P. 523. [par. 29.] _Clarendon_, on the discovery of the treachery of Sir
Richard Willis.--_Swift_. Doubtful.
P. 539. [par. 47.[9]] _Clarendon_. If it had not been for the King's own
_steadiness_.--_Swift_. Of which, in religion, he never had any.
[Footnote 9: This was par. 74 in the edition of 1849. [T.S.]]
P. 540. [par. 75.] _Clarendon_, upon the Duke of York's being invited
into Spain, with the office of El Admirante del Oceano, he was warned
that he:--would never be suffered to go to sea under any title of
command, till he first changed his religion.--_Swift_. As he did openly
in England.
P. 559. [par. 131.] _Clarendon_. There being scarce a bon-fire at which
they did not roast a rump.--_Swift_. The _Rump_.
P. 583. [par. 194.] _Clarendon_, Declaration of the King, April 4-1/4
1660:--"Let all our subjects, how faulty soever, rely upon the word of a
King," etc.--_Swift_. Usually good for nothing.
_Ibid_. [ditto.] _Clarendon_, the same:--"A free Parliament; by which,
upon the word of a King, we will be advised."--_Swift_. Provided he be
an honest and sincere man.
P. 585. [par. 199.] _Clarendon_, Letter to the fleet:--"Which gives us
great encouragement and hope, that God Almighty will heal the wounds by
the same plaster that made the flesh raw."--_Swift_. A very low
comparison.
P. 586. [par. 201.] _Clarendon_, Letter to the city of London:--"Their
affections to us in the city of London; which hath exceedingly raised
our spirits, and which, no doubt, hath proceeded from the Spirit of God,
and His extraordinary mercy to the nation; which hath been encouraged by
you, and your good example ... to discountenance the imaginations of
those who would subject our subjects to a government they have not yet
devised."--_Swift_. Cacofonia.
P. 595. [par. 222.] _Clarendon_, Proclamation of the King, May 8, by the
Parliament, Lord Mayor, etc.:--"We ... acknowledge, ... that ... he
[Charles II.] is of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the most
potent, mighty, and undoubted King; and thereunto we most humbly and
faithfully do submit, and oblige ourselves, our heirs, and posterity for
ever."--_Swift_. Can they oblige their posterity 10,000 years to come?
P. 596. [par. 225]. _Clarendon_, The case of Colonel Ingoldsby: After he
had refused to sign the death-warrant of the King:--Cromwell, and
others, held him by violence; and Cromwell, with a loud laughter, taking
his hand in his, and putting the pen between his fingers, with his own
hand writ Richard Ingoldsby he making all the resistance he
could.--_Swift_. A mistake; for it was his own hand-writ, without any
restraint.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
REMARKS ON
"BISHOP BURNET'S HISTORY OF ['SCOTLAND
IN'--_SWIFT_] HIS OWN TIME,"
FOLIO EDITION, 1724-34.
FROM THE ORIGINAL, IN THE LIBRARY of THE LATE
MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE.
NOTE.
The standard edition of Burnet's interesting "History" is that by Dr.
Routh, first issued in 1823 and revised in a second edition in 1833. Mr.
Osmund Airy is at present engaged on a new edition for the Clarendon
Press, but so far only two volumes have been published. It was in Dr.
Routh's edition that almost all of Swift's notes first appeared. In the
Preface to the issue of 1823, the learned editor informs us that Swift's
notes were taken "from his own copy of the history, which had come into
the possession of the first Marquis of Lansdowne." A note in the edition
of 1833 corrects a statement made in the previous edition that Swift's
copy had been burnt. It was not Swift's own copy, but a copy containing
a transcript of Swift's notes that was burnt.
In the preparation of the present text every available reference has
been searched. Sir Walter Scott's reprint of Swift's "Notes" was sadly
inadequate. Not only did he misquote the references to Burnet's work,
but he could not have consulted the Lansdowne copy, since fully a third
of the "notes" were altogether ignored by him. It is believed that the
text here given contains every note accurately placed to its proper
account in Burnet's "History." The references are to the edition in
folio issued in 1724-1734.
In the twenty-seventh volume of the "European Magazine," and in the two
following volumes, a fair proportion of Swift's notes were first
published. These were reprinted by Dr. Burnet in 1808, in his "Essay on
the Earlier Part of the Life of Swift." Both these authorities have been
consulted. Dr. Routh's modesty forbade him including six of the notes,
because they were "not written with the requisite decorum." These have
been included here. Mr. Osmund Airy has "thought it unadvisable to
encumber the pages with simple terms of abuse"; but an editor of Swift's
works cannot permit himself this licence. His duty is to include
everything.
The text of the "Short Remarks" is taken from vol. viii., Part 1, of the
quarto edition of Swift's works, edited by Deane Swift, and published in
1765.
[T.S.]
SHORT REMARKS ON
BISHOP BURNET'S HISTORY.
This author is in most particulars the worst qualified for an historian
that ever I met with. His style is rough, full of improprieties, in
expressions often Scotch, and often such as are used by the meanest
people.[1] He discovers a great scarcity of words and phrases, by
repeating the same several hundred times, for want of capacity to vary
them. His observations are mean and trite, and very often false. His
secret history is generally made up of coffeehouse scandals, or at best
from reports at the third, fourth, or fifth hand. The account of the
Pretender's birth, would only become an old woman in a chimney-corner.
His vanity runs intolerably through the whole book, affecting to have
been of consequence at nineteen years old, and while he was a little
Scotch parson of forty pounds a year. He was a gentleman born, and, in
the time of his youth and vigour, drew in an old maiden daughter of a
Scotch earl to marry him.[2] His characters are miserably wrought, in
many things mistaken, and all of them detracting,[3] except of those who
were friends to the Presbyterians. That early love of liberty he boasts
of is absolutely false; for the first book that I believe he ever
published is an entire treatise in favour of passive obedience and
absolute power; so that his reflections on the clergy, for asserting,
and then changing those principles, come very improperly from him. He is
the most partial of all writers that ever pretended so much to
impartiality; and yet I, who knew him well, am convinced that he is as
impartial as he could possibly find in his heart; I am sure more than I
ever expected from him; particularly in his accounts of the Papist and
fanatic plots. This work may be more properly called "A History of
Scotland during the Author's Time, with some Digressions relating to
England," rather than deserve the title he gives it. For I believe two
thirds of it relate only to that beggarly nation, and their
insignificant brangles and factions. What he succeeds best in, is in
giving extracts of arguments and debates in council or Parliament.
Nothing recommends his book but the recency of the facts he mentions,
most of them being still in memory, especially the story of the
Revolution; which, however, is not so well told as might be expected
from one who affects to have had so considerable a share in it. After
all, he was a man of generosity and good nature, and very communicative;
but, in his ten last years, was absolutely party-mad, and fancied he saw
Popery under every bush. He hath told me many passages not mentioned in
this history, and many that are, but with several circumstances
suppressed or altered. He never gives a good character without one
essential point, that the person was tender to Dissenters, and thought
many things in the Church ought to be amended.
[Footnote 1: "His own opinion," says my predecessor, Mr Nichols, "was
very different, as appears by the original MS of his History, wherein
the following lines are legible, though among those which were ordered
not to be printed 'And if I have arrived at any faculty of writing
clearly and correctly, I owe that entirely to them [Tillotson and
Lloyd]. For as they joined with Wilkins, in that noble, though despised
attempt, of an _universal character_, and a philosophical language; they
took great pains to observe all the common errors of language in
general, and of ours in particular. And in the drawing the tables for
that work, which was Lloyd's province, he looked further into a natural
purity and simplicity of style, than any man I ever knew; into all which
he led me, and so helped me to any measure of exactness of writing,
which may be thought to belong to me.' The above was originally designed
to have followed the words, 'I know from them,' vol. i. p. 191, 1. 7,
fol. ed. near the end of A.D. 1661." [S]]
[Footnote 2: Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter to the Earl of Cassilis.
[S.]]
[Footnote 3: A note in Swift's Works, vol. ix., pt. ii. [1775] says:
After "detracting," add "Many of which were stricken through with his
own hand, but left legible in the MS.; which he ordered, in his last
will, 'his executor to print faithfully, as he left it, without adding,
suppressing, or altering it in any particular.' In the second volume,
Judge Burnet, the Bishop's son and executor, promises that 'the original
manuscript of both volumes shall be deposited in the Cotton Library.'
But this promise does not appear to have been fulfilled; at least it
certainly was not in 1736, when two letters were printed, addressed to
Thomas Burnet, Esq. In p. 8 of the Second Letter, the writer [Philip
Beach] asserted, that he had in his own possession 'an authentic and
complete collection of the castrated passages.'" [T.S.]]
_Setting up for a maxim, laying down for a maxim, clapt up, decency,_
and some other words and phrases, he uses many hundred times.
_Cut out for a court, a pardoning planet, clapt up, left in the lurch,
the mob, outed, a great beauty, went roundly to work:_ All these phrases
used by the vulgar, shew him to have kept mean or illiterate company in
his youth.
