mother to select the monster or the idiot of the family as the
object of her especial favour, Mr. Hallam has incidentally
observed, that, in the correspondence of Laud with Strafford,
there are no indications of a sense of duty towards God or man.
The admirers of the Archbishop have, in consequence, inflicted
upon the public a crowd of extracts designed to prove the
contrary. Now, in all those passages, we see nothing, which a
prelate as wicked as Pope Alexander or Cardinal Dubois might not
have written. Those passages indicate no sense of duty to God or
man, but simply a strong interest in the prosperity and dignity
of the order to which the writer belonged; an interest which,
when kept within certain limits, does not deserve censure, but
which can never be considered as a virtue. Laud is anxious to
accommodate satisfactorily the disputes in the University of
Dublin. He regrets to hear that a church is used as a stable, and
that the benefices of Ireland are very poor. He is desirous that,
however small a congregation may be, service should be regularly
performed. He expresses a wish that the judges of the court
before which questions of tithe are generally brought should be
selected with a view to the interest of the clergy. All this may
be very proper; and it may be very proper that an alderman should
stand up for the tolls of his borough, and an East India director
for the charter of his Company. But it is ridiculous to say that
these things indicate piety and benevolence. No primate, though
he were the most abandoned of mankind, could wish to see the
body, with the influence of which his own influence was
identical, degraded in the public estimation by internal
dissensions, by the ruinous state of its edifices, and by the
slovenly performance of its rites. We willingly acknowledge that
the particular letters in question have very little harm in them;