No More Learning

1689. See
Athol's letters to Melville of the 21st of May and the 8th of June, in
the Leven and Melville Papers. ]

[Footnote 355: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 356: Mackay's Memoirs. ]

[Footnote 357: Ibid. ]

[Footnote 358: Van Odyck to the Greffier of the States General, Aug.
2/12 1689. ]

[Footnote 359: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 360: Balcarras's Memoirs. ]

[Footnote 361: Mackay's Short Relation, dated Aug. 17. 1689. ]

[Footnote 362: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 363: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron; Mackay's Memoirs. ]

[Footnote 364: Douglas's Baronage of Scotland. ]

[Footnote 365: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 366: Memoirs of Sir Swan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 367: As to the battle, see Mackay's Memoirs Letters, and Short
Relation the Memoirs of Dundee; Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron; Nisbet's
and Osburne's depositions in the Appendix to the Act. Parl. Of July
14. 1690. See also the account of the battle in one of Burt's Letters.
Macpherson printed a letter from Dundee to James, dated the day after
the battle. I need not say that it is as impudent a forgery as Fingal.
The author of the Memoirs of Dundee says that Lord Leven was scared by
the sight of the highland weapons, and set the example of flight. This
is a spiteful falsehood. That Leven behaved remarkably well is proved by
Mackay's Letters, Memoirs, and Short Relation. ]

[Footnote 368: Mackay's Memoirs. Life of General Hugh Mackay by J.
Mackay of Rockfield. ]

[Footnote 369: Letter of the Extraordinary Ambassadors to the Greffier
of the States General, August 2/12. 1689; and a letter of the same date
from Van Odyck, who was at Hampton Court. ]

[Footnote 370: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron; Memoirs of Dundee. ]

[Footnote 371: The tradition is certainly much more than a hundred and
twenty years old. The stone was pointed out to Burt. ]

[Footnote 372: See the History prefixed to the poems of Alexander
Robertson. In this history he is represented as having joined before the
battle of Killiecrankie. But it appears from the evidence which is in
the Appendix to the Act. Parl. Scot. of July 14. 1690, that he came in
on the following day. ]

[Footnote 373: Mackay's Memoirs. ]

[Footnote 374: Mackay's Memoirs; Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 375: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 376: Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 377: See Portland's Letters to Melville of April 22 and May
15. 1690, in the Leven and Melville Papers. ]

[Footnote 378: Mackay's Memoirs; Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron. ]

[Footnote 379: Exact Narrative of the Conflict at Dunkeld between the
Earl of Angus's Regiment and the Rebels, collected from several Officers
of that Regiment who were Actors in or Eyewitnesses of all that's here
narrated in Reference to those Actions; Letter of Lieutenant Blackader
to his brother, dated Dunkeld, Aug. 21. 1689; Faithful Contendings
Displayed; Minute of the Scotch Privy Council of Aug. 28. , quoted by Mr.
Burton. ]

[Footnote 380: The history of Scotland during this autumn will be best
studied in the Leven and Melville Papers. ]

[Footnote 381: See the Lords' Journals of Feb. 5. 1688 and of many
subsequent days; Braddon's pamphlet, entitled the Earl of Essex's Memory
and Honour Vindicated, 1690; and the London Gazettes of July 31.
and August 4. and 7. 1690, in which Lady Essex and Burnet publicly
contradicted Braddon. ]

[Footnote 382: Whether the attainder of Lord Russell would, if
unreversed, have prevented his son from succeeding to the earldom of
Bedford is a difficult question. The old Earl collected the opinions
of the greatest lawyers of the age, which may still be seen among the
archives at Woburn. It is remarkable that one of these opinions is
signed by Pemberton, who had presided at the trial. This circumstance
seems to prove that the family did not impute to him any injustice or
cruelty; and in truth he had behaved as well as any judge, before the
Revolution, ever behaved on a similar occasion. ]

[Footnote 383: Grey's Debates, March 1688/9. ]

[Footnote 384: The Acts which reversed the attainders of Russell Sidney,
Cornish, and Alice Lisle were private Acts. Only the titles therefore
are printed in the Statute Book; but the Acts will be found in Howell's
Collection of State Trials. ]

