terest. There is something exceedingly painful in the fact, that men, who preferred a good conscience to a bishopric, should not only have been in poverty, but also maligned and traduced by many, whose principles changed with their circumstances.
We now come to a singular circumstance, on the part of Collier, and some of his brethren. In the year 1696, a plot was discovered against the life of King William: and Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins were brought to trial on a charge for being implicated in the conspiracy. These gentlemen were found guilty, and sentenced to death. At the place of execution, Collier, Cook, and Snatt appeared on the platform with the criminals: and just previous to the completion of the sentence, Collier publicly absolved the parties, performing the ceremony with the imposition of hands. It struck many persons as strange, first, that absolution should have been granted under such circumstances, and secondly, that the ceremony of imposition of hands, which was not practised by the Church of England, should have been used.
So great an impression was made on the public mind by the circumstance, that the two Archbishops and ten Bishops published a declaration against the practice, intitled: "A Declaration of the Sense of the Archbishops and Bishops now in and about London upon the occasion of their attendance in Parliament, concerning the irregular and scandalous proceedings of certain clergymen, at the execution of Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins." The document is somewhat curious, as expressive of the opinions of the Bishops respecting the schism, which had now occurred. A paper or papers had been delivered by the criminals to the sheriffs, which were afterwards printed and circulated, and in which Sir
