A T T E 
the king came to the hou'fe, and confirmed it by bis royal 
a fie nt. June 18, 1723, this eminent prelate, having the 
day before taken leave of his friends, who, from the time 
of palling the bill againd him to the day of his departure, 
had free accels to him in the Tower, embarked on-board 
the Aldborough man-of-war, and landed the Friday fol¬ 
lowing at Calais. When he went on fhore, having been 
informed that lord Bolingbroke, who had, after the rifing 
of the parliament, received the king’s pardon, was ar¬ 
rived at the fame place on his return to England, he laid, 
with an air of pleafantry, “ Then I am exchanged !” and 
it was, in the opinion of Mr. Pope on the fame occafion, 
“a fign of the nation’s being curfedly afraid of being 
over-run with too much politenefs, when it could not re¬ 
gain one great man but at the expence of another.” But 
the feverity of his treatment did not ceafe even with his 
banifhment. The fame vindidfive fpirit purfued him in 
foreign climes. No Britifh fubject was even permitted to 
vilit him without the king’s fign manual, which Mr. 
Morice was always, obliged to folicit, not only for him- 
felf, but for every one of his family whom he carried a- 
broad with him, for which the fees of office were very high. 
When bifhop Atterbury firft entered upon his banifh¬ 
ment, Bruffels was the place dedined for his refidence ; 
but, by the arts and indigations of the Britifh miniders, 
lie was compelled to leave that place, and retiie to Paris. 
There being folicited by the friends of the Pretender to 
enter into their negociations, he changed his abode for 
Montpelier in 1728 ; and, after redding there about two 
years, returned to Paris, where he died Feb. 15, 1731-2. 
The addition which he fuflained by the death of his daugh¬ 
ter, in 1729, was thought to have hafteued his own dillo- 
lution. The former event he hath himlelf related in a 
very aftetting manner, in a letter to Mr. Pope : “ The 
earned: defire of meeting one I dearly loved, called me 
abruptly to Montpelier; where, after continuing two 
months under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitlefs ex¬ 
pectation, I was forced at lad to take a long journey to 
Toulcufe; and even there I had miffed the perion I fought, 
had fhe not, with great fpirit and courage, ventured all 
night up the Garronne to fee me, which die above all 
things defired to do before fhe died. By that means die 
was brought where I was, between feven and eight in 
the morning, and lived twenty hours afterwards; which 
time was not loft on either fide, but paded in fuch a man¬ 
ner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as, on 
her part, every way became her circumdances and cha¬ 
racter : for die had her fenfes to the very lad gafp, and 
exerted them to give me, in thofe few hours, greater 
marks of duty and love than die had done in all her life¬ 
time, though fhe had never been wanting in either. The 
lad words die faid to me were the kinded of all ; a reflec¬ 
tion on the goodnefs of God, which had allowed 11s in this 
Mianner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. 
Not many minutes after that, fhe laid herfelf on her pil¬ 
low, in a deeping pofture, 
Placidaque ibi demum morte qukvit. 
Judge you, fir, what I felt, and dill feel, on this occafion, 
and Ipare me the trouble of defcribing it. At my age, 
under my infirmities, among utter drangers, how fhall 1 
find out proper reliefs and fupports f I can have none, 
but thofe which reafon and religion furniflied me ; and 
thofe I laid hold on, and grafp as fad as I can. I hope 
that he who laid the burden upon me (for wife and good 
purpofes no doubt) will enable me to bear it, in like man¬ 
ner as I have borne others, with fome degree of fortitude 
and firmnefs.” 
How far the bifliop might hav.e been attached in his in* 
cjinations to the Stuart family, to which he might be led 
by early prejudices of education, and the divided opinions 
«f the times, it is not neceflary here to inquire : but that 
he fhoiild have been weak enough to engage in a plot fo 
inconfident with his dation, and fo clumlily devifed, is 
“Utterly incenfifient with that cunning which his enemies 
Vo*.. II. No. 85. 
