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countries . India will be christianized by the government of Great Britain . Thus Christian monarchs , who aim at nothing " but an increase of their temporal kingdoms , may become , by the providence of God , unconscious instruments in propagating * the spiritual kingdom of his Sou . It will
not be easy for missionaries of any nation to make much impression on the Pagans of any country , because missionaries in general , instead of teaching * a simple system of Christianity , have perplexed their hearers ^ v lth unintelligible doctrines not expressly
delivered in Scripture , but fabricated from the conceits and passions and prejudices of men . Christianity is a rational religion ; the Romans , the Athenians , the Corinthians and others , were highly civilized , far advanced in the rational use of their
intellectual faculties , and they all , at length , exchanged Paganism for Christianity ; the same change will take place in other countries , as they become enlightened by the progress of European literature , and become capable of justly estimating * the weight of historical evidence , on which the truth of Christianity must , as to them , depend . " P , 198 .
On the Regency Question , at this time agitated in Parliament , the Bishop sided with the opposition , and delivered a speech in the House of J _* ords , which is in great part preserved in this volume . It is not
unworthy of the compliments which it drew forth . The Chancellor ( Thurlow ) in his reply said , in his coarse way , * The Bishop has given us his advice , and 1 know not but that
something may be made on't ; " and the Duke of Portland told the Bishop , that ' * the speech was looked upon , by one side of the House at least , as the best which had been produced /'
Dr . Watson gives the following character of Thurlow : u Tlie Chancellor , Thurlow , was an able and upright judge , but as the Speaker of the House of Lords he was domineering * and insincere . It was said of him , that in the cabinet he opposed every
thingproposed nothing * , and was ready to support any thing * . I remember Lord Camden ' s saying * to me one night , when the Chancellor was speaking contrary , as I thought , to his own conviction , ' There , now , I could not do that , he is supporting- what he does not believe a word of . ' P . 221 .
The Bishop ' s vote on the Regency Bill did not advance his interest at court : "/ The restoration of the King ' s health
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soon followed . It was the artifice of the * minister to represent 9 II those who had opposed his measures , as enemies to the King- ; and the Queen lost , iu the opinion of many , the character which she had hitherto maintained in the country , hy falling in with the designs of the minister .
She imprudently distinguished , by different degrees of courtesy on the one hand , and hy meditated affronts on the other , those who had voted with , and those who had voted against the minister , insomuch that the Duke of Northumberland one day said to me , So , my Lord , you and I also are become traitors . '
" She received me at the drawing-room , which was held on the King ' s recovery , with a degree of coldness , which would have appeared to herself ridiculous and ill-placed , could she have imagined how little a mind such as mine regarded , in its honourable proceeding's , the displeasure of a woman , though that woman happened to be a Qeeen .
" The Prince of Wales , who was standing * near her , then asked me to dine with him ; and on my making some objection to dining at Carlton House , he turned to Sir Thomas Dun das , and desired him to give us a dinner , at his house , on the following Saturday . Before we sat down to dinner on that day , the Prince took me aside , explained to me the principle on which he had acted during the whole of the King ' s illness , and spoke to me , with an afflicted feeling , of the manner in which the Queen had treated himself . I must
do him the justice to say , that bespoke , in this conference , in as sensible a manner as could possibly have been expected from an heir apparent to the throne , and from a son of the best principles towards both his
parents . I advised him to persevere in dutifully bearing * with his mother ' s illhumour , till time and her own good sense should disentangle her fro in the web which ministerial cunning had thrown around her .
" Having thought well of the Queen , I was willing to attribute her conduct , during the agitation of tltfe Regency question , to her apprehensions of the King ' s safety , to the misrepresentations of the King ' s minister , to any thing rather than to a fondness for power . " Pp . 225 , 226 .
At the dinner to which the preceding extract refers , the Duke of York and a large party were assembled with the Prince of Wales and the Bishop - and in the hearing of all , ttie
Prince stopped the Bishop , who was declaring his purpose to retire from all public concerns , and said , No , and mind who it is that tells you so you shall never retire ; a man of youv
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200 Review * — Life of the Bishop of Landajf .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1818, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2474/page/48/
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