LETTER IX. To the Rev. Mr. FORSTER. DEAR SIR, Bedford-Row, Feb. 5, 1749-50. My remove, and my constant dissipations, prevented, till now, my acknowledging the favour of your last. You have seen this strange phænomenon, Middleton's book * against the Bishop of London. Inter nos, it appears to me to be the weakest as well as warmest book he ever wrote. It is not on this account that I think to re-print the first sheet of Julian, and leave out most of the introduction concerning Middleton's book; but because some considerable persons, whose judgment is unquestionable, and who are enough prejudiced in favour of Middleton, yet think that it is better omitted, both on account of offence, and because it looks like an apprehension of Middleton's pen. You will give me your opinion. Though I have not got much more from the press, yet I am in hopes of having it out in March, and am now going on in good earnest. I wish I could tell you any news worth a reasonable man to hear, or a good man's rejoicing at. But what must we think of the times, when the only interesting affair on the carpet is the scrutiny of Vanderput and Trentham's poll; who, if they had been born two wrestlers or boxers on a country green, would have had neither courage nor dexterity enough to prevent their being hissed out of the circle! and yet there is an assembly which waits one of them, and could find work for both. Dear Sir, believe me to be, with the most unalterable esteem and regard, your very affectionate and faithful friend, W. WARBURTON. "Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers," &c. see p. 176. LETTER LETTER X. To the Rev. Dr. FORSTER. DEAR SIR, Prior Park, April 3, 1750. The newspapers remind me to congratulate with you on the conclusion of your noble labours on the Hebrew Bible *. You must congratulate too with me on a much less occasion, the finishing what I have to say at present of Julian. I say at present; for, you will see, this volume promises another. For I can promise like a young courtier, and perform like an old one. I hope it will be finished in a few days. I have ordered one to be sent to you; and as for the sheets you have, pray either burn them, or send them to me, which will be most convenient. You see how Middleton is paid off for meddling with the Bishop of London. Every week launches two or three thunderbolts at his head. This cannot astonish him more than the late Earthquakes have done the City of London. They seem to suspect that a third shock of an Earthquake will be as fatal and as certain as the third fit of an Apoplexy. However, if it does but contribute to put some stop to this torrent of vice and impiety, ready to overwhelm all things, it will be well.- Pray God it may! The greatest mischief these Earthquakes have done hitherto is widening the crack in old Will Whiston's noddle, who is now grown as mad as Oliver's Porter with his breeches full of Bibles. I always except the fall of the Pinnacles at Westminster, Where was the genius loci of the School, when this disaster happened? Perhaps in the office of Diana when her Temple was on fire, midwifing to some Minerva of the brain, which is to inform an immortal epigram at the next election of scholars. Dear Sir, believe me to be your most affectionate and faithful humble servant, W. WARBURTON. * "Biblia Hebraica, sine Punctis, accurante Nath. Forster, S. T, P. Oxon. 1750.” To To the Rev. Mr. THOMAS BALGUY. DEAR SIR, Prior Park, June 21, 1752. You have heard of the death of the poor Bishop of Durham *. The Church could have spared some other Prelates much better; and, in its present condition, could but ill spare him; for his morals and serious sense of Religion (to say nothing of his intellectual endowments) did honour to his station, His death is particularly unhappy for his Chaplain, Dr. Forster. He is my friend, whom I much value, as one of great worth, and whose ill luck I much lament. He has not only seen his hopes drop through, when he was every thing but in the very possession of them; but has lost a Patron who deserves the name of Friend; which goes much harder in the separation than the other. W. WARBURTON. * Dr. Joseph Butler; of whom, contrasting him with another eminent Prelate, he elsewhere thus speaks : "Dr. Secker's chief merit (and surely it was a very great one) lay in explaining clearly and popularly, in his Sermons, the principles delivered by his friend Bp. Butler in his famous Book of The Analogy, and in shewing the important use of them to Religion." Warburton's Works, 8vo. vol. I. p. 69. # "Poor Forster (whom I have just received a Letter from) is overwhelmed with desolation for the loss of his master [Bp. Butler]. I quoted his case to our friend Balguy for his