LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 181 



the suppressing vice and immorality ; that if this 

 was not defeated, it might be concluded their 

 cause was then desperate. That great weight 

 was laid upon his concurrence; that it was 

 presumed upon, that there could be no place 

 for deliberation, and the like." 



But he appears to have made a better judg- 

 ment at that time of that whole affair, than most 

 other men did, not even excepting some of the 

 bishops themselves, and was not to be prevailed 

 upon to alter his sentiments, without having 

 better reasons given than were offered to him. 

 He wrote several letters upon the subject to 

 such Clergy as enquired after his opinion, not 

 only within his diocese, but throughout his pro- 

 vince. But as none of his letters are more full, 

 and better express his sentiments, than the two 

 following, they are for that reason inserted here 

 as his vindication from those partial suggestions 

 that were raised upon his not countenancing the 

 society at his metropolis. The occasion was 



thus The Chancellor of Carlisle, with 



some other justices of the peace, had set on foot 

 a society in that city, in imitation of many others 

 in the kingdom into which they had admitted the 

 dissenters. The bishop of that diocese had been 

 applied to by them for his countenance and 

 encouragement ; but was under difficulties con- 

 cerning the steps he ought in prudence to take 



