with some prospect of success, showed a reaction in the public mind, of which great numbers, even of the emigrant laity, immediately took advantage. Among the clergy a still larger proportion returned to their flocks. They were generally received with extreme joy, especially in the western departments, and long-intermitted offices of religion were eagerly resumed'. They were, however, wholly dependent upon the contributions of an irreligious nation, and had, consequently, most serious difficulties in keeping their churches open. Elderly females formed, in fact, the great bulk of their congregations". At the outset of this religious revival, an ecclesiastical council, consisting of thirty-eight prelates, and fifty-three representatives of the inferior clergy, met in Paris. It agreed to a profession of faith, based on the creed of pope Pius IV.; maintained episcopacy to be needful for the proper government of the church; and so far courted the ruling powers, as to allow that an oath against the restoration of royalty was not incompatible with the Gospel. The proceedings were closed by an order for the communication of them to the pope, coupled with a request for the convocation of a general council'. Such an assembly, however, has very rarely been popular at Rome, and it was then obviously impracticable. § 11. The pope then actually possessed a mere shadow of his former power: being driven into active warfare against the French republic, its troops invaded his territories, and his own, like other Italian armies, fled on the enemy's first onset. In consequence, Pius concluded the peace of Tolentino, on the 19th of February, 1797. By this humiliating treaty, he ceded the French territories attached to his see, and left the republic virtually master of all the rest agreeing besides, to pay an enormous pecuniary contribution, and to surrender one hundred of those first-rate works of art, which had long been the pride and a leading attraction of Rome'. The payment of the contribution reduced his people to beggary, and the general misery was augmented by constant intrigues to rouse the populace into a revolt, and establish a republic. These took full effect 7 Alison, iii. 345. 8 Ibid. iv. 669. 9 Coote, 240. in February, 1798, when the papal government was formally overthrown, Pius was first removed into Tuscany, and eventually, after various changes, to Valence, in Dauphiny. He died there, on the 29th of August, 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age', after having exhibited a dignified firmness and a christian resignation in his adversity, of which the vanity of his earlier years, fed by a fine person and extraordinary professional success, gave but slender promise. It was wished by the French Directory that no successor should be appointed3, and the century closed with the pontifical throne vacant. § 12. In England the Hanoverian succession extinguished effectually, as to protestants, that national intolerance, which had been the bane and disgrace of former times. On the very day of Anne's demise the Schism Act was to have come into operation: an odious measure, intended to place all but the commonest education wholly in the hands of the church. The queen's death rendered this proposed infraction of man's indubitable rights a dead letter, no lawyer now being likely to sue for penalties under it, or the government to enforce them. In 1719 it was formally repealed, together with an another act, passed in 1711, against Occasional Conformity. This unjust and impolitic law was meant to drive from office such religious professors as generally worshipped with dissenters, and, no doubt, were very much of their opinion, but not so bigotedly, as to induce an insurmountable objection against receiving the sacrament at church. Hence these persons made no scruple about this degree of conformity for the purpose of qualifying for office. To repel such dubious non-conformists, and thus drive them into obstinate dissent, was, undoubtedly, that palpable folly on the part of churchmen, which nothing but the violence of party spirit raging on both sides, and the intolerant habits of all former ages, can account for. When these oppressive and short-sighted statutes were repealed, a repeal also of the Test Act was in contemplation. But even the Whig party, then, as long afterwards, in the ascendant, was not satisfied that concession could be safely carried so far. That party then contained within itself many elements of disunion, and its proscribed opponents might have successfully used a step, extensively unpopular, for overthrowing its monopoly of power and patronage. The government, indeed, very early, under the new dynasty, stood by no means on a satisfactory footing. When George I. obtained possession of the throne, Tories appeared pleased no less than the Whigs. But he cast them wholly aside, and gave himself up unreservedly to the latter". Their modern apologists assign plausible reasons for this; but excluded contemporaries "The disunion then prevailing among the Whigs, had caused so formidable an opposition, even to the former measures, that it was found necessary to abandon that project." Hallam's Const. Hist. iii. 333. 5 "The strong symptoms of disaffection which broke out in a few months after the king's accession, and which can be ascribed to no grievance, unless the formation of a Whig ministry was to be termed one, prove the taint of the late times to have been deep-seated and extensive." Ibid. 310. "They seemed as well satisfied with his majesty's peaceable accession, and attended the ceremony of his proclamation with as cheerful looks as any persons. Or if they were in a sudden fright, they, in a short time, so recovered themselves, as to lay no small claim to his majesty's favour. The king, they gave out, intended to become an universal father of his people, and not to caress any particular party." Calamy's Life and Times, Lond. 1829. ii. 296. 7" Perhaps it might have been practicable for the king to have gradually conciliated the greater number of the more active Tories. His promotion of Whigs exclusively, and dismission of Tories indiscriminately, from the recent conduct of both respectively, was natural, though a more comprehensive scheme of policy would have been wise. At the time of the accession, the passions and prejudices of both sides were extremely high. The cool and impartial examination of a discerning and unbiassed stranger, must have seen that there were on both sides great abilities and great virtues, mingled with the violence and excesses of party zeal; and that the leading and acting men on both sides might be rendered useful in various departments of public service. But George, though discerning, was not unbiassed; though calm in his own temper, judicious in his opinions, and temperate in his conduct, yet, from his situation, and the connexions which it had dictated, he was become the member of a party; and ascended the throne of England, on the one hand, with the liberal and enlightened principles, but on the other, with the prejudices and passions of an English Whig." Bisset's George III. Lond. 1820. i. 111. 