Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/128

118 parliament of that king, he was choſen for Boroughbrigg in Yorkſhire; and after the ſuppreſſing the Rebellion in the North, was appointed one of the commiſſioners of the forfeited eſtates in Scotland, where he received from ſeveral of the nobility and gentry of that part of the united kingdom the mod diſtinguiſhing marks of reſpect. He contracted a friendſhip while in Scotland, with one Hart, a Preſbyterian miniſter in Edinburgh, whom he afterwards honoured with his correſpondence: This Hart he uſed merrily to ſtile the Hangman of the Goſpel, for though he was a facetious good-natured man, yet he had fallen into a peculiar way of preaching what he called the Terrors of the Law, and denounced anathemas from the pulpit without reſerve.

Sir Richard held frequent converſations with Hart, and other miniſters, concerning the reſtoration of epiſcopacy, the antient church-government of that ration, and often obſerved that it was pity, when the two kingdoms were united in language, in dreſs, in politics, and in all eſſential points, even in religion, ſhould yet be divided in the eccleſiaſtical adminiſtration, which ſtill ſerves to maintain a kind of alienation between the people. He found many of the Scots well diſpoſed towards prelacy; but the generality, who were taught to contemplate the church of England, with as much horror as that of Rome, could not ſoon be prevailed upon to return to it.

Sir Richard wiſhed well to the intereſts of religion, and as he imagined that Union would promote it, he had ſome thoughts of propoſing it at court, but the times were unfavourable. The Preſbyterians had lately appeared active againſt the rebels, and were not to be diſobliged; but ſuch is now the good underſtanding between the epiſcopal and preſbyterian parties, that a few conceſſions on the one ſide, and not many advances on the other, poſſibly might produce an