Druckschrift 
7 (1855)
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336

HISTOBY OP ENGLAND.

CRAP.

XX.

itiUA.

buried in the church of Saint Laivrence Jewry, near Guildhall.- It was there that he had won his immense oratorical reputation.He had preached there during the thirty years which precededhis elevation to the throne of Canterbury. His eloquence hadattracted to the heart of the City crowds of the learned and polite,from the Inns of Court and from the lordly mansions of SaintJames’s and Soho. A considerable part of his congregation hadgenerally consisted of young clergymen, who came to learn theart of preaching at the feet of him who was universally con-sidered as the first of preachers. To this church his remainswere now carried through a mourning population. The hearsewas followed by an endless train of splendid equipages fromLambeth through Southwark and over London Bridge. Burnetpreached the funeral sermon. His kind and honest heart wasovercome by so many tender recollections that, in the midst ofhis discourse, he paused and burst into tears, while a loudmoan of sorrow rose from the whole auditory. The Queen couldnot speak of her favourite instructor without weeping. EvenWilliam was visibly moved. “I have lost,” he said, “the bestfriend that I ever had, and the best man that I ever knew.” Theonly Englishman who is mentioned with tenderness in any partof the great mass of letters which the King wrote to TIeinsius isTillotson. The Archbishop had left a widow. To her Williamgranted a pension of four hundred a year, which he afterwardsincreased to six hundred. His anxiety that she should receiveher income regularly and without stoppages was honourable tohim. Every quarterday he ordered the money, without anydeduction, to be brought to himself, and immediately sent ittoher. Tillotson had bequeathed to her no property, except agreat number of manuscript sermons. Such was his fame amonghis contemporaries that those sermons were purchased by thebooksellers for the almost incredible sum of two thousand fivehundred guineas, equivalent, in the wretched state in which