taine in simplicity, preparing
for his grandest predications by sorrily rasping on an execrable fiddle.
So, if the devil had lifted him up to a high mountain, showing him all
he would give him, he would have simply invited him to his lonely cell,
to have a jig to the tune of his catguts.
Your popular preachers in England have been, and are, a different
sort of spiritual workers. They have been, and are, individualities,
perpetually reminded of the fact, withal; and fiercely tempted
accordingly. The world, the flesh, and the devil, incessantly knock at
their door. If they fall into the snare it is but natural, and much to
be lamented.
Dr Dodd had many amiable qualities; but his reputation as a scholar, and
his notoriety as a preacher, appear to have entirely turned his head.
He had presented to him a good living in Bedfordshire; but the income
thereof was of no avail in supplying his wants: he was vain, pompous, in
debt, a gambler. Temptation came upon him. To relieve himself he tried
by indirect means to obtain the rectory of St George's, Hanover Square,
by sending an anonymous letter to Lady Apsley, offering the sum of L3000
if by her means he could be presented to the living; the letter was
immediately sent to the chancellor, and, after being traced to the
sender, laid before the king. His name was ordered to be struck out of
the list of chaplains; the press abounded with satire and invective;
Dodd was abused and ridiculed, and even Foote, in one of his
performances at the Haymarket, made him a subject of entertainment.
Dodd then decamped, and went to his former pupil, Lord Chesterfield,
in Switzerland, who gave him another living; but his extravagance being
undiminished, he was driven to schemes which covered him with infamy.
After the most extravagant and unseemly conduct in France, he returned
to England, and forged a bond as from his pupil, Lord Chesterfield, for
the sum of L4200, and, upon the credit of it, obtained a large sum of
money; but detection instantly following, he was committed to prison,
tried and convicted at the Old Bailey, Feb. 24, and executed at Tyburn,
June 27 (after a delay of four months), exhibiting every appearance of
penitence. The great delay between the sentence and execution was owing
to a doubt for some time respecting the admissibility of an evidence
which had been made use of to convict him.
Lord Chesterfield has been accused of a cold and relentless disposition
in having dese
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