WATSON. 



fequences both to religion, the moraUty of the people, and to 

 the true credit of the church, might be expeded : for the 

 two great inducements to wifh for tranflations, and confe- 

 quently to refide in London, namely, fuperiority of income, 

 and excellency of patronage, would in a great meafure be 

 removed. Second, a bill for appropriating, as they become 

 vacant, one half, or a third part, of the income of every 

 deanery, prebend, or curacy, of the churches of Weft- 

 minfter, Windfor, Canterbury, Chriftchurch, Worcefter, 

 Durham, Ely, Norwich, &c. to the fame purpofes, mutatis 

 mutandis, as the firft fruits and tenths were appropriated by 

 queen Anne. By a bill of this kind, a decent provifion 

 would be made for the inferior clergy, in a third or fourth 

 part of the time which queen Anne's bounty alone will 

 require to effeft it. A decent provifion being once made 

 for every officiating minifter in the church, the reftdence of 

 the clergy in their cures might more reafonably be required than 

 it can be at prefent, and the licence of holding more livings 

 than one be reftrifted." Lord Shelbume wifhcd to be in- 

 formed if nothing could be gotten from the church to relieve 

 the burdens of the ftate ; to which the bilhop replied, that 

 the whole revenue of the church would not yield, if it were 

 equally divided, which could not be thought of, above 

 ico/. a year to each clergyman, which could not be thought 

 too ample ; and in a pohtical view it would be highly inex- 

 pedient, unlefs government would be contented to have a 

 beggarly and illiterate clergy, which no wife minifter would 

 ever wifh to fee. In profecution of the fame plan, the 

 bifliop fent a letter to the archbifhop of Canterbury, and a 

 copy to lord Shelburne, the duke of Grafton, the duke of 

 Rutland, and lord John Cavendilh refpcftively. The 

 minifter difcouraged the bufinefs, and earneftly difTuaded 

 the biftiop from any immediate publication of it. Upon the 

 refignation of lord Shelburne, who, by an exercife of pre- 

 rogative, had been nominated by the king without the re- 

 commendation of the cabinet, the coalition miniftry, formed 

 of lord North, and others who had for many years repro- 

 bated his political principles, came into power. This cir- 

 cumftance of the coalition roufed our prelate's indignation, 

 and led him to entertain a very unfavourable opinion of the 

 difintereftednefs and integrity of thofe to whom he had been 

 invariably attached. Although the badnefs of the peace, 

 and the fuppofed danger of trufting power in the hands of 

 lord Shelburne, were the oftenfible reafons for this coalition, 

 perfonal diflike of him, and a defire to be in power them- 

 felves, were, in the biftiop's judgment, the real ones. This 

 diflcnfion of the Whigs, he fays, did more injury to the 

 conftitution than all the violent attacks on the liberty of the 

 fubjeft, which were fubfequently made during Mr. Pitt's 

 adminiftration. " This apoftacy from principle in the coali- 

 tion miniftry ruined," as he conceived, " the confidence of 

 the country, and left it without hope of foon feeing another 

 refpedable oppofition on conftitutional grounds ; but it 

 ftamped on the hearts of miUions an impreffion which will 

 never be effaced, that patriotifm is a fcandalous game played 

 by publii men for private ends, and frequently little better than 

 a ftlfijh flruggle for poiver." — " It is," he adds, " a prin- 

 ciple with all parties to require from their adherents an im- 

 pUcit apprnbation of all their meafures : my fpirit was ever 

 too high to fubmit to fuch a ditgraceful load of political 

 conneftion." — " To forget all benefits, and to conceal the re- 

 membrante of all injuries, are maxims by which pohtical men 

 lofe their honour, but make their fortunes." 



