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Untitled Article
ters ? " . Against the wei ghs of Mr . Lawson's feiiit dubitation ^ however , we have as usual in the other scale , the observati 6 n , M ; tnlfihoHigti lPry # H 4 'fe ears were certainly cropt , he ; } pst but a very little bit : of them , ^ tibugli being left for an after crop , ) and the sentence tli ^ refore " tyas not remarkably s evere ; " 2 d , that it was then customkty " to c ^ off the ears arid " to slit the nose . " Ears and noses were , in those days , used td siich delicate treatment ,, and did not mind it a bit . We remember the storv of the eels ?
and their flayer . ... » ,. . It is very difficult to reconcile Laud ' s promotion to the Commission 6 f the Treasury with any thing but a rash , grasping disposition to intermeddle everywhere and with everything . The position of the church wsts sufficiently delicate , and Churchmen were sufficiently obnoxious , without widening the breach by thrusting ecclesiastics into appointments connected with the obvious sources of disunion between the King and his people . We find the Archbishop , as usual , quarrelling with all around him , fated 6 n all
occasions to accelerate his master ' s ruin by disgusting his friends and irritating his enemies , till at last he found it convenient to thrust the dangerous honour upon his creature Juxon , the Bishop of London . Our biogra p her tells us , " that such an appointment ( however afterwards neutralized by Juxoh * s good sense ) gave great dissatisfaction to the people in geheral , " and that the nobles were exasperated " at being supplanted by an ecclesiastic who
had hitherto been little known . " Still we are consoled by the assurance that "it cannot be doubted that the Archbishop was guided by the most upright motives in promoting the appointment of Dr . Juxon to the office df Lord Treasurer . " Those who had previously read our author ' s reflections on the aptitude of ecclesiastics for the offices of statesmen , will be disappointed at this descent into an apology for their blunders on account of their
motives . Lord Clarendon would have been a sounder authority for consigning the whole policy of Laud and his brethren as statesmen to reprobation , by the reflection which bitter experience wrung from him as to ecclesiastics in general , that they " understand the least and take the worst measure of human affairs of all mankind that can write and iWd . "
A curious practical illustration of Laud ' s aptitude as a statesman is afforded by his sage scheme for stopping the safety Valve at which some df the explosive matter which his oppression had generated would gladl y have made its escape from the scene of action . It was ordered by his advice that the Puritans who were about to leave the country should be restrained from enjoying liberty of conscience , even on the seas or the plains of the
new continent , and no minister was allowed to pass without approbation of the Archbishop . " These orders were founded , " Mr . Lawson has discovered , " on obvious reasons of state . " It is a happy thing for an ecclesiastical statesman to have a brother for his biographer and judge . Mr . Lawson has next to grapple wijth the violent proceedings adopted against Prynne , Bastwick , * and Burton . He is here rather puzzled ; fofc *
Prynne , it is undeniable , now lost , not a small piece of his ears , as before , but one large enough to comprise a portion of each cneek , besides fine , pillory , imprisonment for life in distant dungeons , deprivation , denial of all intercourse with any but jailors , and of all use of writing materials . " Thfe punishments , * ' it is admitted , " exceeded the offence , and are revolting to
* Mr . Lawson is pleased to call the poor Doctor " Medico-Mastix , " because some one published a book against him with that title , which Mr . L . seems to imagine waa the Doctor ' s own work . Can he translate the word ?
Untitled Article
Life and TifyZs of Afch ^ hoj ) Laud . 487
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 487, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/39/
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