Ibid. Burnet, speaking of the Earl of Clarendon's eldest son, who afterwards succeeded him, says:—His judgement was not to be much depended on, for he was much carried by vulgar prejudices, and false notions. He was much in the Queen's favour. Swift. Much, much, much.
P. 258. Burnet, speaking of the Earl of Rochester, second son of Lord Clarendon:—[He] is a man of far greater parts [than his brother]. He has a very good pen, but speaks not gracefully.—Swift. I suppose it was of gold or silver.
Ibid. Burnet. [The King] told me, he had a chaplain, that was a very honest man, but a very great blockhead, to whom he had given a living in Suffolk, that was full of that sort of people [Nonconformists]. He had gone about among them from house to house, though he could not imagine what he could say to them, for he said he was a very silly fellow. But that, he believed, his nonsense suited their nonsense, for he had brought them all to church. And, in reward of his diligence, he had given him a bishopric in Ireland.—Swift. Bishop Wolley, of Clonfert.
P. 259. Burnet. If the sectaries were humble and modest, and would tell what would satisfy them, there might be some colour for granting some concessions.—Swift. I think so too.
P. 260. Burnet. The three volumes of the "Friendly Debate," though writ by a very good man.—Swift. Writ by Bishop Patrick.
Ibid. Burnet. After he [Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford] had for some years entertained the nation with several virulent books, writ with much life, he was attacked by the liveliest droll of the age, etc.—Swift. What is a droll? Burnet. That not only humbled Parker, but the whole party. For the author of "The Rehearsal Transposed," etc.—Swift. Andrew Marvel.
P. 263. Burnet, speaking of the King's attachment to Nell Gwyn, says:—But after all he never treated her with the decencies of a mistress.—Swift. Pray what decencies are those?
Ibid. Burnet. The King had another mistress, that was managed by Lord Shaftesbury, who was the daughter of a clergyman, Roberts, in whom her first education had so deep a root, that, though she fell into many scandalous disorders, with very dismal adventures in them all, yet a principle of religion was so deep laid in her, that, though it did not restrain her, yet it kept alive in her such a constant horror at sin, that she was never easy in an ill course, and died with a great sense of her former ill life. I was often with her the last three months of her life.—Swift. Was she handsome then?
P. 264. Burnet. The King loved his [the Earl of Rochester's] company for the diversion it afforded, better than his person: And there was no love lost between them.—Swift. A noble phrase.
P. 265. Burnet. Sedley had a more sudden and copious wit, which furnished a perpetual run of discourse: But he was not so correct as Lord Dorset, nor so sparkling as Lord Rochester.—Swift. No better a critic in wit than style.
P. 266. Burnet. Lord Roberts, afterwards made Earl of Radnor, [who succeeded the Duke of Ormonde in his government of Ireland,] was a morose man, believed to be severely just, and as wise as a cynical humour could allow him to be.—Swift. How does that hinder wisdom?
P. 273. Burnet. Charles II. confessed himself a Papist to the Prince of Orange:—The Prince told me, that he never spoke of this to any other person, till after his death.—Swift. That is, his own death.
P. 277. Burnet quotes an exclamation of Archbishop Sharp's, after an attempt to assassinate him, and adds:—This was the single expression savouring of piety, that ever fell from him in all the conversation that passed between him and me.—Swift. Rank malice.
P. 285. Burnet. No body could ever tell me how the word "Ecclesiastical matters" was put in the Act. Leightoun thought, he was sure it was put in after the draught and form of the Act was agreed on.—Swift. Nonsense.
P. 287. Burnet, speaking of Archbishop Burnet, says:—He was not cut out for a court, or for the ministry.—Swift. A phrase of dignity.
Ibid. Burne, mentioning his own appointment as Professor of Divinity at Glasgow University, says:—There was no sort of artifice or management to bring this about: It came of themselves: And they did it without any recommendation of any person whatsoever.—Swift. Modest.
P. 288. Burnet. The Episcopal party thought I intended to make myself popular at their cost: So they began that strain of fury and calumny that has pursued me ever since from that sort of people.—Swift. A civil term for all who are Episcopal.
P. 298. Burnet. [In compiling the Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton,] I found there materials for a very large history. I writ it with great sincerity; and concealed none of their errors. I did indeed conceal several things that related to the King: I left out some passages that were in his letters; in some of which was too much weakness.—Swift. The letters, if they had been published, could not have given a worse character.
P. 300. Burnet, speaking of the Scotch clergy refusing to be made bishops, says:—They had an ill opinion of the court, and could not be brought to leave their retirement.—Swift. For that very reason they should have accepted bishoprics.
P. 301. Burnet, after mentioning the murder of the Duchess of Orleans, says:—I will set down one story of her, that was told me by a person of distinction, who had it from some who were well informed of the matter.—Swift. Poor authority.
P. 303. Burnet. Madame [the Duchess of Orleans] had an intrigue with another person, whom I knew well, the Count of Tréville. When she was in her agony, she said, "Adieu, Tréville." He was so struck with this accident, that it had a good effect on him; for he went and lived many years among the Fathers of the Oratory, and became both a very learned, and devout man. He came afterwards out into the world. I saw him often. He was a man of a very sweet temper, only a little too formal for a Frenchman. But he was very sincere. He was a Jansenist. He hated the Jesuits.—Swift. Pretty jumping periods.
P. 304. Burnet. Lord Shaftesbury laid the blame of this chiefly on the Duke of Buckingham: For he told me, ... And therefore he blamed him.—Swift. Who blamed whom.
Ibid. Burnet. The Duke of Savoy was encouraged to make a conquest of Genoa.—Swift. Geneva.
Ibid. Burnet. When a foreign minister asked the King's leave to treat with him [Lockhart] in his master's name, the King consented; but with this severe reflection, That he believed he would be true to anybody but himself.—Swift. Does he mean, Lockhart would not be true to Lockhart?
P. 305. Burnet. They [the French] so possessed De Groot, then the Dutch ambassador at Paris, or they corrupted him into a belief that they had no design on them, etc.—Swift. Who on whom?
P. 306. Burnet. The Earl of Shaftesbury was the chief man in this advice [recommending the King to shut up the exchequer].—Swift. Clifford had the merit of this.
P. 318. Burnet, after mentioning the death of William II., Prince of Orange, says of the Princess:—As she bore her son a week after his death, in the eighth month of her time, so he came into the world under great disadvantages.—Swift. A pretty contrast.
Ibid. Burnet mentions an astrological prediction of the Prince's fate, and adds:—But that which was most particular was, that he was to have a son by a widow, and was to die of the small-pox in the twenty-fifth year of his age.—Swift. Was, was, was, was.
