BROUGHTON. 229 severity by some of our historians; and by none with greater rancour than by Mr. William Gilpin.* This writer says, " that Mr. Broughton acted the basest and most " ungrateful part towards Mr. Bernard Gilpin, who had " educated and maintained him, both at school and the " university. He was vile enough to endeavour to sup- " plant the very patron who had raised him up." If Mr. Broughton really acted in the manner here represented, it would be difficult tel censure him with too much severity but, we think, there is no sufficient evidence for the charges alleged ; at least Mr. Gilpin hath not produced it:; and it seems hardly just to bring such black charges against a man without some substantial proof. Bishop Carlton, the first writer by whom any accusation appears to be brought against Mr. Broughton, speaks of his exciting the Bishop of Durham against Bernard Gilpin merely as a report; and, if this report were true, though there is no proof alleged, it seems very doubtful whether he was excited to it from a design of obtaining Gilpin's living. Mr. Gilpin says of Broughton, " that London was the scene where he first exposed himself. Here, for some time, he paid a servile court to the vulgar, in the capacity of a popular preacher." But of this we can meet with no evidence. Indeed, servility to persons of any class, does not appear to have been any part of Mr. Broughton's cha- racter; and the charge, we think, is sufficiently refuted in the foregoing narrative, as collected from the most authentic records. Mr. Gilpin says, that Broughton had " lived out all his credit, and became even the jest of the stage." It is certain, as our author observes, that he was satirizedon the stage. But a man's being ridiculed in a dramatic exhibi- tion, is no proof of his having out-lived either his credit or his friends ; nor does this appear to have been the case, but the contrary, with Mr. Broughton.+ He also says, " Broughton was, indeed, famous in his time, and as a man of letters esteemed by many, but in every other respect despicable." The numerous authentic testimonies given in the foregoing narrative, afford a suffi- cient refutation of this charge. The learned Dr. Lightfoot, who wrote Mr. Broughton's life, declares himself a mere child in comparison of this great master of Hebrew and Gilpin's Life of Bernard Gilpin, p. 223, 234, 393, 300. Edit. 1780. Biographia Britannica, vol. ii. p. 605-610.
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