APPENDIX
SOME SECRET NEGOTIATIONS OF THE PRETENDER WITH SIR ROBERT WALPOLE
Some little time ago my nephew, Lord Orford, discovered in his library at Wolterton some rather interesting old papers dealing with certain negotiations which appear to have at one time been afoot between the Pretender and Sir Robert Walpole. It is said that a picture formerly existed at Houghton in which both Sir Robert (as a youth) and his father were shown wearing the Stuart tartan, but notwithstanding this my ancestor has always been regarded as an uncompromising upholder of the Hanoverian succession. Nevertheless, it would appear from the correspondence which he discovered that at one time Sir Robert was not altogether disinclined to learn the Pretender’s proposals, though of course he may have only done this from diplomatic reasons. The principal portion of the documents in question consists of a memorandum drawn up by a certain Mr. Thomas Carte, whose name is well known to historical students. A non-juring clergyman, he had strong Jacobite leanings, and is known to have been much interested in the Stuart cause. My nephew’s father, Mr. Frederick Walpole, appears to have made some inquiries about him of his friend Mr. Whitwell Elwin, the well-known editor of the Quarterly Review, for the following letter was found appended to the correspondence:—
Booton Rectory, Norwich,
March 18, 1865.
Dear Mr. Walpole—I have been an age in answering your letter owing to my reading the name of Thomas Carte as Thomas Lart. I could not remember that I had ever heard of the name of the latter gentleman, and I searched books and indexes in vain in order to discover what my memory would not supply. Five minutes ago I took up your note, and again scrutinised the word, when all of a sudden it flashed upon me that the name was Carte, though your C is very indistinct. You will find an account of him in any English Biographical Dictionary. If you want any details beyond what an ordinary book of reference will supply you must come to me again. Andrew Stone was sub-preceptor to George 3. when Prince of Wales. There are stories of him in Horace Walpole, Mahon’s History, and other books. He was chiefly noted, I think, for his supposed Jacobite bias in early days. You must not assume that I shall be always as dilatory in answering questions. I should have written at once if I could have solved your problem.
Two or three months, I presume, will bring an election which will carry you into Parliament, and long may you flourish there. I do not hear a word of East Norfolk. If Stracey is goose enough to stand it will only end in a fall. He will have no support worth the name. I was delighted to hear that you and Lord O. were one again.—Believe me, ever sincerely yours,
W. Elwin.
At the beginning of the memorandum is the following note in Sir Robert Walpole’s handwriting:—
This Paper was delivered to me, the 15th of Sept. 1739, at nine o’clock at night at my house at Chelsea,[[2]] by Mr. Tho. Cart, a non-jurying Clergyman, as a Copy of Heads, etc., drawn up by Him, by order of the Pretender, as explanatory of some conferences held by Him at Rome upon the subject of the security of the Church of England and delivered to the Pretender by Him in July last.
R. Walpole.
The memorandum itself, which is somewhat lengthy, appears to have been drawn up with a view to satisfying Sir Robert that in the event of the Pretender being placed upon the throne of England no attempt would be made to interfere with the privileges of the Protestant Church. It begins:—
Heads Offered to Consideration in Relation to the Security
and Advantage of the Church of England
When in the year 1721 I looked over Archbp. Sancroft’s manuscripts and papers, I found among them one containing a scheme for the government of the Church of England under a R.C. Prince; which I thought exceeding well drawn, as well for preserving a just prerogative in the Crown, as for providing a reasonable security for the Church. It appeared to me to be drawn at the time of the Bill of Exclusion, when the late K. Charles offered to come into any scheme of that nature, though he was resolved never to passe that Bill, as conceiving it to be contrary to honour, justice and conscience. I laid that scheme aside, with some curious discourses of the Archbps. and abundance of valuable letters which I selected in order to write his life. But being to passe into Leicestershire and spend 3 or four months before I got to London, I left them at Fresingfield, intending to send for them to town, as soon as I got thither. But being forced to come abroad not long after in 1722, they still remained at Fresingfield, and were swept away by Dr. Tanner, then Chancellor of Norwich, with the rest of the ArchBps. manuscripts, which he bought in the beginning of 1728, about a quarter of a year before I returned to England. Dr. Tanner dying about 3 years ago and leaving all his MSS. to the University of Oxford, I made two journeys thither last year to search for this scheme: but though I looked over every individual paper of his that had been delivered to the University, I could not find what I searched for. This makes me conclude that the Drs. Executors did not deliver to the University all the MSS. that were bequeathed them; and the rather because I did not observe among them half even of the most curious MSS. of the ArchBps. which I had taken a short catalogue of for my own use.
In defect of this scheme, I venture to draw up my own thoughts on the subject, and to mention some particulars which I conceive may be either for the security or for the advantage of the Church of England.
