SOME

CONSIDERATIONS

HUMBLY OFFERED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR, THE COURT OF ALDERMEN AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE HONOURABLE CITY OF DUBLIN,

IN THE

CHOICE OF A RECORDER *. 1733.

THE office of recorder to this city being vacant by the death of a very worthy gentleman; it is said, that five or six persons are soliciting to succeed him in the employment. I am a stranger to all their persons; and to most of their charac ters; which latter, I hope, will at this time be canvassed with more decency, than it sometimes happens upon the like occasions. Therefore, as I am wholly impartial, I can with more freedom deliver my thoughts how the several persons and parties concerned ought to proceed in electing a recorder for this great and ancient city.

And first, as it is very natural, so I can by no means think it an unreasonable opinion, that the sons or near relations of aldermen, and other deserving citizens, should be duly regarded, as proper competitors for an employment in the city's disposal: provided they be equally qualified with

* On the death of Mr. Stoyte, recorder of the city of Dublin, in the year 1733, several gentlemen declared themselves candidates to succeed him; upon which the Dean wrote the above paper, and Eton Stannard, esq. (a gentleman of great worth and honour, and very knowing in his profession) was elected. F.

other candidates; and provided that such employments require no more than common abilities, and common honesty. But, in the choice of a recorder, the case is entirely different. He ought to be a person of good abilities in his calling; of an unspotted character; an able practitioner; one who has occasionally merited of this city before: he ought to be of some maturity in years; a member of parliament, and likely to continue so; regular in his life; firm in his loyalty to the Hanover succession; indulgent to tender consciences; but, at the same time, a firm adherer to the established church. If he be such a one who has already sat in parliament, it ought to be inquired of what weight he was there: whether he voted on all occasions for the good of his country; and particularly for advancing the trade and freedom of this city: whether he be engaged in any faction, either national or religious and lastly, whether he be a man of courage, not to be drawn from his duty by the frown or menaces of power, nor capable to be corrupted by allurements or bribes.-These, and many other particulars, are of infinitely more consequence, than that single circumstance of being descended by a direct or collateral line from any alderman, or distinguished citizen, dead or alive.

There is not a dealer or shopkeeper in this city of any substance, whose thriving, less or more, may not depend upon the good or ill conduct of a recorder. He is to watch every motion in parliament that may the least affect the freedom, trade, or welfare of it.

In this approaching election, the commons, as

they

they are a numerous body, so they seem to be most concerned in point of interest; and their interest ought to be most regarded, because it altogether depends upon the true interest of the city. They have no private views; and giving their votes, as I am informed, by balloting, they lie under no awe, or fear of disobliging competitors. It is therefore hoped that they will duly consider, which of the candidates is most likely to advance the trade of themselves and their brother citizens; to defend their liberties, both in and out of parliament, against all attempts of encroachments or oppression. And so God direct them in the choice of a recorder, who may for many years supply that important office with skill, diligence, courage, and fidelity.. And let the people say, Amen.

CONCERNING

CONCERNING THAT

UNIVERSAL HATRED

WHICH PREVAILS

AGAINST THE CLERGY.

May 24, 1736.

I HAVE been long considering and conjecturing,

what could be the causes of that great disgust, of late, against the clergy of both kingdoms, beyond what was ever known, till that monster and ty rant, Henry VIII., who took away from them, against law, reason, and justice, at least two thirds of their legal possessions; and whose successors (except queen Mary) went on with their rapine, till the accession of king James I. That detestable tyrant Henry VIII., although he abolished the pope's power in England, as universal bishop, yet what he did in that article, however just it were in itself, was the mere effect of his irregular appetite, to divorce himself from a wife he was weary of, for a younger and more beautiful woman, whom he afterward beheaded. But, at the same time, he was an entire defender of all the popish doctrines, even those which were the most absurd. And while he put the people to death for denying him to be head of the church, he burned every offender against the doctrines of the Roman faith; and cut off the head of sir Thomas More, a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced, for not directly owning him to be head of the church. Among all the princes who ever reigned in the world, there was never so in

fernal

fernal a beast as Henry VIII., in every vice of the most odious kind, without any one appearance of virtue but cruelty, lust, rapine, and atheism, were his peculiar talents. He rejected the power of the pope for no other reason than to give his full swing to commit sacrilege, in which no tyrant, since Christianity became national, did ever equal him by many degrees. The abbeys, endowed with lands by the mistaken notion of well disposed men, were indeed too numerous, and hurtful to the kingdom; and therefore the legislature might, after the Reformation, have justly applied them to some pious or public uses.

In a very few centuries after Christianity became national in most parts of Europe, although the church of Rome had already introduced many corruptions in religion; yet the piety of early Christians, as well as the new converts, was so great, and particularly princes, as well as noblemen and other wealthy persons, that they built many religious houses for those who were inclined to live in a recluse or solitary manner, endowing those monasteries with land. It is true, we read of monks some ages before, who dwelt in caves and cells, in desert places. But when public edifices were erected and endowed, they began gradually to degenerate into idleness, ignorance, avarice, ambition, and luxury, after the usual fate of all human institutions. The popes, who had already aggrandised themselves, laid hold of the opportunity to subject all religious houses, with their priors and abbots, to their peculiar authority; whereby these religious orders became of an interest directly different from the rest of

t

mankind,