REMARKS ON BURNET'S HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME.
PREFACE, p. 3. _Burnet._
Indeed the peevishness, the ill nature, and the ambition of many
clergymen has sharpened my spirits perhaps too much against them; so I
_warn_ my reader to take all that I say on these heads with some grains
of allowance.--_Swift._ I will take his _warning._
P. 4. _Burnet._ Over and over again retouched and polished by
me.--_Swift._ Rarely polished; I never read so ill a style.
Ibid. _Burnet._ That thereby I may awaken the world to just reflections
on their own errors and follies.--_Swift._ This I take to be nonsense.
BOOK I.
P. 6. _Burnet._ That king saw that those who were most in his interests
were likewise jealous of his authority, and apt to encroach upon
it.--_Swift._ Nonsense.
P. 10. _Burnet_ says that competent provision to those who served the
cure:--was afterwards in his son's time raised to about fifty pounds a
year.--_Swift._ Scotch pounds, I suppose.
P. 11. _Burnet._ Colonel Titus assured me that he had from King Charles
the First's own mouth, that he was well assured he [Prince Henry] was
poisoned by the Earl of Somerset's means.--_Swift._ Titus was the
greatest rogue in England.
P. 18. _Burnet_ says that Gowry's conspiracy against King James was
confirmed to him by his father.--_Swift._ Melvil makes nothing of it.
P. 20. _Burnet._ I turn now to the affairs of Scotland, which are but
little known.--_Swift._ Not worth knowing.
P. 23. _Burnet,_ Archbishop Spotswood began:--his journey as he
often did on a Sunday, which was a very odious thing in that
country.--_Swift._ Poor malice.
P. 24. _Burnet,_ Mr. Steward, a private gentleman, became:--so
considerable that he was raised by several degrees to be made Earl of
Traquair and Lord-Treasurer [of Scotland], and was in great favour; but
suffered afterwards such a reverse of fortune, that I saw him so low
that he wanted bread, ... and it was believed died of hunger.--_Swift._
A strange death: perhaps it was of want of _meat_.
P. 26. _Burnet._ My father ... carefully preserved the petition itself,
and the papers relating to the trial [of Lord Balmerinoch]; of which I
never saw any copy besides those which I have. ... The whole record ...
is indeed a very noble piece, full of curious matter.--_Swift._ Puppy.
P. 28. _Burnet._ The Earl of Argyle was a more solemn sort of man, grave
and sober, free of all scandalous vices.--_Swift._ As a man is free of a
corporation, he means.
P. 29. _Burnet._ The Lord Wharton and the Lord Howard of Escrick
undertook to deliver some of these; which they did, and were _clapt up_
upon it.--_Swift._ Dignity of expression.
P. 30. _Burnet._ [King Charles I.] was now in great straits ... his
treasure was now exhausted; his subjects were highly irritated; the
ministry were all frighted, being exposed to the anger and justice of
the Parliament. ... He loved high and rough methods, but had neither the
skill to conduct them, nor the height of genius to manage
them.--_Swift._ Not one good quality named.
P. 31. _Burnet._ The Queen [of Charles I.] was a woman of great vivacity
in conversation, and loved all her life long to be _in intrigues of all
sorts._--_Swift._ Not of love, I hope.
Ibid. _Burnet._ By the concessions that he made, especially that of the
triennial Parliament, the honest and quiet part of the nation was
satisfied, and thought their religion and liberties were secured: So
they broke off from those violenter propositions that occasioned the
war.--_Swift._ Dark, or nonsense.
Ibid. _Burnet._ He intended not to stand to them any longer than he lay
under that force that visibly drew them from him contrary to his own
inclinations.--_Swift._ Sad trash.
P. 33. _Burnet._ The first volume of the Earl of Clarendon's "History"
gives a faithful representation of the beginnings of the troubles,
though writ in favour of the court.--_Swift._ Writ with the spirit of an
historian, not of [a raker] into scandal.
P. 34. _Burnet._ Dickson, Blair, Rutherford, Baily, Cant, and the two
Gillispys ... affected great sublimities in devotion: They poured
themselves out in their prayers with a loud voice, and often with many
tears. They had but an ordinary proportion of learning among them;
something of Hebrew, and very little Greek: Books of controversy with
Papists, but above all with the Arminians, was the height of their
study.--_Swift._ Great nonsense. Rutherford was half fool, half mad.
P. 40. _Burnet,_ speaking of the bad effects of the Marquess of
Montrose's expedition and defeat, says:--It alienated the Scots much
from the King: It exalted all that were enemies to peace. Now they
seemed to have some colour for all those aspersions they had cast on the
King, as if he had been in a correspondence with the Irish rebels, when
the worst tribe of them had been thus employed by him.--_Swift._ Lord
Clarendon differs from all this.
P. 41. _Burnet._ The Earl of Essex told me, that he had taken all the
pains he could to enquire into the original of the Irish massacre, but
could never see any reason to believe the King had any accession to
it.--_Swift._ And who but _a beast_ ever believed it?
P. 42. _Burnet,_ arguing with the Scots concerning the propriety of the
King's death, observes:--Drummond said, "Cromwell had plainly the better
of them at their own weapon."--_Swift._ And Burnet thought as Cromwell
did.
P. 46. _Burnet._ They [the army] will ever keep the Parliament in
subjection to them, and so keep up their own authority.--_Swift._ Weak.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Fairfax was much distracted in his mind, and changed
purposes often every day.--_Swift._ Fairfax had hardly common sense.
P. 49. _Burnet._ I will not enter farther into the military part: For I
remember an advice of Marshal Schomberg's, never to meddle in the
relation of military matters.--_Swift._ Very foolish advice, for
soldiers cannot write.
P. 50. _Burnet._ [Laud's] defence of himself, writ ... when he was in
the Tower, is a very mean performance. ... In most particulars he
excuses himself by this, that he was but one of many, who either in
council, star-chamber, or high commission voted illegal things. Now
though this was true, yet a chief minister, and one in high favour,
determines the rest so much, that they are generally little better than
machines acted by him. On other occasions he says, the thing was proved
but by one witness. Now, how strong soever this defence may be in law,
it is of no force in an appeal to the world; for if a thing is true, it
is no matter how full or how defective the proof is.--_Swift._ All this
is full of malice and ill judgement.
Ibid. _Burnet,_ speaking of the "Eikon Basilike," supposed to be written
by Charles the First, says:--There was in it a nobleness and justness of
thought with a greatness of style, that made it to be looked on as the
best writ book in the English language.--_Swift._ I think it a poor
treatise, and that the King did not write it.
P. 51. _Burnet._ Upon the King's death the Scots proclaimed his son
King, and sent over Sir George Wincam, _that married my great-aunt_, to
treat with him while he was in the Isle of Jersey.--_Swift._ Was that
the reason he was sent?
P. 53. _Burnet._ I remember in one fast-day there were six sermons
preached without intermission. I was there myself, and not a little
weary of so tedious a service.--_Swift._ Burnet was not then eight years
old.
P. 61. _Burnet,_ speaking of the period of the usurpation in
Scotland:--Cromwell built three citadels, at Leith, Ayr, and Inverness,
besides many little forts. There was good justice done, and vice was
suppressed and punished; so that we always reckon those eight years of
usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity.--_Swift._ No doubt you
do.
P. 63. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Scotch preachers at sacrament times
during the civil wars, says:--The crowds were far beyond the capacity of
their churches, or the reach of their voices.--_Swift._ I believe the
church had as much capacity as the minister.
P. 64. _Burnet._ The resolutioners sent up one Sharp, who had been long
in England, and was an active and eager man.--_Swift._ Afterwards
archbishop, and murdered.
P. 66. _Burnet._ Thus Cromwell had all the King's party in a net. He let
them dance in it at pleasure. And upon occasions _clapt_ them up for a
short while.--_Swift._ Pox of his _claps_.
P. 87. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Restoration:--Of all this Monk had both
the praise and the reward, though I have been told a very small share of
it belonged to him.--_Swift._ Malice.
BOOK II.
P. 92. _Burnet._ I will therefore enlarge ... on the affairs of
Scotland; both out of the inbred love that all men have for their native
country, etc.--_Swift._ Could not he keep his inbred love to himself?
Ibid. _Burnet._ Sharp, who was employed by the resolutioners ... stuck
neither at solemn protestations, ... nor at appeals to God of his
sincerity in acting for the presbytery both in prayers and on other
occasions, etc.--_Swift._ Sure there was some secret personal cause of
all this malice against Sharp.
P. 93. _Burnet,_ speaking of Charles II. says:--He was affable and easy,
and loved to be made so by all about him. The great art of keeping him
long was, the being easy, and the making everything easy to
him.--_Swift._ Eloquence.
P. 99. _Burnet_ says of Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington:--His parts
were solid, but not quick.--_Swift._ They were very quick.
P. 100. _Burnet_ says of the Duke of Buckingham:--Pleasure, frolic, or
extravagant diversion was all that he laid to heart. He was true to
nothing, for he was not true to himself.--_Swift._ No consequence.