[Footnote 385: Commons' Journals, June 24. 1689. ]

[Footnote 386: Johnson tells this story himself in his strange pamphlet
entitled, Notes upon the Phoenix Edition of the Pastoral Letter, 1694. ]

[Footnote 387: Some Memorials of the Reverend Samuel Johnson, prefixed
to the folio edition of his works, 1710. ]

[Footnote 388: Lords' Journals, May 15. 1689. ]

[Footnote 389: North's Examen, 224. North's evidence is confirmed by
several contemporary squibs in prose and verse. See also the eikon
Brotoloigon, 1697. ]

[Footnote 390: Halifax MS. in the British Museum. ]

[Footnote 391: Epistle Dedicatory to Oates's eikon Basiliki]

[Footnote 392: In a ballad of the time are the following lines]

"Come listen, ye Whigs, to my pitiful moan, All you that have ears, when
the Doctor has none. "]

These lines must have been in Mason's head when he wrote the couplet]

"Witness, ye Hills, ye Johnsons, Scots, Shebbeares; Hark to my call: for
some of you have ears. "]

[Footnote 393: North's Examen, 224. 254. North says "six hundred a
year. " But I have taken the larger sum from the impudent petition which
Gates addressed to the Commons, July 25. 1689. See the Journals. ]

[Footnote 394: Van Citters, in his despatches to the States General,
uses this nickname quite gravely. ]

[Footnote 395: Lords' Journals, May 30. 1689. ]

[Footnote 396: Lords' Journals, May 31. 1689; Commons' Journals, Aug.
2. ; North's Examen, 224; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. ]

[Footnote 397: Sir Robert was the original hero of the Rehearsal, and
was called Bilboa. In the remodelled Dunciad, Pope inserted the lines]

"And highborn Howard, more majestic sire, With Fool of Quality completes
the quire. "]

Pope's highborn Howard was Edward Howard, the author of the British
Princes. ]

[Footnote 398: Key to the Rehearsal; Shadwell's Sullen Lovers; Pepys,
May 5. 8. 1668; Evelyn, Feb. 16. 1684/5. ]

[Footnote 399: Grey's Debates and Commons' Journals, June 4. and 11
1689. ]

[Footnote 400: Lords' Journals, June 6. 1689. ]

[Footnote 401: Commons' Journals, Aug. 2. 1689; Dutch Ambassadors
Extraordinary to the States General, July 30/Aug 9]

[Footnote 402: Lords' Journals, July 30. 1689; Narcissus Luttrell's
Diary; Clarendon's Diary, July 31. 1689. ]

[Footnote 403: See the Commons' Journals of July 31. and August 13
1689. ]

[Footnote 404: Commons' Journals, Aug. 20]

[Footnote 405: Oldmixon accuses the Jacobites, Barnet the republicans.
Though Barnet took a prominent part in the discussion of this question,
his account of what passed is grossly inaccurate. He says that the
clause was warmly debated in the Commons, and that Hampden spoke
strongly for it. But we learn from the journals (June 19 1689) that it
was rejected nemine contradicente. The Dutch Ambassadors describe it as
"een propositie 'twelck geen ingressie schynt te sullen vinden. "]

[Footnote 406: London Gazette, Aug. 1. 1689; Narcissus Luttrell's
Diary. ]

[Footnote 407: The history of this Bill may be traced in the journals of
the two Houses, and in Grey's Debates. ]

[Footnote 408: See Grey's Debates, and the Commons' Journals from March
to July. The twelve categories will be found in the journals of the 23d
and 29th of May and of the 8th of June. ]

[Footnote 409: Halifax MS. in the British Museum. ]

[Footnote 410: The Life and Death of George Lord Jeffreys; Finch's
speech in Grey's Debates, March 1. 1688/9. ]

[Footnote 411: See, among many other pieces, Jeffreys's Elegy, the
Letter to the Lord Chancellor exposing to him the sentiments of the
people, the Elegy on Dangerfield, Dangerfield's Ghost to Jeffreys, The
Humble Petition of Widows and fatherless Children in the West, the Lord
Chancellor's Discovery and Confession made in the lime of his sickness
in the Tower; Hickeringill's Ceremonymonger; a broadside entitled "O
rare show! O rare sight! O strange monster! The like not in Europe! To
be seen near Tower Hill, a few doors beyond the Lion's den. "]