P. 320. Burnet. They set it also up for a maxim.—Swift. He can vary a phrase; set up for a maxim, and lay down for a maxim.
P. 321. Burnet. His oath was made to them, and by consequence it was in their power to release the obligation that did arise from it to themselves.—Swift. Bad casuist.
Ibid. Burnet. As soon as he [the Prince of Orange] was brought into the command of the armies, he told me, he spoke to De Witt, and desired to live in an entire confidence with him. His answer was cold: So he saw that he could not depend upon him. When he told me this, he added, that he was certainly one of the greatest men of the age, and he believed he served his country faithfully—Swift. Yet the Prince contrived that he should be murdered.
Ibid. Burnet. Now I come to give an account of the fifth crisis brought on the whole reformation, which has been of the longest continuance, since we are yet in the agitations of it.—Swift. Under the Queen and Lord Oxford's ministry.
P. 322. Burnet. [In this famous campaign of Louis XIV. against the Dutch, (1672,)] there was so little heart or judgement shewn in the management of that run of success, etc.—Swift. A metaphor, but from gamesters.
P. 326. Burnet, referring to the action of the rabble when Cornelius de Witt was banished, says of the Prince of Orange:—His enemies have taken advantages from thence to cast the infamy of this on him, and on his party, to make them all odious; though the Prince spoke of it always to me with the greatest horror possible.—Swift. Yet he was guilty enough.
P. 328. Burnet. Prince Waldeck was their chief general: A man of a great compass.—Swift, i.e. very fat.
P. 330. Burnet. He broke twice with the Prince, after he came into a confidence with him. He employed me to reconcile him to him for the third time—Swift. Perspicuity.
Ibid. Burnet. The actions sinking on the sudden on the breaking out of a new war, that sunk him into a melancholy, which quite distracted him.—Swift. Eloquent.
P. 335. Burnet. I will complete the transactions of this memorable year:—P. 337. Thus I have gone far into the state of affairs of Holland in this memorable year.—Swift. Why, you called it so but just now before.
P. 337. Burnet. It seems, the French made no great account of their prisoners, for they released 25,000 Dutch for 50,000 crowns—Swift. What! ten shillings a piece! By much too dear for a Dutchman.
Ibid. Burnet. This year [1672] the King declared a new mistress, and made her Duchess of Portsmouth. She had been maid of honour to Madame, the King's sister, and had come over with her to Dover; where the King had expressed such a regard to her, that the Duke of Buckingham, who hated the Duchess of Cleveland, intended to put her on the King.—Swift. Surely he means the contrary.
P. 341. Burnet. [The Duke of Lauderdale] called for me all on the sudden, and put me in mind of the project I had laid before him, of putting all the outed ministers by couples into parishes: So that instead of wandering about the country to hold conventicles in all places, they might be fixed to a certain abode, and every one might have the half of a benefice.—Swift. A sottish project; instead of feeding fifty, you starve a hundred.
BOOK III.
P. 346. Burnet. It was believed, if the design had succeeded, he [Lord Clifford] had agreed with his wife to take orders, and to aspire to a cardinal's hat.—Swift. Was he or she to take orders?
P. 362. Burnet. I told him, what afterwards happened, that most of these would make their own terms, and leave him in the lurch.—Swift. True sublime.
P. 370. Burnet. I was ever of Nazianzen's opinion, who never wished to see any more synods of the clergy.—Swift. Dog!
P. 372. Burnet, when he was struck out of the list of chaplains, says:—The King said, he was afraid I had been too busy; and wished me to go home to Scotland, and be more quiet.—Swift. The King knew him right.
Ibid. Burnet. I preached in many of the churches of London; and was so well received, that it was probable I might be accepted of in any that was to be disposed of by a popular election.—Swift. Much to his honour.
P. 373. Burnet. This violent and groundless prosecution lasted some months. And during that time I said to some, that Duke Lauderdale had gone so far in opening some wicked designs to me, that I perceived he could not be satisfied, unless I was undone. So I told what was mentioned before of the discourses that passed between him and me.—Swift. Scotch dog!
P. 374. Burnet. He [Lord Howard] went over in the beginning of the war, and offered to serve De Witt. But he told me, he found him a dry man.—Swift. Who told who? I guess Howard told Burnet.
P. 378. Burnet. At least he [Sir William Temple] thought religion was fit only for the mob.—Swift. A word of dignity for an historian. Burnet. He was a corrupter of all that came near him. And he delivered himself up wholly to study, ease, and pleasure.—Swift. Sir William Temple was a man of virtue, to which Burnet was a stranger.
P. 380. Burnet, speaking of his being pressed, before Parliament, to reveal what passed between him and the Duke of Lauderdale in private; and the Parliament, in case of refusal, threatening him, says:—Upon this I yielded, and gave an account of the discourse formerly mentioned.—Swift. Treacherous villain.
Ibid. Burnet. My love to my country, and my private friendships carried me perhaps too far.—Swift. Right.
P. 382. Burnet. [Sir Harbottle Grimstone] had always a tenderness to the Dissenters.—Swift. Burnet's test of all virtues.
Ibid. Burnet. [Lady Grimstone] was the humblest, the devoutest, and best tempered person I ever knew of that sort [having high notions for Church and Crown].—Swift. Rogue.
P. 384. Burnet, the country party maintained that:—if a Parliament thought any law inconvenient for the good of the whole, they must be supposed still free to alter it: And no previous limitation could bind up their legislature.—Swift. Wrong arguing.
P. 387. Burnet. It was said, a standing Parliament changed the constitution of England.—Swift. The present case under King George.
Ibid. Burnet. It was moved, that an address should be made to the King for dissolving the Parliament.—Swift. Tempora mutantur; for nothing now will do but septennial Parliaments.
P. 388 Burnet. He [Lord Russell] had from his first education an inclination to favour the Non-conformists.—Swift. So have all the author's favourites.
P. 392. Burnet. But with these good qualities Compton was a weak man, wilful, and strangely wedded to a party.—Swift. He means, to the Church.
Ibid. Burnet. Bancroft, Dean of St. Paul's, was raised to [the see of Canterbury]. ... He was a man of solemn deportment, had a sullen gravity in his looks, and was considerably learned. He had put on a monastic strictness, and lived abstracted from company. ... He was a dry, cold man, reserved, and peevish; so that none loved him, and few esteemed him.—Swift. False and detracting.
P. 396. Burnet. My way of writing history pleased him [Sir William Jones].—Swift. Very modest.
P. 399. Burnet. Men were now though silent, not quiet.—Swift. Nonsense, or printer's mistake. It should be, "Silent, though not quiet."
Ibid, Burnet. One Carstairs, a loose and vicious gentleman.—Swift. Epithets well placed.
