.

Soon after the accession of king George the 1st to the throne, Mr.
Steele was appointed surveyor of the royal stables at Hampton-Court,
and governor of the royal company of Comedians, by a patent, dated
January 19, 1714-15. He was likewise put into the commission of the
peace for the county of Middlesex; and in April 1715 received the
honour of knighthood from his majesty. In the first parliament of that
king, he was chosen for Borough-brigg in Yorkshire; and after the
suppressing the Rebellion in the North, was appointed one of the
commissioners of the forfeited estates in Scotland, where he received
from several of the nobility and gentry of that part of the united
kingdom the most distinguishing marks of respect. He contracted a
friendship while in Scotland, with one Hart, a Presbyterian minister
in Edinburgh, whom he afterwards honoured with his correspondence:
This Hart he used merrily to stile the Hangman of the Gospel, for
though he was a facetious good-natur'd man, yet he had fallen into a
peculiar way of preaching what he called the Terrors of the Law, and
denounced anathemas from the pulpit without reserve.

Sir Richard held frequent conversations with Hart, and other
ministers, concerning the restoration of episcopacy, the antient
church-government of that nation, and often observed that it was pity,
when the two kingdoms were united in language, in dress, in politics,
and in all essential points, even in religion, should yet be divided
in the ecclesiastical administration, which still serves to maintain a
kind of alienation between the people. He found many of the Scots
well disposed towards prelacy; but the generality, who were taught
to contemplate the church of England, with as much horror as that of
Rome, could not soon be prevailed upon to return to it.

Sir Richard wished well to the interests of religion, and as he
imagined that Union would promote it, he had some thoughts of
proposing it at court, but the times were unfavourable. The
Presbyterians had lately appeared active against the rebels, and were
not to be disobliged; but such is now the good understanding between
the episcopal and presbyterian parties, that a few concessions on the
one side, and not many advances on the other, possibly might produce
an amicable coalition, as it is chiefly in form, rather than in
articles of religion, in which they differ.

In the year 1715 he published an account of the state of the Roman
Catholic Reli