brother-in-law fhould have the care of the domeftic correfpondence, and you all the reft, the whole would have run in proper channels. They affirm, that even upon your firft 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 reprefentations made at that time to your difadvantage from the K's friends, which occafioned your abrupt retreat to Avignon: and they fuppofe fone private audiences you had at that time tended to this point; that happened then to be defeated, and the declaration itself was poftponed to a more convenient opportunity. 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.

This

There are others, my Lord, that reflect on your conduct ftill more unkindly, and put it in a more odious light; there are thefe (nor are they few) who are fo prejudiced against you as to fuppofe (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, fick 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 mifchief 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 bave the greatest influence toward hindering his refloration. They confider your Lordfhip as one that has ftudied your Mafer'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 with his privity and by his direction. In this light my Lord, when they fee what you have lately done, it is no wonder if they draw frange inferences from it, and impute to your Lordship views which your heart, I hope, abhors. But they will certainly perfift in that way of thinking, if they find that your Lordship has fill credit with the K. and a thare in his confidence; and this, even at this diftance, my Lord, will in a little time appeat to watchful obfervers. They fay it is a fure rule, not to do that which our worst enemies, provided they are wife and understand their own intercft, would above all things have us do; and yet your Lordship, they think, has acted after that manner on the prefent occafion, there being nothing that could either gratify your enemies more, or difpleafe your friends (fuch, I mean, as are alfo enemies and friends to the r- caufe) than the step you have taken, and they will not believe, but that if you had meant the K. as well as you ought to do, this fingle confideration would have reftrained you. They urge, that the difficulties into which the K. is brought by this means are exceeding great. Let him be ever fo well perfuaded of your civilities, integrity, and zeal; he yet cannot make a free ufe of them, without exciting new jealoufies, on very tender points, and in very honest hearts, where one would with that they

might by all poffible means be allayed. Let him have been ever fo much a ftranger to what paffed at Avignon till it was over, he cannot yet prudently declare himfelf on that head, because of the inconveniencies with which fuch a declaration, in his prefent circumftances, will be attended on the one fide, as his total filence will be liable to mifconftructions, on the other: every way this affair will perplex him with refpect to the different interefts he has feparately to manage. Abroad, if he were thought to be at the bottom of it, it might do him no harm; at home it certainly will, and there his great intereft lies, to which he is, above all others, to attend. Nor will the judgment be paffed on this occafion in hafte, fince it cannot be formed on any thing now given out, but will depend on future facts and appearances.

I have made little mention all this while of what your Lordfhip may think a full anfwer to all these reflections and refinements, that you have followed a motion of confcience in what you have done, and depended on that for your juftification. It may, my Lord, and I hope will, juftify you before God, if you fincerely acted on that principle; but as for men, the misfortune is (and I beg your Lordship's pardon for venturing to tell you fo) that not one perfon, whom I have seen or heard of, will allow what you have done to be the effect of conviction. In that cafe, they fay, you would have proceeded otherwife than merely by advifing with thofe into whofe communion you were haftening; efpecially fince it is fuppofed that your Lordfhip has not fpent much time in qualifying yourself for the difcuffion of such points by a perufal of books of controverfy. Men, they fay, of fincerity and truth are often kept in a religion to which they have been accustomed, without enquiring ftrictly into the grounds of it; but feldom any man, who has a fenfe of piety and honour, quits a religion in which he has been educated, without carefully confidering what may be faid for and against it. Men indeed may be fometimes enlightened and convinced all at once by an over-ruling impreffion from above. But, as thefe cafes are exceeding rare, fo I need not tell your Lordship that in yours, they that object to your proceedings are by no means difpofed to make you fuch allowances. They think that, had you aimed only at fatisfying your confcience, you might have done what you did in a more private manner, and enjoyed the benefit of it in fecret, without giving a public and needlefs alarm; but, when you chofe St. Andrew's day for entering on the work, Chriftmas day for compleating it, and the Pope's Inquifitor at Avignon to receive your abjuration, they conclude that you intended to make an eclat, and to give notice to all the world of your embracing a different communion; which might be useful indeed with regard to fome political views, but could not be neceffary toward fatisfying thofe of mere confcience.'

