communication with the invading army of the Pretender, then on its
march southward from Edinburgh. The suspect, who was wholly innocent,
was taken to London and kept in custody for nearly a year before
being discharged, after which, by way of a slight redress, a letter
of reprimand for his _trop de zèle_ was sent by direction of
Lord Carteret to the militant dignitary. But the desired end was
nevertheless attained, and Dr. Sterne succeeded in crowning the
edifice of his ecclesiastical honours.[1]

[Footnote 1: A once-familiar piece of humorous verse describes the
upset of a coach containing a clerical pluralist:

"When struggling on the ground was seen
A Rector, Vicar, Canon, Dean;
You might have thought the coach was full,
But no! 'twas only Dr. Bull."

Dr. Jacques Sterne, however, might have been thrown out of one of the
more capacious vehicles of the London General Omnibus Company, with
almost the same misleading effect upon those who only _heard_ of the
mishap.]


There can be little doubt that patronage extended by such an uncle to
such a nephew received its full equivalent in some way or other, and
indeed the Memoir gives us a clue to the mode in which payment was
made. "My uncle," writes Sterne, describing their subsequent rupture,
"quarrelled with me because I would not write paragraphs in the
newspapers; though he was a party-man, I was not, and detested such
dirty work, thinking it beneath me. From that time he became my