First, that which I imagine would be a very good and perhaps a better security to it than any other privilege, is the restoring to the Clergy their ancient right of taxing themselves; a right enjoyed by the Clergy in all parts of Europe, and never enjoyed by the English till 3 years after King Charles the Second’s restoration; when the Convocation then sitting gave it up by a Solemn Act, without ever consulting their Constituents, reserving, however, to themselves by an express clause a power to resume it whenever they should think fitting. It would be against all law, justice, and equity to deny them such a resumption whenever they demand it; which they are now universally desirous of doing, having seen the Sitting of Convocations interrupted, and that representative Body and chief judicature of the Church rendered useless, almost ever since they gave up this right. The House of Commons, fond of allocations of extending their power, and grasping at everything that will aggrandize themselves, may not perhaps care to part with this new branch of their power; but it is not the interest of the Crown that the Commons should grow too great, and the experience of 1641 ought for ever to make a Prince, and indeed all orders of men, jealous of every accession of power which accrews to that Body: and if ever they are to be prevailed with to part with this additional branch thereof, it is most likely to be done on the account here mentioned, viz. for the security of religion. For by the constant and regular sitting of the Convocation concurrent with every Parliament (which will be fully provided for by restoring to the Clergy this right of taxing themselves), it will be scarce possible for any material steps to be taken for the introducing of another religion, when there is a body of men sitting and on the watch against all measures of that kind, and ready to oppose them by their weighty and prudent remonstrances. There is no method so proper for redressing grievances as by returning to the old ways of our Constitution; all deviations from which have ever been found of mischievous consequence. The inconveniences of new institutions are seldom thought of till they are felt; but we have the experience of ages to shew us the wisdom and advantages of ancient usages: and as no inconvenience ever yet attended this right of taxation during the many hundreds of years that the Clergy enjoyed it, it cannot with the least pretence to reason be surmised that any should now attend the restoring it to them. I knew not whether I need observe that the only reason why the Convocations grants of subsidies were inserted in Acts of Parliament was that the Collectors thereof might have a power of distraining on the glebe and goods of the Clergy; which could not be given by any Ecclesiastical authority.
2. Another thing that would contribute greatly to the security of the Church, and be as much for its benefit, is a repeal of the Act of Submission passed in the time of Henry 8, which hinders ArchBps. and Bps. from holding provincial and diocesan synods, to which they were obliged by the old canons of the Church, but are deterred from doing so by the dread of a Praemunire, which in such case they would incur according to the terms of that Act. The right of holding such synods in provinces and dioceses, for the due ordering of Ecclesiastical affairs and the better execution of the Canons, is as ancient as the institution of Christianity, and is enjoyed in all Christian countries upon earth, except in England. For the Act of Submission having never taken place in Ireland (where as there had been no exercise of the Legative power, so there had been no obedience paid to it, and consequently no penalties thereby incurred), the Clergy in that Island still enjoy the right of meeting in provincial and diocesan synods. ArchBp. King of Dublin lately held one of the first sort, and the Acts of one of the latter kind held by Bedell, Bp. of Kidmore, are published in the life of that prelate: which are sufficient evidences of this right of the Church of Ireland. It was in this manner that the Primitive Church was governed, and it is fit that every National Church in times posteriour to their should be governed in the same manner; as that of England indeed ever was till the Act of Submission. These Synods will be a great security to the Church of England in the intervals of Parliaments and Convocations.
They will be likewise of great use in other respects, and contribute much to the ends of religion. They may restore the just discipline of the Church, and correct abundance of grievances, as well as in regard of the scandalous corruption of the spiritual Courts, as of the shameful oppression of the Clergy by some Bps. in many cases. Bishops in France and other countries abroad, tho’ obliged by the Canons to hold diocesan Synods every year, are yet not very fond of holding them, because they are a curb upon their authority. For tho’ they can put a negative upon the resolutions of the majority, yet being often ashamed of dissenting from truth and reason, the Presbyters or incumbents of livings are still found to have the greatest weight in such Synods. And possibly for the same reason they may be as little agreeable to our English Bishops, who having in a manner quite lost the power of exercising any part of their authority over the Laity, endeavour continually to make themselves amends by lording it over other Clergy; insisting (as their Archdeacons also, after their example and in virtue of their delegated authority, have done) upon the oath of canonical obedience, which they pretend obliges the Clergy to obey them in everything whatever that they enjoin which is not absolutely unlawfull; an interpretation of that oath contrary to the sense of all Canonists abroad, who agree that it only obliges to obedience in such things as are prescribed by the Canons. But the fonder they are of power, the more necessary is it that their power should be restrained to the ancient bounds, and that institutions of such great use as Diocesan and Provincial Synods should be restored.
It was in such provincial Synods, that all disputes about matters of faith were determined and heresies condemned during the 3 first centuries of Christianity. It is in these that the authority and jurisdiction of the Church has in all ages been chiefly and most usefully exerted. ’Tis a hardship peculiar to the Church of England to be deprived of a benefit which all other Churches upon earth enjoy, and therefore it is much to be wished this right of holding provincial Synods were restored. There would then be no want of visible judge of doctrine and controversies, such as served to direct the primitive Christians and martyrs in the first ages of the Gospel in the way of salvation. There would not then be any want either of a ready antidote against any heretical or irreligious books that are published nowadays with encouragement rather than impunity, or of power to censure them and punch the authors thereof if they should prove to be Clergymen. There would not then, if any Bp. or other Ecclesiastick should preach and maintain any heretical tenets or assert any of the new erroneous doctrines which the Court or Church of Rome have grafted upon the ancient faith of the Church, or be guilty of any other crime the Canons have decreed to be punished with deprivation, be any want of canonical authority to take cognisance of the cause, and pronounce sentence in a regular manner. For it is in these provincial Synods that Bishops have in all ages of the Church been ever judged and deprived in such cases: and if the same method had been established in England in Q. Mary’s time, the church would not then have been ruined. For none of the Edwards Bps. were deprived canonically by a Synod of their comprovincial Bps., but by a few persons, some of them Laicks, empowered by a particular commission from Her Majesty. The High Commission Court has indeed been since put down by an Act of Parliament, which provides that neither that Court nor any like it shall ever be erected for the future. But lawyers may possible dispute whether that Act extends to such particular commission as Q. Mary issued (which perhaps were not thought of in 1690 when this Act passed); so that it is highly to be wished that Provincial Synods might be restored, and the offences of Bps. and Clergymen inferring deprivation, subject to their cognisance.