_Burnet._ He had no steadiness nor conduct: He could keep no secret, nor
execute any design without spoiling it.--_Swift._ Nonsense.
P. 117. _Burnet._ It was visible that neither the late King nor the
present were under any force when they passed ... those Acts [bringing
in Presbyterian government].--_Swift._ Both Kings were under a force.
P. 118. _Burnet._ To annul a Parliament was a terrible precedent, which
destroyed the whole security of government.--_Swift._ Wrong arguing.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Distress on his affairs was really equivalent to a force
on his person.--_Swift._ It was so.
P. 119. _Burnet._ We went into it, he said, as knaves, and therefore no
wonder if we miscarried in it as fools.--_Swift._ True.
Ibid. _Burnet._ No government was so well established, as not to be
liable to a revolution. This [the Rescissory Act] would cut off all
hopes of peace and submission, if any disorder should happen at any time
thereafter.--_Swift._ Wrong weak reasoning.
P. 120. _Burnet._ Such care was taken that no public application should
be made in favour of Presbytery. Any attempt that was made on the other
hand met with great encouragement.--_Swift._ Does the man write like a
bishop?
P. 126. _Burnet,_ speaking of the execution of the Marquess of
Argyle:--After some time spent in his private devotions he was
beheaded.--_Swift._ He was the greatest villain of his age.
Ibid. _Burnet._ The kirk ... asserted all along that the doctrine
delivered in their sermons did not fall under the cognisance of the
temporal courts, till it was first judged by the church.--_Swift._
Popery.
P. 127. _Burnet._ The proceedings against Wariston were soon
dispatched.--_Swift._ Wariston was an abominable dog.
P. 135. _Burnet,_ of Bishop Leightoun's character:--The grace and
gravity of his pronunciation was such, that few heard him without a very
sensible emotion. ... His style was rather too fine.--_Swift._ Burnet is
not guilty of that.
P. 140. _Burnet._ Leightoun did not stand much upon it. He did not
_think_ orders given without bishops were null and void. He _thought_,
the forms of government were not settled by such positive laws as were
unalterable; but only by apostolical practices, which, as he _thought_,
authorized Episcopacy as the best form. Yet he did not _think_ it
necessary to the being of a church. But he _thought_ that every church
might make such rules of ordination as they pleased.--_Swift. Think,
thought, thought, think, thought._
P. 154. _Burnet,_ speaking of a proclamation for shutting up two hundred
churches in one day:--Sharp said to myself, that he knew nothing of it.
... He was glad that this was done without his having any share in it:
For by it he was furnished with somewhat, in which he was no way
concerned, upon which he might cast all the blame of all that followed.
Yet this was suitable enough to a maxim that he and all that sort of
people set up, that the execution of laws was that by which all
governments maintained their strength, as well as their
honour.--_Swift._ Dunce, can there be a better maxim?
P. 157. _Burnet,_ speaking of those who enforced church discipline,
says:--They had a very scanty measure of learning, and a narrow compass
in it. They were little men, of a very indifferent size of capacity, and
apt to fly out into great excess of passion and indiscretion.--_Swift._
Strange inconsistent stuff.
P. 160. _Burnet._ One Venner ... thought it was not enough to believe
that Christ was to reign on earth, and to put the saints in the
possession of the kingdom ... but added to this, that the saints were to
take the kingdom themselves.--_Swift._ This wants grammar.
P. 163. _Burnet._ John Goodwin and Milton did also escape all censure,
to the surprise of all people.--_Swift._ He censures even mercy.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Milton ... was ... much admired by all at home for the
poems he writ, though he was then blind; chiefly that of "Paradise
Lost," in which there is a nobleness both of contrivance and execution,
that, though he affected to write in blank verse without rhyme, and made
many new and rough words, yet it was esteemed the beautifullest
and perfectest poem that ever was writ, at least in _our_
language.--_Swift._ A mistake, for it is _in English._
P. 164. _Burnet._ The great share he [Sir Henry Vane] had in the
attainder of the Earl Strafford, and in the whole turn of affairs to the
total change of government, but above all the great opinion that was had
of his parts and capacity to embroil matters again, made the court think
it was necessary to put him out of the way.--_Swift._ A malicious turn.
Vane was a dangerous enthusiastic beast.
Ibid. _Burnet._ When he [Sir Henry Vane] saw his death was designed, he
composed himself to it, with a resolution that surprised all who knew
how little of that was natural to him. Some instances of this were very
extraordinary, though they cannot be mentioned with _decency_.--_Swift._
His lady _conceived_ of him the night before his execution.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Sir Henry Vane died with so much composedness, that it
was generally thought, the government had lost more than it had gained
by his death.--_Swift._ Vane was beheaded for new attempts, not here
mentioned.
P. 179. _Burnet._ [The Papists] seemed zealous for the Church. But at
the same time they spoke of toleration, as necessary both for the peace
and quiet of the nation, and for the encouragement of trade.--_Swift._
This is inconsistent.
P. 180. _Burnet_ says that Mr. Baxter:--was a man of great piety; and,
if he had not meddled in too many things, would have been esteemed one
of the learned men of the age: He writ near _two hundred
books._--_Swift._ Very sad ones.
P. 184. _Burnet._ The Convocation that prepared those alterations, as
they added some new holy days, St. Barnabas, and the Conversion of St.
Paul, so they took in more lessons out of the Apocrypha, in particular
the story of Bel and the Dragon.--_Swift._ I think they acted wrong.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Reports were spread ... of the plots of the
Presbyterians in several counties. Many were taken up on those reports:
But none were ever tried for them.--_Swift._ A common practice.
Ibid. _Burnet,_ writing of the ejection of the Nonconformists on St.
Bartholomew's Day, 1662, says:--A severity neither practised by Queen
Elizabeth in the enacting her Liturgy, nor by Cromwell in ejecting the
Royalists.--_Swift._ But by King William.
P. 186. _Burnet,_ speaking of the great fines raised on the church
estates ill applied, proceeds:--If the half had been applied to the
buying of tithes or glebes for small vicarages, here a foundation had
been laid down for a great and effectual reformation.--_Swift._ He
judges here right, in my opinion.
Ibid. _Burnet,_ continuing the same subject:--The men of merit and
service were loaded with many livings and many dignities. With this
great accession of wealth there broke in upon the Church a great deal of
luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality; while others
made purchases, and left great estates, most of which we have seen melt
away.--_Swift._ Uncharitable aggravation; a base innuendo.
P. 189. _Burnet._ Patrick was a great preacher. He wrote ... well, and
chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his function, of
great strictness of life, but a little too severe against those who
differed from him. But that was, when he thought their doctrines struck
at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards more
moderate.--_Swift._ Yes, for he turned a rank Whig.
P. 190. _Burnet._ [Archbishop Tenison] was a very learned man.--_Swift._
The dullest, good-for-nothing man I ever knew.
P. 191. _Burnet,_ condemning the bad style of preaching before
Tillotson, Lloyd, and Stillingfleet, says their discourses were:--long
and heavy, when all was _pie-bald_, full of many sayings of different
languages.--_Swift._ A noble epithet. _Burnet._ The King ... had got a
right notion of style.--_Swift._ How came Burnet not to learn this
style?
P. 193. _Burnet,_ speaking of the first formation of the Royal
Society:--Many physicians, and other ingenious men went into the society
for natural philosophy. But he who laboured most ... was Robert Boyle,
the Earl of Cork's youngest son. He was looked on by all who knew him as
a very perfect pattern. ... He neglected his person, despised the
world, and lived abstracted from all pleasures, designs, and
interests.--_Swift._ Boyle was a very silly writer.
P. 195. _Burnet._ Peter Walsh, ... who was the honestest and learnedest
man I ever knew among [the Popish clergy, often told me] ... there was
nothing which the whole Popish party feared more than an union of those
of the Church of England with the Presbyterians. ... The Papists had two
maxims, from which they never departed: The one was to divide us: And
the other was to keep themselves united.--_Swift._ Rogue.
P. 202. _Burnet._ The queen-mother had brought over from France one Mrs.
Steward, reckoned a very _great beauty._--_Swift._ A pretty phrase.
P. 203. _Burnet._ One of the first things that was done in this session
of Parliament [1663] was _the execution of my unfortunate uncle,
Wariston._--_Swift._ Was he hanged or beheaded? A fit uncle for such a
bishop.
P. 211. _Burnet._ Many were undone by it [religious persecution], and
went over to the Scots in Ulster, where they were well received, and had
all manner of liberty as to their way of religion.--_Swift._ The more
the pity.
P. 214. _Burnet._ The blame of all this was cast upon Sharp..... And the
Lord Lauderdale, to complete his disgrace with the King, got many of his
letters ... and laid these before the King; So that the King looked on
him as one of the worst of men.--_Swift._ Surely there was some secret
cause for this perpetual malice against Sharp.
