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Monthly Review of Literature, 



fellowship at Catherine Hall, on his marriage 

 in 1707, he kept up his connexions there, 

 and in 17 14 was elected master of his college, 

 and the same year, while vice-chancellor, 

 came into collision officially with Bentley. 

 On the accession of the Hanover family he 

 obtained the deanery of Chichester, through 

 the personal favour of Lord Townsend ; for 

 Sherlock himself was a man of tory principles, 

 though not of the sternest cast ; at least they 

 were found susceptible of occasional flexi- 

 bility, and only retarded his advancement. 

 In 171G-17 appeared Hoadley's tract and 

 sermon, which, as every body knows, in- 

 volved the divine rights of the clergy, and 

 their claims to independence of the civil 

 power. These were brought before the con- 

 vocation, and Sherlock, as chairman of the 

 committee, drew up the report, denouncing 

 the tendency of both publications. Measures 

 of some intemperance would probably have 

 followed, but for the prompt and peremptory 

 step the whig ministry took of proroguing 

 the convocation, and never suffering them to 

 delate again. The question, however, was 

 taken up out of doors ; and among above a 

 hundred combatants who first or last en- 

 gaged in the fray, Sherlock became conspicu- 

 ous, and was considered, more from his sta- 

 tion than his exertions, as Hoadley's leading 

 opponent. For a time he suffered the honours 

 of a confessor, and had his name erased from 

 the list of court chaplains. This, however, 

 was but a passing eclipse. Walpole was a 

 personal friend, and on the accession of 

 Oeorge II. he made Sherlock Bishop of 

 Bangor, and subsequently removed him to 

 Salisbury. In the House of Lords he had an 

 opportunity of obliging Walpole, in full con- 

 sistency with his tory feelings. Whigs in 

 office are tories of course. Walpole suffered 

 the pension-bill to pass the commons, being 

 sure of the peers, where Sherlock magnani- 

 mously opposed his friend and patron. On 

 Walpale's final defeat, however, Sherlock 

 stood forward in defence of his friend in a 

 manly way, whatever may be said either of 

 his consistency as a party-man, or his virtue 

 as a patriot. Though much engaged in 

 secular politics, he was at the same time 

 professionally active, and that in more 

 important and less acrimonious controversies 

 than the Bangorian one with Collins and 

 Wollaston, on the topics, respectively, of pro- 

 phecy and miracles. He was now getting 

 old, and so much enfeebled by disease as to 

 decline the primacy on the death of Potter ; 

 but rallying again a year or two after, he 

 accepted the bishopric of London, and held 

 it twelve years, to his death. 



Sherlock died very wealthy, a fact with 

 which his memory has been upbraided a 

 thousand times. Charges of this kind are 

 lightly adopted and rarely scanned. To 

 throw a little more weight into the scale, he 

 was said to have left the palace at Fulham 

 in ruins. Mr. Hvighes lias collected some 

 evidence which qualifies the matter consider- 

 ably. In a letter still extant, written upon 



his new appointment, Sherlock says, " I 

 find there is a very bad old house. I must re- 

 pair a great deal of it, and I am afraid re- 

 build some part. It is late for me to be so 

 employed, but somebody will be the better 

 for it." The present Bishop of London in- 

 forms Mr. Hughes by letter that Sherlock 

 did build a dining-room (which is now the 

 kitchen) with bed-rooms over it. Sherlock 

 had considerable property from his father 

 and brother, who were both rich. His large 

 possessions fell to the Gooches of Suffolk. 

 Gooch, Bishop of Norwich, married Sher- 

 lock's sister, from whom the Suffolk Gooches 

 are descended. 



Influence of Climate in the Prevention and 

 Cure of Chronic Diseases, ($C. } by James 

 Clark, M.D. There is no quackery, at 

 least, in Dr. Clark's book. He makes little 

 attempt at theorizing, keeping almost wholly 

 to what appear matters of fact H is main 

 object is to exhibit the results of observation 

 to state the physical characters of particu- 

 lar climates, and the effects experienced under 

 them. From these two sets of data he occa- 

 sionally ventures to express what he terms 

 the characteristic or medical qualities of 

 climates so far only as they warrant, and 

 that to be sure is but little. The physical 

 characters alluded to seem to mean no more 

 than temperature and perhaps hygrometry, 

 and the effects no more than the apparent 

 ones. Of course no deduction made from such 

 imperfect premises can be adopted with much 

 confidence. It is idle to talk of any law, 

 which governs the effect of climate upon 

 disease, when climate itself is not yet defined ; 

 and of course nothing can be more hazardous 

 than to pronounce peremptorily upon sup- 

 posed effects. In the present state of our 

 knowledge, the matter is wholly one of ex- 

 perience, almost a tentative matter. The more 

 diseased persons are found to be relieved 

 upon a residence at a given spot, the greater 

 becomes the probability as to the fact of the 

 medical qualities of the place (call it climate, 

 or what we will) for specific diseases ; or, at 

 least, the greater will be the belief in them, 

 and the more confidently will recourse be 

 had to them. Dr. Clark has traversed the 

 whole line of the south and south-west coast 

 of England, and ascertained the differences 

 of temperature in most of the frequented 

 spots : their range is not considerable. Some 

 places he finds also drier than others ; but 

 his statistics have not yet their requisite 

 nicety. Generally the south coast is less 

 dry towards the west than towards the east. 

 Undercliff, a spot of about six miles on the 

 S. P;. of the Isle of Wight, seems to Dr. Clark 

 to be the Madeira of England. It is more 

 sheltered than Hastings, with the advantage 

 of a considerable space of protected country 

 for rides and drives, while two or three hun- 

 dred yards are the utmost extent of the 

 skreened part of Hastings. 



After this survey at home, Dr. Clark takes 

 a similar glance along the coasts of France 



