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FRANCIS ATTERBURY,

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BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

Educated at Westminster and Oxford.-His literary attainAssists his pupil, C. Boyle, in his dispute with Bentley. His Jacobitism.-His letter to his father.-His scepticism in early life.-Enters into holy orders.- Marries a lady of fortune.-Appointed chaplain in ordinary to King William. Enters into a controversy with Dr. Wake. Created Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Rochester.His polemical controversies. The reputed author of the speech made by Sacheverel on his trial.-George the First's accession fatal to Atterbury's ambitious hopes.-His disaffection. Committal to the Tower.-Speaker Onslow's character of him.—Public sympathy for Atterbury.-His harsh treatment in the Tower.- His letter to Pope.-His eloquent speech on his trial.-Sentence passed on him.—Trial of strength between Atterbury and Sir R. Walpole during the proceedings against the former.-Atterbury quits England and resides chiefly in Paris till his death.-Death of his favourite daughter.-The Duke of Wharton's poetical address to Atterbury.-Atterbury's letter to Dicconson on his daughter's death.-His last meeting with her at Toulouse. -His death at Paris in 1731.-His body brought to England, and the coffin opened by order of Government. His interment in Westminster Abbey.

THIS elegant scholar and ambitious churchman was born on the 6th of March, 1662, at his father's rectory at Milton-Keynes, near Newport-Pagnel, in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at West

minster school, from whence he was removed, in 1680, to Christ-Church college, Oxford, where he was indefatigable in his pursuit after knowledge, and very shortly distinguished himself by his classical attainments. As early as 1682, when only in his twenty-first year, he published a Latin version of Dryden's poem of "Absalom and Ahithophel." He translated, also, about the same period, the two exquisite odes of Horace, -"Donec gratus eram tibi," and "Quem tu Melpomene semel," of which odes Scaliger said, that he would sooner have been their author than be King of Arragon. Like all others who have attempted the impossible task of translating Horace, Atterbury has, unquestionably, failed. His versification, however, is not without merit, and, as he is little known as a poet, a single specimen of his muse may not be unacceptable. We prefer giving the following trifle, which he is said to have addressed to the lady whom he afterwards married:

"ON A LADY'S FAN.

"Flavia, the least and slightest toy,
Can with resistless art employ.

This fan, in meaner hands, would prove
The engine of small force in love;

Yet she, with graceful air and mien,
Not to be told, or safely seen,

Directs its wanton motions so,

That it wounds more than Cupid's bow;

Gives coolness to the matchless dame,

To every other breast a flame.”

In 1684, Atterbury took his degree of Bachelor

of Arts, and in 1687, that of Master of Arts. In the latter year, he published his "Considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther, and the original of the Reformation," and is said also to have materially assisted his pupil, Charles Boyle, afterwards, Earl of Orrery, in his spirited dispute with Bentley, as to the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris. Atterbury appears to have instilled into the mind of his pupil, not only his classical taste, but his Jacobite principles. When the Bishop was committed a prisoner to the Tower, in 1722, on account of his presumed intrigues in the cause of the Pretender, he was, shortly afterwards, joined by his old pupil, who was incarcerated on the same charge. The change which had taken place in their habits and principles could not fail to suggest very striking reflections to each of them. The academical seclusion of Christ-Church was exchanged for the dangerous solitude of the Tower; the champion of Martin Luther, and of the principles of the Reformation, had enlisted in the cause of a Roman Catholic Prince; while both tutor and pupil, instead of engaging in classical discussions on the bulls of Phalaris, found themselves far more deeply interested in the proceedings of the Pretender and the bulls of the Pope.

Restless, turbulent, and ambitious; dissatisfied with the small credit to be derived by academical pre-eminence; wearied with conventual rules and habits, and with a society necessarily restricted to the narrow understandings, proverbially gene

rated by a collegiate life, the spirit of Atterbury fretted within the narrow limits of a cloister, and he looked about him for a wider sphere on which to exercise his talents, and for a communion with men whose intellectual faculties were more congenial with his own.

After a residence at the University of about ten years, he writes to his father from Oxford, 14th October, 1690,-" My pupil (Mr. Boyle) I never had a thought of parting with till I left Oxford. I wish I could part with him to-morrow on that score; for I am perfectly wearied with the nauseous circle of small affairs, that can now neither divert nor instruct me. I was made, I am sure, for another scene and another sort of conversation; though it has been my hard luck to be pinned down to this. I have thought and thought again, Sir, and for some years: now I have never been able to think otherwise, than that I am losing time every minute I stay here. The only benefit I ever propose to myself by the place, is studying; and that I am not able to compass. Mr. Boyle takes up half my time; and I grudge it him not, for he is a fine gentleman; and while I am with him, I will do what I can to make him a man. College and University business take up a great deal more; and I am forced to be useful to the Dean in a thousand particulars; so that I have very little time."

Judging from the contents of the foregoing letter, it is, perhaps, not uncharitable to presume that, when Atterbury entered into holy orders

the following year, the step was taken rather with a view to temporal aggrandizement, and as offering the means of escaping from the tedious thraldom of a college life, than from any laudable zeal for the sacred profession. We have the authority, indeed, of his friend Pope, that though religion was afterwards the boasted solace of Atterbury in his misfortunes, yet that in early life he was a sceptic. His scepticism, however, seems, at this time, to have been confined to his own breast, for it certainly proved no bar to his preferment. No sooner, indeed, did he appear in the metropolis,-whither he seems to have hastened as offering the best stage on which to display his talents,—than his extraordinary eloquence in the pulpit rapidly brought him into notice and repute. About this period, with the view of advancing his worldly interests, he married a lady named Osborne, a relation of the Duke of Leeds, with whom he received a fortune of 7000/.

The first step of any importance which Atterbury obtained in his profession, was the appointment of chaplain in ordinary to King William and Queen Mary; shortly after which he was elected preacher at Bridewell, and lecturer of St. Bride's. A sermon On the Power of Charity to cover Sin, which he preached before the governors of Bridewell in 1694, brought him into further notice. It was attacked by Hoadley, afterwards, Bishop of Winchester; while another sermon which he preached the same year, before

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