6 REMARKS UPON BISHOP BURNETT's 



probable stories, and of making malleable to his wish the most 

 stubborn facts, and of uttering those untruths which he would have 

 shrunk from publishing in his life-time, it must strike every unbi- 

 assed person, that his accuser was bound, in strict justice, to shew — 

 where public opinion could not be adduced on the evidence of pub- 

 lic opinion — where that which is referable to oral testimony could 

 not be supported by oral testimony — and, in like manner, historical 

 proof by historical proofs. Fondly credulous, as the Bishop is stated 

 by the foregoing writer, to have been, it should be remem'bered, 

 to the eternal honour of his heart and head, that he was incredulous 

 upon a subject, where almost all were believers. He was among 

 the first, strongly anti-papistical as he confessedly was, to offend 

 the principles, and to shock the prejudices of the public, by avowing 

 his disbelief of the existence of the Popish Plot. At this distract- 

 ing period of our domestic history, when the high and the low were 

 infected with one common panic and one common delusion, he 

 nobly, but vainly, attempted to save one of its victims : and in the 

 very height of this epidemical phrenzy, when it was even dangerous 

 to express, either to Whig or Tory, any doubts of the reality of 

 tiiis conspiracy, he had the courage to tell the House of Commons, 

 that it was unlawful to inflict punishment upon the Roman Catho- 

 lics on account of conscientious dissent. In reference, again, to the 

 accusation made by Higgons, and his other opponents, that he gives 

 a most welcome reception to so many hearsay stories, built on a 

 wondrous slender foundation, and does not balance and compare 

 contrary statements and sentiments, I run little risk of contra- 

 diction in affirming that, to his ardent temperament, strong feel- 

 ings, and lively fancy, and, more especially, to the extreme ra- 

 pidity with which he committed his thoughts to paper, may be 

 chiefly ascribed his hasty and not altogether consistent opinions. — 

 Such, I venture to pronounce, will be the uniform judgment of 

 those, who are not disposed to impeach our author's candour and 

 good faith because he cannot always follow the right track through 

 the variety of his details and expositions. 



As to the charge made by Higgons against the Bishop, that he 

 was afraid to publish his History in his life-time ; this explanation 

 can alone be given. Kings, statesmen, warriors, courtiers, lawyers. 



