quent meetings had taken place between them at Chiffinch's, at which the king had freely expressed his belief that the plot' was a got-up affair; and from his own account Burnet appears to have been sufficiently frank in the advice which he gave the king to amend his life. Probably the like of the letter which he addressed to the king on 29 Jan. 1680 never passed between a simple clergyman within reach of high preferment and a monarch little accustomed to hear plain truths. After saying that, though no enthusiast in opinion or temper,' he felt constrained to write, he points out to the king the certain failure of the plans hitherto suggested for extricating him from his difficulties, and then comes to the real point: "There is one thing, and indeed the only thing, which can easily extricate you out of all your troubles; it is not the change of a minister or of a council, a new alliance, or a session of parliament; but it is a change in your own heart and in your course of life. And now, Sir, permit me to tell you that all the distrust your people have of you, all the necessities you now are under, all the indignation of Heaven that is upon you, and appears in the defeating of all your counsels, flow from this, that you have not feared nor served God, but have given your self up to so many sinful pleasures.' The rest of the letter is in the same strain. Charles read it over twice, threw it into the fire, and for a while was evidently annoyed; but from Burnet's reception a year later, when Halifax, in close intimacy with whom he now lived, took him again to the king, the affair seemed to have entirely dropped from his mind. It is to be noticed that in this year Burnet was thanked for his poems by the House of Commons-the only notice of poems of his that we possess (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 197). When the Earl of Stafford was condemned, he sent for Burnet. Declining controversy on religion, he requested Burnet to do what he could in the way of intercession, and Burnet appears to have done his best, apparently thereby injuring himself still further with the supporters of the plot, as well as with James, who suspected that Stafford had accused him to Burnet. Like every one else, he had an 'expedient,' which excited some attention, for settling the exclusion question, viz. that a protector should be declared, and that Orange should be named to the post.

his intimate friendship to Russell, Essex, and Halifax. He had hopes that through the influence of Halifax, who remonstrated with him on his seclusion, and of Clarendon, that he might be appointed to the vacant mastership of the Temple; and he was favourably received by the king. A condition, however, appeared to be that he should abandon the society of his other friends, and this he would not do. From Scotch affairs he kept aloof; but when the test of 1682 turned out of their livings some eighty of the best of the clergy, he was successful in obtaining places for them in England, while writing in favour of the test itself, and removing Hamilton's scruples on the subject. At the same time he exerted himself, by intercession with Halifax, and through him with the king, to save Argyll from the infamous condemnation which followed his refusal of the test. This was the occasion for a reconciliation with Lauderdale. By Halifax he was a good deal consulted during the ministerial changes of 1682. About the end of this year he was offered a living of 3007. by Essex, on condition that he would reside in London, though the parish was in the country. It is, for that age, a remarkable instance of his high feeling of professional duty that he refused it on such terms. In 1683 took place the Rye House plot, which proved fatal to his two best friends, Essex and Russell. Burnet attended Russell at his trial and in the prison, performed for him the last offices on the scaffold, when Russell gave him his watch as a parting present, and drew up for him the paper which he left in his justification. He afterwards defended the course he had taken with spirit and success before the council (LORD JOHN RUSSELL, Life of Russell, Appendix 8). Burnet now, finding himself silenced (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 4986), thought it wise to leave England. He went to France in the beginning of September (ib. 289 a) with introductions from the French ambassador, Rouvigny, uncle to Lady Russell. Here he found himself in company with Algernon Sidney and Fletcher of Saltoun. He was treated with the highest consideration by Louis, who never failed to try to secure the sympathies of leading men in England, and he made the acquaintance of Schomberg, Condé (who, however, intimated his intention of not accepting another visit) (ib. 380 b), Bourdaloue, Père-laChaise, Maimbourg, and other men distin

the leading protestant clergy. After describing the extraordinary honours paid to Burnet, and how he was caressed by people of the best quality of both sexes that could be, Lord Preston concludes his letter from

