Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/427

 A T T R 11 B U R Y. How far the Bifhop m : t:'u have been attached in his incli- nations to the Smart f.i.nily, to which he might be led'bjT tirly pn.judii.-cs of" education, :uul the divided opinions of the Corref P OB *' times, is notncccl.ary here to inquire. B-jt that heftiould have ^ lu-cn wcakcnouah to engage in a plot (o inconfiftenl with his ftation, and fo clumfily d.viicd (to f.iy the Icalt of it, and without entering into his folemn afleverations of innocence) i ' is utterly inconfiftent with that cunning which his enen allowed him. The duke of Wharton,it is well known, was vio- lent aoainft him, till convinced by his unanfwerable reafoning. It has been faid that Attcrbury'a wifhes reached to the Ibid. V bifhopricof London, or even to York or Canterbury. But thole who were better acquainted with his views knew that Wincruftcr would have been much more definable to him than either of the others. And there are thofe now living, who h::ve been told from refpeflable authority, that that bifhoprick was offered to him whenever it flioulJ become vacant (and till that event fhould happen a penfion of 5000!. a year, befiues an ample provifion for Mr. Morice) if he would ceafeto give the o.ppofition he did to fir Robert Wai pole's ad- miniftration, by his fpeeche s and proteft-s in the houfe of Lords. When that offer was rejected by the Bifhop, then the con- trivance for his ruin was determined on. In his fpcech in the houfe of lords, the Bifliop mentions loid. p. rifi, his being " engaged in a correfpondence with two learned " men [Bifhop Potter and Dr. Wall] on fettling the times " of writing the Four Gofpels." Part of this correfpond- ence is fr.il! in being; and will foon be pu&Hfhed. Tire fame fubjecl: the Bifliop purfued during his exile, having con- fultedthe learned of all nations, and had nearly brought the whole to aconclufion when he died. Thefe laudable labours are an ample confutation of Bifhop Newton's afiertion, that Acterbury " wrote Jittle, whilft in exile, but a few criti- His body was brought over [n] to England, and interred the 1 2th of May following, in Weitmintter Abbey [E], in a vault CD"| When his body was brought flate-paper office, this valuable treafure ver to be buried, it was accompanied (it is feared) is irrecoverably loft, with bis manufcripts, which underwent [E] The funeral was performed in a a ftnct examination. By a memorandum very private manner, .-trended only by printed in his " Mifcellanies," vol. I. hisfon-in-hw Mr. Morice, and h ; s two p. xi. it appears that the Bi/hop's papers chaplains, Dr. Savage and Mr. Moore. were aftujlly feized ; but as no literary Upon the urn which contained his work of Lis is iuw to be found in the bowels was in
 * ' cifais on French authors."