4 REMARKS UPON BISHOP BURNETT S 



matedj but existing in a somewhat chaotic disorder, produced those 

 various jarrings which nourish the fiercest and most unbridled pas- 

 sions — when the national mind seemed to have obtained only a 

 glimpse of the glorious race which, by means of a free press, it was 

 destined hereafter to run — and when the affairs of courts, the in- 

 trigues of cabinets, and the influence of secret negociations in the re- 

 lative situation of kingdoms, were considered as mysteries, not al- 

 ways to be unfolded even to those who lived in intimacy with the 

 conductors of such operations ; it were the height of malice and slan- 

 der to impute to a premeditated perversion of truth, the errors of him 

 who told the story of such a period. When, indeed, we think of 

 the large field Burnett has traversed, and of the difiiculties with 

 which he had to contend, we must allow that these circumstances, 

 if all candour had not been banished from his adversaries, should 

 have put to silence their misrepresentations of his honest and en- 

 lightened labours, and have changed their railings against his occa- 

 sional mistakes and wrong conclusions, into a conviction of the ge- 

 neral fairness of his statements, and of his accuracy, and the extent 

 of his information. 



In treating of a period such as I have just described, it cannot 

 fail to occur to every reflecting reader, as a natural and obvious 

 consideration, that with Burnett's temperament, his passions were 

 sure to be warmly actuated, and his prejudices to be strongly inter- 

 ested in the events he had to relate. These feelings, therefore, 

 must be duly weighed. We must take the chaff with the wheat, 

 we must sufier the tares to grow up with the rich grain, until the 

 harvest of time shall have enabled us to separate them. From the 

 following sentence it is evident that our historian judged himself as 

 severely as his neighbours ; and, therefore, if the mistakes of con- 

 duct into which his impetuosity of temper betrayed him cannot be 

 defended by this explanation, the manliness and sincerity with 

 which he avows them ought to render him, in other respects, wor- 

 thy of public confidence. " I find," says he, " that the long expe- 

 rience I have had of the baseness, the malice, and the falsehood of 

 mankind, has inclined me to be apt to think generally the worst 

 both of men and parties : and, indeed, the peevishness, the ill-na- 

 ture, and the ambition of many clergymen, has sharpened my spi- 