Diocesan Synods never intermeddled in matters of faith. Their business was confined to points of mere discipline, and their chief care was to make proper regulations for inforcing the practise of that discipline, and to provide for the due observance of the Canons within their district. Offences against these were also within their cognisance, and whatever else was under the jurisdiction of the Bp. in his single capacity, came also before him when at the head of these Synods; which may be composed either of all incumbents in his Diocese, or of the Chapter of the Cathedral, the Archdeacons, Rural Deans, and two Proctors chosen by the Clergy of each Deanery. And if in the interval of these Synods a Bp. was obliged to consult with the Chapter of his Church, and the Rural Deans of his Diocese before he gave judgment in any cause, and to use them as his co-assessors in hearing it, this would add much to the dignity and effect of such sentence, and would probably reconcile abundance to Episcopary, that are at present disaffected to that kind of government.
There was in the last Sitting Convocation in 1713/4 a proposal made and an intention formed of reviving the institution of Rural Deans, and it would probably have taken place in the next, had there not happened a change of government which has ever since put an end to the Sitting of Convocations. But were that old institution revived, and such a method of episcopal and synodical jurisdiction settled, it might easily be so adjusted, as to reform abundance of shameful practices in the spiritual Courts to prevent any false doctrines either heretical or Roman from being instilled into the people. For whilst there is so short and easy a method of calling those who reach them to an accompt before their brethren of the Clergy in their own neighbourhood, scarce anybody will dare to attempt such an innocation, when he must expect a censure to be immediately passed upon him by his Bp. not alone, but assisted by a venerable Council of Rural Deans recommended for their merit by the body of the Clergy, and antecedent to his crime approved of and constituted by their Diocesan.
There was at the same time another proposal made of reviving also the charge of Suffragan Bps. as anciently used in the Church of England, or as at last regulated in the reign of Henry, and continued to that of Q. Elizabeth. And as some Dioceses in England are too large, they might be very useful for the due exercise of discipline, as well as for reforming the corruptions and lessening the power of Spiritual Courts.
It might be observed that the corruption of those Courts is not owing to the Bishops. Some of these have endeavoured to reform them, but in vain, they have put limiting clauses into the patents, and they have granted to Vicars general, Chancellors and Commissiaries, but still to no purpose, even with regard to the granting of licenses to preach, which being, by the Rubrick of the Common Prayer book established by Act of Parliament, reserved expressly to Bps. they naturally thought they might very well restrain their deputies from granting them. But these deputies, distinguished by the several titles before mentioned, pretend that a Bp. having constituted them Vicars general, Chancellors or Commissiaries by patent, they are in virtue thereof actually invested with all the power usually annexed to such office, and that all restraining clauses are null by common Law: and so they continue to exercise a power in those cases wherein by the express terms of the patent they are debarred the exercise thereof. Our Common Law is in truth but too favourable to such iniquities, and it is highly reasonable that an Act should pass to restrain the power of these officers to the terms of their patent; or perhaps it may not be amiss to provide that such offices should be held only for the life or incumbency of the person that grants them; or if allowed to be granted to persons quamdice bene se gesserint, certain cases may be specified wherein these officers shall be removable by the judgment of the Bp. in conjunction with the Chapter and Rural Deans of the Diocese, from whose sentence there should lye no appeal to Common Law.
The Courts of Common Law, however they have intrenches on the jurisdiction of the Spiritual Courts, do yet give countenance and protection to all their iniquities, which serve to bring them in business; and this makes the Common Lawyers so loath to see them reformed, and so ready to baffle all attempts of that nature. The judges thereof have stuck to no maxim so constantly as to that scandalous one of St. Edw. Cokes, A Boni judicies est ampliare jurisdictionem curice suce, and have by monstrous fictions, and by the help of numberless querks and pretences swallowed up in a manner all the jurisdiction of other Courts, as the Lord Constable and Marshals, Admiralty, etc. in order to draw all business to themselves. Thus also as often as they please they call by prohibitions (for which they never want pretences) all causes before them from Spiritual Courts and other Ecclesiastical or Visitatorical jurisdictions: and when a cause is once brought into their Courts, where they can invent and start an hundred points and issues to be argued, there is no end of the expense or no hopes of a decision, so that it must drop at last after several years continuance without any determination as the late affair of Dr. Bentley. It is very fit there should be prohibitions in many cases, as there are appels d’abus in France; but it is as fair that those cases should be settled fixed and determinate. There was in the time of K. James I. a judgment given upon this subject by the King in his Privy Council (to whose judicature it properly belongs to decide of the just authority of different Courts when they quarrel about their jurisdiction) and proper bounds were fixed to the authority, as well of Spiritual Courts as of those of Common Law, which were tolerably well observed till the troubles of 1641 threw all government into confusion, and Episcopacy being destroyed and the jurisdiction of Bps. suppressed with their Order, the Common Law carried all before it, swallowed up the Ecclesiastical authority, and has ever since kept a great part of what it then invaded.
This is now grown to so intolerable an height, that at present there is not any Ecclesiastical authority in England to call a Clergyman to an accompt, and punish him for preaching or printing any heretical doctrine or any erroneous tenets of the Court of Rome: so that unless the Common Law be restrained in this respect, and the use and authority of provincial and diocesan Synods be revived, I do not see how it can be practicable to secure the Church of England from being overrun with false doctrines. For unless there be a short and easy way of punishing those that vent them, many will be induced to do so, when temptations shall be offered and encouragements given for the attempt: and this power can be vested nowhere so properly, so safely and so unexceptionally as in provincial and diocesan Synods, agreeable to the constitution of the Primitive Church.
