16 REMARKS UPON BISHOP BURNETt's 



approbation, and by his animated expressions of applause,— has thi^ 

 estimable prelate been represented, by the turbulence of faction and 

 profligacy of party in his own days, as the secret despiser of the 

 majesty of the throne and the sanctity of the altar. Time, how- 

 ever, is most disinterested, and, to vindicate what there has beeil 

 said amiss, has come with healing on his wings. Dipping his pen 

 in the colours of truth, he has painted Burnett for the contempla- 

 tion of a more impartial posterity, as a patriot who understood and 

 venerated the real principles by which different parts of the consti- 

 tution were adjusted, — as a churchman who Mfted up his protesting 

 voice against unworthy appointments by lay as well as ecclesiastical 

 patrons, — who hated nepotism, pluralities, and sinecures in cathe- 

 drals, — who declared, that, were he to raise fortunes for his chil- 

 dren out of the income of his bishopric, he should consider himself 

 guilty of the greatest crime, — and, lastly, who shrunk not from 

 avowing, that, to suffer himself to be converted into a ministerial 

 tool, was to lower himself from the pure and lofty sphere in which- 

 alone he ought to breathe and act. Whatever judgment may be 

 passed on the other parts of this History, and though it may still be 

 with some a fixed article of literary faith, that the author's personal 

 character was a compound of spleen, malice, and ingratitude, these 

 memorable words will be read and remembered with wa/rm appro^ 

 bation by every right-feeling and sound-thinking christian. " The 

 more abstracted that bishops live from the world, from courts, from 

 eabals, and from parties, they will have the more quiet within them- 

 selves, and they will, in conclusion, be more respected by all, espe- 

 cially if an integrity and a just freedom appear among them in the 

 House of Lords, where they will be much observed, and judgments 

 will be made of them there that vs^ill follow them home to their 

 dioceses. Nothing will alienate the nation more from them, than 

 their becoming tools to a court, giving up the liberties of their 

 country, and advancing arbitrary designs." 



It was as natural, however, for those who had hearts as unchari- 

 table as their intellects were narrow, to ascribe these constitutional 

 admonitions to the influence of bad passions and to factious purposes, 

 as for common and every day minds to impute his interference in 

 state matters solely to a sordid love of avarice, and to views of per- 