P. 220. _Burnet._ Pensionary De Witt had the notions of a commonwealth
from the Greeks and Romans. And from them he came to fancy, that an army
commanded by officers of their own country was both more in their own
power, and would serve them with the more zeal, since they themselves
had such an interest in their success.--_Swift._ He ought to have judged
the contrary.
P. 236. _Burnet,_ speaking of the slight rebellion in the west of
Scotland, 1666, says:--The rest [of the rebels] were favoured by the
darkness of the night, and the weariness of the King's troops that were
not in case to pursue them. ... For they were a poor harmless company of
men, become mad by oppression.--_Swift._ A fair historian!
P. 237. _Burnet._ They might all have saved their lives, if they would
have renounced the Covenant: So they were really a sort of martyrs for
it.--_Swift._ Decent term.
P. 238. _Burnet._ [Sir John Cunningham] was not only very learned in the
civil and canon law ... [but] was above all, a man of eminent probity,
and of a sweet temper, and indeed one of the _piousest_ men of the
nation.--_Swift._ Is that Scotch?
P. 242. _Burnet._ When the peace of Breda was concluded, the King wrote
to the Scottish council, and communicated _that_ to them; and with
_that_ signified, _that_ it was his pleasure _that_ the army should be
disbanded.--_Swift._ Four _thats_ in one line.
P. 243. _Burnet._ [Archbishop Burnet] saw Episcopacy was to be pulled
down, and ... writ upon these matters a long and sorrowful letter to
Sheldon: And upon that Sheldon writ a very long one to Sir R. Murray;
which I read, and found more temper and moderation in it than I could
have expected from him.--_Swift._ Sheldon was a very great and excellent
man.
P. 245. _Burnet._ [The Countess of Dysert] was a woman of great beauty,
but of far greater parts. ... She had studied not only divinity and
history, but mathematics and philosophy. She was violent in everything
she set about, a violent friend, but a much more violent enemy. ...
[When Lauderdale] was prisoner after Worcester fight, she made him
believe he was in great danger of his life, and that she saved it by her
intrigues with Cromwell.--_Swift._ Cromwell had gallantries with her.
P. 248. _Burnet._ The clergy ... saw designs were forming to turn them
all out: And, hearing that they might be better provided in Ireland,
they were in many places bought out, and prevailed on to desert their
cures.--_Swift._ So Ireland was well provided.
P. 252. _Burnet._ The King ... suspecting that Lord Cornbury was in the
design, spoke to him as one in a rage that forgot all decency. ... In
the afternoon he heard him with more temper, as he himself told
me.--_Swift._ Who told him?
P. 253. _Burnet,_ speaking of Sheldon's remonstrating with the King
about his mistresses, adds:--From that day forward Sheldon could never
recover the King's confidence.--_Swift._ Sheldon had refused the
sacrament to the King for living in adultery.
Ibid. _Burnet._ Sir Orlando Bridgman ... was a man of great integrity,
and had very serious impressions of religion on his mind. He had been
always on the side of the Church.--_Swift._ What side should he be of?
P. 256. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Earl of Clarendon's banishment:--It
seemed against the common course of justice, to make all
corresponding with him treason, when he himself was not attainted of
treason.--_Swift._ Bishop of Rochester's case.
P. 257. _Burnet._ Thus the Lord Clarendon fell under the common fate of
great ministers, whose employment exposes them to envy, and draws upon
them the indignation of all who are disappointed in their pretensions.
Their friends turning as violently against them, as they formerly fawned
abjectly upon them.--_Swift._ Stupid moralist.
Ibid. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Earl of Clarendon's eldest son, who
afterwards succeeded him, says:--His judgement was not to be _much_
depended on, for he was _much_ carried by vulgar prejudices, and false
notions. He was _much_ in the Queen's favour. _Swift._ Much, much, much.
P. 258. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Earl of Rochester, second son of Lord
Clarendon:--[He] is a man of far greater parts [than his brother]. He
has a _very good pen_, but speaks not gracefully.--_Swift._ I suppose it
was of gold or silver.
Ibid. _Burnet._ [The King] told me, he had a chaplain, that was a very
honest man, but a very great blockhead, to whom he had given a living in
Suffolk, that was full of that sort of people [Nonconformists]. He had
gone about among them from house to house, though he could not imagine
what he could say to them, for he said he was a very silly fellow. But
that, he believed, his nonsense suited their nonsense, for he had
brought them all to church. And, in reward of his diligence, he had
given him a bishopric in Ireland.--_Swift._ Bishop Wolley, of Clonfert.
P. 259. _Burnet._ If the sectaries were humble and modest, and would
tell what would satisfy them, there might be some colour for granting
some concessions.--_Swift._ I think so too.
P. 260. _Burnet._ The three volumes of the "Friendly Debate," though
writ by a very good man.--_Swift._ Writ by Bishop Patrick.
Ibid. _Burnet._ After he [Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford]
had for some years entertained the nation with several virulent books,
writ with much life, he was attacked by the liveliest droll of the age,
etc.--_Swift._ What is a droll? _Burnet._ That not only humbled Parker,
but the whole party. For the author of "The Rehearsal Transposed,"
etc.--_Swift._ Andrew Marvel.
P. 263. _Burnet,_ speaking of the King's attachment to Nell Gwyn,
says:--But after all he never treated her with the _decencies_ of a
mistress.--_Swift._ Pray what _decencies_ are those?
Ibid. _Burnet._ The King had another mistress, that was managed by Lord
Shaftesbury, who was the daughter of a clergyman, Roberts, in whom her
first education had so deep a root, that, though she fell into many
scandalous disorders, with very dismal adventures in them all, yet a
principle of religion was so deep laid in her, that, though it did not
restrain her, yet it kept alive in her such a constant horror at sin,
that she was never easy in an ill course, and died with a great sense of
her former ill life. I was _often with her_ the last three months of her
life.--_Swift_. Was she handsome then?
P. 264. _Burnet_. The King loved his [the Earl of Rochester's] company
for the diversion it afforded, better than his person: And there was no
love lost between them.--_Swift_. A noble phrase.
P. 265. _Burnet_. Sedley had a more sudden and copious wit, which
furnished a perpetual run of discourse: But he was not so correct as
Lord Dorset, nor so sparkling as Lord Rochester.--_Swift_. No better a
critic in wit than style.
P. 266. _Burnet_. Lord Roberts, afterwards made Earl of Radnor, [who
succeeded the Duke of Ormonde in his government of Ireland,] was a
morose man, believed to be severely just, and as wise as a _cynical_
humour could allow him to be.--_Swift_. How does that hinder wisdom?
P. 273. _Burnet_. Charles II. confessed himself a Papist to the Prince
of Orange:--The Prince told me, that he never spoke of this to any other
person, till _after his death_.--_Swift_. That is, _his own death_.
P. 277. _Burnet_ quotes an exclamation of Archbishop Sharp's, after an
attempt to assassinate him, and adds:--This was the single expression
savouring of piety, that ever fell from him in all the conversation that
passed between him and me.--_Swift._ Rank malice.
P. 285. _Burnet_. No body could ever tell me how the word
"Ecclesiastical matters" was put in the Act. Leightoun thought, he was
sure it was put in after the draught and form of the Act was agreed
on.--_Swift_. Nonsense.
P. 287. _Burnet_, speaking of Archbishop Burnet, says:--He was not cut
out for a court, or for the ministry.--_Swift_. A phrase of dignity.
_Ibid. Burne_, mentioning his own appointment as Professor of Divinity
at Glasgow University, says:--There was no sort of artifice or
management to bring this about: It came of themselves: And they did it
without any recommendation of any person whatsoever.--_Swift_. Modest.
P. 288. _Burnet_. The Episcopal party thought I intended to make myself
popular at their cost: So they began that strain of fury and calumny
that has pursued me ever since from _that sort of people_.--_Swift_. A
civil term for all who are Episcopal.
P. 298. _Burnet_. [In compiling the Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton,] I
found there materials for a very large history. I writ it with great
sincerity; and concealed none of their errors. I did indeed conceal
several things that related to the King: I left out some passages that
were in his letters; in some of which was too much weakness.--_Swift._
The letters, if they had been published, could not have given a worse
character.
P. 300. _Burnet,_ speaking of the Scotch clergy refusing to be made
bishops, says:--They had an ill opinion of the court, and could not be
brought to leave their retirement.--_Swift._ For that very reason they
should have accepted bishoprics.
P. 301. _Burnet,_ after mentioning the murder of the Duchess of Orleans,
says:--I will set down one story of her, that was told me by a person of
distinction, who had it from some who were well informed of the
matter.--_Swift._ Poor authority.
P. 303. _Burnet._ Madame [the Duchess of Orleans] had an intrigue with
another person, whom I knew well, the Count of Tréville. When she was in
her agony, she said, "Adieu, Tréville." He was so struck with this
accident, that it had a good effect on him; for he went and lived many
years among the Fathers of the Oratory, and became both a very learned,
and devout man. He came afterwards out into the world. I saw him often.
He was a man of a very sweet temper, only a little too formal for a
Frenchman. But he was very sincere. He was a Jansenist. He hated the
Jesuits.--_Swift._ Pretty jumping periods.
