Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/52

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32
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

of the latter. The son of a rector of Barnes, Dr. Ferdinand Warner, he was more of a wit than we should consider proper in a clergyman, yet he had been a popular preacher at a chapel in Longacre, his own property, until presented in 1771, at the age of thirty-five, to a living in Bedfordshire, whence he was promoted to the Rectory of Stourton, Wiltshire. John Howard's statue in St. Paul's is attributed to Warner's exertions. "A book, a pipe, and cheerful conversation" were his delight, and if his talk was more entertaining than clerical, he should be credited with a kindly disposition and unimpeachable probity. He was so ardent an admirer of the Revolution, that he was deprived of the chaplaincy about October 1790, on account, it is said, of a sermon at the Embassy chapel. He soon afterwards went to Italy, and in 1800, shortly after his return to London, died. Like Gem, very abstemious and economical, he left a considerable fortune. He had subscribed liberally to the "Diversions of Purley," and bequeathed Horne Tooke a silver goblet.

As for Gower, he was regarded at Coblenz as a sympathiser with the Revolution. Lord Camelford spoke of him there to Burke's son, in August 1791, as outrageously democratical, and as sending dexterous despatches against assisting or countenancing the counter-revolution. This was, however, an evident exaggeration, for Gower in the previous April had