P. 404. Burnet. It was an extraordinary thing that a random cannon shot should have killed him [Turenne].—Swift. How extraordinary? Might it not kill him as well as another man?
P. 406. Burnet, in the battle at St. Omer between the Prince of Orange (afterwards King William) and the Duke of Orleans:—some regiments of marines, on whom the Prince depended much, did basely run away. Yet the other bodies fought so well, that he lost not much, besides the honour of the day.—Swift. He was used to that.
P. 407. Burnet. These leading men did so entangle the debates, and over-reached those on whom he had practised, that they, working on the aversion that the English nation naturally has to a French interest, spoiled the hopefullest session the court had had of a great while, before the court was well aware of it.—Swift. Rare style!
P. 409. Burnet, Lord Danby, speaking to King Charles II., said:—If they saw his [the Duke of York's] daughter given to one that was at the head of the Protestant interest, it would very much soften those apprehensions, when it did appear that his religion was only a personal thing, not to be derived to his children after him. With all this the King was convinced.—Swift. Then how was the King for bringing in Popery?
P. 413. Burnet. His friend answered, He hoped he did not intend to make use of him to trepan a man to his ruin. Upon that, with lifted up hands, Sharp promised by the living God, that no hurt should come to him, if he made a full discovery.—Swift. Malice.
Ibid. Burnet, upon the examination of Mitchell before the privy-council for the intended assassination of Archbishop Sharp, it being first proposed to cut off the prisoner's right hand, and then his left:—Lord Rothes, who was a pleasant man, said, "How shall he wipe his breech then?" This is not very decent to be mentioned in such a work, if it were not necessary.—Swift. As decent as a thousand other passages; so he might have spared his apology.
P. 414. Burnet, in the last article of the above trial, observes:— But the judge, who hated Sharp, as he went up to the bench, passing by the prisoner said to him, "Confess nothing, unless you are sure of your limbs as well as of your life."—Swift. A rare judge.
Ibid. Burnet, mentioning Mackenzie's appointment as king's advocate, says of him:—He has published many books, some of law, but all full of faults; for he was a slight and superficial man.—Swift. Envious and base.
P. 416. Burnet, speaking of the execution of the above Mitchell for the attempt against Sharp, says:—Yet Duke Lauderdale had a chaplain, Hickes, afterwards Dean of Worcester, who published a false and partial relation of this matter, in order to the justifying of it—Swift. A learned, pious man.[4]
[Footnote 4: The "Ravillac [sic] Redivivus" of Hickes, is, notwithstanding his learning and piety, in every respect deserving of the censures passed upon it by Burnet. [S.]]
P. 425. Burnet. [Titus Oates] got to be a chaplain in one of the king's ships, from which he was dismissed upon complaint of some unnatural practices, not to be named.—Swift. Only sodomy.
P. 434. Burnet. He [Staley] was cast.—Swift. Anglicê, found guilty.
P. 441. Burnet, on the impeachment of Lord Danby:—Maynard, an ancient and eminent lawyer, explained the words of the statute of 25 Edward III. that the courts of law could not proceed but upon one of the crimes there enumerated: But the Parliament had still a power, by the clause in that Act, to declare what they thought was treason.—Swift. Yes, by a new Act, but not with a retrospect; therefore Maynard was a knave or a fool, with all his law.
P. 442. Burnet. This indeed would have justified the King, if it had been demanded above board.—Swift. Style of a gamester.
P. 451. Burnet. Yet many thought, that, what doctrines soever men might by a subtlety of speculation be earned into, the approaches of death, with the seriousness that appeared in their deportment, must needs work so much on the probity and candour which seemed footed in human nature, etc.—Swift. Credat Judaeus Apella.
P. 455. Burnet, the Bill of Exclusion disinherited:—the next heir, which certainly the King and Parliament might do, as well as any private man might disinherit his next heir.—Swift. That is not always true. Yet it was certainly in the power of King and Parliament to exclude the next heir.
P. 457. Burnet. Government was appointed for those that were to be governed, and not for the sake of governors themselves.—Swift. A true maxim and infallible.
P. 458. Burnet. It was a maxim among our lawyers, that even an Act of Parliament against Magna Charta was null of itself.—Swift. A sottish maxim.
P. 459. Burnet. For a great while I thought the accepting the limitations [proposed in the Exclusion Bill] was the wisest and best method.—Swift. It was the wisest, because it would be less opposed; and the King would consent to it; otherwise an exclusion would have done better.
P. 471. Burnet. The guards having lost thirty of their number were forced to run for it.—Swift. For what?
P. 475. Burnet. Dangerfield, a subtle and dexterous man, who ... was a false coiner, undertook now to coin a plot for the ends of the Papists.—Swift. Witty.
P. 479. Burnet. Godolphin ... had true principles of religion and virtue, and was free from all vanity, and never heaped up wealth: So that all things being laid together, he was one of the worthiest and wisest men that has been employed in our time.—Swift. All this very partial to my knowledge.
P. 483. Burnet. I laid open the cruelties of the Church of Rome in many instances that happened in Queen Mary's reign, which were not then known: And I aggravated, though very truly, the danger of falling under the power of that religion.—Swift. A BULL!
Ibid. Burnet. Sprat had studied a polite style much: But there was little strength in it: He had the beginnings of learning laid well in him: But he has allowed himself in a course of some years in much sloth and too many liberties.—Swift. Very false.
P. 489. Burnet. Here was a justice to be done, and a service to truth, towards the saving a man's life.... He advised with all his friends, and with my self in particular. The much greater number were of opinion that he ought to be silent.—Swift. Damned advice.
P. 496. Burnet. Jones stood upon a point of law, of the unseparableness of the prerogative from the person of the King.—Swift. A lawyer's way of arguing, very weak.
P. 509. Burnet, speaking of the grand juries in the latter end of King Charles's reign returning ignoramus so frequently on bills of indictment, states that:—in defence of these ignoramus juries it was said, that by the express words of their oath they were bound to make true presentments of what should appear true to them: And therefore, if they did not believe the evidence, they could not find a bill, though sworn to. A book was writ to support that, in which both law and reason were brought to confirm it: It passed as writ by Lord Essex, though I understood afterwards it was writ by Somers.—Swift. Lord Somers.
P. 516. Burnet says, on the imposition of a Test Act:—The bishops were earnest for this, which they thought would secure them for ever from a Presbyterian Parliament. It was carried in the vote: And that made many of the court more zealous than ever for carrying through the Act.—Swift. And it was very reasonable.
P. 519. Burnet mentions that, when the Test Act was passed:—about eighty of the most learned and pious of their clergy left all rather than comply with the terms of this law.... About twenty of them came up to England.—Swift. Enough to corrupt England.
