him in a private letter to the author of the paper, wha either trusting to the protection of thofe whofe defence he had undertaken, or having entertained fome perfonal malice against Mr. Savage, or fearing, left, by retracting fo confident an affertion, he should impair the credit of his paper, refused to give him that fatisfaction.

Mr. Savage therefore thought it neceffary, to his own vindication, to profecute him in the King's Bench; but as he did not find any ill effects from the accufation, having fufficiently cleared his innocence, he thought any farther procedure would have the appearance of revenge; and therefore willingly dropped it.

He faw foon afterwards a procefs commenced in the fame court against himself, on an information in which he was accused of writing and publishing an obscene pamphlet.

It was always Mr. Savage's defire to be distinguished; and, when any controverfy became popular, he never wanted fome reafon for engaging in it with great ardour, and appearing at the head of the party which he had chofen. As he was never celebrated for his prudence, he had no fooner taken his fide, and informed himself of the chief topicks of the difpute, than he took all oppor tunities of afferting and propagating his principles, without much regard to his own intereft, or any other visible design than that of drawing upon himself the

attention of mankind.

The difpute between the bishop of London and the chancellor is well known to have been for fome time the chief topick of political converfation; and therefore Mr. Savage, in purfuance of his character, endea

voured to become confpicuous among the controvertifts with which every coffee-houfe was filled on that occafion. He was an indefatigable opposer of all the claims of ecclefiaftical power, though he did not know on what they were founded; and was therefore no friend to the Bishop of London, But he had another reason for appearing as a warm advocate for Dr. Rundle; for he was the friend of Mr. Fofter and Mr. Thomson, who were the friends of Mr. Savage.

Thus remote was his intereft in the question, which however, as he imagined, concerned him so nearly, that it was not fufficient to harangue and difpute, but neceffary likewife to write upon it,

He therefore engaged with great ardour in a new poem, called by him, The Progrefs of a Divine; in which he conducts a profligate prieft by all the gradations of wickednefs from a poor curacy in the country, to the higheft preferments of the church, and defcribes with that humour which was natural to him, and that knowledge which was extended to all the diversities of human life, his behaviour in every station; and infinuates, that this priest, thus accomplished, found at laft a patron in the Bishop of London.

When he was asked by one of his friends, on what pretence he could charge the bishop with fuch an action? he had no more to fay, than that he had only inverted the accufation, and that he thought it reafonable to believe, that he, who obftructed the rife of a good man without reafon, would for bad reafons promote the exaltation of a villain.

The clergy were univerfally provoked by this fatire; and Savage, who, as was his conftant practice, had fet his name to his performance, was cenfured in The

X 4

Weekly

*

Weekly Mifcellany with feverity, which he did not feem inclined to forget.

But

*A fhort fatire was likewife publifhed in the fame paper, in which were the following lines:

For cruel murder doom'd to hempen death, Savage, by royal grace, prolong'd his breath, Well might you think he spent his future years In prayer, and fasting, and repentant tears. -But, O vain hope!-the truly Savage cries, Priefts, and their flavifh doctrines, I defpife. Shall I

"Who, by free-thinking to free action fir'd, "In midnight brawls a deathlefs name acquir'd, "Now ftoop to learn of ecclesiastic men ?— "—No, arm'd with rhyme, at priests I'll take my aim. "Though prudence bids me murder but their fame." WEEKLY MISCELLANY,

An answer was published in The Gentleman's Magazine, written by an unknown hand, from which the following lines are selected:

Transform'd by thoughtless rage, and midnight wine,

From malice free, and pufh'd without design ;

In equal brawl if Savage lung'd a thrust,

And brought the youth a victim to the dust;
So ftrong the hand of accident appears,
The royal hand from guilt and vengeance clears.
Inftead of wafting "all thy future years,
<6 Savage, in prayer and vain repentant tears;"
Exert thy pen to mend a vicious age,

To curb the priest, and fink his high-church rage;
To fhow what frauds the holy yestments hide,
The nests of avarice, luft, and pedant pride:
Then change the scene, let merit brightly fhine,
And round the patriot twist the wreath divine;
The heavenly guide deliver down to fame ;
In well-tun'd lays tranfmit a Foster's name;
Touch every paffion with harmonious art,
Exalt the genius, and correct the heart,

Thus

But a return of invective was not thought a fufficient punishment. The Court of King's Bench was therefore moved against him, and he was obliged to return an answer to a charge of obfcenity. It was urged, in his defence, that obfcenity was criminal when it was intended to promote the practice of vice; but that Mr. Savage had only introduced obfcene ideas with the view of exposing them to deteftation, and of amending the age, by fhewing the deformity of wickedness. This plea was admitted; and Sir Philip Yorke, who then presided in that court, difmiffed the information with encomiums upon the purity and excellence of Mr. Savage's writings.

The prosecution, however, answered in fome meafure the purpose of those by whom it was fet on foot; for Mr. Savage was fo far intimidated by it, that, when the edition of his poem was fold, he did not venture to reprint it; fo that it was in a fhort time forgotten, or forgotten by all but thofe whom it of fended.

It is faid, that fome endeavours were used to incenfe the Queen against him; but he found advocates to obviate at least part of their effect; for though he was never advanced, he ftill continued to receive his pension.

Thus future times shall royal grace extol :
Thus polish'd lines thy present fame enrol.
-But grant———▬▬▬

-Maliciously that Savage plung'd the steel,
And made the youth its shining vengeance feel :
My foul abhors the act, the man detests,
But more the bigotry in priestly breasts.

Gentleman's Magazine, May 1735,
Orig. Edit.

This

This poem drew more infamy upon him than any incident of his life; and, as his conduct cannot be vindicated, it is proper to fecure his memory from reproach, by informing those whom he made his enemies, that he never intended to repeat the provocation; and that, though, whenever he thought he had any reafon to complain of the clergy, he ufed to threaten them with a new edition of The Progress of a Divine, it was his calm and fettled refolution to fupprefs it for ever,

He once intended to have made a better reparation for the folly or injuftice with which he might bẹ charged, by writing another poem, called The Progress of a Free-thinker, whom he intended to lead through all the ftages of vice and folly, to convert him from virtue to wickedness, and from religion to infidelity, by all the modifh fophiftry used for that purpose; and at laft to dismiss him by his own hand into the other world.

That he did not execute this defign, is a real loss to mankind, for he was too well acquainted with all the fcenes of debauchery to haye failed in his reprefenta. tions of them, and too zealous for virtue not to have reprefented them in fuch a manner as fhould expofe them either to ridicule or deteftation.

But this plan was, like others, formed and laid afide, till the vigour of his imagination was spent, and the effervefcence of invention had fubfided; but foon gave way to fome other defign, which pleafed by its novelty for a while, and then was neglected like the former.

He was ftill in his ufual exigences, having no cer. tain fupport but the penfion allowed him by the Queen,