P. 304. _Burnet._ Lord Shaftesbury laid the blame of this chiefly on the
Duke of Buckingham: For he told me, ... And therefore he blamed
him.--_Swift._ Who blamed whom.
Ibid. _Burnet._ The Duke of Savoy was encouraged to make a conquest of
Genoa.--_Swift._ Geneva.
Ibid. _Burnet._ When a foreign minister asked the King's leave to treat
with him [Lockhart] in his master's name, the King consented; but with
this severe reflection, That he believed he would be true to anybody but
himself.--_Swift._ Does he mean, Lockhart would not be true to Lockhart?
P. 305. _Burnet._ They [the French] so possessed De Groot, then the
Dutch ambassador at Paris, or they corrupted him into a belief that they
had no design on them, etc.--_Swift._ Who on whom?
P. 306. _Burnet._ The Earl of Shaftesbury was the chief man in this
advice [recommending the King to shut up the exchequer].--_Swift._
Clifford had the merit of this.
P. 318. _Burnet,_ after mentioning the death of William II., Prince of
Orange, says of the Princess:--As she bore her son a week after his
death, in the eighth month of her time, so he came into the world under
great disadvantages.--_Swift._ A pretty contrast.
Ibid. _Burnet_ mentions an astrological prediction of the Prince's fate,
and adds:--But that which _was_ most particular _was_, that he _was_ to
have a son by a widow, and _was_ to die of the small-pox in the
twenty-fifth year of his age.--_Swift_. Was, was, was, was.
P. 320. _Burnet_. They set it also up for a maxim.--_Swift_. He can vary
a phrase; set up for a maxim, and lay down for a maxim.
P. 321. _Burnet_. His oath was made to them, and by consequence it was
in their power to release the obligation that did arise from it to
themselves.--_Swift_. Bad casuist.
_Ibid. Burnet_. As soon as he [the Prince of Orange] was brought into
the command of the armies, he told me, he spoke to De Witt, and desired
to live in an entire confidence with him. His answer was cold: So he saw
that he could not depend upon him. When he told me this, he added, that
he was certainly one of the greatest men of the age, and he believed he
served his country faithfully--_Swift_. Yet the Prince contrived that he
should be murdered.
_Ibid. Burnet_. Now I come to give an account of the fifth crisis
brought on the whole reformation, which has been of the longest
continuance, since we are yet in the agitations of it.--_Swift_. Under
the Queen and Lord Oxford's ministry.
P. 322. _Burnet_. [In this famous campaign of Louis XIV. against the
Dutch, (1672,)] there was so little heart or judgement shewn in the
management of that run of success, etc.--_Swift_. A metaphor, but from
gamesters.
P. 326. _Burnet_, referring to the action of the rabble when Cornelius
de Witt was banished, says of the Prince of Orange:--His enemies have
taken advantages from thence to cast the infamy of this on him, and on
his party, to make them all odious; though the Prince spoke of it always
to me with the greatest horror possible.--_Swift_. Yet he was guilty
enough.
P. 328. _Burnet_. Prince Waldeck was their chief general: A man of a
great compass.--_Swift, i.e._ very fat.
P. 330. _Burnet_. He broke twice with the Prince, after he came into a
confidence with him. He employed me to reconcile him to him for the
third time--_Swift_. Perspicuity.
_Ibid. Burnet._ The actions sinking on the sudden on the breaking out of
a new war, that sunk him into a melancholy, which quite distracted
him.--_Swift_. Eloquent.
P. 335. _Burnet_. I will complete the transactions of this memorable
year:--P. 337. Thus I have gone far into the state of affairs of Holland
in this memorable year.--_Swift_. Why, you called it so but just now
before.
P. 337. _Burnet_. It seems, the French made no great account of their
prisoners, for they released 25,000 Dutch for 50,000 crowns--_Swift_.
What! ten shillings a piece! By much too dear for a Dutchman.
_Ibid. Burnet_. This year [1672] the King declared a new mistress, and
made her Duchess of Portsmouth. She had been maid of honour to Madame,
the King's sister, and had come over with her to Dover; where the King
had expressed such a regard to her, that the Duke of Buckingham, who
hated the Duchess of Cleveland, intended to _put her on the
King_.--_Swift._ Surely he means the contrary.
P. 341. _Burnet_. [The Duke of Lauderdale] called for me all on the
sudden, and put me in mind of the project I had laid before him, of
putting all the outed ministers by _couples_ into parishes: So that
instead of wandering about the country to hold conventicles in all
places, they might be fixed to a certain abode, and every one might have
the half of a benefice.--_Swift._ A sottish project; instead of feeding
_fifty_, you starve a _hundred_.
BOOK III.
P. 346. _Burnet_. It was believed, if the design had succeeded, he [Lord
Clifford] had agreed with his wife to take orders, and to aspire to a
cardinal's hat.--_Swift_. Was he or she to take orders?
P. 362. _Burnet_. I told him, what afterwards happened, that most of
these would make their own terms, and leave him in the lurch.--_Swift_.
True sublime.
P. 370. _Burnet_. I was ever of Nazianzen's opinion, who never wished to
see any more synods of the clergy.--_Swift_. Dog!
P. 372. _Burnet_, when he was struck out of the list of chaplains,
says:--The King said, he was afraid I had been too busy; and wished me
to go home to Scotland, and be more quiet.--_Swift_. The King knew him
right.
_Ibid. Burnet_. I preached in many of the churches of London; and was so
well received, that it was probable I might be accepted of in any that
was to be disposed of by _a popular election._--_Swift_. Much to his
honour.
P. 373. _Burnet_. This violent and groundless prosecution lasted some
months. And during that time I said to some, that Duke Lauderdale had
gone so far in opening some wicked designs to me, that I perceived he
could not be satisfied, unless I was undone. So I told what was
mentioned before of the discourses that passed between him and
me.--_Swift_. Scotch dog!
P. 374. _Burnet_. He [Lord Howard] went over in the beginning of the
war, and offered to serve De Witt. But he told me, he found him a dry
man.--_Swift_. Who told who? I guess Howard told Burnet.
P. 378. _Burnet_. At least he [Sir William Temple] thought religion was
fit only for the mob.--_Swift_. A word of dignity for an historian.
_Burnet._ He was a corrupter of all that came near him. And he delivered
himself up wholly to study, ease, and pleasure.--_Swift_. Sir William
Temple was a man of virtue, to which Burnet was a stranger.
P. 380. _Burnet_, speaking of his being pressed, before Parliament, to
reveal what passed between him and the Duke of Lauderdale _in private_;
and the Parliament, in case of refusal, threatening him, says:--Upon
this I yielded, and gave an account of the discourse formerly
mentioned.--_Swift_. Treacherous villain.
_Ibid. Burnet_. My love to my country, and my private friendships
carried me perhaps too far.--_Swift_. Right.
P. 382. _Burnet_. [Sir Harbottle Grimstone] had always _a tenderness to
the Dissenters_.--_Swift_. Burnet's test of all virtues.
_Ibid. Burnet_. [Lady Grimstone] was the humblest, the devoutest, and
best tempered person I ever _knew of that sort_ [having high notions for
Church and Crown].--_Swift_. Rogue.
P. 384. _Burnet_, the country party maintained that:--if a Parliament
thought any law inconvenient for the good of the whole, they must be
supposed still free to alter it: And no previous limitation could bind
up their legislature.--_Swift._ Wrong arguing.
P. 387. _Burnet_. It was said, a standing Parliament changed the
constitution of England.--_Swift_. The present case under King George.
_Ibid. Burnet_. It was moved, that an address should be made to the King
for dissolving the Parliament.--_Swift. Tempora mutantur_; for nothing
now will do but septennial Parliaments.
P. 388 _Burnet_. He [Lord Russell] had from his first education an
inclination to favour the Non-conformists.--_Swift_. So have all the
author's favourites.
P. 392. _Burnet_. But with these good qualities Compton was a weak man,
wilful, and strangely wedded to a party.--_Swift._ He means, to the
Church.
_Ibid. Burnet_. Bancroft, Dean of St. Paul's, was raised to [the see of
Canterbury]. ... He was a man of solemn deportment, had a sullen gravity
in his looks, and was considerably learned. He had put on a monastic
strictness, and lived abstracted from company. ... He was a dry, cold
man, reserved, and peevish; so that none loved him, and few esteemed
him.--_Swift_. False and detracting.
P. 396. _Burnet_. My way of writing history pleased him [Sir William
Jones].--_Swift_. Very modest.
P. 399. _Burnet_. Men were now though silent, not quiet.--_Swift_.
Nonsense, or printer's mistake. It should be, "Silent, though not
quiet."
_Ibid, Burnet_. One Carstairs, a loose and vicious gentleman.--_Swift_.
Epithets well placed.
P. 404. _Burnet_. It was an extraordinary thing that a random cannon
shot should have killed him [Turenne].--_Swift_. How extraordinary?
Might it not kill him as well as another man?