P. 523. Burnet, describing the death of the Duke of Lauderdale, says—His heart seemed quite spent: There was not left above the bigness of a walnut of firm substance: The rest was spongy, liker the lungs than the heart.—Swift. Anglicé, more like.
P. 525. Burnet, Home was convicted on the credit of one infamous evidence:—Applications were made to the Duke [of York] for saving his life: But he was not born under a pardoning planet.—Swift. Silly fop.
P. 526. Burnet All the Presbyterian party saw they were now disinherited of a main part of their birth-right.—Swift. As much of Papists as of Presbyterians.
P. 527. Burnet, speaking of the surrender of the charters in 1682:—It was said, that those who were in the government in corporations, and had their charters and seals trusted to their keeping, were not the proprietors nor masters of those rights. They could not extinguish those corporations, nor part with any of their privileges. Others said, that whatever might be objected to the reason and equity of the thing, yet, when the seal of a corporation was put to any deed, such a deed was good in law. The matter goes beyond my skill in law to determine it.—Swift. What does he think of the surrenders of the charters of abbeys?
P. 528. Burnet The Non-conformists were now persecuted with much eagerness. This was visibly set on by the Papists: And it was wisely done of them, for they knew how much the Non-conformists were set against them.—Swift. Not so much as they are against the Church.
P. 531. Burnet Lord Hyde was the person that disposed the Duke to it: Upon that Lord Halifax and he fell to be in ill terms; for he hated Lord Sunderland beyond expression, though he had married his sister.—Swift. Who married whose sister?
P. 536. Burnet The truth is, juries became at that time the shame of the nation, as well as a reproach to religion: For they were packed, and prepared to bring in verdicts as they were directed and not as matters appeared on the evidence.—Swift. So they are now.
P. 538. Burnet He [Algernon Sidney] was ambassador in Denmark at the time of the Restoration.—Swift. For Cromwell.
P. 543. Burnet, on Rumbold's proposal to shoot the King at Hodsdon, in his way to Newmarket, adds:—They [the conspirators] ran into much wicked talk about the way of executing that. But nothing was ever fixed on: All was but talk.—Swift. All plots begin with talk.
P. 548. Burnet. At the time of Lord Russell's plot, Baillie being asked by the King whether they had any design against his person? he frankly said not; but being asked:—if they had been in any consultations with lords or others in England, in order to an insurrection in Scotland? Baillie faltered at this. For his conscience restrained him from lying;—Swift. The author and his cousins could not tell lies, but they could plot.
P. 549. Burnet. Next morning he went with him to the Tower gate, the messenger being again fast asleep.—Swift. Is this a blunder?
P. 553. Burnet, speaking of Lord Essex's suicide (1683)—His man, thinking he stayed longer than ordinary in his closet, looked through the key hole, and there saw him lying dead.—Swift. He was on the close stool.
P. 555. Burnet, on Lord Russell's trial—Finch summed up the evidence against him. But ... shewed more of a vicious eloquence, in turning matters with some subtlety against the prisoners, than of solid or sincere reasoning.—Swift. Afterwards Earl of Aylesford, an arrant rascal.
P. 562. Burnet. I offered to take my oath, that the speech [of Lord Russell] was penned by himself, and not by me.—Swift. Jesuitical.
P. 567. Burnet. I knew Spanheim particularly, who was envoy from the Elector of Brandenburg, who is the greatest critic of the age in all ancient learning.—Swift. Who was—who is, pure nonsense.
P. 568. Burnet. All people were apprehensive of very black designs, when they saw Jeffreys made Lord Chief Justice, who ... run out upon all occasions into declamations, that did not become the bar, much less the bench. He was not learned in his profession: And his eloquence, though viciously copious, yet was neither correct nor agreeable.—Swift. Like Burnet's eloquence.
P. 572. Burnet, on Algernon Sidney's trial, observes, that:—Finch aggravated the matter of the book, as a proof of his intentions, pretending it was an overt act, for he said, Scribere est agere.—Swift. Yet this Finch was made Earl of Aylesford by King George.
Ibid. Burnet, when Sidney charged the sheriffs who brought him the execution-warrant with having packed the jury—one of the sheriffs ... wept. He told it to a person, from whom Tillotson had it, who told it me.—Swift. Admirable authority.
P. 577. Burnet. So that it was plain, that after all the story they had made of the [Rye-house] Plot, it had gone no further, than that a company of seditious and inconsiderable persons were framing among themselves some treasonable schemes, that were never likely to come to anything.—Swift. Cursed partiality.
P. 579. Burnet. The King [Charles II.] had published a story all about the court, ... as the reason of this extreme severity against Armstrong: He said, that he was sent over by Cromwell to murder him beyond sea; ... and that upon his confessing it he had promised him never to speak of it any more as long as he lived. So the King, counting him now dead in law, thought he was free from that promise.—Swift. If the King had a mind to lie, he would have stayed till Armstrong was hanged.
P. 583. Burnet. It ended in dismissing Lord Aberdeen, and making Lord Perth chancellor, to which he had been long aspiring in a most indecent manner.—Swift. Decent and indecent, very useful words to this author.
P. 585. Burnet. I saved myself out of those difficulties by saying to all my friends, that I would not be involved in any such confidence; for as long as I thought our circumstances were such that resistance was not lawful, I thought the concealing any design in order to it was likewise unlawful.—Swift. Jesuitical.
Ibid. Burnet says, after relating how the thumb-screws were applied to Spence and Carstairs:—Upon what was thus screwed out of these two persons, etc.—Swift. Witty the second time.
P. 586. Burnet, Baillie suffered several hardships and fines for being supposed to be in the Rye-house Plot; yet:—seemed all the while so composed, and even so cheerful, that his behaviour looked like the reviving of the spirit of the noblest of the old Greeks or Romans.—Swift. For he was our cousin.
P. 587. Burnet, speaking of Baillie's execution, says:—The only excuse that was ever pretended for this infamous prosecution was, that they were sure he was guilty.—Swift. Bishop of Rochester.
P. 588. Burnet, Lord Perth wanting to see Leightoun, I writ so earnestly to him, that he came to London; and, on—his coming to me, I was amazed to see him at above seventy look so fresh and well.... [Two days afterwards] Leightoun sunk so, that both speech and sense went away of a sudden: And he continued panting about twelve hours; and then died without pangs or convulsions.—Swift. Burnet killed him by bringing him to London.
Ibid. Burnet Leightoun ... retained still a peculiar inclination to Scotland.—Swift. Yet he chose to live in England.
P. 589. Burnet, speaking of Leightoun's views of the Church of England, says:—As to the administration, both with relation to the ecclesiastical courts, and the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of the most corrupt he had ever seen.—Swift. Very civil.