consolation. But you say, I will have no master; which, I confess, is the best consolation of all. Reckon upon it, that Durham goes to some Noble Ecclesiastic*. It is a morsel only for them. Our Gran. dees have at last found their way back into the Church. I only wonder they have been so long about it. But be assured that nothing but a new religious revolution, to sweep away the fragments that Harry the Eighth left, after banqueting his Courtiers, will drive them out again. The Church has been of old the cradle and the throne of the younger Nobility. And this Nursing Mother will, I hope, once more vie with old imperious Berecynthia: Læta Deûm partu, centum complexa Nepotes, Omnes Coelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes." Letter to Mr. Hurd, July 5, 1752. * This conjecture was nearly right. The successors in the See of Durham have been Trevor, Egerton, Thurlow, and Barrington. Dr. C. C. C. Feb. 1, 1753. Dr. N. FORSTER to Mr. BIRCH *. DEAR SIR, In answer to the favour of yours, I have to desire you to present my respects to Mr. Yorke; and to acquaint him that I shall with great pleasure endeavour to execute the commissions with which he has honoured me, to the best of my power. There is, as far as I can yet learn, but one MS. of Pliny in Oxford, viz. in Baliol College Library. The Letter, which I apprehend Mr. Yorke would have transcribed, is one from the Hague, dated the 3d of August 1615, to King James, containing the answer of the States to a proposition made by the King, and an account of the causes of the delay of the treaty, and of a project formed by Sir Henry himself for settling the affair of Juliers, &c. But, as I would willingly leave no room for mistake in the affair, a line from you in answer to this question will oblige, Sir, your most obedient and humble N. FORSTER. servant, P. S. The chief thing that occasions my doubt is, that there is no appearance of a vindication of himself in that Letter. There is indeed another, relating to the surprize of Wesel, in which he vindicates himself from some aspersions relating to it. To Dr. N. FORSTER. REVEREND SIR, Feb. 3, 1753. Mr. Yorke thinks himself highly obliged for your kindness to comply with his requests; and would now beg that you would procure copies of both the Letters of Sir Henry Wotton mentioned by you : for, though that relating to the surprize of Wesel was that he meant, yet, as that of the 3d of August 1615, will probably give light to the other, he is desirous of both. With his and my own compliments, I am, &c. T. BIRCH. * Birch MSS. 4307. EXTRACTS EXTRACTS OF ORIGINAL LETTERS * FROM MR. WARBURTON TO MR. JORTIN. [1749.] You tell me you have had reasons to decline a City Living. I can conceive no good one, but that * Originally printed by Mr. Maty in his "New Review;" but, from obvious reasons, the name of Dr. Jortin was then studiously concealed. Mr. Maty's sister was the wife of Dr. Jortin's son. This led to the communication; which Mr. Maty thus introduces: "A Friend, who was pleased with my last Extracts from the Correspondence between Bp. Warburton and Dr. Birch, having been kind enough to communicate to me some more Manuscript Letters of the Bishop, with a desire that I should use them at my discretion; I have great pleasure in conveying these to the publick; as I am convinced they will do honour to that great man, whose philanthropy, greatness of mind, and true spirit of Christian toleration, will never appear in a more striking light than they do in these private memorials; which, I am persuaded, could he look down from those regions, where, His tears, his little triumphs o'er, His human passions move no more, Save charity that glows beyond the grave, he would not be offended at the publication of them. When I say this, I do not mean to flatter him, or any of his surviving friends, for some of whom I profess great respect. He certainly had his faults; but, besides that none of them appear in my publication (except his openness of speech, and his manly pleasantry about fools, for which I reverence him, may be deemed such), they are such as all the world has long been acquainted with. They are, indeed, so notorious, that, if it had been my intention to depreciate his character in an Ana, I should not have had recourse to private letters, but have compiled it out of his works, or the five hundred stories of him about town. As to the boldness of his judgments about literary characters, and particularly his saying that Sir Isaac Newton did not understand Egyptian Antiquities, that Clarke wanted sagacity, and that Markland and Taylor were no great criticks; what are they more than Voltaire's not liking Shakespeare, Scaliger's prefering the Æneid to the Iliad, and |