LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 327 



ble, because he found it difficult to do it without 

 sometimes giving offence. For, though he avoided 

 doing so as much as he could, yet exceptions 

 could be taken for very small matters, which 

 came not into his Grace's considerations in the 

 appointment of an able man for that service ; 

 such as the preacher's being reputed an high man, 

 and not so acceptable to the then ministry. 

 Which is not so much to be wondered at, when 

 it was objected to a very learned and pious 

 prelate, whom he substituted to supply one of 

 his own courses, that he would be unacceptable^ 

 having voted for the Pinncess of Hanover s being 

 invited over, whereas his Grace, though himself 

 against that vote, had no thought of making so 

 trivial a thing an exception to his being a 

 preacher. And then, if any thing happened to 

 be taken amiss in a sermon, he was pretty sure 

 to hear of it, and obliged to apologize either for 

 his clerk or for his choice, which he thought the 

 harder upon him, because he observed that he 

 himself could not always escape the censure of 

 the audience. 



1706. December 16. Monday. " In the after- 

 noon I went to Kensington, where I had a long 

 private discourse with the Queen After- 

 wards about providing preachers for her in my 

 course. I represented the hardness of it to her, 

 unless I might use her name. She said it belonged 



