y read a third
time and passed, had not some additions and omissions been proposed,
which would, it was thought, make the reparation more complete. The
amendments were prepared with great expedition: the Lords agreed to
them; and the King gladly gave his assent, [383]

This bill was soon followed by three other bills which annulled three
wicked and infamous judgments, the judgment against Sidney, the judgment
against Cornish, and the judgment against Alice Lisle, [384]

Some living Whigs obtained without difficulty redress for injuries which
they had suffered in the late reign. The sentence of Samuel Johnson was
taken into consideration by the House of Commons. It was resolved that
the scourging which he had undergone was cruel, and that his degradation
was of no legal effect. The latter proposition admitted of no dispute:
for he had been degraded by the prelates who had been appointed to
govern the diocese of London during Compton's suspension. Compton had
been suspended by a decree of the High Commission, and the decrees
of the High Commission were universally acknowledged to be nullities.
Johnson had therefore been stripped of his robe by persons who had no
jurisdiction over him. The Commons requested the king to compensate
the sufferer by some ecclesiastical preferment, [385] William, however,
found that he could not, without great inconvenience, grant this
request. For Johnson, though brave, honest and religious, had always
been rash, mutinous and quarrelsome; and, since he had endured for his
opinions a martyrdom more terrible than death, the infirmities of his
temper and understanding had increased to such a degree that he was as
disagreeable to Low Churchmen as to High Churchmen. Like too many other
men, who are not to be turned from the path of right by pleasure, by
lucre or by danger, he mistook the impulses of his pride and resentment
for the monitions of conscience, and deceived himself into a belief
that, in treating friends and foes with indiscriminate insolence and
asperity, he was merely showing his Christian faithfulness and courage.
Burnet, by exhorting him to patience and forgiveness of injuries, made
him a mortal enemy. "Tell His Lordship," said the inflexible priest,
"to mind his own business, and to let me look after mine." [386] It soon
began to be whispered that Johnson was mad. He accused Burnet of being
the author of the report, and avenged himself by writing libels so
violent that they strong