The prosecution of my History was soon afterwards checked by another controversy of a very different kind. At the

V.

With

tory. In a Letter to a Friend." (See Art. 8.) II. "An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esq. By R. Watson, D.D., F.R.S., and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge (now Bishop of Llandaff)." 12mo. 1776. III. "The History of the Establishment of Christianity, compiled from Jewish and Heathen Authors only. Translated from the French of Professor Bullet, etc. By William Salisbury, B.D. With Notes by the Translator, and some Strictures on Mr. Gibbon's Account of Christianity, and its first Teachers." 8vo. 1776. IV. "A Reply to the Reasonings of Mr. Gibbon in his History, etc., which seem to affect the Truth of Christianity, but have not been noticed in the Answer which Dr. Watson hath given to that Book. By Smyth Loftus, M. A., Vicar of Coolock." 8vo. Dublin, 1778. "Letters on the Prevalence of Christianity before its Civil Establishment. Observations on a late History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By East Apthorpe, M. A., Vicar of Croydon." 8vo. 1778. VI. "An Examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History, in which his View of the Progress of the Christian Religion is shown to be founded on the Misrepresentation of the Authors he cites; and numerous Instances of his Inaccuracy and Plagiarism are produced. By Henry Edward Davies, B. A. of Baliol College, Oxford." 8vo. 1778. VII. "A few Remarks on the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Relative chiefly to the Two last ChapBy a Gentleman." Svo. VIII. "Remarks on the Two last Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History. By James Chelsum, D.D., Student of Christ Church, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Worcester. The Second Edition enlarged." 12mo. 1778. This is a second edition of the anonymous remarks mentioned in the first article, and contains additional remarks by Dr. Randolph, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford.

ters.

Mr. Gibbon's Vindication now appeared under the title of "A Vindication of some Passages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By the Author." 8vo. 1779. This was immediately followed by: I. A short Appeal to the Public. By a Gentleman who is particularly addressed in the Postscript of the Vindication." 8vo. 17791780. II. "A Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication, wherein the Charges brought against him in the Examination are confirmed, and further instances given of his Misrepresentation, Inaccuracy, and Plagiarism. By Henry Edward Davies, B.A. of Baliol College, Oxford." 8vo. 1780. III. "A Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication, etc., containing a Review of the Errors still retained in these Chapters. By James Chelsum, D. D., etc." 8vo. 1785.

The other most considerable works levelled at the history, upon general principles, were: I. "Thoughts on the Nature of the grand Apostasy, with Reflections and Observations on the Fifteenth Chapter of Mr. Gibbon's History. By Henry Taylor, Rector of Crawley, and Vicar of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, Author of Ben Mordecai's Apology for embracing Christianity." 8vo. 1781-2. II. “Gibbon's Account of Christianity considered; together with some Strictures on Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. By Joseph Milner, A.M., Master of the Grammar-School of Kingston-upon-Hull." 8vo, 1781. III. "Letters

to Edward Gibbon, Esq., in Defence of the Authenticity of the 7th Verse of the 5th Chapter of the First Epistle of St. John. By George Travis, A.M." 4to, 1784.* IV. "An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes which Mr. Gibbon has assigned for the rapid growth of Christianity. By Sir David Dalrymple (Lord Hailes)." 4to. 1786.-M.

In his third volume Mr. Gibbon took an opportunity to deny the authenticity of the verse 1 John v. 7: "For there are three," etc. In support of this verse, Mr. Archdeacon Travis addressed "Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq.," which were answered by Mr. Professor Porson, and produced a controversy of considerable warmth.-M.

request of the Lord Chancellor, and of Lord Weymouth, then Secretary of State, I vindicated, against the French manifesto, the justice of the British arms. The whole correspondence of Lord Stormont, our late ambassador at Paris, was submitted to my inspection, and the Mémoire Justificatif, which I composed in French, was first approved by the cabinet ministers, and then delivered as a state paper to the courts of Europe. The style and manner are praised by Beaumarchais himself, who, in his private quarrel, attempted a reply; but he flatters me by ascribing the memoir to Lord Stormont; and the grossness of his invective betrays the loss of temper and of wit; he acknowledged" that "le style ne seroit pas sans grace, ni la logique sans justesse," etc., if the facts were true which he undertakes to disprove. For these facts my credit is not pledged; I spoke as a lawyer from my brief; but the veracity of Beaumarchais may be estimated from the assertion that France, by the treaty of Paris (1763), was limited to a certain number of ships of war. On the application of the Duke of Choiseul he was obliged to retract this daring falsehood.

Among the honorable connections which I had formed, I may justly be proud of the friendship of Mr. Wedderburne, at that time Attorney-general, who now illustrates the title of Lord Loughborough, and the office of Chief-justice of the Common Pleas. By his strong recommendation, and the favorable disposition of Lord North, I was appointed one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations; and my private income was enlarged by a clear addition of between. seven and eight hundred pounds a year. The fancy of a hostile orator may paint in the strong colors of ridicule "the perpetual virtual adjournment, and the unbroken sitting va cation of the Board of Trade." But it must be allowed that

39 (Euvres de Beaumarchais, tom. iii. p. 299, 355.

40 I can never forget the delight with which that diffusive and ingenious orator, Mr. Burke, was heard by all sides of the House, and even by those whose existence he proscribed. See Mr. Burke's speech on the Bill of Reform, p. 72-80. The Lords of Trade blushed at their insignificancy, and Mr. Eden's appeal to the two thousand five hundred volumes of our Reports served only to excite a general laugh. I take this opportunity of certifying the correctness of Mr. Burke's printed speeches, which I have heard and read.

our duty was not intolerably severe, and that I enjoyed many days and weeks of repose without being called away from my library to the office. My acceptance of a place provoked some of the leaders of opposition, with whom I had lived in habits of intimacy; and I was most unjustly accused of deserting a party in which I had never enlisted.

