burne*, M. A. Archdeacon of Cleveland. It excited at the time a considerable degree of interest; and

inclosed, for the sake of the compliment-which I am to live upon." Mr. Bowyer to Mr. Millar, Jan. 12, 1767.

"I received yours of the 12th two days ago, but had not time to answer it. If you have any cause to regret this transaction, you certainly have only yourself to blame. Your complaining to the author is absurd in my opinion, as you never had a warmer friend than, yours, &c. I inclose you the author's letter as you desired. Praise will feed none of us, though it may please us for a time. You have your merit but none of us are without faults; and perhaps we think ourselves of too much importance in our own ideas." Mr. Millar to Mr. Bowyer, Jan. 17, 1767.

Mr. Bowyer frequently lamented to me the great hardships which he experienced at College, where "the commons of the sizers," he said, "were in his time (1716-1722) miserably poor, though since much amended." His father, though in every other respect a generous man, used in company to talk of "the great expence he was at in keeping his son at the University." This having been repeated to the son, he determined to live there at the lowest expence possible; his tutor's bills (which I have now before me) not amounting, board included, to twenty pounds a year. One article of the charge on the tutor's bills is for Income.

"This is a sum of money allowed for College chambers to the former occupier, in consideration of repairs or fitting up, and furniture, and is frequently transferred from one tenant to another in succession, a tenant being answerable to a person so repairing or fitting up at two or three removes. I lived for a trifle more than 401.; but was a scholar of the house, though I had an estate of 60l. per annum, though my uncle's claim was not given up. All these my father kept for a year after I was of age." T. F.

Mr. Clarke, in a letter to Mr. Bowyer, Jan. 26, 1768, says, "I now find that nobody is so proper to converse with Mr. Markland as you are; who had almost starved yourself upon a principle of honour. This indeed was in you only a sally of youth; but he is now as young as you were at 17, and would do it at any time. It is a little too much to have a man's virtues reduce him to a mere skeleton; you were wise enough to take up in time; and he will, I hope, at last.-You never paid a proper deference to your father's judgment. How long did he live in trade, beloved and caressed by the whole fraternity of booksellers, and how little was done in comparison of what you have accomplished! Make but a man talked of in trade for any excellence in his way, and it will do his business. To be in ore vulgi, is all he wants, You are not beholden to the world, but yourself: for that manyheaded monster the World is, in its collective capacity, just as selfish as the individuals that compose it."

* This reverend and very learned Divine, son of Francis Blackburne, of St. Nicholas, near Richmond, in Yorkshire,

and

very soon produced from another Archdeacon (Dr. Rutherford) some very able Remarks, in a Charge delivered at his Visitation in July 1766, under the

and alderman of Richmond, was eminently distinguished as a controversial writer. He received his academical education at different provincial schools, and afterward at Catharine Hall, Cambridge; where he was admitted pensioner in May 1722. He was ordained deacon in 1728. His political principles, which were those of Locke and Hoadly, having prevented his election to a foundation fellowship in his College, he quitted Cambridge, and went to reside with a relation, a clergyman, in his own county: where he remained till he was presented, in 1739, to the living of Richmond, his native place. He proceeded B. A. 1726; and M. A. 1733.

In 1749 appeared, for the first time, "Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England;" containing many sensible observations on the defects and improprieties in the liturgical forms of faith and worship of the Established Church, and proposals of amendments and alterations of such passages as were liable to reasonable objections. This work was a compilation of authorities taken from the writings of some eminent Divines of the Church of England, tending to shew the necessity, or at least the expedience, of revising our public Liturgy, and of extracts of Letters sent, or supposed to be sent, to the compiler, from his correspondents in different parts of the kingdom, approving of his design, and signifying their disposition to promote and encourage it, as there should be occasion. -The compiler, the Rev. Mr. John Jones, vicar of Alconbury near Huntingdon, was a man of very singular character, pious and regular in his deportment, diligent in his clerical functions, and indefatigable in his studies, which were chiefly employed in promoting this scheme of reformation, conceived and digested long before his "Disquisitions" were made public, but withal affecting a mysterious secresy even in trifles, and excessively cautious of giving offence to the higher powers. -With Mr. Blackburne this gentleman, on the recommendation of Dr. Edmund Law, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, held a correspondence; and to him Mr. Jones sent the greatest part of his Work in manuscript, which was returned to him without so much as the correction of a single slip of the writer's pen; nor was there a single line or word in the "Free and candid Disquisitions" written or suggested by Mr. Blackburne, notwithstanding many confident reports to the contrary.-The truth is, Mr. Blackburne, whatever desire he might have to forward the work of ecclesiastical reformation (which was as earnest at least as Mr. Jones's) could not possibly conform his style to the milky phraseology of the "Disquisitions;" nor could he be content to have his sentiments mollified by the gentle qualifications of Mr. Jones's lenient pen. He was rather (perhaps too much) inclined to look upon those who had in their hands the means