R B U R Y. 49 ? 
allowed him. The duke of Wharton, it is well known* 
was violent againd him, till convinced by his unanfwer- 
able reafoning. It has been faid that Atterbury’s willies 
reached to the bifliopric of London, or even to York or 
Canterbury. But thofe who were better acquainted with 
his views, knew that Wincheder would have been much 
more delirable to him than either of the others. And 
there are thofe now living, who have been told from re- 
fpedtable authority, that that bifliopric was offered to him 
whenever it fliould become vacant (and till that event 
fhould happen, a petition of 5000I. a-year befides an ample 
provifion tor Mr. Morice), if lie would ceafe to give the 
oppofition he did to Sir Robert Walpole’s adminiflration, 
by his fpeeches and protefls in the hotife of lords. When 
that offer was rejected by the bifliop, then the contrivance 
tor his ruin was determined on. 
His body was brought over to England, and interred on 
the 12th of May following in Weflminifler abbey, in a 
vault which in the year 1722 had been prepared by his 
directions. There is no memorial over his grave : nor 
could there well be any, unlefs his friends would have 
contented (which it is mod probable they refuted to do) 
that the words implying him to have died bifhop of Ro- 
chefler fliould have been omitted on his tomb. Some time 
before his death, he publifhed a vindication of himfelf, 
bifliop Smalridge, and Dr. Aldrich, from a charge brought 
againd them by Mr. Oldmixon, of having altered and in¬ 
terpolated the copy of lord Clarendon’s “ Hiflory of the 
Rebellion.” Bifliop Atterbury’s “ Sermons” are extant 
in four volumes in oCtavo: thofe Contained in the two fird 
were publifhed by himfelf, and dedicated to his great patron 
Sir Jonathan Trelawney bifliop of Wincheder ; thofe in 
the two lad were publifhed after his death by Dr. Thomas 
Moore his lordfhip’s chaplain. Four admirable “ Vifitation 
Charges” accompany his “Epidolary Correfpondence.” 
As to bifliop Atterbury’s character, however the moral 
and political part of it may have been differently repre- 
fented by oppofite parties, it is univerfally agreed, that 
he was a man of great learning and uncommon abilities, 
a fine writer, and a mod excellent preacher. His learned 
friend Smalridge, in the fpeech he made when he pre- 
fented him to the upper houfe of convocation, as procu¬ 
rator, ffyles him “ Vir in nullo literarum genere hofpes, 
in plerifque artibus et fludiis diu et feliciter exercitatus, in 
maxime perfedtis literarum difciplinis perfeCtiflimus.” J n 
his controverfial writings, he was fometimes too fevere 
upon his adverfary, and dealt rather too much in fatire 
and invedtive ; but this his panegyrid imputes more to 
the natural fervour of his wit than to any bitternefs of 
temper or propenfe malice. In his fermons, however, he 
is not only every way unexceptionable, but highly to be 
commended. The truth is, his talent as a preacher was 
fo excellent and remarkable, that it may not improperly 
be faid, that lie owed his preferment to the pulpit; nor 
is it hard to trace him, through his writings, to his feve- 
ral promotions in the church. We fliall conclude bifliop 
Atterbury’s charadfer, as a preacher, with the encomium 
beffow ed on him by the author of “ the Tatlerwho, 
having obferved that the Englifh clergy too much neg- 
ledt the art of fpeaking, makes a particular exception with 
regard to this prelate ; who, fays he, “ has fo particular 
a regard to his congregation, that he commits to his me¬ 
mory what he has to fay to them ; and has fo foft and 
graceful a behaviour, that it mud attradf your attention. 
His perfon (continues this author), it is to be confefied, 
is no fmall recommendation ; but he is to be highly com¬ 
mended for not lofmg that advantage, and adding to pro¬ 
priety of fpeech, an adfion which would have been ap¬ 
proved by Demodhenes. He never attempts your paflions, 
till he has convinced your reafon. AJ 1 the objections 
which you can form are laid open and difperfed before he 
ufes the lead vehemence in his fermon ; but, w(ien he 
thinks he has your head, he very loon wins your heart, 
and never pretends to (hew the beauty of holinefs, till he 
has convinced you of the truth of it.” In his letters to 
6 L Pope, 
