them." -Last of all, he brought together extracts from the Sermons of the Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Stillingfleet, Dr. Tillotson, and others, in proof of the same point; but I have, unfortunately, no room for their insertion. He then went to his third point; namely, to show that it was the interest of all parties, but more particularly of the Church of England, that the Penal Laws and Tests should be abolished. He appealed to the reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, and Charles the First, and argued from the circumstances of those times in favour of the proposition as now stated: but as his arguments were all of them suited to the political state of the kingdom as it then existed, it would be unnecessary to repeat them. It would be equally useless to repeat those, which he advanced to prove, that it would be to the interest of Dissenters, that these legal penalties should be removed. I may observe then, that, when he had finished these, he proceeded to the consideration of the late Royal Declaration, and that he manfully defended it. He allowed, however, that if it were the wish of a majority of the kingdom, that the Established Reli gion, as it then stood, should be the national one, one, it ought to be so. He allowed also, that, if there must be an Established National Religion, he had rather that the extraordinary power attached to it should be vested in the hands of the Church of Eng-> land*, than in those of the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, or any Dissenting Church: yet he insisted upon Toleration for all, even for Roman Catholics, who did so dissent; and he advised the latter to be satisfied with a bare Toleration, seeing that the whole na tion was against them. In the concluding part of his work, after having stated, that since the late King's Restoration above fifteen thousand families had been ruined, and more than five thousand persons had died in bonds for matters of mere conscience to God; he earnestly recommended to all parties, that if they could not agree to meet in one common pro-› fession of religion, they would at least do all in their power to promote one common civil interest, the great good of their country, in which they were all equally concerned as subjects, and as living in the same land. *This sentiment entirely coincides with his declaration to the Magdalen Delegates as just stated, though they were so displeased with him. Soon after the publication of this he brought out another work, which he called "The great and popular Objection against the Repeal of the penal Laws briefly stated and considered." This indeed might, from its connection and contents, be considered as a sort of supplement or second volume to the former. I do not intend, however, to give any analysis of its contents, because the arguments, contained in it, were directed against objections not essential or permanent, but such as were local and temporary, and drawn from the peculiar circumstances of the times. With respect to his American concerns, which I am now to notice, it has been stated, that he had taken the executive part of the Government from the Provincial Council, and that he had lodged it in the hands of five Commissioners of State, of whom Thos. Lloyd was to be the President. It It appears that in the month of June he addressed a letter to these, one of the first since that which conveyed to them their appointment, by which we see under his own hand his reason for the change. "I found," says he, "my former Deputation clogged with a long and slow tale of persons rarely got together, and and then with unwillingness, and sometimes with reflections even upon me for their pains of hearing one letter read." He instructed the Commissioners to revive the Custom-act, as the most equal and least offensive way of supporting the Government. He reminded them also of their new appointment, and among many other excellent suggestions for their conduct gave them the following advice: "Be diligent, faithful, loving, and communicate one with another in things that concern the public.-Draw not several ways: have no cabals apart, nor reserves from one another: treat with a mutual simplicity, an entire confidence in one another; and if at any time you mistake, or misapprehend, or dissent from one another, let not that appear to the people. Show your virtues, but conceal your infirmities. This will make you awful and reverent with the latter. Justice, mercy, temperance of spirit, are high qualities, and necessary ones in Government. I beseech God to fit you for his work more and more, by whom all Governors and people in authority ought to be influenced in their administration of temporal things committed to their care." . It does not appear that even so late as December in this year he had received any accounts from America, which gave him reason to think that matters were going on better there than before; for in a letter which he wrote to the Commissioners, dated in that month from Holland-house, we find the old topics of complaint relative to neglect in writing to him, and in collecting his quitrents, revived. "I am heartily sorry," says he, "that I' had no letter from the Government. Indeed I have hardly had one at all: and for private letters, though from public persons, I regard them but little; I mean, as to taking my public measures by: for I find such contradictions, as well as diversity, that I believe, I may say, I am one of the unhappiest Proprietors with one of the best of people. If this. had not been complained of in mine by Edward Blackfan, I should have been less. moved at this visible incomplacency and, neglect. Had the Government signed, I mean those who are the most eminent in authority, by consent of the rest, it had given me some ease and satisfaction; but as it is, 'tis Controversy rather than Government ; for Government stands, and lives, and pro-. spers in unity, at least of the governing part, |