A56 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



stranger to complimentary or 

 smooth language, little concerned 

 about the manner in which his 

 reproofs were received, provided 

 they were merited, too much im- 

 pressed with the evil of the oftence 

 to think of the rank or character 

 of the offender, he often " uttered 

 liis admonitions with an acrimony 

 and vehemence more apt to irritate 

 than to reclaim." But he pro- 

 tested, at a time when persons are 

 least in danger of deception, and 

 in a manner which should banish 

 every suspicion of the purity of 

 his motives, that, in his sharpest 

 rebukes, he was influenced by ha- 

 tred of vice, not of the vicious, 

 that his great aim was to reclaim 

 the guilty, and that, in using those 

 means which were necessary for 

 this end, he frequently did violence 

 to his own feelings. 



Those who have charged him 

 with insensibility and inhumanity, 

 have fallen into a mistake very 

 common with superficial thinkers, 

 who, in judging of the characters 

 of persons who lived in a state of 

 society very different from their 

 own, have pronounced upon 

 their moral qualities from the 

 mere aspect of their exterior man- 

 ners. He was austere, not un- 

 feeling ; stern, not savage ; vehe- 

 ment, not vindictive. There is 

 not an instance of his employing 

 his influence to revenge any per- 

 sonal injury which he had re- 

 ceived. Rigid as his maxims as 

 to the execution of justice were, 

 there are numerous instances on 

 record of his interceding for the 

 , pardon of criminals; and, unless 

 when crimes were atrocious, or 

 when the welfare of the state was 

 in the most imminent danger, he 



never exhorted the executive go- 

 vernment to the exercise of seve- 

 rity. The boldness and ardour of 

 his mind, called forth by the pe- 

 culiar circumstances of tlie times, 

 led him to push his sentiments 

 on some subjects to an extreme, 

 and no consideration could in- 

 duce him to retract an opinion of 

 which he continued to be per- 

 suaded : but his behaviour after 

 his publication against female go- 

 vernment proves, that he was 

 not disposed to improve them to 

 the disturbance of the public 

 peace. His conduct at Frank- 

 fort evinced his moderation in 

 religious diff"erences among bre- 

 thren of the same faith, and his 

 disposition to make all reasonable 

 allowances for those who could 

 not go the same length with him 

 in reformation, provided they ab- 

 stained from imposing upon the 

 consciences of others. The liber- 

 ties which he took in censuring 

 from the pulpit the actions of in- 

 dividuals of the highest rank and 

 station, appear the more strange 

 and intolerable to us, when con- 

 trasted with the silence of modern 

 times ; but we should recollect 

 that they were then common, and 

 that they were not without their 

 utility, in an age when the li- 

 centiousness and oppression of the 

 great and powerful often set at 

 defiance the ordinary restraints of 

 law. 



St. Vincent de Paul. 



From Mr. Butler's Life ofBossuet. 



The annals of the world scarcely 

 furnish an instance of such a bene- 

 factor 



