been a Nonjuror, and, like Sherlock, on his compliance, he seems to have deemed it necessary to vindicate his conduct. Accordingly, he published his View of the English Constitution.[1] He states in an Address to the Reader; "after I had passed so many years of my life, without being able to reconcile myself to the Oaths; in the course of my studies, I met with some passages, which gave me cause to suspect that I had in some particulars mistaken the English constitution. They made me pause, gave me occasion for reflection, and inclined me once more to take a review of the judgment I had made so many years ago: with an intention, that if upon this inquiry, I should find my former judgment was well grounded, to sit down under it in a quiet and inoffensive way, whatever inconveniences might attend it: if not then, with my judgment, to alter my practice." The principle, on which he proceeds, is directly the reverse of that, on which he formerly acted, namely, that the Prince in possession could claim the allegiance of the subject. During the same year the Book was answered, in an anonymous publication, and with much cleverness.[2] In the outset the writer says: "you are come into the government. But upon what terms? You once thought it all a wickedness and usurpation. And have you altered your mind! No. You still think it was so. But you have found reasons, that, notwithstanding all that, you
- ↑ "View of The English Constitution, with respect to the Sovereign Authority of the Prince, and the Allegiance of the Subject. In vindication of the lawfulness of taking the Oaths, to Her Majesty, by Law required." 8vo. London 1709.
- ↑ A Letter to the Reverend Mr. William Higden, on account of his View of the English Constitution, &c. By a Natural Born Subject. 8vo. 1709.
