never be directed by the opinion of lawyers, nor will I go to Westminster Hall to inquire whether or not the constitution is in danger."[1] On another occasion, pursuing this topic, he said, that when last in France he had had a conversation with a priest on politics; when the priest declared, that his profession was of all others the best for a statesman; for whenever a priest had endangered the country by political intrigues and had thrown the public concerns into confusion, he had nothing to do but to retire to his church, content himself with the parade of his situation, and lie snug till public matters having taken a different turn, and having recovered their former prosperous condition, it was safe for him again to step forward, and once more become the State pilot. What the priests did in France, the lawyers, Shelburne said, did in England. They did not busy themselves in distributing justice, but with political projects. They turned "State Quixotes," and from motives of vanity and hopes of aggrandizement, indulged themselves with mad schemes, till having nearly ruined the country, they chose a favourable opportunity for escaping from the general confusion, and seeking the shelter of their own courts. With equal bitterness he fell on the clergy of the Established Church. The difficulty of raising supplies being before the House, he said he had no intention to cant, nor did he mean to preach, for that was the office of the clergy; not that his silence was to be taken as implying any agreement with the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Robert Lowth), who had not given a good answer to the charge which had been made of the bench "being clothed in blood," by preaching up a spirit of unanimity for war; and he went on to tell the Bishop, who had recommended the curtailment of all extravagant expenditure, that he could recommend another resource, which was to lop "those drones of society, the church benefices"; he alluded especially, he said, to the "golden prebends," and those Church officers who, having no parochial connection, lived a life of idleness.[2]
But though supported by the Law and the Church,
