supposed, that the author or authors, had, by some means, seen Lord Hales's MSS. of The Pleas of the Crown. When, therefore, the works of that learned individual were published, the obnoxious passages, which had been quoted in The Hereditary Right, were omitted; a process, which in the present day, would scarcely be deemed honest. It seems that Bedford knew the author; but he preferred imprisonment and fines to a breach of confidence. Nor was he a loser in the end: for he afterwards established a school, which was carried on with so much success, that he left a considerable fortune to his son Dr. Bedford, a Physician, who died sometime after the middle of the last century.[1] The son took the Oaths as a qualification for office, on being appointed Register of the College of Physicians. Harbin, the supposed author of The Hereditary Right, resided with Lord Weymouth, who gave him a hundred pounds to take to Mr. Bedford, his Lordship concluding, that he was the writer of the Book. "Though not the Author, he submitted to be thought so from zeal to the Cause, and affection for the real author." This is the remark of Nichols, who also alludes to the singular circumstance, that Harbin, the real Author, should take the money to Bedford. The following account of the author was written by Mr. James West, on a copy of the book, in which certain MS. notes had been written by Bishop Kennett: "Upon shewing the above notes by Bishop Kennett, to Mr. Harbin, he told me he was the author of the annexed Book: and immediately produced the original copy of the same, together with three large volumes of original documents from whence the same was com-
- ↑ State Trials, vol. ii. 682.
