This
privilege was refused, but as the poor prisoner, a mere youth, was taken
ill with smallpox, his sentence was remitted. Tutchin became one of the
most pertinacious and vehement enemies of the House of Stuart.
Delaune's _Plea for the Nonconformists_ was very fatal to its author, and
landed him in Newgate, where the poor man died. Some account of this book
and its author is given in a previous volume of the Book-Lover's Library
(_Books Condemned to be Burnt_), and the writer founds upon it an attack
upon the Church of England, whereas the Church had about as much to do
with the persecution of poor Delaune as the writer of _Condemned Books_!
There are other conclusions and statements also propounded by the writer
of that book, which to one less intolerant than himself would appear
entirely unwarrantable. But this is not the place for controversy.
A book entitled _Julian the Apostate_ was very fatal to that turbulent
divine Samuel Johnson, who in the reign of Charles II. made himself famous
for his advocacy of the cause of civil liberty and "no popery." He lived
in very turbulent times, when the question of the rights of the Duke of
York, an avowed Roman Catholic, to the English throne was vehemently
disputed, and allied himself with the party headed by the Earl of Essex
and Lord William Russell. He preached with great force against the
advocates of popery, and (in his own words) threw away his liberty with
both hands, and with his eyes open, for his country's service.
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