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James II circumstances under which it was written and the frequency with which it has been quoted, particular notice. The career of the Right Reverend William King affords a singularly unedifying example of the divergence between the theory and the practice of the Anglican priesthood. Ordained in 1673, and preferred seven years later to the lucrative deanery of St. Patrick's, Dr. King had speedily made himself conspicuous, even among the profession to which he belonged, by the ardour with which he maintained the doctrines of passive obedience and divine hereditary right. Nor is there any reason to doubt that, when he first began to hold this language, he was absolutely sincere; for the prerogative which he magnified was at that time uniformly exerted for the aggrandisement of his own caste. The accession of a Catholic king and the more friendly attitude adopted by the Government towards the Celtic population may have effected some change in his sentiments, but did not at first induce him to moderate his language. Even after the Revolution, while James was personally exercising the royal authority in Dublin, King continued to hold forth upon the sin of rebellion and the duty of rendering tribute unto Cæsar. But the progress of the Williamite arms soon 141