170 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



put it no stronger than he could justify it. He 

 was ever cautious (especially in cases where the 

 gentlemen of the country were any ways con- 

 cerned,) how and from whom he received in- 

 formations ; and ever backward to give ear to 

 any who had not some proper and immediate 

 right to complain. He was well aware of the 

 difficulties he should bring both upon himself 

 and others should he too easily admit any no- 

 tices that nearly concerned a man's honour and 

 character, and take any steps upon such ad- 

 vertisements. He always disliked and dis- 

 couraged, and chiefly upon this account, the 

 Societies for the Reformation of Manners ; which 

 were begun to be set up within his diocese (as 

 they were in many others) about the year 1697. 

 He was unwilling to check well-meaning peo- 

 ple in any design that seemed to tend to God's 

 honour, and the good of mankind, and yet he 

 feared whereunto the liberty that those societies 

 begun to take would grow. 



As he differed in some measure from several 

 of the other bishops and clergymen in his sen- 

 timents of these societies, which for some years 

 made no little noise in the world ; it will not 

 be amiss to relate the steps he took, and give 

 the letters he wrote concerning those which 

 were forming within his own diocese and 

 province. 



