296 
ing the world, and the greatest heresy and most 
unpardonable offence is always that of being in the 
right. For this cause, having had the honour of 
feeling the vengeance of all ranks of tyrants and 
bigots, from a king or bishop of France, to a pal- 
try magistrate of Berne or a Swiss pastor, he was 
obliged to take refuge in England. Here he was 
received with open arms, being justly considered as 
the martyr of that spirit of investigation and liberty 
which is the basis of our constitution, and on which 
alone our reformed religion depends. He was ca- 
ressed and entertained by the best and most ac- 
complished people, and experienced in a particular 
manner the bounty of our present amiable sove- 
reign. 
<*Qne cannot but lament, that one of the most 
eminent, and I believe virtuous, public characters 
of that day, should of late have vainly enough at- 
tempted to compliment the same sovereign, by 
telling him he came to the crown in contempt of 
his people, should have held up a Messalina for 
public veneration, and become the calumniator of 
Rousseau ! 
“Tt is, indeed, true that a certain morbid degree 
of sensibility and delicacy, added to the inequalities 
of a temper broken down by persecution and ill 
health, made Rousseau often receive apparently 
well-meant attentions with a very bad grace. Yet, 
from most of the complaints of this kind, which I 
have heard from the parties immediately concerned, 
I very much suspect he was not unfrequently in the 
right. But supposing him to have been to blame 
