CAMEO XX. There was, however, in the case of the Dauphin and his wife, suspicion of poison. He himself believed it, having been warned of such intention some time before. Popular obloquy fell on the Duke of Desolation of Orleans, no doubt most unjustly, since, with all his grievous faults, he was far from being a murderer, and was essentially kind-hearted. To Fénelon the loss of his beloved pupil, just as they might have hoped for a renewal of intercourse, was a grievous blow. He wrote, "God has cut off all our hopes for our Church and country. He had formed our young Prince. He trained him, and fitted him for the noblest work. He just let the world see what he was, and now it is over! I am struck down with grief, and the shock has made me ill without any malady.” We cannot help wondering how it would have been if the Dauphin had been spared to succeed his grandfather, and attempt to carry out Fénelon's principles; whether, in contending with the old abuses in which all his surroundings had vested interests, he would have succumbed, and proved as entire a cypher in action as his equally virtuous, but always helpless, brother in Spain. His conduct in the camp makes this possible; but, on the other hand, we know that he had naturally a fiery yet obstinate temper, kept in control by principle. He might have kindled the flame of revolution a generation sooner, and when reform was yet possible, before the corruption of the sovereign had destroyed the personal loyalty that still amounted to idolatry, and before the deism of Voltaire and Rousseau had been adopted almost as part of patriotism. Yet, unless he had been one of those great men such as live scarcely once in five hundred years, he could hardly have mastered the elements of confusion that existed, the growth of centuries, and he must either have been crushed like his great-grandson, or have died broken-hearted like Joseph II. He was too civilised and too scrupulous to ride rough-shod over popular feeling like Peter the Great, and his subjects were too much advanced for such treatment. It was a happier fate for him to be taken away in the fresh spring of hope, with unstained purity of heart and unabated rectitude of purpose. Louis XIV. 1711. CAMEO XXI. SACHEVERELL RIOT. 1710-1714. CAMEO XXI. Bishop Wilson. 1693. England. 1702. Anne. France. 1643. Louis XIV. Germany. 1711. Charles VI. THE reign of Queen Anne was a time of great influence on the part of the best Churchmen, in spite of the expulsion of the Non-jurors. The men born in the fresh vigour of the Restoration days were in the front, and their names and works are still precious to us. Thomas Wilson, born in 1663, had always lived a saintly life, and had been greatly esteemed by the Earl of Derby, who still was "King of the Isle of Man." By this nobleman he was chosen as Bishop of Sodor and Man, Sodor, be it explained, being really Sudoe, the South Isles, as the Norsemen called the Hebrides when the diocese was established. The appointment was made in 1693, but Wilson would not then accept it. The Earl kept the see vacant for four years, and then was called upon by Government to fill it up, Wilson was then induced to accept it, and his rule of the island was almost a model of primitive Christianity, both in love and in discipline. The little children, and indeed their parents, knelt to him to bless them when they met him, and no fleet of fishing boats went forth without his holding a service to speed them on their way. At the same time, he visited all offences against morals with strict ecclesiastical law, fearless of collisions with State authority; and it is a tradition (though difficult to prove) that such was the veneration for him that just as Marlborough had spared Cambrai for Fénelon's sake, so French cruisers spared the Isle of Man. At St. David's, George Bull, a very distinguished writer of sermons and of controversy, became Bishop, but when too old a man to exert himself greatly in his diocese. There were other very remarkable writers at this time, such as Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich, who produced the Connection of Sacred and Profane History, as he called it, which was the first popular English book to bridge over the interval between the Old and New Testaments-Joseph Bingham was one of the most learned of scholars in Church antiquities. Dr. Beveridge had formed a guild for devotion and good works, and together with Dr. Horneck and Mr. Smithers brought about more frequent Celebrations of the Holy Communion, catechisings of children, ministrations to prisoners and the sick. The admirable Robert Nelson wrote his book on the Fasts and Festivals, which remained for many years the chief aid and authority of Churchmen on the subject. He was the promoter of many schemes for the religious welfare of the nation, and even before Queen Anne's accession, in 1698, five gentlemen had agreed to form a society for instructing the poor, furnishing cheap Bibles and Prayer-books, and trying to minister to the colonists and natives of our foreign possessions. They obtained a charter from the King, and assumed the title of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Thence branched out a committee for mission work in the American plantations, and this became, in 1701, a fresh society as that for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Thus there was a great spirit of work and improvement in the Church at large, and yet there were strange inconsistencies. With many admirable clergy who commanded universal esteem and respect, there was also a much lower grade. Pluralities had never been condemned since the Church had had benefices to offer, and when these were heaped on one ecclesiastic, they necessitated the multiplication of curates, and the old habit of conferring the priesthood on inferior, semi-educated men had not passed away with the Reformation. There were thus a great number of clergy far below the grade of gentlemen, some acting as curates, many as noblemen's or squires' chaplains, when they were tutors to the sons, said Grace, but retired before dessert and wine-drinking, unless, to their temptation and disgrace, they could contribute to the conviviality of the guests, at a time when intoxication was hardly thought a disgrace. A living, generally a very poor one, was the reward to which these chaplains aspired. Then they became the companions of the farmers, and married into their families, or perhaps wedded the gentlewoman's "woman," sometimes ladies' maid, sometimes companion, sometimes governess, a person of much the same grade as themselves, often a clergyman's daughter. The remote country clergy were often very unpolished men, in manners and habits much the same as the farmers, and often equally intemperate. There was, however, a far superior class in the priesthood-University men, excellent scholars in Divinity, and eloquent preachers, generally strong upholders of Church doctrine—and these did good work in their own spheres. Within London and Westminster there were daily prayers in most of the churches, in all the cathedrals, and in most parish churches, weekly Celebrations, in many, prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays. There were clerical meetings for discussion of theological questions, catechisings, and general activity. САМЕО XXI. Society for 1701. CAMEO Queen Churches. 