HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME. 15 



and deformed it, and at another, for telling the clergy of their 

 faults, has passed with many, for an enemy to the established 

 authorities of the country; whereas, those who love truth more 

 than party, may very confidently affirm, that a real and honest 

 principle of Christianity lay at the root of these reproofs, and that 

 it was he, and such as he, who, in the day of national calamity and 

 danger, would be found to diffuse over the whole sphere of his 

 influence, the virtues of order, peace, and loyalty. 



It was one of Burnett's favourite sayings, that a bishop in his 

 diocese should be the leader of no particular class of persons^ 

 but the head and father of his people. How far his conduct rose 

 into a consistent exemplification of this wise remark, may be de- 

 duced from the general spirit and tenor of his episcopal proceedings. 

 Counting it for an undeniable fact, that the pastoral clergy were 

 the instrumental cause of all the vital and substantial Christianity 

 in the land, — the very fountain heads of national morality, — he 

 spared no pains to acquire a thorough knowledge of the habits, 

 intellect, condition and general circumstances of every clerical indi- 

 vidual in his diocese. Family alliances, property, and wide-spread- 

 ing connexions had no share in his patronage, unless the possessors 

 of them were respectable for their learning, exemplary for their 

 lives, or useful for their ministry. Nor did he keep a scowling 

 front, or view with emotions bordering on exclusion or bigotry, 

 such of his clergy as happened to differ with him on speculative 

 points of religion, or upon grounds merely political, like the Non- 

 jurors ; but sought to throw all their differences into the back 

 ground, and only to bring forward those great and substantial 

 points of agreement which might bind them together by a strong 

 feeling of brotherhood. Even to those, too, who were of uncon- 

 firmed character or of lax morality, he assumed not a repulsive and 

 hostile aspect, or rebuked their offences in an intolerant tone, as if 

 he were unconscious of his own imperfections ; but diffused such 

 gentleness into his judgments, as made it difficult for them to with- 

 stand his honest, benignant, and persevering kindness. Yet while 

 acting with all the courtesy of a gentleman, the dignity of a bishop, 

 and the charity of a christian, — and at all times encouraging and 

 heartening the deserving in their career by his cheering smiles of 