P. 406. _Burnet_, in the battle at St. Omer between the Prince of Orange
(afterwards King William) and the Duke of Orleans:--some regiments of
marines, on whom the Prince depended much, did basely run away. Yet the
other bodies fought so well, that he lost not much, besides the _honour
of the day_.--_Swift_. He was used to that.
P. 407. _Burnet_. These leading men did so entangle the debates, and
over-reached those on whom he had practised, that they, working on the
aversion that the English nation naturally has to a French interest,
spoiled the hopefullest session the court had had of a great while,
before the court was well aware of it.--_Swift_. Rare style!
P. 409. _Burnet_, Lord Danby, speaking to King Charles II., said:--If
they saw his [the Duke of York's] daughter given to one that was at the
head of the Protestant interest, it would very much soften those
apprehensions, when it did appear that his religion was only a personal
thing, not to be derived to his children after him. With all this the
King was convinced.--_Swift_. Then how was the King for bringing in
Popery?
P. 413. _Burnet_. His friend answered, He hoped he did not intend to
make use of him to trepan a man to his ruin. Upon that, with lifted up
hands, Sharp promised by the living God, that no hurt should come to
him, if he made a full discovery.--_Swift_. Malice.
Ibid. _Burnet_, upon the examination of Mitchell before the
privy-council for the intended assassination of Archbishop Sharp, it
being first proposed to cut off the prisoner's right hand, and then his
left:--Lord Rothes, who was a pleasant man, said, "How shall he wipe his
breech then?" This is not very _decent_ to be mentioned in such a work,
if it were not necessary.--_Swift_. As decent as a thousand other
passages; so he might have spared his apology.
P. 414. _Burnet_, in the last article of the above trial, observes:--
But the judge, who hated Sharp, as he went up to the bench, passing by
the prisoner said to him, "Confess nothing, unless you are sure of your
limbs as well as of your life."--_Swift_. A rare judge.
Ibid. _Burnet_, mentioning Mackenzie's appointment as king's advocate,
says of him:--He has published many books, some of law, but all full of
faults; for he was a slight and superficial man.--_Swift_. Envious and
base.
P. 416. _Burnet_, speaking of the execution of the above Mitchell for
the attempt against Sharp, says:--Yet Duke Lauderdale had a chaplain,
Hickes, afterwards Dean of Worcester, who published a false and partial
relation of this matter, in order to the justifying of it--_Swift_. A
learned, pious man.[4]
[Footnote 4: The "Ravillac [_sic_] Redivivus" of Hickes, is,
notwithstanding his learning and piety, in every respect deserving of
the censures passed upon it by Burnet. [S.]]
P. 425. _Burnet_. [Titus Oates] got to be a chaplain in one of the
king's ships, from which he was dismissed upon complaint of some
unnatural practices, not to be named.--_Swift_. Only sodomy.
P. 434. _Burnet_. He [Staley] was cast.--_Swift. Anglicê_, found guilty.
P. 441. _Burnet_, on the impeachment of Lord Danby:--Maynard, an ancient
and eminent lawyer, explained the words of the statute of 25 Edward III.
that the courts of law could not proceed but upon one of the crimes
there enumerated: But the Parliament had still a power, by the clause in
that Act, to declare what they thought was treason.--_Swift_. Yes, by a
new Act, but not with a retrospect; therefore Maynard was a _knave or a
fool, with all his law_.
P. 442. _Burnet_. This indeed would have justified the King, if it had
been demanded above board.--_Swift_. Style of a gamester.
P. 451. _Burnet_. Yet many thought, that, what doctrines soever men
might by a subtlety of speculation be earned into, the approaches of
death, with the seriousness that appeared in their deportment, must
needs work so much on the probity and candour which seemed footed in
human nature, etc.--_Swift._ Credat Judaeus Apella.
P. 455. _Burnet_, the Bill of Exclusion disinherited:--the next heir,
which certainly the King and Parliament might do, as well as any private
man might disinherit his next heir.--_Swift._ That is not always true.
Yet it was certainly in the power of King and Parliament to exclude the
next heir.
P. 457. _Burnet_. Government was appointed for those that were to be
governed, and not for the sake of governors themselves.--_Swift_. A
true maxim and infallible.
P. 458. _Burnet_. It was a maxim among our lawyers, that even an Act of
Parliament against _Magna Charta_ was null of itself.--_Swift_. A
sottish maxim.
P. 459. _Burnet_. For a great while I thought the accepting the
limitations [proposed in the Exclusion Bill] was the wisest and best
method.--_Swift_. It was the wisest, because it would be less opposed;
and the King would consent to it; otherwise an _exclusion_ would have
done better.
P. 471. _Burnet_. The guards having lost thirty of their number were
forced to run for it.--_Swift_. For what?
P. 475. _Burnet_. Dangerfield, a subtle and dexterous man, who ... was a
false coiner, undertook now to coin a plot for the ends of the
Papists.--_Swift_. Witty.
P. 479. _Burnet_. Godolphin ... had true principles of religion and
virtue, and was free from all vanity, and never heaped up wealth: So
that all things being laid together, he was one of the worthiest and
wisest men that has been employed in our time.--_Swift_. All this very
partial to my knowledge.
P. 483. _Burnet_. I laid open the cruelties of the Church of Rome in
many instances that happened in Queen Mary's reign, which were not then
known: And I _aggravated_, though _very truly_, the danger of falling
under the power of that religion.--_Swift_. A BULL!
_Ibid. Burnet_. Sprat had studied a polite style much: But there was
little strength in it: He had the beginnings of learning laid well in
him: But he has allowed himself in a course of some years in much sloth
and too many liberties.--_Swift_. Very false.
P. 489. _Burnet_. Here was a justice to be done, and a service to truth,
towards the saving a man's life.... He advised with all his friends, and
with my self in particular. The much greater number were of opinion that
he ought to be silent.--_Swift_. Damned advice.
P. 496. _Burnet_. Jones stood upon a point of law, of the
unseparableness of the prerogative from the person of the
King.--_Swift_. A lawyer's way of arguing, very weak.
P. 509. _Burnet_, speaking of the grand juries in the latter end of King
Charles's reign returning _ignoramus_ so frequently on bills of
indictment, states that:--in defence of these _ignoramus juries_ it was
said, that by the express words of their oath they were bound to make
true presentments of what should appear true to them: And therefore, if
they did not believe the evidence, they could not find a bill, though
sworn to. A book was writ to support that, in which both law and reason
were brought to confirm it: It passed as writ by Lord Essex, though I
understood afterwards it was writ by Somers.--_Swift_. Lord Somers.
P. 516. _Burnet_ says, on the imposition of a Test Act:--The bishops
were earnest for this, which they thought would secure them for ever
from a Presbyterian Parliament. It was carried in the vote: And that
made many of the court more zealous than ever for carrying through the
Act.--_Swift_. And it was very reasonable.
P. 519. _Burnet_ mentions that, when the Test Act was passed:--about
eighty of the most learned and pious of their clergy left all rather
than comply with the terms of this law.... About twenty of them came up
to England.--_Swift_. Enough to corrupt England.
P. 523. _Burnet_, describing the death of the Duke of Lauderdale,
says--His heart seemed quite spent: There was not left above the bigness
of a walnut of firm substance: The rest was spongy, liker the lungs than
the heart.--_Swift. Anglicé_, more like.
P. 525. _Burnet_, Home was convicted on the credit of one infamous
evidence:--Applications were made to the Duke [of York] for saving his
life: But he was not born under _a pardoning planet_.--_Swift_. Silly
fop.
P. 526. _Burnet_ All the Presbyterian party saw they were now
disinherited of a main part of their birth-right.--_Swift_. As much of
Papists as of Presbyterians.
P. 527. _Burnet_, speaking of the surrender of the charters in 1682:--It
was said, that those who were in the government in corporations, and had
their charters and seals trusted to their keeping, were not the
proprietors nor masters of those rights. They could not extinguish those
corporations, nor part with any of their privileges. Others said, that
whatever might be objected to the reason and equity of the thing, yet,
when the seal of a corporation was put to any deed, such a deed was good
in law. The matter goes beyond my skill in law to determine
it.--_Swift_. What does he think of the surrenders of the charters of
abbeys?
P. 528. _Burnet_ The Non-conformists were now persecuted with much
eagerness. This was visibly set on by the Papists: And it was wisely
done of them, for they knew how much the _Non-conformists were set
against them_.--_Swift_. Not so much as they are against the Church.
P. 531. _Burnet_ Lord Hyde was the person that disposed the Duke to it:
Upon that Lord Halifax and he fell to be in ill terms; for he hated Lord
Sunderland beyond expression, though he had married his
sister.--_Swift_. Who married whose sister?
P. 536. _Burnet_ The truth is, juries became at that time the shame of
the nation, as well as a reproach to religion: For they were packed, and
prepared to bring in verdicts as they were directed and not as matters
appeared on the evidence.--_Swift_. So they are now.
P. 538. _Burnet_ He [Algernon Sidney] was ambassador in Denmark at the
time of the Restoration.--_Swift_. For Cromwell.