1710. Parliament voted that the duty of one shilling per chaldron on coals, which had been applied to the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, should be continued for three years to build fifty churches in London. These, in their own peculiar Palladian style, are known as Queen Anne's churches. There was a strong inclination to what we now call ritualism, choral services, and many persons not merely kneeling at the altar, but striking their breasts and almost prostrating themselves. The High Church priesthood predominated in the Lower House of Convocation, but the larger and more influential Bishoprics had been filled up in the preceding reign, and the Whigs held Queen Anne's hand, so as to make her appoint after their plan of watering down doctrine and discipline, partly on account of their sympathies with the Nonconformists, and partly because the old orthodox party were attached to the principle of passive obedience, and were chiefly Tories, if not Jacobites. Naturally High Churchmen were much displeased that, by the Act of Union, not only was Presbyterianism made the establishment in Scotland, but Episcopacy was legally proscribed; though Queen Anne did her best for the Churchmen. In 1709, there were thirteen Episcopal congregations in Edinburgh, yet one priest, Mr. Greenshields, who had taken the oaths to Government, and prayed in church for the Queen and Princess Sophia, opened a chapel for English residents at Edinburgh and used the English service, was prohibited by the Presbytery, and actually imprisoned in the Tolbooth! However, this act of persecution so shocked the United Parliament, that an Act was passed to prevent the disturbing of those of the Episcopal Communion in Scotland, in their use of the Liturgy, and permitting them to assemble for Divine worship under an Episcopally ordained clergyman anywhere except in a parish Kirk; and as long as the Queen lived, in Scotland the Church was thus in a state of comparative relief. In England, the good Churchmen could not but regard as a great grievance what was called the Act of Occasional Conformity, which enabled Dissenters to elude the Test Acts by communicating just often enough to prevent being disqualified for office. The clergymen who had to administer to them felt the profaneness extremely painful, and made a protest in the Lower House of Convocation. They also complained that the Bishops in the Upper House were obstructive to the Church movements and lax towards schism. The dispute was renewed year after year when Convocation met, and many latitudinarian books and pamphlets were afloat. Benjamin Hoadley, Fellow of St. Catherine's Hall, was considered as the clerical champion of the Whigs. A sermon which he preached before the Lord Mayor against passive obedience was complained of in the House of Lords by the Queen's own tutor, Henry Compton, Bishop of London, and it was moved that the Church was in danger; but this motion was lost by thirty-one to sixty-one peers. The Lower House of Convocation passed this same resolution; but the Whig Ministry made the Queen rebuke and prorogue them. At CAMEO XXI. 1709. the next meeting the same resolution was passed by Archbishop Tenison; but Queen Anne, never willing to depress the Church, asserted herself enough to appoint two Tory High Church Bishops. One of these, Sachererell's Sermon. Blackhall, had a sharp controversy with Hoadley on the Divine right of Kings, and on the 5th of November, 1709, on the thanksgiving day for the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Dr. Henry Sacheverell preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor on the text, "In perils among false brethren," and described those who conducted public affairs as the false brethren, who admitted into the midst of the Church as her sons, those who were really her worst enemies-comparing the "Occasional Conformity bill," which eluded the Test Act, "to the Trojan horse, bringing about the ruin of the city that admitted it." Much more of most eloquent denunciation was uttered, and the sermon caused such a sensation that 40,000 copies were sold in the course of a few days. For this, and another similar sermon, preached at the Derby assizes, Dr. Sacheverell was impeached before the House of Lords. Some of the Ministry would have been satisfied by having the sermons burnt by the common hangman; but Godolphin, who had been in them called Volpone, the name of a traitor in one of Ben Jonson's plays, was resolved on a more formal prosecution. Sacheverell was indicted, Ist, for declaring the means which brought about the Revolution to have been unjustifiable; 2nd, for censuring the toleration granted by law; 3rd, for declaring the Church in danger; 4th, for calling Her Majesty's advisers false brethren. Lord Cowper, the Lord Chancellor, sat to conduct the trial, but did not interfere except to call up the several speakers. The defence was that his doctrines had always been taught; that the Church condemned the sin of schism; that she was endangered by infidel and blasphemous publications, and that the Doctor was perfectly loyal to Queen Anne. The trial lasted five days, during which the populace showed the most vehement interest. The Union was disliked; the war and its burthens were unpopular, and therefore so were the Whig Ministry, and the danger of the Church was associated with the troubles of the Civil War. All this assisted to cause a tremendous outburst in favour of Dr. Sacheverell. After the first day's trial, when he was carried back to the Temple in his sedan chair, he was escorted in triumph by a huge multitude wearing oak leaves, huzzaing for the Church and Dr. Sacheverell, and molesting all without the badge. The next day, all the rabble, after attending him in the same way to Westminster Hall, proceeded to sack the various dissenting meeting houses, and burn their benches and pulpits in bonfires in the squares. They even were about to attack the house of Bishop Burnet, as a Scotchman and a Whig; but the respectable people rallied to the defence, and the Guards were called out. It was reported that the Bank of England was to be attacked, and Lord Sunderland ordered a detachment of Guards to the defence. The commander, Captain Horsey, asked whether he was to preach or to |