If it be apprehended that these Synods may be apt to assume too great a power (not to say that such an apprehension is groundless) it is a very easy matter to prevent their doing so by restraining their jurisdiction to the crimes of heresy, false doctrine and Simony and to the persons of the Clergy, leaving all Laicks who are guilty of the like offences to the cognisance of the Civil Courts.
3. Another method for the security of religion is, to distinguish between Legatine, and the Archiepiscopal power of the ArchBp. of Canterbury, and to reduce that exorbitant power he possesses at present to what it was before the year 1400, when he enjoyed only his Archiepiscopal authority, not being made legaties natus till after that year. These two powers are compounded at present, and the ArchBp., though he enjoys the legatine, only in virtue of the exercise thereof by his predecessors, derived originally from a Papal grant of no force in England, does yet continue to exercise it, tho’ he hereby encroaches upon the jurisdiction and rights of all the Bishops and the Kingdom in several cases, and by the abuse thereof may ruin the established church when he pleases. It was in virtue of this Legatine power, which is as yet affirmed by no law, that Dr. Tennison deprived Watson Bp. of St. Davids by his single authority; tho’ according to the ancient Canons and constitution of the Christian Church, no Bp. can be regularly condemned, but by the sentence of a Provincial Synod, in which twelve Bps. are present. ’Tis easy to see how fatal such a claim of power, now supported by the seeming countenance of an House of Lords, may be in its consequence to the Church of England.
There was in the time of Henry 8 (when the Papal power was abolished in England) an authority vested in the ArchBp. of Canterbury to grant faculties and dispensations in all cases where the Pope used before to dispense. Under pretext of this general grant Archbishops have taken upon themselves to grant dispensations in cases where the Pope himself could not effectually dispense. Such particularly is the power of qualifying persons for living and dignities annexed by Law to certain degrees in our Universities. The Pope had certainly long used to confer honorary degrees on such as he saw fit, but these degrees never qualified persons in France or other countries abroad for benefices and dignities appropriated to Graduates in their Universities. This is so settled a point that even in the Pope’s own territory of the Comtat de Venagsein about Avignon, tho’ he confess such benefices on those who are not graduates, yet he always in his bulls obliges them to take their degree requisite in the Universities. Yet in England ArchBps. of Canterbury have of late exerted their power in numberless instances to the great discouragement of learning and prejudice of our Universities. This is a point that well deserves to be corrected.
4. As the Universities are a nursery for the Church, and a great support of the established religion, there cannot be too great an assurance given of the preservation of their privileges, their statutes and rights of election; which should not be liable to be invaded, by any Ecclesiastical Commission for the extraordinary visitation of particular Colleges or of the Universities in general, or by writs of Mandamus for putting in Heads or Fellows of Colleges, contrary to their Statutes and right of election; or in fine, by appeals from the sentence of Visitors to the Courts of Common Law, where they have been controverted of late; particularly in Dr. Bentley’s case; tho’ such sentences were ever deemed unappealable and have been so declared in the House of Lords in the case of Exeter College, wherein they gave judgment against their own jurisdiction in this point.
But if it should be apprehended that an unlimited restraint from all relief at Common Law, may in some eases be hard on a sufferer by a Visitor’s sentence, the absolute prohibition of an appeal may be thus limited, “unless the body of the University assembled in a Convocation (whereof, and as well of the occasion of its being called as the day and time when it is to be held, publick notice shall be given a month before) shall within a year or 6 months after such sentence petition the King for a revision thereof; and then his Majesty may issue out a Commission of Delegates, composed of the Chancellor of the University, the Visitors of all the Colleges therein, and an equal number of Drs. of Civil Law, to review the process and give a final decision.” If University causes come into Common Law Courts, there is no end of them, and no supporting the expense: and our ancestors wisely provided they should never come there: but those Courts are hardly ever at a loss for pretexts to draw all causes to the Bar, and to break through all regulations. Their power is now grown to an exorbitant height, and with it their oppression is extended; so that since the Chancery, by being put almost ever since the Reformation into the hands of Common Lawyers, is become in a manner a Common Law Court where equity is little considered, they are become one of the greatest grievances of the Nation.
5. Whereas Deans and Chapters of Cathedral Churches in England do at present retain an empty shadow of the privilege they formerly had of choosing their own Bps. in that a Conge d’Elire is constantly upon the vacancy of a see, sent to them and requiring them to proceed to such election; but they are obliged to choose the person named to them by the King in a letter missive sent at the same time, under the pain of incurring a Praemunire and subjecting themselves to the penalties of the Act of Henry 8 regulating the election and confirmation of Bishops. It were to be wished that a better regulation might be made in this respect, and that Deans and Chapters may, in the case of a person whom they cannot in conscience contribute by any act of theirs to advance to a See of which he is unworthy (by having preached or published heretical and false doctrines, or by being guilty of Simony or other crimes punishable by deprivation), be allowed the liberty of declining their choice and approbation without being liable to the said penalties. It may not perhaps be fit to make them judges in the case any further than relates to their own conduct, and therefore upon their signifying the crime of which the person named in the letter missive is accused and on account whereof they cannot choose him, and of the grounds they have to presume of his guilt, till he is judicially cleared, the cognisance thereof may in the case of a Bp. be taken by a Provincial Synod, and in the case of a Presbyter, by a Synod of the Diocese, wherein he has usually resided; and if the person be acquitted therein, the Chapter then to be obliged to choose him under all the penalties of the aforesaid Act, but, if he be condemned, to be justified in their rejecting him, and a better to be named in his stead.