Paris: 'I shall only add that no minister of the king's hath had, that I hear of, such a reception' (ib. 344 a). This roused, we are told, still further the liveliest jealousy of James, who caused it to be so clearly made known to Louis how great were his dislike and suspicion of Burnet, that the French monarch thought it best to offer his excuses (ib. 394a). Burnet returned at personal risk, and against the warnings of his friends, declaring himself conscious of no crime. His movements were carefully watched, and upon his return at the end of October he was dismissed by the royal mandate from the St. Clement's lectureship, and in December 1684 was also deprived of his chaplaincy at the Rolls; this was the result of a vehement sermon against popery on 5 Nov. He preached for two hours amid great applause from the text, 'Save me from the lion's mouth; thou hast heard me from the horn of the unicorn; it well illustrates the feverish state of people's minds that this choice of a text-the lion and the unicorn being the royal arms--was represented as pointing to the disaffection of the preacher (MACAULAY). Burnet appears, from all the notices of his sermons, to have been a singularly effective preacher (see especially for this, EVELYN'S Diary for 15 Nov. 1674, 28 May 1682, 9 March 1690, 6 Jan. 1692, and 25 March 1700).

During the last seven years his pen had been active. In 1682 he published his 'Life of Matthew Hale,' the History of the Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands,' as well as an answer to the Animadversions' upon this work. In 1683 he wrote several tracts against popery, and translated the 'Utopia,' and the letter of the last general assembly of the clergy of France to the protestants.

6

Upon the accession of James, Burnet, having no employment, and being refused admittance at court, obtained leave to go abroad. Avoiding Holland, on account of the number of exiles living there, and the consequent danger of being compromised by association with them, he went, upon promise of protection to Paris. There he lived in close intercourse with Lord Montague, in a house of his own, until August 1685, when Monmouth's rebellion and the consequent troubles were over. He then, in company with a French protestant officer, Stouppe, made a journey into Italy. At Rome he was treated with distinction by Innocent XI and by Cardinals Howard and D'Estrées. He soon, however, received a hint to leave, and returned through the south of France and Switzerland. In France he was a witness of the outburst of cruelty which followed the revocation of

the edict of Nantes. It is significant of the tone of Burnet's mind that while at Geneva he successfully employed his influence to induce the Genevan church to release their clergy from compulsory subscription to the consensus; that he stayed in close communion with Lutherans at Strasburg and Frankfort, and with Calvinists at Heidelberg. He published in 1687 an able account of his travels, in a series of letters to Robert Boyle, directed naturally in the first place to the exposure, as he says, of popery and tyranny. He now, in order to be nearer England, came to Utrecht, where he found an invitation from the Prince and Princess of Orange to reside at the Hague. He was at once taken into the confidence of the prince, who was glad of an agent so trusted by his friends in England, and still more into that of the princess. Burnet urged William to have his fleet in readiness, but not to move until the cause was sufficiently important to justify him in all eyes. He was still more useful in preparing Mary to yield, on her own motion, and gracefully, what he knew William would insist upon, an engagement that if their plans were successful she would place all power in his hands. Burnet declares solemnly that no one had moved him to do this, but he no doubt knew that it would be a service eminently valued by William. It was now that Burnet met William Penn the quaker, of whom he gives so unfavourable a character. Penn had come to try to secure the prince's consent to the abolition of the Test Acts, and endeavoured to convert Burnet to his views. The two men were perhaps too similar in their unquestioning self-confidence and controversial eagerness to like one another.

The favour in which Burnet lived at the Hague aroused James's jealousy. He twice remonstrated with William, and when D'Albeville came over to treat with the prince, Burnet's dismissal was made a preliminary. William thought it better to comply, and, though consulting him constantly, and employing him to draw up the instructions for Dyckvelt, who was going on a mission to James, never again actually saw him until a few days before setting sail for England. So high had James's displeasure risen that, hearing that Burnet was about to make a rich marriage in Holland, he set on foot against him a prosecution for high treason in Scotland, on the ground of former correspondence with Argyll. Warned of this, Burnet wrote to Middleton on 20 May 1687, saying that he hoped James would not compel him to defend himself, as he should in that case be obliged to mention details which might cause

his majesty annoyance; he informed him of his approaching marriage, and also that he had secured his naturalisation as a Dutch subject (Burnet Tracts, Brit. Mus. 699, f. 6). In his second letter, dated 27 May, the citation having now been received, he insists upon reparation being made him, and offers a fortnight's delay before printing his own justification, which he again intimates will give James no cause for satisfaction. The citation had declared that he had had correspondence, treasonably, with Argyll during 1682-5, and with Ferguson, Stuart, and others during 1685-7.

