WILLIAM ANI) MAEY.

171

be burned by the' common hangman. A long and vehementdebate followed. For Burnet was a man warmly loved as wellas warmly hated. The great majority of the Whigs stood firmlyby him; and his goodnature and generosity had made himfriends even among the Tories. The contest lasted two days.Montague and Finch, men of widely different opinions, appearto have been foremost among the Bishop’s champions. An at-tempt to get rid of the subject by moving the previous questionfailed. At length the main question was put; and the PastoralLetter was condemned to the flames by a small majority in a fullhouse. The Ayes were a hundred and sixty two; the Noes ahundred and fifty five.* The general opinion, at least of thecapital, seems to have been that Burnet was cruelly treated.**He was not naturally a man of fine feelings; and the lifewhich he had led had not tended to make them finer. He hadbeen during many years a mark for theological and politicalanimosity. Grave doctors had anathematized him: ribaldpoets had lampooned him: princes and ministers had laidsnares for his life: he had been long a wanderer and an exile, inconstant peril of being kidnapped, struck in the boots, hangedand quartered. Yet none of these things had ever seemed tomove him. His selfconceit had been proof against ridicule, andhis dauntless temper against danger. But on this occasion hisfortitude seems to have failed him. To be stigmatized by thepopular branch ot the legislature as a teacher of doctrines soservile that they disgusted even Tories, to be joined in onesentence of condemnation with the editor of Filmer, was toomuch. How deeply Burnet was wounded appeared many yearslater, when, after his death, his History of his Life and Times

* Grey’s Debates; Commons’ Journals,-Jan. 21. 23. 169|; Bohun’sAutobiography; Kennet’s Life and Eeign of King William and QueenMary.

** “Most men pitying the Bishop.” — Boliun’s Autobiography.