be questioned whether they had sufficient evidence before them to justify their decision, and whether, if the sentence were a just one, it was, in fact, strictly legal. Documents, indeed, have since been brought to light which sufficiently establish Atterbury's guilt, but still the evidence which they contain was not in the possession of his judges, and, consequently, could in no degree have influenced their decision. It is, principally, on account of the light which they throw on Atterbury's conduct, that these documents are now of value. Considering, indeed, what unquestionable evidence they contain of his criminality, we are not a little startled at the passionate protestations which at his trial he made of his innocence, and the solemnity with which he appealed to heaven for their truth.

A single extract from Atterbury's famous defence may, perhaps, not be unacceptable to the reader. After affecting to ridicule the very existence of the plot, in which he was accused of having been engaged,-" What could tempt me, he says, "to step thus out of my way? Was it ambition, and a desire of climbing into an higher station in the Church? There is not a man in my office farther removed from this than I am. Was money my aim? I always despised it too much, considering what occasion I am now like to have for it; for out of a poor bishopric of five hundred pounds per annum, I have laid out no less than a thousand pounds towards the repairs of the church and episcopal palace; nor did I

take one shilling for dilapidations. The rest of my little income has been spent as is necessary, as I am a Bishop. Was I influenced by any dislike of the established religion, and secretly inclined towards a Church of greater pomp and power? I have, my Lords, ever since I knew what Popery was, opposed it; and the better I knew it, the more I opposed it. I began my study in divinity when the Popish controversy grew hot, with that immortal book of Tillotson's, when he undertook the Protestant cause in general; and as such, I esteemed him above all. You will pardon me, my Lords, if I mention one thing: thirty years ago I wrote in defence of Martin Luther, and have preached, expressed, and wrote to that purpose from my infancy; and, whatever happens to me, I will suffer anything, and, by God's grace, burn at the stake, rather than depart from any material point of the Protestant religion, as professed in the Church of England.'

The Bishop concludes his appeal as follows:"If, on any account, there shall still be thought by your Lordships to be any seeming strength in

* Even the worst enemies of Atterbury admit that he never swerved from the principles of the Reformed religion. "He reprobated with warmth," says Coxe, "the conduct of the Duke of Wharton, Lords North and Grey, and others, who had sacrificed their religion with a view to obtain the Pretender's favour; he even quarrelled with the Duke of Berwick, who proposed giving a Catholic preceptor to the young Duke of Buckingham, and used his influence over the Duchess to place none but Protestants about the person of her son."-Coxe's Life of Sir Robert Walpole, v. i, p. 174.

the proofs against me,-if, by your Lordship's judgments, springing from unknown motives,if, for any reasons or necessity of state, of the wisdom and justice of which I am no competent judge, your Lordships shall proceed to pass this bill against me, I shall dispose myself quietly and tacitly to submit to what you do. God's will be done naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; and whether he gives or takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!"

:

The bishop's speech, according to his own computation and that of Pope, lasted two hours. On the following Monday, he was again brought from the Tower, to hear the rejoinder of the King's counsel, and three days afterwards, on the 16th of May, after a vehement opposition from his own party, the Bill, declaring him guilty of high treason, passed the House of Lords, by a majority of eighty-three to forty-three. Agreeably with its provisions, he was deprived of all his benefices; declared incapable of exercising any office, and enjoying any dignity, within the King's dominions; and sentenced to be exiled for life. He was even debarred from the society of his countrymen residing abroad; the Bill providing, that whoever should hold any correspondence with him, unless licensed under the King's sign manual, should be adjudged felons, without the benefit of clergy.

The following interesting anecdote, which has reference both to Atterbury's imprisonment in the Tower, and to his presumed scepticism in regard

to revealed religion, was frequently related by Lord Chesterfield, in conversation with his friends: "I went," he said, "to Mr. Pope, one morning, at Twickenham, and found a large folio Bible, with gilt clasps, lying before him upon his table; and, as I knew his way of thinking upon that book, I asked him jocosely, if he was going to write an answer to it? It is a present, said he, or rather a legacy, from my old friend, the Bishop of Rochester. I went to take my leave of him yesterday in the Tower, where I saw this Bible upon his table. After the first compliments, the bishop said to me,- My friend, Pope, considering your infirmities, and my age and exile, it is not likely that we should ever meet again; and, therefore, I give you this legacy to remember me by it. Take it home with you, and let me advise you to abide by your lordship abide by it yourself?' you do, my lord, it is but lately. to know what new light or arguments have prevailed with you now, to entertain an opinion so contrary to that which you entertained of that book all the former part of your life?' The bishop replied: We have not time to talk of these things; but take home the book, I will abide by it; and I will recommend to you to do so too, and so God bless you!"* Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Pope, incidentally mentions Atterbury presenting the poet with a Bible, at their last interview in the Tower, but seems to have

it.'-' Does I do.'-' If May I beg

* Lord Chesterfield's Works, by Maty, vol. i, p. 279.

been ignorant of the interesting circumstances connected with the gift. Pope once said of Atterbury in a moment of unusual tenderness, — "Perhaps it is not only in this world that I may have cause to remember the Bishop of Rochester."

We have already seen Atterbury writing to his friend Pope, intimating that he might possibly require his evidence at his trial. The poet, it seems, was actually summoned as a witness; a circumstance which appears to have caused him some embarrassment. Alluding, sometime afterwards, to his having been present at the trial,— "I never could speak in public," he says, " and I do not believe that, if it was a set thing, I could give an account of any story to twelve friends together; though I could tell it to any three of them with a great deal of pleasure. When I was to appear for the Bishop of Rochester on his trial, though I had but ten words to say, and that on a plain, easy point,-how that bishop spent his time while I was with him at Bromley, I made two or three blunders in it; and that, notwithstanding the first row of Lords, which were all I could see, were mostly of my acquaintance."*

But, perhaps, the most remarkable event which took place during the proceedings against Atterbury, was a trial of strength between the bishop and the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole; the latter, probably by his own contrivance, having *Spence's Anecdotes, p. 11.