Ibid. Burnet. There were two remarkable circumstances in his [Leightoun's] death. He used often to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn; it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it.—Swift. Canting puppy.
P. 590. Burnet. Sterne, Archbishop of York, died in the 86th year of his age: He was a sour ill-tempered man, and minded chiefly the enriching his family.—Swift. Yet thought author of "The Whole Duty of Man."
P. 591. Burnet says of Bishop Mew:—Though he knew very little of divinity, or of any other learning, and was weak to a childish degree, yet obsequiousness and zeal raised him through several steps to this great see [Bath and Wells].—Swift. This character is true.
P. 595. Burnet. And now the tables were turned—Swift. Style of a gamester.
P. 596. Burnet, being appointed to preach the sermon on the Gunpowder Plot, (1684,) at the Rolls Chapel:—I chose for my text these words: "Save me from the lion's mouth, thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." I made no reflection in my thoughts on the lion and unicorn, as being the two supporters of the King's scutcheon.—Swift. I doubt that.
P. 600. Burnet relates a story of a quarrel between three gentlemen, one of whom was killed. He says that one of the others:—was prevailed on to confess the indictment, and to let sentence pass on him for murder; a pardon being promised him if he should do so. [After this he had to pay £16,000 for his pardon.]—Swift. The story is wrong told.
P. 604. Burnet mentions a scheme to raise dissensions between Charles II. and the Duke of York, and adds:—Mr. May of the privy purse told me, that he was told there was a design to break out, with which he himself would be well pleased.—Swift. The bishop told me this with many more particulars.
P. 609. Burnet, speaking of the suspicion of Charles II. being poisoned, says that:—Lower and Needham, two famous physicians, ... [noticed some] blue spots on the outside of the stomach. Needham called twice to have it opened: but the surgeons seemed not to hear him. And when he moved it the second time, he, as he told me, heard Lower say to one that stood next him, "Needham will undo us, calling thus to have the stomach opened, for he may see they will not do it." ... Le Fevre, a French physician, told me, he saw a blackness in the shoulder; Upon which he made an incision, and saw it was all mortified. Short, another physician, who was a Papist, but after a form of his own, did very much suspect foul dealing.—Swift. One physician told me this from Short himself.
P. 611. Burnet, describing the behaviour of Charles II. when in hiding after the battle of Worcester, says:—Under all the apprehensions he had then upon him, he shewed a temper so careless, and so much turned to levity, that he was then diverting himself with little household sports, in as unconcerned a manner, as if he had made no loss, and had been in no danger at all.—Swift. This might admit a more favourable turn.
P. 613. Burnet, in his character of Charles II., says:—His person and temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the character that we have given us of Tiberius so much, that it were easy to draw the parallel between them. Tiberius's banishment, and his coming afterwards to reign, makes the comparison in that respect come pretty near. His hating of business, and his love of pleasures, his raising of favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling them down, and hating them excessively; his art of covering deep designs, particularly of revenge, with an appearance of softness, brings them so near a likeness, that I did not wonder much to observe the resemblance of their face and person.—Swift. Malicious, and in many circumstances false.
P. 615. Burnet concludes his character of Charles II. with these words:—How ungrateful soever this labour has proved to my self, and how unacceptable soever it may be to some, who are either obliged to remember him gratefully, or by the engagement of parties and interests are under other biasses, yet I have gone through all that I knew relating to his life and reign with that regard to truth, and what I think may be instructive to mankind, which became an impartial writer of history, and one who believes, that he must give an account to God of what he writes, as well as of what he says and does.—Swift. He was certainly a very bad prince, but not to the degree described in this character, which is poorly drawn, and mingled with malice very unworthy an historian, and the style abominable, as in the whole history, and the observations trite and vulgar.
BOOK IV.
P. 623. Burnet. Because Chudleigh the envoy there had openly broken with the Prince [of Orange], (for he not only waited no more on him, but acted openly against him; and once in the Vorhaut had affronted him, while he was driving the Princess upon the snow in a trainau, according to the German manner, and pretending they were masked, and that he did not know them, had ordered his coachman to keep his way, as they were coming towards the place where he drove;) the King recalled him.—Swift. A pretty parenthesis.
P. 626. Burnet. This gave all thinking men a melancholy prospect. England now seemed lost, unless some happy accident should save it. All people saw the way for packing a Parliament now laid open.—Swift. Just our case at the Queen's death.
P. 638. Burnet says that Musgrave and others pretended:—when money was asked for just and necessary ends, to be frugal patriots, and to be careful managers of the public treasure.—Swift. A party remark,
P. 651. Burnet. Goodenough, who had been under-sheriff of London when Cornish was sheriff, offered to swear against Cornish; and also said, that Rumsey had not discovered all he knew. So Rumsey to save himself joined with Goodenough, to swear Cornish guilty of that for which the Lord Russell had suffered. And this was driven on so fast, that Cornish was seized on, tried, and executed within the week.—Swift. Goodenough went to Ireland, practised law, and died there.
Ibid. Burnet. It gave a general horror to the body of the nation: And it let all people see, what might be expected from a reign that seemed to delight in blood.—Swift. The same here since the Queen's death.
P. 654. Burnet. The Archbishop of Armagh[5] [1685,] had continued Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was in all points so compliant to the court, that even his religion came to be suspected on that account.—Swift. False.
[Footnote 5: Michael Boyle, who, when Archbishop of Dublin, was made chancellor soon after the Restoration (1665), and continued in that office to January, 1686, during which time he was raised to the Archbishopric of Armagh.—SEWARD.]
Ibid Burnet, and yet this archbishop:—was not thought thorough-paced. So Sir Charles Porter, who was a zealous promoter of everything that the King proposed, and was a man of ready wit, and being poor was thought a person fit to be made a tool of, was declared Lord Chancellor of Ireland.—Swift. False and scandalous.
P. 669. Burnet. Solicitor-general Finch ... was presently after turned out. And Powis succeeded him, who was a compliant young aspiring lawyer, though in himself he was no ill natured man.—Swift. Sir Thomas Powis, a good dull lawyer.
P. 670. Burnet, speaking of the power claimed for the King to dispense with the sacramental test, says:—It was an overturning the whole government, ... to say that laws, ... where one of the penalties was an incapacity, which by a maxim of law cannot be taken away even by a pardon, should at the pleasure of the prince be dispensed with: A fine was also set by the Act on offenders, but not given to the King, but to the informer, which thereby became his. So that the King could no more pardon that, than he could discharge the debts of the subjects, and take away property.—Swift. Wrong reasoning.
