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His Letter to his Brother on the Oath. 13

moment in answering the question. The two positions were absolutely irreconcileable. His intellect was far too clearsighted to be satisfied with the flimsy arguments which many of the late assertors of the old High Church doctrines adopted to justify their adherence to the new dynasty; and his moral sense was far too acute to allow him to adopt a course in which his conscience would be sacrificed to his interest. He at once determined to refuse the oaths of allegiance to the new Government and abjuration of the socalled Pretender.' The letter which he wrote to his elder brother George announcing his determination is very characteristic, and therefore worth quoting: 'Dear Brother, -If your affairs will permit you to peruse the intent of this letter, you will oblige the affectionate writer. I have sent my mother such news as I am afraid she will be too much concerned at, which is the only trouble for what I have done. I beg of you, therefore, to relieve her from such thoughts, and contribute what you can to satisfy her about my affairs. It is a business that I know you love, and therefore don't doubt but you will engage in it. My prospect, indeed, is melancholy enough, but had I done what was required of me to avoid it, I should have thought my condition much worse. The benefits of my education seem partly at an end, but that same education had been more miserably lost if I had not learnt to fear something more than misfortunes. As to the multitude of swearers, that

1 There is, of course, a marked distinction between the oath of allegiance and the oath of abjuration. Many persons could have conscientiously taken the former who could not with any consistency take the latter; that is, they could tolerate the king de facto without altering their opinion as to who was the king de jure. I doubt, however, whether Law would have been among the number; his sensitiveness of conscience was almost morbid, and even if the very unnecessary and injudicious oath of abjuration of the Pretender had not been imposed, the mere fact that he tacitly abjured his right by recognising King George as his sovereign would probably have been sufficient to deter Law from doing so ; at the same time an expression in his letter to his brother indicates that the abjuration oath was his great crux.

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His Letter to his Brother.

has no influence upon me; their reasons are only to be considered, and everyone knows no good ones can be given for people swearing the direct contrary to what they believe. Would my conscience have permitted me to have done this, I should stick at nothing where my interest was concerned, for what can be more heinously wicked than heartily to wish the success of a person upon the account of his right, and at the same time in the most solemn manner, in the presence of God, and as you hope for mercy, swear that he has no right at all? If any hardships of our own, or the example of almost all people can persuade us to such practice, we have only the happiness to be in the broad way. I expected to have had a greater share of worldly advantages than what I am now likely to enjoy ; but am fully persuaded, that if I am not happier for this trial it will be my own fault. Had I brought myself into troubles by my own folly, they would have been very trying, but I thank God I can think of these without dejection. Your kindness for me, may perhaps incline you to wish I had done otherwise; but as I think I have consulted my best interest by what I have done, I hope, upon second thoughts, you will think so too. I have hitherto enjoyed a large share of happiness; and if the time to come be not so pleasant, the memory of what is past shall make me thankful. Our lot is fallen in an age that will not be without more trials than this. God's judgments seem now to be upon us, and I pray God they may have their proper effect. I am heartily glad your education does not expose you to the same hardships that mine does, that you may provide for your family without expense of conscience, or at least what you think so; for whether you are of the same opinion with me or not, I know not. I shall conclude as I began, with desiring you to say as many comfortable things as you can to my mother, and persuade her to think with satisfaction upon

John Byrom on the Oath.

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that condition, which upon my account gives me no uneasiness, which will much oblige your affectionate brother, W. LAW.'

It is curious to contrast this letter with one on the same subject from Law's future friend and disciple, John Byrom. Byrom, too, was a strong Tory and High Churchman, and 'would sooner have had a drawn battle or a lost one in Flanders, than have heard of the preferment of a man of Mr. Hoadley's principles.' He, too, had strong Jacobite tendencies. But, then, there was a Trinity Fellowship in prospect to weigh down the balance on the other side. 'Thursday,' he writes, 'we buried Dr. Smith, one of our Seniors, so now we have three Fellowships. But this oath. I am not satisfied so well as to take it, nor am I verily persuaded of its being unlawful. It has always been the custom of nations to set aside those whom it was not found for the good of the public to reign. Is it not the opinion of present nations? Why do they make kings of Sicily &c., and order people to change their masters &c.? And may I not rely on the judgment of thousands, thousands of good, pious, learned men for its being a lawful oath? It is very hard-everything so orderly settled in regard to posterity, and all must be undone for the sake of a man who has a disputed title to his birth and right too. I saw a book in our library the other day where the Pretender's birth is made very suspicious, and all your affidavits, allegations, &c., made nothing of. I suppose you have seen the book, what say you to it? The Commons, I see, have taken the abjuration oath &c.; how is it likely this young fellow should ever come among us? The Queen and Parliament have settled the succession in a Protestant family, and made what provision they can for our religion and liberties, and why must we not be content? though, for what I hear, few are otherwise. Our Dr. Bentley has been at London, and

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Law's Prospects as a Nonjuror.

he says everybody is for the succession." A year later, the good man's mind is not yet quite made up, but it is evidently becoming so. 'The abjuration oath,' he writes to the same correspondent,2 'hath not been put to us yet, nor do I know when it will be; nobody of our year scruples it, and, indeed, in the sense they say they shall take it, I could. One says he can do it and like the Pretender never the worse; another, that it only means that he won't plot to bring him in, he doesn't trouble his head about him &c. You know my opinion, that I am not clearly convinced that it is lawful, nor that it is unlawful; sometimes I think one thing, and sometimes another;' but what he thought finally it is not very difficult to anticipate. It was well for Byrom's prospects that his friendship with Law did not commence till many years later. One can fancy what havoc the latter would have made of the scraps of argument which Byrom adduces with transparent simplicity for the course he meant to adopt.

But to return to Law. How his letter was received in Northamptonshire is not known. His mother, for whom he showed so touching and tender a concern, had not long lost her husband, whose epitaph is still to be read on a monument in the chancel of King's Cliffe church: 'Here lye the dear Remains of Thomas Law, lately Grocer in this Parish a kind, careful, industrious Father of a large Family; a tender and affectionate Husband; a true and faithful Friend; and a peaceable honest Neighbour; who deceased on the tenth day of October, Anno Dei 1714. "And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is even in Thee." There is no reason for thinking that the widowed mother had cause for anxiety about any of her children; but she would naturally look upon William as the pride and hope of the family. A brilliant career 2 Ibid. p. 31.

'Byrom's Journal, vol. i. part i. p. 25.

Law Simply Obeyed his Conscience.

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seemed to be open to the able young fellow of Emmanuel, and it must have been a disappointment to her to feel that all hopes of that seemed at an end.

Law's prospects as a nonjuror were dreary enough. He had not even the poor satisfaction of being able to join heart and soul with the active opponents of the new régime; for he had no mind to meddle with politics. It was a matter of indifference to him, personally, whether King James or King George were sitting on the throne;1 he simply obeyed his conscience, and was prepared to take the consequences, whatever they might be.

1 Not but that Law's sympathies were to the end of his life with the exiled Stuarts. Among other interesting memorials of her great relative in the possession of Miss Sarah Law, is a pincushion with this inscription on one side, 'Down with the Rump'; and on the other, 'God save K. J. P. C. D. H.', that is, King James, Prince Charles, Duke Henry.' See also Byrom's Journal for July 27, 1739, vol. ii. (part i.) 259.

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