[Footnote 412: Life and Death of George Lord Jeffreys,]

[Footnote 413: Tutchin himself gives this narrative in the Bloody
Assizes. ]

[Footnote 414: See the Life of Archbishop Sharp by his son. What passed
between Scott and Jeffreys was related by Scott to Sir Joseph Jekyl.
See Tindal's History; Echard, iii. 932. Echard's informant, who is
not named, but who seems to have had good opportunities of knowing the
truth, said that Jeffreys died, not, as the vulgar believed, of drink,
but of the stone. The distinction seems to be of little importance. It
is certain that Jeffreys was grossly intemperate; and his malady was one
which intemperance notoriously tends to aggravate. ]

[Footnote 415: See a Full and True Account of the Death of George Lord
Jeffreys, licensed on the day of his death. The wretched Le Noble was
never weary of repeating that Jeffreys was poisoned by the usurper.
I will give a short passage as a specimen of the calumnies of which
William was the object. "Il envoya," says Pasquin "ce fin ragout de
champignons au Chancelier Jeffreys, prisonnier dans la Tour, qui les
trouva du meme goust, et du mmee assaisonnement que furent les derniers
dont Agrippine regala le bon-homme Claudius son epoux, et que Neron
appella depuis la viande des Dieux. " Marforio asks: "Le Chancelier est
donc mort dans la Tour? " Pasquin answers: "Il estoit trop fidele a son
Roi legitime, et trop habile dans les loix du royaume, pour echapper a
l'Usurpateur qu'il ne vouloit point reconnoistre. Guillemot prit soin de
faire publier que ce malheureux prisonnier estoit attaque du'ne fievre
maligne; mais, a parler franchement, i1 vivroit peutestre encore s'il
n'avoit rien mange que de la main de ses anciens cuisiniers. "--Le Festin
de Guillemot, 1689. Dangeau (May q. ) mentions a report that Jeffreys had
poisoned himself. ]

[Footnote 416: Among the numerous pieces in which the malecontent Whigs
vented their anger, none is more curious than the poem entitled the
Ghost of Charles the Second. Charles addresses William thus:

"Hail my blest nephew, whom the fates ordain
To fill the measure of the Stuart's reign,
That all the ills by our whole race designed
In thee their full accomplishment might find
'Tis thou that art decreed this point to clear,
Which we have laboured for these fourscore year. "]

[Footnote 417: Grey's Debates, June 12 1689. ]

[Footnote 418: See Commons' Journals, and Grey's Debates, June 1. 3. and
4. 1689; Life of William, 1704. ]

[Footnote 419: Barnet MS. Harl. 6584. ; Avaux to De Croissy, June 16/26
1689. ]

[Footnote 420: As to the minutes of the Privy Council, see the Commons'
Journals of June 22. and 28. , and of July 3. 5. 13. and 16. ]

[Footnote 421: The letter of Halifax to Lady Russell is dated on the 23d
of July 1689, about a fortnight after the attack on him in the Lords,
and about a week before the attack on him in the Commons. ]

[Footnote 422: See the Lords' Journals of July 10. 1689, and a letter
from London dated July 11/21, and transmitted by Croissy to Avaux. Don
Pedro de Ronquillo mentions this attack of the Whig Lords on Halifax in
a despatch of which I cannot make out the date. ]

[Footnote 423: This was on Saturday the 3d of August. As the division
was in Committee, the numbers do not appear in the journals. Clarendon,
in his Diary, says that the majority was eleven. But Narcissus Luttrell,
Oldmixon, and Tindal agree in putting it at fourteen. Most of the little
information which I have been able to find about the debate is contained
in a despatch of Don Pedro de Ronquillo. "Se resolvio" he says, "que el
sabado, en comity de toda la casa, se tratasse del estado de la nation
para representarle al Rey. Emperose por acusar al Marques de Olifax;
y reconociendo sus emulos que no tenian partido bastante, quisieron
remitir para otro dia esta motion: pero el Conde de Elan, primogenito
del Marques de Olifax, miembro de la casa, les dijo que su padre no era
hombre para andar peloteando con el, y que se tubiesse culpa lo acabasen
de castigar, que el no havia menester estar en la corte para portarse
conforme a su estado, pues Dios le havia dado abundamente para poderlo
hazer; conque por pluralidad de votes vencio su partido. " I suspect
that Lord Eland meant to sneer at the poverty of some of his father's
persecutors, and at the greediness of others. ]

