of judging in capital Cases in Parliament, &c.;” for which he expected (says Anthony) no less than to be made lord chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland.  But falling short of that honourable office, which he too ambitiously catched at, and considering the loss of another place, which he unjustly possessed, he soon after appeared one of the worst and most inveterate enemies to church and state that was in his time, and the most malicious, and withal the most ignorant, scribbler of the whole herd; and was thereupon stiled, by a noted author, (Dryden, in the following Vindication,) Magni nominis umbra.  Hunt also published, “Great and weighty Considerations on the Duke of York, &c.” in favour of the exclusion.  He had also the boldness to republish his high church tract in favour of the bishops’ jurisdiction, with a whig postscript tending to destroy his own arguments.—­Ath.  Ox. II, p. 728.

2.  A tory paper, then conducted with great zeal, and some
   controversial talent, by Sir Roger L’Estrange.

3.  Alluding to the fate of Stephen College, the Protestant joiner; a
   meddling, pragmatical fellow, who put himself so far forward in the
   disputes at Oxford, as to draw down the vengeance of the court.  He
   was very harshly treated during his trial; and though in the toils,
   and deprived of all assistance, defended himself with right English
   manliness.  He was charged with the ballad on page 6. and with
   coming to Oxford armed to attack the guards.  He said he did not
   deny he had pistols in his holsters at Oxford; to which Jefferies
   answered, indecently, but not unaptly, he “thought a chissel might
   have been more proper for a joiner.”  Poor College was executed; a
   vengeance unworthy of the king, who might have apostrophised him as
   Hamlet does Polonius: 

     Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell;
     I took thee for thy betters—­take thy fortune. 
     Thou findst, to be too busy is some danger.

4.  Anthony Wood is followed by Mr Malone in supposing, that Hunt
   himself is the Templar alluded to.  But Dryden seems obviously to
   talk of the author of the Defence, and the two Reflectors, as three
   separate persons.  He calls them, “the sputtering triumvirate, Mr
   Hunt, and the two Reflectors;” and again, “What says my lord chief
   baron (i.e.  Hunt) to the business?  What says the livery-man
   Templar?  What says Og, the king of Basan (i.e.  Shadwell) to it?”
   The Templar may be discovered, when we learn, who hired a
   livery-gown to give a vote among the electors.

THE

VINDICATION

OF

THE DUKE OF GUISE.

In the year of his majesty’s happy Restoration, the first play I undertook was the “Duke of Guise;” as the fairest way, which the Act of Indemnity had then left us, of setting forth the rise of the late rebellion; and by exploding the villainies of it upon the stage, to precaution posterity against the like errors.