"But

presently pleaded against the resumption of them? whether these patriots were to blame, or no, for opposing what was usual, surely that family, who followed so reasonable a rule, or, in the historian's language, who adhered to the ancient constitution, can be thought of deserving no great censure." What, not for endeavoring to rivet those chains of servitude, which their predecessors had perhaps been kindly forging on the necks of their subjects? Not, for endeavoring to turn irregularities into precedent, and extravagancies into system, and so to enslave a mighty people beyond all hopes of redemption; a people, that had just before unanimously called this family to the throne, and whose liberties had been respected even in the highest exertions of former tyranny? The causa regnandi, which tyrants magnify so much, must surely, in the opinion of this political casuist, be a powerful excuse to justify these enormous attempts, and to cover the infamy of entailing so pestilent a mischief, as that of Civil Servitude, on the souls and bodies of their good subjects. "Few examples," he observes, occur of princes, who have willingly resigned their power. None of those who have, without a struggle, allowed it to be extorted from them." It may be so; and, for the credit of princes, I am sorry for it.' This postscript from which I have been tempted thus liberally to transcribe, as well on account of its rare occurrence, as its intrinsic excellence, the author of it concludes with the following presage: That Britons will never hereafter suffer the least encroachment on their (now, at least) constitutional Rights and Privileges; lest not only that indulgence should favor the introduction of tyranny, but (which is more provoking, though less terrible) lest it should give a handle to thankless men, grown wanton in the abuse of liberty, to calumniate the friends and benefactors of mankind, and to plead the cause of tyrants.'

His lordship of Worcester, it is true, has long acted in direct opposition to all such sentiments. But there is no mystery in the conduct of our prelate. The author of the

Dialogues was a private man. That author is now transformed into a lord of parliament. Besides, those who have read the first of his dialogues know, that no man is better acquainted than his lordship with the arguments, which a complying conscience may employ to quiet the scruples which might otherwise disturb it, and to gloss over any unmanly acts of inconsistency and insincerity; and that no one is better informed, how extremely convenient it is, for him, who lives within the atmosphere of a court, and seeks the rising gale of prosperous fortune, to cultivate the arts of accommodation, and to make principle bend submissive before he glittering shrines of ambition and avarice. If we may trust likewise to the evidence of fact, the bishop of Worcester appears to have thought, that the sentiments, which he has put into the mouth of Mr. Waller, in the first of his dialogues, ought not silently to occupy the page of a book, but that they deserve to be acted upon on the stage of the world. That precept ought to be fortified by example, is, indeed, a truth, the authority of which is universal and undisputed.

Mr. Waller maintains, 'that sincerity,' I am now quoting the words of bp. Hurd, or a scrupulous regard to truth in all our conversation and behaviour, how specious soever it may be in theory, is a thing impossible in practice; that there is no living in the world on' such terms as these; • and that a man of business must either quit the scene, or learn to temper the strictness of the discipline of the philosopher with some reasonable accommodations.-Not a sullen and inflexible sincerity, but a fair and seasonable accommodation of one's self, to the various exigencies of the times, is the golden virtue, that ought to predominate in a man of life and business. All the rest, believe me, is the very cant of philosophy and unexperienced wisdom.-The humor of acting always on one principle was, I said to myself, like that of sailing with one wind: whereas the expert mariner wins his way by plying in all directions, as occasions serve, and making the best of all weathers.' The

pleas explicitly in favor of insincerity, which bp. Hurd has exhibited to great advantage and at great length, and which he has scarcely suffered to be combated by a single argument, are thus concluded. Take it from me as an oracle, which long age and experience enable me to deliver with all assurance. Whoever, in succeeding times, shall form himself on the plan here given, shall meet with the safety, credit, applause, and, if he chuses, honor and fortune in the world, which may be promised indeed, but never will be obtained, by any other method. And certainly it will be readily conceded to the author of the Dialogues, that an observation of what is passing in the work and an acquaintance with history, concur in informing us, that the brightest talents and the most solid learning are often suffered to languish in the shade of privacy and under the frowns of fortune; that very different qualifications, and such as are best taught in the school of the world, are far more requisite for such as aspire to the favor of statesmen and princes; and that by him who is pressing forward as a

e.

