WUXIAM AND 3IAST.
Ill
abject in any gentleman to hold except to royalty. The Bishopassured their Majesties that he was devoted to their cause, that -he earnestly wished for a great occasion to prove his zeal, andthat he would no more swerve from his duty to them than re-nounce his hope of heaven. He added, in phraseology meta-phorical indeed, but perfectly intelligible, that he was themouthpiece of several of the nonjuring prelates, and especiallyof Sancroft. “Sir, I speak in the plural,” — these are thewords of the letter to James, — “because I write my elderbrother’s sentiments as -well as my own, and the rest of ourfamily.” The letter to Mary of Modena is to the same effect.“I say this in behalf of my elder brother, and the rest of mynearest relations, as well as from myself.” *
All the letters with which Preston was charged referred theCourt of Saint Germains to him for fuller information. Hecarried with him minutes in his own handwriting of the subjectson which he was to converse with his master and with theministers of Lewis. These minutes, though concise and de-sultory, can for the most part be interpreted without difficulty.The vulnerable points of the coast are mentioned. Gosport isdefended only by palisades. The garrison of Portsmouth issmall. The French fleet ought to be out in April, and to fightbefore the Dutch are in the Channel. There are a few brokenwords clearly importing that some at least of the nonjuringbishops, when they declared, before God, that they ab-horred the thought of inviting the French over, were dissem-bling. **
* The genuineness of these letters was once contested on very frivolousgrounds. But the letter of Turner to Sancroft, which is among the Tannerpapers in the Bodleian Library, and which will be found in the Life of Kenby a Layman , must convince the most incredulous.
** The words are these: “The Modest Inquiry — The Bishops’Answer— Not the chilling of them — But the satisfying of friends.” The ModestInquiry was the pamphlet which hinted at Dewitting.
CTTAP.
XVI.
1690 .