manner and an engaging way of taking people into his confidence, with plenty of address. He was at his ease in all companies, perfectly knew his own purpose, and pursued it with great tenacity. He understood the value of backstairs influence and the use of a silver key. But he was at his best when confronted with able men in church and state, and seldom failed to make them feel the strength of the case of dissent. Our knowledge of his weaker points is chiefly owing to the carefulness of his autobiographical revelations. His frank self-consciousness never displeases; his essential kindliness always attends him. He made no personal enemies. John Fox was told that he and Williams were rivals, but he appears to have been singularly free from the jealousies which often vex the mutual relations of ecclesiastical persons. He is almost the only divine for whom Fox has not a single bitter word.
Calamy's publications, as catalogued by Rutt, are forty-one in number. The majority are sermons, but no one reads Calamy's sermons. His place in literature is as the biographer of nonconformity. He began this work by editing Baxter's ‘Narrative’ (to 1684) of his life and times. Sylvester was Baxter's literary executor, and his name alone appears as responsible for the ‘Reliquiæ Baxterianæ,’ 1696, fol. But the expurgations, to which Sylvester was very reluctantly brought to consent, were Calamy's, as he minutely describes (Hist. Acct. i. 377). Calamy furnished also the ‘contents’ and index to the volume. His next step was the popularising of Baxter's life by an ‘Abridgment,’ 1702, 8vo, which is much better known than the original. It condenses Baxter's ‘Narrative,’ continues the history to the end of Baxter's life (1691), and summarises (in chap. x.) Baxter's ‘English Nonconformity … Stated and Argued,’ 1689, 4to. The most remarkable feature of the volume is chapter ix. (nearly half the book), headed ‘A Particular Account of the Ministers, Lecturers, Fellows of Colledges, &c., who were Silenced and Ejected by the Act for Uniformity: With the Characters and Works of many of them.’ The publication required some courage, and by many nonconformists was viewed as unseasonable, appearing as it did at the moment when the dissenters had ‘lost their firm friend’ (William III), and were not anxious to court the notice of ‘the high party’ that came in with the reign of Anne. When it appeared, ‘a dignified clergyman’ threatened one of the publishers with a censure of the book in convocation, who replied that he would willingly give ‘a purse of guineas’ for such an advertisement. It provoked at once a storm of angry pamphlets, aiming in various ways to shake the credit of the work. The caution with which Calamy had revised his materials is curiously shown in his own story of his going to Oxford, and by bribing a Dutch printer obtaining a sight of Clarendon's ‘History’ while in the press, in order to soften, if necessary, any ‘difference in matters of fact, between my Lord and Mr. Baxter.’ He read all that was published against him, and at once began to amend and enlarge for a new edition, which was called for immediately. The second edition was, however, not issued till 1713, 2 vols. 8vo. In the new ‘Abridgement’ the history was brought down to 1711; Baxter's ‘Reformed Liturgy’ was added (separately paged). The ‘Account of the Ministers, Lecturers, Masters and Fellows of Colleges and Schoolmasters who were Ejected or Silenced after the Restoration in 1660. By, or before, the Act of Uniformity’ (a more cautious title) now formed a distinct volume, and is properly quoted as an independent work. Next year appeared John Walker's ‘Attempt towards recovering an Account of the Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy … who were Sequester'd, Harrass'd, &c. in the late Times of the Grand Rebellion: Occasion'd by the Ninth Chapter (now the Second Volume) of Dr. Calamy's Abridgment,’ &c., 1714, fol. Walker's is a work of great historical value, the fruit of marvellous industry (as his collections for it, now in the Bodleian, show) disfigured by a total want of dignity, and enlivened with a vitriolic humour. To the argumentative part of his huge folio Calamy replied in an octavo pamphlet, ‘The Church and the Dissenters Compar'd, as to Persecution,’ 1719. In dealing with Walker's mistakes he displayed contempt rather than severity, and he had the great advantage of a disposition to correct his own slips. Attacks never injured his temper, but simply made him anxious to improve his matter. In 1718 he penned with some sharpness his ‘Letter to Mr. Archdeacon Echard,’ who had aspersed his grandfather; but he was ready to discuss the points with Echard over a glass of wine, and told him ‘men of letters should not be shy of each other.’ He completed his biographical labours by publishing ‘A Continuation of the Account,’ &c. 1727, 2 vols. 8vo (paged as one), reprinting in the second volume his reply to Walker, and adding ‘Remarks’ upon Thomas Bennet's ‘Essay’ on the Thirty-nine Articles. As the ‘Continuation’ is really a series of emendations of the ‘Account,’ Calamy would have saved himself and his readers much trouble if he had chosen the course of bringing out