68 If any person should be of opinion, that I have censured the conduct of this learned prelate with too much freedom, I shall, in order to justify the style which I have employed, refer him to a passage written by the bishop himself. If the charges against him be admitted to be well founded, it will then perhaps be thought, that, if I have fallen into any fault, it is that I have urged them in too calm and soft a tone. 'He leaves it to others,' he says, to the soft divine and courtly controversalist, to combat the most flagitious tenets with serenity; or maintain the most awful religious truths in a way, that misleads the unwary reader into an opinion of their making but little impression on the writer's own heart. For himself he freely owns he is apt to kindle as he writes; and would even blush to repel an insult on sense and virtue with less vigor, than every honest man is expected to shew in his own case. Rem. on Mr. David Hume's Ess. on the Nat. Hist. of Rel. 1777, p. 12. Of this pamphlet Mr. Hume justly says in his Life (he is politely called by Dr. Hurd • a Puny Dialectician from the North'), that it is written with all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility, which distinguish the Warburtonian school.' The entire honor of having written this pamphlet the bishop of Worcester does not claim. The greater part of it was written by Warburton, and is inserted in bp. Hurd's edition of his works.

69 P. 14, 20, 35, 37.

candidate for titles and preferment, a strict system of morals will assuredly be found to serve no other purpose, than to retard and to encumber.

Would his lordship of Worcester condescend to apply to the justification of his own conduct and his own consistency. those arguments, by which he has so ingeniously, and with so much eloquence vindicated the insincerities and inconsistencies of Mr. Waller's life; he would certainly add new laurels to his literary fame, and be secure of awakening a more than usual degree of the public curiosity and attention. Scarcely is his lordship himself aware, till he undertakes it, how copious is the theme, and how numerous are the persons, within the sphere of his own observation, who have distinguished themselves by dexterity of deceit and flexibility of principle.

If, when a private man, he could frame such plausible pleas, by way of apology for dissimulation and a departure from principle, what may not be expected from him, now that he has so long possessed a seat in the house of lords and on the bench of bishops, where he has seen those arts of accommodation, and that versatility of principle, the advantages of which he displays, practised with the most unremitting perseverance, and the happiest success? Even to the most experienced proficients in duplicity such a work would be acceptable. To different members of the cabinet, to the dukes of Richmond and Portland, and to the prime minister of the country, it would be peculiarly interesting, executed, as it would be, with the greatest elegance of diction and variety of materials. And surely our prelate is too uniformly polite, and has too strong a sense of the proprie ty of accommodating himself to the wishes of his majesty's ministers, that he should discover the smallest reluctance to oblige or to entertain them. It would also be an object worthy of his distinguished talents, to endeavor to render political apostacy as fashionable in the lower ranks of socie ty, as it already is in the higher.

His lordship is known to be animated by the love of fame. Let him then once more call forth his wonted energy, and be excited by it to apply the whole force of his genius, and the conclusions of his experience to a masterpiece of art, for the execution of which he is eminently qualified. Having long since attained to a familiarity with greatness; having long been acquainted with the interior of a palace, with its vices, its manners, and the cast of its conversation: let him complete his unfinished picture of a Court, which, though little more than an outline, is at once bold and correct, and plainly sketched by the hand of a master. Let him add to it those exquisite touches, which he who copies from life is alone capable of giving. It is true, he needs entertain no fears, lest the colors he has used should be evanescent, or lest the picture, in its present state, should be denied, by any honest and competent judge, to be a strong resemblance of the scene and the characters it was intended to represent. But numerous as are the figures which he has introduced into it, it will still admit the addition of new characters and new personages: harmonious as is the group of objects which he has pourtrayed, it is still possible for him to arrange them with greater skill and to more advantage: dark as is the coloring, and large as is the proportion of shade, still the former may with propriety be heightened, and the gradations of the latter may be yet more copiously scattered.