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History of the Nonjurors.

but this appears to be the place for the remaining particulars of this eminent man. His abilities were of no common order, and the greatest industry marked his whole life; for a very large number of Tracts and pamphlets, relative to the various points at issue between the Nonjurors and their opponents, proceeded from his pen, all of them displaying talents of no ordinary kind. His various practical works, as well as those controversial pieces, which relate to the Church of Rome and the Dissenters, are too well known to require a particular notice. His Theological works were collected and published in two volumes, Folio, in the year 1721. Leslie was the son of the Bishop of Clogher. Previous to the Revolution he acted with great zeal against Popery: and it would be well, if those, who charge the Nonjurors with leaning towards Rome, were as free from the imputation themselves. On one occasion, when a Roman Catholic had been nominated by King James to the office of sheriff, he was actually carried to the Sessions, though labouring under disease at the time, and took his place as a Magistrate upon the Bench. When the proposed Sheriff was questioned respecting his qualification, he replied, "That he was of the King's own religion, and that it was his Majesty's will that he should be Sheriff." Leslie answered, "that they were not inquiring into his Majesty's religion, but whether he had qualified himself according to law."[1] After his deprivation, he occasionally visited King James, and also his son the Pretender: on which account, and in consequence of some of his writings, he became obnoxious to the government; so that, in the


  1. Biog. Brit. Art. Leslie. A list of his works is given in that article. Nichols, i. 195, 6. Salmon, ii. 122.