The expressions of his first letter angered James so much that he set on foot another prosecution on the strength of them. Burnet was outlawed, and D'Albeville was instructed to demand his surrender, which the States, of course, after examination, refused. In a third letter of 17 June he explains the phrases objected to. It is at this time that Burnet says he received trustworthy information of a plot for his murder (ib.) He shortly afterwards married his second wife, Mary Scott, a wealthy Dutch lady of Scotch extraction. She seems to have been exceptionally accomplished and beautiful. An autograph prayer on the occasion of his marriage, dated 25 May 1687, is extant in manuscript (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. 460 a). To his firstborn child the prince and princess stood sponsors on 2 A 2 April 1688 (ib. 5th Rep. 319). He had meanwhile written, among many other pamphlets, a severe and acrimonious reply to Parker's book on the 'Reasons for abrogating the Test Act.' He says of it: 'It was thought that it helped to put an end to the life of the worsttempered man I ever knew.'

Burnet was kept fully aware of all William's preparations. He gave an early intimation to the Princess Sophia, and was acute enough to do this without William's previous knowledge, to his great satisfaction. At the same time he was in the full confidence of the revolution party in England. He was responsible for the text of William's declaration; and with regard to Scotland he induced him to alter the passage in which he had by implication, upon the urgency of the Scotch exiles, declared for presbyterianism. On 5 Nov. he landed with William at Torbay, this place being selected at the last moment instead of Exmouth, at his suggestion (Egerton MSS. 2621, Brit. Mus.) There is extant, in Burnet's handwriting, his 'Meditation on my Voyage for England, intending it for my last words in case this expedition should prove either unsuccessful in general or fatal to myself in my own particular' (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. 460 a). On the march to

VOL. VII.

Exeter he was entrusted with the duty of preventing violence by the soldiers on the road; and he drew up the engagement which was signed by all the noblemen who came in. A curious instance of his want of delicacy, when at Salisbury Cathedral, is quoted from Clarendon's Diary by Macaulay (History, i. 297). Letters are extant in manuscript from him to Admiral Herbert, full of interesting details, written during the march to London (Egerton MSS. 2621, Brit. Mus.) When Halifax came with the commissioners from James to treat with William, Burnet urged that the king should be allowed to leave the kingdom, and when he was detained at Feversham expressed his vexation at the blunder, and advised William at once to take steps for securing his good treatment. He describes these two events himself in letters written on 9 Dec. and Christmas day. He was most useful, too, in securing indulgence for the papists and Jacobites in London, thus avoiding the danger of a reaction founded on a charge of oppression of Englishmen. His political wisdom was shown in his consistent opposition to Halifax's proposal that the crown should be given to the prince without regard to Mary, and his watchfulness warded off all attempts to cause a difference between them. It was probably during these months that he published a vigorous and useful pamphlet on the question whether the country was bound to treat with James or call him back.

On 23 Dec. he preached at St. James's on the text 'It is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes,' and on 1 Feb. was thanked by the House of Commons for the 'Thanksgiving Sermon' of 31 Jan. (Burnet Tracts, 699, f. 2). Burnet was soon rewarded by the bishopric of Salisbury. He had previously refused that of Durham, as the conditions were that Crew, who then held it, should resign and receive 1,000l. a year during life from the revenue. It is stated, moreover, that when Salisbury fell vacant Burnet asked that it might be given to Lloyd. Sancroft refused to consecrate him, but was prevailed upon to grant a commission for the purpose to the bishops of the province. Burnet's presence in the House of Lords was of immediate service, for the questions of toleration, of comprehension, and of the oaths came on at once. On the third of these points he spoke for the clergy, but acquiesced in the imposition when he found that they were busily opposing the crown. His pastoral letter to his clergy, in which he urged them to take the oaths, was afterwards ordered to be burnt by the hangman, on account of a claim on William's behalf to the crown by right of conquest, and because Burnet

