Memoirs of My Life and Writings | Page 6

guilt. One man was ruined because he had dropped a
foolish speech, that his horses should feed upon gold; another because
he was grown so proud, that, one day at the Treasury, he had refused a
civil answer to persons much above him. All were condemned, absent
and unheard, in arbitrary fines and forfeitures, which swept away the
greatest part of their substance. Such bold oppression can scarcely be
shielded by the omnipotence of parliament; and yet it maybe seriously
questioned, whether the judges of the South Sea Directors were the true
and legal representatives of their country. The first parliament of
George the First had been chosen (1715) for three years: the term had
elapsed, their trust was expired; and the four additional years
(1718-1722), during which they continued to sit, were derived not from
the people, but from themselves; from the strong measure of the
septennial bill, which can only be paralleled by il serar di consiglio of
the Venetian history. Yet candour will own that to the same parliament
every Englishman is deeply indebted: the septennial act, so vicious in
its origin, has been sanctioned by time, experience, and the national
consent. Its first operation secured the House of Hanover on the throne,
and its permanent influence maintains the peace and stability of
government. As often as a repeal has been moved in the House of
Commons, I have given in its defence a clear and conscientious vote.
My grandfather could not expect to be treated with more lenity than his
companions. His Tory principles and connections rendered him
obnoxious to the ruling powers: his name is reported in a suspicious
secret; and his well-known abilities could not plead the excuse of
ignorance or error. In the first proceedings against the South Sea
Directors, Mr. Gibbon is one of the few who were taken into custody;
and, in the final sentence, the measure of his fine proclaims him
eminently guilty. The total estimate which he delivered on oath to the
House of Commons amounted to 106,543 pounds 5 shillings and 6
pence, exclusive of antecedent settlements. Two different allowances of
15,000 pounds and of 10,000 pounds were moved for Mr. Gibbon; but,

on the question being put, it was carried without a division for the
smaller sum. On these ruins, with the skill and credit, of which
parliament had not been able to despoil him, my grandfather at a
mature age erected the edifice of a new fortune: the labours of sixteen
years were amply rewarded; and I have reason to believe that the
second structure was not much inferior to the first. He had realized a
very considerable property in Sussex, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire,
and the New River Company; and had acquired a spacious house, with
gardens and lands, at Putney, in Surrey, where he resided in decent
hospitality. He died in December 1736, at the age of seventy; and by
his last will, at the expense of Edward, his only son, (with whose
marriage he was not perfectly reconciled,) enriched his two daughters,
Catherine and Hester. The former became the wife of Mr. Edward
Elliston, an East India captain: their daughter and heiress Catherine was
married in the year 1756 to Edward Eliot, Esq. (now lord Eliot), of Port
Eliot, in the county of Cornwall; and their three sons are my nearest
male relations on the father's side. A life of devotion and celibacy was
the choice of my aunt, Mrs. Hester Gibbon, who, at the age of
eighty-five, still resides in a hermitage at Cliffe, in Northamptonshire;
having long survived her spiritual guide and faithful companion Mr.
William Law, who, at an advanced age, about the year 1761, died in her
house. In our family he had left the reputation of a worthy and pious
man, who believed all that he professed, and practised all that he
enjoined. The character of a non-juror, which he maintained to the last,
is a sufficient evidence of his principles in church and state; and the
sacrifice of interest to conscience will be always respectable. His
theological writings, which our domestic connection has tempted me to
peruse, preserve an imperfect sort of life, and I can pronounce with
more confidence and knowledge on the merits of the author. His last
compositions are darkly tinctured by the incomprehensible visions of
Jacob Behmen; and his discourse on the absolute unlawfulness of stage
entertainments is sometimes quoted for a ridiculous intemperance of
sentiment and language.--"The actors and spectators must all be
damned: the playhouse is the porch of Hell, the place of the Devil's
abode, where he holds his filthy court of evil spirits: a play is the
Devil's triumph, a sacrifice performed to his glory, as much as in the
heathen temples of Bacchus or Venus, &c., &c." But these sallies of

religious