Not without heartfelt emotion do I write this name, never to be
mentioned by an American without a sentiment of gratitude and love.
Such goodness and ability, dedicated so firmly to our cause, make
Shipley conspicuous among his contemporaries. In beauty of character
and in prophetic spirit he resembles Berkeley. And yet biographical
dictionaries make little mention of him, and in our country he is known
chiefly through the friendship of Franklin. He was born about 1714, and
died 9th December, 1788.
His actual preferments in the Church attest a certain success, arrested
at last by his sympathy for us. At an early day John Adams spoke of
him as “the best bishop that adorns the bench.”[417] And we learn from
Wraxall, that it was through the hostility of the King, that, during
the short-lived Coalition Ministry, Fox was prevented from making him
Archbishop of Canterbury.[418] But his public life was better than any
prelacy. It is impossible to read his writings without discovering the
stamp of superiority, where accuracy and clearness go hand in hand with
courage and truth.
The relations of Franklin with the good Bishop are a beautiful episode
in our Revolutionary history. Two men, one English and the other
American, venerable with years, mingled in friendship warm as that
of youth, but steady to the grave, joining identity of sentiment on
important public questions with personal affection. While Franklin
remained in England, as Colonial representative, watching the
currents, he was a frequent guest at the Englishman’s country home;
and there he entered upon his incomparable autobiography, leaving
behind such pleasant memories that afterwards the family never walked
in the garden “without seeing Dr. Franklin’s room and thinking of the
work that was begun in it.”[419] One of the daughters, in a touching
letter to him, then at his own home in Philadelphia, informed him of
her father’s death,[420] and in reply to his “dear young friend,” he
expressed his sense of the loss, “not to his family and friends only,
but to his nation, and to the world,” and then, after mentioning that
he was in his eighty-fourth year and considerably enfeebled, added,
“You will, then, my dear friend, consider this as probably the last
line to be received from me, and as a taking leave.”[421]
* * * * *
This brief story prepares the way for the two productions illustrating
his service to us. The first has the following title: “A Sermon
preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts, at their Anniversary Meeting in the
Parish Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, on Friday, February 19, 1773.” Of
this discourse several editions appeared in London, New York, and
Boston.[422] Lord Chatham, after confessing himself “charmed and
edified” by it, wrote: “This noble discourse speaks the preacher not
only fit to bear rule in the Church, but in the State; indeed, it
does honor to the Right Reverend Bench.”[423] Franklin, coupling it
with another of his productions relating to America, wrote: “Had his
counsels in those pieces been attended to by the Ministers, how much
bloodshed might have been prevented, and how much expense and disgrace
to the nation avoided!”[424]
This discourse was from the text, “Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good-will toward men.”[425] After announcing that “perhaps
the annals of history have never afforded a more grateful spectacle to
a benevolent and philosophic mind than the growth and progress of the
British Colonies in North America,” the preacher becomes prophet, and
here his words are memorable:--
“The Colonies in North America have not only taken root and
acquired strength, but seem hastening with an accelerated
progress to such a powerful state _as may introduce a new and
important change in human affairs_.”[426]
Then picturing the Colonies as receiving “by inheritance all the
improvements and discoveries of their mother country,”--commencing
“their flourishing state at a time when the human understanding has
attained to the free use of its powers, and has learned to act with
vigor and certainty,” and being in such a situation that “they may
avail themselves not only of the experience and industry, but even of
the errors and mistakes of former days,” the prophet proceeds:--
“The vast continent itself, over which they are gradually
spreading, may be considered as a treasure yet untouched of
natural productions _that shall hereafter afford ample matter
for commerce and contemplation_. And if we reflect what a stock
of knowledge may be accumulated by the constant progress of
industry and observation, … _it is difficult even to imagine to
what height of improvement their discoveries may extend_.”[427]
The prophet opens another vista: “And perhaps they may make as
considerable _advances in the arts of civil government_ and the conduct
of life.” Then, exhibiting the excellences of the British Constitution
with its “equal representation,” which he calls “the best discovery of
political wisdom,” and inquiring anxiously if they “must rest here,
as in the utmost effort of human genius,” the preacher becomes again
prophetic:--
“May they not possibly be more successful than their mother
country has been in preserving that reverence and authority
which is due to the laws,--to those who make, and to those
who execute them? May not a method be invented of procuring
some tolerable share of the comforts of life to those inferior
useful ranks of men to whose industry we are indebted for the
whole? _Time and discipline may discover some means to correct
the extreme inequalities of condition between the rich and
the poor, so dangerous to the innocence and the happiness of
both._”[428]
Beautiful words! And in the same spirit the prophet discerns increasing
opportunities of progress:--
“The diversity of new scenes and situations, which so many
growing states must necessarily pass through, _may introduce
changes in the fluctuating opinions and manners of men which
we can form no conception of_. And not only the gracious
disposition of Providence, but the visible preparation of
causes, _seems to indicate strong tendencies towards a general
improvement_.”[429]
To a spirit so elevated the obligations of duty are the same for
nations as for individuals, and he nobly vindicates the duty of the
Christian preacher “to point out the laws of justice and equity
which must ultimately regulate the happiness of states as well as of
individuals,” and which he declares “are no other than those benevolent
Christian morals which it is the province of this Society to teach,
transferred from the duties of private life to the administration of
public affairs.”[430] Then again he declares amazement, in which all
but hardened politicians will unite, at seeing “how slowly in all
countries the principles of natural justice, which are so evidently
necessary in private life, have been admitted into the administration
of public affairs.” And, in the same spirit, he announces:--
“A time, I doubt not, will come, in the progressive improvement
of human affairs, when the checks and restraints we lay on the
industry of our fellow-subjects and the jealousies we conceive
at their prosperity will be considered as the effects of a
mistaken policy, prejudicial to all parties, but chiefly to
ourselves.”[431]
Then, after presenting it as “a noble effort of virtuous ambition … to
make our country great and powerful and rich, not by force or fraud,
but by justice, friendship, and humanity,” this remarkable sermon
concludes with calling attention to “the plain good rules so often
repeated to us in Scripture,” which “lie before the eyes of men like
medicinal herbs in the open field.”[432]
In the course of his remarks, the preacher lets drop words often quoted
since, and doubtless considered much in conversation with Franklin.
After setting forth that the Colonies had “been trusted in a good
measure with the entire management of their affairs,” he proceeds
to say: “And the success they have met with ought to be to us an
ever-memorable proof that _the true art of government consists in not
governing too much_.”[433]
In similar spirit the good Bishop came to the defence of Massachusetts,
in the crisis which followed the nullification of the Tea-Tax,--as
witness an able pamphlet, printed in 1774, entitled “A Speech intended
to have been spoken on the Bill for altering the Charters of the Colony
of Massachusetts Bay.” In this most vigorous production, reported
by Franklin as “a masterpiece of eloquence,”[434] where he pleads
for reconciliation, after announcing that England had drawn from the
Colonies, by commerce, “more clear profit than Spain has drawn from all
its mines,”[435] he says: “Let them continue to enjoy the liberty our
fathers gave them. Gave them, did I say? They are coheirs of liberty
with ourselves; and their portion of the inheritance has been much
better looked after than ours.”[436] Then again: “My Lords, I look upon
North America as the only great nursery of freemen now left upon the
face of the earth.”[437] And yet once more: “But whatever may be our
future fate, the greatest glory that attends this country, a greater
than any other nation ever acquired, is to have formed and nursed up
to such a state of happiness those Colonies whom we are now so eager to
butcher.”[438] Thanks, perpetual thanks, to the good friend who stood
so well by our country in its beginning, and discerned so clearly its
exalted future!