P. 543. _Burnet_, on Rumbold's proposal to shoot the King at Hodsdon, in
his way to Newmarket, adds:--They [the conspirators] ran into much
_wicked talk_ about the way of executing that. But nothing was ever
fixed on: All was _but talk_.--_Swift_. All plots begin with talk.
P. 548. _Burnet_. At the time of Lord Russell's plot, Baillie being
asked by the King whether they had any design against his person? he
frankly said not; but being asked:--if they had been in any
consultations with lords or others in England, in order to an
insurrection in Scotland? Baillie faltered at this. For his _conscience_
restrained him from _lying_;--_Swift._ The author and his _cousins_
could _not tell lies_, but they _could plot_.
P. 549. _Burnet._ Next morning he went with him to the Tower gate, the
messenger being again fast asleep.--_Swift._ Is this a blunder?
P. 553. _Burnet,_ speaking of Lord Essex's suicide (1683)--His man,
thinking he stayed longer than ordinary in his _closet_, looked through
the key hole, and there saw him lying dead.--_Swift._ He was on the
close stool.
P. 555. _Burnet,_ on Lord Russell's trial--Finch summed up the evidence
against him. But ... shewed more of a vicious eloquence, in turning
matters with some subtlety against the prisoners, than of solid or
sincere reasoning.--_Swift._ Afterwards Earl of Aylesford, an arrant
rascal.
P. 562. _Burnet._ I offered to take my oath, that the speech [of Lord
Russell] was penned by himself, and not by me.--_Swift._ Jesuitical.
P. 567. _Burnet._ I knew Spanheim particularly, _who was_ envoy from the
Elector of Brandenburg, _who is_ the greatest critic of the age in all
ancient learning.--_Swift. Who was--who is_, pure nonsense.
P. 568. _Burnet._ All people were apprehensive of very black designs,
when they saw Jeffreys made Lord Chief Justice, who ... run out upon all
occasions into declamations, that did not become the bar, much less the
bench. He was not learned in his profession: And his eloquence, though
viciously copious, yet was neither correct nor agreeable.--_Swift._ Like
Burnet's eloquence.
P. 572. _Burnet,_ on Algernon Sidney's trial, observes, that:--Finch
aggravated the matter of the book, as a proof of his intentions,
pretending it was an overt act, for he said, _Scribere est
agere_.--_Swift._ Yet this Finch was made Earl of Aylesford by King
George.
Ibid. _Burnet,_ when Sidney charged the sheriffs who brought him the
execution-warrant with having packed the jury--one of the sheriffs ...
wept. He told it to a person, from whom Tillotson had it, who told it
me.--_Swift._ Admirable authority.
P. 577. _Burnet._ So that it was plain, that after all the story they
had made of the [Rye-house] Plot, it had gone no further, than that a
company of seditious and inconsiderable persons were framing among
themselves some treasonable schemes, that were never likely to come to
anything.--_Swift._ Cursed partiality.
P. 579. _Burnet_. The King [Charles II.] had published a story all about
the court, ... as the reason of this extreme severity against Armstrong:
He said, that he was sent over by Cromwell to murder him beyond sea; ...
and that upon his confessing it he had promised him never to speak of it
any more as long as he lived. So the King, counting him now dead in law,
thought he was free from that promise.--_Swift_. If the King had a mind
to lie, he would have stayed till Armstrong was hanged.
P. 583. _Burnet_. It ended in dismissing Lord Aberdeen, and making Lord
Perth chancellor, to which he had been long aspiring in a most indecent
manner.--_Swift. Decent_ and _indecent_, very useful words to this
author.
P. 585. _Burnet_. I saved myself out of those difficulties by saying to
all my friends, that I would not be involved in any such confidence; for
as long as I thought our circumstances were such that resistance was not
lawful, I thought the concealing any design in order to it was likewise
unlawful.--_Swift._ Jesuitical.
_Ibid. Burnet_ says, after relating how the thumb-screws were applied to
Spence and Carstairs:--Upon what was thus screwed out of these two
persons, etc.--_Swift_. Witty the second time.
P. 586. _Burnet_, Baillie suffered several hardships and fines for being
supposed to be in the Rye-house Plot; yet:--seemed all the while so
composed, and even so cheerful, that his behaviour looked like the
reviving of the spirit of the noblest of the old Greeks or
Romans.--_Swift_. For he was our _cousin_.
P. 587. _Burnet_, speaking of Baillie's execution, says:--The only
excuse that was ever pretended for this infamous prosecution was, that
they were sure he was guilty.--_Swift_. Bishop of Rochester.
P. 588. _Burnet_, Lord Perth wanting to see Leightoun, I writ so
earnestly to him, that he came to London; and, on--his coming to me, I
was amazed to see him at above seventy look so fresh and well.... [Two
days afterwards] Leightoun sunk so, that both speech and sense went away
of a sudden: And he continued panting about twelve hours; and then died
without pangs or convulsions.--_Swift_. Burnet killed him by bringing
him to London.
_Ibid. Burnet_ Leightoun ... retained still a peculiar inclination to
Scotland.--_Swift_. Yet he chose to live in England.
P. 589. _Burnet_, speaking of Leightoun's views of the Church of
England, says:--As to the administration, both with relation to the
ecclesiastical courts, and the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of
the most corrupt he had ever seen.--_Swift_. Very civil.
_Ibid. Burnet_. There were two remarkable circumstances in his
[Leightoun's] death. He used often to say, that if he were to choose a
place to die in, it should be an inn; it looking like a pilgrim's going
home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the
noise and confusion in it.--_Swift._ Canting puppy.
P. 590. _Burnet_. Sterne, Archbishop of York, died in the 86th year of
his age: He was a sour ill-tempered man, and minded chiefly the
enriching his family.--_Swift_. Yet thought author of "The Whole Duty of
Man."
P. 591. _Burnet_ says of Bishop Mew:--Though he knew very little of
divinity, or of any other learning, and was weak to a childish degree,
yet obsequiousness and zeal raised him through several steps to this
great see [Bath and Wells].--_Swift_. This character is true.
P. 595. _Burnet_. And now the tables were turned--_Swift._ Style of a
gamester.
P. 596. _Burnet_, being appointed to preach the sermon on the Gunpowder
Plot, (1684,) at the Rolls Chapel:--I chose for my text these words:
"Save me from the lion's mouth, thou hast heard me from the horns of the
unicorns." I made no reflection in my thoughts on the lion and unicorn,
as being the two supporters of the King's scutcheon.--_Swift_. I doubt
that.
P. 600. _Burnet_ relates a story of a quarrel between three gentlemen,
one of whom was killed. He says that one of the others:--was prevailed
on to confess the indictment, and to let sentence pass on him for
murder; a pardon being promised him if he should do so. [After this he
had to pay £16,000 for his pardon.]--_Swift_. The story is wrong told.
P. 604. _Burnet_ mentions a scheme to raise dissensions between Charles
II. and the Duke of York, and adds:--Mr. May of the privy purse told me,
that he was told there was a design to break out, with which he himself
would be well pleased.--_Swift_. The bishop told me this with many more
particulars.
P. 609. _Burnet_, speaking of the suspicion of Charles II. being
poisoned, says that:--Lower and Needham, two famous physicians, ...
[noticed some] blue spots on the outside of the stomach. Needham called
twice to have it opened: but the surgeons seemed not to hear him. And
when he moved it the second time, he, as he told me, heard Lower say to
one that stood next him, "Needham will undo us, calling thus to have the
stomach opened, for he may see they will not do it." ... Le Fevre, a
French physician, told me, he saw a blackness in the shoulder; Upon
which he made an incision, and saw it was all mortified. Short, another
physician, who was a Papist, but after a form of his own, did very much
suspect foul dealing.--_Swift_. One physician told me this from Short
himself.
P. 611. _Burnet_, describing the behaviour of Charles II. when in hiding
after the battle of Worcester, says:--Under all the apprehensions he had
then upon him, he shewed a temper so careless, and so much turned to
levity, that he was then diverting himself with little household sports,
in as unconcerned a manner, as if he had made no loss, and had been in
no danger at all.--_Swift._ This might admit a more favourable turn.
P. 613. _Burnet,_ in his character of Charles II., says:--His person and
temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the character that
we have given us of Tiberius so much, that it were easy to draw the
parallel between them. Tiberius's banishment, and his coming afterwards
to reign, makes the comparison in that respect come pretty near. His
hating of business, and his love of pleasures, his raising of
favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling them down, and
hating them excessively; his art of covering deep designs, particularly
of revenge, with an appearance of softness, brings them so near a
likeness, that I did not wonder much to observe the resemblance of their
face and person.--_Swift._ Malicious, and in many circumstances false.