There are some other regulations of a like kind, that would be useful with regard to the inferior Clergy, viz.: that every Certificate of good behaviour and right principles in religion, usually brought to a Bp. by every person that comes for Ordination or for Institution to a Living, be signed by the Rural Dean of the district wherein he has resided for the time mentioned therein; (unless such person hath been constantly resident in the University, in which case the Certificate of his College may serve as at present) otherwise the Bp. to be at liberty to reject him. And if a Bp. upon examining a person presented to a benefice shall find him illiterate and unqualified for the Cure, he shall appoint such person to attend him another day, when he shall likewise summon the Rural Deans of his Diocese to appear and shall in their presence examine the pretentee; and if upon the concurrent judgment of all or of the major part, or of two thirds of them, he shall be declared illiterate and insufficent for the charge of a cure of Souls, the Bp. shall be justified in refusing him institution without being aliable to any suit in law, or other prosecution whatever.
Such expedients as these afford undoubtedly a very rational security to the Church of England, and yet none of them really intrench on the just prerogative of the Crown, unless the redeeming of the Church from the slavist part of the Letter missive put upon it contrary to the first article of Magna Charta be deemed to do so, tho’ it does not infringe the Kings right of naming the Sees but only provides against the ill consequences of his being deceived and drawing into the naming of unworthy prelates; or unless it be in the waving of the claim of right to make writs of Mandamus for putting Heads and Fellows upon Colleges in the University; which if it was a right of the Crown, has been exercised very rarely and never without great odium, and which seems only to be founded upon a notion, that the incorporation of Colleges and establishment of Status for electing the Heads and members thereof, as well as for regulating their conduct, tho’ made at the request of the Founders who endowed them, yet derived their force from the authority of the Crown, which might therefore dispense with Statuts of their own creating and rights of their own granting, whenever there was occasion or it was thought proper to exert the unlimitedness of the prerogative. But if this maxim were good and would hold in Law, it would hold as well in regard to Corporations as Colleges; and yet it was never used in the ease of the former, unless upon some crime and forfeiture of their privileges, or at least on a pretence thereof, and even then when advantage was taken of such forfeiture (as was the case a little before the Revolution) it raised a terrible ferment in the nation.
There are some other things which tho’ not immediately relating to the security of the Church of England, yet being much for the benefit, dignity, and credit of the Clergy, will contribute not a little to its support.
The English being naturally a serious and devout people ran eagerly in all ages into all the modes of religion then in vogue. Hence an infinite number of Monasteries of all kinds were erected in the Kingdom, and the Religious thereof being by their institution more attached to the Pope than the secular Clergy were, it came to pass that when the Papal power was first introduced into England in the reign of Henry the First (in whose time the Cardinal de Crema came over the first Legate of the See of Rome, and appeals to that Court began to be introduced), they soon got the Pope to exert the plentitude of his power, and the sovereignty he claimed over all the possessions of the Spirituality (tho’ originally the grant of our Kings) and to appropriate the tythes glebe and revenues of livings to Monasteries. This was done generally between the years 1120 and 1250. Hereupon the Religious of these Monasteries, keeping all the great tythes and sometimes the small ones also, and even the oblations (which in those days were very considerable) to themselves either supplied the cures by one of their own body, or endowed a resident vicar either with a slender portion of the small tythes, or with a stipend in money, which, whatever it was in those days, is now very inconsiderable, and insufficient for his maintenance. When Monasteries were dissolved, and their lands given to Henry 8, the tythes and revenues of Livings thus appropriated to religious houses were given to him at the same time, and were alienated by that Prince together with the Abbey lands. Thus was the Church miserably impoverished, and even to the time of the Rebellion in 1642 there were left 6000 Vicarages in England under £30 a year, 4000 under £20 and 2000 not worth £10 a year. The Bishops upon the Restoration having abundance of leases, particularly of Tythes (for Q. Elizabeth had forced their predecessors to exchange their manners of their Sees for the tythes then remaining in the Crown which she could not keep in conscience as she alledged) that were either expired during the troubles or were near expiring, took care in the renewal thereof to augment great numbers of these poor vicarages. Private persons have since made them considerable benefactions and many Vicarages have been of late augmented out of the revenue of the First fruits and Tenths: yet still there are some thousands so meanly provided for that they do not afford a competent subsistence to a Minister.
Of all Livings throughout the Kingdom none suffered so much in the general alienation of Church revenues as those in Cities and great Towns; for scarce any of these were without one or more Monasteries, the Monks whereof supplying the cure of those Livings, had only a small stipend for their pains. Hence these Livings are the most provided for of any in England, two or three of them being often united together to make up about £30 a year for an Incumbent, whose poverty neither allows him to buy books to increase his stock of learning, nor to live with a dignity suitable to his character, not to do that good or speak with that authority in his parish which a better income would enable him to do, and generally speaking worthless Livings will be filled with worthless Clergymen. This hath proved as much to the disservice of the Crown as of the Church. For these great Towns being sorrily supplied with Ministers, and being many of them thronged with Calvinists that came out of the Low countries, Germany and other foreign countries and settled there for the sake of trade, the Puritan party in the reigns of K. James and K. Charles took care to send Lecturers thither (to whom they gave large stipends) to propagate Sedition and disaffection to the Church and Crown among the inhabitants of those great Towns, which by that means generally sided with the Parliament against the King in the rebellion of 1641, and by their wealth contributed greatly to the neine of His Majesties affairs. Had these Towns been duly supplied with a learned and well affected Clergy, the rebellion would probably have been prevented or the event of the war have proved more favourable to the royal cause. There are few things would be more serviceable to the interests both of the Church and Crown than a proper endowment of the Livings in such great Towns and Cities: and if any forfeited houses therein, or forfeited lands and tythes of lands adjoining thereto were applied thereto, the benefit to both would be great, and the Clergy in such Cities would by their interests as well as principle be obliged to support the Crown from which they desire such benefactions.
