he wrote to Limborch in June. "I hope its plea in favour of peace and justice may obtain a hearing." The translator, whom Locke afterwards sought out and made a friend of, was William Popple, an unitarian merchant in London; and he expressed Locke's thoughts very skilfully, not only in the version itself, but also in the short preface with which he furnished it. "I think there is no nation under heaven," he there wrote, "in which so much has already been said upon toleration as ours; but yet certainly there is no people that stand in more need of having something farther both said and done amongst them, in this point, than we do. Our government has not only been partial in matters of religion, but those also who have suffered under that partiality, and have therefore endeavoured by their writings to vindicate their own rights and liberties, have for the most part done it upon narrow principles suited only to the interests of their own sects. This narrowness of spirit on all sides has undoubtedly been the principal occasion of our miseries and confusions. But, whatever hath been the occasion, it is now high time to seek for a thorough cure. We have need of more generous remedies than what have yet been made use of in our distemper. It is neither declarations of indulgence nor acts of comprehension, such as have as yet been practised or projected amongst us, that can do the work. The first will but palliate, the second increase our evil. Absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, is the thing that we stand in need. of. Now, though this has been much talked of, I doubt it has not been much understood-I am sure not at all practised either by our governors towards the people in 1 Familiar Letters,' p. 331; Locke to Limborch, 6 June, 1689. . 56. general, or by any dissenting parties of the people towards one another."1 "I doubt not you have heard before this," Locke wrote to Limborch, "that toleration is now established among us by law; not with such breadth as you and true men like you, free from Christian arrogance and hatred, would desire; but 'tis something to get anything. With these small beginnings I hope the foundations will be laid on which the church of Christ can be built up. None are to be punished for their religious opinions, unless they are catholics, if they will only consent to take the oath of allegiance and to repudiate the doctrine of transubstantiation and certain other dogmas of the church of Rome."" An earlier letter to Limborch shows us with what temperate approval Locke watched the general progress of affairs during the first few months of William's reign, and with what honest independence of spirit he took part in them as far as he was able. "Yesterday," he wrote on the 12th of April, "the inauguration or, as they call it, the coronation of the king and queen was celebrated with great pomp and amid the acclamations of a mighty concourse of people; and at the same time, I suppose, they were in Scotland proclaimed king and queen of that country, as some days ago the Scottish throne, according to the institutions of the northern kingdom, had been decreed to William and Mary. Burnet, now bishop of Salisbury, took part in yesterday's solemnity. He preached before the king and queen, and everybody was delighted with his sermon. I have no doubt it will be printed, and if so, I shall take care to send you a copy. I saw him this morning, and 1A Letter concerning Toleration' (1689), To the Reader. told him you intended to send him a letter of congratulation as soon as you knew that he was actually a bishop. Whether, as you persuade yourself, he will show the same spirit at Salisbury as he did at Amsterdam, some people begin to doubt. I must tell you a bit of gossip about him. When he paid his first visit to the king after his consecration, his majesty observed that his hat was a good deal larger than usual, and asked him what was the object of so very much brim. The bishop replied that this was the shape suitable to his dignity. 'I hope,' answered the king, 'that the hat won't turn your head.'"'1 Locke may surely be excused for rather spitefully repeating this story about the clever and conceited, though on the whole wellmeaning, busybody who was so fond of saying spiteful things about everybody else. After referring to letters that he had received from his friends Veen and Guenellon, who, as well as Limborch, appear to have been surprised that they had as yet heard nothing of any favours shown to him, while Burnet had so soon forced himself into a bishopric, Locke went on to say, "I find you are all anxious to know what public office I mean to ask for. I can tell you in a word -none. On the score of my health I have declined an appointment which I should certainly have been glad enough to accept had I been younger and stronger than I I want nothing now but to have some rest. It would never do for a man who is tumbling to pieces, and fit only to close his account with life, to rush into any new and great undertaking. I want nothing, I assure you, but a little better health than I have had since my return, to be able to breathe more easily, and to be less am. 1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to Limborch, 12 April, . 56 troubled by my cough. Whether I shall get any good from the warmer air of spring time, or from becoming accustomed to this present temperature, I do not know, but I do know that it would be very foolish of me to take any sort of public burthen on my shoulders. What would please me far better than the highest honour that could be offered to me, would be now and then, if only in passing, to have an opportunity of meeting you again. And yet, I do not know how it is, though I decline to take any public work, I find myself so occupied with public affairs and the concerns of my friends, that I am hardly able to touch a book now. I hope I shall soon be able to get back to my former and much-wished-for ease in the world of letters."1 Locke was anxious to publish the Essay concerning Human Understanding' which he had brought home with him, and therefore probably somewhat exaggerated the difficulties thrown in his way. It is evident that, besides the rather heavy task of correcting the proof-sheets of the essay, which was now being printed, he found opportunity for doing a good deal of other literary work during the two years following his return to England; but it is also evident that he was much occupied with public affairs, and that, if his duties as commissioner of appeals were not very burthensome, he did plenty in other ways to earn the modest salary attached to the office. As to the details of most of these occupations, however, only very scanty information has come down to us. The chief business of the convention parliament, after the arrangements for assigning the crown to William and 1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to Limborch, 12 April, Mary had been completed, was the passing of the toleration bill. The chief business between its re-assembling in August and its prorogation in the following January was the passing of the bill of rights. Most of its time was spent in squabbling; the assembly, though useful enough in settling the one great question for which it had been specially summoned, proving itself not very competent to deal with the other questions that came before it. Locke watched its proceedings very closely, and took an important though indirect share in them; but the only subject with which we know that he intimately concerned himself was religious liberty, and in following this his attention had to be turned rather to convocation than to parliament. In its first session parliament had shelved the comprehension bill by referring it to convocation, and in order to help that body in coming to an opinion a royal commission was appointed in September "to prepare such alterations in the liturgy and canons, and such proposals for the reformation of ecclesiastical courts, and to consider such other matters, as may most conduce to the good order and edification and union of the church of England." Nothing but increase of ill-will between the various factions in and out of the church came of all this, but it helped to occupy people's thoughts during a few months. "A certain measure of indulgence has been agreed upon," he wrote to Limborch, "but the strife of opinions and parties is by no means ended, although the dissenters use the liberty that has been granted to them much more peaceably and modestly than I should have expected. The question of comprehension is again under discussion. What good will come of it I do not at present see, but I do not think they are in the way of securing lasting peace |