CHAP. 1723. my Lords, thus to step out 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 66 ... '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 appurtenances; and because I knew the cir"cumstances in which my predecessor left his family, I took not one shilling for dilapidations; " and the rest of my income has all been spent 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 66 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.... 66 66 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 supposed 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 XII. power, a constant maintainer of it. I may have CHAP. "been mistaken, perhaps, in 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, ex"pecting, 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 66 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 languages, 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 Lordships "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 ad 1723. CHAP. XII. 1723. mitted in any other cause, or any other court, "nor allowed, I verily believe, to condemn a Jew "in the Inquisition of Spain or Portugal?" 66 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 66 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 competent judge, your Lordships shall be "induced to proceed 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 affecting 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 "This speech," says Dr. King, "was heard with universal "admiration, and was, indeed, not unworthy of the oldest senator, or the most able and eloquent lawyer." (Anecdotes of his own Times, p. 35.) 66 XII. 1723. "and his flock, derived from the church, with CHAP. "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 intimates 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 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 de * 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 XII. CHAP. nounced any correspondence with him when abroad; but we can scarcely consider the main clauses of 1723. 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 as setting 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. Perhaps," says Pope, with much feeling, "it is "not only in this world that I may have cause to "remember the Bishop of Rochester." * Next "Dean." But would he be so styled at that time, 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 |