B O O K II. C H A P. X. 239 



«resvhigli; a:id at length the difpute came to blows. The parfoii, 

 the clerk, and all the congregation, engaged pell-mell. Nor long 

 the battle raged; for divinity proved vidorious, after hurling two 

 or three of the combatants headlong into the very grave that had 

 been prepared for their inanimate friends. Of another (a French- 

 man) it is faid, that, preaching one day, in his ufual broken Englifli, 

 "ou the fubje6l of the lall. day, he entertained his audience with the 

 comparative condition of the good and the finful ; informing them, 

 " dat dey would be feparate, de goat on de left bond, de moutons 

 " on de right." Ridiculous charadlers of this ftamp (hould bring 

 no flander on the clergy in general ; they refleil difnonour alone 

 upon thofe patrons in England, who would make no fcruple in 

 fending ov«r their footmen, to benefit by any employment in the 

 colonies, ecclefiaftical or civil. 



If the bifhop of London could legally exercife the right (which 

 fome fay he claims) of infpeding the conduft of the clergy here, 

 and fubjefling the fame, when neceflary, to ecclefiaflical cenfures 

 and punifliment ; yet his lordfliip's refidence at fo great a diftance, 

 and the engagements of his diocefe at home, would be obftacles to 

 his working a thorough reformation in Jamaica. His cenfures, in- 

 deed, though buJ: fparingly infli6l:ed, might neverthelefs produce a 

 good effeft, provided all the clergy of the ifland had been regularly- 

 trained at one of our Englidi univerfities, and early verfed in the 

 knowledge of our religion. But, when perfons are fent hither 

 barely qualified according to the canons of the church, and the laws 

 of the land, as to ordination, licence, &c. and thereby entitled to 

 the very fame privileges and favour, whether they have been bred 

 at Cambridge, at Oxford, or St. Omer's, in an univerfity, or a cobler's 

 fliop ; whether they have been initiated in the proteflant, or in the 

 popifh religion ; whether their language is Englifli or French, or 

 neither: I fay, fo long as the -caflTock is fuffered to be put on liere 

 with fo little difcrimination, not all the exhortations of all the 

 bifhops in the world could poffibly make the clergy of this idand 

 a refpeftable body of men. Let us, however, venture to aflert in 

 iheir favour, that, although fome pertiaps may be found, v.'ho, in 

 their moral conduct, would difgrace even the meaneft of mankind, 

 there are others, and in a much greater number, who, by their ex- 

 ^^ ample 



