nor my compofition more happy, than in the winter hurry of fociety and parliament?

1

Had I believed that the majority of English readers were fo fondly attached even to the name and shadow of Christianity; had I foreseen that the pious, the timid, and the prudent, would feel, or affect to feel, with fuch exquifite fenfibility; I might, perhaps, have foftened the two invidious chapters, which would create many enemies, and concilitate few friends. But the shaft was shot, the alarm was founded, and I could only rejoice, that if the voice of our priests was clamorous and bitter, their hands were disarmed from the powers of perfecution. I adhered to the wife refolution of trufting myself and my writings to the candor of the public, till Mr. Davies of Oxford prefumed to attack, not the faith, but the fidelity, of the hiftorian. My Vindication, expreffive of lefs anger than contempt, amused for a moment the bufy and idle metropolis; and the most rational part of the laity, and even of the clergy, appear to have been fatisfied of my innocence and accuracy. I would not print this Vindication in quarto, left it should be bound and preferved with the history itself. At the distance of twelve years, I calmly affirm my judgment of Davies, Chelfum, &c. A victory over fuch antagonists was a fufficient humiliation. They, however, were rewarded in this world. Poor Chelfum was indeed neglected; and I dare not boaft the making Dr. Watfon a bishop; he is a prelate of a large mind and liberal fpirit" but I enjoyed the pleasure of giving a Royal penfion to Mr. Davies, and of collating Dr.

Apthorpe to an archiepifcopal living. Their fuccefs encouraged the zeal of Taylor the Arian", and. Milner the Methodist ", with many others, whom it would be difficult to remember, and tedious to rebearfe. The lift of my adverfaries, however, was graced with the more refpectable names of Dr, Priestley, Sir David Dalrymple, and Dr. White; and every polemic, of either university, discharged his fermon or pamphlet against the impenetrable filence of the Roman hiftorian. In his Hiftory of the Corruptions of Chriftianity, Dr. Priestley threw down his two gauntlets to Bishop Hurd and Mr. Gibbon. I declined the challenge in a letter, exhorting my opponent to enlighten the world by his philofophical difcoveries, and to remember that the merit of his predeceffor Servetus is now reduced to a fingle paffage, which indicates the fmaller circulation of the blood through the lungs, from and to the heart". Inftead of liftening to this friendly advice, the dauntless philofopher of Birmingham continued to fire away his double battery against those who believed too little, and those who believed too much. From my replies he has nothing to hope or fear but his Socinian fhield has repeatedly been pierced by the fpear of Horsley, and his trumpet of fedition may at length awaken the magistrates of a free country.

The profeffion and rank of Sir David Dalrymple (now a Lord of Seffion) has given a more decent color to his style. But he fcrutinized each separate paffage of the two chapters with the dry minuteness of a special pleader; and as he was always folicitous

to make, he may have fucceeded fometimes in finding, a flaw. In his Annals of Scotland, he has fhown himself a diligent collector and an accurate critic.

I have praised, and I still praise, the eloquent fermons which were preached in St. Mary's pulpit, at Oxford by Dr. White. If he affaulted me with fome degree of illiberal acrimony, in fuch a place, and before fuch an audience, he was obliged to fpeak the language of the country. I fmiled at a paffage in one of his private letters to Mr. Badcock; "The part where we encounter Gibbon muft be "brilliant and ftriking.

In a fermon preached before the university of Cambridge, Dr. Edwards complimented a work, "which can only perish with the language itself;' and esteems the author a formidable enemy. He is, indeed, astonished that more learning and inge. nuity has not been shown in the defence of Ifrael; that the prelates and dignitaries of the church (alas, good man!) did not vie with each other, whofe stone should fink the deepest in the forehead of this Goliah.

"But the force of truth will oblige us to confefs, "that in the attacks which have been levelled "against our fceptical hiftorian, we can discover but "flender traces of profound and exquifite erudition, "of folid criticism and accurate investigation; but Cc we are too frequently disgusted by vague and "inconclufive reafoning; by unfeasonable banter "and fenfelefs witticifms; by imbittered bigotry " and enthusiastic jargon; by futile cavils and illi

"beral invectives. Proud and elated by the weak"nefs of his antagonists, he condefcends not to "handle the fword of controversy

Let me frankly own that I was startled at the firft discharge of ecclefiaftical ordnance; but as foon as I found that this empty noise was mifchievous only in the intention, my fear was converted into indignation; and every feeling of indignation or curiofity has long fince fubfided in pure and placid indifference.

The profecution of my hiftory was foon afterwards checked by another controverfy of a very different kind. At the request of the Lord Chancellor, and of Lord Weymouth, then Secretary of State, I vindicated, against the French manifesto, the justice of the British arms. The whole correfpondence of Lord Stormont, our late ambaffador at Paris, was fubmitted to my infpection, and the Mémoire Juftificatif, which I compofed in French, was firft approved by the Cabinet Minifters, and then delivered as a ftate paper to the courts of Europe. The style and manner are praised by Beaumarchais himself, who, in his private quarrel, attempted a reply; but he flatters me, by afcribing the memoir to Lord Stormont; and the groffness of his invective betrays the lofs of temper and of wit; he acknowledged that le flyle ne feroit pas fans grace, ni la logique fans jufleffe, &c. if the facts were true which he undertakes to difprove. For these facts my credit is not pledged; Ifpoke as a lawyer from my brief, but the veracity of Beaumarchais may be estimated from the affertion that France, by the treaty of Paris (1763), was limited to a certain number of ships of

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war. On the application of the Duke of Choiseul, he was obliged to retract this daring falfhood.

Among the honorable connexions which I had formed, I may justly be proud of the friendship of Mr. Wedderburne, at that time Attorney General, who now illustrates the title of Lord Loughborough, and the office of Chief Juftice of the Common Pleas. By his ftrong recommendation, and the favorable difpofition of Lord North, I was appointed one of the Lords Commiffioners of Trade and Plantations; and my private income was enlarged by a clear addition of between feven and eight hundred pounds a year. The fancy of a hostile orator may paint, in the ftrong colors of ridicule, "the perpetual virtual adjournment, and the un"broken fitting vacation of the Board of Trade "." But it must be allowed that our duty was not intolerably fevere, and that I enjoyed many days and weeks of repose, without being called away from my library to the office. My acceptance of a place provoked fome of the leaders of oppofition, with whom I had lived in habits of intimacy, and I was most unjustly accused of deferting a party, in which I had never inlifted".

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The afpect of the next feffion of parliament was ftormy and perilous; country meetings, petitions, and committees of correfpondence, announced the public difcontent; and inftead of voting with a triumphant majority, the friends of government were often expofed to a ftruggle, and fometimes to a defeat. The Houfe of Commons adopted Mr. Dunning's motion, "That the influence of the