Bp. ATTERBURY to Lord INVERNESS

MY LORD,

A

Paris, [Feb. 1732].

BOUT the beginning of December last I

wrote to your Lordship, and sent you a paper which I had lately printed here To that letter,. though your Lordfhip ufed to anfwer all mine without delay, I had no manner of return. I heard indeed, foon after I had written to you, of what had happened on St. Andrew's day laft at Avignon, but I did not think a change of religion made any change in the forms of civility; and therefore I ftill wondered at your filence. Perhaps a reflection on your not having confulted me in that great affair, though I was the only Bishop of the Church of England on this fide the water, might make your

*Indorfed "Paris, March 3, 1732" the day it was received by Lord Invernefs, not that on which it was written. The Bishop died Feb. 15; and a letter from him written after the second day of that month has been already printed in vol. I. p. 295. The prefent one is probably of till later date, and, nervous as it is, may be the last he ever wrote. The zeal fo eminently confpicuous in it for the Pro- teftant Religion is an irrefragable anfwer to the calumny of his having been inclined to Popery. As to his political attachments, they by no means prove his having been engaged in a confpiracy against England. By being banished, he was abfolved from his allegiance.

The piece he had " lately printed" was the "Vin dication, &c." in vol. I. p. 27S. Paris, 1731.

Lord Inverness's abjuration of Proteftantism.

fhy of writing to me on any other account, and willing to drop the correfpondence. You may remember, my Lord, that when you firft retired from the K. at Pisa, and when you afterwards left Rome and went to Avignon; on both thefe occafions, you opened to me by letter the reafon of your conduct, and gave me an opportunity by that means of expreffing my thoughts to you in the manner I ufed always to do, that is, frankly and without referve. In this laft ftep, my Lord, you have acted far otherwife; and yet in this I had moft reafon to expect, that you would not merely have informed me of what had paft, but even confulted Ime before you took your full and final refolution. My character and courfe of ftudies qualified me much better for fuch an application, than for paffing my judgement in matters of state and political managements. If your Lordship entertained any doubts. concerning your fafety in that religion wherein you had been bred, I might perhaps, upon your propofing them, have been fo happy as to have folved. them, and fhewn you that whatever reason you might have, as to this world, for quitting the communion you were of, you had none, you could

have none, as to another.

Since you were not pleased to give me an occa fion of writing to you at this time, I have determined to take it, and to purfue my former method of telling you with such plainnefs as perhaps nobody

elle will, what the world fays of your late conduct.

My Lord, they who speak of it most softly, and with greatest regard to your Lordship, fay, that it is a coup de defefpoir; and that your Lordship perceiving the prejudices of the K's Proteftant fubjects to run high against you, fo that you would never be fuffered to be about his perfon and in the fecrot of his affairs with their confent, was refolved to try what could be done by changing fides, and whether you might not at long run be able to gain by one party what you had loft by another. They represent you as thinking the K's restoration not foon likely to happen; and therefore as refolved, fince you were obliged to live in exile in Roman Catholic countries, to make the best of your cin cumstances, and recommend yourself, as much as you could, to the natives; that fo, if his caufe should prove desperate for a time, you might find your way back again into his fervice, when it would be no longer reckoned prejudicial to his affairs. And they quote fome words, which they fay fell from your Lordship, to this purpose: "That "fince you faw nothing was likely to be done for "the K. you thought it high time to take care "of your foul." I hope in God they bely you, fince it gives us, who are at a distance from the fecret of affairs, but a very difcouraging profpect of the K's restoration, of the probability or improbability

probability of which you, my Lord, must be allowed
a more competent judge. And withal, fuch a
faying carries if it fomething more difhonourable
to your Lordship, fince it implies, that, had the
reftoration been near and probable, you would
not have troubled your head about matters of
religion, but fuffeted your foul to shift for
itself. They who thus interpret your last step pro-
ceed further; and fay, that you intended by that
means, if you could not find your way again into the
general and open management of the K's affairs,
at leaft to have that part of them attached to you
which related to foreign princes; courts; to whom
what you had done must have rendered you gratè
ful; and thus, while your brother-in-law should
have the care of the domestic correfpondence, and
you all the reft, the whole would have run in pro
per channels. They affirm, that even upon your
first coming back to the K. from Pifa, there was
a general expectation at Rome, encouraged by the
Court of Rome itfelf, that you would then have
declared yourself a Roman Catholic, and that it
was prevented only by the representations made at
that time to your difadvantage from the K's
friends, which occafionc your abrupt retreat to
Avignon and they fuppofe fome private audien-
ces you had at that time tended to this point;
that happened then to be defeated, and the de-
elaration itself was poftponed to a more convenient

oppor

opportunity. This indeed clashes a little with the former fcheme mentioned. God forbid I fhould expofe either of them! I do not, I merely relate them, and having done fo, leave it to your Lordship to make fuch ufe of them as you in your wifdom fhall judge proper.

There are others, my Lord, that reflect on your conduct still more unkindly, and put it in a more odious light; there are these (nor are they few) who are fo prejudiced against you as to fup, pofe (for none of them have pretended to prove) that you have played the fame game as my Lord Mar did, had a fecret understanding with the minifters on the other fide, and received the reward of it; the femen, being, as they are, your profeffed enemies, ftick not to fay, that fince you could not any longer derive merit to yourself from your management near the K. you were refolved to do as much mischief as you could to his affairs at parting, by an action which naturally tended to raife in the minds of his Proteftant fubjects fuch difadvantageous opinions of him as I need not explain, fuch as of all others will have the greatest influence toward hindering his reftoration. They confider your Lordship as one that has studied your Mafter's temper, and perfectly knows it; as one that never did any thing but what you judged would be perfectly agreeable to him, nothing but

*Probably "fuppofe,"

with