circumstance in his life, which perhaps I should not have mentioned, but thats it gave occasion to the assertion of a right, which, as it had immemorially been observed, he thought it his duty not sto relinquish upon that occasions The fol lowing is his own account of the transe action When I sent a copy of the Address to the Duke sof Portland, Tand desired him to take the King's pleasure, when he would receive it, bhés in a few days returned an answer, that His Mab jesty would receive it not on the throne, but at the levee. As I conceived it did not become me to give upla privilege of the London Clergy, which knew to be founded in antients custom, I desired an interview with the Duke, and, on shewing him the papers in my possession, bsoon convinced him that addresses from the Clergy of London were always received

on

on the throne. He promised to state this the next day to the King, which he did, and His Majesty very graciously then appointed us to be received on the throne as usual?ob Jond the

-It has been already mentioned, that the Bishop filled the situation of Presi dent of the Society ofor enforcing the King's Proclamation against Immorality and Profaneness, and that under his active and discreet direction the licen tiousness of the Metropolis had to a cer tain degree i been checked. It was enot then probable, that when a publication of such an infamous description, and cale culated to produce such infinite mischief as Pain's Age of Reason, made its ap pearance, and was disseminated with ine conceivable industry through every town and village of the kingdom, the Society would suffer it to pass unnoticed. The 19adood book

book indeed, in point of argument and composition, was perfectly contemptible: but, as the Bishop has well observed, "it was addressed to the multitude, and most dexterously brought down to the level of their understandings. It compressed the whole poison of infidelity into the narrow compass of an essence or an extract, and rendered irreligion easy to the meanest capacity." The progress therefore of a work like this was to be checked instantly, and with a high hand, It is true, an antidote, and with all thinking men a most effectual one, had been sent abroad into the world, in the admirable answer of Dr. Watson, the present Bishop of Llandaff, but still it was necessary to inflict some signal punishment on the person, who, in violation of all decency, had dared to be the publisher of The Age of Reason. The man was a bookseller,

bookseller, of the name of Williams; and against him, though unquestionably only an instrument in the hands of more experienced adepts in the school of infidelity, a prosecution was set on foot in the Court of King's Bench. Upon the issue of this trial, the credit and influence of Religion were in a great measure at stake; and it was therefore of the very last importance, that the cause of the Society should be well defended. Accordingly the Bishops of London and Durham had an interview with Mr. Erskine, who at their joint and earnest request, most cheerfully undertook the management of the prosecution; and it is well known how successfully he employed his splendid talents in the execution of that office. "His speech," says the Bishop, was a noble

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specimen of true eloquence on the noblest of all subjects, the defence of Christianity. There

There were passages in it as sublime as any thing to be met with in the writings of any orator whatever, antient or moderns There is one in particular, uncommonly striking and forcible from the mouth of a layman and a lawyer. Mr. Erskine declared in reply, that bred as he was to the consideration of evidence, he considered the Prophecy concerning the destruction of the Jewish temple and nation to be, even if there were nothing else to support Christianity, absolutely irresistible!" M diw wiv 9,ni ms bed Je In addition to these bexertions on the part of their Counsel, the Society ›› rés ceived the thanks of Lord Kenyon, for their spirited and manly conduct. In his charge to the Jury, than which nothing ebuld be more able or perspicuous, he spoke of the prosecution in terms of high approbation; and at the same time 51dT

availed