with a touching recital of the hardships he had suffered in captivity. "By which means," he adds, "what little strength "and use of my limbs I had when committed, in August last, "is now so far impaired, that I am very unfit to appear be"fore your Lordships on any occasion, especially when I am "to make my defence against a Bill of so extraordinary a "nature." Atterbury next enters into a masterly review, and, so far as was possible, refutation, of the evidence against him; and proceeds, in a high strain of eloquence, to ask what motives could have driven him into a conspiracy. "What could tempt me, my Lords, thus to step out of my "way? Was it ambition, and a desire of climbing into a "higher station in the Church? There is not a man of my "Order further removed from views of this kind than I am. ..... Was money my aim? I always despised it, too much, "perhaps, considering the occasion I may now have for it. "Out of a poor Bishoprick of 500l. a year, I did in eight "years' time lay out 2000l. upon the house and the appur"tenances; and because I knew the circumstances in which "my predecessor left his family, I took not one shilling for "dilapidations; and the rest of my income has all been spent 66 as that of a Bishop should be, in hospitality and charity. Was I influenced by any dislike of the Established 'Religion, any secret inclination towards Popery, a church "of greater pomp and power? Malice has ventured even "thus far to asperse me. I have, my Lords, ever since I "knew what Popery was, disliked it; and the better I knew "it, the more I opposed it...... Thirty-seven years ago I "wrote in defence of Martin Luther...... And whatever "happens to me, I will suffer any thing, and would by God's "grace, burn at the stake, rather than, in any material "point, depart from the Protestant Religion, as professed "in the Church of England..... Once more, can I be sup"posed to favour arbitrary power? The whole tenour of my "life speaks otherwise. I was always a friend to the liberty "of the subject, and, to the best of my power, a constant "maintainer of it. I may have been mistaken, perhaps, in Mahon, History. II.

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"the measures I took for its support at junctures when it was "thought expedient for the state to seem to neglect public "liberty, in order, I suppose, to secure it..... I am here, "my Lords, and have been here, expecting, for eight "months, an immediate trial. I have, my Lords, declined "no impeachment no due course of law that might have "been taken..... The correspondence with the Earl of "Clarendon was made treason, but with me it is only felony; "yet he was allowed an intercourse with his children by the "express words of the Act: mine are not so much as to write, "so much as to send any message, to me, without a Sign "Manual!.... The great man I mentioned carried a great "fortune with him into a foreign country: he had the lan"guages, and was well acquainted abroad; he had spent "the best part of his years in exile, and was therefore every "way qualified to support it. The reverse of all this is my case. Indeed, I am like him in nothing but his innocence "and his punishment. It is in no man's power to make us "differ in the one, but it is in your Lordships' power to 'distinguish us widely in the other, and I hope your Lord"ships will do it..... Shall I, my Lords, be deprived of all "that is valuable to an Englishman (for, in the circumstances "to which I am to be reduced, life itself is scarce valuable) "by such an evidence as this? - such an evidence as would "not be admitted in any other cause, or any other court, nor 'allowed, I verily believe, to condemn a Jew in the Inqui"sition of Spain or Portugal?"

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He thus concludes: "If, after all, it shall still be thought "by your Lordships that there is any seeming strength in "the proofs produced against me; if by private persuasions "of my guilt, founded on unseen, unknown motives; if for 66 any reasons or necessities of state, of which I am no com"petent judge, your Lordships shall be induced to proceed 66 on this Bill, God's will be done! Naked came I out of my "mother's womb, and naked shall I return; and whether "He gives or takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!"

The Bishop having ended this most eloquent and affect

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ing defence, and one of the counsel for the Bill having replied, the Lords took their debate on the question, That this Bill do pass. The ablest speeches on the Bishop's side were the Duke of Wharton's* and Lord Cowper's; the latter not merely maintaining Atterbury's innocence, but inveighing against any Parliamentary deprivation of a Bishop. "The old champions of our Church," said he, "used to "argue very learnedly that to make or to degrade Bishops was not the business of the state; that there is a spiritual "relation between the Bishop and his flock, derived from "the church, with which the state has nothing to do. What "the thoughts of our reverend prelates are upon these points "does not yet fully appear; something of their conduct in"timates as if our old divines were mistaken." In fact, most of the Bishops were now taking a forward and eager part against their brother; and one of them, (Wynne, of St. Asaph,) very little to his honour, even went so far as to volunteer evidence, which, when close pressed, he was not able to maintain. Their hostility provoked a bitter sarcasm from Lord Bathurst. Turning to their bench, he exclaimed, that he could hardly account for the inveterate malice some persons bore the learned and ingenious Bishop of Rochester, unless they were possessed with the infatuation of the wild Indians, who fondly believe they will inherit not only the spoils, but even the abilities, of any great enemy they kill!

