LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 285 



a warm nor a frequent speaker, and yet seldom 

 out of the debate when bills of ecclesiastical 

 concernment were depending. Two bills of this 

 nature offered themselves in the same session of 

 Parliament in which he was introduced in the 

 House of Peers; and he spoke upon each of 

 them. One was the Quakers bill, debated on 

 February 12, 1691*. The other was the bill 

 for dissolving the marriage of the Duke of Nor- 

 folk with his duchess, February 16f . He took 

 upon himself the conduct of a bill about small 

 tithes, in 1694, framed and prepared most pro- 

 bably by Dr. Stillingfleet, who it seems could 

 not attend the HouseJ. He bore a great share 



* Diary. — On Friday, the 12th, came on the Quaker's Bill, 

 upon occasion of which I first took the boldness to speak in the 

 House. 



+ Diary. — On Tuesday, the 16th, came on the Duke of 

 Norfolk's bill again. I was with the rest of the bishops. I had 

 occasion to speak about the lawfulness of divorce in the case 

 of adultery. 



X Diary. — Saturday, April 7, 1694. On Monday night I 

 went to the Bishop of Worcester, about the bill of small tithes. 

 On Tuesday I spoke largely to that bill ; and it was ordered, 

 that we should bring in some amendments, and such provisos 

 as we had to offer. That afternoon five or six of us met at 

 the Bishop of Worcester's, and agreed upon alterations and a 

 proviso. On Wednesday I offered them to the House, and 

 spoke to them. That day the bill passed. One alteration was 

 allowed, but the proviso thrown out. In the afternoon I went 

 to the Bishop of Worcester, to give him an account of that 

 matter. 



