1773.

Etat. 64.

Nay, Dryden, in his poem on the Royal Society, has thefe lines:

• Then we upon our globe's laft verge fhall go,

And fee the ocean leaning on the sky;

From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know,
And on the lunar world fecurely pry.".

Talking of puns, Johnfon, who had a great contempt for that fpecies of wit, deigned to allow that there was one good pun in "Menagiana," I think on the word corps.

Much pleasant converfation paffed, which Johnfon relifhed with great good humour. But his converfation alone, or what led to it, or was interwoven with it, is the bufinefs of this work.

He was

On Saturday, May 1, we dined by ourselves at our old rendezvous, the Mitre tavern. placid, but not much difpofed to talk. He obferved, that "The Irish mix better with the English than the Scotch do; their language is

Mr. Reed informs me that the Authour of Eugenio, a Wine Merchant at Wrexham in Denbighshire, foon after its publication, viz. 17th May, 1737, cut his own throat, and that it appears by Swift's Works, that the poem had been shewn to him, and received some of his corrections. Johnson had read “ Eugenio" on his first coming to town, for we see it mentioned in one of his letters to Mr. Cave, which has been inserted in this work.

2

Probably I have mistaken the word, and imagined it to be Corps, from its fimilarity of found to the real one. For an accurate and fhrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for fome remarks on my work, obferves on this paffage—" Q. if not on the word Fort? A vociferous French preacher faid of Bourdaloue, Il preche fort bien, et moi bien fort."Menagiana. See alfo Anecdotes Litteraires Article Bourdaloue.

nearer to English; as a proof of which, they fucceed very well as players, which Scotchmen do not. Then, Sir, they have not that extreme nationality which we find in the Scotch. I will do, you, Bofwell, the justice to say, that you are the most unfcottified of your countrymen, You are almoft the only inftance. of a Scotchman that I have known, who did not at every other fentence bring in fome other Scotchman."

We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I introduced a queftion which has been much agitated in the Church of Scotland, whether the claim of lay-patrons to present minifters to parishes be wellfounded; and fuppofing it to be well founded, whether it ought to be exercised without the concurrence of the people? That Church is compofed of a series of judicatures: a Prefbytery,—a Synod, and finally, a General Affembly; before all of which, this matter may be contended: and in fome cafes the Prefbytery having refufed to induct or fettle, as they call it, the perfon prefented by the patron, it has been found neceffary to appeal to the General Affembly. He faid, I might fee the fubject well treated in the " Defence of Pluralities;" and although he thought that a patron fhould exercise his right with tendernefs to the inclinations of the people of a parish, he was very clear as to his right. Then fuppofing the question to be pleaded before the General Affembly, he dictated to me what follows:

"AGAINST the right of patrons is commonly opposed, by the inferiour judicatures, the plea of confcience. Their confcience tells them, that the H 3 people

1773.

Etat. 64.

1773.

tat. 64.

people ought to choose their paftor; their confcience tells them that they ought not to impofe upon a congregation a minifter ungrateful and unacceptable to his auditors. Confcience is nothing more than a conviction felt by ourselves of fomething to be done, or fomething to be avoided; and in queftions of fimple unperplexed morality, conscience is very aften a guide that may be trusted. But before confcience can determine, the ftate of the queftion is fuppofed to be completely known. In questions of law, or of fact, confcience is very often confounded with opinion. No man's confcience can tell him the right of another man: They must be known by rational investigation or hiftorical enquiry. Opinion, which he that holds it may call his confcience, may teach fome men that religion would be promoted, and quiet preferved, by granting to the people univerfally the choice of their minifters. But it is a confcience very ill informed that violates the rights of one man, for the convenience of another. Religion cannot be promoted by injustice: and it was never yet found that a popular election was very quietly

tranfacted.

"That juftice would be violated by transferring to the people the right of patronage, is apparent to all who know whence that right had its original. The right of patronage was not at first a privilege torn by power from unrefifting poverty. It is not an authority at first ufurped in times of ignorance, and established only by fucceffion and by precedents. It is not a grant capriciously made from a higher tyrant to a lower. It is a right dearly pur

chafed

1773.

chafed by the firft poffeffors, and justly inherited by thofe that fucceeded them. When Christianity Etat. 64. was established in this island, a regular mode of publick worship was prescribed. Publick worship requires a publick place; and the proprietors of lands, as they were converted, built churches for their families and their vaffals. For the maintenance of ministers, they settled a certain portion of their lands; and a district, through which each minister was required to extend his care, was, by that circumfcription, conftituted a parish. This is a position fo generally received in England, that the extent of a manor and of a parish are regularly received for each other. The churches which the proprietors of lands had thus built and thus endowed, they justly thought themselves entitled to provide with minifters; and where the epifcopal government prevails, the Bishop has no power to reject a man nominated by the patron, but for some crime that might exclude him from the priesthood. For the endowment of the church being the gift of the landlord, he was confequently at liberty to give it according to his choice, to any man capable of performing the holy offices. The people did not choose him, because the people did him.

not pay

"We hear it fometimes urged, that this original right is paffed out of memory, and is obliterated and obfcured by many translations of property and changes of government; that scarce any church is now in the hands of the heirs of the builders; and that the present perfons have entered fubfequently upon the pretended rights by a thousand accidental

H 4

and

1773.

Etat. 64.

true.

and unknown caufes. Much of this, perhaps, is
But how is the right of patronage extin-
guifhed? If the right followed the lands, it is
poffeffed by the fame equity by which the lands are
poffeffed. It is, in effect, part of the manor, and
protected by the fame laws with every other privi-
lege. Let us fuppose an estate forfeited by treason,
and granted by the Crown to a new family. With
the lands were forfeited all the rights appendant to
those lands; by the fame power that grants the
lands, the rights alfo are granted. The right loft
to the patron falls not to the people, but is either
retained by the Crown, or, what to the people is
the fame thing, is by the Crown given away. Let
it change hands ever so often, it is poffeffed by him
that receives it with the fame right as it was con-
veyed. It may, indeed, like all our poffeffions,
be forcibly feized or fraudulently obtained.
no injury is still done to the people; for what they
never had, they have never loft. Caius
Caius may ufurp
the right of Titius; but neither Caius nor Titius
injure the people; and no man's confcience, how-
ever tender or however active, can prompt him to
reftore what may be proved to have been never
taken away. Suppofing, what I think cannot be
proved, that a popular election of minifters were
to be defired, our defires are not the measure of
equity. It were to be defired that power should
be only in the hands of the merciful, and riches in
the poffeffion of the generous; but the law must
leave both riches and power where it finds them;
and muft often leave riches with the covetous, and
power with the cruel. Convenience may be a

But

rule