and

title of "A Vindication of the Right of Protestant Churches to require the Clergy to subscribe to an

and the power of reforming the errors, defects, and abuses, in the government, forms of worship, faith and discipline, of the Established Church, as guilty of a criminal negligence, from which they should have been roused by sharp and spirited expostulation. He thought it became Disquisitors, with a cause in hand of such high importance to the influence of vital Christianity, rather to have boldly faced the utmost resentment of the class of men to which they addressed their work, than, by meanly truckling to their arrogance, to derive upon themselves their ridicule and contempt, which all the world saw was the case of these gentle suggesters, and all the return they had for the civility of their application.--A Pamphlet in defence of the above work was the first specimen of Mr. Blackburne's talents as a polemical writer.-On the 18th of July, 1750, Mr. Blackburne was collated to the archdeaconry of Cleveland; and on the 1st of August following to the prebend of Bilton, by Dr. Matthew Hutton, then archbishop of York, to whom he had been for some years titular chaplain. "I heartily wish you joy of that accumulation of preferment which you have been so long entitled to, and which, though it cannot add either to the real merit, or to the interior respectableness, of the person who must dignify it, yet, as it will give him frequent opportunity of indoctrinating his brethren in those parts, and may add somewhat to his authority in promoting the good work of reformation in which he is so happily engaged, I therein do and will again rejoice." Dr. Edward Law to Francis Blackburne, August 1750.— Such of Mr. Blackburne's friends as judged of his disposition by the influence that fear and hope have upon the majority of mankind, concluded that, upon his promotion, he would write no more Apologies for such books as the "Free and Candid Disquisitions;" and some of thein were a little pleasant with him upon that subject; to whom he only answered, with a cool indifference, that he had made no bargain with the Archbishop for his liberty. He had good reason indeed to believe that his Grace was not unacquainted with his sentiments; nor was he a stranger to the Archbishop's liberal notions on ecclesiastical affairs. When he first went to Bishopthorpe, to be collated to the archdeaconry, he was shewn into the Chaplain's room; where the first thing he saw was the above-mentioned "Apology" lying upon the table; and he had reason to believe, from some conversation he had with his Grace before he left him, that he was suspected to be the author of it. But there was a candour and generosity in Archbishop Hutton, rarely to be met with in men of his Grace's station. Mr. Blackburne had been warmly recommended to his Grace when he was Bishop of Bangor, by his steady friend John Yorke, esq.; and Mr. Blackburne himself, having lived in the neighbourhood of his Grace's family at Marske [near Richmond] for more than ten years, his Grace had some personal knowledge

of

established Confession of Faith and Doctrine. A good "Summary View of the Confessional Contro