We meet, in this collection, with many curious inftances of that extreme animofity which took place between the leaders of the high church, and the moderate clergy.

I had a particular obligation to Burnet, fays Dr. Atterbury, and will publicly thank him in print, (among other matters I have to fay to him

and to his Articles against our religion) for his caufing it to be spread by his emiffaries that I was drunk at Salisbury the 30th of January, whereas the Major-General, Captain Culleford, a very honeft Clergyman, and the people of the Inn (which was a Coffee-houfe too), can fwear I drank nothing but two difhes of coffee; and indeed I had not stopped at all, but to enable my children, by a very flender bait, to hold out to Blandford, where I dined at fix that night.'

Dr. Atterbury, in return to Dr. Burnet's calumnies, relates to the Bishop Trelawny, with great fatisfaction, the the following ftory.

• What I hinted to your Lordship in my last about the Bishop of Sarum is a very fcandalous story indeed, and comes to town well attefted by fome very confiderable clergymen of his diocefe. It relates to one Mutal, a late chaplain of his, who was almost forced by the Bishop to marry a French nun lately converted by the Bifhop: in twenty weeks time after which, Mrs. Mutal was brought to bed of a child. Mutal openly complains that he had no thoughts of marrying her, but the Bishop prefled him to it, and would not let him be cafy till he had done it. And the gentlemen who fend this account do not flick to give the reafon of this conduct; and openly in their letters to fay, that the Bishop wanted a cover for his lewdnefs. Whether this will prove true or not, I affure your Lordfhip, I write you nothing but what hath been written by worthy perfons out of that diocefe.'

On this story the editor remarks, that it is improbable, and he admits it to fhew how liable the best minds are to be warped by the idle report of the day, when it is told against a person they dislike.

The

As fpecimens of the interefting anecdotes with which this publication abounds, we fhall felect a few of those which relate to that diftinguished character Dr. Radcliffe. Doctor, having been taken ill with something like a pleurify, neglected it, drank a bottle of wine, and took his bed, being fo ill that it was fcarcely thought he would live longer than a day. But, an hundred ounces of blood having been taken from him, fymptoms appeared of his recovery; " and notwithstanding his weaknefs, he took the ftrange refolution of being removed to Kenfington. From this the preffing entreaties of all his friends could not divert him. So in the warmest time of day, (in the month of April,) he rofe, and was carried by four men in a chair to Kenfington, whither he got with difficulty, having fainted away. Being put to bed, he fell asleep immediately, and waked wonderfully altered," infomuch that it was concluded that he might do well, and, in reality, he was foon paft all danger. This curious fact illuftrates the vast importance of a change of air, and perhaps, too, the utility of gratifying the natural long

ings of fick people, which often point to what will effect their relief. Natura optima morborum medicatrix.

Dr. Ratcliff's escape which was reckoned next to miraculous, we are told made him not only very ferious but very devout. The Queen asked Mr. Barnard the furgeon who attended him, how the Doctor did: and when he told her that he was ungovernable, and would obferve no rules, fhe anfwered, "that then no body had reason to take any thing ill from him; fince it was plain he ufed other people no worse than he ufed himself."

Dr. Radcliffe, the Editor tells us, is faid to have been perpetually involved in difputes with his medical brethren, who confidered him in the light of an active, ingenious, adventuring empiric, whom conftant practice brought at length to fome skill in his profeffion. The bon mot of Queen Anne (which Atterbury has preferved in p. 81.) will be illuftrated by the following anecdote: "In 1699, K. William, returning from Holland, and being much 66 out of order, sent for Radcliffe ; and, fhewing him his fwoln "ancles, while the rest of his body was emaciated and skeleton"like, faid, 'What think you of thefe ?"Why truly," replied "the Phyfician, "I would not have your Majefty's two legs for your three kingdoms;" which freedom fo loft the King's favour, "that no interceffions could ever recover it. When Queen Anne came to the throne, the Earl of Godolphin ufed all his endea vours to reinstate him in his former poft of chief phyfician; "but he would not be prevailed upon, alledging, that Radcliffe "would fend her word again, that her ailments were nothing but "the vapours.' Nevertheless, he was confulted in all cafes of emergency and critical conjuncture; and, though not admitted in "quality of the Queen's domeftic phyfician, received large fums "of fecret fervice-money for his prefcriptions behind the curtain.' To these anecdotes of Dr. Radcliffe the Editor adds the following from the "Richardfoniana :"

