The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne Author:Wilbur Lucius Cross General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1909 Original Publisher: Macmillan Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can selec... more »t from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III POLITICS AND HONOURS 1741-1750 The country parson was also a prebendary of York, who took an active part in the polities and intrigues within and without the Cathedral Close, at a time when the entire nation was stirred by civil and religious commotions. And yet, notwithstanding his activity, this is the obscurest phase of Sterne's life after he reached man's estate. We know that he found time, in the midst of farming and parish business, to enter the thick of Yorkshire politics, but for following him in his courses there are very few clues, direct and trustworthy. General inference from his character and the position he occupied in the Church of York must be at times our main guide. If our narrative, in consequence of this, now diverges in places from Sterne himself, it will at least bring into view the men with whom he touched elbow as friend and enemy; it will explain, too, some of his opinions and prejudices, and furnish the background to the inevitable breach with his uncle and mother. On first coming to York, Sterne allied himself with the men whose voices were most potent in the diocese and chapter. The see was then occupied by Lancelot Blackburne, an old man above eighty years of age, "the jolly old Archbishop of York" -- Horace Walpole called him -- "who had all the manners of a man of quality". Like Sterne, the aged prelate was a wit and humourist whose career in the Church had been accompanied by ballads and anecdotes charging him with gay immoralities. It was he who collated Sterne to the vicarage of Sutton. The Dean of the Chapter was Richard O...« less