K. Charles the First gave all the Tythes remaining in his time to the Crown throughout Ireland to the Churches whereunto they originally belonged, as often as Leases of Crown lands were to be renewed or grants thereof expired. K. Charles the Second after the Restoration gave all the forfeited tythes in that Kingdom to the Church. Many grants of lands in England, with tythes annexed thereto or part thereof, may probably be now expired or are continually dropping in to the Crown; and forfeitures of a like nature will according to the course of human affairs be making from time to time and afford opportunities of the like benefactions; for if tythes were exempted as well in the renewal of such grants as in the remission of forfeitures, they might be very usefully applied for the better endowment of churches in popular Cities. In this or the like manner may that great inconvenience be in a good measure removed.
A noble grant hath been made of the First Fruits, and Tenths for the augmentation of small Livings, which will in a course of years be a considerable, though slow remedy for this evil. But it is still a question whether the Church will gain more by that benefaction, than it will lose in the same term of years, by the late change of the maxims of the Court of Exchequer in relation to tythes by the great encouragement which the Judges thereof give to pretended and unreasonable moduses (or certain trifling payments of money in lieu of tythes of 20, 30 or fifty times their value) and by the continual multiplying of such moduses all over the Kingdom; which Gentlemen are labouring by all ways to find pretexts to create, and corrupt patrons have too great opportunities of effecting with regard to livings in their Advowson, so that the evil is not unlikely in some years to grow universal.
The case of the Clergy is certainly very hard in this respect. They come to a Living generally Strangers to the place and ignorant of the rights and dues belonging to the Church. It is the interest and commonly the business of every one in their parish to impose upon them with false accounts of the value of their tythes, and to draw them into agreements much below the real value thereof. Their predecessor being dead, his papers neglected or carried off by his executors, they derive little knowledge from either. After long waiting for some equivalent to the large expense of a University education, coming at last into a benefice, they are glad to take the first offer that will make them easy, being either by their former manner of life and attachment to their studies, indisposed to have their time and thoughts taken up in the collecting of tythes, or by the ignorance of country affairs utterly unqualified to manage so new and troublesome an affair as the gathering of them in kind, not caring to oppress or disoblige their parishioners, or to go to law upon a footing they do not fully understand, and at an expense they are not able to bear; especially since they have only a life interest in the Living, and if they can but be easy for their own time, they are willing to leave the burden of asserting the rights of the Church to their next successor. These circumstances and this temper of mind induce the Clergy too often to afford those who have a mind to make a prey of the revenue of the Church, means of effecting their dishonourable purpose; in which they are not a little favoured by the proceedings of the Courts of Westminster Hall.
Great care had been taken in ancient times to preserve the revenue of the church, but it was by methods adapted to the nature and circumstances of those times. Terriers or particular accounts of the rights of each benefice in a Diocese, have been for many ages given in at every Bps. triennial visitation; and these being drawn up by the joint consent of the Incumbent and Parishioners, and signed by the Minister and Churchwardens were used to be looked upon, and in all reason and equity ought to be deemed exceptionable evidences of such rights. They were accordingly received as such in the spiritual Courts where all suits for Tythes and other dues of the Clergy were carried on, and being Ecclesiastical causes and only of their cognisance. But since the Reformation the Common Lawyers have found out querks in law to draw these causes into their Courts, and particularly whenever a modus is pretended, that pretence is a sufficient reason for a Judge to issue out a prohibition ordering the Spiritual Court to proceed no further in such a cause. It being thus brought into the Common Law Courts, the next thing is to set aside all the evidences against such pretence of a modus, arising from the agreement of these Terriers for hundreds of years together; which is done on a pretext that these Terriers were taken by direction from Bps. and not in virtue of any special commission from the Crown, the result of which alone is all the evidence allowed in these Courts.
The Clergy thus stripped of all the evidences wherein they confided, and had been ever safe before, were forced to have recourse to other methods for opposing such pretences of a modus. Now by Law a Modus must have been from time immemorial, and this was judged to be the time of Richard I. higher than whose reign none of our Records relating to this subject go; and indeed none are ancienter except the Piperolls and Domesday book. When therefore a Modus of sixpence an acre for land now set at twenty shillings an acre and the Crop whereof is probably worth considerably more was pretended, they thought it a sufficient refutation of such Modus, to shew by records of the Tax rolls in the resigns of the Successors of that King, and by Inquisitions taken in virtue of commissions from the Crown, that the very land in question was set in later reigns than Richards but at three pence an acre, and therefore six pence an acre could never be then paid for the tythe thereof. This proof was indeed allowed till Baron Pryse was removed from the Exchequer Court; since which it has been rejected and all the maxims formerly received there in favour of tythes laid aside; so that the decision of the cause is now left to the testimony of living witnesses for the time of their particular memory; in which respect the Clergy lye under a manifest disadvantage, few caring to depose on their side, and their predecessors papers and accompt books seldom falling into the hands of the successors, whilst all the receipts of those predecessors are in the hands of their adversaries with whom they are at law.
