"Most men pitying the Bishop."--Bohun's Autobiography.]

[Footnote 397: The vote of the Commons is mentioned, with much feeling
in the memoirs which Burnet wrote at the time. "It look'd," he says,
"somewhat extraordinary that I, who perhaps was the greatest assertor
of publick liberty, from my first setting out, of any writer of the age,
should be so severely treated as an enemy to it. But the truth was the
Toryes never liked me, and the Whiggs hated me because I went not into
their notions and passions. But even this, and worse things that may
happen to me shall not, I hope, be able to make me depart from moderate
principles and the just asserting the liberty of mankind."--Burnet MS.
Harl. 6584.]

[Footnote 398: Commons' Journals, Feb. 27. 1692/3; Lords' Journals, Mar.
4.]

[Footnote 399: Lords' Journals, March 8. 1692/3.]

[Footnote 400: In the article on Blount in the Biographia Britannica he
is extolled as having borne a principal share in the emancipation of the
press. But the writer was very imperfectly informed as to the facts.

It is strange that the circumstances of Blount's death should be so
uncertain. That he died of a wound inflicted by his own hand, and that
he languished long, are undisputed facts. The common story was that he
shot himself; and Narcissus Luttrell at the time, made an entry to this
effect in his Diary. On the other hand, Pope, who had the very best
opportunities of obtaining accurate information, asserts that Blount,
"being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself
a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of
which he really died."--Note on the Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I.
Warburton, who had lived first with the heroes of the Dunciad, and then
with the most eminent men of letters of his time ought to have known
the truth; and Warburton, by his silence, confirms Pope's assertion.
Gildon's rhapsody about the death of his friend will suit either story
equally.]

[Footnote 401: The charges brought against Coningsby will be found in
the journals of the two Houses of the English Parliament. Those charges
were, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, versified by Prior,
whom Coningsby had treated with great insolence and harshness. I will
quote a few stanzas.

It will be seen that the poet condescended to imitate the style of the
street ballads.

"Of Nero tyrant, petty king,
Who heretofore did reign
In famed H