[Footnote 424: This change of feeling, immediately following the debate
on the motion for removing Halifax, is noticed by Ronquillo,]

[Footnote 425: As to Ruvigny, see Saint Simon's Memoirs of the year
1697: Burnet, i. 366. There is some interesting information about
Ruvigny and about the Huguenot regiments in a narrative written by
a French refugee of the name of Dumont. This narrative, which is in
manuscript, and which I shall occasionally quote as the Dumont MS. , was
kindly lent to me by the Dean of Ossory. ]

[Footnote 426: See the Abrege de la Vie de Frederic Duc de Schomberg by
Lunancy, 1690, the Memoirs of Count Dohna, and the note of Saint Simon
on Dangeau's Journal, July 30, 1690. ]

[Footnote 427: See the Commons' Journals of July 16. 1689, and of July
1. 1814. ]

[Footnote 428: Journals of the Lords and Commons, Aug. 20. 1689; London
Gazette, Aug, 22. ]

[Footnote 429: "J'estois d'avis qu', apres que la descente seroit faite,
si on apprenoit que des Protestans se fassent soulevez en quelques
endroits du royaume, on fit main basse sur tous generalement. "--Avaux,
July 31/Aug 10 1689. ]

[Footnote 430: "Le Roy d'Angleterre m'avoit ecoute assez paisiblement la
première fois que je luy avois propose ce qu'il y avoit a faire contre
les Protestans. "--Avaux, Aug. 4/14]

[Footnote 431: Avaux, Aug. 4/14.
He says, "Je m'imagine qu'il est
persuade que, quoiqu'il ne donne point d'ordre sur cela, la plupart des
Catholiques de la campagne se jetteront sur les Protestans. "]

[Footnote 432: Lewis, Aug 27/Sept 6, reprimanded Avaux, though much
too gently, for proposing to butcher the whole Protestant population
of Leinster, Connaught, and Munster. "Je n'approuve pas cependant la
proposition que vous faites de faire main basse sur tous les Protestans
du royaume, du moment qu', en quelque endroit que ce soit, ils se seront
soulevez: et, outre que la punition du'ne infinite d'innocens pour peu
de coupables ne seroit pas juste, d'ailleurs les represailles contre
les Catholiques seroient d'autant plus dangereuses, que les premiers se
trouveront mieux armez et soutenus de toutes les forces d'Angleterre. "]

[Footnote 433: Ronquillo, Aug. 9/19 speaking of the siege of
Londonderry, expresses his astonishment "que una plaza sin fortification
y sin genies de guerra aya hecho una defensa tan gloriosa, y que los
sitiadores al contrario ayan sido tan poltrones. "]

[Footnote 434: This account of the Irish army is compiled from numerous
letters written by Avaux to Lewis and to Lewis's ministers. I will quote
a few of the most remarkable passages. "Les plus beaux hommes," Avaux
says of the Irish, "qu'on peut voir. Il n'y en a presque point au
dessous de cinq pieds cinq a six pouces. " It will be remembered that the
French foot is longer than ours. "Ils sont tres bien faits: mais; il ne
sont ny disciplinez ny armez, et de surplus sont de grands voleurs. "
"La plupart de ces regimens sont levez par des gentilshommes qui
n'ont jamais este á l'armee. Ce sont des tailleurs, des bouchers,
des cordonniers, qui ont forme les compagnies et qui en sont les
Capitaines. " "Jamais troupes n'ont marche comme font celles-cy. Ils
vent comme des bandits, et pillent tout ce qu'ils trouvent en chemin. "
"Quoiqu'il soit vrai que les soldats paroissent fort resolus a bien
faire, et qu'ils soient fort animez contre les rebelles, neantmoins il
ne suffit pas de cela pour combattre. . . . . Les officiers subalternes sont
mauvais, et, a la reserve d'un tres peut nombre, il n'y en a point qui
ayt soin des soldats, des armes, et de la discipline. " "On a beaucoup
plus de confiance en la cavalerie, dont la plus grande partie est
assez bonne. " Avaux mentions several regiments of horse with particular
praise. Of two of these he says, "On ne peut voir de meilleur regiment. "
The correctness of the opinion which he had formed both of the infantry
and of the cavalry was, after his departure from Ireland, signally
proved at the Boyne. ]