8" In later times also, it has not been uncommon to censure George I. for governing, as it is called, by a faction. Nothing can be more unreasonable than this reproach. Was he to select those for his advisers, who had been, as we know and he believed, in a conspiracy with his competitor! Was Lord Oxford, even if the king thought him faithful, capable of uniting with any public men, hated as he was on each side? Were not the Tories as truly a faction as their adversaries, and as intolerant during their own power!" (Hallam, iii. 308.) This reasoning is little else than recrimination. There is little doubt that George I. might have diminished the difficulties of his situation, if he had honestly availed himself of his inexperience as a foreigner in English party politics, and, professing naturally regarded it as caused by a selfish deceit put upon an ignorant foreigner. Nor did Walpole, during his long possession of power, either abate anything of that narrow spirit of party exclusion, which disgusted the nation generally, on the Hanoverian succession, or of a reluctance to hazard his own position, by pressing any measure which he knew to be unpopular. He allowed the Test Act to remain in the statute-book, merely taking effectual care that it should sleep there, by the annual passing of an Act of Indemnity. Thus the full toleration of protestant dissent was regularly established, and by legislative authority, although seemingly but from year to year'. Every year, however, obviously rendered a return to the old system of intolerance more impracticable. Had Walpole possessed the manly honesty to conciliate the church 6 6 as himself anxious only for the public "It was the policy of Walpole to keep alive the strongest prejudice in the mind of George II., obstinately retentive of prejudice, against the whole body of the Tories. They were illreceived at court, and generally excluded, not only from those departments of office which the dominant party have a right to keep in their power, but from the commission of the peace, and every other subordinate trust." Ibid. 340. "Walpole, more cautious and moderate than the ministry of 1719, perceived the advantage of reconciling the church as far as possible to the royal family, and to his own government; and it seems to have been an article in the tacit compromise with the bishops, who were not backward in exerting their influence for the crown, that he should make no attempt to abrogate the laws which gave a monopoly of power to the Anglican communion. We may presume also, that the prelates undertook not to obstruct the Acts of Indemnity passed from time to time in favour of those who had not duly qualified themselves for the offices they held; and which, after some time becoming regular, have, in effect, thrown open the gates to protestant dissenters." Ibid. 334. (This was written before the repeal of the Test Act, in 1828.) "The first act of this kind (Indemnity) appears to have been in 1727, 1 Geo. II. c. 23. It was repeated next year, intermitted in the next, and afterwards renewed in every year of that reign, except the fifth, the seventeenth, the twentysecond, the twenty-third, the twentysixth, and the thirtieth. Whether these occasional interruptions were intended to prevent the nonconformists from relying upon it, or were caused by some accidental circumstance, must be left to conjecture. I believe that the renewal has been regular every year since the accession of George III." Ibid. note. party by his use of patronage, besides managing it by his allowing an illusory continuance of the Test Act, he might, probably, have prevented some of the religious difficulties that arose in his day. Unhappily, however, crown patronage of every kind was regarded as little else than a powerful instrument for strengthening the Whig party. Even direct bribes were distributed among parliamentary members of that favoured body, with a shamelessness that has ever since formed a conspicuous and most humiliating feature in English history'. The natural result was, that ministerial favour ordinarily passed for an evidence of individual corruption. In the church this feeling acted in a manner peculiarly injurious. The great majority of clergymen were Tories; and finding that no moderation of principles, or professional distinction, would ordinarily open the way to preferment, if unattended by Whig services or connexions, they naturally looked upon their own superiors with suspicion, and upon the government which promoted them with aversion. A body so divided could not be highly efficient. In the earlier Hanoverian times, accordingly, the church fell into a sort of stagnation. It maintained its ancient position in the country, and with a becoming dignity of external appearance. But ecclesiastical literature sank to a low ebb, and spiritual religion to a lower. § 13. The reign of George I. saw the virtual abolition of Convocation. William III. had kept that body in the sort of abeyance usual in modern times, during Tillotson's primacy, with little notice from any quarter 3. The party that had lately defeated the scheme of comprehension was willing to rest for a season from any farther agitation of such questions; and the party that had striven for it, hoped for its adoption after late heats were effectually allayed by a few years of silence. 2 "There was always a strong suspicion, or rather a general certainty, of absolute corruption. The proofs, in single instances, could never, perhaps, be established; which, of course, is not surprising. But no one seriously called in question the reality of a systematic distribution of money by the crown to the representatives of the people; nor did the corrupters themselves, in whom the crime seems always to be deemed less heinous, disguise it in private.” Ibid. 353. 3 Nicholls says of archbp. Tillotson; per plures annos synodum cogere omisit." (Apparat. ad Def. Eccl. Angl. 101.) Archbp. Wake, however, says of king William; "He assembled the Convocations duly with every Parliament." State of the Church and Clergy of England, Lond. 1703. p. 520. |