Our prelate's letter to the arclibifliop of Canterbury was 

 pubUihed in the interval between lord Shelburne's refigna- 

 tion and the appointment of the duke of Portland to the 

 head of the treafury ; but though a copy of it was fent to 



each bifhop, none thought proper to acknowledge it except 

 Dr. Porteus, then bifhop of Chefter. Soon after the failure 

 of Mr. Fox's Eaft India bill, to which Dr. Watfon was ad- 

 verfe, Mr. Pitt was appointed firft lord of the treafury ; and 

 though he had continued in office for feveral weeks previoufly 

 to the diftolution of parliament, March 25th, 1784, in direft 

 oppofition to the majority of the houfe of commons, which 

 in the judgment of our prelate eftabliftjed a dangerous pre- 

 cedent, yet deference to the fenfe of the nation declared by 

 numberlefs addreftes to the king againft the coalition minif- 

 try, induced him to acquiefce. In July of this year he 

 wrote a letter to Mr. Pitt, recommending an union of Bri-' 

 tain and Ireland on an equal and liberal footing ; but it was 

 not accompliflicd till fixteen years after this period, and not^ 

 as the biftiop obferves, " in the liberal way it ought to have 

 been done." Enlarged and hberal as were his fentiments of 

 toleration, he neverthelefs regarded the church of Rome aS' 

 a. perfecuting church ; and he thought it was more necelTary 

 to guard againft the danger to be apprehended by Proteft- 

 ants in a country where popery is fimply tolerated than 

 where it is the eftabliftied religion. On another occafion 

 he expreffes fentiments which muft lead the friends of Ca- 

 tholic emancipation to conclude, that he was not favourable 

 to this objeft. " The perfecuting fpirit of the Roman 

 church remains in the hearts of the generality of its mem- 

 bers," he fays, " and whilft it does remain, popery muft be 

 watched, intimidated, and reftrained." In a letter to Mr. 

 Wakefield written in 1784, he avows his belief of the pre- 

 exiftence of Chrift as the doftrine of the New Teftament ; 

 but at the fame time he is far from concurring with thofe 

 who brand the fupporters of it as enemies to the Chriftian 

 fyftem. In the fame year he addrefled a letter to Mr. Wy- 

 vill, expreffing his warmeft wifties for parhamentary reform, 

 which Mr. Pitt feemed at the commencement of his admi- 

 niftration inclined to promote. In 1785' he publifhed his 

 " CoUeftion of Theological Trafts," in fix volumes, in- 

 tended for the benefit of young perfons, who could not af- 

 ford to purchafe many books in divinity ; the defign was 

 laudable, and was generally approved ; though, he fays, 

 the bifliops were not pleafed with his having printed 

 fome trafts originally written by Difienters. In January 

 1786 he loft his friend Mr. Luther, with whom he had Kved 

 on terms of the moft aff^eftionate intercourfe for thirty 

 years ; and in mentioning this circumftance he gratefully 

 acknowledges his generous bequeft, which enabled him io 

 preferve his independence, and to provide for his family. 

 To his Suffex eftate, from the fale of which he derived 

 20,500/., this generous teftator added the entail of his 

 eftate in Effex. Having, in the year 1782, pubhihed a 

 third volume of his Chemical EfTays, he prefented to the 

 pubhc a fourth volume in 1786. About this time applica- 

 tion was made to him by government for advice relating to 

 the improvement of gun-powder ; and he fuggefted a plan 

 of making charcoal by diftilhng the wood in clofe veiTels, 

 which was carried into execution at Hythe in 1787, and 

 which produced a conCderable faving in the manufafture of 

 this article. 



Dr. Watfon, having been attacked with a diforder in 

 1781, which continued and rendered the difcharge of his 

 duty, as profeflbr of divinity, very irkfome to his feelings, 

 and likely to haften the termination of his hfe, intimated to 

 Mr. Pitt his wifties for fome kind of preferment that would 

 enable him to reCgn his profeflbr(hip ; his church income, 

 exclufive of it, being only about 1200/. a year. This ap- 

 plication he very reluftantly renewed, but .it produced no 

 effetl ; and the confequence was a kind of remonftrance, in 

 the tone of complaint, on the part of the biftiop to tl« mi- 

 nifter. 