To bring them out of these difficulties and to put a stop to the growing evil of new Moduses starting up daily nothing seems more proper or can be more effectual than a Commission to be granted to worth virtuous and understanding Gentlemen in every County of the Kingdom to enquiry into the value of Livings and to draw up a particular account of the rights and dues of each to be returned into the Court of the Exchequer and there kept on record. This would stop at once all future pretences to new Moduses; because there is no averring against a record, and the rights of the Clergy will be fixed for ever, liable to no invasion, especially if exemplifications of such returns of the Commissioners under the Seale of the Court of Exchequer were lodged in the registry of every Bp. and Archdeacon in England.
K. James the First took this method in Ireland when he granted the escheated Counties of Ulster in different parcels of land to Planters, he caused a glebe of 60 acres of land in every thousand of which a parish consisted, to be set out for the Minister to whom he likewise gave all manner of tythes in kind of all the lands throughout each parish. As every Planter was obliged to pass patents under the Great Seale for this land, so were the Clergy for their glebe or tythes; but as the passing of so many single patents as there were benefices in Ulster would have been too heavy a charge upon each incumbent he directed for the saving of fees that the endowments of all the livings in each County should be passed in one patent. Among other happy consequences of this proceeding, it is a very agreeable one to the Clergy of that province that they never have any lawsuits with their parishioners, nor indeed can have, so long as a record subsists to clear and express in their favour. Were the same method taken in England, were the rights of Livings as well ascertained and lawsuits about them as effectually prevented, no Clergy upon earth would have more credit with their parishioners than those of England, who are not inferior to any other in learning, judgment, merit or indeed any other respect. Few things would be more serviceable to the security of the Church of England, than such a method of keeping the Clergy always well with their parishioners.
With the same view was it that K. James settled one common tything table for all Ulster thereby preventing all disputes in small matters. It were to be wished, the same method was taken in England, and that one uniform tything table was settled all over the Kingdom, or at least in the different quarters thereof, according to the different circumstances of each quarter. This would contribute to the same desirable end.
There was about a.d. 1710 a Bill passed in Parliament in favour of the Clergy, for the more easier recovery of small tythes, by which in the case of Quakers and other refractory persons Justices of the Peace were empowered to give the Clergy possession of their dues by distraining on the premises or on the goods of the refractory persons. This remedy was speedy attended with very little expense, and was had at first without trouble or difficulty. But of late years men disaffected to the Clergy having been put into the Commissions of the Peace, and the terms of the Act being that they may (not that they shall) give relief and do justice to the Clergy, these Justices say, they are indeed empowered but not obliged to help the Clergy to their rights, and so refuse to act in the case; by which the law is evaded, and the intent of it defeated. If this or some other such short and easy method of recovering the dues of the Clergy were properly established it would be another help to the security of the Church.
After all the means that have been mentioned for the security of the Church of England in an ecclesiastical way, there is another of a different kind more considerable and necessary than all of them together: and this is the establishing of the choice of an House of Commons on such a foot, as it may be free from all Court or Ministerial influence. There cannot be a point conceived of more absolute necessity for the good of the kingdom, nor is there any other so universally and ardently the common wish of the Nation. This, once settled, would secure everything else that any lover of this country and religion has to wishe. But the great question is by what means and in what manner this is to be effected.
For my part, I readily profess that in all cases I am disposed to have recourse to the old ways of our constitution for the redress of any pressing grievance. There was formerly a reasonable proportion between the representatives of Counties which were about 90, and those of Cities and great Towns which amounted to about 100, and those of lesser burroughs which returned about 70 deputies, these making in all about 256 members of Parliament. This proportion of representation lasted till the time of Q. Elizabeth: but since the beginning of her reign, it has been gradually destroying, and is now so entirely overturned, that the smaller burroughs, though they do not possess the thousandth part of the others property, can outvote them both in the House of Commons, there having been as many representatives for these paltry burroughs added to the Parliament, as it consisted of before that time. In one Session of Parliament in that Queen’s reign eight small burroughs in Cornwall were called upon to send Deputies, and the humour went on till the Parliament of 1641 made up the disproportion now complained of with so much reason. There does not therefore appear to me any means of rectifying this abuse and of restoring the ancient balance of our Constitution, so natural as the disfranchising at once of all those late created Parliamentary burroughs, whose constant corruption and bribery of late years so well known and so easy to be proved, call loudly for such a method to be taken.
If this should be thought too great a change, and the disfranchising of these burroughs should be deemed improper, their corruption may probably be prevented by allowing all the freeholders of 40s. a year within the hundred, in which such burrough is situated, to vote equally with the present electors or inhabitants in the burrough for the representatives thereof: and in case this method be taken, such Freeholders being allowed a right of voting for representatives, no wrong would be done them, if the right of voting in elections of Knights of the Shire were restrained to Freeholders that pay for 10£ a year to the land tax: which would render County elections much more easy and less expensive.
If neither of these methods should be approved, it may be considered whether all these burroughs should not be limited to one representative, and the choice of the other transferred to the several Counties of the kingdom in proportion to their payments towards the Land Tax; by which means the present number of representatives may be preserved. One or other of these methods seems necessary to be taken, or else the corruption, being grown so general and barefaced in these burroughs, will not admit of a cure: and unless it be cured, Parliaments that should naturally be the guardians of all our rights and liberties, will prove the worst of our grievances, and such an one as will make all the rest irremediable. If these great points, of the proportion of our representation, and the unbiassed freedome of elections were once secured, everything else will easily be secured by Parliament.
