Note 159 — Chapter XV · ON THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.

See several in the Somers Tracts, vol. x. One of these, a "Letter to a Member of the Convention," by Dr. Sherlock, is very ably written: and puts all the consequences of a change of government, as to popular dissatisfaction, etc., much as they turned out, though, of course, failing to show that a treaty with the king would be less open to objection. Sherlock declined for a time to take the oaths; but, complying afterwards, and writing in vindication, or at least excuse, of the revolution, incurred the hostility of the Jacobites, and impaired his own reputation by so interested a want of consistency; for he had been the most eminent champion of passive obedience. Even the distinction he found out, of the lawfulness of allegiance to a king de facto, was contrary to his former doctrine.