not to trust a convert to the third generation. For they made him twofold more than themselves."
Another writer also published "Remarks on Mr. Higdens Utopian Constitution:" and to this and the preceding, the author replied in A Defence of the View, in which the same ground is again gone over. But the most important work on this subject was published in 1713, in a small folio.[1] The actual author of this work was not known; but it was supposed to have been written by Harbin, a nonjuring clergyman, and the Preface by Theophilus Downes, once Fellow of Balliol College. Hilkiah Bedford, however, a Nonjuring Clergyman, was tried at the Guildhall, London, Feb. 13, 1713, and found guilty, on the ground of the work being a seditious Libel. He was charged with writing, printing, and publishing the book: and, on the 4th of May following, was sentenced to pay a fine of 1000 marks, to be imprisoned for three years, and, at the expiration of that period, to find sureties for his good behaviour during life. There was another strange part of the sentence, namely, that, on the following Friday, he should be brought before the court, with a paper on his hat, expressing the crime and the judgment. On the Friday, however, a warrant was produced under her Majesty's hand, remitting this part of the sentence, on the ground that he was a Clergyman. It was
- ↑ The Hereditary Right of the Crown of England asserted: The History of the Succession since the Conquest cleared: and the true English Constitution Vindicated from the Misrepresentations of Dr. Higden's View and Defence, &c. By a Gentleman. London, fol. 1713. Several persons were supposed to have been concerned in this work: but there was no foundation whatever for Rennet's insinuation, that Nelson was, in any way, implicated. Nichols, i. 400.