[Footnote 435: I will quote a passage or two from the despatches written
at this time by Avaux. On September 7/17. he says: "De quelque coste
qu'on se tournat, on ne pouvoir rien prevoir que de desagreable. Mais
dans cette extremite chacun s'est evertue. Les officiers ont fait leurs
recrues avec beaucoup de diligence. " Three days later he says: "Il y a
quinze jours que nous n'esperions guare de pouvoir mettre les choses en
si bon estat mais my Lord Tyrconnel et tous les Irlandais ont travaille
avec tant d'empressement qu'on s'est mis en estat de deffense. "]

[Footnote 436: Avaux, Aug 25/Sep 4 Aug 26/Sep 5; Life of James, ii.
373. ; Melfort's vindication of himself among the Nairne Papers. Avaux
says: "Il pourra partir ce soir a la nuit: car je vois bien qu'il
apprehende qu'il ne sera pas sur pour luy de partir en plein jour. "]

[Footnote 437: Story's Impartial History of the Wars of Ireland, 1693;
Life of James, ii. 374; Avaux, Sept. 7/17 1689; Nihell's journal,
printed in 1689, and reprinted by Macpherson. ]

[Footnote 438: Story's Impartial History. ]

[Footnote 439: Ibid. ]

[Footnote 440: Avaux, Sep. 10/20. 1689; Story's Impartial History; Life
of James, ii. 377, 378 Orig. Mem. Story and James agree in estimating
the Irish army at about twenty thousand men. See also Dangeau, Oct. 28.
1689. ]

[Footnote 441: Life of James, ii. 377, 378. Orig. Mem. ]

[Footnote 442: See Grey's Debates, Nov. 26, 27, 28. 1689, and the
Dialogue between a Lord Lieutenant and one of his deputies, 1692. ]

[Footnote 443: Nihell's Journal. A French officer, in a letter to Avaux,
written soon after Schomberg's landing, says, "Les Huguenots font plus
de mal que les Anglois, et tuent force Catholiques pour avoir fait
resistance. "]

[Footnote 444: Story; Narrative transmitted by Avaux to Seignelay, Nov
26/Dec 6 1689 London Gazette, Oct. 14. 1689. It is curious that, though
Dumont was in the camp before Dundalk, there is in his MS. no mention of
the conspiracy among the French. ]

[Footnote 445: Story's Impartial History; Dumont MS. The profaneness
and dissoluteness of the camp during the sickness are mentioned in
many contemporary pamphlets both in verse and prose. See particularly a
Satire entitled Reformation of Manners, part ii. ]

[Footnote 446: Story's Impartial History. ]

[Footnote 447: Avaux, Oct. 11/21. Nov. 14/24 1689; Story's Impartial
History; Life of James, ii. 382, 383. Orig. Mem. ; Nihell's Journal. ]

[Footnote 448: Story's Impartial History; Schomberg's Despatches;
Nihell's Journal, and James's Life; Burnet, ii. 20. ; Dangeau's journal
during this autumn; the Narrative sent by Avaux to Seignelay, and the
Dumont MS. The lying of the London Gazette is monstrous. Through the
whole autumn the troops are constantly said to be in good condition.
In the absurd drama entitled the Royal Voyage, which was acted for the
amusement of the rabble of London in 1689, the Irish are represented as
attacking some of the sick English. The English put the assailants to
the rout, and then drop down dead. ]

[Footnote 449: See his despatches in the appendix to Dalrymple's
Memoirs. ]

[Footnote 450: London Gazette; May 20 1689. ]

[Footnote 451: Commons' Journals, Nov. 13, 23. 1689; Grey's Debates,
Nov. 13. 14. 18. 23. 1689. See, among numerous pasquinades, the Parable
of the Bearbaiting, Reformation of Manners, a Satire, the Mock Mourners,
a Satire. See also Pepys's Diary kept at Tangier, Oct. 15. 1683. ]

