I am not able, or if I were, would I enter into disputes with any body; I only, in short, say this for the changing of my religion, which I take GOD to witness I would never have done, if I had thought it possible to save my soul otherwise. I think I need not say, it is any interest in this world leads me to it. It will be plain enough to every body, that I must lose all the friends and credit I have here by it; and have very well weighed which I could best part with,-my share in this world, or the next: I thank God, I found no difficulty in the choice.

My only prayer is, "That the poor catholicks of this nation may not suffer for my being of their religion; that God would but give me patience to bear them, and then send me any

afflictions in this world, so I may enjoy a blessed eternity hereafter."

St. James's,

Aug, the 20th, 1670.

A

DEFENCE OF THE PAPER

WRITTEN BY

THE DUCHESS OF YORK;

AGAINST THe answer MADE TO IT."

IDARE appeal to all unprejudiced readers,

and especially to those who have any sense of piety, whether upon perusal of the Paper written by her late Highness the Duchess, they have not

7 "The Lady Anne Hyde," (says Fenton, Notes on Waller, Ixxiv,)" as she had the glory of giving birth to two great Queens, so she was equally happy in owing her own to Edward, Earl of Clarendon, one of the most able, most incorrupt, and most pious ministers of state, that ever any monarch employed in any age or nation. She attended her father, when he followed King Charles into exile, where she was married without his knowledge to the Duke of York; but, by mutual consent, their marriage was concealed till after the Restoration. Burnet (whom Mr. Dryden long since observed to be vénomously nice in his commendations,) allows her to have been a very extraordinary woman. She had great knowledge, and a lively sense of things. She soon understood what belonged to a Princess; and took state on her rather too 'much. She writ well, and had begun the Duke's LIFE, ' of which she shewed me a volume; it was all drawn from his Journal; and he intended to have employed me in

found in it somewhat which touched them to the very soul; whether they did not plainly and perfectly discern in it the spirit of meekness, devotion, and sincerity, which animates the whole discourse; and whether the reader be not satisfied

carrying it on. She was bred to great strictness in reli'gion, and practised secret confession; Morley told me he was her confessor: she began at twelve years old, and ⚫ continued under his direction, till, upon her father's disgrace, he was put from the Court. She was generous ' and friendly, but too severe an enemy.'-" After a long indisposition, she died in the beginning of the year [March 31,] 1671, and was buried in great state on the south side of King Henry the Seventh's Chapel."

Our author's character of Burnet is found in the third part of THE HIND AND THE PANTHER. It consists of above fifty lines, and is extremely severe. The lines particularly referred to by Fenton are these:

"When well receiv'd by hospitable foes,
"The kindness he returns, is-to expose;
"For courtesies, though undeserv'd and great,

"No gratitude in felon minds beget :

"As tribute to his wit, the churl receives the treat.

45

His praise of foes is venomously nice;

So touch'd, it turns a virtue to a vice:

"A Greek, and bountiful forewarns us twice."

In a collection of FAMILIAR LETTERS, in two volumes, published by S. Briscoe, is a letter from Edward, Earl of Clarendon, to his daughter, Anne, Duchess of York, on her embracing the Roman Catholick religion.-The paper here defended is printed in the same collection, with several variations, as an Answer to Lord Clarendon's letter.

that she who writ it has opened her heart without disguise, so as not to leave a scruple that she was not in earnest. I am sure I can say, for my own particular, that when I read it first in manuscript, I could not but consider it as a discourse extremely moving; plain, without artifice, and discovering the piety of the soul from which it flowed. Truth has a language to itself, which it is impossible for hypocrisy to imitate: dissimulation could never write so warmly, nor with so much life. What less than the spirit of primitive Christianity could have dictated her words? The loss of friends, of worldly honours and esteem, the defamation of ill tongues, and the reproach of the cross,-all these, though not without the strugglings of flesh and blood, were surmounted by her; as if the saying of our Saviour were always sounding in her ears, "What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul !"

I think I have amplified nothing in relation either to this pious lady, or her discourse: I am sure I need not. And now let any unbiassed and indifferent reader compare the spirit of the Answerer with her's. Does there not manifestly appear in him a quite different character? Need the reader be informed that he is disingenuous, foul-mouthed, and shuffling; and that, not being able to answer plain matter of fact, he endeavours to evade it by suppositions, circumstances, and conjectures; like a cunning barreter of law, whọ is to manage a single cause, the dishonesty of

which he cannot otherwise support than by defaming his adversary? Her only business is, to satisfy her friends of the inward workings of her soul, in order to her conversion, and by what methods she quitted the religion in which she was educated. He, on the contrary, is not satisfied, unless he question the integrity of her proceedings, and the truth of her plain relations, even so far as to blast, what in him lies, her blessed memory, with the imputation of forgery and deceit ; as if she had given a false account, not only of the passages in her soul, and the agonies of a troubled conscience, only known to GoD and to herself, but also of the discourses which she had with others concerning those disquiets. Every where the lie is to be cast upon her, either directly, in the words of the Bishop of Winchester, which he quotes; or indirectly, in his own, in which his spiteful diligence is most remarkable.

8

In his Answer to the two former papers there

& Dr. George Morley, who was born Feb. 27, 1597-8, and died in Farnham Castle, Oct. 29, 1684. In October 1660, he was consecrated Bishop of Worcester, from which see he was translated to the diocese of Winchester, in 1662. During the Usurpation, he had lived for some years at Antwerp, as domestick chaplain in the family of Sir Edward Hyde, (afterwards Lord Clarendon,) and had carefully instructed his daughter, Anne Hyde, in the doctrines of the protestant faith; in consequence of which connection he published "A Letter to Anne, Duchess of York," written 24th Jan. 1670-71; which contains the words here referred to.