The aspect of the next session of Parliament was stormy and perilous; county meetings, petitions, and committees of correspondence announced the public discontent; and instead. of voting with a triumphant majority, the friends of government were often exposed to a struggle, and sometimes to a defeat. The House of Commons adopted Mr. Dunning's motion, "That the influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished:" and Mr. Burke's bill of reform was framed with skill, introduced with eloquence, and supported by numbers. Our late president, the American Secretary of State, very narrowly escaped the sentence of proscription; but the unfortunate Board of Trade was abolished in the committee by a small majority (207 to 199) of eight votes. The storm, however, blew over for a time; a large defection of country gentlemen eluded the sanguine hopes of the patriots; the Lords of Trade were revived; administration recovered their strength and spirit; and the flames of London, which were kindled by a mischievous madman," admonished all thinking men of the danger of an appeal to the people. In the premature dissolution which followed this session of Parliament I lost my seat. Mr. Eliot was now deeply engaged in the measures of opposition, and the electors of Liskeard" are commonly of the same opinion as Mr. Eliot.

In this interval of my senatorial life I published the second and third volumes of the Decline and Fall. My ecclesiastical history still breathed the same spirit of freedom; but Protestant zeal is more indifferent to the characters and controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries. My obstinate silence

41 Lord George Gordon.

The borough which Mr. Gibbon had represented in Parliament.

had damped the ardor of the polemics. Dr. Watson, the most candid of my adversaries, assured me that he had no thoughts of renewing the attack, and my impartial balance of the virtues and vices of Julian was generally praised. This truce was interrupted only by some animadversions of the Catholics of Italy, and by some angry letters from Mr. Travis, who made me personally responsible for condemning, with the best critics, the spurious text of the three heavenly witnesses. The piety or prudence of my Italian translator has provided an antidote against the poison of his original. The fifth and seventh volumes are armed with five letters from an anonymous divine to his friends, Foothead and Kirk, two English students at Rome; and this meritorious service is commended by Monsignor Stonor, a prelate of the same na tion, who discovers much venom in the fluid and nervous style of Gibbon. The critical essay at the end of the third volume was furnished by the Abbate Nicola Spedalieri, whose zeal has gradually swelled to a more solid confutation in two quarto volumes. Shall I be excused for not having read

them ?a

The brutal insolence of Mr. Travis's challenge can only be excused by the absence of learning, judgment, and humanity; and to that excuse he has the fairest or foulest pretension. Compared with Archdeacon Travis, Chelsum and Davies assume the title of respectable enemies.

The bigoted advocate of popes and monks may be turned over even to the bigots of Oxford; and the wretched Travis still smarts under the lash of the merciless Porson. I consider Mr. Porson's answer to Archdeacon Travis as the most acute and accurate piece of criticism which has appeared since the days of Bentley. His strictures are founded in argument, enriched with learning, and enlivened with wit; and his adversary neither deserves nor finds any quarter at his hands. The evidence of the three heavenly witnesses would

a I have observed in the Preface to the History that I never could find this translation. It is not in the British Museum or the Bodleian; and, on inquiry, I cannot find any London bookseller, not even Mr. Evans, who ever saw the book. -M.

now be rejected in any court of justice: but prejudice is blind, authority is deaf, and our vulgar Bibles will ever be polluted by this spurious text, "sedet æternumque sedebit." The more learned ecclesiastics will indeed have the secret satisfaction of reprobating in the closet what they read in the Church.

I perceived, and without surprise, the coldness and even prejudice of the town; nor could a whisper escape my ear, that, in the judgment of many readers, my continuation was much inferior to the original attempts. An author who cannot ascend will always appear to sink: envy was now prepared for my reception, and the zeal of my religious, was fortified by the motive of my political, enemies. Bishop Newton, in writing his own Life, was at full liberty to declare how much he himself and two eminent brethren were disgusted by Mr. Gibbon's prolixity, tediousness, and affectation. But the old man should not have indulged his zeal in a false and feeble charge against the historian," who had faithfully, and

43 Extract from Mr. Gibbon's Commonplace-book.

Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St. Paul's, was born at Lichfield on the 21st of December, 1703, O.S. (1st January, 1704, N.S.), and died the 14th of February, 1782, in the 79th year of his age. A few days before his death he finished the memoirs of his own life, which have been prefixed to an edition of his posthumous works, first published in quarto, and since (1787) republished in six volumes octavo.

P. 173, 174. "Some books were published in 1781, which employed some of the bishop's leisure hours, and during his illness. Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he read throughout, but it by no means answered his expectation; for he found it rather a prolix and tedious performance, his matter uninteresting, and his style affected; his testimonies not to be depended upon, and his frequent scoffs at religion offensive to every sober mind. He had before been convicted of making false quotations, which should have taught him more prudence and caution. But, without examining his authorities, there is one which must necessarily strike every man who has read Dr. Burnet's Treatise De Statu Mortuorum. In vol. iii. p. 99 [4to ed. ch. xxviii. n. 81], Mr. G. has the following note: 'Burnet (De S. M. p. 56–84) collects the opinions of the fathers, as far as they assert the sleep or repose of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterwards exposes (p. 91) the inconveniences which must arise if they possessed a more active and sensible existence.' Who would not from hence infer that Dr. B. was an advocate for the sleep or insensible existence of the soul after death? Whereas his doctrine is directly the contrary. He has employed some