[Footnote 452: The best account of these negotiations will be found in
Wagenaar, lxi. He had access to Witsen's papers, and has quoted largely
from them. It was Witsen who signed in violent agitation, "zo als" he
says, "myne beevende hand getuigen kan. " The treaties will be found in
Dumont's Corps Diplomatique. They were signed in August 1689. ]

[Footnote 453: The treaty between the Emperor and the States General is
dated May 12. 1689. It will be found in Dumont's Corps Diplomatique. ]

[Footnote 454: See the despatch of Waldeck in the London Gazette, Aug.
26, 1689; historical Records of the First Regiment of Foot; Dangeau,
Aug. 28. ; Monthly Mercury, September 1689. ]

[Footnote 455: See the Dear Bargain, a Jacobite pamphlet clandestinely
printed in 1690. "I have not patience," says the writer, "after
this wretch (Marlborough) to mention any other. All are innocent
comparatively, even Kirke himself. "]

[Footnote 456: See the Mercuries for September 1689, and the four
following months. See also Welwood's Mercurius Reformatus of Sept. 18.
Sept. 25. and Oct. 8. 1689. Melfort's Instructions, and his memorials to
the Pope and the Cardinal of Este, are among the Nairne Papers; and some
extracts have been printed by Macpherson. ]

[Footnote 457: See the Answer of a Nonjuror to the Bishop of Sarum's
challenge in the Appendix to the Life of Kettlewell. Among the Tanner
MSS. in the Bodleian Library is a paper which, as Sancroft thought it
worth preserving, I venture to quote. The writer, a strong nonjuror,
after trying to evade, by many pitiable shifts the argument drawn by
a more compliant divine from the practice of the primitive Church,
proceeds thus: "Suppose the primitive Christians all along, from the
time of the very Apostles, had been as regardless of their oaths by
former princes as he suggests will he therefore say that their practice
is to be a rule? Ill things have been done, and very generally abetted,
by men of otherwise very orthodox principles. " The argument from the
practice of the primitive Christians is remarkably well put in a tract
entitled The Doctrine of Nonresistance or Passive Obedience No Way
concerned in the Controversies now depending between the Williamites
and the Jacobites, by a Lay Gentleman, of the Communion of the Church of
England, as by Law establish'd, 1689. ]

[Footnote 458: One of the most adulatory addresses ever voted by a
Convocation was to Richard the Third. It will be found in Wilkins's
Concilia. Dryden, in his fine rifacimento of one of the finest passages
in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, represents the Good Parson
as choosing to resign his benefice rather than acknowledge the Duke of
Lancaster to be King of England. For this representation no warrant can
be found in Chaucer's Poem, or any where else. Dryden wished to write
something that would gall the clergy who had taken the oaths, and
therefore attributed to a Roman Catholic priest of the fourteenth
century a superstition which originated among the Anglican priests of
the seventeenth century. ]

[Footnote 459: See the defence of the profession which the Right
Reverend Father in God John Lake, Lord Bishop of Chichester, made upon
his deathbed concerning passive obedience and the new oaths. 1690. ]

[Footnote 460: London Gazette, June 30. 1689; Narcissus Luttrell's
Diary. "The eminentest men," says Luttrell. ]

[Footnote 461: See in Kettlewell's Life, iii. 72. , the retractation
drawn by him for a clergyman who had taken the oaths, and who afterwards
repented of having done so. ]

[Footnote 462: See the account of Dr. Dove's conduct in Clarendon's
Diary, and the account of Dr. Marsh's conduct in the Life of
Kettlewell. ]

[Footnote 463: The Anatomy of a Jacobite Tory, 1690. ]

[Footnote 464: Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory. ]

[Footnote 465: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. 1697, Feb. 1692. ]

[Footnote 466: Life of Kettlewell, iii. 4. ]