To establish this freedom and put a stop to the corruption or violence that destroy it, nothing appears at first sight more proper than the putting of Parliaments upon their ancient foot, allowing them to sit but one Session, and never to continue above a year. In such a case foreigners or strangers who have no merit or interest in a burrough but what their bribes and money purchase them, will never be able to carry elections against the Gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who have a natural interest in the place. For as the present circumstances of the Crown and Nation, so different from what they formerly were, require Parliament to be annually held for the granting of new supplies, no private purse can hold out for any length of time in furnishing those immense sums that are now squandered away by strangers in the expences of disputed elections: and as this evill is grown very rife, and all laws made to remedy it have hitherto proved ineffectual, it is scarce possible to be cured by any other method.
There is another practice in the House of Commons itself, that helps to destroy the freedome of Parliaments: I mean the method taken by the stronger party of thinning the House, and expelling such as are of different sentiments from themselves, however duely chosen; altering the rights of electors as they see fit and as will best furnish them a pretence for that purpose. Some method should therefore be taken in fixing the right of voting in elections on an invariable foot, so as not to be violated or altered by any determination of the House of Commons. If this were done by an Act of Parliament, and every person whose vote is refused by the returning officer, or whose right is infringed by the intrusion of a wrong member, had power to bring an action and to recover very great damages, from both of these, this scandalous and mischievous evill might possibly be prevented.
The iniquities of these late times suggest some other measures to be taken; such as the limiting of the number of officers and pensioners that sit in the House of Commons; and the disabling of all Excise men, Custom house officers, and soldiers, that are under command and consequently not free to vote according to their own inclinations and real sentiments, from having voices in elections, unless on account of their freeholds, when they have any.
In former times the Civil and Military power of the Nation lay entirely in the hands of Gentlemen of estates, and was incident to their tenures; but that face of things is now changed, and the exercise of the Civil power is at present vested in the Justices of the peace, as that of the military is in the Lord and Deputy Lieutenants. Very inconsiderable persons have of late years been put into both these commissions; and very ill consequences have either been found or are daily apprehended, to arise from thence. This makes it generally wished that none should be qualified for the office of a Deputy Lieutenant who has not £500 a year, or for that of a Justice of peace in any county, who has not £300 or at least £200 a year in such County. These methods for restoring in some degree such considerable branches of our old Constitution would at the same time advance the security of the Church.
There are penal laws enough already made, and I do not see any occasion there can be of adding to them unless that instead of receiving the Sacrament occasionally, the constant conformity of a person to the established Church, be made the qualification for any government, command or office of rank or profit: and that instead of a Certificate of a persons having received the Sacrament, another of his being a constant communicant with the Church of England be insisted on and given by the Minister and Churchwardens of the parish where such person usually resides six months at least in the year, before he shall be allowed to enter upon the exercise of his office.
Some such regulations as these, (which are but too much wanted at present,) would contribute equally to the security of the Church, and the happiness of the Nation.
At the end of this Memorandum there is appended the following autograph letter from the Pretender, which would seem to show that Sir Robert Walpole had personally authorised Mr. Carte to obtain a statement of his views. It runs as follows:—
Rome, July 17, 1739.
The Message you bring could not but appear verry singular and extraordinary to me because you deliver it only from second hand and that I have no sort of proof of your being authorised by the person in question, who cannot but feel that it is natural for me to mistrust what may come from him. It may be and I hope it is the case that he wishes me and my cause well, and I am sensible it may be greatly in his power to serve both.
If he hath realy my interest at heart, lett him send to me some trusty friend and confident of his to explain to me his sentiments and viewes; and if he pursues measures which manifestly tend to my Restoration, I shall be persuaded of his sincerity, and shall consider and reward him after my restoration proportionably to the share he may have had in bringing it about. But whatever may or may not be in this matter, I have no difficulty in putting it in your power to satisfy him authoritically on the two articles about which he is sollicitous, since independant of his desire, I am fully resolved to protect and secure the Church of England according to the reiterated promisses I have made to that effect, and shall be ready after my restoration to give all reasonable security which a first Parliament can ask of me for that end. As for ye Princes of the House of Hannover I thank God I have no ressentment against them, nor against any one living; I shall never repine at their living happily in their own Country after I am in possession of my Kingdomes and should they fall into my power upon any attempt for my restoration, I shall certainly not touch a hair of their heads.
I thought it proper to explain in this manner my sentiments on these heads not absolutely to neglect an overture which may be of great importance if well grounded, and if otherwayes no inconvenience can arise from what I have here said.
James R.
At the back of this letter is written in Sir Robert Walpole’s writing—
This original letter wrote to Mr. Tho. Cart when at Rome, and given Him by the Pretender was deliver’d to me by the said Mr. Tho. Cart Sept. 15th. 1739 together with the Heads &c.
Whilst this correspondence would seem to show that Sir Robert was not altogether disinclined to enter into secret negotiations with the Pretender, it must be remembered that up to comparatively recent times statesmen at the head of affairs were much given to employing secret agents for the purpose of obtaining information—very often without the knowledge of the Government over which they presided. Cavour, I believe, was about the last to employ these methods, and it is said that though he was very much given to this sort of thing, he never obtained any good by it, as the agents he employed never reported anything of the slightest value, most of their communications being absolutely unreliable and untrue. Mr. Carte, however, appears to have really enjoyed the confidence of the Pretender, and the whole correspondence is somewhat interesting as showing the great amount of intrigue and love of secret negotiation which prevailed at the period of the eighteenth century when this memorandum was drawn up.
| [2] | The site of Sir Robert’s house in Chelsea is now covered by Walpole Street, which traverses the ground upon which his mansion stood. |