P. 672. Burnet. Intimations were everywhere given, that the King would not have them [Dissenters], or their meetings, to be disturbed. Some of them began to grow insolent upon this shew of favour.—Swift. The whole body of them grew insolent, and complying to the King.
P. 675. Burnet. Sancroft lay silent at Lambeth. He seemed zealous against Popery in private discourse: But he was of such a timorous temper, and so set on the enriching his nephew, that he shewed no sort of courage.—Swift. False as hell.
P. 681. Burnet, referring to the revived national zeal against Popery, says:—The Episcopal clergy were in many places so sunk into sloth and ignorance, that they were not capable of conducting this zeal: ... But the Presbyterians, though they were now freed from the great severities they had long smarted under, yet expressed on all occasions their unconquerable aversion to Popery.—Swift. Partial dog!
P. 682. Burnet. He made the Earl of Tyrconnell Lord Lieutenant.—Swift. Lord deputy.
P. 688. Burnet. Nor were the clergy more diligent in their labours among their people, in which respect it must be confessed that the English clergy are the most remiss of any.—Swift. Civil that.
P. 690. Burnet, speaking of King William's character, says:—he had no vice, but of one sort, in which he was very cautious and secret.—Swift. It was of two sorts—male and female—in the former he was neither cautious nor secret.
P. 691. Burnet, in a conversation with the Prince of Orange at The Hague, (1686):—When he found I was in my opinion for toleration, he said, that was all he would ever desire to bring us to, for quieting our contentions at home.—Swift. It seems the Prince even then thought of being King.
P. 692. Burnet, the advice I gave the Princess of Orange, when she should be Queen of England, was, to:—endeavour effectually to get it [the real authority] to be legally vested in him [the Prince] during life: This would lay the greatest obligation on him possible, and lay the foundation of a perfect union between them, which had been of late a little embroiled.—Swift. By Mrs. Villiers, now Lady Orkney; but he proved a d——d husband for all that.[6]
[Footnote 6: Lady Orkney was a favourite of Swift, as appears from several passages in the Journal. [S.]]
P. 693. Burnet, having told the Princess of Orange that her succession to the throne would not make her husband king, and given her the advice just quoted, says:—she in a very frank manner told him, that she did not know that the laws of England were so contrary to the laws of God, as I had informed her: she did not think that the husband was ever to be obedient to the wife.—Swift. Foolish.
P. 693. Burnet. [Penn, the Quaker,] was a talking vain man, who had been long in the King's favour, he being the vice-admiral's son. ... He had a tedious luscious way, that was not apt to overcome a man's reason, though it might tire his patience.—Swift. He spoke very agreeably, and with much spirit.
P. 695. Burnet. Cartwright was promoted to Chester. He was a man of good capacity, and had made some progress in learning. He was ambitious and servile, cruel and boisterous: And, by the great liberties he allowed himself, he fell under much scandal of the worst sort.—Swift. Only sodomy.
P. 696. Burnet. [Cartwright] was looked on as a man that would more effectually advance the design of Popery, than if he should turn over to it. And indeed, bad as he was, he never made that step, even in the most desperate state of his affairs.—Swift. He went to Ireland with King James, and there died neglected and poor.
P. 697. Burnet. In all nations the privileges of colleges and universities are esteemed such sacred things, that few will venture to dispute these, much less to disturb them.—Swift. Yet in King George's reign, Oxford was bridled and insulted with troops, for no manner of cause but their steadiness to the Church.
P. 699. Burnet. It was much observed, that this university [Oxford], that had asserted the King's prerogative in the highest strains of the most abject flattery possible, etc.—Swift. And their virtue and steadiness ought equally to be observed.
P. 701. Burnet, speaking of King James's proceedings against the universities, and that several of the clergy wrote over to the Prince of Orange to engage in their quarrel, adds:—When that was communicated to me, I was still of opinion, that, though this was indeed an act of despotical and arbitrary power, yet I did not think it struck at the whole: So that it was not in my opinion a lawful case of resistance.—Swift. He was a better Tory than I, if he spoke as he thought.
Ibid. Burnet. The main difference between these [the Presbyterians and the Independents] was, that the Presbyterians seemed reconcilable to the Church; for they loved Episcopal ordination and a liturgy.—Swift. A damnable lie.
P. 702. Burnet. [Both Presbyterians and Independents] were enemies to this high prerogative, that the King was assuming, and were very averse to Popery.—Swift. Style.
Ibid. Burnet. So the more considerable among them [the Dissenters] resolved not to stand at too great a distance from the court, nor provoke the King so far, as to give him cause to think they were irreconcilable to him, lest they should provoke him to make up matters on any terms with the Church party.—Swift. They all complied most shamefully and publicly, as is well known.
P. 703. Burnet. The King's choice of Palmer, Earl of Castlemain, was liable to great exception.—Swift. Duchess of Cleveland's husband.
P. 705. Burnet. Since what an ambassador says is understood as said by the prince whose character he bears, this gave the States a right to make use of all advantages that might offer themselves.—Swift. Sophistry.
P. 710. Burnet. The restless spirit of some of that religion [Popery], and of their clergy in particular, shewed they could not be at quiet till they were masters.—Swift. All sects are of that spirit.
P. 716. Burnet, speaking of "the fury that had been driven on for many years by a Popish party," adds:—When some of those who had been always moderate told these, who were putting on another temper, that they would perhaps forget this as soon as the danger was over, they promised the contrary very solemnly. It shall be told afterwards, how well they remembered this.—Swift. False and spiteful.
P. 726. Burnet. That which gave the crisis to the King's anger was that he heard I was to be married to a considerable fortune at The Hague.—Swift. A phrase of the rabble.
Ibid. Burnet, when a prosecution was commenced against Burnet in Scotland, he obtained naturalization for himself in Holland, after which he wrote to the Earl of Middleton, saying that:—being now naturalized in Holland, my allegiance was, during my stay in these parts, transferred from His Majesty to the States.—Swift. Civilians deny that, but I agree with him.
P. 727. Burnet. I come now to the year 1688, which proved memorable, and produced an extraordinary and unheard-of revolution.—Swift. The Devil's in that, sure all Europe heard of it.
P. 730. Burnet,after saying that he had been naturalized in Holland, upon marrying one of the subjects of the States, goes on:—The King took the matter very ill, and said, it was an affront to him, and a just cause of war.—Swift. Vain fop.
P. 731. Burnet. I never possessed my own soul in a more perfect calm, and in a clearer cheerfulness of spirit, than I did during all those threatenings, and the apprehensions that others were in concerning me.—Swift. A modest account of his own magnanimity.
P. 746. Burnet. But after all, though soldiers were bad Englishmen and worse Christians, yet the court [of James II.] found them too good Protestants to trust much to them.—Swift. Special doctrine.