D D

declared that the clergy ought to acquiesce in the possession even when the title was visibly and indefensibly bad. He zealously advocated toleration, and on the question of comprehension argued successfully against the proposed mixed committee for revising the ecclesiastical constitution, though he afterwards changed his opinion on this point. On all other matters he was on the moderate side, and opposed the enforcement of kneeling at the Sacrament and of the use of the cross in baptism. He was the author of a clause in the Bill of Rights absolving subjects from their allegiance if a papist, or one married to a papist, succeeded to the crown. He was chosen by William to propose in the House of Lords the naming of the Duchess of Hanover and her posterity to the succession; and, when the succession actually took place, in 1701, he was named chairman of the committee to whom the bill was referred. This was the beginning of a correspondence with that princess which lasted till her death. We find one of his descendants in 1729 mentioning the medals, gilt tea service and table plate, which had been presented to him by the princess (Add. MS. 11404, Brit. Mus.) It was in the summer of this year, 1689, that the well-known picture by Kneller was painted (EVELYN, 9 June 1689). He was chosen in April to preach the coronation sermon, which, with that upon 5 Nov. before the House of Lords, and that of Christmas day before the king and queen, was ordered to be printed. His 'Exhortation to Peace and Union' was published on 29 Nov. (Burnet Tracts, Brit. Mus.) Burnet was naturally much consulted by William regarding the Scotch church, and is probably responsible (indeed, he himself intimates this) for the letter in which the king promised protection to the bishops on their good behaviour, joined with full toleration of the presbyterians, though he himself declared in 1688 that he did not meddle with Scotch affairs. In the subsequent negotiations he was, however, shut out by the jealousy of the presbyterians from further influence, though he did his best for the bishops. His action was dictated by his prevailing desire to further an accommodation between the Anglican and presbyterian churches (MACAULAY, iv. 10). Ôn 13 Sept. 1689 he was placed on the commission for comprehension. On the occasion of the Montgomery conspiracy, Burnet was able, by information which reached him anonymously, to cause its miscarriage. He soothed William's feelings when the commons jealously granted the revenue for five years only. He urged the adoption of the Abjuration Bill, which the king wisely allowed to drop. During the latter's absence in Ireland Burnet

was, at express desire, in close attendance on the queen. For his various political and polemical writings during the last three years, see the appendix to the Clarendon Press edition of his 'History.' The most important was the pastoral letter above mentioned. On the death of Mary he wrote his essay on her character. During her life she had had the entire control of church matters. At her death a commission was appointed for all questions of preferment. Burnet was placed upon this, and, when a similar commission was named in 1700, he was again included in it.

Burnet has been accused of undue eagerness to serve William's wishes, and his promotion of the bill of attainder in Fenwick's case is especially cited. It appears to have been a speech from him which gained the small majority for the bill, and his own justification of it is in an evidently apologetic tone; this was in 1697. In 1698 his wife died of small-pox, and in a few months he married his third wife [see BURNET, ELIZABETH]. By her he had no children. In 1698 also he was appointed governor to the young Prince of Gloucester. He states that he accepted this charge unwillingly, as he did not receive the same confidence from William as of old, for the king had indeed resented more than once his occasionally intrusive lectures. His son relates that when, in consequence of the king's urgency, he assented, he asked leave to resign his bishopric as inconsistent with the employment, and only retained it on condition that the prince should reside at Windsor, which was in his diocese, during the summer, and that ten weeks should be allowed him for visiting the other parts of his diocese. In 1699 (MACAULAY, iii. 230) he was appointed to attend Peter the Great; and he leaves a character of that monarch which later accounts prove to be remarkably true. In this year, too, he published his Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England,' a laborious work, over which he had spent five years. It was received with applause, except by Atterbury, who wrote against it, and by the high-church lower house of convocation, by whom it was censured in the turbulent meeting of 1701, on the grounds that it tended to foster the very latitude which the articles were intended to avoid; that it contained many passages contrary to their true meaning; and that it was dangerous to the church of England. The upper house, however, refused to admit the censure, on the grounds that it consisted only of generalities, and also that the power of censure against a bishop did not belong to the lower house. After frequent adjournments the matter fell through. The dispute gave

rise to a fierce discussion as to whether the archbishop might adjourn the houses by his sole authority (Convocation Tracts, Brit. Mus.) The reason which caused its publication at that time was, Burnet states, the increase of popery; this danger also induced him, in spite of his general toleration principles, to vote for the severe act of that year against papists.

