HISTORY OP Ills OWN TIME.' 17 



sohal aggrandisement ; though certainly, of all studied historical 

 misrepresentations, that may be pronounced among the chiefest, 

 which affixes the character of cold, calculating, mercenary self-inte- 

 rest to the name of Burnett, — which makes place and emolument 

 the reigning idols of his soul. Any candid and competent inquirer 

 into the leading events of Burnett's life, must, indeed, regard this 

 accusation with the deepest contempt. For can he be charged with 

 a mean and interested struggle for wealth and patronage, who re- 

 fused the Archbishopric of Glasgow, and the See of Chichester, 

 disdaining to league himself with a government which, with all 

 the ostentation of loyalty, by manifesting the most bare-faced aban- 

 donment of public principle for the sake of private advantage, 

 sapped the very foundation on which loyalty is reared? Nor should 

 his readiness, afterwards, to accept the lucrative Bishopric of Dur- 

 ham tempt us to doubt that the praise due to him for the foregoing 

 refusals is beyond his deserts ; though satire, which holds nothing 

 in reverence, attributes his seeking the last rich prize to the un- 

 principled desire of raising fortunes for his illegitimate children. 



It is not wonderful, therefore, after this preposterous assertion, 

 to find the impugners of this honest, and generally useful, friend of 

 his country, so often apostrophized by them with the scurrilous 

 epithets of state intriguer, factious intermeddler, and pamphleteer- 

 ing bishop. 



Now, early conscious of the might that lay within him — for even 

 those who hated him most allowed him to be possessed of a compre- 

 hensive understanding — well acquainted with the opinions and sen- 

 timents of the best authors — with the maxims of the most profound 

 statesmen — and with the character, views, and resources, of other 

 European nations, besides his own — upon these grounds alone, he 

 was naturally disposed to try his strength in political as well 

 as spiritual warfare. Burnett seems to have entered into the secu- 

 lar politics of the day, as much under the influence of an imperious 

 sense of duty as if some superior being had the items of his poli- 

 tical as well as moral and religious existence. It was this well- 

 placed confidence, therefore, in his mental powers — and not the 

 wish to amass or aggrandize — it was this anxious concern for the 

 liberties of his country, which led him to mix so much in the 

 commerce of the world, and to take such a deep interest and regard 



October, 1835, — vol. hi. no. xiii. c. 