P. 748. Burnet, speaking of the Queen's expectation of a child, says:—I will give as full and as distinct an account of all that related to that matter, as I could gather up either at that time or afterwards.—Swift. All coffee-house chat.
P. 751. Burnet. Now a resolution was taken for the Queen's lying in at St. James's.—Swift. Windsor would have been more suspicious.
P. 752. Burnet, doubting of the legitimacy of the Pretender, and describing the Queen's manner of lying-in, says:—The Queen lay all the while a-bed: And, in order to the warming one side of it, a warming-pan was brought. But it was not opened, that it might be seen that there was fire and nothing else in it.—Swift. This, the ladies say, is foolish.
P. 753. Burnet. Hemings, a very worthy man,... was reading in his parlour late at night, when he heard one coming into the neighbouring parlour, and say with a doleful voice, "The Prince of Wales is dead"; Upon which ... it was plain, they were in a great consternation.—Swift. A most foolish story, hardly worthy of a coffee-house.
Ibid. Burnet. It was said, that the child was strangely revived of a sudden. Some of the physicians told Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, that it was not possible for them to think it was the same child. They looked on one another, but durst not speak what they thought.—Swift. So here are three children.
P. 762. Burnet. The Lord Mordaunt was the first of all the English nobility that came over openly to see the Prince of Orange.—Swift. Now Earl of Peterborough.
Ibid. Burnet. The Earl of Shrewsbury ... seemed to be a man of great probity, and to have a high sense of honour.—Swift. Quite contrary.
P. 763. Burnet. Lord Lumley, who was a late convert from Popery, and had stood out very firmly all this reign.—Swift. He was a knave and a coward.
Ibid. Burnet. Mr. Sidney,[7] brother to the Earl of Leicester and to Algernon Sidney. He was a graceful man, and had lived long in the court, where he had some adventures that became very public. He was a man of a sweet and caressing temper, had no malice in his heart, but too great a love of pleasure.—Swift. An idle, drunken, ignorant rake, without sense, truth, or honour.
[Footnote 7: Henry Sidney, afterwards Earl of Romney. [T.S.]]
P. 764. Burnet. But, because he [Mr. Sidney] was lazy, and the business required an active man, who could both run about, and write over long and full accounts of all matters, I recommended a kinsman of my own, Johnstoune, whom I had formed, and knew to be both faithful and diligent.—Swift. An arrant Scotch rogue.
P. 764. Burnet. The Earl of Nottingham ... had great credit with the whole Church party; For he was a man possessed with their notions.—Swift. That is, Church notions.
P. 765. Burnet. Lord Churchill [afterwards Duke of Marlborough] ... was a man of a noble and graceful appearance, bred up in the court with no literature: But he had a solid and clear understanding, with a constant presence of mind. He knew the arts of living in a court better than any man in it. He caressed all people with a soft and obliging deportment, and was always ready to do good offices.... It must be acknowledged, that he is one of the greatest men the age has produced.—Swift. A composition of perfidiousness and avarice.
Ibid. Burnet, still speaking of Lord Churchill:—He was also very doubtful as to the pretended birth. So he resolved, when the Prince should come over, to go in to him; but to betray no post, nor do anything more than the withdrawing himself, with such officers as he could trust with such a secret.—Swift. What could he do more to a mortal enemy.
P. 769. Burnet. [Skelton's] rash folly might have procured the order from the court of France, to own this alliance [with England]; He thought it would terrify the States; And so he pressed this officiously, which they easily granted.—Swift. And who can blame him, if in such a necessity he made that alliance?
P. 772. Burnet. The King of France thought himself tied by no peace; but that, when he suspected his neighbours were intending to make war upon him, he might upon such a suspicion begin a war on his part.—Swift. The common maxim of princes.
P. 776. Burnet, speaking of the Declaration prepared for Scotland, says that the:—Presbyterians, had drawn it so, that, by many passages in it, the Prince by an implication declared in favour of Presbytery. He did not see what the consequences of those were, till I explained them. So he ordered them to be altered. And by the Declaration that matter was still entire.—Swift. The more shame for King William, who changed it.
P. 782. Burnet, three days before the Prince of Orange embarked, he visited the States General, and:—took God to witness, he went to England with no other intentions, but those he had set out in his Declaration.—Swift. Then he was perjured; for he designed to get the crown, which he denied in the Declaration.
P. 783. Burnet, after describing the storm which put back the Prince of Orange's fleet, observes:—In France and England ... they triumphed not a little, as if God had fought against us, and defeated the whole design. We on our part, who found our selves delivered out of so great a storm and so vast a danger, looked on it as a mark of God's great care of us, Who, ... had preserved us.—Swift. Then still it must be a miracle.
P. 785. Burnet, when matters were coming to a crisis at the Revolution, an order was:—sent to the Bishop of Winchester, to put the President of Magdalen College again in possession, ... [But when the court heard] the Prince and his fleet were blown back, it was countermanded; which plainly shewed what it was that drove the court into so much compliance, and how long it was like to last.—Swift. The Bishop of Winchester assured me otherwise.
Ibid. Burnet. The court thought it necessary, now in an after-game to offer some satisfaction in that point [of the legitimacy of the Prince of Wales].—Swift. And this was the proper time.
P. 786. Burnet. Princess Anne was not present [at the Queen's delivery]. She indeed excused herself. She thought she was breeding: And all motion was forbidden her. None believed that to be the true reason.... So it was looked on as a colour that shewed she did not believe the thing, and that therefore she would not by her being present seem to give any credit to it.—Swift. I have reason to believe this to be true of the Princess Anne.
P. 790. Burnet. [The Prince of Orange's army] stayed a week at Exeter, before any of the gentlemen of the country about came in to the Prince. Every day some person of condition came from other parts. The first were the Lord Colchester the eldest son of the Earl of Rivers, and the Lord Wharton.—Swift. Famous for his cowardice in the rebellion of 1642.
P. 791. Burnet. Soon after that. Prince George, the Duke of Ormonde, and the Lord Dramlanrig, the Duke of Queensberry's eldest son, left him [King James], and came over to the Prince.—Swift. Yet how has he been since used? [referring to the Duke of Ormonde.]
P. 792. Burnet. In a little while a small army was formed about her [Princess Anne], who chose to be commanded by the Bishop of London; of which he too easily accepted.—Swift, And why should he not?
Ibid. Burnet. A foolish ballad was made at that time, treating the Papists, and chiefly the Irish, in a very ridiculous manner, which had a burden, said to be Irish words, "Lero, Lero, Lilibulero," that made an impression on the army, that cannot be well imagined by those who saw it not.—Swift. They are not Irish words, but better than Scotch.
