, what a little matter will cause it to preponderate; and this little matter, by which any case differs from an adjudged case, lessens, if it does not over- throw the weight of a precedent.
" But let us suppose, though we do not grant it, that the cause of the plaintiff is similar in all its circumstances to some one or more of the cases, which have been adjudged in the courts below, still it will not follow, that we are to be bound by these courts ; if we are, the right of appeal is a nugatory business. Precedents may be obligatory in the courts in which they are established i
>
118
and they may there be useful in expediting processes, and in re- lieving the shoulders of the subject from that great but unavoid- able burthen, the uncertainty of the law ; but their operation should not be extended beyond the walls of those courts, it ought not at least to be extended to this House.
"If there were any precedents of Your Lordships having ever given judgment on the legality or illegality of general bonds of resignation, they would have great and proper weight in the case before Us ; but there are no such precedents. Whatever may be thought as to the novelty of the case in the courts below, it is undoubtedly new here, free and unshackled by precedent. Your Lordships' decision this day will establish a precedent which your posterity will revere and follow ; I am persuaded, therefore, that you will give judgment on the legal merits of the question, as if it had never been agitated and decided in the courts below.
" And here, My Lords, I am conscious of my inability, and acknowledge it with humility ; I am not equal to the full legal investigation of the merits of this question. But as it is some- times of use to know how the perusal of a statute strikes a plain unprofessional man, I will briefly state how the statute in ques- tion, I mean that passed in the twelfth of Queen Anne, and that in the thirty-first of Elizabeth, to prevent corrupt presentations to benefices, have struck me.
" I am sensible that the words general bonds of resignation are not to be found in either of these statutes ; and if every thing that is not totidem verbis prohibited in an act of parliament, is to be con- sidered as allowed in that act, then unquestionably general bonds of resignation must be legal; but let us consider the subject more generally.
119
" During the short time, My Lords, that I have had the honour of a seat in this House, I have heard many diffuse and elegant ora- tions on different sides of the same question, which have so bewil- dered my understanding, and perplexed my judgment, that I have not been able to come to any conclusion, till I divested the whole debate of all its ornament, and examined the matter by the dry rules of scholastic reasoning. Will Your Lordships allow me, instead of dilating on these statutes, to sum up what I would observe upon them in this dry way ?
* A syllogism, I grant, is not a figure of rhetoric much used in this House, nor much calculated to conciliate your Lordships' attention ; but it is a species of reasoning, which serves to com- press much matter into a little compass, and helps to investigate truth with certainty.
" The syllogism which I would propound to the serious consi- deration of the House is this : — That practice cannot be con- formable to the spirit and meaning of an act of parliament, which entirely frustrates the very end and purpose for the attainment of which the act was originally made.
" But general bonds of resignation entirely frustrate the very end and purpose for the attainment of which both the acts in question were originally made. Therefore, general bonds of resignation cannot be conformable to the spirit and meaning of these statutes.
" How the practice of general bonds of resignation entirely frustrates the ends of these acts, will appear by a single instance. Suppose a living to be now vacant ; the value of the next pre- sentation to be 5000/. ; the patron, by the thirty-first of Elizabeth, cannot sell this living ; the clerk, by the twelfth of Queen Anne,
120
cannot buy it ; but by the magic of a general bond of resignation, both the patron and the clerk are freed from restraint The clerk, in consequence of his bond, gets possession of the living which he could not purchase; and the patron, by suing the bond, gets possession of his money. Thus, in fact, the vacant benefice is virtually sold by the patron, and purchased by the clerk, and the legal end and purpose of both statutes is legally, if general bonds be legal, eluded and defeated. This is the manner in which the matter strikes me ; yet I have some doubt, whether I am not out of my depth ; sometimes I think that I touch the ground, at other times I seem to myself to be afloat. The reason of my uncertainty is simply this : — I do not know in what degree we are in this House to be guided by the letter, and in what by the meaning and spirit of an act of parliament. , " I am not sufficiently acquainted with the doctrine concerning the legal latitude of the interpretation of statutes : leaving that point to be discussed by more able judges, I will proceed to trouble Your Lordships with an observation or two on the oath against simony, and on the form of resignation of benefices. ( I mean not, in what I shall say on these heads, to cast the slightest imputation on the character of the clerk in question. I know nothing of him, further than this transaction teaches ; and I can conceive, that it was very possible for him to have thought, and I question not that he did think, that he was not engaged in an improper transaction.
" In the first place, My Lords, every clerk, before institution, swears that he has not made any simoniacal contract for or con- cerning the procuring his benefice. The force of this oath depends on the construction of the two terms, simoniacal contract.