On a division, 43 Peers voted against the Bill, but 83 for it; and it received the Royal Assent on the 27th of the same month.

On the whole of this transaction we may, undoubtedly, condemn the vindictive severity which oppressed Atterbury in the Tower**, and which denounced any correspondence

"This speech," says Dr. King, "was heard with universal admira66 tion, and was, indeed, not unworthy of the oldest senator, or the most "able and eloquent lawyer." (Anecdotes of his own Times, p. 35.)

** Coxe endeavours to palliate this severity, and alleges a case where, by the connivance of the Government, Atterbury received some money from a lease of the Chapter of Westminster. But here seems some error. He quotes a document of the Chapter, dated May 31. 1723, and speaking of Atterbury as the "present Dean." But would he be so styled at that time

with him when abroad; but we can scarcely consider the main clauses of the Bill as otherwise than moderate. The crime Atterbury had committed was no less than high treason; and had the Ministers been men of blood, there might, I think, have been evidence sufficient (I am sure that there were voters ready) to bring him to the scaffold. His punishment was, therefore, a mitigation of that which our law imposes: nor should our admiration of genius ever betray us into an apology of guilt. But the great reproach to which his punishment is liable is that it set aside those ordinary forms, and those precious safeguards, which the law of treason enjoins a violence of which the danger is not felt, only because the precedent has, happily, not been followed.

Atterbury received the news of his fate with fortitude and composure; in fact, he had foreseen it as inevitable. He took an affecting leave of his friends, who were now permitted to see him, especially of Pope. At their last interview Atterbury presented him with a Bible as his keepsake. "Per"haps," says Pope, with much feeling, "it is not only in this "world that I may have cause to remember the Bishop of Rochester." Next day, the 18th of June, the Bishop was embarked on board a man-of-war, without any of the tumults which the Ministers feared on that occasion; and conveyed to Calais. As he went on shore he was told that Lord Bolingbroke, having received the King's pardon, was just arrived at the same place, on his return to England. "Then "I am exchanged!" said Atterbury with a smile. "Surely," exclaims their friend at Twickenham, "this nation is afraid

the Bill for his deprivation having received the Royal Assent four days before? Memoirs of Walpole, vol. i. p. 171.

* See Johnson's Life of Pope. This gift of a Bible has given rise to a most calumnious story of something which Dr. Maty said, that Lord Chesterfield said, that Pope said, that the Bishop said! Excellent evidence to accuse of Deism one of our greatest theological writers! See this story and some decisive evidence against it quoted in the Encyclop. Brit. art. ATTERBURY. It seems quite out of place in "Pope's Character by Lord "Chesterfield." I must own, however, that it does form part of that "Character" in the original MS. which I had an opportunity of collating since the earlier editions of these volumes. (1852.)

"of being over-run with too much politeness, and cannot re"gain one great genius but at the expense of another!"*

The pardon which Bolingbroke now obtained had been for a long time pending. When he was dismissed by the Pretender, in 1716, and renounced that party for ever, he found, as he says, Lord Stair instructed, from England, to treat with him. A negotiation was accordingly.opened, Bolingbroke declaring that he would never reveal any secret, nor betray any friend; but that he was ready, in future, to serve his King and country with zeal and affection; and that he never did any thing by halves. It was then that Bolingbroke took measure of writing a private letter to Sir William Wyndham, pointing out the weakness of the Pretender's character, and the small hopes of his cause, and urging his friend to turn his thoughts elsewhere; which letter Bolingbroke sent, unsealed, to the Postmaster-General, to be laid before the Government, and to be forwarded or not, as they thought proper.** In thus acting Bolingbroke did no injury to his friend, who was already more than suspected of Jacobite principles, and who was not at all legally endangered by receiving such advice, while the adviser served himself by this decided and acceptable token of his new-born zeal for the House of Hanover.

It was certain, as Lord Stair truly observed, that there was no man who could do so much injury to the Jacobite cause. The Ministers, therefore, were anxious to secure him***, and he had a zealous advocate in the Duchess of Kendal, to whom his purse was full of irresistible arguments. The animosity of the Whig party in general was, however, at that time, so strong as to form an almost insuperable bar to his return; and a rumour of it, in 1719, was artfully turned by Walpole into a political weapon. In his pamphlet on the

*Pope to Swift, 1723.

**This letter is dated Sept. 13. 1716; and printed in Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 308.; together with one from Townshend to Stanhope on the subject. The original was duly forwarded to Wyndham.

*** See in the Appendix his letter to Lord Stanhope, November 9, 1717; and the Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. p. 558.