P. 615. _Burnet_ concludes his character of Charles II. with these
words:--How ungrateful soever this labour has proved to my self, and how
unacceptable soever it may be to some, who are either obliged to
remember him gratefully, or by the engagement of parties and interests
are under other biasses, yet I have gone through all that I knew
relating to his life and reign with that regard to truth, and what I
think may be instructive to mankind, which became an impartial writer of
history, and one who believes, that he must give an account to God of
what he writes, as well as of what he says and does.--_Swift._ He was
certainly a very bad prince, but not to the degree described in this
character, which is poorly drawn, and mingled with malice very unworthy
an historian, and the style abominable, as in the whole history, and the
observations trite and vulgar.
BOOK IV.
P. 623. _Burnet._ Because Chudleigh the envoy there had openly broken
with the Prince [of Orange], (for he not only waited no more on him, but
acted openly against him; and once in the Vorhaut had affronted him,
while he was driving the Princess upon the snow in a _trainau_,
according to the German manner, and pretending they were masked, and
that he did not know them, had ordered his coachman to keep his way, as
they were coming towards the place where he drove;) the King recalled
him.--_Swift._ A pretty parenthesis.
P. 626. _Burnet._ This gave all thinking men a melancholy prospect.
England now seemed lost, unless some happy accident should save it. All
people saw the way for packing a Parliament now laid open.--_Swift._
Just our case at the Queen's death.
P. 638. _Burnet_ says that Musgrave and others pretended:--when money
was asked for just and necessary ends, to be frugal patriots, and to be
careful managers of the public treasure.--_Swift._ A party remark,
P. 651. _Burnet._ Goodenough, who had been under-sheriff of London when
Cornish was sheriff, offered to swear against Cornish; and also said,
that Rumsey had not discovered all he knew. So Rumsey to save himself
joined with Goodenough, to swear Cornish guilty of that for which the
Lord Russell had suffered. And this was driven on so fast, that Cornish
was seized on, tried, and executed within the week.--_Swift._ Goodenough
went to Ireland, practised law, and died there.
Ibid. _Burnet._ It gave a general horror to the body of the nation: And
it let all people see, what might be expected from a reign that seemed
to delight in blood.--_Swift._ The same here since the Queen's death.
P. 654. _Burnet._ The Archbishop of Armagh[5] [1685,] had continued Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, and was in all points so compliant to the court,
that even his religion came to be suspected on that account.--_Swift._
False.
[Footnote 5: Michael Boyle, who, when Archbishop of Dublin, was made
chancellor soon after the Restoration (1665), and continued in that
office to January, 1686, during which time he was raised to the
Archbishopric of Armagh.--SEWARD.]
Ibid _Burnet,_ and yet this archbishop:--was not thought thorough-paced.
So Sir Charles Porter, who was a zealous promoter of everything that the
King proposed, and was a man of ready wit, and being poor was thought a
person fit to be made a tool of, was declared Lord Chancellor of
Ireland.--_Swift._ False and scandalous.
P. 669. _Burnet._ Solicitor-general Finch ... was presently after turned
out. And Powis succeeded him, who was a compliant young aspiring lawyer,
though in himself he was no ill natured man.--_Swift._ Sir Thomas Powis,
a good dull lawyer.
P. 670. _Burnet,_ speaking of the power claimed for the King to dispense
with the sacramental test, says:--It was an overturning the whole
government, ... to say that laws, ... where one of the penalties was an
incapacity, which by a maxim of law cannot be taken away even by a
pardon, should at the pleasure of the prince be dispensed with: A fine
was also set by the Act on offenders, but not given to the King, but to
the informer, which thereby became his. So that the King could no more
pardon that, than he could discharge the debts of the subjects, and take
away property.--_Swift._ Wrong reasoning.
P. 672. _Burnet._ Intimations were everywhere given, that the King would
not have them [Dissenters], or their meetings, to be disturbed. Some of
them began to grow insolent upon this shew of favour.--_Swift._ The
whole body of them grew insolent, and complying to the King.
P. 675. _Burnet._ Sancroft lay silent at Lambeth. He seemed zealous
against Popery in private discourse: But he was of such a timorous
temper, and _so set on the enriching his nephew,_ that he shewed no sort
of courage.--_Swift._ False as hell.
P. 681. _Burnet,_ referring to the revived national zeal against Popery,
says:--The Episcopal clergy were in many places so sunk into sloth and
ignorance, that they were not capable of conducting this zeal: ... But
the Presbyterians, though they were now freed from the great severities
they had long smarted under, yet expressed on all occasions their
unconquerable aversion to Popery.--_Swift._ Partial dog!
P. 682. _Burnet._ He made the Earl of Tyrconnell Lord
Lieutenant.--_Swift._ Lord deputy.
P. 688. _Burnet._ Nor were the clergy more diligent in their labours
among their people, in which respect it must be confessed that the
English clergy are the most remiss of any.--_Swift._ Civil that.
P. 690. _Burnet,_ speaking of King William's character, says:--he had no
vice, but of one sort, in which he was very _cautious_ and
_secret_.--_Swift._ It was of two sorts--_male_ and _female_--in the
_former_ he was neither cautious nor secret.
P. 691. _Burnet,_ in a conversation with the Prince of Orange at The
Hague, (1686):--When he found I was in my opinion for toleration, he
said, that was all he would ever desire to bring us to, for quieting our
contentions at home.--_Swift._ It seems the Prince even then thought of
being King.
P. 692. _Burnet,_ the advice I gave the Princess of Orange, when she
should be Queen of England, was, to:--endeavour effectually to get it
[the real authority] to be legally vested in him [the Prince] during
life: This would lay the greatest obligation on him possible, and lay
the foundation of a perfect union between them, which had been of late a
little embroiled.--_Swift._ By Mrs. Villiers, now Lady Orkney; but he
proved a _d----d husband for all that._[6]
[Footnote 6: Lady Orkney was a favourite of Swift, as appears from
several passages in the Journal. [S.]]
P. 693. _Burnet,_ having told the Princess of Orange that her succession
to the throne would not make her husband king, and given her the advice
just quoted, says:--she in a very frank manner told him, that she did
not know that the laws of England were so contrary to the laws of God,
as I had informed her: she did not think that the husband was ever to be
obedient to the wife.--_Swift._ Foolish.
P. 693. _Burnet._ [Penn, the Quaker,] was a talking vain man, who had
been long in the King's favour, he being the vice-admiral's son. ... He
had a tedious luscious way, that was not apt to overcome a man's reason,
though it might tire his patience.--_Swift._ He spoke very agreeably,
and with much spirit.
P. 695. _Burnet._ Cartwright was promoted to Chester. He was a man of
good capacity, and had made some progress in learning. He was ambitious
and servile, cruel and boisterous: And, by the great liberties he
allowed himself, he fell under much scandal of the _worst
sort_.--_Swift._ Only sodomy.
P. 696. _Burnet._ [Cartwright] was looked on as a man that would more
effectually advance the design of Popery, than if he should turn over to
it. And indeed, bad as he was, he never made that step, even in the most
desperate state of his affairs.--_Swift._ He went to Ireland with King
James, and there died neglected and poor.
P. 697. _Burnet._ In all nations the privileges of colleges and
universities are esteemed such sacred things, that few will venture to
dispute these, much less to disturb them.--_Swift._ Yet in King George's
reign, Oxford was bridled and insulted with troops, for no manner of
cause but their steadiness to the Church.
P. 699. _Burnet._ It was much observed, that this university [Oxford],
that had asserted the King's prerogative in the highest strains of the
most abject flattery possible, etc.--_Swift._ And their virtue and
steadiness ought equally to be observed.
P. 701. _Burnet,_ speaking of King James's proceedings against the
universities, and that several of the clergy wrote over to the Prince of
Orange to engage in their quarrel, adds:--When that was communicated to
me, I was still of opinion, that, though this was indeed an act of
despotical and arbitrary power, yet I did not think it struck at the
whole: So that it was not in my opinion a lawful case of
resistance.--_Swift._ He was a better _Tory_ than I, if he spoke as he
thought.
Ibid. _Burnet._ The main difference between these [the Presbyterians and
the Independents] was, that the Presbyterians seemed reconcilable to the
Church; _for they loved Episcopal ordination and a liturgy._--_Swift._ A
damnable lie.
P. 702. _Burnet._ [Both Presbyterians and Independents] were enemies to
this high prerogative, that the King was assuming, and were very averse
to Popery.--_Swift._ Style.
Ibid. _Burnet._ So the more considerable among them [the Dissenters]
resolved not to stand at too great a distance from the court, nor
provoke the King so far, as to give him cause to think they were
irreconcilable to him, lest they should provoke him to make up matters
on any terms with the Church party.--_Swift._ They all complied most
shamefully and publicly, as is well known.
P. 703. _Burnet._ The King's choice of Palmer, Earl of Castlemain, was
liable to great exception.--_Swift._ Duchess of Cleveland's husband.
P. 705. _Burnet._ Since what an ambassador says is understood as said by
the prince whose character he bears, this gave the States a right to
make use of all advantages that might offer themselves.--_Swift._
Sophistry.
P. 710. _Burnet._ The restless spirit of some of that religion [Popery],
and of their clergy in particular, shewed they could not be at quiet
till they were masters.--_Swift._ All sects are of that spirit.