[356] 10 Anne, c. 2.
[357] 12 Anne, c. 7; Parl. Hist. vi. 1349. The schism act, according to Lockhart, was promoted by Bolingbroke, in order to gratify the high tories, and to put Lord Oxford under the necessity of declaring himself one way or other. "Though the Earl of Oxford voted for it himself, he concurred with those who endeavoured to restrain some parts which they reckoned too severe; and his friends in both houses, particularly his brother auditor Harley, spoke and voted against it very earnestly."—P. 462.
[358] 5 Geo. I. c. 4. The whigs out of power, among whom was Walpole, factiously and inconsistently opposed the repeal of the schism act, so that it passed with much difficulty. Parl. Hist. vii. 569.
[359] The first act of this kind appears to have been in 1727. 1 Geo. II. c. 23. It was repeated next year, intermitted the next, and afterwards renewed in every year of that reign except the fifth, the seventeenth, the twenty-second, the twenty-third, the twenty-sixth, and the thirtieth. Whether these occasional interruptions were intended to prevent the nonconformists from relying upon it, or were caused by some accidental circumstance, must be left to conjecture. I believe that the renewal has been regular every year since the accession of George III. It is to be remembered, that the present work was first published before the repeal of the test act in 1828.
[360] We find in Gutch's Collectanea Curiosa, vol. i. p. 53, a plan, ascribed to Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, for taking away the election of heads of colleges from the fellows, and vesting the nomination in the great officers of state, in order to cure the disaffection and want of discipline which was justly complained of. This remedy would have been perhaps the substitution of a permanent for a temporary evil. It appears also that Archbishop Wake wanted to have had a bill, in 1716, for asserting the royal supremacy, and better regulating the clergy of the two universities (Coxe's Walpole, ii. 122); but I do not know that the precise nature of this is anywhere mentioned. I can scarcely quote Amherst's Terræ Filius as authority; it is a very clever, though rather libellous, invective against the university of Oxford at that time; but from internal evidence, as well as the confirmation which better authorities afford it, I have no doubt that it contains much truth.
Those who have looked much at the ephemeral literature of these two reigns must be aware of many publications fixing the charge of prevalent disaffection on this university, down to the death of George II.; and Dr. King, the famous jacobite master of St. Mary Hall, admits that some were left to reproach him for apostasy in going to court on the accession of the late king in 1760. The general reader will remember the Isis by Mason, and the Triumph of Isis by Warton; the one a severe invective, the other an indignant vindication; but in this instance, notwithstanding the advantages which satire is supposed to have over panegyric, we must award the laurel to the worse cause, and, what is more extraordinary, to the worse poet.
[361] Layer, who suffered on account of this plot, had accused several peers, among others Lord Cowper, who complained to the house of the publication of his name; and indeed, though he was at that time strongly in opposition to the court, the charge seems wholly incredible. Lord Strafford, however, was probably guilty; Lords North and Orrery certainly so. Parl. Hist. viii. 203. There is even ground to suspect that Sunderland, to use Tindal's words, "in the latter part of his life had entered into correspondencies and designs, which would have been fatal to himself or to the public."—P. 657. This is mentioned by Coxe, i. 165; and certainly confirmed by Lockhart, ii. 68, 70. But the reader will hardly give credit to such a story as Horace Walpole has told, that he coolly consulted Sir Robert, his political rival, as to the part they should take on the king's death. Lord Orford's Works, iv. 287.
[362] State Trials, xvi. 324; Parl. Hist. viii. 195 et post. Most of the bishops voted against their restless brother; and Willis, Bishop of Salisbury, made a very good but rather too acrimonious a speech on the bill. Id. 298. Hoadley, who was no orator, published two letters in the newspaper, signed "Britannicus," in answer to Atterbury's defence; which, after all that had passed, he might better have spared. Atterbury's own speech is certainly below his fame, especially the peroration. Id. 267.
No one, I presume, will affect to doubt the reality of Atterbury's connections with the Stuart family, either before his attainder or during his exile. The proofs of the latter were published by Lord Hailes in 1768, and may be found also in Nicholls's edition of Atterbury's Correspondence, i. 148. Additional evidence is furnished by the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. passim.
[363] The Stuart papers obtained lately from Rome, and now in his majesty's possession, are said to furnish copious evidence of the jacobite intrigues, and to affect some persons not hitherto suspected. We have reason to hope that they will not be long withheld from the public, every motive for concealment being wholly at an end.