of the man, and his general character in that neighbourhood; and the Archbishop was known to say on a certain occasion, that his own knowledge of Mr. Blackburne had as great a share in his preferment as the solicitation of his friends.-Archdeacon Blackburne lived in habits of intimate friendship with Dr. Law, afterward bishop of Carlisle; in vindication of whose opinions, on the state of the soul between Death and the Resurrection, he drew forth his pen with great zeal, and finally produced his celebrated "Historical View" of the Controversy on the same subject, which first appeared in 1765, which is certainly a very able performance. - Mr. Blackburne had, not without some scruples, prevailed upon himself to subscribe to the XXXIX Articles, in order to qualify himself to hold the archdeaconry of Cleveland and prebend of Bilton. His chief inducements at that time were the reasonings of Dr. Clarke, in his "Introduction to the Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity," a manuscript half sheet drawn up by Dr. Edmund Law, and the liberal concession in the Sixth Article of the Church of England. --Some time afterwards, upon a prospect of farther advancement to a considerable preferment, he took occasion to re-consider these several arguments; and thought they fell short of giving that satisfaction which an honest inan would wish to have, when he pledges his good faith to society in so solemn a form as that prescribed by the 36th Canon, enjoining subscription to the Articles and Liturgical forms of the Church of England. In this state of mind, he set himself to examine into the rice and progress of this requisition in Protestant Churches, and into the arguments brought in defence, or rather in excuse of it; the result of which was the compilation since known by the name of "The Confessional," &c.-This work remained in manuscript some years, and was not published till 1766; and, as the subject is interesting, I shall transcribe a brief statement of the effects of it, as (posthumously) given to the publick in 1804 (by his son) from his own pen: "It appeared, from the clamour that was raised against it, that grievous offence was taken at it by that part of the Clergy who affect to call themselves orthodox. The indignation of Archbishop Secker was excessive. His mask of moderation fell off at once. He employed all his emissaries to find out the author; and, by the industry of Rivington, and the communicative disposition of Millar, he succeeded.-Dr. Edmund Keene was then bishop of Chester, and Mr. Blackburne's diocesan; and had expressed, and indeed shewn in several instances, his friendship and benevolence to Mr. Blackburne. He wrote a letter to an intimate friend of Mr. Blackburne, mentioning the resentment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other bishops, against the reputed author; and intimated that, if the suspicion which fell upon Mr. Blackburne was groundless, he would do well to silence the imputation, by publicly disavowing the Work VOL, III. in

C

versy," placed in the Order in which each Publication respects the other, from May 1766 to April

in print; for, that every door of access to farther preferment would otherwise be shut against him. The answer of Mr. Blackburne's friend was, that he had no right to ask Mr. Blackburne any question of that kind; and that, as he himself should think it uncivil and improper to be interrogated upon such a subject, he hoped his Lordship would excuse him for declining to intermeddle in a matter of that delicacy.—Mr. Blackburne, however, on the other hand, had the consolation to find that his book was approved and commended by several worthy persons, whose esteem he valued at a very high rate. Numbers of letters still remain among his papers, testifying the satisfaction the writers had received in perusing The Confessional;' among which none are written in a higher strain of panegyric than a number from Dr. Edmund Law, since promoted to the bishoprick of Carlisle. When Dr. Warburton's Book of ’Alliance between Church and State' first appeared, the old orthodox phalanx was highly scandalized that the author should desert the old posture of defence, and subject the Church to such a humiliating dependance on the State. Dr. Rutherford led the way, in an attack upon The Confessional;' and skirmished in the old posture prescribed in the antient system of Church authority. It was found, by the several Answers to the Doctor's Charge and Vindication,' that this method would not do. Accordingly, Dr. Rotherham, in his 'Essay on Establishments,' &c. took a different route. Warburton's system was Hobbism, trimmed and decorated with various distinctions and subterfuges, which were by no means intelligible to common apprehensions, and very apt to mislead the superficial or inattentive reader into an approbation of the more plausible parts which lay more open to their understandings. Dr. Balguy was the only one who seems to be fully apprised of the latent meaning of his master Warburton, to whose little senate' he is said to have belonged. But he entered late into the controversy; and Dr. Rotherham, not having the advantage of his finesses, adopted in his Essay a system of Hobbism almost as crude and undisguised as that of the Malmsburian Philosopher in his Leviathan." Speaking afterwards of the resignation of Mr. Lindsey, the Archdeacon informs us, that "he had married a daughter of Mrs. Blackburne by her former husband. The friendship between Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Blackburne was not nearly so much cemented by this family connexion, as by a similarity of sentiments in the cause of Christian Liberty, and their aversion to ecclesiastical impositions in matters of conscience. In the warfare on these subjects they went hand in hand; and, when Mr. Lindsey left Yorkshire, and settled in London, Mr. Blackburne used to say he had lost his right arm.'-Mr. Blackburne had his objections to the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England as well as Mr. Lindsey, and in some instances to the same passages; but differed widely

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