Of those, the most firm and resolute was Andrew Fletcher of Salton, a man of cultivated genius, of a warm temper, a lofty courage, a bold eloquence, and an incorruptible integrity. Finding all his efforts ineffectual, to prevent the passing of the Act of the Union, and believing it impossible that a majority of his countrymen could ever have been brought to consent to the annihilation of their ancient monarchy, without the influence of English gold, he resolved to quit the kingdom, that he might not share in their reproach, by condescending so far as to live among them.

On the day of his departure, his friends crowded around him, intreating him to stay. Even after his foot was in the stirrup, they continued their solicitations, anxiously crying, "Will you forsake your country?" He reverted his head, and darting on them a look of indignation, replied, "It is only fit for the slaves who sold it !" leaped into the saddle, and put spurs to his horse; leaving them struck with a momentary humiliation; and, forgetting the extravagance of his conduct, at a loss, which most to admire, the pride of his virtue, or the elevation of his spirit.

CHAP. LXXIV.

Sacheverel's Sermons in defence of the Doctrine of Non-resistance are burnt by the common Hangman, A. D. 1709.

DOCTOR Sacheverel, a clergyman of narrow intellects and bigotted principles, published two sermons, in which he strongly insisted on the illegality of resisting kings, and enforced the divine origin of their authority; declaimed against the dissenters, and exhorted the church to put on the whole armor of God. There was nothing in the sermons either nervous, well written, or clear. They owed all their celebrity to the complexion of the times, and are at present justly forgotten. Sacheverel was impeached by the commons at the bar of the upper house. They seemed resolutely bent upon punishing him, and a day was appointed for trying him before the lords at Westminster-hall.

Meanwhile, the tories, who one and all ap. proved his principles, were as violent in his defence, as the parliament had been in his prosecution. The eyes of the whole kingdom were turned upon this very extraordinary trial, which lasted three weeks, and excluded all other public business for the time. Queen Anne herself was every day present as a private spectator, while vast multitudes attended the culprit each day, as he went to the hall, shouting as he passed, or silently praying for his success.

While the trial continued, nothing could exceed the violence and outrage of the populace. They surrounded the queen's sedan, exclaiming, "God bless your majesty and the church; we hope your majesty is for doctor Sacheverel." They destroyed several meeting houses, and plundered the dwellings of dissenters; and the queen herself could not but relish these doctrines, which contributed to extend her preroga. tive. The lords were divided. They continued undetermined for some time; but at length, after much obstinate dispute and virulent altercation, Sacheverel was found guilty, by a majority of seventeen voices. He was prohibited from preaching for the term of three years; and his two sermons were ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. The lenity of this sentence, which was, in a great measure, owing to the dread of popular resentment, was considered by the tories as a triumph; and, in fact, their faction took the lead, all the remaining part of queen Anne's reign. They declared their joy in bonfires and illuminations, and openly avowed their rage against his persecutors.

Soon after Sacheverel was presented to a benefice in North Wales, where he went, with all the pomp and magnificence of a sovereign prince. He was sumptuously entertained by the university of Oxford, and many noblemen in his way, who, while they worshipped him as the idol of their faction, could not help despising the object of their adoration. He was received in several towns by the magistrates in their formalities, and often attended by a body of a thousand

horse. At Bridgenorth he was met by one Mr Creswell, at the head of four thousand men on horseback, and as many on foot, wearing white knots, edged with gold. The hedges were for two miles dressed with garlands, and the steeples covered with streamers, flags, and colors. The church, and doctor Sacheverel, was the universal cry, and a spirit of religious enthusiasm spread through the whole nation.

CHAP. LXXV.

Of Lewis the Fourteenth.

IGNORANCE and ambition were the great enemies of Lewis. Through the former he was blind to every patriotic duty of a king, and promoted the interests of his subjects, only that they might the better answer the purposes of his greatness. By the latter, he embroiled himself with all his neighbors, and wantonly rendered Germany a dismal scene of devastation. His impolitic, and unjust revocation of the edict of Nantes, obliged the French protestants to take shelter in England, Holland, and different parts. of Germany, where they established the silk manufactures to the great prejudice of their own country. He made and broke treaties for his. conveniency, and at last raised against himself a confederacy of almost all the other princes of Europe; at the head of which was king William III of England. He was so well served,

that he made head for some years against this alliance. But having provoked the English by his repeated infidelities, their arms, under the duke of Malborough, and those of the Austrians, under prince Eugene, rendered the latter part of his life as miserable as the beginning of it was splendid.

His reign, from the year 1702 to 1711, was one continual series of defeats and calamities; and he had the mortification of seeing those places taken from him, which in the former part of his reign, were acquired at the expence of so many thousand lives. Just as he was reduced, old as he was, to the desperate resolution of collecting his people, and dying at their head, he was saved by the English withdrawing from their allies, and concluding the peace of Utretch, in 1713. He survived his deliverance but two years; and died on the first of September 1715, and was succeeded by his great-grandson, Lewis XV. the late king.

CHAP. LXXVI.

Of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden.

CHARLES XI. died in 1697, and was succeeded by his minor son the famous Charles XII. The history of no prince is better known than that of this hero. His father's will had fixed the age of his minority to eighteen; but it was set aside for an earlier date, by the management