At the very time the first volume of his
history appeared, in which he pays lofty tributes to human freedom, he
came into Parliament as an avowed abettor of the ministry of George
III., in their attempts to subjugate the American colonies. He was
doubtless well paid for his votes; for he was at the same time a member
of the Board of Trade, a nominal office with a large salary.[139] A
verse, attributed to Fox, expresses the popular sentiment concerning
him;
"King George in a fright
Lest Gibbon should write
The story of England's disgrace,
Thought no way so sure,
His pen to secure,
As to give the historian a place."
In addition to these evidences of religious decay we may add the most
unwelcome of all: the moral prostration of the English Church. Instead
of being "a city set upon a hill," she was in the valley of humiliation;
and few were the faithful watchmen upon her walls. The period commencing
with the Restoration, and continuing down to the time of which we speak,
was one of ministerial and laic degeneracy.
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