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66

Dr. Radcliffe told Dr. Mead,' Mead I love you, and now I will tell you a fure fecret to make your fortune; ufe all mankind ill.' And it certainly was his own practice. He owned he was avaricious, even to fpunging, whenever he any way could, at a tavern reckoning, a fixpence or fhilling, among the rest of the company, under pretence of hating (as he ever did) to change a guinea, becaufe (faid he) it flips away fo faft.' He could never be brought to pay bills without much following and importunity; nor then if there appeared any chance of wearying them out.-A paviour, after long and fruitless attempts, caught him just getting out of his chariot at his own door, in Bloomsbury-fquare, and fet upon him. Why you rafcal, faid the Doctor, do you pretend to be paid for fuch a piece of work? why you have fpoiled my pavement, and then covered it over with earth to hide your bad work.' 'Doctor,' faid the paviour, mine is not the only bad work that the earth hides.' 'You dog you, faid the Doctor, are you a wit? you must be poor, come in;' and paid him. Nobody ever prac

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tifed

tifed this rule, of ufing all mankind ill,' lefs than Dr. Mead (who told me himself the ftory, and) who as I have been informed by great phyficians, got as much again by his practice as Dr. Radcliffe did.' RICHARDSON.

Dr. Radcliffe is mentioned in other parts of this collection. It is not furprifing that fo'much is faid in these remains of Atterbury concerning this gentleman. His wit, his profeffional fkill, and his monarchical principles very much endeared him to Atterbury, Swift, and their faction. Swift in his fatyr on the vanity of belonging to any order however refpectable; where

"A ball of new dropt horfe's dung,
Mingling with apples in the throng,
Says to the pippin plump and prim,
See, brother, how we apples fwim."

In this performace he pays Dr. Radcliffe the following compliment.

"Thus Lamb renowned for cutting corns,
An offered fee from RADCLIFFE fcorns,
Not for the world; we Doctors, brother!
Muft take no fees of one another."

From Atterbury's letter we learn that the Tale of a Tub, when it firft came out, was afcribed generally at Oxford to Smith, author of Phædra and Hippolitus, and to Philips, the Author of Cyder.-But our limits will not permit us to detail more anecdotes.

In this collection the theologian will find a great deal of excellent criticism on the gofpels, and reafoning concerning the time and year when each of the Evangelifts wrote.We have here, alfo, a fpecimen of Bishop Atterbury's remarks on Dacier's Horace, one of the French authors, with whofe labours, our learned prelate amufed himself during his exile. It is needlefs to fay, that Atterbury's criticifms difplay genius and learning. The following is a character of Luther extracted from "An Anfwer to fome Confiderations, &c." of which the preface has been already given at large, vol. 1. of this collection.

MARTIN LUTHER's life was a continual warfare; he was engaged against the united forces of the Papal world, and he tood the fhock of them bravely both with courage and fuccefs. After his death, one would have expected that generous adverfarics fhould have put up their pens, and quitted at least so much of the quarrel as was perfonal. But, on the contrary, when his doctrines grew too ftrong to be taken by his enemies, they perfecuted his reputation; and by the venom of their tongues fufficiently convinced the world, that the religion they were of allowed not only Prayers for the dead, but even Curfes too. Amongst the reít that have engaged in this unmanly defign, our Author appears: not indeed after the bluftering rate of fome of the party, but