121
The term simony is a very complex term: it extends to more cases than have been enumerated in any law book ; but thus much, I think, will be allowed on all hands, to be included in the idea of simony : Every pecuniary contract entered into by a clerk, by means of which he procures presentation to a vacant benefice, and without which he would not have procured pre- sentation to it at all, is a simoniacal contract. A general bond of resignation is a pecuniary contract, by means of which the clerk procures presentation to a vacant benefice; and without which, he would not have procured presentation to it at all. Therefore, a general bond of resignation is a simoniacal contract. I protest I have not acuteness enough to see the fallacy of this conclusion.
" Here it may be remarked, with great apparent subtilty, that a bond to resign a benefice, is not a bond to procure a benefice ; and the idea may afford matter of ridicule to those who are dis- posed to perplex the argument. But ridicule is not the test of truth ; it is a mere cobweb spread to entangle weak understand- ings ; and I now do maintain, that though a bond to procure a benefice, and a bond to resign a benefice, be not in words the same, they are the same in purpose and effect. The cause of any effect is that, which being taken away, the effect itself would not take place. But the general bond of resignation is the causa sine qua non, the very efficient cause of the presentation ; for take away the bond, and there will be no presentation ; therefore, the bond is a contract for procuring the benefice ; it is the essential mean of procuring it, f<\r the benefice could not have been pro- cured without it.
R
122
" In the second place, I would beg for a moment Your Lord- ships' attention to the form of resignation of a benefice. In the old Latin form, (and the modern English is, or ought to be, a translation of it,) the clerk who tenders his resignation to the bishop, uses these words : — Non vel metu coactus, vel sinistra aliqua machinatione motus, sed ex spontanea voluntate pure ac sim- pliciter resigno et renuntio. Now, if there is any meaning in language, a clerk who has given a general bond of resignation cannot use this form. How is it possible that he can say, he is not metu coactus, when he is compelled by the terms of his bond ; that he is not sinistra aliqua machinatione motus, when he is impelled to the resignation by all the cogent machinery of the law ; that he does it ex spontanea voluntate pure ac simpliciter. My Lords, there is no purity, no simplicity, no spontaneity in the case ; or, if any, it is that kind of spontaneity which a man feels when he delivers his purse to a robber. No, the resignation does not proceed from the spontaneous, intrinsic movement of his mind, but from the compulsory extrinsic energy of his bond.
" I have detained Your Lordships too long. I have risen thus early in the debate, not from any expectation of my opinion having weight with any person but myself, but from a wish to form a right judgment ; for I hope that some noble Lord will condescend to inform me of the mistakes I may have committed in my rea- soning, for on so novel a subject, it is but too probable that I have committed many."
On my sitting down, Lord Sandwich said to me, you will carry your point. The judgment was reversed. Pro : Canter- bury, York, Winchester, Chichester, Bath and Wells, Salisbury,
123
Peterborough, Rochester, Worcester, Bangor, Lincoln, Gloucester, Llandaff, Sandwich, Radnor, Hillsborough, Thurlow, Bayot, Howe, — in all nineteen. Con,: Portland, Fitzwilliam, Mansfield, Loughborough, Stormont, Bathurst, King, Sandys, Abercom, Sydney, Brownlow, Buckinghamshire, Ferrers, Walsinghara, Richmond, Ched worth, Rawden, Derby, — in all eighteen. Present in the House, but did not vote, Clarendon, Oxford, Willoughby, Harrowby.
• If the legislature should ever think fit to pass an act of parlia- ment making special bonds of resignation legal, which might perhaps be done with propriety, the oath of simony and the form of resignation must be altered.
I purposely alluded in this speech to what I had written re- specting a better distribution of the Church revenue, to show the House that I persevered in my opinion, notwithstanding what had been published against it; and in the ensuing November, I sent a note to Lord John Cavendish, to the following purport : —
" I shall come to town at the meeting of parliament, and will take my chance some morning of obtaining an audience of ten minutes from Your Lordship, on the subject of the Ecclesiastical Reform. I am convinced of its utility, but I know how to rest contented with having fairly stated my sentiments, if the matter cannot be brought forward to advantage."
I called at Lord John's house several times, but never got admit- tance, nor did I ever receive a message from him, signifying his
r 2
124
wish to see me on the subject ; he was probably of Lord Shelburne's mind, that the time was not then, for he was then, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Notwithstanding this, I always entertained a great respect for the honour and integrity of Lord John, and indeed for every branch of his illustrious house.
On the 4th of November (1783) I received a letter from the minister (Duke of Portland), desiring me to come up to town and to support Mr. Fox's East India Bill, which vested the patronage, &c. of