1732.]

APOLOGY FOR SIR ROBERT SUTTON.

45

affairs. The first reflection on his character was that unhappy affair of the Charitable Corporation. I read carefully all the Reports of the Committee concerning it; and, as I knew Sir Robert Sutton's temper and character so well, I was better able than most to judge of the nature of his conduct in it. And I, in my conscience, believe that he had no more suspicion of any fraud carrying on by some in the direction than I had. That he was guilty of neglect and negligence as a director is certain; but it is only the natural effect of his temper (when he has no suspicion), which is exceedingly indolent; and he suffered sufficiently for it, not only in his censure, but by the loss of near £20,000. And at this very juncture he lost a considerable sum of money (through his negligence) by the villany of a land-steward, who broke and ran away. Dr. Arbuthnot knew him well; and I am fully persuaded, though I never heard so, that he had the same opinion of him in this affair that I have. But parties ran high, and this became a party matter; and the violence of parties no one knows more of than yourself. And his virtue and integrity have been since fully manifested.

Another prejudice against him, with those who did not know him personally, was the character of his brother, the general, as worthless a man, without question, as ever was created. But, you will ask, why should a man in his station be engaged in any affair with such dirty people? 'T is a reasonable question; but you, who know human nature so well, will think this a sufficient answer: he was born to no fortune, but advanced to that station in the Levant, by the interest of his cousin, Lord Lexington; besides the straitness of his circumstances, the usual and constant business of that embassy gave him, of course, a mercantile turn. He had seen, in almost every country where he had been, societies of this kind, subsisting profitably to themselves and beneficially to the public; for not to think he came amongst them with a view to his

own profit principally would, indeed, be absurd; yet I am sure with a view of an honest profit, for he is very far from an avaricious man. He lives up to his fortune, without being guilty of any vice or luxury. He is an extreme good and faithful husband, and with reason, indeed, for it is to one of the finest women in England. He is a tender and indulgent father to very hopeful children; a kind master, and one of the best landlords to his tenants. I speak all this of my own knowledge. He has a good estate in this place. My parishioners are good people. The times (till very lately), for this last fifteen years, have been extreme bad for the graziers; I got of him, for them, two abatements in their rents, at two several times.

'I will only beg to give you one more instance, that relates to myself, and is not equivocal in its character. I chanced to know him, when I was very young, by means of my neighbourhood to Lord Lexington (whom I never knew), where he oft came; and, without any consideration to party or election interest, he seemed to have entertained an early esteem for me. He had two good livings, on estates he had lately bought; and, without the least intimation or solicitation, he told me I should have the first that fell. He was as good as his word. But this was not all. As soon as I became possessed of the living, he told me that (from what he had been informed by my predecessor, who at his death was going to commence a suit for his just dues) the living was much injured by a low and illegal composition; that he thought I ought to right myself, and he would join with me against the other freeholders; for his estate is something more than one-half of the parish. I replied that, as he had paid all the tithes for his tenants, the greatest loss, in my breaking the composition, would fall upon himself, who must pay one-half as much more as he then did. He said he did not regard that; I was his friend, and it was my due. I

1732.]

SIR ROBERT SUTTON.

47

answered that, however, I could not do it yet, for that the world would never conceive it to be done with his consent, but would say that I had no sooner got his living than I had quarrelled with him. But when I came to the parish I found them so good a sort of people that I had as little an inclination to fall out with them. So (though to my great injury) I have deferred the matter to this day. Though the thing, in the opinion of Sir R. Raymond, who gave it on the case as drawn up by the parishioners themselves, is clear and indisputable, yet they won't give it up without a lawsuit. In a word, there is nothing I am more convinced of than the innocence of Sir R. S. in the case of the Charitable Corporation, as to any fraud, or connivance at fraud. You, who always follow your judgment, free from prejudice, will do so here. I have discharged my duty of friendship, both to you and him.'

Sir Robert Sutton's name had been used by Pope twice; in the third epistle* of his 'Moral Essays' and in the first Dialogue of 1738; but, on the subsequent representations of Warburton, he was induced to erase it in both places. In the first, the name of Bond, one of the iniquitous Directors, is still left standing:

Bond damns the poor, and hates them from his heart.

And a subsequent line,

That any man in want is knave or fool,

expresses, says Pope, the very words of some of those concerned in the Charitable Corporation. To this passage Warburton, when he edited Pope's works, appended the following note: The poet had named a very worthy person of condition, who for a course of many years had shined in public stations much to the advantage and honour of his country. But being at once oppressed by

* Ver. 105.

popular prejudice and a public censure, it was no wonder the poet, to whom he was personally a stranger, should think hardly of him. I had the honour to be well known to this truly illustrious person, and to be greatly obliged by him. From my intimate knowledge of his character, I was fully persuaded of his innocence, and that he was unwarily drawn in by a pack of infamous cheats, to his great loss of fortune as well as reputation. At my request, therefore, the poet, with much satisfaction, retracted and struck out, in both places, his ill-grounded censure. I have since had the pleasure to understand, from the best authority, that my favourable sentiments of him have lately been fully justified in the course of some proceedings in the High Court of Chancery, the most unerring investigator of truth and falsehood.'

WARBURTON'S FIRST WORK OF IMPORTANCE, THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE'- SUMMARY OF ITS CONTENTS BISHOPS HORSLEY AND HARE PLEASED WITH THE BOOK-ITS RECEPTION BY THE PUBLIC

HARE'S DESIRE TO SERVE WARBURTON WARBURTON'S DESIRE TO EDIT VELLEIUS PATERCULUS' DISSUADED FROM THE UNDERTAKING BY HARE AND MIDDLETON -SPECIMENS OF HIS PROPOSED EMENDATIONS HANMER SIR THOMAS ABOUT SHAKSPEARE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THEM.

VISITS

DIS

IN 1736, as has been already observed, eight years after

his presentation to Brant-Broughton, Warburton offered to the world his first important work, 'The Alliance between Church and State.' The doctrines advocated in this work it will be our business to examine.

The Puritans had maintained that the Church and the State were two distinct independent societies, and had argued that, in consequence of this independence, the magistrate had no concern with religion. Hooker, in opposition to these notions, had asserted that the Church. and the State were but portions of the same society, and had alleged that in every society the State had a natural supremacy over the Church, or a right of control in religious affairs. Hobbes had advanced, in the main, the same opinions on the subject with Hooker, advocating rigorous conformity in the Church to the requirements of the State. Warburton, agreeing with neither of these persuasions, supposed that the Church and the State,

* Warburton's Works, vol. vii. pp. 64, 84, 218, 221, 8vo.

E