[Footnote 467: See Turner's Letter to Sancroft, dated on Ascension Day,
1689. The original is among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library. But
the letter will be found with much other curious matter in the Life of
Ken by a Layman, lately published. See also the Life of Kettlewell, iii.
95. ; and Ken's letter to Burnet, dated Oct. 5. 1689, in Hawkins's Life
of Ken. "I am sure," Lady Russell wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, "the Bishop
of Bath and Wells excited others to comply, when he could not bring
himself to do so, but rejoiced when others did. " Ken declared that he
had advised nobody to take the oaths, and that his practice had been to
remit those who asked his advice to their own studies and prayers. Lady
Russell's assertion and Ken's denial will be found to come nearly to
the same thing, when we make those allowances which ought to be made
for situation and feeling, even in weighing the testimony of the most
veracious witnesses. Ken, having at last determined to cast in his lot
with the nonjurors, naturally tried to vindicate his consistency as far
as he honestly could. Lady Russell, wishing to induce her friend to take
the oaths, naturally made as munch of Ken's disposition to compliance as
she honestly could. She went too far in using the word "excited. " On the
other hand it is clear that Ken, by remitting those who consulted him
to their own studies and prayers, gave them to understand that, in his
opinion, the oath was lawful to those who, after a serious inquiry,
thought it lawful. If people had asked him whether they might lawfully
commit perjury or adultery, he would assuredly have told them, not to
consider the point maturely and to implore the divine direction, but to
abstain on peril of their souls. ]

[Footnote 468: See the conversation of June 9. 1784, in Boswell's Life
of Johnson, and the note. Boswell, with his usual absurdity, is sure
that Johnson could not have recollected "that the seven bishops, so
justly celebrated for their magnanimous resistance to arbitrary power,
were yet nonjurors. " Only five of the seven were nonjurors; and anybody
but Boswell would have known that a man may resist arbitrary power, and
yet not be a good reasoner. Nay, the resistance which Sancroft and the
other nonjuring bishops offered to arbitrary power, while they continued
to hold the doctrine of nonresistance, is the most decisive proof that
they were incapable of reasoning. It must be remembered that they were
prepared to take the whole kingly power from James and to bestow it on
William, with the title of Regent. Their scruple was merely about the
word King.

I am surprised that Johnson should have pronounced William Law no
reasoner. Law did indeed fall into great errors; but they were errors
against which logic affords no security. In mere dialectical skill
he had very few superiors. That he was more than once victorious
over Hoadley no candid Whig will deny. But Law did not belong to the
generation with which I have now to do. ]

[Footnote 469: Ware's History of the Writers of Ireland, continued by
Harris. ]

[Footnote 470: Letter to a member of the Convention, 1689]

[Footnote 471: Johnson's Notes on the Phoenix Edition of Burnet's
Pastoral Letter, 1692. ]

[Footnote 472: The best notion of Hickes's character will be formed from
his numerous controversial writings, particularly his Jovian, written
in 1684, his Thebaean Legion no Fable, written in 1687, though not
published till 1714, and his discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr.
Tillotson, 1695. His literary fame rests on works of a very different
kind. ]

[Footnote 473: Collier's Tracts on the Stage are, on the whole his best
pieces. But there is much that is striking in his political pamphlets.
His "Persuasive to Consider anon, tendered to the Royalists,
particularly those of the Church of England," seems to me one of the
best productions of the Jacobite press. ]

[Footnote 474: See Brokesby's Life of Dodwell. The Discourse against
Marriages in different Communions is known to me, I ought to say, only
from Brokesby's copious abstract. That Discourse is very rare. It was
originally printed as a preface to a sermon preached by Leslie. When
Leslie collected his works he omitted the discourse, probably because he
was ashamed of it. The Treatise on the Lawfulness of Instrumental Music
I have read; and incredibly absurd it is. ]

[Footnote 475: Dodwell tells us that the title of the work in which he
first promulgated this theory was framed with great care and precision.
I will therefore transcribe the title-page. "An Epistolary Discourse
proving from Scripture and the First Fathers that the Soul is naturally
Mortal, but Immortalized actually by the Pleasure of God to Punishment
or to Reward, by its Union with the Divine Baptismal Spirit, wherein
is proved that none have the Power of giving this Divine Immortalizing
Spirit since the Apostles but only the Bishops. By H. Dodwell. " Dr.
Clarke, in a Letter to Dodwell (1706), says that this Epistolary
Discourse is "a book at which all good men are sorry, and all profane
men rejoice.