Burnet relates that in 1699 an attempt was made in the commons to turn him out of his tutorship of the Duke of Gloucester, and that an address was moved for his removal, but that it was lost by a large majority (MACAULAY, iv. 517). It should be noticed that, according to Ralph, the bishop spent the whole of the salary which he received from this office, 1,500l., in private charity.

In the debate on the bill for vesting the confiscated Irish estates in trustees, Burnet, in 1700, took the side opposed to the court (though he afterwards changed his opinion), and thereby aroused William's displeasure. In this year his pupil died, and on 8 March 1702 he, with Archbishop Tenison, attended William himself on his deathbed. He appears after this to have paid court somewhat obsequiously to the Marlborough faction. He wrote an elegy on William's death. In 1703 he strongly opposed the bill against occasional conformity. I was moved,' he said, never to be silent when toleration should be brought into debate; for I have long looked on liberty of conscience as one of the rights of human nature, antecedent to society, which no man could give up, because it was not in his own power.' His speech, which is extant, and which is studiously moderate and very able, formed the subject of a bitter and able attack from Atterbury, who affected to vindicate him from the libel of being the author of it (Burnet Tracts, Brit. Mus.) It appears, however, from the speech, that, although not willing that nonconformists should be fined, or that foreign churches should be included in the disabling acts, Burnet was perfectly willing that no non-communicants should be capable of bearing of fice. Whether he opposed the bill on its passage through the lords in 1711 does not appear. In 1709 he spoke against the bill establishing forfeitures in Scotland in cases of treason, and in favour of the general naturalisation of all protestants. In 1710 he was attacked by Sacheverell, and spoke against him in the debate on his case in the Lords. He remonstrated openly with Anne upon her supposed intention of bringing in the Pretender, and in 1711 spoke his mind to her against a peace which allowed the

house of Bourbon to retain possession of Spain and the West Indies.

Burnet's episcopate stands alone in that age as a record of able and conscientious government. A detailed account of it would be but a repetition of what his son has written. He did his best by careful examination to secure a learned and competent clergy, and stood out against admitting unqualified nominees to livings; waged war against pluralities; established a divinity school at Salisbury. He was tolerant both to nonjurors and to presbyterians to a degree which roused the anger of all extreme men; and his habitual generosity was shown by his entertainment at his own charge of all the clergy who waited upon him at his visitations. The most lasting work, however, which he inaugurated was the provision for the augmentation of livings, generally known as Queen Anne's Bounty. He was anxious that the church should be better represented in the market towns, and for this purpose he set on foot a scheme (after the miscarriage of a design on a smaller scale in his own diocese) applicable to the whole kingdom. In two memorials, dated January 1696 and December 1697, Burnet proposed to the king that the first-fruits and tenths, which had been granted away by Charles II in pensions to his mistresses and natural children, should be applied to the increase of poor livings. The plan met with opposition sufficient to obstruct it until William's death, but Burnet lived to see it become law in 1704. It is worthy of notice that in the memorials mentioned above Burnet suggests the plan as a good one for gaining the support of the clergy in view of coming elections. Burnet's influence in the House of Lords seems to have been considerable, but it was probably more from his representative character than from his oratory. This, if we may judge from the speech against concluding a separate peace with France in 1713, which he has himself carefully preserved, and which may therefore be considered a favourable specimen, was pedantic and heavy. His speeches in 1703 and 1710 upon the Occasional Conformity Act and the Sacheverell impeachment have also been published.

Burnet's most important work, the 'History of his own Time,' was not published until after his death, the first volume in 1723, the second in 1734, though there is a receipt for 25s., being half the price of the second volume, dated in June 1733. It has been, naturally enough, the subject of violent attack on the score of inaccuracy and prejudice. On its first appearance we hear that no one speaks well of it' (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 512), and individuals whose conduct