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ESSAY IV.

ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE DECLARATION OF
THE LAST SENTIMENTS OF _PERE LE COU-
BAYER.

PERE LE COURAYER was one of the molt
learned and venerable charaPters of‘ the prefent
century. It is, perhaps, fcarcely neceiliary to
introduce the following remarks by premifing
that he was a dignitary of the Gallican Church ;
and that about the year 1728 he diflinguilhed
himfelf by publifhing aTreatife in defence of
the validity of Englilh ordination-a work at
which fuch high oifence was/taken, that a profe-
cution was infiituted againfl him in the Ecclefi-
afiical Courts, and magnanimoully difdaining to
Ietrafit the opinions which he had advanced upon
what appeared to him jufi and folid grounds, he
was compelled to relinquilh his prefermcnts, and
to feek refuge in England, where he refided
near fifty years, and died in October 1776, at
the very advanced age of ninety-five,

A few years previous to his deceafe, he put
into the hands of the late Princefs Amelia, who
had long honoured him with her protefiion and
patronage, a manufcr-ipt, containing a declaration.

Q3 of