P. 795. Burnet. The Queen took up a sudden resolution of going to France with the child. The midwife, together with all who were assisting at the birth, were also carried over, or so disposed of, that it could never be learned what became of them afterwards.—Swift That is strange and incredible.
P. 796. Burnet, speaking of King James's first attempt to leave the kingdom, says:—With this his reign ended: For this was a plain deserting his people, and the exposing the nation to the pillage of an army, which he had ordered the Earl of Feversham to disband.—Swift. Abominable assertion, and false consequence.
P. 797. Burnet, the incident of the King's being retaken at Feversham, and the subsequent stragglings, gave rise to the party of Jacobites:—-For, if he had got clear away, by all that could be judged, he would not have had a party left: All would have agreed, that here was a desertion, and that therefore the nation was free, and at liberty to secure itself. But what followed upon this gave them a colour to say, that he was forced away, and driven out.—Swift. So he certainly was, both now and afterwards.
Ibid. Burnet. None were killed, no houses burnt, nor were any robberies committed.—Swift. Don Pedro de Ronquillo's house was plundered and pulled down; he was Spanish ambassador.
Ibid. Burnet. Jeffreys, finding the King was gone, saw what reason he had to look to himself: And, apprehending that he was now exposed to the rage of the people, whom he had provoked with so particular a brutality, he had disguised himself to make his escape. But he fell into the hands of some who knew him. He was insulted by them with as much scorn and rudeness as they could invent. And, after many hours tossing him about, he was carried to the Lord Mayor; whom they charged to commit him to the Tower.—Swift. He soon after died in the Tower by drinking strong liquors.
P. 798. Burnet, when the Prince heard of King James's flight:—he sent to Oxford, to excuse his not coming thither, and to offer the association to them, which was signed by almost all the heads, and the chief men of the University; even by those, who, being disappointed in the preferments they aspired to, became afterwards his most implacable enemies.—Swift. Malice.
P. 799. Burnet, when I heard of King James's flight and capture:—I was affected with this dismal reverse of the fortune of a great prince, more than I think fit to express.—Swift. Or than I will believe.
P. 800. Burnet, after relating that King James "sent the Earl of Feversham to Windsor, without demanding any passport," describes his reception, and adds:—Since the Earl of Feversham, who had commanded the army against the Prince, was come without a passport, he was for some days put in arrest.—Swift. Base and villainous.
P. 801. Burnet, when it was thought prudent for King James to leave London, the Earl of Middleton suggested that he:—should go to Rochester; for "since the Prince was not pleased with his coming up from Kent, it might be perhaps acceptable to him, if he should go thither again." It was very visible, that this was proposed in order to a second escape.—Swift. And why not?
P. 802. Burnet. Some said, he [James] was now a prisoner, and remembered the saying of King Charles the First, that the prisons and the graves of princes lay not far distant from one another: The person of the King was now struck at, as well as his government: And this specious undertaking would now appear to be only a disguised and designed usurpation.—Swift. All this is certainly true.
P. 803. Burnet. Now that the Prince was come, all the bodies about the town came to welcome him.... Old Serjeant Maynard came with the men of the law. He was then near ninety, and yet he said the liveliest thing that was heard of on that occasion. The Prince took notice of his great age, and said, "that he had outlived all the men of the law of his time:" He answered, "He had like to have outlived the law itself, if his Highness had not come over."—Swift. He was an old rogue for all that.
P. 805. Burnet, speaking of the first effects of the Revolution upon the Presbyterians in Scotland, says:—They generally broke in upon the Episcopal clergy with great insolence and much cruelty. They carried them about the parishes in a mock procession: They tore their gowns, and drove them from their churches and houses. Nor did they treat those of them, who had appeared very zealously against Popery, with any distinction.—Swift. To reward them for which, King William abolished Episcopacy.
Ibid. Burnet, The Episcopal party in Scotland saw themselves under a great cloud: So they resolved all to adhere to the Earl of Dundee, who had served some years in Holland, and was both an able officer, and a man of good parts, and of some very valuable virtues.—Swift. He was the best man in Scotland.
P. 806. Burnet, speaking of Londonderry and Inniskilling, says:—Those two small unfurnished and unfortified places, resolved to stand to their own defence, and at all perils to stay till supplies should come to them from England.—Swift. He should have mentioned Doctor Walker, who defended Derry.
P. 807. Burnet. Those, who were employed by Tyrconnell to deceive the Prince, made their applications by Sir William Temple, who had a long and well established credit with him.—Swift. A lie of a Scot; for Sir William Temple did not know Tyrconnell.
P. 807. Burnet. Others thought, that the leaving Ireland in that dangerous state, might be a mean to bring the convention to a more speedy settlement of England; and that therefore the Prince ought not to make too much haste to relieve Ireland.—Swift. That is agreed to be the true reason, and it was a wicked one.
P. 810. Burnet, speaking of Archbishop Sancroft, says:—He was a poor spirited, and fearful man; and acted a very mean part in all this great transaction.—Swift. Others think very differently.
P. 811. Burnet, speaking of the proposal to establish a regency, says:—The much greater part of the House of Lords was for this, and stuck long to it: And so was about a third part of the House of Commons. The greatest part of the clergy declared themselves for it.—Swift. And it was certainly much the best expedient.
Ibid. Burnet. The third party was made up of those, who thought that there was an original contract between the King and the people of England; by which the kings were bound to defend their people, and to govern them according to law, in lieu of which the people were bound to obey and serve the king.—Swift. I am of this party, and yet I would have been for a regency.
P. 813. Burnet, it was argued that this scheme of a regency was:—both more illegal; and more unsafe, than the method they proposed. The law of England had settled the point of the subject's security in obeying the king in possession, in the statute made by Henry the Seventh. So every man knew he was safe under a king, and so would act with zeal and courage. But all such as should act under a prince-regent, created by this convention, were upon a bottom that had not the necessary forms of law for it.—Swift. There is something in this argument.
P. 814. Burnet. It was believed, that those of his [King James's] party, who were looked on as men of conscience, had secret orders from him to act upon this pretence; since otherwise they offered to act clearly in contradiction to their own oaths and principles,—Swift. This is malice.
Ibid. Burnet. [Others thought] that in our present circumstances the extremity of affairs, by reason of the late ill government, and by King James's flying over to the enemy of the nation, rather than submit to reasonable terms, had put the people of England on the necessity of securing themselves upon a legal bottom.—Swift. This was the best reason.
P. 815. Burnet. There were good authorities brought, by which it appeared, that when a person did a thing upon which his leaving any office ought to follow, he was said to abdicate. But this was a critical dispute: And it scarce became the greatness of that assembly, or the importance of the matter.—Swift. It was a very material point.